Shoot The Core, Again
January 2, 2008 |
Reviewed: Shooting Game Historica Gradius Vic Viper
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 As threatened, here's a review of a new toy! We recently got half of the Shooting Game Historica Ver. 1.0 collection and today we update with a look at the Gradius Vic Viper. It's cool. We think you should get one, but we're biased.
It's new, it's from Yujin, and of course there are no plans for a US release. Start checking your favorite seller of Japanese plastic crap, or click through to see what we thought of it.
--AP
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Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 604, 605
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  Today at Galactic Hunter we look at the final entry in the month of Jango clones with Boba Fett from Shadows of the Empire. It's the first-ever Empire Strikes Back-specific Boba Fett, setting a precedent for scene- and movie-specific repaints for years to come. It was also part of one of the very first comic packs back in 1996. Was it worth it? Read on!
 With the dawn of a new year, we also opted to look in a new direction for Figure of the Day. It's not just 3 3/4-inch action figures any more, now we're going to look at times like this Galactic Heroes Jabba the Hutt! He's a Target exclusive and in some markets, he's already long gone. Should you track one down before it's too late? Read on!
--AP
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Zizzle Animating the Pirates
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  After a fairly rotten retail showing, it seems Zizzle is still supporting the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Not only were later series figures for At World's End surfacing at Toys "R" Us and elsewhere at rock-bottom prices, but the company is cranking out a new series of cartoon style figures showing up at Target. The figures are about 5-6-inches each, and so far include Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Davy Jones, and Elizabeth Swann in outfits nearly identical to those developed for the animated maquettes from Gentle Giant. The figures tend to come and go in a hurry and it seems unlikely that the line will have significant legs until a TV show happens. And who knows when that might be.
These cartoon style figures (which, by the way, are similar to the photo there) started showing up about a week ago at Target stores.
--AP
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2008 LEGO A-Go-Go
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  Numerous stores and the official LEGO shop have 2008 LEGO sets available now. New Star Wars, Indiana Jones, SpongeBob SquarePants, and other sets are showing up at Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us so far. (No Targets yet.) We're pretty pleased with what we're seeing even though we haven't plonked down any cash for them yet, although we're probably going to get at least a couple of the lower end sets. We also hope to see some new polybagged sets in 2008 as we hear a new Mars-themed set for two bucks is making the rounds at LEGO shops.
--AP
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Xbox Live Arcade This Week
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  Over the past several days, it's been quite difficult to get online with the Xbox Live service. As such, we can only assume that the first new Xbox Live Arcade game for 2008 will go live as this is going up shortly before the game is made available for the taking-- and thankfully, it's a part of a proud franchise. Metal Slug 3 is from SNK (or really SNK Playmore), and is a new entry in the popular (former) NeoGeo 2D action game series. It's 800 points, or US$10. We expect it to be, at the very least, fun.
--AP
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Hamburgers Should Be High
January 4, 2008 |
Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 606, 607
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 Today at Galactic Hunter we look at the nifty and highly sought after (for about 3 days) McQuarrie Concept R2-D2, a convention exclusive from the 30th Anniversary Collection. Sure, he's short, and there's some debate about the correctness of the coloring. But would you believe it if we told you we still liked it? Read on!
 And because we love purple, and we love repaints, we love looking at the early 2007 release of R4-M6! He's a former Wal-Mart exclusive, and one of the more popular figures from early last year. Is this mold worth buying again just because it's an unusual color, belongs to Mace Windu, and is awesome? Read on!
--AP
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Zizzle Animating More Pirates
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Turns out there's a lot more-- there's a basic assortment of Zizzle's new animated Pirates of the Caribbean line as well as a deluxe line, each are large but at different price points. There's even a higher end creature assortment featuring monsters and pirates from the whole series, like Jack Sparrow with the Kraken. (What, not Davy Jones?) The line looks really great and it's neat to see someone taking inspiration from high-end collectibles and translating them to action figures, which is essentially a disposable good. For the kids. Not for you, you're careful about such things..
--AP
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Xbox Live to offer Free Game To Outaged/Outraged Members
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 The cats (or cat) at Major Nelson has alerted the world to an upcoming mystery freebie. Because the Xbox Live Arcade service was out last week, they're going to offer members a free Xbox Live Arcade game. What is it? Nobody's saying. We'd assume it's something we already have, like the free Carcassonne they gave out a few months ago, but we're still hopeful it might be, you know, something people haven't already paid for. More as it happens. Oh, and it's free for gold AND silver members-- which is pretty dang nice of them. (We tried to get our Carcassonne on over the holiday and couldn't, which sucks, as we were really in the mood for some of that rough stuff. Town building, you know.)
