A Little Bit on Sekure D Sekure D was awesome enough to shoot a video with Albotas and talk about his custom sneakers and vinyl toys. We talk about how he got into painting his own sneakers, the process of customizing, the vinyl toy world, and a whole lot more. Check out the video below, and don’t forget to hit the Like button and subscribe!

A Little Bit on Sekure D

Sekure D was awesome enough to shoot a video with Albotas and talk about his custom sneakers and vinyl toys. We talk about how he got into painting his own sneakers, the process of customizing, the vinyl toy world, and a whole lot more. Check out the video below, and don’t forget to hit the Like button and subscribe!

Albotas Goes To IndieCade East For the first time ever, the popular IndieCade festival of independent games made its way to East Coast this past weekend. IndieCade has been going on over on the West Coast since 2009 and is considered by many to be the Sundance of video games, so I was pretty pumped to see it for myself. It wasn’t quite the spectacle I was expecting. It was basically an open rec-hall sized room with a bunch of tables with computer monitors and iPads on them. Very few of the games on display were accompanied by anyone attached to the projects, so I started wondering just how badly these indie devs wanted people to know about their games. I also started wondering if I wasted a perfectly good Saturday and $200 in bus/taxi fare. Thankfully, after doing a few laps around the main room and eyeballing computer monitors and TV screens from over people’s shoulders, I discovered a few gems. Below are two videos of developers who were bodacious enough to answer some of my dumb questions and talk about their games. THIRTY FLIGHTS OF LOVING This is definitely a game that should be experienced at least once by anyone who appreciates video games as an art form. Huge thanks to Brendon Chu from Blendo Games for taking the time to speak with us for the vid. Be sure to keep an eye out on his upcoming retro cyberpunk game, Quadrilaterial Cowboy. If the official description doesn’t have you sold, I don’t know what will: When you have a top-of-the-line hacking deck armed with a 56.6k modem and a staggering 256k RAM, it means just one thing: you answer only to the highest bidder. And now for videos that I didn’t take, but trust me, these games are awesome. INTERNATIONAL RACING SQUIRRELS Rob Davis from Playniac was awesome enough to speak with us about his iPad racing sim that’s actually way more about micromanaging your finances and racers than actually racing. At first glance I expected just your standard Mario Kart ripoff. What I got instead was something more akin to Game Dev Story. It would actually be pretty interesting to see this game’s financial system implemented in other genres - RPG’s for example: buy some weapons and armor using your credit card, and if you can’t make your payments on time, your gear gets repo’d mid-battle! Okay nevermind, that actually sounds terrible. GUACAMELEE I fell in love with the PS Vita version of this game when I played it at NYCC last year and was pleasantly surprised to find a PS3 version on display at IndieCade East. This is from Drinkbox Studios, the guys behind one of my favorite Vita titles, Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack!!! It’s a MetroidVania style game that requires a certain finesse in stringing together melee attacks to navigate through levels. You can also bounce between dimension a-la Mighty Flip Champs. Mix that all up with some sweet mariachi chiptunes, amazing character designs, witty dialogue, and multiplayer co-op and you have an instant recipe for me not getting anything done ever. Sadly, no one from Drinkbox was around to talk to while I was there. Bummer. HOKRA This was hands-down the game that drew the biggest (and loudest) crowd. Sleek minimalist multiplayer sports action. The kind of game that makes players yell at each other while onlookers cheer them on. GOROGOA This was the game that stole the show for me. You basically just have to manipulate a puzzle on a 2x2 grid by zooming in & out and interacting with the levels. The artwork, the level design, the intricate precision of thought that went into each puzzle design - it’s brilliant and you should probably just stop whatever you’re doing and go download and play the free demo. TENGAMI This is essentially Super Brothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, but replace the funny with origami. There were a buttload of other cool games on display, but there were a zillion other people crowding around and waiting in line to play them, so I had to squeeze in whatever I could before catching the bus back home. Head on over to the IndieCade site for a full list of games that were on display. Hopefully I’ll be able to stick around for all three days next year as I can definitely see this sort of thing growing over the years. Plus, we really just need more cool geeky shit to indulge in on the East Coast.

