Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2106

Hasbro Announces STAR WARS Comic-Con Exclusives, New 3.75 Inch Line, and More

Hasbro‘s Star Wars exclusive toy (or toys) for San Diego Comic-Con International is always a hot topic of conversation, and this year they’ve announced two. In keeping with tradition, they’re deluxe versions of figures–and a vehicle–that will be available in more no-frills form at retail later on. Grand Admiral Thrawn, above, comes with all of his trophies and in a special trophy room diorama box; like previous 6-inch Black Series figures based on Rebels, he’ll be done in a more realistic style than the cartoon, though you might not say the same of all his accessories. He’s $49.99.

Also in the 6-inch scale, Luke Skywalker and his Landspeeder, announced this past week, will get a more elaborate version with pop-up hood and engine, along with a poncho for Luke. That’ll add up to $89.99.

For the last two years, Hasbro has done early releases of the first figure from the next movie: Jyn Erso last year, and a First Order Stormtrooper in 2015. If there’s one planned for this year, it was not announced.

But here’s what’s coming for mass retail:

You see, Lord Vader, they can be rrrrreasonable! Peter Cushing in this scale is long overdue, and the Interrogation Droid sweetens the deal. And while Grand Moff Tarkin saw new life on the big screen, our next figure was retconned out of it.

Yes, it’s Jaina Solo, the sister Kylo Ren never had. We’d bet that the female Rebel pilot body will be used again. Rounding out the new 6-inch offerings are a couple of retailer exclusives: Clone Commander Gree (Toys R Us) and Battlefront II Inferno Squadron Pilot (Gamestop). You can see their images in our full gallery below.

Now, if you’re a 3.75″ collector–the classic Star Wars scale–Hasbro has heard your dissatisfaction with the lack of articulation in the main line, and is bringing back the vintage collection, with full poseability. Who’ll be in it? Well, to some extent, that’s up to you: they’re conducting a fan vote to determine a character who has never been made into a figure before. Want in? Head to StarWars.com for full details. (And vote for Jefferson Starship from the Holiday Special! Or, you know, whoever.)

Are you going to brave the Comic-Con hordes for Thrawn and Luke? Will the Force be with you? Tell us in comments.

Images: Hasbro

 

5 References and 4 Mysteries in DOCTOR WHO “The Pilot”

The following gets all SPOILERy about plot points and theories from the Doctor Who Series 10 premiere episode, “The Pilot.” Proceed at your own risk! But also, go watch it and come back because we got stuff to talk about!

When you look back at the now-seven premiere episodes in the Steven Moffat era of Doctor Who (Series 7 basically had two premieres, “Asylum of the Daleks” and “The Bells of Saint John“), you often get the most bombastic, the most mind-tripping, the most continuity-shattering episodes of the year, and that’s perfectly fine. Start with a bang. For Series 10’s premiere “The Pilot,” Moffat started with a bang, but a character-based one, with a story that seemed small and intimate but still managed to have us asking a lot of questions and picking up on a ton of references.

Before we get into that, though, I want to say I categorically loved “The Pilot.” I loved the Doctor being some kind of perpetual professor of the university, talking about whatever the hell he wants in his heavily attended lectures. I loved Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie), who’s the kind of companion I’ve been wanting for a really long time: smart, plucky, ready to learn, and disinterested in the Doctor as anything more than a friend and mentor. I love that the plot was about her without her being the plot (a very important distinction), I love that she’s gay and the Doctor never mentions it, and I love that by episode’s end, she’s told the Doctor off for being cavalier about mind wiping and it changed his mind. She’s going to be exactly what the show, and what the Twelfth Doctor, needs.

But now, let’s get into the real meat of the episode. This being both Capaldi’s and Moffat’s last season, and the pair of them being lifelong Whovians, one would expect a lot of bucket-list-style references and inclusions. Capaldi, for example, is a huge fan of Mondasian Cybermen, and so Moffat included them this year. Get it? They’re doing what they want. Also true to form, even if this premiere was more intimate than most, it nevertheless set up a ton of mysteries and questions about what’s going on that will doubtless be the narrative arc of the season.

