Although his days of glory in computer game form are gone, Mario has turned into a cultural legend. You don’t need to have played the game to recognize his red cap. If you’re passionate about our Italian and his gang, you can now collect 6 famous characters from the games.

The Mario Collectable Vinyl Figures come in three pairs: Luigi & Paragoomba, Mario & Bomb-Omb and Yoshi & Bullet Bill. Each set of two has a cool presentation box, so don’t worry about storage.

How much under $29.99?
Some: $19.30 on Firebox.com.

Via ShinyShiny

The most awesome thing today (or this week, or this month) arrived in my RSS reader this morning. And it was perfect timing, since only two days ago I was feasting on the Monty Python DVDs I got for my birthday…

The Monty Python Cow Catapult is the best toy for bored Monty Python fans at work. Just fechez la vache and try to catapult the “ammunition” over to the next cubicle. It features not only cows, but also sheep and ducks – plus, of course, the catapult.

Put on your fake Frech accent and make that k-night whose mother was a hamster run for his life! Just make sure he doesn’t run complaining to the boss.

How much under $29.99?
A little: $21.99 on Amazon.com.

Via OhGizmo!

I suppose virtually everyone has played some sort of game in school (and I don’t mean board games). In my case, there was coin football and water guns, but I know that if we had discovered the Mini Rubber Band Artillery back then we would’ve had a blast.

You can shoot rubber bands with your hand, of course, but it’s just cooler to have a special gun for it. At least it makes it easier to stage wars. Tip: if you get two or more guns, you can connect them and, when you turn a crank, they all fire. Your enemies will cower in fear! (or retaliate, in which case… sucks to be you, I guess.) Also suitable for offices – play with your friends or torture annoying co-workers.

How much under $29.99?
A lot: $1.99 for one gun on ThinkGeek.com.

Via GizmosforGeeks

You can perhaps fake being smart, but there’s no way you can increase the number of brain cells you have (you can, however, kill a great amount through easy means like alcohol and drugs).

However, you can buy more neurons. They won’t help you get smarter, but they will look very cute. The Plushie Brain Cell from GiantMicrobes doesn’t do anything, but beside looking adorable it can spark intelligent conversation (if someone can recognize a neuron-shaped plushie, you know s/he’s worth talking to). But be prepare to answer comments about how your own brain cells weren’t enough so you had to get more…

How much under $29.99?
A lot: $7.95 on GiantMicrobes.com.

Via BoingBoing

Most men try to act all tough, but we know that they’re not really like that. He might say that Valentine’s Day is a silly holiday, but it’s about love, after all, and any excuse is good for that. As long as you buy him some gifts that he’ll appreciate (hint: no red hearts, nothing pink), Valentine’s should be a great opportunity to make your relationship better. You don’t have to go over the top – just show him your love. If you’re still not sure what to get him, check out our Top 7 Valentine’s Day presents for your guy.

7. If you want to get him something he’ll like, but also get a tiny little advantage out of it, consider the Circuitboard Coasters. He might find the supreme geekiness reason enough to use them and stop ruining your table.

6. Men and clothes… usually not a good combination. Clothes are complicated, you have to match the colors and all sorts of useless stuff. The FTW t-shirt is the ideal solution for guys who hate the notion of “fashion”. Black goes with anything and the message tells the world that everything’s going great for him.

5. Do you have a slightly childish (and yet so adorable) boyfriend? Get him a LEGO Star Wars watch. Features two cool things: LEGO (ah, the memories of endless hours of fun) and perhaps the greatest SF saga ever.

4. If a man likes beer, it doesn’t mean that he’s a slob or that he spends all his free time in a bar telling dirty jokes to his friends. Beer drinking can be classy too: get your man a set of Beer Bottle Goblets and have a drink with him!

3. Perhaps your boyfriend has to work in a stuffy office. He might not like wearing a suit, but he can’t do anything about it. A small and tasteful accessory could make him feel less like a company drone. The Light Bulb Cufflinks look ordinary most of the time, but when you push a button they light up.

