I love crossover art, especially when it combines two things I love, such as Doctor Who and video games — and in this case, Valve’s Portal 2. The piece was designed by an Australian outlet known as Lost Hero Creative. While the reference is pretty straight forward, the T.A.R.D.I.S. being a device capable of traveling through time via portals, the image actually reminds me of that recent two part special, Time, in which the blue box decided to materialize within itself. If you feel like sporting it, TeeFury has the design available for the next 24 hours. As usual, the shirt should only cost you $10 + shipping.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 18, 2011 in Videogames
For those of you who’re still upset at Nintendo’s decision not to publish Xenoblade domestically, but happen to also own a PS3, here’s some welcome news. Namco Bandai has announced plans to publish the upcoming PS3 release of Level-5 ‘s Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch in both North America and Europe next year. As you can probably guess just by looking at it, the game is a collaboration between Level-5 and much-renown Studio Ghibli, responsible for such films as Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and more. While the project never included any contributions by director Hayao Miyazaki, the art itself is very reminiscent of the style found through-out the various films Ghibi has worked on, his included. That said, it’s quite striking visually and I’m sure Ghibli’s involvement will help bolster sales.
He’s made plenty of cameos throughout recent films, but we’ve never really seen Agent Coulson get his hands dirty. That’s about to change — the S.H.I.E.L.D. operative finally gets his chance to shine in this special one-shot, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer. Like the one-shot The Consultant — included on the Thor DVD/Blu-ray — tied together the events of The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man films, this clip is used to fill the gap between Iron Man 2 and Thor and is included on the upcoming Blu-ray and DVD release of Captain America: The First Avenger. We’re only posting a teaser, but if you want to see the clip in its entirety, you can click here, or wait until you pick up your copy of the film when it hits stores next week.
At this year’s Christmas Toy Fair, Sega’s toy division showed off their officially licensed Star Wars R2-D2 Homestar Planetarium — a R2-D2-shaped projector capable of displaying over 10,000 stars on the ceiling or wall of your choice. Despite that hefty number, the actual unit isn’t that big, only running on four AAA batteries. The projection only spans about five to seven and half feet depending, with a circumference of almost six feet around, perhaps making it more ideal for bedroom situations. Still, you have to admit the thought of having your own mini-R2 unit spitting the stars onto your ceiling would be sweet. It even includes the Death Star for good measure. The unit hit Japanese stores back in mid-September, but if you want to get your hands on one, you can always import it. It’ll cost ~$87 USD before tax, so it isn’t cheap, but importing toys rarely is.
While it’s unlikely he’ll just end the show on a whim, Family Guy‘s Seth MacFarlane believes the show may have ran its course — at least, on television. In a recent interview with THR, he admitted that the show should have probably ended after its seventh season but believes the series could make the transition to feature films. While I’m sure a few of you might think the series should have ended long before that, Macfarlane seems to think seven is some kind of magic number. If you recall, every recent Star Trek series, with the exception of Enterprise, ran for only seven seasons each. Speaking of which, MacFarlane also mentioned that he’d love to try his hand at relaunching the Star Trek television franchise; not as an animated series, but as a live-action show. He seemed to have an idea for the series, but wasn’t sure who he’d have to pitch it to, or if they’d even consider giving him the time of day. Still, with the success of the recent film, you’d think a new series wouldn’t be completely out of the question, right? I guess that’ll be for Paramount or CBS to decide.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 12, 2011 in Videogames
According to CVG, the upcoming Xbox 360 dashboard update is due to hit consoles on November 25th — a date which just happens to coincide with the busiest day in North American retail, Black Friday. The update, originally announced at E3 earlier this year, will incorporate a modified version of Microsoft’s flash-alternative, Silverlight as the new back-end for their Xbox apps. The update also introduces partner services like YouTube, Bing — shocker, there — Lovefilm and more. I’m excited to see what else the update has in store for us and, while I’m not too keen on Silverlight — I’d take Adobe Flash over it any day of the week — I’m sure Microsoft wouldn’t have decided on using it if they weren’t satisfied with the results. With all the new video and television content they have planned for us in coming months, we have a lot to look forward to. Now, if only they’d partner with BBC here in America — they’re doing it over in England, so why not?
