No, not the studio that made the space invaders game (although that would be pretty awesome), this is the studio of the artist Space Invader based in Paris. As with most famous street artists these days you wont actually get to see what he looks like but that does not matter because this video is all about the art. [Link via Okfuture]

Tags: Street Art, Graffiti, Space Invaders

Video games have moved on a lot since the 80s and 90s especially is the visual department. Evolution is something that will always happen with video games as technology gets better and better. This neat video shows the evolution of certain genres of video games and how they have graphically come a long way. It is just a shame that in a video like this you can not tell if the gameplay has evolved. [video via The Last Boss]. Thanks to ToysrEvil for the tip.

Tags: Retro, Video Games, Evolution

I do not usually write posts about other blogs (because I want you all to myself…only kidding), but since I am getting more and more into Japanese vinyl toys and trying to learn as much as possible about the whole Kaiju scene I thought I would point out this great new blog. Omni-Monster is a blog dedicated to the Japanese Kaiju Vinyl toys and figures. It really well written with a lot of information about the toys and it features some superb pictures of lots of great Kaiju toys. Visit Omni-Monter if you are curious about learning more about the Vinyl toy scene in the far east.

Some of my favourites toys from Omni-Monster are the following;

DxSxHx Stag Beetle Green
M1Go UltraSeven Alien Chibull
Faceless Bull by Target Earth!
DxSxHx Stag Beetle Clear Grey
Maguran Alien by Marmit Globsters

Tags: Japanese, Vinyl Toys, Kaiju, Figures, Blog

Here is a little preview of the new Jamungo BUD variants, atomic and flame. Jamungo can not stop impressing all vinyl toy fans and these fantastic new variants are some of the best mini figures I have seen. The inner flame in the Flame variant is stunning considering it is only a 3 inch toy. Hopefully there will be a few colourways of these designs and as soon as we have more info I will post it up. [Image via Vinyl Pulse]

Tags: Urban, Vinyl Toys, Jamungo

I am not the biggest Batman fan but I do enjoy the movies and some of the cartoons. I just stumbled across this blog which is entirely dedicated to Batman. There is a lot of cool things which include things from old toys to Batman birthday cakes. Looks as though the Batman legacy will not be dying any time soon. Visit the Bat-Blog

A few days left to enter the VTF x UrbanRetro Contest and win yourself a Gorillaz Figure. In case you missed out on this below are the full details for the competition.

Competition: Create a banner for Urban Retro Lifestyle

The only restrictions are as follows:

1. Must be 800 x 158 pixels
2. Must contain the UrbanRetro logo and the title Urban Retro Lifestyle
3. Must be Christmas themed

Please download the logo from here (http://www.urbanretro.co.uk/vinyltoyforum/largeurlogo.jpg) or the psd file from here (http://www.urbanretro.co.uk/vinyltoyforum/largeurlogo.psd).

There is no limit to the actual way it is designed. ie. it can be an illustration or it can be a photo based collage, etc.

There will be 2 winners and the banners will be rotated on urbanretrolifestyle.com

Each winner will receive a Gorillaz figure! View Here

There will also be a link up on www.urbanretrolifestyle.com to all the winners websites.

Entries must be received by November 30th and the winner will be informed by the December 1st. The banners will be up until News Years day.

Please post your banner up at Vinyl Toy Forum for everyone to see AND make sure to email it to info@urbanretrolifestyle.com

Good Luck to every one that enters.

The latest Be@rbrick series should be out very soon and I think most Be@rbrick fans will be more than happy. I have a few reservations on some of the designs such as the England flag design (I think that is what it supposed to be) and the pink design. They just don’t seem to be very exciting at all. However I do really like the orange colour be@rbrick. [link via Hypebeast]

The extremely popular American cartoon Family Guy had its own art show, What The Deuce Are You Looking At?, with art pieces based on the show created by 21 artists. One of my favourite artists, Bob Dob, created the above piece of Stewie. I love family guy and I love that painting, now I just need to think like Stewie and find a way to get it.

A great set of images showing the opening scenes of all episodes from the classic Pink Panther cartoon (and other cartoons) are on show at the DePatie-Freleng website . The opening scenes are created by the studio DePatie-Freleng (DFE). Below is a brief history on DePatie-Freleng;

“DePatie-Freleng was founded by director Isadore “Friz” Freleng and producer David H. DePatie in early 1960s, when Warner Brothers shut down their animation department. DePatie-Freleng (often abbreviated DFE) mostly made animated commercials for television, but they’re big break came when Blake Edwards commissioned them to create an animated opening for his movie, “The Pink Panther”. This opening introduced the cartoon character Pink Panther to the world, and the animated opening literally became more successful than the movie itself. Despite theatrical short business dying in 1960s, United Artists agreed to release their theatrical shorts (UA previously released shorts from Walt Disney and Walter Lantz) and continued to do so right until 1980.”

The DePatie-Freleng website covers the studio’s entire history so make your way there to see some great retro cartoon work.

OK i admit the title is a lie but after you watch the video you will wish that the creature with lots of eyes is turned into a toy. The animation was created as a promotional video for the new Microsoft Zune. Head over to the Tokyo Plastic website to watch the video. There are also some other cool animation videos at the Zune arts website.