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This majestic spiral galaxy might earn the nickname the "Godzilla galaxy" because it may be the largest known in the local universe. The galaxy, UGC 2885, is 2.5 times wider than our Milky Way and contains 10 times as many stars.
But it is a "gentle giant," say researchers, because it looks like it has been sitting quietly over billions of years, possibly sipping hydrogen from the filamentary structure of intergalactic space. This fuels modest ongoing star birth at half the rate of our Milky Way. In fact, its supermassive central black hole is a sleeping giant, too. Because the galaxy does not appear to be feeding on much smaller satellite galaxies, it is starved of infalling gas.
The galaxy has been nicknamed "Rubin’s galaxy," after astronomer Vera Rubin (1928 – 2016), by Benne Holwerda of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, who observed the galaxy with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
"My research was in a large part inspired by Vera Rubin's work in 1980 on the size of this galaxy," said Holwerda. Rubin measured the galaxy's rotation, which provides evidence for dark matter, which makes up most of the galaxy's mass as measured by the rotation rate. "We consider this a commemorative image. This goal to cite Dr. Rubin in our observation was very much part of our original Hubble proposal."
In results being presented at the winter American Astronomical Society meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, Holwerda is seeking to understand what led to the galaxy's monstrous size. "How it got so big is something we don't quite know yet," said Holwerda. "It's as big as you can make a disk galaxy without hitting anything else in space."
One clue is that the galaxy is fairly isolated in space and doesn't have any nearby galaxies to crash into and disrupt the shape of its disk.
Did the monster galaxy gobble up much smaller satellite galaxies over time? Or did it just slowly accrete gas for new stars? "It seems like it's been puttering along, slowly growing," Holwerda said. Using Hubble's exceptional resolution, his team is counting the number of globular star clusters in the galaxy's halo — a vast shell of faint stars surrounding the galaxy. An excess of clusters would yield evidence that they were captured from smaller infalling galaxies over many billions of years.
NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope could be used to explore the center of this galaxy as well as the globular cluster population. NASA's planned Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) would give an even more complete census of this galaxy's cluster population, especially that of the whole halo. "The infrared capability of both space telescopes would give us a more unimpeded view of the underlying stellar populations," said Holwerda. This complements Hubble's visible-light ability to track wispy star formation throughout the galaxy.
A number of foreground stars in our Milky Way can be seen in the image, identified by their diffraction spikes. The brightest appears to sit on top of the galaxy's disk, though UGC 2885 is really 232 million light-years farther away. The giant galaxy is located in the northern constellation Perseus.
For more information: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasas-hubble-surveys-gi...
Credits: NASA, ESA and B. Holwerda (University of Louisville)
In my house when someone sneezes we say “Godzilla” because it’s non-denominational.
Whenever I say OMG I really mean “Oh My Godzilla!”
I’ve been working on this Thank You card for over a year
Someone get on my ass to get this sent out, finished or not. I’m ordering some stamps right now in the next tab over.
Every time I delay sending this card I think of something else I want add and send with it. I have mentally built a little care package I just need to do the thing.
I love the little sketch I did more than what ended up in ink on the card. So, I’m just using some acid-free archival photo tape to attach the pencil sketch to the card.
Mezco One:12 Collective (2019 (announced considerably earlier))
First Appearances:
• Cameo: Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #134 (November 1970)
• Full appearance: Forever People #1 (February 1971)
Blue Öyster Cult - The Royal Theater - 10:00 PM
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_%C3%96yster_Cult
*[left-double-click for a closer-look - band's logo on guitar]
(from RLC IX - 2022)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmMYHTlY92I (burnin' for you)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PoNTMblwf0 (shooting shark)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=neDwfsavDMA (Fear the Reaper)
(from RLC VI - 2018)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-n2_HkJsUM (Buck's Boogie)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCZg7LPCiUg (Fear The Reaper)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=htNNwd2olHM (Godzilla)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTL-4sfWsZY (Golden Age of Leather)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AapiSpaZ4tA (Reaper w/ Eric Gales)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTYwdB2lhFM (Godzilla w/ guest lol)
Rock Legends Cruise IX ~ Feb. 14th - 18th, 2022
Independence of the Seas ~ Royal Caribbean Line
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Independence_of_the_Seas
Port Canaveral - Nassau - Port Canaveral (Five Days)
20 Bands ~ Five Day Party ~ three stages ~ 60 Shows!
Concerts all day-and-night from 10AM to 2:00AM
*Rock Legends VII - (Feb 2019) - Cruise Video Montage
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pIMWuGq2WI&feature=youtu.be&...
2022 Bands: (5 other bands canceled with Covid symptoms)
Deep Purple - STYX - Don Mclean - Don Felder - Pat Travers
Blue Öyster Cult - Little Feat - Foghat - Warrant - Lita Ford
Pure Prairie League - Jefferson Starship - Anthony Gomes
The Fabulous Thunderbirds - George Lynch - Eric Gales
Gary Hoey - Two Wolf - Vanessa Collier - Preacher Stone
*Rock Legends VIII (Feb 2020) - Video Shows Sampler
www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9Nw7CqZ4VE
*ALL proceeds from ALL the Rock Legends Cruises go to NAHA :
Native American Heritage Association, a non-profit organization
dedicated to fighting hunger and providing basic life necessities
to families living on Reservations in South Dakota, U.S.A.
Godzilla on a classic rampage on Tokyo. :3 I like the way the tank and buildings turned out a lot.
It's also mah desk buddeh.
Here's my version of the GTR R34.
As you can see through the pictures, this model can be customized to a more aggressive looking version of the Skyline with wider front bumper intakes, intercooler, nitros, black hood, trunk and mirrors, and bigger rear spoiler. It can be customized in a couple of minutes and could do multiple combinations using the customizing elements.
Everything can open in this model, trunk, hood doors and even the glove box.
I'll also build a blue version soon of this model as it's very iconic color for the Skyline R34.
This model was built at the scale of 1:16 and took me around 1 and a half months to finish.
Hope you like it and thanks for looking :-)
Digital instructions will be available soon on my website:
bricksgarage.com
Hi all-I wanted to do another top ten list of films I loved from this past year. Of course, there will inevitably be more films from this year that I won’t get to see until they come to the theaters, which could be a few weeks from now but this still is, in my opinion, a pretty solid list. I am an avid independent film lover and happen to be lucky enough to live in a neighborhood that has a whopping three movie theaters-Landmark Century Cinema in Lakeview, Alamo Draft House in Wrigleyville, and my favorite, The Music Box Theater on Southport Avenue. I try to see a couple of films a week (I have a friend who sees at least one a day so that’s really nothing). I also just subscribed to the Criterion Channel for the next year to watch even more films. Please feel free to share your favorite films of this year! I know living in American means I miss a lot of great films from other countries that I’d probably love! If you’d like to follow me on Letterboxd, here’s a link: letterboxd.com/Kirstiecat/
Fremont
Directed by Iranian director, Babak Jalali, this film features Afghan refugees now living in Fremont, California and even though it deals with some hardship and not being able to leave the past behind, it is actually rather light hearted in many aspects and not as heavy alone would expect. There’s a particular way that it shows the way the protagonist interacts with co-workers as well as her psychiatrist that I found interesting. I guess there are just some films that make you happy that films exist. I mean, static art (I.e. photography and paintings) has its place in the world and literature as well. However, there are some times that the human story cannot be contained in a static form because even though we can be thinking creatures, we can also be very active creatures. This film is a bit understated in the sense that the still moments carry some weight and the fact that it is only 90 minutes long makes you a little bit more focused on some of the scenes and the presence of the characters. Even the subtleties of facial expression seems to mean more meaning in certain moments. This film is funny in an understated way as well where you feel like it’s sort of hard to laugh but yet you can’t help but feel like there is humor in the desperate need to connect between humans, no matter where we come from in terms of our country of origin, religion, race, socioeconomic status, previous traumas , gender, or anything else really. There are so many things that can separate human beings, but yet we all desperately do not want to be alone at the end of the day, or at the very least at the end of some days. This film made me really love films and it also made me really love humans and I don’t actually know what else you can ask a film to do to be honest.
Just a note that, though I didn’t recognize any of the actors in this film, it was explained to me by a friend that Jeremy Allen White is actually pretty famous and is in the show The Bear. I liked him in this film.
The above still in the photo is also from Fremont as the protagonist’s job at her home made fortune cookie company becomes writing the fortunes inside.
Fallen Leaves (Kuolleet lehdet)
If you ever wondered what a Jim Jarmusch film might be liked if it was a bit more Finnish, look no farther than Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves! There is even a big nod to Jarmusch when the two main characters see The Dead Don’t Die at the cinema. This is an understated existential beauty Although this film definitely made me not want to visit Finland anytime soon, the mood was exactly what I love to see in a film. It takes time to really appreciate the way the scene is set up and the characters and getting into the mood and this film does that very effectively The wry humor of the Scandinavians is also spectacular to me. I also think it was super relevant in the moment that the overarching theme to accompany the drudgery of dead end jobs and crippling alcoholism is Russia’s attacks on Ukraine. The news reports on the radio seem too much to bear for the characters even if they are not overly dramatic in any scene. It’s a lurking reality monster that reminds us of what humans are capable of at our worst.
www.imdb.com/title/tt21027780/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Afire (Roter Himmel)
Christian Petzold’s Afire is an interesting character study with an over-arching theme about Climate Change. This film is very interesting from an American perspective, because there is a tenseness to some situations that does not lead the characters to explode or overreact, but there is still much held within, and the protagonist is not a very likable character at all. There’s also attention to the fact that we are in a point of possibly no return from global warming, and cannot possibly escape. This is looming over us much like a human being, who is so oblivious, that will destroy everyone in his own path for his own ego.
This film is very effective and has the kind of ending that definitely makes an impact.
A note also that the film begins with a song, “In My Mind” by the band Wallners (who I hadn’t heard of before the film) that I found so hypnotic I immediately found the album it was from, Prolog 1, bought it, and listened to it on repeat for several days so that it became my own cinematic adventure and soundtrack to my life.
Song link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lXjx89--5g
Film link:
www.imdb.com/title/tt26440619/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_...
American Fiction
If you think that David Foster Wallace is a genius, you should probably read a few books by Percival Everett. American Fiction is based on his novel, Erasure, and he was also an executive producer for the film. Everett is also quite a bit like our protagonist, Monk, because he’s a hyper intellectual (think Mensa level…or how does his skull fit a brain that large). If Everett was a white dude, you can bet that he’d be hailed as the second coming of Christ (also, by the way, not a white dude but boy you wouldn’t know it from all those depictions of him writhing on crosses, would you?) Instead, Everett is one of America’s treasures (truly the very best of us) and is yet one of our best kept secrets. Why? Therein lies the truth of American Fiction…the white gatekeepers only want to publish and hear a select amount of stereotyped stories about Black Lives. They also want to make sure that they don’t promote someone who makes them feel quite inadequate and dumb. Let’s face it, there’s an insidious motivation as these publishers try to insist that they just really want to promote diversity. They seem far more interested in an agenda that takes away the potential of Black humans.
This film adeptly handles multiple complex issues simultaneously: Alzheimer’s Disease, homophobia, death of a loved one, financial problems, and a whole lot of identity crisis. And, in an experimental fiction twist, you don’t really know what is even happening and you start to lose your own grip on the situation. Jeffrey Wright is absolutely fantastic and I loved the way they film the scene when he’s writing his alternative book to see if it sells (at the time, it’s titled My Pafology). Issa Rae is also fantastic and the cast overall really works in a dynamic and heartfelt way. I wouldn’t be all that surprised if American Fiction gets a few Oscar nominations.
It’s also worth mentioning that director Cord Jefferson wrote 25 episodes of one of my favorite T.V. Shows of all time, The Good Place. I should really re-watch that.
But first, let’s all read a few Percival Everett books!
Film link:
www.imdb.com/title/tt23561236/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Percival Everett on Wiki:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_Everett
Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d'une chute)
There were a couple of really big things that I liked about this film. The female protagonist who is the mother of this film and the accused has a very interesting personality, and I think there are several ways that this film explores the difference between French culture and German culture. I also thought it was very interesting how captivating the storyline was even for me, considering that I do not really like courtroom dramas at all. That being said, as this film progresses, and the blurring between the facts, and the fiction that the author has written herself before the fall, become more and more complex, you realize something… Basically, as the film went on, I noticed that I cared less about whether or not this wife had murdered her husband and increasingly cared about her child’s perspective and wanting him to have the happy ending whether or not his mother murdered the father.
For music fans, Jehnny Beth of Savages has a pretty key role in this film and does a wonderful job. She’s definitely more understated than she is on stage but she’s a fantastic actress. See a couple photos back for a shot of her crowdsurfing when she played a show at The Metro in Chicago
www.imdb.com/title/tt17009710/
Past Lives
I was also impressed by this director (Celine Song's) debut and her apparently non traditional way of directing the cast to isolate the male characters, Teo Yoo and John Magaro and increase the tension between them. Greta Lee is fantastic as always and you really get a sense of the nostalgia she feels for a time and place in her life and the understanding that maybe she wasn't ready to leave so young but now that she has established her life in New York, things have changed. Song alluded to the fact that this was based somewhat on her own personal experience during the live stream of the question and answer I saw, which was quite insightful.
Ultimately, it had me wondering if we can ever truly leave our former selves behind, though.
www.imdb.com/title/tt13238346/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
All of Us Strangers
I haven’t yet read the story this is based on (Strangers by Taichi Yamada) so, in some ways, I don’t even want to rate this yet, but I do think that this film is a very original and creative one that effectively leaves the viewer with quite a spooky feeling. There are definite elements of afterlife mixing with experimental fiction and stellar performances by both Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal. Andrew Haigh is a relatively young direction who likely has many great films up his sleeve if this is any indication. The mood of this film really creeps up on you!
Also note that I saw this in Chicago on Saturday night at the Music Box and there was a line three blocks down and around the corner 15 minutes before the film! I never know which films are going to be popular but I am glad this one has some fans!
www.imdb.com/title/tt21192142/
A Thousand and One Nights
This is an impressive directorial debut for A.V. Rockwell. The acting in this film was spectacular all around and it really showed the racism of NYC policies throughout the years and the human hardships caused as well as the failure to protect its vulnerable children. All the while, it's both a character study and a way to view the relationships in a family enduring these struggles.
www.imdb.com/title/tt12427158/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Quiz Lady
I gained immense pleasure out of watching this film. Directed by Jessica Yu, it features Aakwafina in an atypical role where she plays the very rigid routine character who has watched the same Quiz Show for many years and knows many facts about a multitude of topics but doesn’t have a great deal of social interaction skills. She’s paired with her sister, played by Sandra Oh, who also plays an unusual character for her a sort of free wheeling kind of human who says things like “I’m no longer in her life plan” and is quintessential California anything goes mentality. She’s a lovable hot mess, basically. This dynamic and their relationships is really well delineated as they come together after their mother goes missing from a long term care facility. There are also a lot of cute dogs in this film. I laughed harder at this film than any others I saw this year! Jason Schwartzman and Will Ferrell also do a great job in their roles.
www.imdb.com/title/tt13405810/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_...
