Infinite Lives

A girl is making a purchase at the place where I work. Her wallet is lying on the front desk.

“Um,” I say, fumbling for my iPhone, “can I take a photo of your wallet?”

“Sure,” she shrugs.

“What is that, duct tape?” I ask her.

“Yeah, it’s all duct tape,” she says, turning it in her hands so Ashley and I can get a look at it.

“Can I post your wallet to the Internet?” I ask her.

“I don’t mind,” she says, reluctantly adding that there are plenty other Companion Cube wallets out there, and also, plenty other duct tape wallets out there. This, however, is the only Companion Cube -themed craft I’ve seen in the wild, so I am delighted.

“Can I write down your name?” I ask her.

“Crystal. Spelled the normal way.”

I scrawl it on a Post-It. “Do you want to have a last name?” I ask her.

“Sure. Chiang.”

Crystal Chiang commissioned this incredible, 100% duct tape wallet, using the alchemy forum at Etsy.com. She estimates the wallet set her back all of about 20 bucks. It’s a little worse-for-wear, of course, because it is an actual, in-use wallet, but I find that the scuffs and the peeling corner only add to its rough-hewn charm.

“And I’m never alone!” Crystal concludes. Later, I will explain to my coworker Ashley what a Companion Cube is.

That incredible Samus Aran figurine (with LIGHT-UP HELMET and CANNON ARM) is, bafflingly, a customized Celsius vinyl toy, executed by artist Dave Quiles. Look at the details on her Varia suit!

This lovely bounty hunter is just one custom vinyl toy at the Ganmettal Celsius Custom Show, which opened July 10 at LA’s Toy Art Gallery.

The show also featured at least one Mega Man custom (well, duh, right?).

• Vinyl Pulse – Dave “outtamymind” Quiles for the Custom Celsius Show @ TAG (07.10)

Mans Shapshak really, really wants to play some tennis this summer. To improve his serve, he reasoned, he needs to perfect that initial toss of the ball in the air. And what better use of a spare Wii remote’s accelerometer than, say, rewiring the Wiimote to measure the speed of his throw?

“This same technique,” Shapshak writes, “can of course be used for any repetitive activity that you want to repeat exactly every time for consistency. Think golf, bowling, etc.”

• Eyes on Tech – Tennis Practice: On Court with a Wiimote via Hack a Day

Turns out this feat of imagineering is old as sin (well, about a year old), but I think these Hello Kitty DS styluses and/or styli warrant a closer look.

The Hello Kitty styluseseses—key or butterfly -shaped, your choice!—are sold by Strapya, international purveyor of all things strappy. Check out the product description:

It’s tacky. It’s cumbersome. It is irresistible.

Besides, it will go perfectly with my brand new bling:

• Strapya World – Kitty Jewel Stylus Pen via GameLuv
• Strapya World – Nintendo DS Lite Princess Jewelry Gem Sticker Decoration Kit

20-year old Jordan Mullen is hard at work on Link’s Awakening 3-D. He’s finished a ton of the environments, and with the 2D pixel textures wrapped around 3D models, it looks really nice.

Now, though, Mullen isn’t sure whether to use the original 2D sprites from A Link to the Past, or to continue modeling each of the sprites one by one in 3D. I personally submitted my vote for “a mix of 2D and 3D,” but as of this writing, the votes are split exactly down the middle.

Check out more of Mullen’s work here.

• MithosK Games via GoNintendo

St. Patrick’s Day is nearly upon us, and you know what that means: Chicago will dye its river green, San Francisco will be drunk by 11am, and somehow I will have managed to paste a Wii remote to my hands with the stick of spilled booze.

Over at The Domestic Scientist, amateur mixologist (and all-around crafty lady) Renée White is experimenting with game -themed drinks. So far she’s concocted the 1UP, the Zero Suit Samus, and the Triforce. Next week, she writes, she will unveil the ‘Moogle.’

My favorite drink is probably the 1UP shot, because it makes a certain videogamey sense—“Let’s give this party new life with this small, ingestible green thing.”

