Dave’s Cool Toys Blog

Archive for the ‘Odd stuff’ Category

We don’t like it either

Dave’s Cool Toys’ blog gets lots of comments. But you won’t see most of them on our posts. That’s because most of them are Comment Spam.

Comment Spam results from unscrupulous bloggers and webmasters attempting to get link-backs to their site to boost their search engine rankings artificially by posting as much as possible on other blogs by leaving comments. Sometimes they do it themselves, sometimes they use software bots to post for them.

It’s a pain. Fortunately, we use software that does a great job of filtering out this nonsense.

But, there are times when I read through the comment spam just to see what’s there before deleting it and it gives me a laugh. I really must say I don’t understand what they think they are doing at times.

So, I thought I’d share some of the odd comment spam we’ve received recently. This is the first installment. My comments are in italics. I have not edited the comments, so misspellings, punctuation, etc. are as they were written. I’ve deleted or changed links, phone numbers, etc.

Dave’s Cool Toys Blog Comment Spam

I like it!!! But then again, I am many times a lilliputian skewed in some of my thoughts. (But some of them entertain been to a t tricky)

I like that you separated doom from destiny. There is something to be said allowing for regarding difficult to account pro the fancy that we can then meet with disaster to fulfill our destiny.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The replenish U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan has recommended an inflate of 40,000 troops as the buy viagra 50mg Luck minimum necessary to prevail, two sources familiar with his recommendations said on Thursday.
Very cleverly inserting a link in the middle

I stand here today humbled by the task before dofus kamas, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our cheap dofus kamas. I thank President dofus for his service to buy dofus kamas, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Brilliant and well deserved! Enjoy the moment and the prize!
What prize? Did I get a prize?

right now I will come in the picture and join you.

Welcome First time jumped here on your site, found on Yahoo. It really helps to have sombody to talk to other then my divorced parents. Thanks again Mr. Grey.

I am final, I am sorry, but you could not paint little bit more in detail.
At you a uneasy choice
I think, that you are not right. Let’s discuss. Write to me in PM.
Better late, than never.
What charming message
I’ve received several variations of this one such as the next one.

Do not give to me minute?
The word of honour.
Bravo, excellent phrase and is duly
In my opinion it is very interesting theme. I suggest you it to discuss here or in PM.
I can believe to you :)

Don’t hold it in! Tell us more!

lorem ipsum blabum leerum lusim husum kra
They couldn’t even be bothered to write something, just posted Greek Type

Check this Out!
2 days ago I received a message from 000-000-0000 (number removed) and was convinced the caller was a scam.
I decided to file a complaint with the Gulf Coast Western and complain.
Anyway, I feel like such a fool Gulf Coast Western -an oil corporation- called me back We’re contacting me about employment. Apparently I got the job
Any idea how to uncomplain and fix this????
This has what to do with toys?

I would equal to add your journal to my blogroll gratify bowman me what mainstay should I use?

I thank for the help in this question, now I will not commit such error.
I am sorry, that I interfere, there is an offer to go on other way.
What good question
You Exaggerate.
Not your business!
That was all one post

Im surprised to have found this blog, I though I was the only one writing about this…thanks.
This was on a post about my son making "Dave’s Cool Toys" out of K’nex. Who else would write about this?

Your babble makes me want to poop my pants…

In all, the theme was 121 comments and 120 of them spamskih – well is not that fox?

Many bukaf not mastered, but the author credit.
Hopefully "bukaf" is not slang for something I’m not aware of.

looking for information for propagation of sea sponge, does anyone know of any other articles besides the one i posted.

This is a good and organization site. I like this in internet and here it exist. Ok and good.

Drop the high class, everything need to be flashy and expensive idea. You need to entertain in your budget and your abilities. Make sure that you will enjoy yourself also. If you spend most of your time worrying that your gathering is as great as it should be, you will not be able to have a great time as you should.

If I must say something, then nothing will stop the chatter inside

Kenny "K-Strass" Strasser

A very strange man has been appearing on morning TV shows throughout the midwest. He is booked as a yo-yo champion and hosts expect to be dazzled by his yo-yo tricks. He claims to be a representative of the Zim Zam Yo-Yo Corp., "the only non-profit, environmentally conscious yo-yo manufacturer in the world". Although some videos say "Zip Zap".

