Common Themes

Let me just state up front that I found the “stars” of American Chopper completely and utterly OBNOXIOUS… but they did happen to do a really spectacular tribute bike themed around Space Shuttle Discovery’s Return to Flight mission in 2005, STS-114.

Orange County Choppers‘ site is all Flash-based, so I can’t give a direct link to the photo album of this bike, but it’s on the third page of “On-Air Theme Bikes”, under the Choppers section on the main page. I’ve taken screencaps to show here.

The bike’s episodes are #58 & #59, which aired October 3 & 10, 2005. Minus the stars’ antics, fights and general… drama… the bike is a thing of beauty, and if these guys have one thing right, it’s an eye for minute detail. The gas tank is shuttle-shaped, the exhaust pipes (shown below, my favorite detail) are tipped with a replica of the Space Shuttle Main Engines, and the airbrush work and detailed painting throughout is just… spectacular. I particularly like the miniature orbiting shuttle “spinners” on the wheels, front and back. The gallery is definitely worth a look!

Another Etsy find, this mini tabletop copper rocket launches playfully from a golden sun. Affordable, inspiring whimsy for your desk!

This is a bit of a stretch, I admit. If my readership drops over this post, I will consider myself duly punished….

A rather strange Etsy find, this crystal really does (to me) look a bit like a space shuttle. Even in nature, spacey things can be found?

The Alien Abduction Lamp™ is about the best thing I’ve seen all year. Personally, I prefer the Lamp with Bovine Abductee. It’s only in concept stage, and was all over the blogosphere last year; here’s hoping someone produces it!

Abduction is a lamp for Sci-Fi fans of all ages.

A light bulb inside the metal UFO lights up the beam and the windows. The glass of the beam is frosted to distribute light in all directions.

I have to preface this by saying that, by and large, all toys, miniatures and models of Japanese origin are awesome. Even “cheap” things (capsule toys, etc) are detailed and quality. I found this set of World Space Museum miniatures on Countdown Creations, but I’d bought one of them in a Japanese supermarket years before, and wished there were more boxes than one! (Now I have a chance to get the rest, at least, the rest of the moon-related ones. I’m particular.)

World Space Museum™ presents a series of incredibly detailed, snap-together model replicas of historical rockets, satellites, landers, and explorers first released in Japan in 2003 now available for the first time in English.

Each model comes with an explanation of the mission and trading cards. (And candy! Maybe they’re leaving the candy out of the description on purpose.) Collect them all!

While taking a walk this afternoon, I stopped in my favorite of Mt. Shasta’s boutiques, Pomodoro, and found Space Duck. Being a space-themed novelty item, it was naturally attracted to me, and subsequently followed me home. Space Duck is part of the Luxury Ducks line.

“one small waddle for duck…
one giant waddle for duckind!”