We all have plenty of geeks in our lives, not including ourselves of course, and those geeks need presents for Christmas. If they’re your favourite geeks, they may need lots of presents. But not just any presents will do, and these are our top picks for the ‘stocking filler’ type gifts that you can buy to add some extra sparkle to their Christmas.
Brick Yourself Personalised Minifigures, from $65
There aren’t enough ways to get custom minifigures, but Firebox does have a service that lets you create up to four of them and have them arrive in a decorative display frame. You just have to tell them what sort of stuff you or the giftee would like to see, and they’ll do the rest of it for you.
Naturally the more minifigures you order, the more you’ll have to pay. [Buy it here]
Raspberry Pi, from $59
The best known mini computer around, offering a completely programmable device that can be used to form the basis of all sorts of different projects and designs. Three different models are currently in stock, ranging from $59 to $93, and whichever one you gift is up to you and what the recipient may want to do with it. [Buy them here]
What If?, Thing Explainer, and How to, $15-30
Know someone who is geeky, but not unfortunately not that nerdy? If they have ambitions of being a smarter, more knowledgeable person, then three books by xkcd’s Randall Munroe are perfect for them. What If? is a spin-off of xkcd’s own hypothetical thing-explainer, taking various make-believe scenarios and breaking them down with the use of science.
Thing Explainer is sort-of similar, but instead of hypotheticals it breaks down real world things with simple words. Meanwhile How To is, the opposite, taking simple problems and finding the most absurd ways to get them done.
Perfect educational tools, really. [Buy them here]
Floppy Disc Coasters, $25
If you have nice furniture you will need coasters to protect it from stray cups. Cups with drinks in them leave rings if you’re not careful, and rings are bad for furniture. Coasters shaped like floppy discs are the geekiest options to choose, and not just because fewer and fewer people remember what they were actually for. [Buy it here]
Hyperkin Smart Boy, $68
Turn your phone into an actual working GameBoy, with the ability to play actual cartridges the way they were designed for. All you need is an Android phone with a USB-C charging port, and you can slip the thing inside to make it all work. It doesn’t let you recharge during use, which is a huge pain, but it does have everything you need to play Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advance games.
Though that last one requires you to download the ROMs yourself, because the cartridges don’t fit. [Buy it here]
Water Powered Clock, $17
Electricity costs a lot of money, and while a clock doesn’t exactly use up a lot of power there are ways to save yourself a little bit of energy with humble water. Just pour it into the right place and you’ll be good to go. How does it work? Salt’s involved but you’ll have to pick one up to find out the rest. [Buy it here]
Coffee Mug Warmer, $16
All nerds love caffeine, whether it be tea or coffee, but nobody likes lukewarm tea or coffee. It’s good hot, iced, but not lukewarm, it would be great to have something that stays at the perfect drinking temperature. There are lots more expensive options available (including mugs that stay warm by themselves), but this is a nice low-cost option that also doubles as a coaster.
Just plug it in, set it down, and you’re good to go. [Buy it here]
Infinity Gauntlet Mug, $32
You can’t really say that this is perfectly balanced, as all drinks should be, but if you want to show your nerd credentials as you caffeinate then this is the one for you. It even has all six stones that you can use to decimate the coffee and tea in your cupboard [Buy it here]
Legend of Zelda-Style Ocarina, $52
Does anyone know how to play an ocarina? Well you can’t learn unless you own one to practice with, and what better way than to pick a 12-hole ocarina stylised after the one from Ocarina of Time? It’s the ultimate geeky musical instrument, unless you consider a synth made from one of those kits as a proper musical instrument. [Buy it here]
Smartphone Projector, $18
There are many ways to get your phone’s display to appear on a bigger screen, but this is by far the simplest. All you have to do is pop your phone in the back and the mix of cardboard and glass will enlarge whatever is showing on your phone and beam it onto the nearest screen or wall. [Buy it here]
BB-8 Stocking, $14
It may be a bit meta to give the stocking as a gift, but when it comes to a nerdy friend or family member BB-8 beats the normal Christmassy affair by a long way. Because droids are better than Santa, obviously. [Buy it here]
This post originally appeared on Gizmodo UK, which is gobbling up the news in a different timezone.