James Cameron merges action figures with Augmented Reality.
The big movie coming to Hong Kong this Christmas is James Cameron’s Avatar. A sci-fi epic about a human soldier (Sam Worthington from Terminator: Salvation) infiltrating the alien race called the Na’vi, it’s about their battle for survival (trailer below) and is one amazing show. One of the cooler set pieces is this Amp Suit, what looks to be an upscaled version of the Aliens Power Loader where the human characters get in and ride this around fighting blue aliens – the ultimate sci-fi!
Mattel Toys is releasing an Amp Suit toy in time for Christmas and what sets it apart from other robot toys is that it has the iTag system built in, which means it works with your computer to bring real-life 3D images to your computer screen. If you haven’t seen this in action before, it’s kind of hard to explain so have a watch and get ready to head down to Toys R Us afterwards with about HK$200 to avail of your own:
You saw this Total Immersion technology this Summer on movies like Star Trek and Transformers, but this is taking it to the next level with actual toys. Makes sense really since we usually have tons of robots and superheroes decorating our computers to begin with! Learn more at the official site AvatarItag.com – remember you also need a webcam to make it work!
If this version of the Amp Suit is too “kiddie” for you, Sideshow Toys has a limited edition HK$9,350 (US$1,199) version that looks amazing, but the downside is that it doesn’t move and it doesn’t interact with your computer.
The new film beams to Blu-ray with lots of extras.
The Summer isn’t even over yet and the release dates for the movies on home video are starting to come in. If you enjoyed the new J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie that made US$375 worldwide and starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto as Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock then you’re in for a treat on November 17th, and we don’t mean just the discs:
With the packaging feature dubbed “augmented reality,” consumers will be able to hold their disc packaging in front of any standard webcam to unlock an interactive hologram on the computer screen, through which they can tour five cabins on the Enterprise, even shooting enemies from the ship’s deck.
Users will have to log in to a website to access the feature, but they control the hologram by holding the disc packaging.
That sounds like more of the stuff we posted about here. Some of the special feature videos include:
To Boldly Go: Taking on the world’s most beloved science fiction franchise was no small mission. Director J.J. Abrams, writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, producer Damon Lindelof, and executive producer Bryan Burk talk about the many challenges they faced and their strategy for success.
Casting: The producers knew their greatest task was finding the right cast to reprise these epic roles. The cast, for their part, talk about the experience of trying to capture the essence of these mythic characters. The piece concludes with a moving tribute to Leonard Nimoy.
Aliens: Designers Neville Page and Joel Harlow talk about the hurdles they faced creating new alien species, recreating the Romulans and Vulcans, and designing the terrifying creatures on Delta Vega for the new Star Trek.
More details on the special features for both the DVD and Blu-ray are here.Time.com asks J.J. 10 Questions below:
One of the biggest Summer movies finally gets a Hong Kong release date.
Highly Illogical. Star Trek: the one major Summer U.S. movie was delayed from its May 8th opening date in North America to a June 4th date here in Hong Kong. What happened? Everything else opens 1 day before to prevent piracy in Asia. No Trekkie love from the Knockoff Kingdom?
Anyways, its finally been announced, most likely because of its huge success in the U.S. and its probably shirt-losing losses the HK distributors had of the last 9 trek movies. The new cast above below the originals.
See the trailer below and tons of U.S. TV commercials here, and definitely hit up the official site for some Steve Jobs-inspired spaceship interface design:
Experience the Enterprise with a webcam, a printer or an iPhone.
With no set date with the new Star Trek movie (opened this past weekend in the U.S.) in Hong Kong, you can play with this Augmented Reality website set up to bring the new Enterprise to your desktop. This is some crazy next generation stuff that might bend your reality. Watch the video above and then see it in action yourself by going to this website and following the instructions.
It can even build the Enterprise from your iPhone! A must-see.
What every Trek saw when they first saw an iPhone is in development.
What Star Trek fan hasn’t been dreaming about this? It looks like a jailbreak app though, but Apple should look at allowing these kinds of complete re-skinning for the iPhone in their next release. I guess they need something to excite us with when they announce iPhone OS 4.0.
For the Star Trek fans there is a free Phaser app in the iTunes store right now promoting the new movie scheudle to open in Hong Kong on May 28th. You can set to stun or kill. Click here to get it, its free.
4 new USB Trek gadgets to take you where no man has gone before.
Dream Cheeky is getting on the Star Trek blockbuster wagon with this very cool line of USB devices. While we wait for our samples later this month to review for you, we thought we’d give you a sneak preview of these new devices and let your inner Trekker go crazy with anticipation as you will soon be able to communicate with VoiP just like Captain Kirk would – well if he used USB on the Enterprise!
Star Trek USB Communicator: Unique And Classic Design, Support Voip/skype
Star Trek USB Lcd Photo Frame: 1.5″ Lcd Screen With Calendar And Clock
Star Trek Bluetooth Communicator: Version 2.0 For Phone Call
Star Trek USB Web Cam: Unique And Classic Design, Workable On Skype
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