#motored cyborg runner

[figurecollection]

Motored Cyborg Runner SSX_155T Action Figure by Max Factory, from Shoujo Hatsudouki

[arcadebroke]

[sakurafigures]

♡ Psychedelic Rush (Shojo Hatsudoki) - Max Factory

[euphorbic]

Motored Cyborg Runner | 少女発動機

Have a phone-pic dump of this 17.5 cm menace. I’ll post more details in another post.

Go to the detailed post

[its-haughty]

i rebranded jessie’s dollhouse cuz it wasn’t working out lmao. been working on a new story for the past few days

so here are the main three, while i figure out the side characters, world building, bla bla blaa

—

‘Catch Me If You Can!’

will be the name of this new story i’m cooking up. Premise goes as follows:

Jessie is a bounty that’s worth a hefty amount of cash, a million dollars to be exact (also he’s wanted by the government for some reason? Eh it’s probably nothing to look into), lots of people want the money and one of those people is Ernest: a tired gruff bounty hunter who’s gotten jaded due to time. Problem is… Jessie’s a million dollar bounty for a reason! He’s extremely difficult to catch and so for that reason, Ernest needs to build some trust with the man rather than just- trying to arrest him guns blazing.

Individual Bios below the cut

JESSIE

Male (he/him), 26, human, 5’9”, bounty

Very silly, eccentric, creative, full of a joyous whimsy

The reason how he escapes trouble?: He’s INSANELY lucky + has cartoon logic

Jessie’s magic works like none other in this universe, in a more sci-fi world with high tech advancements- Jessie’s creative mind to make objects bend at his will as if he were a cartoon character is extremely hard to fight against. He is the equivalent of road runner if road runner was in a sci-fi setting basically.

Ernest and Clover are his bestest of friends

Being on the run, he’s never made actual friends before. Either they or Jessie himself has to ditch them in order to stay away from trouble, so he’s gone under the assumption that good things don’t last forever… That’s until he met Ernest and Clover and now he’s gotten a taste of actual friends who is genuinely loves, it both makes him feel so safe but also the idea of losing them now is absolutely terrifying.

Why is he wanted by the government???

dont worry about it

—

ERNEST

Male (he/him), 43, cyborg, 6’7”, bounty hunter

Gruff, tired, easygoing, solemn, has lost his way with things

Incredibly good at his job as a bounty hunter

This is because Ernest is made to BE a weapon. He works at headquarters where his boss assigns him bounties to catch to which he usually doesn’t struggle with doing… But now he’s faced with a bounty who’s powers are so unconventional, Ernest genuinely has no idea how to approach Jessie.

Ernest wasn’t always a cyborg

Before he became a cyborg, he was a musician who liked to play the guitar before a horrible accident occurred in which he had to get surgery or else he’d succumb to injury. The person who operated on him was shady as fuck and nobody knows who operated on Ernest but instead of being stitched up- the doctor had made Ernest a living weapon. While Ernest hated what his body resembled, he’d decide to give up on music and to give himself up to a career path that he’d excel at: Bounty hunting.

He’s lonely…

Of course… When building trust with the man, he gets closely attached to him and now he needs to decide whether to go against his orders/programming or to choose the more emotional decision and go against his mission in order to keep Jessie safe.

Extra..

—

CLOVER

Trans Female (she/her), 12, lizardfolk, 4’1”, engineer

Standoff-ish, brave, rambunctious, witty

Why is she teaming up with Ernest and Jessie?

She knows about the bounty on Jessie’s head but doesn’t give a shit about the money. She doesn’t have the intention to capture him, instead she hangs around the two and specifically Jessie to use as a motor of transport since he’s constantly on the run.

What is she looking for?

She hopes that while traversing the city with Jessie and Ernest, she’ll find her mother since she’s been missing for some time… She never makes her true intentions clear to Ernest or Jessie, always stating that “she just wanted to escape her home-life” implying she has bad parents but it turns out she doesn’t have parents to begin with.

She’s proficient with weaponry and crafting

Clover makes all her weapons and gadgets, including her yo-yo/shield and has a big passion for making fun technology!! She learnt her skills from her mother when she was still around, the two having a shared passion of engineering

Extra..

