We recently showed you some steampunk-inspired dice which I thought were pretty cool. But those dice were all just little cubes. These ones look even cooler, thanks to their unusual D&D-style shapes.

This set of dice was designed by shapeways user gythawen and Masterworks, and comes in a set of numerous differently sided-dice perfect for a good old game of Dungeons & Dragons, or any other board or card game that uses dice. Personally, I’d use them as Monopoly pieces, instead of the shoe and the hat but that’s just me. The intricately-detailed dice are produced using 3D printing technology, and as seen in the image above can even be produced in bronze, stainless steel, or glossy silver.

Dice range in size from 16mm to 24mm, and a complete set will run you about $25 (USD) when produced from resin (which may be too light for rolling,) about $80 in bronze or stainless, and close to $200 in silver. Of course the antique bronze seems the most fitting with the steampunk theme, but they’re cool no matter what material you decide to make them in. In addition to the steampunk set, Masterworks also offers this cool Harry Potter-inspired set they call the “Deathly Hallows”, which is equally as awesome:

Both the dice sets and individual dice are available over at Masterworks’ Shapeways shop.

I was a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica both when the original series aired when I was a kid and when the new series was on Syfy. I was pissed both times the show was cancelled. Another geek out there named Gary King loves the show too, and his favorite thing to build from LEGO is giant recreations of the ships from the old and new series. His latest creation is called Battlestar Berzerk.

Personally, I don’t recall this ship, but apparently, it was only seen for a short time in the first episode of the new show, right before meeting its demise. The ship is very detailed and King says it was his most difficult project yet. It took two months and the finished model is approximately 73 inches long x 24″ inches wide x 14″ inches high and weighs in at a hefty 54 pounds.

The ship is so large and heavy that it requires internal supports made from wood and steel – and that 54-pound weight doesn’t include the support structure. The support was required after parts started to bend and shear off the craft.

King detailed the project on Mocpages along with many more photos. This is one awesome LEGO project!

[via Brothers-Brick]

Reading too many tweets can be hard on your eyes, and besides, when you are reading them, you can’t really do anything else at the same time. It’s much better to have tweets read to you.


That’s where appcubby’s Tweet Speaker comes in handy. Tweet Speaker is an app for iOS devices that will read your tweets to you. While it is doing so, you can focus on other things and not have to be a slave to your eyesight.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

For instance you can catch up on your tweets while driving to work. As you can hear in the demo video above, the text-to-speech is clear and easy to understand and abbreviations like “RT” are read as “Retweet”. Webpage titles are mentioned in place of the site URLs. Tweet Marker support lets you pick up where you left off too. Get Tweet Speaker now for $2.99 (USD) at the iTunes App Store.

[via TNW via Ubergizmo]

HP failed miserably with its TouchPad tablet making zero splash on the tablet market. The TouchPad quickly failed and the only thing that was good about the entire thing was that the fire sale that sold off the remaining TouchPad inventory saw people getting the tablets for under $100 – and those tablets are now being hacked to run Android.

HP, a few TouchPad buyers, and some developers are now baffled by reports that a few of the TouchPads shipped out arrived to the buyers packing Android on board rather than WebOS. Some devs contacted HP and wanted to know what version of Android was on the devices and HP played the dumb card.

HP claims it never authorized the shipping of Android on the TouchPad, and went so far as to say there was no chance that those tablets shipped from HP with Android on them. HP is investigating how Android ended up on the tablets and for now, we don’t know anything. I bet this is a big hoax, but if it’s not let’s be honest, getting a TouchPad with Android already on it saves a bit of time with the hack.

[via PCWorld]

Have plenty of sunlight and money to spare? Check out the Cookup, a neat-looking solar grill from French company ID Cook. As you may have guessed, instead of using traditional fuel like coal or gas, the Cookup concentrates the power of the sun to heat food up to 200°C. The Cookup can be assembled without the need for any tool, and can be adjusted so it can catch the optimum amount of sunlight.

