Aurora is a short film by young Dutch filmmaker Aimee de Jongh. It’s based on a Dutch fairytale about spooky white apparitions that haunt the forests of the Netherlands, but de Jongh plays with story conventions and upends audience expectations during the film’s brief two-minute length.
I don’t think people give Flash enough credit.
I love all the Flashes. Guys with big hearts who want to do good things.
who is the artist on this, does anyone know? The art looks familiar but I can’t quite put my finger on it
If memory serves, this is by the amazing Francis Manapul.
thanks! his works is fantastic O_o
big thankto everyone who provided the answer!
kateI can't play mobile games but I wish I could!
While his new TV toons are set to launch next weekend, the new model Mickey Mouse also has a mobile game coming tomorrow. And as this trailer promises, there are original shorts to watch as part of the package.
Click here to view the embedded video.
I’m still more excited about Get A Horse than any of Mickey’s other ongoing bits and pieces, but there’s no denying that I’ll download this game and faff about for hours on end.
Sweet Trailer For New Mickey Mouse Mobile Game Where’s My Mickey?
Recently I read two manga with very similar conceptions, I’ll Make You into an Otaku, So Make Me into a Riajuu and 3D Kanojo (also known as “Real Girl.”) Both are based on the concept of an otaku guy and a fashionable girl forming a friendship (or something more), but the messages they convey, at least from what little I’ve read, are significantly different. In particular, the way Otaku Riajuu handles its female lead is pretty embarrassing, and highlights a lot of things wrong with whatever mindset produced the story, and for which 3D Kanojo provides a better alternative.
First things first, there are some differences in the setup of each. Unlike 3D Kanojo, which is about the budding romance between the otaku guy and the fashionable girl, Otaku Riajuu is similar to Toradora! in that the two leads are at least initially trying to help each other to get together with someone else. Other similarities include the fact that the girl is tiny and feisty, much like Taiga. Toradora! is pretty great, so that’s not so bad in and of itself, but there’s more to it.
In Otaku Riajuu, the girl, Momo, has a reputation for sleeping around a lot. The guy, Naoki, upon becoming aware of this, basically wants nothing to do with her. He thinks of her as a “bitch” (in Japanese context, the term veers closer to “slut,” see Panty in Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt for a prime example), and therefore wants nothing to do with her. A pretty messed up opinion to be sure, but then when he find out she’s actually uncomfortable around guys and clearly can’t be the bed crusader the rumors make her out to be, then he gets along with her a lot better.
Think about it: Naoki doesn’t like her when he thinks she’s a slut, but when he finds out otherwise everything’s “okay.” I’m not one to throw out the term “slut-shaming” liberally, and in fact this is the first time in the history of the blog that I’ve even used it, but it is literally the main character looking at a girl with disdain for being sexually active. The fact that we’re supposed to think Naoki the poor closet otaku is a Good Guy for changing his opinion of her after he learns the truth makes it even worse.
3D Kanojo on the other hand establishes that its female lead, Iroha, actually does sleep with a lot of guys, but doesn’t make the concept itself an inherent minus other than the fact that she has to deal with a lot of angry former lovers. Here, although the male character Hikari, being an awkward otaku virgin, is uncomfortable with the way Iroha is, the series seems to be more about their budding romance both in spite of and because of their differences. Hikari is also a nice guy in that he tries to save Iroha from a couple of angry suitors and gets so nervous when she invites him to have sex that he ends up avoiding it, but it’s clear he sees her as a person neither in spite of or because she’s sexually active.
I think a lot of the reason for this difference is just the intended demographic. Otaku Riajuu is based on a light novel, and aims for that male otaku market. Although not always the case (and not something exclusively otaku or Japanese), a valuing of virginity and purity by way of moe aesthetic is very clear and obvious here, and the strange idea the manga has about what it means for a guy to be “nice” likely stems from this. 3D Kanojo however is a shoujo manga, and this can be seen in the male lead who has a smattering of “gentle, ideal boyfriend” in him. He’s awkward around girls, but that’s what makes his attempts at heroics all the more charming. It also goes a long way in explaining why Iroha is written in a more well-rounded manner.
I’ve only read a bit of each, so I can’t say for sure if my opinions of either title would change down the road, but for now I’d have to say that 3D Kanojo is clearly the better title. The differing approaches to the popular girl character used by it and Otaku Riajuu do not form the entirety of my reasoning for recommending one over the other, but I think they give a good indication anyway.
