T O S H I S T A T I O N

The Walking Dead

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:23:00 CST

AMC has posted up the 4.5 minute trailer for their upcoming series The Walking Dead - same deal they showed at Comic Con this year. Looks as though it's going to do plenty of justice to Robert Kirkman's black-and-white comic book of the same name. Series kicks off this Halloween with a 1.5-hour premiere.

As we see in the trailer, it's got the same guy-wakes-up-from-coma start as 28 Days Later, but that's where the similarities end. TWD bundles their brain eating with a talky character drama type narrative. I recall entire issues of the comic where the dead hardly saw any ink at all. Fortunately, Kirkman's got solid story-telling chops, and was always good about breaking up long exposition with a zombie bustin' through the window or whatever. You're also getting the old-school sluggish, shambling style undead, as opposed to the 28 Days full-tilt berserker "rage virus" hordes.

Additional details - behind the scenes stuff, set photos, etc - at the official Walking Dead blog.

Celebration V Badge Art

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:50:00 CST

The big Star Wars Celebration 5 event went down last weekend in Orlando, FL. Plenty of projects came rolling out of the TStation art department, including a varity of website graphics, printed vinyl banners, t-shirts, business cards, and pins. One of the more interesting assignments was the design of the laminated badges that were to be worn by website staff members at TheForce.net, ForceCast.net, and Rebelscum.com. Also included customized badges for Rebelscum.com Forum members. This year we also printed up a couple hundred "blank" badges for each site, which featured a spot for folks to write in their name.

Here's a look at the final badges:

Along with the Big Three, we also created a dozen or so badges for R2Central.com, along with a few for Toshi Station - which featured the only cat to keep his cool during the "every man for himself" Imperial occupation of Cloud City: Willrow 'Ice Cream-Maker' Hood. The third badge here was the original "lost" ForceCast badge; scrapped in favor of the freezing chamber Stormtrooper. Billy Dee may yet see the inside of a laminate sleeve... (there was also a Luke Dagobah badge that was never really finished)

No shortage of C5 coverage over at Rebelscum.com and The Force.net. There were also a couple ForceCast episodes taped at the show.

Hot Toys Enters the Dragon

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:23:00 CST

Hong Kong-based "Hot Toys" has been stomping all over the toy industry with their very expensive, very accurate 1/6 scale action figures. The high price tag buys you a level of detail unheard of in a 12" figure. It also includes an extremely articulated body (often with rubber skin, complete with muscles and veins), wrapped in neatly tailored threads, and outfitted with an avalanche of accessories. The whole deal is entombed in some thoughtfully designed packaging that allows the figure to be removed, and put back, without having to tear anything apart ("Collector Friendly", to use the toy nerd nomenclature).

Now Hot Toys are finally turning their mighty talents towards the ultimate goal: Enter the Dragon Bruce Lee. Behold!

Additional photos available at Cool Toy Review.

Besides an entire dojo of swappable hands, two sets of ninja clothes, and a set of nunchucks, the highlights on this guy would be the "two newly developed authentic head sculpts with Parallel Eyeball Rolling System (PERS), newly sculpted muscular body, two sets of specially-made costume and two movie-accurate diorama backdrops."

Lee was sculpted by the legendary Yulli Hotto, whose resume includes the unbelievably impressive T-800 Arnold and DX Joker.

See Also:
Hot Toys official site
Cool Toy Review HT photo archive
T-800 Arnold review
Yulli Facebook Fanclub
Yulli Interview at AFHUB (2008)

Reality distortion field remains strong with Steve Jobs after antennagate

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:53:00 CST

Next Media Animation creates "colorful, eye-catching and informative animated graphics each day for TV news and websites around the world". They are credited for putting together the following video, which apparently aired in Taiwan. No sound required:

The best part is when Steve Jobs uses his lightsaber to cut off a couple fingers of a customer who has been holding his iPhone 4 "wrong". There. All fixed.

Making of AT-AT day afternoon

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:56:00 CST

From Canadian film-maker Patrick Boivin, the mastermind behind that Iron Man vs Bruce Lee short from last year, has posted up a behind-the-scenes look at how he constructed his "AT-AT Day Afternoon" video.

Not what I was expecting. It all comes together with some pretty impressive stop-motion and simple blue-screen work. Surprisingly, no CGI.

Cream of Darkness

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:01:00 CST

The SCI FI Wire (home to the geek-news-app-that-crashes-on-the-iPhone 4) commemorated Bruce Campbell's June 22nd birthday with some spiffy print-em-yourself labels for Bruce-themed soup.

Scope the print-quality PDF download right here - which also includes "Gumbo Ho-Tep" and "Bisque o' County Jr".

AT-AT day afternoon

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:13:00 CST

From Canadian film-maker Patrick Boivin, the mastermind behind that Iron Man vs Bruce Lee short from last year.

Mega Robot Returns!

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:46:00 CST

This test of the special effects house Kaktus Film's "photo realism" skills is 24 seconds of mechanical rampaging gloriousness:

The official Kaktus site has also posted up some images and a QuickTime movie of their pitch to Marvel for alternate Iron Man 2 robots (none made the cut, though not due to a shortage of awesomeness).

Hooded Justice

Mon, 17 May 2010 12:49:00 CST

HeadHoods.com offers up some righteous hoodies, including these two stand-outs. Only $60!

Okay fellas, take a look at the little surprise I brought you.

Fri, 14 May 2010 08:28:00 CST

Comedian Julia Segal put together a batch of screenshots from each Quentin Tarantino's films showing off the director's affinty for the "trunk shot". I don't recall the Inglorious Basterds scene actually coming from within a trunk - still, an interesting observation.

More...

Louis: Who's that?
Ordell: That's Beaumont.
Louis: Who's Beaumont?
Ordell: An employee I had to let go.

Power Up

Thu, 06 May 2010 08:18:00 CST

www.mostawesomestthingever.com

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:10:00 CST

You really should be participating in the quest to discover The Most Awesomest Thing Ever. Here's where things currently stand at the Top Ten:

1. The Internet
2. Life
3. Oxygen
4. Music
5. A Nap
6. Technology
7. Lasers
8. Physical Intimacy
9. Lightsabers (real)
10. Lightning

Seems about right. Not so sure about those last two, though a lightsaber would be pretty awesome. Ninjas are running 11th, beating out the likes of Cheese, Bruce Lee, and the Industrial Revolution.

Pixels

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 12:56:00 CST

Spectacular short film written and directed by Patrick Jean of the Paris-based One More Production: (sound not required)

iCade

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 10:45:00 CST

ThinkGeek.com generally cranks out a couple solid April Fools Day products each year, and 2010 was no exception. The List includes Dharma Alarm Clock and Star Trek's Tribbles 'n' Bits Breakfast Cereal, but the king of the hill this year is the stellar iCade - iPad Arcade Cabinet:

"Beautifully retro styled, handcrafted wooden tabletop arcade cabinet and MAME emulator for your otherwise useless iPad"

It's a Unicorn

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:05:00 CST

"Five directors were each challenged to create short films in different genres using the same dialogue. The five 5 beautifully diverse films are by Greg Fay, Jake Scott, Johnny Hardstaff, Carl Erik Rinsch and animators Hi-Sim and their genres range from drama, animation, action, to sci-fi and thriller."

Scope the trailer. It's possible the whole thing is just a fancy ad for Philips TVs, but still. Clever(ish) concept.

Also, as you can see, at least one of the films features a robot riding a motorcycle. Which. Is. Awesome.

The whole project should be re-tooled:

"Five directors were each challenged to create short films in different genres using the same robot riding a motorcycle."