Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

You can spend hours carving a horrific face in your pumpkin in a vain attempt to scare the neighborhood kids, but no matter what you come up with, I guarantee you won’t get results like Todd Harrison did last year. Inspired by a Make post from last Hallowe’en, Todd’s jack o’lantern looks innocent enough, until you push its small red nose. At first the eyes will start to glow, giving the button pusher a false sense of security, but a second later a set of 105 decibel car horns will blare, scaring the candy corn out of any trick-or-treaters who happened to be anywhere near his front porch.

Todd’s posted a couple videos of the pumpkin ‘in action’ on his website, as well as a materials list and a brief rundown on how it all went together, in case you were hoping to create your own by the 31st.

[ ToddFun.com - Super scary honking pumpkin ] VIA [ Make ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I can understand that artificial lighting in a pumpkin is a lot safer than a burning candle, particularly if kids are involved, but the smell of scorched pumpkin lid is something that always kindles fond memories of my childhood. But if you prefer to play it safe, these remote control pumpkin lights from Williams Sonoma won’t torch your carved creations, and don’t even require you to go outside to turn them on.

Each light is powered by 3xAAA batteries which is good for about 100 hours of use, and the wireless remote allows you to turn them on and off, switch between steady and flickering light and adjust the brightness, all from a distance of about 20 feet away. A set of 2 with a remote will set you back $19.95, which isn’t too bad, even if they get destroyed when the neighborhood kids smash your pumpkin.

[ Pumpkin Lights with Remote Control ] VIA [ GadgetGrid ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While it appears to be designed for having some seasonal Hallowe’en fun, ThinkGeek’s new EvilTron actually improves upon their original Annoy-A-Tron in many ways. Firstly, it’s smaller, only about as big as a quarter, and that in conjunction with a Rare-Earth magnet embedded in the back makes it even easier to hide. And secondly, instead of making random beeping noises the EvilTron plays 5 different eery sounds including “Something unsettling creaking, Unidentifiable scratching sounds, Gasping last breath, Sinister child laughing and Eerie whispering of ‘hey, can you hear me?’”

It’s powered by an included single cell type battery which is good for over a month of use, and at just $9.99 it won’t be that upsetting when your co-workers eventually find it and smash it to pieces.

[ The ThinkGeek EvilTron ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Yes, they’re slightly more appropriate for Hallowe’en, but these glowing dismembered body parts lawn ornaments could be used for any holiday throughout the year. Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, Bah Mitzvah… Just dress them appropriately and I’m sure the neighbors won’t complain one bit when you’ve hidden a decorated Easter egg behind that foot sticking out of your front lawn. $16.98 from IWOOT for a set of 4.

[ Light-Up Body Parts ] VIA [ Nerd Approved ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Thankfully this Summer was a pretty mild one when it comes to temperatures, where I live at least, but there were a few days where a device like this personal air conditioner would have been most appreciated. The Handycooler might look like nothing more than a high-tech fan, but it actually harnesses the power of evaporative cooling to keep you comfortable. Inside the unit there’s a sponge you simply dampen with a few ounces of water, and the air that’s drawn over that damp sponge by a fan is cooled by as much as 25 degrees Fahrenheit! Refreshing!

On a set of 4xAA batteries the Handycooler will run for about 5 hours, but it can also be plugged into a power outlet or a USB port for use at your desk. $39.99 from ThinkGeek.

[ Handycooler Personal Air Conditioner ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

As far as I’m concerned Summer is all but over, particularly since recent temperatures have had me reaching for a light jacket when I head in to work in the morning. So there’s no time like the present to start looking into clothing for the Fall & Winter. Like the iHat, which is a brimless cap (or ‘toque’ as I’d call it) featuring a speaker over each ear and an audio cable allowing it to be plugged into any audio device featuring a standard headphone jack. I’m sure the sound isn’t amazing, but if you’re hitting the slopes why risk your expensive earbuds or headphones when the iHat is just $25 from BB Shopping, available December 14.

[ iHat ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

With a name like ‘Broomba’ you might think this is a clever take on the popular robotic vacuum, but you’d be wrong. Instead of autonomously sweeping and cleaning your hard wood floors, it’s designed to scare guests at your next Hallowe’en party by moving around the room while blaring “spooky” music and “frightful” cackling sounds. But in reality, it will probably end up being nothing more than an inverted empty cup holder.

And even though October 31 isn’t exactly ‘just around the corner’ you can already scare one of these up for $39 from Grandin Road.

[ Broomba Self-Propelled Broom ] VIA [ The Green Head ]

By Andrew Liszewski

There’s no surer sign that Summer is just around the corner than the stores filling up with beach and water toys. And what better way to have fun in the sun (or suns, depending on where you live) than with a collection of Star Wars inflatable toys? These come courtesy of Jakks Pacific and include everything from the Millennium Falcon, to an X-Wing, to Anakin’s and Obi-Wan’s starfighters from the prequels. (Not pictured.) And as StarWars.com asks, why has it taken 31 years to get an inflatable Death Star beach ball?

Sadly, that R2-D2 floating drink holder won’t be out until next year, but you should be able to find the rest of them at Target stores in the US, or Walmart stores in Canada, though I have no idea on the pricing.

[ StarWars.com - Blow Up The Death Star! ] VIA [ TheForce.Net ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While most of us would just leave a discarded V8 engine sitting on our front lawn until the grass grew high enough to hide it from the neighbors, Kai Grundt decided to use his to build the mother of all walk-behind snowblowers. Now you have to understand that not only is Kai a metal fabricator by trade, but he also lives in a small town called Muskoka (north of Toronto) where the winters can be particularly harsh. So having a V8 powered snowblower actually seems practical, instead of just insane.

Once it was built, Kai’s snowblower tipped the scales at over 800 pounds, so he opted to switch from rubber tires (which couldn’t bear the weight) to custom made tracks that are powered by a couple of hydraulic motors fed by a pump powered by the V8 itself. The massive auger on the front of the blower spins about twice as fast as those found on a conventional (translation: boring) snowblower, which not only allows Kai to clear more snow, but throw it farther too. How far? Try 100 feet easily, which is far enough to bury his neighbor’s truck under snow from two houses away. Almost makes me wish I had a driveway, or at the least, be thankful that Kai isn’t my neighbor.

[ Popular Science - Thar She Blows ]