Unusual Stuff

Back to the army of cute little robots:

Mike Slobot is a sculptor and painter, sculpting his own brand of robots called “the slobots” for about the last 5 years. Here is the "slobot" created for the Stitch Experiment 626 project: the original figure was a 10” tall Disney Stitch character from the Lilo and Stitch movie.



More slobots, including this cute SloBart, can be seen at Mike's website:


Here is a cool update from Lockwasher: "Roaming" Mobile Phone Man (left) and a head of the Phil Robot (made from an old railroad lantern!) -
Snuggly Little Robots and Obnoxious Huge Ones

When are robots NOT required to be efficient, super-smart, or uniquely useful? When robots are art, of course. More and more robots are being created from used and found parts all over the world for sheer viewing and cuddling pleasure of general public and lucky collectors. Here are some of them:

We featured chrome-delicious robot sculptures and ray-guns art before (read the whole series here). Now's the time for another groovy installment.

Toys? Not Toys?

This "Space Patrol" by UltraJunk is made from "a vintage boat motor gas tank, 60's auto seats side trim plates, Studebaker emblem and vintage microphone for the grill, old van interior lights for head lights, BBQ gas grill parts for the engine exhaust pipes, bicycle head light with a cut down 1960 Chevy tail light for the rear light, part of a ballerina toy for the bubble shield with a 50's Chrysler headlight ring for the bubble trim, Electrolux vacuum cleaner parts, antique wood burner top and clothes rack ring for the base, and other odds and ends." Gorgeous, isn't it?
"Even Robots Get the Blues":

Cars turn into wicked robots... so what else is new?

(think Toyota). OK, here is the real thing: a robot (full-size!) sculpture made from crashed BMW 645CI car parts by sculptor Bruce Gray
"This robot features a movable head, pivoting (simulated) energy pulse gun with movable joystick/fire button controller, movable upper arm and a forearm that raises and has a swiveling multi-positionable hand" - more info.

Don't stand in its line of sight! -

How "outcast robots find new loving homes"

Brian Marshall (aka Adoptabot) makes robots out of kitchen utensil and every other piece of used cutlery - with fascinating results:





Caroline Le Breton also uses kitchen utensils and cookware for her cute robot creations:
Quite funny and offbeat work by Clayton Bailey:
And don't forget to check updates at Bennett Robot Works!
Can't get enough tin toy robot art prints? Try illustrations by Karl Egenberger:
This is the Boilerplate Robot, the date is 1893, and yes, this photograph is a fake:



Misc. robot occupations... Some require more "right brain activity" than others (or is it "left brain activity", really?) - for example, conducting an orchestra:

Aaron Ristau's whimsical metal art projects include this "Frontier Cartography Robot":


Just be careful around some vintage tin toy robots - they can turn into the real thing in the blink of an eye! -
Robots bringing donuts? why, yes!

Incredibly whimsical, award-winning art of Eric Joyner is all about robots, giant and small collectible ones - you also may recognize some vintage toy robots in his artwork, like the ones we featured here.
Robots as teachers and teaching assistants:
Robots making/fixing other robots:
Ray Guns are still stuff of the future. How come?

Not that we want to promote development of weapons, but it just seems so incredible that we can build Large Hadron Collider but not a single working concept of a ray gun. In the meantime, Dr. Grordbort is busy creating ray gun "replicas":

Weta Digital Forum is probably the best place to hunt for wicked-looking ray guns and possibly collectible purchases.

To build a proper ray gun, you need precision view-finders and instruments. Zoom in... Enhance!

Why build only small cuddly robots? Build a HUGE exoskeleton for a badass robot, ready to dominate the world (or at least Alaskan town of Wasilla, where it was spotted - more info):

Almost as good as "The Festival of the Freshwater Squid" (see here)

As one travels the globe and observes the variety of fairs, festivals, and frivolities, it becomes clear that: 1) the concepts of "weird, strange, bizarre" are really in the eyes of the beholder - and 2) that all humans, no matter where we live, are more than just a bit bonkers.


Making a big deal out of "throwing things"

Although human behavior doesn't vary much, the methods of public celebrations certainly do.

