TOKYOMANGO

Get your hand-printed limited edition TokyoMango t-shirt now (2 weeks only)

My friend Ben and I made a test run of TokyoMango t-shirts on Saturday. They're really nice, do you want one? If so, you can buy one here. Below are the details:

- All shirts are 100% cotton.
- Each t-shirt will be hand-silk screened by me and Ben on his Yudu machine. The shirt logo was custom-designed by Ben. Mango design courtesy of my web designer James.
- The Women's tees come in a t-shirt style (pistacio and white) and a spaghetti strap ribbed tank (yellow).
- The Men's tees come in orange and white. In the pic above, Ben is actually accidentally wearing a girl's tee, but you get the idea... the sleeves will be more manly on the one you get.
- You can choose a custom colored tee for $25. Just shoot me an email with your preference after you place the order.
- The sizes tend to run a little big (except for the tanktops). They might shrink in the wash.
- Some of you will receive a free surprise Japanese toy or gadget with your t-shirt! I'm just gonna randomly stick them into bags, so keep an eye out.
- We're taking orders over the next two weeks only, at least for this first printing. They'll ship at the end of those two weeks, when Ben & I will silkscreen them by hand.
- Last day to order is Monday, October 5th.

UPDATE: T-shirts are no longer for sale. Maybe we'll do another round sometime!

Super Mario manicure

I'd like to get my nails painted like Super Mario World one day, too.

Link via Boing Boing

Video: This is how Mario really died

After all these years, I finally know how Mario died &mdash I guess he just couldn't make it in the real world. This short film, by the way, was nominated for Best Comedy in the YouTube video awards in 2007.

Amazing Mario cake

This Super Mario wedding cake is amazing. Actually, I'm not sure if it's even a wedding cake. It should have its own category &mdash amazing cake. I want it as the centerpiece for my dining table.

More pics at Supersizedmeals.com (Thanks, Kris!)

Super Mario chess set

I am not the best or most avid chess player in the world, but this makes me want to have a chess set in my house. If only because I will have every single Mario character at my disposal, in a box, whenever I need them.

F4F via GizmoDiva

Video: Luigi unleashes his frustrations at Mario

OMG this is hilarious. Luigi unleashes his frustrations about always getting the short end of the stick, and starts whining about it to Mario mid-game. I love Mario, but this video made me love Luigi just a little bit more. Poor baby brother!

College Humor via Laughing Squid via @ErikMalinowski

Mario Rube Goldberg machine wins contest

There was a Rube Goldberg machine contest at Penn State recently. The winner? A Super Mario machine with a giant castle and mushrooms and everything. I wish I could live in it!

Link via BBG

Mario cookies to commemorate MAR10 day

Some highly talented Boing Boing reader with impeccable taste made these awesome Mario World cookies on March 10th–because MAR10 is Mario Day, she says. How did I miss Mario day?? Crazy.

Tessie's Facebook via Boing Boing

RC Mario Kart with banana and turtle shell accessories

Mario Kart come true in 3D! From Takara Tomy.

via Boing Boing Gadgets

Marioland reenacted on stage

It's amazing how creatively people can reenact Mario Land. This skit won second place in a costume performance contest. (Thanks, Ann!)

1UP helmet for bikers needing extra luck

Cycling in San Francisco is kinda scary. In Tokyo, you can ride your bike on the streets, on the sideways, in your pajamas with groceries hanging from both arms, with no helmet, nobody cares. Here in SF, it's like this big scene—you have to have nice gear, shoes that click into the foot pedals, helmets, biking shorts, biking shirts, a water bottle that clicks into the frame...it's SERIOUS. To make it a little less serious, you could get this Super Mario 1UP bike helmet cover. That way, if you get run over by 10 cars while speeding down a crazy SF hill, you can just hit yourself in the head and get another life. In theory.

Link via Boing Boing

Interactive Marioland in one room

There are some great photos here of an interactive Marioland room, with punchable bricks and lots of room to jump and slide around in. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like you can go into a green pipe for a quick swim or to get more coins.

Link

Mario corset top = sexy?

My friend Jenna found this on Etsy:

A supercute corset made from alternating RARE & vintage Super Mario Brothers and red & white polka dot print fabric, topped off with bias tape flanking the bodice, a delicate sweetheart-shaped bustline, two polka dot ribbon bows, crude contrast stitching and silver metal grommets in the back so you can lace up! FULLY boned for support.

