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Posted by Tim Sheehy on Mar 16, 2011 in Cinema, Hobbies and Collections 
Initially Kotobukiya had limited their Bishoujo line to the Marvel license, featuring popular superheros and mutants like Rogue, Psylocke, and Black Widow. Eventually they expanded their offerings to include heroines from the DC universe, and now it seems like they’re taking it in a whole new direction. Several months ago, they debuted a sketch by artist Shunya Yamashita depicting an original character dressed in Ghostbusters attire. It had a few people scratching their heads since it appeared to be an original design, but shortly after, Kotobukiya confirmed the design is being produced as the latest entry in their Bishoujo line, “Ghostbusters Lucy.” Amazing, right?
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Tags: Ghostbusters, Kotobukiya
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Mar 15, 2011 in Hobbies and Collections 
As far as toy makers go, Hots Toys has a reputation of being among the best. The company may charge us an arm and a leg, but their attention to detail is second to none. Each figure they produce is painstaking crafted with photorealism in mind, making them frighteningly accurate. One could easily find themselves confusing a photo of a toy for the real thing — their 2009 The Dark Knight Joker comes to mind. They recently unveiled two new designs for their Bruce Lee line, and both are absolutely stunning. One features Lee in casual attire, the other in a suit. While neither figure are available for preorder quite yet — they’re scheduled for Fall — the Enter the Dragon version will available for preorder on April 1st.
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Tags: Action Figures, Bruce Lee, Hot Toys
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Mar 10, 2011 in Design, Hobbies and Collections 
Beautiful isn’t it? This deadly insect was crafted by English designer, and steampunk enthusiast Tom Hardwidge. It’s one of many he’s created over the years — an interesting hobby to say the least. The components he uses to craft these wonders are merely used parts from pocket watches, a nut, bolt, or a piece of copper here and there — oh, and old ammunition. I’m sure something could be said for creating art so beautiful from something so deadly.
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Tags: Customs, steampunk
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Mar 9, 2011 in Comic Books, Hobbies and Collections 
Earlier today, Sideshow Collectibles debuted their upcoming G.I.Joe Cobra Commander premium format figure. This fantastic sculpt includes an interchangeable hood/helmet just in case you’re partial to his Marvel comics counterpart. In addition, the cape is also removable — though, I’m sure you’ll agree that any good villain needs a cape. The level of detail on these premium figures is absolutely exquisite, but that comes at a price — $300 with only 500 units being produced. In order to secure you preorder you’ll need to sign up for their newslettter and log in on March 10th to have your shot. It kind of makes you wonder who the real terrorists are. Could Sideshow Collectibles just be a front for Cobra? We’ll never know.
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Tags: G.I. Joe, Sideshow Collectibles
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Feb 24, 2011 in Comic Books, Hobbies and Collections 
Ever since the first trailers for Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger hit the net, fans have been gearing up for what could be Marvel’s most anticipated film since 2008’s Iron Man. Given the excitement surrounding the film, many true believers have had to make due with comics and games, but I know there are those of you out there who like to burn holes in your wallets. My suggestion? Take a gander at Sideshow Collectibles’ Captain America premium format figure. This limited edition statue stands over two feet tall and features an incredibly detailed sculpt. Unfortunately that’s not the only thing incredible about it. Seeing as they’re only making 1,000 of them, the price tag stands at a hefty $290 not including tax and shipping, though at that price I can’t imagine they’d charge for it. Still, it’s mighty impressive and, if you’re a big enough fan, worth every penny.
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Tags: Sideshow Collectibles
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Feb 10, 2011 in Cinema, Hobbies and Collections 
Last weekend marked Tokyo’s 2011 Winter Wonder Festival, a show dedicated specifically Japan’s booming toy market. There, skilled artisans are allowed to sell their custom garage kit models while companies like Kotobukiya and Max Factory show off their upcoming product lines. One of the more popular lines would be Max Factory’s Figmas. The big selling point on these figures, in addition to being incredibly affordable, is their small joint sizes, allowing for good amount of articulation. They also tend to come with interchangable parts — such as heads, or arms — and accessories to match each figure.
