On this day in 1916 film and TV producer Irwin Allen was born in New York City — in his career of over thirty years he created a slew of amazing show like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants. In the 70s he turned his talents to disaster film, producing such classics as The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 11, 2009 in Videogames
I’ve been following the fame of Vocaloid software mascot Miku Hatsune via the dozens of fan videos from Japan for some time now, so it’s cool to see that Sega will be featuring her in an upcoming Sony PSP game. What’s great about the trailer above is that it almost reminds one of a classic old school MGM musical from back in the day, it’s my bet that after this game comes out that it’s only a matter of time until she stars in her own anime series (although she’s made some cameos so far). Read more…
There was a time in my life where the one thing I looked ahead to was the next Martin Scorsese film, and then in 2002 that was all take away for me. I spent about a year waiting for Gangs of New York and when it came out I found myself totally deflated. Most of the film was great except for one minor thing, and that would be Leonardo DiCaprio who in retrospect single handedly ruined what should have been a great film. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 11, 2009 in Videogames
Being the pivotal historic event of the 20th Century up until now I thought World War II had it all — but obviously that isn’t good enough for today’s consumer market so Activision went ahead and improved it by adding zombies! I honestly couldn’t complain about Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack 2 but my understanding of the franchise was that it prided itself on being historically accurate. I mean why not go all the way and add some werewolves and vampires too? Read more…
“The House slashed NASA’s manned space exploration $4 billion budget by 16 percent for 2010, as the White House will wait patiently to hear more of NASA’s plans once the shuttle fleet is retired. The $670 million cut will leave just $3.21 billion, which is less than what the U.S. space agency is working with already.” Read more…
If you came of age in the era of Pokémon prepare to feel like an old timer: Every generation has their entry level show which introduces them to the world of anime and the current hot show with the elementary school set is Bakugan Battle Brawlers (爆丸バトルブローラーズ ). With Bakugan there have already been over 50 episodes of the anime series aired in both Japan and North America with and additional 55 millions toys sold last year. So it’s no surprise that a videogame had to come out of this: Shown above is the trailer for the upcoming Bakugan game which is due out later this year for the Wii and DS. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 9, 2009 in Star Trek
As cool as the iPhone seems to be getting these days there’s still a certain magic to the original communicator from the original Star Trek series. While you can’t sync this Star Trek Communicator Keychain with iTunes it does include eight sound effects from the original crew of the Enterprise. And of course the famous opening noise too! Read more…
Dr. Tezuka: He's smiling in this photo, but I don't think he would be pleased with this game.
I could be wrong: Astro Boy may just turn out the be the very best animated film of 2009. But sadly everything I’ve seen makes me think otherwise — and this teaser trailer for the videogame based on the film is the latest example. It just looks like they a sprite of Astro Boy and chucked him into some pre-existing generic 3D game engine. There no charm that one might associate with the cute boy robot of yore, just tons of things that seem to need to be beaten up for no reason at all. I’ll never guess why the estate of Tezuka didn’t insist on creative control, it’s as if the crown anime jewels of Japan have been turned into cheap throw away trinkets. Well with any luck this won’t kill the franchise for more than a decade or so…
This is the Japanese promotional video for the PokéWalker — which is a virtual Pokémon pet of sorts. The PokéWalker is developed by Creatures Inc. which is a toy subsidiary of Nintendo. From what I can gather the toy also includes a pedometer for exercise oriented fanboys. By the way notice how the spokeslady is sporting a belt whose belt buckle mimics the industrial design of the PokéWalker: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 8, 2009 in Animation
On June 9th, 1934 Donald Duck made his debut in the Disney short The Wise Little Hen. His original character design (seen above) wasn’t quite the foil that he would evolve to be in later cartoons — although all the essential elements are there from his trademark voice to his sailor suit: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 7, 2009 in Star Wars
This humorous segment of one of two episodes from Sesame Street in 1980 that feature C-3PO and R2-D2 (scene 4 of episode 1396 to be exact). Other scenes featured Bob singing about the alphabet with the droids (and of course some kids to help out).
