Mr. Clutch is a former NBA player with the Los Angeles Lakers from 1960-1974. He played the guard position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. West’s silhouette serves as the current NBA logo.
Note: This is 8-bit character #8 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
The Big O is a former NBA player with the Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks, from 1960-1974. He played the shooting guard/point guard position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. He is the only player in NBA history to average a triple-double for a season.
Note: This is 8-bit character #7 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
Wilt Chamberlain is a former NBA player with the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers. He played the center position from 1959-1973 and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. Chamberlain is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game or average more than 40 and 50 points in a season.
Note: This is 8-bit character #6 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Lew Alcindor) is a former NBA player with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers, from 1969-1989. Known for his legendary skyhook, he played the center position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points.
Note: This is 8-bit character #5 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
Bill Russell is a former NBA player with the Boston Celtics from 1956-1969. He played the center position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. Russell was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won 11 NBA Championships during his 13-year career.
Note: This is 8-bit character #4 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
Monchhichi is a line of Japanese stuffed toy monkeys that Mattel introduced to the U.S. in the late 1970s. The Hanna-Barbera cartoon series Monchhichis debuted in 1983. Monchhichis are monkey-like creatures who live in the forest land of Monchia at the tops of very tall trees, high above the clouds. As a child, one of my favorite stuffed animals was a Monchhichi. I believe the character was the thumb-sucking Thumkii.
After additional, very important research, I have identified both of my beloved thumb-sucking monkey dolls from childhood. One was a tan, 11″ monkey from Atlanta Novelty, a division of Gerber Products. And the other was the banana-holding Thumkey, a 7″ Russ Berrie knockoff of the Monchhichi line. Both had plush bodies with plastic faces and hands.
Tiny Ivo is a stuffed animal that resides on our bed. He is a brown woolen unicorn made in Oregon by Krystal and Mark Sharp, also known as The Roaming Peddlers. This magical unicorn, which my girlfriend Heidi bought in 2011, is embroidered with flowers and stuffed with about 1 1/2 pounds of organic herbs and flax seeds. He is a Magical Forest Friends creature. He was given the name “Derwin the Unicorn” by his makers. His tag explains that Derwin means “friend to the animals” in Teutonic. Tiny Ivo’s body is stuffed with chamomile flowers, calendula flowers, white willow bark, horsetail herb, juniper berries, dandelion root and flax seeds.
P.S. The name Heidi gave him was inspired by Golden the Pony Boy in The Science of Sleep, a favorite film in our house.
Today I am celebrating 404 days of pixel art (and, of course, the HTTP 404 error message that lets you know what you’re looking for was not found). Instead of yet another genocidal dictator, religious icon or superhero, today’s character is my girlfriend. Heidi is a native Oregonian who lives in Corvallis with Ian Cavalier, Eli, Tanuki and The King. She is likely to be found with her teacup, camera and bicycle. Attempting to locate other items she owns will usually result in a 404 error (and much digging through heaps of clothes, sketches and books).
P.S. Heidi calls my 8-bit characters “the tinies.” Now she is a “tiny” herself.
Update: Heidi and I were married on 11/11/12, so now her last name is Cavalier.
The 37th President of the United States and the only president to resign the office, due to the Watergate scandal. Although Nixon initially escalated the war in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970, he subsequently ended U.S. involvement in 1973. He was responsible for the deaths of 70,000 Vietnamese and Cambodian civilians during the Vietnam War. He died on April 22, 1994.
Note: This is 8-bit U.S. president #12 of 43.
Astronaut Jesus was conceived in 2004 by Argentine design collective Doma. A limited edition, five-color silkscreen poster exclusive to Andr8id was printed in 2004 and a matching vinyl toy was manufactured by adFunture in 2005. The visually striking toy is a 9.5″ (24 cm) figure with a removable helmet and a swiveling right arm. Doma is best known for their visual designs and installation arts. According to the Astronaut Jesus collectible packaging, “[AstroChrist] is an elite member of the astronaut gods that have come to our planet since the beginning of time to shape our civilization and the world as we know it.”