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Tags: Action Figures, Robocop
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Feb 9, 2011 in Hobbies and Collections, Star Wars 
I’m not big on collecting bobble heads, but these are really adorable. Funko’s releasing a line of Star Wars-themed bobble heads with our favorite characters from a galaxy far far away. In addition to Lord Vader, pictured above, the series will also feature Leia, Han Solo, Chewie, Yoda, Greedo and an Imperial trooper. Interestingly enough, I don’t believe they have plans for either a Luke or Obi-wan bobble head. Personally, I’m not too sad about that. If I’m going to buy one, it may as well be the badest sith in the galaxy, right?
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Tags: figurine, Star Wars
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 2, 2011 in Cinema, Hobbies and Collections 
I have to say that I still find myself letdown on a number of levels with the Tron sequel: The fanboy in me feels that it just wasn’t as good as it could have been, yet I know the reality is that perhaps Hollywood couldn’t do anything more clever than to rip off the Matrix. But the bright side of all of my disappointments is that there is a wealth of cool Tron goodies that have been released onto the market. And on one such case are these cool sets of Tron Kubricks from Japan — if you can just forget the sequel you can relive your childhood. Read more…
Tags: Kubrick, Tron, Tron Legacy, Urban Toys, Vinyl Toys
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 31, 2011 in Animation, Fandom, Hobbies and Collections 
Shown here are two cosplay uniforms from Evangelion (Ichi Junior High School girls uniforms of the New Tokyo City 3) which are being released in Japan. According to an interview on the site selling the apparel they actually went a step further and added some additional detail that wasn’t in the anime series. And just to make sure those detail were right the character designer from the show was involved in the design process. Read more…
Tags: Anime, cosplay, Evangelion, Japan
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 24, 2011 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections 
As an old school anime fanboy I found myself drooling over this collection of Lupin III figurines from Japan. Of course the sad catch is that this line is a limited edition series, and in order to get them you have to be part of some lottery system — and as such are forced to buy in Japan. I realize that I’m just looking at the photos from Banpresto but the wonderful level of detail and craftsmanship is quite eye pleasing: Read more…
Tags: Anime, figurine, Lupin the 3rd
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jan 19, 2011 in Comic Books, Hobbies and Collections 
Following the success of their earlier bishoujo figures, Kotobukiya went ahead and expanded their bishoujo line to include figures from both the Marvel and DC universes. The figures, modeled after designs by popular artist Shunya Yamashita, have been selling out at various comic conventions over the past few years. This year, they’ve announced two brand new bishoujo figures. From the DC universe, they’ve brought us Supergirl, and for Marvel they’re introducing the Invisible Woman, Susan Richards. I have quite the collection going, but if they keep releasing these, I’ll never be able to keep up. The figures retail for around $65 each, and will likely be available by the time New York Toy Fair rolls around later this year. No word on if either will have a con exclusive.
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Tags: DC Comics, Kotobukiya, Marvel
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 17, 2011 in Hobbies and Collections, Videogames 
I read about the mythical Hello Kitty/Monster Hunter costumes over a year ago, but I didn’t get a really good luck until some kind folks posted them to Flickr. I have to admit that there’s something very surrealistic to the idea of wearing a costume of Hello Kitty wearing a costume and then the other way around. Read more…
Tags: Hello Kitty, Japan, Monster Hunter
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jan 4, 2011 in Cinema, Hobbies and Collections 
At one point, you couldn’t film a space epic without having to use scale models. Studios like Industrial Light and Magic were forced to craft these incredibly detailed models for use in creating some of the most memorable sci-fi films of our time. Fortunately, but the time Joss Whedon’s Firefly came to be, studios were able to rely on CGI, allowing them to fore go the trouble of crafting these models by hand.