--AP
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 Entertainment Earth Podcast
(Powered by 16bit.com)
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Podcast #74: January 4, 2008
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  G.I. Joe Comic Pack Scarlett and Hawk Reviewed! Also: Microsoft to give people a free game on their Xbox 360, new Star Wars Battle Packs, Transformers announcements, Star Wars Bust acccessory kit news, and more.
Click here to visit the Episode #74 page at Entertainment Earth.
--AP
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How to sign up
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For starters: You do not need an iPod to hear a Podcast. Podcasting is just a fancy word for "hack job internet radio show," which is exactly what we're aiming to produce here.
If you have iTunes 4.9 or above: You can subscribe to it for free. Just search for "Adam Pawlus" under Podcasts in the iTunes music store, or just go to "Subscribe to Podcast" and paste in "http://www.entertainmentearth.com/podcasts/podcast.xml". And you should be all hooked up.
If you're using an RSS reader: Subscribe to this feed: "http://www.entertainmentearth.com/podcasts/podcast.xml".
If you are using Safari: click here.
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That Works Out Perfectly, Doesn't It?
January 7, 2008 |
Star Wars Figure of the Day Updated at Galactic Hunter
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 Galactic Hunter has posted a Q&A column by yours truly. Read on!
Also, Figure of the Day has been updated! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of the 30th Anniversary Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!
From left to right: Galactic Heroes R2-D2, Endor R2-D2, McQuarrie Concept R2-D2. Go to Galactic Hunter for the next update, with the 611th installment in our ongoing series!
--AP
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G.I. Joe Club "Robot Rebellion" Cobra Commander New Pictures
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  The first test shot for this figure showed up like three years ago, was fully painted, and had baby blue armor. Then a navy blue test shot came up. Now it looks like the G.I. Joe Club exclusive Cobra Commander is gonna be black. We liked the navy one better.
--AP
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Transformers Robot Heroes 2008 Packaged
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  Hasbro has decided to revive its "Universe" brand of Transformers, but with one major difference: you might actually want these. TFW2005's Boards has four new packs of Robot Heroes shown, all in their packages. Sets include Rattrap & Megatron, Sunstreaker & Galvatron, Hound & Blitzwing, and Cheetor & Blackarachnia. We're not especially fond of the deco on Blackarachnia or Megatron, but everything else looks pretty great. We absolutely must have that Galvatron. We're also going to go out on a limb and assume that, based on rumors we've been hearing, Hound, Galvatron, Sunstreaker, and Blitzwing are probably going to come in the new "Universe" line of Classics.
--AP
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Playmobil 2008: Egypt with Pyramids, Grave Robbers
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  A few years ago, word got out that Playmobil had a line of Chinese rail workers and gravediggers of undisclosed ethnicities for its now-dead Western line. We thought that was the most politically incorrect possible entry in the line we could hope to see, and while it still is, it's nice to see that if we can't have grave diggers we can at least have several grave robbers. The people at Playmofriends posted a big list of 2008 releases... for Germany. That means 2009 for the rest of the world. The new themes include yet another Police line (with jewel thieves!), a new House theme (with a children's game room... which could be interesting), plus Egypt.
Egypt is hardcore. There's a pyramid, a sphinx, ships, chariots, and three different sets of Grave Robbers. There's a Grave Robber with Horse, Grave Robber with Camels, and a Grave Robbers' Hiding Place. That probably sounds much cooler in our heads than it could actually turn out to be, but holy crap-- that sounds awesome! No pictures are available yet.
...and Target's starting to get new stuff too. Nothing exciting yet but we'll keep you posted.
--AP
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Duckman Coming to DVD?
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  A show of dubious quality for sure, one of our favorite guilty pleasures was watching the USA Network show Duckman, and according to TVShowsOnDVD.com it seems to be coming out. No word on when or how much, but hey. Tis a funny show.
--AP
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Ad: New Hasbro Pre-Orders A-Plenty at Entertainment Earth
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 Loads of new items are up at Entertainment Earth! Find items from Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Transformers, and much more.
Of course, this is just some of the stuff going up before Toy Fair next month. Click through to see some of these new, exciting, and soon-to-be-available additions!
(And don't forget the blow out sale which runs through January 14, 2008!)
And as always, buying through these shameless plugs means we get a nickel or two, and we appreciate your shined nickels and loose change.