I am amused by the concept that Jesus has been in outer space overseeing the world and will one day return to fix our problems. It would be fun to have my own Astronaut Jesus figure, but only a few hundred exist in the world, so I’m not holding my breath. After the original run of 500 Astronaut Jesus figures, six small limited edition runs were manufactured in different colors during 2005 and 2006, including a hot-pink flocked Wooster Collective Edition.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist and science communicator. He currently directs the Hayden Planetarium and is a research associate in the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. Since 2006 he has hosted the educational science television show NOVA scienceNOW on PBS. In 2013, Tyson will host a sequel to Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980) television series.
Tyson has become one of my personal heroes, and is doing an honorable job of filling Carl Sagan’s shoes. Have we stopped dreaming?
Carl Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist and author. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Sagan is known for his popular science books and for the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. His books include Cosmos, Billions and Billions and the novel Contact, the basis for a 1997 film of the same name.
Carl Sagan and Kurt Vonnegut were my greatest living heroes during my adolescent years in the 1990s.
Kurt Vonnegut was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat’s Cradle (1963), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) and Breakfast of Champions (1973) blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. Vonnegut was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association. He also was a lifelong supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He died on this day in 2007. So it goes.
Kurt Vonnegut and Carl Sagan were my greatest living heroes during my adolescent years in the 1990s. “Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things.” – Kurt Vonnegut
Jack Kerouac was an American novelist, poet and face of the 1950s Beat Generation, with William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic spirituality, jazz, promiscuity, Buddhism, drugs, poverty and travel. His autobiographical novels include On the Road and Big Sur.
Booker T. Washington was an African-American educator, reformer and adviser to Republican presidents. He was the dominant figure in the black community in the U.S. from 1890 until his death in 1915. Representing the last generation of black American leaders born in slavery, he spoke on behalf of those who had lost their ability to vote through disfranchisement by southern legislatures. He was born on this day in 1856.
The Great Gazoo is a tiny, green, floating alien who first appeared in The Flintstones animated series in 1965. He was banished to prehistoric Earth from his home planet Zetox in 2000 AD, as punishment for having invented a doomsday machine. He can materialize and dematerialize objects, teleport and manipulate time. The only people able to see him are Fred, Barney, and the children, because they believe in him; animals can also see him.
Note: Gazoo was introduced midway through the show’s final season and is often cited as an example of The Flintstones having “jumped the shark.” In all, Gazoo appeared in 11 episodes, and was basically the nail in the show’s coffin. “Toodle-loo, dumb-dumbs!”
The 45th Vice President of the United States (1993-2001), under President Bill Clinton, and the Democratic candidate in the 2000 U.S. presidential election. Gore is also an environmental activist who wrote An Inconvenient Truth. He has founded several nonprofits including the Alliance for Climate Protection, and received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in climate change activism. A well-known animatronic human, Gore was “born” tomorrow in 1948.
I’m pretty tired of creating 8-bit versions of famous white dudes in suits, so this character is based on a Futurama version of Al Gore (plus his South Park superhero cape). In the 31st century, Gore is First Emperor of the Moon. You guys, I’m serial. I’m super-serial. Lockbox.
The Joker is a DC Comics supervillain with a clown-like appearance. He is the archenemy of Batman, having been directly responsible for numerous tragedies in Batman’s life. Generally portrayed as a highly intelligent but sadistic psychopath, he is one of the most iconic and recognized villains in popular media.
The 34th President of the United States and a five-star general in the United States Army. During World War II, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. As president, he was a moderate conservative who continued New Deal agencies, expanded Social Security and launched the Interstate Highway System. He died on this day in 1969.
Note: This is 8-bit U.S. president #11 of 43.
Dingledodger VonFefferhedge – No. 412
In March 2012, our 10″ garden gnome disappeared from the front yard. On the morning of Friday, May 4, he mysteriously reappeared on the front porch with a Mexican flag in his hand, a letter and a photo album of his travels. We learned that our gnome’s name is Dingledodger VonFefferhedge and he is 900 years old. He had been adventuring in Redding, California and Ensenada, Mexico to escape Oregon’s cold, boring winter. His journey included visits with Brunhilde the forest witch and two mariachi statues. (The bottom of Dingledodger’s plastic shoes—which reads “© 1994 Art Line Inc. ® Model No. 4030″—marks the date of his enslavement in China, not his birth.)
P.S. Having a traveling gnome prank played on us was great fun. The pranksters went all out, even giving Dingledodger his own Facebook and Google+ pages. According to Facebook, his birthday is October 12. Everyone needs more weird, random acts of kindness like this.