I bought the Lego Egg Timer while visiting Legoland in Denmark, at the end of my visit to the Lego factory. Since then I've used it many times and its design doesn't cease to entertain me. The top half of the mini-fig head rotates as it counts time, changing the expression as the minutes pass. Nothing else can be said about it, really, except that it's cute and it works great.

By the way, I will resume the chronicles of the Lego trip next week, after giving you a week of respite. Coming soon: an inside look at how the Lego bricks and sets are made, how they are designed from concept to final product, and what it's like to work there, among many other things. Stay tuned. [Lego]

Using the power generated by a high-pressure CO2 gas system and mechanical ram, Yauner managed to get his toast to pop up about seven feet into the air—which was enough to set the record. However, that figure was restricted by the height of his ceiling, so he will try and re-set the record tomorrow with an attempt conducted outdoors (although I doubt that it will reach heights like those portrayed in the image above). Why build a toaster that pops that high, you ask? According to Yauner, "Everyone loves it when a toaster has a good pop to it, so I thought this was the logical next step, to create a new space in the market." Indeed, you haven't had a good piece of toast until it has picked up a bit of grime from the floor and the ceiling. [Freddie Yauner via Core77)

After the water finishes its route through the grill plate, it's cooled down again via a heat exchanger before making its way back into the grill. According to Wellbas, the system not only keeps food from turning black, it also lowers the fat content of your steak... supposedly because fat can't drain properly from charred bits.

I'm no Alton Brown, but some of this science sounds kind of iffy. Isn't adding heat to meat the whole point of grilling? If you're grill's getting cooled, I would assume it means the food would just take way longer to cook. Plus, the design doesn't seem to take into account heat distribution—some parts of the grill will be much colder than other parts.

But what do I know? The grill's apparently already won some design awards. Pricing is unlisted on the Wellbas website, but each system looks like it'll cost a couple thousand dollars at least. [Wellbas via Cnet]

* Inevitably, at least someone reading this post will not only like baby blue but be wearing a baby blue jumper at this very moment that matches their baby blue kitchen built to resemble their baby blue car/house/dog/cat/baby boy's room. And we're sure said person has pulled it off quite tastefully. We also know that a color snob will explain the color is not baby blue and offer an alternative like "periwinkle"—even though we know that "periwinkle" is the wrong color in this instance. All this has been anticipated, even welcomed, by the story's author.
[Generate via bltd]

Designed by Marie-Christine Lacasse and Marie Claude Savard, I almost like it. Almost. Big thumbs-up to the elongated rack—but I'm just not sure about that "autonomous" dishwasher unit that moves across the rack, rather like the printer head on an old dot matrix printer. And ladies, where was the spirit level in the making of your dishwasheur? Attention to detail, that's Giz all over, innit? [MoCo Loco]

The cooker, meant to be mounted on the rear bumper, contains a steam pressure kettle that gets heated by aromatic, flavorful hot exhaust. An hour's drive will yield you thoroughly cooked meats and vegetables, enveloped in the essence of leaded gasoline. Yum! [Modern Mechanix via Boing Boing]

The sanitizer also provides running water to prevent secondary contamination and all comes together in a box that resembles a retro future record player. This thing reminds me of those showers in sci-fi movies and shows where you step into a chamber, get sprayed with smoke for 5 seconds, and a soothing voice informs you that you are now sanitized. Except the megasonic cleaning device might actually appear sooner than later. [Appliancist]

As the water heats, the rising air pressure makes it flow upwards from the glass water chamber into the metal brewing unit. Once the coffee is ready, take it off the heat and the coffee will return through a filter into the Kahva's glass bottom via a vacuum that has been created by the cooling of the coffee maker. To pour, simply turn the grip and let the coffee flow. [Yanko]

Most cleverly, it's got retracting pot supports, burners and controls, so when it's off its glass surface is easy to clean —handy for splash-it-all-around cooks like me. Add in extra-precise temperature control and LED displays, and you really do have a 21st Century gas cooking range. Sadly, it's a project and not quite ready for production yet, though it has just been shortlisted in the Australian International Design Awards. [MarkPascua]

"When auto-exposure and auto-focus were new features on cameras, there was a lot of skepticism," claims Stråberg. "But, with time, auto-focus has been accepted and today it is a standard feature. For the oven and for the camera, it is all about pushing one button to ensure a professional result."

To cook a joint of meat, you simply select "roast" on the oven's single dial, before indicating whether you want it rare, medium or well-done. The oven, apparently, will tell you whether to put it on its top, middle or bottom shelf—while it is still cold. Then the Inspiro's special maths stuff begins.

It works out the energy consumption and time needed to get the meat to the right temperature of the. That information, alongside its database of professional cooking techniques, calculates what combination of heating modes is required—whether the heat needs to come from the top, bottom, side, whether it needs to use its fan or the grill—to get the dish cooked to perfection.

There's also a manual mode, which means you can ignore the Inspiro's epicurean brain and cook things exactly how you want it. It looks good, too. Here's a video of how it is put together in the Electrolux factory in the German city of Rothenburg.

[Electrolux Inspiro]

Apparently inspired by natural ecosystem cycles, the system grabs heat from the refrigerator's pump and uses it to warm the dishwasher. 60% of the water is reused as well, and the fridge itself is compartmentalized into drawers, so you don't spill as much cold air out when you open it.

It looks pretty snazzy too, we reckon. You could argue that there's room for even more energy saving in its design, but it is just a concept. We guess it's fairly likely that you'll see some of the elements in future Whirlpool stuff. [Pocket Lint via Born rich]

OK, so it's not called the steak toaster, it's called the Ariete SteakHouse Indoor Grill, but that's pretty much what it is. It holds your hunk of meat vertically, keeping the heating elements on the side so all the fatty, greasy juices drip down to a tray and don't smoke. Sure, for $220 you could just fire up the grill, go to a steak house or get a cheap George Foreman grill to get similar results, but then you wouldn't be able to brag to your friends that you have a steak toaster. [Product Page via Boing Boing Gadgets]

In order to achieve this feat, the oven heats up to 790 degrees and features roof-mounted 1,440-watt coil heating elements and ceramic pizza stones to ensure thorough, even cooking. The only problem is that the 90-second figure does not take frozen pizzas into account. Still, with that kind of power, it will probably cook a frozen pizza pretty damn fast—and with higher quality than a microwave. Plus, at $249, it doesn't come cheap. [Hammacher via DVICE]

Similar to a waffle iron, the stainless steel "Crepe on a Stick or Waffle Dog Maker" by KegWorks offers precise temperature control up to 572°F to seal your favorite tube meat in a coating of waffle, crepe, that corn dog stuff or, for the more adventurous, chocolate cake batter (we freestyled with the cake mix part, but we're pretty sure it will work). The meat iron will run you $339.00. And when you wake from your meat coma two weeks from now, it may cost your job and some friends as well. [amazon via popgadget]

•"Say hello to my little chicken!"
•A great source of Omega-357 and Anti-Uzidents.
•Gun shaped eggs promote fowl play.
•This is your brain. This is your brain shaped like an Uzi.
•Shot in the yolk, and you're to blame. You give breakfast a bad name.
•Nothing says "I love you honey" like a gun in the mouth.
•Make one false move and I'll scramble your eggs.
•That's what I call "insani-tasty."

Got something better? I hope so—because these are horrible. So bring it on. [Product Page via Spluch via Laughing Squid]