Created by animation designer Andry Rajoelina, this adorable collection of illustrations depicts father figures from movies and television shows walking their children to school. Movies and television shows depicted in this collection include Breaking Bad, The Goonies, Gremlins, TMNT, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Kickass, The A Team, Misfits, Back to the Future and Ghostbusters.

Check out the entire collection of movies dads below. If interested in purchasing a print, Rajoelina has made them available through his Big Cartel store here.

Walter White and little Jesse Pinkman

Doc Brown and little Marty McFly

NYC’s Statue of Liberty and the little Ghostbusters

Chunk and the Goonies

Mr. Wing and Gizmo

Professor Henry Jones and little Indy

Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler and the kids

Big Daddy, Hit-Girl and little Kickass

Hannibal and the little A Team

Tony Morecombe and the little Misfits

Master Splinter and the little Turtles

Awesome Movie & TV Dads Walking Their Kids to School

The drive from Southern CA to the Grand Canyon was an adventure of the best kind. One of the reasons I prefer road trips to flying somewhere for vacation, is that when you fly, you miss all the random gems that lie hidden between home and your destination.

If we’d have flown to California, we would have never ended up at the kind of dumpy, but weirdly charming Desert Hot Springs Spa Hotel in Desert Hot Springs, for example.

We saw “hot springs” and “$65” on Priceline and thought “hey why not!” Little did we know Desert Hot Springs holds the prestigious title of “Worst City to Live in California” and was not exactly the charming spa destination we’d seen in the photos online. The hotel looked like something straight out of National Lampoon’s Family Vacation. Pink and teal decor, a ceiling that looks like it might cave in at any moment, a “room service” menu printed on plain white copy paper and stapled together in the corner. I’m guessing it was pretty swanky in about 1970, and hasn’t been updated since.

But honestly it ended up providing us with one of the best nights of the trip so far! The kids had eight hot springs pools of varying temperatures to play in, we met some super nice and eccentric people (my favorite being a very friendly older woman who kept going on and on about how these waters were the best in the entire world and had the power to heal paraplegic children or something like that); we all got an experience.

The next morning we drove through the desert for what seemed like forever. There was literally nowhere to stop, nothing to see, and then a random thing like this would appear on the side of the road:

Literally a fence with hundreds of pairs of shoes hanging on it. I have absolutely no idea what it is or what it means, but it was weird and cool and just the kind of thing I wanted to see on our trek across the country.

After hours of driving with nowhere to stop, everyone was hungry and cranky. Just as we were about to finally turn off onto an interstate where we were sure there’d be a Subway or something to stop at, we saw a sign for Pirate’s Cove Resort and Restaurant. My son is currently pirate-obsessed so we decided to follow the sign and check it out.

The food was not great, and it was overpriced, but they had paper pirate hats, and silly pirate statues, and it was the perfect little break from the car.

Our next stop was the Grand Canyon. I had never seen it before, and had been told the best experience would be to hit it at sunrise. Well, we were staying about an hour away from it that night, and waking up at like 5AM the next morning to drive up there was, um, not going to happen. So we decided to hustle and attempt to make it there by sunset that evening.

We were racing against the clock, driving over the speed limit, watching it get closer and closer to 7:09PM. We got into the National Park with a few minutes to spare, parked, basically dragged the kids up to the closest lookout point, and…it was incredible.

It’s really not possible to capture the beauty of this thing in a picture (especially an iPhone picture!), but the colors were truly amazing. I’m sure it’s also pretty cool at noon, or 5, or whatever time you go, but seeing it at sunset was worth the rush.

So this whole post is basically me, convincing you, that you must do a road trip. Yes, we’re tired. No, you can’t see the floor of our van. Yes, there has been a lot of driving and fighting and “are we there yets.” But honestly it’s all been totally and completely worth it so far.

As I write this, we’re about two hours from Albuquerque, New Mexico. I have no idea what you do in Albuquerque (aside from drive around looking for places in Breaking Bad?), but I can’t wait to find out!

Ben’s on the Road: Days 10 & 11 (or something)

Breaking Bad is finally back on and fans are eagerly consuming the final episodes of the series. For those who need to occupy their hands until the next episode airs, this playset by Citizen Brick may fit the bill. This LEGO-like meth lab comes complete with barrels of methylamine, a giant vat, a control panel, a surveillance system and three mini-figures.

Finally you can pretend to make 300 pounds of meth per week! Needless to say, it’s probably not the best  gift for anyone of an impressionable age. It’s definitely not a bargain at $250, but it sure beats your punk neighbor and his blue cupcakes he puts out for his viewing parties.

LEGO Breaking Bad Meth Lab

Shut Up and Take My Money: Breaking Bad LEGO Superlab

I must confess, I had trouble getting into Breaking Bad a few years ago. After watching the first few episodes of season one on AMC, my attention was drawn to other shows like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. However, after I noticed Netflix Instant added the first four seasons (the first half of season 5 will be added on Friday, August 2), I decided to give it another shot. And that was the best decision I’ve made this year.

I can’t possibly tell you how much I love the series. There are so many amazing, tense moments in the show that are absolutely brilliant. I burned through all the episodes in the first four seasons in two to three-hour chunks after work over a month.

