Here’s bit of sad news to start out the new year. Bob Anderson, Hollywood Sword Master and former Sith Lord passed away on Monday. The 89 year-old Olympian choreographed some of Hollywood’s most memorable fights, but is best known for his role as Darth Vader, having donned the mask for many of his iconic duels.
The other week, Softbank debuted a lengthy 5 minute 30 second long ad for their mobile phones starring the ever-popular “White family.” For those of you who haven’t seen any of the previous ads, they were centered around a multi-racial Japanese family with a dog (Otousan) as the father and often range from hilarious to adorable. The latest ad sees Otousan attempting to fulfill his dream of traveling in space, and guest-stars Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, who had spent several months on the International Space Station last year. you can watch that portion of the ad above. The final three minutes of the full ad feature former Japanese boy-band, turned Television hosts, SMAP and can be viewed by clicking here. Read more…
This has got to be the most fashionable handheld to date — Konami’s upcoming limited edition Metal Gear Solid 3DS. There’s been no official word on the pricing or availability just yet, but those details will be announced later this month. Hideo Kojima has, however, confirmed via twitter that the unit will feature the embossed snakeskin pattern pictured above, and that it isn’t just a removable skin, or case. It might be worth mentioning that the last Konami 3DS bundle to be sold never made it stateside, so there’s a good chance you’ll have to import one.
Looking for another quirky t-shirt for your already large collection? 6amCrisis brings us an excellent Star Wars shirt with a great coat of arms design featuring the most important members of the Skywalker family. Some might ask where Padme is – to them I respond: who? Ok, joking aside, this is a pretty great shirt, and a nice plus is you can choose which color you prefer. You can also get it as an iPhone case or baby’s clothing (huh?). Check his redbubble profile for more awesome work! Read more…
Every year so many people attempt to categorize and rank every video game title that came out that year. While I’m sure we all enjoy our Skyrims, Assassin’s Creeds, Zeldas, and Modern Warfare 3s, the glut of November games simply drowns out so many other good choices. Tim made an excellent choice with Deus Ex: Human Revolution, one I might’ve picked myself. But mainly: forgotten are all the excellent games that came out at the beginning of the year. My example? Ghost Trick. Read more…
King of Games has made some pretty amazing shirts over the years, but this is one of my favorites. Up for pre-order from now until February 20th, King of Games will be releasing a special 25th Anniversary Zelda t-shirt featuring the iconic Hyrule family crest, Triforce, and all of Link’s weapons and items. It’s a really great design, up to KoG’s usual standards. If you want one, be sure to put your order in soon, as only one printing run will be done, ever, according to their site. Sounds pretty rare to me! Read more…
Let me preface this post with with a note: I really enjoy Skyrim. I think it’s an incredibly fun game, weighed down by poor optimisation and tons of bugs. The fact that an entire version of the game (PS3) becomes virtually unplayable after a length of time is ridiculous. That said, it’s good to laugh, and Mega64’s recent Skyrim-themed “fan film” (and I’m using those quotes heavily) is pretty funny, if one-note. Read more…
Given that it’s Metroid’s 25th anniversary this year (poor Samus gets overshadowed by Zelda), it’s great to see somebody else giving our favorite video game bounty hunter some love. If you’re more in the mood for something sexy, Good Smile is releasing a 1/6 PVC of Zero Suit Samus in June 2012. More interested in functional? Max Factory is bringing a figma of Samus in her trademark outfit sometime in 2012. Both of these figures are fantastic, so no matter which one you get (or both!) you can’t go wrong. Read more…
I’m not a big Dragon Age fan, but even I can tell that fans probably won’t be happy with this latest trailer for the Dragon Age anime film by Oxybot. Let’s face it: the CGI is terrible. The only things passable are the dragons, and even then that’s pushing it. It’s almost humorous when they’re treating it so seriously and the animation fails to help that in any way. Also, to help add legitimacy to the whole affair, GACKT is doing the theme song. Yup. Read more…
I can’t believe these are actually a thing, but here they are — Tactical Bleeding Zombie Targets. It’s true, Zombies are totally played out, but you never know when an outbreak may occur, so why not be prepared? Nevermind that Zombies are entirely fictitious and that we would never stand a chance should a supposed outbreak ever occur. Still, if firing weapons at semi-realistic targets is your thing, Zombie Industries might just what you’re looking for. The offer a whole range of zombie targets from paper to busts that actually bleed when shot. What’s more, the sale of the busts have actually been banned from the Crossroads Gun Shows. Apparently they feel the targets pose a threat to the second amendment as they’re “too graphic, offensive, and ghoulish in nature,” hilarious, right? The products range in price from as low as $12 for paper sheets to ~$115 depending on the model and are available via their official website.
