Castle Greyskull Lego Build by Owen Burnett

I have great memories of my childhood, especially all the toys that were available to kids for them to play with. The late 70s/early 80s were a golden age of toys & action figures. All you have to do is search Joe Esq's 'Takin' You Back' columns on CCD to hear all about them. But those memories are all present in people my age... so any callback to those days always puts a smile on my face. While I had many loves when it comes to toy lines of my youth, one stands out among all the rest: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe !!! It was a great cartoon, and even better toy line. The figures were very much like their cartoon counterparts, they had killer vehicles and weapons, and the line was super expansive... yup, they pretty much made a toy of every character. But the highlight of the line were the Castle Greyskull and Snake Mountain play sets. Those two castles were to cool for their own good. They were big play sets that can be used with multiple figures (which was impressive because He-Man figures were much bigger than any others on the market. While Snake Mountain, with its sinister looks and spooky voice mic, was a better play set (in my humble opinion)... Castle Greyskull was majestic, and it was such a well executed replica of the original from the cartoon. So when my buddy, Reddit master Joe Fletch, sent me over this epic He-Man Lego build of Castle Greyskull.... well, lets huts say it warmed the cockles of my heart. The best parts have to be the Lego mini figs that were created for this build. They are beautiful (Jeff Bond, what say you on these given you're area of expertise). You can see all the pics by clicking on this Owen Burnett's Imgur page, and you can see my faves after the jump...

New York Comic Con 2013 - Cool Ass Statues

One of the coolest things that any con has to offer are the ridiculous and highly detailed collectibles that are offered for sale. Nothing in this category is more impressive than the huge statues that more and more companies are producing. Whether they are busts, 1/2 bodies, or full figures... these statues are often enough to stop you in you tracks and make you do a double take at just how awesome they really are. Here are a few pics of the ones we saw at the 2013 NY Comic Con, hope you enjoy...

80s Toys by Hartter

My geeky man love for the art of Sean Hartter is well known, but the more I go through his back log of pieces over at his site the more I realize I need to share this amazing stuff with the world. I can't wait for October to roll around and we have our first CCD table at the New York City Comic Con in collaboration with my main man Sean. Today we will take a look at some of the retro 80s toys that Sean has created over the years via digital manipulation and his own unique stylings. Some of these are so well suited (Maximum Overdrive Optimus Prime? Yeah... that is perfect!), and some are a bit more ambitious (Leon the professional MOTU figure? WTF!!!!). either way, all of them are awesome. Enjoy them after the jump, and get on over to Sean's site and buy some of his prints. Like now....

Updated Portraits by Fab Ciraolo

Fab Ciraolo has a very unique style to his art. It is batshit crazy... and that is what makes it so fantastic. Fab takes very familiar characters (some real life people, some fictional) and portrays them in a different light. A light that may not be what you expect. When I think Beetlejuice I think a black and white striped suit. He Man, bearskin draws and his chest straps jump into my head. Marilyn Monroe is always in a puffy dress in my head. Mother Teresa is always in a habit... But not in the world of Fab Ciraolo. here, Frankenstien is a part animal club kid. Marilyn & Mother Teresa are hipster chicks with tats. Beetlejuice channels his inner James Dean. He-Man is an avid golfer. These are so great. There are tons of his works available for you to see on his website (click here and see it all!), and see some of my faves after the jump...

He-Man & The Masters of the Universe by Gerald Parel

Is it so crazy that I would love to see a CG adventure involving these characters that doesn't play the concept for a joke but just plays it straight?  On this weird planet of Eternia, good and evil are locked in a struggle for the greatest power source there is - power enough to make them Masters Of The Universe. Click here to see more wonderful work from Gerald Parel, and click aftter the jump for some killer MOTU art...

He-Man & The Pixelated Masters of the Universe by Caleb Hystad

I love me some cool ass animation, especially when something so simple comes out so perfect. In this case I am talking about animator Caleb Hystad's pixelated version of the opening credits to he-Man and the Masters of the Universe. MOTU is one of my favorite cartoons ever, but seeing it get the 8-bit treatment makes it a bit cooler. Thanks to Shez Crafti for posting this cool video, and thanks to Caleb for thinking outside of the box with his art. He has a great site, so make sure you click here to check out all he has to offer. The He-Man video appears after the jump...

