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Too cool to join your fellow everyman to watch fireworks in 80+ degree weather? Does the sound of shoving tourist out of your way just to get a tiny view of a 10-minute long pyrotechnic show get you down? Well celebrate the new millennium way with Sega Toys’ “Uchiage Hanabi”. With this cool fireworks projector, you can finally turn your ceiling into a Macy’s 4^th of July Spectacular without all the cheesy commentary from Regis Philbin…

Using a series of 5 customizable lenses, the system tracks shells flying up the wall which explode into dazzling fireworks. The experience is not complete without the accompanying loud bangs and pops so sound effects are included. You can even draw your own fireworks. Grab it from JapanTrendShop for $168 + $42 for US shipping.  Check the video of the Uchiage Hanabi in action below.

[via]

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Allowing you to finally get that extra hour needed to “hack the planet” and not have to starve while doing it, is the Heinz Beanzawave. Purported as the world’s smallest microwave, it is handily powered by the USB port on your laptop. To get those cups of tea or soup piping hot, the Beanzawave utilizes a combination of mobile phone radio frequencies to generate the heat needed to cook your meal.

According to the UK Microwave Association the technology is real and can actually work. The prototype comes in at a tiny 7.5 inches tall, 6.2 inches wide and 5.9 inches deep. While not yet available for sale, it will reportedly be available first in Europe for about £100 (about $164)—a price that Heinz says will lower as the cost of production decreases.

[via]

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Small screen size will no longer be able to limit your portable fun after the introduction of this neat little projector. The MiLi Pro is small, portable, compatible with almost every kind of ipod and any other kind of input, and will put out an optimum screen size of 40″ onto any surface. Although currently a prototype, the MiLi Pro should be available soon.

More pictures after the break!

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Alright we’ve seen some pretty cool USB drive cases, but this one has an old school cool that can’t be denied. You know, like Billy Dee Williams before he started shilling Colt 45. From those crazy DIY-ers over at Instructables comes the Cigar USB Flash Drive.

Made from a real cigar, this drive has all the sophistication of the cigar bar without the stench and hazardous materials being breathed into your lungs. There’s even an LED that lights up when the drive is plugged in giving the illusion of a lit stogie.

If you think you’re crafty enough to pull it off, check out the video at Instructables.com.

Via CraziestGadgest

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Graphic design freaks rejoice! Jinsu Park, a korean designer, has designed this concept pen which enables the user to scan a color from any real life object, then use it instantly for drawing. The pen uses RGB inks mixed together by the sensor in order to create the right color. What’s next, the “clone stamp” pen? Actually, that would be sweet…

See more pictures after the break!

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As a DJ, when I saw this gadget I nearly fell off my chair. Unfortunately at this stage, it is still a concept, but this record player would levitate records magnetically while the small red ball read them and played them back through a tiny built-in speaker.

The designer, Rhea Jeong, adds a little more on the technical specs:

“The record player uses a carrier and dock outfitted with a magnetic and auto-calibrating control system which carries the LP into thin air as it is playing music. A self-running record player shaped in the form of a red sphere, contains a needle, amplifier and speaker, spins around the record, bringing the music to life.”

More pictures after the break!

(Source)

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The new Transformers sequel hit theaters at midnight on Tuesday marking the beginning of June 24th and the official opening of the Summer blockbuster season of 2009. Unfortunately, even though the film raked in $16 million on that one day and has grossed more than $60 million at the time of the writing of this review there isn’t much to like about the film itself. It launches into a narrative about how the Autobots & Decepticons have been on Earth “from the beginning” then a Decepticon steps on a bunch of Africans/Aborigines. Black folks dying first in a Sci Fi flick before the goddamn credits even roll? Check. How many more cliches will we see before the film is up?

The Autobots have teamed up with the military to form a special team called The Nest in order to smoke out the Decepticons and wipe them out. I have issues with this for several reasons. First off, the military is of no real help to the Autobots in these battles. It’s just a device that the screenwriters & director use to keep humans involved with the plot. With the action happens, humans are usually left in the dust trying to find cover. If they’d just introduce more Autobots then center the story & dialogue around the Autobot/Decepticon war and minimize the human element this could’ve been an okay film…provided someone else wrote it and they knew anything about the Transformers.

