Star Wars lightsaber headed for the stars

Original Words by: Joshua Topolsky

According to recent news out of NASA, the next time the Discovery crew take their ship into orbit, the "force" will be with them -- because they're taking Luke Skywalker's lightsaber along for the ride. That's right, for the film's 30th anniversary, the original lightsaber prop from the first Star Wars film is taking a ride into actual space... but that's not all. Apparently, Chewbacca will be on hand to pass the saber to officials from the Houston Space Center, and then together with Jango and Boba Fett, he will help push a plane back on the tarmac (for reasons unknown to us). But wait, there's more. When the Discovery lands in Houston after its space travels, the crew will be greeted by a group of Stormtroopers and other "Star Wars notables," including the much-loved R2-D2, who will then deliver the lightsaber to a waiting line of Hummers. Afterwards, there will be a party at the Mos Eisley Cantina, where Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes will play a set of their greatest hits.


Dkoda's Thoughts!:

I love the idea of sending this icon piece of future-inspired technology prop into space but I wonder what an Alien life-form might make of it if it were to encounter the lightsaber.

Maybe it will think we are a species of great intelligence and wisdom...or when it turns it on and a couple of lights dazzle them, and not much else...they'll think...hahaha...pewny Earthlings and their primitive toys! AhH..hahaha!!!

With this thought in mind I motion for a life-size Terminator robot to be sent with it...just to cover any angles which might make us look like an easy planet to over -rule. I mean, lets face it...meeting the Terminator as a peice of space JUNK from Planet Earth would give anyone second thoughts about invading our sweet homeland!

Original Post on Engadget

F-Cup Tea

Ladies, did you ever want to enlarge your breasts without getting surgery? Well, you are now in luck! A Japanese firm has come up with the solution; F-Cup Tea Bags. Apparently, if you drink a cup of this "special" tea everyday, your boobs will grow bigger! Typical wacky Japanese marketing....

[VIA]

Self-Shifting Digital Paintings

Artist San Base, who was born in Russia and lives in Canada, has combined his training in fine arts and computer engineering to meld painting with algorithms.

He devised his "Dynamic Painting" concept when art supplies became too expensive following the economic collapse of the former Soviet Union in the 1990s.



When he didn't have fresh canvases to use, Base painted over his used canvases. Liking the effect that created, he began intentionally transforming the same picture over and over.

It occurred to him that a computer or TV screen would be a better "canvas" for bringing his pictures to life, so he wrote a software program to automate the image generation and transformation.



Base creates images by selecting basic components, like colors and shapes, and then mapping out how he wants them to morph over time. He has written a software program that digitally "paints" the images he designs.

To him, the algorithms that create the paintings are like DNA, guiding how the art will develop.

Words and Images [VIA]

Argument Chair

This hand-made chair is by far the weirdest and coolest I have seen in a while. The cushioning is made from boxing gloves and has adjustable legs for uneven surfaces. However, with a price-tag of $5,865 I think it will be a little out of my price-range.

[VIA]

Alien V Predator 2: Requiem

PHilfy and I have been huge fans of the comic book series of Aliens Vs. Predator for a long time now and have seen it undergo huge changes in the plot when it was first converted to a movie 3-4 years ago. Now Hollywood have taken up the story again and are probably going to destroy the franchise once more with alot less terror/suspense and bucketloads more gore. I pray that as I write this, I will be proven wrong but after watching the trailer, I have been left with a big doubt-cloud over my head. Watch it and weep.

Watch the TRAILER here.

Dark Horse were licensed to create a great comic book series using AVP.

Even the Alien V Predator V Terminator series was amazing!

Futura X All City Style Train

Bigshot Toyworks recently showed at the SDCC 07 their newest incarnation of the All City Style Train series; "Classic Burners", Volume 1, The Break Train featuring the art of Futura.



This 20-inch long by 4-inch tall train is limited to 500 pcs, will cost approx. $USD 75 and has been a collabortive effort between Maharishi X Futura X Bigshot Toyworks and Toytokyo.



You can play around/design your own All City Style train by visiting their site.

