Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

It’s no secret that many Hollywood celebrities are happy to appear in ads and commercials in Japan, while absolutely refusing to back home. George Lucas on the other hand seems happy for him and his characters to appear in ads all over the world. StarWars.com recently published a collection of ‘10 Cool Star Wars Posters from Japan’ and among them are these ads from a Panasonic Star Wars campaign from the late ’80s and early ’90s. Seeing most celebrities riding a satellite dish with an Ewok and a Wookie would probably seem odd, but not so much when it’s George Lucas who’s awkwardly sandwiched between them. (And that’s awkward with a capital ‘A’ by the way.)

And here’s an ad with Yoda listening to a Panasonic personal stereo while he uses the force to float the earbuds next to his head. (He’s probably listening to Weird Al’s take on Lola.) Maybe if he’d done a better job of investing his money in the early ’80s he wouldn’t have had to shill stereos for Panasonic during his retirement.

If you’ve got a few minutes to spare you can head on over to StarWars.com and check out the other 8.

[ StarWars.com - 10 Cool Star Wars Posters from Japan ] VIA [ I Watch Stuff ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Got a stack of NES carts at home that you’ve been dying to play while traveling? I didn’t think so. Given the capabilities of the PSP and even the DS, I’m kind of surprised anyone would even want a portable way to play old NES carts when they can be so easily emulated. But the FC Mobile portable system does just that. It looks like a slightly fat, overly curvaceous version of the Game Boy Micro, but that’s mostly because of the slot on the back designed to accommodate NES cartridges.

You can either play the games using the FC Mobile’s 2.4 inch LCD color screen, or use the included AV adapter cable to hook it up to a television and enjoy all that 8-bit goodness on your hi-def display. It’s powered by 3 AA batteries, comes in a red & white or silver & black color schemes and appears to only play North American NES games.

Unfortunately the only place to pick one up right now is on eBay, where they range in price from around $30 to $60.

[ FC Mobile NES Game Portable LCD System ] VIA [ technabob ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Here’s a great post from the people at Mightygodking.com who claimed to have found a genuine working-condition Atari 2600 at a garage sale, complete with a huge stack of classic games that they’ve scanned for our enjoyment. In reality, it’s a huge post of classic video game artwork that’s been updated with titles and descriptions that more accurately reflect what’s being depicted on the cover. If you’ve ever looked at an old video game and wondered how the artist came up with those over-the-top covers when the games barely featured a few pixelated sprites you’ll find these pretty amusing. And really, do you have a better way to spend your Saturday morning?

[ Fun From Yesterday! ] VIA [ Fazed ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I have no problem with kids playing video games, as long as they spend part of their days doing something more creative so their imaginations don’t atrophy. Besides building toys and stuff like Lite Brite, I also remember having a Muppets themed Colorforms set when I was a kid. While I don’t think the Muppets are as popular as they were in the 80’s, I do think today’s kids would still enjoy Colorforms, even though they seem pretty hard to come by these days.

Thankfully as part of MoMA’s Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today exhibition, the MoMA Store is now selling an exact replica of the original Colorforms set from 1951. The kit includes 350 brightly colored vinyl shapes that will stick to any glossy surface, or as I recall, to each other. At $35 this replica Colorforms set isn’t exactly cheap, but finding all the little pieces strewn across your house? Priceless.

[ MoMA - The Original Colorforms Set ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I have fond memories of my childhood (minus the noodle incident) and for a gamer, nothing says the early 80’s like Atari. So if you’ve got a few minutes to spare and fancy a trip down memory lane, check out these scans of a 1981 Atari Catalog on HuguesJohnson.com. The catalog was actually found by a friend of his while moving, and Mr. Johnson was kind enough to put it online for the rest of us to enjoy. While a lot of the games in the catalog have become classics, the fun part is looking through the lavish illustrations that barely resemble what the actual gameplay was like.

And if Atari was never your thing, you might want to check out the ‘Scans’ under the ‘Video Game Features’ section of HuguesJohnson.com where you’ll find copies of old Sears, Intellivision and even Coleco catalogs and flyers.

