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While gashapon (capsule toys) of beetles are far from uncommon, I noticed this series of dung rolling beetle miniatures utilizes the capsule as a replica of a dung ball (click on the image above to view the vending machine at full size).

There have been enough stories of actual live beetles sold from vending machines to maybe make some people believe that it's commonplace, ranking right up there with school girl underwear vending machines. While I'm sure someone must have tried the idea, it's a fallacy that either is commonplace. I'm sure someone must have tried it back in the 1990s sometime, but it's more legend than something one may likely run into.

Shown above is the new old Max Headroom, played by original actor Matt Frewer. The good news is that Max won't be back as a Hollywood remake:

Channel 4 resurrects Max Headroom

"Channel 4 is to bring back 1980s creation Max Headroom to front a series of TV ads to raise awareness of the digital switchover. The campaign, which breaks this Saturday, features Matt Frewer, the actor who played the original Max Headroom. Ads will feature Headroom criticising Channel 4, which created the stuttering digital host in the 1980s, for ignoring his vision of a digital future."

The vampire women capture and drain the blood of human beings to make themselves beautiful, and just what's so wrong about that you PETA protesters? Sampson vs. the Vampire Women was directed by Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Corona Blake in 1962 under the original title Santo vs. Las Mujeres Vampiro.

If your a Starwars and Nintendo fanboy you're gong to want to bid on this goodie at eBay:

AT-AT Gamecube Mod! Nintendo! (not a Wii)

"Star Wars Fans!!! Nintendo Fans!!! Gamers!!! Dont miss out on this chance to own a one of a kind Item! This is an auction for my one of a kind Gamecube AT-AT mod. (AKA the AT-GC) It includes 4 wavebird controllers and the 2 memory cards that are inside the system itself (a 1019 and a 251) All the original Gamecube components are inside this mod including the heatsync and cooling fans so it will not overheat (Notice the small holes in the underside of the system for ventilation) and yes, the AT-AT pilot is also included:! All of it is in great cosmetic condition. The AT-AT itself was mint and complete before the Modification and still is (minus the electronic sound effects unit and head movement lever that were once inside) All of it's joints are still tight and it's paint is bright."

...check out this video of the AT-AT in action:

Found via Engadget.

On a technical level this cover by Jelena Djurdjevic is great, but the minute you see that lion thing on the shirt the whole cover becomes silly. How come in the year 2007 super heroes still need to prance around in tights? The key to making a speculative genre story work is the suspension of disbelief (i.e. taking your audience on a wild ride with you), and when you're working in a very visual medium like comic books the devil is in the details.

X-Men: Die by the Sword #4 will be in comic book shops this week.

After missing out on Pepsi's popular but limited edition Pepsi Ice Cucumber flavor, I was on the hunt for a soda challenge. I guess to some extent I found it in the new Fanta Mystery Flavor from Coca-Cola Japan. Apparently it's a combination of 2 fruit flavors but you'll have to determine which ones by drinking it. There's some sort of mobile phone mystery game tie in to play along with and eventually discover if your guess is right about the 2 (very artificial) flavors perhaps long after you really care to know. I notice the little fruits on the bottle have legs. Maybe they are fleeing from the scene of a crime?

I remember years ago there was an old man with a now gone shoebox sized store in Akiba. It might have been a smoking den since all I think inside there were vending machines and benches. What I remember is he had a drink vending machine with one of the display cans all wrapped up in brown bag paper and question marks written in magic marker on it. I didn't go for it because it's surely risking something not nice tasting.

If you're a Namco fanboy you'll get a kick out of this officially licensed Pac-Man Belt Buckle which has the Pac-Man's Ghost image on it.

2007 was a year filled with blockbuster films, Spider-Man returned for a 3rd (and final?) installment that introduced the world to Venom and brought joy to the lips of comic book fanboys worldwide. Johnny Depp took on the mantle of Captain Jack Sparrow and sailed around the world. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez took us into an absurd world of violence and flesh with their homage to the 70's exploitation films with Grindhouse.

