Hasta La Gadget!

There are lots of different ways to keep intruders out of your house. You could go with some garden gnomes, or possibly a gargoyle, or maybe even a statue. But nobody will mess with you if your driveway is protected by a dragon.

Before you ask, this isn’t the entrance to House Targaryen on the island of Dragonstone. It’s the front gate of Harlech House, a nearly 10,000 square foot private residence located in Goatstown, Dublin, Ireland. The house was built in 1798, but was extensively remodeled about 15 years ago. The interior of the house is quite opulent and impressive, so it’s only appropriate that access is restricted by a gate.

It’s too bad that it doesn’t breathe fire when an unwanted solicitor comes to ring the bell. That’d be neat.

[via Different Solutions/Facebook & BuiltDublin]

There are lots of games with virtual drawing mechanics. Okami and Max & the Magic Marker come to mind. But what if you could literally draw your own game from scratch? That’s the idea behind Pixel Press, a mobile app that will help you make a short platforming game without the need to code or even use a PC.

Pixel Press has two main components: a Sketch Kit and the app itself. The Sketch Kit is simply a sheet of graphing paper customized for the app. You can download the pdf template for free from the Pixel Press website and then print it together with the instructions. In simple terms, your goal is to make a platforming game with five stages. Your character can walk, run and jump on and over the obstacles you made.

When you’re done with your drawing, you then take a picture of it with your mobile device and the app will process it. You’ll then test the app, polish it with textures and sound effects and finally play it from within the app. You’ll also be able to share your game and play other people’s games.

Clearly it takes imagination, patience and discipline to make a good Pixel Press game, but these are traits that you’ll need before you can program a game anyway. Plus it gives you the chance to be a game designer! You’ll learn the ropes of creating games without grappling with much of the technical difficulties that go along with it.

Pledge at least $10 (USD) on Kickstarter to be one of the first to own the app. The Pixel Press folks hope to raise $100,000 for the iOS apps, but if they raise at least $350,000 they’ll make an Android version as well.

[via Gamezebo]

Go where none of your other Trekkie friends have gone before or become one of Django Fett’s clones with the force of 3D printing. Two separate services are offering to put your likeness on a Starfleet or stormtrooper figurine.

If you want to be a tiny and immobile stormtrooper from the Star Wars universe, the Disney empire is the place to go. Starting May 17, 2013, you can head to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and have your face scanned. After paying $100 (USD) and waiting at least 7 weeks, you’ll have your own stormtrooper figurine.

On the other hand, if being a long-sleeved space explorer is your thing, just head to Cubify’s website to order a Star Trek figurine.

Unlike the appropriately uniform nature of Disney’s stormtroopers, the Star Trek figurines are fairly customizable. You can choose the gender, pose, shirt color and even the rank of your figurine. All you need to provide are reference photos and $70. Head to Engadget to see more images and a video of sample Star Trek figurines.

[Star Trek via Engadget  | Star Wars via CNET via Ubergizmo]

We’re no stranger to Matt Armstrong aka Monsterbrick’s brick–snapping prowess. Some of his newest creations are for the upcoming LEGO Star Wars Days that will be held at LEGOLAND California from June 15-16, 2013. Matt made these astromechs using the instructions on the official LEGO R2-D2 kit and parts from his own LEGO collection.

Matt calls this rainbow-colored astromech RU-KRAZY (the droid’s answer is yes, by the way). The black one is called the Death Star Droid R2-Pi while the pink, purple and beige mech is called R2-QT-Pi. Awwww.

Even if you can’t make it to LEGOLAND, you can still view Matt’s mechs up close on his Flickr page.

[via Tie Fighters]

A die-hard Legend of Zelda fan saw the wisdom in using the power of 3D printing to bring the game’s items to life. He also has the courage to sell the items despite the looming threat of Nintendo’s octorok lawyers. He calls his endeavor the Hyrule Foundry. I like to call it the Nintendo 3DP.

The potions are still being finalized and the arrows are in the wrong color, but otherwise the Hyrule Foundry features all 32 items from the classic adventure game, from the Wooden Sword to the Ladder to the Book of Magic. A bonus consequence of the Hyrule Foundry is that we now have an exchange rate for Rupees. One Rupee is $12 (USD). But for some reason two Rupees are worth $18. Hmmm. Hylian math is weird.

You can read more about the Hyrule Foundry on its official blog. If you can’t go alone without these items any longer, you can buy them at the Hyrule Foundry shop on Shapeways. They’re quite expensive though – the cheapest one is $4 for two arrows; the entire set sells for $320(USD).

[via Kotaku]