Gumball Machine brings home some nostalgia

gumball-machineThere is nothing quite like thinking back of the good old days, especially when you are a whole lot younger and life was simpler then. In fact, the summers in your day tend to be a whole lot longer, don’t you think so? Of course, on the flipside, it would also feel as though your school years were stretched pretty long as well, with each day passing by all too slowly. I am quite sure that many of us too have had fond memories of a gumball machine by the side of a road, or outside a convenience store. Why not bring home a tinge of nostalgia with the $129.99 Gumball Machine?

Needless to say, there has been variations made to the classic gumball machine as we have seen in the past, but this particular Gumball Machine intends to remain true to its calling, sporting a 7.5″ cast metal base, a large 7.5″ clear glass globe and a matching cast metal floor stand. All you need to do is provide it with gumballs of your favorite flavor, and you are good to go. Needless to say, you can also opt to settle for candy or other kinds of small treats, and you hold the power in adjusting the dispensing mechanism so that the amount of goodies dispensed can be varied. If guests whom you do not like happen to drop by but have no choice other than to welcome them in (the in-laws sound familiar to you?), why not ensure it will only accept coins?
[ Gumball Machine brings home some nostalgia copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Check ‘N Chew Foursquare-enabled gumball machine hands-on (video)

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When Tyler DeAngelo asked if we’d be interested in checking out his new project, we jumped at the opportunity. After all, we were pretty blown away with Fifth Avenue Frogger, his hacked arcade cabinet that incorporated real-time webcam footage of a busy Manhattan street into gameplay. His latest project, Check ‘N Chew certainly has more apparent commercial applications, offering up a form of immediate gratification for social media users. The concept is fairly simple: check into Foursquare, get a gumball.

DeAngelo (with help from fellow modders Matt Richardson and Ben Light) has hacked an off-the-shelf gumball machine with a stepper motor, Arduino and an XBee radio. There’s also a port on the rear of the machine that plugs into a wall to power it all. The Check ‘N Chew communicates wirelessly with an ethernet-to-wireless gateway device. When someone checks into an authorized location, information is sent from DeAngelo’s server to the gateway, and a gumball is dispensed. The whole process is quite speedy, only taking a couple of seconds from Foursquare check-in to gumball dispensing.

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Human head gumball machine grosses me out

Now this is a gumball machine from the depths of imagination of Thomas Kuebler who has clearly watched far too many zombie flicks for his own good. It does look extremely realistic, although I would say that this is closer to one of those preserved heads that headhunting tribes keep as trophies than a full blown zombie who deserves Project Alice to bust open a can of whoop-ass. After all, the visually decomposing human head that you see here is a gumball machine, where all the delicious gumballs can be seen through the transparent glass at where the brain is supposed to be. The gumball itself rolls down to his tongue, which is pretty creepy not to mention gross. You must have a real bad gumball craving to purchase one from this though.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Smart Trashbox is Kinect enabled, making sure you will never miss another shot, Sprite shower is one zany outdoor ad,

Zombie Head Gumball Machine Makes You Crave Brains

This gumball machine is pretty gross since it is made out of what looks like a real human head. You have to really want a gumball bad to get one from this machine.
zombie gumball machine
How would you like to be the guy chosen for this project? You are just living your life, minding your own business. You have a good life, but then you die. You are looking forward to a little rest in peace. And then somebody goes and makes your head into a gumball machine. That’s gotta be one of the worst insults that can befall anyone.

zombie gumball 2

Well, if there is an afterlife, maybe this guy will come back and mess with the person who created this crazy thing, giving them some payback. It’s pretty cool, but I don’t need gum that bad.

(P.S. This is NOT made from a real human head – it’s actually a sculpture by Thomas Kuebler, but that doesn’t make it any less creepy.)

[via Obvious Winner]