10 Insanely Expensive Nerdy Holiday Gifts

Monday, December 19, 2011 at 8:01 am
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It is that time of year again, boys and girls: the holidays. Time to spend outrageous amounts of money on things for those nearest and dearest to you. These days, even those of us who are relatively well-off don't have that much to spend. But what if, my friends: what if? What if you were free to drop as much filthy lucre as your grubby heart desired? And not on something sensible like a car or a dishwasher, but something grand and bold and nonsensical? That's where this list comes in.

You may have already seen some of these posted on TR with the fitting "Awesome Things You'll Never Own" tag: I thought it appropriate to review some of the crazier ones. This being the year of the 99% and everything, it seems like the hip thing to do is eschew wealth, materialism, and the man. That's fine. Your friends and family will probably still love you if you get them something that costs less than $100. But let's face it: sometimes it's fun to pretend you have money. What gloriously nerdy memorabilia and movie props could you shower upon your loved ones if coin, shame and common sense were no objects? Here are a few ideas. More >>

8 Bizarre Images You Get When You Google "Topless Robot"

Friday, December 16, 2011 at 8:08 am
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Hi, I'm Ethan Kaye. You may have read one of my lists. At this point, I've been writing daily lists for Topless Robot for three years. I have no idea how many lists I've written for the site, but it's a lot, and they all require either an image search or a video search. And bizarre pics come up every single time. Search for "Batman" and pics of Charro come up. Search for "Pawn Stars" and you get pictures of dog teeth. So I did a search for good ol' "Topless Robot" and here's some of the choice image search cuts. The big rule: it can't have been an image that was featured on the Topless Robot site itself, although that can't always be authenticated. Quick warning: Although all these images are safe-for-work, some employers might be less forgiving of you looking at crude drawing of topless anthropomorphic cats than others. View at your own risk.

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The 5 Best (and 5 Worst) Muppet Movie Moments

Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 8:01 am
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Hi-ho! Thanks to Jason Segel and company, the Muppets are back in top form. This turn of events is enough to make any fan of Jim Henson's puppet creations wave their arms over their heads and scream "yay" a la Kermit the Frog. For awhile there though it seemed like the characters would fade into irrelevancy thanks to changing cultural tastes and a string of less-than-stellar projects over the past decade. Fortunately, the success of The Muppets has changed all of this. While the new movie reintroduces Muppet magic to audiences, it, um felt like the right time to look back at how the old films have held up. Some like The Great Muppet Caper are just as great as the day they initially hit the big screen, while others like the underrated Muppet Treasure Island are definitely worth re-examining. But what moments from these flicks (including all of the theatrical releases and telefilms but not the short specials or series) stand out as being terrific, and which are enough to make you go as mental as Crazy Harry? From unforgettable songs to misguided prequels and beyond, let's get things started with this look at the five best (and five worst) Muppet movie moments. Now, although I'm sure there will be absolutely no disagreement with these choices, remember this is one man's opinion. On the off chance you possibly disagree, please list your favorites -- and least favorites -- in the comments.

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Tags: Muppets

The 10 Weirdest Super Mario Bros. Enemies

Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 8:03 am
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With a colorful career as both adventurers and plumbers that has spanned a whopping 28 years (and counting), the Mario Bros. were bound to make an enemy or two... or two thousand on their innumerable quests to save Princess Peach or the Mushroom Kingdom at large. Each victory meant another villain added to the mustached crusaders' list of archenemies, and when you take into account the individual henchmen of Bowser, Wart and other despots' motley armies combined, Mario and Luigi have a rogues gallery larger than that of the average super hero -- that's more animosity than two Italian plumbers can take! While most of these enemies are pretty run-of-the-mill, such as Goombas, Koopa Troopas and Bob-ombs, there's been plenty of moments throughout the expansive video game series where the Brothers Mario (even Peach and Yoshi) have crossed paths with foes that are too bizarre to even describe or make one wonder what fractured state of mind the character designer was in when creating these monstrosities (and who gave some of them the green-light, for that matter). Take a strange trip down the warp pipe as 10 of the weirdest Super Mario enemies come waddling, swimming and crawling your way! Mamma Mia!More >>

Brilliant Cartoon Reboots: And the Winners Are...

Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 3:05 pm
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Instead of being too lazy, I'm a bit too sick today to give a long-winded, flowery intro to this week's contest results, so all I'll say is this: Much thanks to Cartoon Network, ThunderCats and the ThunderCats Mane Frame Facebook app for sponsoring the contest! Again, if you want to ThunderCat-erize yourself without the difficulty of cosplay or the shame of becoming a furry, the Mane Frame is the app for you. Please check it out!