Albotas Goes To IndieCade East

For the first time ever, the popular IndieCade festival of independent games made its way to East Coast this past weekend. IndieCade has been going on over on the West Coast since 2009 and is considered by many to be the Sundance of video games, so I was pretty pumped to see it for myself.

It wasn’t quite the spectacle I was expecting. It was basically an open rec-hall sized room with a bunch of tables with computer monitors and iPads on them. Very few of the games on display were accompanied by anyone attached to the projects, so I started wondering just how badly these indie devs wanted people to know about their games. I also started wondering if I wasted a perfectly good Saturday and $200 in bus/taxi fare.

Thankfully, after doing a few laps around the main room and eyeballing computer monitors and TV screens from over people’s shoulders, I discovered a few gems.

Below are two videos of developers who were bodacious enough to answer some of my dumb questions and talk about their games.

THIRTY FLIGHTS OF LOVING

This is definitely a game that should be experienced at least once by anyone who appreciates video games as an art form. Huge thanks to Brendon Chu from Blendo Games for taking the time to speak with us for the vid. Be sure to keep an eye out on his upcoming retro cyberpunk game, Quadrilaterial Cowboy. If the official description doesn’t have you sold, I don’t know what will:

When you have a top-of-the-line hacking deck armed with a 56.6k modem and a staggering 256k RAM, it means just one thing: you answer only to the highest bidder.

And now for videos that I didn’t take, but trust me, these games are awesome.

INTERNATIONAL RACING SQUIRRELS

Rob Davis from Playniac was awesome enough to speak with us about his iPad racing sim that’s actually way more about micromanaging your finances and racers than actually racing. At first glance I expected just your standard Mario Kart ripoff. What I got instead was something more akin to Game Dev Story.

It would actually be pretty interesting to see this game’s financial system implemented in other genres - RPG’s for example: buy some weapons and armor using your credit card, and if you can’t make your payments on time, your gear gets repo’d mid-battle! Okay nevermind, that actually sounds terrible.

GUACAMELEE

I fell in love with the PS Vita version of this game when I played it at NYCC last year and was pleasantly surprised to find a PS3 version on display at IndieCade East. This is from Drinkbox Studios, the guys behind one of my favorite Vita titles, Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack!!! It’s a MetroidVania style game that requires a certain finesse in stringing together melee attacks to navigate through levels. You can also bounce between dimension a-la Mighty Flip Champs. Mix that all up with some sweet mariachi chiptunes, amazing character designs, witty dialogue, and multiplayer co-op and you have an instant recipe for me not getting anything done ever. Sadly, no one from Drinkbox was around to talk to while I was there. Bummer.

HOKRA

This was hands-down the game that drew the biggest (and loudest) crowd. Sleek minimalist multiplayer sports action. The kind of game that makes players yell at each other while onlookers cheer them on.

GOROGOA

This was the game that stole the show for me. You basically just have to manipulate a puzzle on a 2x2 grid by zooming in & out and interacting with the levels. The artwork, the level design, the intricate precision of thought that went into each puzzle design - it’s brilliant and you should probably just stop whatever you’re doing and go download and play the free demo.

TENGAMI

This is essentially Super Brothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, but replace the funny with origami.

There were a buttload of other cool games on display, but there were a zillion other people crowding around and waiting in line to play them, so I had to squeeze in whatever I could before catching the bus back home. Head on over to the IndieCade site for a full list of games that were on display.

Hopefully I’ll be able to stick around for all three days next year as I can definitely see this sort of thing growing over the years. Plus, we really just need more cool geeky shit to indulge in on the East Coast.

VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH CHIPTUNE MUSICIAN RO-BEAR Ro-Bear was gracious enough to brave the icy February wind chill during Philly’s 8Static to speak with us about how he got into chiptunes, his chip pop/rap group Kill3r Whale, and where he sees the chipmusic scene going in the future. Check out the video below: Check it: Ro-Bear's chiptune cover of "Believe" by CherBuy: Make chiptunes with Korg DS-10 Plus and LSDJ Follow Albotas on Twitter | Like on Facebook | Subscribe on YouTube

VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH CHIPTUNE MUSICIAN RO-BEAR

Ro-Bear was gracious enough to brave the icy February wind chill during Philly’s 8Static to speak with us about how he got into chiptunes, his chip pop/rap group Kill3r Whale, and where he sees the chipmusic scene going in the future.

