Flying Squirrel T-Shirt – This guy’s nuts…

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a gliding rodent!

The Flying Squirrel T-shirt sports one of my all-time favourite rodents (yes, I have a list of them) and also reminds me of a dream I often have.

Oh, to be a flying squirrel (yep, that’s the dream). What joy it must be to fling one’s self from the high branches, knowing that with an understated flurry of the limbs, one’s skin could turn one into a sort of furry kite. I’d love to do that. It looks like so much fun and they make it look like quite a lark too. Ok, so technically it’s not really flying – more gliding – but it’s still pretty cool. When every other squirrel is burying it’s nuts (don’t giggle), this bad boy is taking to the updrafts and soaring between the canopies. And (here’s your fact of the day) some of them can go up to 90 metres! I think the fluff tailed aviator is captured perfectly on this tee. It’s a great illustration and though it may be simple, you can actually picture it soaring twixt the branches here.

This squirrel t-shirt comes to you from the good, science-loving chaps at babbletees.com. It comes in eight colours (I’m a fan of this green) and this unisex version comes in sizes S-XXXL (there’s a women’s version too). It’ll cost you just $18.00 which is also a steal. Would I ever refuse this t-shirt? Nuts to that!

p.s. Sorry for all the ‘nuts’ jokes.

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Superhero T-Shirt – The problem with capes.

Hope for all of us reserved caped crusaders.

This Superhero T-Shirt sums up my life a little bit. Every time someone’s in peril, I never have my cape on me, but when I’m standing on the street with my undies on the outside of my jeans, nothing happens. Typical.

I never really got the cape thing. Ok, Batman’s could help him fly, but all the other capes in comic books seemed to just be about dressing up. In fact, I always took issue with the whole idea of a costume. At what point does Batman put on his eyeliner? Is a telephone booth really a suitable place for a man to put on red knee-high boots? And what the hell is the deal with the pants/shorts on the outside of your trousers/pants (trying to speak both British English and American English there)? And yet, despite all of these things, they’re all pretty cool. As much as I quietly deride the idea of a cape, I really wish I owned one. Especially one that could deflect lasers, make me fly, be converted into a small canoe, eaten in times of hunger and shield me from a chilly breeze.

This t-shirt comes to you from the Joy Of Ex Foundation and can be found at notonthehighstreet.com where it’ll set you back £24.50 (or $41 if your in the US). You can have any colour you like as long as it’s grey (though there is a red version for kids too). The only size available at the moment is XL but hopefully they’ll get some more soon. It’s a simple design, but very funny. Now I’m off to tell Superman he looks silly.

 

Peacock Envy T-Shirt – The bird is the word.

*cue groans* Peck-asso? Tern-er? Finch-ent Van Gogh?

I love this Peacock Envy T-Shirt. It incorporates a great design, a wicked pun and the word ‘peacock’ still makes my inner child giggle.

This t-shirt really got me thinking. Having a peacock tail would be awesome. It got me thinking about how I could genetically alter my own DNA to give me a peacock’s tail, but then I realised that that probably wouldn’t be financially viable. I then considered hiding a peacock down the back of my trousers but those beaks look pretty sharp and it’s not really worth the risk in terms of proximity to delicate things. Basically, it’s not going to happen. I could make one out of pipe-cleaners and tissue paper but it’d look rubbish. So, if I want a peacock tail, this tee will have to do. Thankfully, I absolutely love this design. It’s a beautifully done illustration that uses a great colour pallet and it conveys the concept perfectly. A fine looking bird indeed.

This comes to you from Kleeve.com which is a great independent site that showcases the talents of a very talented t-shirt designer. This particular T-Shirt will cost you $22.00 and comes in sizes from Small to XXL. It only comes in this tan colour but I think it fits the design perfectly, and there’s a women’s version too. If nothing else, it’s bound to be a lot more comfortable than having a live peacock shoved down your trousers.

