…but did. oops, heehee. well ok, i dipped into my savings a little. im allowed to! it was just sitting on the shelf at toy tokyo glaring, beckoning, whispering “im affordable…yet swishy…” and when you start imagining little boxed toys whispering odd phrases at you, youre just obligated to purchase them.
snakes eyes | camouflage “u” variant
kow yokoyama’s maschinen krieger
ah…and the mining of our childhood continues. with the re-emergence of all things 80’s, toynami…the makers of the masterpiece robotech line, is planning on remaking voltron for the contemporary masses…woo! theres no end to all the remaking of childhood toys, so might as well enjoy it yo. and for the hardcore out there…when i say voltron, im referring to the go-lion line, not the vehicular voltron (which i had about 5 sets of as a kid). the masterpiece voltron line looks pretty coo, and seems to have alot more articulation than the original voltron did. the green and red lions (arms) are alot slimmer, and their center (elbow) hinge has been refined for more movement…and the blue and yellow lions (feet) look just slightly slimmer. the black lion in particular tho is looking more trim and alot more articulated than the original…which lends itself to having the combined robot form being more poseable and looking significantly less chunky than his 80’s bro…
> toynami’s masterpiece voltron
[ current selection | weezer – in the garage ]
[ feelin’ | got my biscuits…yum ]
in brighter news, wired also ran an article on the lego convention, brickfest pdx, this past weekend in portland, oregon. all things lego were at hand, with many in attendance to show off their moc’s (my own creations). these included: a full working rollercoaster (with new seatbelts this year), a railroad and town (with the obligatory starbucks), a moonbase with giant starships, and i think i even saw the nebuchanezzar from the matrix in the photo gallery. very coo. as for that aforementioned moonbase…
“…in a moon-base layout that featured trains, monorails and a smoke-belching volcano. Once his contribution is up and running, volcano builder Gary McIntire can barely contain his excitement, proclaiming, “I’m just so happy that this is working.” McIntire pulls a co-builder aside to show him a little secret tucked away in the layout: a female mini-figure in a shower stall, complete with towel.
“You’re such a geek … but it’s great!”“
…word, a geek, and a toy perv. rock on.
> brickfest pdx (via wired)
> official brickfest pdx site (check the photo gallery!)
[ current selection | cibo matto – black hole sun ]
[ feelin’ | hmm… ]
ah…another shot of childhood nostalgia. matt of x-entertainment got his hands on an old-school robo-force playset…the fortress of steele. robo-force was one of those overlooked and forgotten series from the 80’s. the toys were basically these robot thingies that had suction-cup asses and springy arms that had kung-fu bear-hugs if you pressed down on their backpacks. they also had various other gimmicks, like guns popping out of their mouths, their stomachs, foreheads, or asses. jk…but you never know. it was the 80’s…everything flew back then. so this babys like the castle gray-skull of robo-force, except its just a bunch of runty robots doting around with cranes and guns coming out the wazoo. it was no fortress maximus, or even a go-bots command center (which rocketh much), but hey…everybody needs a playset. i remember i used to have a few robo-forces…the coolest being the badass hun-dred, who looked like a vicious clam regurgitating guns. damn there were alot of coo toys from the 80’s.
> fortress of steele (via x-entertainment)
[ current selection | lightning seeds – life of riley ]
[ feelin’ | fine ]
feh…so while im tripping fanboy, i might as well bring this up too. one of the high points of 80’s cartoon rocking-ness, alongside g.i. joe, the transformers, and damnit…the gummy bears (bouncing here and there and everywhere) was the robotech series. one of the pioneers of anime during the 80’s, it was actually an amalgam of three separate japanese animes, macross, sd cavalry southern cross, and gc mospeada. blah blah blah…read the history elsewhere. anyhoo, it rocked. and one of the biggest selling points for the series was the rockin’ toys. they were the quintessential transforming robot toys back then. and while everybody is familiar with the now classic veritech fighter (natch!), one of the oft overlooked toys was the fighter from the third part of the series…the alpha fighter. it was like the boxy volvo big bro to the veritech. and while it wasnt the most elegant of designs, i still thought it rocked and had one as a kid (the green one actually). now toynami, the same dudes who released the (new and improved) veritech last year, are bringing out their masterpiece collection series 2. and the first toy rolling out is the vfa-6h alpha fighter (scotts blue variant). ill probably wait for the green one (vfa-6i…rands variant) to come out…for nostalgia’s sake. and hopefully theyll follow up the alpha fighter with the never-released beta fighter, another toy that was actually suppose to hook onto the back of the alpha fighter. woo…crossing fingers. anyhoo, robotech.com is taking pre-orders yo. get your geek on.
