Young Mad Scientist's Illustrated Alphabet Blocks: 26 FIVE engraved chunks o' wonder -- UPDATED
Xylocopa's Young Mad Scientist's First Alphabet Blocks come in packs of
A - Appendages | B - Bioengineering | C - Caffeine | D - Dirigible | E - Experiment | F - Freeze ray | G - Goggles | H - Henchmen | I - Invention | J - Jargon | K - Potassium | L - Laser | M - Maniacal | N - Nanotechnology | O - Organs | P - Peasants (with Pitchforks) | Q - Quantum physics | R - Robot | S - Self-experimentation | T - Tentacles | U - Underground Lair | V - Virus | W - Wrench | X - X-Ray | Y - You, the Mad Scientist of Tomorrow | Z - ZombiesA Young Mad Scientist's First Alphabet Blocks (via JWZ)
Update: Andrew Waser (Chief Mad Scientist, Xylocopa Design) sez, " I wanted to make a small correction - the blocks actually come five to a set (with 26 unique illustrations), not 26 individual blocks. I don't want anyone to be disappointed if they order in confusion! You and your readers also might appreciate that the blocks have a super-secret built in encryption function - if you rotate any block 180 degrees, it'll encode to ROT13. If it's good enough for Adobe Acrobat, it's good enough for Mad Science!"
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Very cool. But I thought the "W" stood for "Wench".
To use the article's own words: They depict mad science concepts, not disciplines.
The act of putting this for sale is a statement of art in itself. Buying it for a 6 y/o is a comment on his/her parents.
Iaminnocent @ 3 - yes indeed! having children is an ~excellent~ pretext for buying toys!
I have a set of these on my desk, to remind me to keep my science suitably mad.
Just wanted to note that they do not come in "packs of 26"; they come in sets of 5 blocks, with all 26 letters represented on the sides of those blocks.
Interesting concept and I'd likely buy them for my child (or myself to be honest) but some of the images seem repetitive and I'm not paying $40 for 5 wood blocks.
Jack @ 1:
But I thought the "W" stood for "Wench".
Wouldn't that be in the "Society for Creative Anachronism" block set?
Very cleverly done ... if you look closely, you can see that Henchmen ultimately become Zombies.
"Very cool. But I thought the "W" stood for "Wench"."
Only in the early Science Nerd stage of their development. Once they emerge from their cocoon to become full-fledged Mad Scientists, they lose interest.
I lol'ed at K - potassium.
If these were $20, I'd seriously consider it. $40 is a bit much.
Yes, as much as we wish we could sell our blocks in sets of 26, they are actually sets of 5 with all 26 letters represented. Hopefully Cory can amend the post here, and we'll put an extra notice on our website!
what if you used hyper-cubes?
Jack, Nanuq:
It's assumptions like that which cause lady scientists to request a female Dr. Who.
For ROT 13 to work, two blocks would have to have two 'blank' non alphabet sides opposite each other. You would have to buy six sets to display all sides out front at once.
So Anagram addicts, what can you spell with six sets of vowels and consonants and twelve blank spaces?
Damn the expense, I'm buying a set.
each set should include:
http://www.mybabyisfromhell.com/images/gallery/hellraiser-1.jpg
Most excellently cool.
I ordered a set for my inner child.
Forty bucks for art, I'd call that a bargain; the best I ever had, the best I ever had .
Re: anonymous (#14)
There are no blank sides (that would be boring!) but of course there are 30 sides and only 26 letters, so a few letters in each set will repeat (AB/NO). Making a 180-character anagram out of that, however, is far beyond me.
If you're curious about the detail of the engraving, or want to see some of the other letters, there are more photos of our blocks on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31905459@N06/sets/72157608464707168/
- Andrew
...Wouldn't "Reanimator" be better suited for "R"?
anytime they do these things with a word for each letter, X is always X-ray. You would think after all these years we would have more words beginning with X than X-ray and Xavier. (I don't know what a Xanadu is, so i didn't include it.)
We have a set, my wife bought them at the Austin Maker Fair(e).
My son loves them, but we keep them up high.
And yes, some of the blocks have blank sides.
Also, these things are WAY cooler in real life. The laser etchings create some incredibly fine-details and intricate texturings that are hard to describe. You just have to see them to understand.
I got my set today. Stop smoking for a week, give up Starbucks for two weeks, park your Hummer for a half an hour... and you just saved up enough money to buy these gorgious blocks! They could double the price and it would bring you as much joy. Buy less, buy better and you will be happier. I thought I would give them as an xmas gift, but... NO WAY!~ MINE MINE MINE!!!