Holy Comebacks, Batman! DC Looks Back to the Classics in Batman ‘66

I’ve read many articles over the years that have discussed the transition of comic books from paper to the Internet. While I prefer my comic books to stay on the printed page, one upcoming title that might change my mind is Batman ’66, a new series that’s being published online by DC starting this summer. Batman ’66 issues will be written Jeff Parker and its initial stories will be drawn by Jonathan Case.

Batman ’66 will be based on the live-action Batman TV series that premiered in 1966 and starred Adam West and Burt Ward. According to Parker in an interview with Comic Book Resources, Batman ‘66 is going to follow the TV series’ approach to Batman as closely as possible, including the campy scripting and bright visual aesthetic. “We are able to say that a grown man dressing as a bat and fighting crime is a whacked-out concept, and embrace it all the way,” says Parker. “I think with this you have to be able to get thrills and humor in balance, you can't treat it like a lark. The story needs to be engaging and appreciate the audience.”

I’m glad to see that the classic Batman TV series is getting some newfound love from DC. Even though there are still legal issues that keep the show from being released on home video, the Batman ’66 comic is arriving at around the same time as Mattel’s new series of toys based on the Batman TV series. As part of Batman ‘66, Parker plans to include Batman villains from the comics that never appeared in the TV show, villains such a Killer Croc. At the risk of being accused of Bat-blasphemy, I’m hoping that we’ll also get to see campy, over-the-top interpretations of Bane, Hush, Ra’s al Ghul, Damien Wayne, and a Burt Ward version of Nightwing.

Mattel's new Batman action figures. Note how closely the figures capture the respective 

likenesses of Adam West, Frank Gorshin and Burgess Meredith.

Old Super 8 Home Movies Make the Final Cut in Sinister (2012)

For as much as horror movies are associated with scary monsters that are made possible through complex special effects, some of the most noteworthy movies are the ones that take something that is so ordinary and harmless and turn it into the source of unimaginable terror. Such is the case with the Super 8 movies that form the center of Sinister, a 2012 film that was directed and co-written by Scott Derrickson.

Sinister tells the story of Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke), a true crime novelist who moves his wife and kids to a small town in Pennsylvania where a family was massacred by an unknown killer. Oswalt hopes that his research into the murders will provide him with a new bestseller that will rejuvenate his stalled career. While his family moves into their new home, he finds a box of Super 8 home movies in attic that were shot of different families at different locations, from the 1960s to the present. Strange and eerie things begin to happen as Oswalt researches the films to understand their link to the murders he is investigating, things that push him and his family deeper into a mystery that isn't meant to be solved.

Sinister feels like a hodgepodge of ideas from other films that feature found footage, ghosts and slashers, but the end result of this combination is a creepy, compelling film that boasts a strong performance by Hawke and haunting direction by Derrickson. Even though seasoned horror fans will figure out the film's final twist before the characters do, Sinister is so well produced that it will keep you watching until the final twisted frame.

Even though Sinister is not a "found footage" movie like Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, the Super 8 home movies that Oswalt finds become an intimidating force during the course of the story, thus turning an obsolete media format into a vehicle for hallucinatory nightmares. In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, Derrickson revealed that he shot the Super 8 movies before shooting the rest of the film. "I think that creating the Super 8 imagery before shooting the body of the film – along with finding the music that I found – had a lot to do with the overall impact of the whole film," said Derrickson. "Those elements set a tone in my mind that represented what the movie was going to feel like. I bought 9 music tracks ahead of time and shot the Super 8 films to those tracks. ... In some ways I think buying that music early on was the wisest move I made when making the film. I can’t imagine what the movie would be without them." In that observation, Derrickson is absolutely correct. Imagining Sinister without its Super 8 movies is like imaging Alien without the artwork contributed by H.R. Giger.

When considering the creative influences in Sinister, the most obvious would be The Shining, Ringu, and H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dreams in the Witch House" story. Yet with its depiction of the insanity that erupts when voyeurism collides with obsession, Sinister's most interesting themes are similar to those in David Cronenberg's Videodrome. Derrickson's film is not nearly as bizarre as Cronenberg's, but Hawke's intense portrayal of a man falling under the hypnotic thrall of disturbing moving images is reminiscent of Videodrome's doomed protagonist Max Renn (James Woods).

