I know some of you miss having your flip phones for the sole reason of getting to pretend you were Captain Kirk asking to beam up. Who could blame you, though? They looked just like the Star Trek original series communicators, after all. Unfortunately, some of you probably gave that up the moment you purchased your first iPhone. Well, thanks to CBS Interactive, you might not have to. Their recently released Star Trek Communicator app manages to reproduce the look and sounds of the original series handset using your iphone’s interface. In fact, you can even use it to access your contacts and make real phone calls via the app — assuming you’re using an iPhone and not an iPod Touch , of course. The app will cost you $1.99 via the app store, but I’d say that’s a small price to pay for the novelty. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 14, 2010 in Animation
Right now Old Spice is doing a brilliant job feeding the narcism of the blogosphere — however it made yearn for a more simple time in my life when a splash of Old Spice was that mystery product in dad’s medicine cabinet. This made me do a bit of research and I came across the wonderful animated spot shown above from 1957. Read more…
Forbidden Planet in New York City is still very much open, but sadly the shop today is less than 50% of the size that it was in the 80s. This stunning set of videos gives a tour of the place and serves as a vivid time capsule what a comic book shop on steroids looked like back in the day. My art school was just a few blocks away from this place and I spent so many lunch hours there back in the day, so this video brings back a ton of memories: Read more…
With the upcoming release of Tron Legacy, so many companies are rushing to create toys and games to hype the new film. Fortunately for fans of the original, there are a few new products designed specifically to pay homage to the original film, such as this one here. This Tron “Vintage Figure” will be exclusive to San Diego’s upcoming Comic Con International, and apparently comes with some neat little features, such as a case that lights up, and special arcade cabinet packaging. In addition to looking fantastic, they’ll only cost $40 each and will be limited to only 1,500 units, so you’ll need to pick one up while supplies last. Read more…
The Han Solo SL72 sneakers are the latest addition to the Adidas x Star Wars footwear line that was announced last year. The silver scheme, and tongue design is inspired by Han’s carbonite coffin from Empire Strikes Back, but the shoes also feature small details from his costume, including his signature belt and the red trim from his pants. Pretty slick if you ask me. No word on how much they cost, but they’ll be available later this fall. Until then, you’ll have to make due with Hoth-inspired Rebel duds, and a pair of sneakers fit for the Dark Lord himself, which currently retail for $167 and $133, respectively. Check the Adidas online store for more details. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 12, 2010 in Comic Books
To commemorate the July 13th release of the second volume of Koharu Perfect Weather there will be a competition in japan to win the really cool fan shown above. While the language barrier to enter the contest be a bit much for English speaking otaku you can order the manga in Japanese via Amazon.co.jp if you love dog themed manga: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 12, 2010 in Comic Books
With X-Force: Sex and Violence #1 illustrator Gabrielle Del’otto has done a great job of making an everyday Marvel comic book feel like a graphic novel. What makes the artwork look so good is that Gabrielle has abandoned the traditional ink lines that have defined comics since their inception and has instead made every panel look like a painting. Usually Marvel might do this with a cover, but not the entire book — and I’d wish that they’d do this more often looking at the results: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 12, 2010 in Videogames
Born twenty four years ago in 1986 the blue Slime is usually the weakest character in each Dragon Quest game — and now he’s being celebrated with his own non-carbonated soft drink! The Dragon Quest Slime Drink comes in two flavors: Hoimi Cider (shown on the left) which is looks like windex and Mera Tropical (shown on the right). Fanboys should be warned that actually drinking the beverage will ruin any future collectibility value. Read more…
This surrealistic collection of cosplay photos shows the actual model model before and after Photoshop. At first I was sort of offended by looking at this, but then I realized that what the Photoshop artists are doing isn’t any different than what fashion magazines do with their cover models by creating a idealized version of reality that might not be so realistic: Read more…