For some baffling reason, for instance, people like to throw things. And depending on the country, what they throw is likely to be different. In Binche, a small town in Belgium, the projectile of choice is a fruit. On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday Binche the town is visited by masked figures called Gilles who – later on in the festivities – carry large baskets of oranges through the town. Many of these oranges are calmly, orderly, handed to residents as well as tourists. Others, though, are rather vigorously … well, thrown at wary residents and unfortunate tourists.
Another "Battle of the Oranges", in Ivrea, Italy:
Meanwhile, if you happen to be in Buñol, Spain, on the last Wednesday in August, you also might want to duck as the fruit thrown there – while not as hard or potentially damaging as an orange – can still sting a bit. What's fun about La Tomatina at Buñol isn't just the hurled tomatoes but that the town, which normally has a population around 10,000, swells to closer to 60,000 as folks from all over come to throw -- and get thrown at.




Other Splendid Festivities

Fortunately, not all festivals in the world include hurled objects. Some just have unique themes. Japan's Hōnen Matsuri is a fertility festival, uniquely celebrated in the city of Komaki. By unique we mean prodigious, tumescent, large, and … okay, enough with the jokes, especially since the object of the fertility being celebrated is that certain part of the male anatomy. A similar festival is also held in Kawasaki, called Kanamara Matsuri. See images here - warning, nsfw.

While nothing is thrown, and nothing terribly phallic is evident, there's a festival that absolutely has to be mentioned: an event featuring tremendous beauty that ends with ashes and smoke.

Around the middle of March, the city of Valencia, Spain, has a festival called Falles – a celebration of Saint Joseph. But long before the Falles, Valencia, the third largest city in Spain, begins to prepare: neighborhoods and a wide variety of organizations form groups called Casal Fallers who raise money for their own contributions to the festivities.

It's these contributions that make the event so incredible. Each group – working from a common theme selected for that year – creates a ninot, or puppet. Fashioned from paper, wax, Styrofoam, and a few other materials, ninots are whimsical, outrageous, profane, comical, political, and every one is incredibly beautiful.
The artisans of Valencia have had a very long time to perfect their craft, and it shows in each and every ninot (see a whole bunch here). Each figure and tableau is a hallucinatory mixture of a Renaissance masterpiece and a three-dimensional cartoon. Each one, too, is frequently a wildly executed satirical jab at everything from politics to tradition, from pop culture to the Falles celebrants themselves. Nothing is sacred, nothing is spared.


If you happen to be in Taihape, New Zealand, things will be flying through the air but none of them – at least as far as we know – have been thrown at anyone. Nevertheless, a festival where people try to throw a gumboot as far as possible could pose some risks to passersby and participants alike.
A landscape nearby is seemingly made to be explored in these gumboots (provided you can catch some free ones):
"Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" are words you might want to keep an ear open for if you're in Japan during Setsubun, and happen to see a member of your household holding a handful of roasted soybeans. Mamemaki is the term for it, and "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" ("Demons out! Luck in!") is what is traditionally said before the beans are thrown out the front door – or at another member of the family (maybe even at the house cat):

If you happen to be in India during Holi, the festival of color, you also might want to avoid wearing your best suit of clothes. As part of the celebration, a brightly dyed powder called abir is merrily thrown everywhere – and especially at each other.


Then come the fires, and then the ashes. Yes, you guessed correctly: each and every minot, every figure and tableau is lit – exploding into the night sky in a roaring conclusion called La Cremà. In the morning there is nothing but ashes, and the memory of the wonders of the falles.

Boryeong Mud Festival, South Korea:


One of the weirdest festivals of all time - El Colacho in Spain. On this occasion grown men are jumping over the new born babies. Yes, very carefully (mothers do not seem to protest). They do it to get rid of any unknown evil spirits that might hide in these babies:
Cheese Rolling, Cooper's Hill, Gloucestershire, England:
Chocolate Festival in Kiev, Ukraine (with a huge chocolate fountain on the left):
Prayer for rain during Varuna Yajna ritual, at Sankara Mattham, India:
Lorraine Mondial Air Balloons Festival in Chambley, France:
Gothic and Steampunk Festival in Leipzig, Germany (Wave-Gotik-Treffen, WGT):


A neat little dance at the Kasedori Festival (a fire-prevention festival) at Kaminoyama, Japan: