VW snow sleds

If a humble wooden sled is too old-school for your taste, then take a
look at Volkswagen’s fancy snow sleds, which bring precision German
engineering to the slopes. These sleds
get steering wheels, padded seating and cold resistant plastics. Our favourite models are the Schlitten Snow Future GTI (pictured) and Snow Flyer Herbie versions which are inspired by the Golf GTI and the classic Beetle respectively. [Via Luxist]

Let’s hope that global warming hasn’t totally ruined our chances of ever using one. MORE INFO

More cool transport stuff on Brandish 

Retro NES skin for Nintendo Wii

Those of you who are lucky enough to already own a Wii, your life isn’t quite complete yet. Why. Because you need the superb retro NES skin for your Nintendo! It’s called the Retro Revolution which gives a nod to the original codename for the "Wii" (‘revolution’) and not merely some random name plucked from a hat.

As you can see, the front panel has ace detail and the glossy finish. Extra care has been taken on this next-gen console to cover as much as possible, minimize gaps between panels, and give fellow Wii owners a skin kit that does the box justice.

The skin is made from the best materials – thin enough to cover both sides but still fit in the OEM stand, with a glossy finish to protect from scratches. It won’t fade, smudge, smear, or leave any nasty residue when removed. How much for something this great? £15. BUY IT NOW

Greg Hansen speaker amps

With a feature on weird and wonderful guitars (that you’ll never get to own), let’s look at a bunch of weird and wonderful amplifiers that you CAN own.

Friend of ace country couple, The Handsome Family, Greg Hansen makes the most unusual and beautiful looking amps in the world. Always bespoke one-offs, the amps vary in price from as little as £90, to the pricier end at £350… still a bargain.

Lovely retro designs meet with all the modern spec you need. Don’t expect these to fufil your rock god needs on stage, but these bad boys are perfect for using at home… and showing off to your mates. If you’re a musician, you honestly can’t live without these in your home. BUY IT

Five best mobile games for this Xmas

Getting a shiny new phone under the tree this Chrimbo? You’ll be wanting some games to play on it, then, if only to distract you from how rubbish underwhelming most mobile TV is. Here’s five mobile games worth downloading – and each should cost you less than a fiver! All should be available on your mobile operator’s portal.

1. SUPER KO BOXING
Cartoon punch’em’up that bears a striking resemblance to Nintendo classic Super Punch-Out. There’s a host of colourful characters to beat the living daylights out of, including a comedy parody of 50 Cent (’15 Cent’, ho ho) and a French mime artist. And you can’t punch too many French mime artists…

The game’s simple controls bely the depth as you face stronger and cleverer fighters, while the slick animations provide plenty of smiles. Read a review

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DIY pizza maker

Gadget site Iwantoneofthose.com reckons its new Pizza Maker will provide a tasty alternative to "grabbing a dirty kebab on the way home from the pub", which grossly underestimates the ability of the average drunk man to a.) walk past a kebab shop without going inside, and b.) work electronic equipment when he gets home.

Still, it’s pretty cool, using prepacked pizza bases, or letting you mix up your own dough, before chucking whatever you like in to be used as a topping. It promises hot pizza in five minutes, and can also turn its hand to cookies, muffins, omelettes and pancakes. Worth £64.95 of anyone’s money, even if it won’t stop you from waking up next to those half-eaten kebabs. BUY IT

Check our Food & Drink category for more tasty treats.

War On Terror board game

It’s that time of year again, when normally intelligent people walk into shops and buy boardgames for Christmas, despite the obvious fact that a.) it means spending more time round the table with relatives on Christmas day, b.) they always lead to rows, and c.) nobody understands the rules after six glasses of port anyway.

Nevertheless. If you must insist on some post-turkey dice-rolling antics, how about this War On Terror boardgame? It’s described as a cross between Risk and Monopoly, except with more oil, suicide bombers, coups and a spinning Axis Of Evil that randomly decides who the bad guys are.

Be warned, though, this game could lead to Political Discussion round the Christmas dinner table. So make sure you remove the turkey carving knife before playing. BUY IT

London Underground retro rug

This rug, at first glance, might look simply like a stylish little rug with a cheeky nod to pop-art. Now, let’s take a closer look at it and… BINGO BANGO… that’s right! It’s the London Underground rug. The ‘Interchange’ is a unique collection based on the classic 20th century
design icon, namely, the tube map. It’s a growing range of digital
materials and digital objects positioned for the design-concious,
visually literate 21st century citizen. If you haven’t guessed, that’s from the official blurb.

