Titans Terrors and Toys

The other day, I posted part one of a retrospective about Nintendo's Wii U, the home console that is scheduled to be replaced by the Switch console in March 2017. In the first part, I examined where the Wii U fits in the long history of video game entertain, specifically in the genre of games that provide unique controllers and control schemes to engage players in new ways. In this part, I'll be looking at what I enjoy the most about the Wii U's signature GamePad controller and what it has contributed to the home console gaming experience, as well as what I hope the Switch will continue from the Wii and the Wii U. Read on ...

Last month, Nintendo finally released details about its next gaming console, the Switch. Previously referred to by the press as the NX, the Nintendo Switch will replace the Wii U as Nintendo's flagship home console when it becomes available for purchase in March. By now, I've lost track of how many times magazines, newspapers, blogs and fan posts have declared the Wii U to be a failure as a console, both in terms of total sales and entertainment value. Yet as a long-time video game geek, I'm happy to say that the Wii U is the best console that I've ever had in terms of providing satisfying and memorable video game experiences. Sure, Nintendo dropped the ball in terms of marketing the Wii U and it should have provided more games that effectively utilized its main feature--the GamePad controller--but overall I can't complain about it one bit (no pun intended). As a sequel system to the Wii, Wii U took everything that worked about its immediate predecessor and a...

Being a lifetime horror and sci-fi geek, I've lost count of how many times I've seen tie-in merchandise items that are made in the image of characters from popular comic books, movies, TV shows and video games. Yet every now and then, a piece of licensed merchandise becomes more recognizable and enduring than the media property from which it originated. Case in point: the Syngenor mask, a monster mask that has made regular appearances in Halloween costume catalogs since the 1980s and can still be found in some costume shops. When I was younger, I had seen this mask appear a number of times in catalogs and in geek-centric magazines such as Fangoria and Starlog , so I assumed for years that it was just one of the generic monster masks that mask companies produce that had no connection to anything other than Halloween and other costuming events. Little did I know that the Syngenor was in fact a movie monster ... just not a very popular one. Read on for details about this pop...

With the upcoming animated film Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders scheduled for release later this month, I thought that I would prepare myself by reading Batman '66 , the most recent incarnation of the Adam West and Burt Ward TV series that ran from 1966 to 1968. For those of you who don't know, Batman '66 told all new stories that were set in the Batman universe as it was depicted in the '60s live action Batman TV show, and its publication as a regular comic book series ran from 2013 to 2015. I borrowed a few trade paperbacks from a buddy of mine to see how well this comic book captures the campy humor and outlandish plots from the original TV show, and I'm happy to say that the talent behind the comic book do justice to the source material. Read on ...

In the current era of shared universes that was popularized by Marvel's blockbuster movies and their spin-off TV shows, it seems that every major media company is finding ways to shove multiple franchises into a single narrative setting to increase their collective profitability. Multiple shared universe movies are currently in development, and a few titles in the toys-to-life genre of video games used shared universes as a way to mix and match characters, vehicles and settings from different franchises. Even comic books are getting into the act, which brings me to the topic of this post: IDW publishing is launching a set of comic book series under the umbrella title of Revolution , a title that brings together several toy lines that are owned by Hasbro into a single shared universe. Stories in the Revolution title will consist of characters from G.I. Joe, Transformers, Action Man, M.A.S.K., Rom, Micronauts, and possibly others. On the surface, IDW's Revolution title is ...

The killer kids trope has long served as the go-to narrative device for whenever horror story tellers really want to disturb audiences. (Sure, monsters, ghost and maniacs can be scary, but precious little children? That's inconceivable! ) Yet like any other trope, there are ways that it can be used for maximum effect and ways that devoid it of shock. The films I'll be looking at in this review, Cooties and Sinister 2 , fall into the latter category but for very different reasons: one could not come up with enough material to support the trope, while the other laid out the trope so explicitly in its dialog that it lost any capacity to surprise or scare. Read on for my complete reviews (with spoilers ahead for those who have not seen the first Sinister movie).

I finally did it--I made it to the end of Fatal Frame 4: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse , the game that was released exclusively in Japan in 2008 for the Nintendo Wii. Just getting my hands on this game alone was a chore (you can read about that effort here ), so finally finishing it feels like quite an accomplishment in my video game geek-ified mind. Personal obsessions aside, Fatal Frame 4 (or FF4 ) is an impressive game in its own right and a great addition to the Fatal Frame series. Read on for my complete review.

