Candy and LEGO. It feels so right it can’t be wrong. “Never trust a person who doesn’t like candy and/or LEGO” my gramma always told me. Also, a person who doesn’t like ranch on their tater tots. It’s a clear indication of sick in the head. Instructables user sherrycayheyhey is obviously a decent human being, she brings us a tutorial for how to build your own LEGO candy dispenser. Or, if you think about it, how YOU can build ME a candy dispenser. You forgot my birthday last year, it’s the least you could do. Remember to include the candies and don’t you dare try to spite me by filling the thing with Tropical Skittles. You know I don’t f*** with Tropical Skittles! 

Back in 1998, toy designer and Star Wars fiend Jason Geyer was part of team tasked with pitching promotional merchandise ideas for the upcoming film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. In 2008, Geyer posted a small selection of concepts that were rejected. He recently posted a follow-up of many more rejected concepts.

I’m one of those grumpy old people who waxes nostalgic about Super Mario Bros. because I haven’t attempted to play a video game since my college days when I burned a few good brain cells playing Mario Kart on Nintendo 64. So while I don’t “get” today’s realistic games, I most certainly appreciate this lamp that’s fashioned after the coin blocks that appear throughout the Super Mario series. Available from Etsy and made to order, the 6×6 inch plexiglass cube lamp is actually interactive and features a touch sensitive bottom. One punch…err, touch and it will light up while playing that classic “coin” sound. Even cooler, every 8 cycles, you’ll get a “1-Up” sound instead

Brian McCarty recently did an awesome photo shoot featuring the new Fat Tony vinyl toy by Ron English at breakfast with Jesse Heiman, AKA the World’s Greatest Extra.

A graduate of industrial design and expert dog toy afficianado (Google ‘cuz dog toy’), Ryan Rutherford just released a new limited set of sweet toys introducing his new company, Brutherford Industries. With a strong DIY ethic he proudly makes all of the toys at his studio in New Jersey with the casting machinery he has collected over the years. Keep a close on this one.

Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads. That’s right, Mattel announced they will be manufacturing the Back To The Future II Hover Boards to be available in time for Christmas 2012. That’s three years early!!! Great Scott, I never thought I’d see the day. Via Mattel press release:

Back to the Future Hover Board: Finally! This totally awesome 1:1 replica of the hover board from the BTTF 2 and BTTF 3 films includes multiple whooshing sounds and will glide over most surfaces (does not actually “hover” – check back in 2015 for that feature). We’ll be taking orders for it March 1 – March 20, 2012, and the final product will be shipped around November/December 2012. Because this is such a high-cost item, there will be a minimum number of orders required to go into production. If we don’t receive the minimum orders, won’t go into production and customers will not be charged. The price will be announced later this month. (Note: Hover board does not work on water.)

Well duuuuuh, any bojo knows a hover board doesn’t work on water! But the whole “whooshing sounds” slash “does not actually hover” parts do leave something to be desired. Like, I dunno — AN ACTUAL F***ING HOVER BOARD. Somebody get my Flux Capacitor. I’m about to go back in time to whip up on whichever Mattel executive who’s responsible for this.

New Zealand-based art director/illustrator Joseph Senior created tons of different Hello Kitty designs inspired by pop culture using that image editing program you’ve never heard of, Photoshop.

A Monster.com direct mail ad campaign. 
Brief: "To remind people of the problem of being stuck in the wrong job and to reinforce Monster.com as the best platform for finding the right job."
Solution: "In a pack of tiny toy soldiers, a ballet dancer is found taking up the role of a soldier. The ballet dancer is completely out of place. This reminds everyone not to get stuck in the wrong job and that Monster.com is the best platform for finding the right job."

Artist and Stanford University professor Grace Hawthorne is behind Paper Punk, a unique building block system made of paper for creating design objects or toys. Fab currently has Paper Punk products available to purchase. Additional designs are available at the Paper Punk store.

Ron English has created a Fat Tony vinyl toy figure that satirizes Kellogg’s iconic mascot, Tony the Tiger of Frosted Flakes cereal. You may remember recently when a series of English’s parody cereal boxes were placed on a shelf at a grocery store in California. One of those boxes was labelled “Sugar Frosted Fat” from “Killikids” and featured an image of Fat Tony. According to Clutter, this toy will soon be available in very limited quantities at your local toy store.
Fat Tony is now available for pre-order at BigBadToyStore.