Girl with umbrella (link roundup)

Girl with umbrella by Alexandre Day.

And a few more links:

1. At Evil Buttons: Coraline pin-up by Adam Hughes; thank you gift from Laika to Wieden + Kennedy; Wybie cosplay.

2. Bowser shell t-shirt by Ashley Hay.

3. Gentleman with scars.

*Previously: Mastectomy scar merit badge.

*Buy Coraline toys at eBay and Amazon.

Coraline 2 to feature Clint Eastwood...

Gallery 1998 posted all of the remastered movie posters on display in the new Now Playing show. I've already posted quite a few of my favorites, but here are a few more. Links below are to the artists' sites. You can view all of the works in the show here.



Coraline meets In the Line of Fire by Nathan Stapley




The Perfect Storm gets way perfecter with a steam-powered giant swordfish by Roland Tamayo.




Woody Allen is Teen Wolf by Israel Sanchez.

*Previously: Movie poster features Dick Cheney with a big knife.

*Buy Polish movie posters at eBay.

Future rock star (link roundup)

"Born to rock" ad by The Side Project for Main Drag Music.

And a few more links:

1. Go here to see the items on display in the Volcanoes for Beginners (Original Metal Sculptures by Amanda Visell) and Slaphappy (Original Ceramic Sculptures by Michelle Valigura) shows.

2. At the Dark in the Dark comment to win Coraline PVC figures (and see some really good photos of the toys).

3. Relatedly, reminiscent of the Coraline campaign, Miss C. received a box of mysterious goods promoting Shark Week.

4. Creepy Donnie Darko image.

*Previously: Gallery of limited edition concert posters from the 2009 No Doubt tour.

*Buy Amanda Visell toys at eBay.

Free Iran poster and t-shirt (link roundup)

You can download this Free Iran image as a poster for free here, or buy it on a t-shirt for $10.

And a few more links:

1. Japanese girl paper doll.

2. Charlie Brown a communist? Via.

3. Arnold Schwarzenegger promises that California will not tax affiliate sales. You know, I don't know that I agree with his methods, but I give the guy a lot of credit for digging in and trying to pressure California politicians to create a workable budget. As Palin's example shows, being a governor ain't exactly fun. Via.

4. At Evil Buttons: Wybie with welding mask cosplay.

*Previously: Darth Vader paper doll.

*Buy Coraline Dunks at eBay.

Plush Skeletor (link roundup)

Plush Skeletor by Spooky Daddy. Here's his Etsy shop.

And a few more links:

1. I'm passing on a question: Is the guy Venkman shocks at the beginning of Ghostbusters Rick Moranis' brother?

2. At Evil Buttons: Coraline Circus Mouse paper toy.

3. I wish every restaurant offered this - - a 50 cent single bite ice cream sundae, complete with whipped cream, sprinkles, and choice of hot fudge, strawberry, caramel, or chocolate sauce.

4. A little late, but clever Father's Day card and cute Father's Day-themed photo of snails.

*Previously: Beastman reflects on his life.

*Buy Masters of the Universe Toys at eBay.

Coraline doll and Emo Sackboy (link roundup)

Coraline doll and "Emo" Sackboy from Little Big Planet by Jasmin Chappell. Here's her Etsy shop

And a few more links:

1. Speaking of Coraline, recent posts at Evil Buttons include photos from the MCC Theater's Coraline musical.

2. I recently received excellent customer support via email from D-Link for my out of warranty router. It was kind of stunning actually - - within less than 12 hours, I had a concise, easy to follow answer that solved my problem.

3. On the other hand, I don't think I ever got around to mentioning the terrible customer support I got from Pro-Form for my new treadmill. When I put it together, I discovered that several of the holes were too small for the screws. My wife emailed Pro-Form, asking for advice, but received no response. I pretty quickly found reviews about various Pro-Form products complaining about the same problem with the screws. So, buyer beware. (Eventually, I forced the screws more or less in. And the treadmill works fine.)

4. Cosmic Lily Serv-O-Matics chase figure. You can preorder Serv-O-Matics at Tenacious Toys, which is giving away a Dunny with orders this week.

*Previously: Emo dating chat.

*Buy Coraline toys at eBay and Amazon.

Imps from Pandora's Box (link roundup)

Great cover to Strange Tales #109. Spotted amidst this Strange Tales gallery.

And a few more links:

1. An anonymous commenter pointed out that you can now input a password at the Skynet Research website. Go here, hover your mouse over the "p" in products to activate the password entry slot, and enter the code skynetresearchinitiatephasetwoprojectjudgementday. Of course, I'm not really clear on what it does next.

2. Donate money to a boy who needs an organ transplant, get to hang out with Trent Reznor. The price really doesn't seem too high if you're a NIN fan.

3. Paint job and new drawer pulls really freshened up a simple Ikea dresser.

4. At Evil Buttons, footage from the MCC Theater's Coraline musical, photo of limited edition Coraline doll.

*Previously: Warhammer 40K Chaos Terminator Cosplay.

*Buy Coraline Dunks at eBay.

Coraline paper toy

You can download this papercraft version of the Coraline rag doll at dark in the dark.

*Previously: Homemade Coraline doll.

*Buy Coraline posters at eBay.

Back to the Future DeLorean toy (link roundup)

Back to the Future DeLorean with swiveling tires, opening gull wing doors, and lights and sounds. On sale for $35 at Entertainment Earth.

And a few more links:

1. This would make an excellent, subtle Dark Knight teaser poster.

2. Demon-summoning, perhaps.

3. Vanity Fair has photos of some of the 35 pianos that star in the MCC Theater's Coraline musical. (If you're interested in Coraline, I am still regularly updating my Coraline blog Evil Buttons.)

