2001 monolith “action” figure

Fun & Games

340x_monolith_action_figure_main_zoom.jpg

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.

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12 thoughts on “2001 monolith “action” figure

  1. Don Simpson says:

    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….

    1. Sean Michael Ragan says:

      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…

      1. Don Simpson says:

        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.

  2. theophrastus says:

    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.

    1. theophrastus says:

      (replying to myself) …oh crap! 9/4 = 2.25. they got it right and i’m an idiot. …nevermind. -sigh-

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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