Hasta La Gadget!

I like to think that I’m pretty plugged into retro geek culture, but I have to hand it to the guys over at You Found a Secret Area! for turning up something I’ve not seen before – a series of Atari 2600-themed cars from Hot Wheels. Oh, and you can still buy them!

The 1/64th scale die-cast vehicle series is packaged on cards that look like classic Atari 2600 games, including Breakout, Centipede, Pong, Missile Command, and Tempest. There’s even an Atari 2600 party bus (aka Urban Assault Vehicle) for good measure. I’m not sure if the vehicles really make much sense, but they’re still an awesome bit of swag for any collector of Atari 2600 memorabilia. My personal favorite has to be the Centipede monster machine – it totally reminds me of the 1970s with its funny car styling and giant exhaust headers.

Here are a bunch of detailed video shots of each vehicle, courtesy of Hot Wheels Nation:

You can find them over on Amazon for $9.99(USD) each. But you’d better move fast before they all become as hard to find as a copy of Air Raid.

If you are looking for a scale replica of the Starship Enterprise, why not go straight to one just like the Enterprise D studio miniature that was used in The Next Generation series. This 1:850 scale measures 29.5″ long x 22″ wide x 6″ high – or 11″ high when mounted on its base.

As you can see, the detail on this model from Quantum Mechnanix is amazing. It has over 100 LEDs including photon torpedos and phasers and even sound effects which can be operated with a four-channel remote.

The ship is tough too, since it is made with a welded steel armature and a body that is fiberglass, polyester resins, epoxies, acrylic and styrene. Four layers of hand-painted automotive paint are on top.

The Enterprise D model also includes a 34″ long x 26″ wide x 1″ high mirrored base underneath that has plaques with the ship’s name and edition number. You can customize some of the features of the base, including the color as well as a custom inscription. Pre-orders start this month if you can afford the $9,995(USD) asking price. It is limited to only 100 pieces by the way. I need this ship now!

[via Nerd Approved]

These days, the conventional and traditional birdhouse might not be enough for our avian friends who want their homes to get an upgrade.

Wood-worker Jumahl was happy to oblige and he designed what looks to be a vintage camper for birds.

Don’t they look grand? They’re not just for aesthetics either, because the miniature aluminum door also acts as a deterrent to squirrels. They’re available in a variety of colors, but it looks like bird lovers have snatched up most of them, leaving only the turquoise ones in stock.

The vintage camper bird houses feature a slide out bottom for easy cleaning and they’re constructed from durable and stable marine grade plywood so they’ll last longer in the great outdoors.

They’re priced at $60(USD) and are available from  Jumahl’s Etsy shop.

[via Pop Up City]

I’m always amazed how LEGO builders can come up with accurate representations of items using just a handful of bricks. It’s sort of like low-res pixel art – if you stand back far enough, it makes sense. One of my recent favorite minimal LEGO builds has to be this tiny tape deck by customBRICKS (who also has an awesome LEGO Battleship game on their home page.)

This miniature reel-to-reel tape deck is too small to actually record anything, and I can’t tell you if it’s a 2-track or a 4-track, but that doesn’t make it any less perfect. I’d love to see a whole miniature recording studio done the same way. In the mean time, I’m enjoying they’re other recent creation – a little LEGO movie projector…

Check out more of customBRICKS’ LEGO builds over on their Flickr stream.

[via lego diem]

In no way do we here at Technabob condone gun violence (except in video games.) That said, are you prepared to lay your eyes on the coolest and smallest functional revolver in the whole wide world?

It’s size is about a quarter of a regular person’s palm, and while it shoots real (mini) bullets, it won’t hurt upon impact. Heck, even BB guns can do more damage than these babies.

They’re 100% Swiss-made and their workmanship is exemplary, from the looks of it. They’ve even got their own miniature holsters to keep them handy, just in case the owner wants to shoot a Lilliputian. That is, if they existed.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t meet the U.S. Factoring Criteria for weapons so SwissMiniGun won’t be able to ship them out to the States. People from elsewhere can order them online for 6,300 Swiss France (~ $6,422 USD). Oh, did I mention that they’re also hella expensive?

[via Incredible Things]