Well, its not much of a new ET project but pretty exciting for ET fans. ET is making his appearance at Madame Tussaud's. This has actually already happened. For its 30th anniversary celebration on October 22nd ET was unveiled at the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London as well as other locations. Check it out here.
So I picked up a few new things over the month of October, but haven't got around to posting them until after the Halloween posting-fest we had.
These are the new mini blind pack E.T. figures released by NECA.
They are pretty cool, really nice sculpts especially for their size.
Pretty standard poses, not much new you can do with ET really.
There are six in total, they are shown on the back of the pack, I should have taken a picture of that I guess.
I picked up 4 packs and got 3 doubles, stupid blind packs. They are encased in a small plastic cube in the pack so you can't feel them out to find the ones you want. So I guess I have a couple to trade. Anyone interested?
I'll be picking up a few more of these to try and round out the collection for sure!
I'm sure every geek has heard about Disney purchasing Lucasfilm by now so I'm not going into any details. This excites me in so many ways. Yes, more movies and TV series is good news, but I'm excited to see what the theme parks division has cooking up for us.
I'm a big Disney parks fan, and I loved the new Star Tours ride. I was appalled by the news that Disney is making an Avatar themed land in reaction to the success of Universals Harry Potter land. Why Avatar and why not Star Wars? Well this week's new answers that, and opens the hopes and dreams of there being a Star Wars Land, or better yet a Star Wars Theme Park. I had written about this topic before in a post from the April. Apparently, Disney had a deal with Lucasfilm that the latter could not open up a Star Wars themed park in any country that had a Disney park. I don't know any more than that. I read that little tidbit at the Force.net site where there was a good article about Tom Hodges and his hypothetical painting of a Star Wars Theme park.
This painting is really exciting to dream about, I hope some of it becomes a reality soon, and I hope it in a US park since there is no Disney park in Canada its the closest I got.
ET Thursday is a break this week due to the Halloween overdose of ET I had. It will return soon with some new items. I also plan on creating a new series of posts focusing on Star Wars junk, but just the good junk.
Hey all, its ET Thursday again. Feeling a bit lazy today but I managed to dig up a funny ET related picture.
There is a scene in the Animaiacs episode "Hooked on a Ceiling" where Yakko, Wakko, and Dot help Michelangelo (not the turtle) repaint the Sistine Chapel after they white-wash it. After their first repaint has images like Elvis, and dogs playing poker in it they repaint it again quickly before the "His Eminence" comes to view it. Before Michelangelo has time to look at the finished painting the special guest arrives. Michelangelo is horrified as they both look over the painting to find our buddies ET and Elliot in the finished work. However, "His Eminence" loves it, who in fact turns out to be Steven Spielberg (although he is never named, you know its him).
One other pop culture reference to note, four ninja turtles pop out during the introduction when the narrator is naming well known figures from the renaissance. Jeremy will like that one.
This week is another flea market find. Behold... the ET light up candy dispenser holder thing.
ET on a stump
mmmm... vintage candies
SUPER DELUXE LIGHT UP ACTION FEATURE!!!
At first I was so pumped to find this because I thought it was an original 1982 product. But then I thought, gee, maybe the candy would be in worse shape. Then I thought, gee that doesn't look like a sculpt from 1982. Then I thought, gee, the light up feature is pretty good and the batteries still work from 1982. Then I read the label and saw the web address and thought, gee, I didn't know Reese's candy had a website in 1982. OK, so this didn't turn out to be from 1982, but from the 20th anniversary in 2002. Is 10 years vintage yet? Still, I had to buy it, to sit amongst friends on the shelf.
A while back I posted this picture of Conan O' Brien looking at an ET statue but didn't know where it was taken.
Well, it turns out this was taken at ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) which explains the Ghostbusters Vigo painting in the background.
Here is another photo of the same statue with a plaque beside it. I'm guessing that this is a reproduction, perhaps created using the same molds as the original. The original was made of foam latex and has probably disintegrated by now.
Here's another photo of an ET prop used in the film that is on display at ILM. A stop motion bike from the flight scene. You can see some of the heads also used in that scene.
Apparently, this sits at the reception desk at ILM. I'm sure there are more ET props on display there but Google search did not divulge any more secrets. Perhaps one day I'll be able to take a tour there and find out for myself.
Hey, this week I'm highlighting a piece I found at the vintage marketplace in Edmonton. Where I live there are really crappy pickings at flea markets, probably because there is only about 250,000 people in my city.
So on a road trip to Edmonton this weekendI looked around at some of the vintage market places and found this beauty.
An ET Alarm Clock!! Yes!! I love strange collectibles, and when I saw this I knew it was mine.
This is going to look pretty sweet on my ET Shelf. Not bad for $10, hooray for flea markets!!
