Here’s a film I’d pay good money to see. Megatron kicking Thomas in his Tank Engine caboose.

Until then, I’ll have to be content with this cheap Chinese toy (possibly a knock-off) currently being sold on ebay. If this is an officially licensed product, there is something so wrong about it — yet, I like it. Check out more pics on LikeCool.com.

(Thanks, Edwin Austin)

How did we ever manage to answer these burning animation history questions before the existence of Yahoo! Answers?

It seems only appropriate to wrap up Comic-Con weekend with this New York Times article about Japanese men who have long-term relationships with drawn images of cartoon characters. The article profiles Nisan (above) who met his current girlfriend—a pillowcase with a video game character printed onto it—at a comic book convention:

He treats her the way any decent man would treat a girlfriend — he takes her out on the weekends to sing karaoke or take purikura, photo-booth pictures imprinted on a sheet of tiny stickers. In the few hours we spent together, I watched him position her gently in the restaurant booth and later in the back seat of his car, making sure to keep her upright and not to touch her private parts. He doesn’t take her to work, but he has a backup body pillow with the same Nemutan cover inside his desk drawer in case he has to work late at his tech-support job.

No, it’s not a scene from Cartoon Network Real (though I wish it were), it’s from a wonderful series of photographs posted on the JPG Magazine blog by Dina Goldstein featuring traditional Disney princess figures (and Red Riding Hood) in realistic or socially problematic scenarios. Snow White and Belle are my favorites. And while Rapunzel is incredibly somber and reflective, Jasmine is just laugh-out-loud absurdity come to life.

(Thanks, Jesse)

I didn’t expect to be using this picture in such a sad context, but here is a photo of Michael Jackson visiting with Ward and Betty Kimball.

The opening to Rankin/Bass’s Jackson 5ive series. (Thanks, OM)

Will Vinton’s “Speed Demon” sequence from Moonwalker.

“Do the Bartman” co-written and produced by Michael Jackson. (Thanks, Carlos)

Combining two iconic Hollywood stars, pop artist Ron English has created a limited edition “bust” of Marilyn Monroe (click on image above to see full sculpture). For more info on these works of art, see the Toys R Evil blog.

I’ve been remiss in mentioning the new limited TV series from Warner Bros. - Man Vs. Cartoon - which began last night on cable’s TRU TV. It’s on every Saturday night at 10pm Eastern/7pm Pacific. The premise of the program is watching a team of New Mexico tech engineers and students build and demonstrate a variety of Wile E. Coyote Acme contraptions. I caught the first episode and it was typical of these reality shows - lots of interviews, lots of preparation for the stunt and a mediocre payoff at the end. Not very exciting, but it held my interest nonetheless. This week they recreated the Rube Goldberg Road Runner trap from Hook Line and Stinker (1958).

In coming weeks they will create a real life version of the Indestructo-Ball from Chuck Jones’ Wild about Hurry (1959) and will maneuver a hot air balloon to unload an anvil onto an oblivious target below (i.e. 1957’s Scrambled Aches).

If Cartoon Network is moving toward live action reality, this is the kind of idea they could have started with.

A tongue-in-cheek documentary about the racist origins of the WB cartoon characters, Cartoon Innovators is a short by Hammerkatz, a sketch group out of NYU. Worth a few chuckles.