This does not look like a computer mouse. It looks like Iron Man’s face. But it’s the year 2016, and humanity’s capacity for invention is limitless. Behold: a peripheral that looks like Iron Man and lets you move a cursor around on a computer screen. What will we think of next?
How about some headphones that look like Iron Man’s... ears? Now we’re cooking with gas, or a nuclear reactor or something. With Iron Man’s face in your hand and Iron Man’s ears on your ears, you’ll feel like a superhero next time you game.
Except... we haven’t gone far enough. You’ve still got a free hand. Why stop at one Iron Man mouse when you could have two Iron Man mice? Iron Man has those energy blaster things in both of his hands, after all. Don’t you want to be like Iron Man?
Don’t you?
I know I do. That’s why I stopped by E-Blue’s tiny corner of CES last week to check out its silly Marvel-themed peripherals. E-Blue makes decent mice, considering how dirt cheap they are: I picked their Cobra as a good budget wireless choice last year. One of E-Blue’s Iron Man mice actually looks a good bit like the Cobra, with a shape I wouldn’t mind putting my hand on. The other one is more travel-sized and I couldn’t really imagine playing a game with it—it’s too stubby, and feels more like a kid’s toy than a well-built gaming mouse.
Okay, and I’ll be completely honest: holding the mouse in my hand didn’t make me feel like a superhero. Or as rich, good-looking or clever as Robert Downey, Jr. But I’m pretty sure a kid would go apeshit over this thing, and E-Blue’s budget pricing makes Iron Man’s face a smart My First Gaming Mouse.
E-Blue told me that they currently only have the Marvel license for Asia, but hope to get it for the US soon. I have a sneaking suspicion Disney may shoot for a slightly higher class of tie-in in the US, so you may never be able to easily buy these in the west. But there are very similar models on Amazon, if really cheap, questionably licensed Chinese products are your thing. Unfortunately, I don’t think any gaming-based peripheral will ever live up to the Harry Potter Obama Hedgehog backpack.
