Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve featured some vinyl decals that will make your PS4 console look like it’s made from wood, but now you can actually wrap your shiny new console in real wood.

A company in Germany called Balolo has released a stick-on cover for the PS4 that’s actually cut from genuine hardwood. You can mix and match from bamboo, cherry, walnut or zebrawood to make your console look just that much more awesome.

Each piece is made from laser-cut wood veneers, with a durable adhesive on back. What isn’t clear is how well the adhesive and wood holds up to the heat the console puts out over time, or if it affects the thermal properties of the PS4 at all. Still, it sure looks cool and I’m thinking about redoing mine after seeing these.

The kit sells for €149.90 (~$205 USD), or you can purchase a console with the wood facade already applied for €599.90 (~$829 USD). Here in the States it’s a much better deal to just buy a $400 PS4 and then install the wood grain yourself. Now about that controller…

Instructables member kevinmakes wanted to have a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 on his wall. The problem? That’s the comic book that introduced Spider-Man to the world, making it an extremely rare and expensive comic. So kevinmakes decided to do something nearly as amazing: make a layered wood replica of the comic’s cover.

To make his awesome yet affordable piece, kevinmakes looked for a large image of the Amazing Fantasy #15 cover online, then converted it into black and white. Then he separated the parts of the image that he’ll cut into different parts or layers. He then used a laser cutter to cut and engrave the images on balsa wood and assorted veneers. Finally he sprayed it with a semi-gloss polyurethane finish.

Swing over to Instructables to get the full instructions. Hey kevinmakes, wanna know how you can buy your own laser cutter? Make more of these then open up an Etsy shop. Maybe you can even sell cheaper 3D printed copies in full color. Excelsior!

I suppose you could put a Space Invaders mobile in any room you’d like, but if you’ve got a youngling in the nursery, then you’ll want to get them started right away on their path of geeky righteousness from the earliest age possible.

This cool laser-cut bamboo Space Invaders mobile was made by Shawn Hampton of Pixel Party, and is the perfect thing to hang above your baby’s crib, so they can count aliens as they drift off to sleep. I think if I had these above my crib, I might have turned out differently – as in, I might have actually been able to make it past the first couple of waves of the game.

The mobile measures about 36″ (W) x 36″ (H), so you’ll need a good amount of space to display it. Perhaps the invaders can help you secure some. So blast through your bases and head on over to Pixel Party’s Etsy shop to grab the Space Invaders mobile for $75(USD).

If you’ve been following Technabob for a while, you know I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Space Invaders, so when I saw that these guys were working on a chess set inspired by the classic arcade game, it put a big grin on my face.

The guys at Michigan’s NMI Laser have finally put their schmancy Epilog industrial laser cutter to good use, creating an awesome version of the invaders, adapted to the chess board. The set comes with fluorescent acrylic invaders in green and pink, and a laser-etched black game board to go with. I love their selection of aliens for each of the different chess playing pieces – especially the laser base for the King and the spaceship for the Queen.

The complete Space Invaders Chess Set will set you back $65, including both the board and the 32 invader playing pieces. Keep in mind that this is a Kickstarter project, and they need to hit their goal of $5000 by February 28 in order to go into production by April.

They’re already almost half way there, so I know you guys can make it happen! All you need to do is just drop down, reverse direction and increase speed on over to Kickstarter now to pledge your support.

Looking for a totally unique piece of jewelry? Well it doesn’t get more special than a piece you designed yourself. And thanks to an awesome app from the guys over at Nervous System, you can create your own earrings, necklaces and other art objects in a snap.

Their Radiolaria website lets you design and preview your own jewelry and art pieces that you can construct simply by clicking a few buttons. By manipulating a grid of honeycomb-like cells, you can create a huge number of cool “bio-inspired” designs in seconds. Here are a few example designs I knocked out while writing this post:

And here’s a demo of Radiolaria in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Not only can you change designs and sizes, but choose from stainless steel or 24K gold-plated stainless for jewelry, and bamboo or black wool felt for trivets or other art objects. Metal items are photochemically etched out of metal, while wood and felt objects are laser-cut.

Once you’ve created your design, you can scale it, share it and purchase it if you so choose. Prices range from as little as $7 for a really small and simple form to hundreds of dollars, depending on the size, complexity and material selected. Head on over to the Radiolaria app right now if you’d like to play with it, while there’s still time to order custom pieces for Christmas delivery.

While you’re over there, you can always check out Nervous System’s original app, which lets you design custom 3D-printed jewelry.