We pick interesting products and trends for you!
The LEGO Age of Ultron products should be hitting retail shelves at Target and Walmart in a few weeks and here’s a set on my must-buy list, The Avengers Quinjet City Chase 76032. The new Quinjet model features new play features and pieces as reviewed by my fave brick-fan JangBricks here.
What would a realistic sci-fi Rated-R Power Rangers film look like? Well, music video-maker veteran Joseph Kahn has an idea. This “Power Rangers Bootleg” by Kahn is causing some mega ruckus on the Internet with Saban Entertainment who will be also making a their “first official” Power Rangers flick.
If you remember a few years back Coors Light had these “deep cold activation” beer cans and bottles. The beer can would change colors telling the you that it was a cold cold beer. Now Brazilian ad agency WMcCann has done something similar with Brazilian beer company Conti Bier with their limited edition “Pin-Up” beer cans.
All runners out there, meet: Tomatan. The leading Japanese juice company Kagome teamed-up with design studio Maywa Denki to create this robotic backpack wearing device where it can feed runners on the go who need to eat veggies like tomatoes. The backpack weighs 18 pounds extra.
Question of the day? Isn’t HD 1080p the best of the best? Then everybody said 4K and then camera nerds said 8K. Now 10K! Yupe, 10K video footage. This entitled “10328×7760 – A 10K Timelapse Demo” by Joe Capra (Scientifantastic).
Anybody who knows about Dunnies, ‘Droids, or vinyl figures know they are more than just toys and collecting, but also an art form. Artist Zard Apuya combines the love of food and vinyl figures together for his own unique take.
The LEGO Marvel Super Heroes line-up of toys has been very popular among fans and now the upcoming Age of Ultron flick, more LEGO Avengers toys are hitting the stores. This is the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Avengers: Age of Ultron Attack on Avengers Tower 76038 playset.
Need a light in your dreary dorm room or work desk? If you’re Disney’s Big Hero 6 fan, then you might want to pick-up this InfoThink Baymax USB LED nightlight.
LEGO announced and showcased lots of cool stuff at Toy Fair 2015, and here’s another one – the Star Wars TIE Fighter 75095. Look for this high-end detailed model around May 2015 at the MSRP of $199.99USD.
Toy Fair 2015 kicked-off this past weekend in NYC, so if you’re wanting to know what neat toys will be hitting retail this year, then check these videos out! Sit back, relax and watch this Toy Fair 2015 Playlist:
Bandai Japan has always made a splash with their Crazy Case line-up of super nerdy geeky “you-so-fresh” iPhone cases. This time Crazy Case takes the “Back to the Future II” DMC DeLorean car and turns into a iPhone6 case with LED lights galore and special effects. Look for a June 2015 release and will be priced around $52.00USD.
I recently had spare time to review a bunch of books and stuff, and one on the list is from Disney Worldwide Publishing, Star Wars: The Adventures of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight. What a novel approach to this book project, take the original Star Wars concept art from Ralph McQuarrie and tie-in the 3 movies: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi into one book.
The iconic 1980s cartoon Robotech celebrates 30-years in 2015 and Toynami in the upcoming weeks will drop a neat Robotech blind box set of vinyl figures. The mini-figures vary from 2-3 inches and features: Destroid Tomahawk, Hikaru Ichijo, Regult, VF-1A 1 and VF-1A 2. No word on any chase figures just yet.
The Total War series has been around for years, it wasn’t until Rome: Total War that it garnered mass-appeal and sales. Videogame journalist Martin Robinson takes us on ride from the very humble beginnings of The Creative Assembly studio, the rise of Total War series and glimpses into the future for the Total War franchise with Total War: Attila dropping on February 17, 2015. This is The Art of Total War published by Titan Books.
Last Weekend our Ramen crew visited Anime On Display, an anime convention in Burlingame, CA. Here’s Eddie’s and Ramon’s take on the con:
Eddie from Ramen and a Half – Last time I went to AOD it was when it was still in San Francisco’s Japantown 2 years ago. The venue for this year was at the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame (see our Capcom-Cup 2013 video here to see what the place looks like). Since Ramon and I have been to this venue before, we were curious to see how an anime convention would utilize the space. Capcom-Cup was centralized in one location, where as AOD used a lot more of the hotel space. There was a dealers room, several rooms for panels and anime viewing, and a game room on the other side of the hotel that also featured live performances. The convention itself was not crowded, it had just enough people where it always seemed lively. The dealers room was not too big either, a good number of artists and dealers with a few industry booths. Personally, I dislike crowded conventions so i enjoyed being able to move freely here. The game room had a great selection of games like Capcom vs Snk 2 and Street Fighter III 3rd Strike on arcade cabs and a selection of games on console.
