Friday Favorites

Robots and Rockets and Rats, Oh My!!!

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“It is never too late to have a happy childhood”
~Tom Robbins

Truth be told, I would have to amend the above quote and add the word ‘second’ between ‘happy’ and ‘childhood’, as I really enjoyed my first one. Actually I am still enjoying my first one! 😉

I like toys, and as I’ve matured into adulthood one of the more entertaining realizations that I have come to is that I can continue to like toys…and the toys I can afford now are much cooler.

I am not talking about the typical ‘guy’ toys, like cars and powertools, and trophy wives (although those are cool too!). No, I am talking about geek toys…robots and rayguns, replica Lord of the Rings swords and shapely Princess Leia statues.

Today I bring you some of the images of what was to be last Friday’s Friday Favorites post, all about one of my favorite things: toys!

“Childhood sometimes does pay a second visit to man, youth never.”
~Anna Jameson

A recent blog visit from KLIM at BigShot Toyworks pointed me to the fact that there is exciting toy news regarding the work of former Friday Favorite Ashley Wood. It seems that another of Ashley’s robot creations…and he paints damn cool robots…

is being made into a collectible toy. The ad campaign artwork that has been done for this, including the images above, are so enticing to me, robot fiend that I am.


(click picture for larger image)

And what does all this slightly sinister and alarmist artwork portend?

Why, Bertie, of course!!!

Klim mentions, “This will be a full blown 1/6 scale toy. Everything that looks like it moves, will move. It will have multiple weapons and accessories, cloth and metal elements, and more.

There will be MEGA surprises galore and we are trying our best to keep them under wraps.

Some things will be revealed at San Diego Comic Con and the rest very soon after.”

Just another reason that I wish I could be at San Diego Comic Con this year!!!

Doesn’t it look great?!?!? I have premonitions that this beauty will be well out of my price range, but until that is confirmed I can still dream, can’t I? Keep an eye out on Ashley’s blog and at Bigshot Toyworks for future announcements about pricing and availability.

If you read that Ashley Wood FF post, you may recall seeing the above Sideshow Collectibles polystone cast statue of Ashley Wood’s creation, Popbot (and Kitty). Even the packaging is amazing for this one:

Toymakers who produce specialty items like this really amaze me as they show such remarkable craftsmenship.

If the above image is any indication, there may be a Les Mort character on the way as well!

“Life is the childhood of our immortality.”
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I like retro rocketships as much as I like retro robots! Jeff Brewer, of Cool Rockets, is producing geek-out-inducing “..resin-cast, hand-finished rocket ships, all inspired by the styles of the 40’s and 50’s rockets from comics, TV, and toys.”

Despite its slightly phallic shaping (or who knows, maybe subconsciously because of it) the red Star Liner rocket is by far my favorite.

I also really like the altered version pictured above, The Express. I strongly encourage you to check out the Cool Rockets Gallery for more amazing images of retro rockets. All the designs really capture the spirit of 50’s views of science fiction. They even make much larger custom versions, like this 6 foot tall model:

“It is a hopeless endeavour to unite the contrarieties of spring and winter; it is unjust to claim the privileges of age, and retain the play-things of childhood.”
~Samuel Johnson

Oh pooh, Samuel Johnson! One of the privileges of age is to be able to retain the play-things of childhood!

Like Rats for instance. Well, mice actually…”rats” just made the post title into a nice alliteration.

The above creatures are PVC representations of Saxon, Lieam and Kenzie from David Petersen’s award-winning comic Mouse Guard. I have read the first hardcover collection (review forthcoming) and enjoyed it. Jeff and I had a chance to look at sculpts of these figures at Planet Comicon and they look fantastic. If I keep enjoying Mouse Guard I may need to get these guys to keep their books company on the bookshelves!

That ought to be enough geek toy lust for now…

Okay, while we are lusting, do any of you remember seeing this back when Hellboy first hit theatres?

I saw pictures of it again while I was visiting SideShow Collectibles and it is so fantastic.

It is a 1:1 scale replica of Hellboy’s gun, The Samaritan, used in the film. Wish I could have laid my hands on this when it first came out…I don’t think it was cheap then, either.

A bit of a different Friday Favorite…especially considering that it is not yet Friday. I am heading up to Nebraska for my cousin’s wedding tomorrow (after a stop at the Omaha Zoo to visit caged relatives) and will not be posting until Monday. I’ll probably try to sneak online some so I hope to be able to converse with you all over the next few days. We’ll see. Regardless, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

I close with this quote simply because Jerry was discussing the work of Brian Aldiss with Cameron, Jeff and I at the comic shop tonight. Here’s to you guys:

“When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them, they show us the state of our decay.”
~Brian W. Aldiss

Heaven forbid! Get out there and play! You are only young once…and if your heart is in the right place that ‘once’ could last a lifetime!
_________________________

Update: Deslily has a really creative blog post giveaway going on. Click here to find out more!

20 thoughts on “Robots and Rockets and Rats, Oh My!!!”

