Quick quiz, Half-Life fans. Who possesses an MIT education, enjoys breaking open crates, and often wears the color orange?
You guessed it, our brother Ben! When he’s not doing game show cameos or walkabouting Australia, Ben can be found fabricating the greatest video game-themed X-mas present ever. Behold! Actual weighted, Weighted Companion Cubes!
Inspired by the fun our family had playing Portal (from the good folks at Valve Software), Ben made these for us and our sister Kim out of a two-inch by two-inch bar of aluminum. After sawing off a pair of perfect cubes, he used some fancy high-falutin’ computerified CAD program to design and sculpt the familiar heart-faced box. Not a quick process! This was all followed by some pretty solid hand-painting skills for an engineer.
Sure Ben could’ve gone the easy route, constantly refreshing the Valve store in hopes of the official plush or dice Weighted Companion Cubes reappearing in stock, or spending a crapton of money on Ebay for an even bigger one, but those options all possess the same flaw: a disappointing lack of weight. A true Weighted Companion Cube can cause physical harm and provide emotional support without that squishy crutch of huggability. Ben’s aluminum homage has been proven to bruise in clinical trials conducted in a sterile living room enivornment.
While we won’t be dropping these into any Emergency Intelligence Incinerators any time soon, Ben plans to sculpt another cube out of acrylic plastic. You see how it is, give the siblings the trial runs before achieving perfection for yourself. Nice. There are of course no plans to mass produce or sell any future creations. If you’re looking for one of your own, you’ll have to be Ben’s best friend forever, or perhaps a persuasive Portal/Narbacular Drop developer.
And just to prove we’re not kidding about Ben’s aforementioned affinity for busting things, check out what our folks got him for X-mas: the Stanley FuBar. You heard it here first, look for its licensed likeness in Half-Life 2: Episode 3.
Pretty cool gift there, Rich. Best one so far, for sure!
It’s AluminIum, not aluminum.
Other than that the WCC looks hawt :)
I need one of those, I get ever so lonely on the teeter totter
16 and 0!!!!!!! Congratulations Rich.
does it come with cake
Man I need that 30″ fubar for any zombie problems that might arise. Also it’s generally handy when your friend just pisses you off.
exclusive! Stanley FuBar! How much will the cube cost? 5 GRAND!?
OMG, that’s awesome. can i buy one?
Really cool. Even Joystiq picked up on this and want one. If you start a bidding war between them and Kotaku, you could be set for a few more months of COD4!
If I can’t pry that cube out of your cold dead hands, then I can at least console myself with the UltraPower Prying Action of a Weighted Stanley FuBar.
I can’t beleive you made Joystiq.
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/12/31/the-joystiq-weekend-december-29-31-2007/
This, this is what Valve should be selling.
WANT.
So how much money do I have to give you to make me one? Seriously. People want to give you their money! :)
Hey Ben, can I get a copy of your CAD file? My girlfriend has access to a 3D printer and I’d love to have her print me out a cube.
What do ya say? Pretty puh-lease? =)
Let’s say I wanted to buy one from ya…. What would need to be done to make that happen?
I would love a copy of the CAD file you used (especially if it’s a SolidWorks file). I have access to a big CNC mill at work and would love to make one of these myself.
So yes, seriously. We all want to give you money for one of these. What would you be looking for in price? You have a HOT ticket item here. It’ll only last for a little bit of time, you may want to get on the ball (cube) now :)
Glad y’all are fans of my brother’s hours of hard work! Unfortunately, since everything Portal-related is property of the good folks at Valve Software, there’s no way he’s going to be selling anything. Maybe give a shout to Valve and ask them to add something similar to their official store? They’re always great about listening to the fans…
Add mine to the requests for the CAD he created. I have access to a CNC mill…
@Rich:
Ok…i understand the legality behind that. But you know, he doesn’t “HAVE” to sell it :)
could you send me the caddy programming? ill make my own then…
“Howe D. Pardner
Dec 31st, 2007 at 12:54 am
does it come with cake?”
THE CAKE IS A LIE!!!
I would soooo pay for one of these…
Found one for sale
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=330212028355
SHINEY ^^
i wont one so bad :( i tried to make a paper one but i sux at it,, all i ever wonted since i was a child was a cubed shaped companion, and then i had to burn it! damit >.
Would it be possible for me to get the CAD file ?
Pleeze !
I can haz CAD file too?
Thanks
any chance of this going on sale? it makes me want one ever so badly…