Archives for category: Random

I was incredibly jealous when I saw these on Tim Maughan’s blog. Not only because these Ponyo cupcakes look fantastic, but also because his girlfriend made these scrumptious delights for him.

Ponyo Cupcakes (from timmaughanbooks.com)

I’ve tried hooking my long-time boyfriend onto anime by starting him with a couple of my favorites – the Cowboy Bebop movie, Millennium Actress, and I may have also tried a Ghibli movie with him too. None of these worked, so I’m resigned to being the open-closet otaku in this relationship. We’ll camp out on the couch to watch Bones or Australia’s Greatest Athlete, but any anime will have to be watched on my spare time (and usually when he’s not around). Certainly I won’t be getting any cool Ponyo cupcakes from HIM anytime soon, sigh

I’m a bit of a sucker for Mario videos, despite the fact that I’ve never actually played Super Mario past the first two stages – being incredibly jumping-impaired probably had something to do with it. But there’s just something so comforting and nostalgic about the franchise, which is why this YouTube video put a big smile on my face. The video was also just incredibly well done!

“A post-it stop-motion of Super Mario running wild in a school building, created by a group of Japanese students, is fast becoming a YouTube hit!”

From Gigazine: “Super Mario Stop-Motion: School is the Stage for Post-It Mario

Is this epic? Why yes, yes it is:

Katamari Bronze (from BoingBoing)

Cast by a dude for an art (sculpture) class, this is possibly one of the best homework assignments ever made by a kindred nerd.

P.S. Am rather amused by all the “I WANTS THAT” comments resounding through the internets, mostly because the artist shared that the katamari ball is heavy enough to cause some serious damage to wood if it was to fall over (apparently the katamari is NOT welded to the Prince; a design decision that I applaud). Since the bronze for the sculpture alone costs $200, this is really out of my price range. But still, I DO wants. Maybe mass production would be the answer here…

From BoingBoing: “Image: Katamari’s Prince, bronz’d

Oh Japan, why are you so oddly random yet creative and awesome?

Kokuyo’s Milli-Keshi Eraser (from GIGAZINE)

“The star-shaped new eraser Milli-Keshi is designed for those who want millimetre-precision to erase exactly one letter or one row on their writing pad, with five “hands” of different width to accommodate the ruling.”

From Gigazine: “Kokuyo’s Milli-Keshi Eraser to Erase with Millimetre Precision

I’m pretty proud of my noodle slurping skills. As an Asian, I feel absolutely no shame in (loudly) sucking in a scrumptious mouthful of noodles, small accompanying sprays of soup not withstanding.

But with that said, this is a pretty cool invention and I wouldn’t mind trying it out, even though I still think the best bowl of noodles is one that is loudly and messily slurped :D

Ramen Spork Thing (from Topless Robot)

Rock on Japan (and MoMA)!

From Topless Robot: “Super Terrific Japanese Thing: Ramen Fork

Iron Man 2 Teaser Poster (from GordonandtheWhale.com)I watched Iron Man 2 with the boyfriend last weekend and the overall consensus was that it was overly self-indulgent. It seemed like the producers decided to take everything that was good about the first one and blow those things up, times infinity. Almost as if Tony Stark himself got a hold of the movie and decided to run amok with it, flamboyant personality in full swing with no checks or controls at all. Coupled with a really thin plot that tried to juggle in as much action as possible, quite a few of the characters ended up feeling like complete throwaways. As much as I enjoy watching Scarlett Johansson kick butt as mysterious/sexy red-haired agent chick, her character was really superfluous to the story. You could’ve easily taken her character out and it wouldn’t have detracted from the plot one bit. Samuel L. Jackson’s character also got no love in terms of back story. He basically appeared in the middle of the movie as the stern director of a secret government agency, drops off some goods, and then reappears for a few minutes in the end. It was a bit of a WTF? treatment. Has the comic book tropes been so ingrained in popular culture now that you can have your stereotypical kickass lady agent, stereotypical mysterious agency director, stereotypical bad rich dude who owns a big (rival) company, without having to spend any time explaining their backgrounds and motives? This was rather disappointing to see, not only because it was sloppy and lazy on the producers’ part, but also because much of the appeal for the first Iron Man was that it was NOT about your average stereotypical superhero – RDJ as Tony Stark stood in a league of his own.

