Rob Beschizza

If only these retro fake ads were for real products!

Bobster855's collection of ancient "National Lampoon" advertisements is fantastic--like a cross between comic book ads and Skymall.

I'm pretty sure that digital grandfather clock came to be.

Rob Beschizza

Frustrate yourself for a few minutes and then give up with the Revomaze

Described as an 'extreme puzzle,' Revomaze comes in three colors, representing increasing degrees of extremity, and comes with one of those fishy "win cash if you solve it" offers. [ThinkGeek via The Automata Blog]

Rob Beschizza

Nightmare Baby Laugh-A-Lot Commercial

Former BBG editor DrCrypt tweets: "You can not tell me that the director did not intend for this commercial to be utterly nightmarish."

Steven Leckart

Contest Winner!: Fighting Space Chicken

Well, I really had no idea so many BBG readers would want to get their hands on my fighting cock bot.

In the end, the winner was a reader by the name of Paul (aka Misterfricative), who won us over with a beautiful, succinct jingle.

Interesting side note: Paul lives in Taiwan, where the fighting cock bot was constructed some 20 years ago. Apart from the fact his tune is fantastic, the notion of returning the bot to its homeland certainly influenced our decision.

And without further adieu, here's the bot-winning song:

Enjoy the cock bot, Paul. And remember, "Never let a child swallow the bullet."

Of course, other BBG readers submitted some wonderful entries. Below are a few of the highlights. Thanks to everyone who entered!

READ THE REST

Steven Leckart

No Way I'll look This Cute When I Turn 35

Lisa Katayama

iPhone playing cards

Before handheld gadgets were the norm, I used to like shuffling playing cards when I was bored. (Remember when they used to give playing cards out in airplanes? I'd sit in my seat and shuffle the deck for hours.) Now people just fiddle with their iPhones during long periods of down time. With this deck of iPhone playing cards, you can do both at the same time. Sort of.

[
Meninos Store via Craziest Gadgets]

Lisa Katayama

If Mr. Potato head was in the army...

...he'd look like this. These prototypes were created with a 3D printer by Avihai Shurin.

[via Designboom]

Lisa Katayama

These are not just ugly stuffed animals

This pack of stuffed dog toys with giant mouths from Japan are actually functional gadget accessories. Can you guess what they are?

Answer is here.

Rob Beschizza

Assault Rubber Band

From Japan Probe.

Steven Leckart

Contest: Last Chance To Win The Fighting Space Chicken

The fighting space cock-bot contest ends today, August 7 at 11:59pm PST.

So far, my fave was submitted by Alli.

For more info, check here.

Good luck!

Steven Leckart

It's The End of the Non-Augmented World As We Know It...

As with the Internet itself, some of the coolest tech trickles down from the military. Case in point: years after non-commercial aircraft started using HUDs to overlay flight data in front of pilots, video games followed suit. And, for the last five years, the hype and promise for augmented reality — a hybrid of virtual and actual reality — to spread into virtually every aspect of our daily lives has only grown.

From consumer HUDs, clunky wearable computer packs, hilarious helmets and goofy goggles now to small web cams, portable gaming devices, integrated GPS, and near-free cell phone apps (this is the big one), are we finally on the cusp of the breakthrough that's been buzzed about?

Above is a demo of TwittARound, an iPhone app that was unveiled recently. The AR app displays live tweets, allowing the viewer to see from where the 140-character message originated. Kinda fun, but also potentially useful: After a natural disaster, rescue workers could hypothetically locate any persons trapped inside buildings or under rubble.

That's why AR has so much potential to become ubiquitous: 1) the applications for it fall everywhere and anywhere on the spectrum between totally useful and just plain silly (thus, it targets anyone and everyone). 2) the tools required to partake are getting cheaper, smaller, and easier to use.