--AP
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Right In The Face
January 8, 2008 |
Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 611
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 Today at Galactic Hunter we look at a very nifty Galactic Heroes General Grievous from 2005. He was out for a brief time, and more or less vanished. And now he's expensive. Could this Clone Wars-era villain possibly be worth tracking down? Or should you just wait for the inevitable reissue later in 2008? Read on!
--AP
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Amazon.co.jp has Black Movie Arcee
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  She's like goth Arcee. This Black Arcee Repaint is, so far, a Japanese exclusive and looks like it'll set you back about 2,200 yen, which is probably going to be like $30 US when you get it on eBay or other Japanese importers. It's not bad-- click through to see her on Amazon's listing.
--AP
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Wii Virtual Console This Week
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  It's a new year! Was Nintendo's New Year's Resolution to give you more games every week? Sadly, no. From the NeoGeo: King of Fighters '94, a great grampa to the many great fighters SNK has given us over the years, including countless other KOF titles. From the NES: StarTropics, a wonderfully delightful game in the vein of Zelda that you would have loved back in 1990. If you didn't play it originally, we're not sure if you dig it-- but we love it, we bought it the first time around, and we'd suggest any of you old enough to have received an NES when they were still sold in stores to give it a shot.
--AP
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Xbox Live Arcade This Week, Also Other Stuff
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 We're not sure what's more exciting: that Microsoft is cranking out two games this week, or that we're actually eager to try them both. First up is Tron, which tied in to a classic movie which we're told is great fun but we find most useful as a white noise generator. We're really excited to try the game, though, which is 400 points and aparently has a newly added 2-player mode which wasn't in the arcade original. Sounds like a good time!
Slightly more exciting sounding is Omega Five, a Hudson action game which seems to be a shooter. It looks like it will be an awesome game or utter crap, and since we can't tell, we can't wait to try it. Hudson has made numerous compelling games over the years, from the fun to the not so fun. These are the people that gave us Bomberman, Adventure Island, and Amagon after all.
At CES, word got out that they're gonna release a new version of Lode Runner, which is probably good news. It has a history mode and all this other cool stuff. No price, no release date, but Joystiq has the scoop.
A few years ago they had this game called Rez on the Dreamcast and, eventually, Playstation 2. One of the Japanese releases actually included an added knickknack called the "Trance Vibrator," and it turns out they are sort of bringing it back for the Xbox 360 in the USA in a couple of weeks. Only... it's a little different. This time a spare controller acts as the vibrating extra. What purpose does it serve? Well, you tell us. Perverts. Again, Joystiq has the scoop.
--AP
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More on Duckman DVD
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After yesterday's report, we were stoked to see that TVShowsOnDVD.com got some more news on Duckman. Surely, you're going to want to click through and read it, otherwise you would be sad.
--AP
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If Necessary
January 10, 2008 |
Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 612, 613
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 Today at Galactic Hunter we look at the 30-years-in-the-making Biggs Darklighter, one of many gifts to fans that Hasbro cranked out in 2007. With all his cut-from-the-movie glory, how does this figure hold up to three decades of expectations? Read on!
 And because we love vehicles, we love things McQuarrie-ish, and we love repaints, we love looking at the 2006 release of the Titanium Series Blue A-Wing Starfighter! Despite appearing in a painting nearly two and a half decades ago, nobody made a collectible in three dimensions of this particular deco of this ship until just last year. We wonder why! It's not like Galoob was allergic to repaints. But better late than never, we say. Read on!
--AP
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"Premium" Transformers A-Coming
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 In the past, Hasbro frequently repainted about 90% of its Transformers molds as new characters or powered-up characters, just to keep the line going and fresh. Today, we're seeing something different-- Premium Transformers. These better-than-previous-versions are coming soon and Entertainment Earth posted a bunch of them for pre-order. Highlights include Megatron, Optimus Prime, Blackout, Ironhide, Bumblebee, Jazz, and Barricade. These will not be exclusives, despite speculation saying otherwise. The most interesting one of these so far is Bumblebee, which features his "battle helmet" head.
--AP
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Darth Vader, Yoda to Appear in Soul Calibur
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  The good news: Namco-Bandai's stellar fighting franchise Soul Calibur will be having guest stars Darth Vader and Yoda in the fourth entry in the series. The bad news? Playstation 3 gets Darth Vader, and Xbox 360 gets Yoda. We find this particularly preposterous because who wouldn't want to have the two fight one another? 1up.com has the scoop and pictures, and we're not sure who you should complain to just yet. Just complain loudly that all consoles aren't getting the same game.
They pulled the same crap with Soul Calibur II, which had Link on the GameCube, Spawn on the Xbox, and some schmuck from Tekken on the Playstation 2. Hitachi or whatever. Screw that.