[sofubis]

MOTORED CYBORG RUNNER SSX_155 "TECHNO AZUR" (max factory)

[unstablefragments2]

少女発動機 MOTORED CYBORG RUNNER

[getrend]

【少女発動機 MOTORED CYBORG RUNNER】「MANDARIN SURF」「TECHNO AZUR」可動フィギュア【駿河屋予約開始】

fig速 – 【少女発動機 MOTORED CYBORG RUNNER】「MANDARIN SURF」「TECHNO AZUR」可動フィギュア【駿河屋予約開始】 【少女発動機 MOTORED CYBORG RUNNER】「MANDARIN SURF」「TECHNO AZUR」可動フィギュア【駿河屋予約開始】 Source: 5ちゃんねるまとめのまとめ

[jtpreview-review]

Alita: Battle Angel Review

As another of James Cameron projects that has been simmering away on the writer-director's back-burner for nearly two decades, the manga adaptation of Alita: Battle Angel, directed and co-written by Robert Rodriguez and digitally produced by Peter Jackson's digital effects team Weta Digital, had the time and the cinematic pedigree to drop jaws and pop eyes out of people’s head. While the bravura special effects and visuals will certainly do both, the film has very little spark to the rest of proceedings to keep you from wanting more. It is a scrapped together narrative from the mechanical parts of other sci-fi films as Rollerball and Blade Runner, amongst others. It’s all parts but has no motor.

Set in the year 2563, under the floating, mysterious metropolis of Zalum, is the dusty and junk ridden Iron City - the remanence of a large municipality from before the war known as The Fall. Christoph Waltz plays the kind-hearted Dr. Dyson Ido, a physician for the repairing of cybernetic injuries (for the large cyborg population that inhabits the city). Ido finds a discarded but intact head and spinal column of a female android in an industrial-sized scrapyard. He decides to give her a fully reconstructed android body, originally made for his now deceased disabled daughter (he also names her Alita after her as well). But Alita (Rosa Salazar, in CGI make-up) has no memory of her past, and Ido becomes the Geppetto to her Pinocchio; teaching her of this harsh, violent and cruel world that she has been nursed back to life into.

You are your own worst enemy sometimes, and the major ailment that Alita: Battle Angel suffers from is the titular character. Not from Salazar herself; she plays the eerily beautiful, sweet teenage girl very well, who is slowly rekindling her warrior spirit as the dangers of this world begin to target her. Particularly with Zalum’s mysterious overlord Nova who wants her decommissioned once more. But once that initial naivety has faded off and she forms into this terrifyingly unbeatable warrior that things begin to malfunction. The film devotes too much time on her relationship with the cute but bland mechanic Hugo (Keean Johnson) in a vanilla romance that has that bad taste left by those YA dystopian franchises. While the solid supporting cast of Jennifer Connelly as Ido’s ashen ex-wife Chiren, and Mahershala Ali as Vector, the scheming and on-the-ground subordinate to Nova, are left being brooding scene apparel.

Coming from the grind-house sorties of the Machete franchises to a more mainstream titan, Rodriguez certainly adds his mark with the combat sequences, involving plenty of cyborg vs. cyborg martial arts. But as Alita’s killer instinct ramps up, that sense of peril becomes non-existent. The thrills waver off, as does Alita’s casual attitude toward her past-life and her relevancy in this one.  The film wants us to care, but what reasons do it have to make us?

Alita: Battle Angel has the innovative SFX holding it up from being a narratively generic blockbuster that, like the titular character, is missing its identity.

2/5

[figurecollection]

Motored Cyborg Runner SSX_155 (Psychedelic Rush ver.) Action Figure by Max Factory, of Shoujo Hatsudouki

[arcadebroke]

link

[sakurafigures]

♡ Psychedelic Rush (Shojo Hatsudoki) - Max Factory

[euphorbic]

Off the back of my photo dump post, here’s the detailed bit.

First, anyone that follows me should likely know that one of my Special Interests ™️ is motorcycles. Second, others follow me for ball-jointed dolls (BJD) stuff. BJD are just big action figures for me.

Concept

Motored Cyborg Runner (AKA 少女発動機) is a line of 17.5cm action figures, which are a mashup of “girl” and motorcycles. These designs are based on AF Kuro’s work.

I am n o t a fan of his barely-pubescent t¡ts and aśś and pυbis mons work. (Someone call the Hawkeye Initiative on this weird and gratuitous twät shot.) BUT I DIGRESS!

Here’s a pallet cleanser:

As you can see: basically sportbike gajinka. My (very gross) hero!

The details

Sen-ti-nel and Goodsmile teamed up to create action figures based on these designs. I’m assuming that this design is Tsujigiri. (I use Hepburn spelling, despite all packaging and marketing materials using Kunrei-shiki: Tsu-zi-giri. Why? Because there is no “zi” sound in Japanese and because I love you, of course!)

Onward! Have a recap photo:

Here’s where the motorcycle enthusiast in me gets consumed with glee. The motorcycle details. Starting with the removable fuel tank backpack. The tank shape isn’t motorcycleish, but from this angle? Yes, yes it is. It’s like looking down at your fuel cap from sitting on the seat.

Then there’s the torque wrench settings. On race bikes and cars, torque settings are painted next to bolts so nobody has to remember how many newton meters (N/M) is needed for each one.

