This is pretty awesome:
But is it "$3000 + $200 shipping" awesome? I'm not convinced...
But is it "$3000 + $200 shipping" awesome? I'm not convinced...
(There are no prices on their web site, so I mailed and asked, and they sent me a PDF that was exactly the same content as their Flash-horror web site -- except that it had prices in it. It's not like this information changes frequently! Thanks for that waste of time, assholes.)
Update: Ok, I bought one, and it is totally awesome, and really comfortable. So I will forgive them for their ill-advised web-design decisions.
please. get. one.
Bleh...just go to any WalMart and buy yourself 50 or so kickballs and glue them together for a hell of a lot less than 3200.
I hope you're trolling.
It's a bunch of balls...
If it is a bunch of balls, $3200 / 120 = $26 per ball.
That's not too bad. You could probably make it yourself cheaper, but maybe not much. Then there's figuring out what it does and how its made without having one to reverse engineer.
Plus you're like... totally into that kinda shit, right?
Get one!
I'm into balls...but not that kind.
Curse my lack of obscene disposable income!
plz get one! can i lay on it?!?!
She looks like she's sleeping on the "fruit of the loom" guy.
Why is everything a panty fetish with you people!
It's all the weird japanese shit you keep exposing us to.
actually the stuff is from israel
well at least the company
How do you know it's not a fruit fetish?
What's the purpose of the black dangly parts? Handles?
Gotta have something to hold on to if you ever try to have sex in that thing.
I considered that, but the Liberator cushions are way cheaper.
And at least one of the parties might be intimidated by that many giant balls. Plus the hassle of washing 120 balls.
Giant BLUE balls, for that matter.
Stems.
I would guess it's modular, and the black straps are the interconnects.
I think so too. It's a nice innovation over just piling the balls up with retaining walls so that they can't get away. I also think it makes it well suited to a diy as you can build it in stages - it's just a big sheet of balls joined with what appears to be short lengths of webbing and clips on the sides.
<lj user="photwenny"/>'s pricing suggestion seems to be a bit offside, you can buy large foam balls made of urethane or a variety of other foamed substances for less than US$8 ( e.g. one, or slightly more expensive, 'Good non-threatening multi-purpose ball.' ) from wholesale, sports and educational suppliers.
The elementary schools I work at must go through tonnes of these things every year. I make the grid out as roughly 8 x 8 in the red model photo, for a figure of approximately $512 plus delivery, webbing and labor - but I have no idea how to get the pretty elastic sleeves on there.
-- curious_jp
try to reverse-prototype a tennisball and use the two felt-parts as pattern. then sew your tailored (after that pattern) fabric likewise together leaving a little open seam to put the foam ball in (of course flip inside out first). suture ... done.
"..anyone for tennis?"
That's not my pricing. Its what jwz put in the post. The website says that grid is 120 balls. All I did was the simple math. Purchasing one of these bed deals from the manufacturer ends up at $26/ball, dividing the total cost ($3200) by the number of balls.
120 plain balls would cost around $1000-1440, using the examples you gave, plus shipping? Add in the other fabric and raw materials and that's easily 1/2 of the price of the product before you even pick up a needle and thread.
Cutting, sewing and stuffing 120 ball sacks (hee hee) sounds like a lot of work to me, but then I've sewn little more than buttons. Then connecting them with the black deals... Seems like a lot of work to me; just buy the thing and support the artist. ;)
Oh! Beg your pardon, I didn't realise the number of balls were on the site ( I just looked at the pretty pictures ). With your numbers, it certainly would be expensive and difficult to build by hand. I think the most horrible part would be "piercing" the balls, and this would also be the most difficult part of constructing this sofa.
On the other hand, I'm sceptical that they'd be able to ship this thing to my place in Japan for $200, unless they were planning to float it here. :-) It would be nice if they sold the individual "cells" on the website, and let you mix and match colour and size in the quantities you needed.
-- curious_jp
There may not be prices on their site, but that doesn't mean it's devoid of entertainment value:
I saw those a little while ago on MocoLoco, and it made me look up those large Nerf balls to see if I could get this many on the cheap. I didn't click through to the site, though, so I missed that they're obviously quite a bit larger, and of substantially nicer quality. And also I didn't find a cheap source of oversized Nerf balls.
or they just do have false legs?
did anybody else notice the weird animation where the girl is been eaten by that ball-blob?
That would be completely easy to make (theoretically anyway). Foam balls (this would be the biggest cost, might be hard to find right size/density, but they could be made with upholstry foam and shaped, even if they weren't perfect after they were stuffed into the covers they'd shape up), stretchy elasticized material (probeby a thick bathing suit material would do...lycra?), black nylon strapping (cheapity cheap). Might take about 4 days to make...a long, pain in the ass four days (lycra is slippery).
Now I want to make one.
Likewise. I'm worried about whether it's healthy, though. Clearly I would not want to sleep on a single ball of any but very large size, and on the other hand, infinitely many sufficiently small balls would be indistingushable from a flat mattress. I would need to experiment before dropping anything close to $3.2K on a couch. Presumably the manufacturer would use a different sized balls if they thought they would sell better, though. Maybe.
What's the refund policy? Is there a restocking fee?
Uh, they can't even spell the word "returns".
You know, the more you folks talk about how "easy" this would be to make, the more their price sounds like a bargain.
So, uh, thanks for that I guess?
The hinges that the company uses are the mystery/key -- they aren't just cloth covered balls, they somehow have the ability to retain a configuration...
They are using advanced internal cord tension technology, I suspect.
advanced internal cord tension technology? Or...they put a hole in the balls and string them together on bungee cords! (simplify)