Archive for the ‘Toys’ Category

Dr. Viktor and the Happy Symbiosis: The Bizarre Plush Disco-Dancing Mollusk-Hosting Scientist-Exhibitionist

Thursday, August 9th, 2007

Toysrevil has some great background on Dr. Viktor, a graphic plush toy from the design firm Pattern.

Exhibitionist-scientist creator of “The Happy Symbiosis”, hosts Elias: a mollusk which gives him talent, but makes him lose control.

See what happens when Elias grows too big for his host and wants to remodel:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muNGbhb0J0A]

Here’s a beautiful graphic from the film, again, thanks to Toysrevil.
Viktor and the Happy Symbiosis

Popularity: 7% [?]

Fantastic Plastic Man: Playing Doctor With Japanese Organs

Thursday, July 26th, 2007

Fantastic Plastic Organs 1Fantastic Plastic Organs

Who hasn’t always wanted a miniature pancreas? Mark Frauenfelder’s friend brought these amazingly mini-anatomical toys over from Japan. Would you believe each box comes with a stick of gum? That’s like eating sushi after seeing a Body Worlds exhibit… (via Boingboing)

You won’t find these in the supermarket gumball machines, but you can buy them at Giant Robot in the U.S.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Rubik’s Cube Solved By Lego Mindstorms Robot

Monday, July 9th, 2007

Lego Rubik’s Solver

Two of my favourite toys, working together to bring back 80s nostalgia. One Daniele Benedettelli built this robot and wrote the code to crack Rubik’s. He calls it the Lego Rubik Utopy, and did it using an IDA* heuristic search algorithm, of course. It’s all available to download and build yourself. All you need is a computer, a Lego Mindstorms NXT kit, a Rubik’s Cube, and a Computer Science and Engineering PhD.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htnL1KTpaY8]

(via Trendhunter)

Popularity: 3% [?]

Hello Kitty + Death = Ciao Ciao

Saturday, June 16th, 2007

Ciao Ciao

This may be the last thing your favourite cute Japanese character sees. Meet Ciao Ciao, from STRANGEco, and her boyfriend Adios.

Adios

Adios and Ciao Ciao

Popularity: 4% [?]