Toyota has turned a car seat into a gaming chair and it's $3,500
I've often wondered why gaming chairs aren't more like luxury car seats. I mean, some are, but they usually end up being "racing" models that are about as comfortable as being poked with a polyurethane-covered stick.
Surely it'd be simple enough to take a comfy car seat design, strap a piston and wheel combo to the bottom of it alongside some armrests, and then charge what you like. Oh look, here comes Toyota with exactly that.
The Crown Seat Desk Chair [PDF] is, as the name suggests, marketed as more of a desk chair than a gaming throne (via Tom's Hardware). Still, I know a good gaming chair when I see one. Look at those lovingly-crafted bolsters, designed to keep you centred on the action when things get hectic. The quality stitching. The headrest that looks ready to be tilted back for an after-game nap. Mmmm.
It's based on the car seat from, you guessed it, a Toyota Crown, and comes with powered adjustability settings, built-in electric heating and cooling, and a USB Type-C charging port hidden in the seatbelt buckle. Oh yes, I nearly forgot—it seems some elements have been retained from the actual car seat itself. A nice touch, but I bet you'd find yourself banging into it constantly if you bought one.
And therein lies two further problems. One, Toyota Boshoku, the company's seating and interior components specialist, is only producing 70 of them. And two, it's a Japan exclusive model, with a price tag that equates to around $3,500.
Ah, it was going so well, wasn't it? I tried looking for pre-owned Toyota Crown car seats and discovered some decent (although fabric-covered) examples starting for around $385, so hope is not lost. You could always make one a project, although good luck creating something as tidy-looking as the real thing.
Damn you, unobtainable gaming chair of my dreams. You elude me once more, but here's hoping this isn't the last we see of comfy car seats converted for desk-based usage. Just work on the pricing for me, would ya?