Following on from Heidi’s post about gender issues in the comics industry, the best response seemed clear: I should probably write a post about some gender issues. Which leads me to a question which has started to circulate through t’blogosphere recently: whilst we’re all very quick to leap onto DC and Marvel’s track record with female creators, why aren’t people looking beyond them?
If I’m to generalise – and I’m prone to – then big companies like Marvel and DC don’t hire new talent: they hire people who’re well well-known and have seen success with their own work. If a Justin Jordan or Jim Zub finds success at Image, they tend to get a chance to pitch to DC. If Warren Ellis champions somebody, they tend to get a chance to pitch at Marvel. Nobody just walks into a creative industry – you have to break the door down. You have to be noticed.
Writer Mairghread Scott addresses this in a post circulating round Tumblr right now. In her post, she mentions that when she took over on IDW’s Transformers franchise, she sent round messages to prominent sites and bloggers, asking if they’d be interested in interviewing her about the series. She even mentioned that she was the first female writer to ever handle the franchise as she pitched herself for interviews. Barely anybody responded to her.
(I’m not sure if she sent an email to The Beat or not).
The more I talked to women (and marketing departments) in comics, the more I found that the media is only interested in promoting women who write/draw the right kind of comics. Women at IDW, Boom, and other working professionals are being ignored in favor of the ultra-established and the ultra-indie.
And I have to say, I haven’t interviewed any of the women who currently work for Boom or IDW. I’d certainly like to, but it just hasn’t seemed to cross my radar. Looking at it from a distance, I’m personally focused on perhaps seven companies, rather than the hundreds that are out there. When I think about comics, I’ve found that I’m thinking about companies like Image, 2000AD, Dark Horse. And of course, I’m thinking about Marvel and DC.
It’s interesting how our attention span barely registers anything beyond DC or Marvel as ‘official’ comics. The complaint that there are no women in comics doesn’t account for any of the women writing or drawing for Boom, for example – a company with an almost 50/50 split of male to female creators. There are plenty of women out there, but they aren’t being given any of the prominence they deserve. Oni Press and Monkeybrain and Dynamite are all picking up on top female talent we’ve never even heard of before.
In any creative industry, visibility is the marker for success. You can’t be hired unless somebody has heard of you. On one level, perhaps Marvel and DC should be scouting for writers (they already scout for artists, as seen by the success of people like Will Sliney, hired off the back of a portfolio submission). On the other hand, perhaps DC and Marvel already have twenty or so writers on their books, writers whose work sells and makes the company money. Why does a new writer need to be hired when Jonathan Hickman and Scott Snyder are still pitching ideas to you?
Unless the case is made that these creators are too good to be ignored.
Pretty Deadly, launching at some point from Image Comics, is a fascinating case in point. Artist Emma Rios made her first steps into the American market through Boom, illustrating the mini-series Hexed. Off the back of the critical acclaim for her work there, she was invited to work for Marvel – and since then hasn’t looked back. Kelly Sue DeConnick is a long-working writer who was noticed by Marvel writers like Brian Michael Bendis, and ultimately invited to pitch for the company as a result.
Once their names were known, they then found themselves championed by an array of websites, bloggers, retailers and fans. To get into Marvel, you have to make your case – and others have to also make your case for you. This is true of anyone – whether it be Five Fists of Science pushing Matt Fraction and Steven Sanders towards Marvel’s direction, or Gail Simone moving from CBR articles to Bongo, and then to DC. Without that direct early support from fans and comic sites, it’s incredibly difficult to make your case at the big two.
Surely people are buying Bongo and Boom and IDW, because otherwise, y’know, they’d go bust. So why aren’t we then paying our dues to the women who write and draw these comics? If we’re enjoying these comics and think they’re good, shouldn’t we be tracking down the creators to see what else they’ve done?
As noted frequently over the past few days, these are companies who not only put out fairly strong comics from talented creators, but also tend to act as ‘feeder’ companies monitored by Marvel and DC. Tom Spurgeon and Jennifer de Guzman have both recently spoken (separately and at cross-purposes to one another) about this idea. It’s not for lack of female creators that we HAVE a lack of female creators. For whatever reason, we all seem to be ignoring companies outside this bright spotlight which we ourselves are shining on DC and Marvel.