Sorry, this shot sucks because I just used my phone all these. The warning label on this one reads: Caution, hot surface. The black arrow points up to the engine, but more specifically the engine’s header. Caution is appropriate: I don’t know a single motorcycle tech that hasn’t been burned on a header.

The single cylinder engine is very accurate to a motorcycle. Even the silver cover combined with the darker case is iconic. It’s so accurate that I can’t help but question why anyone would go with this single cylinder 4-stroke model when they could go with a 2-stroke? Better choice in my opinion… on a completely made up future that has internal combustion still in existence.

And, of course, we have the 4-stroke style collector/silencer/muffler. If I had some Akrapovic, Arrow, or Yoshimura decals in the right size, I’d slap that sucker on. The figure comes with two silencers, but the other one is very short.

Not a motorcycle thing, but look at this tiny QR code on the arm pocket! Adorable.

So there’s my word vomit on motorcycle things that make me half the target audience for these figures. Just one more thing, to mention, I guess. Scale.

Scale

Have a super crappy, backlit photo:

Pictured with:

Masterpiece (MP) scale Starscream

Classified scale Cobra Viper

Figma Utena Tenjou

The figure is the same sort of scale as Classified G.I. Joes if you compare them knee-to-knee. Tsujigiri has a lot of height in those wheels.

If you don’t mind that her height obliterates the illusion of “massive machine” she scales very well with MP scale Transformers.

Go to the photo dump post

[oldhead-blerdette]

Punk In Media Pt 6: Cyberpunk

Wikipedia describes the genre as a “combination of low life and high tech". I couldn’thave put it any better. Cyberpunk came around the 1960s and 70s through many notable writers who wanted a genre to reflect the rise of technology, drugs, and sexual revolution of previous literary works. Most of the cyberpunk stories depict dystopian settings and combine punk culture and hacker culture. 

Some familiar elements in cyberpunk work can include government take overs, enhanced drugs, artificial intelligence (good or evil), a dramatic shift in socioeconomic status, as well as washed out colors, rebel heroes, cyborgs, and undercover organizations. 

Of course, cyberpunk can be as diverse and the author behind the work, so lets take a look at a few examples.

Comic:

Motor Crush (Image Comics)

Young Terrorist (Black Mask Studios)

Television:

Samurai Jack and Batman Beyond

Movie:

Blade Runner (1982), Matrix, Tron (1982)

Book:

Altered Carbon, by Richard Morgan

For More on the Subject:

https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-essential-cyberpunk-reading-list-1714180001

Cyberpunk Comics

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CyberPunk

[scummymansblog]

KARTUN

             Dengan berkembangnya teknologi di zaman sekarang, hal apapun bisa menjadi sangat instan. Apalagi dengan adanya media sosial yang semakin tumbuh dengan pesat. Komputer, Laptop, Gadget, Internet, Wi-fi, dan sebagainya, serasa sudah menjadi kebutuhan pokok di era sekarang.Tak semua menjadi nilai plus pastinya, terkadang banyak juga hal minusnya. Dan salah satunya penyalahgunaan internet. Dampak kepada orang "dewasa" mungkin tak akan berpengaruh, atau mungkin tidak akan berlebihan atau sama saja? tau ahh.. Tapi bagaimana jika penyalah gunaan itu terjadi kepada anak kecil? nahh.. bagaimana jika dampak ketika mereka dewasa malah merusak pola pikir generasi - generasi selanjutnya?

                 Sebenernya yang dibahas bukan tentang teknologi atau sejenisnya lah.Tetapi tentang hiburan masyarakat terlebih anak-anak sekarang. Saat ini mungkin pemerintah atau lembaga terlalu sensitif ataaau terlalu over/ lebay dalam penyiaran nasional. Apa-apa digetur, apa - apa diberhentikan, apa - apa dibatasi. okelah terkadang memang siarannya tidak layak, tapi apakah semua orang itu satu pemikiran? apalagi orang dewasa dan anak kecil, memangnya pemikiran mereka sama? Atau bahkan semua hanya demi keuntungan pribadi dengan mengatasnamakan demi kesejahteraan masyarakat? yang mereka pikirkan itu hanya yang negatif negatif nya saja. Contohnya iklan permen yang bikin lidah jadi berwarna. Di iklan ada adegan empat orang anak yang sedang bersepeda berhenti di depan jurang karena takut untuk melewatinya. Namun setelah memakan produk iklan tersebut, timbul keberanian dari mereka untuk melompati jurang. Dan itu disebut sebagai pelangaran atas perlindungan anak - anak dan remaja. (Gini ya Pak, Bu, Om, Tante anak kecil kalo udah liat iklan itu jangankan jurang turun satu tangga pake sepedah aja mikir nya ampe puluhan kali atau bahkan gak berani.) Coba ambil positive nya. gimana kalo anak itu setelah makan permen produk itu jadi punya keberanian dan akhirnya berpotensi jadi pemain bmx, iya kan? atau ke- pede- an mereka jadi meningkat. Ini sih bukan masalah dari iklan nya Pak, Bu, ini sih masalah bimbingan dari orang tua nya. "Orang tua nya". Orang tua itu bukan saja Ibu kandung dan Bapak kandung saja. Bisa Guru, Tetangga, Om, Tante, pokonya orang yang sudah dewasa. Bayangkan kalo semua mengikuti pemikiran kalia nyang negative. Mau dibikin lemah kaya gimana Generasi penerus negara ini? Ada juga adegan Berkelahi, itu juga disebut nya kekerasan. Astagfirullah.... Gini ya guuuyyyss. Bela diri, Membela diri, dengan Kekerasan itu jauh berbeda. Aku perjelas yah, ketika ada orang baik yang dibahayakan dan berusaha untuk melindungi diri itu disebut "Bela diri" dan ketika ada segerombolan orang dengan segerombolan orang berkelah, atau Peperangan itu dinamakan "kekerasan". jangan dianggap "Bela diri" itu "Kekerasan" bahhhh. jangan diliat negative nya bapak ibu sekali lagi. pikirkan juga edukasinya. kali kali lah tayangan itu harus ada juga adegan seperti itu. balik lagi, harus ada bimbingan dari orang tuanya kan? Saya pribadi dari kecil nonton tayangan yang seperti itu tidak pernah sedikit pun mukul orang. bukan hanya saya bahkan temen temen saya pun begitu. kami pikir ya acara-acara yang ada di televisi itu hanya hiburan semata. Tapi yasudahlah mau apalagi mungkin semua itu sudah ada Undang-Undangnya yah.. kalian juga manusia kan? takut dengan hukum Pemerintah Sekarang.

                 Semua ini karena Teknologi yang semakin canggih, ehh atau mungkin semakin flexibel? teknologi yang bisa mencangkup semua umur. bisa jadi sih. Kita pasti sudah sering melihat berita di TV tentang anak remaja yang sudah melanggar hukum. itu mungkin disebabkan karena anak zaman sekarang tuh sudah berpikiran sok dewasa. mungkin jika kita anak era 90'an jika ingin diberi hadiah saat naik kelas paling cuma minta mainan, paling tinggi mungkin sepedah. Lah anak zaman sekarang yang dipinta itu motor atau gadget dan lainnya yang seharusnya belum pantas untuk mereka. Karena sinetron gaya gayaan itu ya? orang tua sekarang itu hanya bisa mengawasi tanpa mebimbing sih. Anak zaman dulu sih kalo ada acara tv yang ditunggu tunggu itu ya film kartun. Nah anak zaman sekarang kalo ada acara tv yang ditunggu - tunggu itu sinetron gaya-gayaan, ftv cinta-cintaan, realityshow drama-draman, pokoknya gak ada sisi edukasi nya sama sekali, bahkan dampaknya malah kehidupan di dunia tv dibawa-bawa ke dunia nyata. Emang kartun ada edukasi nya? Ya seengganya itu hanya jadi hiburan yang akan menjadi cerita dikehidupan nyata dengan teman teman yang lain. kerasa gak sih pola tingkah, etika dan sikap anak kecil sekarang itu desibabkan oleh tayangan acara tv saat ini?

                 Inget gak sih kalian generasi 90'an acara tv yang kalian tonton atau yang kalian tunggu tunggu itu acara apa? Yang pasti film kartun kan? jika bukan kartun ya sinetron yang emang dibuat untuk anak kecil saja. Nah kalo anak sekarang jika memang mereka suka nonton tv yang ditunggu acara apa sih? atau bahkan bagi mereka gak ada yang harus ditunggu-tunggu dan akhir nya mereka memilih pergi keluar. yang zaman sekarang banyak fasilitas tanpa pengawasan seperti Warnet, bahkan anak sekarang sudah punya tempat tongkrongan, dengan menggunakan motor, dan yang lainnya lah. yang menurutku itu semua secara sadar tak sadar sudah merenggut kebahagian yang sebenarnya dari diri mereka. Dulu dengan adanya film kartun dari pagi hingga siang, dari sore hingga malam. intensitas untuk pergi keluar buat anak kecil itu minim. tapi dampak nyatidak begitu meresahkan kan? tidak rawan diculik, dibegal, kecelakaan atau pergaulan bebas. ya tapi mau gimana lagi, kartun aja sekarang dikit dikit udah di sensor, dikit dikit udah dipotong adegan nya, dikit dikit udah dilarang. Sensitive nya Ibu, Bapak lembaga ini. Kalian tidak kasian dengan anak-anak generasi sekarang? Kalian lebih memilih anak-anak itu bergaul dengan teknologi? yang bahkan bisa berdampak buruk bagi mereka? yang salah TV swasta karena tidak menayangkan kartun? Tidak kalian yang terlalu sensitive dengan mereka.Jadi yang harus disalahkan siapa?

