Her Universe and Hot Topic Join Forces for Star Wars Day

Star Wars fans already know that the Force is everywhere but on May 4th the stars align for those who live and breathe every moment of the Star Wars saga. This day is a special opportunity to celebrate all things in that "galaxy far, far away" and, of course, to say, "May the 4th Be With You!" For the second year in a row, Her Universe™, the leading sci-fi merchandise line for fangirls, is teaming up with Hot Topic to offer new exclusive Star Wars dresses and fashion tops created by actress and entrepreneur Ashley Eckstein, voice of Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

On May 4th, the popular Star Wars By Her Universe line will debut six new fashion pieces exclusively on Hottopic.com. The first 500 customers who purchase a Star Wars by Her Universe item online at Hottopic.com beginning at 1am PST on May 4th will receive a FREE Star Wars by Her Universe cinch sack. In addition, all day on May 4th Hottopic.com and Starwars.com (the official Star Wars website), and their social media sites, will celebrate this special fan holiday with fan-themed content and giveaways.

"I am thrilled to be working with Hot Topic again to celebrate May the 4th Be With You," said Ashley Eckstein. "I am also excited to debut a new design with one of our favorite guest designers, Denise Vasquez. Denise brought her unique 'Day of the Dead' inspired style to a new design featuring Boba Fett."

With the growing audience of female Star Wars fans, Hot Topic and Her Universe have a number of new tops and, for the first time, Star Wars by Her Universe dresses to offer them. The new Hot Topic apparel line features popular villains Boba Fett and Darth Vader as well as fan favorite Rebels Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.

In celebration of "May the 4th Be with You," Her Universe will also be offering 20% off of all current Star Wars apparel on www.HerUniverse.com on May 4th (Hot Topic product only available on Hottopic.com). In addition, while visiting the Her Universe website, fans can also view the past and present honoree's for "fangirl of the day" - part of a very special year-long campaign, the "Year of the Fangirl," which spotlights and recognizes fangirls of all ages showing their diversity, dreams and interests. Anyone can nominate a fangirl to be highlighted on the site. Go to www.HerUniverse.com for more information.

DesignerCon 2012 Angry Koala Gear Booth

What an amazing weekend for the Angry Koala Gear crew! We attended DesignerCon 2012 for the first time, plus we had a booth and we loved it. It was a tremendous opportunity to reconnect with many artists that we have met at previous conventions and met many new ones. A couple of artists that we love and have been fortunate to become close friends with are Denise Vasquez and Randy Martinez who would be our special guests once again. 

Matt Perez and Daniel Perez of Angry Koala Gear

Denise Vasquez, Daniel Perez, Matt Perez, and Randy Martinez

Denise Vasquez would be our featured guest who joined us for a signing for her Empowerment: Mega Fan Girl prints, who she and Randy Martinez collaborated on creating. Denise Vasquez also brought a few of her amazing customs that she had available at our booth, including her glow in the dark Dia De Los Muertos Vader helmet that always draws great attention and rightly so. 

Cthulhu Chameleon would make his second appearance at a convention after Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo and brought a few friends along. Cthulhu Chameleon changes with his environment and comes in many different colors and appearances. 

 Dia De Los Muertos Cthulhu Chameleon that Matt Perez created

Cthulhu Chameleon Custom Zoidberg was created by Denise Vasquez

DesignerCon 2012 would bring a new line from Angry Koala Gear, Sporez. Matt Perez created this new line around Pudgy Panda and he wanted to create DesignerCon's logo from the Sporez. 

Sporez DesignerCon Logo character, Pudgy Panda on right of logo, along with new Sporez characters

Sporez custom Angry Birds vs. Zombie Pig King set

Matt Perez featured many of his amazing customs he has been working on using various platforms from Kidrobot, Disney Vinylmations, and other blanks. Daniel Perez who created the Angry Koala Gear logo also created a new print, Jedi Koala, plus the return of Sith Koala and Stan Thulu prints were made for DesignerCon 2012 that debut at Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo. 

Angry Koala Gear really enjoyed being part of DesignerCon 2012 and we enjoyed connecting with new artists and reconnecting. We also met quite a few people who enjoyed our works. 

We hope to begin selling the Cthulhu Chameleons, Sporez, t-shirts, and prints on Etsy and other sites very soon. Please stay tuned! If you have any questions or requests, please email us. 

So Much More Than Our Debut at Stan Lee's Comikaze

The countdown is on for Stan Lee's Comikaze on September 15th - 16th and we are thrilled nervous at the same time. It will be our official debut at a show and we have big things planned for the event on both days. We are very grateful and honored to have a few very special guests that will be hanging out at our booth #1706. 

