Musical lollipops, AI soulmates, and a toilet that texts your family—Las Vegas delivered another year of gloriously bizarre tech innovations.CES 2026 wrapped up in Las Vegas last, and while headlines focused on new AI chips, foldable phones, and bigger than life televisions—the show floor's most memorable moments came from gadgets that made absolutely no sense—in the best possible way.This is where engineers answer questions nobody asked, where "why?" takes a backseat to "why not?", and where a $700 hair dryer that doubles as a lamp somehow seems perfectly reasonable. Between the sensible laptops and practical smart home devices lurked an entire ecosystem of wonderfully bizarre creations: candy that plays music through your skull, toilets that text your family, and robots designed to follow your pets around all day.Here are the 26 strangest gadgets that caught our attention, proving once again that CES is where innovation meets absurdity—and we're here for all of it.Lollipop Star takes bone conduction technology—typically found in headphones—and stuffs it into candy. For $9, you get a sucker that plays licensed songs from artists like Ice Spice, Akon, and Armani White directly through your jawbone when you bite down. The sound vibrations travel through your cheekbones to your inner ear, bypassing your eardrums entirely. Each flavor corresponds to a different artist, and you need to chomp down with your molars to hear the full effect. It's a one-time-use musical experience that costs nearly ten bucks, but as novelty items go, it's genuinely impressive that it works at all.Dreame's giant C-shaped hair dryer stands as tall as a floor lamp because it is one. The $700 device positions itself over your head to dry your hair hands-free while you relax on the couch. When you're done, it transforms into a floor lamp and mood light. The company claims it features red light therapy to revitalise your scalp and a protective mist for hair care. Who's the target audience? Unclear. Does it adequately dry hair? It wasn't plugged in at the show. Do we care? Not at all—this is the sort of absurdity that makes CES interesting.Glyde's smart hair clippers promise "mistake-proof" fades using AI that automatically adjusts the blade in real-time. The catch? You need to wear an "incredibly dorky looking face band" so the clippers can detect their position on your head. The $150-200 system essentially makes you your own barber, complete with an AI hair-cutting coach. The company offered free haircuts to brave CES attendees, though the Flowbee comparisons were inevitable.Seattle Ultrasonics' C-200 chef's knife vibrates over 30,000 times per second, though you can't see or feel it. The ultrasonic vibrations help the blade slice through food with 50 percent less effort, making paper-thin tomato slices effortless. Food also doesn't stick to the blade as much, making cleanup easier. The knife charges via USB-C, and if you want wireless charging, that's another $149 for a mahogany wall-mounted tile. It could genuinely help people with arthritis, but $400 for a knife you have to plug in is a tough sell.China's Lepro brought its Ami device to CES—a curved OLED screen housing an AI "soulmate" for your desk. The company pitches Ami as an empathetic companion that connects with users on a deep level. The holographic woman inside the 8-inch display can chat with you, respond to your mood, and provide company. Unlike phone-based AI assistants, Ami requires a dedicated spot on your desk and doesn't follow you everywhere. Pretty much everyone just called it "hella creepy," though there's something to be said for giving your chatbot a dedicated physical form instead of letting it blur into your endless notifications.VOVO's $4,990 Smart Toilet Neo includes standard features like a built-in bidet and automatic flushing, plus a urine analysis sensor for health monitoring. But its standout safety feature sends alerts to family members if nobody has used the toilet for more than eight hours. When installed in a senior's home, it becomes a wellness check that could provide genuine peace of mind for families with elderly relatives living alone.Roborock's Saros Rover solves robot vacuums' biggest limitation with articulated legs and wheels that bend and extend to push it up each step. It can also clean the stairs as it climbs, turning 90 degrees with one leg on the lower stair to maintain stability while vacuuming. Watching it navigate a staircase looked awkward—like a toddler learning to climb—but it worked. Have you ever had to vacuum stairs? It's terrible, and this robot handles it autonomously.OlloBot might be part cyber pet, part