You might remember that Jackson had once planned a 15m mecha with a moving face that shot lasers, but it never got built.

From the eBay Listing:

The original 3D scan data of Michael Jackson. It also includes the colour map from this scan in either CPV or UV maps. This data was collected using the same equipment that creates the data used to create video games and or CGI avatars to make him speak, laugh, sing or dance.

I must emphasise that the sale of this scan data is subject to the purchaser agreeing to clear the proper rights with the MJ Estate before it is publicly used in a promotional or commercial manner.

I bet you need to emphasise that. Even if the data isn’t a hoax (and I’m sceptical), I can’t see the Jackson Estate letting this fly without a lawsuit. We’ll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, an MJ fan found the auction and created this animation using only the 2D shots shown above. It’s all pretty creepy… just let the man rest in peace.

[Huffington Post via Techie.com.ph]

I didn’t know this, because I live in a bubble, but Michael Jackson was only 8 days away from doing a 50 show tour, the first in a decade, when he died. This movie, “This is It” is a cool documentary behind the scenes of the prep ahead of that tour. Since it never happened, it’s all we have left of the performer. MJ has always been experimental. This documentary isn’t the greatest but it’s quite moving to watch the production occur in rough with rough and often amazing performances by the late star. And yes, there was enough tech to keep the Gizmodo sector of my brain engaged.

There were some big pyrotechnics, but I’m not sure they were bigger than the ones that burn down theatres or those used at hair rock band shows that play in football stadiums. There was a cherrypicker that seemed pretty nice, but no big. Same for the toaster-like human poppers that sent people flying into the air like some weird contraption you’d find in a Mario Brothers game in an alternate reality. There was even a display wrapped robot that Michael would emerge from and some light-laced costumes for when Michael sung Billy Jean. All ok, and interesting but my favourite was seeing the refilmed videos, which were to be played in the background while they were being sung. Thriller was redone in a faux cemetery and in 3D (like Captain EOS). And Smooth Criminal green screened Michael into an old mobster flick. The Way You Make Me Feel didn’t have a filmed segment but a sunset gotham-like skyline as seen through a lattice of iron girders with workers snapping slowly to tempo and climbing down when the song begins. The entire difference between the live and the recorded numbers are that Michael would improvise ever so slightly on catchphrases, and play with the melody, teasing out the pieces by not giving us the exact songs we remember, which at the same time would keep them fresh. He also goes through some old Jackson 5 songs, and it cannot be overstated that the musical numbers are all lifted from live rehearsal, so really fresh. You see Michael Jackson calling the shots on music composition, sets, dances, performance and as he relates to his coworkers the same as any boss, you are reminded of his talent, and in reflection, of our loss that came with his early death. Especially when he dances.

What I’m trying to say is that when you take away the pop and the celebrity scandal, what you’re left with is a weird genius. Sort of a geek.

Anyhow, Thriller was my first album, so I enjoyed this movie. Maybe you will, too.

[Movie Site with short clips and trailers at Trailer]

This licensed Michael Jackson Thriller 1/6th scale doll has over 32 points of articulation, and stands at 11.8 inches. It also comes with two interchangeable heads, two sets of costumes (shiny red and zombie red), 2 sets of white socks with black shoes, and five sets—five!—of hands.

That sound you heard, dear readers, was Brian Lam getting wet. [Hot Toys via Toyology]

In 2005, Jackson planned a series of shows in Las Vegas and planned, among other spectacles, a 15-metre mecha that would terrify people flying into McCarran airport as an advertisement for his show.

When he couldn’t find enough money, he downscaled the idea to a Godzilla-sized robot that would stand at the entrance of a casino, with a moving face that shot lasers.

Because the money never materialised and Michael moved away, it never got built. Oh, what a spectacular doom that would have been, drunken frat boys crushed by a giant moonwalking robot. [The Guardian]

Here’s how messed up the Billboard rankings were in the pre-electronic days: It used rankings, not actual sales numbers, assumed all albums on the chart had equal spacing between them, no matter how big the gap really was. So, whether a number one album sold just 10 or 10,000 more copies than the number two album, it showed up the same. And on top of only tracking the US and Canada—so not worldwide figures—SoundScan has no data pre-1991.

