Fan Made

Ever since seeing the iconic vehicle roll onto the silver screen once again, I've had an itch to re-watch what has long been my personal favorite sci-fi trilogy. It's an itch I get at least once a year. But since I don't have time right now to watch all three movies, I'll tide myself over by posting a few BTTF-related items of interest over the next few days.

Up first is an incredible DIY paperwork DeLorean from Back To The Future II. I'm not a big arts-and-crafts guy, but I'm tempted to track down a high-quality printer and give this project a go:


The full-resolution version can be found at Kryptonian Warrior. If you end up putting one together, leave a link to a picture in the comments.

If you haven't seen Firefly yet, or the spin-off feature film Serenity, then be warned that I'm going to get spoilery.

If there's one thing Browncoats can all agree on, it's that none of us liked it when Wash (played by Alan Tudyk) died. I think a lot of fans' problems with Wash's send-off in the movie Serenity had to do with how quickly he was written out while the crew moved on to the next bit of action. Sure, no one wanted to see him go, but it might've been nice if writer/director Joss Whedon would've slowed down for a moment and let the characters (and fans) say goodbye.

That goodbye is coming, and from a surprise celebrity Browncoat -- actor/comedian Patton Oswalt. Oswalt is writing the one-shot comic Serenity: Float-Out for Dark Horse, set for release on June 2. In the comic, Wash's old friends, from the days before he piloted Serenity, gather together to tell stories about their dearly departed friend. Oswalt hopes to give the fans some closure, while taking a deeper look at one of his favorite characters.

(via MTV)

[Welcome to the Sci-Fi Lunch Break, where we'll be occasionally supplying you with a cool bit of audio/visual goodness to break up the monotony of the work day. You bring the turkey on rye, we'll bring you something out of this world to watch while you eat it.]

I'm sure it made everyone smile when a young James Tiberius Kirk was hauling down a dirt road at the beginning of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek hit the play button on the radio and the Beastie Boys' oh-so-familiar Sabotage came blasting on. But you know what? That cultural collision wasn't just quit geeky enough for someone on the Internet and thus the Battlestar Galactica / Sabotage match-up was born.

This is no ordinary mash-up though. Someone didn't cobble together a bunch of BSG clips and set them to the tune. No, they actually edited the footage to mirror the original Sabotage video as closely as possible. And if you don't remember the original video well enough to have your jaw slightly dropped, give this YouTube Doubler link a go and see if it doesn't do the trick. At the very least, it'll make you want to rewatch BSG something fierce.

There's no shortage of blog posts about Lost fan art on the Interweb, especially since funnyman Paul Scheer got the ball rolling in a big way last year. But superfan Jared Stumpenhorst's latest labor of Lost love deserves a mention.

To celebrate the show's final season, the graphic designer is creating a new piece of art inspired by Lost every day this year. Stumpenhorst calls the effort 'Lost 365', and so far he's created 31 awesome tributes to Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse's addictive island saga.

You can check out Stumpenhorst's clever and imaginative art on his blog. My favorites include the bright piece inspired by Sawyer, a Dharma bunnies poster, and his interpretation of Fake Locke, or Flocke (or whatever the Internet is calling him these days). You can also follow the artist on Twitter, and remember to tell him SciFi Squad sent ya.

He may just be a toy voiced by Tim Allen in the Toy Story movies, but one artist wants you to see what Buzz Lightyear would look like if he was a real dude. And, um, honestly ... he looks a lot like Jason Patric. These "untooned" images have been popular as of late, with artists showing us what everyone from the Simpsons characters to Jessica Rabbit would look like if they were real people. This Buzz Lightyear image comes from 3D artist Raoni Nery, and you can check out more of his work right over here. Meanwhile, you can see the toy version of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 3, which hits theaters on June 18th.

Which sci-fi characters would you like to see untooned?

Yes, he has a fist that launches! Yes, he has wheels on his feet! Yes, he's two feet tall! Yes, he signifies the return of a beloved toy line, after an absence of over 25 years!

It's the Super Shogun Star Wars Stormtrooper, a $300 throwback to the days of the 1970's Shogun Warriors action figures with a Star Wars twist. When I was a kid, I had a Shogun Warrior Godzilla and a Goldorak in the larger sized 24-inch variety and a few of their smaller die-cast metal brethren, as well as piles upon piles of Star Wars figures. If I could buy this and then travel back in time to 1979 and hand deliver it to myself, I totally would.

Keep this site bookmarked for the day that Super 7's Super Shogun Star Wars Stormtrooper goes on presale.

(via Figures.com)

[Welcome to the Sci-Fi Lunch Break, where we'll be occasionally supplying you with a cool bit of audio/visual goodness to break up the monotony of the work day. You bring the turkey on rye, we'll bring you something out of this world to watch while you eat it.]

We all spend nearly 24 hours a day within arms reach of the information superhighway, but imagine what life would be like if you had the Internet piped right into your brain and everything around you was designed to spring to virtual life at your command. Don't worry if you can't picture life on the precipice of the singularity, though, because someone has gone ahead and done it for you with this conceptual demo of an augmented reality future.

From Keiichi Matsuda's Vimeo page:" The latter half of the 20th century saw the built environment merged with media space, and architecture taking on new roles related to branding, image and consumerism. Augmented reality may recontextualise the functions of consumerism and architecture, and change in the way in which we operate within it. "

Enjoy. [Via @slashfilm]

What happens when a hundred-plus Star Wars fans gather in one public place and bop each other on the heads with plastic lightsabers? Whatever it is, it looks an awful lot like some kind of riot. I guess the patrons of this mall in Bristol, England feel the same way -- you can hear them screaming in terror as the flashmob begins their geeky lightsaber flailing. All in good fun?

I actually just heard about flashmobs for the first time a couple of days ago, Seems people are using social media to organize large groups of like-minded people for mostly-comedic moments of mass hysteria. It's diverting to watch, but I wouldn't want to be stuck in the middle of one.

You see the Bristol lightsaber flashmob after the jump.

If you're looking to get ahead of the next Mad Max movie and/or stock up on accessories in case the apocalypse decides to pay a visit to earth in, say, the next couple of months, then might I suggest picking up a pair of these freak-ish goggles that look like they're straight out of a really bad 80s sci-fi film. Kids today seem to be using them for raves and cyber-gothic house parties, but I think they'd make a great present for someone with a Statue of Liberty fetish.

The goggles come from the folks over at F#@K The Mainstream (and if you're at work, I might suggest not visiting that site), and something tells me all proceeds won't be going toward building a new Baby Gap in an under-developed city like New York. I will say that it's comforting to know that if the world were to end tomorrow, we'd be looking toward the rave culture for fashion advice. Check out more images over at TrendHunter. So who's buying a pair?

It took art student Jamie Bell roughly three weeks to create this fantastic little flipbook piece that tells the history of the universe -- from the Big Bang through, well, pretty much everything that followed -- in all of about three minutes. According to Bell, the flipbook was "something like 2100 pages long, and about 50 jotter books." The end result -- set primarily to the French CanCan -- is pretty amazing, and it goes to show that those kids doodling in their notebooks in the back of the classroom actually put all of their slacking off to good use.

Oh, and in case you're wondering how Jamie scored on the project, an update to his YouTube page says the final piece "got full marks!" Watch it after the jump.