5 References

1. The Doctor’s Family Pictures

Now that the Doctor’s got an office (which is huge, by the way) and a desk, it’s only right for him to have pictures of his family, right? Adorably, he has two. One is River Song, which makes sense. We know he’s sad at having to finally say goodbye to her, and she was his wife technically so totally. But the other picture, the black & white one, that’s a photo of Susan, his granddaughter, whom he’s not seen since his first incarnation said goodbye to her in the 1965 story “The Dalek Invasion of Earth.” This is another thing that is important to Capaldi; in multiple interviews, when asked if he’d like to meet any previous companion, he said his granddaughter Susan. And it’s entirely possible he could meet his granddaughter; even though original actress Carole Ann Ford is still around, she’s a Time Lady, so she could literally be anyone. She could be Bill, even…

2. A Cuppa Sonic Screwdrivers

Something we saw in the trailer that I erroneously thought would be a big huge reference to previous Doctors turned out to just be a kind of fun throwaway joke, and that is that the Doctor has on his desk a mug full of sonic screwdriver, and not only that, but sonic screwdrivers from his previous incarnations.

3. Beethoven!

Right at the beginning of the episode, as Bill is waiting for the Doctor, we hear him in another room (seriously, how frigging big is this office?!?!) noodling on his electric guitar, and he’s playing the familiar opening chords of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. This piece of music was featured heavily in the story “Under the Lake/Before the Flood,” as the Doctor spoke directly to camera about the Bootstap Paradox, and asked us who really wrote Beethoven’s Fifth.

4. The Chameleon Circuit

When Bill asks why a space ship would look like a police telephone box, the Doctor replies that the cloaking device that’s supposed to blend in everywhere was broken and it’s stuck looking that way. This, like Susan, is a direct reference to the First Doctor, and moreover, to the very second episode ever. After forcibly taking Susan’s teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, for a ride aboard the TARDIS, they land in prehistoric cavemen times and the Doctor is confused as to why the exterior didn’t change shape.

5. The Dalek/Movellan War

My favorite reference was also the only one directed related to the plot. The Doctor needs to expose the oil spill alien lady to the hottest fire in the universe, and he determines that to be the blast from a Dalek. One place he knows the Daleks to be is in a war against the Movellans, a humanoid android race who look like attractive humans and have long silver dreadlocks. The Movellans were seen only once, in the 1979 story “Destiny of the Daleks,” and they arrive on Skaro to destroy the Daleks once and for all, wanting revenge for a war they lost several generations ago. None of this is explained, of course, in “The Pilot”; it’s just a little something for people who know. And now you do!

4. Mysteries

As much as I love references to stuff, I like the mysteries this episode presented even more. I was left with a metric butt-ton of questions about what we saw, but there are, to my way of looking at it, four main ones. We start with 1. What’s in the vault? The Vault seems to be the narrative whatsit for this season. The Doctor and Nardole brought it to the college and hit it underneath so they can work on it. Evidently, they’re concerned about things coming to get it, so it must be exceedingly valuable or dangerous. I can’t imagine it’s a person again, like the Pandorica, but then what would be so precious as to be locked up beyond the Doctor’s knowledge?

And speaking of the college, 2. How did the Doctor come to bring it to the college? Someone must be allowing him to use it as his base of operations, and let him keep lecturing even though there’s no way he’d be grading papers or following a curriculum. My first instinct is that it could be thanks to Ian Chesterton, his former companion and a science teacher, however we already saw via a sign that Ian was the headmaster of Coal Hill School where Clara used to work. I would be surprised if it wasn’t a former companion, though. And I also think that whoever that is, they will be the reason for question 3. Why can’t the Doctor get involved? He seems very wary about bringing another companion on board and says he made a promise; I’m guessing Ian (or whomever) said he can only use the college if he leaves the students alone. Obviously that didn’t work.

