Curioblog; unusual gifts, gadgets and curiosities blog

The 'Potechi Hand': Keeps you from getting your hands dirty while eating potato chips

If you're used to eating potato chips while working on the computer, but are too lazy to wipe off your grease-stained fingers, Takara Tomy's 'Potechi Hand' will put an end to your dilemma.

It has a built-in anti-potato-chip-breakage system.

This plastic hand is especially designed to pick up potato chips. It may look like a toy at first glance, but it's actually a carefully designed gadget. The device has an integrated 'NBCS (No Broken Clutch System)' that allows it to pick up fragile potato chips using just the right amount of pressure. Thanks to this you can pick up large or small potato chips without breaking them.

But the salt on the potato chips also gets all over the 'Potechi Hand'.

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on 05 Mar 2010 by Ayumi Nakai in Japanese videos	Comments Send this to a friend

Yume Hiyoko: A Japanese Robot That’s Shaped Like a Baby Chick

This is one of the campiest Japanese robots around. It's shaped like a baby chick and, when you pet it, it responds by flapping its wings and chirping. It's one of Sega Toys' virtual robots

Your new best friend is a robotic baby chick

It’s very soft and yellow, covered in polyester fuzz and it chirps when you pet it. It’s one of the most adorable Japanese robots on the market, and Sega Toy’s has christened it Yume Hiyoko.

We’re already used to hearing about this Japanese company’s semi-useless but absolutely addictive virtual robots. How can anyone not adore the little Pekoppa robot plant? All it does is move forward or back to say yes or no, but it’s so cute and looks so much like a real plant that it’s somehow managed to conquer the hearts of many a lover of absurd gadgets.

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on 10 Feb 2010 by Marta Reig in Unusual gifts	Comments Send this to a friend

Mugen Tokoroten: Bandai’s Latest Infinite Toy

Infinite Toys, Bandai’s collection of absurd playthings, strikes again with Tokoroten, a toy that imitates a little gadget used to make Japanese noodles.

Bandai’s Latest Infinite Toy Mugen Tokoroten

There are certain things in this world that are inexplicably addictive. The products in Bandai’s Mugen collection (Infinite Toys) were created based on these absurd vices like popping bubble wrap bubbles, opening cans, peeling soy beans incessantly, that are inexplicably popular in every corner of the world.

A new product in this collection was launched just a few weeks ago.

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on 13 Jan 2010 by Ayumi Nakai in Japanese videos	Comments Send this to a friend

Cute Choka Choka Tribe Dolls

They’re small and come in strange shapes and eccentric colors, but they love to dance to the rhythm of the music... and they also love noise.

A member of the Choka Choka Tribe

Strange shapes and eccentric colors. They’re small, but they love to dance. They’re part of a tribe called Choka Choka and they’ve come in search of music and noise.

Press the button behind their head and, when they detect a noise, they’ll start dancing and rocking back and forth. They move their eyes, their arms, their mouths and their belly buttons.

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on 11 Jan 2010 by Ayumi Nakai in Japanese videos	Comments Send this to a friend

Mog Mog Wanco: A Coin Eating Doggie Bank

It has a sensor on its nose and, whenever it detects a coin, it moves its mouth to beg you for it. Push the dog’s tail to empty the piggy bank.

Mog Mog Wanco

There a thousands of piggy banks on earth, but when you get your hands one a doggie bank as cute as this one, you’ll just want to keep putting coins in it! It’s called "Mog Mog Wanco" by Bandai and its a little dog that seems to enjoy eating coins whenever you put one in.

This dog has a sensor in its nose, so when you come near it with a coin it starts moving its mouth as if he were begging you for it.

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on 05 Jan 2010 by Ayumi Nakai in Japanese Culture	Comments Send this to a friend

Muji x Lego: A Toy that Combines Lego Blocks and Paper

Muji Japan is selling a toy that you can use to create 3-dimensional paper shapes using colored Lego building blocks.

A cocodrile made with Muji x Lego

Everyone likes playing with Legos. They’re simple colored blocks, but you can use them to make thousands of different shapes. And wouldn’t it be all the more fun if you could decorate your works of Lego art with pieces of paper?

In keeping with its functional and minimalist style, Muji, the Japanese multinational brand that makes products for the home, has a great idea to help us enjoy Legos to the max.

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on 07 Dec 2009 by Curiosite.com in	Comments Send this to a friend

10 Christmas Gift Ideas for Under 15 Euros

We have 10 suggestions for cheap Christmas gifts, none costs more than 15 Euros. Don’t let the financial crisis ruin your Christmas!

Choose your cheap gift for Xmas

With the crisis is making it hard to make ends meet, how can we possibly deal with Christmas? We’ll have to look for alternatives to avoid over-charging our credit cards. One idea that’s worked for us: turn the Secret Santa drawing into a contest. Whoever finds the best gift for the least money wins. We have some suggestions for cheap Christmas gifts for the rest of the family.

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on 07 Dec 2009 by Marta Reig in Unusual gifts	Comments Send this to a friend

Pichi pichi Ebi-san, A Shrimp Shaped Cell Phone Strap

It looks like a shrimp fresh out of the sea, but it’s actually a very realistic-looking cell phone strap. It comes in two models: cooked and live.

Pichi pichi Ebi-san, cooked version

Fried shrimp are a favorite dish for many Japanese kids. I remember when I was a young girl, before I really knew anything about shrimp, I thought the tail was the head (see, in Japan, we remove the heads from shrimp before frying them).

Shrimp are a very common food in Japan, and, not surprisingly, a Japanese company has designed a cell phone strap that’s shaped like this little critter and is very realistic-looking.

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on 26 Nov 2009 by Ayumi Nakai in Japanese Culture	Comments Send this to a friend

Cardbo, A Real Life Manga Comic Robot

Cardbo is one of the characters in the Yostuba manga comic. Its first-generation robot style and the friendly, startled look on its face have conquered the hearts of robot lovers.

A copy of Danbo

Its name is Danbo or Cardbo, (from the Japanese word "danboru", which means "cardboard") and it’s one of the lead characters in the manga series Yostuba, a cartoon that narrates the life of a 5-year-old girl with green hair who is full of energy and very curious.

Cardbo isn’t really a character, it’s actually a cardboard disguise that one of Yostuba’s schoolmates wears, although Yostuba thinks that it’s a real robot!

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on 23 Nov 2009 by Marta Reig in Unusual gifts	Comments Send this to a friend

Micro Pets-i, Intelligent Pocket Size Robots

Micro Pets-i are animal-shaped Japanese mascots that move, sing and interact amongst themselves.

A dog, a panda bear, a cat... choose your favorite Micro Pet

There are many toys that look like pets, but they’d be a lot more fun if they also did whatever you ordered them to do. Takara Tomy’s Micro Pets-i are tiny robots that look like cute little animals. They first came out in 2002, and 10 million of them have already been sold, but now they’ve been re-launched on the market with a more intelligent strategy.

There are 9 different Micro Pets-i models and they each look like different animals: a dog, a cat, a panda bear, etc.

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