Also, if any budding Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon executives are out there, you could do a lot worse than read through these HMs and winners. There's some shockingly brilliant ideas for rebooting some shockingly terrible classic cartoons and series in here. Anyways, on with the show.

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10 Documentaries Tailor-Made for Nerds

Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 7:59 am
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It wasn't that long ago that Topless Robot ran a list of the best "making of" documentaries -- for nerds, of course. But what about things that aren't made? What about things that just happened? Like people? Fandoms? Hate? Should documentaries that aren't about how certain movies or TV shows got made get snubbed just because they aren't about the creation of things?

I hope not, because I've already written this list about 10 more nerd-friendly documentaries that aren't about how things got made, but about nerdy icons, fandoms, comic artists, comedians, and more, and it would be a damned shame if no one read it. Track these bad boys down! More >>

10 Classic Doctor Who Companions Who Were Not Hot Chicks

Monday, December 12, 2011 at 8:02 am
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Anyone who's seen even half of one episode of Doctor Who usually picks up on the fact that the Doctor travels with companions, and he seems to have a penchant for picking up the younger women. While it's true that the females he's traveled with aren't always just a pretty face, it's hard to argue that their appearance doesn't have something to do with demographics. But the Doctor hasn't always gone for a comely lady to scream at the monsters, and despite the demands of frothing TV execs there have been quite a few companions over the years from far outside this type, some more than others. I'm not trying to knock new Who, because they've gone outside the box on this at least a couple of times, but there are far more examples in the classic series so I'm sticking with that (besides, Rory and Captain Jack obviously aren't hurting for Who-ligan attention nowadays). I'm afraid I am, alas, unqualified to judge the sexual attractiveness of any of these manly specimens but if you, dear readers, want to help out, you know where the comments section is... More >>

The 10 Worst Things Hanna-Barbera Ever Made

Friday, December 9, 2011 at 8:00 am
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If you like watching cartoons on TV, then you owe a huge debt to William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. While Jay Ward initially cracked the problem of how to create original animated programming on a TV budget with Crusader Rabbit, Hanna-Barbera figured out how to turn TV cartoons into a true mass-production industry. Hanna-Barbera produced Saturday morning cartoons, weekday cartoons, prime-time cartoons, and plenty of one-shot TV movies and specials. At one point in time, well over half the cartoons airing on TV on any given day were likely to be made by Hanna-Barbera.

Early Hanna-Barbera cartoons like the original Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound shorts hold up surprisingly well today, too. They're pretty slow compared to more frenetically-paced modern comedy cartoons like Phineas and Ferb, but you can still enjoy a lot of strong cartooning and interesting background work. Hanna-Barbera kept up this standard of quality, or at least a basic sense of watchability, right up until the end of the sixties.

At that point, something went terribly wrong with Hanna-Barbera's output. Maybe it was the inevitable excess brought by a solid decade of steady success or maybe the studio just took on too much work. It's hard to say. Regardless, the cartoons on this list exist as relics of the terrible period from the late '60s to the late '80s, when HB began to produce some of the worst cartoons ever to air on television. If you've grown up on modern cartoons, you've probably never seen anything even a fraction as bad as these shows. Lucky you. More >>

8 More of the Nerdiest Musicals of All Time

Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 8:01 am
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The Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark controversy of earlier this year was so unprecedented that even the most non-theater aware person seemed to know everything about it. Spidey may have gotten all the press (most of it bad), but he was hardly the first beloved nerd property to make the transition from comics to the stage. Back in January of 2010, Topless Robot took a list at the 10 Nerdiest Musicals of All Time. For this sequel list we've got more shows worthy of your attention that vary from Broadway blockbusters to regional theater oddities. Unfortunately, with a few noteworthy exceptions the majority of these productions have closed or were limited run to begin with. All of these should be remembered not only as fascinating shows but examples of the magic that can happen when a geeky subject transcends its origins to be reinvented on stage. So from porn-loving puppets to crazy trains that would make Ozzy Osbourne envious, here are eight more of the nerdiest musicals of all time.More >>

10 Incredibly Great Zombie Toys

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 at 7:55 am
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Zombies have become the horror fad that never dies (pardon the pun). It began with the rebirth of the zombie movie with 28 Days Later on through to the revival of the classic zombie in the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake to parodies such as Shaun of the Dead; it then spread to books, such as The Zombie Survival Guide and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; and most recently, television with The Walking Dead. And that doesn't include videogames, where zombies have found steady work since the dawn of the medium.

Why, the zombie infestation of pop culture has spread almost like a real zombie infestation! Of course you can't have a popular geek-oriented phenomenon like zombies without toys. There have been quite a few undead action figures over the years, but here are 10 of the best. More >>