And finally, the only question truly relevant to the episode at hand, 4. Who were the aliens that left the sentient oil? The only reason I can see for why aliens would have landed near the college is because they’re looking for the Vault and then, not finding it, they flew away, leaving oil behind that needed a pilot. But who exactly are they? I would be very surprised if that is not revisited in some way this series, and given that the Mondasian Cybermen are the big bads at the end of the series, I’m thinking maybe the Cybermen are involved. Just a theory, though.

Next week, we get Frank Cottrell Boyce’s “Smile” which features the Emojibots. Looks like a neat jaunt for Bill in her first official adventure as companion.

Let me know what you thought of “The Pilot” in the comments below, and share your theories while you’re there!

Images: BBC

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor and the resident Whovian for Nerdist. Follow him on Twitter!

Mark Hamill Honors His “Space Sis” Carrie Fisher at STAR WARS Celebration

Even though there is much happiness and joy coming from Star Wars Celebration in Orlando, there is no denying there has been a tinge of sadness hanging over this year’s proceedings, because of the recent death of our beloved Princess Leia Organa, the legendary Carrie Fisher. When the event kicked off with the big Star Wars 40th Anniversary panel, reuniting creator George Lucas along with Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Peter Mayhew, Billy Dee Williams and Anthony Daniels, one couldn’t help but think to themselves “Carrie Fisher should be up on that stage too, cracking jokes and busting everyone’s chops.”

When Lucas, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, and Fisher’s daughter Billie Lourd all spoke so lovingly about her, everyone in attendance and watching online got choked up. And when John Williams made a surprise appearance and played “Princess Leia’s Theme” from the original film in tribute to Carrie? Well….for most of us, that’s when the tears began to flow. The next day, to remind us all of the incredible person that Carrie Fisher was both on and off screen, Mark Hamill hosted a special panel paying tribute to the woman he referred to as his “space sis.” You can watch highlights from the panel in the video down below:

Hamill began the panel by saying, “Well, here’s a panel I was hoping wouldn’t come for another 30 years. Someone once wrote when someone you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a treasure. And here today, we’re here to celebrate the treasure that was Carrie Frances Fisher.” Hamill continued to open up to the crowd about his grief over the loss of his dear friend, saying “I have been trying to deal with this. There’s the five stages of grief, and just when I think I’ve gotten to acceptance, I bounce back to anger, because I’m mad. She should be here. She made every celebration so much fun. She deserved to be here.”

Hamill added “We were more like brother and sister than we realized, because we loved each other, but we fought and we criticized and we were judgmental, and we’d get fed up with one another.” Hamill said that when he first met Carrie Fisher when they went into production on the original film, he felt very much “under her spell,” and he would become jealous when she spread her attention to others. “I didn’t want to share her with Harrison [Ford], I didn’t want to share her with anybody. At the same time, as attracted as I was to her, I thought, ‘I couldn’t handle her as a girlfriend. She’s too much. She’s what you’d call a high maintenance relationship.’ ”

Although they never dated, Hamill admitted on the panel “A part of me did fall in love with her.” The one time they did make out, Hamill said, happened after the two got themselves into a contest over who was the better kisser of the two. “Cut to us making out on the couch like a couple of horny teenagers,” although he admitted they both started laughing which abruptly ended that attempt at romance between the two. “I thought we dodged a bullet there, because we had the fun without the responsibility.”

Since her passing, Hamill admitted that a night has not gone by that he hasn’t thought about her, but concluded by joking to the crowd “She’s looking down from the celestial stratosphere with those big brown eyes, that sly smile on her face, as she lovingly extends me the middle finger. And that’s how I want you to think of her: that was Carrie.”

If you’ve got a little more time, the full panel is also online. Did Mark Hamill’s words about his good friend Carrie Fisher make the tears well up in your eyes for you like it did for us? Let us know down below in the comments.

