Let’s be honest, the saga of the giant RX-78-2 couldn’t have ended with the 59-foot replica mecha lying scattered in pieces. On April 19th, Bandai’s opening a theme park dedicated to the world’s greatest giant-robot cartoon, Mobile Suit Gundam. Adults will pay 1,000 yen ($13), Kids 800 yen ($10) to visit the 2,050 square-meter “Gundam Front,” park, in a shopping mall in Tokyo’s Odaiba district. There’s even a themed café and store, to buy all of your giant-robots and giant-robot-based accessories — but no word yet if we’ll be able to build our own version of the giant Gundam that’ll guard the entrance. In other news, we’ve still not heard anything about that Space Battleship Yamato-themed cruise liner that was in the offing a few years ago.
Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands hotel is home to one of the most-photographed and internet beloved swimming pools on the planet. It’s atop a massive tower, and looks seamless, like a levitating mirror. So why not leap off off of it?
Not only is this BASE jumping expedition one of the craziest I’ve seen, the video is easily the most beautiful; Singaporean haze, alien warship architecture, that fantastically indulgent pool, and people slowly dropping through the air. It’s almost enough to make me try it myself! Or just sit in the pool.
It takes guts to ride a motocross bike. Tuned practically to the point of blowing themselves to bits, every pound stripped away so that only the bare necessities are left and sitting on top of a foot-plus of suspension travel, it takes a deft hand to tame these race machines.
Which makes the feat you’ll see in the video after the break all the more amazing. It’s one thing to strap on your gear and head out to the relatively safe confines of an off-road track. It’s something completely else to ride a singletrack trail at the top of a mountain ridgeline.
Judging from the perspective of the rider, which is where the camera has been thoughtfully mounted, a single mistake could send this daredevil plummeting to the ground, where serious injury or even death seem inevitable. And yet there seems to be no tension whatsoever from the rider. We’ve got to say, we’re impressed. See what we’re talking about after the break. Read more…
What if you combined a prototype Windows 8 tablet, an electric skateboard and Microsoft’s Kinect? Funnily enough, the folks at Chaotic Moon Studios wondered the same, and they didn’t stop there. Over at CES 2012, the outfit showcased a downright amazing wheeled machine, capable of reaching speeds as high as 32mph. It’s being labeled the Board of Awesomeness, but frankly, that’s an understatement. The company’s calling this the world’s first Xbox Kinect-controlled skateboard, utilizing video recognition, speech recognition, gesture recognition, localization data, accelerometer data, and other factors to determine what the user wants to do. Enough chatter — head on past the break to see this thing in action.
During last year’s CES, we caught a glimpse of a little prototype robotic ball known as Sphero. While the concept certainly showed some potential, we’re pleased to learn that Sphero has evolved into quite an interesting little toy. Unlike a lot of other gadgets being revealed here at CES, Sphero doesn’t really do anything ground breaking or productive but that’s perfectly okay, because this thing packs a whole lotta fun in one tiny little package. Check out Wired’s video to see this little guy in action!
Sphero is simple and that’s what we love about it. All it is is a tennis ball-sized ball that can be controlled with your iOS or Android device. It’s waterproof and has a multi-color light inside that makes it just about the perfect toy for your household pets. The cool thing about Sphero is that it revolves around a number of apps and games that the company has created.
Although there are only a handful of apps and games now, the company assures us that there are plenty more on the way. For now, Sphero comes out of the box with six included apps and games that allow the user to do a number of things such as take snapshots while controlling the ball, play a golf-like game, trace paths for the ball and more. For more information and videos, head on over to Sphero’s website where you can also pre-order your own for $129.
Red Bull has a rather unique way of ringing in the New Year. Back in 2007, motorcycle freestyle daredevil Robbie Maddison jumped 322 feet over a football field in Las Vegas, setting a world record for the longest motorcycle jump. A year later, the Australian stuntman jumped 96 feet into the air, landing safely atop the Arc De Triomphe at Paris Las Vegas… and then he let gravity take over as he jumped his motorcycle back down.
