A member of The Dented Helmet forum made his 6-year-old son a Boba Fett LEGO minifig costume! He says,
I recently (semi) completed a Lego Boba Fett (Lego set 9496 - Desert Skiff) costume for my 6 year old son. We took the costume for a trial run at a local toycon this past Sunday. I still have to finish building the arms and blaster, as well as tweaking a few things such as the cape fabric. I approached the components of this project as if they were actual Lego elements. In doing so, I created the jetpack to be removable as it appears in the actual minifigure as well as the range finder stalk. The entire costume is built from scratch using photo references and scans I took myself. The costume is built primarily out of sintra with pink insulation foam used to carve the helmet dome and a small amount of plastazote foam used on the tips and base of the jetpack rockets. Torso and leg graphics are printed on adhesive vinyl while a custom green was used to colour match the helmet and jetpack. I would be happy to post progress photos of the build if anyone is interested in seeing the journey. Oh!, and there may soon be a certain someone, frozen in a certain something being pushed around by Lego Fett ; )
Looking to get potential love interests to actually look you in the eyes?
Then you should consult this handy illustrated chart featuring 16 Hot New Eye Make-Up Looks, created by Gemma Correll for the sake of those poor souls who keep leaving the house without some totally eye catching eye make-up slathered around their eyes.
With hot new looks like the Stormy Eye, Smoky Bacon eye, and (my personal fave) the Eye of Nietzsche you can knock ‘em dead with a wink, and the person you’ve got your eye on won’t be able to keep their eyes off of your eyes!
Grab some bacon, and a Sharpie, and a copy of the Necronomicon, and start applying your eye make-up the Gemma way today!
Anucha "Cha" Saengchart has created his own unique version of cosplay, which doesn't involve fancy costumes, super realistic accessories created out of Worbla, or incredibly detailed make-up. In fact, Cha's Lowcost Cosplay is created with supplies he typically finds around the house:
Cha's vision of cosplaying means turning anything and everything into a cosplay element, such as this fancy Jason Voorhees mask fashioned out of a plastic spoon, or this "amazingly realistic" Mystique cosplay created with some sort of blue tape and a shower cap:
Now that's the kind of cosplay people who are too broke to buy supplies, or unskilled in the ways of the sewing machine and friendly plastics, can get behind- cosplay for the sake of your own amusement!
And the best part is- nobody has to see your creation when you're done, unless you're brave enough to post your own version(s) of Lowcost Cosplay to the net, in which case please share it with us in the comment section!
It’s unclear whether the guy in this photo was trying to be ironic by wearing a necklace adorned with fake doggy doo to some (I’m guessing) fashionable event, or if he’s simply the proud owner of a novelty company that specializes in realistic looking dog mess.
Hopefully he’s just the proud owner of a gag gifts company, happily displaying his wares so the world can see how versatile rubber poop can be, but he's probably just some fashionable fop who thought he was being "edgy" by slinging rubber crap around his neck.
Well, if you see a new line of clothing called Crapay (or something equally odious) you’ll know who’s behind the label!
Well before Ash worked at S-Mart, donned a chainsaw arm, and shared the value of owning a good Boomstick, he was just a guy hanging out with his friends in a cabin in the woods, trying to score with a girlfriend he was ultimately forced to decapitate with a shovel.
Sam Raimi’s seminal horror flick The Evil Dead changed the way many viewers saw the horror genre- it added a much needed dose of humor, successfully launched a franchise still wildly popular with fans to this day, and helped kickstart the career of Bruce Campbell, which is an amazing contribution in itself!
The 1922 German expressionist movie Nosferatu is a classic horror film, but it’s an hour and a half long. Of course, everyone should see it all the way through at least once, but if you’ve seen it before, you can relive the experience by watching this four-minute version. And, sadly, if your busy schedule and/or attention span is too short to ever get around to watching the original, this may be the closest you’ll ever get.
Mario Wienerroither condensed the whole movie using a few illustrative clips, and added some rather odd (and often comical) sound effects, which will be appealing to those folks, like my kids, who can hardly handle black-and-white, much less a silent film. Wienerroither calls this a “silentless film.” Don’t bother turning the lights off, as you’re more likely to laugh than to scream. -via Laughing Squid
(WARNING- This video contains graphic imagery that may make it hard to sleep at night, especially if you're a fan of teddy bears! Viewer discretion is advised)
Toys are most definitely not just for kids anymore, haven’t been for quite some time really, but there’s a new teddy in town that has taken toys well into the realm of graphic horror and violence, a teddy more R-rated than the foulmouthed bear who starred in the movie Ted.
