Category: Uncategorized

25th Anniversary Usagi Yojimbo Statues

Much like TMNT, the world of Usagi Yojimbo is also celebrating their 25th Anniversary. Not completely familar with the UY universe, I decided to do a little research on these animal warriors. And what a great story…!

Paraphrasing from the official site, Miyamoto Usagi is a rabbit samurai that lives in the world of 17 century Feudal Japan. He was a student of the lion Katsuichi, an unorthodox but formidable warrior. He wanders the countryside, getting into countless adventures with the Rhinoceros bounty hunter Gennosuke. He also works from time to time as a bodyguard, or Yojimbo. The character of Usagi was also inspired by the famous Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, and many other characters come from Japanese folklore and some history.

To celebrate the 25th year of Usagi, the company Roku Toys were bestowed with the license to create some commemorative figures. And they pulled out all the stops…

The sculptor was none other than Star Wars’ own Tony McVey, and were painted by Lauren Vogt, who’s resume included titles such as Nightmare  Before Christmas, Coraline and Star Wars. Sometimes when you get figurines like this, they look a little off from the original character design. But Lauren and Tony really bring the 2-D world of Usagi into the Third dimension. The attention to minor details is really nice, whether it’s the texture and folds of the clothing, or even Gennosuke’s five O’clock shadow. I’ve seen nothing but positive comments on many sites, and definitely believe this will be a popular collection. They’re only available for pre-order right now, but if all goes well, they’ll be available later this fall.

So be sure to check out The Usagi Yojimbo official site and Roku Toys for more details.


UPDATE: Directly from the horses mouth!

“They will be definitely out in the fall and will be carried by other online stores. The only place that you can get the exclusive figures is at {RokuToys} website though. If you buy a set of either the regular or exclusive edition you get $10 off plus a free bonus figure worth $29.99. This is Series one and Series 2 should be out fall 2010.”

Thanks for reading!

Machias

Jake Black Cancer Update

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For those of you who don’t know. Our dear friend and Tales of the TMNT writer, Jake Black, is battling cancer. Well via his blog Jake gives us a very encouraging update!

Here is an update I sent out to friends and family…

Just have had a couple of pieces of good news with regard to my cancer treatment, and we wanted to get the word out.

Back in June I was hospitalized for a week due to a very bad reaction to one of the four chemo drugs. That drug caused some permanent scarring/damage to my lungs.

On Tuesday this week I had a PET CT scan–a test to see size/locations/metabolic rates of cancer cells. The radiologist reviewing the report said that everything is shrinking very well, and that the cancer cells are no longer metabolizing anything. In other words, they’re dead. The chemo has worked. I’m not officially in remission, yet, but we are getting close! 🙂

I have three more chemo sessions to go. We want to make sure we really kill the cancer cells. My final treatment session is scheduled for September 24.

There was initially talk of following up on the chemo with six weeks of daily radiation treatments, which would last until around Thanksgiving in November. But because of the damage to my lungs, my oncologist isn’t sure. He’s going to discuss with the radiation doctor, and make a determination. If the radiation doctor is confident that he blast the cells without hitting my lungs, we’ll proceed. If he can’t we’ll be done September 24.

In the meantime, the fine folks at Mirage–the Ninja Turtles Company–have released a t-shirt to help with our expenses. If nothing else you can look at the shirt here (I’m not schilling…it’s just part of the cancer update. PLEASE don’t feel like I’m asking/pressuring you to buy them. Really, I just think they’re cool): http://www.ninjaturtles.com/html/scratch-shirt.htm

Michelle and I are so grateful for every note, kind word, and other display of support and affection we’ve received over the last four or five months. We’re almost done–just two to four months left. But I have to tell you, we couldn’t have done it without you. I’m most excited because I’ll be *allowed* to travel to NYC and LA–my two favorite places and my good friends-(and getting back to focusing on my writing career)-toward the end of the year.

I really hope to see as many of you as I can, and we can celebrate the end of this process in just a couple of months!

With great love and appreciation,

Jake Black

We love you Jake. Keep up the good fight!

By the way, you can now pre-order the T-Shirt which benefits Jake’s cancer fund (Cancer is expensive, dude!) by checking out this post!

Turtle Soup: Designs From The Classic TMNT Years

One of the coolest things about being a huge collector of anything is that you get to meet people you would never normally meet. At San Diego Comic Con, Steve Lavigne was given the card of a sculptor that used to work with Scott Hensey over at Anaglyph (one of the studios that sculpted the vintage TMNT toy line for Playmates). Steve gave me the card saying that he thought this was someone I should get in touch with. And this is how I met David Arshawsky.

David is one hell of a sculptor, and has sculpted a number of my favorite pieces including Pizzaface, Wingnut, and Ray Fillet!

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I was very enthusiastic about getting to pick his brain, since I actually own a number of his prototypes, like this unreleased version of Pizzaface!

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Anyway, we got to chatting, and sometime in the near future I plan on taking a trip over to his studio to check out some of the pieces he has (which I will of course post about). But one of the cooler things he turned me on to is a little self published book he’s put out. “Turtle Soup – Designs From The Classic TMNT Years”.

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This book is full of concept art of figures, vehicles, and roleplaying gear that was designed and sculpted by David. While there is a ton of stuff in there for toys that you have seen, there is also a ton of art in there for figures that you have NEVER seen, and I don’t believe you’ll ever see it anywhere else! In my humble opinion, this book is a MUST HAVE for any of the serious toy collectors out there. And for $8.00 you really can’t go wrong!

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You can pick up a copy of David’s book via this link! (Disclaimer: David also does adult oriented art, and if you snoop around on the turtlemilk site, you’ll probably run into stuff that is not acceptable for viewers under the age of 18)

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” Volume 1. #2 / published , unpublished ..pages 34-35, art by Eastman and Laird (( 1984 ))

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" Volume 1. #2 / What actually got published ..pages, 34-35 art by Eastman and Laird (( 1984 ))

☻ ☺

–>> The now iconic, final and overwhelming confrontation with Baxter’s most infamous creations : The Mousers.

In how it actually looked and a glimpse of how it might have gone down.

The final fallout or the unpublished crackdown .. you can’t get away from these beautiful pieces ( or the Mousers ) no matter which one or which way you ‘ Chew – se’ .

~t

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" Volume 1. #2 / unpublished ..pages 34-35, art by Eastman and Laird (( 1984 ))

Turtle God!

Not really Ninja related so much as Turtle related, but I thought you might find it interesting nonetheless.
A village in Cambodia gathers to worship a turtle with magical healing powers that they deem a “Turtle God”. They collect the water it swims in, and use it in a myriad of ways, considering it holy.

Magic Turtle

So what do you think? Could an animal heal the sick?