Imgur member Valaquen recently posted the ultimate collection of behind-the-scenes photos from Ridley Scott’s classic sci-fi/horror flick Alien, consisting of 253 pics with many more to come.

The photos reveal rarely seen concept art for the film, vehicle models, candid pics of the cast and crew, and costume designs created by Jean “Moebius” Giraud and Ron Cobb:

There are also some amazing pics of the late H.R. Giger hard at work on various aspects of the film, from concept art to painting models and costumes:

There are also a few shots of Giger putting the finishing touches on a model of the “starpilot”, a ¾ scale model which was sadly destroyed by fire soon after the film’s opening:

Valaquen has also posted behind-the-scenes galleries for Aliens, Alien 3, The Terminator and T2, and hopefully he'll continue to share more behind-the-scenes photos with the fans!

-Via GeekTyrant

If you love the darker works of Jim Henson, such as Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, then you’re probably going to be just as excited as I am to see the new short puppet film Lessons Learned.

It was created by Toby Froud, AKA the baby from Labyrinth and son of Brian and Wendy, and Heather B. Henson, Jim’s youngest child and founder of puppet friendly company Ibex Puppetry:

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The short and ultra mysterious trailer reveals little more than the main characters, a strange talking box, and the fact that it's a new puppet film made by a Froud and a Henson, so you know it's going to be A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

Speaking of amazing, here's Toby posing with his two ultra-talented parents Brian and Wendy Froud, the folks (partly) responsible for the overall look of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth:

They must be so proud of their talented son, who is continuing the Froud family legacy of creating stylish and imaginative fantasy worlds for fans to enjoy!

So far Lessons Learned has only been shown once, as part of the Handmade Puppet Dreams film series, but it's slated to return to the big screen as part of the 2014 Portland Film Festival in August, where it's sure to get lots more love from adoring puppet film fans.

-Via Portland Monthly

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When you watch an episode of Game of Thrones the visual effects don’t really leap out at you or appear too obvious, except for the intro and the dragons of course, but there are a surprisingly large number of visual effects peppered throughout the show, and without those visual effects Game of Thrones just wouldn't look right.

This eye popping video from Mackevision, one of the VFX studios responsible for GoT's signature look, is not only incredible to watch and full of visual easter eggs, it will change the way you watch Game of Thrones, making you more aware of how flat the show would look without all the vfx.

As someone who has watched all four season of Game of Thrones I didn't really see anything in this video I would consider a spoiler, but if you haven't watched season 4 yet, and you're really afraid of having it spoiled for you, it's probably best you don't watch this video until you''re all caught up!

-Via io9

Twins Alexandra and Evgenia made this marvelous X-Men helmet that gives a bit of realism to any Magneto cosplay. It's made of foam coated with glass fiber and putty. There are neodymium magnets embedded in the top.

The helmet may not block telepathy, but it could help you escape from prison if your guard has too much iron in his blood.

-via Crafting the Marvel Universe

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If this isn’t a genuine low-budget Japanese knockoff of Doctor Who, it’s an ingenious recreation of one. It’s got Cybermen (Power Rangers in black), a Dalek named Dalekor, some cheesy kung-fu moves, and the ultimate weapon: the Sonic Screw Sword! Every details screams 1970s, doesn’t it? But this is a modern video by British artist and filmmaker Joshua Kahan. Sure to be an instant classic. -via The Daily Dot

Being a part of a villainous organization may seem like a glamorous lifestyle, when you're not getting shot at or punched in the face by the good guys, but the average citizen doesn't see the glamour and fame, they simply see a group which threatens their way of life.

Who can blame people for being wary when you name your group the Legion of Doom or the Masters of Evil? Maybe it's time for a public relations makeover, so people won't know what to expect from your evil organization until it's too late:

The nefarious baddies who made io9's list of 10 Villains and Evil Organizations That Badly Need P.R. Makeovers have been too busy subjugating humanity, battling the forces of good and simply doing what they do best, to consider how their image is affecting their success as a whole.

They need to take a lesson from successful villains such as Richard Nixon, Walter White and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man- paint a pretty picture of yourself to the public, and don't let them see the real you until you've sunk your claws in deep enough to leave a mark!

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Maybe you’ve thought about finally getting around to watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but those are three really long movies, even without the Hobbit prequels. In the time it takes to watch them all, you could write a dissertation. Or at least it seems that way. For you, Miss/Mr. Impatient, Mashable has created a TL;DW version of the movies condensed into 90 seconds. Oddly enough, outside of what happens to Sean Bean, which is to be expected, there are no spoilers in this video. -via HuffPo

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Ingmar Bergman was known for many things as a director, but directing superhero movies isn’t one of them, and it’s doubtful the master filmmaker would have even known what a superhero is when he was making seminal arthouse films such as The Seventh Seal and Scenes From A Marriage.

