Cool beats, aged brass, an analog synth kit, and a guide to surviving the apocalypse (steampunk style).

TOOLBOX

Dr. Frankenstein’s Nursery Young Mad Scientist’s First Alphabet Blocks $40 xylocopa.com

Nineteenth-century iconography meets 21st- century craftsmanship in these awesome baby blocks from the husband-and-wife team known as Xylocopa Design. Artist Michele Lanan does these adorable and clever designs for the 26 letters of the alphabet, and Andrew Waser laser-etches them into a set of five 12" American maple wood blocks. The results are truly wonderful, with finely detailed, precisely cut images that exude whimsy and a snarky sense of humor.

C is for Caffeine, and shows a mad scientist’s brewing rig not unlike the Florence Siphon found

in this issue (page 63). D is for Dirigible. H is for Henchmen, showing a mad scientist, test tube in hand, and his Igor — the pair show up again in Z is for Zombie, where they’ve obviously succumbed to some experiment gone horribly wrong. O is for Organs,P is for Peasants with Pitchforks, and U is for Underground Lair, depicting an extremely detailed cross-section of a Dr. Evil-esque compound. One can only image what one’s little monsters would grow up to be if this was the symbolic vocabulary on which they cut their fangs.

—Gareth Branwyn

Want more? Check out our searchable online database of tips and tools at makezine.com/tnt. Have a tool worth keeping in your toolbox? Let us know at toolbox@makezine.com.

168 Make: Volume 17