                 Yang pasti kebahagian sesungguhnya untuk anak generasi sekarang sudah hampir punah. Mereka sudah mulai membaur dengan dunia yang seharusnya belum layak untuk mereka. Mereka idak akan mengenal Hatchi, Yu-gi-oh, Conan, Hunter X hunter, Digimon, Cyborg kuro chan, Slam dunk, Let's and Go, Chibi maruko chan, Dragon Balls, Crayon Shincan, Saint seiya, Inuyasha, Ninja Hatori, Megalomen, Bugs Bunny, Daffy duck, Tweety, Sylvester cat, Popeye, Olive, Brutus, Pepe le pew, Taz devil, Road runner, Droopy, Felix, Fred The flinstone, Casper, Rugrats, Cat and dog, Wild Thornberrys, Snoopy, pink panther, marvin the martian, yosemite sam, Hanna Barbera, Looney tunes, dan masih banyak yang lainnya. mungkin walaupun mereka tau itu hanya sebatas boneka atau mainan saja. Apalagi ya buat penutup? bingung aku ngantuk. Oh ya harusnya anak sekarang tuh dibina, dibimbing, di didik, bukannya harus dipaksa berpikir.. ah udah ah segitu aja sumpah ngantuk. sekarang jam tujuh empat tiga, sumpah. aku harus pergi jam sepuluh nganter si tiga. tapi masa geje penutup nya? biarin lah yah. bukan penulis sih. cuma ingin aja, daripada koar koar gak jelas di sosmed. gaapa gak dibaca juga yang penting diliat yah. udah ah.

                                                                                                                                           7:48 Bandung  Maret 2017

[the-master-cylinder]

SUMMARY In 1999, a war between the Pan-American Confederacy and the Eurac Monarchy (comprising Europe, Africa, and Asia) resulted in a nuclear holocaust. 20 years later, radiation has rendered all remaining humans sterile, and the victorious Euracs have occupied Manhattan and hunt survivors for genetic experiments.

After winning a motorized deathmatch in Nevada, an ex-Confederate soldier named Parsifal is abducted and taken to the Confederacy’s secret base in Alaska. The President of the Confederacy tells him there is a fertile woman somewhere in New York City. He offers Parsifal a place on a Confederate rocketship bound for Alpha Centauri if he can infiltrate the city and retrieve her; otherwise, he will be killed. When Parsifal proposes sending in a cyborg instead, the President reveals the Confederacy eliminated all its cyborgs.

Parsifal is accompanied by two Confederate agents, Bronx and Ratchet. After entering Manhattan through the sewers, they are attacked by the Harlem Hunters, a street gang. They escape and come upon the Needle People, a group of scavengers led by the Rat Eater King, preparing to kill a dwarf named Shorty. Parsifal intervenes, and the three agents are captured. Eurac troops raid the scavengers’ hideout and bring Parsifal, Bronx, and Ratchet to their base along with a scavenger girl, Giara.

Parsifal escapes and rescues Bronx and Giara. Bronx stays behind and is killed, while Parsifal and Giara are saved by Ratchet. The three escape into the sewers and find refuge in a subterranean dwarf colony with Shorty, who claims to know the location of the fertile woman. The colony is attacked by Euracs using sonic weapons, and Parsifal, Giara, Ratchet, and Shorty flee. They are saved by a group of ape-like mutants, led by Big Ape. When Parsifal explains their mission, Big Ape reveals he is also fertile. That night, Parsifal protects Giara from one of Big Ape’s mutants, and they have sex.

Shorty leads them to an underground vault, where they find a deceased professor and a life support chamber containing Melissa, the professor’s daughter, who entered hibernation before the bombs fell and thus remained fertile. They also find a station wagon to escape through the Lincoln Tunnel. Big Ape and Giara stay with Melissa while Shorty, Parsifal, and Ratchet leave to find armor plating for the car. Big Ape then knocks Giara unconscious and impregnates Melissa.

At a junkyard, Shorty distracts the Euracs and sacrifices himself to buy Parsifal and Ratchet time to salvage. They return, collect Melissa, and drive through a cave wall into the tunnel. Parsifal manages to navigate the armored car past several minefields and barricades to freedom, but Big Ape is killed by a laser trap. While driving through the desert to their rendezvous, Parsifal deduces that Ratchet is actually a cyborg. Ratchet attacks him and stabs Giara before Parsifal kills him. Giara begs Parsifal ensure humanity’s survival as she dies in his arms.

