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Leave it to the government to stomp on the American dream. The dream of our very own fully operational Death Star. The people of America took their voice to the Obama administration, about the need for a $850,000,000,000,000,000 space station by 2016. White House officials made an official response to a petition on the We the People website, stating,
"The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon," wrote Paul Shawcross, chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House's Office of Management and Budget. "
Now I don't know what's cooler. The fact that 34,435 people have signed the petition since November, or that the government has officially responded to this awesome request to put military defense spending up to the vote? Make sure you do drop by the site, as chief of Science and Space Branch, Paul Shawcross has some pretty awesome answers, and gives out a bit of nerd love.
Destructoid
Japanator
Flixist
Taylored Curiosities has a new creature in her shop, and its name is Harrison. The newest addition to the Fenegryg line, Harrison is 3.5 inches of vintage cotton, stuffed and featuring a hand-cast face piece. He likes digging in the mud and making mud pies, apparently, and comes from another dimension. Despite being a being not of our world, he also doesn't look that dangerous, does he?
Just £20 makes Harrison yours. You can pick him up in the Taylored Curiosities Bigcartel shop.
There is fan art and then there is fan art. DeviantART member ChrisCalver may be in the running for Grumpy Cat's number one fan. The adorable feline, Tardar Sauce, is expertly captured Chris's amazing sculpture. What I find fascinating is he describes the piece as a "quick portrait." Quick? Goodness, imagine what could be possible if the artist took his time!
In any case, ChrisCalver's Grumpy Portrait is not just a magnificent homage to the best internet feline I know, but also a beautiful stand-alone piece. I think even Grumpy Cat would approve.
[via Neatorama]
If you are anything like me, at this point in time, you are bundled up from head to toe and sitting next to the heating vent. But, I can't help casting a glance over to my precious plushes and wondering if they are feeling the frosty temperature, too. Poor little guys!
Holly Stanway, also known as a little stranger, has thankfully created to a pattern for tiny winter hats for her Cavey plushes. It is available for free here. It looks easy enough and should be a great stash-buster! Every Cavey owner should really look into making one. And, hey, once you are finished why not post pictures of the finished product to the Cavey Flickr group or Facebook page?
[header image via Hey Cavey blog]
Artmymind have some new customs they've completed and are showing off; as you might expect, they're pretty cool. First (via Tenacious Toys), we have photos of a custom MADL set done on commission that are of Street Fighter's Ryu and Sagat, except in Artmymind's "demon" character style. I like how clean these look while retaining the MADL shape, and in particular, how the coloring creates a contrast that makes Sagat look that much more sinister.
The other one is their custom for the Fonzo Love NY show, Kumiho. "Kumiho" is a Korean work referring to a nine-tailed mythical fox, akin to some of the kitsune from Japanese folklore, and yes, Kumiho is indeed a fox creature, perhaps transformed into a more human form. Some neat touches on here include the different hand designs (one gloved in an armor fitting and the other not), along with some of the other additions like the legs and lacquered look to the paint job.
Let the speculation begin! Ozformers has posted an image of what is very likely the art for the next Optimus Prime figure! The image was found on the cover of Toy Hobby Retailer magazine (yeah, that's apparently a real thing) in a picture commemorating Hasbro's 90th anniversary. It's hard to say off a single image just exactly what we're looking at, but more than likely it's a design for a future figure in the Generations line.
The design has some really interesting features. The head is very G1 in its simplicity, not overly detailed like in most modern designs. The chest is split between the windows with an Autobot symbol in the middle similar to the movie designs. Seems like a solid design so far, though the use of armor plates might indicate some heavy kibble on the actual figure. The biggest question mark goes to the big gun he's holding. Windows? On a gun? There's been a ton of speculation including Mini-Con partners, drone vehicles that turn into guns, or Hasbro's take on Takara Tomy's Arms Microns series of mini model kits. I'm leaning a little towards the Arms Microns theory, the art does look like it could be a model kit and there were some rumblings late last year about Hasbro taking the concept out of Japan. It would certainly be better than some of the overly gimmicky weapons we've seen in the Dark of the Moon and Prime lines.
The current run of Generations figures are based on the Fall of Cybertron game, but a game from mid-2012 can only carry a toy line for so long. I'm sure we can expect many characters from G1 and beyond in future releases throughout the year and well into next year when G1 will celebrate its 30th anniversary!
So you may remember back in June, Natalie posted about a plush of La Luna's Bambino being available. The folks at Pixar Times have another little surprise: a maquette of Bambino produced by Gentle Giant! Coming signed by the short film's director, Enrico Casarosa, it comes in a fancy printed box based on the film's art and a nifty base. Plus, check out the detailing and paintwork; it's immaculate.
So the bad news is that it's limited to 500 pieces and costs US$120. The worse news is that it's apparently limited to Pixar's store on it's campus in Emeryville, Calif. ... the one that's closed to the public. Crappity crap. I'm not sure if all 500 are gone or not, but if they aren't and you are reading this in Pixar's offices, I have a check to send you. Why? Because throwing money at my computer screen didn't make this come to my front door.
