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.
A battery backup device is a must-have accessory for those who forget to recharge their toys every night. But if you’re the type who forgets to recharge stuff, how are you going to remember to bring the backup battery with you? Well the obvious answer is to have it strapped to your wrist all day. This recharging bracelet might not win any points for design or subtlety, but it makes up for it with convenience and the fact that it can also be used hands-free.
The bracelet recharges over USB and stores enough juice to keep a PSP running for about 4 hours, or a Nintendo DS for almost 7 1/2 hours. It comes with the USB cable needed for charging and a secondary cable with interchangeable tips allowing it to be used with portable gaming systems, cellphones and MP3 players. It runs about $48 from the Rare Mono Shop and if you like the idea but are embarrassed about wearing it, you can always tell people it’s a security bracelet you were issued after getting out of prison. Just don’t let them see you playing Pokemon on the DS with it as it could diminish the credibility of your story.
I guess when I think about it, the problem of your fly accidentally coming open really only dates back to the invention of the zipper. But even if it’s not an ‘age old’ problem, it’s still a problem, particularly if it’s ever happened to you. So this simple solution created by Lisa Sjövall seems so obvious that you have to wonder why it hasn’t been thought of or even incorporated into pants already. (At least I haven’t seen it before.) The ZipHolder is basically an elastic loop that fastens to the pull tag on your zipper. When it’s done up, the loop is placed around the button on your fly which prevents the zipper from accidentally coming open. In fact it’s so simple there’s really nothing else to say about it, so to fill out this post here’s a collection of euphemisms for your fly being open.
- Your zip code is invalid.
- Your pod bay door is open, Hal.
- You’re flying low.
- I thought you were crazy; now I see you’re nuts.
- Paging Mr. Johnson…
- You need to bring your tray table to the upright and locked position.
You can get the ZipHolder from SmartaSaker for about $6.40.
If the above picture vaguely reminds you of something, you’re not crazy. Well, you might be crazy but not about this particular subject. We showed you a mouse/keyboard combo a couple of years ago that looks have evolved into what you see above.
This is actually a small computer that is about the weirdest thing I’ve seen in a while. The idea that you’d be able to have a full keyboard, trackball and even a touchscreen in a small device seems like it would be cool, but looking at the strange shape and tiny screen, I seriously doubt it would ever catch on. Honestly, I would half expect to get beat up if I walked down the street using this.
There are dumb ideas out there, then there are really dumb ideas. This product would fall in the latter category. This is the My Pee Bottle, guess what it’s for.
February 2007, our then two-year old daughter, Sofia, contracted Rotavirus. Though she recovered within a couple of weeks, I was panicked. I became extremely fearful of all toilets and wanted to make sure Sofia had limited exposure to public restrooms. I was particularly mindful of continued good hygiene and simultaneously desired a simpler, cleaner, and more-efficient way for Sofia to use the potty when we were out.
Okay, I get the reason that this was created, but I still don’t see a practical use for it. Seriously, who wants to carry around a bottle that’s been peed in? Also, if this is meant for young children, do you really think it’s good to teach them to pee in a bottle just after you’ve potty trained them? I’d think that would have some negative effects on the kid.
I wasn’t exactly thrilled when I discovered there was a device that allowed people to use the same annoying ringtones they have on their cellphones, for their land line phones. But mankind seems adept at finding new ways to annoy each other, and the latest weapon in that arsenal would have to be the iChime. It replaces the standard ‘ding-dong’ of your doorbell with a pre-recorded song, sound effect or message of your choosing.
The device easily integrates with your existing wired door chime system and features a 2 wire ‘no mistake’ installation process that I’m sure people will still screw up. The control panel/speaker is where you actually make the recording, either through the built-in microphone or a line-in jack for hooking up an MP3 or CD player. It’s limited to just storing six-custom chimes at a time, but you can re-record them whenever you need. A USB connection and the ability to upload sound files directly to the iChime would have definitely been preferred, but their website actually spins that con as a pro, claiming it doesn’t need complicated USB software. So your potential clients can’t handle a USB connection, but they can install and properly wire their own doorbells?
You can order the iChime directly from the manufacturer’s website for $89.95. It also supports auxiliary speakers that can be installed in other rooms, and they run $24.95 each.
It seems more people are getting tattoos these days to show loyalty to a particular brand or product than for traditional rebellious reasons. We’ve all seen our share of Nintendo, Apple or even Zune tattoos, but none of them come even close to the ink that one Spiderman fan had done. The tattoo is designed to look like the guy’s skin is actually being torn away to reveal the Spiderman costume underneath. While I personally think having the Superman logo revealed on his chest would’ve been slightly cooler, this tattoo is still an impressive piece of work.
You can check out the thread that this tattoo spawned on Emptees.com, but I have to warn you that some of the other tattoos are definitely not safe for work.
While walking home last night I happened to notice this bizarre truck stopped at a red light. It was your standard cube van, except for the fact that the cube portion featured windows on all sides. And while it’s kind of hard to tell in this photo, inside the truck was someone dressed like an alien on vacation. The rest of the aliens were actually similarly dressed mannequins, but I guess they felt they needed at least one actual person to make it more realistic.
I can’t deny the fact that the truck served its purpose of grabbing people’s attention (I did stop and take a photo after all) but it was really a lame advertising stunt. And I can’t help but feel that other people might decide to arbitrarily boycott this company like I have, because of it. (It doesn’t take much.) If you work in advertising and are reading this post here’s my suggestion on how to improve this idea. You should replace the aliens with a machine that shoots out money, and instead of driving around the city you should just park in front of my apartment building. Then I’ll buy whatever you’re selling.
Practical? Of course not. Awesome? Heck yeah. Like the website says, it’s too funny not to share, and if you want a piece of the action, you’ll be able to buy a Leave Me Alone Box of your very own sometime soon for an undisclosed price… Leave your email at the site to be notified when it’s ready to go.
Are your parties stuck in a rut of pinatas and donkey pinning games? Well if you’re looking to really impress your friends at your next shindig, you might want to consider buying your own foam machine. The Foam Cannon X-Stream is capable of shooting a 30 foot stream of foam that can cover a 20 to 40 foot area in about 5 feet of suds. It uses a pre-mixed FG-HDF foam concentrate that allows the cannon to operate up to 50 minutes on just one gallon of solution. In 10 minutes it can produce about 4,800 cubic feet of foam, so you might want to think twice about using it indoors, unless you happen to live in an abandoned night club.
The cannon is mounted on a wheeled base allowing it to be easily swiveled and aimed, but the wheels can also be locked if you don’t want it to be moved. And while you can easily just rent this type of machine for an evening, I’m pretty sure your friends will be impressed you spent $3,995 just to ensure they had a good time.
Related Tags: Advertising, Nostalgia, Unusual
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