How much do you like your cool and unique art installations? What if they’re LEGO-inspired? As part of LEGO’s Festival of Play event, the brick-building company has been bringing life-size LEGO trees and flowers to various locations around Australia to give people the experience of living in a LEGO world. The latest stop, early this month, was in Broken Hills and suffice to say, it offered up some great photographs! I hope LEGO expands this to other areas of the world as well, as this is a very cool idea. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 20, 2012 in Cinema, Fandom
By now you’ve heard it all, so I won’t recap the story. My heart goes out to the family and friends of those who were murdered in Denver last night. The opening night of a film is an event that many fans look ahead to for months on end, and for someone to exploit this is a very depressing thought. In the days ahead many folks in media will focus on the madman that did this and his motives, but I’d ask that everyone think of those who are the victims of this crime.
Posted by Ben Huber on Jul 20, 2012 in Cinema, Fandom
You’ve just got to give him a break, crimefighting can take a lot out of you. Although I would think recognizing faces is an important part of being the “world’s greatest detective” and all that. Anyway, College Humor has done it again and made a high production-value parody of The Dark Knight that’s also funny. Speaking of the Dark Knight, how many of you went to go see The Dark Knight Rises already? If not, I bet you’ve got some plans this weekend.
Here a fantastic little video to start your weekend: at San Diego Comic-Con last week, the annual Starship Smackdown was in full swing. All of the starship experts and fans were debating the best starship, when a new challenger stepped up to the plate, and renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson took the mic and delivered the coolest and most passionate argument in favor of Star Trek’s Enterprise I’ve ever heard. I think we might just have a winner!
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jul 19, 2012 in Videogames
A few weeks back, Polytron decided to release a patch for their Xbox 360-exclusive puzzle platformer Fez. The patch was meant to address a number of issues from being unable to run the game on older consoles, to simply fixing a series of crashes that can occur in specific situations. Unfortunately, while the patch seemingly eliminated the majority of the issues being experienced by players, a new bug was introduced which rendered certain end-game save files unusable. The patch was quickly pulled but after reviewing the issue with Microsoft, Polytron has opted to once again release the patch as is. According to some sources, Microsoft would charge them nearly $40k just to implement a new one!
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jul 18, 2012 in Videogames
A year after winning an academy award for his work on The Social Network, Trent Reznor has returned to the gaming industry to score the main theme for Call of Duty Black Ops 2. It’s the first videogame he’s participated with since his ill-fated attempt to engineer Doom 3 came to an abrupt halt during the game’s production. His most memorable contribution to the industry remains his involvement with Id Software’s other hit title, Quake, in which he, along with Nine-Inch-Nails, helped to score the soundtrack and design many of the sound effects heard throughout the game. I’m not sure how excited I am for Black Ops 2, or any FPS these days, but one thing’s for sure — its theme song will probably rock.
When we first mentioned Marc Zicree’s Space Command kickstarter back in June, the project had already hit its goal of $75,000. I knew early on that the project would prove popular but I didn’t expect the fundraiser to be quite this successful. By the time the kickstarter came to its conclusion, Zicree had managed to collect nearly three times that amount for a total of $221,267 — a rousing success to say the least. Not only will they be producing the first film, but hopefully this outpouring of support will allow them to continue to create more down the line. Now, all we have to do is hope they deliver what we’ve all come to expect — a task Zicree and his team are more than suited for. For more information on the project, check out their kickstarter page or click here.
If you’re a big enough fan, you likely own every one of these films already, but now Marvel’s giving you a reason to buy them all again. Introducing the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One – Avengers Assembled! This ten disc set comes with the six films that make up the current Marvel universe and is loaded with all kinds of extras. In case you’re unsure which films we’re talking about, its The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger and finally, The Avengers. Oh, and did I mention it comes with a Tesseract?
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jul 17, 2012 in Videogames
Last week, during an event at San Diego Comic-Con International, I had the opportunity to sit down with a recent console build of Namco Bandai’s upcoming fighter, Tekken Tag Tournament 2. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting to be stunned by the visuals, and I hadn’t expected any significant improvements in terms of actual gameplay. Much to my surprise, however, the game offers quite a few enhancements over its predecessor, Tekken 6.
Alexandre Dumas is the talented Space:1999 fanboy behind this handmade model of the Swift spacecraft. The Swift was one of the cooler spaceship designs from Space:1999 and was featured in the episode Brian The Brain. In the series the Swift was a support shift which could make an interstellar trip: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 16, 2012 in Science
A few years ago Pluto suffered the public humiliation of being demoted from being a planet, but perhaps things are looking up for the little guy: Last week a fourth moon was discovered to be orbiting around Pluto and Charon which is starting to make some folks feel that Pluto may in fact be a binary planet. Although there is still a larger debate on where to draw a line between double-planet and a planet–moon system, so poor Pluto may have to wait a bit longer…
I watched Walking Dead for two seasons and I enjoyed it. Although I enjoyed picking it apart and chuckling at some of the silly decisions made. So perhaps I didn’t truly enjoy it, but when it picked up the pace it wasn’t half bad – and this new trailer from Comic-con seems to indicate that the staff are doing their best to keep it going. The introduction of the Governor will be especially fun, as he’s a cut-throat villain to the end, and an antagonist the show desperately needed. Walking Dead returns October 14th.
