San Diego Comic Con 2011

Comic Con is coming up July 21-24, 2011. Want to know about exclusives? Well, you've come to the right place. Let's start with Sideshow Collectibles.

Sideshow is offering up:

Cobra Ninja Viper 1/6 scale figure

AVP Predator Mask Set

Clone Commander 1/6 scale figure

Iron Man Bust Set

Iron Man Mark IV Secret Project 1/6 scale figure

The Iron Man Mark IV Secret Project figure has already sold out, but you can add your name to the waitlist & there is an excellent chance you'll get one. It's what i did with the 1/6 scale Han & Luke in Stormtrooper disguise figs a couple years ago & I actually got them!

Next up is Gentle Giant:



In the video we see:

a Suckerpunch Babydoll Mini Bust

McQuarrie Stormtrooper Mini Bust

12" Vintage style Jawa with Vinyl cape

Captain America Mini Bust

Neville Longbottom Mini Bust



For you Doctor Who fans, BifBangPow! have a few exclusives and more listed over at Entertainment Earth's site. They are:

Bif Bang Pow! – Doctor Who 8inch Master and Cyberleader

Doctor Who 8inch 4th Doctor + Sontaran

Doctor Who TARDIS bobble

As well as:

Icons of the Twilight Zone Bobble,

Lost Polar Bear Bobble Head,

Venture Bros. Rusty and Jonas Venture Sr. with tin tote,

Dexter 3 3/4″ figure

Twilight Zone 8inch Bob Wilson / Don Carter 2pack




Get this, even Hallmark is getting in on the action with:

an exclusive Dengar & IG-88 2 pack

Batman

Comic Book Guy (simpsons)

Apparently they have in the past, I just didn't know.



Hasbro & G.I. Joe fans should love this 3 3/4" Zarana (shown above) that comes in two different styles.

Hasbro is also offering:

Starscream SkyStriker with Cobra Commander Pilot

Marvel exclusives included:

Mini-Muggs Avengers Set – Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, Captain America, Iron Man

Giant Carded Sentinel Figure

Marvel Legends Thor

Then we move to Transformers which will include:

Prime Deluxe Optimus Prime with Matrix

Movie version Optimus Prime Ultimate edition

By far my favorite thing so far is this next offering from Hasbro:



A Revenge of the Jedi 12 figure set in Death Star package. How cool is that?



There are tons more exclusives & I will try to get another post out with more very shortly, but I think I hit the big ones in this one. Stay tuned!

Green Lantern. Meh.

This is my review of Green Lantern. If you haven't seen the film from Warner Bros., please do not read any further. Spoilers sweetie.



Let me start with the problems. First problem, dumb human bad guy. As in dumb concept or execution. Not only was it completely corny, hokey, & unnecessary, it also caused a problem. Let me back up a bit here.

We are introduced to a nerdy guy who is a brilliant scientist. He lives alone, presumably because he is too nerdy to love. His Father, the Senator, is both embarrassed & ashamed to have a scientist for a son. The hot chick in the film apparently knows him from school & seems uncomfortable talking to him, and our hero, GL, doesn't show any emotion toward him one way or the other until a battle. His students have no respect for him even though he teaches what appears to be a college freshman level class. This is a huge mistake to make in a comic film. Making fun of a nerdy scientist? Honestly, the guy seems like a pretty nice guy, trying to make his way in the world. He is infected with yellow energy after his daddy manages to pull some strings to get him in a special group studying the alien body. The special group seems to consist of him & Angela Bassett. No one else. Weak. Eventually, the guy goes mad with yellow energy. His head swells up & he eventually looks like he has a giant brain. Well, of course he does, right? Scientist = giant brain. Ugh. So, giant brain, lonely, nerdy scientist who has gone mad tries to kill everyone in the film. For no real reason. The yellow energy is supposed to be fear, but this guy kills his Dad because his Dad never thought he was good enough & a complete joke. He tries to kill Hal because Hal has always been so cool. He tries to kill the girl because she never gave him the time of day & because Hal likes her. Seriously? How is that fear? I felt bad for this character. The way he was treated was terrible & then he doesn't choose to be evil, but instead is infected. Does he ever get redeemed? Nope. He gets nothing but dead. No one seems to care or miss him.

