Posted by Ben Huber on Apr 27, 2013 in Anime, Fandom
I’ve been on an Neon Genesis Evangelion kick recently (since the third movie is now out on Blu-ray in Japan), so this new model from Moko is perfect in its timing. He has made a nearly 4-foot tall Eva Unit 01, articulated, too! Kind of insane. And if you don’t know much about LEGO bricks: purple is a bit of a rare color in the LEGO world, so seeing so much of it in one place is pretty impressive. Usually LEGO mechas aren’t this big or lanky, due to their own weight, so it standing on its own is also quite a feat. Check out some more images of the model below, as well as Moko standing next to it for scale! Read more…
I hereby promise to not make any Powergloves jokes in regards to the famous movie line from The Wizard. I won’t do it, no sir. It cheap and easy humor. And you deserve better than that, fine readers. Fangamer has been putting quality game-related merchandise for a while now. It’s satisfyingly nerdy while not obnoxiously screaming “VIDEOGAMES,” and I love that. Their latest product is an oven mitt fashioned to look like the classic Nintendo peripheral, the Power Glove. It’s functional and fun! You can pick it up here for $15.00 and check out Fangamer’s other awesome stuff while you’re there. Read more…
Patton Oswalt is a wonderful, fantastic dude. He’s able to be both funny and articulate, and he made a guest appearance on Parks and Recreation, filibustering the City Council… By reciting his entire plan for the next Star Wars movie, as well as the trilogy as a whole. It starts off pretty solid, and then it gets amazing. I won’t spoil it too much, but lets just say Tony Stark is involved. It’s good stuff. Check out all 8 minutes of his plot below in the video. Read more…
Sadly on April 12th science fiction humorist Nick Pollotta passed away after a battle with cancer. In addition to his writing Nick also had a background of doing standup comedy and was active in fandom going back to the 80s — above is a video of him performing a dramatic reading of the old Spiderman theme song.
LEGO fan Alice Finch embarked on quite the quest: to build all of Hogwarts. About 18 months and 400,000 bricks later, she finally finished it, and it’s been collecting awards and recognition ever since. It was actually first shown at BrickCon 2012 in October, but her collection of high-quality pictures of the entire model haven’t been revealed until now. And wow, what is there to say? It’s absolutely stunning and one of the most complex and impressive LEGO builds I’ve seen. Each side of it reaches nearly 13 feet long, and each inch is filled with tons of little details. The Brothers Brick has a great interview with Alice here, and check out her huge collection of images on her Flickr page! I’ve included a few below. Read more…
People have been getting pretty creative with these GoPro cameras, strapping them to every shoulder, animal, helmet, or other appendage they can find. The Stunt People on YouTube have used a GoPro camera to make their latest video, and drop you inside a lightsaber battle between a Jedi and Darth Vader. It’s pretty cool to watch as is, but I think you might have even better results if you push your face up real close to the screen. Just kidding, please don’t actually do that. Click through for the video. Read more…
It’s not May 19 yet, so that means we’re all still waiting on the fifth season of The Venture Brothers, one of the few good shows still on Adult Swim. In the meantime, fans who have waited forever (or since 2010) for a new season will have to make due with fan-made content. That’s not a problem when there’s awesome stuff like this reanimation of one of season two’s best scenes using the Source Filmmaker. Read more…
Brandon Laatsch has put together another very cool-looking first-person Mario video for your viewing pleasure… but as cool as it is, this video also makes one thing very clear: a first-person Mario game would never work. And it would also probably make me nauseous. Still, they’ve done a great job with the models and animation, and they’ve kept the small video in the upper-left corner to show you Mario’s movements from a more traditional perspective. I’m interested to see what other games they could tackle next! Watch the video below. Read more…
Love yourself some fake commercials? Here’s a re-dubbed commercial from 1981 featuring the one and only Leonard Nimoy, selling you laserdiscs… er, I mean, the Playstation 4. I love the whole fake 80s commerical shtick that marketers have been using recently for movies and games, so this video from IGN fits right in. They really nailed the cheesy transitions and old-school typography. If you want, you can even take a look at the original commercial they used for this parody – it’s almost as funny – but mostly just charming in that so very 80s way. Read more…
Another week, another amazing LEGO model, right? Yeah, but this one it pretty unique: the entire Ghostbusters HQ made into a cross-section model, including the Ecto-1, and all the details from the film. See if you can find them all! Alex Jones is continuing to impress us all with his amazing work – he says he watch Ghostbusters 1 and 2 constantly for two months to learn all the nooks and crannies of the HQ. Too bad this will probably never be an actual LEGO set (too many pieces), because I know plenty of people who’d buy this! Check out more images below and on his site. Read more…
You’ve probably seen me post about the Oculus Rift before, but this mod takes it to a whole other level. Using an Xbox Top Shot Elite controller, a tracking device taped on top, and an Oculus Rift, Nathan Andrews has created an awesome-looking mod for Half-Life 2. Your view and gun controls are separated and controlled individually by each motion tracker, thus allowing you to feel closer to being in the game itself. It’s a really neat setup, and one that I hope can be replicated easily, especially with the Rift dev kits coming out so soon. Watch the video below! Read more…
