Our mom threw out our Voltron toys quite some time ago, and frankly it’s been too long since we’ve put together a badass mechanical friend. Thanks to a collaboration between Paper Artist Extraordinaire Shin Tanaka, Asian-American Pop culture periodical Giant Robot, and the Scion division of Toyota we’ll soon be able to feel whole again. Using templates found in four consecutive issues of Giant Robot, readers can create their own 4-in-1 mechanical beasts. Each issue will include instructions to make a bionic creation, but the ultimate goal is to collect all four to make an impressive robot  The current issue (#57) of Giant Robot hosts the second robot template, with the third hits stores on February 2009 — and you can even order the back issues from the site.

Hiroshi Fujiwara, Junya Watanabe, Takashi Murakami. These are all household names by now, and if you are not familiar with them, you should be. I think the late Amy Spindler said it best in her 2002 NY Times article: Japan (Tokyo) is the capitol of fashion. Since then, the aforementioned men and others, have helped expand Japan’s roster beyond just technology and fashion and have brought to the forefront of culture, design, music, and art. There is something about Japanese products that appeals to so many, and transcends the played out Anime/Manga fetish that (admittedly) led the way for this “invasion.” For an interactive crash course, Felissimo Design House is hosting the Japan C event. The 11 week event is an all-encompassing celebration of everything that “cool, cute, creative, and clever within Japanese culture.” In addition to the exhibits, there are weekly events with designers and product demonstrations. The event, which started on August 16th and goes through November 1st, is free to the public and will feature over 70 Japanese firms. If you get a chance to check it out, leave a comment and let us know what you think. I am particularly fond of Shin Tanaka’s (papercraft) work and think the plant in a keychain idea is pretty awesome as well.

Our pal Stinger, the Netherlands-based designer behind Zeptonn Labs, has finally dropped his latest book project, Black & White Freedrawings. So named thanks to the no restrictions given, no holds barred approach to the 160 drawings held inside, the book offers over 132 eco-friendly pages of collab-y art between Stinger and house favorites like Jesse Hora, Undoboy, and Shin Tanaka.

If you were wise enough to get your hands on a copy of Stingermania, you already know that Stinger’s books are more fun than a water slide in the summertime. However, unlike his other publications, there are only 450 copies of the first edition of Black & White Freedrawings, and the heavy beast is unbearably pricey to ship internationally (75 bucksies). In fact, unless you do happen to live in Europe, your chances of ever touching this book are slim to none– which is a crappy thought, especially for those of us who are about to give away one of the only copies of the book to ever touch American soil (that happens to come with some very nice giclee prints as well)… Sigh.

Yes, we’ve got one. For you, from Zeptonn. And you can have it if you are the first person to correctly answer the following question: what philosopher initially inspired Stinger to get his Master’s degree in Philosophy? Leave your answer in a comment to this post, yo.

According to what we learned in kindergarten, a watch is a watch is a watch. However, according to Matthew Waldman, the free-thinking founder of New York's Nooka, a watch is just another opportunity to turn a washed-up concept into a fresh idea.

Now in its sixth year, what began as a grade school flashback has grown into an entirely new way of telling time. Intellectually alluring, visually impelling, and incredibly functional, Nooka's unusual materials and playful methodology have reinterpreted the traditional method of watching the hours fly, and trendsetting time-tellers (us and so forth) are snapping them up like Vampire Weekend remixes (not to imply we have any strong feelings, positive or otherwise, for turbo-hyped indie bands).

We've been watching Nooka for a few years now, and each new season brings us more reasons to keep on keepin' on. Join us as we chat with Matthew about the past, present, and future of our favorite non-watchlike watch company.

JoshSpear.com: Nooka was born from a first grade flashback – Can you tell us more about that, and give us a brief history of the company?

Matthew Waldman: I was a creative director of an interactive design studio in the late 1990s when I began to explore information architecture over aesthetic design for my clients. When I try to figure something out, it’s in my head 24/7, running like a program until it figures things out. The rule for intuitive design is simple: If you need instruction, it’s not intuitive. Seeing a big wall clock gave me a flashback to first grade where we learned how to tell time… and if someone had to teach it, how intuitive is it really? This was my inspiration to explore alternative systems. READ MORE…

We have always been of the firm belief that a coffee table is not a suitable home base for one's backside, be it clothed or unclothed (preferably clothed). However, after seeing. Designer Akemi Tanaka's line of transformative wooden furnishings we may just soften our initial stance. There is more than meets the eye to the Tagei Coffee Table and the Futaba. While both are constructed of a sturdy Bamboo base, the former pulls out to mutate into a bench, while the latter unfolds from a table into a loveseat. Not only do these two eco-friendly, multi-faceted fixtures save you space, but their design is downright sleek. Just about the only downside to these living room transformers is that they don't turn into wooden friends who help fight other evil transformative wood furniture pieces. However, feel free to rename either one of these fellas “Optimus Table.”

New York’s alternative watch maker Nooka is known for both their abstract approach to time keeping and their creatively free approach to designing those watches. What better form of collaboration, then, would there be other than to pair up with Shin Tanaka, paper artist extraordinaire, to produce a very fun (and very different) salute to two of the best things the brand is known for?

The Nooka x Shin Tanaka collab takes the form of a downloadable Nooka boxboy template, which can then be personalized to one’s liking and resubmitted online. Unlike Nooka’s prior collaborations (which we always get pretty worked up about), the union with Tanaka is available in wonderfully unlimited quantities. So, if you’re feeling creatively inclined today, grab some crayons, warm up your printer, and head over here and get to work on your very own paper watch monster.