Hasta La Gadget!

Metroid is one of the best classic games ever. If you are a fan, check out this cute and cuddly amigurumi that PixelBlock created. Experience the softer side of Samus and you can’t help but smile.

For those of you who have been sleeping under a rock for the last 26 years, Samus Aran is the famous intergalactic bounty hunter from Nintendo’s Metroid series, and she was one of maybe a handful of female heroes in video games at the time – not that we knew she was a woman until the end of the game. Now she is all cute and adorable as a handmade amigurumi!

This Samus measures about 3.5″ tall and is hand-crocheted and embellished from an original pattern. She comes complete with a small collectible card and in a handmade themed gift box. It’s a pretty cool find for that Metroid fan on your holiday list. It’s just $25(USD) over on Etsy.

[via Geeks Are Sexy]

The classic arcade shooter Galaga celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. That means we’re growing old faster than we think. It also means celebratory trinkets. If you’ve ever wondered what the tiny space fighter would look like in real life, this model kit provides a potential answer.

For comaprison’s sake, here’s a supersized shot of the original ship courtesy of Fanpop:

I don’t understand Japanese, but from what I understand the model was designed by Kow Yokoyama, the artist who co-created the popular Maschinen Krieger model series. The ship does have a beat-up look found in MaK models, but again I’m not 100% sure about that bit. One feature that fans will appreciate is that two models can be linked together, a nod to the double shooter mode in the game.

You can pre-order the Galaga fighter from Rakuten for ￥3,240 (~$40 USD), but don’t think it’ll land on your doorstep right away; Wave Corporation won’t release the toy until March 2013.

[via Wave Corp via CNET]

Chewbacca always seemed a little high-strung to me, but if this image is to believed, he had enough patience to sit still for his portrait to be painted by the great Leonardo DaVinci.

This hilarious mashup of Chewie and Mona Lisa, entitled Chewconda after the painting’s Italian name La Gioconda, was created by Stefano Gentile, and would look great hanging up on your wall alongside your prized Carbonite-framed Han Solo.

You can grab an 8″ x 10″ ($14) or an 11″ x 16″ ($18) digital print of Chewconda over on Etsy for $14(USD), or really splurge and grab the framed original 18″ x 24″ acrylic painting of Chewie for $469.

You’ve shared your Instagram pictures on Twitter and Facebook. You’ve sent them as actual pictures, stickers and magnets. But that’s not enough. You’re a sharing monster that can’t be stopped. Because I love monsters, here’s something to feed your desire, a tiny projector that uses 35mm film to display and embiggen your pictures.

Before you can use the Projecteo, you have to use an app to pick pictures that will be “melted” in circular shape on a single frame of 35mm Kodak film. Each frame can hold up to 9 pictures. This will be inserted into a wheel, which you then feed into the Projecteo.

The device can then project the images to up to 2.5-feet-wide using its LED light source (in a darkened room, of course.)

MintDigital, the company behind the Projecteo, have yet to say how much one wheel will cost, although each order of the projector comes with one free wheel. That folks, is the razor and blades business model made even better. Thanks to Kickstarter the inventors managed to convince their customers into paying them before they even buy the proverbial razor. Clever folks.

Obviously Instagram will soon be flooded with pictures of the Projecteo. You can reserve a Projecteo by pledging at least $25 (USD) on Kickstarter. You’ll need to up you pledge to $40 if you’d like the version that’s colored just like an old Rollei P35 slide projector – otherwise, your Projecteo will arrive in solid white.

[via CNET]

Now that arcade centers are mostly gone and their patrons have more gray hairs than time, some companies have capitalized by coming up with accessories that turn the iPad into a mini arcade cabinet. But if you’re skilled at building PCs or programming, you’ll be better off with the Picade, a mini arcade cabinet kit that’s meant to be powered by small PCs such as the Raspberry Pi.

The Picade was invented by Pimoroni, the some company who came up with the Pibow case for the Raspberry Pi. As I said, the Picade will be delivered to you as a kit that can be assembled in under an hour. It has all the components you need – an LCD, arcade joysticks, illuminated buttons, amplifier, speaker and of course the cabinet panels. You just have to supply its brains – a Raspberry Pi, a Pandaboard or any mini-ITX PC will do. You can also use the Picade as an additional monitor when you’re not gaming.

As mentioned in the video, the Picade also has a Mini version. Check the graphic below for the comparison:

You can reserve an early unit of the Picade Mini by pledging at least £120 (~$190 USD) on its Kickstarter fundraiser, while a pledge of at least £192 (~$305 USD) gets you the full Picade. If you’re put off by the bare cabinet, then you’ll be happy to know that the final kit will come with various original artwork that can be applied to the panels.