[ 1981 Atari Catalog Scans ] VIA [ Fazed ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Nintendo-centric news site, Nintendic, recently published a look back at the company’s infamous Virtual Boy system. Believe it or not, the VB was created by Gunpei Yokoi who was also responsible for the Game & Watch, Metroid and the ridiculously successful Game Boy. That’s a pretty solid track record, but unfortunately as we all know, the VB wasn’t exactly a runaway hit.

Nintendo planned to sell 1.5 million Virtual Boys by the end of 1995, but the $180 system only ever sold about 770,000 units throughout its entire lifespan. As a result it was never released in Europe or Australia, and Gunpei Yokoi was ‘forced’ to resign from the company the next year. If you’re interested, you can head on over to Nintendic to read about the whole saga.

Unfortunately due to a broken clip on the legs, my Virtual Boy (which I picked up brand new for about $20 back in the day) still sits in the closet, waiting for the day when I get a hankering for some 3D tennis again. And if anyone has a pair of Virtual Boy legs in good working order they’d like to get rid of, please let me know.

[ Nintendo’s forgotten console: The Virtual Boy ]

By Andrew Liszewski

How do you prove you’re truly a hardcore Star Wars fan? I would say that spending $5,950 for a life-size C-3PO figure, and $5,450 for his astromech sidekick R2-D2 would be more than adequate. Sideshow Collectibles now has both of these droids available for pre-order and they’ll actually ship sometime in the third quarter of this year.

Besides being incredibly accurate reproductions, both figures are made from fiberglass and feature lights and sounds powered by a set of AA batteries. They each come with their own display base as well as a magnetically attached restraining bolt to keep them in check. I can only assume that both droids will be available in limited quantities, so if you’d like to pre-order either one you’ll need to cough up a $950, non-refundable deposit.

[ Sideshow Collectibles Life-Size R2-D2 & C-3PO ] VIA [ TheForce.net ]

By Andrew Liszewski

What better way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day than with a creation by Ireland’s most famous inventor? (Who cares if Thomas Edison was actually Dutch? On March 17th everybody’s a little bit Irish.) This build-it-yourself phonograph kit comes with everything you’ll need to recreate Edison’s waxed pipe experiment, except that since waxed pipes have gone the way of HD-DVD, it uses plastic cups to record your message.

The only thing you’ll need to provide are a Philips’ head screwdriver, some scotch tape, scissors and a D-cell battery to power the motor. And by recording your own music you’ll never have to worry about the RIAA busting down your door, unless of course you start transferring your CD collection to plastic cups, as I’m sure that doesn’t fall under fair use rules.

[ Cup Phonograph Kit in Edison Style ] VIA [ Wired Gadget Lab ]

By Andrew Liszewski

A guy with the alias ‘Boomerjinks’ (aka Kevin) has started a thread on the NASIOC forums (North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club) to showcase his 2003 Subaru Outback which he’s converted into a slightly smaller version of the Ecto-1 seen in the Ghostbusters films. While the Outback isn’t exactly one of the coolest cars on the road, this particular one not only turns a lot of heads but also wins a lot of ‘unusual entry’ trophies at various car shows.

I’m not sure how much the Ecto-1 conversion actually cost, but on the forum he mentions the print job for the vehicle’s graphics runs about $200, while the orange flashing lightbars were $430 each. The rest of the decorative materials were bought from Home Depot, but you also have to consider the man hours that went into putting it all together.

Unfortunately the original Ectomobile, which was built on a 1998 Subaru Outback, was rear-ended by a semi-truck 5 days before Hallowe’en. The car ended up being a write-off, but Kevin was able to transplant the ghost-hunting accessories to a 2003 Outback, so the Ectomobile lives again. If you’re curious to see how a geek trips out his ride, head on over to the NASIOC forums where Kevin’s posted a good collection of photos and stories about the car.

[ Ectomobile Thread @ NASIOC ] VIA [ NOTCOT ]

And if you were wondering, the Ectomobile even has the same siren used by the real Ecto-1 in the Ghostbuster movies, and I’ve included a video of the car doing a drive-by after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »