We pick interesting products and trends for you!
With the 2014 Detroit Auto Show already off and running this week, Nissan unveiled their Nissan Sports Sedan Concept which might be the next Maxima. The last couple of generation of Maximas have been kinda of boring and tame. Hopefully, a Nismo tuned version will be down the line.
Motor Trend takes a first look at the 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z06. It comes with a 6.2L supercharged V8 producing 625 horses and Z06 aero-package. The engine should sound amazing.
This Downshift episode takes a look at design factory Calty Design Research and their creation of the Toyota’s FT-1 Concept. This might be the next generation Supra.
LEGO web-series Blocumentary interviews and takes a look at Alice Finch’s famous LEGO build Hogwarts Castle from Harry Potter films. A whopping 400,000 plus LEGO bricks were used!
Over the weekend, I was excited to get my hands the new Quarry book “The Wrong Quarry” by author Max Allan Collins (Road to Perdition). His long-running series is about a former US Marine sniper Quarry (no need to know his real name) turned professional hitman. Quarry offers clients that are marked-for-death a unique service, dependent on the fee paid, he gets rid of the hit team after the clients and investigates who hired the hit.
If you remember the long-running sci-fi TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation? Patrick Stewart was awesome as Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Star Trek Select kick-offs the New Year with this new 7″ action figure. The figure has some articulation for pose-ability and a detail dead Borg-base stand.
What makes a movie or TV show great? Yes, the acting and cast are among the very important aspects, but like movie reviewer Grace Randolph says “World Building” is also a vital part. Here ILM takes us behind-the-scenes of how they built a “real” futuristic 2259 San Francisco for Star Trek Into Darkness.
A Simpsons tribute to anime and all things Hayao Miyazaki.
When our team was at New York Comic-Con 2013, we passed by a neat little booth selling cool graphic tees, but we also discovered it’s more than selling nerdy t-shirts. Shirts For A Cure was started by punk-rock photographer Mark Beemer in 2002. The various shirts and accessories sold by The Shirts For A Cure Project go to fight against breast cancer. It helps underprivileged women with financial assistant in the fight against breast cancer.
Just dropping into A Bathing Ape stores is the BAPE x Simpsons Capsule Collection. The current collection has around 32 pieces featuring letterman jackets, sweaters, hoodies, pants, hats and other accessories. The collection will also be updated in the months ahead.
Here’s a neat little fan film music video for G.I. Joe enemies Cobra. Artist Wordburglar raps all things Cobra with “Rap Viper (Welcome to Cobra Island)”. I liked the fact that Cobra Commander is the DJ mixmaster.
Watching this video makes me wanna watch the anime Initial D. This Honda Civic Type R EP3 powers up the mountain roads and carves the Swiss Alps like nobody’s business. The Civic Type R corners and sticks to the concrete.
Image via The Brothers Brick
Images have leaked online of LEGO’s upcoming The Simpsons line. The first images is the iconic Simpsons’ House numbered 71006. This set has 2,523 pieces of building fun and comes with 5 mini-figs: Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie and Ned Flanders. The set will probably retail around $250USD. The LEGO Simpsons House looks to ship out this February 2014.
Director and co-writer Tze Chun does his own PR by drawing posters for his film Cold Comes The Night (Sony/Goldwyn). The film stars Alice Eve (Star Trek Into Darkness), Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus) and Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad). The film opens January 10, 2014 in theaters. Tze draws and paints 4 different posters that look really cool.
I really don’t know what I just watched, but I dig the funky music and animation of Space Dandy. It must be good? Space Dandy is produced the powerhouse animation studio BONES and is directed by Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop) and character designs by Yoshiyuki Ito. Look for the anime in Japan this month.
Over the years, the British have crossed the Atlantic with iconic entertainment, like The Beatles, One Direction (LoL), Monty Python, Are You Being Served?, Mr. Bean, just to name a few, now in the animation realm, it has to be Nick Park and his animated creation Wallace & Gromit. Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Newspaper Comic Strips Collection collects the comic strips published in the UK daily newspaper The Sun, from 2010-2011.
I am ready to kick off the New Year with more Retrenders stuff, but I had some left overs from last year, like this George Mann book of short stories – The Casebook of Newbury & Hobbes, Volume 1. Over the weekend, as I watched American playoff football in-between breaks, I was able to finally finish reading it.