Check out the video below:

Check it: Ro-Bear's chiptune cover of "Believe" by Cher
Buy: Make chiptunes with Korg DS-10 Plus and LSDJ
Follow Albotas on Twitter | Like on Facebook | Subscribe on YouTube
Chiptune Damage: Ro-Bear Covers Cher At 8Static Here’s a clip from last night’s 8Static event in Philly featuring Ro-Bear doing an epic LSDJ rendition of Cher’s “Do You Believe In Love?”. WARNING! A huge sing-along approaches around the 3:09 mark. Ro-Bear was rad enough to let us film a short Q&A segment which I’ll try and have up later this week. In the meantime, just keep re-watching the clip above and bobbing your nugget. Check it: More chiptunes posts on AlbotasBuy: Make your own chiptunes with Korg DS-10

Chiptune Damage: Ro-Bear Covers Cher At 8Static

Here’s a clip from last night’s 8Static event in Philly featuring Ro-Bear doing an epic LSDJ rendition of Cher’s “Do You Believe In Love?”.

WARNING! A huge sing-along approaches around the 3:09 mark.

Ro-Bear was rad enough to let us film a short Q&A segment which I’ll try and have up later this week. In the meantime, just keep re-watching the clip above and bobbing your nugget.

Check it: More chiptunes posts on Albotas
Buy: Make your own chiptunes with Korg DS-10
Unboxing Spiki The Wolfman from Kusovinyl Only 500 of these little dudes exist in the whole wide universe and I got my hands on one. Check out the video below to get up close and personal. Snag a Wolfman Spiki of your very own from Kusovinyl.com for only $15 before they’re all sold out! Download the free chiptune track from this video here. Check it: More AlbotasTVBuy: I Am Plastic Too: The Next Generation of Designer Toys

Unboxing Spiki The Wolfman from Kusovinyl

Only 500 of these little dudes exist in the whole wide universe and I got my hands on one. Check out the video below to get up close and personal.

Snag a Wolfman Spiki of your very own from Kusovinyl.com for only $15 before they’re all sold out!

Download the free chiptune track from this video here.

Check it: More AlbotasTV
Buy: I Am Plastic Too: The Next Generation of Designer Toys

A LOOK INSIDE HYRULE HISTORIA [VIDEO] Our copy of Hyrule Historia finally arrived at Albotas HQ and I can personally attest that it is, in fact, freaking awesome. It collects 25 years worth of Zelda history, trivia, and unseen concept art within 250 pages bound in a gorgeous hardcover. Pick up a copy from Amazon. No Zelda fan should miss out on this. Oh, and the chiptune track in the video can be downloaded from Chipmusic.org for free. Check it: More AlbotasTVBuy: Hyrule Historia

A LOOK INSIDE HYRULE HISTORIA [VIDEO]

Our copy of Hyrule Historia finally arrived at Albotas HQ and I can personally attest that it is, in fact, freaking awesome. It collects 25 years worth of Zelda history, trivia, and unseen concept art within 250 pages bound in a gorgeous hardcover.

Pick up a copy from Amazon. No Zelda fan should miss out on this.

Oh, and the chiptune track in the video can be downloaded from Chipmusic.org for free.