Marvel and Paramount released their latest trailer for The Avengers aheadof their upcoming event at New York Comic Con next week. I’m not sure if they still plan on debuting any new footage at the event, but I hope it’ll still happen, as I’m anxious to see more. It’s not that I’m excited for the film, so much as I found this latest trailer to a bit underwhelming, and I think some additional footage might ease my concerns. Generally speaking, I’ve been a huge fan of everything Joss Whedon’s directed to date, but I simply wasn’t sold on it. Sure, it was nice to see all those characters in one place, but at the same time the dialog seemed a bit stiff, and and the prospect of juggling so many stars already seems daunting enough as it is. Also, am I the only one who cringed when Bruce Banner showed up at the end? It just wasn’t the same without Norton.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 11, 2011 in Cinema, Horror
A SWAT team takes on a horde of zombies? Not quite, but that’d probably be fun to watch. Instead, an actual SWAT team recently raided the set of Brad Pitt’s upcoming horror flick, World War Z — the highly anticipated film adaptation of Max Brooks’ New York Times best-selling novel of the same name. Apparently the team seized and confiscated 85 fully-functional guns capable of firing live ammunition, many of which were fully or semi-automatic in nature. For whatever reason, the production company decided to forgo the use of prop weaponry in favor of real ones without filing the appropriate paperwork. Amazing, right?
Last month, the BBC announced plans to cancel Doctor Who Confidential. The series had given fans a behind-the-scenes look at the Doctor and his companions since the show relaunched in 2005. Despite being a huge fan of Doctor Who, I never managed to catch a single episode of the documentary myself. I suppose if they had actually aired it on television here in the States, I might have, but for whatever reason the BBC decided against it. Instead, they opted to air shot clips of the show via their website. Despite that, there seems to be quite a bit of outcry from fans both in England and abroad regarding the cancellation. There’s currently an online petition asking BBC to reconsider their decision to axe the show — it’s already gained nearly 40,000 signatures.
It’s true that anyone can collect toys or take up photography, but using both to craft your art requires a bit of talent and creativity. Vesa Lehtimäk understands that. Known to most as Avanaut, Vesa’s spent the last few years photographing his kid’s toys, which include everything from their stuffed animals to Star Wars. He employs excellent use of landscapes and lighting, often to dramatic effect. In short, many of his galleries are breathtaking despite the fact that many of these toys by themselves fail to impress when looked upon with our naked eye. While I’d love to post every single photo he’s taken, it behoove you to follow his tweets, or visit his flickr account. If you’d like to own a print or postcard, several of his works are also available through RedBubble.
One again, the guys at Major League Mods have given Fanboy a peek at their latest work — a special Star Wars-themed surround sound system. This simple 200 watt 2.1 setup features two TIE fighter satellite speakers and a subwoofer modeled after, you guessed it, the Death Star itself. If you’re concerned about how they sound, each TIE fighter comes equipped with a Yamaha 2¾ inch mid-range and 1 inch dome tweeter with built-in crossovers. The Death Star sub comes with a 6½ inch driver, a full set of control knobs and switches — power, treble, bass, and so on — and features a custom paint job by Nub Graffix. In addition to the RCA inputs for the satellites, there’s also an auxiliary headphone jack for your favorite iDevice.
