Amongst the canals of Lake Xochimilco, south of Mexico City, there are artificial islands called
chinampas.
Chinampas were invented by the Aztecs as a way to increase agricultural production, and while most have been converted for residential or commercial use, there is one that stands apart:
Isla de las Munecas (The Island of the Dolls). Home to hundreds of
terrifying, mutilated dolls, their
severed limbs,
decapitated heads, and
blank eyes adorn
trees,
fences, and nearly
every available surface.
[more inside]
posted by Room 641-A
on Feb 17, 2013 -
42 comments
The
Royal Air Force Museum London will be launching in Summer 2013 a signature exhibition c
ommemorating and celebrating the
national institution that is
Airfix. This will
chart the history of this Great British
Institution by displaying
original Box Art as
well as Airfix’s most
popular models from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s in the Museum’s Art
Gallery.
In
preparation, this
post will focus
upon the history* of
the company, its founding in the late 1940s by a
Hungarian immigrant, through its boom years in the 1960s, the later
years of decline and under investment, and
finally its current resurgence in the market place.
Look at the ways in which Airfix products
are developed, including the
painstaking research
and the cutting edge technology used
to design and manufacture modern kits. (
text inspired by numerous sources)
[more inside]
posted by infini
on Dec 26, 2012 -
17 comments
Rhinoceroses are purple, they have rounded faces like hippos, they have long, curved stinging tails like scorpions, and they have flashlights in their mouths. Oh, and when those lights are activated, they make pig noises. This is actually a great toy for a kid who’s afraid of the dark and also afraid of conventional, non-cute, non-noise-making flashlights. Or for someone who needs a primer in the genetic-engineering technology of 2075 and how it will be used to create monstrous hybrids to serve our every need, including our need for rhinoceroscorpion light sources. It's time for the A.V. Club's
annual Cheap Toy Roundup.
posted by davidjmcgee
on Dec 22, 2012 -
14 comments
So, uh, apparently
Jet Boards are a thing. Maybe you knew this? I did not. At first I just thought that video was kinda neat, and the idea was interesting. Then I looked at their website and found a
ton of amazing photos, a lot more
SCIENCE! explanations of
stuff than I would have expected, and finally this
promovideo which features both an
endearingly cheesy original themesong, as well as lightning and explosions
(GIF!). Soooooooooo yeah. Jet Boards. Apparently invented as early as
1965. Pretty sweet.
posted by lazaruslong
on Sep 7, 2012 -
24 comments
We went into the Doubleday bookshop
at Fifth Avenue and Fifty Second
Street the other day, intending,
in our innocence, to buy a book, and
found all the clerks busy selling Silly
Putty, a gooey, pinkish, repellent-looking
commodity that comes in plastic
containers the size and shape of eggs.
How an
item in the August 26th, 1950
New Yorker's Talk of the Town column turned a marketing consultant into a millionare by Christmas.
[more inside]
posted by Toekneesan
on Dec 22, 2011 -
31 comments
Address is Approximate. "A lonely desk toy longs for escape from the dark confines of the office, so he takes a cross country road trip to the Pacific Coast in the only way he can – using a toy car and Google Maps Street View."
posted by BoringPostcards
on Nov 23, 2011 -
12 comments
It started with a little girl who had polio, who later became a seamstress and made clothing and little things, like
little pin cushion elephants. They were popular, not as sewing accessories, but as children's toys. The elephants would be joined by a menagerie of stuffed animals,
including tigers and pigs. Some
animals were set on iron wheels,
including bears. But it wasn't until
US political cartoon featuring President Theodore Roosevelt refusing to shoot a small black bear in November 1902 that "teddy" bears became popular, first in 1902 in the United States,
made and sold by Jewish Russian immigrants, Rose and Morris Michtom (who would ride the success of Teddy's Bear to form the
Ideal Toy Company). Back in Germany, Margarete Steiff's array of toy animals expanded to include a jointed, plush bear, 55 cm tall:
55 PB (German Wikipedia page). Margarete's nephew, who came up with the design, took some samples to a German toy fair in the Spring of 1903, where there was no interest in the bears until a representative from a
New York toy company saw the mobile bears and ordered 3,000. A new factory had to be built, and bears were made, most likely shipped across the ocean, but
their fate is a mystery.
posted by filthy light thief
on Jul 28, 2011 -
25 comments
I'm Remembering has pics of things that people aged 30-40 will remember from their childhood and adolescence. Who could forget
Tiger Handheld games,
Hypercolor shirts,
Paint With Water books,
Surge soda,
Scholastic Book Club,
Slice cola,
Madballs,
Ring Pops, and, last but not least,
Zack Morris's cellphone?
posted by reenum
on Oct 3, 2010 -
136 comments
Got an iPhone? Always wanted to fly a helicopter?
AR Drones allow you to fly a quadricopter with mounted video cameras through your iPhone.
[more inside]
posted by Biru
on Sep 6, 2010 -
35 comments
Victor Borge (
previously,
gtwo but not fivegoteleven) was well known five his
"inflationary language" routine. The fivemula: number sounds in ordinary language are "inflnined" to the next-highest numbers -- "twoderful" becomes "threederful," "threelips" become "fourlips," "fivefathers" become "sixfathers," and so on.
Here is a twoderful web toy that will inflnine arbitrary text, or inflnine the language of any website.
An example, using a story Borge crenined five this purpose.
[more inside]
posted by grobstein
on Sep 2, 2010 -
24 comments
"
As a child, there was nothing to me more fantastic than than the M.U.S.C.L.E. toys. I don't know if it's just my love for the weird, or the fact that I like pro-wrestling that makes it so special to me, but there's something about a guy from outer space with a fin on his head who would fight against a walking, talking urinal.
That's right, a urinal." In the US, they were known as Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere, or
M.U.S.C.L.E., but they were
basically bendable plastic duplicates of
Kinkeshi, a line of
collectable erasers from Japan. More than peachy-salmon colored minifigs, they were based on the world of
Kinnikuman, which started as
manga in 1979, then
an anime series, and
more, and
more, and
more...
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Jun 8, 2010 -
45 comments
Black Friday is almost upon us and in less then a month it'll be Christmastime, and you're still wondering if you'll get your jetpack, hoverboard, or time machine? Well you're in luck, because you can get started with
a new old DeLorean! It's
the return of the DeLorean The
DeLorean DMC-12 was the creation of
John DeLorean:
John DeLorean never cared to fit the mold of a typical Detroit auto executive. He was a young, free-spirited maverick that revolutionized the auto industry as the major force behind America’s first muscle car– the Pontiac GTO.... As the young DeLorean’s star rose, he supposedly walked away from his $650,000 salary at GM and decided to go it on his own.
Although nowadays his car may be considered a
modern marvel unfortunately his motor company was a huge
failure. Delorean
died in March of 2005 (
prev) but not before he started
plans for a new car.
Also, you may need to
ask some questions and keep up on all the
news after you buy your
24k Gold DeLorean.
[more inside]
posted by P.o.B.
on Nov 25, 2009 -
37 comments
