Hasta La Gadget!

Aside from the huggable Totoro, the Catbus is one of the most memorable characters in the 1988 classic My Neighbor Totoro. After all, what’s not to like about a huge multilegged cat that can take you wherever you want to go? And what’s not to like about a LEGO version of said cat?

The LEGO Catbus was made by Tomoyuki Wakata. He wanted to make a version of the Catbus that kids could interact with, so he ended up adding two things that the cartoon Catbus didn’t have: wheels and a handle. The idea is for kids to hold Catbus by Its handle then move him back and forth. Upon doing so, they get a reward: its head, legs and chubby tail move!

Man, people will always find awesome ways to put LEGO together. I wonder where those whiskers and eyes are originally from.

[Tomoyuki Wakata via Daily of the Day]

We’ve featured a handful of videogame collections for sale, but this one takes the cake. eBay member videogames.museum is selling what amounts to uhm, a videogame museum. Hundreds of consoles, thousands of games and hundreds upon hundreds of accessories and promo items.

The collection includes more than 330 consoles, from the Atari 2600 to the current generation consoles and everything in-between, including rare variants as well as obscure flops like the Virtual Boy, the Gizmondo and the Nokia N-Gage. There are also more than 6,850 games; the seller claims that he has completed all the games from some franchises, including Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, Castlevania, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Sakura Wars and Super Robot Taisen. There are also controllers, action figures, magazines, strategy guides and countless other stuff.

If you still don’t appreciate just how insane this collection is, videogames.museum has this to say: “I spent the last two months of my life taking pictures and making lists, working about eight hours a day just in order to make an inventory and to figure out what I have. Even now after all the time spent checking things I’m not sure to have included all in the lists…” You can download that list as a pdf file. It is 135 pages long.

Videogames.museum is asking at least $550,000 (USD) for all of these goodies. He may also be persuaded to sell off the items per lot, but he’d really rather sell them as one package. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if he’ll gladly pay anyone who’ll get the N-Gage off his hands. You can check out a lot more pictures of the collection on his Imageshack account.

[via Geekologie]

I always thought Q*bert was a cool game. Between the characters, funky sound effects and weird diagonal control scheme, it was definitely one of the more “out-there” video games of its time. That said, it was one of the most challenging games I ever played in the arcade. The only game that kicked my butt more was Donkey Kong. So with that in mind, I’m not sure if I should love or hate this Q*bert coffee table. Okay, I love it. That was easy.

The table was made by woodworker Gill Benzion of Ébéniste. It measures 24″(W) x 20″(D) x 20″(H) and features a marquetry detail inspired by the classic arcade game, set into a walnut veneer lid, set atop an ash base and legs. It’s definitely more elegant looking than the bright colors of the original Q*bert – and it doesn’t make weird noises when you drop things onto its isometric cubes.

You can order this one over on Etsy for $500(USD), or you can request a custom order if you’re looking for a different size. I think if I owned one of these, I’d have to go buy the old Q*bert board game and put the pieces in the empty spaces.

Like many of you out there, my favorite Doctor Who is the fourth one, who was played by Tom Baker. He’s quintessentially the Doctor Who for me, because I used to watch him as a kid on PBS. One of the coolest features of Tom Baker’s incarnation was his impossibly long scarf. Alex decided to make one for himself – though at 28-feet, 1-inch-long, it is slightly exaggerated.

It’s somewhat cumbersome, but it’s the Fourth Doctor, so how can you go wrong? Oh, and that length doesn’t include tassels. At this size, I’m sure this scarf could double as coat, wrap or maybe even a TARDIS cozy.

Alex needs to make more, and sell them because I’d get one for sure. I suppose you could also recruit your grandma or mother to knit you one.

[Assorted Junk via Neatorama]

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.