Here’s a bit of a treat for those of you planning on attending New York Comic-Con and Anime Festival next week. For the first time, Marvel Studios will be officially attending the convention, and hosting an special panel where they’ll debut never-before-seen footage from The Avengers. The event will take place on October 15th at the IGN theater — wait, when did IGN get their own theater? Any way, it’s expected to last an hour, starting at 6:30 PM, so cancel those dinner plans if you want to attend. The panelists scheduled to be present include producer Kevin Feige, Captain America himself, Chris Evans, Thor’s Tom Hiddleston, and actors Clark Gregg and and Cobie Smulders, who play Agent Coulson and Hill respectively.
This week, Sony launched a line of PlayStation 2 titles to be distributed digitally via the PlayStation store. Under normal circumstances, this would be welcome news. However a few gamers are more than a little ticked. Some of you may recall the console having launched with backwards compatibility, allowing PS2 owners the option to carry their libraries over to the new platform. Current models no longer support hardware emulation and, until now, have lacked the means to play PS2 software. Sony finally seems to have perfected their software emulation, but won’t be giving it to us for free. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised, after all where’s the profit in giving us backwards compatibility when Sony could simply charge us twice for the games we already own. At least early adopters can still brag — that is, assuming their consoles haven’t died yet.
It’s been a long time coming, but for fans, I suppose its been worth the wait. Both Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: the Animated Series are now available for streaming via Netflix. I was already excited about Deep Space Nine, as the series eventually grew on me over the years. Initially, I wasn’t very fond of the characters and while I appreciated the serialized approach to the series, I always felt the scripts paled in comparison to The Next Generation which, at the time the series aired, had been my long-running staple. As far as the Animated Series goes, I never really saw much of it but I’ve never heard any nice things about it either. Still, I’m looking forward to seeing whether or not it’s as terrible as everyone makes it out to be.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 4, 2011 in Design, Fandom
A few months back, Chronicle Books published The MAD Fold-In Collection: 1964-2010, a collection of Al Jaffee’s award-winning fold-ins featured on the back of MAD Magazine over the past four decades. For those of us who grew up reading MAD, this special collection is an absolute must-buy. Though I haven’t personally subscribed to the publication in recent years, I have fond memories of purchasing issues and immediately flipping them over to see what Jaffee had in store for us. His brilliant designs are not only humorous and satirical, but constantly remain topical and are often thought-provoking.
Okay, this is a bit of exciting news and I really could help but write about it, but it looks as though — wait for it — Arrested Development will be returning for a fourth season! Okay, well, maybe not a entire season, but at least nine or ten new episodes that will serve as a lead-in for the upcoming feature film. The announcement came from series creator Mitch Hurwitz during a recent cast reunion. No word on when the episodes will start full production, or where they’ll end up, but there’s some reports that both Netflix and Showtime have shown interest.
Feast your eyes on Big Chief’s Doctor Who Limited Edition Eleventh Doctor collectible figure. From the sculpt itself to the accessories, it’s about as high-end as it gets — I’d even say it’s almost on par with some of the Hot Toys figures we’ve been seeing recently. Of course, it’ll cost you about as much as one too. A special signature edition of the 1:6th scale figure retails for roughly $265 without shipping, while the less expensive limited edition will run for only $233. Both of them should be hitting the market around December or early January. To make up for that asking price, the signature edition includes a plaque hand-signed by Smith, while both figures will come with several interchangeable hands, and numerous accessories like the Doctor’s invitation to Lake Silencio, a sonic screwdriver, and more — sorry, no fez or stetson. The signature edition will be incredibly limited in supply as only 250 units are being produced. Ironically, the limited edition may not be so limited in number. If you want to get yours hands on one, head over to the official Big Chief website and sign up to pre-order yours today. Read more…
If you’re a fan of AMC’s The Walking Dead, you were probably alarmed when it show-runner and series producer Frank Darabont decided to “gut” the entire writing staff at the end of last season — I know I was. Well, the second season is almost upon us with its October 16th premiere fast-approaching, and we’ve had no indication to date as to how the changes will affect the series moving forward. That said, AMC plans on releasing an entire webseries on October 2nd that will serve as a lead-in for the new season, and that might be our first opportunity to see just how the series will shape up from here on out. It should be noted that Darabont himself did contribute to last seasons writing and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
So it’s official, StarTrek.com has confirmed the upcoming release of Star Trek: The Next Generation in high definition. The three episode Blu-ray sampler Star Trek: The Next Generation — The Next Level is now set for an official release on January 31st, 2012. Priced at $21.99, the disc will include the full-length version of the series premiere “Encounter at Far Point,” as well as the episodes “Sins of the Father” and “The Inner Light.” All of those episodes are pretty solid choices, but it just means we’ll have to wait until they finish with the rest of the series before we can get our hands on our favorite episodes like “The Best of Both Worlds.”