As a horror film buff, I've seen plenty of things over the years. I've watched plenty of timeless classics, competently made yet forgettable films, and godawful turkeys. I've heard other fans talk about various horror film titles from all sorts of critical perspectives. Yet of these many experiences, one that fascinates me more than others is to watch a film grow from being an obscurity into a cult classic. Such is the case of the film I'll be talking about in this post: Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead , which was initially released in Italy in 1980 and arrived in the United States in 1983. Even though I just picked up a region-free copy of Arrow Video's deluxe Blu-ray release of COTLD , I first learned about this movie back in 1985 under one of its alternate titles, The Gates of Hell . While the film itself has mostly remained the same since it first appeared, perspectives about it have undergone significant changes between the '80s and now. Read...

I don't consider myself to be a die-hard anime fan, but I understand anime enough to know--and appreciate--that it can be the go-to medium for stories that won't be found in U.S. movies and television. Case in point: Erased , a 12 episode sci-fi/mystery anime series that was released earlier this year and can currently be watched on Crunchyroll . Erased begins in 2006 and it centers on the character of Satoru Fujinuma. A former manga artist in his late 20s, Satoru has a unique ability that he calls "Revival": an ability that allows him to relive small moments in time (a few minutes at most) to prevent fatal incidents from happening. After he finds his mother stabbed to death in his apartment and the police identify him as the prime suspect, Satoru experiences a Revival that sends him all the way back to 1988, when he was still in elementary school. During that year, three of his classmates were kidnapped and murdered, so Satoru becomes convinced that if can ke...

Adam West and Burt Ward fans, rejoice: West and Ward--along with Julie Newmar--will be reprising their respective roles as Batman, Robin and Catwoman in the upcoming animated movie, Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders animated movie. This movie will be released digitally on October 11 and on Blu-ray and DVD on November 1. Many of DC's theatrical and home video releases from this year, which include Batman v. Superman , Suicide Squad , and an animated adaptation of Batman: The Killing Joke , have tilted toward darker, more violent fare. In contrast, Return of the Caped Crusaders goes back to the lighter, campier mood of the live-action Batman series from 1966, which is a breath of fresh air for superhero fans who appreciate the more absurd and outlandish aspects of the fantasy worlds that these characters occupy. Not much is known about the plot of this movie, other than that it features the voice talents of three original '66 Batman cast members and will involve Ba...

I can't speak for what kids are collecting these days, but adult collectors of Japanese robot toys must be having the time of their lives. The higher-end Transformers collectibles of recent years have not only spawned successful lines of third party items but they also inspired revivals of other Japanese robot toy lines from the '80s, lines such as Machine Robo and Voltron. The latest reboot is Takara Tomy's Diaclone toy line, the line that produced many of the toys that Hasbro would later re-brand as Transformers toys in the United States. Click below for more information and pictures of the cool new releases from this long-dormant line of robot toys.

It may be 2016, but the '80s are still alive and well over at Netflix. Netflix's latest popular series, Stranger Things , is an eight episode sci-fi thriller that is set in the mid-80s and pays tribute to many of the sci-fi thrillers of the '80s. Fans will immediately recognize similarities in the series' aesthetics, plot devices and themes to the popular works of John Carpenter, Stephen King and Steven Spielberg from that era, although Stranger Things manages to put its own compelling spin on them so that it becomes more than just a derivative knock off of superior movies and TV shows from another decade. One aspect of Stranger Things that will stand out to people like me who grew up during the '80s is a set of geeky, Dungeons and Dragons -playing preteen characters spend the series looking for their best friend, who has been abducted by a strange, plant-like creature. I've noticed that critics and viewers specifically mention '80s movies such as E...

Even though video game graphics inch closer and closer to flawless photorealism, game developers still produce titles that faithfully follow the look and feel of 8-bit and 16-bit games from this medium's early years (e.g., Retro City Rampage , the Bit.Trip series, etc.). While I'm glad to see that the industry and its fans still appreciate older forms of video gaming, I've noticed one particular style is usually missing from most retro-themed game titles: early vector graphics, the kind that were seen in classic games from the early '80s such as Battlezone and Tempest and on the short-lived home console Vectrex . These were the first attempts by video game programmers to expand into polygon graphics, with items such as vehicles, buildings and other shapes depicted in bright, neon-colored lines against a black backdrop. Polygon-based graphics became much more detailed in the years since, but the original minimalist vector style had a particular charm to it that o...