Although we’ve seen him in numerous internet shorts and TV guest spots, it’s been awhile since Will Farrel’s last feature film. Our hopes were pinned on a sequel for 2004’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy, but Paramount nixed the film back in May. Ironically, Farrell and company are using Anchorman to market their upcoming film, Casa de mi Padre. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Dec 28, 2011 in Videogames
With so many games on the market, and so little time to play them all, deciding which was best can be a difficult task. Some writers look at the review scores, or sales figures, while others may take a more personal approach. For me, it’s definitely more personal, but I also understand that labeling something “Game of the Year,” would be a tad pretentious if it weren’t truly worthy. Read more…
Check out Kotobukiya’s latest DC Comics Batman ARTFX statue. Does it look familiar? It should — it’s a re-release of their first Batman ARTFX statue, which featured the blue & grey batsuit from Jim Lee’s Hush graphic novel. Now discounted, that original statue was among Kotobukiya’s most popular to date, and while it’s out of print, this latest edition more than makes up for the loss. Kouei Matsumoto’s masterful sculpt still stands as a perfect testament to Lee’s work, and the new black cowl almost makes it worth owning twice. Thankfully Kotobukiya tends to keep their figures and statues reasonably priced for the most part — I’m estimating ~$125. The statue should hits stores next July. Read more…
It might not be the same quality you’d expect from a major studio like Pixar, but this is worth checking out. Using a mix of CG and footage from the original film, YouTube user Mylex67 recently tried his hand at recreating some of the battle sequences from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. While it’s my instinct to complain about the lack of accuracy, he notes that the clip is not meant to be a shot for shot recreation, but rather just an alternate take on the battle in the Mutara nebula from the film. Needless to say, I’m a bit impressed, and I hope there’s more to come.
No, it wasn’t the worst Christmas special ever — it’d be difficult to top the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special — but, this year’s special certainly wasn’t one of The Doctor’s best. It’s true, the episode had almost everything we’d expect from this post-Tennant era. Another space ship in distress, a bit of suspense, Matt Smith running around like a madman, and an Eco-friendly story about a mother’s love for her family. The episode was chock-full of references to C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Doctor’s involvement throughout, though sporadic, is sufficient enough to win us over. But is that really enough? Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 26, 2011 in Television
The talented puppeteer Caroll Spinney turns 78 years old today! Several generations know Spinney as the man behind Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch thanks to his collaboration with the talented Jim Henson. Spinney first met Henson in 1960, but sadly Spinney didn’t get Henson’s hint that he’d like to hire him. Then in 1969 the two bumped into each other at a convention and then went on to make history with Sesame Street. Read more…
It’s funny I always remember my sense of disappointment as a kid when looking at the amazing realistic cover art on videogames of that era and seeing what I perceived as the terrible lack of quality as to the 8-bit images that I’d see on the screen: So it’s a bit of a joy to reverse that in my later years and embrace the ugly pixels of days past. This 8-bit t-shirt collection does a nice job of taking Star Wars characters and converting them down from 70mm to good old fashioned 8-bit: Read more…
Here’s a little treat for your Christmas morning: Reddit user Tmyakal took his artificial tree and with a little cleverness, gave it some pizzaz. I might have to steal this idea for myself next year. Don’t worry, I’m not going to make you endure any more Portal jokes. I only have one question: where do the presents go? Read more…
If you’re looking for the ultimate gift for the Spider-Man fan in your life, this may just be the ticket. Sadly, it doesn’t come out till the second quarter of 2012, but this Black Suit version of Spider-Man from Spider-Man 3 is one of the best Spideys I’ve seen. The joints are all hidden under the fabric of the suit, which looks fantastic. Not only that, the sculpted head of Tobey Maguire is up to the usual Hot Toys standard of ‘looking almost as real as the person’s actual face.’ Read more…
If you’re looking for a recipe for internet success, face it, you’ve been beat. Avemagnadude created a trailer that combines the two most popular video games this holiday season: Minecraft and Skyrim. Using a combination of in-game footage from Minecraft and custom CGI he recreated the Skyrim trailer in all it’s glory, and also brought to a conclusion this whole silly Mojang vs. Skyrim silliness. It’s really quite stylish, although the name ‘Minerim’ doesn’t exactly sound too pleasing. Click through for the full video. Read more…
There’s a certain charm to “sweded” versions of films. Adding a dash of home-made ingenuity in trying to recreate big-budget scenes along with a little bit of child-like fun makes for entertaining videos. Dumb Drum recently created their own version of the Dark Knight Rises trailer that’s been hyped up quite a bit recently. There are some fairly creative bits in here, especially with the zoom out of the Batman logo and the football stadium! Click through to check it out. Read more…
I have a huge love for classic anime films, especially Miyazaki. A little Lupin III doesn’t hurt either. Castle of Cagliostro is one of my favorite films, but if you’re a figure collector there’s only been a few worthwhile items out there (although they did make a model of the castle itself). Luckily, Dive has been bringing out several Lupin III figures, with their most recent being a Castle of Cagliostro version of Fujiko Mine. She’s roughly 8 inches tall, and is going for ¥6,825. Read more…
Now, I don’t always like to bring up every little new anime series that gets announced, because frankly there are too many out there. However, the popularity of Eureka Seven is undeniable and while I had some issues with the first season, it was still a fairly solid series and the fans adore it. So I’m sure they’re happy to be hearing that a second season, called Eureka Seven AO, has been confirmed for April 2012 by the official website. Read more…
Star Wars: The Old Republic hit the ground running this week and despite some crowded servers, its reception so far is seemingly positive. At a distance, the gamemay resemble World of Warcraft more ways than one. Visually, both titles might appeal to the lowest common denominator, in that they’re designed function with the average PC, yet feature beautifully crafted opening sequences. Being that they’re MMORPGs, both titles feature an ability-based interface and similar gameplay mechanics. However, one area in which The Old Republic really shines is its ability to tell a story. World of Warcraft has some incredibly deep lore, and the while the story is well-told, Bioware really excels. Here’s a documentary to explain why.