Second problem: Parallax as the main bad guy? Really? Parallax is a pretty serious bad guy & a very important part of Hal Jordan's history. The movie Parallax was hardly that. There was no tension. I did not once feel anyone was in danger from this thing. The writing as well as the visuals fell completely flat here. I think it was a case of less would have been more. The Parallax visual was laughable. A giant head on a smoke cloud that supposedly was fear itself. Yep, not buying it. Not even for a dollar. Once Hal goes to destroy it, it takes him less than 10 minutes. It is so simple & anti-climatic that you just can't understand how thousands upon thousands of Lanterns couldn't have figured that one out. Lame.

Third problem: Lame love interest story line. Yeah, no one cares. We just want to see more OA, Kilowog, Sinestro & Lantern. More fighting. Think action movie. No stupid lame love interest stuck in just because. THIS IS SUCH A WORN OUT TIRED & BORING ADDITION TO ANY SCRIPT. Oh, and no one gives a crap about it. It was the only lame part of the Thor movie. However in Thor, it was only really 30 secs of film. It weaves in & out of GL.

Okay, now the good stuff. Ryan Reynolds. Oh yeah, he totally pulled off Hal Jordan. He was fantastic. Sinestro. Holy crap. Sinestro was freaking AMAZING. Too bad these guys didn't get a better script. The lantern glow effects were great. The suit redesign totally worked. The lantern was stupid, but it did the job. All the Green Lantern Corp looked great. Kilowog said Poozer. OA looked great. Hal flew a jet. Holy crap, Angela Bassett is in this movie! It was fun. I was entertained.

That's about it. It could have been so much better. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't anywhere near the quality that DC's competitor Marvel has been turning out. Marvel really seems to be getting it. They understand how to be loyal to the fan base, the character & build a good story to play to people who aren't fans, while DC seems to flip flop around, never being loyal to anything & treating the audience like idiots. Can't wait for Captain American, & I never even really cared for Cap, but Marvel seems to take their heroes & make them even better on screen, while DC takes characters I love & dumbs them down & makes them lame.

Wonder Woman Painting: Even More Progress

You know what? A 42" x 36" painting in acrylic takes a little longer than I planned. Mixing enough paint to cover one area is a little tricker than an 18" x 20". She's so close to done. So close, but not yet.

Sideshow Han in Carbonite

A Premium Format Figure of Han Solo trapped in Carbonite as he was hanging in Jabba the Hutt's palace. The figure has electronics embedded inside to light up han like he did when he was melting out & so that the small panels on the carbonite block also light up. It stands at 25.5" H x 12" W x 10" L, weighs in at 12 lbs. & comes in a box 28" H x 14" W & 12" H.

The price is $299.99, but does come with the flexpay option that allows you to pay it out at $100 a month.

Go check it out here: Sideshow Han in Carbonite

Hey Art Fans!

Got another great artist for you to go check out! James Hance. He paints the things I love most in life! Muppets, Star Wars, Superheroes and more! Even Doctor Who. Go check out his site & buy something to support his art! He has t-shirts if you can't afford his work. It's really awesome stuff.

Sideshow Darth Maul Premium Format Figure

This is by far the coolest Darth Maul figure I have ever seen. $324.99 with a flex pay option of $108.33 a month. Limited to 1250 pieces. Cloth costume, 24.5" H x 15" W x 17" D & weighing in at 10.00 lbs. Light up lightsaber.



How can you not want this? Head over here & order the dark apprentice today!

Wooden Watch

ThinkGeek has a really sexy looking watch by WeWood. WeWood plants a tree for every watch sold & the watches they do sell are made from 100% natural, toxic-chemical free wood. How cool is that? Pretty freaking cool.



The watches that ThinkGeek offers are the Chrono model. They are $20.00 cheaper on ThinkGeek than on WeWood's site. Not to mention that you get pretty good Geek points for a $100 purchase at ThinkGeek to spend on other geeky goodies! WeWood does offer some other models though, if you don't like the Chrono.



The one above is the Date brown/army model. I really like it. It is listed for $119.00 on the WeWood site. Unfortunately, no Geek points go with it's purchase.

What I'm listening to. Right now.

I have mine set with Beach 33% N/S bar, 43% E/W bar, Frogs 13% N/S 0% E/W, Fire 10% N/S 0% E/W & Thunder 26% N/S 0% E/W. This thing is great for feeling calm & relaxed at work or anywhere. Move things around, choose different settings, enjoy!