Never underestimate the power of nostalgia, especially among horror toy collectors. For the 10th wave in its 7-inch Alien figure line, NECA is releasing three figures based on designs that originally appeared in Kenner's Aliens toy line during the '90s. The three designs are the Queen Facehugger, the Gorilla Alien, and the Mantis Alien. Click below to read more about these designs and how NECA has once again taken something old and (for the most part) make it feel brand new.

Of the many, many news items that came out of this year's San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC), the one that really got my attention was the preview for Blair Witch , the upcoming sequel to the 1999 "found footage" hit The Blair Witch Project . This sequel, which was directed by Adam Wingard, is slated for release in September; up until now, this sequel has flown under the horror fan radar by going under an alternate title, The Woods . Even though it will be the third film in the franchise, Blair Witch will be a direct sequel to the first movie because of the main character's connection to a major character in the first film. The characters and events of the second film, Book of Shadows (2000), won't be involved in Blair Witch at all. Yet based on what I've seen and read about this sequel so far, it seems like it will follow the same plot beats as the first film: people go into the woods, people become trapped in the woods, people vanish in the woods. Wingard ma...

As a 3D film fan, I greatly admire the work of the 3D Film Archive . While the major movie studios push out both theatrical releases and Blu-rays of films that are shot on 2D and then converted into 3D during post-production, the 3D Film Archive has been involved in restorations of vintage films that were shot in 3D (both classic and obscure) in order to preserve their place in American film history. Previous Blu-ray titles that the 3D Film Archive assisted in releasing include Dragonfly Squadron (1954), Gog (1954), Kiss Me Kate (1953), Miss Sadie Thompson (1953) and 3D Rarities , a compilation of 3D film shorts that span from 1922 to 1962. 3D Film Archive's latest restoration effort utilizes a Kickstarter campaign to restore September Storm (1960). Not only was Storm the only American feature-length 3D movie made between Revenge of the Creature (1955) and The Bubble (1966) but it was also one of the few that was produced in Stereo-Vision, a short-lived process which...

Ovipositor, eggs, and cocooned victims not included. With this year marking the 30th anniversary of Aliens , it only makes sense for Hallmark to release an ornament based on that movie's main monster: the Alien Queen. Read on for my review and more photos of this Aliens collectible.

I have no idea what the state of UFO tourism is right now--especially since The X-Files stopped being the cultural phenomenon that it used to be back in the '90s--but Roswell, NM is still open for business. A friend of mine recently made a trip to this flying saucer mecca, and he's letting me post some of the pictures he took (as well as the postcard) of the UFO Museum in Roswell . Click below to see some pictures of this Atomic Age landmark, as well as photos from another UFO display in Erie, PA.

In today's world of monster toy collectibles, it seems like nothing is too obscure for the action figure treatment. Distinctive Dummies (DD for short) has been releasing 8-inch Mego-style action figures for years now, focusing on characters from horror films between the silent era and the 1980s. I've never bought any of DD's products but from what I've seen, they do a limited run of a set of figures before moving on to do another limited run of a new set of figures, and so on. The latest film freak DD has added to its collectibles roster is the titular character from The Incredible Melting Man , a z-grade creature feature from 1977. This figure is part of DD's new "Science Gone Wrong!" set, which will also include figures based on characters from The Manster (1959), Monster on the Campus (1958) and The Wasp Woman (1959). The only thing that anyone can honestly recommend about the Melting Man movie are the makeup effects that were done be Rick ...

To paraphrase an old adage, some toys never die ... they just get re-released with new coloring, sculpts and packaging. Case in point: Kenner's classic 18-inch Alien figure from 1979. Even though it didn't sell well when it was originally released as part of Kenner's poorly planned Alien toy line, it has gone on to have an impressive after-shelf-life. It became a prized item among toy collectors, and some companies in recent years have re-released the original sculpt with various degrees of changes ( larger sizes , all silver coloring , all gold coloring , etc.). Now, Super 7 plans to re-release this figure yet again, but this time with sculpt changes to match the Xenomorph's appearance from the first sequel Aliens . From what I've been able to gather from the prototype pics that I found around the 'net, Super 7's new Xenmorph figure will be ready for this month's San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) . The figure will come with exclusive SDCC prototype pa...

