Happy Hols from Boing Boing tv! In this week's Friday Unicorn Chaser episode, Sculptor Chris Yates creates laser-cut robots for the holidays, based on the Diesel Sweeties webcomic by R. Stevens.

Continuing in the Blade Runner theme of our most recent Boing Boing tv episode, today BB Gadgets editor Joel Johnson speaks with artist and futurist Syd Mead about this rare treasure -- the only one in the world! -- spotted during a BBtv shoot in Mead's home and studio.

So what is that, Joel?

A one-of-a-kind official LEGO version of Mead's "Spinner" flying car from Blade Runner, presented to Syd by LEGO when he attended a design summit in Billund. Syd let me pick it up and swoop it around my head like a child.

LEGO and Blade Runner, two great tastes that taste great together. More on the story in this episode, and more iPhone snapshots from the shoot here.

If you like this BBtv episode, you might want to pick up:

BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT [Amazon]

VISUAL FUTURIST: The Art & Life of Syd Mead DVD [sydmead.com]

And more Syd Mead books on Amazon.

Previous episodes in BBtv's Syd Mead series:

Syd Mead with Joel Johnson, part 3: BLADE RUNNER

Joel Johnson interviews Syd Mead: part 1.

Joel Johnson interviews Syd Mead: part 2.

(Footage from the movie Blade Runner courtesy Warner Bros. Entertainment / Warner Home Video; Artwork courtesy of Syd Mead Inc.)

The 1982 cyberpunk cinema classic Blade Runner remains one of the most influential science fiction movies of all time, and tops many a nerd's favorite films list.

Today on Boing Boing tv, Boing Boing Gadgets editor Joel Johnson visits the studio of artist and futurist Syd Mead, who designed the film's dystopian look and feel. We learn about the "erotic machine" he dreamed for the replicant Zhora (this breast-shaped dreampod was cut from the script when director Ridley Scott ran out of dough), the 1 2 3 *4* alternate opening scenes designed by Syd (one of them, which involved shoveling dead bodies, was deemed "too Holocaust"), what really lights up those building facades, and many more secrets.

Syd explains he envisioned the world of Blade Runner as a place "you wouldn't want to be for too long," and describes the challenges of designing for "a love story with moralistic underpinnings... if we could actually make people, would we treat them like dishwashers? Just use them up and throw them away?"

If you like this episode, you might want to pick up:

BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT [Amazon]

VISUAL FUTURIST: The Art & Life of Syd Mead DVD [sydmead.com]

And more Syd Mead books on Amazon.

Previous episodes in BBtv's Syd Mead trilogy:

Joel Johnson interviews Syd Mead: part 1.

Joel Johnson interviews Syd Mead: part 2.

(Footage from the movie Blade Runner courtesy Warner Bros. Entertainment / Warner Home Video; Artwork courtesy of Syd Mead Inc.)

Today on Boing Boing tv, Xeni and Pesco dive deeper into the magical chocolate factory founded by a NASA software developer.

In this installment of BBtv's 3-part series on TCHO Chocolate, we learn more about the hacked-together, home-tinkered machines and high-tech wizardry that keep the factory running. The philosophy is "scrappy, not crappy," as founder Timothy Childs explains.

TCHO's R&D lab contains such diverse components as Space Shuttle tape, a modded RONCO turkey oven, stone grinders used in Indian restaurants, and deconstructed space heater parts from the local hardware store.

Next, we zoom in to the molecular-level science behind this most delicious confection. Science buffs, rejoice! This episode is as fun for your eyes and brain as the "obsessively good" chocolate is for your mouth -- Polymorph fun for the whole family. Warning: this episode is NSFC (not safe for chocoholics).

Previously on Boing Boing tv:
* TCHO, part 1: chocolate origins.

Related: read a feature about TCHO by David Pescovitz in the current issue of MAKE Magazine, Timothy and the Chocolate Factory.

Here are some iPhone snapshots from Xeni on Flickr: TCHO, Boing Boing tv.

(Special thanks to Amy Critchett, and Wayne & Breanna)

Today on Boing Boing tv, a music video for the Pinker Tones song "S.E.X.Y. R.O.B.O.T." produced by Bill Barminski's "Walter Robot" studio. The whole album ("Wild Animals") is great: Amazon link, iTunes.

Previous BBtv episodes featuring Walter Robot Studios and Bill Barminski:

Bill Barminski animation: "Drive-In"

Mark makes a mini amp / Funky cowboy (BBtv's 50th!)

Roachbot / Walter Robot

BB co-founder and Make editor in chief Mark Frauenfelder talks to robot builder Daniel O'Connell about his experiment in the uncanny valley, a tricycle-riding mini-me he calls "My Dummy." Shot at Maker Faire Bay Area 2008.