Hordak Is Such A Pimp...

One of the most underrated cartoons of the 80's has to be She-Ra: princess of Power. Even though it has princess in the title and was made primarily to open the He-Man market up to little girls, the series has some strong characters & episodes that put it right on par with Masters of the Universe itself. One of the best parts about the series: Hordak. Hordak was Skeletor's mentor and chief adversary to She-Ra as well as a regular pain in the ass to prince Adam himself. He is also leader of The Horde and the main reason why The Slime Pit was such a big part of all kids alive in the 80's lives (probably the coolest toy I ever owned). So what if Hordak had captured Tela & She-Ra and turned them out, Jabba the Hut style? Artist Mike Powell imagines that scenario quite well with a very unique look to his art... looks like colored pencils to me (Tommy l, help me out). Powell has a ton of sexy themed comic book art over at his Deviant Art page (some really sex heavy stuff), so go check that out. You can see the Hordak piece after the jump....

Masters Of The Universe & Princess of Power Fan Art by Nebezial

Honestly, He-man & She-Ra were both pretty awesome cartoons... and the majority of that came from teh fact that the character designs were very original and cool to look at. Whenever I see fan art that makes these characters look even cooler, it just piques my interest even more. Croatian artist Nebezial has done some amazing things with the guys & gals of Eternia, so I decided to highlight my personal faves here on CCD. Click after the jump to see which ones that I liked the best... BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL!!!!

50 Pop Culture Valentines To Share With That Special Someone In Your Life...

So today is Valentines Day, or as some people like to describe it, The Hallmark Holiday. It's just a mad up day in order to sell loads of candy, flowers and greeting cards in order for people to conform and fit the mold they have been told to fit. Well here at CCD we say fuck the norm. Instead of going to your local card shoppe and spending 5 bucks on a card filled with bullshit words and typical heart drawings, we have found 50 great pop culture themed Valentines Day Cards from around the web to share with the person you love and put a smile on their face. Hope these do the trick. So instead of buying a store bought card, print one of these puppies out and you will score some major points with the Pop Culture junkie in your life...

Masters of the Entire Universe by Anthony Petrie

Thundercats & He Man both share a very special place in my heart. As a child of the 80's, these two cartoon/toy lines figured prominently into my daily activities. Sure, GI Joe & Transformers were very popular as well, but they couldn't hold a candle to Thundercats & He Man. Lion-O & Prince Adam are both vulnerable young men who are struggling with their calling as heroes. Skeletor & Mumm-Ra also provided excellent villains to serve as a foil to these young shining knights, doing their best to cause trouble whenever they could.  Man at Arms & Panthro were the go to gadget guys, not to mention the bad ass backup. They both drove dope trucks as well. And Tela & Cheetarah could both get it... Yeah Buddy! Anyway, when I saw this beautiful poster put together by artist Anthony Petrie (click here to check out his site, its bananas) I was brought back to my bedroom at age 5, surrounded by the residents of Eternia & Third Earth. Click after the jump for the full size version...

With A Name Like Fisto, How Could You Expect Him NOT To Be A Perv???

Here is a video featuring He-Man's pal Fisto. With a name, beard & a hand like that, what else could he be but a sex fiend pedophile? I always get a kick out of these chopped up videos, but this one is especially hysterical. Need proof for yourself? Watch the video after the jump....

Artist Profile: Flaviano

We post a lot of artist's works from around the world. Many different countries have seen their work portrayed here on this site. To my knowledge, Flaviano is the first Italian artist to get some love here. Boy does he deserve it. Jeff sent me this tip about this guy and I was taken by his off kilter style and well thought out ideas for his re-imaginings of classic characters from the 80's. His "Masters of the Ghetto" series portrays some of the coolest characters from He-Man in distinctively different looks then how we are used to seeing them. The greats are all here (Beast Man, Mer Man, Skeletor, He Man, etc), but the highlights come from the obscure characters that Flaviano created (Roboto, Cyclone, and Tri Clops... yes please!!!). His next project is going to be based on the Transformers, so stay tuned. Click after the jump for some of my faves from his blog...

Robert Burden Takes You Behind The Scenes In Creating Geek Art Masterpieces!!!