Unfortunately I don’t know exactly how fast it cooks food. In fact, I don’t know how fast food is cooked in general. I just wait until my sister says it’s time to eat. Anyway, ID Cook does say this on its product page: “Cooking time: 60 minutes Chicken.” So yeah. No idea.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

I wonder how one goes about retrieving food off of a 200°C surface. I’m sure it’s in the manual, because the Cookup is undoubtedly a long-term investment. You’ll get savings from not having to buy fuel for it, but you’ll have to burn a lot of money upfront – the stainless steel and plastic Cookup INOX sells for about $429 (USD), while the wood and aluminum Cookup200 sells for about $715. You can order both from ID Cook’s website.

[via Notcot]

An awesome cap featuring an embroidery of the iconic question mark block from Super Mario Bros. Wear it and be weary of your gamer friends’ jokes about punching your head to make coins or power-ups come out.

I wonder if the original game would’ve been better if the power up inside the question blocks were actually randomized with each playthrough. Imagine how fun it would be if you kept getting stars.

You can order the Question Block Hat from 604Republic for $24 (USD).

[via Gamefreaks]

The first time I laid my eyes on Cell Mate Boris, I was immediately reminded of something my Philosophy teacher discussed back in University: Sisyphus. I can’t remember what it was that he did, but I’m sure it was something big and bad, because he was punished by the gods to roll a boulder up a hill for the rest of eternity.

So Boris here isn’t rolling some boulder up a hill, but he’s going to be perpetually crouched in a braced position so that he can support that MP3 player or smartphone that you’re going to be placing on his back. Boris does more than your average stand, as well, because he’s also being dubbed as a charging station.

There’s a ridge at the bottom of the slightly sloped landing that Boris is standing on, which is where you’re supposed to snake the wire of your device’s charger through.

Make your mobile phone or music player the load on Boris’s back by getting one of these Cell Mates from Germany’s Design 3000. He’s available in black, white, and red and retails for 12 Euros (~$17.)

[via Gadgets Matrix]

Jay Hoff is a teacher from Florida, and he recently combined his love of LEGOs and Star Wars in a monstrous 30,000-brick wonder. He chose to recreate the Death Star’s landing bay, which is impossible to forget because that’s where the Emperor landed and was met with his honor guard.

It was part of his school’s Science Discovery Day a few months back, and while the students were busy creating their little dioramas, Jay spent $2,300 and six months to create this landing bay, prominently featured in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. That’s when Palpatine popped in to see Darth Vader’s progress on the second Death Star.

The build measured 6 by 6 feet and he only got to display it once. Jay has been a LEGO fanatic since 1973, and hasn’t had the heart to take it apart yet.

[via Ubergizmo]

If you’re like me, you probably already hang your headphones from your monitor when you’re not using them. I broke my nice headphones a while ago, so I’m not too worried about the ones that I’m using now. The Workerman MacHook lets you hang yours safely, but with a bit more flair.

The MacHook works with most iMacs and Apple Cinema Displays, and contrasts nicely to the aluminum used in those monitors. It doesn’t fit the 21.5″ models though. The model shown here is made out of Baltic birch, a furniture-grade plywood.

Unfortunately, the plywood beta version of the MacHook is already sold out, but a retail version in different colors and made from recycled plastics will be available soon from Workerman’s online store.

[via Unplggd]

Here’s what Mario fans have been waiting for. Nintendo has released a TON of Super Mario Land 3D screenshots and character renders for your enjoyment. I’m not a real big fan of the 3DS myself, but I have to say, this title makes me want to buy one just to play this game. It looks that good.


The 3DS platformer (actually it is part platformer, part 3D Mario) will arrive on November 13th. One of the problem’s that I have had with some recent Mario games is that they have strayed too far from the original platform formula. This has obviously been rectified with Super Mario Land 3D.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The game looks insane and appears to have just the right blend of old school/new school play. And all of our favorite characters seem to make an appearance, although I didn’t see Yoshi and I won’t be losing any sleep over that. So, who else is excited? Here’s just a small sampling of screens from the game:

You can check out a bunch more more images at the link below.

[via vg247]