Thanks again to Toysrevil for the image and info.

She One Fall/Winter Collection

Our good friend She-One has dropped a great line with Addict Clothing for the 2007 Fall/Winter Collection.

The SHECAMO III SoftSwitch Jacket has an iPod dock on the inside pocket and controller on the left sleeve.

See more images on She-One's blog and at the Addict Clothing site.

Steampunk Monocle

Found a british Steampunk enthusiast who is curently selling his Steampunk "Scientific Goggles" on eBay for a few quid. This is what he had to say about his invention:

"Imagine if you will the 19th century, built on the back of 200 years of scientific progress, forged in the super heated vapours of steam and iron, cog and gear, where zeppelin cities hover over a nation powered by steam itself, of clock work automotons and goggle adorned mad scientists. This is the world of steam punk.
The success of the inquisitor upon the scientific community was monumental.



By the middle of the 19th century, the grand human genome project had been completed, and with various fragile treaties with the martian imperial council, more complex and varied research was attempted, spawning a new wave of bio aetheric and ambient aetheric technology. by blending the fusion technology of the martians, with human curiosity and ingenuity, the Inquisitor took a brave step into the sub atomic world..
it has moving armateur, two lenses, one with a working iris. it has two flashing valves, an adjustable leather strap, microscope effect works."



LINK Via Boing Boing

Waiter-less Restaurant

There is a new restaurant in Nuremberg, Germany that does not have any waiters. Instead, the restaurant is fully automated with a "rail" system that brings food to each table via a network of steel rails from the kitchen.

"Dishes like "organic beef in buttermilk" and "sausage en croute" glide along the rails to customers, propelled by gravity.

For the magic to work at all, Mack had to install the kitchen directly beneath the roof of the multistory restaurant. Customers order their meals using a touch-screen system that is placed at each table, and the entire restaurant is networked via a computer system.

Customers' orders are registered upstairs in the kitchen and a computer in the cellar keeps track of supply stocks. The system also calculates the likely delivery times for drinks and meals at every table and keeps customers informed.



The setup is more reminiscent of a post office sorting room than a traditional restaurant, which might offend some gourmets. But Mack believes there is a global market for his new invention. His gravity feed rail system is patented in Germany and he is seeking protection for the invention internationally so that he can license it to restaurants abroad."

Only down-side I can think of is what if I don't want my meal too spicy or I dont want gherkins in my burger? How do you tell a computer that?

Words and Images from Spluch.

Bodyflight!!!

Indoor skydiving experience in a vertical wind tunnel, near Bedford in the UK (www.bodyflight.co.uk)

Banksy Mania

Saw this on Supertouch and it really pissed me off:

"From the unbelievable but true files comes word that rail workers in London employed to remove graffiti around stations and on trains have been given emergency art lessons so they don’t paint over pieces by BANKSY. The training comes after an “unenlightened” worker recently painted over one of the artist’s landmark murals of a monkey blowing up a bunch of bananas with dynamite on Leake Street near the Waterloo tube Station. In an effort to ensure that no more of the artist’s work is destroyed, all city cleaning contractors have been told to notify managers whenever they encounter graffiti that might be Banksy’s, which is then examined by the city’s resident art experts. Here’s the best part: After determining that a piece is in fact genuine, the graffiti may then be removed and auctioned for charity…"

Why should this one artist get so much attention from the government now? Everywhere I go in London now, his pieces have been "protected", usually by a sheet of see-through acrylic drilled into a wall. Talk about hype.......The only positive issue is the charity selling of his art, I guess.

Wooden Gundam

Here we have a 30cm-tall Wooden Gundam. Japan's LaLaBit lists it @ 50,400YEN (US$432+) per Gundam, and is scheduled for a mid-October release. However, it doesn't say whether or not the Gundam has articulated joints or how heavy it is. At that kind of price tag, they really should be telling us more. An interesting concept at a very un-interesting price.





Thanks to Toysrevil for the info and images.

Insa Merchandise

I saw on Insa's site that he has just dropped some fresh merchandise on the Oki-ni site. Featuring his trademark Graffiti Fetish "heels" printed all over the hoodies and a sweet little dunny being released via Kidrobot. Would definitely love to get my hands on either the clothing or the toy.