The worst parts of this film involve the antics, prattling and overall uselessness of it’s cast members. The humans in the Army act as if they’re giving orders to the Autobots instead of just being along for the ride. Sam’s parents are completely annoying and it seems the only thing that people do in this film are crack jokes, deter the plot, be half naked to try to distract you from huge plot holes or try WAY too hard to provide some form of comic relief between CGI, special FX, explosions and a lack of explanations or anyone telling you who anyone else is. The initial story/plot itself is pretty flimsy, the Decepticons seek a shard of the All Spark that’s in Sam Witwicky’s possession…so why is it taking so goddamn long to pan out?

Everything about this film seems overdone, processed, manufactured and bloated. It’s like you can hear the board meetings with consultants, product placement agents and the obvious attempts at reaching certain demographics to ensure that regardless of what or who you are your eyes will stay glued to the screen. With all of this pandering they somehow manged to neglect the most important demographic of all: people with critical thinking skills, common sense & good taste. They refer to them as “film snobs” or “critics”. They use terms like “popcorn film” and claim that you shouldn’t expect much in the way of story from a movie based on a cartoon. Are these assholes seriously making premeditated excuses for why this film is ass?

The special FX, CGI and visuals are top notch…it’s just too bad you have no idea whom exactly is fighting whom due to the fact that you can’t tell any of the Decepticons apart from each other. Since none of them are solid and they often fight falling or in the air it’s tough to follow the action. If someone catches it, you’re stuck wondering which Decepticon just died. Without any real dialogue or banter between the only things that matter in the film, the Transformers themselves, you’re just confused looking a screen full of CGI carnage explosions and running humans. What’s going on again? Who’s doing what? What’s it’s name? How long has this movie been on? Did one of the Decepticons really turn into a human female? SMH

Now let’s get to the meat of where the screenwriters went wrong, shall we? Let’s begin with the Autobot twins Skids & Mudflap who have the internet going nuts (no Paul Wall). Their faces don’t look like the other Autobots. They’re extremely grotesque looking with bugged out eyes, long ears and huge lips. They speak in broken English and sound like ignorant little kids that ape urban culture. The reason I’m irked by it is that the original Skids was a popular 1st generation Autobot and the Autobots already had a pair of twins in Sideswipe and Sunstreaker (pictured below). They used to banter back and forth and bicker with each other as well…why not just use them instead? Wouldn’t that have made more sense then to introduce some characters in the hopes of appealing to young kids with baseless “humor” and stereotypes?

They sling around unfunny insults and the overwhelming percentage of Blacks and Latinos and urban dwellers in general were pretty put off by Skids and Mudflap completely. Most of them said they either heard no one laughing or if they did the turned around to see why said person was laughing. The screenwriters and producers and even the voice actor of one of the characters has placed all responsibility squarely on Michael Bay’s shoulders for the personalities and appearance of both characters (a gold buck tooth?).

They’re like the Jar Jar Binks of the film. How did this (an obvious insensitive racial stereotype appearing in a huge Summer blockbuster) happen again? Also, why is Bumblebee acting as if he’s Sam’s pet rather than his protector? Bumblebee still can’t speak? What the hell? Why are new Decepticons popping up and wreaking havoc all over the place but there are no new Autobots being introduced (ones that are any good, I mean)? How many explosions can the human brain tolerate without a cohesive story or an interesting narrative?

The introduction of Wheelie is yet another sore spot for anyone that knows anything about the Transformers. Wheelie is changed from a young Autobot created specifically to appeal to younger audiences that saw the original 1986 film “Transformers: The Movie” into an annoying Decepticon agent used to spy on Sam & Mikaela and help them obtain the All Spark shard they seek. He’s essentially a New York/ Jersey Guido stereotype as well. I just wondered to myself if after the writers finished a scene did they feel proud of the final product? I can’t believe they did. Not only did this character play a pivotal role in the film (?) but he was one of a couple of new Autobots that sucked given the Decepticons gained Devastator and The Fallen among others on their side. What the hell, man?

The director and screenwriters could’ve done a gang of things in this film. They’ve could’ve introduced Blaster to create smaller Autobots to effectively fight the Nanobots that Soundwave unleashes to do recon or infiltrate the Autobot ranks. They could’ve introduced Springer as one of the military helicopters to bolster the Autobot ranks. They could’ve added Wreckgar and made him Mikaela’s motorcycle/personal protector. They could’ve added Wheeljack, introduced the whole Energon issue and had Wheeljack study Earth history then create the Dinobots to battle The Fallen (pictured below) & Devastator (which is what they were actually created for in the first place…Duh!).

Between the creation of ANY of these characters, you could’ve tossed in a gang of jokes, pop culture references & dumb humor within the parameters of the Transformer continuity without worry or grief from fanboys. I’m a writer, remember? Wreckgar spoke in TV language, the Dinobots were dumb as hell and Blaster could play music & make pop culture references. The plus is that they all could read! Maybe even bring in Ultra Magnus to be Prime’s 2nd in command? It’s bad enough I can’t tell who’s doing what on the screen at any given time but why couldn’t the plot or the team lineups at least make some kind of sense?

The Fallen comes back, Devastator appears and the military types from The Nest are completely useless. For some odd reason there are no more Autobots around to face a growing number of deadly Decepticons (?) and everything is on Sam Witwicky and his hot girlfriend to ressurect Optimus Prime as he’s the only Autobot capable of doing…well, ANYTHING. Huge plot hole. Big ass problem. Humans shouldn’t be the focus of this film, they should just be there as dressing and stay the hell out of the way. Egypt gets wrecked. Why can’t Michael Bay just leave Black folks and Africa the fuck alone? Can I get some commentary so I know if that’s Starscream (pictured above) or not fighting Ironhide? These explosions aren’t making me forget that no one knows what the hell is going on!

In the end, the human comes through and saves the day. Bullshit! Jetfire (pictured above) is revealed as an old dying Autobot that much like Wheelie can only help advance the story and can’t actually help the dwindling Autobots ranks to fight off the Decepticons? Bullshit! The real Jetfire was a huge Autobot jet that crashed on Earth ahead of the other Autobots and helped them out after the Decepticons gained new soldiers. They could’ve done so much with Jetfire becoming a member of The Nest as a fighter plane. None of that happened. He died and gave his powers to Optimus Prime who once again was the only effective Autobot. The Decepticons have a gang of effective soldiers…red flag! The ig’nant ass Nig..Autobot twins claim to not do much reading but Wheelie (the Decepticon) helps them get their bearings (?)

In closing, this film was nothing but a steady diet of useless characters, corny jokes, inane dialogue, derivative writing, tasteless racial stereotypes, explosions and really great CGI and visual effects. It’s sad to look at a screen and not be able to determine exactly what’s going on or whom or what is doing what as well. I don’t care how many cool action sequences you splash across the screen if the movie itself is a random mash up of corporate marketing, product placement and pandering to different demographics in hopes of attaining a high Q rating. I didn’t give a fuck about ANY of the characters in the film except for Optimus Prime…and that was because he was the only hope of making this piece of shit movie ever end!

The Coonicons/Sambots/Niggabots above didn’t spoil this movie. This film was doomed from the start. Why? Because when this project was presented to Michael Bay years ago he wasn’t a fan of the Transformers and he thought it was stupid and ridiculous at first. He reportedly laughed at the thought of making a live action film out of this property. At that exact moment, the Transformers franchise was doomed to be a series of horrible movies that made a shitload of money. Had I wrote this film, it would’ve been a concise story that would’ve appealed to not only Transformers fans but people that have no idea what it’s about. I wouldn’t have had Sam’s mom get high and tackle people on campus or had Wheelie become Mikaela’s de facto pet (?) or hump her leg (?).

Fuck this movie and fuck Michael Bay (pictured above). Watch it online wherever or find your local bootlegger. I give “Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen” the finger! *Sticks up middle finger*

One.

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This drop will cover some of the essential anime series now available for purchase, rental, streaming online or through other means (it’s a truly wondrous thing, this internet!). In any event I present to the readers of Nerd With Swag “A Guide To Essential Anime (The Series Edition)”…

Speed Racer
Is it corny? Yeah. Is the dubbing horrible? Yep. Is it essential? Hell yes! Oh yeah, when those cars flew over the railing and blew up in the cartoon those all drivers DIED ( Word to the Stunt Acrobatic Racing Team.) You’ll absolutely need to know this before watching *Looks both ways first then whispers* SPOILER ALERT: Racer X is actually Speed’s long lost brother Rex.

