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FigurePrints donates custom figure to The Bronze Kettles' Child's Play charity raffle
Yesterday, Jon and Shelbi at The Bronze Kettle announced that they had added several more prizes to the list for the charity raffle they are sponsoring for Child's Play. In addition to the already mentioned list of prizes, The Bronze Kettle revealed that Blizzard and FigurePrints have donated a custom FigurePrints action figure of your in-game World of Warcraft character to add to the raffle as the Grand Prize. These figures have, to date, only been available either with the purchase of a Dell XPS M1730 laptop valued at around $4500, or by winning a place in the random drawing that FigurePrints will be holding on December 21st. This could be your chance to win one of these extremely exclusive figures, a full week before they go on sale to those lucky enough to win a place in the first official drawing. You can read more about FigurePrints and their custom World of Warcraft action figures of your in-game character in this WoW Insider interview with Ed Fries, the founder of FigurePrints.
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WoW Insider interviews Ed Fries, founder of FigurePrints
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/WoW_Insider_gets_the_skinny_on_FigurePrints'; After a quick announcement last week, the FigurePrints site opened yesterday, offering Warcraft players an easy (if not necessarily cheap-- each figure runs about $115) way to recreate their ingame characters in real-life figurine form.But we still had lots of questions. How did these figures get made? What kind of material were they made of, and where did FigurePrints get the models and information to turn ingame characters into real sculptures? For the answers, we went straight to the source. Ed Fries has been in and around gaming for a long time, and after playing WoW for years (and creating games for years before that), he had the idea to create a way to bring Warcraft characters to life with a 3D printer. WoW Insider got a chance to talk to Ed on the day that his company's site went live, and all the answers to your questions about FigurePrints are right after the jump.
Show and Tell: Clay Creatures
We love Eco Creatures, and it looks like we're not alone! While it may not be surprising to hear that sometimes, some folks in Japan might like things that are cute, we were surprised -- in a good way -- to receive the above picture from reader Shiba-San. A friend made these adorable clay critters, because the animals in Eco Creatures (or, over there, Ecoris) are just begging to be recreated in a variety of media. We heartily approve.Are you shaping cutesy creatures -- or other game characters -- in your spare time? Show us! We like thingamabobs and doohickeys and swag of all sorts, as well as food and furniture and anything fun ... so long as it's related to Nintendo! Just take some pictures, tell us what's up, and send it all to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. We'll take care of the rest.
iPod gets exploded, trapped in resin
Sure, your iPod is portable, lightweight, and easy to use -- but it's not exactly special is it? Perhaps you should be thieving a page from a young man named Billy Chasen, who has decided to rip apart his 4G player and encase it in a brick of translucent resin. Here's the best part: it still works. By also including the dock internals in the project, he's able to charge and control the exploded device. Practical? Not really, but that's art for you. Damien Hirst would be proud... or is suing.[Thanks, Sam]
Mrrrrgllhllrrll in real life
Okay, it probably grosses less at the theater than "Dan in Real Life", but this picture, sent to WendellGrave by one of his guildies, definitely looks like a real-life murloc. Our own Arturis suggests that this is a sculpture made from a fish body, but I think we can all agree that whatever it is, it's really quite ugly. No word on why this was created, but it does remind me of the Fiji Mermaid. The Fiji Mermaid is a popular attraction at carnival freak shows. It's a "mermaid" usually made from papier-mache and fish parts, with a dash of monkey thrown in. For those of you disappointed in this fakery, I present an indisputable real-life tauren, as well as the warlock epic mount in its natural habitat of the Ford Mustang. Is this an accurate murloc or not? What do you think it's made from? [Thanks, WendellGrave!]
Show and Tell: Zelda week, day four
It's time to get away from the body in our special week-long presentation of Show and Tell, and get into something fun. Being a dedicated Zelda fan isn't just about clothes and tattoos -- it's about what you do with the rest of your existence. This means toys, electronics, and even art can hold up your love as a banner for the world to see, and that's what we're looking at in today's edition. Jaunt on past the break to see what what we mean. Do you have some awesome Zelda gear? Anything from t-shirts to tattoos, to statues and standees, if it features Link, we want to help you show it off. Snap some pics and send 'em to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. If we don't get to your stuff this week, we can always show you off in a later edition!
Show and Tell: Everyone loves Dorian
With our excitement over the announcement that Majesco is going to localize the eco-friendly title Ecoris, we had no choice when it came to selecting what to show off this week. After all, nothing says unconditional love like a clay representation of the game's fruity, gap-toothed hero. Our new favorite deviantARTist, wingsofsorrow, found that cute little face as irresistible as we do ... and she plans to make the squirrel army next. We approve. Got something that makes you particularly proud? We like thingamabobs and doohickeys and swag of all sorts, as well as food and furniture and anything fun ... so long as it's related to Nintendo! Just take some pictures, tell us what's up, and send it all to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. We'll take care of the rest.
Gronn sculpture in progress from the EU forums
Varedis of EU Draenor is working on what looks like a neat clay Gronn sculpture, and while it's still a work in progress, he's posting pics of it over on the forums. Did you know the Gronn were Ogre demigods? I had no idea. But isn't there a Mountain Gronn killing Ogres in Nagrand? Looks like there's another lore line that dropped through the cracks.Anyway, what Varedis has so far looks pretty good-- you can see how the clay gets modeled around a metal frame, shaped into the basic pose, and then each body part is fleshed out and shaped. So far all he's got is a right hand, it seems, but what's there looks good.He's also working on a Tauren sculpture (concurrently, I guess), which also looks pretty good. Very good start, can't wait to see how the whole thing comes out.
