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Light Up Your Lair With This Curious Cube
They won’t give you coins or mushrooms, but 8-Bit Lit’s Question Block Lamps will light up a room. 8-Bit Lit cofounders Adam Ellsworth and Brian Duxbury delighted their friends and family with their first lamp, and made waves when they listed it on Etsy in 2012. Now, thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, an upgraded version of the Question Block Lamp is available at a lower price than the original.
The first version of the Question Block Lamp, once listed on Etsy, cost $75 plus shipping. 8-Bit Lit’s updated design sells for $49, is tougher, more reliable, and includes a mounting kit. For an additional $20, they’ll also include an aluminum stand.
Tapping the touch-sensitive panel on the underside of the Question Block Lamp powers it on and off. This also sets off the gold coin or, on rare occasions, the 1-Up sound effect. Though it's not required, it's obviously more satisfying to operate the lamp in true Mario style.
Question Blocks made their debut in Super Mario Bros. for the NES, and appear in many Nintendo games since - including the recently-released Super Mario 3D World. Customarily suspended in midair, the Blocks dispense power-ups or coins when struck.
Visit the 8-Bit Lit website to pick up your own Question Block Lamp, or to learn more about how they're made. For even more information, visit the product's Kickstarter page. The "Why Kickstarter? (Question Block Lamp 2.0)" section explains how the newer version is better and more affordable than the original.
For more Mario-related news, check out our latest coverage of the next Super Smash Bros. and the Year of Luigi.
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