After the jump, see where you can expect to see a lot more augmented reality, and why:

READ THE REST

Rob Beschizza

Time lapse: Public helps build massive Lego light bulb

Amazing--some dedicated Lego fields built an enormous light bulb over the course of a day--and the public helped out! LEGO sent over time-lapse footage of the work in progress:

In honor of National Inventors' Month, LEGO Systems Inc. launches its LEGO® CLICK! Awards, an essay contest for children ages 6 to 13. In addition, the Smithsonian Institution's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation and LEGO Systems Inc. hosted families for a two-day collaborative build of the world's largest light bulb - the universal symbol of a big idea - made entirely of LEGO bricks on August 1 and 2 at the National Museum of American History.

The 8-foot-tall light bulb was assembled by museum visitors with the help of LEGO Master Builders. Additionally, the museum's hands-on invention space, Spark!Lab, hosted special interactive, construction play-themed activities for children where they are able to "patent" their creations. All of the programs reinforced the connection between play and invention explored in the museum's "Invention at Play" exhibition and celebrate the philosophy that anyone can have a big idea and then can bring it to life.

Check out the awards' page here: Lego CLICK.

Previously: Blade Runner LEGO Spinner Car Syd Mead w Joel Johnson
Welcome to LEGO, these are your business cards
Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallinglego
Boing Boing Gadgets Lego archive

Steven Leckart

Photos: Comic-Con Toys, Art & Tchotchkes

READ THE REST

Rob Beschizza

Crush Madoff's Head

Our Price: $14.95

List Price: $50,000,000,000.00

You Save: $49,999,999,985.05

Product Page [Klear Gear]

Rob Beschizza

Plush TV

Hannspree's making a mini-tv inside a plush animal. What would once have been an artist's indictment of childrens' entertainment has now been released to manufacturing! Giraffe, Panda, Elephant and Polar bear are your choices. Engadget's Joseph Flatley's photoshop is about the right idea. [Pocket Lint]

Steven Leckart

Vampire Fangs Flytrap, Headgear

I'm a sucker for all things miniaturized and oversized. So I'm especially fond of JAAAHWS, a big version of those classic novelty vampire fangs. Use them to build your own maneating flytrap (above) or put the fangs on your noggin', like so... (adults can wear them, too)

Interesting tidbit: JAAAHWS were created by Brian Morishita who also works with Rick Baker at Cinovation Studios, which means he has two super cool jobs.

Available in white ($20) and glow-in-the-dark ($28 - limited).

Rob Beschizza

Cross Dagger

Rob Beschizza

Taser shotguns: mine shall be in green

O'er the front door, Xeni spots the forthcoming release of an elecrifying shotgun from Taser International. Beats that old BB that I always wanted, that's for sure!

Steven Leckart

Contest: Win My Fighting Cock-Bot

I stumbled on this Fighting Cock-bot at a junk shop in San Francisco that was having an everything-must-go sale. The box is dated 1986 and indicates the robo-chicken was manufactured by the Chi Land Plastic Manufacturing, Co in Taiwan.

Aside from stumbling on a .gov that lists the manufacturer, I haven't had much luck tracking any more of these down online. (Feel free to Google "fighting cock" and let me know if you find one.)

Battery-operated, the 12-inch toy is supposed to fire little plastic discs ("bullets") that you store in little plastic "eggs." To be honest, I don't really care what the thing does.

The packaging is what sold me on it [sic for everything below...]:

• Head with colorful lamp

• Chest with colorful lamp

• Attached with 2 eggs. There are 12 bullets in each egg.

• Walkable feet for advancing

• Wings can wave and shoot the bullet.

• The cock can turn it body for 360°

• Never let a child swallow the bullet

Enter To Win:

Get creative. PhotoShop the art (here's a larger version). Create an original painting, drawing, watercolor of or inspired by the Fighting Chicken. Write a song. Shoot a video of yourself singing said song. Create a claymation music video for said song.

Post a link to your stuff in the comments below or email me: steven AT boingboing DOT net ; The winner will be chosen based on the merit, effort, and originality of his/her creation. Go nuts.

