One of the simple pleasures of the Legend of Zelda games is the bottle. These things can hold magical wonders of all stripes, but nothing, for my rupees, tops the fairy. Capture a fairy in a bottle, and when you fall in battle, the fairy escapes and revives you. How many times has my ass been saved by a fairy in a bottle over the past two decades? Let’s just say, “many.”

Sometimes those little fairies talk too much, and you just want to cram them into a bottle! Fortunately, they don’t seem to mind it much, and still have the good nature to completely heal you when you set them free. This fairy in a bottle necklace is so cute though, you’ll never want to let it go!

Check out the shop’s other items, including a hilarious Metroid eating Pikachu, or for those of us who’ve spent years paying off Tom Nook, the Animal Crossing leaf. AC fossil and pitfall icons also available, not not as cute.

Source: Zelda Bottled Fairy necklace at Etsy

And there was me thinking that the Pairnha Plants were a cute – albeit occasionally irritating – accessory in the world of Mario. Dear Lord; this custom-made plant gives me nightmares.

And whilst we’re talking about frightening things, hit the jump for the very latest in couture Mario World evening wear. That’s right – MARIO EVENING WEAR. You ain’t seen nothin’ till you see a hot girl walking down a catwalk in a sequined Mario face and a Nintendo controller garter belt. Yeah, you heard me right.

An exclusive, intriguingly unique approach to formal wear for gamers and their loved ones, or a complete heap of steaming crap? You decide. I know what I think.

Source: Hawty McBloggy and Destructoid

A shop on Etsy called The Clay Collector is making tiny clay NES cartridges, complete with the label of your choice (custom is OK), that you can wear either in a cufflink or necklace format. I don’t wear suits, but this is making me reconsider my wardrobe. Can you believe what an awesome idea this is?

I’m already trying to figure out which of the three NES Castlevanias would look best on here. My wife’s settled on the gold Legend of Zelda cartridge, but I’d have to send in a corrected image. It appears they’re using the game’s box, which has a hole in it through which you can see the gold cartridge. There should be a heart in the upper left quarter of the shield for the cartridge art.

Check it out, she’s also got N64 cartridges, floppy discs, 360 controllers, and more… even PS3 controller earrings.

Source: Etsy

TinyMeat is a brand of wallet that UrbanRetro is now selling. The wallet you see here is one of the designs which were available on Etsy until very recently when they ran afoul of Etsy’s fees. Last time I checked we were waiting for them to scratch enough money together to get the store on Etsy reopened, so let’s look at this as your chance to help.

What’s weird is I’m sure when I got the wallet before, it was coming from the US. I’m not sure how much it costs to have one of these shipped from the UK to the US, but the base price is just shy of 13 Euros.

This wallet is mostly transparent. The pockets on the inside are all totally clear, and the only artwork is on the outer surface (on both sides of it), as you can see here. The seams at the edge of the pockets proved pretty durable over the years, but about six months ago they started to really come apart. This is my own fault, because I carry a ton of stuff in my wallet and the pockets in here are not very wide. Here’s the inside surface.

The wallet’s two strongest points are both visual. First, there’s the fact that most of the wallet is completely transparent, so if you keep your ID or anything else in the innermost pocket, it’s visible without taking it out. I got dozens of comments and compliments on this unique wallet while wearing it, and I got to explain the gaming-related art (such as the great Atari joystick) to a lot of people who probably didn’t care the slightest bit about video games.

The combination of unique style, functionality and durability mean I can’t help but recommend the wallet. Even after it was falling apart, I refused to throw it away for several months. When I was unable to get a replacement because of the store’s financial woes, I finally realized it was time to let go, but as I said before… I did notice it immediately in my e-mail. Let’s call it four and a half out of five, because it’s awesome, but needs more space in it.

If this design is not your style, you can check out the UrbanRetro store right now to see a number of their other neat ideas. I’ll do my best not to buy one, because I’ve already replaced my old one, but no promises.

Get this one here.

The official line:

The DSi Travel Case is designed to keep the Nintendo DSi and its accessories (including power supply) all together and tangle-free in one place. Custom-sized, padded, interior compartments and self-locking zippers keep your gear safe and secure.

• Made from synthetic material that is washable, abrasion-resistant, durable in vibrant, trendy, colors.
• Made from a highly water-resistant poly-blend material
• Washable
• Self-locking zippers
• Soft padded interior pockets, no-scratch

Waterfield Designs’ DSi Travel Case is a soft case for the Nintendo DSi, but the size of the system is so close to that of the DS Lite, it works fine for that as well. The color I received is brown, but it’s also available in blue, red, green, silver, and black. I accept that the colors are vibrant and very appealing, but not being very up on trends, I can’t really speak to that. It’s forward-thinking of them to offer so many colors, as DS Lite and DSi systems cover just about every color you can imagine. The material definitely feels very heavy duty, and is easily the strongest soft case for an electronic device I’ve used. Washability is nice, but you’re going to want to make sure you take everything out first. Waterfield’s rep says she usually spot cleans hers with diluted surface cleaners, but both cases are machine washable. The fact that the case is animal-free is likely to appeal to those who are concerned about such things. Those of us with more of an ethic toward local products will appreciate the fact that these cases come from San Francisco, California, rather than overseas.

