Oh…my…
I MUST have Emilio Garcia’s Jumping Brain!
I love this thing so much, it’s ridiculous. One day…it will be mine. Oh yes.
There are many more photos in the lapolab Flickr site.
Category: toys
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I believe I had a Visible Woman Model Kit as a toddler, but was far too young to appreciate just how awesome it was.
They are still sold, and the model has gone surprisingly unchanged for the past 40 years.
The models are intriguing to look at, though I can imagine young children would be rather put off by them.
There is a small gallery of Visible Model Kits through the years here.
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I’m a sucker for cute robots. I wish I had owned a Hootbot in 1985. He’s got a little Wall-E thing going on.
In a time when new robot abilities were part of their allure, I enjoy Hootbot’s utter uselessness. Watch him in “action:”
That’s some damn fine twitching and blinking! Oh Hootbot, I love you.
Now that I’ve found The Old Robots site, I may have to incorporate some kind of regular robot feature.
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As a lover of contradiction, I can’t help but enjoy Gary Baseman’s latest limited edition toy, Creamy.
If you like your ice cream dazed, drooling and metallic (with a questionable “accident” leaking from the bottom of his cone), Creamy is your man.
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Here is a video collaboration from the absolutely unparalleled Mark Ryden (whose brilliance could inspire and fill an entirely separate blog) and the talented Marion Peck. The poor production just amps up the vintage charm.
Come for the sparkling tapestry of sweets…stay for the teddy bear vomit.
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This Alien Movies Chess Board is one step away from being the coolest thing ever.
Clearly, Predator should have been involved. They already make the action figures.
Say what you will about the movie franchise (the second one was atrocious, but I unapologetically enjoyed the first AvP). Bottom line: THESE are awesome adversaries, and two of the genres greatest creations deserve to be battling it out on a chess board.
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I must give credit to dbx1 (whom I don’t know personally) for getting around to this project before I ever got the chance, and doing a lovely job.
Bravo!
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Some people never learn. And by some people, I mean me. I bookmarked the “Craziest Kewpie Doll” collection, because I absolutely had to have Gross Q.
Now he appears to be gone, replaced by Crap Q (this is one of those delightful moments when the literal title/expression is identical to the sarcastic joke I would have made describing it).
I have nothing against Crap Q, but Gross Q achieves the rarely seen fusion of two of my very favorite things: kitsch and anatomical models. *Sigh* Time to buy a Kewpie Doll and some paint, and get to work recreating this fleeting treasure.
Note: Strap-ya World is worth a look. I’ve never used a cell phone charm but it’s incredible to see the vast array of miniature absurdities here.
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TWILIGHT ZONE MARATHON ON THE SCI-FI CHANNEL! By now I know most of the original episodes by heart (and some people actually like me anyway).
Years ago in an LA toy store, I came across the series of limited edition Twilight Zone figures and have been kicking myself for not buying the collection ever since (particularly the Eye of the Beholder doctors above). Now they are nearly impossible to find and are quite pricey.
The Invader figure is also very well done. Unaware that this had been manufactured, I was just telling my father how much I’d love a little Invader of my own.
I’m not as impressed with the rendition of the Nightmare at 20,000 Feet gremlin, and Kanamit appears just slightly brain dead.
Make no mistake about it though…I’d take ’em all.
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I don’t get out much, therefore the existence of Hasbro’s The Littlest Pet Shop had thus far escaped me. Last night my wonderful friend Louisa left this in my mailbox:
Now I’m at the mercy of my own biology, reluctantly infatuated with these creatures who manage to exploit maternal instinct to the hilt. I KNOW I’m being manipulated, hypnotized by their big shiny eyes and wobbly heads…yet I can’t look away. I went so far as to seek Flickr pools.
Someone may be getting dragged to the toy store this weekend.
Animators and designers must possess a bit of scientific savvy these days, considering the ways in which the human brain responds to certain physical characteristics. NY times article highlights:
The greater the number of cute cues that an animal or object happens to possess, or the more exaggerated the signals may be, the louder and more italicized are the squeals provoked.
Cuteness is distinct from beauty, researchers say, emphasizing rounded over sculptured, soft over refined, clumsy over quick. Beauty attracts admiration and demands a pedestal; cuteness attracts affection and demands a lap. Beauty is rare and brutal, despoiled by a single pimple. Cuteness is commonplace and generous, content on occasion to cosegregate with homeliness.
Human babies have unusually large heads because humans have unusually large brains. Their heads are round because their brains continue to grow throughout the first months of life, and the plates of the skull stay flexible and unfused to accommodate the development. Baby eyes and ears are situated comparatively far down the face and skull, and only later migrate upward in proportion to the development of bones in the cheek and jaw areas. The cartilage tissue in an infant’s nose is comparatively soft and undeveloped, which is why most babies have button noses. Baby skin sits relatively loose on the body, rather than being taut, the better to stretch for growth spurts to come; that lax packaging accentuates the overall roundness of form.
As John K. has pointed out in his incredible blog, this formula is nothing new:
I’m excited to see this concept translate into robot animation. Can anyone resist this face? If so, report for psychiatric evaluation immediately.
Yep, this fellow actually makes me want to see a Disney Pixar film for the first time in…in…years? Resistance to *The Cute* is futile…at least for me.
SheWalksSoftly 