In the world of horror films it was more of a down year. Films like The Pulse, The Reaping and Captivity netted lukewarm box office at best. That does not mean that there weren't any good horror movies out there in 2007, just that no one went to see them.

My favorite weekend of the year recently passed by, a new annual tradition called Horrorfest. Lionsgate and After Dark Studios releases 8 new horror films for one week in a limited release. The fun of Horrorfest is watching all 8 movies over one weekend. 3 on Friday, 3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. By the last film Sunday night you're sated on a virtual feast of death, mayhem and fantastic situations.

With this being my first column I've decided to begin the discussion of the best horror movies you probably haven't seen from the year 2007 with one of the '8 Movies to Die For' from Horrorfest called Tooth and Nail:

Yeah! Beat up those no good otaku fanboys! Shown above is a street performance from the Tokyo Metro-chan which was held a few months ago. This cosplay act is based on the show Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan:

The design of this Glico package is somewhat bland to me, but what caught my eye was the whimsical quality of the rice cracker character design. It reminds me of similar American trademarks from the 40s, 50s, and 60s:

I have to say that I like the art direction of this poster, it's better than the same old "just show a big photo of the actor in a costume" approach.

Found via Slashfilm,

The advert above is for the Japanese moving company The0123 and features none other than anime cat icon Doraemon. Meow!

Found via akihabaranews.com.

Shown above is the new trailer for the the upcoming Chronicles of Narnia sequel Prince Caspian.

If your an Orson Welles fanboy you love this website which has mp3 files of the Mercury Theatre radio shows, a great way to fill up your iPod the fanboy way:

The Mercury Theatre on the Air

"The finest radio drama of the 1930’s was The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a show featuring the acclaimed New York drama company founded by Orson Welles and John Houseman. In its brief run, it featured an impressive array of talents, including Agnes Moorehead, Bernard Herrmann, and George Coulouris. The show is famous for its notorious War of the Worlds broadcast, but the other shows in the series are relatively unknown. This site has many of the surviving shows, and will eventually have all of them. The show first broadcast on CBS and CBC in July 1938."

Shown above are just eight of the 56 Geeks Poster by illustrator Scott Johnson. You can order the poster here.

Found via MetaFilter.

Persepolis looks pretty amazing, although it's a bit odd to see them speaking French in Iran. Here's the second trailer which just came out:

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This is the first trailer for the upcoming Speed Racer film and it looks pretty grand! The casting looks very true to the cartoon, in fact it sort of bought a tear to my eye...

This makes me think of Barbarella and that ending scene in Moonraker:

Astronauts test sex in space - but did the earth move?

"US and Russian astronauts have had sex in space for separate research programmes on how human beings might survive years in orbit, according to a book published yesterday. Pierre Kohler, a respected French scientific writer, says in The Final Mission: Mir, The Human Adventure that the subject is taboo both at Nasa and at mission control in Moscow, but that cosmic couplings have taken place.

"The issue of sex in space is a serious one," he says. "The experiments carried out so far relate to missions planned for married couples on the future International Space Station, the successor to Mir. Scientists need to know how far sexual relations are possible without gravity." He cites a confidential Nasa report on a space shuttle mission in 1996. A project codenamed STS-XX was to explore sexual positions possible in a weightless atmosphere."

Today I’m going to talk about a film that’s been getting a lot of critical acclaim. I know, I know, ‘critical acclaim’ tends to be Hollywoodspeak for artistic crap but there are exceptions. Pulp Fiction was critically acclaimed and it was chock full of blood, violence and Uma Thurman. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was critically acclaimed and introduced the western world to Ang Lee and while the movie had it’s moments of pure eastern spiritualism it still stands as one of the great action packed films of the last decade.