A locking zipper, if you don’t know, is a zipper that will not travel when the pull tab is folded down. The official line calls this a self-locking zipper, but it’s also known as a semi-automatic zipper, which sounds far more appropriate for mowing down rival gangs than protecting your DSi, but there it is. The zipper can be locked in a slightly open position, which means hooking headphones to your DSi for listening to music on the go (because it wants to be an iPod) is easy. There’s the full-length zipper at the top, and three distinct compartments inside, one of which is divided into two smaller compartments. The center compartment holds the DSi, and the outer compartments can be used for other loose items, such as an extra stylus or games. There’s plenty of room for these accessories inside the case, because the spaces are soft and flexible, unlike in hard cases which are formed to specific shapes for specific items. Note that if you have one of the folding magnetic cases for games that are available through Club Nintendo, those are too long to fit inside this case. The hard plastic clamshell cases with Nintendo characters are smaller, and fit well.

One problem I had with the interior pockets is that, since they are so soft, some amount of manipulation was necessary to get everything to fit properly. The dividers between compartments have a tendency to bunch up while loading things.

The black rubbery surface on the case covers the ends and bottom, and this is covered with tiny bumps, creating a kind of non-skid effect as well as reinforcing the parts of the case which will take the most impact in a fall. The rest of the exterior is smooth fabric in a strong, tight weave.

It’s definitely a bit of a premium product at a price point just shy of 40 dollars, compared to the average Nintendo-branded case at 10 to 15. I personally am a strong proponent of buying a high quality case in order to avoid having to spend money on replacing it, so this is right up my alley. The option of buying a case that was made in the US is a strong selling point for me as well.

I give the DSi Travel Case four out of five. Despite the somewhat intimidating price point, this is a very functional case that genuinely feels like it could repel a bullet, and there’s quite a bit to be said for that when handheld game systems can set you back several hundred dollars. Warning, this case is unlikely to actually repel a bullet.

The official line:

The DSi Suede Jacket is a minimalist form-fitting case made from soft, washable Ultrasuede™ that protects the DSi from bumps and scratches. It can also double as a screen cleaner.

Moving on to the Suede Jacket, this is a much more low-key affair than the Travel Case, but is still impressive when considering the lower class of the product. This is the $15 model, which also has the optional accessory pocket. Stuffing this full of a game and some earphones makes the whole affair very lumpy, and not very pocket friendly, but I don’t know who would carry their DSi in their pocket anyway. Further, Aeropause does not condone the ownership of Spyro the Dragon video games as in this product image. The plastic clamshell game card holder mentioned above fits nicely into the Suede Jacket’s pocket, meaning solid protection can be provided to as many as six games while carrying your DSi this way.

The Jacket is made of Ultrasuede®, which unlike standard cow suede is 100% animal free. It’s very strong but soft, and can actually be used as a screen cleaner for your system as well, which is a great bit of multitasking that actually makes lots of sense. My DS, in fact, had a very dirty screen thanks to Chinatown Wars, and the Suede Jacket did a great job of clearing that up.

Slipping the DSi inside the Suede Jacket, you’ll see there’s a little bit of clearance on the outer edge. The Jacket is deep enough to provide some slack at the end of the system, which should prevent that end from getting banged up. However, as this slips on the narrow end of the system, the headphone jack is concealed, and the system cannot be listened to while in the Suede Jacket.

I give the Suede Jacket three and a half out of five. It’s a great light protection for the system when placed in a larger bag. The pocket is nice and stretchy, but may not provide adequate protection to small items, like game cards, without additional hardware.

You’ll find the DS cases at this location on the site. Waterfield Designs has a catalog of cases and sleeves for all kinds of devices at their website, including several other cases for game systems, including the leather and ballistic nylon DSi Case mentioned in a recent press release and a case for PSP called the PSP Gear Pouch and PSP Mini Gear Pouch.

We’ve all heard about wanting to exploit, monetize, capitalize, pillage, etc; and, we’ve heard about all of the releases scheduled for this year. But allow me to introduce to you the latest (illegitimate) child in the Guitar Hero franchise that does not come in a disk or ROM format for playback in your console: Guitar Hero Sleep Shorts. Yes, now you too can sleep like a rockstar with Guitar Hero branded pajamas. If not you, at least I will, since I received a pair for Easter. Jump for a couple of shots of the actual product unboxed. And, no, there aren’t any shots of this product in use, unless we receive 10 e-mails requesting it.

Guitar Hero Sleeper Shorts - Front

Guitar Hero Sleeper Shorts - Back

When you don these babies, the women (or men) will know that you have come to rock! So what’s next Activision, Bedroom Hero?

Source: Castlemania

Pac-Man ghost cookies. Mario Kart blue shell, Leonardo da Vinci style. If you haven’t shopped Woot (want one of those) for shirts or anything else for that matter, you’re missing out. Today we ordered one of each of these great shirts. Maybe it’s not the best idea to fill my closet with gaming shirts like this. Maybe if that’s wrong, I don’t want to be right.

Can you believe that blue shell?

Source: 200 shirt at Woot, on sale today for $10. This is $5 off. Their daily special can be found at shirt.woot.com. Also check out the da Vinci blue shell shirt, which is called To the Top in the Style of da Vinci.

Well, some bright bulb on eBay, going by the user name brokenish, is selling tee shirts with Jenni’s lovely image on them. I’m going to assume this isn’t something brokenish is aware of, because he/she is referring to the image on the shirt as Samus Aran. While it’s possible this is an attempt to avoid prosecution by Nintendo while still coming up with an impessive Samus Aran image on this shirt, my view is that this is most likely, instead, a ridiculous mistake.

So this guy is not only violating Nintendo’s copyright, but selling a shirt with someone else’s personal image on it (without their permission, I would bet) and violating the copyright of whoever took that photo of Jenni as well. What an amazing piece of work.

Source: eBay