 

The Best of bant-shirts.com – bigscarytees.com gets political

Whatever cause you’re fighting for, they’ll have a tee for you.

When it comes to Political T-Shirts, you have a world of choice, but one of my favourite sites for expressing sentiments of this nature is bant-shirts.com so I’ve picked some of my favourite designs to show you here.

Part of being brave is standing up for what you believe in. The next step is to start shouting about it, and when a picture speaks a thousand words, a good t-shirt design can really spread those words. Ban T-Shirts does a great job of marrying the values they believe in (values which many others share) with great, eye-catching design work. If you check out their site, you’ll discover a wealth of bold (both in terms of look and of sentiment) tees that, if you’re suitably left-leaning, or socially and environmentally conscious you’ll discover something here that will suit you down to the ground.

Here’s a run down of some of my favourites (going clockwise from top left):

Get Angry And Change The World T-Shirt – I got so sick of the Keep Calm stuff, but when I saw this, I felt it made so much more sense. It comes in green, it’s $20 and there are lots of sizes in both men’s and women’s fits.

Buffalo/Bison Skull T-Shirt – Both the plight of Native Americans and the loss of the North American bison (or buffalo) are tragic things, and this t-shirt is a great way to show your support for them both. $20 and it comes in black with lots of sizes.

Eco-Terrorist T-Shirt – Read the blurb about this t-shirt on the site and you’ll see it makes so much sense. It’s $12, it comes in green, but the only size left at the moment is Men’s XXL.

Gun Control? T-Shirt – Not only is this a great design, but it also highlights the problem of gun ownership in the US. For $20, it comes in a rather fetching blue and there are plenty of sizes for men and women.

Enjoy! And fight the power.

Iconic T-Shirts – Motorhead T-Shirt

“If you think you are too old to rock ‘n roll, then you are.” – Lemmy

 

The Motorhead T-shirt has grown into an iconic piece of clothing, and it has come to symbolise the violent, brash and vicious nature of Heavy Metal. Which is kind of odd because Lemmy always seems like such a nice chap.

Long ago, in an age where musicians didn’t really have to care about looks as long as they could play their instruments, this guy called Lemmy turned up in the psychedelic rock band, Hawkwind. The other guys in Hawkwind were all heavily into taking acid – a drug that slows you down, mellows you out and makes you see pink flowers growing out of your fingertips. Lemmy, despite having been Jimi Hendrix’s acid supplier, was more into speed – a drug that makes your blood and mind race like Bolt and Blake in the 100 metres final. Lemmy didn’t last long in Hawkwind, and soon departed to form Motorhead. The name was a reference to the nickname given to anyone who took speed habitually, and thirty odd (very odd) years later, Motorhead are still going and they are still the loudest band on the planet. Trust me, I went to see them last year at the Brixton Academy and I couldn’t hear anything for a couple of days after.

But the band needed a symbol. Hawkwind had been all about tie-dye and beads, but that wasn’t exactly a heavy metal image. Luckily, Joe Petagno was on hand to create the fanged, horned, tusked face that has seen hundreds of variations since its beginnings in 1977 when it appeared on the band’s self-titled debut album. It’s known as War-Pig (or Snaggletooth) and has featured on nearly all of Motorhead’s album covers since its creation. It gave the band a look. A mean look. And, due to its now iconic status, it will survive, like Lemmy himself, for a long time and against all odds.

This particular version comes from the official Motorhead store where it costs $19.99, comes only in black, and in sizes L-XXXL (most Moterhead fans tend to be a little larger). It is Metal personified, instantly recognisable, and as wonderfully ugly as it was in 1977.

Tools T-Shirt – Nailed it.

Too… many… potential… tool-based… puns… *head explodes*

 

This Tools T-Shirt is the perfect gift for many a man or woman who likes bashing, hacking and nailing things together.