What you get is a suave white background with the station interchange sat atop the red, pink, amber and black lines of the iconic map. It’s much more inventive that your usual rug, and available for around £750. BUY IT

via RetroToGo

Voice-activated R2D2

Star Wars is probably the most franchised thing in the history of anything, and with that, you sadly get a lot of tat. Crappy toys and clunky lunchboxes ahoy. Well thankfully, it’s not all rubbish. This great little voice activated R2-D2 is a motorized replica of the cheeky droid and responds to over 40 voice commands, and generally walks (or wheels?) around your house, navigating rooms and hallways… but struggles with stairs I should imagine.

Artoo can be your surrogate child by playing games like tig (or tag as our US cousins call it) using an infra-red sensor to search for people in a room. His sensor helps him follow behind you, or it can be set to detect motion, turning him into a room sentry that sounds an alarm when a secured area is invaded. Imagine the look on a burglar’s face when being screamed at by one of the most famous robots in history!

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Mi Jam electric guitar

Tsk, air guitars are so 20th century, grandad. And actual proper electric guitars are even more boring. The hot new thing (we hope) is the Mi Jam guitar, which costs just £26.99, but is a world of musical fun in your hands. Something like that, anyway.

Basically, you can play it as a ‘normal’ guitar, with background rhythms if you want. But better still, you can plug it into any audio device, including iPods, other MP3 players, stereos and PCs, and play along with your favourite tunes. 

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Hillcrest Labs Freespace TV remote

Fed up with pressing boring old buttons to change channels? Hillcrest Labs may have the answer. It’s developed a technology called Freespace, which puts motion-sensing into traditional TV remotes.

Its first product is called The Loop, a bracelet-shaped remote that has two buttons and a scroll wheel, and can also translate your arm-wavings into on-screen actions.

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Finger Frenzy Party

When Brandish was young, people learnt to touch-type in secretarial school, or by using PC applications presented by a stern-looking woman called Mavis Beacon. Nowadays, it’s a bit different.

You can practise your typing skillz by playing web games that involve challenging your mates to type obscenities as fast as they can.

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GM Hummer O2 eco concept car

Engineers at General Motors, makers of the eco-unfriendly Hummer, have created this very cool concept Hummer. It’s called the O2 and it boasts a number of interesting features, including a ‘phototropic’ body
shell that contains algae-filled panels. The algae’s waste provides oxygen – hence the car’s name – for both the O2 itself and the
surrounding environment. This is exciting stuff, and a world away from the original Hummer ethos. The O2 runs on fuel cells built into each wheel, which drive independent hydraulic
motors when fed hydrogen from a central tank. [Via Engadget]

This is all very worthy but the O2 remains very much a concept car and nothing more. GM has no immediate plans to green-light its production. Click below for more photos of the O2… or click here to check out more Brandish car features and news.

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Links of the day

Top 10 YouTube videos of the year. [SMH]
Top seven girl-on-girl kisses in videogame history. [Games Radar]
The greatest hip-hop impressionist we’ve ever seen. [YouTube]
Top 20 Wii videos on YouTube. [Wii Wii]
Get ready for PlayStation 4. In 2010. Bah. [TechEBlog]

Airdrummer electronic drumsticks

We’ve all been there. Stood on the middle of a dancefloor – blind drunk – playing terrible air drums whilst all around us pirouette like ballerinas. Well, thankfully, you can get a bit of practice in at home without looking like a complete chump. Dear reader, welcome to the drumsticks that don’t need a drum-kit!

These air-drumsticks a.k.a Rhythm Sticks have a speaker built into its base and when you ‘hit’ the air with them, they make a drum sound! Put on a record by The Who and then try and keep up with Keith Moon… or, annoy people by telling bad jokes and punctuate it with a cymbal crash. Boom tish! That’s not all… read over for more.

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Linerider online game

Has anyone tried the sublime online game, Linerider, yet? Basically, it’s a game that you draw yourself, and send a little chap on a sledge down the various precarious hills that you’ve created. Sounds a bit dull from the off, but this game is more addictive than crack, and once mastered, is more than rewarding. For an example of how good you can get, watch this amazing video… we can but hope to have this much time on our hands be this good!

Click over for more videos or PLAY IT

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