The Crime is Mine (Mon Crime)
This is a very smart and funny feminist French farce! It feels like the film goes by very quickly and it is very engaging. I often dislike Period Pieces but this one is very successful in terms of the style and design, as well as the plot and storyline. The characters are also very likable and the writing is oh so engaging and clever!
www.imdb.com/title/tt20330434/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Honorable Mentions:
They Cloned Tyrone
Many of these ideas have been explored before, but it never hurts to have another stylish well done film delving into how white supremacy has destroyed communities and in a very interesting science-fiction way. I cannot give this film a perfect score because there are a couple of holes in the plot, but the framing, and nods to other cinema is well done, and I enjoyed the acting as well.
www.imdb.com/title/tt9873892/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Polite Society
I loved this film stylistically, especially, and the female power and energy of it. I also really liked director Nida Manzoor’s series: We are Lady Parts and I think if you like that series then you will probably also enjoy this film. The choreography was especially impressive for the fight scenes and I liked the way the one sister was on a mission to save the other from her evil fiancé. This is fast paced and sometimes furious in a good way!
www.imdb.com/title/tt18257464/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_...
Asteroid City
This is the only film I saw this year in the theater twice (!) Though, mainly that is because I went and saw it when it first came out and then a friend of mine wanted to see it on her birthday. Wes Anderson is, in my mind, associated with really fantastic set designs and an existential milieu that permeates the characters and this is no exception. I’m not sure if the black and white scenes intermixed with the color scenes really worked for me but it was an interesting stylistic choice and the color palette for the non black and white scenes was really quite vivid. The best scenes of this film are the ones involving the three daughters, who steal the show. There are adolescent geniuses and some big named adult actors, too, that I'm sure people enjoyed seeing but it's those girls that I really cherished. Also, Tilda Swinton still never ages.
www.imdb.com/title/tt14230388/
Eileen
The moral of the story is don’t call a woman ordinary or they will wreck you! Also, we women don’t need men and we certainly don’t need cops. Also, most people are capable of evil. I read the novel this is based on by Otessa Moshfegh far too many years ago (I believe it was 2017 that I read it, which is literally like 1,500 books ago) but I do remember being just as jarred by it as the film succeeds in doing.
www.imdb.com/title/tt5198890/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Next Goal Wins
This is fun and it has a really nice trans rights angle to it. I am really not into sports, but I did like the characters in the sense of culture of the American Samoa peoples. You can always count on director Taika Waititi to have an interesting take on things. Also, I think this may have been the first film I’ve ever seen with Michael Fassbender in it. I’m totally serious.
www.imdb.com/title/tt10767052/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
A note: there are hundreds…maybe thousands…maybe even millions (!!!) of blogs and reviews posted for mainstream films. I’m not going to do that here because those films don’t really need more press and also I tend to avoid them. I find them a little too predictable and clichéd most of the time and involving a ton of product placement as well. That being said, the more mainstream films I liked this year included Dumb Money (These hedge fund nihilists have gotten away with far too much for too long and the US government has abandoned most of its citizens), The Marvels (that cat Goose is fantastic and picturing Samuel L. Jackson as the cat whisperer on set his fellow cast members described him as makes my day!), and Godzilla Minus One (Godzilla is really just a big angry kitty!)
*******************************************************
Films that came out this year in America that I loved but came out the previous year or 2021 in their countries of origin:
The Shape of Things to Come: (Tiempos Futuros)
One of my favorite films that I’ve watched this year. It was featured at the Latino film festival in Chicago with the Director and I was really astounded by how it balanced a grittiness of, for example, the film Brazil, with a modern magical realism. Very inventive and creative film and it seems like it was also a little personal for the Director. Very highly recommended. From Peru!
www.imdb.com/title/tt6408760/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0...
Return to Seoul (Retour à Séoul)
Davy Chou handles issues of adoption and identity, of the transcultural experiences and language barriers very well. Although I could not really relate as well to what the protagonist of this film was going through, I really enjoyed the storyline, the acting, the cinematography, and overall it was very well done. It balances plot and the character study particularly well! It also gives quite a bit of insight into modern culture in South Korea and some history on adoption. Last, Park Ji-Min’s acting is fantastic.
www.imdb.com/title/tt19719836/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_...
Chile ’76 (1976)
I cannot even describe the emotional tension well for this film except to say perhaps a good way to explain it is that it made wrapping up boots seem so incredibly intense that I felt like I was gasping at one point over just this! This film really captures what it might have been like to live under Pinochet and Chile at this time but it is very well done and it leaves just enough out to make you feel like one of the people who is alive with just part or a fraction of the information needed
www.imdb.com/title/tt19758012/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_2_nm_...
15 Ways to Kill Your Neighbor (Petite Fleur)
This is another film that I saw at the Latino film festival in Chicago, this spring and it was very farcical and funny. There are some scenes of violence, but because of the campiness of the film, it is not too difficult to take. I really liked the sense of being disoriented, as this Argentinian protagonist felt moving to France. There’s a really interesting history of psychopaths, loving hi end stereo equipment yet the neighbor who loves this is the one that is actually the victim over and over again for an interesting twist. You cannot take this film too seriously because it is absurd but it is definitely worth watching and does have a really great entertainment value. Preposterous and fantastic!
www.imdb.com/title/tt10940736/
Rodéo:
This was a very intense film. Done a little bit closer to documentary style featuring a subculture in the suburbs of Paris, who build up trick motorcycles and race illegally, and are not very welcoming to the female protagonist of the film. It is also a little bit about survival of the fittest and nihilism, and willing to do anything to get a head for the thrill of the race. I really did not understand or like any of the characters in this film and yet I found it quite fascinating, especially as a character study. I was lucky enough to see this film at the Music Box with director Lola Quivoron present all the way from France!
www.imdb.com/title/tt19719940/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_...
98 Seconds Without a Shadow (98 segundos sin sombra)
This was a very creative and moving film from Bolivia! I highly enjoyed and felt connected to this protagonist and the intersection of spirituality and imagining your future. I also saw this at the Latino Film Festival this past spring with the director Juan Pablo Richter present and there were a few audience members from Bolivia who had such a sweet and heartfelt reaction to the film that really made the viewing special.
L’Immensita
It’s strange, but I actually really liked the opening sequence of this film better than the rest of this film. There’s something about the whimsical way that the music flows and the table is set. Unfortunately, most of this film relates to a failed marriage and infidelity, as well as a father, who does not understand that his child does not identify with their biological gender. For most of the film, I felt the trapped feeling of what it was like, and may still be like to be in a horrible marriage, and to be labeled mentally ill when you do not conform, both in Italy and here in the 1970s. Also, it is worth mentioning that it is very unbelievable that anybody would cheat on Penelope Cruz.
www.imdb.com/title/tt13051724/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
I’m a big fan of Murakami and found this drifting poetic adaptation of a few of his stories quite thoughtful and beautiful!
**All photos are copyrighted**
This is my custom king Ghidorah brickhead figure. This was very fun to design because Ghidorah is one of my favorite kaiju in the world. This monster will be featured in next year's Godzilla 2.
This design had to have 3 heads, which I think I did the best way possible in the brickheadz style. The design will definitely be changed in the future (especially the heads), but for now, I am very happy with how this turned out.
Visiting Alford Museum I was delighted to find this genuine Dalek from the BBC Television Show "Dr Who", it was displayed among other materials from the 70s etc, hence a quick video to archive the scene.
I've followed the Dr Who series from my school days ( a long time ago) hence absolute joy to view this item.
The Daleks - (DAH-leks) are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. The Daleks were conceived by science-fiction writer Terry Nation and first appeared in the 1963 Doctor Who serial The Daleks, in the shells designed by Raymond Cusick.
Drawing inspirations from the real-life example of the Nazis, the Daleks are merciless and pitiless cyborg aliens, demanding total conformity, bent on conquest of the universe and the extermination of what they see as inferior races.
Their catchphrase, "Exterminate!", is a well-recognised reference in British popular culture.
Within the programme's narrative, the Daleks were engineered by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war between his people, the Kaleds, and their enemies the Thals.
With some Kaleds already badly mutated and damaged by nuclear war, Davros genetically modified the Kaleds and integrated them with a tank-like, robotic shell, removing their every emotion apart from hate. His creations soon came to view themselves as the supreme race in the universe, intent on purging the universe of all non-Dalek life. Collectively they are the greatest enemies of Doctor Who's protagonist, the Time Lord known as The Doctor.
Later in the programme's run, the Daleks acquired time travel technology and engaged the Time Lords in a brutal Time War affecting most of the universe, with battles taking place across all of history.
They are among the show's most popular villains and their various returns to the series over the years have typically been widely reported in the television press.
Creation
The Daleks were created by writer Terry Nation and designed by BBC designer Raymond Cusick.
They were introduced in December 1963 in the second Doctor Who serial, colloquially known as The Daleks.
They became an immediate and huge hit with viewers, featuring in many subsequent serials and two 1960s motion pictures.
They have become as synonymous with Doctor Who as the Doctor himself, and their behaviour and catchphrases are now part of British popular culture. "Hiding behind the sofa whenever the Daleks appear" has been cited as an element of British cultural identity;and a 2008 survey indicated that nine out of ten British children were able to identify a Dalek correctly.
In 1999 a Dalek photographed by Lord Snowdon appeared on a postage stamp celebrating British popular culture.
In 2010, readers of science-fiction magazine SFX voted the Dalek as the all-time greatest monster, beating competition including Japanese movie monster Godzilla and J. R. R. Tolkien's Gollum, of The Lord of the Rings.
Entry into popular culture
As early as one year after first appearing on Doctor Who, the Daleks had become popular enough to be recognized even by non-viewers. In December 1964 editorial cartoonist Leslie Gilbert Illingworth published a cartoon in the Daily Mail captioned "THE DEGAULLEK", caricaturing French President Charles de Gaulle arriving at a NATO meeting as a Dalek with de Gaulle's prominent nose.
The word "Dalek" has entered major dictionaries, including the Oxford English Dictionary, which defines "Dalek" as "a type of robot appearing in 'Dr. Who' [sic], a B.B.C. Television science-fiction programme; hence used allusively."
But English-speakers sometimes use the term metaphorically to describe people, usually authority figures, who act like robots unable to break from their programming. For example, John Birt, the Director-General of the BBC from 1992 to 2000, was publicly called a "croak-voiced Dalek" by playwright Dennis Potter in the MacTaggart Lecture at the 1993 Edinburgh Television Festival.
Physical characteristics
Externally, Daleks resemble human-sized pepper pots with a single mechanical eyestalk mounted on a rotating dome, a gun mount containing an energy weapon ("gunstick" or "death ray") resembling an egg whisk, and a telescopic manipulator arm usually tipped by an appendage resembling a sink plunger. Daleks have been known to use their plungers to interface with technology, crush a man's skull by suction,[measure the intelligence of a subject, and extract information from a man's mind.[
Dalek casings are made of a bonded polycarbide material dubbed "dalekanium" by a member of the human resistance in The Dalek Invasion of Earth and by the Cult of Skaro in "Daleks in Manhattan".
The lower half of a Dalek's shell is covered with hemispherical protrusions, or "Dalek bumps", which are shown in the episode "Dalek" to be spheres embedded in the casing.[11] Both the BBC-licensed Dalek Book (1964) and The Doctor Who Technical Manual (1983) describe these items as being part of a sensory array,[ whilst in the 2005 series episode "Dalek", they are integral to a Dalek's self-destruct mechanism.
Their armour has a forcefield that evaporates most bullets and resists most types of energy weapons. The forcefield seems to be concentrated around the Dalek's midsection (where the mutant is located), as normally ineffective firepower can be concentrated on the eyestalk to blind a Dalek. Daleks have a very limited visual field, with no peripheral sight at all, and are relatively easy to hide from in fairly exposed places. Their own energy weapons are capable of destroying them.
Their weapons fire a beam that has electrical tendencies, is capable of propagating through water, and may be a form of plasma or electrolaser.
The eyepiece is a Dalek's most vulnerable spot; impairing its vision often leads to a blind, panicked firing of its weapon while exclaiming "My vision is impaired; I cannot see!" Russell T Davies subverted the catchphrase in his 2008 episode "The Stolen Earth", in which a Dalek vaporises a paintball that has blocked its vision while proclaiming "My vision is not impaired!"
Kaled mutants are octopus-like; many are coloured green, such as this one from "Resurrection of the Daleks".
The creature inside the mechanical casing is soft and repulsive in appearance and vicious in temperament. The first-ever glimpse of a Dalek mutant, in The Daleks, was a claw peeking out from under a Thal cloak after it had been removed from its casing.
The mutants' actual appearance has varied, but often adheres to the Doctor's description of the species in Remembrance of the Daleks as "little green blobs in bonded polycarbide armour".
In Resurrection of the Daleks a Dalek creature, separated from its casing, attacks and severely injures a human soldier; in Remembrance of the Daleks, there are two Dalek factions (Imperial and Renegade) and the creatures inside have a different appearance in each case, one resembling the amorphous creature from Resurrection, the other the crab-like creature from the original Dalek serial.
As the creature inside is rarely seen on screen, a common misconception exists that Daleks are wholly mechanical robots.
In the new series Daleks are retconned to be mollusc-like in appearance, with small tentacles, one or two eyes, and an exposed brain.
Daleks' voices are electronic; when out of its casing the mutant is only able to squeak. Once the mutant is removed, the casing itself can be entered and operated by humanoids; for example, in The Daleks, Ian Chesterton (William Russell) enters a Dalek shell to masquerade as a guard as part of an escape plan.
In a dark basement, a white Dalek (see previous description) appears to levitate up a small staircase of approximately seven stairs. The body of the Dalek is white, with shiny gold vertical slats and gold balls on its lower half. There is an orange-yellow glow at the Dalek's base.
For many years it was assumed that, due to their design and gliding motion, Daleks were unable to climb stairs, and that this was a simple way of escaping them. A well-known cartoon from Punch pictured a group of Daleks at the foot of a flight of stairs with the caption, "Well, this certainly buggers our plan to conquer the Universe".
In a scene from the serial Destiny of the Daleks, the Doctor and companions escape from Dalek pursuers by climbing into a ceiling duct. The Fourth Doctor calls down, "If you're supposed to be the superior race of the universe, why don't you try climbing after us?"
The Daleks generally make up for their lack of mobility with overwhelming firepower; a joke among Doctor Who fans goes, "Real Daleks don't climb stairs; they level the building."
Dalek mobility has improved over the history of the series: in their first appearance, The Daleks, they were capable of movement only on the conductive metal floors of their city; in The Dalek Invasion of Earth a Dalek emerges from the waters of the River Thames, indicating that they not only had become freely mobile, but are amphibious;Planet of the Daleks showed that they could ascend a vertical shaft by means of an external anti-gravity mat placed on the floor; Revelation of the Daleks showed Davros in his life-support chair and one of his Daleks hovering and Remembrance of the Daleks depicted them as capable of hovering up a flight of stairs.
Despite this, journalists covering the series frequently refer to the Daleks' supposed inability to climb stairs; characters escaping up a flight of stairs in the 2005 episode "Dalek" made the same joke, and were shocked when the Dalek began to hover up the stairs after uttering the phrase "ELEVATE", in a similar manner to their normal phrase "EXTERMINATE".
The new series depicts the Daleks as fully capable of flight, even space flight.