In this third and last post of my unofficial "Jaws in June" series, I'll be reviewing Amity 6 to Base: A Jaws Ride History (a.k.a. The Sharks are Not Working) by Mick Jones. This is the only book to date that's completely devoted to the theme park side of the Jaws franchise--namely, the Jaws Ride in the Universal Studios Theme Park in Orlando, Florida that recently closed in 2012. Read on for my complete review.

It took 33 years, but it finally has happened. Thanks to high-definition video technology, Jaws 3 can at last be seen in the way it was originally meant to be seen, courtesy of Universal's recent release of the sequel on Blu-ray. Click below to read my full review.

This week marks Universal's release of the three Jaws sequels ( Jaws 2 , Jaws 3D and Jaws: The Revenge ) on Blu-ray, meaning that die-hard sharksploitation fans can finally have a complete set of mechanical shark flicks--not CGI shark flicks--in high definition. Yet with most things Jaws-related, Universal is still late to its own party because Shark City Ozark started accepting pre-orders last March for latest and last entry in its "Ultimate Bruce" series : a 25-inch long maquette of the mechanical shark used in Revenge . As with the previous releases in this series, SCO's replica of the Revenge shark captures just about every detail of the fake fish used for the fourth and last Jaws movie. For those of you who know the history of this particular movie prop, the SCO maquette also includes details of when it wound up on display at the Universal Studios theme park in Orlando, Florida, complete with an unstitched belly and rusting blue steel display stand. Best ...

Last month, I posted an article about how I was able to convert my Kindle Fire into a portable viewer of 3D video content. At that point, I could watch side-by-side (SBS) 3D content from YouTube but I had yet to figure out how I could convert my collection of 3D Blu-rays into SBS 3D files that I could play back on the Fire. What I found out was that while such a goal is possible, it was trickier to accomplish than I thought it would be. Read on ...

You know the old saying: If at first you do succeed, shamelessly exploit it until it stops making money. I previously reviewed a video game called Smashy Road , a fun experience in 8-bit car racing chaos for smart phones and tablets. Now, just a few weeks later, I found another game that's extremely similar to the look and feel of Smashy Road : Smashy City by Ace Viral . Read on for my complete review.

It's no secret that Lego bricks have become the go-to medium for many geeks who want to build detailed replicas of characters, vehicles and environments from their favorite fantasy and sci-fi franchises. However, few geeks use Lego to build replicas of franchise toys that were planned by toy companies but never made it past the prototype stage. On the other hand, there's BaronSat (a.k.a. Eric Duron), who designs Lego kits for franchises that are both licensed and not licensed by Lego. For Star Wars, he has already provided instructions for Lego-scale replicas of toys that were made by Kenner during the original trilogy, toys such as the Imperial Troop Transporter , the Imperial Attack Base , and the Death Star World sets from Kenner's short-lived Micro Collection line. His latest kit is based on the unreleased part of the Death Star World: the Emperor's Throne Room from Return of the Jedi . The story behind this toy is that after Kenner released its initial wav...

As I've said before on this blog, I consider myself to be very fortunate to have lived through the early years of video games. I remember a time when the distribution cycle of a video game title would begin in coin-op arcades and continue through ports to PCs and home consoles. Now, the Internet, PCs, home consoles and portable media devices rule most of the video game world, while the few surviving coin-op arcades feature titles that will (probably) never appear in any other medium. The same is true about how the video games appear: Most current games are so beautifully designed that they largely sell themselves through clips of game play footage. Yet when video games had nothing but blocky graphics and clunky sounds to offer, they needed a little extra help to convince people to play them. In honor of the artwork produced during early years of video game advertising, Dynamite Entertainment is publishing The Art of Atari by Robert V. Conte and Tim Lapetino. According to th...

It's amazing what you can find when you're just buzzing around the Internet. I'm currently working on a review of Curse of the Fly for a book called Unsung Horrors , which is being assembled by the same people who published 70s Monster Memories . I've been assembling my thoughts about the movie and looking around the web (no pun intended) to see if I can find any little-known factoids about the second sequel to the original The Fly . During my searches, I found a graphic arts company called Stormbrush, which is owned and operated by illustrator Calvin Chua, which has a design page titled "Project Fly Reboot" . Based on the information and pictures provided on the page, I'm guessing that this artwork is for a proposed remake/reboot of David Cronenberg's The Fly , which itself was a remake. The page includes some interesting designs, such as what the new telepod and teleportation process would be like, but the best part is the artwork for the new...

