Fake Campaign Shirts 09

I'm still making my way through Battlestar Galactica for first time, because I refuse to watch good TV shows until everyone else in the world is already over them. Some of the election episodes got me itching for a good "Baltar/Zarich 01" shirt (01 of course referring to the calendar restart following the earth getting blowns up...that's how it works, right?) I couldn't really find what I wanted, except for this officially licensed merch by the Sci-Fi Channel, which you can't even get anymore.



Disappointing, yes, but it did lead me on a quest to find other awesome fake campaign shirts. Because nothing says "I Refuse to Draw A Line Between Fantasy and Reality" like wearing a campaign shirt for a candidate in an election that takes place in a made up fantasy land.

This is probably the greatest shirt ever. You don't need to read the rest of the post, cause it's all downhill from here. You don't even need to be a fan of Futurama to enjoy this shirt; anyone can enjoy the horrific comedy inherent in the idea of a Mecha Nixon running for public office.

More less good shirts after the jump...

This is a dumb cheesey font and unimaginative design. I think Zaphod would have his campaign team go a lot, A LOT, flashier. You should have to plug this shirt in. There's so much potential. It's a good thing D. Adams is already dead, because seeing this shirt would kill him. Someone please make a better one.


Sometimes a show does all the work for you in designing the campaign iconography; in the 3rd Season of the Wire, we saw this plain and simple campaign logo all over the place, but it took a weirdly long time for someone to make a decent shirt out of it.

You'd think there'd be like a million awesome Harvey Dent shirts online, right? Nope! The official viral campaign shirts are lame and no one has made any cool ones. This Obama knockoff is the best the internet has to offer. Sad sad state of affairs. Get it, state? State official, election, district attorney....eeheh. I guess there's no need for re-election campaign materials anyway, because one party with Bruce's friends and he'll never need another cent! Also he's dead.

Photos: Toy Fair 2009

2009 marked Geekanerd's first trip to the American International Toy Fair, held at the Javits Center in Manhattan. Toy Fair is a magical place where men and women in suits walk down endless hallways of brightly colored toys, with nary a child in sight - no one under eighteen is even allowed in the door. Hardcore.

Plenty of new toys were on display, including original painted prototypes of Mezco's upcoming line of 2-inch LittleBigPlanet figures. Good. Grief. The cuteness, it burns!

More Sackboy, plus Star Wars, Tim Burton, Simpsons, Qee, Watchmen, Umbrella Academy, and oh so much more, after the jump...


*Featuring color commentary in italics by Gnerd contributor, Sarah B....

Sackboy as an little angry cowboy. Again, this is an original painted sculpt, but it would be awesome if the vinyl figures can capture this much personality.

Sarah B: He looks mean.

Again, amazing paint job.

You ARE a PIRATE!


Plastic Sackboy key chains, including a Sackgirl. Girl Sackboy? Yeah. I don't think that one with the tongue sticking out really captures what this game is about.

You can pick which Sackboy you want on your keys. In late '09.

Lots of Hellboy stuff this year, including these figures by Mezco's Mez-itz line. I know this looks like a Web 2.0 photo shop job with the shadow and everything, but it's totally real. Nice paint job on the gun.

I'm not a fan of Count Dooku nor am I fan of the Clone Wars series in general, but this is a beautiful sculpt. Whoever lit this display should be promoted.

Ana's photo makes it look like Count Dooku is playing Don Corleone in a Godfather remake.

I have no particular affinity for Freddy Krueger, but I can safely say this piece by Gentle Giant was the best looking toy (sorry, Animaquette) I saw all day. The cartoony designs really capture the tension and energy of the scene - and bonus points for making the girl cute without going crazy with proportions, as toy makers tend to do. There's a wonderful sense of motion in this figure - from the girl's perky position ("Did I hear something?" she seems to say...), to the carefully balanced way Freddy is rearing back for the strike. And look, she's even got a little Jason plushie, and is wearing a Camp Crystal Lake t-shirt! $150? Sure, why not?

This looks scary and awful! Who would want this on their desk? I'm not buying vacation properties from a guy with this in his office, I tell you what.

A new line of Simpsons PVC toys. The even mildly observant fan will note these are all from the episode that shows how Homer and Marge got together; we've got Prom Homer, teenage Patty, streaking Barney, and middle aged-Abe. Barney is not anatomically correct, in case you can't tell, or intentionally averted your eyes.

This naked Barney really captivated me. So yellow.

These Uglydoll blind assortment figurines were also on display at Comic Con, but here they are again. I got to play with them this time, they've got a great sturdy feel, and the waist articulation is a really nice touch. I like how Wedgehead is best displayed upside down.

Ugly dolls made an appearance. naturally. They're like, we're here y'all.

