Kotaku: models

Top Models Game in the Buff, Too

Owen Good — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:00:00 MST

Sure, you can get pictures of Warcraft. And sure, you can get nekkid pictures of Adrianne Curry. But now, through the magic of Twitter, you can get both in one picture.

Who knows why Curry, the first winner of America's Next Top Model, chose to share this, but she did over Twitter last night. Lots of people game in the buff, but not many of them look like her, so I'm stamping news on this one. Oh, shut up, not everything has to be Investor's Business Daily around here.

Is she really playing though? In that pose, she must be using her feet on the mouse and the keyboard.

Love this comment from her Twitpic page: "You are a nerd's wet dream." One of them, anyway, and I'm sure a goodly number don't even involve girls.

me ... naked ... playing World of Warcraft ; ) [Adrianne Curry on Twitpic, via HBG]

Viper II Gets The Virtual On Model Treatment

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:30:00 MDT

Virtual On model kits have always been popular with giant robot fans, but with the recent release of Oratorio Tangram on Xbox Live Arcade, demand has increased. Hence, this new Viper II.

Released by Kotobukiya, you can pre-order it now for around USD$50 from Hobby Search. As you can see, the detail is pretty great. Especially the pop-out Saturn, which is a neat touch.

Viper II [Hobby Search, via Tomopop]

The Gradius II Vic Viper Model Shoots The Core Of My Heart

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:20:00 MST

Another Gradius game is looking less and less likely, now that talk of Gradius VI for the PlayStation 3 has been completely silenced, but shmup fans can at least remember the good old days with this excellent Vic Viper model.

Based on the Gradius II design and expected to ship in April, the Atelier Sai distributed ship follows a trio of previous Vic Vipers. Those three were based on Konami's slightly creepy Sky Girls anime, which featured spindly teenage girls in exoskeletons. Targeted at the aircraft fetishists who like women with wings for legs, the Sky Girls Vic Vipers were tainted with off-canon colors, but still looked pretty snazzy.

Fortunately, that's all in the past.

The 7.75" Gradius II Vic Viper model should set you back about $42 US (or 4500 yen) if you find a retailer who stocks it. Play-Asia carried the previous versions, if you're so inclined.

If you want to pick me up a pair—the second for a custom Player Two paint job—I won't refuse.

Gradius II Vic Viper [HobbyStock]

Nintendo's Website Looks Pretty, Oh So Pretty

Mike Fahey — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:00:29 MST

As so many of you have seen fit to point out, Nintendo.com has gotten a huge overhaul in the past day or so, transforming from a rather cluttered mess into a more neat, orderly mess. Their web weasels have been working overtime to get the new serene blue, white, and gray site tuned up for their multitude of visitors, perhaps tuning it more towards a generic audience than your standard gaming audience. While the new site isn't without its little quirks, like spacing issues with Firefox that don't occur in IE - the bane of the web developer's existence - it is coming along quite nicely. One might complain about the overabundance of pictures depicting young, clean-cut, well mannered models playing with Nintendo products, but think about it. Would you buy a product with you in the advertisement? I know I wouldn't.

Nintendo.com - Mintier...Freshier. [Nintendo - Thanks Everyone!]

3D World of Warcraft Avatars

brownlee — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 08:40:24 MDT

Now this is neat: a three-dimensional printout of a World of Warcraft gnome. It is, of course, not printed out via cheapo Office Max Epson, but via a 3D printer from Z-Corp, "the fastest way to create physical color models from CAD Data!"

Better yet, via that link comes heads-up on a service offered by Anvil Prototype & Design to print out your Tauren warrior or undead rogue. No prices, unfortunately, so god knows how much it costs. Florian Eckhardt

WoW Color 3D Prints [Ogle]

Someone Finally Plays Spore Demo, Predicts it Will Live Up to Hype

egauger — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 17:20:37 MDT

Some lucky bastard over at Next-Gen.biz actually got their monkey hands on the playable bits of Spore, and lived to breathlessly relate the experience.

Early indications suggest that Spore's gameplay should live up to the hype - with the super-friendly yet powerful editors and the space phase offering particularly rich rewards.

The author had access to all the currently functional aspects of the game, such as the creature editor and life simulator, and the spacetravel endgame. He was not able to play the microorganism stage or the tribal stage, unfortunately.

Another interesting little tidbit:

It may not be there in the same form in the final game, but you could also hit a menu item and send your creature to Maxis' 3D printer, which automatically creates a model of it. It is likely that a model-making service (which will probably require payment) will be available when the game appears.

The information on this feature is limited to these few sentences, with no word on how big the models could be, or how detailed, or if color would be possible. But this sounds like the perfect geek addiction: verbatim models of your own in-game creations.

One thing that's been bugging me about all the screenshots I see is the ugly, chunky style of the creatures. I hope this is a user thing and not a gamewide, enforced aesthetic. Eliza gauger

Spore: Hands-On [NextGen, via Digg]