Shatner NOT in the new Trek, but Nimoy is?!

How can they leave Shat out of the film? At least we get Nimoy, here’s the description of the above video:

“William Shatner talks about the new Star Movie details with information from an inside source who has been cast in the movie.”

Voltes V: Ancient Toy Commercials

Voltes V came out in 1977, so these commercials must be from the late 70s. The first few commercials are what you’d expect, but several of the later commercials feature a Japanese kid in the 70s talking to and interacting with Voltes V.

So now you want your own Voltes V? Well shown below is the GX-31 Soul of Chogokin Voltes V which was released in 2006:

Beer Drinking Penguins

This commercial is like Rocky, but with beer drinking penguins…

Japanese Sake Commercials from 1959 to 1980

Shown above are some very surreaistic animated commercials for Kizakura sake from 1959 to 1980.

Nintendo Family Tree T-Shirt

I discovered the above t-shirt design at nerdyshirts.com, I wouldn’t mind having a poster of this too…

Cotton Monster

Cotton Monster is the creation of Jennifer Strunge. Her website is filled with an amazing cast of hand made creatures which reminds me of the Muppets with a slight touch of the Groovy Goolies. Her work shows a strong sense of imagination, and a very graphic yet charming use of color and texture. By the way you can adopt (wel purchase) one of the little devils here.

Found via Neatorama and Everlasting Blort.

Happy Tree Friends: Blind Date

This latest episode of Happy Tree Friends seems to be a twist on Weekend at Bernie’s. By the way I’m quite impressed with the look of the merchandise associated with Happy Tree Friends:

Sixty Years of UFOs

It’s hard to believe it, but sixty years ago today (July 8th, 1947) the first news story about UFOs appeared in Roswell, New Mexico:

“The intelligence office of the 509th Bombardment group at Roswell Army Air Field announced at noon today, that the field has come into possession of a flying saucer. According to information released by the department, over authority of Maj. J. A. Marcel, intelligence officer, the disk was recovered on a ranch in the Roswell vicinity, after an unidentified rancher had notified Sheriff Geo. Wilcox, here, that he had found the instrument on his premises. Major Marcel and a detail from his department went to the ranch and recovered the disk, it was stated. After the intelligence officer here had inspected the instrument it was flown to higher headquarters. The intelligence office stated that no details of the saucer’s construction or its appearance had been revealed.”

It’s interesting because while we’re still debating if the above episode even happened, the real revolution is that in scientific circles it’s now been pretty well accepted that someplace out there are aliens (who may or may not be like us). I think the major turning point in this debate was when Carl Sagan started to push this idea in the 80s about forty years after Roswell. And I half suspect that we might encounter alien life forms in our lifetimes, although they might only be humble microbes living on Mars or Titan.

Read more…

Lucky Star: The Local Comic Book Shop

I wish I could get this level of service at my local comic book shop! Shown above is a subtitled scene from Lucky Star, epiosde 13. I just love all the manga and otaku jokes in Lucky Star, in my mind the show is an anime South Park for otaku.

They Just Keep on Trekking

There’s a great article today in the LA Times on Star Trek fans films (shown above is the U.S.S. Odyssey from Star Trek: Hidden Frontier):

They just keep on Trekking
The ‘Star Trek’ franchise lives on through fan films, crafted by people outside the industry. In terms of money, it’s a whole different universe.

“Fan films are movies made by people outside the entertainment industry who write or improvise a script set in a familiar universe (like “Star Trek” or “Star Wars” or “Batman” or “Harry Potter”) and shoot it themselves. It’s not illegal as long as nobody makes any money from it — although some companies, Marvel in particular, don’t like their characters and worlds messed with. Anyone can do it, but it’s not easy. Time-consuming. Costly. And if you want to do it really well, there are actors, special effects, props, background music, costumes, makeup and distribution to consider. That’s when making a small fan film becomes a Herculean labor of love.

Rob Caves, creator and executive producer of “Hidden Frontier,” wanted his series to be good. He’s a diminutive 28-year-old with an almost unnervingly calm demeanor. As a kid watching “Star Trek: The Next Generation” with his father, and later “Deep Space Nine” on his own (he never liked the original series), he leaned less toward the usual “Trek” fan impulse of “I wish I lived there” and more toward “I want to make that”.”

Happy Hundredth to Heinlein

Today is the 100th birthday of science fiction master Robert A. Heinlein who was born in July 7th, 1907 and passed away in 1988. As a dyslexic youth I always prefered to watch science fiction on television rather than read it, but I have to say that reading Heinlein was always a great pleasure for me (my favorite is the Moon is a Harsh Mistress). What’s also enjoyable about his work is that even while you may not always agree with his point of view, his writing always makes a great conversation starter with fellow fanboys and fangurls.

By the way shown above are various covers from from both books and pulp magazines featuring Robert Heinlein, if you’d like to see more go and check out the Heinlein Book Cover Museum.

Pancakes ala Pretz

It’s not that often you see many packages decorated with hot pink and featuring pancake flavored anything! That’s why the above Pretz package caught my attention. The artwork on the package features a character design created by Japanese children’s book illustrator Osamu Harada. If you like the look of his work you’ll want to explore this website:

OsamuGoods.com

By the way the Pretz tasted amazing, it was like having an IHOP experience on the run!