Attention All Star Wars Fans: Act Now to Support The Clone Wars!

In my last post, I looked at what has been revealed to be the last episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, since it ended its run on Cartoon Network and Disney has no plans to continue it on any of their TV channels. As I was drafting the text for that post, I came across a message from Supervising Director Dave Filoni about the future of Clone Wars, a message that hinted at further Clone Wars adventures in the future (not as a TV series but in some other unspecified format) and it included new animated footage.

Unfortunately, the news I read yesterday took a more dire turn: According to several sources, the creative team behind Clone Wars is being disbanded and its members are either being assigned to new projects or are being let go. Along those lines, rumors have surfaced that Disney is severely downsizing Lucasfilm Animation and handing all future Star Wars TV projects over to an existing TV operation, thus further reducing the likelihood of Clone Wars ever seeing a proper resolution to its many storylines.

I think that Disney is doing a tremendous disservice to Star Wars fans by leaving the Clone Wars series unfinished. It added a significant amount of depth to the saga as a whole, and it served as a prime example of how good TV animation can be with the right amount of talent and effort. If you would like to contact Disney to express your support for future seasons of Clone Wars, go to the Save the Clone Wars site for more information on what you can do. You can also check out the Alliance To Restore The Clone Wars page on Facebook. May the Force be with The Clone Wars!

Three Curtain Calls at Cartoon Network: Green Lantern, Clone Wars, and Young Justice

This month marks the end of three major series from the Cartoon Network: Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Young Justice. As a horror and sci-fi fan, I've gone through may fair share of TV series cancellations; nevertheless, between these three shows and Disney XD's recently departed Tron: Uprising, I've never seen so many genre show cancellations within such a short time frame. Click below for some additional thoughts and observations about the final episodes of Cartoon Network's latest cancelled series.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series

With no plans for another live-action Green Lantern movie, the odds of the Green Lantern cartoon staying on the air were probably very narrow--only blockbuster ratings and/or toy sales could have saved it. However, Cartoon Network's decision to cancel it does not reflect on the quality of the show itself. Like the 90s era Batman: The Animated Series before it, Green Lantern was light years ahead of its live-action counterpart in terms of quality, so much so that it's downright criminal that Time-Warner regards this cartoon with such little respect.

Green Lantern ended with a spectacular conclusion of the Anti-Monitor story arc, although the heart and soul of the story belonged to the supporting characters of Razer (voiced by Jason Spisak) and Aya (Grey DeLisle). Their roles in this arc brought the cartoon to a touching conclusion filled with both heartbreak and hope. As the ancient Greeks knew quite well, an heroic epic needs epic levels of tragedy to make it meaningful and memorable, and the writers and voice actors of Green Lantern expertly demonstrated their understanding of this dramatic rule in the end of their series. With such talent on display, it's frustrating to know that this creative team's exploration into the Green Lanterns' vast mythology has come to an end.

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Since its debut in 2008, Star Wars fans have been speculating how Clone Wars was going to impact the events connecting Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith and its implications for the saga as a whole. The good news is that the series' last story arc involving Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) provided some tantalizing glimpses into the growing tension between the Jedi Order and Chancellor Palpatine (Tim Curry, taking over the role from the late Ian Abercrombie) and the beginnings of Palpatine's notorious Order 66. The bad news is that Disney has no plans to continue Clone Wars as a television series, so when, how and if this series will reach its proper conclusion remains unknown. Even worse is that the last story arc is an example of how great this series is in terms of writing and production quality and a reminder of what both fans of Star Wars and TV animation are losing after five seasons.

After Disney acquired Lucasfilm at the end of 2012, it was a foregone conclusion that the Time-Warner-owned Cartoon Network would stop running new episodes of Clone Wars at the end of its fifth season. Thus, Disney's refusal to continue the series into a sixth season (which was already in production with finished footage at the time of the cancellation announcement) took me and many others by surprise. Honestly, I would much rather see the sixth season of Clone Wars than any of the stand-alone, single character-centric Star Wars movies that are rumored to be in development. It should also be noted that between this and the cancellation of Tron: Uprising, 2013 marks Disney's discontinuation of two ambitious TV animation projects that are based on sci-fi franchises that it owns--a rather baffling development for a company that built its reputation on innovative animation.

