We’re fans of toy modder Chris Hooton aka Sabretooth and have featured a couple of his unique creations. This time he modified a Monster High doll, turning an unholy teenage girl into a female version of Iron Man. She’s still articulated and even has a removable face plate.
Sabretooth is auctioning the Iron Girl doll on eBay until March 30. As of this writing you have to bid at least $30 (USD) for a chance to take this heroine home.
[via Super Punch]
Love LEGO? What about Kit Kat bars? If you love both, you’ll be happy to learn that the marketing team for Nestlé’s Kit Kat candy bar brand has created a custom LEGO set. That’s right, your favorite candy and your favorite toy are now one. All is right with the world.
This set lets users build Kit Kat bars, but that is not all. They hid extra minifigs inside the bars, and even included a bunch of extra designs that they came up with using the same pieces. In other words, it is just like a real LEGO set. And it comes in an official-looking box too.
Unfortunately, the set isn’t available in stores, and was just created as a promotional stunt for the brand.
[The Brick Fan via Fanboy via Neatorama]
Your desk, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the mini starship Enterprise. This Enterprise is the perfect size to display anywhere and it even lights up.
The tiny starship measures just 5″ x 2″ x 2.5″ while on the stand. This awesome mini ship comes with a mini book telling you all about the Enterprise too. You will have to provide the phaser noises yourself though, as you imitate Scotty yelling, “I’m giving you all she’s got Captain!”
The mini Enterprise is perfect for your cubicle or office. It’s only $12.95(USD) from ThinkGeek. It makes a cool little night light too. I would hang it from the ceiling.
Facebook is sitting on boatloads of money and the company isn’t afraid to use some of that cash to buy up companies that have interesting tech. Such is the case with a new purchase that sees Facebook buying up Oculus VR, the company behind the slick Oculus Rift VR headset. The purchase reportedly cost Facebook $2 billion (USD).
Many people think the buyout is a bad thing because Facebook is Facebook, and also because selling off the company goes against the independent spirit of the company’s initial funding via Kickstarter. I think the buyout could be a good thing. Facebook certainly has the capital to help Oculus develop low cost VR headsets and other gear, and the reach to bring them to market. Perhaps the purchase will mean that a production rollout will come faster.
Facebook is also a place that many people go to play casual games, and harass others with invites to play games. I could see Facebook working with developers to get casual games on the social network using the Oculus VR device.
[via Washington Post]
Dragons are a staple of fiction and are found in books, video games, and movies. The fire-breathing dragon is something that never existed as a real animal, but you can have your very own flying dragon.
After seeing Rick Hamel’s amazing remote-controlled dragon, Hammacher Schlemmer is now offering it for you to purchase.
This dragon can do more than fly, it can shoot 3-foot flames out of its mouth. That can’t be legal. The flying dragon has a 9-foot wingspan and can fly at up to 70 mph. Power comes from a tiny turbine engine and the dragon is controlled by a 2.4GHz radio. The flame that shoots from its mouth is made using a propane tank. At least the propane tank can’t shoot flames while the dragon is flying. The flames are only for the ground.
I can only imagine the fiery explosion that will result from a high-speed crash of this thing. If you have $60,000 lying around, the flying, flame-breathing dragon can be yours.
[via Nerd Approved]
Need something to hold your D20 or other game accessories? Try these awesome handmade polymer dragons from Etsy artist How Many Dragons. These 2-inch-tall polymer clay dragons are the perfect little friends to hold your dice until you need to roll.
Choose whatever color combination you want and they will make it for you. You can choose from several styles or different poses too. They are really the perfect little gaming friends. They are small enough to sit by you while you play and not get in your way.
Each one sells for about $42 to $52(USD). They will definitely be your new good luck charm for rolling that critical hit.
[via Geeks Are Sexy]
ThinkGeek is blackmailing kindhearted people with its blobfish plush. What’s a blobfish? This poor creature was voted the world’s ugliest animal. To make things even more insulting, blobfish are endangered animals and don’t look hideous when in their natural habitat, thousands of feet underwater. That’s like having an alien take the last human to outer space stark naked, then noting that we look like bloated and sunburned corpses.
On the other hand, the voting was conducted by an organization called the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, which raises awareness for unsightly endangered animals. Many people know about pandas, eagles and tigers, but they’re not the only dying animals. With its title, the blobfish now serves as the mascot of its ilk.
Wipe your browser’s tears and order the blobfish plush from ThinkGeek for $40 (USD).
[via Boing Boing]
There are plenty of replica sonic screwdrivers out there for fans of Doctor Who to collect. The last one we talked about was the War Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver. If you have a collection of sonic screwdrivers that you need a place to store and show off, this is the perfect DIY project for you.
One Whovian going by the name 00failure has used MDF and wood veneer to create an awesome chest that displays his collection of sonic screwdrivers. The collectables are tucked away inside foam with cutouts the perfect size to keep them in place.
The builder went so far as to laser cut Gallifreyan symbols into the veneer. The finished products is very cool. However, I must confess to not watching the show, so I see what appears to be a tube of lipstick, a pocket watch, and some odd keys inside as well that I don’t know the significance of.
[via The RPF via Nerd Approved]
So what else can we geeks spend our dough on? How about this fantastic line of vinyl figures from Funko? These Star Trek original series characters look adorable and you can choose from Spock, Kirk, Andorian, Scotty, an Orion Slave Girl or a Klingon.
Spock is giving the Vulcan salute, while Kirk and Scotty come with non-removable phasers. I think the Andorian is the cutest. These figures are extra cute and stand 3 3/4″ tall. They are made from vinyl and are super colorful. They will look great on your desk.
They are only $9.99(USD) each over at ThinkGeek, and can also be found at Entertainment Earth if they’re sold out.
Live long and prosper and collect cool toys.
If 13th Lab has its way, you could soon be playing first-person games using your surroundings as a battlefield. Or a space station, a temple and anything else you can imagine. The computer vision company is working on Rescape, an FPS platform for mobile devices that can scan and digitize your environment, turning it into a video game map.
13th Lab uses a robotics technique called Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). With the help of cameras and sensors, SLAM allows a device to make a map of its environment and place itself – i.e. know its location – within the map that it just made. The end result is shown in the image above. If you look closely you can see that the iPhone is showing a virtual equivalent of the player’s environment – everything from the structures, objects and even other players. 13th Lab calls this mix of augmented and virtual reality Reality Gaming.
As of now, a Rescape package includes a 180º fisheye lens and an adjustable gun controller with a trigger and a d-pad. To drive costs down and make it easier for app developers to port their FPS games, Rescape will make use of your mobile device to map and digitize your environment, as well as track your position.
The Rescape software development kit (SDK) handles the mapping feature, as well as the ability to digitally paint over a map and turn it into your battle ground of choice. I don’t know if the SDK will be simple enough for normal folks to understand and use though. As I mentioned, mobile game developers can port existing FPS games into the Rescape platform, but that’s not as fun as turning your house or university into a game map.
Pledge at least $39 (USD) on Kickstarter to get the Rescape controller and Office Defender, the game shown in the video. Pledge at least $129 and you get the controller, the game and the Rescape SDK. When it launches Rescape will only support the iPhone 5, 5C and 5S, with “experimental support” for the iPhone 4S. 13th Lab promises that it will provide support for Android devices within a few months after the launch.
[via InStash]
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