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Saturday, February 4. 2012

2012 Bandit Awards - Polls Are Now Open

The polls are now closed for the fourth annual Automotive Film Excellence Awards, AKA The Bandit Awards!

Best Movie of 2011:

Cars 2
Drive
Drive Angry
Fast Five
Green Hornet
Transformers: Dark of the Moon

  
Free polls from Pollhost.com


Best Race/Chase Sequence of 2011:

Fast Five: Bank Vault Chase
Captain America: Motorcycle Chase
Cars 2: Finn McMissile Escape
Drive: Opening Sequence
Drive Angry: Highway Roadblock
The Green Hornet: Police Chase
Transformers: Dark of the Moon: Freeway Chase

  
Free polls from Pollhost.com


Best Movie Car of 2011 (Stock/Custom):

Captain America: Red Skull's Car
Fast Five: 1963 Corvette Grand Sport
Fast Five: 1970 Dodge Charger
The Green Hornet: The Black Beauty
Green Lantern: 1971 Dodge Challenger
Drive: 1973 Chevy Chevelle Malibu
Drive Angry: 1969 Dodge Charger R/T
Drive Angry: 1971 Chevy Chevelle SS
Super 8: 1968 Buick Skylark
Transformers: Dark of the Moon: 2011 Chevy Camaro SS "Bumblebee"

  
Free polls from Pollhost.com


Best Actor of 2011:

Dwayne Johnson (Fast Five)
Hugh Jackman (Real Steel)
Jason Statham (The Mechanic)
Jay Chou (The Green Hornet)
Nicholas Cage (Drive Angry)
Ryan Gosling (Drive)
Seth Rogen (The Green Hornet)
Shia Labeouf (Transformers: Dark of the Moon)
Tom Cruise (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol)
Vin Diesel (Fast Five)

  
Free polls from Pollhost.com


Posted by Spencer at 09:37 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Wednesday, February 1. 2012

Slixx Decals

Posted on Slixx.com

Dear Valued Customers,

We would like take just a brief moment to thank you all for your support over the past 19 years. Many of you have become a big part of our Slixx family. We have come to the hard decision to stop production of Slixx Decals. We will be finishing up a few grill sheets and 1/16th scale drag goody sheets that are currently in production, but those will be the last Slixx Decals produced. We will be selling off our existing inventory until they are gone. Again, thank you so much for the support over the years. We wish you all the best in the future.

Sincerely,
Gene & Becky Sisemore

Posted by Spencer at 23:55 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Sunday, January 15. 2012

An Easy Between-Project Project

I'm part of a TV/movie car CBP on the Scale Auto forums, but hit a wall when I realized that I had forgotten to order an important part I needed to complete the build. So with that on hiatus and other projects waiting for paint/glue to dry, I made a quick detour and built up the 1967 Shelby GT-500 from the manga & anime Gunsmith Cats.

Posted by Spencer at 23:19 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Tuesday, January 10. 2012

Do as the Romans Do

This car concludes a journey I began over eight years ago. It was 2003, and 2 Fast, 2 Furious was the hot new property that year. I had not seen it yet, but a friend had and was commenting on how difficult it was to locate Racing Champions' Eclipse Spyder in his area. My local Wal-Mart was flooded wit them, so i bought one and sent it his way, figuring I could pick one up for myself later. Alas, that was not to be - they sold out before I got my chance, and since then have become one of the most difficult cars to acquire from the franchise. Fate finally smiled upon me, and I was able to snag one on eBay for a reasonable price. A few minor modifications later, and Roman's Eclipse Spyder was ready to join my collection.

Posted by Spencer at 00:31 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Saturday, January 7. 2012

Press Release: Partnerships & Licensing and Illumination Entertainment Sign Thinkway Toys as Global Master Toy Licensee for the Upcoming Motion-Picture Event Despicable Me 2

Universal Partnerships & Licensing (UP&L), Illumination Entertainment and Thinkway Toys today announced that they will partner on the global production of toys based on the highly anticipated follow-up to Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment's blockbuster hit Despicable Me. Thinkway Toys has been awarded the master global toy license for the motion-picture event Despicable Me 2, which arrives in theaters on July 3, 2013. The announcement was made by UP&L President, Stephanie Sperber, and Thinkway Toys CEO, Albert Chan.

The enormous success of Despicable Me, which grossed more than $543 million at theaters worldwide, made its sequel one of the most sought after properties in Hollywood. Despicable Me was released in July 2010 and went on to become the 10th-highest-grossing animated film in U.S. history and the second highest-grossing animated film of 2010.

The film has had a very successful run in the home entertainment markets, selling 13 million units worldwide since its home video offering in December 2010. Despicable Me also debuted on Video on Demand in January 2011 and has become the No. 1 most ordered animated film since that time. In summer 2012, Universal Orlando Resort in Florida will launch a 3D theme-park attraction based on Despicable Me.

Despicable Me rocketed its mischievous, scene-stealing Minions to the forefront of pop culture, and the popular characters naturally lend themselves to toys. Thinkway Toys will develop a wide variety of toys featuring the Minions and other key characters including interactive toys, figures, plush, dolls, playsets, vehicles, role play and novelty items.

"Gru and the Minions made Despicable Me a tent-pole franchise for Universal and we know Thinkway's innovation, reputation and global reach make them the best partner for us to bring the Minions to life through toys," said Sperber. "The Thinkway team is made up of creative, out of the box thinkers who will include technology that the consumer has never seen before."