This week we look at a custom made ET from a mini Lunartik. I don really know what a Lunartik is but I've seen artists take other small toys and customize them into other characters. The whole process interests me greatly. I just with I had a little more spare time to start a new cool project like this
After and Before
This is great work. This guys has lots of other cool customs on his website. I don't know him personally but here's a link to his site http://themodelmaker.net/
Hey y'all, last week was my birthday and my brother-in-law, who is on an insane quest to collect all 400 and something original Atari games, got me this little gem. (sorry about the picture, its a little blurry)
That's right, it what is often called the worst video game of all time, the ET Atari game. This was supposedly a rush job and and was completed in a matter of just a couple weeks. Atari overproduced it and had millions of these babies left and couldn't sell them. Apparently the remaining 3 million or so of these were taken out to the desert and buried. I have no idea if that is true or not but I'm sure you've heard the story. There was even a music video made using this story.
Following my current interest of movie related art, I found this beauty while browsing around the webisphere.
I think this is just great, I wish I had a print of this, its wall hanging worthy.
I can't remember what site I found it on but the bottom of the print shows the name Dressler Printing Co.
Any what if someone knows who made this please post a reply so the artist can get his/her dues.
Hey, we're back from a two week stay in San Diego. We were there waiting for some convention to open. Turns out it starts this week, I should have checked the schedule. Just kidding, we didn't go to San Diego.
This week, my ET post centers around a topic that I am currently interested in, movie posters and art.
Not too sure who did this one, but I think its very interesting. I love the way the details are over done on the lips, looks like he has bee stings. Check out the rings around the neck and arms, just great. I really like finding these kind of things, other artists visions of the subject matter. Very nostalgic too.
Its ET Thursday, a day where we bring a little glowing touch of ET to your day.
Today's installment brings you a clip from the 30th Anniversary celebration in Los Angeles. A group of people took the opportunity to show their love of ET by riding their bikes through the streets of LA in red hoodies (we called them "bunny hugs" not hoodies where I come from back in the day). They followed up their ride with a free public viewing of ET.
What strikes me about this video is, well... it looks kinda boring. Maybe they could have spiced it up with a little music to their video.
Hey its ET Thursday again.
Today we'll look at the 20th Anniversary release of ET and Elliot ToysR'Us exclusive.
I didn't collect these when they came out 10 years ago, I wasn't collecting ET that much back then, and I really thought these were horrible figures and decided to wait until better ones were made, which ended up being 10 years later.
The only reason I bought this one is because I didn't have any ET related items with Elliot on them. Maybe one day I'll open it but not today. It's not a bad sculpt of Elliot, looks like him more from the side.
It's got a great display of the 20th anniversary items on the back
Here you have a progression of the ET's through the years. First the 0 anniversary ET on the left. Next is the 20th, notice the slightly cartoonish sculpting, I picked this one up at a garage sale for a couple bucks. And of course the sweet 30th anniversary version.
Wow, we just celebrated the 35 Anniversary of Star Wars and now we get to celebrate having ET around for 30 years. Holy crap, do I feel old! Even though E.T. first aired to the public at the Cannes festival on May 26, after which it received a 15min long standing ovation, today is its official release date.
I clearly remember going to see ET, not knowing what this little guys was, or what the story was all about. It was a wonderful time. And I still can't get enough, I don't know what it is.
I'm pleased that ET is coming out on bluray this year, even if I have to wait til October, maybe they will bump it up. I'm also thrilled that the version on bluray will be the original theatrical release. Here's a trailer.
AWESOME!!
Last year, Jeremy and I took a road trip to California and brought our families along. I HAD to stop and see the ET house. I had been to California many times before but never took the time to take a look at this piece of Hollywood history.
So here I am, nerding it up outside the ET house, in my Jaws shirt (yes, I was thoroughly enjoying my time in LA LA Land). Don't ask why I was lurking behind the garbage can, I guess I was trying to be discreet, ha, mission accomplished. It was a nice neighborhood, and had really grown in the last 30 years. In the movie there was hardly a big tree in sight, now the trees make the house seem a lot smaller than it did in the movie. That was a pretty cool experience, I'm glad I did it.
Over the last few months I've been showing off some strange and awesome ET Collectibles.
This next one I would have to say is one of my favorites. It's not vintage, it was from the 20th anniversary, but it is awesome.
Behold the Toys R Us Exclusive E.T. The Extra Terrestrial Limited Edition 12" Figurine. I really like this piece, it has great show quality. The sculpt is not as dead on as NECA's recent figure (those are awesome) but it catches ET in large scale fairly good, which I haven't seen a lot of.
And it's numbered, to boot.
And that's not all, check out this clip.
That's right, it lights up and plays music and dialog from the movie.
We had this on the shelf at work and it was a running gag to press the button during an awkward silence and have to listen to the whole show over again.
Here is it with the cover on
Here it is in the dark
Here you can see it fit into my ET shrine of awesomeness.
Next ET Thursday's post will feature a not so great item from the 20th anniversary collection, but is was a must buy for me. I'll explain on Thursday.
Time to go watch ET, and I suggest everybody reading this does the same today.