Back at the Confederacy’s headquarters, the President reveals that he is terminally ill, and gives Parsifal his place on the rocketship, which is revealed to be the base itself. As the ship blasts off, Parsifal watches Melissa finally awaken.

Director Sergio Martino

Sergio Martino

You adopted an English pseudonym (Martin Dolman), and directed 2019: After the Fall of New York, an Escape from New York knockoff. Sergio Martino: That’s a movie Quentin Tarantino likes a lot! I added some original ideas to that, like the romantic subplot about the survivors of a nuclear catastrophe seeking the last fertile woman on Earth. I showed a destroyed New York, and years later, when I watched the tragic events of September 11 on TV, my mind immediately went back to those images. It was another change of genre for me, and an enthusiastic one, and the budget we had was comparatively high: $1 million allowed us to build some great sets. Obviously the movie was deeply inspired by Escape from New York, but I also tried to recreate the atmosphere from Blade Runner.

At that time, distributors believed that science fiction movies could not take place in Italy, because it wasn’t a credible location! Therefore, Italian directors weren’t considered suitable for them, so some of my colleagues and I began to use pseudonyms. An American name also suggested that a picture could be a sequel made by the same people who did the original. In France, 2019 had great success, probably because the audience thought it was an American film. Producer Fulvio Lucisano saw it in Paris and wondered who the hell Martin Dolman was; when he realized it was me, he was very surprised and called me, and offered me some television projects to direct, which I did.

About the budgets of your movies, Michael Sopkiw claims that with his stamp of main actor of 2019, After the Fall of New York , he could afford a motorcycle used, but not full of gas? Sergio Martino: This is surely true. But Michael Sopkiw was an unknown actor that I took because he matched the character. If I had taken a better known actor, say Franco Nero, it would have cost me twenty times more. I preferred to give a chance to a beginner, which allowed me to reinvest in the film the money that would have cost me a confirmed actor. Actors beginning in the encore were able to make themselves known to the public and evolve to a status of stars: Giuliano Gemma, Franco Nero … To start in a film like mine was for an actor like that a springboard to do something else, even being poorly paid at the beginning.

Michael Sopkiw Profile/Interview

Michael Sopkiw

Connecticut-born Michael Sopkiw first went to Milan, Italy, to work on his modeling portfolio. Within a relatively short period of time, he landed a starring role in the futuristic action movie After the Fall of New York and secured a deal to make three more pictures, an experience that propelled him on a movie-making adventure that he now shares with other American actors like Steve Reeves and Clint Eastwood who also got their careers rolling in Italian action films.

For Sopkiw (pronounced “‘Sopkee”), acting was merely a fantasy at the back of his mind that, for many years, he never took seriously. When he was appearing in school plays, he says, “I never thought you could do this sort of thing seriously. I thought it was chosen people who became stars.” Once out of school, he worked for six years at sea as a captain delivering new yachts and as a merchant seaman. For a year he then went to school to study mechanical engineering, but he couldn’t convince himself that this should be his career. “So I did what I thought I should be doing,” he recalls. “I came to New York to study acting.”

He did some modeling to make ends meet and was then advised that he could establish himself more easily as a model by going to Italy where a new face has more chance of being discovered. While there, Sopkiw would take long weekends to go to Rome, Florence and Munich where he would pursue acting work. Sopkiw looks like a cross between a young Clint Eastwood and fellow Spaghetti Western star Terence Hill; it was perhaps inevitable that some Italian producer would snatch him up for an action picture. After the Fall of New York turned out to be that picture.

In the grand Spaghetti Western tradition, Sopkiw plays a tight-lipped, unshaven loner who has to wipe out enemies at every turn. The enemies in this case happen to be a wide assortment of mutants, rat-eating wackos and post-apocalypse stormtroopers in the year 2019 who stand in Sopkiw’s way as he infiltrates the jungles of devastated New York City to find the last fertile woman on earth.

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Sopkiw says that the experience of taking the lead in this picture was “a little overwhelming at first. A kind of instant minor stardom. I can remember the first day I walked into the studio. You go through the gates set in these big concrete walls, and inside there’s one set after another, one town after another, each one is a different world. And then I went up to my dressing room and there it was-with my name on it. It really felt great. While I was getting dressed, I opened up my window and there were eight or 10 guys from the movie down below, dressed up like Darth Vader, all on white horses. And I said, ‘Jesus! I think I’m where I like to be.'”

