Playing cards

Gizmodo Monday Puzzle: Can You Solve These ‘Relative’-ly Simple Brainteasers?

Take a stab at these family-themed puzzles—then send them to a dad in your life.

Science Jack Murtagh Jun 17

Gizmodo Monday Puzzle: Our Most Controversial Problem Revamped

Can you correctly guess which card comes after the ace?

Science Jack Murtagh Jun 10

Dungeons & Dragons’ Deck of Many Things Is a Tarot-Inspired Supplement

Designers Jason Tondro and Makenzie De Armas explain the details shuffled into the newest D&D product.

Games Linda Codega Oct 19

Yeah, This Is the Week for a Centipikachu Plush

Christmas is out of the way, and covid-19 has cancelled New York Toy Fair, but also: It’s Been a Week. So your regular check-in with all things toy this week on io9 is a little light, but really—what more do you need than a distressingly long Pikachu to cuddle? New Wave Toys Asteroids X RepliCade…

Toys & Collectibles Andrew Liszewski & James Whitbrook Jan 8

Swing Into the New Year With Even More Wonderful Toys

Welcome to back, to the first Toy Aisle of the year! The date may have changed but the fact that there’s even more awesome toys for us to gawp over hasn’t. This week, ring in 2021 with a classic Spider-Man, some stylish The Mandalorian cards, and a distressingly delicious looking Rubiks cube. Check it out!…

Toys & Collectibles Andrew Liszewski & James Whitbrook Jan 1

We Promise This Is the Only Week We’ll Ask You to Get Excited Over What Is Basically a Power Rangers Lamp

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s regular round up of the coolest toys on the internet. This week: Mezco takes a crack at the daywalker! Lego invites you to prepare for Halloween months in advance with a spooky new offering! NECA goes back to the future! And Hasbro would really like you to be excited…

Toys & Collectibles Andrew Liszewski & James Whitbrook May 15

A Scary Star Wars Box and Video Game Legends Highlight the Week in Toys

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s regular round-up of all things toy on the internet lately. This week: Todd McFarlane returns to his most iconic action figure, the next Star Wars Hyperreal figure puts a great toy in a bad box, and video game all-stars Mario and the cast of Final Fantasy VII get lovely…

Toys & Collectibles Andrew Liszewski & James Whitbrook Apr 10

Man Who Probably Hates Having Fingers Builds a Gun That Shoots Playing Cards at 120 MPH

There’s no denying the engineering and building skills of YouTube’s The Practical Engineer. But it’s the “practical” claims we feel the need to question because as impressive as this invention is, does anyone actually need a handheld blaster that can hurl playing cards at speeds over 120 miles per hour? The video goes into quite…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski Feb 18

The Best Version of Princess Leia Gets an Amazing Figure, and More Wonderful Toys of the Week

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s weekly round-up of all the coolest new toys. This week we’ve got a truly spectacular Princess Leia figure, a double dose of Wonder with new Wonder Woman toys, some out-of-this-world cards, and a tiny version of the legendary Dragonzord from Power Rangers. Hide your wallets! Hot Toys Hoth Princess…

io9 James Whitbrook and Andrew Liszewski May 5

Can the Hydraulic Press Make It Through a Stack of Playing Cards?

What’s it gonna be press? Can you do it? And the press said, “fuck yeah!” Technically, the press blasts a hole through the pack of cards and smooshes a circular section into a brittle little hockey puck. We’ll give the press a win for that. But that’s not all this latest batch of pressing stuff…

Sploid Rhett Jones Oct 15

Draw Your Own Deck With These Playing Card Notebooks

If you still keep a small paper notebook tucked away for jotting down quick notes, you might want to consider trading up to this blank deck of cards that’s useful for more than just remembering to buy milk. Sure, you can keep track of phone numbers, to-do lists, or crippling gambling debts with it. But…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski May 12

A Deck of Cards Featuring Kings, Queens, and Other Characters From Game of Thrones

Etsy shop JokerandtheThief has turned the characters from the medieval soap opera Game of Thrones into a perfect hand-drawn deck of cards featuring characters from the second book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, Clash of Kings—while they’re all still alive. Designed in the style of a classic Bicycle deck, the cards are…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Feb 24