--AP
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So Many Different Kinds of Sparrows
January 11, 2008 |
Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 614
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 Today at Galactic Hunter we look at the biggest fish in the entire Star Wars toy line, the Opee. Packaged with a Qui-Gon Jinn figure, this big fish has a big mouth and lots of fangs. It's a great toy-- but is that enough to make up for the fact he's way out of scale? Read on!
--AP
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Transformers Club Topspin Test Shots
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  The Transformers Club people have an early (and opaque) sample of Topspin, their new exclusive club toy. It's a freebie if you sign up for the club by their March 16 deadline-- click through to see more.
--AP
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Copperhead, Red Star, and More Revealed for Comic Packs
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 The rumors are true! Hasbro revealed wave 4 of the G.I. Joe comic packs, which so far features Firefly & Storm Shadow (eh), Copperhead & Shipwreck (YAY!), and Duke & Red Star (good enough!) It looks like this sub-line is really turning out nicely, despite being about 80% recycled parts.
We were kinda hoping for a reissue of the Cobra Water Moccasin too, but the figure is a good enough start.
--AP
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Famicom (Japanese NES) Games on the DS
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  The Cyber Familiator Lite is a gadget which, it seems, is licensed and sold in Japan to let you play Famicom games on the Nintendo DS. We're not yet sure if you can pick up an adapter to play NES games on it, but man, we're hoping. The gizmo also has a TV-out, so you can play the Famicom games on the TV. Nice! See more at NCS.
--AP
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Entertainment Earth Podcast
(Powered by 16bit.com) |
Podcast #75: January 11, 2008
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Star Wars Transformers Commander Cody Reviewed! Also: New Star Wars announcements, new G.I. Joes, new Transformers, new Spider-Man, and lots more. Tons, really. You should totally listen to this one.
Click here to visit the Episode #74 page at Entertainment Earth.
--AP
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How to sign up
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For starters: You do not need an iPod to hear a Podcast. Podcasting is just a fancy word for "hack job internet radio show," which is exactly what we're aiming to produce here.
If you have iTunes 4.9 or above: You can subscribe to it for free. Just search for "Adam Pawlus" under Podcasts in the iTunes music store, or just go to "Subscribe to Podcast" and paste in "http://www.entertainmentearth.com/podcasts/podcast.xml". And you should be all hooked up.
If you're using an RSS reader: Subscribe to this feed: "http://www.entertainmentearth.com/podcasts/podcast.xml".
If you are using Safari: click here.
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A Word From The Sponsor: New G.I. Joe Comic Packs!
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 Ad: Entertainment Earth listed a ton of new products this week! Of particular note is the G.I. Joe Comic Packs Wave 4 which includes Storm Shadow, Firefly, Copperhead, Shipwreck, Red Star, and Duke. Nice!
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It's Number One
January 14, 2008 |
Star Wars Figure of the Day Updated at Galactic Hunter
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Galactic Hunter has posted a Q&A column by yours truly. Read on!
Also, Figure of the Day has been updated! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of the 30th Anniversary Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!
From left to right: Unleashed Commander Cody, Darth Stewie Character Key, Darth Mash Potato Head. Go to Galactic Hunter for the next update, with the 618th installment in our ongoing series!
--AP
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G.I. Joe Comic Packs Comic Preview
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 Taking a cue from other comic publishers, Hasbro decided it'd be a good idea to publish five-page previews for their new exclusive comics being packaged with figures this year. While the first few releases were reprints, the rest coming out are entirely new, with new stories and new art. Click through to see what you can expect.
--AP
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Transformers Movie: More Cybertron Repaints
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 Not content to just repaint their movie molds, Hasbro reaches back to the past to redeco some more toys from Transformers: Cybertron. Over at Cybertron.ca's boards you can see a thread with in-box samples of the Toys "R" Us exclusive Jetstorm (repaint of Jetstorm) and Wingblade (repaint of Wingsaber). Jetstorm is now a decepticon, and both have fairly realistic paint jobs. No release date has been made known yet, but we expect these to cost between $20 and $30.
--AP
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There Goes Frenchie
January 15, 2008 |
Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 618
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 Today at Galactic Hunter we look at a very nifty LEGO Clone V-Wing Pilot from a couple years back. After a couple of decades, the standard LEGO figure is pretty much the same as always, but they did add some nifty deco and twists to keep them interesting. So why should you get this unique pilot, with its face-covering helmet and all? Read on!
--AP
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G.I. Joe Wave 7, Future Figures Too
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 It's great that sites like the Joe Sightings Forums have what seems to be a legit list of upcoming figures, including Hawk, Bazooka, Barbecue, another Storm Shadow, a Serpent (Snow Serpent?), a BAT, and even more comic packs. They're rumors for now, but probably legit given the track record as of late. Click through to read more.
Also, Wave 7 is available for pre-order according to this listing at Entertainment Earth. They say: This Wave 7 case includes 8 individually packaged characters: 1x Major Bludd, 1x Wild Bill, 1x HISS Driver, 2x Cobra Viper, 1x Spirit Iron Knife, 1x Snake Eyes #4, 1x Duke with Jetpack. (Subject to change.) Click through for pricing and availability and remember if you buy a case through these links, we get like a shiny nickel or two.
--AP
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Wii Virtual Console This Week
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 Apparently Santa sometimes waits to make his deliveries of coal for bad boys and girls. From the TurboGrafx-16 CD-ROM: Riot Zone, a beat-'em-up that no one, including you, ever played. From the Super NES: Pac-Attack, a puzzle game which, like Riot Zone, you have also never played. Choke on two "classics" this week, suckers!
--AP
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Xbox Live Arcade This Week
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 Apparently someone missed the memo. This week we're getting one Xbox Live Arcade title, and it's the nobody's-ever-heard-of-it-or-cares Boogie Bunnies, described as "a harebrained puzzle game." How whimsical. It's 800 ponts ($10) and features "exciting destinations" like... Hollywood. Having lived near Hollywood for three years, let us tell you, it's a freaking gas here.
--AP
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This American Life DVD Coming... to Borders
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  Fans of the public radio program This American Life will be interested in hearing that the TV show based on the radio show is coming to DVD, but only at Borders. Did you get all that? If not, check out TVShowsOnDVD.com for the full scoop including pricing and release dates and all that stuff. As we didn't see the Showtime series we're quite curious to hear how it turned out.
--AP
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Almost There
January 16, 2008 |
Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 619
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 Today at Galactic Hunter we look at a very nifty Hasbro General Veers from last year. It took a long time, but Hasbro nailed it with removable armor, a great sculpt, decent articulation, and a generally high bang for the buck. So how many can we put you down for? Read on!
--AP
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New Superhero Squad Marvel Toys A-Coming
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  Coming next year: Fin Fang Foom & Iron Man and another Sentinel, now with Cyclops. There's also a bunch of new 4-packs, and a bunch of new 2-packs, all listed at Entertainment Earth. The two-packs all sound pretty great, here's what they list:
The Wave 7 set includes 4 individually packaged Superhero Squad 2-packs: 1x Daredevil & Spider-Man, 1x Wolverine & Psylocke, 1x Spiderman & Venom, and 1x Ghost Rider & Motorcycle. (Subject to change.)
The Wave 6 set includes 4 individually packaged Superhero Squad 2-packs: 1x Hulk & Spiderwoman, 1x Punisher & Deadpool, 1x Captain America & Cable, and 1x Black Spider-Man & Doc Ock. (Subject to change.)
Sounds like a great mix if you ask us. No pictures are up yet, but we've seen some images elsewhere and we dug 'em.
--AP
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G.I. Joe 25th HISS Packaged
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 The guys at Toy News International got some great advance shots of the new HISS in its box. It's a Target exclusive and all signs point to it being a super-cheap $9.99 item, but no word on a release date has yet to surface. We're guessing "Easter."
--AP
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Entertainment Earth Podcast
(Powered by 16bit.com) |
Podcast #76: January 17, 2008
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Star Wars Transformers Darth Vader Death Star Reviewed! Also: New Star Wars Order 66 packs, new G.I. Joes, super-limited Japanese Transformers, new Marvel Superhero Squad, new Halo, and a whole lot more.
Click here to visit the Episode #76 page at Entertainment Earth.
--AP
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How to sign up
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|
For starters: You do not need an iPod to hear a Podcast. Podcasting is just a fancy word for "hack job internet radio show," which is exactly what we're aiming to produce here.
If you have iTunes 4.9 or above: You can subscribe to it for free. Just search for "Adam Pawlus" under Podcasts in the iTunes music store, or just go to "Subscribe to Podcast" and paste in "http://www.entertainmentearth.com/podcasts/podcast.xml". And you should be all hooked up.
If you're using an RSS reader: Subscribe to this feed: "http://www.entertainmentearth.com/podcasts/podcast.xml".
If you are using Safari: click here.
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I Called It
January 24, 2008 |
Star Wars Figure of the Day Updated at Galactic Hunter
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Galactic Hunter has posted a Q&A column by yours truly. Read on!