The role of the hero in After the Fall of New York obviously required a great deal of stunt fighting, a task that the athletic Sopkiw handles very well. He likes to do his fighting and stunts, but finds that sometimes the production methods in Italian films can be a bit dismaying. As he puts it, “‘You’re allowed to do a lot of stuff in these Italian films that might not be conducive to a healthy life. You see on television that, in the States, they use these huge air bags to cushion long falls. Well, in this film I did over there called Blastfighter (1984), they had a jump for me to do, a good 12 to 15 foot leap, into what was supposed to be the river. The camera is shooting from below and I’m up on this mock-up of a bridge. But what am I jumping into? About a dozen, huge cardboard boxes with two bed cushions over them. That’s their air bag. And you say, ‘Well, do I really want to do this?’ But it turned out all right after all. I like to do that sort of stuff: your heart jumps up into your throat; it’s like the first time you jump off a high-diving board when you’re a kid.”

Other idiosyncrasies of being an American in an Italian production have to do with the matter of language. Italian films of this kind are geared not for the home audience but for the English-speaking markets of the U.S., the United Kingdom and Australia. Regardless of nationality, all actors are expected to speak English while shooting. The one exception in After the Fall of New York was the Italian actor playing the midget who assists the hero. “He didn’t speak any English,” says Sopkiw. “All he knew how to say in English was ‘Gimme money.’ So when I’d be doing a dialogue scene with him, he’d be giving me lines in Italian and I’d be hitting him back with lines in English. Fortunately, I could understand the Italian pretty well at that point. But that wasn’t even so bad. What was much more disconcerting,” he adds with a laugh, “was when someone was speaking in broken English, with an accent that you couldn’t believe. You know, things would strike you funny, but you couldn’t smile. I wasn’t exactly playing a guy who was cracking smiles all the time.”

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You did your first movie in 1983, After the fall of New York, and your last one in 1985. Just four movies in a brief 3-year period. How did you start acting in these movies? Michael Sopkiw: Well, back in the ’70’s, I took up sailing yachts and later ships for about 7 years after a year of college in Miami. To make a long story shorter, I ended up in our Federal Correctional Institutes (seems my cargo of marijuana was frowned upon by the Drug Enforcement Agency) for 1 year of a 2 1/2 year sentence. When I got out in late ’78 or ’79 I wanted to go back to sea but my parole terms didn’t allow for that kind or freedom. So I had to choose a new career and always fantasized (like most people I’m sure) about being an actor. I knew someone who was connected in New York somewhat so I moved to the city to start studying acting. To make ends meet, modeling was suggested to me since I’d never been a waiter or had any city experience of any kind, so I had some photos taken, went to the Ford Modeling Agency, and they signed me up.

The tricky part was I was sent to Europe to put a portfolio together but my parole officer wouldn’t let me go overseas for very long. So I went back and forth a lot studying with a guy named Warren Robertson in NY while I was home. Through an agent in Firenze, I was introduced in Rome to Sergio Martino and the Nuova Dania crew and screen tested for After the Fall.

I´ve heard rumors you´ve been an model before these movie, maybe also after, is that true? And if so, what kind of modeling was it? Michael Sopkiw: Nothing too exciting, unless standing around or walking down a runway in nice clothes gets you going. The travel was great though and I got to go to places like Mauritius and Tunisia with some very beautiful and mostly very nice young ladies. That’s how I met Eva Anderson from Uddavalla and ended up in Sweden on a couple of vacations with her family. I also fell in love with her grandfather’s wooden fishing boat which was named Inga. Anyway, once I got going with these films, I didn’t model much anymore. I did make several commercials in NY but I don’t remember exactly where they fell chronologically.

The best of your films is undoubtedly 2019: After the fall of New York, your first one. It’s been said to be practically a rip off on Escape from New York. How did you get that role? Michael Sopkiw: I’m glad you liked it. I’m not sure it was supposed to be a comedy but at least that turns out to be a redeeming feature. I think I’ve covered how I got the role in my longwinded answer to the previous question.

You played in that movie, against George Eastman (the character Big Ape). How was it working with him? Michael Sopkiw: I have a hard time calling Big Ape George Eastman, but I guess there’s humor to be found in that as well. His real name is Gigi Montefiori. Working with him was great although a bit straining on the neck muscles. It’s no trick of the camera that makes him appear tall. Gigi is “multo multo simpatico”; an Italian expression I’ve always loved and completely appropriate in this case. He was the most hospitable member of any cast I worked with and I consider him still a good friend. Just off of Piazza Navonna, in Rome, he had a great restaurant which was frequented by all of his Italian film and TV cohorts. I was his guest there several times and will never forget the fabulous food. I always rode a bicycle when in Rome and it really came in handy when trying to park around his restaurant. He drove me out to his beach club on days off and stands tall in my memory yet. A joy to both work and play with. I remember he really liked listening to Hank Williams Jr. cassettes when we filmed Blastfighter down in Georgia though I don’t think he got much into the moonshine that was available.