Captain Herlock
The legend of Captain Herlock (or Harlock) spans several different series and animated movies/series such as Galaxy Express 999, Arcadia Of My Youth, Harlock Saga and Gun Frontier. The odd thing is that NONE of the series follow the same continuous storyline or even have many story elements that are canon. Every single Harlock series or movie is non linear to his overall story and independent of each other.

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It’s about time I hit y’all off with a list of some jawns I consider to be classic as well as essential anime films. If you’re not that into anime and you just want to know where to begin these are some of the titles that should be the foundation for your introduction to anime. From here we can delve into the wide array of other anime films you may enjoy based on your reaction to these classic selections. This list could’ve been much longer but I don’t want to make anyone’s head explode a la Scanners (or Gucci Mane at the Scripps Spelling Bee). Here ya go…

Fist Of The North Star

In a post apocalyptic future where food and water are scarce, crops won’t grow and everyone is just looking to survive, one martial artist named Kenshiro protects the weak while pursuing the man who kidnapped his girlfriend, his best friend Shin and master of a martial art that is the polar opposite of the one he practices. Some of the best animated fight sequences ever..and the bloodiest.

Dagger Of Kamui AKA Revenge Of The Ninja Warrior AKA Kamui No Ken

This is one of the most slept on anime films in North America even though it heavily influenced the creation of Ninja Scroll. An orphan named Jiro is accused of killing his mother and is forced to flee his hometown. He is saved by a monk who takes him in and makes him a ninja. He is then given the mission to discover his own past and find a long lost treasure. What transpires next is the beginning of one the greatest anime epics ever created.

Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind AKA Warriors Of The Wind

The world as we know it was destroyed by huge monsters made of living flame. They eventually died off and life started again but in some parts of the world jungles full of toxic plant life and huge insects spring up making it hard to find a place to live. One group of people are blessed to live in a valley with clean air and fresh water. Eventually, a huge army comes to take over the Valley Of The Wind and it’s left to the princess Nausicaa to save the lives of her people.

Princess Mononoke

This movie is pretty well known in North America due to the fast in was put into theatres in wide release and re-dubbed. It also was heavily influenced by Nausicaa as the story is about a princess who must save her people from a marauding army while dealing with the dangers emanating from a magic forest near her homeland.

Riding Bean

This short movie (50 minutes long) came before the popular Gunsmith Cats series. Bean Bandit is a seemingly invincible expert driver/courier/transporter for underworld types in Chicago. One day, a man shows up at his door with the daughter of one of the richest men in Chicago and asks him to deliver her to his home…then all hell breaks loose. I’m surprised no one’s tried to adapt this into a movie yet (The Transporter series is the closest to it).

Golgo 13: The Professional

This is one of the best anime films ever made, hands down. It was the first to use computer animation sequences and it told the story of the world’s greatest hitman/secret agent, Duke Togo AKA Golgo 13. This flick has everything in it…James Bond ain’t got shit on this cat. No, not even the Daniel Craig version. Mention either Jack Bauer or Jason Bourne and I’ll laugh directly in your faces.

Ninja Scroll AKA Wind Ninja Chronicles

If you haven’t heard of this one then I don’t know what to tell you. Wandering ronin Jubei Kibugami stumbles onto a team of rogue ninjas and a mysterious plague that wiped out an entire village. Jubei teams with Kagero, a female ninja whose touch is toxic to humans but she is immune to poison herself to get to the bottom of the mystery. This is a must see for anyone trying to get into anime.

Vampire Hunter D

In the distant future, a half human/half vampire assassin named D goes to war with the world’s oldest and most powerful vampire determined to eliminate him once and for all. It’s made in a dark noir style and is easily one of the best full length anime films ever made. It’s the obvious ancestor of the popular series “Hellsing” and the film “Blood: The Last Vampire”.

Big Wars

In the future, humans terraform and colonize Mars just to become subjected to alien terrorists known only as “The Gods”. They seek to exterminate their Mars settlement to prevent the human race from expanding to other planets. They have a formidable army spearheaded by a huge stealth carrier called “Hell” and they use mind control to subvert human subjects. The Earth military plans a preemptive strike to try to stop “The Gods”. The Hollywood movie “Independence Day” was partly inspired by this anime (”partly inspired” meaning they stole whole sequences from it).

