Animator Dillon Markey, who works on the stop-motion Adult Swim show Robot Chicken , was looking for a way to more efficiently manage his work flow.

“ I had to have a Powerglove on my arm!

While animating a shot on a large stage a few years ago, Markey needed to move from one side of the stage to the other to animate each frame. While moving around the stage, he carried with him a corded, numeric USB keypad. He asked himself, "Why can't I just wear this on my arm?"Working with an electrical engineer friend, Markey modded the device to work with his animation software via a cordless Bluetooth connection. In addition, he added a retractable set of tweezers to help manipulate the fine details of the animation models, details like mouths and eyebrows.The D-pad controls back and forth motion through the individual animation frames, while the A and B buttons control frame capture."Those are the two most important controls I ever use," he said. The remaining keys on the device are programmable."The first thing I animated with the Powerglove was actually really special," Markey said. The episode featured Bill Gates and Shigeru Miyamoto hanging out in a Jacuzzi. "I thought it was really appropriate that I would be animating that sequence."The time between his initial idea and the functional tool was about a year and a half, and he's been animating with the device for another year and a half.The iconic Powerglove, while the object of affection for millions of kids brought up playing NES, didn't quite work as advertised, and made IGN's list of 9 baffling video game accessories

Seth Macy is a freelance writer who just wants to be your friend. Follow him on Twitter @sethmacy , and MyIGN at sethgmacy , or "like" Seth Macy Photography on Facebook.