Also, Figure of the Day has been updated! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of the 30th Anniversary Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!
From left to right: Lots of stuff. Go to Galactic Hunter for the next update, with the 628th installment in our ongoing series!
--AP
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Wii Virtual Console This Week
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 Apparently Santa sometimes waits to make his deliveries of coal for bad boys and girls. From the NES: The Adventures of Lolo 2, a crazy difficult sequel to a crazy difficult puzzle game-- it's fun. Just hard. From the Super NES: Super Street Fighter II, a classic fighter which is going to be coming out with tons of additions and hypothetical improvements for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 downloadable services in a few months. We suggest you wait.
--AP
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Xbox Live Arcade This Week
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 Free! Because Microsoft is sorry for the Live outage last month, you can now download Undertow for free through Sunday. It's regularly $10 (or 800 points) which makes "free" a pretty good alternative price, wouldn't you say?
--AP
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MST3K: The Movie DVD Reissue Coming
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 After being out of print for several years, the MST3K Info Club now reports that Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie is going to be reissued on DVD come May 6, 2008. This is important because the original DVD release had gone out of print and commanded a couple of hundred bucks on eBay. As such, take note, and save your money for this reissue in just a few months.
--AP
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G.I. Joe More New Figures Previewed
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 The G.I. Joe Club posted tons of new shots of the next new wave of single figures! Click here to see new versions of Duke, Wild Bill, Snake Eyes, the HISS Driver, and many others.
--AP
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Transformers Classics: New Figures Revealed
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 Word on the street has it that the Transformers Collector's Club was given the opportunity to announce the first batch of new Classics (or Universe) toys... and they leaked everywhere. They are: Sunstreaker, Prowl, Tankor, Onslaught, and Powerglide. How's that for an eclectic mix? More are coming, but what? We don't know but we can't wait to find out!
--AP
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Entertainment Earth Podcast
(Powered by 16bit.com) |
Podcast #77: January 25, 2008
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Star Wars Exclusive Comic Packs Reviewed! Also: Mystery Science Theater 3000 licensing and reissue news. Tons of new toys from Grindhouse, G.I. Joe, Transformers, and more. Exciting video game news for you Wii owners out there. We also saw Cloverfield and tell you what we think. This is a great show, so don't miss it!
Click here to visit the Episode #77 page at Entertainment Earth.
--AP
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How to sign up
|
|
For starters: You do not need an iPod to hear a Podcast. Podcasting is just a fancy word for "hack job internet radio show," which is exactly what we're aiming to produce here.
If you have iTunes 4.9 or above: You can subscribe to it for free. Just search for "Adam Pawlus" under Podcasts in the iTunes music store, or just go to "Subscribe to Podcast" and paste in "http://www.entertainmentearth.com/podcasts/podcast.xml". And you should be all hooked up.
If you're using an RSS reader: Subscribe to this feed: "http://www.entertainmentearth.com/podcasts/podcast.xml".
If you are using Safari: click here.
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You Will Eat What You Are Given, Friend
January 28, 2008 |
Star Wars Figure of the Day Updated at Galactic Hunter
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Galactic Hunter has posted a Q&A column by yours truly. Read on!
Also, Figure of the Day has been updated! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of the 30th Anniversary Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!
From left to right: Grand Moff Tarkin, Darth Vader, Destroyer Droid, and Pre-Cyborg Grievous. Go to Galactic Hunter for the next update, with the 632nd installment in our ongoing series!
--AP
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MST3K: License Shifted to Shout! Factory
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After a dozen boxed sets and countless individual releases, the people behind Mystery Science Theater 3000 have moved their content distribution from Rhino to Shout! Factory. The people at Shout! put out several Film Crew releases and numerous other cult titles, and most fans agree they do a very good job at it. The release has been picked up by numerous sites, and the word on the street is digital downloads and DVDs from Shout! Factory should be expected by (or in) summer 2008. The final release at Rhino will be the revised Volume 10 boxed set with The Giant Gila Monster replacing Godzilla vs. Megalon. So there you go-- start saving for more DVDs!
--AP
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G.I. Joe Toys "R" Us Exclusives Confirmed; New Rumor List Too
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 While previously rumored, Toys "R" Us has listed a number of new exclusive sets on their web site, and Hasbro showed images for several of them. There will be 4 5-packs and 3 3-packs for a grand total of 29 action figures, all supposedly due before March. If you consider the entire Hasbro 2007 line was 32 unique figures (counting both exclusive Destro figures), that's a big chunk. You can see photos of several sets here, and several of the figures meet the qualification of "just different enough to make you mad." The Firefly vs. Greenshirts set and the Crimson Guard sets have yet to be revealed.
