2001 monolith "action" figure

Hot Topics:

By Sean Michael Ragan
Posted 2010/10/20 @ 4:47 pm
Category Fun & Games, General

OK, sorry to meander off-topic, here, but when I saw this my L was actually OL, and I just had to share. This rectangular block of black plastic is the latest brainstorm from the clever marketeers over at ThinkGeek. (“Helps your other action figures evolve.”) [via Gizmodo]

Update: Thanks to Facebook reader Fritz Grobe for discovering that this is, in fact, one of ThinkGeek’s “April Fools” products. You can’t actually buy one, yet. As he pointed out, however, their prank products have a way of becoming real products if there’s enough interest.

More:

BY Sean Michael Ragan

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I write for MAKE, serve as Technical Editor for MAKE magazine, and develop original DIY content for Make: Projects.

In the Maker Shed

6 Responses to 2001 monolith "action" figure

Don Simpson on October 20th, 2010 at 6:28 pm said:

Back in the 70s, I was commissioned to make one of these. I used one inch thick black acrylic plastic, and machined it to a thousandth of an inch accuracy on a vertical mill, then gave it a satin finish. Now, around three decades later, it’s in stores. But I still have my prototype, which is a few thousandths off….

Reply ↓
- Sean Michael Ragan on October 20th, 2010 at 6:54 pm said:
  
  But do you have pictures of it? And would you send them to me and/or send me a link to them if you do? Would love to blog a reader-made monolith model…
  
  Reply ↓
  
  Don Simpson on October 21st, 2010 at 1:23 pm said:
  
  Well, I don’t have photos at the moment, but the actual item is in my basement with about forty years worth of stuff, and I’ll see if it’s accessible, and if so, photograph it.
  
  Reply ↓
  
  Don Simpson on October 25th, 2010 at 5:40 pm said:
  
  I’ve taken a picture of the prototype model:
  
  http://i523.photobucket.com/albums/w351/donsimpson00000/Monolith2a.jpg
  
  http://donsimpson.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d31ioc2
  
  Reply ↓
theophrastus on October 20th, 2010 at 7:38 pm said:

Isn’t one of the big geek points about the monoliths was that their dimensions were in the ratio of integer squares? even suggesting that this ratio continued on into ‘higher dimensions’) Well, it’s admittedly twitty of me, but that “action figure” is at least photographed with a ratio of about 2.25ish. So the only established (fictional) monolith “feature”, other than ultimate blackness, wasn’t even approximately replicated? hmm.

Reply ↓
- theophrastus on October 20th, 2010 at 9:55 pm said:
  
  (replying to myself) …oh crap! 9/4 = 2.25. they got it right and i’m an idiot. …nevermind. -sigh-
  
  Reply ↓