I swear to break myself of posting about baked goods. At the very least, I won’t do another toy or cake -related post this week.
Oh, who am I kidding!
It took cake designer Elisa Strauss and a team of people twelve days to make this 300 lb (~136 kg) cake. The LEGO Men (and Ladies) are handmade and edible.
You probably already saw these on Kotaku and Vinyl Abuse, but because I love them, here they are again: CASTLE CRASHERS TOYS.
The artist decided to customize vinyl Teddy Troops figures. With the Troops’ faces smoothed over with Sculpey, they bear (hur!) an uncanny resemblance to the heroes of Castle Crashers. Aside from the Knights’ admirably strong brows, I think the renderings of the little pets are the best part.
You guys. This is maybe more amazing than the Tatooine bento.
Apparently, this work of Incredible Genius was made for Derek Lieu by his girlfriend. Sheez, nice lady. Lieu posted more detailed photographs, along with plenty of annotations, on his Flickr, here. (The Yoshi egg is an actual quail egg!)
No more toys! I insisted to myself last week. I was miserable. My bedroom, once spotless, is now cluttered with lidless boxes, each one full of tiny gashapon. I’d simply shelve the toys, but my shelves are already unhappily stacked with boxes full of Toy Collection 2006.
Poorhouse, meet my total lack of resolve. Because here they are, folks: ridiculously articulated figures from the Gyakuten Saiban series (including Ema Skye and Trucy, both from Apollo Justice).
Ema is my favorite. Forensic science is rad, and look how detailed her satchel is.
I can’t wait to get my hands on these, but no word yet on when, where, or how.
8-Bit Art Found in Philly at the Northstar Bar
Cross Stitch Joystick, by John Freeborn
Garden of 8-Bit Delights, by Vox Anon
Every Time You Emulate, Doc Remixes a Meme, by Doctor Popular
I’m kind of loving Philadelphia lately. I love Geekadelphia, from whom I have borrowed liberally (shout-out to Eric!). I love the lads at Gamervision. I love the Liberty Bell and all it represents, which is liberty. And then there’s the VGXPO, which is something that is also in Philadelphia.
And now I am completely in love with The Hacktory.
While I was questing through current.com in search of the Gaymers video, I came across “Geeks and Toys Go Wild,” a viewer-created video of a Hacktory-sponsored event. The tiny DIY fest is so rough-around-the-edges and charming, just magical LEDs and chip music and, probably, alcohol. The Hactory video at Current may never make it all the way to TV, so—for now at least—you’ll have to check it out online, either here or embedded here:
I feel like there is this incredible nerd culture in Philadelphia that the rest of humanity doesn’t know about. Specifically, the goings-on at The Hacktory—classes on how to design circuit boards, or events with chiptune musicians dimly lit by demoscene graphics—remind me, bittersweetly, of the art collective gatherings and events that so captured my imagination when I was some college kid having her first brush with adulthood in her first real city. These community events were sincere, earnest, and wholly unmarketable. They were, to quote the Philadelphia Weekly, “Authentic Geek.”
Incidentally, The Hacktory turns one year old this month, hence the illustration of a layer-cake with LEDs that I am ‘borrowing’ from their blog.
This guy makes Nintendo jewelry, hand-wrought from gold and sterling, for himself, his girlfriend, and less often, for very close friends. Most of these pieces—including the heartbreakingly beautiful D-pad necklace—are one-offs, never to be forged again. Look, and weep.
Edit: A friend just asked me what “the thing in the middle is supposed to be.” It is so obviously a metroid, hello? So I just thought I’d clarify here, too: it’s a metroid.
Via Laughing Squid: Feast your eyes on these high-contrast Spore Creature Silhouette designs, which are available on both T-shirts and promotional posters through zazzle.com.
Because the official Spore store is powered by Zazzle, you can also upload your own Spore creature, then make a custom T-shirt, coffee mug, or postage stamp.
With the hopefully-temporary dissolution of my beloved Muxtape, I’ve found myself relying on other streaming music sites and services.
But I was completely unprepared for Mazemod.
More like AMAZE mod! Apart from the fact that I had no idea how completely rad Amiga chip music is, look at this website! Let’s face it: this is what William Gibson thought the internet would look like.
Chainsawsuit is a pretty weird comic. It isn’t specifically a comic about video games, but its author does play games. He also thinks about cooking, doctors, and Superman.
This strip is from last week. I like it a lot.