X-Bomber

When I cam across the above clip entitled Star Fleet 1980 from England I’d never heard of the show before, but after doing some research it seems that it’s a translated version of a marionette show created by famous manga artist Go Nagai who’s most famous for his titles like Devilman and Cutey Honey. Here’s a great description of the show from Wikipedia:

“X-Bomber (Xボンバー Ekkusu Bonbā) is a marionette tokusatsu TV series. Created by manga master Go Nagai, the show, aired on Fuji TV from October 4, 1980 to March 28, 1981, with a total of 26 episodes. This show was billed in Japan as being filmed in “Sūpāmariorama” (スーパーマリオラマ), a puppeteering process similar to Gerry Anderson’s Supermarionation works. This show is basically a cross between Nagai’s Getter Robo and Star Wars. Just like Getter Robo, the show’s protagonists ride three vehicles that combine into a giant robot. Big Dai X, the show’s robot, is more similar to the kind seen in the popular Super Sentai series than your average Nagai robot.”

Glister Butterworth

Strange things happen around Glister Butterworth! Shown above is a sketch of the first panel from the upcoming comic book Glister by Andi Watson. Watson’s work always seems to offer a nice taste of whinsy and adventure framed within a well designed (and detailed) layout. And also not to mention his color choices tend to feature a nice sophisticated palette, which is unusual for comic books.

Animated T-Shirts Music Video

Shown above is a fun music video for the French electronia band Justice for song D.A.N.C.E. In the video I love the clever device of having t-shirt graphics animated. The video was directed by Jonas & François at 75 prod.

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Go Go Tea

This is a very silly commercial for Go Go Tea starring Aya Matsuura, who’s J-pop arists and actress associated with the Hello! Project. Aya’s favorite food is cookie dough ice cream.

Captain America vs. the Hillbillies?!

I was looking for a good 4th of July story, so the first thing that popped into my head was Captain America. While browsing all of the early covers of Captain America I found all of the expected foes of the Captain: Hitler, monsters, Tojo, zombies, robots, and the like. But then I came across issue #11 above which features Captain America trying to save Bucky (who seems to be the most useless sidekick in all superhero history) from the “horror of the feuding mountaineers!” And of course these hillbillies don’t wear shoes, can’t shave, reject dental care (in any way shape or form) but are all armed to the teeth!

The mountaineers are of course a reference to the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud. Although I think seen in the context of 1940s America the poorly groomed hillbillies are seen to be the enemies of progress, science, modernism and thus America itself. One would think that the leasure suit movement of the 70s made the nation safe for casual fashion statements, but alas the anti-mountian man movement may be back in full swing again…

PEZ Astronaut Candy Dispenser Poster

The above poster for promoting the PEZ Spaceman Candy Dispenser was illustrated in 1959 during the height of the space race. I came across the poster at artsnotdead.com so I was inspired to go and do a search to see the actual Astronaut dispenser in action, however sadly the actual item didn’t match the quality of the advertisement. Although on the flip side I discovered that the name PEZ was derived from the German word for peppermint, Pfefferminz which the first PEZ flavor.

The Honey Lemon Pretz Buzz

I fell in love with the little bee illustration above the minute I spotted a package of Glico Pretz Hachimitsu Lemon. But i was blown away when I sampled the wheat treats inside, they tasted rather good (very subtle flavoring). Here’s a close up of the bee for my fellow fanboys who love whimsical illustrations:

Dr. Goldfoot & the Bikini Machine

Shown above are the opening titles for Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine from 1965. If the style of claymation looks familiar it’s because it was created by none other than Art Clokey whose best known for Gumby. And it should also be mentioned that the music on the soundtrack is the Supremes. The film also stars Vincent Price, Frankie Avalon and a bikini clad female robot who looks rather human.

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A Crafty Phantom Tollbooth

I’ve always enjoyed looking at Heidi Kenney’s craft projects on her Flickr page, but the other day I found the above creature and I was blown away! The doggie in question is Tock from the classic children’s tale the Phantom Tollbooth.

Heidi presented Tock as a gift to the author Norton Juster at a recent event, it should also be noted that the illustration of Tock was created by Jules Feiffer who is an amazing cartoonist. You can find Heidi’s blog here, and if you like work you can even buy some of her crafts here.

Star Wars ABCs by Michael Flemming

Illustrator Michael Flemming is doing an amazing series called the Star Wars ABC set. Shown above is B is for Banta, I love the amount of charm and detail that he packs into each illustration. You can find Michael’s blog here:

Tweedlebop.com/blog/

Fan Boys Trailer

I guess we’ll have to wait until the final cut to see if it deserves the fanboy.com seal of approval. I also wonder if they will mock Jar Jar after they’ve been kissing up to Lucas so much?

Early Catwoman Clone

I was rather struck by the cover above for Cats Prowl at Night, a cover from a 1949 Dell Mystery novel, it must have been an early homage to Catwoman who appears in Batman #1 from 1940.