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First Sony Walkman

Photo credit: By Binarysequence – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sony’s original Walkman was released on July 1, 1979, and this portable cassette player changed the music listening habits of people around the world, due to its compact size, or at least for the time. The idea came about from Sony cofounder Masaru Ibuka, who felt the compay’s existing portable player was far too expensive, so a prototype was manufactured from a modified Pressman, a compact tape recorder designed for journalists. Read more for additional pictures and information.

Game Boy Ad 1989
The first handheld in Nintendo’s Game Boy lineup was released in Japan on April 21, 1989, then North America, three months later, and lastly in Europe the following year. It portable game console was designed by the same team that developed the Game & Watch and several Nintendo Entertainment System games, thus it combined features from both the NES home system and Game & Watch hardware. Featuring a green dot-matrix screen with adjustable contrast dial, five control buttons, a 2-voice speaker with adjustable volume dial, and cartridges as physical media for games.

Nomad Vanz Adventure Vehicle

Nomad Vanz specializes in creating adventure vehicles that not only go anywhere, but can double as a mobile home in case of emergency or even a zombie apocalypse. Many of their creations are based on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, and they all can be fitted with modern interiors, extreme cold and heat resistant, UV-proofed, and all the amenities – kitchenette, bed, etc. – you’d expect from a comfortable living space. Read more for five more cool adventure vehicles that double as mobile homes.

Belkin Wemo WiFi Smart Plug

Belkin’s Wemo Mini Smart Plug utilizes your existing home Wi-Fi connection to provide wireless control of your lights and appliances, without the need for an additinal subscription or hub, all for $19.99, today only, originally $34.99. Just plug in a WeMo Mini Smart Plug, download the free app, and control your lights / appliances from your smart device or voice through Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Home Kit. Schedule the fan to turn on before you come home, sync lamps and devices to sunrise, sunset, or pre-set times automatically. Its sleek new form-factor enables you to stack two Mini Smart Plugs in the same outlet. Product page. Read more for additional discounts in Belkin / Linksays one-day sale – check out all the deals here.

Ariel Nomad Tactical Buggy

At $70K, the Ariel Nomad Tactical Buggy is not only fit for the track, but also any off-road adventure you may have in mind. It’s powered by a Honda K-series engine, mated to a 6-speed manual transmission, that generates 230-horsepower and 200 lb-ft of torque, enabling it to accelerate from 0-60 mph in just 3.5-seconds and blaze through the quarter mile in a mere 12.5-seconds. Other features include: a limited-slip differential, remote reservoir shocks, Alcon Motorsports Four-Piston Calipers and aggressive brake pads. Read morefor more awesome buggies you probably never knew existed.

3D-Printed Sushi
Open Meals has partnered with marketing firm Dentsu to open a restaurant in Tokyo next year that will offer 3D-printed sushi catered to individual dietary needs. How does it work? After making a reservation, the restaurant sends a “health test kit” where you send back a biological sample — saliva, urine, stool — and they analyze what kinds of nutrients best suits your body’s needs. “Then we add those specific nutrients to your food to 3D print out those sushi for you,” said a representative.

Homemade Mecha Robot
Japanese engineer Masaaki Nagumo has always wanted a real-life Mobile Suit Gundam mecha. So, he built LW-Mononofu, a 28-foot-tall robot that weighs in at 7-tons as a project for his employer, industrial machinery maker Sakakibara Kikai. It took six years to complete, with movable arms / fingers, a flexible upper body, and the ability to walk forwards and backwards. Plus, what would a mecha be without a weapon, as it comes equipped with a metal gun that shoots sponge balls at a speeds of up to 87 mph.

SEGA 32X

First unveiled at the 1994 Consumer Electronics Show, SEGA’s 32X was presented as a low-cost add-on for the Genesis video game console, and designed to expand its power, thus serving as a transitional console into the 32-bit era until the release of the Saturn. It was mainly developed in response to the Atari Jaguar and concerns that the Saturn would not make it to market by the end of 1994, making the accessory a transitional device of sorts. The production model boasts two 32-bit central processing units and a 3D graphics processor. Read more for five more cool facts about this accessory.

Sony Walkman
Does this device look familiar? If so, that’s because it was featured in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. That’s right, Sony’s metal-cased blue-and-silver Walkman TPS-L2 is the world’s first low-cost portable stereo, and went on sale in Japan on July 1, 1979, priced at around ¥39,433.58 (or $150.00), or ¥57,109.02 (or $498.66) adjusted for inflation. The company predicted it would sell about 5,000 units a month, but actually sold more than 50,000 in the first two months.

Longest Hot Wheels Track
If you’ve never heard of Hot Wheels, it’s basically a brand of 1:64, 1:43, 1:18 and 1:50 scale die-cast toy cars introduced by toy maker Mattel in 1968. The original Hot Wheels were made by Elliot Handler, and conceived to be more like “hot rod” cars, as compared to Matchbox cars which were more like small-scale models of production cars. Mattel Inc. wanted to enter the record books, so they built the longest Hot Wheels track, measuring a massive 560.30 m (1,838 ft 3.05 in) in length – making it longer than the height of New York’s Empire State Building.