Which is the point where I now have to drag in myself and my contemporaries, and talk about comics websites. There are a number of terrific people writing directly about gender issues in comics. Laura Hudson’s article about DC comes to mind, as well as the various pieces Kelly Thompson has written about Marvel. Brett White and Andrew Wheeler have written extensive commentary pieces about female characters and creators. But for all that, I can’t think of a single well-circulated article about female creators at Dynamite…
We’ve got some ways to go, clearly. Even here at The Beat, where we do have writers like Laura Sneddon discussing 2000AD with Emma Beeby or Zainab Akhtar interviewing L. Nichols, there’s more we could do to focus on the companies who sometimes get forgotten. When will Valiant get a female writer? How will Gail Simone impact on Red Sonja? Didn’t Meredith Gran just write a miniseries for Kaboom? It’s not just about writing specific articles (like this one) where we complain about the industry. It’s about acting on things ourselves and reviewing comics we don’t usually stretch to. It’s about me putting down my battered, loved copy of Pixie Strikes Back and buying issues of Transformers, because maybe I’ll like something new.
If we want Marvel and DC to pick up the pace, then we have to do the same. The goal isn’t to shout at DC until they hire a female writer on Justice League: it’s to find a female writer who could have a great run as writer for the Justice League. I don’t know if it’ll work in practise, but in principle it’s pretty sound! As a male human person, I don’t have any experience of the inner working of the comics industry, and the hurdles faced by a women who enters the Marvel offices. All I can do is watch and commentate, and hope that what I say is helping.
Get women into power at the Big Two, and progression will trickle through the industry, is the argument made by many. Start at the top and work your way down. But surely we can view things from the other way round, as well? If female creators are getting hired more frequently to work for hire projects at IDW or 2000AD or Boom (and they ARE), then the battle is already being won. It’s only a matter of time before the best will get noticed by the big two, and asked to pitch for them. If we, as the audience, help them get there.
When Monkeybrain launched, people paid attention. It was a digital comics initiative and we could have ignored it – it could’ve been given no coverage by sites, and flown right past fans without anyone offering them a second glance. But instead people swooped onto several of the comics and found stories they liked, like Bandette. And now Bandette is Eisner nominated, and co-creator Colleen Coover nominated twice herself. That’s the sort of power we’re wielding here!
Whilst visibility is the marker of success in the comics industry, that visibility is decided not by comic companies – it’s decided by the fans. Who decides where the top of the comics mountain is, anyway? Isn’t it, uh, us? In our haste to proclaim Pretty Deadly as the next great advancement for female creators worldwide, aren’t we forgetting that there are plenty of other comics both written and drawn by women? My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic currently has an all-female creative team, and sales are gangbusters on that one. I can’t name a single article I’ve read about either Heather Nuhfer or Amy Mebberson.
Are we hiding behind a select few women, praising them so we don’t have to go find others?
Now, Mairghread Scott’s run on Transformers may or may not be the best run on Transformers ever. I have no way of knowing, because I didn’t even know she was writing for the series. Nobody’s mentioned it to me, and I haven’t taken the effort to go try it out myself. I’m as to blame as anyone, probably moreso. As she says in her piece:
Look at Boom! Valiant, Dark Horse, Archaia, Oni, Dynamite, IDW. If you like their female creators, say so. If you don’t, say so. If they don’t have any, say so. But please please please don’t call yourself an advocate for women in comic books while rendering invisible most of the women who are already here.
So, if you’ll forgive me for a moment, I’ve now got an issue of Transformers to try out. You’ve got my attention, Ms Scott – I’m sorry it’s taken so long.
The yellow one of the Kiseki Seven, a.k.a. Generation of Miracles, Kise Ryota from Kuroko's Basketball celebrates his birthday today. Celebration posts flooded Japanese Twitter yesterday in anticipation of the second season set to start in October. See more images and birthday wishes after the jump!
kateDon't worry ya'll EA is still the worst company evers.
One of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers intentionally, knowingly, and routinely falsifies paperwork and lies to homeowners in order to boot them from their homes, according to bank insiders.
The latest of many civil suits over Bank of America’s handling of foreclosures and mortgage modifications has produced affidavits from six former employees alleging the bank actively and systematically deceived homeowners and sought foreclosures over modifications that would have kept borrowers in their homes. A seventh signed statement from a man who worked for one of the bank’s contractors reinforces the picture of a company-wide culture of putting profits over customers, even in defiance of facts.