Prop details
The non-humanoid shape of the Dalek did much to enhance the creatures' sense of menace[citation needed]. A lack of familiar reference points differentiated them from the traditional "bug-eyed monster" of science fiction, which Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman had wanted the show to avoid.
The unsettling Dalek form, coupled with their alien voices, made many believe that the props were wholly mechanical and operated by remote control.
The Daleks were actually controlled from inside by short operators who had to manipulate their eyestalks, domes, and arms, as well as flashing the lights on their heads in sync with the actors supplying their voices. The Dalek cases were built in two pieces; an operator would step into the lower section, and then the top would be secured. The operators looked out between the cylindrical louvres just beneath the dome, which were lined with mesh to conceal their faces.
In addition to being hot and cramped the Dalek casings also muffled external sounds, making it difficult for operators to hear the director's commands or studio dialogue. John Scott Martin, a Dalek operator from the original series, said that Dalek operation was a challenge: "You had to have about six hands: one to do the eyestalk, one to do the lights, one for the gun, another for the smoke canister underneath, yet another for the sink plunger. If you were related to an octopus then it helped."
For Doctor Who's 21st-century revival the Dalek casings retain the same overall shape and dimensional proportions of previous Daleks, although many details have been re-designed to give the Dalek a heavier and more solid look.
Changes include a larger, more pointed base; a glowing eyepiece; an all-over metallic-brass finish (specified by Davies); thicker, nailed strips on the "neck" section; a housing for the eyestalk pivot; and significantly larger dome lights.
The new prop made its on-screen debut in the 2005 episode "Dalek". These Dalek casings use a short operator inside the housing while the 'head' and eyestalk are operated via remote control. A third person, Nicholas Briggs, supplies the voice in their various appearances.
In the 2010 season a new, larger model appeared in several colours representing different parts of the Dalek command hierarchy.
Movement
Terry Nation's original plan was for the Daleks to glide across the floor. Early versions of the Daleks rolled on nylon castors, propelled by the operator's feet. Although castors were adequate for the Daleks' debut serial, which was shot entirely at the BBC's Lime Grove Studios, for The Dalek Invasion of Earth Terry Nation wanted the Daleks to be filmed on the streets of London. To enable the Daleks to travel smoothly on location, designer Spencer Chapman built the new Dalek shells around miniature tricycles with sturdier wheels, which were hidden by enlarged fenders fitted below the original base.
The uneven flagstones of Central London caused the Daleks to rattle as they moved and it was not possible to remove this noise from the final soundtrack. A small parabolic dish was added to the rear of the prop's casing to explain why these Daleks, unlike the ones in their first serial, were not dependent on static electricity drawn up from the floors of the Dalek city for their motive power.
Later versions of the prop had more efficient wheels and were once again simply propelled by the seated operators' feet, but they remained so heavy that when going up ramps they often had to be pushed by stagehands out of camera shot. The difficulty of operating all the prop's parts at once contributed to the occasionally jerky Dalek movements.
This problem has largely been eradicated with the advent of the "new series" version, as its remotely controlled dome and eyestalk allow the operator to concentrate on the smooth movement of the Dalek and its arms.
Voices
The staccato delivery, harsh tone, and rising inflection of the Dalek voice were initially developed by voice actors Peter Hawkins and David Graham, who would vary the pitch and speed of the lines according to the emotion needed. Their voices were further processed electronically by Brian Hodgson at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Although the exact sound-processing devices used have varied, the original 1963 effect used equalisation to boost the mid-range of the actor's voice, then subjected it to ring modulation with a 30 Hz sine wave. The distinctive harsh grating vocal timbre this produced has remained the pattern for all Dalek voices since (with the exception of those in the 1985 serial Revelation of the Daleks, for which director Graeme Harper deliberately used less distortion).
Besides Hawkins and Graham, notable voice actors for the Daleks have included Roy Skelton, who first voiced the Daleks in the 1967 story The Evil of the Daleks and went on to provide voices for five additional Dalek serials including Planet of the Daleks, and for the one-off anniversary special The Five Doctors. Michael Wisher, the actor who originated the role of Dalek creator Davros in Genesis of the Daleks, provided Dalek voices for that same story, as well as for Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks, and Death to the Daleks. Other Dalek voice actors include Royce Mills (three stories),Brian Miller (two stories), and Oliver Gilbert and Peter Messaline (one story).
John Leeson, who performed the voice of K9 in several Doctor Who stories, and Davros actors Terry Molloy and David Gooderson also contributed supporting voices for various Dalek serials.
Since 2005, the Dalek voice in the television series has been provided by Nicholas Briggs, speaking into a microphone connected to a voice modulator.
Briggs had previously provided Dalek and other alien voices for Big Finish Productions audio plays, and continues to do so. In a 2006 BBC Radio interview, Briggs said that when the BBC asked him to do the voice for the new television series, they instructed him to bring his own analogue ring modulator that he had used in the audio plays. The BBC's sound department had changed to a digital platform and could not adequately create the distinctive Dalek sound with their modern equipment. Briggs went as far as to bring the voice modulator to the actors' readings of the scripts.
Construction
Manufacturing the props was expensive. In scenes where many Daleks had to appear, some of them would be represented by wooden replicas (Destiny of the Daleks) or life-size photographic enlargements in the early black-and-white episodes (The Daleks, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and The Power of the Daleks).
In stories involving armies of Daleks, the BBC effects team even turned to using commercially available toy Daleks, manufactured by Louis Marx & Co and Herts Plastic Moulders Ltd. Examples of this can be observed in the serials The Power of the Daleks, The Evil of the Daleks, and Planet of the Daleks.[48] Judicious editing techniques also gave the impression that there were more Daleks than were actually available, such as using a split screen in "The Parting of the Ways".
Four fully functioning props were commissioned for the first serial "The Daleks" in 1963, and were constructed from BBC plans by Shawcraft Engineering.
These became known in fan circles as "Mk I Daleks". Shawcraft were also commissioned to construct approximately 20 Daleks for the two Dalek movies in 1965 and 1966 (see below). Some of these movie props filtered back to the BBC and were seen in the televised serials, notably The Chase, which was aired before the first movie's debut. The remaining props not bought by the BBC were either donated to charity or given away as prizes in competitions.
The BBC's own Dalek props were reused many times, with components of the original Shawcraft "Mk I Daleks" surviving right through to their final classic series appearance in 1988.
But years of storage and repainting took their toll. By the time of the Sixth Doctor's Revelation of the Daleks new props were being manufactured out of fibreglass.
These models were lighter and more affordable to construct than their predecessors. These newer models were slightly bulkier in appearance around the mid-shoulder section, and also had a redesigned skirt section which was more vertical at the back. Other minor changes were made to the design due to these new construction methods, including altering the fender and incorporating the arm boxes, collars, and slats into a single fibreglass moulding.
These props were repainted in grey for the Seventh Doctor serial Remembrance of the Daleks and designated as "Renegade Daleks"; another redesign, painted in cream and gold, became the "Imperial Dalek" faction.
New Dalek props were built for the 21st century version of Doctor Who. The first, which appeared alone in the 2005 episode "Dalek", was built by modelmaker Mike Tucker.
Additional Dalek props based on Tucker's master were subsequently built out of fibreglass by Cardiff-based Specialist Models.
Development
Wishing to create an alien creature that did not look like a "man in a suit", Terry Nation stated in his script for the first Dalek serial that they should have no legs. He was also inspired by a performance by the Georgian National Ballet, in which dancers in long skirts appeared to glide across the stage.[56] For many of the shows, the Daleks were operated by retired ballet dancers wearing black socks while sitting inside the Dalek. Raymond Cusick (who died on 21 February 2013) was given the task of designing the Daleks when Ridley Scott, then a designer for the BBC, proved unavailable after having been initially assigned to their debut serial.
An account in Jeremy Bentham's Doctor Who—The Early Years (1986) says that after Nation wrote the script, Cusick was given only an hour to come up with the design for the Daleks, and was inspired in his initial sketches by a pepper shaker on a table. Cusick himself, however, states that he based it on a man seated in a chair, and only used the pepper shaker to demonstrate how it might move.
In 1964 Nation told a Daily Mirror reporter that the Dalek name came from a dictionary or encyclopaedia volume, the spine of which read "Dal – Lek" (or, according to another version, "Dal – Eks"). He later admitted that this book and the origin of the Dalek name was completely fictitious, and that anyone bothering to check out his story would have found him out.[61] The name had in reality simply rolled off his typewriter.
Later, Nation was pleasantly surprised to discover that in Serbo-Croatian the word "dalek" means "far", or "distant".
Nation grew up during World War II, and remembered the fear caused by German bombings. He consciously based the Daleks on the Nazis, conceiving the species as faceless, authoritarian figures dedicated to conquest and complete conformity. The allusion is most obvious in the Dalek stories penned by Nation, in particular The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964) and Genesis of the Daleks (1975).
Prior to writing the first Dalek serial, Nation was chief scriptwriter for comedian Tony Hancock. The two had a falling out, and Nation either resigned or was fired.
When Hancock left the BBC, he worked on several series proposals, one of which was called From Plip to Plop, a comedic history of the world which would have ended with a nuclear apocalypse, the survivors being reduced to living in dustbin-like robot casings and eating radiation to stay alive. According to biographer Cliff Goodwin, when Hancock saw the Daleks, he allegedly shouted at the screen, "That bloody Nation—he's stolen my robots!"[69]
The naming of early Doctor Who stories is complex and sometimes controversial. The first Dalek serial is called, variously, The Survivors (the pre-production title), The Mutants (its official title at the time of production and broadcast, later taken by another unrelated story), Beyond the Sun (used on some production documentation), The Dead Planet (the on-screen title of the serial's first episode), or simply The Daleks.
The instant appeal of the Daleks caught the BBC off guard,and transformed Doctor Who from a Saturday tea-time children's educational programme to a must-watch national phenomenon. Children were alternately frightened and fascinated by the alien look of the monsters, and the Doctor Who production office was inundated by letters and calls asking about the creatures. Newspaper articles focused attention on the series and the Daleks, further enhancing their popularity.
Nation jointly owned the intellectual property rights to the Daleks with the BBC, and the money-making concept proved nearly impossible to sell to anyone else; he was dependent on the BBC wanting to produce stories featuring the creatures.
Several attempts to market the Daleks outside of the series were unsuccessful.Since Nation's death in 1997, his share of the rights is now administered by his former agent, Tim Hancock.
Early plans for what eventually became the 1996 Doctor Who television movie included radically redesigned Daleks whose cases unfolded like spiders' legs. The concept for these "Spider Daleks" was abandoned, but picked up again in several Doctor Who spin-offs.
When the new series was announced, many fans hoped the Daleks would return once more to the programme.
The Nation estate however demanded levels of creative control over the Daleks' appearances and scripts that were unacceptable to the BBC.[80] Eventually the Daleks were cleared to appear in the first series.
Fictional history
Main article: History of the Daleks
Dalek in-universe history has seen many retroactive changes, which have caused continuity problems. When the Daleks first appeared, they were presented as the descendants of the Dals, mutated after a brief nuclear war between the Dal and Thal races 500 years ago. This race of Daleks is destroyed when their power supply is wrecked.
However, when they reappear in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, they have conquered Earth in the 22nd century. Later stories saw them develop time travel and a space empire. In 1975, Terry Nation revised the Daleks' origins in Genesis of the Daleks, where the Dals were now called Kaleds (of which "Daleks" is an anagram), and the Dalek design was attributed to one man, the crippled Kaled chief scientist and evil genius, Davros.[84] Instead of a short nuclear exchange, the Kaled-Thal war was portrayed as a thousand-year-long war of attrition, fought with nuclear, biological and chemical weapons which caused widespread mutations among the Kaled race.
Davros experimented on living Kaled cells to find the ultimate mutated form of the Kaled species and placed the subjects in tank-like "travel machines" whose design was based on his own life-support chair.
Genesis of the Daleks marked a new era for the depiction of the species, with most of their previous history either forgotten or barely referred to again.Future stories in the original Doctor Who series, which followed a rough story arc,would also focus more on Davros, much to the dissatisfaction of some fans who felt that the Daleks should take centre stage rather than merely becoming minions of their creator.
Davros made his last televised appearance for 20 years in Remembrance of the Daleks, which depicted a civil war between two factions of Daleks. One faction, the "Imperial Daleks", were loyal to Davros, who had become their Emperor, whilst the other, the "Renegade Daleks", followed a black Supreme Dalek. By the end of the story, both factions have been wiped out and the Doctor has tricked them into destroying Skaro, though Davros escapes.
A single Dalek appeared in "Dalek", written by Robert Shearman, which was broadcast on BBC One on 30 April 2005. This Dalek appeared to be the sole Dalek survivor of the Time War which had destroyed both the Daleks and the Time Lords.
A Dalek Emperor returned at the end of the 2005 series, having rebuilt the Dalek race with genetic material harvested from human subjects. It saw itself as a god, and the new Daleks were shown worshipping it. These Daleks and their fleet were destroyed in "The Parting of the Ways".
The 2006 season finale "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday" featured a squad of four Dalek survivors from the old Empire, known as the Cult of Skaro, led by a black Dalek known as "Sec", that had survived the Time War by escaping into the Void between dimensions. They emerged, along with the Genesis Ark, a Time Lord prison vessel containing millions of Daleks, at Canary Wharf due to the actions of the Torchwood Institute and Cybermen from a parallel world.
This resulted in a Cyberman-Dalek clash in London, which was resolved when the Tenth Doctor caused both groups to be sucked back into the Void. The Cult survived by utilising an "emergency temporal shift" to escape.
These four Daleks - Sec, Jast, Thay and Caan - returned in the two-part story "Daleks in Manhattan"/"Evolution of the Daleks", in which whilst stranded in 1930s New York, they set up a base in the partially built Empire State Building and attempt to rebuild the Dalek race. To this end, Dalek Sec merges with a human being to become a Human/Dalek hybrid. The Cult then set about creating "Human Daleks" by "formatting" the brains of a few thousand captured humans, with the intention of producing hybrids which remain fully human in appearance but with Dalek minds.[
Dalek Sec, however, starts to become so human that he changes the DNA to make the hybrids more human. This angers the rest of the Cult, resulting in mutiny and the death of Sec, Thay and Jast as well as the wiping out of all the hybrids. This leaves Dalek Caan as the last Dalek in existence. When the Doctor makes Caan realise that he is the last of his kind, Caan uses emergency temporal shift and escapes once more.
The Daleks returned in the 2008 season's two-part finale, "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End", accompanied once again by their creator Davros. The story reveals that Caan's temporal shift sent him into the Time War whence he rescued Davros, in the process gaining the ability to see the future at the cost of his own sanity. Davros has created a new race using his own body's cells.
The episode depicts a Dalek invasion of Earth, which with other planets is taken to the Medusa Cascade, led by a red Supreme Dalek, who has kept Caan and Davros imprisoned in "The Vault", a section of the Dalek flagship, the Crucible. Davros and the Daleks plan to destroy reality itself with a "reality bomb" for which they need the stolen planets. The plan fails due to the interference of Donna Noble, a companion of the Doctor, and Caan himself, who has been manipulating events to destroy the Daleks after realising the severity of the atrocities they have committed.