I can’t wait for the start of the second half of season 5 on August 11. I’m just worried that I won’t be able to contain myself week to week, since I’ve never had to wait to watch an episode.

If you have friends who also love the show, you may be throwing a viewing party in a couple weeks to watch the new episode. If that’s the case, here’s a collection of fantastic Breaking Bad-influenced ideas that will make your viewing party more successful than Walter White’s “car-wash” business.

Delicious Food and Drink

The obvious play here is to serve up tons of fried chicken, either home-cooked or purchased from a place like KFC, Popeye’s or Church’s Chicken. If you want to go the extra mile, there’s probably a local eatery around you that serves great fried chicken—usually much better than typical fast food fare.

Once you have the chicken, you can purchase a couple stickers for Albuquerque’s fictional chicken joint Los Pollos Hermanos. If you would prefer to print your own on a color printer to save a bit of money, here’s a high resolution image: LINK.

Here are some more options for something to munch on and drink during the show (and a Breaking Bad drinking game, if you dare!):

• Breaking Bad “Crystal Meth” Cupcakes: Recipe 1, Recipe 2, Recipe 3, Recipe 4
• Heisenburgers or Heisenburger Sliders: Recipe 1, Recipe 2
• Walter White’s Crystal Meth Rock Candy: Recipe
• Breaking Bad Character Cookies: Recipe
• Blue Crystal Margarita (Tequila & Curacao): Recipe
• Blue Magic (Gin, Rum & Curacao): Recipe
• Blue Ice (Vodka & Curacao): Recipe

Now It’s Time to Cook

What would a Breaking Bad party be without some proper cooking tools? Hunt around on eBay and you should be able to score some old science gear, hopefully broken in order to keep the cost down.

Beakers, flasks, burners, plastic tubing, basically anything that would be found in that old RV. Also, make yourself up a batch of rock candy with blue dye and leave it in the pan for added effect sitting in the middle of the cooking gear. Heck, if you can find a small vial on the cheap, fill it up with salt or sugar to emulate the elusive Ricin vial.

If you want to spend a bit of money on gear for your Breaking Bad addiction, here are some more ideas:

• Los Pollos Hermanos “Fry Batter” Bucket (great for hiding meth): LINK
  
• Cooking Bad Art Print by Danny Hoss: LINK
• Breaking Bad Plush Dolls: LINK
• “Better Call Saul!” marketing button: LINK
• Breaking Beaker Muppets t-shirt: LINK

Dress to Impress

This is one of the few (if only) parties that you can show up wearing nothing but a pair of white briefs and be awarded the best costume for the night. In addition, you barely have to spend any money on costumes as the majority of the clothes worn in the show are ridiculously cheap. For a few bucks at a hardware store, you can buy a cheap suit that will emulate what Jesse and Walter wear while cooking.

Here are some options:

• The Heisenberg and The Cooker
• Cooking Costume
• Hector Salamanca
• Gustavo Fring Mask (spoiler alert!)
• The Pinkman
• Skyler White
• The Drug Runners (shoes)

With costumes, props and excellent grub covered, you should have no problem throwing a Breaking Bad party potentially at the level of a Jesse Pinkman one-month house party. Enjoy the premiere on August 11; let’s all raise a glass to the culmination of an amazing series!

How to Throw an Absolutely Killer Breaking Bad Viewing Party

Created by the folks over at College Humor, this set of illustrations details the best possible angles to take when attempting to convince friends, co-workers and family members to watch a TV show. Popular shows recommended within the set include AMC’s Breaking Bad, BBC’s Doctor Who, HBO’s Game of Thrones and BBC/PBS’s Downton Abbey.

Check out the full collection below:

How to Convince Friends, Family to Watch a Popular TV Show

Popular movies and comic book heroes transformed into the LEGO universe have been incredibly popular and lucrative for the video game industry. However, the games are clearly geared at capturing a younger gamer demographic. While there are plenty of jokes within LEGO titles that get chuckles from adults, the LEGO universe typically stays away from subversive or seriously adult content.

But what if someone created a LEGO game strictly for adults?

Enter Brian Anderson, a brilliant animator with a love for LEGO video games and AMC’s Breaking Bad. Anderson has created a LEGO Breaking Bad game trailer of sorts that demos sample gameplay and cutscenes based on the dangerous world of Walter White.

In an interview with Wired, Anderson stated, “I started thinking of other movies movies with fairly shocking moments that would be funny if they were acted out by LEGO characters – the ear scene from Reservoir Dogs, the shower scene from Psycho.”

After over 1,000 hours of rendering, Anderson created the stunning trailer using tools like “Maya, After Effects, Photoshop, ZBRush and Illustrator.” It includes the scene where Jesse and Walter throw down with rival dealers in addition to some gameplay of the duo spending some time in that run-down RV cooking up a new batch of meth. Anderson’s even included a couple Xbox 360 achievements! Check out the LEGO Breaking Bad video game trailer as well as some screenshots below:

LEGO Breaking Bad Trailer

LEGO Breaking Bad Screenshots

Animator creates incredible LEGO Breaking Bad video game trailer