It's custom-made and takes 3-4 weeks, so it's too late to order for Halloween. Company Christmas party maybe? (Thanks, Jenna!)

Wall Graphics Turn Bedroom into Mario World

Here's a glimpse into the future: One day, if and when I have a kid, its bedroom will have Super Mario Bros wall graphics. He'll dream about eating mushrooms and tossing turtle shells and poisonous flowers and jumping high into the sky to get coins.

I've already met the future dad.

Link (Thanks, Adora!)

Mario Theme Song With R/C Car and a Lot of Bottles

The Mario piano guy's blindfolded piano-playing skills are pretty amazing, but the Remote Control Mario Bottle guys are pretty damn talented, too. I want to know how these guys found such an empty parking lot to do this in.

Link

Danish Geeks Throw Mario Party at Campus Bar

Did you know there's a Mario-themed bar in Copenhagen? I guess it was only for one night, but students at the IT University in Copenhagen went all out and made Mario brick decorations, cocktails named Yoshi and 1UP and Big Mario Shot, and jumped around all night with one fist up in the air saying "poing!"

(Thanks, Kris!)

I Met Mario

It's true. After decades of helping him save Peach and watching him jump on mushrooms and listening to him say: "Here we gooo!" I finally met him yesterday. He was just chilling by a concrete wall at the buyers' trade show, cool as a cat despite the chaos going on around him. He didn't even flinch when I came by to tell him how big of a fan I was. So we took a couple of pictures together, and then I decided to let him be. After all, he's one of the gaming world's biggest superheroes. I'm sure he needs his rest before he goes off on his next adventure.

Hot Mario Flower Babe

Check out this awesome gallery of geeky Halloween costumes on Wired. This one's my favorite—I've always fantasized about doing a group Mario thing, but have thus far failed to get it together.

via The Underwire

 

Mario Pumpkin Face

Happy Halloween! Pumpkin Face!

(via Kotaku)

Mario Mushroom Found in the Wild

Look! Somebody found a Super Mario-like mushroom in the wild. Deep inside, I always knew that Mario World was real...I just needed this piece of evidence to prove it. There is no information revealed on where this mushroom was found, which is unfortunate, because I'd leave my day job in a second to go find Princess Peach.

If anybody has eaten one of these and experienced unusual growth in a matter of seconds, please let me know.

Link (Japanese)

Super Mario Super Fan Has Sleeve Tat

I like video games, but not as much as this guy, who had Mario World tattooed onto his left arm. Apparently, he was an army brat who spent his childhood playing Nintendo. If it's so much a part of him, why not wear it on his sleeve? Next up on his tat list is a Zelda collage on his right arm.

Link (Thanks, Owen!)

Ruby Meets Mario, and Ignores Him

In this exciting home video, my favorite video game character tries to grab the attention of my favorite little dog, but fails miserably because cute little dogs have better thinks to think about than stars that make you invincible and mushrooms that make you bigger (like cookies and toys and dinner).

Super Mario Subwoofer

Wow! Someone actually modded his subwoofer to make it into giant Mario blocks. So cool...kind of, in the same way that Mario floor mats and a Mario wedding cake are cool. Not to mention the Mario piano guy. People really love the little red Italian plumber. I think Nintendo knew that ordinary humans would get a kick out of the mushroom-eating, dinosaur-riding, high-jumping, coin-winning fun. It's a kind of fun that is so imagination-friendly yet hard to recreate in reality—nobody's been able to successfully create a Mario amusement park, even though it's like the most obvious idea in the world.

Anyway, the subwoofer. It's actually a 12" Shiva painted to exactly replicate the Mario blocks, which was consequently put into the creator's friend's car.

Link

Super Mario Floor Mats

I like Mario, but I don't know if I like him enough to want to see his face every time I step into my house. Nonetheless, I think this Super Mario Doormat is genius. Although I think eventually I'll get tired and frustrated of bouncing on the question mark and not getting a mushroom, of bouncing on the brick and not getting a gold coin, etc. But would be really cute for a kid's room or something!

Link (Thanks, Jenna!)