The Daleks returned in the 2010 episode "Victory of the Daleks", the third episode of the series; Daleks who escaped the destruction of Davros' empire fell back in time and, by chance, managed to retrieve the "Progenitor".
This is a tiny apparatus which contains 'original' Dalek DNA. The activation of the Progenitor results in the creation of a "new paradigm" of Daleks. The New Paradigm Daleks deem their creators inferior and exterminate them; their creators make no resistance to this, deeming themselves inferior as well. They are organised into different roles (drone, scientist, strategists, supreme and eternal), which are identifiable with colour-coded armour instead of the identification plates under the eyestalk used by their predecessors. They escape the Doctor at the end of the episode via time travel with the intent to rebuild their Empire.
The Daleks only appeared briefly in subsequent finales "The Pandorica Opens"/"The Big Bang" (2010) and The Wedding of River Song (2011) as Steven Moffat decided to "give them a rest" and stated "There's a problem with the Daleks. They are the most famous of the Doctor's adversaries and the most frequent, which means they are the most reliably defeatable enemies in the universe."
They next appear in "Asylum of the Daleks" (2012), where the Daleks are shown to have greatly increased numbers and have a Parliament; in addition to the traditional "modern" Daleks, several designs from both the original and new series appear. All record of the Doctor is removed from their collective consciousness at the end of the episode. The Daleks then appear in the 50th Anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor", where they are seen being defeated in the Time War. In "The Time of the Doctor", the Daleks are one of the races that travel to Trenzalore and besiege it for centuries to stop the Doctor from releasing the Time Lords.
Due to converting Tasha Lem into a Dalek puppet, they regain knowledge of the Doctor. In the end, they are the only enemy left, the others having retreated or been destroyed and nearly kill the near-death Doctor before the Time Lords intervene and grant him a new regeneration cycle. The Doctor then uses his regeneration energy to obliterate the Daleks on the planet.
The Twelfth Doctor's first encounter with the Daleks is in his second full episode, "Into the Dalek" (2014), where he encounters a damaged Dalek, which he names 'Rusty', aboard a human resistance ship. Left with the Doctor's love of the universe and his hatred of the Daleks, he spares its life; it assumes a mission to destroy other Daleks. In "The Magician's Apprentice"/"The Witch's Familiar" (2015), the Doctor is summoned to Skaro where he learns Davros is alive, but dying, and has rebuilt the Dalek Empire. He escapes Davros' clutches by enlivening the decrepit Daleks of Skaro's sewers, who tear the empire apart, leaving behind the Master (Michelle Gomez), who accompanied him to Skaro. In "The Pilot" (2017), the Doctor briefly visits a battle in the Dalek-Movellan war while trying to escape a time travelling enemy.
Dalek culture
Daleks have little, if any, individual personality, ostensibly no emotions other than hatred and anger,[11] and a strict command structure in which they are conditioned to obey superiors' orders without question.
Dalek speech is characterised by repeated phrases, and by orders given to themselves and to others.
Unlike the stereotypical emotionless robots often found in science fiction, Daleks are often angry; author Kim Newman has described the Daleks as behaving "like toddlers in perpetual hissy fits", gloating when in power and flying into rage when thwarted.
They tend to be excitable and will repeat the same word or phrase over and over again in heightened emotional states, most famously "Exterminate! Exterminate!"
Daleks are extremely aggressive, and seem driven by an instinct to attack. This instinct is so strong that Daleks have been depicted fighting the urge to kill or even attacking when unarmed.
The Fifth Doctor characterises this impulse by saying, "However you respond [to Daleks] is seen as an act of provocation."
The fundamental feature of Dalek culture and psychology is an unquestioned belief in the superiority of the Dalek race,and their default directive is to destroy all non-Dalek life-forms.[
Other species are either to be exterminated immediately or enslaved and then exterminated once they are no longer useful.
The Dalek obsession with their own superiority is illustrated by the schism between the Renegade and Imperial Daleks seen in Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks: the two factions each consider the other to be a perversion despite the relatively minor differences between them.
This intolerance of any "contamination" within themselves is also shown in "Dalek", The Evil of the Daleks and in the Big Finish Productions audio play The Mutant Phase.
This superiority complex is the basis of the Daleks' ruthlessness and lack of compassion.[11][93] This is shown in extreme in "Victory of the Daleks", where the new, pure Daleks destroy their creators, impure Daleks, with the latters' consent. It is nearly impossible to negotiate or reason with a Dalek, a single-mindedness that makes them dangerous and not to be underestimated.
The Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) is later puzzled in the "Asylum of the Daleks" as to why the Daleks don't just kill the sequestered ones that have "gone wrong". Although the Asylum is subsequently obliterated, the Prime Minister of the Daleks explains that "it is offensive to us to destroy such divine hatred", and the Doctor is sickened at the revelation that hatred is actually considered beautiful by the Daleks.
Dalek society is depicted as one of extreme scientific and technological advancement; the Third Doctor states that "it was their inventive genius that made them one of the greatest powers in the universe."
However, their reliance on logic and machinery is also a strategic weakness which they recognise, and thus use more emotion-driven species as agents to compensate for these shortcomings.
Although the Daleks are not known for their regard for due process, they have taken at least two enemies back to Skaro for a "trial", rather than killing them immediately. The first was their creator, Davros, in Revelation of the Daleks,[39] and the second was the renegade Time Lord known as the Master in the 1996 television movie.[98] The reasons for the Master's trial, and why the Doctor would be asked to retrieve the Master's remains, have never been explained on screen.
The Doctor Who Annual 2006 implies that the trial may have been due to a treaty signed between the Time Lords and the Daleks. The framing device for the I, Davros audio plays is a Dalek trial to determine if Davros should be the Daleks' leader once more.
Spin-off novels contain several tongue-in-cheek mentions of Dalek poetry, and an anecdote about an opera based upon it, which was lost to posterity when the entire cast was exterminated on the opening night. Two stanzas are given in the novel The Also People by Ben Aaronovitch.
In an alternative timeline portrayed in the Big Finish Productions audio adventure The Time of the Daleks, the Daleks show a fondness for the works of Shakespeare.
A similar idea was satirised by comedian Frankie Boyle in the BBC comedy quiz programme Mock the Week; he gave the fictional Dalek poem "Daffodils; EXTERMINATE DAFFODILS!" as an "unlikely line to hear in Doctor Who".
Because the Doctor has defeated the Daleks so often, he has become their collective arch-enemy and they have standing orders to capture or exterminate him on sight. In later fiction, the Daleks know the Doctor as "Ka Faraq Gatri" ("Bringer of Darkness" or "Destroyer of Worlds"), and "The Oncoming Storm".
Both the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) suggest that the Doctor is one of the few beings the Daleks fear. In "Doomsday", Rose notes that while the Daleks see the extermination of five million Cybermen as "pest control", "one Doctor" visibly un-nerves them (to the point they physically recoil).[13] To his indignant surprise, in "Asylum of the Daleks", the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) learns that the Daleks have designated him as "The Predator".
As the Doctor escapes the Asylum (with companions Amy and Rory), a Dalek-converted-human (Oswin Oswald) prisoner provides critical assistance, which culminates in completely deleting the Doctor from the Dalek hive-consciousness (the PathWeb), thus wiping the slate entirely blank. However, this was reversed in "The Time of the Doctor", when the Daleks regained knowledge of the Doctor through the memory of an old acquaintance of the Doctor, Tasha Lem.
Measurements
A rel is a Dalek and Kaled unit of measurement. It was usually a measurement of time, with a duration of slightly more than one second, as mentioned in "Doomsday", "Evolution of the Daleks" and "Journey's End", counting down to the ignition of the reality bomb. (One earth minute most likely equals about 50 rels.) However, in some comic books it was also used as a unit of velocity. Finally, in some cases it was used as a unit of hydroelectric energy (not to be confused with a vep, the unit used to measure artificial sunlight).
The rel was first used in the non-canonical feature film Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D., soon after appearing in early Doctor Who comic books.
Shasta: Horrible creature. Surely it wouldn't come here?
Kelli: It's so huge... what are they calling it? Godzilla? Can something like that fit through the warp? I don't know how the warps work.
Shasta: We'll pray it doesn't. I've never seen anything like that. What it did to that town. Those buildings. Those poor people.
Kelli: Hey! No matter what comes here, we have the Justice League and the Queen! Superman will take care of anything.
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Watch what Paprihaven watches!
Here's my version of the GTR R34.
As you can see through the pictures, this model can be customized to a more aggressive looking version of the Skyline with wider front bumper intakes, intercooler, nitros, black hood, trunk and mirrors, and bigger rear spoiler. It can be customized in a couple of minutes and could do multiple combinations using the customizing elements.
Everything can open in this model, trunk, hood doors and even the glove box.
I'll also build a blue version soon of this model as it's very iconic color for the Skyline R34.
This model was built at the scale of 1:16 and took me around 1 and a half months to finish.
Hope you like it and thanks for looking :-)
Digital instructions will be available soon on my website:
bricksgarage.com
This is the Singapore Merlion. It's a fictional creation from the Singapore Tourism Board, part merman, part lion, a blend of the origins of its name from the Malay word "Singapura" (Lion City) and the fortunes built through its port trading activities. So... lion.. port... oceans... fish... mermaid... merman... Boom! Merlion!
It's the must-see for all visitors to Singapore, but from what I've heard, Japanese tourists seeing it for the first time are a little taken aback by it's size. Specifically, it's lack of size. It's slightly over 8m, so when you're from the land where local legend Godzilla is as big as a skyscraper, the Merlion can be a bit of a letdown.
Don't worry: on Sentosa Island, connected to the main island by a bridge, you'll find a much, much larger Merlion. This one is 37m tall, you can walk up the internal stairs to the head and look out the Mouth Viewing Deck, and at night, it has lasers shooting out of its eyes. Yeah, you read that right - frickin' lasers, people!
I told you, Hugh made me laugh with one of my photos of Paris. with Godzilla... Here's other one I took in NYC.
Hey... I'm disappointed not to have seen Peter Parker during my trip in NYC, but I'll be back next year ...;)
I still have lots of photos of New York and Montauk to share soon
YW again Hugh with ... XD
My original photo.
www.flickr.com/photos/vallys_baxter/15146644306/in/set-72...
Character: Godzilla 1984
Company: X-Plus
Manufacturer: Plex Inc
Series: Toho 30 cm Series
Made In: China
Material: PVC
Height: Approximately 29 cm
Released: Late April 2013
Original Price: 19,845 yen (tax included)
Limitation: Made to Production
Packaging: Box
Additional Info: A standard version and RIC Boy exclusive version were released of this figure. The RIC Boy exclusive comes with a sea louse creature named shokkirasu.
The figure will see the second reissue in Japan at the end of September 2016 to early October 2016 for 20,000 yen tax included. This second reissue is known as "新宿決戦 version" (Shinjuku Decisive Battle Version), which has light grey sprays around the body and the back dorsal fins are able to light up. A third reissue was made directly available into the USA by Diamond Distributors on December 7, 2016.
The figure is base on the suit from the 1984 Japanese film "Godzilla" (aka "Return of Godzilla" or in the U.S. as "Godzilla 1985"). The actual 1984 Godzilla suit was created by special effects master Yasumaru Nobuyuki (安丸信行), who also worked on the prosthetics of the suit in the film.
Left foot markings:
TM&© 1984, 2013 TOHO CO., LTD.
PLEX 2013 MADE IN CHINA
X-PLUS
No right foot markings.
Here's my version of the GTR R34.
As you can see through the pictures, this model can be customized to a more aggressive looking version of the Skyline with wider front bumper intakes, intercooler, nitros, black hood, trunk and mirrors, and bigger rear spoiler. It can be customized in a couple of minutes and could do multiple combinations using the customizing elements.
Everything can open in this model, trunk, hood doors and even the glove box.
I'll also build a blue version soon of this model as it's very iconic color for the Skyline R34.
This model was built at the scale of 1:16 and took me around 1 and a half months to finish.
Hope you like it and thanks for looking :-)
Digital instructions will be available soon on my website:
bricksgarage.com
The Puss says, "Ooowwww! That's not funny!"
Chappycat replies, "Chomp! Take that, Fatty!"
Mom says, "Now, Chappy, you KNOW we don't use the term "fatty" at our house. The Puss is just fluffy!"
I call this set Godzilla v. Mothra.
This is my 2nd most viewed and favorited photo.
"Nicknamed “Godzilla”, the GT-R has been called the track car that you can drive every day. It is quite fast and is equally impressive under braking, while having plenty of grip through the corners with precise steering inputs. It is very confidence-inspiring to drive and plenty of fun too."
Source: RM Sotheby's
Photographed at An Cafe Brew, Dundalk, Ireland at Caffeine & Canines.
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Copyright Robert W. Dickinson. Unauthorized use of this image without my express permission is a violation of copyright law.
Taken at the Highline Auto Show in northeast Phoenix on August 7, 2021. Canon 70D and Canon EF-S 17-55mm f2.8 IS USM lens with circular polarizer.
This is my lego Mechagodzilla head from the Showa series of Godzilla movies. Unlike my last post, this build was actually completed. This head is not part of my previous (unfinished) build I uploaded a few days ago seeing as that build was different incarnation of the character.
This build has some features built into it. The eyes, for example, light up using light bricks inside. it's mouth also opens and closes like in the movies. I am not planning to build the rest of Showa Mechagodzilla's body, but I might make a display stand for it instead.
Experience the World of Godzilla in Shinjuku! - Shinjuku Guide (shinjuku-guide.com)
Shinjuku (新宿区) es una región especial de la Metrópolis de Tokio, en Japón.
Es el más importante centro comercial y administrativo de la Metrópolis de Tokio. En el mismo, se encuentra su famosa estación de trenes, que es la más utilizada del mundo, (un promedio de 3 millones de personas emplean la estación diariamente), además del Tochō (都庁) o edificio del Gobierno Metropolitano de Tokio, el cual es el centro de la administración de Tokio y símbolo urbano más importante de la parte oriental de Tokio. En el área cercana de la estación de Shinjuku se encuentra una gran concentración de tiendas de electrónica, centros comerciales como Odakyu, cines, resturantes y bares. Muchos hoteles internacionales poseen una sucursal en esta región especial, especialmente hacia el oeste de la región especial.
En el año 2008, la población estimada de esta región especial fue de 312.418, con una densidad poblacional de 17.140 personas por km², con un área total de 18,23 km².
Shinjuku posee la más alta tasa de inmigrantes registrados que cualquier otra región especial en la Metrópolis de Tokio. El día 1 de octubre del año 2005, 29.353 personas con 107 nacionalidades estuvieron registradas en Shinjuku, siendo los habitantes de Corea (del Norte y del Sur), China y Francia los más recurrentes.
Su nombre significa "nueva posada" (新-Nuevo, 宿-Posada, alojamiento)
Las regiones especiales en torno a Shinjuku son: Chiyoda al este; Bunkyo y Toshima al norte; Nakano al oeste; y Shibuya y Minato al sur. Además, Nerima está a pocos metros de distancia. El punto más alto de Shinjuku es el cerro Hakone, a 44,6 m, en el parque Toyama que se encuentra al este de las estaciones de Takadanobaba y Shin-Okubo. El punto más bajo está a 4,2 m en el área de Iidabashi.