The documents, first reported by Kimberly Miller of the Palm Beach Post, are part of a lawsuit over the bank’s handling of trial loan modifications under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) created by the Obama administration. The employees, whose work for the bank ranged from loan origination to collections to reviewing internal loan databases, swear that Bank of America used a variety of internal policies to discourage loan modifications and encourage foreclosures, even when loan documents visible to the employees showed the bank’s rationale for foreclosing was untrue. Those policies include:
• ‘Blitzing’: According to William Wilson, the bank conducted a “blitz” twice a month, instructing case managers to deny any HAMP application more than 60 days old, including “files [in] which the homeowner had provided all required financial documents and fully complied with the terms of a Trial Period Plan.”
• $500 bonuses for filling foreclosure quotas: According to Simone Gordon, an employee “who placed ten or more accounts into foreclosure in a given month received a $500 bonus. Bank of America also gave employees gift cards to retail stores like Target or Bed Bath and Beyond as rewards for placing accounts into foreclosure.”
• Lying to clients about documentation: Gordon’s affidavit says it was bank policy to sit on financial documents borrowers submitted for 30 days, then label them “stale” and require the homeowner to re-apply. Bert Sheeks, the contract employee, was instructed “to find any pretext” to justify closing outstanding loan modification applications, “even in cases where we knew the borrower had, in fact, responded with complete documents.” Erika Brown “was instructed to inform every homeowner who called in that their file was ‘under review’” even when she could see no one had looked at the documents in question. Brown says she personally saw more than a hundred instances in which a bank official cancelled a loan modification due to “non payment” when the file showed all payments had been received on time.
The sum of the allegations is that the bank routinely falsified documents and knowingly foreclosed on borrowers who were in full compliance with modification plans. The program, which was the biggest federal initiative intended to alleviate the foreclosure crisis, should have helped 800,000 more homeowners than it did, according to a 2012 report.
Bank of America spokespeople say the allegations are false. The company has already “spent more than $45 billion to settle claims tied to its 2008 takeover of Countrywide Financial Corp,” the Boston Globe notes, and the top-to-bottom malfeasance alleged in this suit echoes allegations from 2011 that the bank paid to settle. Bank of America is far from alone in that regard, as many of the largest banks in the country have paid to settle allegations of abusive practices such as “robosigning.”
Despite such settlements, the government has prosecuted more protesters than it has banks involved in the foreclosure crisis, and abuses have continued.
Bank of America and other large banks that were supposed to harness HAMP funds to help resolve the foreclosure crisis were instead quite effective at using the program to boost their own balance sheets. The manipulation of the program depicted in these affidavits is more evidence that direct principal reduction would be a more effective use of federal housing funds than HAMP’s attempted partnership with banks.
This post originally credited Pro Publica, not the Palm Beach Post, as the first outlet to report on the affidavits.
    
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(Credit: Shutterstock)
The new “food recycling” program will call for the construction of a composting facility in the New York region to take 100,000 tons of food waste a year — just one tenth of the total one million pounds created by New York residents annually. Compost will be turned into biogas, with the express purpose of helping the city lower its electric bill.
The launch of the program will be voluntary, and city officials estimate that 150,000 homes will take part, along with 600 schools and 100 high-rise buildings, the New York Times reports. By 2015 or 2016, however, officials hope to have the whole city on board.
The program will be hugely beneficial for New Yorkers’ wallets. Just days ago, a report found that Americans throw out 40 percent of their food. That waste amounts to $400 per person annually.
Additionally, in 2012, the New York Citizens Budget Commission estimated that (PDF) New York would spend “$2 billion in tax dollars throwing out its garbage,” and about $300 million of that was on the process of disposing of the waste. Much of New York’s garbage is shipped out-of-state to landfills in Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia. The Commission estimates that it cost taxpayers “$95 per ton for the three million tons the City exports to landfills,” meaning that New Yorkers are not just wasting money on food, they’re also wasting money on throwing it out.
The new program, however, will actually bring down costs of transporting waste by bringing a composting facility to the area. At the same time, by harnessing biofuels, it will introduce more sustainable and cheaper energy: Rotting food at landfills emit 17 percent of the total methane produced by the US. That methane goes up into the atmosphere and acts as one of the most potent greenhouse gases.
The plan to harness the decomposition process of New Yorkers’ food waste and turn it into energy will kill two birds with one stone. Not only will energy be created from an otherwise useless byproduct of decomposition, but that methane will no longer be contributing to global climate change.