But when he gets on-air it turns out he is painfully inept at the yo-yo, strangely dressed, and awkward in general.

His name is K-Strass, or Kenny Strasser, or Karl Strassburg, or probably something else, and he has duped at least six different TV stations into booking him on their morning shows.

K-Strass sometimes claims to be divorced (twice), a recovering addict, and has family issues, sometimes taking calls from his father in the middle of his segment. His yo-yo "tricks" are often little more than swinging yo-yos around, dropping them, and sometimes hitting himself in the face or crotch. In one video he gets 7 yo-yos hopelessly tangled. He raps (badly), be-bops (badly), and falls down. He also seems to talk much more than play with the yo-yo.

Kenny also talks about going green, and Zim Zam is supposed to be environmentally friendly, however He seems to use plastic yo-yos, so I’m not sure how they are green.

So who is K-Strass? Nobody seems to know for sure. But there is a Zim Zam Yo-Yo website with nothing more than a yellow cap with the date "May 31". Hmmm. But there’s also another Zim Zam website as well. There is also a Zim Zam Facebook page. And, of course, there’s a Twitter feed, which clams that the www.zimzamyoyos.com page is a fake. Whew!

How bad is K-Strass? Check the videos below. Warning: some of K-Strass’s videos have been removed by their TV stations, so I can’t be sure how long these will be available.

Useless Lego Machine

In January I wrote a blog post about the world’s most useless machine (I want that).

Today we have a follow-up with a very similar toy made of Lego. I stumbled on a YouTube video of the World’s Most Useless Lego Machine. It’s basically the same machine I posted about before, but this time made of Lego.

The creator made about 10 prototypes before completing the final version shown here. He used a clockwork motor for the action rather than electric, so it has a small hole to wind it.

When I see videos like this I wonder what kind of Lego collection these folks have. A search on Amazon for “Lego” came up with 4,868 items! That’s quite a variety of Lego to build things with.

This type of machine is sometimes called “Shannon’s ultimate machine”. It is named for Claude Shannon, an American mathematician and engineer who had many interests and kept a machine like this on his desk that switched itself off. Interestingly, he also build a machine that could solve a Rubik’s Cube, which we just posted about a Lego version the other day.

Humunga Stache mustache for dogs

This is one of the greatest dog toys I’ve seen. If it really works as it’s supposed to.

It’s the Humunga Stache Dog Toy. The idea is that your dog holds the ball in his mouth and it creates the very funny illusion that he has a comical cartoon handlebar mustache.

Yes, your dog can look like Snidely Whiplash.

The manufacturer warns that it is not a chew toy and is only a fetch toy (I assume because dogs could chew off the curly-cues on the ends). They also come in different sizes to accommodate most dogs.

Humunga Tongue chew toy

And, if the Humunga Stache isn’t funny enough for you, you can get the equally comical Humunga Tongue Rubber Dog Toy It operates on the same basic principle, with a ball that dogs pick up in their mouth, giving the illusion that they have a cartoon tongue hanging out of their mouth.

This is just too funny.

	Rear Gear

Not weird enough for you? Then maybe you need Rear Gear butt covers for your cat or dog. Yes, you heard that right. It’s a little cover that clips onto your pets tail, hanging down and covering up their butt so you don’t need to see it when they are running around. I swear I am not making this up.

Mousetrap (game)

After my last post of the video my buddy and I made, I thought I’d follow it with another video I just discovered that I really liked. This is OK Go’s video of their song This Too Shall Pass. They created a very complex Rube Goldberg-like machine that took up two stories of a warehouse in LA. It was built by the band and members of Syyn Labs and took several months and about 60 people to create It was shot on February 11 and 12, 2010. It took about 30 people an hour to reset the machine after each run. It took 60 takes to get just the right video with most of those takes only lasting about 30 seconds till something went wrong, stopping the production.

This video brought back memories of my childhood and the game Mousetrap
. In retrospect, I have no idea how you were supposed to play the actual game. We would just build the mousetrap and activate it.

It also brought back memories of the old MTV and some of the great music videos they used to play back when they had something to do with music.