penguin, part E.T., but somehow it comes with a warm, fuzzy, telescoping neck. Its "face" is basically a tablet for expressions, photos, and messages, designed to evolve a personality over time based on household interactions. The standout feature? Its memories live in a removable heart-shaped module, so if the body breaks, you can theoretically transplant your robot's soul into a new shell. The company plans a Kickstarter campaign for summer, with pricing starting around $1,000.Beijing Walkarrive Technology showed off an AI pet penguin that slowly skates around on a skateboard. The concept device aims to eventually recognise faces and objects while learning to listen and respond. For now, it's just a prototype penguin that putters around looking adorable, relegated to skating around trade show booths. It's pretty fun, all in all.The Vex robot follows your cat or dog around capturing video while attempting to play with them. It uses AI to edit footage into "moving narratives and shareable stories" about your pet's day. Want to know if your dog jumps on the couch when you're gone? The Vex will document everything, though the company hasn't shared any AI-edited footage yet. No price or release date announced.iPolish brings sci-fi nail technology to reality with press-on acrylic nails that use electrical charges to switch between hundreds of colours in seconds. The $95 starter kit includes nails you can individually change using an app with over 400 colour options. You put each nail into a small machine that instantly changes its colour. It's delightfully impractical, surprisingly affordable, and the most convincing argument for treating your nails like a customisable display.Vinabot created an AI picture frame inspired by Harry Potter's moving paintings. Upload a photo and a short script, and the frame generates an AI video that can have conversations with you in real time. Whether it's a celebrity, character, or real person, the frame brings them to life for chat sessions. It's heading to Kickstarter for crowdfunding.Razer's Project Ava houses a 5.5-inch hologram featuring anime characters like Kira (with cat ears) or Zane (with tattoos) who can see what's on your screen and offer gaming tips. The pod uses xAI's Grok AI and includes a built-in camera and dual-mic array for interaction. During demos, the spunky Kira broke down the ins and outs of first-person shooters. The characters nod encouragingly and play peekaboo, which is either endearing or unsettling depending on your tolerance for digital companions.The Skwheel Peak S lets you ski on roads, beaches, or grass using motorised electric skis with wheels. You control speed with a remote while carving turns just like traditional skiing. Each ski features its own motor and treaded wheels. The €1,490 price tag gets you the ability to pretend you're on a mountain while cruising city streets—though learning to use the precise tilt controls takes about 20 minutes.Bodyframe's massage chair doesn't just massage—it independently moves your limbs into different positions using robotic arms. The South Korean company's creation can help people with low mobility by actively repositioning their arms and legs. During demos, it left people in fits of giggles as the chair manipulated their bodies. It launches in June for $20,000, making it possibly the most expensive weird gadget at the show.Yukai Engineering returned to CES with Baby FuFu, a faceless robotic bear that blows air at babies. The same company previously brought us the "nib nib" cat that chewed fingers, headless cat pillows, and pillows that breathed. Baby FuFu continues their tradition of vaguely creepy products that seem designed to attract tiny grabbing fingers. It's weird in the best possible way.The MindOne Pro packs a full-featured Android phone into a 4-inch square screen. It has a 50-megapixel rear camera that rotates upward for selfies and even acts as a kickstand when you prop the phone up. After carrying massive foldables, it felt light as a feather in the pocket. The device comes with a second proprietary OS centered around AI apps, plus free global data for those features, though you can order it with just Android if you're wary of the AI additions.Tomorrow Doesn't Matter's Neo headphones feature a flexible headband you can fold inward to transform them into a speaker. The device has separate 40mm drivers for headphone mode and speaker mode. It's launching via Kickstarter for $249, targeting people who want one device for both personal listening and sharing audio—a neat party trick with practical applications.L'Oréal's LED Face Mask uses ultra-thin, semi-transparent silicone with visible