Learn About Coding with These Ultra Nerdy Playing Cards

Everybody loves playing cards because they’re fun. But as the geeky designers behind code:deck prove, playing cards can be educational, too! Each of the numbers in a code:deck shows an example of a programming language. The Jack, for instance, is JavaScript and features a snippet of code that defines the cards. Here’s a breakdown of…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes Oct 7

Get Trippy on Poker Night With These Glitch Playing Cards

Boy do I love fancy playing cards. Not only do they make playing cards more fun. They also make you want to play cards more often—which is generally healthy, so long as you don’t struggle with a gambling edition. My favorite card game is spades, and boy would that be fun with a trippy deck…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes Feb 16

Card decks with 52 aces of spades were used for psych warfare in Vietnam

During the Vietnam War, American soldiers started hearing rumors that the Vietnamese were very superstitious about the ace of spades. So Cincinnati’s U.S. Playing Card Co. responded by printing decks of nothing but ace of spades—and sending them for free to GIs in Vietnam for the purposes of “psychological warfare.” Colin Dickey, author of Afterlives…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 29

Real life Gambit blows things up by throwing playing cards

Growing up, I never wanted Cyclops’ optic blast or Wolverine’s adamantium claws or Magneto’s power over magnetic fields, I wanted to throw cards like Gambit. I don’t know if that makes me an unimaginative little kid who only dreamt about realistic powers but I do know I spent many summer days throwing cards at everything.…

Sploid Casey Chan Feb 26

10 Playing Card Decks That Are Too Pretty For Your Poker Table

For graphic designers, playing cards are a playground: The simple constraints of four suits and thirteen different cards accommodate tons of creativity without overcomplicating things. And there’s an amazing number of interesting decks out there. But which ones to buy? How will you impress your design enthusiast friends at the weekly poker game? Do prettier…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes Feb 5

Here’s an Amazing Card Trick Bet You Will Always Win

The beauty of math and numbers and formulas and equations and so forth is that they can work without you ever understanding how the hell they work. What seems like complete randomness is actually just a math problem! Like this slick trick with a deck of cards. Take twenty or so cards and flip over…

Tech News Casey Chan Oct 28

These Minimalist Cards Are Almost Too Pretty to Play With

Sometimes it’s not what you include but what you exclude that matters—which is the idea behind this beautiful pack of playing cards by designer Joe Doucet. Dubbed IOTA, the idea behind the cards was a simple one: just how much could be taken away while still maintaining a deck which could actually be used to…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Apr 30

You Can Play These Cards However Drunk You Are

There’s often beauty to be found in simplicity, and these playing cards are a great reminder of that. Called EZC—for obvious reasons—these cards are beautifully bold and crystal clear. They were originally designed for the visually impaired, but their clarity—bought about by striking use of color and a strong san-serif type—make them a delight for…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Mar 15

Playing cards

Gizmodo Monday Puzzle: Can You Solve These ‘Relative’-ly Simple Brainteasers?

Gizmodo Monday Puzzle: Our Most Controversial Problem Revamped

Dungeons & Dragons’ Deck of Many Things Is a Tarot-Inspired Supplement

Yeah, This Is the Week for a Centipikachu Plush

Swing Into the New Year With Even More Wonderful Toys

We Promise This Is the Only Week We’ll Ask You to Get Excited Over What Is Basically a Power Rangers Lamp

A Scary Star Wars Box and Video Game Legends Highlight the Week in Toys

Man Who Probably Hates Having Fingers Builds a Gun That Shoots Playing Cards at 120 MPH

The Best Version of Princess Leia Gets an Amazing Figure, and More Wonderful Toys of the Week

Can the Hydraulic Press Make It Through a Stack of Playing Cards?

Draw Your Own Deck With These Playing Card Notebooks

A Deck of Cards Featuring Kings, Queens, and Other Characters From Game of Thrones

Learn About Coding with These Ultra Nerdy Playing Cards

Get Trippy on Poker Night With These Glitch Playing Cards

Card decks with 52 aces of spades were used for psych warfare in Vietnam

Real life Gambit blows things up by throwing playing cards

10 Playing Card Decks That Are Too Pretty For Your Poker Table

Here’s an Amazing Card Trick Bet You Will Always Win

These Minimalist Cards Are Almost Too Pretty to Play With

You Can Play These Cards However Drunk You Are

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