Roly Poly Astro

Found these interesting looking early toys for very young kids featuring Astro Boy. These kinds of "Roly-Poly" toys always stay upright, and these seem to make a jingling sound.

It looks movie inspired with Astro's face and various appearances from throughout the film, but Uran is there too, surprisingly.

Not sure about the validity of these toys, which raises not only legal issues but safety concerns as well. At any rate, I found them, and a bunch more Astro stuff, here on Dino-Direct.

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Life Size Astro Boy Sculpture

This life size sculpture of Astro Boy is from the Mori Art Museum.

Looks a bit... analog, don't you think?

Photos by Mew Mew Maru.

Thanks to Felix Ip for posting this on his blog.

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What's the Deal with the Berets?

Masters of Manga raises the question of why Osamu Tezuka and other manga artists would wear a beret. Manga artist Jiro Tsunoda answers in this video.

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Mighty Gun

Let's dig into the archives and take a look at this classic Astro Boy oddity, the Mighty Gun!

Yeah, basically it's just a standard sci-fi-esque plastic suction cup dart gun with an Astro Boy sticker on it. Real original. But what is quite interesting is the young Atlas target it comes with. Because we all remember the time when Astro shot Atlas with a gun, right?

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Stark Industries x Astro Boy

Check out this cool artwork that has hit the Internet in a big way. Created by M7781 on deviantART, this piece brings together Iron Man and Astro Boy to explore what would have happened if Astro was built by Stark Industries.


stark industries x astroboy by *m7781 on deviantART

See more from this artist at his website.

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Fire Safety with Tezuka

Check out this poster by Osamu Tezuka from 1979 featuring Astro Boy and Uran in an illustration depicting fire safety around children.

Check out Pink Tentacle for more of these fire safety illustrations with Tezuka characters. Some of them are actually pretty funny.

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Mega Man and Astro Boy

This is NOT real game. This is cool fanart by Red J.


Megaman and Astro boy by *Red-J on deviantART

But what if it was real? I think it would be pretty cool!

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Osamu Tezuka's Notebooks to Be Published

In the 1990's, 75 notebooks were discovered in the home of Osamu Tezuka. Within these books were sketches and early concepts for stories including Tetsuwan Atomu, Jungle Emperor, and others published between 1948 to 1959. Aside from occasional displays of selected excerpts, the material in these books has not been available to the public.

But all that changes in December! Shogakukan Creative has announced the publication of "Tezuka Osamu Sōsaku Note to Shoki Sakuhin-Shū", a collection of material taken from pages of 10 of these 75 notebooks. It will be released in Japan on December 24th.

For Tezuka fans, this is a huge announcement. It's a rare glimpse into the creative process of a cultural icon. I'll be keeping an eye on how this turns out.

Source: Anime News Network

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