For decades fanboy wine connoisseurs have debated if Star Wars works best while enjoying the red or white wine — but alas the idea of opening up multiple bottles to see what goes best with each film could be quite wasteful. So coolstoppers.com have solved this issue by creating a series of Star Wars wine stoppers: So you can have the likes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Princess Leia, Han Solo and a Stormtrooper guarding your vino. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 10, 2010 in Japanese TV
This Canon Autoboy Luna camera commercial from 1996 has everything that a fanboy would want in life: A chance to get to hang out at a space station with a pretty model and her adorable doggie! By the way I half suspect that the space station motif was inspired by the Michael Jackson music video Scream which came out about a year before this — and of course that production owed a great deal to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Read more…
In the real world there are working dogs who have been bred to perform a specific task — and Dodobongo is not based on any of those canines! The entire “purpose” of USB Dodobongo is to entertain geeks. By plugging Dodobongo port (because geeks have so many free ports) your reward is to watch him bark, run or move his head. Sadly this cute critter is designed for the Japanese market, so I’m not 100% sure that all of his tricks will work for you: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 10, 2010 in Comic Books
I’ve been following Kill Audio for a few issues now and I’ve got to say that I’ve been really won over by the look of this book which is illustrated by Sheldon Villa and Chuck B. Except for some manga back in the day I haven’t seen many comic books that are colored with a two color combo — in this case blood red and black. It makes the comic stand out the minute you see it from the piles of bad full color but poorly photoshoped work you see every where these days. Add to that the fact the artwork has a unique style to it, and the result is that with Kill Audio you get to see something unique, which makes this reviewer happy. Here’s a preview of issue six which will be out today: Read more…
This is the full trailer for Tron Legacy and I like what I see: Disney has some amazing luck — not only does it look like they’ll please the fanboys with this film, but now they have an Oscar winner in Jeff Bridges starring in the picture. I like the fact that the art direction of film stays very true to the original, which makes the Syd Mead fan inside of me happy. Here are some stills from the trailer to ogle at: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 9, 2010 in Animation
So I’m looking at this coffee commercial from Japan and at first I think that there’s nothing too special about it, but for some reason there seemed to be something very familiar about it which was uncanny. And then it hits me — the theme song is a parody of Gatchaman, which is known to Americans as Battle of the Planets: Read more…
All props due to Pete Docter, he was long overdue an Oscar & yeah Up‘s a great film… but why do I get the feeling Academy voters see ‘Pixar’ & check off that box without even thinking about the other nominees it? Who knows the Oscar rules around here? People in the animation field pick the final five, but does the entire Academy vote for the winner? If that’s the case, maybe nobody should bother submitting their films the same year Pixar has one in the running… then again, I’m sure those other producers will happily settle for “OSCAR NOMINATED BEST ANIMATED FEATURE” on their movie’s DVD box. Read more…
If you’re a fan of horror manga you’re going to like this: Shown above is a GeGeGe no Kitaro collectable which is from a larger line of monster balls. The first set of these goodies will go on sale in Japan on May 6th and there are plans to create 120 for the full series. Below are the first eight which will be released: Kitaro, Nezumi Otoko, Neko Musume, Nurikabe, Medama-oyaji, Ittan Momen, Konaki Jijii, and Sunakake Babaa: Read more…
After being chided by congress for not having a moon and Mars mission it looks like the Obama administration is adding the goal of space exploration back into the mix for NASA. But sadly even though a boost of six billion over five years sounds like a great deal of money, in the world of space exploration it’s just a fraction of what’s needed to make a trip. So the sad reality is that we’re back to the NASA of the Bush years: An agency spread too thin with too many goals and too little cash. Yes we’re still planning on getting to the moon and Mars once again, but that may take decades. Read more…
The above heartbreaking video shows the founders of Sun Microsystems talking about the founding of the company which lasted from 1982 until they were acquired by Oracle in January of this year. As sad as I am for the company, the ability for any tech firm to to last for twenty eight years is an amazing feat. Their golden age for for me was in the late 80s when they dominated the workstation market. Read more…
Upon seeing the above poster blown up to billboard size in NYC my fanboy reaction went something like this: Lieutenant Saavik what are you doing? You’re a Star Fleet officer AND you should be setting an example for the crew! Logic demands that you put down those high calorie items and not romp around in a reality weight loss show!!! Mind you that my reason for this is because twenty eight years later this is how I still see Kirstie Alley in my mind: Read more…
Ah yes we’ve seen it all before — the parade of countless sexy figurines from Japan aimed at fanboys who seem intent on scaring away any potential girlfriends. Well now figurine maker Alter in Japan is trying something new for a change: A new series of figurines for fangurls! The first in this series will be the character Takashi Natsume (夏目 貴志) and his mysterious feline spirit Nyanko-sensei (ニャンコ先生) from the manga series Natsume’s Book of Friends (夏目友人帳). In the manga Takashi has the ability to see spirits and spends his time working with them. A translation is available for the series from Viz and last year and an anime series was produced based on the title. As for our figurine, he’ll be out in October and available for ¥7140. Read more…
In Star Wars the All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT) is an instrument of evil — however this clever variation is a techies best friend for hiding unsightly power strips. The AT-AT Cable Tidy is a do-it-yourself kit that you assemble yourself and the final model has adjustable legs which you you can pose: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 5, 2010 in Star Trek, Tech
