Toys auto news

Video: Japanese man makes the best Transformers model we've ever seen

Michael Bay's Transformers were true enough (for a Bay production, at least) to the original articles in their car and robot states, but their transforming sequences were epilepsy-inducing explosions of cranks and gears that made no sense at all. Admittedly, it didn't stop us from enjoying the first movie.

But the work of a Japanese modeler is what we've been looking for: his Transformer takes us all the way back to the original eightes series when Bumblebee was a Volkswagen Beetle. This is version eight, fitted with 22 servo motors - it even throws punches and does a jig - and we're told that version nine is on the way. We'd like to humbly request that all research on flying cars stops, and every resource be poured into a production version of this right now. Scroll down to check out the video.

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Official: Buy a Scion iQ, get a free PlayStation Vita

If you've been sniffing around the PlayStation Vita debating whether to pull the trigger, Scion has an offer for you: buy an iQ and you'll get the Vita free. This isn't the first tie-up with the little car and the little console: the iQ was one of the available vehicles in the MotorStorm RC game.

The offer is good only until June 31, 2012, so you've got some time to think about it. Sure, this will add (just) $15,700 to the price of your portable gaming station... but at least you'll have some way to carry it. And when you're finished making that deal, can we interest you in a Mercedes for the low low price of $1 million? But first, scroll down for a read of the Scion press release with details.

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Video: How to make a giant paper Bugatti Veyron

Chances are, we'll never be able to park a Bugatti Veyron in our own personal garage. It's sad, we know. Fortunately for us, the crew at Visual Spicer have worked up a little something special to ease the pain: Behold a 2.5-foot long papercraft Veyron. The project soaks up 44 pages of 8.5x11-inch printer paper and encompasses a whopping 159 parts. Needless to say, sticking this thing together is going to take some time. And ink.

The good news is, the templates are entirely free, which means we'll be commandeering the dining room table for construction purposes in sweet little time. You can scroll down below to check out a time-lapse construction video for yourself or download the template over at Visual Spicer. We're sure they wouldn't mind a donation or two, either.

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Official: Ariel Atom simulator is ready to dominate your living room [w/video]

As much as we love games like Forza and Gran Turismo, these driving simulators are hobbled by one glaring omission: peripheral vision. Driving requires a view from more than just the windshield, and while Forza 4 and Gran Turismo 5 have made steps toward giving players a better a better look at the track around them, the nature of a flat screen is cursed with limitations. Of course, if you have the cash, Motion Simulation has a solution for you. The company's new TL1 simulator was built in cooperation with none other than the minds at Ariel. You know, the folks responsible for the mighty Atom.

The system uses three high-definition projectors to give the view a complete view of the virtual track ahead. What's more, the simulator is compatible with consoles like the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Unfortunately, the kit is prohibitively large and expensive. If you want one, you'll have to fork over $18,600 at current conversion rates, along with a big portion of your living room. Considering that kind of cash will buy you a very nice used sports car, we'll have to take a pass on this one.

Unfortunately, there isn't a video of the actual Atom simulator available just yet, so for the moment, you'll have to content yourself with footage of the company's great-sounding Touring Car simulator. Check it out by scrolling below.

Continue reading Ariel Atom simulator is ready to dominate your living room [w/video]

Official: Forza 4's May Top Gear Car Pack includes Venom GT, Galant VR-4 and Wrangler [w/video]

It's almost DLC time again at Forza Motorsports - Tuesday, May 1 will bring with it the Top Gear pack, a true goulash of automobilia. At one end you have the 2012 Hennessey Venom GT, a car that automotive historians will look back on and say "Wow." At the other end you have the 1977 AMC Pacer X, a car that we look back on and say "Wow." In 'between' are the: 2011 Ford Transit SuperSportVan, 1965 Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII, 2012 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, 1966 Lotus Cortina, 1992 Mitsubishi Galant VR-4, 2012 Smart ForTwo, 1990 Subaru Legacy RS and 2012 Chrysler 300 SRT8.

The bad news is that the TG pack won't be part of the Season Pass, so you'll need 560 MS points, or $7, to make it yours. But if you throw down the fresh amounts you'll be able to enter the new Community Rivals Mode with the Hennessey Venom GT. Set a leaderboard time with it and you could win one of the 100 unicorn cars Forza will be handing out every week.