Still, his style does lend a certain sense of emotional depth and existential awareness to the genre, and if this parody short by Patrick H Willems entitled What If Ingmar Bergman Directed The Flash? is any indication a Bergman style film about The Flash wouldn’t be half bad, although it may leave poor Barry Allen seeking psychotherapy!

-Via The Mary Sue

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Julian Smith brings us a sketch about what happens when the WiFi goes out. At my house, that’s a catastrophe. I am prepared with a long ethernet cable I can run under the office door to the modem, because internet is essential for what I do. However, my kids are all pouty and annoying, hovering around my computer when it happens, because they depend on mobile devices. -via Tastefully Offensive

Forrest says that life is like a box of shrimp flavored chocolates that make you run, Forrest, run to the nearest toilet when you’re done. Oh, and his love interest Jenny became a hippie and made some really bad decisions in her life.

Okay, so I left out the part about him meeting Elvis and Nixon, his superstar ping pong playing and his eventful service in Vietnam, but is that all there is to know about Forrest Gump?

Well, according to GeekTyrant that’s far from the final word on this fan fave flick, and their Ten Fun Facts About Forrest Gump reveal what Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and John Travolta have to do with the film, as well as the bits which were based on actual events.

The original Nintendo Game Boy recently turned 25 years old, and even though mobile gaming has come a long way from the days of tiny green pixels, and screens so small you can hardly tell what's going on in the game, there’s still a whole lotta charm packed into that iconic Game Boy package:

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The Game Boy might look a little dated to the younger generation, but to those of us who were kids when the Game Boy was the new gaming hotness that little green screened Boy will always hold a special place in our hearts.

The Fine Bros present Kids React To Game Boy, and those Bros continue to do a fine job of showing us what's wrong with youngsters these days- they're way too hard to please!

-Via Geekologie

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Captain Picard, Troi, and Worf cannot be on duty 24 hours a day -they all need sleep. So the Enterprise, like any other ship, has a relief crew for the night hours. And they tend to take things a little less seriously. Chris Pine, who plays Captain Kirk in the newer Star Trek movies, is the voice of the night crew leader as they battle the Borg in this sequence from Robot Chicken. Patrick Stewart is the voice of Captain Picard. -via Laughing Squid

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This video is titled “Leaked Star Wars Episode VII Filmset Footage!” Yeah, well, it’s not. It has nothing to do with Star Wars VII. But it’s a pretty good little sequence of spacecraft from long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away at the Frankfurt Airport in Germany. As one commenter said, “Let's be honest, it would be better than the prequels.” -via Daily Picks and Flicks

Living up to Steve Rogers’ All-American reputation is hard, but most of the guys in this gallery of Captain America cosplay fails didn’t even try to make their outfits look good!:

Okay, it’s not fair to call all of these examples "cosplay", since some are just guys fooling around and the actual cosplayers in the group aren’t that bad at all, but the rest of the guys in this gallery more than make up for those halfway decent acts of cosplay with some horrendously bad ideas of their own:

Captain ‘Merica- funny, yet somehow sad, and speaking of sad- Sad Cap cries blue star tears and looks like he’s been up all night trying to drink his sorrows away:

And don’t even get me started on the last guy in the gallery, who does he think he is- some Hollywood hotshot who can just walk around with a Captain America shield and no costume?:

Check out the rest of the gallery Captain America Cosplay So Bad It's Anti-American over at The Soup.

In Soviet Russia music from those Capitalist pigs in the West was strictly forbidden, and Russian black markets were full of forbidden items from the West such as jeans, Marlboro cigarettes, and VHS tapes of American movies, aka Captialist propaganda.

Now that the Iron Curtain has fallen (sort of) Russians are allowed to listen to anything they want, but how did the oppressed music loving masses of the past listen to their favorite Western artists like Elvis Presley and Duke Ellington?

(Image Via Jozsef Hajdu)

They created their own copies of these albums using X-rays, of course! This delightfully artistic practice was an example of crafting for music lovers:

They would cut the X-ray into a crude circle with manicure scissors and use a cigarette to burn a hole," says author Anya von Bremzen. "You’d have Elvis on the lungs, Duke Ellington on Aunt Masha’s brain scan — forbidden Western music captured on the interiors of Soviet citizens."

EDIT- Thanks to commenter Alexander Bougakov for this info on the process:

"X-rays have a thick soft coating - bootleg recorders were using preheated sewing needles attached to speakers. 3V DC electricity source kept the needle warm so it penetrated the coating, and the speaker with discarded membrane moved the needle up and down, duplicating the track. The only additional detail they needed was a very long bolt that moved the needle from rear to the center of the plate."  -Thanks again Alexander!

-Via Juxtapoz