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Young Justice

Young Justice wrapped up its second and final season storyline with the team defeating the Reach, a race of alien invaders that has been working with DC super villains to conquer Earth. If anything, the writers at Young Justice certainly knew how to keep the plot twists and cliffhangers coming so that viewers would be interested in seeing what happens next. Unfortunately, most of the plot twists seemed to exist just to move the plot along and to accommodate as many cameos from the DC universe as possible.

The ending of Young Justice reflects the sizable change that was made to the series between its first and second seasons: It shifted its focus from a set of recurring characters that learn and grow over time to a gigantic cast in a purely plot-driven story, thus sacrificing any meaningful character development in the process. As a result, the series' final episode felt like a shrug instead of a conclusive ending. Even the death of one of the major characters felt like yet another plot twist with no real emotional weight; that death's irrelevancy was emphasized by the character's replacement being revealed just minutes later, followed by two concluding scenes where characters literally say that events will go on in a "business as usual" manner. It also didn't help that the Reach aliens weren't very interesting as villains, so their invasion of Earth ends with less of bang and more of a prolonged fizzle.

Criticisms aside, there are aspects of Young Justice that I will miss. I enjoyed its approach to the superhero team concept, portraying it as a kind of well-coordinated special forces team assigned to tactical missions. I also enjoyed the multi-layered interactions between the Young Justice team and the more established Justice League. I'll particularly miss this series' versions of Aqualad, Miss Martian, Superboy and Artemis--the most interesting characters in Young Justice--as well as the friendly banter between Blue Beetle and Impulse.

For June: NECA's Aliens: Genocide Action Figure 2-Pack

With its new line of figures based on the 1986 sequel Aliens, NECA is taking a cue from its line of Predator figures--namely, to produce and release figures based on creature designs that appeared outside of the Alien movies. The first example of this strategy will be hitting the shelves in June as an action figure 2-pack that's based on the Dark Horse Comics' miniseries Aliens: Genocide.

For those of you who haven't read any of the Aliens comic books, Genocide is about a group of humans who insert themselves into a war between two rival Alien hives. In an obvious nod to the Aliens' ant-like social structure, one hive consists of black Aliens while the other consists of red Aliens (think black ants versus red ants). Thus, NECA's 2-pack will feature 9-plus inch black and red Alien figures, each with over 30 points of articulation, extending inner mouths, bendable tails, and double-jointed elbows and knees.

You could argue that all NECA is doing here is giving toy collectors the same figure twice in the same pack but with different paint jobs. Maybe so, but the vivid coloring of the red Alien would make it the ideal complementary piece for NECA's Big Red Predator figure.

Invisible Demonic Terror Returns to Suburbia Again in Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)

Among modern horror film franchises, Paranormal Activity is the only one that has been able to consistently use the "found footage" style of storytelling throughout each of its films. Other franchises that began in the horror subgenre of found footage all jettisoned that style at one point or another. Some did as soon as the first sequel (Blair Witch Project, The Last Exorcism), while others did so later (REC). Yet upon my viewing of Paranormal Activity 4, this franchise's accomplishment is looking rather dubious. After all, why stay within the style of found footage if it begins to hamper a franchise's storytelling possibilities?

For as competently made as it is, PA4 serves as a reminder that its franchise needs to make some major changes very soon to keep its central story engaging and avid fans interested in more PA movies. Read on for my complete and spoiler-free review of Paranormal Activity 4.

Paranormal Activity 4 takes place in 2011, when a family in a suburban neighborhood takes in their neighbor's child Robbie (Brady Allen) after his mom is suddenly rushed to the hospital. During his stay, Robbie begins to bond with the family's youngest member Wyatt (Aiden Lovekamp)--a bond that sparks suspicion in older sister Alex (Kathryn Newton) when strange, inexplicable things begin to happen in their house.

I wasn't completely dissatisfied with PA4, because there are plenty of scary ideas embedded within the story. It provides some more ideas about how the cult that was introduced in PA3 operates, and how children play a key role in the cult's grander scheme. Such a scheme explains a crucial plot twist that happens during the middle of the film, a twist that honestly surprised me but was logically consistent with the PA movies that came before it. PA4 also makes use of the Xbox 360's Kinect feature in a very creative, creepy way.