On Saturday, September 15th from 1pm-3pm, we will have Randy Martinez and Denise Vasquez who we admire. We are huge Star Wars fans and because of our love for Star Wars, this is how we would learn of these two amazing artists. We have followed Randy Martinez' works since Star Wars Celebration I and have loved his art from each event. His art does not stop in Star Wars, but he has created amazing Marvel paintings, and hundreds of sketch cards for many different companies. Denise Vasquez is also amazing in every way with a tremendous personality. She has many talents that include acting, writing, singing, songwriting, painting, and designing custom toys. What is amazing about these two? It could be the very first time you meet them and they treat this first encounter as if you were friends for a very long time. They have a great love for art and their pieces reflect it and they have a great interaction with fans.

Again, we are thrilled to have Randy Martinez and Denise Vasquez as our special guests and they are bringing an amazing surprise with them to the show! Denise and Randy have been working together to create something special for all the geeks. They just launched a new design titled, Empowerment: Mega Fangirl, which they are selling t-shirts, hoodies, onesies, stickers that are now available to order on Redbubble. Well we have incredible news!! We are honored to have the Official Print Release for the Empowerment: Mega Fangirl print, limited to 100 prints at our booth #1706. The prints will be available at our booth and you can get them signed by both Randy Martinez and Denise Vasquez on Saturday, September 15th from 1pm - 3pm.

We look forward to seeing all of the geeks and nerds unite at Stan Lee's Comikaze on 

September 15th - 16th. Is Los Angeles ready for the invasion?

Our First Interview and Debut at Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo

Who would have ever thought? We have been fortunate to attend a few comic conventions and meet and interview some of our favorite creators, artists, and actors. Yesterday, would be something different for us and it was a thrill. We actually had the opportunity to get interviewed ourselves by Denise Vasquez (amazing artist, singer, songwriter, actress, writes articles as the "LA Cultural Events Examiner" for Examiner.com). We are honored to have had this opportunity! 

In the interview, Denise would ask us where Angry Koala Gear began and what we are all about. She would also asks us what our favorite convention was, which of course has been San Diego Comic Con. We began our site last January 2011 and it has been a thrill ride. We have had a blast in doing coverage and interviews at the various cons we have attended. During this time, we have met great people and have built great connections. We are making our debut at a convention and why not start at Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo next month, September 15th - 16th. We will have a booth where we are going to premiere our very first designer toy, Cthulu Chameleon and a few shirts. We are going to have special guests at our booth, which is booth #1706. On Saturday, we will have Denise Vasquez and Randy Martinez as our honored guests who will be signing. On Sunday, Manny of 2ndwnd.com will be making their pop culture convention debut to display some of their amazing works. Not only will we have the booth, we are also co-sponsors of the Shock and Awesome Custom Vinyl Toy Contest, which we will announce the Grand Prize Winner at the show with a trophy created by Matt Perez of Angry Koala Gear and the base created by 2ndwnd.com. Exciting things are coming!! 

Here is the interview with Denise Vasquez at Examiner.com

We are looking forward to meeting you all at Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo! Come say hi at booth #1706. 

Topps 50th Anniversary Mars Attacks Heritage

Topps and Mars Attacks is celebrating 50 years in the very popular card set that started something epic. In celebrating the 50th anniversary, Topps will be creating  the Mars Attacks Heritage, which will collect the original 55-card set with 25 new and never-before-seen images. All of the cards will be printed on thick, old fashioned card stock and the wrappers will mimic the 1962 original wrappers. 

Not only will we be getting a treat in collecting the original set, but you will find amazing insert cards as well. Packs of Mars Attacks Heritage will include limited-edition, multi-colored parallel cards and 3D lenticulars. Both will be randomly included in packs. Mars Attacks Heritage will also include sketch cards, which will definitely be highly sought after!  

One of the artists that will have sketch cards in the Mars Attacks Heritage is our friend, Denise Vasquez. Here are a few of the sketch cards she has created for Mars Attacks Heritage. They even glow in the dark! 

Other artists who have contributed in creating sketch cards are John McCrea, Bruce Gerlach, Lee Bradley, Beck Seashols, Ashleigh Popplewell, Layron Dejarnette, Chris Mason, and so many more. 

Topps recently announced autograph inserts in the Mars Attack Heritage set. 

Signed by Original Series Co-Creator Len Brown April 16 – As a surprise addition to this summer’s highly anticipated Mars Attacks Heritage card series, Topps announces that co-creator Len Brown will be signing a limited number of foil-stamped parallel cards. 

“During the course of his remarkable, 40+ years at Topps, Len Brown helped shape hundreds of Topps products, from Ugly Stickers to Garbage Pail Kids and Wacky Packages,” said Ira Friedman, Topps VP of Global Licensing. “He spearheaded many legendary sets, collaborating with artists the likes of Basil Wolverton, Jack Davis, Norm Saunders and Art Spiegelman, among many others– and in his spare time created the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents comic book with Wally Wood for Tower Comics. We’re thrilled that Len has agreed to add his signature to our 50th Anniversary card set so that fans can have the chance to own an authentic piece of Mars Attacks history.”

For Mars Attacks Heritage, Brown will be signing 10 foil-stamped parallel of each of the 55 cards from the reissued base set, for a total of 550 autographs, randomly inserted into packs. Each of these parallel cards will also be hand numbered 1 through 10.