4. And speaking of Neil Gaiman, he defends George Martin's decision to work on something other than the Song of Fire and Ice Series: "George R.R. Martin is not your bitch." (The last two books of the Dark Tower series emphasize over and over how hard Stephen King found it to finish the series.)

5. And speaking a bit more of Neil Gaiman, who else but he would suffer internet problems because a colony of ants infested his router?

*Previously: George Martin tells gripers to suck it.

*Buy Coraline posters at eBay.

Psycho Minimates (link roundup)

Day two of Custom Con 22 features some great custom toys including Psycho minimates by Luke314pi. His site is full of terrific custom minimates including Roland Deschain, the Gunslinger, and Groo, the Wanderer.

And a few more links:

1. Paolo Rivera acts out Wolverine's cannonball special.

2. A whole bunch of ways to dye Easter Eggs.

3. 2009 Eisner Awards nominees and commentary on the picks.

4. At Evil Buttons: Here's Jack Skellington's appearance in Coraline.

*Previously: The shower scene from Psycho performed by Mr and Mrs Potatoheads.

*Buy Nightmare Before Christmas toys at eBay.

Other Mother sculpture by Paul Pape (and more)

At Paul Pape Designs, you can order custom figurines, Miis, and cake toppers:






But my favorite creation is Paul's almost finished sculpture of Coraline's Other Mother in her final, spidery form:





See adorable Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers figurines here, and then place an order in the webstore.

*Previously: 15 weird wedding cake toppers.

*Buy Coraline keys at eBay.

Homemade Coraline boxes

My Little Mochi set up a homemade Coraline box swap. Several of the finished boxes have been posted, and they're just bursting with great stuff including homemade Coraline dolls. The Coraline box you see above is by Nani Kora. You can see some of my favorites here and here.

*Previously: How to make your own Other Mother's button box.

*Buy Coraline Dunks at eBay.

Coraline puppet contest

This Bobinsky by "Seasons Mustfuls" won the Coraline puppet making contest at Animate Clay. You can see all of the entries here.

*For all things Coraline, visit Evil Buttons.

*Buy Coraline toys at eBay and Amazon.

Redesigned Coraline book cover

Redesigned Coraline book cover by Mike Baker. His site is full of delightful illustrations of fairy tale creatures.

Relatedly, Phil Knight recently talked about Laika and Coraline with Advertising Age. He had some interesting comments about the ad campaign:

The original agreement was that Focus would do the advertising, but in some of the early meetings, it was clear that we had a difference of opinion on the advertising -- "target audience" being one. They were used to doing "data" advertising: They wanted to push this more as a kiddie film, because that's what the data told them. And Nike and Wieden & Kennedy together had grown up with what I call "emotional essence advertising" -- the essence of the product is its emotional core, and you push that. It was two very different approaches, and it kind of became clear in some of those early meetings that we had a very strong difference of opinion. And to Focus' credit, they said, "OK, why don't you guys try it? There's no use in fighting this thing. Let's negotiate a different way to market this thing."

*For all things Coraline, visit Evil Buttons.

*Buy Coraline Dunks at eBay.

Coraline concept art and more by Katy Wu

Above is an animated logo Katy Wu created for herself. Visit her site to see Coraline concept art, art from a version of Hansel and Gretel set in 1920's New Orleans, and character designs for characters from Journey to the West.

*Previously: Logo for the Monster Cafe cafe on wheels.

*Buy Coraline posters at eBay.

New toys on sale at the Big Bad Toy Store

Two new toys available for preorder at the Big Bad Toy Store:


Coraline's Doll. A rather twisted gift to give to a child, in light of its purpose in the movie. FAO Schwarz should offer custom Coraline dolls this year, the same way it offered custom Muppets last.


Macross VF100`s VF-25S Messiah Valkyrie.

Vintage Disney ads are so funable (link roundup)

Kevin Kidney has posted several funable and friendlyable vintage Disney newspaper ads.

And a few more links:

1. Real life hobbit house in Wales. Via.

2. Princess Peach cosplay.

3. At my Coraline site Evil Buttons, Coraline's plush button squid.

4. Article about a small Ohio town that relied on DHL as an employer and is now suffering from massive layoffs. One worker named Keith Rider describes the lost job:

We could tell you what we did on a daily basis, but you wouldn't believe it. You know, boxes in a big container, and it'll weigh 800 pounds, you push it out the door through eight inches of snow, and push it up on a barge, and we were idiots enough that we did it by ourselves. We worked as a team, and we had a good friend right along side of us."

Read the rest of the long article here.

*Previously: Armored Samus cosplay.

*Buy "Style Deficit Disorder: Harajuku Street Fashion" at Amazon.

Coraline Box #42

The makers of Coraline sent out 50 handmade boxes to some of their favorite bloggers. Each box is unique and includes items from the movie. Box #42 belongs to Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing and features shoes:



You can see the rest of the boxes I've found to date here. And for all things Coraline, visit Evil Buttons.

*Buy cigar boxes at eBay.

Coraline Box #50

The makers of Coraline sent out 50 handmade boxes to some of their favorite bloggers. Each box is unique and includes items from the movie. Box #50 belongs to Creativity and features hands:



You can see the rest of the boxes I've found to date here. And for all things Coraline, visit Evil Buttons.

*Buy cigar boxes at eBay.

Coraline Box #41

The makers of Coraline sent out 50 handmade boxes to some of their favorite bloggers. Each box is unique and includes items from the movie. Box #41 apparently never made it to a blogger, but is on sale, along with several other terrific items, at eBay to benefit the Starlight Foundation:




You can see the rest of the boxes I've found to date here. And for all things Coraline, visit Evil Buttons.

*Buy cigar boxes at eBay.