SPAMCONSUMER

GIZMO: Robots & Machines [canvases]

August 2nd, 2009

Created 2009 - 4×0.8mx1mx0.1meter canvases.
(A Spamconsumer Project – Two Transformers, a Spaceship & an AT-AT.)

Science fiction is not about science. It is about disaster, which is one of the oldest subjects of art.
Reality is a crutch for people who can’t handle science fiction. It has become a dialect for our time.
The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that man may become robots.
Hell Is Other Robots. We have enough robots in this business.

The universe is a machine where you have been placed, and like a machine the outcome can be known.
Every battle has already been won or lost. All that is left is for you to choose your side.
But before you can hit the jackpot, you have to put a coin in the machine!
The cow is nothing but a machine which makes grass fit for us people to eat.
Normal is nothing more than a cycle on a machine – One has to look out for engineers they begin with sewing machines and end up with the atomic bomb.

Click images to enlarge! (I bought this toys at eGay for object drawing.)

Click images to enlarge! (Quick Throw-Ups on an AT-AT Toy.)

Captain Future’s Spaceship Comet:

Captain Future was both a science fiction magazine and a fictional character.
In 1978 Toei Animation of Japan produced a Captain Future (キャプテン・フューチャー, Kyaputen Fyūchā) TV anime series of 53 episodes, based on 13 original Hamilton stories. Despite the strong cultural differences and the large gap between a literary work and animation, the series was close to the original in many ways, from the didactic scientific explanations to the emphasis on the usefulness of brains as opposed to brawn.

Captain Future’s lightspeed spaceship “Comet” was developed and constructed in the year 2495.
It’s 200 meters long.
The word comet came to the English language through the Latin cometes from the Greek word komē, meaning “hair of the head”; Aristotle first used the derivation komētēs to depict comets as “stars with hair.” The astronomical symbol for comets accordingly consists of a disc with a hairlike tail.

Star Wars: AT-AT (All Terrain Armored Transport)

The AT-AT is a large, four-legged walker introduced in The Empire Strikes Back during the Battle of Hoth. An AT-AT also appears in Return of the Jedi.

Joe Johnston’s original design for the Empire’s war machines was a giant, multi-wheeled vehicle; ILM filmed the AT-ATs using stop-motion animation against matte paintings created by Mike Pangrazio because attempts at compositing miniature footage against live-action background footage yielded mediocre results. Additionally, ILM studied elephants to determine the best way to animate the four-legged AT-ATs.

The AT-AT, designed to favor “fear over function“, can carry five speeder bikes and 40 Imperial stormtroopers. The walkers themselves carry two blasters and two laser cannons. Manufactured by Kuat Drive Yards, Expanded Universe sources describe the AT-AT as being either 15 or 22.5 meters tall. Their armor is resistant to standard blaster weapons; however, the “neck” column of the walker holds no such invulnerability and, if shot, can cause the entire walker to be destroyed.

Click images to enlarge!

Toys:
Kenner released AT-AT and AT-ST toys as part of their Empire Strikes Back line, and Hasbro released toys based on those molds when the Special Edition trilogy was distributed. Micro Machines also released AT-AT, AT-ST, and AT-TE toys. Both Decipher Inc. and Wizards of the Coast published AT-AT and AT-ST cards for their Star Wars Customizable Card Game and Star Wars Trading Card Game, respectively. Lego has released AT-AT, AT-ST, AT-AP and AT-TE models.

Transformers: The Headmasters

(トランスフォーマーザ-ヘッドマスターズ, Toransufōmā za Heddomasutāzu) is a Japanese anime television series.
Rather than import The Rebirth three-part mini-series as a conclusion, Takara, the Japanese producers of the Transformers toyline, opted instead to continue the Generation 1 universe by creating the full-length 35-episode series, Transformers: The Headmasters (two additional clips episodes were produced after the fact for direct-to-video release). Supplanting The Rebirth’s position in Japanese continuity, The Headmasters occurred one year after The Return of Optimus Prime, introducing the titular characters to the Transformers universe in a different way. Whereas in western fiction, the Headmasters result from the merging of a Transformer with an organic alien being from the planet Nebulos, the Headmasters of the Japanese series are a group of small Cybertronians who departed the planet millions of years ago and crash-landed on the inhospitable planet Master. To survive its harsh climate, a select few Cybertronians constructed larger bodies called “Transtectors,” to which they connected as the heads.

Click images to enlarge!

“Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today — but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.”
Isaac Asimov (Russian science-fiction Writer and Biochemist. 1920-1992)