Images: Lucasfilm

Disney Reveals New Details of STAR WARS Land and Star Tours at Celebration

Star Wars Land at the Disney theme parks is still two years away from opening, but more and more details have emerged at a panel today. You won’t have to wait the full two years for at least one new attraction: Inside the Magic reports the addition of planet Crait, from The Last Jedi, to Star Tours, just as Jakku was added in time for The Force Awakens (now that we don’t have to worry about spoilers for that film, it’d be great to see Starkiller Base added as a planet too, but no word on that). Crait, as director Rian Johnson recently revealed, is the mineral-mining planet in the trailer that looks like salt flats.

Meanwhile, via the Hollywood Reporter, we’ve learned that there will be some sort of cumulative “reputation” system, so that if you do a bad job steering the Millennium Falcon ride, someone may mention it later in the day in another area. It’s not clear how they’ll pull that off, but the Falcon ride will assign different riders different jobs as crew, with interactive elements that ensure a number of different possible ride experiences.

Disney has essentially gamified Star Wars Land – and it’s going to be a beautiful thing.https://t.co/TMTTJT0eud pic.twitter.com/JYU0L2jzNO

— Inside the Magic (@InsideTheMagic) April 15, 2017

Also in the works: the most realistic-looking lightsabers ever, and the chance to drink blue milk and eat meat grilled on a podracer engine.

“They’re real.” Dazzling new lightsaber technology is being developed for @DisneyParks @starwars expansions. #SWCOhttps://t.co/ApmHeG2saF pic.twitter.com/9BlLXSkaYD

— Inside the Magic (@InsideTheMagic) April 15, 2017

There’s a lot of cool concept art too, for the new planet on which the park is set, heavily based on Ralph McQuarrie art.

Can 2019 just get here already? Should we try freezing ourselves like Cartman did that one time for the Nintendo Wii, only to end up on a planet of atheist otters? Tell us your strategy for surviving the wait in comments.

Image: Disney/Lucasfilm

THAT Rogue One Darth Vader Scene, Reenacted Across the Star Wars Celebration Lobby

Any time you head out to a big time nerd convention you can count on seeing some excellent cosplay, but getting to see a whole scene from a movie reenacted is far less common. But then again, it’s not every day you have the world’s biggest Star Wars fans coming together to celebrate the galaxy far, far away, like Darth Vader‘s final kickass scene from Rogue One.

Down at this year’s Star Wars Celebration Orlando, a group of cosplayers went next level, recreating the final Vader scene from the last film released in the franchise, when he struck down a hallway of Rebel soldiers who were trying to transport the Death Star plans to safety.

Fans at @SW_Celebration do a most impressive recreation of THAT scene from #RogueOne… pic.twitter.com/HiZpsK9igg

— Star Wars UK (@StarWarsUK) April 15, 2017

Well, they were either doing their best take on that scene, or those guys owe that Vader cosplayer money. In either case, running seems like a good option. And remember, you should always be careful at an ATM, especially when a Sith Lord is nearby. What makes this especially great is how they made sure to include every aspect of that scene, including having Princess Leia waiting at the end. It gives us hope that other cosplayers will be inspired by this live-action fun to do more of this at other cons.

Just so long as we avoid recreating any Star Wars scenes that involve Gungans, sand, or Darth Vader making “choking” puns.

What Star Wars scene would be the best to see recreated by cosplayers? Tell us your best ideas in our comments section below.

Featured Image: Lucasfilm

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 Riffs on STRANGER THINGS in Amazing Netflix Crossover

Having all new episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in our lives still feels like one of the most unexpected and wonderful gift we have ever received from the television gods, but little did we know it could get even better. That’s because Netflix went ahead and created one of the greatest displays of cross company promotion we have ever seen, by letting the gang rift on Stranger Things.

In this hilarious short video/advertisement, onethat actually gives the word “synergy” a good name, the new MST3K crew headed up by Jonah Ray provides their classic movie riff treatment to the beloved horror series, specifically David Harbour‘s Chief of Police Jim Hopper and his less-than-ideal early morning routine.

Savage, but amazing.

