Heads up nerds! I’m back with another radioactively cool addition to your personal chill-out shelter. See what I did there?
I present, Fallout snow globes. When I first saw these, they jumped to the front of the line in the “I MUST HAVE IT!” department of my brain. If you’re a fan of the Fallout video game franchise, you’re gonna want one (or more) of these little gems on your shelf.
The snow globes are handcrafted by a fellow member of Nerd Nation who goes by the handle “Shadows In The Nyte.” For the sake of brevity, I’ll refer to her as “Shadows,” which not only saves me a few keystrokes but sounds pretty awesome as well. She sells the globes through her e-shop on the website StoreEnvy. I think I stumbled upon these cool little tchotchkes while skimming http://www.reddit.com/r/Fallout/. It took about 30 seconds before I was looking for the “add to cart” button. The hard part was deciding which one to get.
If you’re familiar with Fallout: New Vegas, you can probably guess Shadows’ inspiration for this cool little craft. Just as Fallout 3 left Vault Boy bobble-heads laying around for players to discover, Fallout: NV has various Vault Boy-centric snow globes hidden throughout the game. Besides just being neat, finding the little souvenirs nets you caps (aka $$$) as an added bonus.
In the course of corresponding with Shadows about my plan to review her crafts here, I asked how she got the idea. Her husband, who was playing New Vegas, mentioned the globes, and a light bulb went off for her. After seeing them in-game, she set about making her first one. It took some time and tinkering, but she eventually got her process for making the globes pinned down. So how did she do?
Before my snow globe arrived, I didn’t have very high expectations. Obviously, your typical plastic snow globe isn’t going to be confused with something crafted by Tiffany & Co. as far as quality and workmanship goes. For me, part of the charm of snow globes is that they’re kinda tacky in a “Made in China” sorta way. Isn’t that the whole point? In fact, when I’ve run across snow globes that are intended to be high-end & “artsy,” <<coughcoughDisneyStorecoughcough>> they always leave me wondering, “why?”
Well, when my Fallout globe arrived, any doubts I had evaporated quickly. It looks way better than most snow globes I’ve seen at various tourist attractions I’ve visited. The first thing you’ll notice is that Shadows uses actual snow globe “snow.” I have no idea what it’s made out of but it’s what separates an authentic snow globe from the pretenders who skimp and use glitter. There’s a reason they’re not called “glitter globes” people!
For me, the real highlight of the globe is the Vault Boy insert. I don’t know how she cuts them out, I don’t know what she colors them with, but they’re extremely well done. As you can see from the pic above, my Fallout snow globe looks great on the shelf. Besides just it’s inherent coolness, it’s a neat little Easter egg for fellow nerds who visit. To the average non-nerd, it’s a snow globe with some little weird dude in a blue & yellow jumpsuit. To a fellow nerd…well, we know what it is. And the next question is, “Where can I get one?”
So, do yourself a favor, and check out Shadows In The Nyte’s e-store and start your own Fallout snow globe collection. I’ll be getting one or five more once I can distract my lovely wife from the whole “you’ve gotta stop spending money on crap” thing. Blah, blah, blah…But she means well.
Until next time…stay nerdy my friends.
It Came From The Nerd Cave recommends:
Shadows In The Nyte’s Fallout-themed snowglobes on StoreEnvy
Standard C.Y.A. Disclaimer:
As usual, it’s the policy of It Came From The Nerd Cave to only recommend retailers, sellers, and/or products with whom/which I’ve had personal experience. If you see it here, it means I couldn’t be happier. I tend towards the “if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all” school of thought, with the exception of course being eBay sellers who send me books that smell like Keith Richards’ tour bus ashtray (PeePee17, I’m looking at you, Buddy). As always, your mileage may vary.
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