For what it’s worth, Sony and the RIAA peg Jackson’s sales at 55 million, though Jackson’s management says it’s more like 100 million. And those numbers don’t include the digital explosion over the last couple weeks. (He held 9 out of the top 10 albums on iTunes after his death.) Other mythical albums sales figures are a lie too, conflating songs and albums: The Beatles haven’t sold a billion albums, AC/DC hasn’t topped 200 million.

What a far cry from iTunes today: It not only tracks every song and album you buy, it tells you songs you might like based on what you buy after comparing it to what everybody else is buying, and songs you might wanna listen to based on what you already have. We have far too many numbers now. [WSJ]

The arcade’s been posted online as a fully explorable panorama. From Crazy Taxi to Guitar Freaks to Han Solo frozen in carbonite to the 360-degree spinning Sega R360 jet fighter cabinet, Jackson amassed a collection—much of which was auctioned off earlier this year.

It’s notable that the collection seems to be frozen in time during the mid 90s. That’s right around the timeframe of Jackson’s notorious $US22 million molestation settlement. Though, more fairly, it’s also the same era that consoles really started to cut into the arcade experience. [Pinesane via Kotaku]

This is more than a simple survey. In the past, we’ve learned of major breaking news from sources that now seem incredibly reliable, like television, radio, and newsprint. None of those media can be brought down by increased traffic. But while it’s clear the Internet is taking over the flow of information, it’s not clear that right now, it can handle such large news.

I myself heard about it from a friend, who had read it on the National Post’s website, a major Canadian news network. But what did I do then? I hopped on my computer and Googled the shit out of it. Soon, when we ask “where were you when you learned of this event?”, we may not be talking about geographical location, but URL.

So, readers, tell me: Was it Google? Twitter? Word of mouth? Suspicion based on the all-MJ set the DJ played at your favourite bar last night?

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more humanising clip of Michael Jackson than this Access Hollywood footage from 2006 in which the King of Pop admires the crew’s HD cameras.

A Sony F900 catches his attention first, before a crew member brings by what I’m pretty sure is a Sony HVR-Z1U. Jackson ogles the camera for a moment, asks its price, then walks away. But then he can’t help himself, and needs to check it out again and make a comment to his handler. He also scores some street cred by referencing the competing Panasonic of the time, what I’m pretty sure was the HVX-200.

It shouldn’t be surprising that Jackson was in to gadgets, but when your only real exposure to someone is the weirdest and most controversial of who they are, a little geekdom sure makes a strong case for inner humanity. [Access Hollywood]

I was only a little bit older than when I confused my father’s records for frisbees that would shatter when they hit the fireplace’s brick mantle.

Soon after, I got my own Fisher Price record player—since I was not allowed to play with daddy’s anymore— with an indestructible needle that would always collect lots of dust bunnies before I had to clean it up. It had a cover with a handle on it, making it portable. For some reason, it was brown. I’d played plenty of Disney records on it, like disco duck, but Thriller was my first piece of pop chart Americana. The album cover folded out and showed MJ coddling a baby tiger, and the songs were written in a pink-red cursive on the back. Epic was the record label, if I recall.

Quincy Jones helped produce it, and Michael Jackson’s concept was to make every song on the record a hit. I suppose that’s why it’s the best selling album of all time, at its height selling over 1m records a week. They wrote 300 songs for the album, whittling the list down to the final set, with Billie Jean only just making the cut. (MJ liked it, Quincy thought not so highly of it.)

I’d listen to it over and over again, but saved the Thriller for when my brother Jonathan was around. We’d queue up the song, and quickly dart under a blanket, to protect us from the zombies we’d seen on MTV. We were genuinely scared of that song, even more scared then when that dude would pull the heart out of that guy’s chest in Temple of Doom a few years later at my first movie. When actor Vincent Price’s voice came on with the monologue, it was fun to tear the blanket off my brother, tucking it under my sides as he tried to get back inside before the imaginary undead cracked his bones in his teeth and drank his marrow. I laughed in accord with Vincent Price’s cackling, little brother Jonathan, squealing, making an easy sacrifice to the lords of the dark.

Billie Jean was an early education that women would sometimes claim you were their children’s father. And that sidewalks could be backlit.

And Beat It was the other song that was musically gripping but also fashionably inspirational.

Then, and in more recent decades.

It’s just a shame the jacket’s zipper pockets were totally just zippers, no pockets. Except one or two which were a mistake to put things in, because you’d lose stuff in the sea of XYZ.

[Michael Jackson's Official and Totally Not Embeddable YouTube Channel]

Listening Test: It’s music tech week at Gizmodo.