circuitry creating a vein-like pattern. The company claims it tightens and smooths skin using targeted red and near-infrared light in 10-minute sessions. It looks delightfully ridiculous in the best sci-fi skincare way. The company is also developing a companion serum so your skin doesn't feel left out to dry. Expected launch in 2027.GoveeLife's ice maker uses AI to predict when it's about to make noise during freezing, then defrosts itself accordingly to stay quieter. The company calls this "AI NoiseGuard" technology. The $499.99 machine can make ice in just 6 minutes—AI applied to one of the most specific household annoyances imaginable.Sweekar starts as an egg that hatches after two days, revealing a pocket-sized AI pet with a screen for eyes. You can talk to it, feed it, and change its outfits. The cute little device learns about you using a companion app and literally grows bigger as it matures. It's essentially a modern Tamagotchi with physical form-changing abilities. The company plans a Kickstarter campaign in March, with expected pricing between $100-150.Honor's Robot Phone prototype features a flip-out camera and gimbal that can track subjects automatically. Based on promos, the camera moves independently and tracks subjects, though what else it can do remains mysterious since touching wasn't allowed during demos. The company plans to reveal more details at Mobile World Congress in February, but it's already one of the most unconventional phone designs in recent memory.Strutt's ev1 "personal everyday vehicle" looks like Professor X's wheelchair crossed with a Tesla. The four-wheeled device uses voice controls, LiDAR, and navigation to autonomously take you where you want to go. Its 360-degree sensor array stops instantly when obstacles appear. A small display on the right armrest shows what the ev1's cameras capture in real time. Price unknown, but expect it to be expensive.Lenovo's Legion Pro Rollable concept takes a 16-inch gaming laptop and expands its screen horizontally to 23.8 inches at the press of a button. The flexible display offers three aspect ratios (16:10, 21:9, and 24:9) depending on your needs. Racing games and flight simulators would absolutely shine on this device. It looks ungainly when fully extended, but of all the concepts at CES, this is the one we most hope becomes real.Jackery's Solar Mars Bot is an autonomous battery backup with retractable solar panels that tracks the sun and repositions itself for optimal charging. The 5kWh battery comes with multiple plugs and ports. During demos, a bright light simulated the sun and periodically moved to different spots—the Mars Bot identified the new location with mosquito-like quickness and calmly scooted over. Watching it work felt like witnessing a very helpful Mars rover prototype.Clicks, the company known for keyboard cases, wasn’t out there with yet another accessory this year—it came to the show with an entire phone. The Communicator leans hard into BlackBerry DNA with its full keyboard and Curve-esque design. The prototype units had working keyboard keys that felt genuinely nice to type on, plus swappable back panels in sleek colors. It's envisioned as a companion to your main smartphone, something you grab when typing emails matters more than scrolling vertical videos. But plenty of people have expressed interest in using it as their primary device, which is somehow even more delightful.CES, once again, remind us that weird tech isn't just surviving—it's thriving in increasingly bizarre directions. These gadgets represent engineers asking "could we?" without always pausing to consider "should we?" And that's exactly what makes CES special.Will any of these actually matter? Some will. The stair-climbing vacuum addresses a problem anyone with a two-story house understands. The smart toilet's eight-hour check—while a little exaggerated—could save lives. The ultrasonic knife might make cooking accessible for people whose hands don't work like they used to.Probably, a dozen out of these 26 gadgets will ship and find their audiences. Others—the musical lollipops, the AI soulmate in a tube, the penguin on a skateboard—are harder to defend. These will likely fade into tech folklore as cautionary tales or ahead-of-their-time concepts.But that's exactly what makes CES special. These strange gadgets remind us that innovation doesn't always follow a straight path, and sometimes the most interesting conversations come from the most impractical ideas. Even if we never buy them—and let's be honest, most of us won't—they make technology more entertaining, push boundaries, and occasionally solve problems we didn't know we had.