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4. ICON A5 Sports Aircraft and Pilot Training for Two
Price: $250,000
The kids are healthy. The careers are under control. The in-laws are still, well, in-laws. You’ve earned something special, just for the two of you. Something amazing, exciting, and most certainly romantic. How about turning sci-fi into reality with a His & Hers luxury sports vehicle—in the air. First, let’s erase what we know about individual aviation. The FAA got it together in 2004 and created the Light Sport Aircraft category, to encourage recreational consumer piloting at low altitudes. There’s a new Sport Pilot License that’s faster and easier to get. Under 10,000 feet and safely out of the way of commercial air space, you can now fly as easily as hopping into your convertible or speed boat. May we officially present our exclusive 2009 His & Hers gift package: the game-changing ICON A5 sports aircraft. It’s from a world-class team of engineers and designers who helped create the groundbreaking Virgin® Global Flyer and X Prize®-winning SpaceShipOne® (among other things). It’s been rigorously tested, meets or exceeds all FAA standards, production is about to begin, and the waiting list is stacking way up. Here are just ten of its numerous “WOW!” factors: 1. An amphibious hull and landing gear to take off and land just as easily on water as on land. 2. The ability to run on automotive gasoline or aviation fuel. 3. A sexy, streamlined two-seat interior with intuitive controls, including 4. FAA-approved flight instrumentation and 5. a state-of-the-art GPS system, so you don’t get lost. 6. A range of 345 land miles or 300 nautical miles. 7. A next-generation lightweight carbon fiber frame. 8. Spy-movie wings that rotate up and fold back out of the way. 9. Removable side windows to dangle your arms out into the wind and sun. 10. A custom, high-tech trailer for fast and easy loading and unloading from land or water. Your package includes one ICON A5 sport aircraft with NM exclusive exterior and interior luxury upgrades, a custom trailer, and full FAA-certified Sport Pilot License training for two. Load “your” song onto an MP3 player and slip it into the dashboard dock and there it is, the perfect way to float through the clouds, just the two of you. For more information on the ICON A5, please visit www.iconaircraft.com
3. Insect Lab Specimen Artwork
Price: $8,500
Maine artist Mike Libby founded his Insect Lab with a sophisticated sense of whimsy. He obtains preserved, non-endangered specimens from around the world. Then the artistic alchemist takes over. After preparing and carefully posing the insect, he then adorns it with a unique mix of mechanical ephemera. For our limited-edition series of nine, he selected the African Flower Beetle—Cetonidae: Goliathus Goliathus. It measures 8.5″ across and is posed in mid-flight with magnificently detailed parts from antique pocket watches: gears, dials, springs, and other mechanical thingamabobs. Each arrives under glass on a handsome walnut display base, adorned with a brass plaque. Mike also will sign, label, and number the underside of each one.
2. Maker’s Mark® Master Distiller Experience for Two
Price: $7,500
Any whisky aficionado will tell you it is perfection in amber. Maker’s Mark® Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky is handmade in small quantities of just 19 barrels, each batch distilled and aged with the same exacting standards the Samuels family has passed down for seven generations. As Master Distillers for a day, you and a friend will have an all-access VIP experience like no other, with Master Distiller Kevin Smith as your host. You will participate in the unique whisky-making process step by step, for an insider’s look at how every detail makes every glass a special occasion. This gift experience includes a two-bottle memento of the rarest Maker’s Mark bottles ever: Two golden bottles will be etched with your likeness and dipped in gold wax with 24-kt. gold flecks. You’ll also get to hand dip six of your own 375ml Maker’s Mark bottles in signature red wax and take them home. The experience includes luxury accommodations in Louisville and a gourmet dinner hosted by Bill Samuels, Jr. (the top dog at Maker’s Mark).
1. Customized Cupcake Car
Price: $25,000
Put on your matching hat, slip under the muffin top of your Cupcake Car, and let the world figure itself out for awhile. Get (or give) the sheer, joyful chaos of a gift that is mind-blowing, triple-dog-dare, double-infinity forever cool. Make the kids or grandkids literally squeal with joy. Bring it to work and buzz the breakroom. Crash parades! Putter about the ‘hood. Ever had a crowd of kids chasing after you just for the crazy gleeful heck of it? (No worries, the top speed is a comfy-safe 7 mph.) What’s it made of? A 24-volt electric motor, a heavy-duty battery, sheet metal, wire, fabric, wood…and mad genius. Launched at Burning ManSM as a cooperative art car project, the Cupcake Car sprang from the fevered mind of Bay Area artist Lisa Pongrace and her less-rules-more-laughs posse of artists and techno geeks. Yours will be tricked out with your favorite topping, so start thinking flavors.
Photos: Barcroft/Fame Pictures
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