Okay, look Netflix, we understand this is really just a genius form of viral advertising, but it is so good we need even more of this. We need a lot more of this. In fact, we need all of it, all eight episodes of Stranger Things worth of this. You need to let Jonah, Tom Servo, and Crow make fun of everything from the series, like how Barb’s disappearance was ignored by the whole town, how casting fireballs didn’t end up playing any factor, and especially every single scene involving Winona Ryder and her frantic handling of anything and everything. Sure, it wasn’t that long ago we couldn’t imagine a world with new Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes in it, but now that we have them, and you’ve shown us what’s possible, we demand you give us even more.

What character or event from Stranger Things would you want to hear the MST3K gang riff on the most? Tell us in the comments below.

Image: Netflix

We should probably just relax, but…

How FARGO Creates Its Singular (and Snowy) Look

Last month we headed up to Calgary to visit the set of Fargo , to speak with the cast and crew while they were filming the third season of the hit FX series. And oh geez dontcha know they had a whole heckuva lot to share with us, so in the build up to next week’s premiere we’re bringing you the most interesting tidbits we picked up there.

In the first part we looked at how Ewan McGregor transforms into two very different characters, and this time we’re examining how the world of Fargo comes to look the way it does.

To Recreate Minnesota Cold They Head to the Great White North

The cold and snow of Fargo, which help create the sense of impending darkness and claustrophobia that frames the action of the story, are as much characters on the series as an overworked police officer and a hapless every man caught up in some good old fashioned Midwestern murder and mayhem. So to make sure they capture the wintry conditions of Minnesota (where this season takes place, despite the series being called, you know, Fargo, as in “that place in North Dakota,” a funny fact not missed by the cast and crew) means the show requires some honest to goodness frigid conditions and plenty of white stuff on the ground, and that’s why they again headed to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to film.

With all due respect and apologies to the hearty people of Minnesota and their own winters, it’s vital they can rely on having snow when they shoot outdoors, which is why it was fairly humorous to hear (for maybe the first and only time ever in Calgary) people complaining about the unseasonably warm mid-March weather we encountered there.

“All the Calgarians I meet are, ‘I’m so sorry for the weather,’ and I’m like, no, no, we need it, this what we’re here for,” said Ewan McGregor, “So when it gets warm, we’re all disappointed.” When we visited it was way too pleasant for what the show needs, with a high of 50 degrees the first day and almost 43 the second, not tropical obviously, but not what they are looking for.

We didn’t have quite as many problems with the weather, but how many shows in the history of television can honestly say nice weather can ruin filming?

Important People and Places Get Their Own Color Templates

You might not consciously be aware of it as a viewer, or notice it unless you are looking for it, but every major character and setting gets its own color template, which aids the design teams, whether they are in production or costume. Those templates inspire creative choices, focus costumes and set pieces, help keep a consistent and meaningful aesthetic, and contribute to the feel and tone of the show, helping to put the audience in the right mind frame for the setting or characters on screen. Plus, breaking from them has significance too.

“Deviations from color scheme says something,” according to supervising producer Kim Todd, “There’s a reason for everything.” The color templates contribute to characterization and tone, and changes to them are done with just as much purpose. Like any great visual medium, how things look are just as important to the story as what is said or happens. It’s part of what makes Fargo so good.

Mansions Make For Marvelous Sets

Emmit Stussy, one of the two brothers Ewan McGregor is playing, is a very successful man and he likes to show that off, especially with his house, which we got to personally walk around. But it wasn’t on a sound stage, the way Gloria Burgle’s office was or Ray’s apartment, it was a real mansion, and the nicest house I’ve ever been in (yes, that means melting snow was a major problem when we went there, and not just because we had to take our shoes off to walk through it).

The giant abode was apparently abandoned many years ago, and even though they are just renting it for the season, the production team did an incredible job making it over. It was just a few more rooms away from being completely finished, though with the two permanent furnaces they placed inside (amazingly that was a cheaper option than just heating it temporarily) you could already reside there if you wanted.

It also means they got to have a lot of fun decorating it and crafting the perfect look for what is in many ways Emmit’s biggest trophy, though we have a feeling when you see the premiere one specific item will stand out to you. We can’t tell you what it is (sorry!), but you’ll know it when you see it, because we were warned to be very careful not to knock it over.