Four-wheeled machinery has taken part in the festivities as well. Rhys Millen nearly landed a backflip in his trophy truck in 2008. The perennially insane Travis Pastrana made history in 2009 when he flew his Subaru WRX STI rally car from one boat-mounted ramp to another on a barge, clearing about 250 feet of open water in the process. Sadly, there was no record-setting feat in 2010 after Levi LaVellee crashed his snowmobile in a practice run, though he did set a 361-foot record before it was all said and done.
Which leads us to 2011, which ended in spectacular fashion as Maddison and LaVellee performed a flawless tandem jump over the water in San Diego, California. Maddison recorded a distance of 378 feet on his motorcycle while LaVellee set a new snowmobile distance record by soaring 412 feet from takeoff to landing. See the feat go down from multiple video angles (including one from LaVellee’s helmet cam) after the break. Read more…
If the number of Starbucks stores around the world is an indicator of anything, it’s that the people must have their coffee. Some people like their coffee black, others like it with sugar and or creamer, but apparently some people in Japan prefer their coffee with a face staring back at them. At the Yojiya Cafe coffeehouses located throughout Japan, baristas are trained to create an iconic face on the top of customers’ coffee. Even more surprising is the fact that there is now a vending machine that does the exact same thing.
Although it’s a mystery what exactly goes on inside that gigantic vending machine seen in the video, we’re pretty sure it involves ingredients that are carefully and precisely prepared to order. That would definitely explain why the machine takes so long to prepare the drink. As of now, the machine only knows how to make that one face, but we’re guessing it probably wouldn’t be too hard to create other images in the future.
It looks as if facial scans for snack-dispensing purposes aren’t the only mind-blowing feature on the whiz-bang generation of vending machines. Japanese company Asahi has just unveiled an advanced dispenser that’s capable of doubling as a WiFi hotspot, so good luck getting through the mobs of leechers just to buy a soda. The machine sends out the internet waves free of charge and covers about 164 feet around it; of note, there’s a 30-minute limit on each session — but it’s nothing that a fresh login can’t solve. Asahi is planning on rolling out 1,000 of these in the upcoming year, but if you don’t call the Land of the Rising Sun your home, you won’t be able to experience the smart vendors anytime soon.
Playing a racing game on the big screen can sometimes feel a bit like the real thing, but what happens when the screen is larger than life? Hyundai has created a new iPhone driving game for the Veloster that is interactive on a level that most gamers can only dream of.
If you happen to be in Times Square between now and the end of the year, you can play the game on the massive LED screen on 47th Street and Broadway. In fact, there are a pair of video screens, so up to two players can play at once. We’re guessing this screen beats the two-player setup on most 70-inch LED television screens at home.
Hit the jump to watch Hyundai Race for yourself. And if you will be finding yourself in The Big Apple before New Year’s Day, make sure to download Hyundai Race and get in line… we’re guessing there will be quite a few gamers waiting for a shot at the big screen.
We’re fairly certain you’re more than pleased with your modern Skyrim, Battlefield 3 or Zelda: Skyward Sword games, but do you remember a time when you enjoyed the simplicity of that classic pinball machine at the arcade or the pinball game on your windows XP operating system? Well if that wasn’t entertaining enough for you, perhaps this gigantic game of pinball projected onto a large building will be.
Called the Urban Flipper, this epic game of pinball was designed by Carol Martin and Thibaut Berbezier. Although this particular example was projected on the side of a theater in Lyon, France, the project is capable of turning any surface into an awesome game of pinball. The video was recorded during a demonstration of the game played during Lyon’s annual Fête des Lumières (Festival of Lights).
The project involves using 3D mapping technology along with a console near the projector that is equipped with buttons for playing the game. Although Urban Flipper certainly isn’t the first game to be projected on a large scale, we have to admit it looks pretty amazing on the facade of the Celestins theater in Lyon, as demonstrated in the video.
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