Now comes No Country for Old Men. The Cohen Brothers (O’ Brother Where Art Thou, The Big Labowski, Fargo) bring the novel by Cormac Mccarthy to life. A drug deal in the middle of the desert goes wrong leaving several dead bodies, A truckload of Heroin and two million dollars in cash and a dead dog (which is pointed out by just about everyone that sees it). The first to find it all is Llewellyn Moss played by Josh Brolin (Planet Terror, American Gangster, In the Valley of Elah). Llewellyn steals the money with the plan on keeping it and soon finds himself being tracked by the very creepy and insane Anton Chigurh played by Javier Bardem (Goya’s Ghosts, Life in the Time of Cholera). Also after Llewellyn are the Mexican Cartels, a local Sheriff played by Tommy Lee Jones and the firm that originally brokered the drug deal.

Our Top Indie Cartoonists to Watch For in 2008: Keeping true to our "Anti-Superheroes in Tights" mood at fanboy, we took a look back at the comic books and graphic novels that caught our eye:

Scott Pilgrim Vol. 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, by Bryan Lee O'Malley

OK, this series has received it's fair share of hype, but in case anyone has missed it, there's a forth Scott Pilgrim book out and it may easily be one of my favorite releases for 2007.

In a nutshell, Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series is about a sort of aimless 23 year old Canadian guy who plays in a local band called Sex Ba-bomb, and falls for a mysterious American ninja delivery girl named Ramona Flowers. Probably because she gets into his head-literally-while traveling through sub-space. In order to date her, Scott must defeat her seven evil exes, which might be seen as a metaphor for the baggage people bring into a new relationship except there are literal explosive and hilarious fights with each ex encounter. Meanwhile everything is implied from this all being a giant video game to Ramona not being the oh-so cool chick she seems, but only enough so to keep readers hanging on for the next volume.

Vol 4. presents along with more of the same action/comedy readers have come to expect, a bit of a maturation process on Scott's part (and possibly Ramona's)., as he deals with the likes of getting a job and dealing with his relationship at a more advanced level than previously seen.

Jenny Gonzalez is a New York City cartoonist and punk rock singer. You can see her stuff at jennydevildoll.com.

Terror stalks the streets as a scientist's human-transplant experiment runs amok in this 1968 cult classic horror flick! Don't you just love that toy robot that appears in the title design? It's like they build you all up and then you get that letdown, however vicious Satana (played by Tura Satana) more than makes up for it. In fact I love this fanboy quote from Quentin Tarantino quote I came across about Satana:

Capsule Hotels are often mentioned in overseas media showcasing high-tech Japan. I guess I grew to have the impression after seeing travelogues that they were commonplace and perhaps they were a natural outcome of a society used to living in small spaces. Perhaps they were an answer to travelers on a very low budget. In actuality, while there are a number of them operating, they aren't exactly commonplace, like for instance Love Hotels as business model. Though they themselves are on the decline.

Apparently the primary use of Capsule Hotels for quite a while has been a safe place to deposit an un-sober workmate after a bit too much evening socializing. After seeing an occasional passed out salary-men sprawled on the sidewalk I can definitely see how they solve a dilemma.

In Japan public transportation makes it's last run on each line at midnight or thereabouts and stops for maintenance until 5AM. While taxis are available all night they are incredibly expensive can easily run up a hotel sized bill for someone a reasonable commuter distance away. So there is a danger of no return when staying out.

If this happens it's will be because of the hard work that my childhood hero Gerard K. O’Neill was doing back in the 70s:

The final frontier for solar energy

"Scientists are assessing the possibility of embarking on a space engineering project that would eclipse the effort to construct the International Space Station. Researchers from Europe, Japan and the US are considering the viability of building giant solar panels in a low earth orbit that would supply cheap, inexhaustible energy to industry and homes. Building a huge array outside the Earth's atmosphere would have the advantage of having no clouds to interrupt the flow of solar energy to the arrays."