Ghost In A Shell

In a future flooded with technological advances and the widespread application of the internet, a terrorist/hacker runs rampant and wreaks havoc. A special tactical team formed of a secret divison of the police are called in to stop this cyber terrorist and bring him to justice. If you haven’t seen this modern anime classic yet you’re sleeping. It’s also inspired a gang of other anime series that followed as well as spawn a string of sequels and spinoffs.

Wicked City AKA Demon Beast City

The Earth and an alternate dimension controlled by demons known as The Black World (yeah, I know…why it gotta be Black?) have a treaty that keeps the demons from trying to invade the our realm of reality. Every thousand years, the treaty needs to be renewed and it’s up for renewal. One man stands between a rogue faction of demons that are trying to prevent the signing of the treaty and take over the Earth. This jawn is bugged out for real, not for the squeamish.

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

This movie supposedly occurs between episodes 22 and 23 of the now classic anime series (not looking forward to the live action film version!). The crew of bounty hunters head back to Earth to capture a huge bounty but end up embroiled in a terror plot cooked up by a war veteran looking to infect the Earth with the same virus he was infected with by the US Government during his tour of duty. This joint is ill and it’s great as a stand alone film or introduction to the world of Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, Ed & Ein The Data Dog.

Cyber City Oedo 808

One of the most slept on pieces of anime is broken up into three parts and tells the stories of three of the worlds most dangerous criminals with no chance of parole working with the police to take down the toughest criminals on Earth to reduce their sentences in the year 2808. If you’ve never seen it, do so as soon as possible.

Space Adventure Cobra

Die hard fans of the original Cobra series have mixed feelings about the full length version due to some character and plot changes but it’s still a landmark anime film. Space pirate Cobra falls for a girl named Jane (Jane? What a nice name, that’s reminds of my high school flame) and ends up trying to save her and her twin sister from his nemesis, the evil Crystal Boy. It’s pretty hard to find but after about 15 minutes of searching you should be able locate a region free DVD copy for a reasonable price as it’s huge overseas but only anime heads stateside are really up on it. (Clue: don’t use the obvious retail sites…try overseas).

Macross The Movie AKA Clash Of The Bionoids

This is Tatsunuko Studios’ full length film based on the Macross anime series. The animation is crazy and as a joke during one of the battle sequences the artists snuck in a cell with a Budweiser logo in it. If you’ve never seen it then you already know what I’m gon’ tell ya.

Akira

Duh! I really don’t even have to say anything here. If Absolut Vodka said it’s the Absolute Anime then I take their word for it. After all, who knows more about anime than a company that manufactures liquor (or the ad agency that actually came up with the entire campaign)?

I’ll post my essential anime series list tomorrow to round out the weekend.

One

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Being that I’m a 70’s baby and a Cold War Kid I remember back when the whole giant robot craze really jumped off back around 1979 and ran through the mid 80’s before ultimately dying out. I’m not talking about the bootleg watered down plastic ass toy robots that kids had in the mid 80’s, mind you. I going back to the die cast metal heavy joints with the spring loaded fists and shoulder missiles that were puttin’ eyes out and causing swallowing hazards for young children across this great nation of ours.

For those of you that can only recall Voltron and Transformers let me tell you about the Golden Age of giant robot cartoons and toys since I was right there on the front lines (kinda sorta). Check this shit out after the break…

Back in 1979, the Mattel Corporation decided to bring a bunch of popular giant robot toys that sold like hotcakes in Asia to North America. They decided to market some of the most popular toys together in a package and call them Shogun Warriors. Mattel had a three pronged attack. They were going to have an ad campaign that would air during the cartoons that little kids watched in America and then they’d have a comic book published by Marvel Comics which pretty much served as a huge print ad for the toys. The last part was that they needed to get the actual cartoons for each giant robot aired in the States…that ended up being a problem.

Danguard Ace was part of a cartoon series that aired primarily on the East Coast and every morning in New England called Force Five. Force Five consisted of several popular Japanese shows by Toei Inc. and licensed by Jim Terry Productions/American Way where the episodes where re-cut and some episodes were completely omitted from each series then they were rescripted and dubbed over in English. Mattel partnered with the shows and aired commercials for their Shogun Warriors line of toys through the telecasts and Danguard Ace episodes aired on Mondays. Just one problem with that…

Danguard Ace’s storyline was pretty adult and involved a complex back story without a bunch of flash and excitement to it. My big brother loved it but I thought it was boring because it took so long in the series before Danguard Ace was even finally piloted. Even then Danguard Ace was pretty damn boring for a giant fighting robot. I can barely remember any of it’s special attacks. Unfortunately, Danguard was the only robot on the Shogun Warriors Marvel comics roster that actually had a cartoon on the air. He never caught on and was eclipsed in popularity by the other Force Five robots.