Not that we needed to be told that. You’re always careful on a set or in a mansion, let alone when they are one in the same.

If You See It on Your Screen, That Means It Was Legally Cleared to Be There

Clearance might be a great word to hear when shopping, but it’s the biggest annoyance the design team has to deal with. That’s because everything that appears on the show, no matter how small or ubiquitous, has to get clearance from the legal department. Even a cheap tiny statue purchased at Walmart, something mass produced a million times, was designed by someone, and without a release by that person the network could face a lawsuit. Which is why if you see it on Fargo, a bunch of people had to okay it to be there.

Either that or it slipped by.

If a chair or a couch is being used as such they are fair game, since that was their “intended use” anyway, but otherwise it’s a whole thing to get approval. In season two, a great clown arcade game they had hoped to use in the cluttered basement of Kirsten Dunst’s Peggy’s didn’t get cleared, so set director Darlene Lewis stuck it in the back of the set just to add some red color to the scene. Unfortunately, on the day of filming someone liked it so much they unknowingly moved it out into the open of a big tracking shot, and that meant FX and MGM Television (who produces the show) had a potentially expensive problem on their hand.

“Several high-level MGM execs spent weeks on that clown game,” said Kim Todd, in case you were wondering how glamorous it is to be in one of those positions. Fortunately for them they tracked down the maker of the decades old game (remember, season two was set in the 70s, making all of the vintage items used that whole year, many purchased at yard sales and flea markets, a clearance nightmare) to a company in Montreal, who gave the okay.

The easiest way they avoid all of these issues is to use pre-cleared items, especially books. That means that not every single item is picked for thematic reasons or to contribute to characterization (sorry obsessive freeze-framers), but because it makes it doesn’t take nine years to make one episode. (That does not apply to prominent items, which are definitely deliberate.) It all sounds so silly, but clearance is a serious, time consuming problem for studios to deal with, and it makes the production team’s job much more than just decorating with the best items they can find. While we were there the great clearance anxiety was over whether or not they could get a specific comic book they wanted to use, after the first choice had been rejected and an alternate “pre-cleared” one made no sense.

That’s why they have a skilled member of the crew who enjoys painting just create any original art they need. She is happy to do it, but most importantly she always signs the release.

But hey, at least they don’t have to worry about getting a release from Mother Nature. Though it would help if she’d be a little more accommodating and keep it nice and cold in Calgary.

What part of how they make Fargo surprises you? Dontcha go off without telling us what you think in the comments below.

Images: FX

Violin Made of 16,000 Matchsticks Is 80-Years-Old and Still Sounds Sublime

How do you expect to hold up in about 80 years time? Fairly weathered? Perhaps with some type of in-cranium cyborg implant? If you do end up getting lucky well, well into your autumn years, you’ll stand the test of time the way Hubert Gwiżdż’s violin made of 16,000 matchsticks has stood the test of time: beautifully, and without combusting into sudden flames even once.

The story of Gwiżdż’s matchstick violin, which comes via Boing Boing, begins in 1937 with Polish bricklayer Jan Gwiżdż, Hubert’s grandfather. Jan made the matchstick violin — it’s not exactly clear for what reason, but everybody knows that sometimes you just need to MacGyver an instrument — and consequently received media attention for the strange creation. Ultimately however, “it was viewed as an object of curiosity rather than something to actually play,” and ended up on display beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris while Jan traveled around Europe.

But the matchstick violin needed to be played! It’s little brittle matchstick bones may have been frail, but Jan’s violin had something special on its side: destiny. The matchstick violin eventually traveled back to Poland while Jan remained in France, and there, after some time, it was finally exposed to the orchestral world thanks to efforts from Hubert.

Zbigniew Wodecki zagrał na skrzypcach wykonanych z 16 tyś wypalonych zapałek pic.twitter.com/BbqOPNn3gM

— Hubert Gwiżdż (@HUBERTUSGWIZDUS) May 22, 2016

The matchstick violin has now been played by musicians in professional orchestras, as well as by Zbigniew Wodecki, a polish entertainment polymath who simply has the hair of a God:

Zbigniew Wodecki, being a boss. Image: Wikimedia / Mateusz Włodarczyk

What do you think about this 16,000-matchstick violin? Play or nah? Let us know in the comments below!

