Pool noodle furniture brings a spirit of play to both indoor and outdoor spaces

Bright, colorful, flexible, buoyant, and life-saving. These are the words that are often used to describe pool noodles, sometimes called waterlogs or even water woggles. These floating foam tubes allow kids and adults alike to engage in playful banter in the pool while still remaining safe, though they’re also finding use outside of the water. Their flexible bodies and soft material make the perfect objects for safe play, but they’ve amusingly also become the foundations of designs completely unrelated to their original use. Take this experimental set of furniture that employs these vibrant tubes to deliver that same whimsical atmosphere to chairs, tables, and everything in between.

Designer: Lieyah Dagan

They may come by any other name, but pool noodles are a popular component in many fanciful designs, from playground obstacle courses to car covers. Their ubiquity, affordability, and flexibility make it easy to shape them into different objects, combining them to form a more complex composition of rods, circles, and arcs. What pool noodles aren’t known for is stability and rigidity, properties that are almost antithetical to the very essence of these foamy objects. And yet that’s exactly what this furniture is presenting, mixing contrasting elements to give the designs a distinct, lively character.

The first step in producing the Looped line of indoor and outdoor furniture was to actually break chairs, tables, and other furniture down to their frames, revealing the structure that ultimately gives them form. The pool noodles are then used to “flesh out” the actual shape of the furniture, giving them mass that would be needed to support their newfound purpose as utilitarian objects. Once the final designs have been selected, dowels and medium-density fiberboard (MDF) are added to provide the needed support to make the furniture become more stable and reliable.

Of course, it wouldn’t be fun if the pool noodles simply followed the same shape as the original furniture. Looped embodies not just the characteristics but also the spirit of these playful waterlogs, employing plenty of curves, loops, and over-the-top proportions that make the furniture almost feel like toys. That, for better or worse, is both the strength and the flaw of the design.

Loop has an undeniable pull that makes people want to play with it, whether it’s because of the bright colors, the soft material, or familiarity with pool noodles. That’s fine with soft toys like actual pool noodles, but playing with a chair or a table brings risks of accidents and injuries. In the end, it creates a perception of playful engagement when they’re also supposed to be designed for serious use, creating a conflict in the mind of the viewer that is both enthralling but also a bit confusing.

The post Pool noodle furniture brings a spirit of play to both indoor and outdoor spaces first appeared on Yanko Design.

Start Your Own Alien Invasion with These Foam Space Invaders

Space Invaders: they’re a bigger threat than most people realize. But don’t take my word for it; it’s not like I have top-level government clearance and know what goes on behind the doors of Area 51. I only pretend I do on dates. Available from Etsy shop Thunktronix, each bag of ‘Sooo Many Foamy Space Invaders!’ includes 70+ foam cutouts of the iconic video game characters so you can stick them to the walls all over your house. Or somebody else’s house, go wild!

Made from EVA foam, the sprites measure approximately 1″ – 3″ wide and are going to be a welcome addition to my bubble baths. Oh no, the aliens are coming! Pew pew, pew pew pew! I’ll be having so much fun I probably won’t even notice the water has long gone cold, and I’m all pruny.

Did I mention a bag only costs $10? That means for $100, you could have over 700 Space Invaders! That’s a lot of Space Invaders. Probably too many, to be honest. But don’t let me stop you from following your dreams; you do you, space ranger.

Shelby Destroyer Foam Disc Launcher Fires 6 Disks/Second: Move Over, NERF

Look out, NERF, there’s a new weaponized foam launcher in town in the form of the Shelby Destroyer foam disc blaster. The gun is capable of firing six foam discs per second with a 120 round capacity, with both semi-automatic and fully-automatic capabilities. I can already close my eyes and imagine my wife yelling at me to stop playing in the house and go outside.

Currently an already-funded Indiegogo campaign, the Shelby Destroyer isn’t cheap, selling for around $217 through the crowdfunding site, with an estimated retail price of $315. The toy weapons, which remind me of Mass Effect assault rifles, are advertised as “faster, more accurate, and more powerful” than anything else on the market, and they sure as heck better be for that price.

The blasters fire at approximately 160FPS, have 4-color LEDs on the sides for identifying your teammates and displaying battery life, and include removable, rechargeable lithium batteries with an external charging base. They have adjustable power settings for accurate long-range sniping, or spray-and-pray up close shooting. They also have a rail system on top for mounting a scope or laser sight, because apparently there’s no such thing as taking foam disc battles with your friends too seriously. Now, did you remember to bring the flashbangs and smoke grenades?

[via DudeIWantThat]

Interrogator Cyberpunk Cosplay Helmet Is Seriously Badass

Halloween is just around the corner, and if you’re looking to win every costume party in town, you should head over to Two Horns United’s Etsy shop, and check out their incredible collection of custom-built helmets, costumes, and cosplay accessories.

One of my favorites is this amazing piece of headgear, dubbed “The Interrogator.”

I also might call it “The Intimidator,” because if you saw someone coming at you with this thing on, you’d assume that we’d been invaded by aliens, and they’re coming for us all. Seriously, this thing looks like it just walked over from the set of a Neill Blomkamp movie.

The helmet was handcrafted from EVA foam, but the artist did a great job painting all the pieces to make them look like weathered metal. The foam construction means it’s lightweight and comfortable to wear. I also love the LED lighting effects – those really help to bring the character to life.

If you’ve got $1150 to spend on the ultimate costume, head on over to Etsy now. While you’re there, be sure to check out the rest of Two Horns United’s other amazing designs.