"Our team is ecstatic to create an all new line of toys for Despicable Me 2. The characters are endearing, filled with humor and adventure and we can't wait to include these elements into the toy line," said Albert Chan, CEO of Thinkway.

Products will be available on shelves in summer 2013.

Posted by Spencer at 21:55 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Thursday, January 5. 2012

2011 Year in Review

As expected, 2011 was a good year to be a car fan. Three of the top 10 grossing movies were essentially "car movies" (Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Fast Five, and Cars 2), while three others managed to have highly recognizable vehicles in their franchise history (the Weasley's Flying Anglia from Harry Potter, Bella's Chevy Pickup from Twilight, and Red Skull's monster from Capitan America). Other movies with some good car action included The Green Hornet, Drive Angry, The Mechanic, Drive, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Super 8, Arthur, and Bellflower (with special mention to Real Steel & Sucker Punch for their awesome use of robots & mechs, respectively).

2011 also marked the passing of several Hollywood icons, including Anne Francis, Pete Postlethwaite, Kenneth Mars, Dwayne McDuffie, Michael Gough, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Cooper, Jeff Conaway, Peter Falk, Lee J. Ames, Roberts Blossom, Linda Christian, Bubba Smith, Cliff Robertson, Harry Morgan, and Jerry Robinson.

My own work continued to be a mix of building and collecting. This year I added The Avengers' Lotus, Mannix's Toronado, the 2004 Batmobile, the 1987 Batmobile, the Dark Harvest2 Durango, Major Motoko Kusanagi, 007's Z8, G2 Optimus Prime, Herbie, The A-Team van, the Weasley's flying Anglia, the EVA-WP-6000 Twinklehead, the Smokey & the Bandit 2 Firebird, R.E.V., Gearhead, G2 Sideswipe, Danger Mouse's Mark III, Roadbuster, the Monster XR4Ti, Leadfoot, Clu's Light Cycle, the 200 MPH 370Z, the I Am Legend GT500, the Rain Man Buick, and UR2EZ. Other personal highlights included the third annual Bandit Awards (hosted by myself and Joe Johnson), attending ToyFair and NYCC, and securing the final piece in my Paul Alexander box art collection.

In hobby news, Revell & GearZ introduced the first ever Hot Rod Model Building Contest, while Hasbro expanded their line of Human Alliance figures (the spiritual descendants of the large, highly detailed Alternators/Binaltech series) and several businesses in Japan were victims of the Tōhoku Earthquake in March. Although 1/24 diecasts have not been as readily available as in previous years, we still saw M2 adding another Mustang and a Challenger to their 1/24 lineup, Ertl's "unofficial" Death Proof Charger, and several new TV & movie cars from Franklin and Danbury Mint. Round 2 continued to raise the bar with several reissues of long-sought kits, new parts packs, three Looney Tunes-inspired kits, and the release of their all-new '66 Batmobile. Moebius Models also joined the 1/25 car fray with their Hudson Hornet, International Lone Star, and Bat Pod kits (and plan to follow up next year with a 1/25 Tumbler kit).

All in all a busy year, and I'm looking forward to what 2012 brings!

Posted by Spencer at 17:49 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Sunday, January 1. 2012

Closing 2011 on a Personal Note...

My whole life was spent pursuing visual art in one way or another. When I was little I started by copying cartoons out of the newspaper, then started borrowing books from the school and public library once I started school. One of the regular names in my library books was Lee J. Ames, whose Draw 50 books were the first place I encountered the concept of building complex objects from simple shapes - a concept I still use today when scratchbuilding.

He passed away earlier this year, and I wanted to pay tribute to him with a model based on his work. With that, I close 2011 with the UR2EZ from Draw 50 Monsters, Creeps, Superheroes, Demons, Dragons, Nerds, Dirts, Ghouls, Giants, Vampires, Zombies, and other Curiosa.... Thank you, Mr. Ames, for providing us with these books.

Posted by Spencer at 00:37 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Friday, December 30. 2011

Definitely Had To Finish This Before New Year. Definitely.

I had bought and made most of the modifications to this over the summer, but I was not able to get he last few touches done until today. I still came in under the buzzer, though, and the Rain Man Buick is now complete.

Posted by Spencer at 23:11 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Thursday, December 29. 2011

I Am Shelby

Another "cheat" of sorts, but one that has been on my to do list longer than I care to mention, I finally made the small but important upgrades to recreate Will Smith's Shelby GT-500 from I Am Legend.

Posted by Spencer at 23:36 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Wednesday, December 28. 2011

Direct from The Asylum

200 MPH was a unique car movie in that no one writing, directing, acting, or consulting on the film had any working knowledge of cars. The same car was referred to/appeared as an RX-7, MX-7, MX-5, and S14, performance specs wandered around aimlessly, and - my absolute favorite part - the CGI artists managed to replace a 370Z with a 350Z during the big crash and subsequent garage scenes. They literally had the freedom to use any car they wanted (it wasn't like they were limited by prop availability or budget restraints), and yet they still managed to foul up what year car they were modeling.

Bad as it was, the laughter it generated managed to put it in the "win" column for me and warranted a scale tribute. One thing that I was not able to finish, though, was making all of the bumper stickers for the rear window. If anyone out there know what the two stickers indicated in the image below are, please let me know.

200 MPH 370Z rear window

Posted by Spencer at 22:24 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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