Sadly the new owner had to sign an agreement which states they can't drive the Batmobile in public:

The Batmobile from "Batman Forever" sells for $297,000

"The Batmobile, which was featured in the 1995 “Batman Forever” movie, starring Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey and Nicole Kidman, was recently sold by Warner Bros at RM Auctions. Though estimated at around $800,000, the buyer paid “only” $297,000. And if you think that’s much, you should know that the car cost around $2,800,000 to make ($2.5 mil for the mold, plus extra $300,000 for completion)."

What's amazing about this documentary is that it was created by then 17 year old Vivian Kubrick. This is the version with her commentary:

I like the fact that they've let him age in real time and are setting the film in the cold war era:

First look: Whip cracks over new 'Indiana Jones' movie

"Indiana Jones co-producer Frank Marshall is authorized to confirm some rumors and detail some of the story, about a quest for South American relics with supernatural powers.

When last we saw Indy, he was riding off into the sunset in 1989's The Last Crusade, set in 1938 near the start of World War II. The new movie, due this spring, is set at the height of the Cold War in 1957, so the character has aged in real time — 19 years.

The Nazis are no longer Indy's chief foe — he's racing for the Crystal Skull against operatives from the Soviet Union, including Oscar winner Cate Blanchett as the seductive Agent Spalko. "Indy always has a love-hate relationship with every woman he ever comes in contact with," Marshall says."

Kataude mashin gâru (the Machine Girl) is an action comedy from Japan directed by Noboru Iguchi due out in 2008. It looks much more fun than the upcoming Iron Man film, no?

Found via FilmDrunk.

I'm a vegetarian, but i very much approve of these burgers! Shown above is the packaging for the Bourbon Every Burger which are chocolate biscuit burgers. What impressed me with these chocolate biscuit faux burgers are that they look so realistic, in fact they throw in a few random cheese burgers for fun:

Clanky is very clever! Clanky was a brand of chocolate flavored syrup from the early 60s which featured a plastic bottle in the shape of a spaceman. I love how this commercial combines a 3D set with with 2D animation, the commercials has an amazing amount of detail with over a dozen characters on the screen. Also the lollipops on the planetscape are a nice added touch!

Our Top Indie Cartoonists to Watch For in 2008: Keeping true to our "Anti-Superheroes in Tights" mood at fanboy, we took a look back at the comic books and graphic novels that caught our eye:

Jam in the Band, by Robin Enrico

So, Ive been reading Robin Enricos comics for the past few years now and watching him steadily grow as an artist. And that’s a pretty sweet pastime to have, because Jam In The Band is his most ambitious project to date. Which means that in addition to Robin’s usual thoughtful writing and uncanny ear for dialogue, this particular comic features some of the most graphically eye-popping artwork and layouts Ive seen from him yet. Robin’s character designs are simple and dare I even say cute—but each page flows together with complex visual elements nonetheless.

Japanese convenience stores almost always carry a small selection of cocktails in a can. Occasionally something more unusual than a Mojito or a Fuzzy Navel can be found in at one. I discovered a seemingly family run convenience store somewhere in Kansai selling Denki Bran in a can which featured a retro design with an old Japanese city photo.

"Denki" I know means "Electric" only adding to the mystery. "Bran" I guess could mean something leading to regularity. At first worried it might be healthfully un-tasty, like the Korean wheat flavored soda I once had. After tasting some it was clear that "Bran" was short for brandy. But what about the electric part?

According to this BBC article it seems scientists are rethinking the rings of Saturn as being the result of an ongoing process that will last for billions of years:

Saturn's rings 'may live forever'

"Saturn's iconic rings may be much older than we thought, scientists say. New data from the Cassini probe shows these thin bands of orbiting particles were probably there billions years ago, and are likely to be very long-lived. It means we are not in some special time - the giant planet has most likely always provided a stunning view."

This Darth Vader joystick comes loaded with games (Coruscant Attack, Grievous Onslaught, Droid Invasion, Gunship Battle and Utapu Chase) which you plug directly into your TV set to start playing.

Found via GeekAlerts.

