The Thousand Dollar Steampunk Memory Stick

[Johnn Johnston]

That sure is a purty memory stick.

 

[gmacarthur81]

Yeah, gotta say I'm in agreement with the "It doesn't even look Steampunk" crowd. But the capacity is impressive. Haven't seen over 16Gig in a retail model yet, 32 in custom/spec-order. It's basically one jump ahead of the industry.

Now even if it were largely plastic, a "steampunk" looking USB drive with gears that move when plugged in, THAT would be something to see.

Yep.

Now if you plugged it in and it had little gears that started spinning, the light came on and maybe a little bit of that fake smoke stuff shot out of it like steam with a "pshhh" sound..... THEN it would be Steampunk and actually cool.

 

[TheBluesader]

I'd only buy it if I can finally tweak my computer to run on steam power.

Exactly. Hell, I'd pay $1000 if the drive itself actually ran on steam. Or at least emitted steam. Or at least had gears that actually did something, even if it was just turn for no reason, like those USP dogs that wiggle around.

But I guess the idea here is that there are certain people out there who will pay ridiculous prices for reproduction fake monocles and top hats, so they'll probably pay $1000 for something LITERALLY NO ONE SHOULD WANT.

Seriously. Here is a link to newegg.com for an $90 1TB external USB hard drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136448

 

[Ancientgamer]

From his site:

I apologize in advance for the high price, this is my favorite drive now and I just don't want to give it up.

This is a signed, one of a kind work of art, I will not make another exactly like it.

It's priced so high literally because he doesn't want anyone to buy it. Kinda like when artists at galleries price that insignificant little canvas or photo for $3000. They'd rather keep it unless someone was willing to pay through the nose for it.

 

[ayahtzeefan]

Yeah, gotta say I'm in agreement with the "It doesn't even look Steampunk" crowd. But the capacity is impressive. Haven't seen over 16Gig in a retail model yet, 32 in custom/spec-order. It's basically one jump ahead of the industry.

Now even if it were largely plastic, a "steampunk" looking USB drive with gears that move when plugged in, THAT would be something to see.

Yep.

Now if you plugged it in and it had little gears that started spinning, the light came on and maybe a little bit of that fake smoke stuff shot out of it like steam with a "pshhh" sound..... THEN it would be Steampunk and actually cool.

yeah but still not worth $1000

 

[ma55ter_fett]

It doesn't even look all that good. I probably wouldn't even pay €100 for that.

same

 

[TheFacelessOne]

Meh. Pretty. Not worth 1000 dollars though. Maybe 50 dollars.

 

[Lunar Templar]

>.> the phraze 'pants on head retarded' comes to mind, mostly due to the pricing. hand crafted or not,way to much

 

[Kuchinawa212]

*grabs a bag full of sand*
*stretches fingers*
*music starts playing*
*grabs memory stick and runs for it*

 

[Asehujiko]

features a unique "cooling system" of pipes and manifolds to ventilate the enormous memory.

Flash memory needs cooling?

While you are at it, here's some all natural snake oil at just $500 a bottle.

 

[The Random One]

That's a waste of money.

Unless, of course, the gears actually spin. Then it's a bargain!

 

[BillyShakes]

What depresses me is that this shoddy piece of work has a larger storage capacity than my current laptop. *Sadface*

 

[lolmynamewastaken]

give him a tenner for it

 

[Swaki]

lose the gem and i might be interested, and it would be cheaper, actually the gem really ruins it in allot of way.

 

[Lexodus]

I would. That's all I'm sayin' (^.^)

 

[Acidwell]

I'm not saying that this is worth a grand but he does do one for $500 that i think is.

Being made of brass and copper with some non-functional gears tacked on does NOT make this thing Steampunk.

It makes it a really expensive poseur.

Well it kinda does since Steampunk is a style instead of an actual mechanical system. There is no such thing as a functioning Steampunk anything really.

For $1000 I'd expect it at least have moving parts.
As it stands it doesn't even LOOK like brass.
It looks like the entire thing is make of molded plastic, even the gears, which have been rather disgustingly BENT round the thing, because that just exudes the illusion that the gears serve a purpose...

The pipes are part of a working cooling system with a number of pumps and filters in it

But I guess the idea here is that there are certain people out there who will pay ridiculous prices for reproduction fake monocles and top hats, so they'll probably pay $1000 for something LITERALLY NO ONE SHOULD WANT.

Seriously. Here is a link to newegg.com for an $90 1TB external USB hard drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136448

You are looking at external hard drives not flash drives and the flash drive that this uses costs $140 dollars and anything bigger cost around $500.
Also this is categorized as "art" and considering that people have bought a urinal for ?1.7, $1000 is a fairly good price in comparison.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Being made of brass and copper with some non-functional gears tacked on does NOT make this thing Steampunk.

It makes it a really expensive poseur.

In total agreement.

For $1000 I'd expect it at least have moving parts.
As it stands it doesn't even LOOK like brass.
It looks like the entire thing is make of molded plastic, even the gears, which have been rather disgustingly BENT round the thing, because that just exudes the illusion that the gears serve a purpose...

I second this, it's a great concept, but sadly a bit ruined. It looks too fake, too much like plastic. Where is that good ol' brass shine? Why aren't the gears more like gears, and not bend like that? And the gem just looks out of place, should've been replaced by some sort of old little lamp.

Maybe a USB-stick is too small to be properly steampunkified, you can do a lot more with an external HD.

 

[Therumancer]

Neat toy if your rich and want unique gaming/computer stuff for a collection. If I could afford it (which I obviously can't) I'd love it, the appeal largely being that it's one of a kind.

Over the years I've seen a number of things like that. Someday someone should do an article on the real treasures of video gaming. Sort of like how back in the ancient days of gaming Atari produced some really serious jewelery for it's "Swordquest" game contest which was never finished. They made a sword, a crown, and a talisman with some really serious gems involved. Only the talisman was ever "won" and some goober melted it down (and should be hunted to the ends of the earth for such a thing). Allegedly the other two items are sitting in the Atari offices somewhere.

See if I was a billionaire I'd definatly be trying to build an eccentric collection out of stuff like that. Of course I probably wouldn't be a billionaire long because I'd become a profucer of various fan media and probably fade into obscurity as a mere micro-millionaire pretty quickly due to trying to produce the games/RPGs/etc... I think should be made.

 

[Lexodus]

Snip

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32837282
Another one, $500, Even better looking, no gem on the end... my favourite one is the one with rocket engines on the back (far left in first picture)

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