Club Nintendo: Elite Member Rewards Announced

Any one who is a Nintendo fan must be a member of Club Nintendo, otherwise you are just wasting all your hardcore love for the Big N when you could be getting some love in return.

Club Nintendo is a website that rewards member with items when they enter codes found in first party Nintendo games (Nintendo Wii, Wii-ware and Nintendo DS titles) and spend time answering questionnaires about those games. From these codes and questionnaires, you will be given certain amount of coins which will built up over time and can then be used to buy rewards from the Club Nintendo store. I have personally purchased a cool Legend of Zelda poster set and am now saving up for Nintendo Hanafuda Cards.

On top of the rewards you trade in coins for, members are also given rewards for achieving either Gold or Platinum status within club year by reaching certain coin amounts (coins traded in throughout the club year still count towards the elite status total in the end).

Club Nintendo just announced the new Gold and Platinum rewards for this year and they are pretty cool. Gold members who earned 300 coins this year will be receiving a 2011 calender filled with custom Nintendo artwork. The picture seen here is artwork from last year's calender. They haven't posted the new 2011 calender artwork yet.

Platinum members who earned 600 coins this year will be receiving a Mario and friends statue which features various Super Mario Bros. characters like Mario, Bowser, Princess Peach and more.

Buying Nintendo Figures for Cheap: Bonus Candy too!

I love my action figure collection. I have spent oodles of money buying Final Fantasy X, Resident Evil, Corpse Bride, Dawn, Batman and lots more figures but sometimes you don't have to break the bank to add to your collection.

Today I added two items to my figures collection and they came from the weirdest place - the candy aisle. My boyfriend bought me the first figure and it came from the top of a candy container. Mario is attached to the lid of a barrel which contained little fruit candies but he looks better than figures I see at work and cheaper too. If I could only remove the lid from his feet without breaking him, I would be happier with him.

The second figure I bought in bulk cause he was so cool - Bob-omb. I bought him at the dollar store and he comes filled with fruit powder candy. His fuse top comes off and reveals a tiny candy stick for dipping into the fruit powder much like Fun Dip candy. Once I eat the candy, I plan to glue the lids shut and display them.

Sure they aren't made by McFarlane Toys or NECA but who cares? They cost a buck a piece and I think they look awesome! Plus they will look nice with my mini green mushroom which once held sour candies.

Epic 8-Bit Art: Custom Princess Daisy

Custom Princess Daisy Pinky Street, originally uploaded by kodykoala.

Kody Koala has to be one of my favorite figure artists - every so often I pop over to his flickr account and find the coolest custom stuff. He always seems to come up with unique things that no one else would ever come up with.

He's newest piece is a Princess Daisy figure made from Pinky Street figure parts. She is so cute down to the little Luigi doll she carries. I would totally buy something like this for my collection.

Sweet Tee - 8-Bit Blues

Available to buy on Threadless and created Jacques Maes, 8-Bit Blues is an awesome gaming shirt. It features Mario as a blues singers blowing into a NES game cartridge like a harmonica. So sweet. Too bad Threadless doesn't take paypal or I would totally buy some from their site.

Baby Mario & Luigi Picture Frames - Getting the Little Ones as Soon as They Come out

I'm a little strapped for cash this Christmas, so instead of spending a lot of dough on a ton of store bought presents, I'm making a lot of my gifts instead.

For example, I made these picture frames for my sister. My nephew, Evan is a big gamer and loves Mario games, so I decided it would be cool to make gamer themed picture frames with his name and my other nephew's name, Logan. I figure both my sister and Evan would enjoy them.

I used Baby Mario and Luigi sprites for the themes and customized the frames with their names. The Mario frame is about 2 rows of beads too small to cover the whole frame so I'll have to paint the frame to hide it or add on some beads somehow. Or I just might keep the bad one for me and make a new one for my sister.

With these designs in mind, I plan to make baby shower frames for my store too. A Mario frame for boys and Peach frame for girls. People can customize them with the baby to be's name or I can just make them with It's a Boy or It's a Girl on them.

Demos of those ideas to soon follow.

Captain Lou Albano Dies at 76

We'll miss you, Lou. RIP
Captain Lou Albano Dies at 76

Epic 8-Bit Art: Lego Luigi

LEGO Luigi - isometric views, originally uploaded by dm_meister.

All my bead art is put to shame when you look at what a guy can do with a lot of lego blocks. DM Meister, a master Lego artist has completed many a lego sculpture including this amazing Luigi piece.

Check out his flickr page to see more pieces like a red Master Chief, the Venus de Milo and Kenny from South Park.

Epic 8-Bit Art: Pixel Art Around the Internets: Updated with Video

A pixel painting by Lost Child, another member of the Pixelgasm forum. (Pixel painting is when you paint the entire piece via tiny little squares). This is an unfinished piece but Lost Child plans to finish it real soon.
This painting is from the intro of Link's Awakening. You can find more of Lost Child's artwork on her Deviant Art page. [Via Pixelgasm Forum]

This is one way to get people to buy your soda at your store. Kudos to the creative stockboy genius at this store. [Via Mr. Spooky's Dtoid C-blog]

UPDATED:

Apparently the display is from a Safeway in Northern California and the idea came from a guy named Ryan who offered the idea for their Labour Day weekend display. Grand idea, Ryan!

Then there's the guy only known as Jeff who's been apparently using his time on Farmville, the new Facebook app much more creatively then the rest of us who are just trying to get a damn barn. All these cool sprites are made from coloured hay bails you can buy in the game.

