|
Star Wars: The Old Republic Video Documentary
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 18, 2008 in Star Wars, Videogames
This is a cool looking documentary on the upcoming MMORPG game Star Wars: The Old Republic which is being developed by BioWare. There’s still no release date on this title, but it looks like it will be worth the wait when it comes out. Blythe Wishes You a Strange Surrealistic Happy New Year
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 18, 2008 in Hobbies and Collections
I’ve always found the Blythe dolls to have a sort of morose quality to them with their sad looking eyes, but in the above animated video from Japan feels otherworldly with the wonderfully detailed cow and kimono outfits. Origami Fast Food: Zero Calories!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 18, 2008 in Hobbies and Collections
Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us: I’m a vegetarian but I 100% approve of the Origami Hamburger Set shown above. I love the amount of detail that’s been put into this product from the folded faux cheese to the ice in the non-existent soda. Found via uniquedaily.com. Bring Me the Head of that Clone Trooper Captain!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 17, 2008 in Star Wars
Your clones are very impressive. You must be very proud. This Christmas for just $430 you can own a slightly weathered Star Wars Clone Trooper Captain Helmet Replica which features working LED lights, a fully padded interior for comfort and a handy display stand. Found via geekalerts.com. The Tidal Waves Under Icy Europa May Hint at Life
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 17, 2008 in Science
When most scientists thought of the one place in our solar system outside Earth that may support life the common favorite was Titan, but now that honor may go to the Europa the other sister moon of Jupiter. Astronomers feel that underneath it’s icy surface may lurk energetic oceans which due to the gravity from Jupiter would feature tides — a key ingredient to making life possible: Read more… Duo Jaun Doe Covers: Spiderman & The Torch in Bahia De Los Muertos!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 17, 2008 in Comic Books
In March of 2009 Marvel will be featuring two versions of the comic Spiderman & The Human Torch in…!Bahia De Los Muertos! — one in English and one Español. What I love about this concept is that each book has a different cover by the talented illustrator Jaun Doe. What I love about his artwork is that instead of a typical muscles bulging superheroes cliched cover, Doe’s style reminds me of a highly stylized art deco film poster. Even his use of color is superb with Doe using a slightly washed out palette instead of the usual over saturated Photoshop look we see so often these days. Read more… 100% Polyester Little Star Wars Costumes Allow You to Pass on the 70s to the Next Generation
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 16, 2008 in Hobbies and Collections, Star Wars
These Little Star Wars Costumes come in three sizes: Newborn, Infant and Toddler! The costumes are 100% kid safe, in fact the Darth Vader outfit features a detachable velcro cape and a “helmet” headpiece made from fleece. Although I sort of have mixed feelings about indoctrinating such young padawans into the ways of the force without proper training. Pop-up Gourd Island: Classic Japanese Puppet TV
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 16, 2008 in Animation, Japanese TV
Over the years I’ve kept running into the same group of 3D retro-styled characters in Japanese printed advertising and that at first reminded me of Rankin-Bass style stop motion characters but have their own original look. I was guessing they might be stop motion since they were photographed rather than drawn or rendered.
On doing some research I figured out they came from a mid 1960s series Hyokkori Hyoutan-jima (ひょっこりひょうたん島) which translates to something like “Unexpected Gourd Island” and the characters were puppets rather than animated. They have to be Japan’s most famous puppet TV show though of course the Muppets are seen all over and “Saku Saku” was trendy for a while. Read more… Hawking Predicts Discovery of Alien Life
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 15, 2008 in Science
Stephen Hawking is predicting that one day we’ll discover alien life, although what’s interesting is that he feels that it may not be a carbon based life form which is what makes his statement so interesting. Hawking also went back to the Carl Sagan idea that one danger for any intelligent life form may be destroying itself with nuclear weapons, although as time goes on I wonder if the real danger is a species not developing a strategy to protect itself from a natural catastrophe be it an asteroid hit or change in climate. In the past Hawking has advocated human leaving the Earth to better guarantee survival of our species, in that respect I wish NASA would act on what he’s saying and get aggressive above going to Mars: Read more… SpongeBob Starts Writing a Death Note
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 15, 2008 in Animation
Who has a notebook you can write in to kill? DeathSponge NotePants! It’s funny but when you kitbash SpongeBob SquarePants with Death Note it sort of reminds me of Sweeney Todd. Wolverine: Our Leaked Trailer from Secret Origins
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 14, 2008 in Comic Books
We just stumbled over this leaked trailer of X-Men Origins: Wolverine on the net! I have to say that I had my doubts about this film, but it looks like it’s going to be action packed. Although the bad news is that when you see it in theaters there will be the same idiots who get to their seats late just like you see in this secret trailer! Too Art for TV 3: Joe Strike’s Review
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 14, 2008 in Animation
Editor’s Note: This week animation industry insider Joe Strike gives us a second take (my photo tour is here) on the Too Art for TV 3 gallery show that features the fine art side of New York’s animation industry: Williamsburg Brooklyn is so goddam hip they won’t let you off the subway at the Bedford Avenue stop if you’re not wearing shades & one of those little mini-beardy things just under your lip. Fortunately I fooled the border guard (“wow, look over there – a latte grande!”) & made my way to the Erebuni Gallery on Roebling Street. (Why is a street named for the family that built the Brooklyn Bridge closer to the Williamsburg one?) Making my way to the gallery I spotted big big lights which had lit up the loft building across Roebling for ABC’s Life on Mars: Read more… The Sharp X68000: The Retro Japanese Sister of the Mac and Amiga
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 14, 2008 in Tech
In my final year of art school (which was 1987) I had a friend from Japan who owned the Sharp X68000 — in fact the computer was only ever sold in Japan. As you can see in the commercial above this machine was very friendly for folks who liked to work with video and graphics, and that wasn’t by accident as the box was powered by a Motorola 68000 CPU which was the same family of chips that powered the other artist friendly machines of that era which were the Macintosh and the Amiga. The first model of this system ran at 10 MHz, had 1 meg of of RAM and no built in hard drive, so it’s sort of amazing just how much this system could do. It’s also interesting to note that many game designers in Japan created arcade games using the X68000 and today you can find emulators for the system. Read more… Recreating a 2000-Year-Old Computer
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 13, 2008 in Tech
The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient calculator that was discovered in Greece over 100 years ago, what makes it amazing is that it’s over 2,000 years old and uses similar technology that wasn’t available until the 18th century. But what’s very cool is that scientists have recently reconstructed a working model of the mechanism which was used to calculate the positions of the sun, moon, and the planets: Read more… Does Anyone Have a Proper Home for a Legendary Rocketship?