Go here to set your up now!

"What if" Sketch

I saw this painting of a girl wearing a fox head on her head. A beautiful watercolor. It was something like the oil painting here, except the colors were bright & vivid & it was beautiful. Beautifully disturbing. The more I looked at it the more disturbing it became. There is a beautiful animal that has been killed & it's head has had the lower jaw removed & it is being used as a type of mask or hat. The girl wearing it is classically beautiful & is smiling as if she is carefree. Much like a happy frolicking fox. She was even a red head.

That painting made me think. Kudos to the artist. I wish I could find it to share with you, but alas, it is hidden in the matrix of the internet.

It made me think about how people view animals as ornaments. Decorations. Accessories. I wondered, "What if there was no discrimination between human & animal?" I mean, I myself, do NOT think of myself as a higher life form, but just a different one. I even think some animals might just be smarter than people. They have kinder souls. So, what if we didn't. Would some people wear human heads, like some people wear animal heads?

So I sketched something. It might become a painting or a pen & ink or something. Right now, it's just a sketch. A disturbing sketch. I'm not sure how far I want to take it.

Garden Gnomes

Terrapin Set of 4

Garden Gnomes are cool. I don't care who you are or what you do, most of us get a kick out of Garden Gnomes. Little men & women who work when we aren't looking, toiling away creating unique machines & crafts that we either never see or see & don't realize what we're looking at.


Sculptural Gardens Standing Garden Gnome Statuary

Once, as a small child, after a particularly hard cry, I saw Gnomes. Several of them. One of them waved to me. I have loved them ever since. If you love Gnomes or you just want to get some for your garden, you're in luck! Amazon.com is having a Gnome sale!


Terrapin Trading Gnome - Daisy

Yep! A Gnome sale! However, if you are looking for Gnomes & price is no object, go check out the quality Terrapin Trading Gnomes at their site. They have a larger selection of their Gnomes than Amazon. Terrapin also offers ceramic mushrooms.


Full Set of 8.5" Hollow Toad Gnomes

You can also find Gnomes over at Garden Fun. They have a vast variety in a variety of sizes to offer.

By far my favorite Gnomes were found at Garden Gnome World. They have several Barbarian looking Gnomes. Being a Fantasy/Adventure fan who loves Conan, Xena & Sonja, these are right up my alley.


Runic, The Warrior Gnome

Last, but certainly not least, is one of my favorite takes on the Garden Gnome EVER! The Jawa Garden "Gnome". This cracks me up! I have yet to get one, but it remains one of the things my heart desires! You can get them at Amazon or build up your geek points by purchasing it through ThinkGeek. I will personally vouch for the great customer satisfaction of shopping from ThinkGeek.


Jawa Lawn Ornament

Tony Orrico

I stumbled across an artist today that I have fallen in love with. Generally, I'm not much for performance art. I'm not knocking it, it just doesn't move me most of the time. This guy is different. He uses his entire body to measure & move & create. It's beautiful. The precision & repetition & stamina is absolutely amazing. It's art, science & dance all at the same time with a tangible output. I went to his website & looked up his bio & it stated: "a former member of Trisha Brown Dance Company and Shen Wei Dance Arts". So a dancer, who has used his art in order to create & merge with another form of art. Wow. I can't wait to see more from this guy. He really makes me want to try this. I might be moving the motorcycles out of the garage this weekend.



It's been a long time since some sort of art has moved me to tears. I'm sure it's not for everyone, and many will see it as some doofus with pencils squirming around on paper, but for me, it is what art is & should be. Using your body, mind, & soul to create.

No more DIY

I'm defeated & exhausted. I just had a new door installed & I got a wild hair to finish the project off myself. I figured I would never get the actually door in, so I hired a contractor for the main door, but convinced myself I could save $$$ if I put the storm door back on. How hard could it be? The frame of the main door would be flush & plumb & I could just stick the old storm door back on.

Ha! Hahahahahahaha! Boy, was I an idiot.

There's one on, but it's not our original beloved storm door & we can't get the lock mechanism to work on the new one no matter how hard we try. I say we, because I pulled poor T into this mess with me. She had concerns, but knows how much I love to tackle home repairs. She figured since I actually hired someone to put the main door on, she'd give me the storm door project. *sigh* Poor kid.

I have no idea what to do. I'll figure it out, but right now....I'm just so utterly defeated by the whole thing.