Have you been playing Hotline Miami? It’s a brutal beat-em-up game where you must eliminate gangs in various levels as quickly and efficiently as possible – and everything kills you in one hit. It becomes a fast-paced rush of violence that evokes similar feelings to Super Meat Boy, in which you restart instantly and every mistake feels like your own, rather than the game messing up. Now dress it all in a heavy 80s neon aesthetic, Drive-esque protagonist, and amazing synth-heavy electronic music. Now you’re ready to beat people up in style. Grab your lead pipe and watch this video below where the lead from Hotline Miami invades a few other games and dispatches his own style of justice upon them. Read more…
I guess the ingenuity of the internet should never be questioned. Source Filmmaker is an impressive tool, but more impressive are the works coming out of it, made by fans. The recent videos making waves are The Turret Anthem and A Smissmass Massacre, two incredibly well-done short films that feature Portal characters in the former and Team Fortress 2 characters in the latter. Zachariah Scott has filled his YouTube page with great work, but these two most recent ones really do stand above the rest. Keep up the good work! Read more…
Posted by Ben Huber on Jan 4, 2013 in Anime, Fandom
Papercraft? Pfft! That’s so last year. What’s hot in 2013? Cardboardcraft! Or cardcraft! Boardcraft? Whatever we end up calling it, suffice to say, it is awesome, as theWonder.it user wakabua has proved. He has recreated the Eva 01 unit from Neon Genesis Evangelion in a fully-posable cardboard form. Even better than that already impressive feat? It transforms into a tank. Why? Who cares! That’s freaking cool, and this is definitely the best way to start off 2013. Check out all the images below! Read more…
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 28, 2012 in Dr. Who, Fandom
Over the past holidays, Greg Kumparak decided to do a bit of tinkering while on a Doctor Who-fueled creative streak. The result? He built his own minature TARDIS… that’s bigger on the inside. Now, you need a cell phone to see the inside, but this is one of the coolest and most unique uses of augmented reality. Using the phone, you can look inside the TARDIS’ door and see the entirety of the inside from your mobile perspective. He blogged about the whole process involved in making it here, and uploaded a video so you can see it in action. Watch it below! He says he’s hoping to post more info soon on how to make this yourself! Read more…
How often do you get to hear great songs on aging computer hardware? MrSolidSnake745, you are the hero the internet needs, not the one it deserves. He’s been creating many excellent recreations of pop culture songs with floppy drives, to great effect. So, without further ado, I present to you his rendition of the Power Rangers theme. Trust me, it’s solid stuff. Read more…
Have some nostalgia for the original X-Men cartoon? The delightfully 90s original opening has a certain charm to it, like so many older cartoons. Perhaps it’s just because we grew up with them, but no matter. Kyle Roberts and his buddies have put together a remake of the 1992 X-Men opening with action figures and drawn backgrounds, the heroes leaping into plastic-y action. I’d argue with their use of the word “stop-motion,” because some of this seems more Flash than stop-motion, but it’s still an impressive and fun video nonetheless. Watch it below the break! Read more…
The 2012 Machinima Interactive Film Festival has been getting some pretty amazing entries. The latest one that caught my eye was First Person Goomba, a short film that shows us life from the perspective of Mario’s stumpy little enemies. This kind of idea has been tackled before, but Pipoca does it with style and some solid animation. It’s definitely one of the better entries in the contest! Check out the full video below the jump to see how life goes on for those little guys that do their best to hinder Mario. Read more…
Brotherhood Workshop is back to their old tricks again, creating excellent LEGO stop-animations featuring Lord of the Rings characters duking it out or engaging in other silliness. Their latest work is recreating the battle of Helm’s Deep for the Machinima Interactive Film Festival – except there might be a few little changes along the way. Legolas certainly does his best to help out Gimli so he can see over the wall, that’s for sure. Also keep an eye out for Chewbacca… he’s hiding in a few places in there! Read more…
One of the most impressive-looking indie games on the radar right now is StarForge. Combining the building of Minecraft with the guns of Borderlands and a heavy dose of random terrain generation, the three-man team looks to be doing a great job tackling the (seemingly) huge job. They’ve started an Indiegogo campaign to help them finish the game, and already have gotten a solid amount of money for the project. I love this era of indie creativity and uniqueness. Although there’s always going to be a few bad apples, the outstanding games more than make up for it. I hope StarForge fulfills their goals! Watch the trailer below. Read more…
Merry and Pippin are always playing jokes and, obviously, always getting into trouble. This cute video from Brotherhood Workshop does an excellent job of bringing the LEGO Lord of the Rings sets to life in stop-motion. The two reckless Hobbits attempt to scare Frodo and Sam and end up getting burnt in the process – although what else would you expect? I’m continually impressed by the quality of these animations, especially with how smooth they are. I know CGI is being used for most of LEGO’s commercial work now, but some classic stop-motion would look even better if done like this! Read more…