I am new to the Newbury & Hobbes books and the various characters created in this universe. I was a little weary reading these all-new short stories in this collection, wondering if I needed to read the “The Affinity Bridge”, “The Osiris Ritual” and “The Immorality Engine” to get what is going on, but I was well relieved by Mr. Mann kicking off with nice introduction chapter about his characters and his first book. Newbury & Hobbes revolves around 3 main characters, the sleuth Sir Maurice Newbury, assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes and police friend Sir Charles Bainbridge as they solve crimes and murders in Victorian London. The book collects 15 short stories as Newbury and Hobbes face the weird and strange crimes. Mr. Mann also includes a helpful timeline of where these short stories took place over the course of his 3 books and a chapter of story notes on all the short stories (they include spoilers, so please read the short stories first!).
Are you a Power Rangers fan? Check out this amazing Power Ranger DVD collection – 98 DVDs that contain 767 episodes – the Shout Factory! Power Rangers Legacy: The First 20 Seasons.
What if Star Wars had a 80’s-style cartoon feel? Well, this is it by Nacho Punch – the Star Wars: The Lost 1980’s Anime:
Like Jackie Chan’s “Drunken Master” flicks, this international break crew Project Prepix Asia gets their drink on and shows-off some hip-breaking moves:
The Ramen crew stops by San Francisco’s Japantown to check out photo booth-mania at Pika Pika – “Memories that Stick!” Ramen host “The Eddie” gives us a quick intro and tutorial on these imported Japanese photo booths.
Well, if you’ve been playing Capcom’s Lost Planet 3 on your PS3 or Xbox 360 and really want to figure out how this all happened on ED.N. III, you can now read this hardbound trade Lost Planet: First Colony. Humanity thought they found the hope for Earth on E.D.N. III, but the first colony was tragic failure unleashing an icy storm and bad-ass monsters.
One of the great yearly weekend music festivals these past few years takes place in Belgium – the EDM (Electronic Dance Music) Festival known as Tomorrowland. Now dance fans and comic book aficionados come together in this genre mixing story Tomorrowland from writer Paul Jenkins (Wolverine: Orgin). Originally printed as a 4-issue mini-series this past summer 2013 by Titan Comics, now we get the whole saga in one volume in this hardbound trade – Tomorrowland. It’s like Glastonbury getting its own graphic novel! Tomorrowland follows DJs Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike on their DJ gigs as they battle evil from other dimensions on this cosmic/portal opening/spiritual/metaphysical journey to save Earth! It’s kind of like the anime The Super Dimension Fortress Macross and Macross Frontier (or Macross Plus, or just whatever Macross incarnation/reboot you prefer) as the heroine uses her singing prowess to stop war and save the universe.
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Tracklist 1 – Epic Stadium-Masher: 1. Armin van Buuren feat. Trevor Guthrie – This Is What If Feels Like [Audien Remix], 2. Zedd feat. Hayley Williams – Stay The Night [Extended Mix], 3. Adventure Club – Do I See Color [Dubstep Mix], 4. NERVO – You’re Gonna Love Again [Extended Version], 5. Coldplay – Every Tear Drop Is A Waterfall [Swedish House Mafia Remix], 6. Calvin Harris feat. Florence Welch – Sweet Nothing [Extended Mix], 7. ATB feat. Ramona Nerra – Never Give Up [Club Mix], 8. Filo & Peri feat. Eric Lumiere – The Anthem [John O’Callaghan Remix, 9. David Guetta feat. Usher – Without You, 10. Armin van Buuren & DJ Shah feat. Chris Jones – Going Wrong, 11. Alice Deejay – The Lonely One [Hit Radio Mix], 12. Ian Van Dahl – Will I [UK Radio Edit], 13. Benny Benassi feat. Kelis, apl.de.ap & Jean-Baptiste – Spaceship, 14. Kaskade feat. Rebecca & Fiona – Turn It Down, 15. Avicii – Levels [Extended Version] and 16. Swedish House Mafia feat. John Martin – Don’t You Worry Child [Extended Version].
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Hoodies are something I like to wear and for those of you who remember the 1980s cartoon Voltron, this is really cool Voltron hoodie.
Capcom’s iconic 2D fighting video game Street Fighter II cost me a lot of quarters in middle school and now there are pro-Street Fighter button-mashing gamers. This year’s Capcom Cup took place at the Hyatt SFO in the SF Bay Area on December 14th, 2013. The Ramen crew interviews Street Fighter gamers and check out the announcements for Ultra Street Fighter IV.
Johnny Moreno
Edward Ballar
GuestContributor
kellyannbrooke
Ramon Angel
Al Woo
Stephen Jang
SW biko
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