Las regiones especiales en torno a Shinjuku son: Chiyoda al este; Bunkyo y Toshima al norte; Nakano al oeste; y Shibuya y Minato al sur. Además, Nerima está a pocos metros de distancia. El punto más alto de Shinjuku es el cerro Hakone, a 44,6 m, en el parque Toyama que se encuentra al este de las estaciones de Takadanobaba y Shin-Okubo. El punto más bajo está a 4,2 m en el área de Iidabashi.
Dentro de Shinjuku se encuentran áreas más específicas como:
Ichigaya, un área comercial, al este de Shinjuku. Se encuentra la Agencia de Defensa Japonesa.
Kabukichō, un distrito conocido por sus bares, restaurantes y como un zona roja, debido a las prostitutas y otros tipos de comercio sexual. Se encuentra al noreste de la estación de Shinjuku.
Nishi-shinjuku: en este distrito se encuentran la mayoría los rascacielos del barrio. Se encuentra al oeste de la estación de Shinjuku.
Okubo: es conocido por ser un distrito con abundancia de inmigrantes coreanos.
Shinanomachi: En la parte sureste se encuentra el Estadio Nacional, también conocido como el Estadio Olímpico.
Jardín Nacional Shinjuku Gyoen: es un gran parque con 58,3 hectáreas, con 3,5 km de radio, donde se mezclan el estilo japonés, inglés y francés en las decoraciones de los jardines.
Shinjuku ni-chome: es uno de los barrios gays de la Metrópolis de Tokio.
Waseda: se encuentra cercana a la Universidad de Waseda, que es una de las universidades privadas más prestigiosas de Japón.
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinjuku_(Tokio)
Shinjuku (Japanese: 新宿区, Hepburn: Shinjuku-ku) is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration centre for the government of Tokyo. As of 2015, the ward has an estimated population of 337,556, and a population density of 18,517 people per km². The total area is 18.23 km². Since the end of the Second World War, Shinjuku has been a major secondary center of Tokyo (fukutoshin), rivaling to the original city center in Marunouchi and Ginza. It literally means "New Inn Ward".
Shinjuku is also commonly used to refer to the entire area surrounding Shinjuku Station. The southern half of this area and of the station in fact belong to Yoyogi and Sendagaya districts of the neighboring Shibuya ward.
Shinjuku is surrounded by Chiyoda to the east; Bunkyo and Toshima to the north; Nakano to the west, and Shibuya and Minato to the south.
The current city of Shinjuku grew out of several separate towns and villages, which have retained some distinctions despite growing together as part of the Tokyo metropolis.
East Shinjuku (or administratively called Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku): The area east of Shinjuku Station and surrounding Shinjuku-sanchome Station, historically known as Naito-Shinjuku, houses the city hall and the flagship Isetan department store, as well as several smaller areas of interest:
Kabukichō: Tokyo's best-known red-light district, renowned for its variety of bars, restaurants, and sex-related establishments.
Golden Gai: An area of tiny shanty-style bars and clubs. Musicians, artists, journalists, actors and directors gather here, and the ramshackle walls of the bars are literally plastered with film posters.
Shinjuku Gyo-en: A large park, 58.3 hectares, 3.5 km in circumference, blending Japanese traditional, English Landscape and French Formal style gardens.
Shinjuku Ni-chōme: Tokyo's best-known gay district.
Nishi-Shinjuku: The area west of Shinjuku Station, historically known as Yodobashi, is home to Tokyo's largest concentration of skyscrapers. Several of the tallest buildings in Tokyo are located in this area, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, KDDI Building and Park Tower.
Ochiai: The northwestern corner of Shinjuku, extending to the area around Ochiai-minami-nagasaki Station and the south side of Mejiro Station, is largely residential with a small business district around Nakai Station.
Ōkubo: The area surrounding Okubo Station, Shin-Okubo Station and Higashi-Shinjuku Station is best known as Tokyo's historic ethnic Korean neighborhood after World War Ⅱ.
Totsuka: The northern portion of Shinjuku surrounding Takadanobaba Station and Waseda University, today commonly referred to as Nishi-Waseda. The Takadanobaba area is a major residential and nightlife area for students, as well as a commuter hub.
Toyama: A largely residential and school area, in the east of Ōkubo and south of Waseda University, extending to the area around Nishi-Waseda Station, Gakushuin Women's College and Toyama Park.
Ushigome: A largely residential area in the eastern portion of the city.
Ichigaya: A commercial area in eastern Shinjuku, site of the Ministry of Defense.
Kagurazaka: A hill descending to the Iidabashi Station area, once one of Tokyo's last remaining hanamachi or geisha districts, and currently known for hosting a sizable French community.[5]
Yotsuya: An upscale residential and commercial district in the southeast corner of Shinjuku. The Arakichō area is well known for its many small restaurants, bars, and izakaya.
"Shinjuku" is often popularly understood to mean the entire area surrounding Shinjuku Station, but the Shinjuku Southern Terrace complex and the areas to the west of the station and south of Kōshū Kaidō are part of the Yoyogi and Sendagaya districts of the special ward of Shibuya.
Naturally, most of Shinjuku is occupied by the Yodobashi Plateau, the most elevated portion of which extends through most of the Shinjuku Station area. The Kanda River runs through the Ochiai and Totsuka areas near sea level, but the Toshima Plateau also builds elevation in the northern extremities of Totsuka and Ochiai. The highest point in Shinjuku is Hakone-san in Toyama Park, 44.6 m above sea level.
Experience the World of Godzilla in Shinjuku! - Shinjuku Guide (shinjuku-guide.com)
Shinjuku (新宿区) es una región especial de la Metrópolis de Tokio, en Japón.
Es el más importante centro comercial y administrativo de la Metrópolis de Tokio. En el mismo, se encuentra su famosa estación de trenes, que es la más utilizada del mundo, (un promedio de 3 millones de personas emplean la estación diariamente), además del Tochō (都庁) o edificio del Gobierno Metropolitano de Tokio, el cual es el centro de la administración de Tokio y símbolo urbano más importante de la parte oriental de Tokio. En el área cercana de la estación de Shinjuku se encuentra una gran concentración de tiendas de electrónica, centros comerciales como Odakyu, cines, resturantes y bares. Muchos hoteles internacionales poseen una sucursal en esta región especial, especialmente hacia el oeste de la región especial.
En el año 2008, la población estimada de esta región especial fue de 312.418, con una densidad poblacional de 17.140 personas por km², con un área total de 18,23 km².
Shinjuku posee la más alta tasa de inmigrantes registrados que cualquier otra región especial en la Metrópolis de Tokio. El día 1 de octubre del año 2005, 29.353 personas con 107 nacionalidades estuvieron registradas en Shinjuku, siendo los habitantes de Corea (del Norte y del Sur), China y Francia los más recurrentes.
Su nombre significa "nueva posada" (新-Nuevo, 宿-Posada, alojamiento)
Las regiones especiales en torno a Shinjuku son: Chiyoda al este; Bunkyo y Toshima al norte; Nakano al oeste; y Shibuya y Minato al sur. Además, Nerima está a pocos metros de distancia. El punto más alto de Shinjuku es el cerro Hakone, a 44,6 m, en el parque Toyama que se encuentra al este de las estaciones de Takadanobaba y Shin-Okubo. El punto más bajo está a 4,2 m en el área de Iidabashi.
Las regiones especiales en torno a Shinjuku son: Chiyoda al este; Bunkyo y Toshima al norte; Nakano al oeste; y Shibuya y Minato al sur. Además, Nerima está a pocos metros de distancia. El punto más alto de Shinjuku es el cerro Hakone, a 44,6 m, en el parque Toyama que se encuentra al este de las estaciones de Takadanobaba y Shin-Okubo. El punto más bajo está a 4,2 m en el área de Iidabashi.
Dentro de Shinjuku se encuentran áreas más específicas como:
Ichigaya, un área comercial, al este de Shinjuku. Se encuentra la Agencia de Defensa Japonesa.
Kabukichō, un distrito conocido por sus bares, restaurantes y como un zona roja, debido a las prostitutas y otros tipos de comercio sexual. Se encuentra al noreste de la estación de Shinjuku.
Nishi-shinjuku: en este distrito se encuentran la mayoría los rascacielos del barrio. Se encuentra al oeste de la estación de Shinjuku.
Okubo: es conocido por ser un distrito con abundancia de inmigrantes coreanos.
Shinanomachi: En la parte sureste se encuentra el Estadio Nacional, también conocido como el Estadio Olímpico.
Jardín Nacional Shinjuku Gyoen: es un gran parque con 58,3 hectáreas, con 3,5 km de radio, donde se mezclan el estilo japonés, inglés y francés en las decoraciones de los jardines.
Shinjuku ni-chome: es uno de los barrios gays de la Metrópolis de Tokio.
Waseda: se encuentra cercana a la Universidad de Waseda, que es una de las universidades privadas más prestigiosas de Japón.
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinjuku_(Tokio)
Shinjuku (Japanese: 新宿区, Hepburn: Shinjuku-ku) is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration centre for the government of Tokyo. As of 2015, the ward has an estimated population of 337,556, and a population density of 18,517 people per km². The total area is 18.23 km². Since the end of the Second World War, Shinjuku has been a major secondary center of Tokyo (fukutoshin), rivaling to the original city center in Marunouchi and Ginza. It literally means "New Inn Ward".
Shinjuku is also commonly used to refer to the entire area surrounding Shinjuku Station. The southern half of this area and of the station in fact belong to Yoyogi and Sendagaya districts of the neighboring Shibuya ward.
Shinjuku is surrounded by Chiyoda to the east; Bunkyo and Toshima to the north; Nakano to the west, and Shibuya and Minato to the south.
The current city of Shinjuku grew out of several separate towns and villages, which have retained some distinctions despite growing together as part of the Tokyo metropolis.
East Shinjuku (or administratively called Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku): The area east of Shinjuku Station and surrounding Shinjuku-sanchome Station, historically known as Naito-Shinjuku, houses the city hall and the flagship Isetan department store, as well as several smaller areas of interest:
Kabukichō: Tokyo's best-known red-light district, renowned for its variety of bars, restaurants, and sex-related establishments.
Golden Gai: An area of tiny shanty-style bars and clubs. Musicians, artists, journalists, actors and directors gather here, and the ramshackle walls of the bars are literally plastered with film posters.
Shinjuku Gyo-en: A large park, 58.3 hectares, 3.5 km in circumference, blending Japanese traditional, English Landscape and French Formal style gardens.
Shinjuku Ni-chōme: Tokyo's best-known gay district.
Nishi-Shinjuku: The area west of Shinjuku Station, historically known as Yodobashi, is home to Tokyo's largest concentration of skyscrapers. Several of the tallest buildings in Tokyo are located in this area, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, KDDI Building and Park Tower.
Ochiai: The northwestern corner of Shinjuku, extending to the area around Ochiai-minami-nagasaki Station and the south side of Mejiro Station, is largely residential with a small business district around Nakai Station.
Ōkubo: The area surrounding Okubo Station, Shin-Okubo Station and Higashi-Shinjuku Station is best known as Tokyo's historic ethnic Korean neighborhood after World War Ⅱ.
Totsuka: The northern portion of Shinjuku surrounding Takadanobaba Station and Waseda University, today commonly referred to as Nishi-Waseda. The Takadanobaba area is a major residential and nightlife area for students, as well as a commuter hub.
Toyama: A largely residential and school area, in the east of Ōkubo and south of Waseda University, extending to the area around Nishi-Waseda Station, Gakushuin Women's College and Toyama Park.
Ushigome: A largely residential area in the eastern portion of the city.
Ichigaya: A commercial area in eastern Shinjuku, site of the Ministry of Defense.
Kagurazaka: A hill descending to the Iidabashi Station area, once one of Tokyo's last remaining hanamachi or geisha districts, and currently known for hosting a sizable French community.[5]
Yotsuya: An upscale residential and commercial district in the southeast corner of Shinjuku. The Arakichō area is well known for its many small restaurants, bars, and izakaya.
"Shinjuku" is often popularly understood to mean the entire area surrounding Shinjuku Station, but the Shinjuku Southern Terrace complex and the areas to the west of the station and south of Kōshū Kaidō are part of the Yoyogi and Sendagaya districts of the special ward of Shibuya.
Naturally, most of Shinjuku is occupied by the Yodobashi Plateau, the most elevated portion of which extends through most of the Shinjuku Station area. The Kanda River runs through the Ochiai and Totsuka areas near sea level, but the Toshima Plateau also builds elevation in the northern extremities of Totsuka and Ochiai. The highest point in Shinjuku is Hakone-san in Toyama Park, 44.6 m above sea level.
Here's my version of the GTR R34.
As you can see through the pictures, this model can be customized to a more aggressive looking version of the Skyline with wider front bumper intakes, intercooler, nitros, black hood, trunk and mirrors, and bigger rear spoiler. It can be customized in a couple of minutes and could do multiple combinations using the customizing elements.
Everything can open in this model, trunk, hood doors and even the glove box.
I'll also build a blue version soon of this model as it's very iconic color for the Skyline R34.
This model was built at the scale of 1:16 and took me around 1 and a half months to finish.
Hope you like it and thanks for looking :-)
Digital instructions will be available soon on my website:
bricksgarage.com
ooooh Godzilla!
This is me and my camera ... or me consuming my camera, as I tend to do with most objects, products, gadgets and tools. What can I say, I'm ravenous. I also like the taste of metal, circuits and varying grades of plastic.
This is me and my camera, not to be confused with me and my shadow or me and my monkey. Because really, I wouldn't dare eat a monkey and I've not had much success eating my own shadow, except for a few times at high noon.
This is me and my camera, it's a Canon A520. I'll give you a minute to let that sink in. It is a point and shoot, but more importantly it's lightweight, compact and easily digestible. There is no other story about the camera. I bought it at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is across the street. It has a lot of other nice cameras, as well as printers and printer accessories. And beef jerky. Which is also tasty, just like my camera.
One time I had my camera in my purse at Food Lion and then I bought some ham.
(For the Utata's Me and My Camera Project)
Here's my version of the GTR R34.
As you can see through the pictures, this model can be customized to a more aggressive looking version of the Skyline with wider front bumper intakes, intercooler, nitros, black hood, trunk and mirrors, and bigger rear spoiler. It can be customized in a couple of minutes and could do multiple combinations using the customizing elements.
Everything can open in this model, trunk, hood doors and even the glove box.
I'll also build a blue version soon of this model as it's very iconic color for the Skyline R34.
This model was built at the scale of 1:16 and took me around 1 and a half months to finish.
Hope you like it and thanks for looking :-)
Digital instructions will be available soon on my website:
bricksgarage.com
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. At 1,046 ft (319 m), it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel framework, and it was the world's tallest building for 11 months after its completion in 1930. As of 2019, the Chrysler is the 12th-tallest building in the city, tied with The New York Times Building.
Originally a project of real estate developer and former New York State Senator William H. Reynolds, the building was commissioned by Walter Chrysler, the head of the Chrysler Corporation. The construction of the Chrysler Building, an early skyscraper, was characterized by a competition with 40 Wall Street and the Empire State Building to become the world's tallest building. The Chrysler Building was designed and funded by Walter Chrysler personally as a real estate investment for his children, but it was not intended as the Chrysler Corporation's headquarters. An annex was completed in 1952, and the building was sold by the Chrysler family the next year, with numerous subsequent owners.
