One of my favorite childhood toys was a treasured but slightly abused die-cast Yellow Submarine toy made by Corgi. Sadly while it was a high quality toy I recall damaging it at some point, so I was pretty happy to read that Corgi has entered into a licensing agreement for a range of Beatles and Yellow Submarine goodies:
“Celebrate the Beatles legacy with the album covers die-cast collection, featuring London Taxis and Buses fully decorated with Beatles album covers of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road the Magical Mystery Tour Bus and a range of others. They roll into shops around spring/summer time.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 5, 2008 in Animation
Surrealism is always more disturbing to me than anything I’ve ever seen in the horror genre, which I think is due to the lack of conventional storytelling that we see in a typical slasher flick or monster movie. The above animated film Struggle of Love in a Dream (Hypn-eroto-machia —Гипнэротомахия) is a good example of how a lack of coherent structure itself can be somewhat chilling. Andrei Svislotsky was inspired by the paintings of Salvador Dali when he directed this film in 1992, however I also sense the chaos of the post-cold war under the surface the artwork.
“Japan’s Heart Art Collection, Ltd., who recently graced the world with the irresistible R2-D2 and R4-P17 trash cans, now unveils a set of eight stellar tea towels which may just transcend their modest utilitarian function to qualify as, dare we say, art?
The eight towels, which measure approximately 15″x35″, include some wonderful Japanese-inspired Star Wars imagery, such as R2-D2 jettisoning over a traditional Mount Fuji with ocean waves woodcut, a clone trooper helmet doubling as a Japanese shrine bell, Artoo and Threepio under a cherry blossom tree, Vader and Yoda amid intricate scrollwork patterns, and more.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 4, 2008 in Star Trek
Chief Engineer Michaelangelo, First Officer Donatello, Captain Leonard, and Chief Medical Officer Raphael: These are the continuing voyages of the Star Trek Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Shown above is a detail from the back of a Playmates package dating from 1994 (to check out Chief Engineer Michaelangelo go here).
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 3, 2008 in Videogames
Shown above are screen shots from RoboCop 2, F-1 Race, Hello Kitty no Ohanabatake and James Bond Jr. which I found at Nintendo8.com an entertaining website which allows you to play dozens of classic 8-bit games online.
“A team of astronomers says it may have spotted the youngest planet ever found, boasting an age of less than 100,000 years old, and perhaps as young as 1600 years old. They say it bolsters a controversial theory that planets form very quickly, like stars – but other astronomers say the massive object may not be a planet at all but a ‘failed’ star, which explains its speedy birth.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 3, 2008 in Star Wars
Why should Jawas have all the fun? Now you can own your own life sized droids! Shown above is the R2-D2 ($5,450) life sized figure from Sideshow Collectibles. Another $5,950 will get you C-3PO.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 2, 2008 in Star Trek
The above clip almost looks more like a parody of a TV show from 1973 than an actual show, but it’s the real deal — well almost, it’s a failed pilot for a show called Baffled! which would have starred Leonard Nimoy. Here’s the description:
“In the role Robert Wagner was born to play, Nimoy stars as All-American race car driver Tom Kovack who tackles mystery and adventure after he is endowed with psychic powers in a racing accident. A failed TV pilot, it is notable for it’s fun, kitchy opening and totally kick ass theme song.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 2, 2008 in Comic Books
I’ve seen it time and time again — everyone since the 60s has been ripping off Roy Lichtenstein ripping off comic book cover sin the name of fine art. But alas Mark Todd has come up with a brilliant twist that breaks the cliché: Instead of painting yet another comic book cover in a pop art style Todd uses a style that’s a mix of expressionism and folk art. Instead of cropping in on the artwork like Lichtenstein, Todd embraces the constructs of the comic book by including hand drawn logos, issue numbers and even comics code stamp. I also admire the fact that the work doesn’t take itself so seriously and has a childlike yet charming sense of humor.
Shown above is Coil (mixed media on panel 24″x36″) and below is Oof (mixed media on panel 9″x12″) .
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 1, 2008 in Comic Books
Browsing through Waffle Whiffer’sFlickr site I came across the cover of Adventures of Big Boy #137 from 1968 which is shown on the left. The first thing that shocked me was that they had already done over a hundred issues by the 60s, but by further hunting around I came across the cover on the right from 1971 — so I sort of assumed that the comic book had come to an end.
However much to my shock I found out that not only is Big Boy still alive and kicking, but his current savior is none other than talented illustrator/toy genius Craig Yoe:
“We’ve tried hard to be inspired by the great comics we read when we were kids—from Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge to John Stanley’s Little Lulu, not to mention the wacky [Superman’s Pal] Jimmy Olsen stories of the ’50s and ’60s. Along that line, a couple of years ago I came up with Bob Boy as a superhero: Bigger Boy. We often feature Bigger Boy, and now he’s part of a superhero group with Dolly, his friend Zack, and Nugget, his dog. Assembled, they are the Big League!”