Check it: More AlbotasTV
Buy: Hyrule Historia
blogLIFE: Vinyl Toys > Games Brownkidd is the founder of Albotas.com. I’m Marc, the other dude. My dad showed me something called Space Invaders at the age of 3. From that moment, I was hooked to all things awesome: videogames, giant robots, and toys. I originally wrote for a videogame website but always wanted to write for Albotas instead. So that’s what I did. I still love games, especially 2D fighters and shooters, as well as anything old. But designer toys have taken over my blogging life. Or should I say blogLIFE? Over the past few years, I’ve gotten more and more frustrated with the videogames industry. It’s becoming more like the movie industry every year - publishers only banking on IPs that they can make a series out of, resulting in a lack of innovation or originality. Sure there are a lot of great modern games out there, but it’s not like it used to be. The Dreamcast was the last console with a soul if you ask me. So over this time I’ve started writing more about designer toys. I started seeing these things in the local record store around 2004 and got familiar with Kidrobot. Then I started seeing stuff from tokidoki and started to actually collect the toys. Now I’m hitting up crazy Kidrobot parties and going to the Designer Toy Awards. Crazy stuff. Anyway, you’re probably here to watch the video rather than read a wall of text, so check it out. And don’t forget to subscribe to our channel! [blogLIFE is a series of short vlogumentaries told from the perspective of Albotas.com founder Robby “brownkidd” Weiss as he documents his quest to find the American dream accross the wild frontier known as the blogosphere. Take a peek behind the curtain and witness the inner workings, occasional perks, and constant struggles associated with running a semi-popular geek lifestyle blog.]

blogLIFE: Vinyl Toys > Games

Brownkidd is the founder of Albotas.com. I’m Marc, the other dude. My dad showed me something called Space Invaders at the age of 3. From that moment, I was hooked to all things awesome: videogames, giant robots, and toys.

I originally wrote for a videogame website but always wanted to write for Albotas instead. So that’s what I did. I still love games, especially 2D fighters and shooters, as well as anything old. But designer toys have taken over my blogging life. Or should I say blogLIFE?

Over the past few years, I’ve gotten more and more frustrated with the videogames industry. It’s becoming more like the movie industry every year - publishers only banking on IPs that they can make a series out of, resulting in a lack of innovation or originality. Sure there are a lot of great modern games out there, but it’s not like it used to be. The Dreamcast was the last console with a soul if you ask me.

So over this time I’ve started writing more about designer toys. I started seeing these things in the local record store around 2004 and got familiar with Kidrobot. Then I started seeing stuff from tokidoki and started to actually collect the toys. Now I’m hitting up crazy Kidrobot parties and going to the Designer Toy Awards. Crazy stuff. Anyway, you’re probably here to watch the video rather than read a wall of text, so check it out. And don’t forget to subscribe to our channel!

[blogLIFE is a series of short vlogumentaries told from the perspective of Albotas.com founder Robby “brownkidd” Weiss as he documents his quest to find the American dream accross the wild frontier known as the blogosphere. Take a peek behind the curtain and witness the inner workings, occasional perks, and constant struggles associated with running a semi-popular geek lifestyle blog.]

Kidrobot 10th Anniversary Party [Video Recap] We had the pleasure of hitting up the Kidrobot X event at the NYC store this past weekend and it was all kinds of bananas. You had to be invited to attend, so imagine our bummed-outness when we weren’t on the list. We were all like “Don’t you know who we are? Albotas.com, bitches! Represent!” And then the Kidrobot peeps were like “Oh shit, you guys are the dopeness! Come on in!” Or something like that, only way more polite and dignified. Because we’re gentlemen. There were tons of toys and customs on display, free drinks flowed throughout the night, the DJ played on as an ever-growing crowd of dancers formed downstairs, and there were even free waffles from the tastiest waffle truck I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating at! Huge thanks to Lisa at KidrobotNY and the rest of Kidrobot for the great time and letting us slip past the velvet rope. For everyone else who couldn’t make it, enjoy the video below. Buy: Kidrobot Munny figures

Kidrobot 10th Anniversary Party [Video Recap]

We had the pleasure of hitting up the Kidrobot X event at the NYC store this past weekend and it was all kinds of bananas. You had to be invited to attend, so imagine our bummed-outness when we weren’t on the list. We were all like “Don’t you know who we are? Albotas.com, bitches! Represent!” And then the Kidrobot peeps were like “Oh shit, you guys are the dopeness! Come on in!”

Or something like that, only way more polite and dignified. Because we’re gentlemen.

There were tons of toys and customs on display, free drinks flowed throughout the night, the DJ played on as an ever-growing crowd of dancers formed downstairs, and there were even free waffles from the tastiest waffle truck I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating at!