When the Chrysler Building opened, there were mixed reviews of the building's design, some calling it inane and unoriginal, others hailing it as modernist and iconic. Reviewers in the late 20th and early 21st centuries regarded the building as a paragon of the Art Deco architectural style. In 2007, it was ranked ninth on the American Institute of Architects' list of America's Favorite Architecture. The facade and interior became New York City designated landmarks in 1978, and the structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1976.
Site
The Chrysler Building is on the eastern side of Lexington Avenue between 42nd and 43rd streets in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The land was donated to The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1902. The site is roughly a trapezoid with a 201-foot-long (61 m) frontage on Lexington Avenue; a 167-foot-long (51 m) frontage on 42nd Street; and a 205-foot-long (62 m) frontage on 43rd Street. The site bordered the old Boston Post Road, which predated, and ran aslant of, the Manhattan street grid established by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811. As a result, the east side of the building's base is similarly aslant. The building is assigned its own ZIP Code, 10174. It is one of 41 buildings in Manhattan that have their own ZIP Codes, as of 2019.
The Grand Hyatt New York hotel and the Graybar Building are across Lexington Avenue, while the Socony–Mobil Building is across 42nd Street. In addition, the Chanin Building is to the southwest, diagonally across Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street.
Architecture
The Chrysler Building was designed by William Van Alen in the Art Deco style and is named after one of its original tenants, automotive executive Walter Chrysler. With a height of 1,046 feet (319 m), the Chrysler is the 12th-tallest building in the city as of 2019, tied with The New York Times Building. The building is constructed of a steel frame infilled with masonry, with areas of decorative metal cladding. The structure contains 3,862 exterior windows. Approximately fifty metal ornaments protrude at the building's corners on five floors reminiscent of gargoyles on Gothic cathedrals. The 31st-floor contains gargoyles[26] as well as replicas of the 1929 Chrysler radiator caps, and the 61st-floor is adorned with eagles as a nod to America's national bird.
The design of the Chrysler Building makes extensive use of bright "Nirosta" stainless steel, an austenitic alloy developed in Germany by Krupp. It was the first use of this "18-8 stainless steel" in an American project, composed of 18% chromium and 8% nickel. Nirosta was used in the exterior ornaments, the window frames, the crown, and the needle. The steel was an integral part of Van Alen's design, as E.E. Thum explains: "The use of permanently bright metal was of greatest aid in the carrying of rising lines and the diminishing circular forms in the roof treatment, so as to accentuate the gradual upward swing until it literally dissolves into the sky...." Stainless steel producers used the Chrysler Building to evaluate the durability of the product in architecture. In 1929, the American Society for Testing Materials created an inspection committee to study its performance, which regarded the Chrysler Building as the best location to do so; a subcommittee examined the building's panels every five years until 1960, when the inspections were canceled because the panels had shown minimal deterioration.
Form
The Chrysler Building's height and legally mandated setbacks influenced Van Alen in his design. The walls of the lowermost sixteen floors rise directly from the sidewalk property lines, except for a recess on one side that gives the building a U-shaped floor plan above the fourth floor. There are setbacks on floors 16, 18, 23, 28, and 31, making the building compliant with the 1916 Zoning Resolution. This gives the building the appearance of a ziggurat on one side and a U-shaped palazzo on the other. Above the 31st floor, there are no more setbacks until the 60th floor, above which the structure is funneled into a Maltese cross shape that "blends the square shaft to the finial", according to author and photographer Cervin Robinson.
The floor plans of the first sixteen floors were made as large as possible to optimize the amount of rental space nearest ground level, which was seen as most desirable. The U-shaped cut above the fourth floor served as a shaft for air flow and illumination. The area between floors 28 and 31 added "visual interest to the middle of the building, preventing it from being dominated by the heavy detail of the lower floors and the eye-catching design of the finial. They provide a base to the column of the tower, effecting a transition between the blocky lower stories and the lofty shaft."
Facade
Base and shaft
The ground floor exterior is covered in polished black granite from Shastone, while the three floors above it are clad in white marble from Georgia. There are two main entrances, on Lexington Avenue and on 42nd Street, each three floors high with Shastone granite surrounding each proscenium-shaped entryway. At some distance into each main entryway, there are revolving doors "beneath intricately patterned metal and glass screens", designed so as to embody the Art Deco tenet of amplifying the entrance's visual impact. A smaller side entrance on 43rd Street is one story high. There are storefronts consisting of large Nirosta-steel-framed windows at ground level. Office windows penetrate the second through fourth floors.
The west and east elevations contain the air shafts above the fourth floor, while the north and south sides contain the receding setbacks. Below the 16th floor, the facade is clad with white brick, interrupted by white-marble bands in a manner similar to basket weaving. The inner faces of the brick walls are coated with a waterproof grout mixture measuring about 1⁄16 inch (1.6 mm) thick. The windows, arranged in grids, do not have window sills, the frames being flush with the facade. Between the 16th and 24th floors, the exterior exhibits vertical white brick columns that are separated by windows on each floor. This visual effect is made possible by the presence of aluminum spandrels between the columns of windows on each floor. There are abstract reliefs on the 20th through 22nd-floor spandrels, while the 24th floor contains 9-foot (2.7 m) decorative pineapples.
Above the third setback, consisting of the 24th through 27th floors, the facade contains horizontal bands and zigzagged gray-and-black brick motifs. The section above the fourth setback, between the 27th and 31st floors, serves as a podium for the main shaft of the building. There are Nirosta-steel decorations above the setbacks. At each corner of the 31st floor, large car-hood ornaments were installed to make the base look larger. These corner extensions help counter a common optical illusion seen in tall buildings with horizontal bands, whose taller floors would normally look larger. The 31st floor also contains a gray and white frieze of hubcaps and fenders, which both symbolize the Chrysler Corporation and serves as a visual signature of the building's Art Deco design. The bonnet embellishments take the shape of Mercury's winged helmet and resemble hood ornaments installed on Chrysler vehicles at the time.
The shaft of the tower was designed to emphasize both the horizontal and vertical: each of the tower's four sides contains three columns of windows, each framed by bricks and an unbroken marble pillar that rises along the entirety of each side. The spandrels separating the windows contain "alternating vertical stripes in gray and white brick", while each corner contains horizontal rows of black brick.
Crown and spire
The Chrysler Building is renowned for, and recognized by its terraced crown, which is an extension of the main tower. Composed of seven radiating terraced arches, Van Alen's design of the crown is a cruciform groin vault of seven concentric members with transitioning setbacks. The entire crown is clad with Nirosta steel, ribbed and riveted in a radiating sunburst pattern with many triangular vaulted windows, reminiscent of the spokes of a wheel. The windows are repeated, in smaller form, on the terraced crown's seven narrow setbacks. Due to the curved shape of the dome, the Nirosta sheets had to be measured on site, so most of the work was carried out in workshops on the building's 67th and 75th floors. According to Robinson, the terraced crown "continue[s] the wedding-cake layering of the building itself. This concept is carried forward from the 61st floor, whose eagle gargoyles echo the treatment of the 31st, to the spire, which extends the concept of 'higher and narrower' forward to infinite height and infinitesimal width. This unique treatment emphasizes the building's height, giving it an other worldly atmosphere reminiscent of the fantastic architecture of Coney Island or the Far East."
Television station WCBS-TV (Channel 2) originated its transmission from the top of the Chrysler Building in 1938. WCBS-TV transmissions were shifted to the Empire State Building in 1960 in response to competition from RCA's transmitter on that building. For many years WPAT-FM and WTFM (now WKTU) also transmitted from the Chrysler Building, but their move to the Empire State Building by the 1970s ended commercial broadcasting from the structure.
The crown and spire are illuminated by a combination of fluorescent lights framing the crown's distinctive triangular windows and colored floodlights that face toward the building, allowing it to be lit in a variety of schemes for special occasions.The V-shaped fluorescent "tube lighting" – hundreds of 480V 40W bulbs framing 120 window openings – was added in 1981, although it had been part of the original design. Until 1998, the lights were turned off at 2 a.m., but The New York Observer columnist Ron Rosenbaum convinced Tishman Speyer to keep the lights on until 6 a.m. Since 2015, the Chrysler Building and other city skyscrapers have been part of the Audubon Society's Lights Out program, turning off their lights during bird migration seasons.
History
In the mid-1920s, New York's metropolitan area surpassed London's as the world's most populous metropolitan area and its population exceeded ten million by the early 1930s. The era was characterized by profound social and technological changes. Consumer goods such as radio, cinema, and the automobile became widespread. In 1927, Walter Chrysler's automotive company, the Chrysler Corporation, became the third-largest car manufacturer in the United States, behind Ford and General Motors. The following year, Chrysler was named Time magazine's "Person of the Year".
The economic boom of the 1920s and speculation in the real estate market fostered a wave of new skyscraper projects in New York City. The Chrysler Building was built as part of an ongoing building boom that resulted in the city having the world's tallest building from 1908 to 1974. Following the end of World War I, European and American architects came to see simplified design as the epitome of the modern era and Art Deco skyscrapers as symbolizing progress, innovation, and modernity. The 1916 Zoning Resolution restricted the height that street-side exterior walls of New York City buildings could rise before needing to be setback from the street. This led to the construction of Art Deco structures in New York City with significant setbacks, large volumes, and striking silhouettes that were often elaborately decorated. Art Deco buildings were constructed for only a short period of time; but because that period was during the city's late-1920s real estate boom, the numerous skyscrapers built in the Art Deco style predominated in the city skyline, giving it the romantic quality seen in films and plays.[The Chrysler Building project was shaped by these circumstances.
Development
Originally, the Chrysler Building was to be the Reynolds Building, a project of real estate developer and former New York state senator William H. Reynolds. Prior to his involvement in planning the building, Reynolds was best known for developing Coney Island's Dreamland amusement park. When the amusement park was destroyed by a fire in 1911, Reynolds turned his attention to Manhattan real estate, where he set out to build the tallest building in the world.
Planning
In 1921, Reynolds rented a large plot of land at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street with the intention of building a tall building on the site. Reynolds did not develop the property for several years, prompting the Cooper Union to try to increase the assessed value of the property in 1924. The move, which would force Reynolds to pay more rent, was unusual because property owners usually sought to decrease their property assessments and pay fewer taxes. Reynolds hired the architect William Van Alen to design a forty-story building there in 1927. Van Alen's original design featured many Modernist stylistic elements, with glazed, curved windows at the corners.
Van Alen was respected in his field for his work on the Albemarle Building at Broadway and 24th Street, designing it in collaboration with his partner H. Craig Severance. Van Alen and Severance complemented each other, with Van Alen being an original, imaginative architect and Severance being a shrewd businessperson who handled the firm's finances. The relationship between them became tense over disagreements on how best to run the firm. A 1924 article in the Architectural Review, praising the Albemarle Building's design, had mentioned Van Alen as the designer in the firm and ignored Severance's role. The architects' partnership dissolved acrimoniously several months later, with lawsuits over the firm's clients and assets lasting over a year. The rivalry influenced the design of the future Chrysler Building, since Severance's more traditional architectural style would otherwise have restrained Van Alen's more modern outlook.
Refinement of designs
By February 2, 1928, the proposed building's height had been increased to 54 stories, which would have made it the tallest building in Midtown. The proposal was changed again two weeks later, with official plans for a 63-story building. A little more than a week after that, the plan was changed for the third time, with two additional stories added. By this time, 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue were both hubs for construction activity, due to the removal of the Third Avenue Elevated's 42nd Street spur, which was seen as a blight on the area. The adjacent 56-story Chanin Building was also under construction. Because of the elevated spur's removal, real estate speculators believed that Lexington Avenue would become the "Broadway of the East Side", causing a ripple effect that would spur developments farther east.
In April 1928, Reynolds signed a 67-year lease for the plot and finalized the details of his ambitious project. Van Alen's original design for the skyscraper called for a base with first-floor showroom windows that would be triple-height, and above would be 12 stories with glass-wrapped corners, to create the impression that the tower was floating in mid-air. Reynolds's main contribution to the building's design was his insistence that it have a metallic crown, despite Van Alen's initial opposition; the metal-and-crystal crown would have looked like "a jeweled sphere" at night. Originally, the skyscraper would have risen 808 feet (246 m), with 67 floors. These plans were approved in June 1928. Van Alen's drawings were unveiled in the following August and published in a magazine run by the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
Reynolds ultimately devised an alternate design for the Reynolds Building, which was published in August 1928. The new design was much more conservative, with an Italianate dome that a critic compared to Governor Al Smith's bowler hat, and a brick arrangement on the upper floors that simulated windows in the corners, a detail that remains in the current Chrysler Building. This design almost exactly reflected the shape, setbacks, and the layout of the windows of the current building, but with a different dome.
Final plans and start of construction
With the design complete, groundbreaking for the Reynolds Building took place on September 19, 1928, but by late 1928, Reynolds did not have the means to carry on construction. Walter Chrysler offered to buy the building in early October 1928, and Reynolds sold the plot, lease, plans, and architect's services to Chrysler on October 15, 1928, for more than $2.5 million. That day, the Goodwin Construction Company began demolition of what had been built. A contract was awarded on October 28, and demolition was completed on November 9. Chrysler's initial plans for the building were similar to Reynolds's, but with the 808-foot building having 68 floors instead of 67. The plans entailed a ground-floor pedestrian arcade; a facade of stone below the fifth floor and brick-and-terracotta above; and a three-story bronze-and-glass "observation dome" at the top. However, Chrysler wanted a more progressive design, and he worked with Van Alen to redesign the skyscraper to be 925 ft (282 m) tall. At the new height, Chrysler's building would be taller than the 792-foot (241 m) Woolworth Building, a building in lower Manhattan that was the world's tallest at the time. At one point, Chrysler had requested that Van Alen shorten the design by ten floors, but reneged on that decision after realizing that the increased height would also result in increased publicity.
From late 1928 to early 1929, modifications to the design of the dome continued. In March 1929, the press published details of an "artistic dome" that had the shape of a giant thirty-pointed star, which would be crowned by a sculpture five meters high. The final design of the dome included several arches and triangular windows. Lower down, various architectural details were modeled after Chrysler automobile products, such as the hood ornaments of the Plymouth (see § Designs between setbacks). The building's gargoyles on the 31st floor and the eagles on the 61st floor, were created to represent flight, and to embody the machine age of the time. Even the topmost needle was built using a process similar to one Chrysler used to manufacture his cars, with precise "hand craftmanship". In his autobiography, Chrysler says he suggested that his building be taller than the Eiffel Tower.
Meanwhile, excavation of the new building's 69-foot-deep (21 m) foundation began in mid-November 1928 and was completed in mid-January 1929, when bedrock was reached. A total of 105,000,000 pounds (48,000,000 kg) of rock and 36,000,000 pounds (16,000,000 kg) of soil were excavated for the foundation, equal to 63% of the future building's weight. Construction of the building proper began on January 21, 1929. The Carnegie Steel Company provided the steel beams, the first of which was installed on March 27; and by April 9, the first upright beams had been set into place. The steel structure was "a few floors" high by June 1929, 35 floors high by early August, and completed by September. Despite a frantic steelwork construction pace of about four floors per week, no workers died during the construction of the skyscraper's steelwork. Chrysler lauded this achievement, saying, "It is the first time that any structure in the world has reached such a height, yet the entire steel construction was accomplished without loss of life". In total, 391,881 rivets were used, and approximately 3,826,000 bricks were laid to create the non-loadbearing walls of the skyscraper. Walter Chrysler personally financed the construction with his income from his car company. The Chrysler Building's height officially surpassed the Woolworth's on October 16, 1929, thereby becoming the world's tallest structure.
