Common Paradox Tech Blog

A toolkit disguised as R2-D2? Sure, why not. This 1:6 scale model Artoo comes loaded with a utility saw, mechanical gripper, periscope scanner and five other tools of the trade. For helping build your Star Wars toys, naturally.

Considering it’s hand-painted and limited edition, it’s not actually that expensive at $158 on pre-order. Or maybe I’ve become de-sensitized to Star Wars prices after searching eBay for months for the perfect vintage AT-AT (original box included, please). [Entertainment Earth via Technabob via Nerd Approved via Geeky Gadgets]

Nao the humanoid robot really, really wants us nerds to like him. Or, more accurately, Aldebaran Robotics wants us to really like him. That’s why they have him pandering to us with a scene from Star Wars.

Still, I have to admit that Nao delivers a powerful performance—especially when it comes to his R2-D2 impression. Of course, that’s kind of like Gary Busey playing a lunatic, but still…kudos. Outside of his skills as a thespian, Nao is also quite capable of learning and performing useful tasks for his owners. Nao has been in development for years now, but a commercial version is expected sometime next year. [Impress via Plastic Pals]

80 freaking dollars for a golden baseball cap that will make you look like a sexually-confused British android? Oh well, I’m game. But I prefer the $104 Chewie, because it comes with furry earmuffs—totally worth the extra $24:

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Yes, definitely Chewbacca, although R2-D2 is not too shabby either. Whatever you choose, this is a perfect over-priced holiday present for Star Wars fans or people you really hate. [High Snobiety via The Jailbreak]

Youch. So that’s what would happen if HP built astromech droids. Can’t say I blame Leia, those error messages make me want to break something, too. Though maybe a lightsaber would’ve looked more dignified than the baseball bat. [Abstruse Goose]

At last, here’s the droid we were all looking for. In this frame you can clearly see R2-D2’s cameo in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek. This time there’s absolutely no doubt about it: It’s been confirmed by ILM.

Click on the image to see the high resolution version

Can you see him floating there, on the left, right below the huge arrow that I also missed when I saw the movie? That’s obviously him, a fact that has been confirmed to me by one of the movie’s sequence supervisors at Industrial Light & Magic—the same guy who said this previous sighting was just the shuttle.

I don’t know about you but, right now, I feel like what I imagine my dog Jones feels every time I take his collar off to scratch his neck. Oh yesyeyeyeyes. YES. Harf. Woof. [Image capture from Science Fiction Stuff—Thanks ILM tipster]

I used Commodore 64s at school. We did BASIC programming, played Star Wars… It was such a fun machine that I wanted to eat it. Instead, I licked it. Now I can digest it and get its command line powers.

There is something cathartic about eating an old gadget or any other object that tickles your fancy. It may be a freaky tauntaun or a giant Wiimote. Perhaps a bunch of iPhone icons or an R2-D2. Whatever it is, the moment you sink your teeth in a perfect piece of frosted tech is like stepping into fresh snow, or watching the birds shine under the chirping sun after the rain is gone.

It just feels good.

Myself? I like to stuff my face with giant Lego brick cakes. Especially Lego carrot cakes. Call me crazy, but the cake tastes better thanks to its iconic power. Like cannibal tribes who ate their enemies to absorb their qualities, eating a frosted brick makes me absorb bites of good memories. They make me go back in time as I crush keys with my molars, downing sugar, egg, and flour memories through my gastrointestinal tract. And then pooping them out.

See? I’m already back at 13 just by looking at all the photos that Obsolete author, Giz collaborator, and retrogadget wizard Anna Jane Grossman would eat herself. The objects, not the photos. She would eat the photos if they were Polaroids made of pierogies, though.

The only thing I am missing is a Sinclair ZX Spectrum or a Sega Master System. Someone get me that cake and I will be complete. [Obsolete]

I’ve seen plenty of nerdy geeky freaky cakes in my life, mostly Star Wars-related: R2-D2, the Death Star, the Millennium Falcon, Darth Vader, and pregnant Darth Vader. This dead tauntaun wedding cake, however, is just sick. And I love it.

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Look at that detail! This is so gross, yet so damn cool. If I ever get married again, I would only do it to get a frikkin’ freakierer cake than this. Like, instead of a tauntaun, it would be a giant hairless albino monkey with Ringo Starr’s face, and… and his guts would be snakes with the faces of Yoko Ono and Margaret Thatcher and Sarah Palin and Madonna, and instead of Luke it would be David Bowie wearing Princess Leia’s metal bikini.

There. I grossed myself out. [Star Wars Blog]

ILM Special effects supervisor Scott Farrar said that R2-D2 had a cameo in Transformers 2. My bet was that she was behind Megan Fox’s ass at one point, giving her a back rub. With his special back vibrating thingapparatus. Updated.

Actually, according to this frame captured from the Blu-ray edition, our favorite astromech appears 2 hours 17 minutes and 52 seconds in the movie, during the merge of Jetfire’s parts to Optimus Prime.

It looks like the real thing to me. Those look like his three feet, as he is flying away from the camera. They are too symmetric to be a piece of random metal, and I can see his shape. But then again, I’ve been wrong before.

Update: A reader sent us this other frame, which clearly shows that’s R2-D2. [Transformers Live]

Pro tip: there’s nothing that gets ladies worked up like seeing a man in an outfit that combines sci-fi references with the laziest article of clothing possible. For only $92, how can you say no? [Etsy via Technabob]

If you are looking for Halloween pumpkin carving ideas, here are some classic tech- and sci-fi-themes. I sure like R2-D2 more than Darth Pumpkin and Yod-o’-lantern, but the most terrifying is the red ring of death pumpkin.

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You got new ideas? Start carving, because someone tells me that next week there will be a contest coming up. Head to Unplggd for the complete gallery, including the best Mario of all times: Raccoon Mario. [Unplggd]