This is really amazing. A very creative and talented father modified an Iron Man costume for his 5-year-old son. He added a computer chip, magnetic lights and a CO2 air pump “missile launcher.”
Here’s a list of the features included in the costume:
• Repulsor Air - Blows air with CO2 air pump on hip and hose back to his hand.
• Repulsor Missile - Using CO2 air pump can also launch a paper missile.
• Repulsor Sensor/Light - A magnetic switch sensor for lighting the repulsor hand light. It fades in and out of the glowing eyes. Arduino handles this effect.
• Repulsor Sound Effect(s) - Originally not working. Worked around problem by using right-mouse, middle-mouse button and configured Elightenment17 to playback sound effects using Mplayer script. Mouse buttons activated by Arduino Digital output triggered by sensors.
• Arc Reactor - A LED night light from Costco embedded in the chest.
• BeagleBoard: Powerful Computer - With BeagleBoard already running in JARVUS box .
• Arduino: Super Input/Output Board - Handles repulsor effects but can add other sensors to enable even cooler special effects!!
Sick of the same old traditional Thanksgiving food? Here, impressionist Ricky Butler, teaches you how to have a hearty Thanksgiving dinner with classic Napoleon Dynamite flair…enjoy a tasty turkey quesa-DILLA!
Due to protests from a group of Native Americans, kindergartners at Condit Elementary School in California have been banned from wearing Thanksgiving costumes.
Some parents agree that the Native American costumes are demeaning and racist. Others feel that politics are being unfairly inserted into a fun (if not wholly accurate) tale of two factions setting aside their differences.
The debate is hot in the town of Claremont, CA. Despite the ban, many parents are sending their children to school in costume anyway.
Here’s a video from the LA Times. You can watch the two groups of protesters arguing with each other.
I’m interested to see how this plays out. Feel free to sound off in the comments below.
Imagine the worst Thanksgiving…ever. Would it be having to endure Aunt Nancy’s dusty stuffing and incessant chatter? Or, your sister’s bratty kids who use your body as their personal jungle gym?
I think the guys at Happy Birthday Harris Malden still have you beat. In their short film, Revenge of the Gobbler, created for Indy Mogul’s BackyardFX Show, these guys give you serious cause to consider just where your Thanksgiving Turkey came from! Props on the Special FX!
It’s hard to describe the Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show. The show is bright and colorful, totally silly and has great costumes. They have a giant Panda, a Unicow (unicorn cow), Cownicorn (cow unicorn) and the host, Kiko, is a fun-loving Japanese woman who can never correctly pronounce anyone’s name.
This show is a very popular Youtube series. And if it doesn’t make sense to you, don’t worry, it’s not supposed to.
TheSmokingGun has a great mug shot on their website. Apparently, this guy got arrested on Halloween while wearing a prisoner costume. How funny.
This is the only photo, but according to the police report, his friends who were also arrested were described as “a female witch and a guy dressed as Jason from the “Friday the 13th” movies, and one man was wearing a coconut bikini top and Hawaiian leis.”
Sounds like we missed a great party at the police station. Ah, the irony.
This Christmas Day, another hero born of comics comes to life on the big screen.
Adapted from Will Eisner’s comic book series, and directed by Frank Miller (creator of “300″ and “Sin City”), The Spirit tells the story of a man who mysteriously returns from the dead to fight crime from the shadows of Central City.
Unfortunately, the Octopus (Spirit’s arch-enemy) plans to wipe out the hero’s beloved city as he pursues his own version of immortality.
While tracking this cold hearted killer, The Spirit faces a slew of beautiful women who may want to seduce, love or kill the masked crusader.
The film will be a contemporary version of the ’40s and ’50s comic strip era, aiming for a “timeless feel.”
While director Frank Miller intends to be faithful to the integrity of the material, he won’t make it nostalgic and predicts that people will find it scarier than expected.
Miller plans to film The Spirit using the same digital background technology that was used for Sin City, copying specific shots from the comic.
Created in 1940, Eisner’s Spirit ran in newspapers and comic books across the United States for twelve years.
Eisner’s pioneering work on The Spirit created a comic book style that departed from the melodrama of most superhero serials, focusing instead on the tragedy, romance, and world-weary humor of his characters.
DC Comics are currently publishing Will Eisner’s The Spirit Archives, reprinting the entire original series in high quality hard cover editions. They have also launched an all new monthly The Spirit series.
Sony recently held a costume design contest for the “Sackboy” character in their video game LittleBigPlanet, and fans have accused them of stealing costume design ideas from non-winning entries. Sony has released a statement denying this accusation.
If you’re not familiar with the game, take a look at the trailer above. Players control small customizable “Sackboy” characters to solve puzzles and interact with a 3D environment.
So what happened? Well, Sony picked a winner and offered the winning costume as a free download for LittleBigWorld players. THEN, they released additional costumes as well, but charged money for them. And that’s when the great Costume Controversy began.
Sony’s new costumes are remarkably similar to several non-winning contest entries. Fans have cried foul, accusing Sony of copying and profiting from their uncredited costume designs.
Here are a few examples of design similarities provided by the disgrunted gamers.
Fanmade Design:
Sony’s Design:
Fanmade Design:
Sony’s Design:
Fanmade Design:
Sony’s Design:
As you can see, there ARE strong similarities between the costume designs. But did Sony do anything illegal? It doesn’t appear to be the case. All contest participants agreed to Sony’s Terms & Conditions before submitting their artwork. The fine print of the contest rules makes it clear that all submitted materials became the property of Sony. Case closed, it would seem.
But Sony went a step further and denied that any copying took place at all. According to a Sony representative:
“This was always going to be a possibility when we ran the costumer competition - releasing new costumes which are similar in theme to ones that were entered. Here’s the fact of the matter, the art team who are responsible for designing new original (ie unlicensed) costumes were involved at the very final stage of judging, by which time the number of entries had been whittled down to 10 from each batch of entries (Europe, Japan, USA). If at any time we take inspiration from a costume competition entry that didn’t win overall we will contact the creator directly.”
Hmm, so what are the disgruntled Sackboy costume designers to do? There’s probably nothing they CAN do. Legally, Sony has their fine print to fall back on. Plus, it’s awfully hard to copyright a penguin or a shark.
But this costume fiasco does indeed make Sony look bad. Someone in their PR department should come forward and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that their new costumes pre-existed before the contest. Until then, their integrity and goodwill towards fans will be questioned and scorned by many.
Feel free to sound off with your opinion in the comments below.
You know, Star Wars only shows the Dark side of Darth Vader. But I was curious about Vader’s mundane everyday moments, so I hired a spy to find out what he’s really like when he’s not hanging out at the Death Star. Hold on to your helmet…this may surprise you.
Slobsofgaming.com is highlighting 31 Amazing Video Game Costumes and wow, they are fantastic! Very realistic renditions of characters from The Legend of Zelda, Streetfighter, Halo, Soul Calibur and more.
The levels of detail, creativity, passion of these gamers are really quite touching. These costumes are the best of the best. Head on over to Slobsofgaming.com to view them all.