Be sure to watch the video below in high def if your computer can handle it. You wouldn’t want to miss any details. Why are the band members wearing coveralls with paint spatters on them? Watch to the end to find out. Scroll down after the video for more (spoilers).

This video is even more amazing when you consider that there are a few points where the "machine" is synced with the music (the drinking glasses, window shades, etc.). And, did you notice, it’s one single camera shot (that’s some cameraman!).

A few details I noticed (spoilers)…

The pile of smashed TV’s, presumable from practice runs.
A previous paint-splattered background paper on a wall with 4 band member outlines.
A few moments when you can catch the guys running to their next position (just after the typewriter between the wooden background, just before the file cabinet falls).
A cameo appearance of their famous "treadmill" video.

Oh. Yes. And it’s not a bad song either.

Just before posting this I discovered a "making of" video series! Here they are…

Below is a movie my friend, Rich, and I made a long time ago. A very long time ago.

I apologize for the quality of this movie. The original film is lost forever. This was made by videotaping it with an ancient black-and-white video camera from a projection screen. The video is also very old and I just found it and transferred it to a Quicktime movie today.

TV Hat being worn by one of the girls in their booth at Toy Fair

We made our annual trek to New York City this past Sunday to attend Toy Fair. We saw lots of very cool things, many toys that are not a good fit for Dave’s Cool Toys, some toys that I don’t quite get, and some that never should have seen the light of day. I also saw some "must have’s", which we’ll be carrying in the near future.

One item we saw that I think fits into the "really?" category is the "TV Hat". Also, apparently, called the "As Seen On TV Hat". This is a visor that you wear. You put your iPod Touch, or iPhone into the far end of the huge visor, turn it on, put the TV Hat on your head, and watch movies through the Magnification Lens positioned in front of the iPod.

OK. As I see it, there are several problems with this device. The first and most obvious is you look like a dork wearing it. The second, is it doesn’t seem to stay on your head right. Third, the magnifying lens didn’t seem to work very well. Fourth, why do you need it? It’s not like watching an iPod is that much work. And the visor covers your field of view, so you can’t really do anything while you’re watching it. As you can see in the picture of the girl selling them at Toy Fair, she is supporting it while simultaneously holding the part around her head taut, indicating that it really doesn’t even fit right. It also seems a little too difficult to get set up and get your iPod or iPhone back out to use it.

	The inside workings of the TV Hat showing the Magnifying Lens.

The instruction sheet for the TV Had says "Do not use this viewing device if you are subject to claustrophobia, panic in tight spaces, have spinal or neck injuries, or with heavy phones". It also warns "Do no use while driving, bicycling, running, or in motion". "…discontinue use if you experience neck fatigue, blurry vision, or any discomfort". "Prolonged use may cause fatigue".

The TV Hat retails for $19.95, so at least you won’t go broke buying one.

The TV Hat did have one suggested use that might be worth it. It might be useful for video producers for use with a video camera monitor in bright sunlight when you can’t see the camera viewer. I’m not sure how you would use your iPod for that, but if you can get it to work, it might be useful for that.

Bubble Wrap Turns 50!

Bubble Wrap, the iconic packaging material, turns 50 today, January 25, 2010. It also happens to be the 10th Annual Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day.

Sealed Air, makers of Bubble Wrap brand will be running their factory line entirely in gold today, rather than clear, to commemorate the event.

Originally invented in a garage in Hawthorne, NJ as a textured wallpaper. When that didn’t work out, they tried to market it as a greenhouse insulator. Eventually, they hit on the idea of using it to cushion fragile items and an icon was born.

Why am I mentioning the 50th anniversary of Bubble Wrap in my toy blog? You know why. Bubble Wrap stands with the Cardboard Box as one of those products that is not used as intended, but instead often used as a toy. You know you love popping it. Bubble Wrap has more than two million fans on Facebook.

But what do you do when you are stressed out and would love to pop some Bubble Wrap, but you have none handy? No problem. Just visit the Virtual Bubblewrap page to pop as much as you like (Be sure to try "Manic Mode" to pop at hyper speed).

Want to pop even when you’re not at your computer? Check out the Electronic Bubble Wrap Keychain. You can pop your virtual bubble wrap anytime.

Happy Birthday Bubble Wrap!

