Flickr user jbj has posted this inspiring photo of a young mad scientist who – in a praiseworthy show of social conscience – is warning anyone within reading distance that he’s about to throw that Really Big Switch on his Trans-Dimensional Vaporizing Fireplace Annihilator. Well done!
I’m pleased to see my Back Off – I’m Doing SCIENCE shirt used in this responsible way.
One out of a collection of scans from the covers of science fiction magazines, at the Whitechapel forums. It bothers me just a little bit that I might have read a few of these when they were new, since they span at least two decades .
Not unlike the German jetpacks I posted about back in January, this is a video of a real-life Rocketeer – Yves Rossy. He reached a speed of 186 mph during this flight over Bex in Switzerland. And his arms weren’t even tired.
The wings he’s wearing here use jet turbine engines and he steers by shifting his body, and yes, this is what I want for my birthday. Though I’d pick another soundtrack… Nat Gonella’s It’s a Pair of Wings for Me would do nicely, thanks.
[tags]jet pack, jet pack, yves rossy, flying wing, rocket pack, rocketeer, rocket man[/tags]
Conflicting and confusing reports are emerging about a new Buck Rogers film project. Some of the releases claim that Frank Miller’s to direct – which could be a great thing – but that’s apparently either not true or not certain. There’s a bit of other information that runs through the coverage, though, which makes me want to run and hide.
It’s this sort of thing:
Okay, what’s right about that sentence? Answer: the grammar.
The Variety piece is less alarming and seems to have checked its facts, which was apparently beyond IGN. The IGN version’s been regurgitated in loads of places already, including the io9 blog.
Any new incarnation of Buck Rogers that even admits there was a cheesy Gil Gerard version will leave me crying in my beer, mainly because it’ll be nigh impossible to try to get it right again for a couple of decades afterwards. “Getting it right”, admittedly, is a pretty subjective aim – but this, which sounds so much like Sci Fi’s Flash Gordon reboot, will not be it.
A pall of silence falls over the retro-future, and the people mourn.
In the demented mad science project that is Lockwasher Design you’ll find a treasure trove of fantastic ray guns, robots, rockets, and autos that are assembled from the sort of bin-diver’s paradise that we dream of. Well. Some of us.
Vintage containers, Electrolux vacuums, spray guns, gauges and unidentifiable parts are here recombined into a retro-futuristic collection of bizarre and engaging sculptures.
There’s a stand-alone gallery site and a larger series of Flickr streams, all full of these wonders. Partake.
Via Boigboing, Via Neatorama, Via Aurelia. Nope, I got that last one from Rudyard Kipling. Via the Romans.
Steve Forde has added some new work in progress photos of Go Hero‘s upcoming classic Buck Rogers action figure. The latest are some views of the head and helmet.
In fact since my last post about this, he’s also done some nice work on the gloves, shirt, and pants… and, come to think of it, the boots, too.
The body sections are still based on an off-the-shelf action figure body and that’s due to change. (In fact I’m slightly confused about how that’s going to work. But “slightly confused” is pretty much where I live, so I’m not worried about it.) Looking good!
Golden Age Comic Book Stories once again thrills! and amazes! me with a collection of covers for Big Little Books featuring Buck Rogers, dating from 1933 to 1943.
They’re divided into sequential posts – as everything there is – so here are permalinks to the three collections:
Buck Rogers, Part One Buck Rogers, Part Two Buck Rogers, Part Three
I don’t actually read the io9 blog every day, but I make up for it when I do. They’ve featured some great science fiction related topics and some entertaining silliness in the few months they’ve been up, and I enjoy it enough that I’ve been linking to it in the “Notable Blogs” blogroll over on the left column (well, on my main pages, that is).
So imagine my surprise and delight to find that they’ve chosen my Retropolis Transit Authority site as the only T-shirt vendor in yesterday’s Triviagasm feature, Scifi Clothing You Can Wear on the Street Without Fear of Reprisals. To wit:
So how do we pick just one? The answer is simple: we don’t. We just have a giant closet full of scifi shirts ready to go at a moment’s notice, and the flavor of the day is Retropolis. These awesome t-shirts have a steampunk/BioShock feeling to them, and the designs are retro-cool. Plus check out their entire vintage futurism t-shirts section as well for extra retro-style. The t-shirt really is the most widely used geek badge of honor out there, so make your selection esoteric and fun.
My vacuum tubes are glowing in appreciation!
Conceptships
is a blog that showcases concept art for spaceships, rockets, submarines and… well, just about any imaginary vehicle you may have ever wanted in your garage or hangar. Pictured: ship design by Ryan Church.
I’ve written before about these highly cool raku-glazed ceramic rayguns from West Magoon at Muddy Mountain Pottery – but this week, hot on the heels of my post about art glass ray guns, I find that Muddy Mountain’s latest personal disintegration devices incorporate vintage glass insulators (the kind you’d once have seen on telephone and telegraph poles).
These work wonderfully well, as you can see, and there’s something really special about the way these retro ray guns have absorbed some genuinely retro technology. Great idea!
Shown above is the Rotwang Retrovivifier (named after the definitively mad scientist of Metropolis) and on the left you see the Lensman DeLameter, a nod to E. E.”Doc” Smith’s lantern-jawed Lensmen.
As you can see, this week marks that long awaited time when glass has become all the rage in ray guns. I think it’s pretty obvious that you’d better get one before the neighbors do. Since these are one-of-a-kind artifacts there’s no risk that Mrs. Nextdoor will accessorize with the same one you’re packing.