The Story of Wario

Every great hero has an (almost) equally strong nemesis. For Mario, the pudgy Italian plumber iconic of Nintendo's too-awesome-for-words gaming universe, it's the similarly-shaped but much more cynical anti-hero, Wario.

Wario has an evil cackle and scary eyebrows. His name is derived from the Japanese word for bad, which is warui. And he loves money, and will do anything to get it. But he's not as bad as you might think. In fact, an old Nintendo comic book revealed that the only reason Wario is mean to Mario now is because Mario used to bully Wario when they were kids. And over the years, Wario has gained enough popularity to have his own video games, like WarioWare and Wario Land, where he's the main character.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. Luigi also briefly had a nemesis, Waluigi. If my dog Ruby had one, it would be Waruby. What would your Warui name be?

Swarovski Crystal Mario Art

Look at this beautiful Swarovski crystal Nintendo DS Lite cover! I want it, kind of. Except I think it would be slightly embarrassing to whip it out on the airplane. It's bad enough that my console is pink. Pink with Mario bling would be much much worse.

Plus it costs $600. WTF??

Link (Thanks, Jenna!)

Mario Wedding Cake

Check out this sweet love story of a man who was surprised by his newlywed at their wedding with this Super Mario Bros wedding cake! Everything is made of cake and frosting except for the figurines on top, which were custom ordered from Japan. It makes me want to crawl inside and look for coins, not eat it. That's what I would want for my wedding, a real life sized Mario World to say my vows in.

Link (Thanks, Peter!)

Mario Mosaic

If I ever buy a house, and decide to tile my kitchen, I'm going to ping this talented Etsy artist who makes Mario mosaic tiles.

Did you know that in Japan, "Mosaic" refers more often than not to blotted out private parts in porn videos? So if you tell someone there that you are buying a mosaic-ed Mario, they'll probably think you're into 8-bit porn.

(Thanks, Jenna!)

Utada Hikaru In Front Of A Mario Cloud

Five years ago, singing sensation and my high school "kohai"  Hikaru Utada married her photographer, Kazuaki Kiriya, at the age of 19. Kiriya was 35 and everyone was pretty shocked. Well, the two just announced that their getting divorced.

I love this girl, for three reasons:

1. She has an awesome voice, and had record-breaking sales despite being cutely awkward on stage.

2. In my brother's high school yearbook, she wrote: "Your sister is so pretty!" I will never forget that.

3.  In this picture, she's posing in front of a Mario Cloud.

Super Mario Brothers Rubix Cube

A Super Mario Brothers Rubix Cube? That's enough to make me want to hibernate on my couch and think about algorithms all day. Why didn't they think of this earlier? From Megahouse.

Evil Super Mario Painting

Jose "Emroca" Flores is the San Diego-based concept artist who created this awesome rendition of Evil Mario. There he is, sitting atop a looming dark brick with a grumpy, ominous look on  his face as a seductive Princess Peach (or Toadstool, if you play the American version) straddles the brick and places her slutty hands on his shoulder. The beanstalk looks like it's leading to hell, not a happy cloudland with many coins.

By the way, if you haven't figured out already how much I love Mario, then you really haven't been following my blog very well.

(Thanks, Ken!)

Mario Coin Chocolates

Dear Secret Valentines,

This year, please don't send me flowers or heart-shaped chocolates or diamonds and pearls. All I want is 100 of these Mario coin chocolates so I can 1up and have an extra life. I'll need it for the boss stage. (Hint: You can buy them here in packs of ten.)

Thanks! I love yoU!

xoxoxoxo

Mario UFO Catcher Video

A couple days ago, I wandered into a video game arcade in Akihabara and found this awesome Mario brick UFO Catcher game. What's inside? A magic mushroom? A star? A fiery flower? We attempted to find out, but ultimately failed. Here's a tribute video to some good old Mario fun.

How the otakus are planning to kick the otaku-muggers' asses.

A couple months ago, I blogged about the otaku attacks in Akihabara and hinted at the upcoming otaku revolution, which may entail the re-creation of Marioworld. I got my first clue as to how they might execute it this morning.