Just because an artists likes to paint geeky items doesn't meet he isn't a serious artist. Even though Robert Burden may be creating works of art portraying properties such as Star Wars and Thundercats, these are fantastic oil paintings that require a huge amount of work ethic and skill. Oh, and they look amazing!!! The colors, the detail, and the sheer size on these pieces put Burden in a class all by himself. Click after the jump for a few videos that show Burden working from blank canvas to total masterpiece in just a few short minutes...

Boneface Puts Some Of Your Favorite Fictional Characters Into Some Interesting Situations...

I cam across British artist Boneface's awesome "Bloodied" superhero series on a few other sites, but even though those were quite awesome I was much more impressed with his other work. First I went to his personal site (click here), then I saw that he had a ton of stuff for sale over at his Society 6 page (click here). All in all, a great artist with a style that is hard to put your finger on. I'll just call his work dope... click after the jump for more works of art from Boneface!

This Megatron/Skeletor Mashup Makes Me Hate 1 Day T-Shirt Sites!!!

Ok... Ok. I shouldn't say hate. I just get majorly frustrated when I miss out on awesome shirts that are only for sale on sites like RIPT or TeeFury for 24 hours. Case in point:

What a great concept for a shirt, remixing two of the greates 80's cartoon villains ever!!! Hopefully I can catch this one when it comes around again. Meh.... make sure you check out TeeFury and RIPT everyday!!!

Olly Moss's Paper Cuts: Silhouettes Of Pop Culture Icons

Check out these awesome pieces that were put together by pop culture artist extraordinaire Olly Moss. For his show "Paper Cuts" Olly did side profiles of a wide array pop culture characters and real life people (over 100!!!) made out of black paper set on a white background. These are so cool. He adds color and details to each photo, and the details are amazing. These are the 10 I liked best. I picked some of the less obvious ones and ones that I thought would appeal to some of my good friends and CCD readers (you know who you guys are!!!). Click here to see all the rest of the pieces in Olly's awesome show.

Teen Wolf... The REAL TEEN WOLF (Fuck you MTV)

Viddy, Viddy Well... Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange

Conan the Barbarian (ala Arnold... this ones for you Rob!!!)

Exterminate! Exterminate! The Dalek of Dr. Who fame (This is for the Melendez family)

Inspector Gadget (Here you go Jeff... the REAL Inspector!!!)

Don Corleone of the Godfather

Godzilla, King of all Monsters (Your welcome Cousin James)

I Have The Power!!! He-Man is the shit (This one was for me!!!)

The Mario Brothers

The Reservoir Dogs (I Loved This One!!!)

These Masters of the Universe Toy Posters Will Take You Back

Way back... god I loved me some He-Man back in the day!!! The best part about being a kid back in the 80's was the cool posters that the toy companies used to put out to promote their new lines. Here are 5 to take you back down memory lane. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did. Thanks to Io9 for digging these bad boys up. (Click all of the posters to enlarge)

He-Man Likes Bounce Houses Too!!!

Check out this wonderful T shirt over at MySoti by Griggitee.

Taking It Back... Way Back Vol #3 by Joe Esq

Hiya kids! Your boy JoeyEsq is here with Volume 3 of “Takin It Back… Way Back”, the article where I highlight for you some of the forgotten toy lines of that most magical of decades, the 1980’s! Unlike the previous two articles (which you can check out here and here) today’s has a theme – He-Man knockoffs. Now with the exception of maybe Star Wars, He-Man was probably the most important and influential toy line of the 80’s, and I’m not only saying that because both properties were copiously ripped off by less creative minds in the toy industry.

Back in the 60’s and 70’s the FCC had all kinds of rules in place about the amount of advertising that could be run during children’s programming. Why this was any of the government’s business in the first place I’ll never understand, but the bottom line was you couldn’t use kid’s programming to try to sell stuff to kids. ABC and Mattel found this out the hard way in 1968 when the FCC decided that the Saturday morning cartoon Hot Wheels was just an extended commercial for the toy cars (never mind that the show was about a racing team and specific cars were never actually featured).

***Please click Read more below to see more of Joe Esq. "Takin' It Back... Vol#3"***

Awwww... It's A Baaaaa-by Skeletor!!!

Check out artists Dave Correia's version of Skeletor as a lil' baby... and he even has his trusty sidekick Panthor right by his side!!!! Via SuperPunch

What's That Yor Spelling Skelly???