Starvengers AKA Getter Robo G was one of the most exciting Force Five shows that aired. It had compelling characters, nonstop action and three ships that configured into three different giant robots based on how they went into formation. The three robots were Star Poisedon which specialized in sea battles, Star Arrow which specialized in air battles or fast opponents and the most popular and powerful incarnation was Star Dragon. When they switched to Star Dragon it was usually a wrap for the bad guys.

Star Dragon was also far and away the most popular toy of the trio as well. It sold pretty well in all of it’s forms, especially the 12″ jumbo and the smaller action figure version with the spring loaded fists and the hatchet boomerangs. When you shot the fists off they flew so goddamn far that you could lose them forever if you weren’t paying attention. God forbid if it flew behind something or got lost under some shit. I remember when we moved out of our apartment of 24 years and we found a gang of old dusty G.I. Joe weapons, various action figures and old projectile weapons and robot fists from old toy giant robots under our furniture. Memories.

Gaiking AKA Great Sky Demon Dragon Gaiking was easily the gulliest of all the Force Five giant robots. Gaiking was housed in a huge ship called the Space Dragon and when it was time to fight it shot out Gaiking in three pieces, they interlocked and formed one giant fighting robot. He was so powerful that he could kill his enemies without going to one of it’s finishing moves. The most powerful one being the rarely used attacks that happened when Gaiking went to “mask open” mode.

Gaiking toys flew off of the shelves throughout the late 70’s and early 80’s but once the Force Five cartoons stopped airing in syndication the demand for the toys died down and the whole Voltron/Transformers/Robotech era took over and Gaiking was all but forgotten about except by those of us that either watched Force Five, owned or coveted them back in the days.

Grandizer was the most popular of all the Force Five shows due to the overall coolness of Grandizer himself but mostly due to the popularity of the main character Orion Quest who piloted Grandizer. Orion Quest was an alien who crash landed on Earth as was taken in by a scientist who helped him hide from an impending alien attack as the same aliens that forced him to flee from his planet were coming to Earth to search for him. He piloted Grandizer, a giant robot that shot out of a huge UFO looking saucer.

The Grandizer toys were hands down the most popular of the lot and it was known in other countries as Goldrake or Goldorok. Figurines and models of this giant robot sell briskly all throughout Asia, Europe and even into the Middle East. I remember looking forward to Friday so I got to see a new episode of Grandizer before I went to school.

Raydeen AKA Yuusha Raideen was one of the Shogun Warriors toys that Mattel hawked through Marvel Comics. While Raydeen was super popular in Asia it was hard for him to gain anywhere near the same success in this market. One of the things that really prevented having Raydeen take off was that his cartoon never aired in North America. This meant that those huge Raydeen toys that were in the window at Mr. Big’s Toyland weren’t going anwhere any time soon.

I heard once that they tried to secure the rights to Yuusha Raiden and adapt it to the North American market but fell short. In about 2 years time the whole Mattel Shogun Warriors campaign was on it’s last legs and it was too late to try to resurrect it. The Marvel Comics series was discontinued after 20 issues and low sales and Force Five didn’t spread past the East Coast in syndication. The Japanese giant robot invasion was still far from over.

Tranzor Z AKA Mazinger Z & Great Mazinger first aired in North America back in 1985 when 3 B Productions severely chopped up the 92 episode series down to 65 episodes and re-edited it for length and gratuitous violent content. The show looked dated when it aired because many of the episodes where from the early 70’s as Mazinger was one of the earliest giant robot shows made and it’s success opened the floodgates for the next generation of giant robot cartoons and toys.

Great Mazinger failed to make as large an impact in the North American market due to the popularity of Transformers and Robotech. The shoddy production quality of the 3 B Tranzor Z series and the lack of availability of quality Mazinger toys (the cheap plastic bootleg versions pervaded the market by then) prevented it from ever gaining a real foothold in the marketplace. Even to this day different versions of the Mazinger robot sell briskly the world over.