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Tags: Props, Serenity
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 3, 2011 in Hobbies and Collections, Star Wars 
Oh sure anybody can protect their laptop by getting one of those ugly locks — but of you want to do it the Yoda way that just won’t do! This Star Wars LightSaber USB Desk Lamp is perfect for wannabe Jedi knights in training who want a bit of light by their laptop. The lamp comes with its own stand — or you can practice your moves freehand (as shown above). Read more…
Tags: lightsaber, USB device
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 27, 2010 in Cinema, Hobbies and Collections 
This spectacular Terminator T-800 bust sculpture was constructed out of Lego bricks by the talented Martin Latta. It’s a remake of a previous project that martin did, although this version features LED eyes: Read more…
Tags: Lego, Terminator
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 22, 2010 in Hobbies and Collections 
The Warriors was a brilliant low budget sci fi horror film set in a future New York City dominated by gangs. Recently Tony Scott announced that he’d be doing a remake of the film, although it looks like Hello Kitty has beaten him to the punch with this t-shirt showing our cute feline armed with a baseball bat. Can you dig it? Read more…
Tags: Hello Kitty
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 20, 2010 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections 
This is one of the more interesting examples of K-On! merchandising that I’ve seen: They’ve created authentic scarfs based upon the ones that Yui Hirasawa wears in the series. Sadly it seems that one set is already sold out but the fish design still seems to be in stock:
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Tags: Anime, Japan, K-ON!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 20, 2010 in Hobbies and Collections, Star Wars 
This is a beautifully done series of art posters created for the collectible art house Mondo. Shown above is Star Wars by the artist Olly Moss — here are some other nice gems that are part of the series: Read more…
Tags: Film Poster, Return of the Jedi, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 13, 2010 in Animation, Fandom, Hobbies and Collections 
I just love the level of detail on this recreation of Andy’s room from Toy Story which was made using lego bricks! The talented artist behind this effort is Matt De Lanoy who will be showing it off at the 9th Annual Lego Train Show at Cantigny Park, Wheaton, Illinois. Read more…
Tags: Lego, Pixar, Toy Story
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 8, 2010 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections 
Eons before Ramna 1/2 us old time otaku fell in love with Rumiko Takahashi’s 80s epic Urusei Yatsura. Shown here is a special figurine that will be released in Japan next year which features the character Lum as a child sporting a Tigers baseball team hat. Apparently the baseball connection is that Takahashi is a Tiger’s fan: Read more…
Tags: Anime, Urusei Yatsura
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 7, 2010 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections 
April 12th next year there will be a special Vocaloid2 Hello Kitty themed event at the Japanese fashion shop Marui Shinjuku which will be called VOCALOID2 ABC Cat Village. What’s cool about this project is that it looks like there is all sorts of related merchandise including a figurine and of course a special kitty themed software release. Read more…
Tags: Hello Kitty, Japan, Vocaloid
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 6, 2010 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections 
As an anime fanboy I think one of my most bitter lessons one year was waiting until the last minute to order my new year’s calendar — sadly every one was grabbed up. Part of the reason for this is that often the Japanese fans will grab them quite a bit in advance leaving the sad crumbs for poor gaijin otaku like myself. Well I learned my lesson and I started to plan my wall decor well in advance. Shown here are my top suggested picks for 2011 starting with the beautiful Bleach (B) 2011 Calendar shown above. Here are my other favorites: Read more…
Tags: Anime, Japan
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 28, 2010 in Hobbies and Collections, Star Wars 
With the exception of Darth Maul, I practically loathed the recent Star Wars films. They had their moments but between Jar Jar and Hayden Christensen, they left a lot to be desired. Maul, on the other hand, was mysterious, menacing, and the first on-screen character to wield a dual-bladed lightsaber. Sure he had his flaws, but as far as I’m concerned, this statue alone more than makes up for that lack of character development. Read more…
Tags: Darth Maul, Kotobukiya, Star Wars
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