Future Fighters is in the early stages as a film, but as a mecha fanboy who is obsessed with robots and spacecraft I really like what I see so far. This international project is being produced by British movie producer Guy Orlebar who is teaming up Korean director Nelson Shin (who was behind the 1986 animated Transformers film) and will star Japanese actress Rina Takeda of High-Kick Girl fame. But what I really love about what I see so far is the colorful anime inspired pre-production art which makes my inner geek happy: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 11, 2010 in Animation
Before Robotech there was Voltron which was the ultimate Japanese robot show about robots that came together: The series featured smaller robots that came together to form a larger robot, and the show itself was create by editing two anime series together (Beast King Go-Lion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV). Incubot is honoring this old school show with a Voltron Nekobot Flash Drive which will hold two gigs of storage and features a blazing sword. Read more…
You know, it seemed inevitable. C-3PO and R2D2 always seemed so inseparable, so it would stand to reason that they may or may not have given birth to an illegitimate lovechild-droid. At least, web dev and caricature artist Jon Plante, seemed to think so – I just never imagined it’d be so hilarious or horrifying . That said, it sure makes for an awesome t-shirt. The shirt is currently available at teefury.com for only $9 plus shipping, but if you want one, you’ll need to hustle. Due to the format of the site, the shirt will only be available for the next 24 hours and once they sell out, they’re gone forever. If you’re worried about the quality of the shirts, I can actually vouch for them as I order from the site quite often. For more of his work, you can also check out Jon’s infrequently updated web comic Celebrity Skinned. Read more…
I’m sure it’s not every day that you come across house music featuring robots – famous ones, at least. The video here features some of our favorites lending their robotic talents to Eclectic Method’s latest release entitled, you guessed it, “Robots.” Clever name, right? Yeah, I thought so too. I was really hoping they’d throw in some Mechagodzilla, but I suppose it was just wishful thinking. Still, it’s a pretty cool video and if you’d like a copy of the song or more info about the group, check their official website. Read more…
K-9 made his first debut on Dr. Who in 1977 and he’s been beloved ever since. This Doctor Who Remote Control K-9 pays tribute to our cybernetic canine companion and includes flashing lights and speech. Judging by the fact that he runs on AA batteries I think the only flaw that I see with this K-9 unit is that he’s not life sized which would make him the perfect cosplay accessory (or ultimate office toy). Read more…
Medicom Toy is one of the cooler Japanese hobby companies which has an beautiful series of super realistically rendered figurines known as Real Action Heroes. This series is based upon well known licensed media properties and in the past they’ve put out figures for everything from Dragonball Z to Indian Jones. And they have just branched into Star Wars — shown above is the Real Action Heroes #494 Star Wars R2-D2 and shown below is the Real Action Heroes #493 Star Wars C-3PO: Read more…
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…
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: 