Now, I like DIY, but I’m not known for doing things by the book, unless that book is “How to hammer stuff with the handle of your fret saw” or “Home disasters III: Dados and Dodos”. I have the tool boxes, lots of tools and I get stuff done, even if I don’t use the implements in question as they were intended. Why remove screws with a screwdriver, when it’s so much more fun with an electric jigsaw? That’s my motto and I have the scars and broken thumbs to prove it. However, some follow the rules (sheep!) and others are fans of the band Tool, avid viewers of 90s sitcom Tool Time or simply tools themselves and this tee is perfect for all of them. It’s a great design – simple and eyecatching – and even if you’re not a do-it-yourself sort of person, it will look great on you. I can even name all the tools on the t-shirt. From left to right, it’s funny hammer, tall hammer, spiky hammer, hammer keys, pretend microphone, hollow hammer and nail clippers. How good am I!?

You can buy your own tool t-shirt at notonthehighstreet.com. It’s been created by Stabo (who are new to me but do some very cool designs) and it’s available for the bargain price of £16. It’s chocolate brown with sizes from small to XL and for a small price it can be delivered across the world. So, if you think they’ve hit the nail on the head with this one and you like what you saw, be sure to grab your own today!

Lord Of The Rings T-Shirt – Get your Hobbit on.

If someone asked me if they could borrow this t-shirt, I’d say “You can’t Boromir T-Shirt!” *groans*

This Lord Of The Rings T-Shirt is helping to get me more excited for the first Hobbit film which comes out later this year. And I also think it looks precious. *groans*

I spent a lazy monday night watching the “making of” vlogs on youtube from Peter Jackson et al and if my enthusiasm wasn’t evident before then, well now I’m no longer shaving my feet and I’m ready for a trek across Middle Earth. And then I stumble upon this rather fetching Tree of Gondor T-Shirt. I think it looks fantastic, and though Gondor doesn’t actually feature in The Hobbit (at least not in the book) it’s still suitably Tolkien-esque to be more than appropriate. Also, have you noticed how I’m refraining from the whole “one t-shirt to find them all…” stuff? I thought I was doing quite well. Ok, so I mentioned “precious” in the first paragraph, and there’s that caption, but that’s still pretty good self-control from me. When you’re as nerdy as I am, it takes a will stronger than elven steel to resist punning on a subject like LotR. Kudos to me.

So, if you’d like to spend some time living in a cave beneath a mountain… wait. That’s not right. If you’d like to pick up this t-shirt, drop into thinkgeek.com where you’ll find it available at a price between $19.99 and $21.99 (depending on whether you’re a Bilbo or a Bjorn). It comes in Navy and at the time of writing, the sizes available are S, L, XL and XXL though more are due to come back in stock soon. Whether you’re trolling around the Misty Mountains or galavanting about Gondor, this is the tee for you.

p.s. I don’t actually shave my feet. I use Veet for my feet. Much easier to use. And it rhymes.

Iconic T-Shirts – The Ramones T-Shirt

Sheena is a punk rocker. And she wears this t-shirt.

The Ramones T-Shirt is now something that we see every day, and many variations have been created on the theme. But the fact that a t-shirt created by one of the most unlikely bands in history could become as mainstream as it has today, makes this an Iconic T-Shirt.

If you were hanging out in CBGB’s, a grimy little club in Queens, New York in the mid-late 1970s, you’d have seen a few bands and musicians play there that are today household names. There was Blondie, Patti Smith and, later on, The Police. Then there were these guys. They couldn’t play their instruments, they looked like they were from the local gang, the singer’s voice was as ridiculous as it was unusual, and they were playing something that would eventually be called punk rock. Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee and Tommy Ramone, sporting bad hair, leather jackets and ripped jeans became one of the most important (and undervalued) bands of the 20th century. When they played the Roundhouse in London in ’76, members of the Sex Pistols, the Clash and others were in the crowd. These guys made punk rock.

