I thought that the Chinese New Year (February 7th) was the start of the year of the rat, but perhaps I’m wrong! According to Hot Toys of Hong Kong it’s the year of the mouse — Mickey Mouse that is! And you can purchase two sets of Disney figures to bring you good fanboy luck in the year to come — the first set are 11″ high Mickey and Mini Mouse figures and the second set are 3″ high Cosbaby Disney figures featuring Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy Dog, Donald Duck, and Daisy Duck (shown above are Mickey and Mini Mouse).
I love industrial design of the above Etch-A-Sketch based on Homer Simpson’s head, it shows some clever thinking on the part of the toy designers. Here’s the product description:
“D’oh! This hilarious Simpson’s Etch-A-Sketch is shaped like the top of Homer’s head. Turn the pupils of his eyes to draw your masterpiece. Homer’s hair forms a handy plastic handle. Shake well and start over with a new, clean screen.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 5, 2008 in Animation
Playing with a flip book gives you that primordial joy that goes to the heart of not just what animation is, but perhaps cinema itself. Shown above are but a few samples (click on the image to see it at full size) from the amazing website flipbook.info:
“Welcome to FLIPBOOK.info, a website entirely devoted to an art form half way between book and movie. We have a collection of 4420 flip books (also called flick books or folioscopes) from 1882 to nowadays with a great diversity of topics.”
For yours truly the best part about the upcoming Speed Racer film will be the toys! Shown above is the Speed Racer Battle Morph Mach 5 Vehicle & Figure from Mattel. As you can see the Mach 5 is packed with all sorts of cool weaponry like saw blades and the well documented “jump-jacks” to bust a move on bad guys.
Posted by Guest Author on Feb 4, 2008 in Comic Books
Our Top Indie Cartoonists to Watch For in 2008: Keeping true to our “Anti-Superheroes in Tights” mood at fanboy, we took a look back at the comic books and graphic novels that caught our eye:
Still rounding up the graphic novels that impressed me in 2007, I bring you a tale set in 2001. Suddenly one September, prolific cartoonist and Portal of Evil founder Thor finds himself getting fired from his job. And then his girlfriend dumps him over the phone. And then he gets evicted. And then his Grandmother dies. And then terrorists in planes attack the city. And this all happens in the first two pages. So by page three, where a lesser man may have crumbled, Thor resolves to buy a 60 day bus pass and see America.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 3, 2008 in Star Wars
It’s the perfect lighting fixture for any Star Wars fanboy! Shown above is a Japanese Star Wars Lightsaber Desk Lamp from ThinkGeek. You can either pick the red Darth Vader lightsaber or the blue Luke Skywalker one…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 3, 2008 in Animation
Ebiten was a Japanese TV show from the early 90s that featured a contest for amateur short movie directors. Shown above is the stop motion film Pulsar (1990) by Katushi Bowda, below is the film Power (1991) by Yoshinao Sato which was created with a copy machine technique.
Shown above is an education film from 1966 which was the high point of the space race between the US and the USSR. My favorite part of the film is the spaceship animation before the title sequence, I’d love to know who did the illustrations. Sadly the only credits on the film are for the production company which is credited as “a Dr Douglass Film” and my Google search produced no results when looking this up…
Currently one of the hottest selling home robots is the WowWee Robotics Roboquad. The design reminds me a bit of a dog, although it’s legs remind me quite a bit of a crab. The unit comes with a remote control device that allows you to set the personality for your mecha pet. Although I think the main selling point right now is that they’re selling for around $80 which makes them a pretty cheap entertainment accessory for any nerd themed party or work place.