Diorama sculpture #1 unveiled at Comi Con
Most of our news of late has been about BlizzCon, but as anyone interested in comics knows the mother of all comic conventions began today in San Diego, Comi Con. Blizzplanet today posted about one little bit of WoW-related news released at the convention today: the first in a series of WoW sculptures. This particular sculpture is based on that spectacular mural we saw at the first BlizzCon (okay, so maybe this story is related to BlizzCon after all) featuring the battle between a Blood Elf and a Draenei. This series of sculptures, created by Sideshow Collectibles, will be available next year, so we have a while to wait, but the images sure are amazing. I'm not one for statue collections, but I will definitely have to pick this one up, especially considering the collector's edition will feature a Nether Whelp.[via Blizzplanet]
Nokia partners with Finnish artist for mobile jewelry line
We've all seen those kid-friendly plastic stickers that the younger set tends to slap on their handsets in order to amp their ego, but Nokia's taking the decoration idea pretty seriously. Apparently, the firm is working with Finnish artist Björn Weckström to actually offer a "customized, limited edition Nokia N76" that will only be for sale at the Helsinki Nokia Flagship store. Additionally, there will be other pieces available to jazz up your already purchased Nokia mobile, but there's no word just yet on what exactly you can expect it to look like. We'd say the best jewelry is just an entirely new handset, eh?
Ceramic Spartan helmet is l33t
Look at that lovely piece of art. It's a Spartan helmet in all its Halo glory, just sit back and take it in. Sculpture extraordinaire dharcha1 was inspired by a little game called Halo 3 and for art class created an extremely realistic Spartan helmet. Actually, we're thinking the ceramic helmet was created because he couldn't afford the Halo 3 Legendary Edition's helmet. As we all know, asking one's parents for a third house mortgage to buy a video game sometimes just isn't feasible. Anyway, check out more pictures of dharcha1's Halo Spartan helmet after the jump, including photos of the lengthy creation process. Oh, and don't forget to admire his work with a flattering helmet stare. Helmet staring rocks![Via Digg]
Miis invade weddings
Sure, everybody loves Miis, but would you let your sister marry one?* Over at Mike Nelson's 1UP blog, there's a short piece on the best use of Mii sculptures yet -- as wedding cake toppers! Even if you think that Miis are getting a little too much exposure these days (they really are everywhere), it's hard to resist the idea of Mii wedding cake toppers. For a Nintendo-loving couple, we can't think of a better choice, and if you want an irreverent likeness on your wedding cake, there's no comparison. *It occurs to us that this old joke is really starting to show its age ... not only because of the prejudicial undertones, but really, modern brothers get no say in who their sisters marry, amirite? This "let" business needs to go!
Sculptor crafting 3D replicas of your Mii
We know, you've been catching up on a world of news this morning thanks to the Wii News Channel going live, but if you're one of those folks who snapped up your Mii on a Tee just as soon as you found the funds, this is for you. Sculptor and illustrator Paul Thiel crafted a 3D figure of a friend's Mii as a Christmas gift, but soon realized that geeks like us would hit up the Ramen diet for a few days in order to have one of our own, so now he's hard at work constructing a proper way to take and process orders. Even though no prices have been set just yet, you can take one look at this masterpiece and see how priceless your very own could be, so be sure to hit the read link for the full skinny of how to get your pre-order in and secure yet another piece of obscure, albeit nifty, video game art.[Via Joystiq]
Wii Warm Up: All about Mii
First we had Miis on tees, then Miis on buttons, and now we've seen Mii sculptures. Is it really all about Mii? Nearly every notable aspect of the Wii has become instantly iconic, from the rarely-glowing blue light to the controller to these cartoony representations of our gaming selves. So, since they're everywhere, we've got to ask -- how do you feel about the Miis? Do you yearn for a little more variety, or do you like the fact that there is some basic uniformity in design? Personally, this blogger would like to see a wider selection of hair colors, but that's really not a deal breaker and the Mii channel in this house still gets lots of air time. But how about you?
Gemotion display boasts reactive 3D functionality
We've seen dozens of (mostly futile) attempts to bring 3D technology into our lives in a non-gimmicky manner, but the 54-year old Yoichiro Kawaguchi has developed yet another device that will likely fall by the wayside rather than gain steam. The University of Tokyo professor has devised a psychedelic 39- x 24-inch screen that boasts no fewer than 72 air cylinders behind the flexible fabric front, which are used to "push and pull" based on whatever action is being portrayed. The creator describes the Gemotion as a "soft, living display that that bulges and collapses in sync with the graphics on the screen," creating a moving display that's likely to terrify (or thrill, depending on perspective) small children. Apparently, the idea is to use computer software to convert images projected onto the screen into specific movements, allowing characters on screen to literally "jump out" at viewers, and can purportedly liven up your average "video game, TV show, or film" by giving it "an element of power never seen before." While the idea seems impressive in theory, we'd definitely need to see this thing in action before taking it too seriously, but those hanging around the National Art Center in Tokyo can drop by and give it a once over for us until February 4th.[Via PinkTentacle]