Because of the low-budget nature of found footage movies, PA4 has to rely on a lot of strategically placed obscurity to keep the special effects budget at a minimum. In doing so, this sequel mostly relies on same bag of tricks used in the previous films: characters reacting in horror to something just outside of the camera's view, supernatural entities appearing as powerful, fast-moving blurs, etc. These tricks worked well enough in the previous films, but they're begging to show their age in PA4.

Just as the camera angles are set up in PA films to hide certain visual details, the films are also structured in a way that conceals key plot points until near the end (or at the very end) of the film. As such, PA4 recycles plot details from the previous two sequels--the protective sister figure from PA2, the children who have strange imaginary friends from PA3--as a way to keep things going until the final reveal. Further dulling the sequel's creative spark is that its setting and characters look almost identical to settings and characters from the previous films: upper middle class people living in upper middle class households. To go by the situational logic of the PA franchise, supernatural entities are only interested in terrorizing people who prefer suburban living and fall within a particular income bracket.

Watching PA4 was like watching one of the later seasons of The X-Files. You sit through a lot of stuff--some familiar, some different, some scary, some boring--for the sake of learning a bit more about the grand conspiracy that ties everything together, only to be left with only a few more small details to ponder at the end. PA4 is shorter than a season of The X-Files, so it at least has that going for it. Yet if this franchise is going to have a future, it has to do something different to keep the story fresh and scary. Otherwise, future PA sequels will be the kind of footage that no one wants to find.

Protect Gotham City from Evil Minifigs in Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes

In my opinion, Traveller's Tales' Lego video games are works of evil addictive genius. Unlike other licensed video games, Lego video games combine the logic of game play, toy play and toy collection into a single interactive experience. Since the first Lego Star Wars game was released back in 2005, each subsequent Lego game has added new features to this format but the original combination remains intact. In a Lego video game, players control characters to guide them through game-like scenarios, interact with objects and environments as if they were brick-assembled toys, and acquire new characters and vehicles to complete a virtual, in-game toy collection. These games also feature a two-player cooperative option, so you and a friend can play with the toys each game has to offer.

One of the latest Lego games is Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, which was released in 2012 for each of the major consoles. Lego Batman 2 is not only a sequel to the previous Lego Batman game; it also takes everything that's great about Lego video games and makes them even better, resulting in a title that's great for both video gamers and superhero fans alike. Read on for my complete review.

Lego Batman 2 finds Batman and Robin investigating a mass breakout of super villains from Gotham City's Arkham Asylum, a breakout that happens just after they foil one of the Joker's latest schemes. The Dynamic Duo's search for clues leads them to the real culprit behind the prison break: Lex Luthor, who plans to use Joker and his laughing gas to help his presidential campaign win the upcoming election. Realizing that they might need more help than usual in defeating this sinister partnership, Batman and Robin call on Superman to aid them in their fight to stop Luthor, capture the Joker and save Gotham City.

The title Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is not entirely accurate; most of the game's main campaign plays like a World's Finest team up between Batman and Superman, with other DC heroes appearing in the campaign's epic final chapters. Nevertheless, Lego Batman 2 provides all sorts of DC-inspired fun. This marks the first time that characters in a Lego game actually speak instead of communicating with each other in grunts, gibberish and gestures; as such, Clancy Brown reprises his popular voice role as Lex Luthor for the game. The game's levels are challenging and well designed, and its original story is consistently entertaining and witty. The script mines plenty of humor out of Batman's chronic refusal to ask for help when he needs it, as well as his annoyance at Superman's inexhaustibly sunny attitude. There's even a playful jab at Arkham City, a recent non-Lego Batman video game.

The main campaign is only part of the game's appeal; the rest belongs to its representation of Gotham City. In previous Lego games, missions were connected to each other through "hub worlds", environments where players could select new characters, access new levels or access previously completed levels in free play mode. The hub worlds became progressively bigger with each successive Lego game, but the hub world of Gotham City dwarfs all of its predecessors. It's an enormous open environment, spreading across three islands that are connected by bridges, waterways and metro systems. The architectural design of the game's Gotham is pulled straight from Tim Burton's Batman movies (albeit with some Lego-specific changes), and the city is brimming with many locations to visit, villains to defeat, citizens to save, and collectibles to find and purchase using the Lego studs you accumulate during the game.