But with all that said, Iron Man 2 was a fun watch – especially if you don’t have overly high expectations going in. It certainly was entertaining (cue Tony Stark in heavy-duty mechanical design mode, with his awesome equipment and robot assistants standing by) and it had quite a few “moments.” Although lots of good moments don’t always add up to a terrific movie, the first Iron Man was just so unexpectedly good that it was always going to be tough work for the sequel to measure up to the original.

So anyways, when I came across the “Heart Core” t-shirt via Topless Robot I thought – hum… yeah, despite my rant, this is still DO WANT! :D

Iron Man 2 Heart Core T-Shirt (from Entertainment Earth)

P.S. Incidentally, it looks like the Australian release date for Iron Man 2 was a whole week ahead of the U.S. release date?! I had known we’d get it earlier down under but I thought it’d be just a few days’ difference. I’m just going to gloat now and feel special because most other movies usually get released (much) later in Australia than in the U.S. ;)

I recently came across two artists with very different styles, each inspiring in their own ways. Steve Bialik I found a little while back, and given how his work has been featured in so many other blogs recently I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve already seen his stuff as well. Steve is the awesome creator of “Samurai Star Wars” – a series of ukiyo-e styled renderings of Star Wars characters :D

C-3PO and Karakuri D2 (from STEVAPALOOZA!) Jabba the Hutt (from STEVAPALOOZA!) Yoda (from STEVAPALOOZA!)

I’ve never seriously considered shelling out for a print online before, but if Steve ever makes these into prints (as he’s hinted he would) and they’re not too pricey, I would totally buy a set of these and hang them all up in the apartment. My walls have been bare for far too long!

Then there’s Li Wei, whose work speak so eloquently for themselves that he needs no introduction:

Li Wei (from Mighty Optical Illusions)

Li Wei (from Mighty Optical Illusions)

Li Wei (from Mighty Optical Illusions)

And having done a bit of digging, it appears that Photoshop was NOT involved in the creation of these images – just wire work and steady poses. Amazing!

From Mighty Optical Illusions: “Chinese artist Li Wei’s Optical Illusions

I used to be quite an avid stamps collector.

But even though I don’t collect stamps any more, I REALLY, REALLY want these:

Fullmetal Alchemist Postage Stamps (from GIGAZINE)

And these:

Detective Conan Postage Stamps (from GIGAZINE)

Gundam Postage Stamps (from GIGAZINE)

Whenever the day comes that I FINALLY make it to Japan, I know my wallet’s going to bleed from all the anime merchandise that I’ll end up getting – but I never thought that postage stamps would also end up on my animu want list! It’d be great if I could pick up sets of these in nice shiny commemorative booklets… *drools*

From Gigazine: “‘Fullmetal Alchemist’ Postage Stamp to be released in JP Post’s Anime Hero/Heroine Series” and “‘Sgt. Frog’ Postage Stamp to be released by JP Post

This looks flippin’ awesome.

Gundam Cafe (from Akihabara News)

Gundam Cafe (from Akihabara News)

Now all they need are some full-time cosplaying employees and this place would be golden! Imagine sitting at this cafe, munching on some Haro Crunch Choco while Gundam Wing or Gundam Seed pilots stroll about… *drools*

Next up, Macross Café? :D

From Akihabara News: “Bandai Open its first Gundam Café in Akihabara… And we tested it!

Am I the only person on the internets who is disturbed by this?

EVA Bottled Water (from Gigazine)

Gah.

On the other hand, there’s this:

Macross Frontier Instant Ramen (from Gigazine)

I love instant noodles and definitely wouldn’t mind getting some of that :D

Macross Frontier Instant Ramen Close-up (from Gigazine)

…for some reason the above sentence came out kinda pervy. Unintentional side effect of thinking/talking about anime-affiliated products? Anyways, I guess it’s just another day in the wondrous and varied world of anime merchandising! How many new ways can Japanese companies come up with to suck the money out of YOUR otaku pockets?

From Gigazine: “Evangelion Bottled Water shaped like Asuka and Ayanami’s plug suit” and “Ranka and Sheryl’s ‘Macross Frontier Instant Ramen’ by Bandai