Huge thanks to Lisa at KidrobotNY and the rest of Kidrobot for the great time and letting us slip past the velvet rope. For everyone else who couldn’t make it, enjoy the video below.

Buy: Kidrobot Munny figures

blogLIFE: The Perks Of Being A Semi-Popular Geek Lifestyle Blogger

Sometimes brands want to reach a certain audience. Depending on how specific the audience is, big brands occasionally turn to smaller blogs for help. For the past year I’ve been working as a brand ambassador for Virgin Mobile doing simple things like sharing tweets on twitter, Facebook posts, and the occasional write-up on Albotas.com.

Virgin invited myself and 24 other bloggers (dubbed the Virgin Mobile 25) to Maryland for their annual FreeFest music festival, a free day-long music fest that asks attendees to donate at least $10 to The RE*Generation, Virgin Mobile’s initiative to address youth homelessness.

It’s a fantastic cause, and the lineup was awesome. I had the pleasure of being part of last year’s VM25 and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this year kicked last year’s ass to the moon and back. Incredible experience. Incredible people. Thank you Virgin Mobile and Mekanism for bringing me on board.

[blogLIFE is a series of short vlogumentaries told from the perspective of Albotas.com founder Robby “brownkidd” Weiss as he documents his quest to find the American dream accross the wild frontier known as the blogosphere. Take a peek behind the curtain and witness the inner workings, occasional perks, and constant struggles associated with running a semi-popular geek lifestyle blog.]

blogLIFE: The Albotas.com Story

This is the first of many in a series of short vlogumentaries depicting the ins and outs and ups and downs of trying to make a living as a geek culture blogger. Told from the perspective of Albotas.com founder Robby “brownkidd” Weiss, blogLIFE is a quest for the American dream in the wild frontier known as the blogosphere. Take a peek behind the curtain and witness the inner workings, occasional perks, and constant struggles associated with running a semi-popular Tumblr site.

Huge thanks to the rad peeps over at Sony who made this possible by donating an  Alpha NEX-F3 to our cause.

Lunartik In A Cup Of Tea Series 2 & Loose Tea Edition [Video Review] Matt JOnes was awesome enough to send us some delicious cups of tea in the form of some sweet toys! Check out the video below for a full look. For more, check out Lunartik.com and be sure to check out the Lunartik in a Cup of Tea Official Fan Club on Facebook. Huge thanks to Mr. JOnes for the hookup!

Lunartik In A Cup Of Tea Series 2 & Loose Tea Edition [Video Review]

Matt JOnes was awesome enough to send us some delicious cups of tea in the form of some sweet toys! Check out the video below for a full look.

For more, check out Lunartik.com and be sure to check out the Lunartik in a Cup of Tea Official Fan Club on Facebook.

Huge thanks to Mr. JOnes for the hookup!

[Video Recap] Jinxed x The Toy Viking Munny World Custom Show

The good folks over at Sony have been gracious enough to sponsor the site by donating an Alpha NEX-F3 camera which we’ll be using to record more event recaps and other fun things going forward.

For our first outing, we visited Jinxed in Philly to check out the custom Munny show that they hosted in conjunction with TheToyViking.com. There were some incredible piece including some by such awesome artists as 64 Colors, Pocket Wookie, and RSIN.

Check it.

Big thanks to Jinxed and The Toy Viking for letting us film the event.

AlbotasTV: So I Gave Hideo Kojima A Munny Over The Weekend.

Hideo Kojima is a legend. He’s created iconic gaming series such as Zone of the Enders, Boktai, and, most notably, Metal Gear. The godfather of stealth action was at Uniqlo in New York this weekend celebrating the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary by doing a fan signing along with Metal Gear character designer Yoji Shinkawa.

See it on the bottom left? I gave Kojima-san this Old Snake Munny I made about four years ago that was featured on Kotaku. That’s right, spreading vinyl love everywhere I go!

Peep the video up top and let us know what you think in the comments. We also have an album full of pics from the event on our Facebook page.

Did anyone else hit up either of the NYC signings this weekend?

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