Over time, composting plants have become more widespread. Portland, Oregon, just recently reduced its number of garbage collection days down to two in hopes of encouraging composting and recycling. San Francisco is one of the leaders of curbside composting, an approach that now has the participation of over 100 cities. Even the airline Jet Blue announced last month that it would be piloting a composting plan in New York’s JFK Airport. Indeed, the industry is growing so quickly that compost plant workers are facing dangerous conditions thanks to a lack of oversight.
But New York’s participation in a composting program might be able to bring the practice into the mainstream. Composting is becoming more popular in other countries, and there’s good reason to think it could, and should, catch on here, too.
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A section of the 100-plus acres contaminated by toxic waste in northern Alberta (Credit: Nathan Vanderklippe/Dene Tha)
As the Obama administration’s decision regarding whether to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline draws nearer, the latest disaster is raising serious concerns about the safety of Canada’s rapidly expanding pipeline network.
A massive toxic waste spill from an oil and gas operation in northern Alberta is being called one of the largest recent environmental disasters in North America. First reported on June 1, the Texas-based Apache Corp. didn’t reveal the size of the spill until June 12, which is said to cover more than 1,000 acres.
Members of the Dene Tha First Nation tribe are outraged that it took several days before they were informed that 9.5 million liters of salt and heavy-metal-laced wastewater had leaked onto wetlands they use for hunting and trapping.
“Every plant and tree died” in the area touched by the spill, said James Ahnassay, chief of the Dene Tha.
As the Globe and Mail reports, the Apache disaster is not an anomaly:
The leak follows a pair of other major spills in the region, including 800,000 litres of an oil-water mixture from Pace Oil and Gas Ltd., and nearly 3.5 million litres of oil from a pipeline run by Plains Midstream Canada.
After those accidents, the Dene Tha had asked the Energy Resources Conservation Board, Alberta’s energy regulator, to require installation of pressure and volume monitors, as well as emergency shutoff devices, on aging oil and gas infrastructure. The Apache spill has renewed calls for change.
Following initial speculation that the leak stemmed from aging infrastructure, officials from Apache Corp. revealed that the pipeline was only five years old and had been designed to last for 30.
The incident comes on the heels of accusations from the provincial New Democratic Party that Alberta Energy Minister Ken Hughes is withholding the results of an internal pipeline safety report pending the U.S. government’s decision regarding Keystone XL. The report was commissioned last summer by Alberta Energy following a series of toxic spills — including the Plains Midstream Canada spill that leached 475,000 liters of oil into the Red Deer River, a major source of drinking water for central Alberta.
According to Winnipeg Free Press, “an engineering firm completed the technical report last fall and presented the findings to the government, which sent the findings to the Energy Resources Conservation Board for a review that was to be completed by March 31.”
Hughes denied delaying the report but declined to give a release date, saying only that it would come “fairly soon.”
A recent Global News investigation found that over the past 37 years, Alberta’s extensive network of pipelines has experienced 28,666 crude oil spills in total, plus another 31,453 spills of a variety of other liquids used in oil and gas production — from salt water to liquid petroleum. That averages out to two crude oil spills a day, every day.
As concerns mount over Apache’s delay in detecting and reporting its extensive toxic waste spill, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that TransCanada is not planning to use the external leak detection tools recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency for its proposed Keystone XL pipeline. As a result, the State Department concludes “Keystone XL would have to be spilling more than 12,000 barrels a day — or 1.5 percent of its 830,000 barrel capacity — before its currently planned internal spill-detection systems would trigger an alarm.”
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Sony has confirmed with VideoGamer.com that auto-updates, social features and some entertainment on the PlayStation 4 will not be behind a pay-wall. In confirming this news Sony says that it is "trying to be as balanced and as fair as we possibly can." TV and online movie services will also continue to be free to all PS4 users.
The campaign to crowd source the funding of tabletop RPG OVA: The Anime Role-Playing Game closes this evening having raised over $110,000 in an effort that originally sought $7,500 in pledges. Beyond funding the 156 page print edition of the newly revised game, the nine stretch goals were reached, funding supplementary efforts such as additional eBooks forms and a companion mobile apps. More after the jump.
The league comes to the rescue!
When Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax published his now-classic Advanced D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide in 1979, he highlighted “Inspirational and Educational Reading” in a section marked “Appendix N.” Featuring the authors that most inspired Gygax to create the world’s first tabletop role-playing game, Appendix N has remained a useful reading list for sci-fi and fantasy fans of all ages.