What I think is interesting is that while this first generation of robots are very much novelty devices or toys, I could see a day in the not too far future where they turn into every day devices. For now these robots seem to be a solution in search of a problem, but there may come a day where they can take on the role of a seeing eye dog. Here’s an official demo from WowWee to give you a taste:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 1, 2008 in Videogames
Shown above is a TV commercial for the Magnavox Star System color television set. Below is a 1981 spot for the Magnavox Odyssey which features the voice of Mr. Spock:
“Are you a Lebowski achiever? Let’s hope so. After all, it would be totally ‘un-Dude’ of you not to be. Walter and The Dude are here, and they brought their little dog, too! Relive all the fun and laughter from The Big Lebowski with these cool action figures. They combine the stylized look of ‘urban vinyl’ with a little Lebowski fun. This hilarious set includes 2 individually packaged 8-inch figures: 1x Walter and 1x The Dude. Each features an outfit with real cloth pieces and includes various movie-accurate accessories even removable sunglasses! Achieve your desires by buying these characters today! Jeffrey ‘The Dude’ Lebowski is a real laid-back kind of guy. He enjoys ‘bowling, driving, (and having) the occasional acid flashback.’ In the classic film The Big Lebowski, this humble pacifist and his bowling buddies become entangled in a web of embezzlement, supposed kidnapping, and White Russians.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 31, 2008 in Comic Books
When I first came across this I thought it was a parody, but it seems to be real! Here is the description from Alrugo Entertainment:
“Unearthed for the first time in 43 years and lovingly restored at Maxischermo Studios Milan, this rare theatrical trailer for the 1964 Italian classic ‘Italian Spiderman’ is a real treat. Featuring Franco Franchetti of ‘Mondo Sexo’ fame in his last ever role before being killed in a spear fishing accident in 1965. Director, Gianfranco Gatti, reminisces on ‘Italian Spiderman’; “I have made some mistakes in my life…bad, bad mistakes”.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 30, 2008 in Star Trek
Humans smile with so little provocation! It’s 20th Century Earth and the Bangles need a director for their music video “Going Down To Liverpool” (a cover by Katrina & the Waves) and the choice is logical — Leonard Nimoy. Well that and also band member Susanna Hoffs knew Nimoy’s son Adam (it’s who you know in Hollywood sometimes). By the way Adam Nimoy would go on to direct episodes of Star trek the Next Generation and Babylon 5. And least we forget Leonard Nimoy’s own musical roots:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 29, 2008 in Japanese TV
This is a series of short surrealistic (but slightly silly) interstitial films from 1999 by the popular Japanese rock bandL’Arc-en-Ciel. The videos were shown in-between music videos on their DVD collection Chronicle. What’s odd is that even though this video is quite avant-garde, their music is much more conventional J-Pop.
“A Jedi “church” has been born in a galaxy far far away – North Wales. The Holyhead chapter of the self-styled Jedi Church, which claims up to 400,000 members worldwide, has sprung up thanks to brothers Barney and Daniel Jones, both Star Wars obsessives.
The “church” is only one of a handful around the planet, said hairdresser Barney, 26, the Anglesey Order Minister, also known as Master Jonba Hehol. “Some people think it will be quite interesting but lots of people will ridicule us because it seems quite nerdy but we’ve had a good reaction so far,” he said.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 29, 2008 in Star Trek
Shown above is a 1966 interview William Shatner on the set of the Star Trek episode What Are Little Girls Made Of? Below is another segment with Leonard Nimoy:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 28, 2008 in Comic Books
Above: A panel from the French comic book Sky Doll.
Over the last few months I’ve been enjoying watching the growth in popularity of manga with with the American market. However there are other places besides Japan that have a great tradition of producing amazing comic books — one of those places is France, yet very few French comics make their way over here. So I was very pleased to read that Marvel is doing a joint publishing venture with Soleil:
“Some of Soleil’s most popular releases, such as Sky Doll, Universal War One, Samurai and Le Fleau Des Dieux, make their English language debuts beginning this May. The first release will be Sky Doll #1 (of 3), a timely socio-political thriller in which a young android must decide her destiny by challenging the very government—and faith—that has controlled her life.
Soleil appeared on the comic scene in 1988 and quickly moved into publishing both classic comics by hot, young talent and series targeted towards younger audiences before buying great classics (Mandrake, Tarzan). Publishing science fiction, heroic fantasy, westerns and action comics from superstars such as Arleston, Tarquin, Mourier, Crisse, Swolfs and Ange, in addition to promising young talent, Soleil quickly established itself with a catalogue of powerful graphic novels.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 28, 2008 in Star Wars
This is a nice behind the scenes look at the making of the upcoming video game The Force Unleashed by LucasArts, which will be released in the Summer. What I love about LucasArts is amount of detail that they put into everything that they work on, check out this preproduction artwork for the game:
There’s some haunted quality that I find when I look into the eyes of a Blythe doll, and yet this series of photos created by Takahito Iguchi of real people with Blythe heads is even more surrealistic:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 27, 2008 in Science
As a kid I grew up looking at how much cooler the Concorde (or at least the early prototypes of it) looked next to the old fashioned jumbo jets of the era, I just sort of assumed that in the future supersonic air travel would rule the day. Well sadly it’s the year 2008 and the Concorde is history, although maybe supersonic air travel isn’t quite dead yet:
