Albotas » Featured

Gallery of Custom Spawn Dunnys by fplus

brownkidd — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:20:32 +0000

Josh “f+” Pearce is a toy artist who’s done quite a few Spawn Dunnys as commission pieces for collectors. He sent me a link to his blog post featuring all the Spawn Dunnys he’s done – starting with his first one ever(above) and ending with he latest one (at the end of the post) – and asked if I’d share them, so I am.

Warning: Truly sickening work lies ahead. Prepare to be jealous of this dude’s talent.

About the customs, fplus says:

So, when i first started taking commissions, I got a lot of requests for Spawns. It’s been a blast doing them, and I’ve always tried to make each one different. I imagine at some point I’ll stop doing Spawns as my original designs are becoming more and more popular, but for now, I thought it would be fun to reflect on all the pieces I have done so far…

Mr. fplus then goes on to say:

I’m a huge Spawn fan, so each one of these has been a great pleasure to do! I’ve still got a few more versions I’d like to do, gunslinger, viking, and maybe a maskless one at some point. Hopefully I can find the time to do these soon!

Man, you’d think he’d be sick of doing Spawns by now, but he said it himself, he’s totally down to do more. Which is good, because I don’t think we’ll ever get sick of looking at ‘em.

Todd McFarlane, hire this guy!

Fresh-ass Fanart Gallery: What time is it!?

brownkidd — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:40:55 +0000

ADVENTURE TIME!!!

The members of The Autumn Society of Philadelphia (a collective of talented artists who make awesome geeky art) are busy banging out loads of fresh artwork dedicated to Adventure Time, the new show that’s sure to rock your face into 8 pieces when it debuts this April on Cartoon Network.

The above piece was done by Dapper Dan.

LOTS more after the jump.

By Edwin Vazquez

By Alex Leighton

By Kasey Tararuj

By Juan Manuel Urbina

By Justin Gray

By Glen Brogan

By Kartoon Kid

25 Works of Graffiti Art Made With Legos

brownkidd — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:17:49 +0000

So, I was browsing the internets today in search of something fresh to feature for Daily Graffiti when I stumbled onto an awesome world that I’d never heard of before: the world of Lego graffiti. There’s a Flickr group called Urban Culture and Lego and it’s filled with pictures of truly amazing Lego art paying homage to one of the 4 pillars of hip hop.

First up is the work of the insanely talented Lego sculptor Cole Blaq, probably the most active on the Urban Culture and Lego Flickr pool. His work mimics the forms of traditional and futuristic graffiti, and he’s also made some cool Lego spray can art.

Front

Back

Next is the work of another extremely active Lego graffer named Shannon Ocean who often tags under the moniker Liar or Shan. Shannon’s work is a mix of graffiti lettering and graffiti-inspired shapes.

From here on out, I’ll just be posting the artist’s name above each piece. Enjoy the pics!

pyreƒyre

€quuïɳox

Orion Pax

This piece by Orion Pax is a Lego version of the logo for Morgengau.net.

buriedbybricks

MY BEEF WITH THE DESIGNER TOY INDUSTRY

brownkidd — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:46:55 +0000

For the oldschool Albotas.com readers out there, you may remember a time when this site featured designer toy news on a daily basis. During those times, I got a lot of comments from readers saying they just didn’t “get” the toy thing.

For my own reasons (which I’m about to explain), I’ve cut back on the urban toy news. Now people are asking why I stopped.

Read on to find out, but I must warn, I call a few artists, companies, and blogs out and this may offend you/piss you off/make you hate me. Sorry, but the time for pleasant formalities is over. It’s time for honesty.

You’ve been warned.

There’s a few reasons I don’t cover vinyl toys on the site as much any more. The first reason I’ll explain is actually one that I didn’t even know was a reason at all: I don’t really collect vinyl toys any more. Not because I don’t want to, but mainly because I can’t afford it. There’s also been a lack of toys that have really piqued my interest. It’s kind of hard to cover a scene that you’re barely involved with any more.

But that’s just a small part. Let’s get to the big stuff. First, let’s talk about how news gets into the hands of toy bloggers. While other hobbys like comics and video games have professional news outlets like Wizard Magazine, EDGE, IGN, etc. to spread news to their audiences, all the designer toy industry really has is Clutter. Sure, other great mags like Juxtapoz, Hi-Fructose, and even the on-the-verge-of-death Giant Robot feature toys and toy artists in their magazines. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget about that new TV show all about Vinyl Toys.