Over the last couple of decades there have been a bunch of Stephen King’s works translated to film, and a lot of them have met with everything from mild interest to outright disgust. Carrie, Maximum Overdrive (based on the short ‘Trucks’ and directed by King), Cat’s Eye (three of King’s shorts tied into a rather bizarre story featuring a young Drew Berrymore), Firestarter, and the list goes on and on...

Our Top Indie Cartoonists to Watch For in 2008: Keeping true to our "Anti-Superheroes in Tights" mood at fanboy, we took a look back at the comic books and graphic novels that caught our eye:

The Fart Party, by Julia Wertz

If you're reading this theres a good chance youre an eight year old boy who googled fart for a laugh and are about to be sorely disappointed. Because Julia Wertz's Fart Party is actually pretty short on gross-out humor (OK, there are some instances of eye gouging with a pencil and defecating down some annoying hipsters decapitated neck). Still, it manages to deliver lots of humorous autobio vignettes about life in San Francisco with a bicycle, a boyfriend, and eventually a breakup, all the while with plenty of beer. The four Bs, right? Julias comics are seen online at fartparty.org and in her minicomics, but the collected book put out by Atomic Books this year has made her one of the breakout indie cartoonists of 2007.

Not one to lose momentum, Julia is in the process of assembling an anthology based on the Missed Connections section of Craigslist. Aptly titled I Saw You: Missed Connections Comics, the book boasts an impressive list of contributors including such luminaries as Peter Bagge (he wrote the intro for the Fart Party Book too, BTW) , Keight Knight, and Sam Henderson, and is due out from Three Rivers/Random House in 2008.

Jenny Gonzalez is a New York City cartoonist and punk rock singer. You can see her stuff at jennydevildoll.com.

There's a great article at Popular Science on the global race to create scramjet engines which could revolutionize the field of aviation:

The Hypersonic Age is Near
Recent breakthroughs in scramjet engines could mean two-hour flights from New York to Tokyo. They could also mean missiles capable of striking any continent in a moment's notice. No wonder the race to develop them is as fierce as ever.

"The X-1 scramjet engine, which will eventually power the X-51A aircraft, is the most advanced scramjet engine ever built. To put things in context, the world's fastest jet, the Air Force's SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, set a speed record of Mach 3.3 in 1990 when it flew from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in just over an hour. That's about the limit for jet engines; the fastest fighter planes barely crack Mach 1.6. Scramjets, on the other hand, can theoretically fly as fast as Mach 15—nearly 10,000 mph.

This could mean two-hour flights from New York to Sydney. It could also mean missiles capable of hitting targets on another continent at a moment's notice, and when you put it that way, it's not surprising that militaries around the world—the U.S., Australia, China and perhaps others—are trying to build them. After decades on the drawing board, it seems scramjet technology is finally about to arrive."

Found via LinkFilter.net.

This amazing LEGO Iron Man creation is by Brickshelf Gallery user Arvo.

Found via the always interesting Neatorama.

This funny series of commercials from Korea for LG PowerCom XSpeed shows off the need for speed.

Found via ryankg.

Shown above is page 482 from a Montgomery Wards Christmas catalog from the early 80s (click on the image to see it at full size). This catalog page features the following retro-gamer goodies:

A. MB Electronics/Milton Bradley Microvision

B. Mattel Electronics Computer Backgammon

C. MB Electronics/Milton Bradley Light Fight

D. Parker Brothers Bank Shot Electronic Pool

E. Entex Galaxian 2

F. Parker Brothers Wildfire Pinball Arcade

What's interesting to me about these games is that they're all handheld devices in a pre-Game Boy era. If you account for inflation at $40 to $80 the toys are on the higher end of the scale of what tween or teen might expect to get for Christmas in 1981 (which is my guess when the page was published). One thing that caught my eye is that the backgammon game seems to be more aimed at young professional adults (known as yuppies in that era) rather than kids. From a fanboy point of view it's interesting to note that for $17.77 you could get a S