Scroll down to check out the video and have a look at the wares in the gallery of high-res screenshots.

Continue reading Forza 4's May Top Gear Car Pack includes Venom GT, Galant VR-4 and Wrangler [w/video]

Video: Fifth Avenue Frogger uses real NYC traffic in classic video game action

The classic video game Frogger is 30 years old, and some fans of the game think it deserves a place in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's The Art of Video Games exhibition. Frogger's age means that the public may have forgotten about the road-crossing amphibian, so Tyler DeAngelo, Renee Lee, and Ranjit Bhatnagar have pulled gameplay into the 21st century with a more immersive experience by tracking traffic along Manhattan's Fifth Avenue and using that data to generate the vehicles Frogger must dodge.

Passersby can try their luck avoiding the many taxicabs at the arcade cabinet the creators have parked on the sidewalk as a way to increase awareness of Frogger and boost their campaign to get the game into the Smithsonian. Rest assured, when real-life traffic makes the game all but impossible to play, there's a "classic" mode that still allows players to completely escape reality, just like the good old days. Check out the video by scrolling down, and if you like what you see, you can lend your support here.

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Report: Need For Speed video game to become a movie? [w/video]

Dreamworks was founded by three Hollywood titans as an independent studio with the aim of making good, and profitable, movies. That didn't happen. Now the Paramount-owned Dreamworks just wants to make money the Hollywood way: opportunistic copying. It is in talks with Electronic Arts to make a Need for Speed movie, perhaps because it wants its own Fast & Furious franchise, certainly because it is bankrupt of ideas. In either case, Dreamworks is not alone.

Word was that a deal should have been done already, but nothing has been announced. That deal is said to already have a script for the film written by George Gatins, whose borther wrote Real Steel. If the deal doesn't come off as planned, it's been said that other studios are waiting in line to chat with EA about the same thing.

If you want to a glimpse of a Hollywood vision of Need for Speed, Michael Bay did the trailer for Need for Speed: The Run last year. To extrapolate the movie, imagine that trailer being fifty times longer, fewer sound effects lifted from Transformers, actors who look like their in-game counterparts but can't act nearly as well, and explosions. And even more hot women. Scroll down for the vid.

Continue reading Need For Speed video game to become a movie? [w/video]

Video: Jeremy Clarkson narrates Bugatti Veyron presentation for Forza 4

We may have gotten used to it by now, but the bottom line is that the Bugatti Veyron is an astonishing feat of engineering. The task of summing it all up, then, would fall to one Jeremy Clarkson.

In addition to hosting BBC's celebrated Top Gear and penning columns in an array of magazines and newspapers, Jezza was tapped by the people behind the Xbox driving sim Forza 4 to voice-over the video clips showcasing some of the exciting cars in the game's virtual stable, including the Veyron.

You may have already seen it while playing the game, but evidently pleased with the job Clarkson and Turn 10 Studios did, Bugatti itself released the video for your viewing pleasure. Follow the jump to watch the brief clip.

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Video: Ken Block's latest Gymkhana vid goes small scale

If you've been waiting for someone to combine R/C cars and Ken Block's brand of gymkhana, you'll want to pay a visit to Hot Wheels. The toy maker has produced a replica of Block's rallying Ford Fiesta, and after you load the required eight AA batteries you'll be drifting it around corners WRC-style in much less time than it took Block to learn his craft.

We won't mention the center-mounted wheel under the car that makes it all a bit easier. Instead, you can scroll down to see a video of Ken Block writ small for yourself.

Continue reading Ken Block's latest Gymkhana vid goes small scale

Video: Wheels of Destruction combines first-person shooters with futuristic cars

There's nothing unusual about vehicles in first-person shooters - Rage has its Jetter and Cuprino, Battlefield 3 has two entire classes of wheeled vehicles - but there's usually still a person involved. But what about when your vehicle is your shooter? Then you have the PS3 game Wheels of Destruction World Tour, which is essentially Death Race 2 without the felons and bad acting.

There are three classes in the arcade-style game: Scout, Heavy and Assassin. Your job is to pilot one of them in "death matches, free-for-alls, and capture-the-flag frenzies." The goal seems simple: "battle to crush opponents, slaying everything in your path of relentless devastation, both online and off."

And don't forget high scores. There are a couple of gameplay and instructional vids after the jump.

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