The Peek-A-Boo Bear is an animatronic teddy bear with a creepy voice and a dark secret, one which you can’t unsee, and if you invite this fuzzy little masochist to a party you’d better cover everything you own in plastic, 'cause things are about to get messy!
He was the 700th sinister teddy bear created bycustom horror toy company Undead Teds and hopefully the last one prone to committing acts of self mutilation, for the sake of the baby teddy bears out there who still have hope in their fluffy little hearts.
Movie monsters started out huge, shrank down small enough to fit in your toilet then grew to massive proportions once again, yet no matter the size of the monster there are fans who will line up to see their latest on-screen appearance and continue to hail their choice for king of the monsters.
As long as there have been criminals, there have been governments thinking up novel ways to execute 'em. We don't know which of the following gruesome methods the Founding Fathers had in mind with that whole ban on "cruel and unusual punishment," but we know they had plenty to choose from.
Method: Crushing by Elephant Deadly Debut: India, 4,000 years ago. (It's probably older, but recorded history doesn't go back that far.)
A wood engraving of an execution by elephant published in the 1868 issue of Le Tour Du Monde. (Image Credit: Wikipedia)
Pachyderms aren't natural-born killers. However, with a little training (often involving practice coconuts), they'll gladly stomp on the head of a criminal. The ancient ritual, which spread nearly everywhere elephants were found, was still in use as recently as the early years of British colonization. Crushings were usually public spectacles administered by abnormally large elephants - just in case the audience didn't find the sight of an angry Dumbo squashing a human head scary enough.
Method: Crucifixion Deadly Debut: Nobody knows for sure. Somewhere in the Middle East, probably in the 7th century B.C.E.
"Crux simplex", a simple wooden torture stake, according De Cruce Libri Tres by Justus Lipsius (1547-1606) (Image Credit: Wikipedia)
Although forever associated with one particular execution, crucifixion was the capital punishment method of choice in much of the ancient world. Marcus Licinius Crassus probably set the all-time record for crucifixions when, after defeating Spartacus in 71 B.C.E., he had an estimated 6,000 of the gladiator's rebel slaves crucified along the Appian Way. Roman emperor Constantine the Great banned the practice in 337 C.E., but it cropped up again in the 16th century, in such places as Japan and Mexico. Today, Catholics in Iztapalapa, Mexico, crucify themselves annually as a devotional practice, removing the nails before the fatal damage is inflicted.
Method: The Brazen Bull Deadly Debut: Siciliy, during the tryannical reign of Phalaris (570 - 554 B.C.E.)
An idea worthy of a Bond villain, the tactic involved shutting victims inside the belly of a hollow, life-size brass bull and lighting a fire below it, essentially turning the apparatus into an oven.
Legend has it that a reed-based acoustic mechanism made the victims' screams sound like a bull's bellow, while the smoke from inside blew out its nose. As for Phalaris, he eventually got an inside look at his own device when he was overthrown by Telemachus and became the bull's next meal. (Image Credit: Medievality)
Method: Ling Chi Deadly Debut: China, around the beginning of the Song Dynasty (10th century C.E.)
Outlawed in 1905, the Chinese practice known as "death by a thousand cuts" involved binding a victim to a pole and carving into his or her arms, torso, and legs. Strangely enough, while "ling chi" translates to "degrading and slow," it's also the name of a fungus known as "the mushroom of immortality."
[Note: Image from a film by Taiwanese artist Chen Chiej-jen called Lingchi - Echoes of a Historical Photograph, interesting article in Taipei Times (warning: gruesome images)]
Method: Cave of Roses Deadly Debut: Sweden, during the Middle Ages (circa the 13th century C.E.)
Snakes in a cave! Part execution, part nightmare, the Cave of Roses required locking victims in a dark cave filled with a smorgasbord of venomous creatures and other unpleasant creatures. With no way to escape and no way to see, the condemned knew it was only a matter of time before their movements provoked some creepy crawly to deliver a fatal bite. The Cave of Roses was finally abolished in 1772, and fortunately, Sweden grew a lot more enlightened with time. Exactly 200 years later, it became one of the first major European nations to ban the death penalty completely.
Method: Keelhauling Deadly Debut: Holland, 1560 (when it became part of Dutch naval laws, though it was probably used earlier)
Man overboard! A punishment specific to sailors, keelhauling meant tying a man with rope, dropping him off the front of a ship, then dragging him "across the keel" from bow to stern. A long haul took several minutes, during which time the victim would drown (though being dragged along the barnacle-covered hull certainly facilitated things). Shorter hauls, conducted for less severe crimes, left sailors scarred but alive - a practice that became popular with pirates as well as government navies.