And I Want My Shells: Inglourious Plummers Trailer

Nintendo meets Tarantino in this cool parody of the new movie, Inglorious Bastards.

[Gamervision found via Technabob]

Epic 8-Bit Bead Art: Fire Wall

Fire Wall (8-Bit & Beyond), originally uploaded by Doctor Octoroc.

Another Doctor Octoroc original!

A custom, framed, solid bead sprite depicting an RPG style battle between Nintendo's three main mascots (Samus, Link and Mario) and a giant XBox 360 posessed by the head of Microsoft's Bill Gates. This scene parallels the battle with the Evil Wall in Final Fantasy 4 for SNES.

Final piece can be seen at the 8-Bit and Beyond art show at Brave New World comics on 2nd St. in Philadelpia on Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 6pm.

Epic 8-Bit Art: The Mario Generation

This is my newest creation: Mario through the 2D generations on canvas. I created all the small marios, power-up mushrooms and big marios from Super Mario Bros. 1-3 and Super Mario World and fixed them to painted canvases.

Okay, so I am selling it - $40 plus shipping - its available on Etsy now.

Mini Bead Bowser - Made in 60 Seconds

Ever so often I get asked how I make my bead creations and one day I actually plan on making a tutorial for the process but until then, I offer this incredible video featuring the fastest made mini hama bead project ever - the mighty Bowser in 60 seconds.

Created by JavICO, a new Pixelgasm forum member.

Little Gamer's Nursery Covered in Yoshi's Island Theme

Why couldn't my sister have done something cool like this for her baby's room?

Well, if everyone doesn't know by now, I'm about to become an aunt again for the second time. My sister is ready to pop any day now with my second nephew who will hopefully become a little gamer in training like my current nephew who loves Mario Kart on the Gamecube.


Unfortunately my sister is not a gamer geek like me, so she decorated the baby's room in a cute zoo animal theme which is fine but I personally love what flickr user, Meadsblog did with their baby nursery. The entire nursery was decorated in a Yoshi's Island theme complete with Yoshi's eggs, Baby Mario/Yoshi and Baby Peach/Yoshi decals on the walls, and tons of framed artwork from the game.

If I had my choice, I would probably good with a Mario themed bedroom for my kid's room too or a Legend of Zelda theme.

A Real Life Warp Pipe

Does it warp me ahead to level 8?

My buddy, Mike found this cool looking warp pipe by a fresh spring and though he didn't find an Koopa Troopers or Piranha Plants inside, he still thought it was cool enough to share it with me.

Now if only we could find some real life Mario Mushrooms?

Super Mario Bros. 3 Push Pin Coffee Table

With the economy down in the dumps right now, it is so cool to know that someone people are turning trash found on the street into amazing works of art.

Xgivanx is one such person as he found an abandoned coffee table on the street and decided to turn it into a wicked Super Mario Bros. 3 push pin mosaic. Using only push pins, a piece of cork board, some piping, paint and plexiglass, he managed to turn the coffee table into the box art mosaic you see above and below.



As an added bonus, Xgivanx attached pipes to the table's legs and then painted them up to look like piranha plants from the game.

Mario Perler Bead Photo Art

When most of us bead-spriters make a piece, we tend to create something from a videogame sprite, but there's also a method that allows you to take photographs and transform them into pixelated patterns for bead making.

Most bead-spriters I know have created photographs of their friends and family with this method, but newcomer to the Pixelgasm Forums, Shelly, decided to take a picture of Mario and turn it into a bead photo.

Pretty cool, huh? Definitely something I would hang in my house for $200.

Best of the Videogame Custom Toys: Part 2

Custom Captain Olimar Dunny by monstafaktory, found via Toy Cutter.

Master (Mister?) Chief Munny created by Bpytam, found via Flickr

Zangief from Street Fighter II and King Boo Munny created by Miss shelby, found via Miss Shelby.net

Pac Man Munny and Dunnies created by WuzOne, found via Tomopop.

Bioshock's Big Daddy as a Dunny by Shauni55, found via Toy Cutter.

Vault Boy Mini Munny created by Chris Furniss, found via Flickr

Bomberman, Bonk from Bonk's Adventures and Mega Man Munnies, all created by Albert Art and found via Albert Art.net

Dig Dug Dunnys by Ryan Crippen found via ToyCutter.

Umbrella Corporation Munny created by Grim Santo found via Flickr

Faith from Mirror's Edge as a Munny by Urban1221 posted at the Kid Robot Site.

Epic 8-Bit Art: Giant 3D Perler Bead Mario Pipe

A while back I designed a 3D Mario mushroom from the Super Mario World original sprite design which was a really pain in the neck to make. Today I came across a much harder project that I can't even begin to figure out how the creator made it.

Super Giants Wing's 3D Super Mario Bros. Pipe is made completely out of Perler beads by the looks of it. From what I can see, the artist did various layers from different angles to complete the 3D, rather than going with one layered direction like my mushroom.

I love how the artist finished the piece off with Luigi trying to make his way down the pipe too. Very cute.

Bowser Pinata - VIVA PINATA!

Bowser Pinata by ~Minutestocountdown on deviantART

Epic 8-Bit Art: Mario and His Yoshi Reindeer

Over at the Pixelgasm Forum, we were modifying sprites for the holiday season and this has to be my favorite so far.

With Santa Mario at the helm of his Yoshi reindeer team, AnimeFur managed to create an entire sleigh complete with a sack of toys and Link as a little elf. I love it!