But overall, when customizers and collectors want the latest gossip, they head to sites like Vinyl Pulse, ToysREvil, Vinyl Abuse, Plastic & Plush, Spanky Stokes and the like. The only problem with this is the fact that a lot of these sites are either updated with news only a few times during the day, or they’re being CONSTANTLY updated with info they receive from every newsletter and press release. Since most toy bloggers are subscribed to the same newsletters, press lists, and RSS feeds, most of these sites wind up looking the same as each other, covering the same exact content.

Even worse, one particular website (which has been picking up a lot of steam lately scoring interviews, doing some cool coverage of awesome events, and throwing countless contests) even copy/pastes entire newsletters and press releases. WHAT THE FUCK!?!? It would be one thing if this site would explain to the reader within the post “look, what you’re reading is a press release, not my own words,” but that doesn’t happen. It’s like they’re passing it off as their own aka “plagiarism” aka “shitty” and “lazy”.

Maybe that’s just a prime example of “it’s not what you know, but WHO you know.” Maybe a huge daily post count full of copy/pasted, PR-spun articles is better than having a unique voice.

But what about the companies? How do they get this news to the bloggers in the first place? As I already mentioned, there’s newsletters, PR mailing lists, and RSS feeds, but how to some sites manage to score exclusive news?

It seems that in my experience, this is another prime example of “it’s not what you know, but who you know.”

I don’t mean to come off like a self-righteous ass-hat, but let’s take a look at Albotas.com’s traffic and reach when compared to some other sites on the internet. The following graphs were taken from Alexa which is a well trusted website statistic site.

To paraphrase Alexa.com, the term “reach” is used to describe the percentage of global internet users visiting a site. I’ve compared the stats of Albotas with other popular toy sites like Vinyl Pulse, ToysREvil, Clutter, and Spanky Stokes. You can see for the most part that Albotas manages to stay just above, keep up with, or go way above the reach of these other sites.

Now let’s compare the traffic between these same sites.

Oh, hey, look! Where’d the other sites go? They don’t show up because, surprisingly, their traffic isn’t high enough.

Now, I’m not showing these graphs off to brag or be a dick. I’m showing these off to illustrate a point. Why is it that when I call or email certain companies to score some exclusive news, they blow me off or tell me that they save their exclusives for the other toy blogs.

For example, once I emailed the toy artist Docasta from Chocolate Soop about scoring some exclusive news before the other toys sites got it. he responded by saying “I tend to give firsts to friends at VP and Clutter. But having said that, I’ll keep you in mind for sure for different angles and lighting shots of my projects that everyone can have something different if that is of interest to you.”

Why would an artist or company rather give exclusive info and reveals to sites with less traffic? Wouldn’t they rather have their works seen by a larger audience? I’ll tell you why: It doesn’t matter how well your site’s doing or how big you are, it’s who you know.

Another problem with toy news is a majority of artists are trying to build names for themselves, but they just don’t know how. They don’t send news about their latest custom pieces or production projects to any sites, so they stick to posting on message boards or twitter. Sure, I could easily lurk these same message boards and comb through twitter, but since I usually like to keep a steady flow of varied news (not just toy news) on the site, I don’t really have that sort of time. And by the time this stuff hits Twitter and message boards it’s not news, it’s public knowledge.

Even Rsin, a super talented artist I know personally who lives in my area, would rather TwitPic a piece to his over-500 followers than take the time to shoot me a quick email so that I can show it to my average of 2,000 daily readers.

The toy companies themselves are sort of the same way. They like to manage their own news and not let other news outlets reveal too much. I actually spoke on the phone with a PR person at Kidrobot about 2 or 3 weeks ago about possibly scoring some exclusive news and was told that I can find news on the Kidrobot blog. Are you fucking kidding me? This guy is in PR, but I got the feeling that he doesn’t know shit about how news outlets work.

Maybe I’m just taking too much of a journalistic approach to blogging, but I tend to compare designer toy news to video game news a lot. Let’s say a video game company has an amazing new game that they’re working on, but nobody knows about it yet. Will they do a better job at getting their game into the public eye by posting about it on their blog, or giving the exclusive story to a magazine. Depending on the size of the company, the only people visiting their blog are people who WANT TO KNOW about news from the company — in essence, they’re just preaching to the choir. It might take a while for the word to spread around the blogosphere, but even then, people only know what the company wants them to know. If they pass the story off the a magazine or blog with a big reader base, then their product will be shown off to people who DIDN’T KNOW THEY WANTED TO KNOW about such a thing. And the press gets to tell the story however they want, without any PR spin.

News outlets that cover games, movies, tech, anime, whatever get exclusives all the time. And it’s never the same outlet scoring exclusives from the same companies. One company might give exclusive news rights to magazine “A” one month, but they could easily give an even juicier exclusive to magazine “B” the next month.

When will the designer toy news get this sort of treatment. Whenever a site gets any sort of exclusive news, it’s usually news that some artist sent in to the site to hype their stuff, or an interview, or convention coverage. Let’s get serious: hardcore collectors want to know about knew toys before the official word gets out from the companies themselves.

It seems like toy news has only ever been about production ratios, prices, and release dates. What about the other stuff that goes into toy making? How did the company decide what artist do go with? What was the pre-production process like? Both collectors and aspiring professional toy artists alike could benifit from answers to these questions.

Hopefully some other toy bloggers out there will take notice and started contacting companies, artists, and PR with more questions and more requests for exclusive news. As a news voice, why settle for re-wording (or in some cases, copy/pasting) a press release when you can be inquisitive and get more information for your readers to digest.

It’s because of the PR-controlled state of toy news and the fact that the scene is a closely knit group where everyone knows everyone that there’s absolutely no criticism. The bloggers want hookups for free stuff to review and give away, but they don’t wanna’ piss anybody off by giving their two cents once in a while.

While I believe news should be delivered in a fair and balanced manner, since most toy news reads the same, I like to inject a little opinion. Rather than just give readers the facts, I’ll also let them know my impressions of the toy every once in a while. I remember once I posted about some stupid frog brain toy. I can’t remember the name of the artist or the toy, but I remember the artist firing some pissed-off comment in the review section because I thought the price was totally unfair. This is how professional and well-structured the relationship between companies and artists with the press is. I wonder how often gaming magazines get angry letters from developers after they give their game a bad review. I’d imagine that’d be a lot of hate mail to sort through each month.

But then again, maybe the readers don’t want more info or opinions. Maybe they’re perfectly fine with pictures, pricing, and release dates. I’m looking at things through my blurry, jaded blog-o-vision goggles and I’m sure things look a lot different through sparkly consume-o-vision.

So, to bring this crazy rant to an end, I’ll leave off by saying that the only designer toy news I’ll be covering on the site will be whatever hits my email with the exception of gallery exhibit news unless they look REALLY awesome. I can honestly say that I doubt most people care about an exhibit in some town that they don’t live in. That sort of thing is better left to local news outlets. That’s not to say people don’t give a shit about these shows AT ALL, but it’s usually better to have on-site coverage for that sort of thing, maybe send pics of the show itself. Or better yet, send some pictures of a few custom pieces that will be at the show, that way readers aren’t looking at a vague flier for some artist they’ve never heard of with the address of some gallery hundreds of miles away from them.

Until I can make more solid contacts and consistently attend more conventions for coverage, I really don’t feel as though Albotas is quite ready to compete with the other toy blogs out there who are all posting pretty much the same news as each other any way. This is also the reason I’ve cut back on posting gaming news (with a few exceptions.)

If you’re a customizer/artist, blogger, or company and you’ve managed to read this long stupid rant, thank you. Hopefully I didn’t piss anyone off too bad, but some things did need to be called out and no one else was doing it.

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments, but I’m going to try my best to keep out of it because I have the feeling a shitstorm might erupt. Just keep in mind that I kept this piece 100% fair and honest. I don’t have any sort of bad feelings or ill will towards anyone mentioned, I just thought that certain things needed to be brought to the public’s attention.

Review: If you only read one manga in 2010, make it Biomega.

brownkidd — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:21:15 +0000

Biomega is a gorgeously drawn, brilliantly told, gory sci-fi masterpiece. It’s Ghost in the Shell meets Akira, with zombies. The second volume can’t come soon enough!

Written and drawn by Tsutomu Nihei (Wolverine: Snikt!, Blame!, NSE, and NOiSE), Biomega will be sure to remind oldschool anime heads of the times when anime wasn’t all about cute girls in frilly outfits or never-ending series about people leveling up and fighting for the fate of something or other. This story takes a page right from the best of cyberpunk anime and mixes kick-ass action and gore with a story that doesn’t suck.