  2. i lovoeoveovelvlvlleoeoeELVeVLEOOELLOooooooooveee that popbot statue! oh dear… i’m all giddy now…

    sadly i can’t afford it yet, but oh boy, when i can… IT’S MINE.

    i too love toys and robots. carl – you are going to be the undoing of me. i don’t even know if i should click on these posts when i see them…? its dangerous. i can just see it, in 20 years i’m going to be this bewildered looking beggar with crusty and dusty looking toys littered around him, sitting on streets corners.

    one of my favourite paintings is jon foster’s “crowbot”. oh…! it is just the coolest thing. literally the coolest thing. i can’t describe why i love it, but i do!

    and those rockets!! love it. what is it about rockets? well – i know what it is, but i don’t trust myself to say without going on and on. my favourite tintin book is “explorers on the moon”

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Explorers-Moon-Adventures-Tintin-Herge/dp/1405208163/ref=sr_1_11/202-8159520-2187056?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184854305&sr=8-11

    and i know that more than half of the reason is because of that cool rocket on the cover!!!

    have you posted pictures of all your robot goodies (statues and stuff?) before? if you haven’t i’d love to see them!

  3. Thanks for the nice comments!

    email me and I will send you soem sneak peeks as well as provide you with some pictures from Comiccon

    Klim

  4. darn! having a horrible time with your blog today! I wrote a whole comment and hit submit and I got a blank page saying “done”.

    Anyway.. thanks for the mention Carl!

    your post made me wonder.. just why some of us feel so passionate over books and “things”?? And why many others don’t? What is it in us that makes these things so important to our well being?? You’ve opened a can a worms for me today!

  5. What great quotes on childhood! Keep on playing, Carl; you are an inspiration for getting the most out of life.

  7. I love geeky toys 😀 and those are some great quotes you shared.

    I hadn’t heard of Mouse Guard, but wow, I love the artwork. I really want to read it now, and I look forward to your review.

    And I love the PVC mice. This is something that often happens to me – when I see really cool PVC or action figures of something I am not acquainted with I often want to get into it just to have an excuse to buy the toys 😀

  8. Mouse Guard toys! Squee! 🙂

    Also: I looove those vintage rocketships. They make me think of Wallace & Gromit, or of those old 50s picture books of how the future was going to be…

  9. Star Liner is beautiful! I want!

    You mentioned Princess Leia early on. Have you been watching ‘On the Lot’? I wish I hadn’t for many reasons, but the biggest is because Carrie has truly killed off the Princess now.

    Have a safe trip.

  11. Thank you all for hanging in there, James is moving us to a new server and so there have been a few hiccups over the past couple of days. Thank you James for finding this post! (It had disappeared on me for a bit…and I was none to thrilled!)

    Janet, Mary hasn’t seen that comment y et…I’m sure a beat down is in the works. 😉

    Mike, I want Star Liner as well. And no, I haven’t seen that show. I am assuming she is somehow either dissing on or degrading the character. I don’t really get into that. I can understand actors being embarrassed about early B movies they might have done, but Star Wars launched stellar careers for so many of them as well as making actors like Alec Guines and Billy Dee Williams, who had done stuff before, accessible to new generations. I don’t really respect when actors feel they have to somehow separate themselves from these roles as if they are better than them. It is kind of childish to me.

    RB, love Wallace and Grommit. That newest film is wonderful!!!

    Nymeth, toys, statues, etc. have more than once caused me to check out their source material as well.

    Me too, Angela!

    JenClair, thank you…I hope we all are trying to get the most out of our time here.

    Deslily, I think almost everyone is passionate about something. For some it is gardening, or making and maintaining a beautiful home, or relationships, etc. Why some of us are also passionate about fantasy and science fiction and the toys and trappings of that I cannot say. I do know that I really have a hard time understanding why someone wouldn’t be. 🙂 Mostly because I am so immersed in this world that I cannot fathom why someone wouldn’t love, say, Firefly for instance, or how someone could read Neil Gaiman and not just fall over in a swoon. I am glad we are all different, though, because there are things, like gardening and cooking and interior decorating that I have small interests in and I enjoy feeding off the passions of others in those areas.

    Klim…you don’t have to ask twice, I will do!!! Thanks.

    Sorry to be a bad influence, JP. I am a bad influence on myself as well, so you are not alone! I have just been reading some stuff about Tintin lately. I’ll have to check that one out. I think some movies are in development…does that sound right?

    The Mouse Guard figures look so much cooler up close. The original mold was really carved well.

  13. Very cool Friday favs! I love Robot pictures. The mice are great too!

    With all the trouble with the site, your line about Trophy Wives got cut off. I am sure you meant to say “I am not talking about the typical ‘guy’ toys, like cars and powertools, and trophy wives LIKE THE ONE I HAVE (although those are cool too!)”

  15. My newest toy is my bike. Unfortunately, I took her off road and she now has a flat tire. 🙁

    My second childhood (the one I’m living through my children) is even better than the first.

    I’m glad James was able to revive your post.

  16. Me too, James was my saviour!

    You’ve already maimed your new bike? Jules!

  18. haha! you’re a bad influence on yourself too. i like that 🙂

    i haven’t heard anything about this tintin movie – cool!

    i don’t remember anything of that moon story – i read it so long ago – only that that one was my favourite.

  19. I’m quite good at resisting toys, but man, I want a six-foot rocket cupboard.

    I like rockets and retro robots a lot, too. I have a very precious silver necklace in the shape of a (slightly Wallace-and-Gromitesque) rocket which my younger brother gave me years ago, when he was still my little brother. I wouldn’t swap it for anything.

  20. I personally love vintage toys. It’s fun finding the toys you had as a kid, or the ones you always wanted.

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