For me, the main campaign was a fun gaming experience, but it was the open world of Gotham that turned Lego Batman 2 into an obsessive-compulsive fixation. Being a child of the 80s, having the chance to get my own collection of DC hero and villain minifigs gave me flashbacks to Kenner's Super Powers action figure line from that same decade so I found myself planning in between game sessions how I was going to amass this collection as quickly as possible. (Fun trivia fact: Both the Super Powers line and the minifig collection in Lego Batman 2 include Cyborg, a superhero who is frequently associated with the Teen Titans, as a collectible character.)

Even if you aren't as collection-obsessive as I am, virtual Gotham City is still fun to experience. You can drive through it using the selection of vehicles provided, sail around it, or fly over it either in a plane, helicopter, or as a flight-capable character. The cityscape is quite breathtaking to behold, even for something that was built to the scale of Lego minifigs.

You will unlock half of the superhero characters during the main campaign: first Batman and Robin, later Superman, and then finally Cyborg, Flash, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman. The rest of the heroes and villains are only unlockable after you purchase them with Lego studs. The exact number of heroes and villains you can collect varies, depending on which console you have (I was playing the Wii version of this game). To get the most fun out of the heroes and villains minifig collection, I made sure to get as many of them as I could before going back to the main campaign in free play mode. After all, what's the point of collecting so many figures if you can't play with them to see what they can do?

Of course, Lego Batman 2 does have some peculiar quirks. Flying takes some effort to master, particularly when you have to navigate a flying character into a small, tight location. A few of the hero and villain minifigs are vastly under-powered in comparison to their comic book counterparts. For example, the Green Lantern minifig can only use his power ring to fly and assemble of green brick structures--that's it. Sinestro does even less than that, since there are no yellow brick structures for him to assemble with his power ring.

The selective reduction of powers is probably due to the Lego video game format's inability to translate certain characters' abilities into something the players can control. If that is the case, I would have preferred if Traveller's Tales selected different DC hero and villain characters that would work better with what the game's programmers could accomplish. Regardless, the game's problems are insignificant in comparison to everything else it does so well.

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is the best Lego video game to date, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys Legos, superheroes, and video games. There's also a feature-length straight-to-video Lego Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite that's scheduled for release in May and is based on the game's plot and cut scenes. Check out the preview clip below.

Coolest Geek Dad Ever Hacks Donkey Kong for His Daughter

This is fantastic news for geek parents who are introducing their kids to classic video games, so I had to post it here. It was written by game designer Mike Mika and published in Wired magazine, and the article's title says it all: "Why I Hacked Donkey Kong for My Daughter". As Mika writes:

"My daughter ... jumps at the chance to play games with her old man. She’s only 3, but she’s always exhibited a keen interest in games. ... (O)ut of all of the older games, she most enjoys playing Donkey Kong. Maybe it was because it was the first game we really played together, or the fact that she watched the King of Kong documentary with me one afternoon from start to finish. Maybe it’s because Mario looks just like her Grandpa. Whatever the case, we’ve been playing Donkey Kong together for a while. She’s not very good at it, but insists on playing it over and over again until she finally hands me the joystick in total frustration. ... Finally, one day after work, she asked to play Donkey Kong, only this time she raised a pretty innocent and simple question: 'How can I play as the girl? I want to save Mario!'"

So what did Mika do? He hacked Donkey Kong and changed it so that Pauline, the female character in the game, is now saving Mario. So what did his daughter think of it? According to Mika:

"Just like clockwork, she woke up and sat on my lap asking to play Donkey Kong. Only this time, she could play as Pauline. She was excited! But for all she knew, I just figured out how to get Pauline to work. And that was fine. I wasn’t expecting it to change her life. We played for a bit. And some more. And again later. You know what? She really did seem to enjoy the game more. For whatever reason, she was more motivated to play as Pauline than as Mario."

My geek hat is off to you, Mr. Mika. Anything that gets kids of both genders into playing video games and appreciating the classics is a good thing in my opinion, and the fact that you went the extra distance for your daughter is an example that all geek parents should follow. Game on!