A few Uglies got their own displays, for some reason, although it looks like Trunko is crashing the party. For those of you are love Ox as much as I do, please note that his description on the sign is SLIGHTLY different that the one that comes on his name tag.

OX is my favorite ugly doll.

Ice Bat busted out of the display case to take a coffee break.

He's got to limit his caffeine intake. It looks like he's dosing really high at this point. I've been there.


Oh my God! Real life Slurm! You probably want to buy this - well it's by Boston America Corp, but that website site seems to cater to retailers...but whatever, if you buy like, ten cases, I'm sure they'll negotiate.

We're now entering the Star Wars Science section, a new property by Uncle Milton toys. They've created all sorts of Star Wars-related science fair fare, including this old standard, the model Volcano. But wait- it's Obi Wan and Anakin! The volcano is Mustafar! You put a little orange dye in with that baking soda, and you're in for a seriously good time.

Why couldn't Anakin have just gotten control over himself?

Here's what I actually came to the Toy Fair to see....The Force Trainer. You may have already see video of this thing in action, but basically this toy teaches you how to move things with your mind. I'm serious. No, I'm serious. I did it. I have the Force. I'll be leaving to train as soon as I find a Jedi Master accepting students (tips@geekanerdblog.com, if you know someone).

That got levitated by Ana.

This is the official logo of Star Wars Science....but what is it? It looks a little like the Galactic Republic logo crossed with the Rebel Insignia, but with a star in the middle. Can anyone help me out?

These toys have really fantastic product design, in a distinctly Old Republic style. Apparently the Uncle Milton company designs everything, and Lucasfilm only gives approval and input. I wish I had spoken to a designer while I was there, but honestly I was a little shaken after learning I was Force sensitive.

Several toys are designed to be put together by kids so they learn about the inner workings of machines, in this case, Darth Vader's robot arm. Not this is not life sized, but about the size of a young kid's arm, perhaps the better to stick through your shirt. You can actually move the arm with controls on the shoulder side, and pick up and release objects. Excellent detail work.

The PR rep said that kids would build this themselves so as to learn about science. Did Darth Vader have to build his arm himself? Probably not because Palpatine probably had a storm trooper get him one from the store. So in conclu, kids will be more fierce than James Earl Half-arm, in a sense, if they put this together themselves.

Nightmare Before Christmas has turned out to be the little property that just won't die. This has to be the cutest rendering of Oogie Boogie I've ever seen.

This ghost appears happy to have shuffled off.

A life-sized replica of Kirk's chair, with tribble. There are buttons on the side, but they don't do anything. Could they have figured out how to mash a universal remote on there?

A guy next to us asked to sit in this chair. The Diamond rep said no, you have to buy it. The guy said, how much. The rep said 2200 dollars. The guy said, this would be a nice office chair. Then he said, but it would repel all women. The rep was like, yeah. The guy was like, this would be a magical women-repelling chair. The rep was like, but if you had enough money to buy it, you probably wouldn't have a problem with women. I was thinking, you guys are squares. But truefax, you could probably get a decently made-up trophy type chick if you had enough dinero to drop 2200 on a Star Trek captain's chair. But would she really understand you? Would she really care if you were doing fine or feeling sad, cause maybe you or Ice Bat spilled coffee on your Star Trek chair and the stain won't come out?

Excellent Umbrella Academy figures from Dark Horse that I "figure" will be flying off the shelves upon their release in May 09. The Umbrella Academy is the best new series of the last few years, and these designs by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba look absolutely perfect off the page.

Detail on Space Boy's head sculpt...

...and Krakken as well. That's a scary looking little knife.

CHUBSTER! Are Chubbys the new Mighty Muggs? I'll leave that to you, the consumer. Wait, $59.99? For serious?

All those shame-eaten donuts.

The Leia line of Chubbys...kind of funny they put her Boushh costume in there, as opposed to, oh, I don't know, WHITE DRESS AND CINNABON HAIR? Actually, having the Thermal Detonator in there is pretty awesome, so it's all good. These are by Gentle Giant via Diamond Direct, and are

Didn't need to see cutified, ovular slave Leia, didn't.

Can you stand any more of these? Look that at X-Wing Pilot...could it be...Porkins? I like to think so. Eh, I'm pretty sure it's actually Wedge. These toy designers have no sense of humor.

These are kinda cute though.

Just when I thought I would never have anything to do with Guitar Hero again, McFarlane Toys comes out with these adorable Rock Band avatar toys. Look at Izzy Sparks! His beautiful locks kind of look like a melted soft-serve. But that's okay; If the actual CG avatars looked like this and not half-baked polygonal warcrimes, I might take a break from Rock Band and get back to basics.

This photo doesn't do these sculpts justice, but I think you get the idea. These are the original models for the PVC line

These looked great in real life.

