Steampunk stormtroopers and Alien spotted in Dubai
You may not spot BoingBoing there (we're banned on the internet inside Dubai, last I heard), but you may spot these lovelies -- giant Imperial Stormtroopers and Aliens, steampunk style, in a shopping mall art gallery. Link (thanks hombrelobo!)
Update: hombrelobo says, "By the way, I am still in Dubai, and I can see BoingBoing perfectly ... is not blocked ... Twitter and Flickr are still blocked though."
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It's more industrial materials sculpture than steampunk. Cute, though.
This isn't really steampunk as it is just an object crafted out of machine parts. If his suit ran on steam and gears I could understand but not this.
If I throw some screws and bolts into dog poop, is that steampunk? Or steamypunk?
I wouldn't really call this "Steampunk". This is more of a Hardware Sculpture. Just a sculpture made to resemble an object made out of nuts, bolts and other hardware.
Still cool, though!
I was in Dubai as a sailor in '04, and saw the Alien then, at what appears to be the same kitsch-junk store in the mall downtown. Don't remember seeing the stormtrooper, but I know the alien was there, 'cause I was on the beach with non-nerd friends, and they had *no idea* why I thought the thing was so cool.
An artist in Venice, CA has been creating scrap metal statues of the Alien and Predator for quite some time now. Some photos (not mine) can be found here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/djgreene/144492910/ - though I'm having trouble finding any more information.
I don't know if being made out of scrap metal qualifies something as "Steam Punk". Shouldn't it have a steam engine and some gears or at least something that makes it look like a machine rather than a sculpture?
A store in Hollywood blvd. had these for awhile in LA. They are even cooler in person.
Regarding web censorship in Dubai - for reasons I don't fully understand "access in the Dubai free zone was unfettered, while considerable filtering behavior was exhibited on the Etisalat ISP." (according to the OpenNet Initiative). The Dubai free zone is serviced by the newer telco du, while everyone else is censored by Etisalat; although du censor the business areas that they service, in my experience they do not seem to have done so for the residential areas that they service (I have a Flickr account, for example).
Now, that might be because du's service was restricted to certain areas - this appears to be changing.
Actually, these things are pretty common in the UK, turning up in art shops and other craft displays. There's a cracking almost-life-sized Predator for sale in the Milton Keans Excape centre, as well as a plethero of smaller models, and I've seen them in plenty of other places.
My 4-year-old nephew loves the one in the shop window in Glasogow city centre (found a pic on flckr)
Keep telling him he's supposed to be scared of it.
ooooh reporting this on the starwars.com blog! thanks!
...and what percent did Lucas agree to? Oh, didn't ask eh, I hear lawyers swarming.
So, basically anything with tarnished metal is "steampunk," right?
I noticed a few sculptures in a similar style in the windows of an otherwise empty downtown LA gallery a few weeks ago. Anyone in the area maybe you could snap some pics? It was on the north side of 6th, between broadway and los angeles streets. There was darth vader and two predators, i think. each maybe 7 ft tall.
I first saw stuff like this in a hole-in-the-wall shop near PatPong night market in Bangkok in 2003.
The owner had a Predator and an Alien and some sort of Mazinger/Shogun Warrior/Voltron mashup thing, a R2D2 and a bunch of others. That "DON'T TOUCH! NO PICTURES!" sign looks kind of familiar. I'm guessing it's the same guy/same group doing this.
They're all very neat, but hardly original.
The owner of the store in BKK wasn't rude, but clearly wanted you to either give him $5K for one of them right there on the spot or get the heck out of his store and quit gawking.
Joshhaglund,
I know the sculptures you speak of, I walk by them every day. In downtown Los Angeles, they are on the ground floor of the north-east corner of 6th and Broadway. Going down 6th street you'll see two predators and Darth Vader. If you go down Broadway there are actually more sculptures. I can't remember them all but there is certainly an Elvis, an Alien, and this really cool Spiderman Table (Spiderman sits under a glass table and 'holds' it up.
I'll try and snap some pictures, but no promises. I'm actually moving out of state next week (Portland ho!) but if I get time this week I'll try and take some pictures.
Also note, anyone interested in seeing these, I don't think they'll be there much longer. It looks like someone is setting up a beauty salon in one of the store fronts where a predator currently resides.
Chao,
Patrick
There was a shop earlier this year in Wollongong, Australia with the same sort of things.
Including an AWESOME 8ft Predator in the same style.
pics a mate of mine posted in his LJ here:
http://artfink.livejournal.com/440385.html#cutid1
Some workmates and I went in to the shop after seeing that post, and the shopkeep said that apparently they are sourced from someone in Thailand who makes them.
the Predator was pushing $10,000 pricetag.
Just after these pics were taken they also got an immense throne with an huge eagle over it like a canopy, all done in similar style but skulls etc. And also had a large (6ft) samurai and as you can see in the pic a bunch of smaller aliens, predators and even Gremlins.
Actually, there's an extension in Firefox that allows you to access Flickr in the UAE.
Looks like Steampunk to me.
Which bit of the Steampunk laptop uses steam?
How would you build an Edwardian Stormtrooper?
Steampunk imagery? Retro-mechanical (but not electronic) bits set to unexpected uses. Brass gears, multiple eyepieces, chain-driven pulleys, and especially flyball engine governor are popular, but no specific mechanical bits are required.