Completion
In January 1930, it was announced that the Chrysler Corporation would maintain satellite offices in the Chrysler Building during Automobile Show Week. The skyscraper was never intended to become the Chrysler Corporation's headquarters, which remained in Detroit. The first leases by outside tenants were announced in April 1930, before the building was officially completed. The building was formally opened on May 27, 1930, in a ceremony that coincided with the 42nd Street Property Owners and Merchants Association's meeting that year. In the lobby of the building, a bronze plaque that read "in recognition of Mr. Chrysler's contribution to civic advancement" was unveiled. Former Governor Smith, former Assemblyman Martin G. McCue, and 42nd Street Association president George W. Sweeney were among those in attendance. By June, it was reported that 65% of the available space had been leased. By August, the building was declared complete, but the New York City Department of Construction did not mark it as finished until February 1932.
The added height of the spire allowed the Chrysler Building to surpass 40 Wall Street as the tallest building in the world and the Eiffel Tower as the tallest structure. The Chrysler Building was thus the first man-made structure to be taller than 1,000 feet (300 m); and as one newspaper noted, the tower was also taller than the highest points of five states. The tower remained the world's tallest for 11 months after its completion. The Chrysler Building was appraised at $14 million, but was exempt from city taxes per an 1859 law that gave tax exemptions to sites owned by the Cooper Union. The city had attempted to repeal the tax exemption, but Cooper Union had opposed that measure. Because the Chrysler Building retains the tax exemption, it has paid Cooper Union for the use of their land since opening. While the Chrysler Corporation was a tenant, it was not involved in the construction or ownership of the Chrysler Building; rather, the tower was a project of Walter P. Chrysler for his children. In his autobiography, Chrysler wrote that he wanted to erect the building "so that his sons would have something to be responsible for".
Van Alen's satisfaction at these accomplishments was likely muted by Walter Chrysler's later refusal to pay the balance of his architectural fee. Chrysler alleged that Van Alen had received bribes from suppliers, and Van Alen had not signed any contracts with Walter Chrysler when he took over the project. Van Alen sued and the courts ruled in his favor, requiring Chrysler to pay Van Alen $840,000, or six percent of the total budget of the building. However, the lawsuit against Chrysler markedly diminished Van Alen's reputation as an architect, which, along with the effects of the Great Depression and negative criticism, ended up ruining his career. Van Alen ended his career as professor of sculpture at the nearby Beaux-Arts Institute of Design and died in 1954. According to author Neal Bascomb, "The Chrysler Building was his greatest accomplishment, and the one that guaranteed his obscurity."
The Chrysler Building's distinction as the world's tallest building was short-lived. John Raskob realized the 1,050-foot Empire State Building would only be 4 feet (1.2 m) taller than the Chrysler Building, and Raskob was afraid that Walter Chrysler might try to "pull a trick like hiding a rod in the spire and then sticking it up at the last minute." Another revision brought the Empire State Building's roof to 1,250 feet (380 m), making it the tallest building in the world by far when it opened on May 1, 1931. However, the Chrysler Building is still the world's tallest steel-supported brick building. The Chrysler Building fared better commercially than the Empire State Building did: by 1935, the Chrysler had already rented 70 percent of its floor area. By contrast, Empire State had only leased 23 percent of its space and was popularly derided as the "Empty State Building".
Impact
Reception
The completed Chrysler Building garnered mixed reviews in the press. Van Alen was hailed as the "Doctor of Altitude" by Architect magazine, while architect Kenneth Murchison called Van Alen the "Ziegfeld of his profession", comparing him to popular Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. The building was praised for being "an expression of the intense activity and vibrant life of our day", and for "teem[ing] with the spirit of modernism, ... the epitome of modern business life, stand[ing] for progress in architecture and in modern building methods." An anonymous critic wrote in Architectural Forum's October 1930 issue: "The Chrysler...stands by itself, something apart and alone. It is simply the realization, the fulfillment in metal and masonry, of a one-man dream, a dream of such ambitions and such magnitude as to defy the comprehension and the criticism of ordinary men or by ordinary standards."
The journalist George S. Chappell called the Chrysler's design "distinctly a stunt design, evolved to make the man in the street look up". Douglas Haskell stated that the building "embodies no compelling, organic idea", and alleged that Van Alen had abandoned "some of his best innovations in behalf of stunts and new 'effects'". Others compared the Chrysler Building to "an upended swordfish", or claimed it had a "Little Nemo"-like design. Lewis Mumford, a supporter of the International Style and one of the foremost architectural critics of the United States at the time, despised the building for its "inane romanticism, meaningless voluptuousness, [and] void symbolism". The public also had mixed reviews of the Chrysler Building, as Murchison wrote: "Some think it's a freak; some think it's a stunt."
Later reviews were more positive. Architect Robert A. M. Stern wrote that the Chrysler Building was "the most extreme example of the [1920s and 1930s] period's stylistic experimentation", as contrasted with 40 Wall Street and its "thin" detailing. George H. Douglas wrote in 2004 that the Chrysler Building "remains one of the most appealing and awe-inspiring of skyscrapers". Architect Le Corbusier called the building "hot jazz in stone and steel". Architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable stated that the building had "a wonderful, decorative, evocative aesthetic", while Paul Goldberger noted the "compressed, intense energy" of the lobby, the "magnificent" elevators, and the "magical" view from the crown. Anthony W. Robins said the Chrysler Building was "one-of-a-kind, staggering, romantic, soaring, the embodiment of 1920s skyscraper pizzazz, the great symbol of Art Deco New York".
The LPC said that the tower "embodies the romantic essence of the New York City skyscraper". Pauline Frommer, in the travel guide Frommer's, gave the building an "exceptional" recommendation, saying: "In the Chrysler Building we see the roaring-twenties version of what Alan Greenspan called 'irrational exuberance'—a last burst of corporate headquarter building before stocks succumbed to the thudding crash of 1929."
As icon
The Chrysler Building appears in several films set in New York and is widely considered one of the most positively acclaimed buildings in the city. A 1996 survey of New York architects revealed it as their favorite, and The New York Times described it in 2005 as "the single most important emblem of architectural imagery on the New York skyline". In mid-2005, the Skyscraper Museum in Lower Manhattan asked 100 architects, builders, critics, engineers, historians, and scholars, among others, to choose their 10 favorites among 25 of the city's towers. The Chrysler Building came in first place, with 90 respondents placing it on their ballots. In 2007, the building ranked ninth among 150 buildings in the AIA's List of America's Favorite Architecture.
The Chrysler Building is widely heralded as an Art Deco icon. Fodor's New York City 2010 described the building as being "one of the great art deco masterpieces" which "wins many a New Yorker's vote for the city's most iconic and beloved skyscraper". Frommer's states that the Chrysler was "one of the most impressive Art Deco buildings ever constructed". Insight Guides' 2016 edition maintains that the Chrysler Building is considered among the city's "most beautiful" buildings. Its distinctive profile has inspired similar skyscrapers worldwide, including One Liberty Place in Philadelphia, Two Prudential Plaza in Chicago, and the Al Kazim Towers in Dubai. In addition, the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Paradise, Nevada, contains the "Chrysler Tower", a replica of the Chrysler Building measuring 35 or 40 stories tall. A portion of the hotel's interior was also designed to resemble the Chrysler Building's interior.
In media
While seen in many films, the Chrysler Building almost never appears as a main setting in them, prompting architect and author James Sanders to quip it should win "the Award for Best Supporting Skyscraper". The building was supposed to be featured in the 1933 film King Kong, but only makes a cameo at the end thanks to its producers opting for the Empire State Building in a central role. The Chrysler Building notably appears in the background of The Wiz (1978); as the setting of much of Q - The Winged Serpent (1982); in the initial credits of The Shadow of the Witness (1987); and during or after apocalyptic events in Independence Day (1996), Armageddon (1998), Deep Impact (1998), Godzilla (1998), and A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001). The building also appears in other films, such as Spider-Man (2002), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Two Weeks Notice (2002), The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010), The Avengers (2012) and Men in Black 3 (2012). The building is mentioned in the number "It's the Hard Knock Life" for the musical Annie, and it is the setting for the post-game content in the Squaresoft video game Parasite Eve.
The Chrysler Building is frequently a subject of photographs. In December 1929, Walter Chrysler hired Margaret Bourke-White to take publicity images from a scaffold 400 feet (120 m) high. She was deeply inspired by the new structure and especially smitten by the massive eagle's-head figures projecting off the building. In her autobiography, Portrait of Myself, Bourke-White wrote, "On the sixty-first floor, the workmen started building some curious structures which overhung 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue below. When I learned these were to be gargoyles à la Notre Dame, but made of stainless steel as more suitable for the twentieth century, I decided that here would be my new studio. There was no place in the world that I would accept as a substitute."
According to one account, Bourke-White wanted to live in the building for the duration of the photo shoot, but the only person able to do so was the janitor, so she was instead relegated to co-leasing a studio with Time Inc. In 1930, several of her photographs were used in a special report on skyscrapers in the then-new Fortune magazine. Bourke-White worked in a 61st-floor studio designed by John Vassos until she was evicted in 1934. In 1934, Bourke-White's partner Oscar Graubner took a famous photo called "Margaret Bourke-White atop the Chrysler Building", which depicts her taking a photo of the city's skyline while sitting on one of the 61st-floor eagle ornaments. On October 5, 1998, Christie's auctioned the photograph for $96,000. In addition, during a January 1931 dance organized by the Society of Beaux-Arts, six architects, including Van Alen, were photographed while wearing costumes resembling the buildings that each architect designed.
(Wikipedia)
Das Chrysler Building ist ein 1930 fertiggestellter Wolkenkratzer im Stil des Art déco in Manhattan in New York City und zählt zu den Wahrzeichen der Metropole.
Der Büroturm befindet sich im Viertel Turtle Bay an der Lexington Avenue, Ecke 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan. Er steht auf einem Grundstück der privaten Hochschule Cooper Union, hat die Adresse „405 Lexington Avenue“ und ist nur einen Block vom Grand Central Terminal entfernt. Schräg gegenüber steht mit dem Chanin Building ein weiterer bekannter Wolkenkratzer im Art-déco-Stil.
Das Chrysler Building ist 318,8 Meter (1046 Fuß) hoch und damit zusammen mit dem 2007 erbauten New York Times Tower auf Rang 13 der höchsten Gebäude in New York City. Unter den höchsten Gebäuden der Vereinigten Staaten nehmen beide Gebäude den 21. Rang ein (jeweils Stand 2023). Auftraggeber war Walter Percy Chrysler, der es ursprünglich für die Chrysler Corporation zwischen 1928 und 1930 bauen ließ. Für die Planung des Wolkenkratzers im Art-déco-Stil war der Architekt William Van Alen verantwortlich. Das Gebäude zählt zu den schönsten Wolkenkratzern jener Epoche.
Geschichte
Entstehungsbedingungen
Das Chrysler Building im Stadtkontext, gesehen vom Empire State Building aus. Weiter rechts der Trump World Tower
Paradoxerweise entstanden viele Wolkenkratzer in der Zeit der Weltwirtschaftskrise. Das liegt zum einen an der Hochphase vor der Krise: Das Bruttosozialprodukt der USA war nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg innerhalb von acht Jahren um 50 % gestiegen, und dieser Konjunktursprung führte zu zahlreichen Neubauten und Planungen von Geschäftshäusern. Zum anderen kamen den Bauherren bei der anschließenden Ausführung während der Krise die radikal gesunkenen Arbeitslöhne nach dem Börsencrash 1929 zugute. Sie konnten für das gleiche Geld wesentlich mehr Arbeiter einstellen als geplant. Die Macht der Gewerkschaften war gebrochen, die Arbeitslöhne waren niedrig, Arbeiter standen in Massen zur Verfügung. Ein Gebäude dieses Ausmaßes hätte unter normalen Verhältnissen in dieser kurzen Bauzeit nicht errichtet werden können. Pro Woche wurden durchschnittlich vier Stockwerke errichtet, für die damaligen Verhältnisse ein Rekord. (Ähnliche Effekte konnte man auch später beobachten: Das höchste Gebäude der Welt, der Burj Khalifa in Dubai, wurde 2010, in der Zeit der Finanzkrise, fertig. Geplant wurde er jedoch vor dem Wirtschaftsabschwung.)
Baugeschichte
Obwohl das Gebäude speziell für den Autohersteller Chrysler konstruiert und gebaut wurde, bezahlte die Firma weder für den Bau, noch besaß sie es jemals. Walter P. Chrysler hatte entschieden, privat dafür aufzukommen, um es an seine Kinder weitergeben zu können.
Die Grundsteinlegung für das Gebäude fand am 19. September 1928 statt. Am 27. Mai 1930 wurde es feierlich eingeweiht. Mit 319 Metern war es bei der Eröffnung das höchste Gebäude der Welt und auch das erste, das die 1000-Fuß-Marke (305 Meter) durchbrach. Bis zum Dach misst es 282 Meter; da die Metallspitze aber zur Grundstruktur des Gebäudes gehört, wird sie zur offiziellen Höhe mitgezählt.
Während der Erbauung hatte es bis in die letzten Tage einen Wettlauf mit dem Turm der Bank of Manhattan (heute 40 Wall Street oder The Trump Building) gegeben, den das Chrysler Building für sich entschied. Der Architekt William Van Alen hatte 1930 die 56 Meter hohe Spitze bis zum letzten Moment geheim gehalten, damit der Konkurrent, die Bank of Manhattan, deren Gebäude gerade 283 Meter Höhe erreicht hatte, nicht mehr reagieren konnte. Die einzelnen Bestandteile dieser Metallspitze waren im Heizungsschacht des Gebäudes zunächst gelagert und vormontiert worden. Dann wurden die riesigen Stahlplatten heimlich auf das 65. Geschoss gebracht, dort zusammengeschraubt und anschließend in einem Stück mit einem Drehkran auf das Gebäude aufgesetzt, das damit 319 Meter Höhe erreichte und die Konkurrenz deutlich übertrumpfte. Dieses Unterfangen dauerte weniger als 1½ Stunden. Dieser Stahlaufbau, genannt „Vortex“ (lat. Wirbel, Drehung), dient lediglich als Dekoration, wiegt 30 Tonnen und ist ein Beispiel des Art déco.
Allerdings blieb das Chrysler Building nur kurz das höchste Gebäude der Welt. 1931 wurde in Midtown Manhattan das Empire State Building mit einer Höhe von 381 Metern fertiggestellt und war damit deutlich höher als alle anderen Gebäude. Bis zum Jahr 1969 blieb das Chrysler Building jedoch der zweithöchste Wolkenkratzer der Welt und gehörte noch bis in die späten 1990er Jahre zu den „Top Ten“ der weltweit höchsten Gebäude.