Voltron captured the imagination of the North American market shortly after World Events Productions introduced it’s heavily edited English dubbed version of Beast King GoLion in 1984. The concept of a bunch of lions forming a big ass fighting robot with a blazing sword that cut Robeasts in half really caught on with the youth of America. Forget that an overwhelming amount of violent material was obviously cut from the series.

There was also an unpopular vehicle version of Voltron that the fans absolutely abhored and no kids wanted the toy of (but that didn’t stop it from getting bought!). For more information about Voltron and it’s different versions just read my old Revenge Of The 80’s presents Voltron post from Summer 2007.

Ramrod was the giant robot featured in the 1987 syndicated World Events cartoon series “Saber Rider And The Star Sheriffs”. When they got out of their regular vehicles and got into their big vehicles they could transform into Ramrod and fight the giant robots the enemy sent after them. Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs did okay in the ratings but the toys never caught on due to lack of availability even though they were pretty ill.

Yet another ill fated show was the “The Mighty Orbots”, a 1984 network television show that was made in association with a Japanese animation studio but produced in English. It aired on ABC at the same exact time as “The Smurfs” and “The Muppet Babies” which is the worst possible time slot for an 80’s cartoon to air in the history of television. After 13 episodes (that damn near no one saw) the show stopped production with no hope for a second season.

Five different robots transformed to form one ultimate robot called Mighty Orbot. Problem was the not only did the show not get seen by anyone unless they were tweens or teenagers back in 1984 (or just huge fans of Japanese animation about giant robots). The toys sucked ballsacks like Belladonna and there are some reports that they were never actually even released. Ironically enough, the toys were made by Mattel (the same company that started the giant robot invasion just 5 years earlier). They were sued by Tonka who claimed copyright infringement because the toys supposedly resembled their wack ass GoBots. The suit was thrown out but the damage was done already.

Macron-1 AKA Goshogun was adapted by Saban Entertainment and it first premiered in North America sometime between 1985 and 1986. It had a tough time trying to gain a foothold as it failed to get a good time slot in several major syndicated markets (it often aired between 5 and 6 AM) so it never caught on the way cartoons that aired just before kids went to school or when they got home from school. It also didn’t help that Macron-1 was really fuckin’ boring. I remember watching whole episodes where they were just planning attacks or getting ready for an assault.

This was because the show was actually a mishmash of two different series lending to the weird storyline about two different teams in two different dimensions fighting two different enemies (?) simultaneously. I never remember seeing a Macron-1 toy anywhere ever. Not in a toy store nor in a catalog of any kind. Even to this day I’m not sure if any ever made it to North American shores or not. Variations of the GoShogun toy are still popular amongst collectors to this very day.

One.

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So if robots stealing your energy wasn’t innovative enough for you, a supermarket in Gloucester is now using kinetic plates embedded under the parking lot to generate energy. Apparently the energy generated by this system is enough to power all of their cash registers each day. This system uses the same technology as Formula 1 race cars do to convert energy generated during their breaking into extra speed.

[via]

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Oh yes folks, we are one step closer to terminator. This crafty creature not only maneuvers itself through an office and opens doors, but also can find outlets in the wall and take a sip of your sweet electric current. Awesome? Yes. Frightening? Absolutely. Check out some video footage of this beast in action below…

[via]

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Schöpfer Yachts unveiled their new 300 foot structural beauty, the Infinitas. Modeled after the symbol used to represent infinity, this design incorporates a multi-deck experience without breaking the flow of a dynamic living space. The main deck (which is actually two decks) includes the dining room, living room, kitchen storage room, huge pool deck, and bow deck—the latter which serves as a helicopter pad for those quick escapes.

Amazingly there are three ways to cross the pool deck in this massive beauty—either through swimming in the pool to a walkway that has underwater openings, above through a clear-glass sky bridge, or through a lower level lounge on the lower deck. Built to hold 12 guests and ship crew in
luxurious comfort. Yacht party anyone?

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And Spec Boog’s Summer Movie Season continues with no hesitation. The next up? His interpretation of the late great Bruce Lee’s finest performance, “Enter The Dragon”. Produced by none other than Tanya Morgan’s Von Pea, Spec Boogie pays proper homage to his next flick of choice from “Summer Movie Season”. Catch “Enter the Dragon” after the break, and stay tuned for the inevitable release of his classic film oriented Mixtape…

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