Fans of Doctor Who might want to check out what Lunartik has been working on lately. He's partnered with the BBC and Titan Merchandise to design a new series of 3-inch blind-boxed figures based on the current 11th Doctor series, including a couple of Daleks, a Cyberman, a Silurian, the TARDIS and, of course, the Doctor. It's a stylized look, for sure, but I do like that Cyberman, at least.
You can order an individual box for £7.99 right now at Lunartik's shop. Anyone going to pick a box or two up?
While I tried to watch Nisenmonogatari on Crunchyroll I decided that it was not really my kind of show. Maybe it was because I had not watched the original, or because I expected it do something different than it did.. Truth be told I only watched one episode of it, however thanks to Mikatan's preview of a new figure; Karen Araragi by Good Smile Company I may give the show a second chance.
The photos tell the story best, but what can I say? We have a cute girl who is fully clothed, yet looking very attractive by all of the subtle ways her clothing is arranged. She sits atop a giant yellow and grey road roller. The clash of cute and machine reminds me of last seasons Girls and Panzer and kind of has the same effect of somehow making the girl cuter, while appealing to auto and heavy machinery loving collectors at the same time.
Really there is a lot to like here! What do you think Nisenmonogatari fans? Do you want to add her in your collection? Should I give this series a second try? Please let me know in the comments below.
You might remember seeing Natalie's post on the Fonzo Love NY show, but here's another custom for the show that we've been sent. Ian Ziobrowski has sent us photos and info on his Fonzo Growhouse, a little facility built by his Nuggs for growing "plants". According to Ian, "This old scrapie robotic, piece of junk is completely self reliable. Produces its own energy, gather's its own water, and feeds its own plants."
So what's it made from? Acrylic paints, Sculpey, wood, plastic and LEDs have been combined to create this little guy, who has a battery compartment concealed in the back and a little window for the plants to get sunlight through. You can buy it at myplasticheart for US$700 if it hasn't found a new home yet.
The eagle-eyed Shin Densetsu over at Toy Ark noticed that Playmates has updated their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classics listings with the fan favorite henchmen duo known as Bebop and Rocksteady. While photos are currently unvailable, I imagine that there won't be any such shortage on excitement.
Fans will recall that Playmates launched their new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lines last Summer, at which point older fans had been looking forward to the highly articulate 6-inch Classics line. While the Classics line hasn't been without its issues (paint errors, somewhat soft joints), on the whole the line seems to have been relatively well-received. There's a lot to like about these new figures and I'm happy to see that the line will be continuing (unlike, say, what Bandai did with their ThunderCats Classics line...) especially since the first villain entries are, well, my favorite TMNT villains. Shredder's bumbling, occasionally treacherous flunkies added a touch of humor to the show. Starting off as a pair of street punks, Bebop and Rocksteady accepted Shredder's offer to give them power (not realizing what that actually entailed) and were transformed into a human warthog and a human rhino. Despite the increase to their physical abilities, the characters remained incompetent and essentially served as comic relief.
Availability of the 6-inch TMNT Classics figures seems to vary greatly at retail, with many stores only carrying the 4-inch line. Hopefully this will change as the Classics line begins to expand.
[ Toy Ark ]
While at any event I always have to look at the sellers or artist alley areas and see if I find any new awesome people. At MAGfest, Nicole Bellofatto was one such awesome person. She's been making nerdy amigurumi for three years and selling her work at conventions for more than one. What caught my eye at first was the stack of handmade Pokéballs (assorted) at her table and then seeing everything else: Companion Cube, Katamari, Doctors (Doctor Who), Harry Potter, Heartless and more.
Check out the gallery for a quick look at her work (what was left of it by the time I saw her table), and visit her Deviant Art gallery to see even more beautiful work that wasn't on display at the show. Nicole designs all of her dolls herself, right down to the stitching patterns, so you're getting a 100% unique fan creation every time. It's empty right now (I expect that's because of MAGfest), but she also has an Etsy shop you can keep an eye on or contact her through.
G.E.M. Athrun Zala
G.E.M Kotetsu T. Kaburagi
Anohana Menma 1/8th Scale Figure
Sideshow Collectibles' OOM-9 Droid
Master Stars Piece Kotetsu T. Kaburagi
DC Comics Bishoujo Huntress
Kotobukiya's ArtFX Jaina Solo
Round 5's Cut The Rope toys
Sideshow's Utapau Airborne Trooper
Kotobukiya's 1/7-scale Mari Makinami
FuRyu's Kuroyukihime
DC Comics Bishoujo Power Girl
Kotobukiya's ArtFX J Seto Kaiba
RIO:Bone Canti (Green)
Bandai's S.H.Figuarts Lunatic
Play Arts Kai Cammy
Play Arts Kai Akuma
Transformers Prime Darkness Megatron
Play Arts Kai Garrus Vakarian
figma Samus Aran
G.E.M. Athrun Zala
Tomocast 40: Gundam