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 13, 2008 in Fandom, Hobbies and Collections
The famous rocketship of Coney Island is looking for a new home as the long time amusement park Astroland will be forced to close down on January 31st. As a fanboy this breaks my heart as the spacecraft captures the excitement held by America for the high frontier at the dawn of the space race in the early 60s. To me this rocket belongs in the Smithsonian or the Seattle Science Fiction Museum, although I’d love to see it stay here in old New York: Read more… Battlestar Galactica: Gaze at the Face of the Enemy on the Web
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 12, 2008 in Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy is a ten part online webisode series that has gone live today. Episode #1 The Face of the Enemy is currently playing, and new episode will appear every few days until January 10th. William Shatner is Everywhere! Just Like Elvis or Santa…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 12, 2008 in Star Trek
You know even if he doesn’t have an overpaid one minute cameo in Star Trek XI William Shatner is doing a brilliant job of promoting himself lately while pushing his talk show into the spotlight in the process. The above video is an example of this Shatnermnaia in the wild from thinkhero.com. And you want to know something? Oprah look out because the real Captain James T. Kirk is no slacker!
Is Our Cosmos Recycled?
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 12, 2008 in Science
There’s a great article at New Scientist on speculation that the cosmos existed before the Big Bang and that the bang itself was a recycling effect. It seems that scientists are now starting to play with computer simulations to try and determine what a pre-Big Bang cosmos looked like: Read more… Very Melon! The Latest Anime Meme Sweeping the Net
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 12, 2008 in Animation
Within the last hour I’ve been twittered by everyone about verymelon.com a website setup by whattheanime.com. The entire site is nothing but a looped clip (shown above) from the anime series Konjiki no Gash Bell (which translates into English as Zatch Bell! – 金色のガッシュベル!!) which is subtitled by Anime Destiny. For those not in the know the show is a fantasy themed comedy series that ran from 2003 until 2006. Read more… Pinup Dreamgirl Bettie Page Passes Away: She Was a Fanboy Favorite
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 12, 2008 in Cinema, Comic Books
How many comic book artists have been inspired by Bettie Page? Everyone knows what a Bettie Page haircut is. I think when folks look back at the film icons of the 20th century Bettie Page will rank up there with the likes of Marilyn Monroe: Read more… The 2009 International Space Station Calendar: A Cool Freebie for NASA Fanboys
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 12, 2008 in Science
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the International Space Station NASA is offering a free calendar online to to the public (caution: link goes to a 5.3 meg Adobe Acrobat file). 100,000 copies of the printed version of the calendar will be distributed to schools for free in the United States. Forbidden Planet Flying Saucer for Sale!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 11, 2008 in Cinema, Hobbies and Collections
It looks like today some lucky fanboy collector will be walking away with the model of the flying saucer from the 1956 classic science fiction film Forbidden Planet. The model was later used on several episodes of the Twilight Zone TV series as well: Robo Dog: DIY Robotics on the Streets of London
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 11, 2008 in Hobbies and Collections, Tech
In this video Lyle of the Mutoid Waste Company shows off his fire breathing Robo Dog creation to the public. The Mutoid crew dates back to the mid-80s when they started out as an arts collective that would hold huge parties that would feature all sorts of neat mega sized kit bashed creations — sort of like the Burning Man of England. Read more… Majel Barrett-Roddenberry to Return to Star Trek XI
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 11, 2008 in Star Trek
According to Variety it looks like Majel Barrett-Roddenberry will be returning to Star Trek XI to resume her role as the voice of the Enterprise computer system! Although I wish they gave her an on screen cameo relating to her original role as Nurse Chapel, however to me this is a sign that J.J. Abrams is getting things right. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2024 Fanboy.com All rights reserved. Theme by Laptop Geek.
