Without the tireless efforts of special-effects guru Eiji Tsuburaya, the world would be missing quite a lot of things.  Although he is most famous as the creator of the incredibly popular Ultraman, without him there would be no Godzilla, Mothra, Ghidorah, or any of the other giant colorful characters that make up the kaiju world.  After all, it was Tsuburaya who, after watching King Kong in 1933, got the idea for the suitmation “guy in a rubber suit stomping through a model city” style of special effects that people know and love today.  It’s only right that Tsuburaya’s home city of Sukagawa in the prefecture of Fukashima, Japan, honor him with a series of silhouettes on electrical transformer boxes.

While it is a bit of an unusual tribute, can you think of something better for a fellow whose creations are so ubiquitous than to decorate something so ubiquitous with his wonderful creations?  I can’t!  Those electrical transformer boxes are everywhere, and Tsuburaya’s wonderful creations have likewise spread throughout the world thanks to the magic of a guy in a spandex outfit and cool mask and giant rubber monsters.

Think about it this way:  suitmation is so effective it’s still being used in movies to this day.  The monsters in the upcoming live-action version of Where The Wild Things Are are going to be a combination of CGI and suitmation.  Toho still makes suitmation kaiju movies to this day, and every kid is enthralled with Godzilla at some point in his life.  Some of us, like me, never grow out of it.

Tags: graffiti, murals, monsters drawn on transformer boxes, unusual art, silhouettes, Ultraman, Sukagawa, Japan, Eiji Tsuburaya, special effects artists, entertainment, kaiju, Godzilla

Fashion designer Marc Ecko’s designs draw from a variety of inspirations, but there’s nothing as cool as his Black Rhino clothing articles.  After all, the Black Rhino collection is the home of the incredibly awesome Black Rhino Jason Hoodie, inspired by Jason Voorhees and the classic 80’s slasher movies in the Friday the 13th series.  […]

Throughout history, there’s been one constant.  People are going to do whatever they can to make themselves more beautiful.  Whether it’s a tattoo of an Internet superstar like Tay Zonday, a tooth tattoo, an eyeball coloration, or even an amputation disguise, there’s no shortage of ideas on what people can do to the body to […]

As lights get smaller and more powerful, you’re going to start seeing them in more and more places.  For example, check out the Galaxy Dress from CuteCircuit.  This formal-style gown made of crinoline, chiffon, 4,000 Swarovski crystals, and 24,000 LEDs is a pretty impressive combination of form and function.  Assuming you want to function as […]

Canada’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Remembrance Day.
Tags: moment of silence, 11:11 on Novemeber 11, Remembrance Day, tributes, veterans

Twenty years ago today, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall came down.  The wall, separating East and West Berlin, was a symbol of the Cold War between the free world and the Soviet Union.  Google has a great selection of images from Life Magazine detailing the history of the wall, and there’s also a […]

From the outside, Emma Cahill looks like your average school girl.  She just turned 16 and attends St Mary’s Convent School in Worcester, England.  She is active in sports and has many friends, but there’s one thing different about Emma.  At 6′5, she is the tallest teenage girl in the UK.
Fortunately for Emma, her unusual […]

The New York Marathon ran this weekend.  Surprisingly, the winner was an American; in fact, Eritrea-born Meb Keflezighi is the first American citizen to win the marathon since 1982 (the year after I was born).  However, with an estimated 42,000 runners in the marathon this year, not all of them are hardcore professionals.  There are […]