Here's what I suspect they're thinking:

1. The otakus buy a box of 12 Marioworld bricks for 4,560 yen. Slightly pricey, but worth the investment.
2. They open each box to find dotgraphic character keychains inside. These are the indispensable warriors who will fight the battle for geek dignity and respect.
3. They put 100-yen coins inside the boxes, which is actually a piggy bank.
4. The otaku-muggers come to Akihabara, looking for rich geeks with Zelda pocket cash to jump. But they get distracted by the question marks on the Mario bricks, which are floating inconspicuously in front of the rows of electronics stores. Curious. the otaku-muggers upper-cut the floating brick and out comes a 100 yen coin! The greedy muggers start going after all the boxes, but some of
them are harder to reach. So they have to bounce of walls and stuff.
5. While the otaku-muggers are bouncing off walls, Dotgraphic Mario will chuck a Dotgraphic  Turtle Shell at them. The




otaku-muggers will get hit by Turtle Shell and die instantly.

I'd like to be able to tell you that this came straight from an exclusive interview with the Otaku Revolutionary Forces, but it didn't. I'm just speculating, but there's a high possibility that I may be exactly right.

Dear Mario piano guy,

I almost met my hero in LA this summer.

Word on the street was that the Mario piano guy was going to be at one of the post-E3 parties hosted by some gaming company. Ever since I saw the YouTube clip, I've been determined to find this guy because I'm convinced that hearing his music live will make me the happiest girl in the world. I had plans to send chain e-mails to my friends in Japan and post BBS messages on 2-channel in an effort to track this man down.

I got home this evening and decided it was time for a refresher session with my favorite music video. That's when I found out that my search plans for the Mario piano guy had been misdirected all along. This dude is not Japanese! His name is Martin Leung, and he is in Brazil.

I decided to write him an open letter on my blog. 

Dear Martin Leung,

You are by far the most talented musician in the world. You play the Mario Soundtrack blindfolded the way Beethoven pounded out the Ninth Symphony without his hearing. And you look like Stevie Wonder in this picture. I love Mario too. Maybe one day we can play Mario Star Game together. (I will kick your ass!) Until then, I'm just going to continue to be amazed by your eye-less keyboarding skillz.

Have fun with the Girls in Bikinis in Brazil. You deserve it!

Lisa

Secret scoop: Otakus planning a revolution.

In the news recently, stories of attacks on the otaku community in Akiba by punk ass youth who target these poor uber-geeks because they are totally defenseless AND they carry tons of money to buy Gundam toys with. Well, most people don't know this yet, but the otakus are planning a major attack on the punks in the very near future. The exact date is a secret, but I can tell you this: It's going to be crazy. Like, the way Nostradamus predicted the world would end. The revolutionary coup will involve never-before-used weapons such as idol trading cards and golden bazookas, and will result in the addition of a fifth island to the Japanese archipelago constructed with spare gadget parts in the shape of Mario's head.

Stay tuned for more breaking news on this topic.

Yes, you can get a DS Lite in Japan.

Stop paying those greedy online auction vendors extra money for a DS Lite. Nintendo's handheld game console is sold out in Japan, but you can buy the awesome cell phone strap version for only 150 yen. I actually prefer this non-working, miniature one. It comes in red, and it has a permanent picture of Mario on it. That pretty much does it for me.

Get yours here

Clue to Mario World found in Wakayama

Maybe you don't believe in Santa Claus anymore. Maybe you don't even believe in Superman. But I hope you're not so jaded that you don't believe Mario World is simply a fabrication of Nintendo. There HAS to be a place where Italian plumbers in red and green overalls eat giant magic mushrooms that make them spit fire and grow fox tails and fly and get hit by bullets 20x bigger than them. Doesn't there?

One woman believed there had to be. So she put on her hiking shoes, kissed her children goodbye, and trekked through the mountains of Wakayama in search of the holy land. After many days of sleeping on rocks and following obscure noises she deciphered as Princess Peach's SOS calls, she came across this giant mushroom. Heart thumping, feet trembling, she took one bite...and the doors to Mario World were opened.

(Ok, the Mario part of that story isn't true. But a woman really did find this giant mushroom while hiking in Wakayama yesterday. It's edible, but it won't make you bigger.)

I love Mario Star Game

I'm going to pick up the black Nintendo DS Lite at EB Games after work today. I put one on hold last week when I went there to sell my PS2. It's not kitschy-cutsey like the Final Fantasy III Crystal Edition shown here, but it's sleek and cool like a Ferrari or a supermodel. More importantly, I can now play Mario Star Game EVERYWHERE and still look mature.