Tor.com writers Tim Callahan and Mordicai Knode decided to revisit Gygax’s favorite authors with Advanced Readings in Dungeons & Dragons, a weekly reread of selections from the list. To celebrate this awesome new series, we want to give you one of our five gorgeous sets of D&D dice from Chessex. These 7-die sets from Chessex’s Gemini and Scarab lines are perfect for D&D newbies or seasoned Dungeon Masters, so comment in the post to enter!
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A purchase does not improve your chances of winning. Sweepstakes open to legal residents of fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia, who are 18 or older. To enter, comment on this post beginning at 12:00 pm Eastern Time (ET) June 17, 2013. Sweepstakes ends at 12:00 p.m. ET June 21, 2013. Void outside of the 50 US, and DC where prohibited by law. Please see full details and official rules here. Sponsor: Tor.com, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010.
kateWhen I saw FBP, the first thing that popped into my head was Facebook Police. :/
Filed under: Vertigo, Previews, News, Art, Opinion
The Lunch Bag Art tumblr is full of exactly what its name suggests. A dad draws on his kids' lunch bags during his own lunch breaks, and it's pretty great! Sometimes he even tackles anime, and his latest work features the menacing mug of one of Attack on Titan's towering monstrosities. Check it out after the jump.
Now you can eat the real "Baratie" menu! Fuji TV will open a One Piece-themed restaurant named "Baratie" on the seventh floor of its headquarter building in Odaiba, Tokyo, on June 28th. Of course the name is taken from the ocean-going ship restaurant where Sanji used to work. Hit the jump for more details.
Lots of new stuff on the Shin Megami Tensei front coming from Megahouse so let's not waste time and get right to it!
There hasn't been a Devil Summoner game released since 2008, but Raidou Kuzunoha is certainly enjoying a serge in popularity between the upcoming D-Arts figure and this new figure from MegaHouse. The latests figure, which previously hadn't been shown publicly, will be joining the little-used Game Characters Collection DX series. Even though it was announced back in November 2012 we're not quite lucky enough to see him in color. He's still believed to be coming out later this year so that's something to look forward to.
Meanwhile we've got a pair of Devil Survivor 2 figures hitting while the series is still hot. Both Nitta Io and Ban Airi were announced a month ago in magazine scans and are making their first event showing at MegaHobby Expo. Seems a lot of people are questioning the weird look of Io's breasts, but maybe they'll make more sense in color? Who knows, it still looks like a pretty nice figure. Details remain scarce, we don't even know exactly what line they'll be joining, but I'm thinking the same as Raidou.
Then there's the latest look at Labrys from Persona 4 Arena. She's been making her rounds since January and finally making her first colored appearance. She's looking really good complete with translucent hair and that amazingly huge ax of hers. I think it would be hard to ask for a better scale figure when she joins the High Priestess series later this year.
It will certainly be a good year for SMT figures and I have a feeling this is only just the begining.
[via Akiba Hobby]
We've seen some pretty impressive custom Lego constructions, but this might be the largest and one of the most complex yet! Apparently taking nearly a year to make, this replica of the Czech Republic's Hluboká Castle is truly a sight to behold. You can get an idea of the size in some of the gallery shots, but I'd think this is one you'd need to see in person to fully appreciate.
Made by creators Ryxe and Sanna, it looks like not a brick is out of place, and popping over to their Flickr stream you can see the castle isn't just a building either. Filled with people, carriages, and other little additions to give life to the veritable fortress, it seems like these two have beat Lego at their own game when it comes to castles. I'd like to imagine the size of the box this would come in were it an actual model!
[via The Brothers Brick]
Given its swoopy, curved design, recreating the Normandy SR2 from Mass Effect was always going to be a tricky task. But what if you also wanted to make it is a big as a coffee table?
Believe it or not, that's exactly what LEGO modeller extraordinaire Ben Caukins has done, resulting in the beautiful monstrosity you see in the pictures. Not only is the detail exacting but at four feet long and with a wingspan of nineteen inches it's built to a scale that can comfortably be described as epic. More photos of the construction process and finished article can be found on Caukins's Flickr page, or if you're in the Chicago area you can pop down to Brickworld this weekend and see it for yourself.
[via The Brothers Brick]
Filmmaker Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, who is best known for her documentary ("Wonder Women! The Untold Stories of American Superheroines") about strong women throughout history and championing the empowerment of women, has made a new game called Wonder City.