Boing Boing tv's embedded robo-combat reporter Xeni Jardin witnesses warfare inside Robogames and Combots at Bay Area Maker Faire 2008, where robots battle until death -- or at least 'til one competitor busts a sprocket.

Next, BB-gun wielding battleships go BOOM!, with the Western Warship Combat Club. Participants painstakingly re-create historic battleships on small scale, and outfit each warboat with actual artillery. He who sinks last wins. The cameraman took a pellet or two in the pants, but the goofy safety goggles kept all eyes intact.

If you dig the robots, you may enjoy the upcoming Robogames. The world's largest robot show takes place Fri, June 13th through Sun, June 15 in San Francisco. Link to tickets.

At the 2008 Bent Festival for experimental electronic music, Xeni encounters Krach der Roboter ("Noise Robot"), who brings a message of peace, crackers, and chaotic tonal algorithms for all mankind.

"Why do humans love robots so much?" Xeni asks. "Actually, people love animals, babies, and robots," Krach replied. "But animals make turds and babies cry, while robots do none of those things."

Includes gratuitous references to the spectacularly crappy 1979 movie "Starcrash," starring David Hasselhoff and Christopher Plummer. Special thanks to Make, which sponsored the event, and to Andreas Stoiber and Johannes Grenzfurthner of monochrom.

MORE circuit bending video goodness: filmmaker John Fox attended the 2007 Bent Festival in Los Angeles, and shot this fun mini-documentary about the instruments, the technology, and the participants: Video Link.

Remember IM IN UR MANGER / KILLIN UR SAVIOR"? That was the genius work of internet animation funnymakers Matt Burnett and Ben Levin, aka For Tax Reasons. Today, they offer an all-new, all-awesome animated short as an exclusive for Boing Boing tv viewers, and by that, we mean YOU. Includes Steampunk, LARP armor, papercraft, Commodore 64s, MMORPGs, Final Fantasy, suicide cults, and meditations on bad UI -- some of the many things that make Boing Boing great.

In part two of today's episode -- what's the secret behind For Tax Reasons' terrific work? They make those fancy animations with hard labor coerced from underpaid, non-union robots. Robots with simmering resentments that might! just! blow! up!

A BBtv exclusive edition of the Alternate Reality Game (or 'ARG') revolving around the storyline of the Fox tv series Sarah Connor Chronicles (and the Terminator movie trilogy).

Enitech Labs designs cameras can take pictures of a future event by capturing faster-than-light "tachyon" particles. When pictures of ordinary scenery foretell post-apocalyptic outcomes, the developers find themselves in a race against time to publicize their findings and warn the public of the horrors to come...

(Thanks, Bart Cheever / millionsofus!)

Previously on BBtv:
Sarah Connor Chronicles (Terminator) ARG sneak peek: part 1.

An Alternate Reality Game (or 'ARG') revolving around the storyline of the Fox tv series Sarah Connor Chronicles (and the Terminator movie trilogy). The footage describes the development of a camera from Enitech Labs that can take pictures of a future event by capturing faster-than-light "tachyon" particles. When pictures of ordinary scenery foretell post-apocalyptic outcomes, the developers find themselves in a race against time to publicize their findings and warn the public of the horrors to come...

(Thanks, Bart Cheever / millionsofus!)

Robots are used on battlefields to fight wars, but today on BBtv -- an infomercial for robotic revolution from the Institute for Applied Autonomy. Founded in 1988, the group describes themselves as:

... a technological research and development organization dedicated to the cause of individual and collective self-determination. Our mission is to study the forces and structures which affect self-determination and to provide technologies which extend the autonomy of human activists.

Those technologies include a grafitti-spraying robot to denounce The Man, a cute and seductive pamphleteer, and a txt app for your phone, so you can invite all your pals to come riot.

Next in today's episode: animated square-headed beings from the beautiful genius minds behind Peppermelon.tv.

BBtv co-editor David Pescovitz takes a trip into the alternate reality of pop surrealist artist Tim Biskup. And it's definitely a trip. Then, sculptor Chris Yates demonstrates how he makes a Diesel Sweeties wooden Red Robot from start to finish, slightly faster than normal.

Austrian tech-art-pranksters Monochrom show us how to hack into the human brain using a vintage calculator, duct tape, a USB drive, and some pickled onions (preferably Romanian). Then, Mark shows us how to make a very simple motor -- another fun project from scitoys.com.

See also: BBtv: Monochrom's love song for Lessig

Update: here's monochrom's extended dance remix director's uncut version of BRAICIN: Link.