A Movie Review of 9 (2009): Rag Dolls and Robots at the End of the World

A recurring complaint that I've read in film reviews--particularly of films that rely heavily on special effects--is the one of "style over substance". While this is a valid complaint, I find it irritating at times because of its rote usage by bored film critics who overlook the instances where a film's style is its substance. After all, cinema is an inherently visual medium; thus, the possibility that a filmmaker can tell a compelling story by emphasizing images and only using minimal dialog (or no dialog at all) should be part of a film critic's range of considerations. Not every film has to provide Shakespeare-caliber soliloquies in its script in order to be a bold and intelligent film. Such is the case of 9, and 2009 CGI animated movie that was directed by Shane Acker and produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov.

9 is a science fiction fantasy film that takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting. It's short on complex dialog but long on symbolism and metaphor--some obvious, others not so much. It's also quite bold in that it depicts the human race as being unable to survive a doomsday of its own making and a world that will eventually go on without us. That's pretty grim stuff for a film that's essentially about anthropomorphic rag dolls. Read on for my full review.

9 begins as a small, sentient rag doll (voiced by Elijah Wood) wakes up in a disheveled room with a dead body on the floor. The only clue to the doll's identity is the number 9 written on his back. 9 leaves the room to find a surrounding city in shambles, with the only inhabitants being other rag dolls like him--each with numbers on their backs--and B.R.A.I.N., an multi-limbed cyclopean machine that is determined to remake the world in its own mechanical image.

Given its main premise, 9 would seem to fall into the same humans-versus-machines subgenre of sci-fi as the Terminator and Matrix franchises. Yet that is not completely accurate because humans are almost completely absent in 9; the few that appear in the film are only seen through archived film footage that give the rag dolls a better idea of who and what came before them. The rag dolls are orphans: their creator left them behind a long time ago to fend for themselves, and the exact circumstances that necessitated their creation has long been forgotten. The muted despair over dolls' unclear sense of identity and purpose permeates the story.

The dolls' search for meaning in a barren landscape that was overrun by corrupted technology bears many thematic and stylistic similarities to films such as Dark City, A.I., and Tron: Legacy, as well as to Nintendo Wii's Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon video game. To put a finer point on it, 9 is a richer, bleaker counterpart to Pixar's Wall-E, although I'm not sure which is scarier: a post-apocalyptic world with no human survivors, or a post-apocalyptic world where the only human survivors are dimwitted, corporate-controlled couch potatoes.

Even though 9 has a fantastic voice cast that consists of Wood, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly and Crispin Glover, the simple dialog between the characters only tells part of the story. The rest of the tale unfolds in the ruins of human civilization that's littered with many recognizable, broken artifacts. The movie appears to take place in an alternate world where doomsday happened somewhere during the 1930s, and that the world came to an end not in a ball of nuclear flame but in a mist of toxic gas spread by B.R.A.I.N. Placing this alternate world's end during the advent of mechanized warfare gives 9 a chilling feel, an unsettling hint that the mass production of technology and mass extinction are inseparable no matter what decade or century it is.

Further adding to the story's eeriness is the war machines designed by B.R.A.I.N.: they are modeled after organic forms (and some even have organic parts, such as bones) but they warp the organic into something frighteningly unnatural, suggesting that technology’s corruption of life is inevitable. In contrast, the burlap skins of the rag dolls give them a more natural feel, as do their personalities. The revelation of where the dolls' personalities come from and why they are self-aware at all provides a touching conclusion for such a nightmarish and surreal scenario.

Essentially, 9 is a story about a man who sacrifices his soul to restore the earth to being a vibrant source of life, even if the human race is far beyond saving. That may be a difficult premise for many to comprehend and accept (let alone watch as a feature-length movie), but I found 9 to be a beautiful, eloquent and bittersweet dieselpunk fairy tale.

A Clash Between Warring Extraterrestrial Races Goes Portable in Alien vs. Predator: Evolution

For those of you who are still reeling from the disappointment of Gearbox’s Aliens: Colonial Marines, here’s something to assuage your frustration for the time being: Angry Mob Games has just released Alien vs. Predator: Evolution for the iOS and Android platforms.

AvP: Evolution is a third-person action melee game, where gamers can play as either an Alien or a Predator. Unlike most previous AvP games, Evolution does not have a human campaign, although it looks like there will be plenty of humans around to slaughter anyway. Evolution is also the first AvP game to include the Super Predators, the leaner, meaner space hunting clan from the 2010 sequel Predators. I don't know the game's plot in detail, but it appears to borrow a few ideas from Dark Horse's Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War comic book miniseries.