The guys at HISS Tank posted a big rumor list of upcoming possible figures. Given this is how the entire line has pretty much been announced, we're going to assume these are correct. Highlights: Alley Viper, Zarana, Serpentor, Mainframe, Dr. Venom, Torpedo, Eels, and a ton more. Nice!
--AP
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Playmobil 2008 US Catalog Revealed, 2008 German Lineup Too
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 We love Playmobil, but the Playmobil news cycle tends to be pretty lacking. You get the year's rumors around November or December, you see some of the new images leak around the same time, you get some more previews in German Toy Fair, and that tends to be about it. Except for Target clearances and just-for-US-mass-market releases which also tend to be at Target. Thankfully, this is a new catalog announcement, and you can view the sizable pile of paper in digital format right here.
The big news for the US releases this year:
Water Zoo. Think "Sea World" minus the whales and the name. Sets include water-holding enclosures featuring caiman, penguins, dolphins, and some zookeepers. We'd be all over this if we were still under 10. As it is, it's still pretty slick. Page 12-13.
Dinosaurs. Think Jurassic Park minus Jeff Goldblum. It's pretty cool, but if it had Jeff Goldblum, it would be better. We're hearing these are starting to hit and are trying to find them in the wilds of the toy stores. Creatures include a Tyrannosaurus Rex, Brachiosaurus (the largest Playmobil animal yet made), Spinosaurus, Triceratops, and more. Pages 14-15.
Circus. Yet another attempt at the Circus theme (there have been several), this one integrates lights, sounds, and more creative acts. There's a flaming hoop for tigers to jump through, feeding train cars with piles of meat, a tightrope, elephants, and various acts with dogs and ponies. Insert your own "Dog & Pony Show" joke here. Pages 16-17.
Pirates. Yes, more new pirates-- you could probably fill a room with the number of pirate sets made over the years. Several new sets include a new boat, a very slick lighthouse, a new and larger octopus, a shipwreck island, and various packs of figures with treasure. Pages 18-19.
Specials. The new individually boxed figures for 2008 aren't as exciting as some previous years, but there are more knights, pirates, fairies, snowmen, and other figures to add to your toy box. Oh, and another Santa. Which we think makes 27 at this point. Page 26.
Life in the City. Going beyond cops and firemen, the series has integrated shipping trucks, a car wash, and a very unique garage set which features all sorts of cleaners, vacuums, and other oddities. It's more like a comment on what you mind find in an early 21st century home than a toy. We dig it. Page 36.
Advent Calendars. Rather than giving kids a pile of winter stuff with a Santa figure, the line is diversifying to include nothing but pirates, a bunch of knights, or a pink box fantasy camp. Clever. Back cover.
But wait, there's more! In addition to the great US lineup, the first look at some more German sets has popped up as well. Keep in mind thee German sets come out a full year before the US generally, although sometimes sets do squeak out in Target stores or through other means early. Playmoboard and Klickywelt have some information available, and it's looking pretty sharp.
The good news is that the sets are looking good. The bad news is that they're actual size and it's hard to make out too much detail. Better images of the 2008 German line (and 2009 US line) should surface very shortly. The Egyptian line is currently slated to hit Germany in August 2008, which means you with an eBay account and the willing to overpay for shipping can get them shortly thereafter.
The Pyramid looks really ornate, like you get one of those Anubis dog masks for a figure, a whole crypt with treasures and stuff, and at least two levels. The top level looks like it has the room where you remove all the organs and junk. But that's probably just wishful thinking. We blew it up in Photoshop and squinted so this is essentially just speculation. The figures in this line look exceedingly ornate for Playmobil and it seems the collection will rely mostly on new parts, which is nice to see.
The Sphinx set seems to have a large cavity in the chest to store stuff-- which is handy, so you can store junk in there. There's also some sort of large gateway with an obelisk, some sort of graverobber's base, dudes-on-horses-or-camels, another chariot, a band of warriors (presumably to fight the Romans), and a ship. While we freaking love the Dinosaurs, and much of the 1990s Western line, this is looking pretty good too.
While not part of the Egyptian theme, we were pretty stoked to see this "Juwelenrauber," a paid of jewel and art thieves, as well. Re-enact the Pink Panther diamond theft at home! These and many other sets await you in the Klickywelt forums, if you can manage to register on the German site and navigate a few screens. We'd show more but we don't want to tick anyone off just yet. The bad news is as awesome as this new stuff is, this is probably the bulk of the news we're going to see for a very long time. A pity. We'll update as we can, of course.