The year is 3006 A.D. The N5S virus has turned most of the world’s population into zombie-like mutants. Zoichi Kanoe, a synthetic human agent created by Tao Heavy Industry, and Fuyu Kanoe, the holographic A.I. system in Zoichi’s bike are on a mission to find the key to humanity’s salvation: a girl named Eon Green who has the power to transmute the N5S virus.

The first volume of Biomega starts off with Zoichi and Fuyu heading to 9J0, a man-made floating island city in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. They’re in search of Eon Green, but they’re not the only one’s searching. The Public Health Service has sent their Compulsory Execution Unit to retrieve the girl so that they can use her cells to aid in creating a new race of superhumans immune to the N5S virus and purge the old race.

And there’s also a talking grizzly bear.

AWESOME
Eyegasmic: Tsutomu Nihei’s art is just incredible. The writer-slash-artist has a background in architecture study, and it shows in the incredible structures and post-apocalyptic backdrops where Biomega takes place. There’s also an element of speed and pacing in the visual storytelling that makes the action scenes seem so freaking fluid — almost like your watching a fully animated movie on each page.

Cyberpunk’s Not Dead: Nihei is well-known for his cyberpunk style when it comes to his manga — Blame! being the most popular example of this — but not only does it look good, but the ideas and technology in Biomega are just so damned creative. Tell most people to come up with a zombie apocalypse tale, and they’ll more than likely give you Dawn of the Dead. Rather than trudge down that beaten path, Nihei incorporates things like a government and corporations waging war against each other in the city streets and blends it with cool techie elements like a nearly indestructible motorcycle with holographic A.I. and secret compartments for things like battle axes and rifles that fire bullets into space. Your average zombie story, this ain’t.

Unusual Suspects: Whether it’s a creepy cyborg in a butcher’s apron with surveillance eyeballs embedded across the top of his skull, a creepy mummy chick, or a talking bear, Biomega has a truly awesome cast of characters.

Whoa There, Grizzly Bear!: Did I mention there’s a talking bear in this? Because there is. And the thing of it is, he fits in so well with the rest of the Biomega universe that you never really question just why the hell a bear is talking and shooting at people.

Not Awesome:
Wait, What Just Happened?: Maybe it’s because of the sketchy, heavily hatched art style, or maybe it’s just because there’s long gaps containing pages with no dialog and the mind just tends to wander, but I found myself having to reread a few pages because I just couldn’t follow the action or make out what was going on in a particular panel.

If you haven’t read a good manga in a while, or if you’re just getting into manga, I can’t recommend Biomega enough. Even if you’re sick of the apocalyptic zombie genre, there’s enough originality and overall awesomeness going on in this book that makes it deserves the attention of any fan of great stories.

Biomega and all images are © VIZ Media. Biomega Vol. 2 hits store shelves this May.

40 Mind-blowing Custom Vinyl Toys by Markie Darkie

brownkidd — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:00:50 +0000

Markie Darkie is a Canadian graphic designer/photographer/visual artist who has made some of the most mind-blowing custom vinyls you’ve ever seen. His use of sculpting, abstract imagery, and colors are sure to inspire veteran toy artists and n00bs alike.

Teddy Troops

Munny

Mad*L

Dunny

Fatima

Kaniza

Mellow

Thunder Mutt

The Awesome 80’s Inspired Artwork of Michael Steele

brownkidd — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:20:13 +0000

I’d never heard of Australian artist Michael Steele before, but regular Albotas.com commenter and message board user Don Schwabs recently visted a Steele exhibit at Australia’s Gorker Gallery called Accumulating. Don puts it best when he writes “His works are made of pure awesome extract. They’re clusters of colour and show glimpses of all the cool shit from your childhood (well, mine and anyone else born in the 80s at least). It’s almost as if the little prince from Katamari has rolled his ball through my mind and picked up all the stuff I love then dumped it on canvas.”

Go to any art shows lately? Know of any that are coming up? Why not share the awesomeness over on our message boards?

Fresh-ass Fanart: Google Android meets BioShock

brownkidd — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 07:57:47 +0000

Probably a little biased of me to feature my own artwork, but whatever. It’s a little before 3am and I’m bored and can’t sleep so I decided to play around in illustrator and turn Google’s ‘Android’ robot into a Big Daddy from BioShock. I might make some more of these since it was pretty easy and I have some more cool ideas floating around in my domepiece. Might even customize some Android vinyl figures at some point.

