Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 20, 2010 in Science
This amazing video shows Mr. Woo a folk artist from China who builds beautiful homemade robots from scratch. What’s even more amazing is that he has no formal engineering training, in other words he a very talented hobbyist with a passion for robotics. By the way my favorite part of the video occurs at 3:40 when a robot stars walking by with a rickshaw. Found via the very talented Angel Wardriver.Read more…
Editor’s Gold Award Pick: As much as I love toys I live with the guilt that so many of them are filling the landfills of the world with toxic plastics and who knows what else. So when I met the robot shown above it was love at first sight. Now what’s interesting about this robot is that most of the parts that you see aren’t included! In fact 90% of what you’re looking at in this toy is made out of recycled items that we throw away every day — which is what makes this hobby kit so ingenious. The Makedo Find & Make a Robot Kit includes a easy-to-use cutting device to hack cardboard and a series of fasteners to hold objects together — and thus by applying the age old toy concepts that you see in Tinker Toys or Lego combined with the idea of recycling you get an amazingly creative activity for your kids. Read more…
When I came across the above photo I was blown away: I’ve seen Metropolis and looked at so many stills — yet I never came across a image that represented so well the amazing amount of work that went into this film. So I set on a quest to locate other behind-the-scenes glimpses of the work that Fritz Lang did before he fled Germany in 1933: Read more…
I’ve seen tons of iPod themed goodies on Etsy but as far as I can tell Google has beaten Apple to the punch in the urban toys market with this set of Android Mini Collectibles Series 01. Frankly the thing that find heart warming about the Android logo is that it’s so darn cute which makes it an ideal collectable, and mind you that this is something that Tux the penguin logo for Linux could never pull off (it was the far body and eyes that made it look so doofy). This set was designed by the artist Andrew Bell and there are a dozen different designs each of which stands at three inches tall and features a rotating head: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 28, 2010 in Animation, Fandom
This is the video for the Ichirou Mizuki song It Is Not This! Korejanai Robo! which tells the heartbreaking tale of a child otaku who years from a Gundam toy but whose clueless parents get him a cheap bootleg instead. Of course our little hero isn’t going to take this slight, so he takes his revenge on the wannabe Gundam. But this mecha knockoff has a few tricks up his sleeve. Read more…
David Lipson of Lipson Robotics has been doing some impressive work with his homemade robot sculptures. His latest Speaker Bot creation takes this to the next level — it features a working speaker which can be plugged into a mp3 player. Shown in this photo is Lipson’s retro first generation iPod: Read more…
Shown above is an NTT ad for the Docomo for PC service which features Tetsujin 28-go, which is lovingly known to American fans as Gigantor. I love how while the two giant robots are destroying Tokyo the Docomo PC user is still spellbound by his nifty software…
This video of two Gundam robots slugging it out is from the recent 2009 International Robot Exhibition. I like how the decapitated Gundam continues to dance after defeat…
Yes I know James Cameron will make a billion dollars with Avatar. But you know what Cameron will never know how to do? Create a damn high quality giant robot that kids will want to buy thirty years from now! Shown above is the reason why: The Avatar AMP Suit (shown above) looks like a left over prop from the film Aliens: Read more…
Some Stanford students have put together a autonomous running robot car by hacking an Audi TTS. The car was designed so it can race to the top of Pikes Peak in 2010, however the robot car reminded me a great deal of KITT from the 1982 TV series Knight Rider: Read more…
If you’re too poor to afford an internet toy like the Chumby (which still costs $200) the next best thing may be the Pet’z (PEZ) PET-6008-PK Sandra animated alarm clock which costs about $32 plus shipping from Japan. This toy pig does double duty by acting as an alarm clock and virtual pet (which will get angry if you don’t feed it). The pink critter has the ability to produce animal sounds and features nine types of animated facial expressions: Read more…
This is video footage from the CEATEC conference in Japan which ends today: The show has a focus on cutting edge digital and electronics work. Shown above is a very eerie looking cosplay attired robot which uses Vocaloid software. What’s odd about this robot is that she blinks her eyes; In fact when I first looked at this video below it took me a bit to figure out (out of context of course) that I wasn’t looking at an actual human doing cosplay at an anime con: Read more…
When I came across the above photo I was blown away: I’ve seen Metropolis and looked at so many stills — yet I never came across a image that represented so well the amazing amount of work that went into this film. So I set on a quest to locate other behind-the-scenes glimpses of the work that Fritz Lang did before he fled Germany in 1933: 