Check out this slick replica of the Master’s watch from the Doctor Who series 3 episode Utopia. Don’t worry, contrary to what Professor Yana might tell you, it works just fine. In fact, it actually lights up and comes made of a durable but light zinc alloy so it won’t weigh you down. Fortunately, it shouldn’t contain the hidden essence of a Time Lord either — just don’t blame me if you start hearing the sound of drums on occasion. You can head to ThinkGeek and pick up yours for only $49.99. All things considered, that’s probably a bargain. I can’t imagine what it’d cost on Gallifrey. Besides, pocket watches are cool.
Back in June, Brent Spiner took part in a webcast where he discussed his recent webseries Fresh Hell. During the course of the interview, he mentioned that he’d love to join his former Star Trek: The Next Generation cast mate Wil Wheaton, and guest star on The Big Bang Theory. Well, it looks like he got his wish; both Brent and Wil will be appearing in an upcoming episode of the CBS comedy. Not many details have been revealed about the spot, other than he’ll be playing the role of himself while attending a party being thrown by Sheldon’s arch-nemesis, Wheaton. An image from the episode has been released, depicting Sheldon, Leonard, Brent and Wil in the same shot, but as to how Sheldon or Leonard scored an invite will remain a mystery until the episode airs on October 13th.
Sure, it’s another video, but I’m sure you’ll overlook that once you see what it is. Beat Town Boogie, the guys who produced that hilarious Metal Gear Solid x Modern Warfare fan-film the other year, recently attended DragonCon in Atlanta. While they were there, they took their nifty HD camera setup and filmed all the cosplay they could. Here’s the final product; a 23 minute montage of some of the best cosplay you’ll ever see. After seeing the quality of these costumes, its no wonder why everyone I know decided to attend this year. The number of con-goers who attend in costume is simply mind-boggling, and from what I understand, continues to grow each year. If this video isn’t enough to convince you to attend, I’m not sure what would — it really looks like a blast.
I recently stumbled across this awesome short from a recent episode of Looney Toons and have since made it my mission in life to share it with as many people as possible. I can only preface it by saying that I truly detest the use of the word epic to describe anything these days, but if there were ever times to invoke its use, this would surely be among them. The short features Daffy Duck in the role of “The Wizard,” as he battles hordes of villains in what is later revealed to be a dream sequence of sorts — or at least, how he must envision his every day life. What really amazed me was the quality of the animation itself, as well as the character designs. It actually makes me want to sit down and watch some recent episodes of this new series to see how awesome the rest of it must be.
I didn’t really realize they were still running theAdidas x Starwars campaign from the other year, but it’s cool that it’s still happening. For example, check out these sweet wampa-inspired kicks, complete with faux wampa fur. It’s actually horse hair, but I don’t think anyone would notice. Besides, convincing someone you actually killed a wampa shouldn’t be too hard. Luke did it and he probably had some form of frostbite by that point. Of course, you’ll have to actually order a pair first. Tthey’re pretty expensive at $150 a pair, and I’m sure keeping them clean is going to be a pain, but chances are that you’ll be the only person you know who owns them. There’s always that, right? I just hope that at some point, they make a pair in wookie-brown. Read more…
