Titans Terrors and Toys

With "Alien Day" coming up on April 26th (you know, as in LV-426), I figured that I should get around to doing something that I've been meaning to do for months: post a review/analysis of last year's Alien: Covenant . I've been putting this off for some time because even though I love this movie, I've come to the conclusion that there’s plenty of material in the film to unpack if I’m going to write a proper blog post about it. I even felt like I needed to pick up The Art and Making of Alien: Covenant book by Simon Ward and the Alien: Covenant Blu-ray set (specifically, the set that included The Creatures of Alien: Covenant booklet) to ensure that I didn't miss anything in what I write. I don't think that I’ll get to it all, but here's my take on the second Alien prequel just the same. Enjoy ... and yes, there are spoilers .... In case you have little to no familiarity with the Alien franchise, Alien: Covenant is the second prequel set be...

Last weekend saw the debut of Rampage , a film headlining Dwayne Johnson and is based on the '80s coin-op video game of the same name. According to box office stats, Rampage claimed the top spot during its opening weekend, clearly demonstrating that the combination of Johnson's star power and top-notch special effects is worth plenty of money in today's cinema. While I'm sure that Rampage is an enjoyable enough creature feature in its own right, I can't help but to be disappointed at the lost opportunity that this film represents. Even though the press has been covering this film as a "video game adaptation" (which it is ... sort of), I think that the more accurate description of Rampage is Warner Brothers' attempt to cash in on the latest giant monster movie trend that's been seen in films such as Pacific Rim , Jurassic World and Kong: Skull Island . WB owns Midway Games, the company that created the Rampage video game series; thus, a...

When it comes to purchases of expensive geek collectibles, I do a pretty good job at restraining myself from spending too much money. However, with its recent re-designs of its Diaclone line, Takara Tomy has been making it difficult for me to keep my financial resources secure. As anyone who knows their Japanese toy robot history can tell you, Diaclone was a toy line from early ‘80s Japan that Hasbro later imported into the U.S. and repackaged as the Transformers line. However, Hasbro only imported the Diaclone items that transformed between robots and vehicles; the rest of the Diaclone line, which consisted of giant robots that could be rearranged into smaller vehicles and machines, were not included in the Transformers line. So, in order to cash in on the ‘80s toy robot nostalgia bandwagon like Hasbro has, Takara Tomy has been re-designing its non-Transformers Diaclone products and releasing them for the current toy collector market. Above: One of the toys from the original ...