The Ramblings of Guise Dugal

Guise looks at the legendary helmet weapons of MASK and VENOM, and ponders on how much of it is actually feasible these days. Luckily, Guise is lazy and also failed Craft, Design & Technology in Secondary School.

I recently touched on my desire for my own personal recording device in the form of a robot camera that could follow me around and capture all those little moments that always seem so awesome and worth sharing, but which never come across as any more than a “eh, you had to be there” in [...]

NaBloPoMo: Day Five (Delayed to 11/07/09) I’ve mentioned before about how my brothers and I grew up on Action Force, the UK re-brand of GI Joe, and about my support for COBRA and the Dreadnoks over the good guys of the series – for one thing, Cobra actually had a uniformed military organisation and supporting [...]

Essential Cybernetic Science Department, DugalCorp Headquarters FC-D23: I hope you realise, organic, that your usurpment will not be forgotten. Ryo: What a pity. FC-D23: You might think that you are tough, but we are made of sturdier stuff. FS1-D23-U3: Mainly composite materials. Ryo: Ah-huh. FC-D23: We are the great builders, the weaponsmiths…whereas you, you are [...]

Essential Cybernetic Science Department, DugalCorp Headquarters FC-D23: It just looks a little ‘pedestrian’ to me, where are the high action and heavy artillery features. It’s got nothing remotely threatening. FS1-D23-U1: Unless you count kung fu grip and spinning blade action. FC-D23: It’s meant to be a giant robot that will crush spirits and structures, not [...]

Essential Cybernetic Science Department, DugalCorp Headquarters FS1-D23-HUD: So, how are the Arm Alliance doing, boss? FC-D23: HUD, are you going to continue to insist on creating bad team titles or do you intend to avoid a trip to the trash compactor? FS1-D23-HUD: You prefer Limb League, right? I knew I should have gone with that! [...]

Essential Cybernetic Science Department, DugalCorp Headquarters FS1-D23-U3: I mean, what is with this colour scheme, it’s like they don’t trust us to use the right pieces in the right place if they don’t colour them differently. FC-D23: I wouldn’t trust most of this crew to get the right pieces if I crushed their faceplates with [...]

Essential Cybernetic Science Department, DugalCorp Headquarters Shuuhaijin Yuki: The supreme leader ordered delivery of components for top secret plan and transfer of data and schematics, I am honour bound to follow these orders. FS1-D23-U2: Because otherwise you must commit sekkupu? Shuuhaijin Yuki: Worse, bukkake…but also, I get sacked. FC1-D23: Never mind that, how did you [...]

Private Chamber, DugalCorp Headquarters Guise (B): Sparks…vector sigma…cybernetic gods…robotic medics…folded space for mass conversion… Guise (B): …but no damn instructions! Is it too much to ask for a simple “how to” on building giant war…I mean peace-keeping robots to help me spread my message of World Peace under my tyrannical rule?! Guise (B): There must [...]

I love Mecha, that’s no secret. I love seeing giant robots and machines in reality, I love to see them in movies and anime, and read about them in books and comics. I still enjoy Transformers and Sentai, and can be talked in to watching Power Rangers fairly easily. The image of Dai-X from Starfleet [...]

As if it weren’t bad enough that on any given day I likely commit at least 5 out of 7 of the original Deadly Sins – some multiple times a day. It seems now that should I implement most of my policies and plans, I’ll be breaking even more. Thou shalt not commit a genetic experiment The [...]

Last year, while looking at Toyota’s I-Unit and I-Foot projects at the World Expo 2005 at Aichi, Japan, I was taken in by another type of system that spurred the imagination. The system was Toyota’s IMTS (Intelligent Multimode Transit System), by which on main roads, the buses run in automated platoons on dedicated roads similar [...]

I hope you are paying attention here, cyberpunkers. OBJECTS MOVED BY THOUGHTA 25-year-old man who is paralysed below the neck is controlling everyday objects – by thought. In early trials, Matthew Nagle has learned to think his TV on and off, change channels and play a computer game. Mr Nagle has had three electrodes implanted [...]

I was watching an old episode of BBCs Top Gear programme and they showed the dutch ‘fun vehicle’ the Vandenbrink Carver, a car-motortrike hybrid that is about 3.4m long, 1.3m wide, 1.4m high and weighs about 600kg. It’s pretty much a commuter vehicle, seating driver and passenger front to back as on a bike, but [...]

I am so gutted I missed the new CGI series of Captain Scarlet this morning, I didn’t even know it was in post-production yet, let alone being televised! So, I was left searching for images, luckily the Fanderson.org and new Captain Scarlet.com&l;/a> website gave a glimpse of what I missed. I love the new design [...]

Giant humanoid will fire flames An Alaskan man is building an 18ft hydraulic humanoid which can fire 20ft flames from its arms. Carlos Owens Jr says his creation will also be able to shoot 9ins nails from its shoulders.</a> He has been building the £10,000 machine, which he calls a ‘mecha’, at his parents’ house [...]

Vrrrrrum, Vrrrrum…. The Sinclair C5A complete flop when it was released and somewhat of a joke, it was actually genius if not fully thought-out and badly marketed. The Sinclair C5 was first launched in the UK on the 10th January 1985. Created by the innovator and inventor Sir Clive Sinclair, most famous for his ZX80 [...]

Motors whine, barbells groan, and gearheads sweat in the battle to become the robo-powerlifting champion of the world. I mean, with a blurb like that how could I resist, especially as Mir points out I “like robots too much”. Ironmen Dan Rupert crouches inside a 180-pound frame of chrome-myolybdenum steel alloy like a man wearing [...]

Distracting myself from Christmas for a bit, got a nice amount of loot, including a new multi-region DVD player, collectors edition Akira DVD set, Blackadder DVD set, Evil Dead DVD set. I was watching The History Channel and they were running a show on Greatest Movie Gatgets, from simple things like pinhole cameras, miniature radios [...]