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As written above, After the Fall was allegedly a rip off on Escape from New York. How do you feel about that? Nowadays After the Fall remains a more affluent cult-movie than Escape? Michael Sopkiw: I think everyone should do his best work or not bother working. We call this genre of “rip offs” exploitation films. Not sexually of course, in this case, but exploiting concepts and ideas that have already been shown to attract interest and therefore money. Generally speaking, I don’t find this a very attractive or noble motivation. If this is the best work these people can do then I thank them for their efforts, thank them for allowing me to be a part of it, and hope they are not just into it for the money. I also hope for them that they can do better in the future.

You seem to be somewhat of an athlete. Did you do your own stunts and fighting-scenes? Michael Sopkiw: I did many of my own stunts & fight scenes which I enjoy doing very much.How often do you get to be pulled out of the water by a helicopter when you’re not really in trouble or cut another Scuba divers air hose while wrestling underwater with a knife!! This was a dream from my hours of watching Sea Hunt on television as a child. It was great fulfilling some of these fantasies. They never would let me smash any cars though. Oh well!

These films were often made on a very low budget, do you remember how much you got paid for each of them? Michael Sopkiw: I don’t remember precisely but consider that too personal anyways. I can tell you that I took the entire amount I made at the end of After the Fall and bought a Harley Davidson (used) from some bikers I met at a swap meet in Arizona where we finished the filming. So it was enough for that, but not to buy gas!

RELEASE/DISTRIBUTION

Almi Pictures Release and Ratings Issue

Frank Moreno

For Almi Pictures’s current release, After the fall of New York, Frank Moreno found that the company’s plans to reach an audience had to be changed dramatically due to a combination of two factors: the MPAA ratings board and a premature good review. After the Fall of New York is an action-packed, cartoonish, often nonsensical, and consistently entertaining Italian film about the search for the single fertile woman left in a post-holocaust world. The movie was set to open in Los Angeles this past January, with splashy exploitation poster art, under the assumption that the film would receive an R rating without the need for any cuts. The MPAA then gave the film an X, and the Los Angeles engagements had to be cancelled. While Almi haggled with the ratings board over what cuts had to be made to secure the R, Los Angeles Times reviewer Kevin Thomas went ahead and ran his review, unaware that the film was no longer scheduled to open at that time. Thomas praised the movie as an enjoyable “cartoon apocalypse,” and Almi reevaluated its campaign.

“At the same time,” says Moreno, “I had gotten a lot of negative feedback from the film community on the advertising approach that we had been taking. So we looked at it again and decided that they were right and that our approach was wrong. No one here feels like they wrote the book. We feel we can learn from other people. I personally take responsibility for the mistake that was made in the original approach to the marketing of After the Fall of New York. I made a mistake. I don’t think it’s wrong to make mistakes. I think it’s wrong not to try to improve upon things. I think that the new approach that makes use of an excerpt from the Thomas review is much better for the film, which is a Mad Max sort of picture with some form of comedic appeal to it. That sort of look, we feel, will attract a larger audience.”

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As for the cuts that had to be made to warrant an R rating for After the Fall of New York, Moreno has some cogent comments: “You can be sure that After the Fall of New York would have been an R without a cut if it had been distributed by a major. The MPAA objected to a scene in the picture in which a man has a spike going through the back and coming out his front. Now, I was watching television the other day and saw a Clint Eastwood film (Sudden Impact) in which a man falls from a great height and lands on a wooden unicorn and the horn goes right through him and the camera just sits there looking, lingering on it. That was an R film. Ours was a one-second cutaway. Can you imagine, in order to satisfy them, we had to take six seconds out of the picture.

“The gentleman who represented the MPAA at the appeal talked about the fact that he was a parent, and that the other members of the MPAA reviewed the film and gave it an X rating because, he said, ‘We’re parents.’ Where were these parents at the MPAA when they gave Gremlins a PG? Where were these concerned citizens when Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom got its rating? This only happens with independents. I didn’t allow my children to see Gremlins. They would have had nightmares. I wouldn’t mind them seeing After the Fall of New York. It’s a comic strip. No one can look at it and say that it isn’t.”

CAST/CREW Directed Sergio Martino

Produced Luciano Martino

Written Ernesto Gastaldi Sergio Martino Gabriel Rossini

Starring Michael Sopkiw Anna Kanakis George Eastman

Music Guido & Maurizio De Angelis

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Fangoria#44 nanarland fredanderson.typepad

2019 After the Fall of New York (1983) Retrospective SUMMARY In 1999, a war between the Pan-American Confederacy and the Eurac Monarchy (comprising Europe, Africa, and Asia) resulted in a nuclear holocaust.