Albotas Makes Technorati.com’s List of Top 100 Gaming Blogs!!!

brownkidd — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:59:44 +0000

Last night I found out that my humble little geek blog is listed in the Top 100 Gaming Blogs on the internet according to Technorati.com.

If you’re not aware of the almighty and supreme majesty that is Technorati, here’s how they describe themselves:

The leading blog search engine, Technorati.com indexes millions of blog posts in real time and surfaces them in seconds. The site has become the definitive source for the top stories, opinions, photos and videos emerging across news, entertainment, technology, lifestyle, sports, politics and business. Technorati.com tracks not only the authority and influence of blogs, but also the most comprehensive and current index of who and what is most popular in the Blogosphere.

It’s really an honor to be listed among such great and influential sites (seriously, go check out the list, these sites are awesome!) and I’d always hoped — but never really thought — that my little site could make it this far.

So thanks to all the PR companies and artists for hooking me up with cool news to share and free stuff for reviews and contests, thanks to everyone who’s ever submitted a tip, thanks to all the other blogs for taking notice and linking me, and most of all, thank you crazy kids for reading this garbage every day!

New goal: make Technorati’s list of top 100 sites on the net.

Over 20 Badass Custom Game Boys

brownkidd — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:00:30 +0000

Heartboy by TraceKaiser

This post is a collection of images from chiptune file sharing site 8bitcollective.com. They were designed by a lineup of talented artists and chiptuners using all kinds of different materials and techniques, but they all have something in common: they’re all totally badass and a little bit on the awesome side.

Pink and Gold by newbanZo

From Wikipedia:

The Game Boy (DMG-001) is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on April 21, 1989 , in North America on July 31, 1989 (1989-07-31), and in Europe on September 28, 1990 (1990-09-28). In Southern Asia, it is known as the “Tata Game Boy”. It is the first handheld console in the Game Boy line. It was created by Gunpei Yokoi and Nintendo’s Research and Development 1—the same staff who had designed the Game & Watch series as well as several popular games for the NES.

Screen Printed Game Boy by Greg Beaton for jefftheworld

Kameboy by Kaepora with cyan backlighting & Pro Sound mod by nonfinite

The Game Boy was Nintendo’s second handheld system following the Game & Watch series introduced in 1980, and it combined features from both the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game & Watch. It was also the first handheld game to use video game cartridges since Milton Bradley Company’s Microvision handheld console. It was originally bundled with the puzzle game Tetris.

Customs by newbanZo

Custom DMG by Jophish

Custom DMG with sexy see-through buttons by Electrify Me!!!

1up DMG by nonfinite

Splatter Custom DMG by Secret Lab

Domo-01 by Famicomi

Frankenstein #1 by nonfinite

Custom Game Boy Collage by Thretris

Despite many other, technologically superior handheld consoles introduced during its lifetime, the Game Boy was a tremendous success. The Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined have sold 118.69 million units worldwide. Upon its release in the United States, it sold its entire shipment of one million units within weeks.

Steampunk DMG by Thretris

Starman Custom by Capcomposer

Carbon Fiber DMG by Capcomposer

Brushed Aluminum DMG by Capcomposer

Nintendo EMOboy… definitely a cutter by Capcomposer

Custom Clear DMG. Painted inside by Capcomposer

DMG costume by cy9ez

Dark Void Trexi Pics & Review

brownkidd — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:36:11 +0000

Capcom’s jetpacking, UFO-hijacking, vertical shoot-out adventure Dark Void was released last week for the PS3 and Xbox 360. If you took my advice and pre-ordered from game stop, you probably scored yourself a limited edition Trexi figure from Play Imaginative designed by Tony Mora of i am 8-bit.

Hit the jump for some up-close shots of the limited edition Dark Void Trexi and the sexy box it comes packaged in. You’ll also see how different it is when compared to oldschool Trexis from back in the day!

Up top you can see the Dark Void Trexi and the stylish box that it comes packaged in. There’s some cool wraparound artwork of a jetpackin’ Trexi and when three boxes are lined up together you can see the whole thing. I only have two boxes in the pic, but it still looks pretty fresh.

Here’s the back of the Trexi and the box. I love the gloss on that box!