At first your reaction to myouterspace.com which is a social networking site for sci fi fans might be that it was lifted from the pages of The Onion, but alas this is no parody. And what breaks my heart is that because J.J. Abrams didn’t give William Shatner a well deserved cameo in the last film is that now he’s been forced to get involved in second rate projects like this one. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 5, 2010 in Japanese TV
Yes this Nissin ramen commercial starts out quite normally, but then it quickly travels from the Swiss alps to the Twilight Zone. So like little Miss Muffet our ski bunny is in the middle of a forest enjoying her warm but somewhat lackluster noodles: And then suddenly behind the trees appear two Kamen Rider villains, one with a pepper grinder head and the other with a cheese head. These two villains of lackluster instant noodles then attack her meal by zapping it with extra delicious flavor. Our heroine then goes on to enjoy her Milk Seafood Noodles as if nothing abnormal had occurred. Read more…
As a fanboy I still have mixed feelings about what Zack Snyder did with Watchmen last year, although maybe in retrospect my expectations were too high. So with him tackling Legend of the Guardians which is a children’s book I think I might be willing to withhold judgement until I’ve seen a bit more than this teaser trailer. My doubts spring from the fact that I’ve seen too Pixar wannabe films these past few years and I’m not sure if I want to watch owls for an entire sitting — but I’ll give Zack a chance. The film will be due out at the end of September this year. Read more…
I’ve got to admit that not that I’ve started to fall in love with Japanese stop motion animation that I can’t stop looking for it on YouTube. This latest advert that I came across is done with claymation and while it has a very kawaii quality to the animation the character designs (or what happens to them) don’t look too typical of what you’d associate with anime. The animation itself is selling a yogurt drink called Yakult mill mill (ヤクルト ミルミル) which uses bifidobacteria to clean your intestines. Another thing I like about this spot is that compared to American ads for similar products like Activa this spot seems so much more entertaining. Read more…
As a Star Wars fanboy I’m quite impressed with the level of detail in this Kubrick Star Wars DX Series 1 which is based on Return of the Jedi. Featured in the set are Luke Skywalker as a Jedi Knight, C-3PO & Salacious B. Crumb, R2-D2, Chewbacca, Amanaman the bounty hunter, Bib Fortuna and extra parts to build a Jabba the Hutt! These goodies will be shipping around the end of June however pre-orders are already being accepted. Read more…
Least we think that only fanboys grow up to yearn for their youth behold the collection of chopsticks aimed at fangurls who grew up in the 80s with the countless magical girl anime series of that era! Shown above are the chopsticks which are based on Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel (魔法の天使クリィミーマミ) which aired in 1983 — here’s an illustration from that show which features a ten year old girl who thanks to magic can transform into a sixteen year old girl: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 3, 2010 in Star Wars
This video featuring Tim Kring of Heroes and Peter Hirshberg makes a very interesting point about the The Star Wars Holiday Special from 1978: Their thinking is that even though the special was quite bad that the genius of it is that George Lucas is inventing what they call “transmedia storytelling” — the concept of using multiple mediums to tell a story. Their example is that by introducing Boba Fett that Lucas expanded the Star Wars universe and was then able to introduce the bounty hunter as a toy and then in the next film. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 2, 2010 in Cinema, Science
I was very saddened to hear that Dr. Robert McCall passed away as he was very much a hero of mine. I’ll never forget the first time I visited the Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. — along with being able to touch a piece of the moon and look at shopping mall full of aircraft and spaceships the first thing that hits you it the amazing larger than life mural by Robert McCall (an amazing gallery of his drawings that they house are here). Most of us have science fiction fanboys have grown up with McCall’s artwork without even knowing the artist. I think the first time McCall spoke to me was with his amazing work on the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. I was looking at this artwork as a child long after the film came out, but his paintings created a magical environment that you’d want to wander around and step inside: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 2, 2010 in Comic Books
I’ve been really enjoying the comic book Chew which is illustrated by Rob Guillory. Issue #9 will be out this Wednesday and Guillory tackles the vampire theme in his very own unique style. What I love about Guillory is that he’ll have investigators picking up dirty baby diapers in one frame and then cut to a morgue scene — yet every page is punctuated with humor every other panel: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 2, 2010 in Comic Books
I really love the draftsmanship in Dead Ahead #3 which comes out this Wednesday — the entire look of the comic book reminds me of a dancing combination of something you might see in a Wally Wood EC Comic mixed with a healthy dose of German Expressionism and just a dash of Goya. The credit for the artwork on this book belongs to Alex Nino and Moose Baumann who have done a wonderful job with the layout, it’s like they’ve taken the typical angular panels you see in Japanese manga and taken it to a new level of complexity. Add to that a plot focused on four thousand flesh hungry zombies and you’ve got a real winner: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 1, 2010 in Japanese TV
This cute animated commercial for the Tokyo Sky Tree (東京スカイツリー) which when it opens in the spring of 2011 will be the tallest building in Japan. The groundbreaking for the structure was started in 2008 and the construction is being backed a group of six terrestrial broadcasters (including NHK) who will use it to transmit digital television signals. If you’d like to see the ongoing construction of the building the webcam is here. And here’s a computer rendering to give you an idea of the scale and design of the building: Read more…