I think I’m going to invent the ‘Metroid,’ which will just be a cherry suspended in a shot glass filled with Diet Coke.

• The Domestic Scientist – Gamer Drink: Zero Suit Samus

Ready?

Absolutely stunning. It definitely took artist Chris Hooton longer to make this toy than to play through Dead Space.

Here’s the real kicker, though: what’s under all those layers of paint and epoxy? Why, according to Hooton himself, one of these.

• The Other Castle – Custom Dead Space Action Figure

Remember Super Bento Bros? Guess what. The artist decided to start up her own blog last month, and Kotaku found it.

But that’s not all. She is writing how-to’s.

Personally, if I were the world’s greatest bento box artist, I would not tell anybody how I am working my magic. I would take those secrets straight to the grave.

Oh my God.

• AnnaTheRed’s Bento Factory – How to make Yoshi

• Instructables – Pac-Man Pumpkins (via)

I confess that I have recently avoided blogging about my favorite video game baking site, Snack or Die, because it seems unfair that I post whenever Jocelyn posts, stealing all her photographs.

But Jocelyn’s brilliant Day of the Tentacle sugar cookies simply cannot be ignored. Sugar cookies themselves seem especially autumnal. The icing itself should be a cinch to mix. Apple Jacks cereal O’s make for perfect Purple Tentacle and Green Tentacle suction cups. All in all, what a neat Halloween baking project for any fan of LucasArts adventure games.

Also—and this has nothing to do with baking—there is not much on YouTube in the way of the old Maniac Mansion TV show starring Joe Flaherty. That seems criminal!

You probably already saw these on Kotaku and Vinyl Abuse, but because I love them, here they are again: CASTLE CRASHERS TOYS.

The artist decided to customize vinyl Teddy Troops figures. With the Troops’ faces smoothed over with Sculpey, they bear (hur!) an uncanny resemblance to the heroes of Castle Crashers. Aside from the Knights’ admirably strong brows, I think the renderings of the little pets are the best part.

• Albotas – Custom Castle Crashers Teddy Troops
• Porl’s Flickr – Custom toys : Ozzels, Mini-munny’s, teddy troopers

I’m kind of loving Philadelphia lately. I love Geekadelphia, from whom I have borrowed liberally (shout-out to Eric!). I love the lads at Gamervision. I love the Liberty Bell and all it represents, which is liberty. And then there’s the VGXPO, which is something that is also in Philadelphia.

And now I am completely in love with The Hacktory.

While I was questing through current.com in search of the Gaymers video, I came across “Geeks and Toys Go Wild,” a viewer-created video of a Hacktory-sponsored event. The tiny DIY fest is so rough-around-the-edges and charming, just magical LEDs and chip music and, probably, alcohol. The Hactory video at Current may never make it all the way to TV, so—for now at least—you’ll have to check it out online, either here or embedded here:

I feel like there is this incredible nerd culture in Philadelphia that the rest of humanity doesn’t know about. Specifically, the goings-on at The Hacktory—classes on how to design circuit boards, or events with chiptune musicians dimly lit by demoscene graphics—remind me, bittersweetly, of the art collective gatherings and events that so captured my imagination when I was some college kid having her first brush with adulthood in her first real city. These community events were sincere, earnest, and wholly unmarketable. They were, to quote the Philadelphia Weekly, “Authentic Geek.”

Incidentally, The Hacktory turns one year old this month, hence the illustration of a layer-cake with LEDs that I am ‘borrowing’ from their blog.

• Current.com – Geeks and Toys Go Wild

This guy makes Nintendo jewelry, hand-wrought from gold and sterling, for himself, his girlfriend, and less often, for very close friends. Most of these pieces—including the heartbreakingly beautiful D-pad necklace—are one-offs, never to be forged again. Look, and weep.

Edit: A friend just asked me what “the thing in the middle is supposed to be.” It is so obviously a metroid, hello? So I just thought I’d clarify here, too: it’s a metroid.

• Thirdproject.net – Shineys (via)