My only complaint about this convention was the parking. The official lot filled up quick and when we tried to go inside, we were soon turned away and told to park anywhere else “at you own risk!” Safe to say, the parking attendant wasn’t very helpful. So we hunted for street parking around the corner but I ended up parking across the street in the private lots with many signs everywhere warning you of the potential of getting towed if parked here. Honestly, it was hard to enjoy the convention with the fear of your car getting ticketed or towed.
My favorite thing about AOD was their innovative registration system. Unlike other conventions with a cutoff date for their pre-registration, you were able to register for a badge at anytime before attending and you were able to pick it up when you arrived. This reminded me of websites like Target, Walmart or Best Buy that allow you to buy something online and get it in-store with same day pick up. It was really convenient and just made the registration process so easy!
One thing I will miss about it being in SF’s Japantown is definitely the food. It was hard to get food at this venue that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. I hope in the future they will address the food issue. On a related note, the Maid/Butler Cafe had no food when I went but the servers there did serve tea and were really fun to hang out with. They would play games with their customers and just have a good time and talk to you as well. We were definitely treated like royalty. All in all, if you are looking for an anime convention that isn’t too crowded and just a nice place to chill plus meet some cool people, then this is for you.
The Android logo is more than a logo for pushing smartphones and stuff! The Android Series 5 is dropping into retail for 2015 with killer designs from Andrew Bell, Gary Ham, Devilrobots and Google, Inc. itself.
Like many of you who watch the The Simpsons, we are very familiar with opening credits, now here’s a different take by illustrators Paul Robertson and Ivan Dixon with music by Jeremy Dower. An old school tribute with pixel animation. It’s really well done!
When LEGO Friends appeared in retail shelves 2012, it weathered the controversy and has become a successful product line for LEGO. Lots of fans and third-party companies have been making custom LEGO minifigures, but not many have done customization of the LEGO Friends mini-dolls. Now, hopefully that’s about to change. LEGO fan JustJon works on customizing Friends mini-dolls.
She is not Eternity Comics’ sexy Lady Death or Vertigo Comics’ hipster Death, but she’s the cute little dead girl Lenore, created the wildly imaginative Roman Dirge. This is the latest Titan Comic’s trade release of issues #8-11 entitled Lenore: Pink Bellies.
Do you want to be the talk of the town with all your geeky comic book friends? If you have an Apple iPhone6 and a Batman fanatic, then you might want to pick-up this phone case. From the Tim Burton directed and starring Micheal Keaton 1989 Batman film, this is the Batmobile replica from Bandai Japan’s Crazy Case series.
Snowboarding aficionados will enjoy this cool 3-part series from Adidas Snowboarding team. The 3-part series features snowboarders Jake Blauvelt, Eric Jackson, Kazu Kokubo, Helen Schettini, Keegan Valaika, Forest Bailey, and Louif Paradis.
My jaw is dropping now. I can’t wait to get my hands on this LEGO product! From the LEGO Marvel Superheroes line, this is the SHIELD Helicarrier 76042. Here’s LEGO Designer Marcus talking about the Helicarrier:
One of the most popular Transformers G1 sub-team was the Dinobots. Now they get some custom LEGO-styling, Grimlock and Sludge created by Jess Jennings aka Chief Supreme.
The Loyal Subjects has been creating neat vinyl figures this past year, like the Transformers Wave 3 and their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Wave 1 series. I was able to buy a couple of blind boxes from these series, and what I like is unlike most 3″ to 5″ vinyl toys, The Loyal Subjects vinyl figures offer more points of articulation and accessories. Here’s another cool line if you’re a Mighty Morphin’ fan, the Power Rangers Wave 1.
If you’re an 1980’s kid, then you probably remember the 8-bit video game system – the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The NES was selling like hot cakes and had many peripherals, like the NES Power Glove. The long but forgotten device gets a new use by animator Dillon Markey.
Johnny Moreno
Edward Ballar
GuestContributor
kellyannbrooke
Ramon Angel
Al Woo
Stephen Jang
SW biko
Retrenders 