When I first opened this Trexi up, I noticed what looked like grey paint on his hands/knuckle area. Turns out it’s little pumps broken off the plastic, almost as if the parts were pulled from one of those model kits you can pick up at Wal-Mart. Here’s a link to see what I’m talking about. I have three other Trexis and they totally don’t have that. I’m guessing maybe Play Imaginative had to cut some corners since these things were being given away for free.

Here’s the bottom showing off the Trexi and iam8-bit logos. Notice another little broken nub of plastic right on Trexi’s grundle region.

Here’s Dark Void Trexi with the top of his head removed. Notice the Play Imaginative and Trexi logos etched into the plastic. Nice little touch that none of my other Trexis have.

Here’s the Dark Void Trexi with some other Trexis from my collection. No clue what series this is from. Notice the Dark Void one is a little taller. You can also see that the other Trexi’s hands are jointed slightly above the wrist. The DV Trexi’s hand joints are hidden right at the wrist which is a nice touch that gives it a cleaner look than the older ones.

You can see that the leg joints are different as well. While the older Trexis have peg joints, the newer ones have a ball joint at the hip/pelvis area. The ball joint hides the ugly seam that the peg jointed Trexis had, but I wish the ankles were rotatable.

I was pretty stoked to swap the tops of my Trexi heads, but I guess the newer ones can’t play this game with the older ones…

… and this is why. Looks like they inverted the joint in the heads. Anyone know if there’s a logical reason for this? I’m guessing maybe they’re easier to produce this way, but if anyone else has any guesses, I’d love to read ‘em in the comments.

Also, while the older Trexi’s heads just pop clean off, I couldn’t get the Dark Void Trexi’s head off no matter how hard I tried.

This is the first new Trexi I’ve gotten in about a year or two and I’m pretty pleased with it, especially since it was free. Playing with my old Trexis has also reminded me that Dunnys aren’t the only cool blindboxed toys on the block and I really want to get some more.

Stay tuned for a giveaway in the coming weeks where you’ll be able to win a Dark Void Trexi of your very own! Also, head over to this thread the forums and show off pics of your collections!

Contest Time: We’re Giving Away FIVE Sets of Gunmetal Edition Little Trickers from Play Imaginative

brownkidd — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:20:15 +0000

Yes, you read that right: WE’RE GIVING AWAY FIVE COMPLETE SETS OF GUNMETAL EDITION LITTLE TRICKERS!!!!!!

See, Play Imaginative recently released Touma’s Little Trickers blindboxed series. They look like this:

To celebrate the release, Play Imaginative has whipped up a mere 450 complete sets of all the characters from the series in a sexy all-black Gunmetal Edition(pictured at the tippy top). They’ve been gracious enough to donate 5 of these sets to Albotas to be given out in a contest!

So, since there’s 5 different sets, there’s five different ways to win!

1. Leave a comment on this very post. That’s it! Just don’t forget to fill in your email so you can be contacted in case you win! Comment as many times as you want, but your name will only be counted once.

2. Go sign up for the new message boards (only takes a minute) and leave a comment in this thread right here. Again, don’t forget to put your email in your profile so you can be contacted if you win. Comment as many times as you want, but your name will only be counted once.

3. Follow Albotas on twitter (@albotas) and tweet the following message: RT for a chance to win a set of Gunmetal Edition Little Trickers! http://bit.ly/7GZSFV @albotas

4. Follow me on twitter (@brownkidd) and tweet the following message: RT for a chance to win a set of Gunmetal Edition Little Trickers! http://bit.ly/7GZSFV @brownkidd

5. Become a fan of Albotas on Facebook! Just go to facebook.com/albotas!

One winner will be chosen randomly from each of the above entry options. Remember, if you enter each of the 5 different ways, that means you have a better chance of winning!

Deadline for this contest is next Friday, February 5th at 11:59pm EST and the winner will we announced the following week. GOOD LUCK!

Custom Steampunk Game Boy by Thretris

brownkidd — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:44:53 +0000

This dude needs to stop producing such insanity. The universe can only handle so much awesomeness at a time and when the threshold is reached, existence will spontaneously implode. Or something.

More pics and a vid of this beast in chiptune action after the jump.

Thretris customized this thing to look as though it was found in the depths of Rapture or something. He even gave it a Pro Sound Mod and replaced the standard red LED with an orange one.

6 Awesomely Geeky Business Card Holders

brownkidd — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:56:30 +0000

As a semi-professional blogger for one of the most amazing geek news sites on the internet, I tend to hand out a few business cards at conventions and press gatherings. One thing I’ve been on a seemingly never-ending quest for is a badass business card holder that says “Yes, I’m a giant nerd, but I mean business!”

