First Wonder Woman Concept

First Wonder Woman Concept: "

Illustrator Harry G. Peter's 1941 concept of Wonder Woman is fascinating to me --not so much the character design itself, which here resembles an early Snow White -- but the penciled-in correspondence between the artist and WW's creator, William Moulton Marston.

Dear Dr. Marston,

I slapped these two out in a hurry. The eagle is tough to handle as when in perspective or in profile he doesn't show up clearly — The shoes look like a stenographer's.

I think the idea might be incorporated as a sort of Roman contraption.

Peter

Dear Pete -

I think the gal with hand up is very cute. I like her skirt, legs, hair. Bracelets okay + boots. These probably will work out + see other suggestions enclosed. No on these. See suggestions enclosed for eagle. Braziers I suggest may work better in curved or slanting stripes - red + white. With eagle's wings above or below breasts as per-enclosed? Leave it to you. Don't we have to put a red stripe around her waist as belt? I thought Gaines wanted it — don't remember. Circlet will have to go higher — more like crown — see suggestions enclosed.

See you Wednesday morning — WMM

The sketch recently sold for $33,350.

from ComicBookMovie.com

"

Other Makes: Luigi Colani LeMans Concept

Other Makes: Luigi Colani LeMans Concept: "I suspect that the fearless German designer Luigi Colani has always expected, but never waited for, The Future to catch up with him.

For a 1970 LeMans Concept Car, Colani grafted a hand-sculpted, biomorphic, plexiglass-domed, pivoting cockpit pod onto the business end of a Lamborghini Miura.



This one-of-a-kind, once-a-millennium vehicle somehow made it off the European auto show circuit and onto a trailer, three decades later, in Cross Plains, Indiana.



Where it now awaits--less than 20 hours to go!--the first bid from its new steward:



$74,999, not including shipping or the costs of refabricating the plexiglass pod roof.



How odd that the seller would offer to refabricate the bubble, for money, on a car that clearly stands in need of a complete restoration. Why not offer to replace the missing downdraft carb [which is ornamental anyway, as there is 'no engine at this time.']



Whatever its fate, it does make one wonder what other insane projects lurk in the heart of eBay Motors > Other Makes.

1970 Other Makes Other Colambo
Luigi Colani Lamborghini Miura LeMans Concept Car, starting bid, $74,999.00 [ebay via mondo-blogo]

"

Sweet memoir of a golden age of toy design

Sweet memoir of a golden age of toy design: "

Prolific 1970s toy designer Mel Birnkrant wrote an absolutely charming, lengthy memoir of his history in the field (including the unlikely story of how he got into the business). It's called, 'The Colorforms Years,' and it's free to read.

I remember the moment the Outer Space Men were conceived as clearly as if it were yesterday. The heavily armored big front door of our NYC apartment opened into a tiny hall, hardly bigger than a phone booth. And a phone booth, in a manner of speaking, is, more or less, what it turned out to be. It measured 3'X3'. The door, when swinging open, barely missed the walls, one of which was a closet with sliding doors. The other was the portal that led to a small kitchen, hardly bigger that the hall. The third side opened out to the front room and a primitive early version of the toy collection wall, that later grew to gargantuan proportions, when recreated in the house we live in now...

The only telephone in the apartment was attached to the kitchen wall. Thus, the marathon phone conversations with Harry, that took place nearly every day, always began with the long phone cord stretched and me standing in the hall. Sooner or later, I would, inevitably, end up lying on the floor with my feet resting high up on the chained and double locked front door. But, on this occasion, I remained standing, too excited to lie down. I had just seen Matt Mason in the stores for the first time, and an earthshaking IDEA was counting down: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - to BLAST OFF in my mind.

Mel Birnkrant, The Colorforms Years

(via MeFi)

(Photo: Mel Birnkrant)

• Plushie: easy design system for plush toys - Boing Boing


• Gallery: A Visual History of The Artificial Dog - Boing Boing


• Interview With Crafter/Toy Designer Amy Jenkins - Boing Boing


• Freaky, fleshy concept toy that you can pierce - Boing Boing


• I Am Plastic, Too: The Next Generation of Designer Toys - Boing Boing


• Toy designers' variable velocity gun plays for keeps - Boing Boing


• Rene Cigler, RIP - Boing Boing


• Buckminster Fuller hand-painted designer toy - Boing Boing

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