ThinkGeek

ThinkGeek: throwing money away, every April fools’

/ Shane / 6 Comments

Every April Fools’ day, Think Geek, puts up a host of new products. Of course, these products aren’t available for order, just as a joke. However, they fool me with this every year. Why? Because the products are so ridiculously simple, and so ridiculously desirable, there’s no reason NOT to make them. For the most part, there are no technical barriers to creating these products, and yet there is a demand. Why make it a joke? Why not just sell the products? (Note that it has happened in the past, that they did end up making a product, since the demand was so high).

So here are some of the products that you CAN’T BUY, but you should be able to!

First up is a lovable plush toy that any child would love (come on Rachael, even you have to admit it is adorable!).

It’s not just a stuffed animal, it’s also a puppet. It even says, “I’m bacon!” when you squeeze it. And who doesn’t love the tag line, “You’ve got a friend in me(at)!” The sooner you encourage the consumption of bacon, the better the lives of the children will be. Please, think of the children!

Product #2 is really for all the Lost fans out there. Now, instead of just dreaming of Desmond, you can wake up like Desmond, with a Dharma alarm clock.

Once the alarm begins, punch in “the numbers” on the keypad or suffer the consequences! No simple snooze button on this one, you have to type in the complicated numbers and hit enter. And if preventing the end of the world isn’t enough motivation to get out of bed in the morning, then I can’t help you. (And, if you are a true Lost fan, I would recommend watching the short video showing the clock in action!)

Finally, the third product is both interesting and frightening, at the same time. The “Tell Me Your Secrets” Bear.

Kind of reminds me of the Robot Chicken intro.

So, let me allow Think Geek to explain this one:

When hugged, he’ll profess his love for your child, and stress that friends always share their secrets. He’ll ask, “Do you have a secret, best friend? You can tell me anything.” When the bear completes a trigger phrase, the audio and video turns on, recording your child’s secrets, which are then wirelessly transmitted to you via email.

Now even the most despicable, spying, hovering parent has a friend they can turn to!

Okay, maybe that last one is pushing the bounds of believability, but the other two are totally doable.

By the way, if you actually want to buy any of these products, you can go to their website and click to show interest…I’m guessing that at least some of them will show up as real products before too long.

Now that’s what I call a remote!

/ Shane / 5 Comments

Calling all Harry Potter fans!

How awesome is this? It’s a universal remote that looks like a magic wand! Basically, you train it from your regular remote and assign button functions to various movements of the wand. Then you can literally change the channel with a flick of your wrist!

I would totally buy one, but I don’t think I need a $90 remote…

Now I go on and on about ThinkGeek on here and all the great products they have, but I have finally found one that seems a little silly to me. They have a flashlight that is so powerful, you can literally cook an egg with the beam! According to the website, you can actually set fire to paper with this thing. What purpose could there possibly be for such a flashlight?

Christmas, coming to a cube near you!

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Now that Thanksgiving is past, I don’t feel bad about putting up some Christmas stuff (It is the 1st of December after all). Now, if you work a desk job like me, your cube (or what have you…I don’t actually sit in a cube) can always use a little sprucing up. The problem is, the second you start plugging things in, the safety people are all over you. But if you work at a computer, you have a convenient source of power just sitting there. As always, we turn to the leader in USB powered devices, ThinkGeek, for all our festive desk decorations.

First up, a USB-powered Fiber optic christmas tree.

ThinkGeek always goes above and beyond. In this case, they not only provide us with a nice product, but even a festive song to go with it:

O USB! O USB! A wonder of technology;
O USB! O USB! A wonder of technology;
Our favorite toys are plug and play,
Just stick it in and we’re on our way.
O USB! O USB! A wonder of technology!

If you’d rather go with something a little more low key, more traditional, you can just stick with the USB-powered Christmas Lights:

And here we are with Christmas just around the corner

/ Shane / 2 Comments

So obviously all of my loyal listeners are wracking their brains trying to figure out what to get me for Christmas. Well, you can’t all get me bacon-of-the-month club memberships. On second thought, you could…packages upon packages of bacon arriving every month…but then again, if I’m too fat to type, you’ll miss my posts.

Well, if one person out there doesn’t want to get me bacon, how about Last Night on Earth, a zombie board game. $50 seems a little steep on the price, but surely it is worth $50 to try out various survival techniques. Also, you can play as the master of the zombies, and that just sounds cool. I don’t think I even need to mention the “epic CD soundtrack”, I think you’re already sold.

Okay, let’s be honest, ThinkGeek had me at the words “Zombies are officially the new black.” Truer words have never been spoken.

Oh ThinkGeek, what will you think of next?

/ Shane / 4 Comments

I make no attempt to hide my love of ThinkGeek here on the blog. Every time I get the newsletter, there is always something cool to report. This month was no exception, giving us the amazing Tac Bac – Tactical Canned Bacon. This is amazing, you can stockpile it up and it will last for 10 years. Well, it won’t last for 10 years, because you’ll eat it, but maybe in your hunger to get at the bacon you accidentally knock a can back behind the shelf or something and find it 9 years later…it’s still good! Why would you need to stockpile bacon? Well, for tactical purposes obviously (if you read the webpage closely, you’ll notice that they specifically mention the zombie apocalypse…I’m just saying)

But wait, there’s more! Special bonus ThinkGeek product, the Force Trainer. This thing blew my mind, basically you can train your Jedi skills in the use for the Force, like, for realz. You clamp this headgear on, which measures your brainwaves. Depending on how hard you’re concentrating, the ball will go up or down in the tube. I think this is probably as close as we are ever going to come to actual Force usage.

Yay ThinkGeek!