The band’s logo which features on this t-shirt was designed by Arturo Vega, an artist from New York who lived with Joey and Dee Dee. He also started printing the t-shirts. It takes the seal of the President of the United States and gives the bald eagle a baseball bat. It’s subversive, striking and instantly recognisable. And it contains the great mantra of the Ramones – Hey ho, let’s go. It’s the perfect symbol, not just for the band, but also for an Iconic T-Shirt that is easily more recognisable to a lot of people today than the band’s music (and as a fan of the band’s music, that’s a little sad, but I get it).

If you want one, you can find them all over the place. If you want to see a selection of designs though, I recommend checking out ramonesworld.com which is still run by Arturo Vega. There’s lots of choice, so have fun.

 

Iconic T-Shirts – Frankie Says Relax T-Shirt

Unwind to the sounds of the 1980s

The Frankie Says Relax T-Shirt is as much a part of the 1980s as red suspenders, filofaxes, the films of John Hughes and Thundercats. That’s why this makes the Iconic T-Shirts list.

Long before the ‘chill pill’ and the ‘chillax’, and even before Bart Simpson told us not to have a cow, Frankie told us to relax. Many people won’t know who or what Frankie Goes To Hollywood is (and thankfully, I’m young enough to have only caught the tail end of the 80s) but this t-shirt was a big deal, and you still see it around from time to time. If you are a bit unsure (you whippersnapper) then I’ll give you a brief summary. They were a British dance-pop band that had a hit single in 1983 called Relax. The name sounded innocent enough, but the video and a closer examination of the lyrics pointed towards it being overtly sexual, and in a decade as conservative as the 1980s, the fact that it promoted homosexuality was also met with enough frowns to get it banned by the BBC. They had a couple of other hits, but nothing that garnered the popularity of Relax which became one of the biggest selling records of the year around the world.

The t-shirt is simple – bold, black words on white – but its place in society was more complex. It had obvious appeal to gay men and fans of the band, but others used it simply because the message on the t-shirt suited them – relax. The 80s were a hectic decade full of disillusioned punks and yuppies. In Britain the cold war still raged, there were race riots, war with Argentina, mass unemployment, recession, Margaret Thatcher… if ever the people needed to be reminded to relax once in a while, it was the 1980s. So as much as it was part of gay iconography, it crossed into the mainstream and any t-shirt that can do that deserves its place in the list of iconic tees.

You can find a good retro version on truffleshuffle.co.uk where it costs £20.00. The sizes available at the time of writing this post are small, XL and XXL but other sizes are available when in stock. So if you want a blast from the past and a message that we could still use today, this is the Iconic T-Shirt for you.

Iconic T-Shirts – The Che Guevara T-Shirt

The man who revolutionised Cuba and T-Shirts

Che Guevara T-Shirts have become a common sight across the world, and whether the wearers know of Che’s life or ideals, just from sheer volume (with a hand from good design aesthetics), the Che tee has to be included in the Iconic T-Shirts list.

Who’d have thunk it? The face most often seen on t-shirts, from all over the world, would be that of Ernesto “Che” Guevara – Communist revolutionary and Cuban guerrilla fighter. Coming from a century full of icons, both political and popular (sic), Che won the war to feature on more t-shirts than anyone else. In fact, these days, these shirts are known as “Cli-Che” due to their popularity and the fact that almost every teenager who awakens to political thinking immediately picks one of these shirts up and starts living in it. Many moons ago, I did so myself.

The design itself is simple, though there are many variations on the theme. A silhouetted face, staring out from the material. Its expression is one of pride, determination, passion and hope – though you may see something different if his ideals don’t match your own. That’s why, despite its overuse, misunderstanding and manipulation, this image will go down as one that not only defines t-shirt history, but also the image of 20th Century.

I found this one at thechestore.com (though you can find thousands of different versions all over the place). This one will set you back $18.99, it comes only in red and sizes range from small to 4XL – with some additional costs for the larger sizes. Viva la revolucion – although if you want to be truly revolutionary, you might need to find a new tee.