World’s Most Useless Machine

I came across this today and thought it was very cool. It is the World’s Most Useless Machine. The guy (I think it’s a guy) who created it built it from scratch. It does only one thing… turns itself off. Check out the video below and if you’d like to have your own, complete instructions are available at www.instructables.com.

If this machine ever gets commercially produced, we will carry it!

Incidentally, I absolutely love the Instructables site. Unfortunately, they recently went to a "pay" system so that you must become a Pro Member in order to see all images, view all steps on one page, or save a pdf of the instructions. Fortunately, the Pro Membership is fairly inexpensive. They also have very intrusive ads on their site. You know the ones…they enlarge over top of what you are reading until you find the "close" button. Hate that.

Anyway, check out the video below of the World’s Most Useless Machine Ever.

Chia Obama. Looking determined.

OK. Now I may have seen it all. And I thought the President Obama Action Figure was unusual.

Yes, it is the Chia Obama. For only $18.99 you too can own your very own President Obama handmade decorative planter. You get enough seeds for 3 separate growings. Unfortunately for our friends in the 49th and 50th states, it cannot be shipped to Alaska or Hawaii for some reason.

To quote on advertisement, "The Chia Obama is easy to set up, and it is fun to grow, achieving full growth in 1-2 weeks."

The Chia Obama is available in both a "Determined Pose" and a "Happy Pose".

If you’re stuck for a present for that hard-to-buy for person, this may be the ticket. The Democratic Ticket, that is. (Sorry.)

YouTube – Best Halloween Costume.

President Obama as depicted by the creator of Ren and Stimpy.

This Halloween, I’m sure there will be lots of Obamas coming to our door for Trick-or-Treat. There will be good Obama masks and, I’m sure, very bad ones. I even saw a "Zombama" mask. Obama Zombie mask. Yes, "Zombama". It’s really called that. And yes, it’s as bad as it sounds.

But Obama action figures? Yes. There are a bunch of action figures out there of both President Obama and the first lady. Some are more flattering than others. One example is the Barack Obama Political Toy designed by John K., creator of Ren and Stimpy (shown here).

	Sasha and Malia? I’d say so.

For a brief period there were even Sasha and Malia plush dolls from Beanie Baby maker Ty. That is until the First Lady understandably objected and Ty pulled them from their line (officially they were retired). Ty insisted that they did not depict the President’s daughters, but I don’t believe anyone bought that. The TY Girlz Sweet SASHA and Marvelous MALIA Obama Dolls are now available as collector’s items for as much as $1,500.00 on Amazon. I’m sure that doesn’t hurt Ty’s bottom line.

The White House’s official objection to the Ty dolls was that they were using a depiction of private citizens for profit. Certainly true.

	Michelle Obama with eight points of articulation and three different dresses.

The president, on the other hand, can’t really do much about depictions of him because he choose to be a public figure. That doesn’t make them acceptable, however. I will not show some I’ve seen on my blog because they are not in good taste. Either that or they are just very poorly crafted.

Obama not doing much

But, the very best Obama action figure I’ve seen comes from Gamu Toys. Their website is in Japanese and the best I can get from the poor translation I was able to get is that he comes with three sets of hands, two different heads, a microphone, two ties, a watch, an American flag (with stand), and a wooden stool. His clothes are fully removable as well. I was not able to determine either the size of the action figure or the price. I also haven’t been able to find anywhere that you can actually purchase it. He’s also shown with other accessories that aren’t listed on their website, so I don’t believe he comes with guns or a light sabre. The Obama action figure is actually quite well made and certainly flatters the President. That having been said, it appears a bit like they simply used a generic body that they already manufacture and added the features and accessories (warning, doll nudity on their generic body page). If Obama’s action figure is based on this one, and if I’m understanding their website, it is 1/6 scale, so Obama would be about a foot tall.

If I find any ordering information, I will update this post. In the meantime, scroll down for some pictures of President Obama in action.

Obama pulling his gun			G.I. Obama
Samurai President
	As the Gamu Toys website says (translated) "President, enjoy the winter in Japan."
		All the accessories a president could want
	"If you strike me down, I will become more powerfull than you could ever imagine."

I stumbled on a video today that I thought was funny. Maybe you will too. I was actually looking for natural ketchup.