Titans Terrors and Toys

Gentle Giant's campaign to enlarge the action figures from yesteryear continues. This effort began a few years with releasing 12 inch replicas of Kenner's 3 and 3/4 action figures from the original Star Wars trilogy. Now that is has super-sized almost every Kenner Star Wars action figure by now, Gentle Giant has moved on to releasing jumbo versions of the action figures that Mattel released as part of its Marvel Secret Wars line during the mid-80s, starting with Spider-Man in his black symbiote costume. This was the first action figure to feature Spider-Man in something other than his usual red and blue webbed suit. The original Secret Wars Spider-Man figure by Mattel. I never purchased any of the Secret Wars figures but I've heard collectors complain about how poorly they were made, particularly how the paint on the figures has a tendency to flake and peel. From what I've read about the '80s toy wars, Mattel bought the rights to produce Marvel superhero f...

I just received word from NRH Collectables owner/sculptor Nigel R. Humphreys that the next item in his company’s line of Jaws dioramas is ready for order. Check this out: The previous diorama from NRH depicted the estuary scene , when Chief Brody's son Mike has a close encounter with a monster shark. This latest release, “All Banged Up!”, is inspired by another memorable moment when Brody and marine biologist Matt Hooper find the battered remains of a boat owned by Amity fisherman, Ben Gardner. As with its previous releases, NRH has gone out of its way to recreate this shocking Jaws scene. While the main piece with Gardner's severed head peeking out of the boat's hull is impressive unto itself, I'm amused by the inclusion of a shark's tooth and an underwater flashlight--the two items that Hooper drops when Gardner's disembodied noggin pops out to make a postmortem greeting. Click here to see more pictures of this exciting new diorama and to place ...

Visions of dystopias have been a common staple in science fiction films for decades, so much so that they have become their own subgenre. From the earliest examples such as Metropolis (1927) up until recent adaptations of popular young adult novels such as The Hunger Games , bleak and disturbing depictions of our collective future have made regular appearances on the silver screen, so much so that they're rarely regarded with surprise or offense. Yet there's one dystopian film that was met with extreme opposition and disdain upon its release, so much so that it remains obscure to this day: Punishment Park , a 1971 pseudo documentary that was written and directed by Peter Watkins. Read on for my review of this remarkable and frequently overlooked film.

I know that I'm a bit late to the party on this topic--over a week, in fact--but I thought I would chime in anyway. I stopped watching The Simpsons on a regular basis at around the tenth season 14 years ago (has it really been that long?), and Comedy Central cancelled Futurama last year. Nevertheless, if you have ever been a fan of one or both of these shows, the recent Simpsons episode titled "Simpsorama" which featured characters from Futurama represents a milestone of sorts that should be seen at least once. The crossover episode, which only ran for a meager 22 minutes, was nothing groundbreaking in terms of plot or character development; instead, it served as more of a statement of how Fox has (mis)treated the animated properties of creator Matt Groening , especially when compared to the hour-long Family Guy episode that involved a crossover with The Simpsons that aired a few weeks earlier. I don't know how or why both the Family Guy and Futurama...