“Sideshow is proud to bring you the Big Baby Life-Size Prop Replica from Hellboy II: The Golden Army. The Big Baby Prop Replica features six removable shells and a musical wind-up feature that plays the tune Lullaby and Goodnight, and comes complete with a sturdy display base. The Big Baby Life-Size Prop Replica is the perfect addition to any collection, a reflection if Sideshow’s dedication to quality.”
And while we’re on Hellboy you may get a kick out of this random quote generator that’s being used to promote the film:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 14, 2008 in Animation
As a Beatles fanboy I got quite a kick out of this animated short film — it uses the soundtrack of a recording made of 1969 interview of John Lennon which was done by a 14 year old snuck into a hotel room in Toronto.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 14, 2008 in Science
Why are you sitting at home watching Netflicks when there’s a huge ass space station flying above your house? It seems that the next few weeks will be ideal for NASA fanboys to catch a glimpse of the International Space Station:
“If you’re out watching the twilight sky in the time frame from 45 to 90 minutes before sunrise, or 45 to 90 minutes after sunset, you’ll might see a few “moving stars.” They are most likely artificial satellites. The brightest of all is the International Space Station, and this month provides some great opportunities to see it from just about anywhere. During the next couple of weeks, North Americans and Europeans will have many opportunities to see the ISS flying over their homes, due chiefly to a seasonal circumstance.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 13, 2008 in Videogames
I love this brilliant expletive filled review of a vintage 1987 copy of Mega Man (known as ロックマン Rokkuman in Japan) which was published by Capcom for the NES. You can tell that while he’s having a hard time with the game that Chris is enjoying every retro minute of Mega Man.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 13, 2008 in Star Wars
The never ending fight between good and evil computer connectivity methods continues! Shown above is the R2-D2 and Darth Vader USB hubs — the cute droid makes little beeping noises while Lord Vader will amuse your fellow Jedi by lighting up his eyes for you. Both Star Wars USB hubs are available from National Console Support for pre-orders.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 12, 2008 in Videogames
The above video shows an amazing real world demo of someone hacking an old school C-64 computer to make a retro version of Guitar Hero. What’s funny about this to me is that the first time I watched Guitar Hero being played my first thought was “this is just Space Invaders with musical instruments!”
The 60s were so international and eclectic: The British James Bond book series (which later went to film) — would then inspire the Matt Helm books which were then turned into a series of movies spoofing Cold War spy genre — which was then exported across the globe to places like Japan, where the above movie poster was designed. The above poster is for the 1966 film Murderers’ Row which starred Dean Martin as the super but not always sober secret agent, Ann-Margret as Ann-Margret and Karl Malden as the bad guy:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 11, 2008 in Comic Books
I’m so happy that Marvel is taking a chance and trying something different by bringing over Soleil: Sky Doll from France. Issue #3 of the book is set to hit comic book shops on July 16th and this issue looks just great. Shown above is the cover illustration which is by the team of Alessandro Barbucci and Barbara Canepa. The interior of the book measures up to the cover by the way…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 11, 2008 in Star Wars
The dumbest things make me so happy! Well it’s a bit past 3am here and I’ve just wasted a wee bit of time installing the 2.0 software on my iPhone. Of course the first application that I had to run was PhoneSaber:
“Ever wished you could swing your iPhone around like a lightsaber? Well now you can, with PhoneSaber. As you swing your phone, a range of lightsaber sound effects will be emitted from your phone’s speaker (or connected audio output). Not only that, but you can also withdraw and put away your saber. Last but not least, you can also change the colour of your lightsaber for maximum effect. PhoneSaber will be available on the App Store (at launch) for free!”