...And remember: never, ever swallow the bullet. Unless, of course, you are an adult.

Steven Leckart

Digital Abacacus Worthy of Count Chocula

Brando's $10 Soft Solar Chocolate Calculator comes in three flavors, er, colors: dark, coffee, and strawberry. If you buy one for a Valentine, I suggest also throwing in the white chocolate keyboard.

Joel Johnson

Optimus Prime USB Speakers are more than meets the ears

If the horrendous Michael Bay movies haven't already sullied your love of Original Flavor™ Transformers, you'll be able to plop this Optimus Prime head that conceals USB speakers in its flapping ears for $50 in July. Except it's July right now, so I guess they mean more July than now. [via Coolest-Gadgets]

Rob Beschizza

Paul Fryer's Vacuum Tube chess board

Beautiful! Made of wood, glass and choobs, only seven sets exist. [via Make]

Steven Leckart

Contest: Win a Set of BuckyBalls

BuckBallys are tiny rare earth magnets, a set of 216 to be exact, which can be arranged and rearranged into a variety of fun, trippy shapes.

In honor of this year's Father's Day, the folks at Zoomdoggle are offering BBG readers a chance to win a free set of BuckyBalls (I actually gave my Dad something similar last year).

To win, just write into the comments or email me steven AT boingboing DOT net.

One catch: It is not first-come first serve. You must either send in your favorite Buckminster Fuller quote (if you don't have one, then find one). OR, tell us your most awesome and/or horrifying story that somehow involves magnets (someone erased your bootlegged copy of Jedi, etc.)

We have FIVE sets to give away. Good luck! Update: Contest is CLOSED. I'll be sorting through the submissions and getting back to the winners early next week. Have a great Father's Day, everyone! If you post a comment after 1:45pm PST June 19, 2009, it will read, but will not count towards the contest, FYI.

Joel Johnson

Video: Toy Movies

What if more '80s toys were turned into Hollywood blockbusters? Spoiler: They wouldn't be as awesome as this.

Rob Beschizza

Only 2 bids on rainbow-girded, fully-functional Tyco Brick Phone.

Surely one of you can do something about this. [Ebay via Gizmodo and Craziest Gadgets]

Rob Beschizza

Pointless nanny state knife about to hit stores

Britain is the unsurprising origin of this ridiculous implement. Inspired by calls to ban kitchen knives entirely, this Home Office-approved item will soon be available from New Point Knives.

If there was a Nobel prize for missing the point, designer John Carnock would doubtless be a strong contender.

First 'anti-stab' knife to go on sale in Britain [Times]

Rob Beschizza

Star Shooter: Voltron Camera

At Doobybrain via Gizmodo.

Steven Leckart

Retro Robotix Robo-Dog: More Canine Than Canine

Man's best friend just got even better! A dog you don't have to walk or feed, and you control its every move!

Runs on 4 C batteries and 1 9V. Only $200 from the Electronic Eclectic Company.

Or you could go 21st Century with HPI's G-Dog, a $700 mutt that runs on a 7.2V Ni-MH and can do a break dancer's headstand (00:20!):

Steven Leckart

Gallery: A Visual History of The Artificial Dog

Sony's four-legged entertainment bot AIBO launched a decade ago. At left is a figure from patent #6458011, which was filed in 2001 by inventors Makoto Inoue and Emi Kato:

A walking-on-four-legs type robot whose body is connected at the front right, front left, rear right, and rear left with legs is adapted so that its action saves the user trouble and increases the user's affection for, and curiosity about, the robot.

I find the evolution of the artificial dog fascinating. Check out more patented pooches &mdash from analog to animatronic, including more iterations from Sony &mdash after the jump...

[top right image via Sony]

READ THE REST

Rob Beschizza

Abstract Robot Duck

Stripping the essence of duckness down to its first principle, the Robot Duck Kit waddles on giant yellow feet. It does not, however, appear to quack. The price is $17 at Amazon. [via Red Ferret]