--AP
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Transformers BotCon 2008 Toy Names Revealed
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 The Botcon people put up the bulk of the information you'll need to know about the 2008 BotCon exclusives. It looks like the whole idea is that the Autobots are evil and the Decepticons are good, with toys of the following: Optimus Prime, Grimlock, Goldbug, Starscream, Jazz, and a Mini-Con Razorclaw. It's a pretty safe bet that Optimus will be a black repaint of the Classics toy, but the rest are sort of up in the air-- but expected to be a mix of Cybertron and Classics molds.
--AP
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New B-52s Coming... in March
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  After about a decade of jack squat, the B-52s are recording some new songs for an album called "Funplex" that will be out in March. No idea if it's going to be good or merely adequate or what, but given the state of popular music over the past few years we've got our fingers crossed that it won't suck.
--AP
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Your Monkey's Pretty Stupid
January 29, 2008 |
Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 632
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 Today at Galactic Hunter we look at a pretty decent 2004 repaint of the B'Omarr Monk, one of the aliens in the Jabba's Denizens pack. This one had additional damage markings and a red "goo" in the jar, which made for a significantly different appearance from its ancestor. As part of a nifty pack of aliens, would you believe it's worth picking up anyway? Well, it is. Read on!
--AP
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Wii Virtual Console This Week
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 This week: It's 1080 degrees for the Nintendo 64. And that's it. Back when it came out it was considered a really fun snowboarding title that people still remember fondly, which is more than you can say about a lot of sports titles. It's not our thang, but there you go, another option for your downloading dollars.
--AP
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Xbox Live Arcade This Week
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 Two choices this week: Rez and Chessmaster are coming to Xbox Live Arcade. Both drop on Wednesday for 800 points each. That's a pretty good deal for Rez. Rez was originally a Dreamcast "shooter" which had a small cult following which lead to the game's temporary rise on eBay. It also came out for the Playstation 2, and people dug that too. Give it a shot. Chessmaster is chess. With a master. You can give that a shot, but we're going to say try Rez.
--AP
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Gonna Wrap Her Up
January 31, 2008 |
Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 612, 613
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 Today at Galactic Hunter we look at the iffy-selling 2006 Greedo, so now we look at the arguably best-ever version of the figure. He's got a holster, loads of articulation, and a nice big head. What more could you ask for? Read on!
 And because we love creatures, we turn our attentions to the awesome Ronto! The dinosaur-like Ronto came out in 1997 and was packaged with a Jawa. It's been pretty much off the market since the assortment dried up around 2000, but you can still get them on the collector's market. Should you? Read on!
--AP
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G.I. Joe Wave 8 Pics, Pre-Order
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 After some pictures got out, Wave 8 is now up for pre-order at Entertainment Earth. It features the Cobra Viper Spirit, and new versions of a ton of existing characters like Flint, Baroness, and a Python Patrol Cobra Officer. We can't wait to get ours.
--AP
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Wii Virtual Console NeoGeo Stick Coming... in Japan
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 With pixel-perfect recreations of vintage software, it only makes sense that someone will want to emulate the hardware as well. The Magic Box posts that SNK Playmore is going to release the NeoGeo Stick 2 on April 10 for 5,040 yen, or about $50. The stick's main (and perhaps only) function is compatibility with Virtual Console games. What a great idea! Why aren't we seeing this for the NES, Super NES, and other platforms?
Also, Wii Fit is due out in April for the USA.
--AP
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Robot Heroes "Dispensor" Revealed
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 A goofier aspect of the new Transformers line has been revealed! The vending machine Dispensor has been put up at Entertainment Earth, and it's a robot mode of a vending machine. No joke. Click the image to see it and the rest of Wave 6, which for the most part are new versions of existing figures.
--AP
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Shin-Ra UMD Case for the USA?
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  While we do not yet have details, we're most curious about the report on The Magic Box which implies we can expect a "specially designed Shin-Ra UMD storage case." We're not sure if they mean the little case around the disc is special, or it will include a case to store multiple UMDs, but we're curious to hear more! That's good news to say the least.
--AP
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MST3K Giant Gila Monster Pre-order Details
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 For a mere $7.95, you can order this DVD direct from Rhino now. It ships February 11, 2008 and is identical to the disc which will be included on the reissue of Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume 10. The issue was that Godzilla vs. Megalon was removed and replaced, so people who bought the original set will also be able to snag this disc alone. It's a decent flick at a fairly cheap price, so do order it before it goes out of print. It looks like the individual disc may well be a Rhino.com exclusive.
--AP
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Click Here For News From December!
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