 Mars Attacks Heritage is currently being offered in this month’s issue of Previews catalog (April cover date), and via Topps authorized hobby distributors and will be in stores this July. For more information on Mars Attacks, including an ever-growing gallery of sketch cards, go to:

www.facebook.com/MarsAttacks. Also follow on twitter for news, announcements and more @realmarsattacks

Darth Vader Helmet Art Contest Winner

HalloweenCostumes.com held an amazing contest a few months back, which they chose 24 artists that would create original art pieces using authentic replica Darth Vader helmets. The Darth Vader Helmet Art contest was held in the spirit of the Vader Project created by DKE Toys. Each of the 24 artists would be given creative freedom to interpret the Darth Vader helmets as he or she saw fit. Many artists had applied to enter the contest and only 24 were chosen to partake in the contest. The helmets were examined by an internal panel of judges and the winners were recently announced! 

Well, we learned some incredible news that our friend, Denise Vasquez had won the Darth Vader Helmet Art Contest with her Frankenvader. 

Here is also the video Denise created talking about her creation, Frankenvader.

If you have not had the chance to see Denise Vasquez' amazing works, please visit her site. We have been fortunate to actually have two pieces created by her and are now in our own personal collection. She created two Star Wars custom vinyls for us, Shaak Ti and Aayla Secura.

Each Darth Vader helmet will be available for Auction, beginning this Tuesday, February 7th, including Denise Vasquez' Frankenvader!! The proceeds will benefit the Midwest Art Catalyst and the Miracle League of North Mankato.

Randy Martinez Comic Book Art

We are huge Star Wars fans and we love everything of Star Wars from of course the movies, cartoons, toys, and art. Randy Martinez is definitely known in the Star Wars world for his amazing art. 

Sgt. Lucas

Official Star Wars Celebration Europe

Star Wars Celebration IV

Darth Vader Helmet Art Contest Auction

HalloweenCostumes.com created a contest which too over the past three months. They selected 24 artists  who created original art pieces using authentic replica Darth Vader helmets. The artists were allowed to use the Vader helmets as they wished to create and interpret their own original piece. Currently, the Darth Vader helmets are being examined by a panel of judges, and the top artists will receive cash prizes. 

Soon, you will have the chance to own one of these great works of art. Each helmet will be available via auction, beginning February 7, 2012. The proceeds will benefit the Midwest Art Catalyst and the Miracle League of North Mankato.

Amongst the contestants, our friend Denise Vasquez was one of the 24 artists chosen to participate in this incredible contest. The piece she created is known as "Frankenvader". 

To view the other amazing Darth Vader Helmet Art pieces, you can find them at HalloweenCostumes.com.

Denise Vasquez' Star Wars Custom Aayla Secura

This is a classic pose from the Jedi Master, Aayla Secura. In the huge Star Wars universe her homeworld is Ryloth. Now we are able to have her in our home thanks to Denise Vasquez. She created a custom vinyl of the blue Twi'lek. We were actually able to pick up Aayla at Denise's studio. When we walked into the studio, my eyes were immediately drawn to Aayla sitting on Denise's desk. It was a great experience being able to actually see where one of our favorite artists works. On top of that, it was very special to admire the artwork in person that you were only able to see online. 

The Aayla Secura custom vinyl pictures are below. Enjoy!  

Front

Denise Vasquez' Star Wars Custom Shaak Ti

This is Shaak Ti and she happens to be one of my favorite Jedi Masters. Actually, she is one of my favorite female characters in the entire Star Wars universe. So imagine my great joy when I opened up a package today and saw my very own Shaak Ti custom vinyl by Denise Vasquez.  Multi-talented Denise Vasquez is an artist, singer, writer and actress and she did an outstanding job of recreating 

the Togruta Jedi Master.

The custom vinyl was packed very well. It was packed in several layers of bubble wrap and kept it from moving around in the box. This also kept the the custom protected. I'm sure there was a squeal when I opened up the package to reveal Shaak Ti.

The base figure is one of Kid Robot's Munnys. The sculpting of Shaak Ti's montrals (horns) are amazing. In addition to the sculpting, the painting of the patterns of the montrals are perfect. Plus on the bottom Denise signed the figure.

Front

Frankenvader by Denise Vasquez

‎"FRANKENVADER" designed & created by Denise Vasquez for Halloweencostumes.com Contest! This contest benefited two great causes! If you have not had the chance to see Denise Vasquez work, you have been missing out, especially if you are a Star Wars fan. What makes her work incredible is that it helps to also be a huge Star Wars fan herself. We have had the priviledge to meet her on a few occasions and she is just amazing! We just wanted to share this great video she just shot and edited herself of the awesome "Frankenvader".

 Denise Vasquez is a very busy person who not only creates art, but also sings, acts and still always finds the time to continuously inspire. Here is some of her other work.

We actually will be getting a couple of pieces from Denise Vasquez very soon and we will have to share them with everyone! We are very excited!