Robot Claw – Page 17 – “Life In The So-Called Space Age”

LEGO Game Boy

October 5, 2025

I haven’t bought much LEGO in recent years, but as soon as the above was announced I knew it would be mine. It was released on a workday so I couldn’t go to the LEGO store until after my lectures, and when I got there they only had one left so I left happy. But later on I saw a dozen or more at Walmart so I doubt this is difficult to get.

At 421 pieces it’s not a large set, and it only took me an hour or so to build. It only comes with two stickers (all other labeled bricks are printed) but this is the first LEGO set I’ve bought that includes lenticular pieces:

There’s three of them, and they are the screens. They do a wonderful job of reproducing the iconic colours and draw-in of the Game Boy, and look great in the finished model.

Assembly is easy and fun. There’s many techniques I’ve not seen before used to create a compact model with almost no visible studs. Given the constrictions – it had to reproduce a real product – it’s an extremely impressive design.

The controls all ‘work’. The d-pad can be tilted and the buttons pressed. The contrast and volume dials on the side can be turned, and even the power button can be toggled. Pieces of rubber inside cause the buttons to pop back, and they were very creative using tires placed into slots sideways to make the start and select buttons.

The model comes with two cartridges (Super Mario Land and Zelda: Link’s Awakening) which can be inserted and removed. For the full experience you can exchange the screen as well (which is easy) to match the cartridge.

This is a fantastic kit and it’s truly incredible how well it recreates the original in LEGO. To illustrate, here’s a photo of my original Game Boy next to the LEGO model:

And here’s a LEGO cartridge next to an original one:

An incredible creation by LEGO, and immediately one of my favourite kits of all time. This one will be going on permanent display.

Microcosm in Macrovision

October 3, 2025

I got a new ~~camera~~ phone. It’s orange!

It was hellishly expensive, but my old phone lasted six years and I hope this one does as well. Even though the tech is generations beyond my old phone, the feature of this one I’m enjoying the most is the macro camera, since my old phone didn’t have one.

That’s a mini Chupa Chup. The photos above are unretouched, and presented in the same size they were captured.

A Lego piece. It looks a bit translucent when viewed using the macro lens, but it’s impressive how smooth the plastic is.

An Australian dollar coin, specifically the honeybee one from a few years ago. The detail on the bee and flowers is almost invisible with the naked eye, and I’m impressed they can mint them at this resolution! You can also see how some of the paint has scraped off, probably due to rubbing against other coins.

These photos are difficult to take since I don’t have a tripod and you have to both provide a lot of light and hold the phone very still! That’s a pill I was prescribed for my hands. I haven’t taken one yet 🙂

There’s an anti-counterfeiting test used on magic cards used called the ‘green dot test’ which traditionally required a jewelers loupe to do. The macro on this phone makes the test possible without one.

Speaking of trading cards, isn’t it interesting that the foil effect on this Waifu card is pixelated?!? I wonder why…

This diecast metal Zoffy figure is only 2 inches tall and one of my favourite possessions. When magnified using the macro lens we can see the paint application is precise, even with sub-millimeter lines.

Here’s a cloisonné pin, which is about 1 cm wide. You can see the paint has wicked up the edges. I wonder how they make these?

A Fantastic Four comic from 1976. Is the pink bleeding into her right eye an error by the colourer or the printer? Did they even notice?

A d20 from our youth. This came in our Dungeons & Dragons ‘red box’ and was from the era where the dice came with crayon to fill in the numbers. Yes, that white gunk is crayon I applied over 40 years ago! The die surface is very pitted, probably from having been rolled countless times over the years.

A dorito. Don’t they look delicious?

And last but not least an amethyst. The flat surfaces are easily visible with the naked eye, but even in macro you’ll see they continue to be extremely – nearly perfectly – flat. This reminds me that I’ve long been thinking about doing a blog post on ‘flatness’…

The orange of my phone is now hidden in a case, and I think it looks cool. As I was preparing this post I noticed the photos app now includes an AI option to remove items and I used it on the above photo. Can you see where something was removed?

Ramen 32: This Could Be Chicken Or This Could Be Hell

September 28, 2025

It’s been six months since the last ramen review post, and just when you thought your favourite series had ended it’s time for another installment!

Good (220 Calories, 6 g fat, 1700 mg sodium)

The package of this Vietnamese chicken ramen contains this phrase: “Experiencing smooth and unique feeling with mung beans added in vermicelli.” The contents looked attractive before I cooked them, but as usual I was put off by the little packet of oil.

When I was young I used to see ‘glass noodles’ on the menu at Asian restaurants and wonder what they were. It turns out they are a type of clear noodle made from mung beans, and while sometimes also called vermicelli are obviously different from the Italian kind (and the opaque rice noodles traditionally used in pho). This is therefore not a ramen product, but I’m the owner of this blog so I’m bending the rules (and not for the first time this series)!

As you can see in the photo, the noodles were extremely transparent. Alas they looked much better than they ate since they had the texture of electrical cables and trying to bite through them only partially distracted me from the taste, which resembled sadness and dirt. This was a wretched product, and shall never cross my lips again. Score: 0/10

Hao Hao (330 Calories, 12 g fat, 1830 mg sodium)

This was another Vietnamese product, and the package proclaims ‘Tasty Vietnam’ with pride. When I opened the bag the dehydrated noodles appeared to have the flavour impregnated in them, so I was surprised to see two additional flavour packets as well.

Cooking it was easy and unremarkable, except for the almost complete lack of any smell. This carried on to the eating, since the final soup was flavourless! As such I can’t say I disliked it – the texture of the noodles for instance wasn’t disagreeable – but it was so tasteless it was hardly worth eating. A strange ramen that’s difficult to score.

Indo Mie (320 Calories, 12 g fat, 1110 mg sodium)

This one was Indonesian, and while the noodles (before cooking) seemed average, the two flavour packets – bumbu sauce and chili – alarmed me. There’s no mention at all on the packaging about this being a ‘spicy chicken’ version (a common chicken subtype I do not cover in this series) and with my low tolerance for such things I cooked it hesitantly.

You won’t be surprised to hear I couldn’t eat it. I tried one single noodle and found it so spicy that I had the usual overreaction while KLS exclaimed it wasn’t hotter than black pepper! I’ll concede the noodle diameter and texture were positives, but from the heat alone it’s an instant 0/10!

I think we’re coming up to nearly 80 unique chicken ramen reviews in nearly 5 years of this series. I hope it’s not another six months before the next installment…