Because the new cast members for the upcoming season 3 of the wildly popular HBO fantasy TV series are pretty much perfect (especially Paul Kane as Thoros of Myr and Dianna Rigg as Olenna Tyrell). SDCC also brought us news of the date for the start of the new season, which will be on March 31st. It seems so far away, but I’m sure it’ll be here before you know it.
I had wondered what Sam Raimi had been up to, and now I know – Oz: The Great and Powerful. Based off of L. Frank Baum’s Oz books, it sets out to tell the story of how one man, (James Franco) who eventually becomes the Wizard of Oz. It’s giving me some Alice in Wonderland vibes, but truth be told, I have more trust in Raimi than Burton. I’m interested in how the final film will turn out, but you certainly can’t say it doesn’t look gorgeous!
Excited about that Mass Effect anime announced a little while ago? Here’s a good look at it, with a full-length trailer being released at Comic-Con this week. FUNimation is partnering up with Production I.G. and T.O. Entertainment to create the film and, well, it looks simply average. There are a few interesting shots in the trailer but for the most part it fails to excite me. Paragon Lost will be all about James Vega’s battle with the Collectors, so essentially this is something that will probably not grab most people unless they’re die hard Mass Effect fans.
Just look at that beautiful image up there. That’s a new LEGO set due this holiday season based on Bag End, from the Hobbit. And it’s amazing. I doubt there is a more perfect LEGO set on the market right now. Like I said, you’ll have to wait till Christmas to grab it, but San Diego Comic-Con has brought us this first look. We’ve also got some Star Wars LEGOs and Kenner Alien figures after the jump! Read more…
It seems gamers everywhere were chomping at the bit for Valve to initiate their Summer Sale this year – more so than usual! It’s honestly no surprise as Valve always does a great job setting up excellent prices for everything. It runs from now until July 22nd, so remember to watch the daily deals, as prices will only go down. However, why would they run it during SDCC? That’s a pretty big conflict, in some ways! Oh well, when you can own every Valve game ever for $50, that’s what I call a sale.
You know I have to wonder what H.P. Lovecraft would have thought if he could see his beloved mythical creation Cthulhu recreated in Lego? Imagine Rigney did a smashing job of bring this scene to life — I really love the level of detail that was put into this project: Read more…
If you aren’t familiar with Danboard he’s a cardboard action figure who is based on an issue of the Yotsuba&! manga. The original model kit that became popular in Japan was produced by Revoltech, but this newest kit caught my eye because it’s made out of plastic! What;s nice about this new kit is that the cover features an illustration by the japanese artist Hidetaka Tenjin who is famous for his beloved illustrations of Mobile Suit Gundam and Macross. Shown below are a number of examples from Japan of local hobbyists who had fun with this kit: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 11, 2012 in Star Trek
Growing up as a child one of my prized possessions was my AMT Star Trek Exploration Set — a full scale model kit which included a tricorder, phaser and a communicator. Fanboy Tommy Williamson has done amazing job of recreating this set in LEGO! I really love how the Tricorder has moving parts: Read more…
This very nicely crafted Sandy Person Hat was designed by Michigan based artist BeeBeeKins and is available on Etsy. Below is an additional photo which shows off the attached scarf: Read more…
Ex-lawyer, and renown brick artist Nathan Sawaya will be in town for San Diego Comic-Con this year. Apparently Nathan plans on teaming up with artist Jim Lee for a special live exhibition where he’ll recreate one of Jim’s Batman portraits using standard LEGO bricks. As part of the larger Darkness & Light: Art Inspired by Heroes & Villains, Hope & Heroism exhibition that’s currently on display, the live event will take place on Friday, July 13th from 11 am to 4 pm at Michael J. Wolf Fine Art Gallery. Read more…
There won’t be an official Star Trek panel at San Diego Comic Con, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty of Star Trek-related content this year. CBS is handing out 1701 free Star Trek the Next Generation 25th Anniversary posters throughout the weekend. To find out how to pick one up, you’ll have to swing by their booth (#4129) for more info. They’ll also have collectible postcards available. Alternatively, you can follow the official StarTrek.com twitter feed for updates on when they’ll be handing both the postcards and prints out. Read more…
There was once a time when trying to find a decent looking shirt featuring your favorite anime was nearly-impossible. You could either settle for an over-sized beefy tee, or one of those awful lounge-shirts with a design that covered entire front side, and sometimes even wrapped around. Times have certainly changed, and fortunately enough, we have other options. Recently, our fellow fanboy.com writer, Ben Huber, recently designed this awesome Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann shirt. Once again, thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can choose a variety of sizes and colors — including a women’s fit — or you can even pick up a hoodie. Each shirt is made to order and is available for order directly from Ben’s Society6 store. Read more…