2. They say every man is a kid at heart and I think there’s a lot of truth in that. You can test the theory by giving him an USB Whack it! and watching the reaction. My money is on “Ooh, a whack-a-mole! I used to love them when I was a kid!”

1. We mentioned the office and being a young at heart. How about combining them? The Dart Blaster is a toy that can ensure hours and hours of chaos fun at the workplace.

Ah, the lost days of arcade games… Unfortunately I only got to play Whack-a-Mole on the PC, which I guess is pretty unsatisfying. Actually whacking the mole was the fun part.

But – arcade nostalgics rejoice! While it might not be the real thing, the USB Whack It! looks extremely cool. It’s basically a whack-a-mole game that plugs into your USB port. You can choose between 30 seconds and 1 minute games and your level of skill is there for all to see on the LED score board.

I don’t think there are enough office games, so this is very welcome. You can use it during lunch break to challenge your co-workers for the title of Best Whacker (heh) or just as a way to relax for a bit before getting back to that mind-numbingly boring report.

How much under $29.99?
A little: ~$24 on GadgetsUK.com.

Via GadgetSpy

There aren’t many people who would describe a day at the office as “fun”. Boring (mostly), bearable (sometimes), pleasant (on occasion)… No, I wouldn’t say I’ve had many fun days.

Then again, we didn’t have a Dart Blaster. Picture this: you’re happily wandering around the office, trying to get to the kitchen or to Joe’s desk, when, all of a sudden, something hits you. You look around and see the perpetrator: Mike is hiding something up his sleeve. You quickly dodge behind a desk and start rapid firing from your own Dart Blaster. You co-workers take cover. The boss comes and fires you both. Ok, strike that last one.

As long as you don’t create mayhem, the Dart Blaster is a fun little toy: a wrist-mounted device that shoots darts, equipped with a lazer dot to facilitate aiming. Featuring a triple-barreled dart shooter and a rapid-fire trigger, it should provide you with many hours of fun, especially if you can talk a friend into buying one too.

How much under $29.99?
Some: $12.95 on ShopWildPlanet.com.

Via ubergizmo

It must be tough being a guy nowadays. Girls are no longer waiting for a knight in shining armor to marry them. They’ve gotten picky.

But someone thought of a solution (sort of): the Pick Up Line Generator. I can’t figure out if the product description is toungue-in-cheek or not, but I do hope so. “The Pick Up Line Generator has 40 of the world’s most effective pick-up lines including “Is it hot in here, or is it just you?”" Come on, that’s the lamest line ever! However, the device itself might prove more useful than the recorded lines. Guys could use the novelty factor, and coupled with a bit of self-confidence… I see success.

Of course, girls can counter with its companion, the Insult Generator, featuring classics like “You are pure inspiration for birth control.”

How much under $29.99?
Some: $19.95 each on LatestBuy.com.

Via OhGizmo!

Valentine’s Day products have started to crop up everywhere. Some are nice, some are ugly, some are just silly. This product is the latter.

If you want to surprise your girlfriend on Valentine’s, you could try the Love Pirate Eye Patch. With one condition: that you both have a sense of humor. I doubt that anyone could think this is in any way sexy, but if you both like a bit of sillyness, it’s perfect. She’ll probably laugh her ass off if you show up wearing this (and only this), but hey, love should be fun, right?

How much under $29.99?
A lot: $2.95 on BaronBob.com.

Via FashionablyGeek

It’s great that nowadays you can find hotspots everywhere, but what use are they if you don’t know about them? And, of course, you run into bars with wireless access all the time – until that day when you really need to get online, when they all seem to vanish.

For internet addicts (or James Bond wannabes) comes the WiFi Pen Hot Spot Finder. It looks like a pen, it works like a pen, but it has a 2.4G,802.11b/g Wifi hotspot finder built in. The 4 LEDs on the pen show you the signal strength from up to 30 meters away, so you can choose your restaurant with ease. No more “the WiFi worked fine this morning, but now we don’t know what’s happened”.

How much under $29.99?
A lot: $7.92 on Chinavasion.com.

Via OhGizmo!