If you're a transforming robot toy fan who thinks that the Machine Robo line gets overlooked way too often, you're in luck. Action Toys is taking pre-orders for the first two action figures it is producing for its new Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos line. As the toy line's name suggests, the new designs bring these figures closer to how they appeared in the Revenge of Cronos anime series. The first two figures are re-designs of MR-01 Bike Robo (a.k.a. "Cy-Kill", as it was renamed for Tonka's Gobots line) and MR-17 Drill Robo (a.k.a. "Screw Head"). The second two figures will be re-designs of MR-02 Battle Robo (a.k.a. "Tank") and MR-25 Eagle Robo (a.k.a. "Leader-1"). Like the original Machine Robo MR-600 series line in the '80s, each figure features die-cast metal parts. However, even though the new figures are slightly larger than their original counterparts--measuring between 4.5" to 5" in height--the pr...

None of the recent hype for Batman vs. Superman made me want to go to the movie theater, but it did convince me to finally pick up a copy of TT Games' Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham video game for the Wii U. What can I say? I was in the mood for some superhero fun, and Lego Batman 3 is vastly more fun than the irritable, bloated and grumpy BvS . As the number in the title suggests, Lego Batman 3 follows two previous games in the series. The first game was strictly a stand-alone Lego Batman game, and the second game introduced Lego Superman during the game and the rest of the Lego Justice League in its conclusion. This third entry begins with Batman and the Justice League, and the game expands from there to all sorts of characters and locations within the DC universe. So how does the third entry fare as a video game? In a nutshell, Lego Batman 3 has both too much--and not enough--Batman. Read on for my complete review.

The search for the Loch Ness Monster continues ... and they really found something this time! A Norwegian company named Kongsberg Maritime recently deployed a marine drone on a two-week mission to examine and map the bottom of Scotland's Loch Ness. The drone hasn't found anything to prove the existence of the legendary Loch Ness Monster, but it did find a 30-foot version of the monster that was built for The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes movie in 1970. The fake monster sank into Loch Ness during shooting and no one knew where it finally rested until now. The monster prop from The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes , before it sank under the waters of Loch Ness. While this news may disappoint some cryptozoology buffs, I think this is hilarious. It's like launching an intensive expedition to search for the Holy Grail but only finding the Holy Grail prop that was used in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade . How meta can you get? In a perfect world, someone would sa...

At last, Universal does something right with the Jaws franchise (sort of). This June, the three Jaws sequels-- Jaws 2 , Jaws 3 and Jaws: The Revenge --will be released on Blu-ray. These sequels arrive four years after the first film received a deluxe Blu-ray treatment in 2012. I've heard from friends over the years that the Jaws sequels have been available as high-definition digital rentals, so this will mark the first time that the HD versions of the sequels will be available as hard copies. Unfortunately, even though these sequels will look great on HD televisions, the Blu-rays will be slim on extras. As far as I can tell, the only new extra we'll be getting out of these sequels is a 3D Blu-ray version of Jaws 3 --which is great news for 3D aficionados like me but not so great for Jaws fans who could care less about 3D. The Jaws 2 Blu-ray will have the same extras as the 2001 DVD release, and Jaws: The Revenge won't have anything extra but the theatrical trailer...

Ever since I learned of its existence, I've done everything that I can afford to do to partake in 3D entertainment. I've picked up anaglyph 3D books, comics and DVDs; I purchased the Virtual FX 3D converter for my cathode ray tube (CRT) TV set so I could watch field sequential 3D DVDs; and I bought two 3D-capable flat screen TVs (one with active glasses, the other passive) so I could watch 3D Blu-rays and access 3D rentals from on demand services such as 3DGO . With such an obsessive pattern of behavior in place, it was only a matter of time before I found a way to watch 3D content on my Kindle Fire. After weeks of searching, that's exactly what I did through the OWL Stereoscopic Viewer, a lightweight and affordable tool that turned my Kindle Fire into a portable 3D video player. Read on ...