Images: YouTube / itvwrzesnia

Unique Japanese Vending Machine Dispenses Origami

I never have any idea what’s going on in Japan, but I like it! I like all of it. That’s because every time I hear about something new and unusual from the Land of the Rising Sun, I have no clue how or why it came to be, but I’m always really excited that it exists, like this unique origami vending machine.

We came across this seemingly one-of-a-kind contraption at RocketNews24, and it resides in the town of Uchiko, in the Kita District of Ehime Prefecture. According to media reports out of Japan, they are the work of a 61-year-old woman who runs the store where the machine is found, and she decided to do something different with one of their older vending machines.

ドライブの途中、気になっていた内子町のおりがみ販売機へ。作品は10円から50円。いろいろかわいい◎ pic.twitter.com/zvYMqEMwgn

— ぼん (@bon_chic) April 8, 2017

There are 18 total pieces to pick from, and depending on the complexity of the piece they cost different prices. For as little as 10 Yen, which is only about 10 cents in the U.S., you can choose from one of six beautifully folded pieces of origami, a group that includes a plane, balloon, throwing star, rabbit balloon, and a balloon with wings.

The middle level has five options for 50 Yen, and you can choose from a jumping frog or horse, a pair of lips, a crow, or a spinning top. The top level, which is only 30 Yen each, has the most options with seven, including a sword, three types of helmets, an ornate envelope, a Japanese iris, and what looks to be some kind of carp streamer.

「おりがみの自動販売機」知っていますか？https://t.co/iw1N7QFdbB

— Twitter モーメント (@momentsjapan) April 9, 2017

There is even a sign asking you to return the plastic containers that safeguard the delicate paper models into the attached bag, so they can reuse them for the replacement origami, giving the whole thing an even friendlier and even more wholesome feel than it already has.

So why does this exist? It exists to be awesome. It’s a simple, cheap machine that delivers wonderfully crafted and joyous items that serve the sole purpose of bringing you beauty and happiness.

Keep up the good work, Japan.

Which piece would you want to buy the most? Drop down into our comments section below and let us know.

Featured Image: Warner Bros.

Chill Out With This Huge Playlist From Haruki Murakami’s Record Collection

Although Haruki Murakami‘s writing can be enigmatic, ambiguous, and sometimes infuriatingly vague, there’s one very clear theme that runs through all his books: the man LOVES his music. And thanks to the magic of the internet, the AV Club tells us, your ears can experience it for themselves via this Spotify playlist compiled from Murakami’s record collection.

Taken from the 10,000 LP records lining the author’s walls, the 3,350-track playlist is mostly jazz–no surprise there–with some classical, Baroque, and modernist-era music sprinkled in for variety. The jazz selections maintain the level of chill you might expect from a Murakami novel: lots of Hoagy Carmichael, Django Reinhardt, Herbie Hancock, and so on. Speaking of which, there are so many dudes on this playlist. Billie Holiday is well represented here, and a handful of songs from Beverley Kenny also feature, but that’s about it for female artists. Then again, considering how often women mostly exist to be mysterious in Murakami novels, this isn’t as jarring as it perhaps it should be.

What does stand out is the selection of non-jazz music. Bach and Mozart are there, of course, but so is Prokofiev, the composer who wrote Peter and the Wolf and whose work is marked by its use of dissonance and unexpected melodic progressions. Less chill, more suspense. Who’d have guessed Murakami was a fan? Also, right after the Prokofiev selections, the playlist goes into the uber-dramatic Night on Bald Mountain, which you may remember from Fantasia and the childhood nightmares that ensued.

Which Murakami novel goes best with each part of the playlist? Are there any tracks you weren’t expecting to see?Let us know in the comments!

Images: Flickr/Farley Santos, Flickr/Thu Le