Wooden horse (Image Credit: The Salacious Historian's Lair)
Used both for torture and execution, the donkey was a big hit in the Spanish military. A naked victim was forced to straddle the apparatus, which was basically a vertical wood board with a sharp V-shape wedge on top. Weights were attached to the offenders' ankles or feet, pulling them down onto the sturdy wedge until the victims split in two. Despite the name no (non-human) animals were harmed in the making of this device.
Method: Guillotine Deadly Debut: France, 1792
Executioner assistants dismantling the guillotine inside the Santé prison after the execution of French mass-murderer Marcel Petiot in 1946 (Image Credit: The Guillotine Headquarters)
Believe it or not, this menacing machine was created as a way of making executions less painful.
Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin (who lent his name to, but didn't invent, the contraption) was actually an anti-death-penalty activist who suggested it as a more "humane" form of execution. And he was right - to a point. While it was France's last form of capital punishment, "last" didn't come until 1977.
The article above is reprinted with permission from mental_floss magazine (Jan-Feb 2007 issue).
Vancouver sculptor and extreme pumpkin carver Clive Cooper of Sparksfly Design also carves watermelons in the off-season. Because most professionally-carved watermelons are for parties and special occasions, they tend to look “pretty.” Conversely, Cooper’s carvings are more like jack-o-lanterns: frightening, funny, and clever. See a gallery of watermelons at his site. -via Metafilter
It’s probably been a few months since you thought about scarecrows, but those who use them for their stated purpose build them in the spring. You have to shoo away birds as soon as you plant seeds in the ground. An article at Modern Farmer tells us about the original business of scaring birds (and other animals) away from crops with effigies, from ancient times to today. Scarecrows also carried symbolic and even supernatural messages.
Through the ages their makers worldwide have fashioned the often maudlin-looking figure to reflect images of the occult, of customs, culture, mythology, superstitions or religion. A scarecrow hung with arms outstretched on a wooden cross echoes the crucifixion as portrayed in this etching by Jim Yarbrough. To a farmer they may simply be a symbol of the death and resurrection of the crops.
Some (such as the authors of website Occult View) suggest that the scarecrow, in addition to mirroring Christ on the cross may have originally been a severe warning, a “no trespassing” symbol, likening it to the deeds of Vlad the Impaler (so named for his reported propensity for impaling and displaying enemies) or sacrifice, an offering in turn for fertile fields. In more recent times, cartoonists have skewered politicians by depicting them as scarecrows. A British wheat farmer, hoping to scare off pigeons ravaging his crop, built a scarecrow of Lady Gaga as she appeared on the 2010 Brit Awards.
These days, you are more likely to see scarecrows as just Halloween decorations. A scarecrow can be pretty raggedy and scary by the time harvest is completed, just in time for All Hallows Eve. The overview of scarecrows concludes with an interview with contemporary scarecrow artist Pumpkin Rot. -via Digg
Look how tiny this Predator cosplayer is! Those aliens are so cute at that age -what happens to make them so frightfully ugly when they mature? No matter, want another look?
The spring edition of the MCM Comic Con was held in London last week, and photographer Nick Acott sought out the best cosplayers to show us. I’m not sure who this character is (help me out), but the costume is downright scary, and the attention to detail is impressive.
There were also comic book superheroes, video game characters, Disney cartoons (Frozen was big this year), and a large group of ancient warriors. See an entire gallery of the best costumes at Geeks Are Sexy.
Now that McDonalds has introduced us to their newest appetite suppressant marketing campaign mascot Happy the anthropomorphic Happy Meal the interwebs have responded in turn by revealing Happy’s sordid past.
This eye opening exposé shows the kind of company Happy used to keep, namely clowns who crave human flesh rather than burgers, bag headed slashers and dead girls who crawl out of wells.
It’s the kind of scandal large corporations like McDonalds hate to have exposed, and may spell disaster for the burger mongers when their young target audience can’t sleep at night because they're affraid Happy might be lurking under their bed!
Who needs a fancy costume and a latex mask when you've got a makeup kit and some incredible application skills? Makeup artist Elsa Rhae certainly doesn't seem to need much more than her kit, a reference photo and a vivid imagination, and her makeup transformations are truly spectacular!
If she walked into a room wearing her White Walker makeup people would nearly jump out of their skins, and her simple yet extremely effective makeup illusions prove becoming a terrifying creature, or eco-friendly superhero, doesn't take much more than a skillfully applied makeup and the proper attitude.