After the jump, check out six awesome business card holders by Banpresto inspired by retro games. Three of these are currently available, the other three are pre-orders that won’t ship until March 2010. They’re all limited edition and the most expensive one is only $10.90!

Namco Classic Games Pac-Man Card Case: Table Type
$9.90
Buy it now!

Nintendo Family Computer Card Case: Controller II
$9.90
Buy it now!

Namco Classic Games Pac-Man Card Case: Game Type
$9.90
Buy now! (Only 2 left at the time of this writing!)

Mega Drive 16-BIT Card Case: Mega Drive 16-BIT
$10.90
Pre-order now!

Space Invaders Card Case (Black)
$10.90
Pre-order now!

Space Invaders Card Case (Red)
$10.90
Pre-order now!

Remember, all the pre-orders ship some time in March and they’re all limited edition, so get on it before they’re all sold out and you hate yourself.

Interview: Matthew Petz Discusses His Online Comic ‘War of the Woods’

brownkidd — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:45:32 +0000

H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds is one of the most influential sci-fi stories of all time. Its impact can be seen in all forms of popular media, including the hit television series The X-Files and V, movies Mars Attacks, Independence Day, and even the popular video game franchise, Halo.

Matthew Petz’s War of the Woods is an imaginative spin on the classic tale, telling the story from the perspective of woodland creatures. As busy as he is both writing and drawing the comic, Petz was gracious enough to reach out to me and take the time to answer a few questions.

First off, why don’t you explain to us what War of the Woods is exactly?

Well, War of the Woods is my version of the classic ” Aliens invade Earth” story. Only instead of following humans we see it from the point of view of the animal kingdom. Specifically following a father and son otter and a turtle in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Along the way we’ll be meeting a whole host of animals and how they survive and fight back against the alien threat.

Re-telling War of the Worlds from the perspective of woodland creatures is definitely a unique and interesting spin on a classic sci-fi story, but why go with woodland creatures? Why not go with fish, or bugs, or something? Like sharks. People LOVE sharks.

I think woodland creatures are somehow more… relatable ( if thats possible ), and sure sharks are awesome…but…( see next answer )

Speaking of sharks, are you a fan of Shark Week?

I am a fan of Shark Week, but ever since that footage of a great white jumping OUT OF THE WATER surfaced, its just too scary. Next we’ll learn they have a written alphabet, and proficiency in small arms… and really we’re done at that point.

Tell us about each of the characters so far. You could have easily made them bears, wolves, or even beavers. Was there any particular reason that you chose the animals that you did? Is it a sort of metaphorical thing?

No metaphors really. We follow three main characters. Nathaniel whose an otter and his son, Phineas. They are joined by Isaac a turtle. Isaac is a grandfather figure to Phin. As to why I picked otters ? My girlfriend is obsessed with them. Plus the story started to make sense when I pictured a little boy otter running through the woods with a turtle strapped to his head like a helmet.

So right now you have War of the Woods up on Zuda Comics. For those who don’t know, what is Zuda?

Zuda is DC Comics’ online web comic imprint. Its really awesome. They have a bunch of amazing ongoing comics they are updated each month. Along with the ongoing comics, each month there is a competition between 10 new comics. The comic at the end of the month with the most votes goes onto become a regular feature on the site. Its all free too. Free to read the ongoing comics and vote in the competitions. All you have to do is sign up and start reading.

There’s currently 8 pages of War of the Woods right now. How far do you plan on taking this thing?

I actually have a really grand plan to the story. Right now I see it as 3 seasons or books broken up into 100 page installments. I have the first 100 pages pretty plotted out, and the major beats for the remaining story written.

Where can people find out more about you and your latest projects?

For War Of The Woods I’ve set up a blog. It has links to a sketchbook PDF, a theme song mp3 and some other fun stuff. That’s at http://monsterislandmedia.com/war.

You can also follow me at twitter.com/matthewpetz for updates.

My own website is monsterislandmedia.com. It has links to all kinds of projects and artwork.

Alright Matthew, thanks for your time. Any closing comments you’d like to end with?

Just to check out the comic at www.zudacomics.com/node/1661. Most importantly if you like it, take a few minutes to sign up and vote for it and then add it to your favorites. Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to get the word out !