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 7, 2009 in Star Wars
From a long time ago from a galaxy far far away comes this R2-D2 beanie hat which I discovered on Etsy. The hat is designed by Babbidge Patch which makes all sorts of wonderful scarves and hats that are slightly less sci fi themed although ever so cute. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 7, 2009 in Star Wars
Who could ever forget the trash compactor scene on the Death Star? Of course R2-D2 wasn’t in that scene, but this clever t-shirt shows the “after” shot if that was the case. The t-shirt is designed by Glennz Tees and available at ThinkGeek.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 6, 2009 in Animation
I have to say that I’m slightly disappointed with this trailer. This film was the result of a lawsuit that allowed producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki to make a new Yamato film. And frankly there’s nothing wrong with that, but a key ingredient that’s missing here is Leiji Matsumoto who directed the first film and gave really gave the franchise its soul. When that soul is missing you get the above trailer: A slow moving collection of pretty spaceships sporting a tired CGI look (and frankly that Blue Noah reference at the start is just adding insult to injury): Read more…
Last night Larry King put together an amazing panel on David Carradine which featured Quentin Tarantino and Rob Schneider. For me the highlight of the segment featured Quentin Tarantino showing off his vintage Kung Fu lunchbox that he still had from his childhood. You can tell with the guests that there was a great deal of respect in the room for the man. Instead of focusing on the cause of his death I’d rather focus on his life — above is a Larry King interview with Carradine from 1991 which is riveting. Read more…
Kokeshi are traditional Japanese wooden dolls, and in this case artist Craig Galentine has given us his Star Trek twist on this beloved toy. Both Captain Kirk and Spock are available for your further perusal on Etsy along with Galentine’s other amazing goodies. Read more…
In the great tradition of Marvel vs. Capcom comes Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars! Old school anime fans will be very familiar with Tatsunoko as the animation studio behind Battle of the Planets, which was a watered down version of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. Other Tatsunoko properties featured in this game are characters from beloved classics like Tekkaman and Yatterman and more recent titles like Karas. And of course on the Capcom side you can pick from characters from Street Fighter and Mega Man. This title has already come out in Japan, but I’m very pleased to see that they’ll be bringing it over to North America for the Wii. Read more…
As a child of the 70s I loved the Eagles — no not the infamous rock band (although I do like the Twilight Zone plot to Hotel California) but the de-facto spaceship from Space:1999. The focus of the show was Moonbase Alpha of course, but the Eagle was the real workhorse of the show. Unlike Star Trek the poor Alphans didn’t have any transporter technology so the Eagle was vital for everything from visiting planets to moving about radioactive waste material. The industrial design of the craft was nothing short of brilliant a the mid-section could be swapped for modules that transported people or radioactive waste containers. Even better yet the head of the craft could be separated in case of emergencies. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 4, 2009 in Animation
This is the latest collection of TV ads for Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen and I have to say that while I have no clue if the films have any sort of plot you get a sense that if you’re in it for the eye candy that you won’t be disappointed: Read more…
You go to anime con after anime con and you always see the same thing: Many cosplay artists try so hard to pull off the Suzumiya Haruhi look and so many fail. The sailor outfit part is pretty easy, but the secret to Haruhi success is that her hair has to look just right with the bow perfectly in place. By the way bows are a hard fashion accessory to pull off, the last time I saw it done well was when Madonna was doing it in the mid-80s. But fret not! As of August of this year for a small budget anybody can now purchase an authentic Suzumiya Haruhi Cosplay Wig for about $30.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 3, 2009 in Videogames
In terms of videogames at this point the Lego brand is just like zombies, you simply add it to anything and it makes the title better! So in this case Rock Band is getting the Lego treatment, and if nothing else it looks so cute (of course!). The game will come out this holiday season for the PS3, 360, Wii and DS. Featured acts include Blur and Pink, but I guess we’ll have to wait for Beatles edition for next year. Here are some screen shots: Read more…
As a geek from the 80s I take it as my personal vindication that the Care Bears aren’t enjoying the resurgence that’s being seen with Transformers right now (of course a major Hollywood film didn’t hurt either). This Trypticon Transforming Laser Mouse is made by Takara and available for pre-order at bigbadtoystore. This USB mouse works with both Windows and Mac, but frankly my bet is that if you’re a real fanboy (or fangurl) that you won’t want to take it out of the packaging for fear of ruining the collectibility value. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 2, 2009 in Videogames
What’s great about this 1982 advert for Demon Attack is that the commercial seems to have absolutely nothing to do with the content of the videogame that’s being advertised. Although that disconnect wasn’t too uncommon in that era as the games were rather abstract looking and the box art often told a different (and more detailed) story: Read more…
Michael can, Peter sells it, Dudley’s more and Peter cooks; in short Wrong can do no wrong. Cut to the chase: The Wrong Box is one of the funniest movies ever made, period (wait, make that an em dash) — Some Like It Hot funny, Blazing Saddles funny, Airplane! funny — and it’s not on DVD (at least not legally). Fortunately, as I discovered over the weekend, you can catch it on the planetary repository of audio-visual material known as ‘YouTube’ in delicious ten-minute chunks: Read more…