> scotts alpha figher (via robotech)
[ current selection | violet vs. mantronik – burn the elastic ]
[ feelin’ | hungry ]
funny article (via #!/usr/bin/girl) about the new game karaoke revolution. the official playstation magazine thought it would be funny if they got four of the bands actually featured in the game to karaoke to their own songs and see how they did. r.e.m., hoobastank, barenaked ladies, and gin blossoms went at it to see who karaoked the best to their own songs. hoobastank and barenaked ladies got hosed…with ed robertson of barenaked ladies doing a better rendition of cyndi laupers “girls just wanna have fun” than his own song “one week.” quote robertson…”I’m very alarmed by the fact that I performed Cyndi Lauper better than I performed Ed Robertson…I’m actually quite sexually confused about that right now. I might need a little time to work that out.” robin wilson of gin blossoms actually destroyed all with his score of 49,830…actually outscoring michael stipe with his own rendition of “its the end of the world as we know it“. rock on.
while we’re on the subject of karaoke, ill even throw in this bit of fyi for everybody. while alot of people have probably been told that karaoke means “tone deaf” in japanese (which would be pretty fitting)…it actually means “empty orchestra“. its a combination of two words, karappo (empty) and okesutura (orchestra), shortened to kara-oke. music history yo…and i still bombed the class.
> karaoke battle-of-the-bands (via #!/usr/bin/girl)
[ current selection | rob d – clubbed to death ii ]
[ feelin’ | swell ]
ooh ooh…gaming post! gaming post! these are quite rare for me nowadays. in this day and age of ridiculous graphics and immersive environments, some genres have been naturally cast aside. gone are the heady days of true platformers…and the greatest lost, shooters. musha, gaiares, thunderforce iii…ah my genesis childhood. so me and fonz fired up a new game of his last nite…ikaruga…and holy shit is it addictive. and frustrating. but addictive too. its a vertical shooter, in the same vein of 1945, various levels of life force, and radiant silvergun (same makers too!). damn im nostalg-ing. anyhoo, unlike those games however, ikaruga has no power-ups, no multiple weapons, no fuck-you-all super-weapons…no nothing. you just have a ship thats able to flip from light to dark, and can shoot respective light/dark bullets. all the enemies are light/dark also, and as a light ship you can absorb light bullets (and vice versa). its a coo little trick lifted from silhouette mirage and makes the whole game cerebral. youre trying to dodge all opposing bullets, absorb like bullets (which fill up a meter for your secondary weapon), and flipping modes furiously as they come in alternating waves. its a brilliant tactic/gameplay that makes ikaruga as much a puzzle game as it is a shooter. did i mention the games ridiculously hard? word. we’re still trying to get past level 2.
[ current selection | the lemonheads – mrs. robinson ]
[ feelin’ | i think i burned my mouth… ]
ooh…a follow-up yo. legoland california ran a competition back in october looking for a new lego master to help maintain legoland. the competition just finished last week, and now they have three new lego masters to make giant giant landscapes with small small plastic geometric building bricks. the competition was initially only looking for one lego master, but with forthcoming expansions and additions legoland decided that it was a good opportunity to hire more while the pool of talent was there. also of note…one of the winners, nathan sawaya of manhattan (left in pic), is giving up his current job as a corporate attorney to move to cali and build lego sets for a living. crazy yo!
[ current selection | blonde redhead – in particular ]
[ feelin’ | rushed ]
ack…so rushed. heading out in a bit, but just wanted to get this up before then. mazda is releasing a special edition rx-8 transformer. wooo. its apparently a promo for the upcoming 2004 north american international auto show and is ridiculously coo. the model is based off the alternator line of transformers…the super-detailed line modeled after real cars. the rx-8 in particular is based off the same smokescreen model i have…tho smokescreen is a subaru impreza wrc 2003. they didnt mention whether the rx-8 is only available as a promo from the shows, or whether it will be available for sale…
> mazda rx-8 transformer (via ugo.com)
current selection | pizzicato five – world is spinning at 45 rpm
feelin’ | sore
wired.com actually took notice of the hk vinyl scene with an article about the emerging vinyl collectibles. its a pretty coo article detailing the emergence of the vinyl scene in hk, starting with the lau-meister himself, michael lau. hes basically the godfather of the scene…one of the first to pioneer the art. the article also mentions other hk vinyl-meisters like eric so, jason siu, and the crazy fuckers at brothersfree…and even non-hk like futura and doink. i personally cant afford any of this shit, but i actually lean away from the michael lau urban stuff anyway and more towards the g.i.joe-on-steroids-type like zmdc, fire drake high school (both by da joint), and three zero…all of which i cant afford either. *shrug* i do have an ahiru kun duck 100% that alice got me tho…which rocks. and hopefully ahiru kun will get some company, as soon as i get rid of one of my bad habits so hk vinyl collecting can replace it…word.
> hk vinyl article (via wired)
| artists | > eric so art > jason siu > brothersfree |
| where to get | > kid robot > figuro > ningyoushi |