Spätere Entwicklung
Im 67. Stockwerk befand sich eine besonders während der Prohibition bekannte Restaurant-Bar, der so genannte Cloud Club, in der ehemaligen ‚Wohnung‘ des Firmengründers Walter P. Chrysler.
Lediglich die Lobby des Chrysler Building ist der Öffentlichkeit zur Besichtigung zugänglich (inkl. eigenem Subway-Zugang, jedoch nur werktags). Um zu den noch im Stil des Art déco gehaltenen Aufzügen zu gelangen, braucht man einen speziellen Ausweis oder einen Termin bei einer der dort ansässigen Firmen.
Nach dem Tod von Walter P. Chrysler 1940 kam das Gebäude zur W.P Chrysler Building Corporation, die es zusammen mit der Erbenfamilie 1953 für 18 Millionen US-Dollar an den Immobilienmakler William Zeckendorf verkaufte. 1960 erwarben die Immobilieninvestoren Sol Goldman und Alex DiLorenzo mittels Finanzierung durch die Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) das Gebäude. Die wiederum übernahm 1975 die Anteile für 35 Millionen US-Dollar. Im Dezember 1976 wurde das Hochhaus zur National Historic Landmark erklärt.
Bis 1979 wurde das Gebäude für rund 23 Millionen US-Dollar komplett renoviert. Im September 1979 wurde es von Jack Kent Cooke übernommen. Nach dem Tod von Cooke 1997 übernahm das Immobilienunternehmen Tishman Speyer Properties zusammen mit The Travelers Companies, Inc. (ab 1998 Teil der Citigroup) das Gebäude für eine geschätzte Summe von 210 bis 250 Millionen US-Dollar (187 bis 223 Millionen Euro). Im März 2001 übernahm die deutsche Investmentgesellschaft TMW Immobilien AG[5] aus München über ihre US-amerikanische Tochter für rund 390 Millionen US-Dollar rund 75 Prozent des Gebäudes. Zu den größten Anteilseignern der TMW gehörten der Ergo Trust der Ergo Group, die Provinzial Versicherung sowie drei deutsche Privatbanken.
Zwischen Herbst 2001 und Juli 2008 befand sich das Gebäude im Besitz der zur Ergo Group gehörenden GVP Gesellschaft für Vertriebs- und Produktmanagement AG (heute Ideenkapital Financial Service AG) aus Düsseldorf, die hierfür einen geschlossenen Immobilienfonds (ProVictor) auflegte. Sie verkaufte das Gebäude zu einem Anteil von 90 Prozent am 9. Juli 2008 an den Staatsfonds Abu Dhabi Investment Council (Mubadala) für 800 Millionen US-Dollar (713 Millionen Euro).
Reuters-Informationen zufolge wurde im März 2019 das sanierungsbedürftige Chrysler Building für lediglich 150 Millionen US-Dollar an ein Unternehmen verkauft, das je zur Hälfte der österreichischen Signa Holding und dem amerikanisch-deutschen Unternehmen RFR Group der deutschstämmigen Immobilieninvestoren Aby Rosen und Michael Fuchs gehört.[1] Weiteren Medienberichten zur Folge waren der Grund für den extrem niedrigen Verkaufspreis des Chrysler Gebäudes an das Gemeinschaftsunternehmen von Signa und RFR der bevorstehende extrem hohe Bodenpachtanstieg von 7,75 Millionen Dollar im Jahr 2018 auf 31,5 Millionen US-Dollar im Jahr 2023. Bis 2028 soll die Pacht weiter auf 41 Millionen US-Dollar steigen und 2029 auf 67 Millionen US-Dollar. Eigentümer des Bodengrundes unter dem Gebäude ist seit 1902 die Cooper Union, die wiederum – als eine Stiftung – die Pacht steuerfrei einnimmt.
Nutzer des Gebäudes
Die Chrysler Corporation bezog das Gebäude 1930 als dessen Ankermieter und nutzte die Räumlichkeiten bis in die 1950er Jahre als Abteilungshauptquartier. Weitere Mieter der ersten Stunde waren Time und Texaco. Weil Time Bedarf an mehr Büroräumen hatte, zog es 1937 ins Rockefeller Center um. Texaco zog 1967 nach Purchase, New York, weil das Unternehmen die Arbeitsplätze in eine Vorortumgebung verlegen wollte.
Zu den Nutzern des Gebäudes in der Gegenwart gehören: Regus, Creative Artists Agency, Blank Rome, Clyde & Co, InterMedia Partners, Troutman Sanders Reprieve und YES Network.
Baustil
Das Gebäude wurde im Stil des Art déco errichtet. Am Gebäude finden sich Zierelemente aus rostfreiem Stahl, die an Wasserspeier (Gargoylen) erinnern, Flügelhelm-artige Figuren, die den Chrysler-Kühlerfiguren von 1926 nachempfunden sind,[23] und Adlerköpfe – das Wappentier der Vereinigten Staaten. Außerdem wurden am 31. Stockwerk Zierelemente in Form von Chrysler-Motorhauben und Kachelfriese in Form von Chrysler-Radkappen als Zierrat an der Fassade verwendet. Auch die Kuppel des Gebäudes ist aus nichtrostendem Stahl gefertigt.[2] Die Spitze bildet eine sich pyramidenhaft verjüngende Turmkrone aus Kacheln und Nickeltafeln, aus der eine 27 Tonnen schwere Nickelstahlnadel ragt.[24]
Die für die New Yorker Skyline so unverwechselbare Beleuchtung kommt durch unscheinbare Leuchtstofflampen zustande, die an den Fensterrahmen angebracht sind. Die Fenster sind als Schiebefenster gestaltet und lassen sich in allen Etagen öffnen.
Höhe
Bei seiner Fertigstellung im Jahr 1930 war das Chrysler Building mit 319 Metern Höhe das höchste Gebäude der Erde und übertraf das 283 Meter hohe Bank of Manhattan Company Building (heute 40 Wall Street). Auch überrundete es als erstes Bauwerk den Eiffelturm, der aufgrund kaum vorhandener Nutzflächen nicht als Gebäude, sondern lediglich als Bauwerk gewertet wird. Doch schon ein Jahr nach der Fertigstellung, im Mai 1931, wurde es vom Empire State Building um 62 Meter (381 Meter hoch) überholt. Fortan war es noch bis zur Fertigstellung des 344 Meter hohen John Hancock Center in Chicago im Jahr 1969 das zweithöchste Gebäude der Welt.
Innerhalb New Yorks wurde es 1972 und 1973 durch die Türme des World Trade Center (417 Meter und 415 Meter) erneut übertroffen. Nach deren Zerstörung 2001 wurde es zeitweise wieder zum zweithöchsten Gebäude New York Citys, bis 2009 der 366 Meter hohe Bank of America Tower fertig wurde (bereits 2007 erreichte der New York Times Tower dieselbe Höhe wie das Chrysler Building). Seit 2014 ist auch das Gebäude 432 Park Avenue höher. Inzwischen rangiert das Chrysler Building zusammen mit dem New York Times Tower nur noch auf Platz zwölf der höchsten Gebäude in New York. Unter Berücksichtigung seiner 2003 fertiggestellten Antenne ist auch das Conde Nast Building höher als das Chrysler Building. Seitdem der Eiffelturm über eine Fernseh- und Funkturmantenne verfügt, ist auch dieser wieder höher als das Chrysler Building (aktuell misst der Eiffelturm 330 Meter).
Ähnliche Gebäude
Im Laufe der Zeit sind in den USA, wie auch weltweit, eine Reihe von Wolkenkratzern entstanden, bei denen man sich in der Planung und Konzeption am Chrysler Building orientierte. Dies gilt insbesondere für die Spitze des Gebäudes. Besonders bekannt sind diesbezüglich Bauten wie der One Liberty Place in Philadelphia oder die Al Kazim Towers in Dubai, die jedoch beide niedriger als das Chrysler Building sind. Das New York-New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas zitiert unter anderem auch das Chrysler Building.
Schutzausweisung
Das Gebäude kam 1976 als National Historic Landmark ins National Register of Historic Places und wurde 1978 von der Landmarks Preservation Commission als New York City Landmark ausgewiesen.
Daten
Etagen: 77
Höhe: 318,92 m
Höhe Dach: 282 m
Höchstes Stockwerk: 274 m
Höchste Aussichtsetage: 238,66 m
Fenster: 3.750
Stahl: 21.000 t
Ziegelsteine: 4.000.000
Wasserrohre: 50 km
Elektrokabel: 1000 km
(Wikipedia)
Now when going into monster movies like Pacific Rim, Godzilla, and now Kong: Skull Island; I always have a certain mindset, which is a) the human characters will suck, b) the monsters will be cool, and c) the action will be awesome. Now after seeing the impressive trailers to this film, I was really excited to see the second installment of this Monsterverse! So was Kong: Skull Island a dud, or a hit? Let’s check it out!
Good: The best part of this movie was the style. I just loved all the visuals and the cinematography in this film, it sortof felt similar to Samurai Jack in some way, this movie was clearly influenced by japanese filmmaking in terms of cinematography, and it made the action in this movie awesome. Another thing I loved in this movie is that Kong has a huge presence in the film. Unlike Godzilla where we kept getting teased, even though I liked it for that movie. I liked how Kong actually felt like a character in this movie, whereas Godzilla was a force of nature if that makes any sense. We got to see Kong just hang out on Skull Island and some badass stuff! Now the fights in this movie were amazing! Now in terms of human characters, I had the expectation of not liking any of them, but I found a few of them interesting. The ones that stood out are John C. Reilly’s character and Samuel L. Jackson’s character. Now John C. Reilly in this movie stole the show every damn time he was on screen, he was so funny and he was the only character in this movie that I was really rooting for, I felt like if Kong: Skull Island was just about him, it would’ve been waaay better. Also, there’s a Steve Brule reference in this movie that I absolutely loved!!! But I also liked Samuel L. Jackson’s character because he Vietnam general who just wants to get some action and when Kong takes out some of his guys (as you’ve seen in the trailer so it’s not a spoiler), he will stop at nothing to get Kong back. This character was truly the representation of the Vietnam War era and just how shitty of a life it was to go there. Going off that, I loved that this film took place in said era because the film was well accompanied with those Vietnam colors and songs that have become so representative of that time and era. The last thing I’ll say that I liked were all the connections to Godzilla, now I won’t spoil any of the details, but I’ll just say that they were there and if you’re a fan of these movies you’ll love them!
Bad: Now the worst thing about this movie is the writing. It felt like somebody wrote lines for some characters like John C Reilly, John Goodman, and Samuel L. Jackson that were actually good; but then it was like Kong himself wrote the lines for the other characters. The writing in this movie made characters like Tom Hiddleston’s character and Brie Larson’s character really unlikable and forgettable, but like I said before, this really take away from my overall experience with the film because as I said before, I came in with the expectation that the characters would be shitty. The final thing I didn’t like about this movie was that there were some scenes that had horrible CGI. It was mostly with the helicopters, those helicopters had like video game graphics! There were also some shot where I could tell some characters were standing in front of a green screen, which would’ve been acceptable if it was 1999!
Overall, Kong: Skull Island is a very fun movie to just turn off your brain and watch purely for the action and how stylized the film is. I remember somebody on the internet saying that it was more like a ride than a movie and I completely agree! It was a really fun ride, and for that reason, I’m giving Kong: Skull Island an 8/10. I think I still like Godzilla more because I loved the tone and suspense of that movie, but I definitely recommend you check out this film in theaters! Also make sure to stay through the credits for something special! And if you have already seen this movie, let me know what you thought of it in the comments below!
Here's my version of the GTR R34.
As you can see through the pictures, this model can be customized to a more aggressive looking version of the Skyline with wider front bumper intakes, intercooler, nitros, black hood, trunk and mirrors, and bigger rear spoiler. It can be customized in a couple of minutes and could do multiple combinations using the customizing elements.
Everything can open in this model, trunk, hood doors and even the glove box.
I'll also build a blue version soon of this model as it's very iconic color for the Skyline R34.
This model was built at the scale of 1:16 and took me around 1 and a half months to finish.
Hope you like it and thanks for looking :-)
Digital instructions will be available soon on my website:
bricksgarage.com
With filming for the Godzilla movie wrapping up the previous week, the missile train waits for a trip back to the mainland. SRY 129 also will be returning to the mainland on the next morning's barge to complete the power swap.
March 29, 2013
atelier ying, @full cup cafe Mongkok, HK
For the upcoming 60th anniversary of the 1954 monster film, I wanted to redress some criticisms of the new Godzilla film.
Tadao Ando's Design Sight 21_21 was a wonder. His vision extended past the main museum building to the long park, adjacent areas and even its subway station. It was truly a sight, which inspired my Godzilla design: a pair of train station entrances for the Tokyo Bay area --- gently sloping structures that rise and fall out of pools of water to suggest a massive underground network in a subtle manner that builds as a crescendo.
The roof at the front of each structure has solar tectonic plates which are suggestive of amphibious back fins rising out of the sea. Seen from a distance the curved pools also suggest the scale of a monster's footprint.
Descending into the station, one descends first into a slowly darkening corridor. The station interior is a palette of greens and pale yellow. A aquarium tank with a long narrow opening and green glow follows the pedestrians along the corridor. Also exhibits built into the walls have examples of vegetation that has been irradiated, grossly deformed and overgrown. Handheld radiation detectors are provided inside the revolving modern sushi bar and yakitori restaurant for diners to check their food. The train station interior is decorated to 1954. A kiosk sells retro candies and snacks from around the world. Periodic simulated flashes of blackouts announce the arrival of trains instead of chimes. Sirens and bullhorns are employed for announcements. The green/yellow glow of directional crowd signals also provide ample illumination. The rising walls at the entrances each have ultraviolet lights that will tag pedestrians at night to make a glow of green oozing into and out of the station.
This is one of two Godzilla designs. I am uploading the other in a week.
Design, concepts, text and drawing are copyright 2014 by David Lo
Patch: -We have to get him home! But I don't know where he lives! I don't even know his name...
Zillo: -gowarzogzogg?!
Patch: -Good idea! Maybe the dog knows how to go back to that Perfume Barbie woman house.
Ninja: -AhheeeeeeYAAAA!!!
Patch: -What did he say?
Zillo: -Groowwaarwawa.
Patch: -Ok, let's follow the turtle then, since the dog has no clue.
Thanks to Ninja, they 'quickly' found Miss Perfume Lady who was able to contact the kid's mom. The mum was so relieved her kid was ok she didn't even notice Zillo was a baby Godzilla!
Miss Perfume Lady gave a lift home to Patch and Zillo. They arrived just in time before it was dark.
The end.
That's right, boys. I'm officially 17! It's been such a blast these last few days. Got some cool presents such as the Daredevil and big Godzilla you see in the pic, as well as getting to see Edgar Winter Band, Alice Cooper, and Deep Purple last night!!!
(Edit this was supposed to be up like yesterday but I'm an idiot and forgot to change the privacy settingswhoops)
My existing one got damaged by flood - lost left eye but found www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAyXfvCGntE&t=255s - I was able to get this one again with the help of my Japanese friend. Huge box cannot be shipped via Surface mail - as Japan's Surface service is not open yet - came via EMS but due to the size restriction, the box could not be protected so unfortunately came crushed. However the contents are all fine.