New Release Wednesday, The Nerds of Color, and The LEGO NINJAGO Movie have teamed up for a “master builder” contest! Submit a #legoninjago inspired build (by Sep 21st) and post with the hashtag, #legoninjagobuild2017 and win one of seven LEGO NINJAGO Movie prize packs! See the movie on Septrmber 22! Winners will be announced the same day on Twitter! Follow @TheNerdsofColor and @TheNRW for the results!
Continue reading “The LEGO Ninjago Movie ‘Inspired Build’ Contest”
Originally published at NBC Asian America
I am an avid toy collector, and every few years I like to take stock of the number of action figures that feature Asian American and Pacific Islander characters. When I started doing this in 2009, it was difficult coming up with enough figures to fill out a Top Five list. Fortunately, it has become much easier to populate these lists since AAPI visibility in pop culture has dramatically increased in the intervening years. In fact, I actually had a difficult time winnowing down this year’s list since there are so many AAPI action figures from which to choose! Moreover, nearly every slot on the list is populated by female characters, which hopefully puts to rest the fallacy that girls don’t buy action figures.
Bruce Lee was a cultural icon who revolutionized martial arts films. Freddie Mercury was the front man for the legendary rock group Queen and considered one of rock’s greatest all-time entertainers. Both of these artists sadly left the world too soon. But, thanks to a Japanese Twitter account, their memory lives on through a pair of action figures.
One week after retailers unleashed the power of #ForceFriday on Star Wars fans across the stars, Keith assesses the aftermath with fellow action figure and Star Wars enthusiast David Yeh (@coheteboy) of the Disney/Lucasfilm fansite Endor Express.
We also announce the winner of the Finn action figure from last week’s Force Friday giveaway.
Have you felt it? There’s been an awakening…
You’ve watched all of the unboxing videos. You camped in line outside Toys R Us, waiting for a special midnight opening. Now, #ForceFriday is finally here. Even though Star Wars: The Force Awakens is still three months away, you would be unwise to underestimate the power of Star Wars merchandising. Hell, you can’t spell swag with out SW, right?
Speaking of swag, we’re giving away some of it. Keep reading if you want to know how.
Continue reading “Celebrate #ForceFriday with a Finn Action Figure”
A few months back, an imgur post about a girl who turned her LEGO Friends juice bar Christmas present into a giant mecha went viral. And the internet cheered. Stupid gendered-girl LEGOs get turned into awesome robot, was the typical response I saw tossed around.
And while the robot was indeed awesome, I couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy about all of the ridicule that was being hurled at the original LEGO set. You see, my own daughter also received a similar playset for Christmas. Should she be ashamed that she wanted (and actually liked) to build the “boring” girly thing instead of the “awesome” robot thing?
Continue reading “Nothing’s Wrong with Pink and Purple Bricks: A Defense of LEGO Friends”
Originally posted at Childish Things
Disney’s next Disney Film Canon Princess isn’t set to arrive until 2019 Edit: 2016! [Sorry!], and she’s a princess of color — Moana, a Pacific Islander. In the meantime, they are introducing a new Latina princess to its cartoon universe. Elena of Avalor will be introduced on the already popular Disney cartoon Sofia the First, before receiving her full spin-off.
It is about time that Disney spread its diversity notches to the Latina community. While it reeks of tokenism, it is still an excellent opportunity for young Latina girls to have someone to look up to other than the aged up Dora the Explorer. I’m actually surprised Disney didn’t jump on a Latina character soon, considering Dora has been so popular for so long. I hope this princess does well and that the Disney TV Cartoon princesses can join their film counterparts in inspiring young girls of color to follow their dreams and work hard and all those other themes. It’s so frustrating that each group must wait their turn basically before they can have some representation on television in a big way like this.
Sorry for the lack of posts lately. It is the holidays after all. Speaking of which, I Just happen to be abroad at the moment and just had to share some pics from a recent pilgrimage to the Hot Toys Secret Base in Hong Kong. Check out the photos after the break.
Continue reading “Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Hot Toys?”
This is a big weekend for nerds. Not only is Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated, IMAX-sized space adventure Interstellar opening on theater screens of all sizes, Disney is also releasing Big Hero 6, its very first animated film based on a Marvel property since the House of Mouse acquired the House of Ideas in 2009. When the deal went down, I know a lot of fanboys salivated over the prospect of a Pixar-produced Marvel movie, and while this isn’t that, it looks pretty close.
We at the NOC have been stoked for Big Hero 6 for a while now. Not only is it the first animated Disney flick with an Asian American male lead, it’s got one of the most diverse cast of characters (and voice talents) of any Disney movie. It’s also Disney’s first post-Frozen vehicle, and just from looking at the merchandising already available, BH6 looks to be just as big, but more on that later.
Chee and T is the newest film by my homie Tanuj Chopra (Punching at the Sun, Nice Girls Crew) and is currently being funded on Indiegogo. With a little less than two weeks left in the campaign, his crew has pulled out all the stops to reach their $75,000 goal. Right now, the project is about 65% of the way there, but they need one last push to get it over the top.
So what better way to raise awareness for their movie than getting a bunch of classic G.I. Joe action figures and reenacting the movie?
Continue reading “Tanuj Chopra’s Chee and T Told with G.I. Joe Figures”
