Whittling

This Old Time Whittling Kit would be great for boys of all ages.

T-Shirts for Video Gamers

I should do a roundup of places to get geeky tshirts sometime. But Penny Arcade has some great shirts for gamers.

Geeks Shirt

Here's a Dilbert-like tshirt complete with screened-on pocket protector and tie.

Indiana Jones Lego Sets

This is cool. Lego has released the first four Indiana Jones Lego sets. I hope Lego takes this as far as they did with Star Wars. These seem to be selling out everywhere.

Temple Escape is the big kit that reproduces the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, complete with the huge rolling boulder and seaplane.

Lost Tomb contains the Egyptian tomb from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Yes, the one with all the snakes.

Race for the Stolen Treasure is the truck chase scene from Raiders. Or it could just be a generic treasure chase scene.

Motorcycle Chase is the odd set in that it's from The Last Crusade. A Sean Connery minifig?

Technocrati tags: Indiana Jones Lego

Stuffed Plush Dice for Gamer Geeks

ThinkGeek has had a pair of plush d20 dice for hanging from your car's rear-view mirror for a while, but I just saw that Amazon has this plush 8-sided die (as well as 4-sided, 6-sided, 10-sided, and 20-sided models). "Can be rolled anywhere, or can be used to discipline misbehaving players."



The same company (Toy Vault) also makes a bunch of Dungeons and Dragons themed stuffed plush products, including a plush Cthulhu.

Technocrati tags: Dungeons and Dragons plush

Nintendo DS Lite

The Nintendo DS is pretty amazing. I've been surprised how many adults enjoy playing games on a DS. Even Gabe from Penny Arcade's grandmother plays.

It's a lot of entertainment for $130. What's even cooler is that it simplifies gift-giving once someone has one. A $20-40 DS game is right in most people's price target.

It comes in red-n-black, black, white, and pink.

Out of Time

Here it is, less than a week before Christmas, and you've blown it. Again. Me too. What do I do? Head to the mall and do the zombie shuffle with 50,000 people, looking for the perfect gift when I have no idea what to get them in the first place? Or is it really down to standing in line to buy a Best Buy gift card?


One option is a Netflix gift membership. I have some huge movie buffs on my list that, as far as I know, haven't even tried Netflix. I know they like buying DVDs and rent from places like Blockbuster. I think if they tried Netflix they'd see how good it is for getting through your "I've been meaning to watch that" list.


One of my favorite places to get gift certificates from is Amazon. I've used it for books of course, but I've also bought backpacking stuff and electronics there. It's easy to redeem the certificate online so it credits your account, then you can spend it later in the year without having to dig for it. Now they're even better since you can apply them to Amazon's MP3 downloads. That'll let even the snottiest teenager fill their new MP3 player no matter what brand it is.

My other last-minute option is to negotiate the "no gift" agreement. It's pretty lame to do this on the 20th! but I've done it before and I'm doing it again this year. If you're having a hard time buying for someone, chances are good that they're having an equally hard time buying for you.
If you really want to give them a gift, let them off the hook. Or agree to exchange the best thing you can find for $1.