Retro Gaming Boss Galleries

Remember all those hours you sacrificed to memorise the patterns that the bosses would all have on each level of your favourite game. Were there times when you just wanted to cry and throw the controller on the floor with a huff? Fear not, the people at Pixel Heroes have compiled an end-level Boss gallery of many retro games. Including R-type and Thunderforce (parallax-scrolling at it's finest) and so many more....it's a real trip down memory lane and a pang of jealousy for not being able to get to that stage myself.

[VIA]

Mazinger & Shin Getter

I have always loved the retro-feel and simplicity to the Mazinger and Shin Getter series of bots and it seems that the simplicity can stillbe transformd into something whih is both Hyper-detailed and super articulated; these robots don't come cheap and are approx. 100GBP. It could be due to the fact that the toy-legend "Professor Robo" Taku Sato has passed away making his designs even more collectible.

New Fewture EX-GOKIN Mazinger 1969 Figure Release.

This the newly released Kaiyodo Revoltech Action figure of Shin-Getter:

Toybot Studios has more brilliant images of both robots and details of where you can buy them.

Toy Break Episode 11

A big thanks to Toy Break for mentioning our competition on their TV show. You can watch/download the whole show HERE or just see our part below.



Long live the folks at Toy Break!

Pets and Owners

The legendary British toy designer Pete Fowler has just released images of his prototypes for Series 4 of the Monsterism World entitled "Pets and Owners" In my opinion, another great run of wacky characters that always bring a smile to my face!The characters will come blind-boxed and will be available from Playbeast in the Autumn 2007. Click on the image below to see a close-up and description of each character.

Bristol Graffiti Book

Top Bristol photographer Stephen Morris has been out and about trying to catch up with Bristol’s ever-changing graffiti –an anarchic scene so interesting that Destination Bristol has given it a tourist web page all its own. In all, he’s captured more than 50 examples. Some walls have been commissioned, by schools, pubs, youth clubs and building sites. But the liveliest artwork is the unofficial, sprayed as it were on the run from arrest.

Even the best is often quickly lost under fresh paint, good art obliterated by the mindless. And yes, Banksy is represented here.
Love it or hate it, Bristol graffiti is inventive, clever and sometimes brilliant. Is it art? Stephen Morris just took the pictures, and says it’s for us to decide.

The book is A5 landscape 64pp colour throughout, only £4.99 and available from Redcliffe Press.

Thanks MJAR for the heads up!

Toilets of China

The city of Chongqing has opened the world's largest toilet/restroom. The four-story, 1,000-stall facility features TVs, a soothing soundtrack piped throughout, crocodile- and Virgin Mary-themed urinals, (would love to hear what the Christians have to say about that!) and stalls with no roofs for those who prefer to relieve themselves al fresco. Even the sinks are provocative. In a country where people still prefer to squat when doing their number two's, this could be the way to "ease" them into the sit-down toilet. Let's see.......





Post from Ektopia. Images from Here & Here

TAMOTASTIC FINAL DAY TO ENTER!!!!!!!!!

That's right folks. Welcome to our first ever TOY giveaway "TAMOTASTIC", in association with Crazy Label.

The boys at ESPV have been hard at work to bring you 4 custom TAMO, to be won individually over the next 4 months.

AND...even if you don't scoop any of the TAMOS, you'll still have a chance to win a stunning new 2nd Birthday Treeson box Set by CRAZY LABEL!!! WOOOOOOOW!!!!!

To enter, simply leave a comment and your email in this blog post and we'll randomly select a winner at the end of each month! The eventual prize draw for the Treeson will take place after all 4 ESPV TAMO have been won, with the winner announced in conjunction with that of the final ESPV TAMO.

You may enter only once for each monthly ESPV TAMO give-away. You have to enter at least one of the TAMO giveaways in order to qualify for the Treeson prize-draw.

The Winner(s) must reply to our notification of victory within 72 hours of it's despatch.

Goodluck everyone!