Everyone at Geekanerd loves Giant Microbes. Especially the dangerous ones. But these little guys don't look dangerous at all. They just want to make a baby, is that so wrong? They're in love!

The sperm's like I GOT A JOB TO DO. The egg's like, me? Ok.

Anthrax! Now that's what I'm talking about - dangerous! If I put this in an envelope and mailed it to someone, would I go to jail?

These microbes are really cute. The anthrax has sorry eyes.

This is just a 2-D mock-up of an upcoming keychain from Applehead factory. It's a TOFU ZOMBIE in case you can't tell, "cuted up" from his original, more terrifying toy design. I like it.

Great looking floor mat for the Watchmen movie...the first of many apparently kid-oriented pieces of Watchmen merchandise from Neca.

That Under The Hood book is without a doubt the best piece of Watchmen merchadise I've ever seen. Fantastic 60s cover design, and look how the corners are "aged" - this is genius. When I first saw it, I said aloud, "IS THIS REAL?". It's just a blank notebook inside but still - someone in the Neca design department must have some serious geek cred to come up with a toy based on such an obscure reference.

In the middle there, in plastic, are LiveStrong-style bracelets with the names of the different watchmen. For preteens? Also there's a lighter.

These lunchboxes are presumably for hipsters, and not actual grade schoolers. Because surely no responsible parent would let their child each lunch of of something adorned by the image of a hateful, reactionary, violently psychotic vigilante. And no Batman jokes, please, Rorschach is a totally different kind of crazy.

Dr. Manhattan doesn't eat lunch though, right? He looks sad here cause he can't relate to your need to eat a sandwich or taco every day at noon..

I love Qee toys, and I really love it when people imagine the anatomy of cartoon characters. Here's a cross-section of the iconic Qee Bear.

Also a detailed skeleton. Notice: no neck.

Some adorable Qee sculpts. They're available now, so go get em.

Cute eggs.

Nice looking custom Baby Qee, titled Splatter Bear. Toy2R is a great company, they had a pop-up shop in Brooklyn not to long ago...really sweet gift bags.

And because every convention at the Javits Center has to have a stormtrooper.....bang.

This storm trooper had his convention badge stuck to his back. Kind of slightly messed up the effect.

For more photos, high res versions, and more detail shots, check out our Flickr Set.

Photos: New York Comic Con 2009 - Saturday

Day two at New York Comic Con, and the cosplayers were out in force. AHR took most of these, so I don't know the story behind all of them, but this scary Joker sneaking up on Dr. Horrible is probably my favorite pic of the day. There's many more after the jump, including a cameo appearance from AHR herself!
The lovable Shin Chan...

AHR UPDATE: It doesn't come up on this site very much, but I am a HUGE Shin Chan dub fan. But the award for biggest Shin Fan of the day goes to the boy who saw this Shin Chan costume from across the room and shouted, "OH MY GOD!" so loud that Degan could hear it on the other end of my cellphone conversation.

Hm... Spider-Man, obviously, but something is wrong. Marvel Zombie Spider-Man? He doesn't appear quite zombied enough for that... Maybe just "Beat Up Spidey?"

AHR Update: It's zombie Spidey! He said his costume was falling apart by the time I took it...but it looked good to me. You're missing the detail of the Yellow Eye contact lens..
Hushhhhhh. AHR UPDATE: I had to check with this guy to see if maybe he was supposed to be the invisible man. But nope, he's Hush, the best new character ever. Glad he's getting some love.
Batgirl and the Huntress taking some time out in the cafeteria.

How do so many people have such perfect Boba Fett costumes? Are there communities dedicated to the fabrication of these things? Can you order parts from a bounty hunter supply depot? I'm always impressed...

AHR and Degan passed this in a parking lot on the way out there. Degan made a joke about Imperial blockades that I would like to steal, but I respect the man too darn much. Also note this is an Ohio license plate, and the van looks like it may have encounted some dust storms along the way...hooray for fandom!

Beyond! What a great pose, he really knows how to work that costume.

"Oh my God he's eating them all!"

Kyle Rayner is grabbing some Doritos across the room with a giant green mousetrap.

Every stormtrooper has a mommy.

Batman's lady rogues are looking good.

Princess Peach kidnapping some poor child.

These are pretty awesome Pokemon costumes. I love the intepretive aspect, supercute hoodies and little claw toed slippers. I don't know my Pokemon like AHR, but if I think the one on the left is calle Charizard, and the one on the right is probably called Batsoise or something.

I'm digging Leela's new hairdo.

Geekanerd's own AHR lookin' sharp as Zoey from Left 4 Dead. You can't really see her awesome medpack in this pic...

She's grabbin' peelz...

and protecting con-goers from pesky hunters.