Urban vinyl toys just take chances that you don’t see in mainstream playthings: For example the above toy by Tokidoki of The TIGER! is done in this amazing shocking pink which is such a wonderful contrast to the evil heart and cross bones. The above design will be on sale at the San Diego Comic Con from STRANGECo.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 10, 2008 in Comic Books
Yeah I already know what you’re thinking! And yes I’m sorry that I sound like a broken record, but Dave Stewart (the comic book artist not the dude from the Eurythmics) keeps pumping out great covers for The Goon. They never take themselves too seriously, yet their technique has an amazing level of detail when you look at it up close — and the characters always seem animated, yet not too over the top. Shown above is the cover for The Goon #29 which Dark Horse will release this October.
“The upcoming Sanrio licensed Hello Kitty ATM Bank features a flip-top lid which pops up to reveal an keypad, a digital readout, and a coin slot which accepts 500-yen coins. Since a 500-yen coin measures 2.65cm or 1.04″ in diameter and a USA quarter (0.25 cents) is slightly less than an inch in diameter, the Kitty Bank will store up to 500 quarters. Three styles are on offer for preorder and reservations are welcome today.”
…I was going to wish that they made a version just or American currency, but even then it would be a stretch to think that you would use this in the real world (aside from showing it off to fellow kitty fangurls and fanboys).
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 9, 2008 in Comic Books
I read with excitement that Devil’s Due was putting out a Voltron comic book — but oh boy was I sorry when I looked at the previews: The inside of the comic book looks nothing like the series, in fact it doesn’t even look like anime! Now I’ll grant you that Voltron didn’t have the best character designs in the world, but any kid could tell that it was Japanese:
For some odd reason it looks like the team behind this Voltron comic book was looking at the wrong YouTube video because I swear these character designs look like they were lifted from the Crest Gel Toothpaste Cavity Creeps commercial:
Although those cavity creeps seem better drawn! Devil’s Due would have been better off licensing some unknown 70s manga, then cutting-and-pasting a robot every few frames and then colorizing the entire thing in Photoshop. And now that I’m thinking about it even the robot looks bad on the cover — it looks like instead they wanted to do a Lord of the Rings comic instead or were just too busy playing D&D.
Everything about this comic looks wrong — it’s one thing to Americanize something, but these illustrations look like a bad copy of Marvel. The characters are too buff, the coloring is all wrong, and even the princess character doesn’t look cute enough:
So if you see your childhood defaced Voltron: A Legend Forged #1 will be hitting cmic book shops on Thursday, July 10th.
“Metalocalypse Limited to 500 sets, selling for $80 and available only at San Diego Comic Con Booth #3849. This all-new line features fully painted vinyl action figures of Dethklok, the undisputed greatest animated metal band in the galaxy featured on Adult Swim’s hit series, Metalocalypse. The 5.5″ collectible action figure line will consist of band members Nathan Explosion, Skwisgaar Skwigelf, Toki Wartooth, Pickles and William Murderface and a secret pack-in!”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 7, 2008 in Pulp Fiction
Oh sure anyone can wrote about the world 100 years in the future, but this 1958 novel 43,000 Years Later by Horace Coon attempts to explore the year 45,000 from the point of view of explorers visiting Earth after it was destroyed in the 20th Century.
Sadly I couldn’t find a good bio of Horace Coon on the net, however I did come across a few other titles that he may have been the author of: Triumph of the Eggheads from 1955 which is a non-fiction title on intellectuals in American government (ah yes! the good old days) and American Tel and Tel: The Story of a Great Monopoly which was published in 1939. It’s ironic how these mid-20th century themes of nuclear proliferation, the importance of smart government and the financial power of telecommunications are still very much topics that are still in style.
The abstract looking illustration is by Richard M. Powers who did quite a few pulp covers that were very heavily influenced by surrealistic and dadaistic artists like Max Ernst. What I like about his work is that it’s a nice break from the realism that you see in so many pulp covers from the 30s through the 50s — Powers is daring to do a science fiction book cover in a modernist art style, which would become a bit more popular in the 60s (although is sadly out of style with unimaginative publishers today). By the way if you like the cover you can buy a copy of The Art of Richard Powers at amazon.com. A nice personal account of the life of Richard Powers can be found here.
I’ve always been amazed how David Lynch has made a career out of making entertainment that’s always on the cutting edge (everything from Eraserhead to Twin Peaks) — yet while his work has been very avant-guard it has always been so popular. Below is a related segment on how Lynch also finds inspiration from mediation:
That man you see in the photograph above is an international treasure. Under that rejected humble facade is none other than Charles Thomas Bolton who will one day be seen as one of the great astronomers of all time. He was THE first man to discover a black hole:
“In 1972, Bolton made a discovery in astronomy that was so important it guaranteed him a place in the history books: he was the first astronomer to present irrefutable evidence of the existence of a black hole. The black hole in question was Cygnus X-1, which lies at the centre of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Bolton detected its presence by observing star HDE 226868 wobble as if it was orbiting around an invisible but massive companion. His calculations demonstrated that the companion could be nothing less than a black hole.”
So why is one of the best astronomers in the world — a grown man who is 65 years old — crying on the steps of his observatory? After 73 years of the observatory being open the University of Toronto sent Bolton an email informing him that he had 10 days to get get off the premises because the University in their “wisdom” had decided to close the David Dunlap Observatory:
“In November, the university voted to close the observatory and sell it to the highest bidder, and redirect the money from the sale back into the school’s astronomy program. Yesterday it confirmed it has a “firm agreement” with a buyer and it’s looking to close the deal by month-end. It did not disclose the buyer or the price.”
The university used the excuse that the observatory was no longer useful due to light pollution, but this is a lie as the facility is perfectly useful long-term research programs and large survey programs where relatively few observations are taken of a large number of stars. But more shocking than the closure of the observatory is the poor way the university is treating Mr. Bolton. It’s heartbreaking to think that when you’re looking at that photo that they carrying out 37 years of his life’s work. The University of Toronto should be ashamed of their shoddy treatment of a man who is a real life hero.
I’ve spent my life wondering about the barbarians who sacked the library of Alexandria, I always imagined that it’s same primitive minded folks like the Taliban that destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Well what makes this case sad is that the man responsible for this move is David Naylor the 15th President of the University of Toronto who amongst his other honors is that he was a Rhodes Scholar. I’d love to know if Naylor has seen the photo Bolton crying on those steps and if so how he can he sleep at night knowing that he defiled an living astronomical treasure?
Unlike rockets solar sails work by tapping into the power of the sun. The first person to propose a solar sail was Johannes Kepler in the seventeenth century, although it wasn’t until 1984 when an article by engineer and science fiction author Robert L. Forward stirred serious interest in the subject. In 2001 and 2005 the Planetary Society made two attempts as testing the concept, but the mission was scuttled due to malfunctioning rockets.
But solar sails may be set to become reality shortly as NASA is getting ready to test the concept again with an ultra-thin, 100-square-foot sail called the NanoSail-D. The sail was developed in less than six months and features xtremely lightweight gossamer fabric designed to glide into space. The NanoSail-D is set to sail into orbit on July 29th and you can follow the progress with this mission dashboard and get updates via Twitter too:
Digital archivist (and artist) Todd Franklin unearthed this amazing Felix the Cat soda bottle cap for Felix Orange Dry. It’s funny that we always associate Disney characters with early mass merchandising, but by doing that we over look the other cartoon characters who helped exploit pop culture!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 5, 2008 in Comic Books
The above cover for Marvel Adventures Hulk #13 caught my eye for a number of reasons: First there’s the pre-aged look of a pulp fiction magazine, but then as you look further you see that the mummies are the good guys — oh no! This illustration is by Sean Murphy and his characters have a nice cartoony quality to them as seen in the detailed image below. This most mummified issue will be out on July 9th.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 4, 2008 in Animation
Rockin’ and a-rollin’, splishin’ and a-splashin’,
Over the horizon, what can it be?
Looks like it’s going to be a free country.
Shown above is a vintage 1975 Schoolhouse Rock animated interstitial on the subject of No More Kings. The music and lyrics are by Lynn Ahrens, and the animation is by Kim & Gifford Productions.
at amazon.com. A nice personal account of the life of 