The game footage looks impressive, but I’ve read from some who have already bought the game that it’s best to play it on higher-end portable devices; playing the game on lower-end devices results in many glitches that frequently interfere with the gaming experience. Go to the Angry Mob Games site for more information about AvP: Evolution, and watch the launch trailer below.

R2-D2 and C-3PO: Kenner vs. Hasbro

Anyone who has paid attention to the toy industry over the last few decades will tell you that when it comes to toys based on pre-existing creative properties (e.g., comic books, TV shows, movies and video games), the amount of features and details present in such toys has skyrocketed. Nowhere has this change of quality has been more evident than in the toys for Star Wars, a franchise that has been producing toys by the ton ever since it first arrived back in 1977.

Kenner found itself with a huge cash cow on its hands when it secured the toy license for Star Wars during the original trilogy, but the toys produced by Hasbro during the subsequent years are much more movie-accurate than their predecessors. This post will look at two popular Star Wars characters, the loyal droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, how they were represented as 12 inch scale figures by both Kenner and Hasbro, and the MPC Star Wars model kits played a part in these figure designs. Read on ...

The 12 inch figures produced by Kenner didn't last long in comparison to their 3 and 3/4th inch figures, and they had vanished from toy store shelves shortly after the release of Empire Strikes Back in 1980. I've read varying accounts as to why Kenner released a 12 inch scale line in the first place and the most plausible theory I've seen is that up until the release of Star Wars in 1977, it was a common practice in the toy industry to make action figures that were somewhere between 8 to 12 inches in height. Kenner’s action figures for The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman were in this size range, as were licensed action figures produced by legendary toy company Mego. The way I see it, Kenner probably produced the 12 inch line of Star Wars figures as a contingency plan in case the smaller action figures didn't sell as well. Regardless, what the larger figures lacked in popularity they (almost) made up for in terms of detail in comparison to the other Star Wars figures that were available at that time.

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Kenner's R2-D2

The large scale R2-D2 figure from Kenner is a major upgrade from its smaller version. The smaller R2-D2 had an oddly sculpted head and only a sticker to provide details for the body. In contrast, the larger R2-D2 has a body and head sculpt that captures most of the details from the movie.

Curiously, the head of R2-D2 figure seems oddly proportioned, with his main radar eye looking unusually small in comparison to the rest of the domed head.

Kenner's R2-D2 has movable legs with wheels underneath that allow the figure to roll and like its smaller counterpart, the head makes clicking noises whenever it is turned. The only other feature that this feature has is a rear panel that opens to reveal what looks like two circuit boards. The box that this figure came in identified these boards as "the Death Star plans", even though Princess Leia is never seen in Star Wars loading two pizza box-sized panels into R2's back. Interestingly, the rear panel in the large R2-D2 action figure is in the same place where the battery compartment is located for Kenner's remote controlled R2-D2 toy.

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Hasbro's R2-D2

Hasbro's large R2-D2 action figure was released during the 90s and it is smaller than Kenner's R2. In fact, Hasbro's R2 almost matches the dimensions of the MPC R2-D2 model kit.

Even though it's made with a much more durable plastic, Hasbro's R2 doesn't have any of the opening panels that MPC's R2 has: MPC's model features a hinged front panel that opens to allow for the extension of R2's computer linkage arm and a removable rear panel to reveal R2's inner circuitry, but Hasbro's figure has neither of these features. Nevertheless, both Hasbro and MPC released an R2-D2 that has a retractable third leg, something that Kenner never got around to producing in any of its R2-D2 figures.

Comparing Kenner and Hasbro's R2-D2 figures side-by-side reveals which figure is more faithful to the movie version of the droid. Then again, Kenner's large-sized R2-D2 was the most movie-accurate replica of the droid that Kenner released when it had the Star Wars license, which just goes to show how affordable toy replicas of movie characters have improved in terms of detail during the last few decades.

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Kenner's C-3PO

Of the figures reviewed in this post, Kenner's large-sized C-3PO is the lightest of the group. Even though the plastic itself is sturdy, it feels hollow and only weighs a few ounces. Most of Kenner's large-sized non-costumed action figures weighed less than the others; a childhood friend of mind had a large-sized Stromtrooper that weighed about the same as the large-sized C-3PO.

As with Kenner's R2-D2, the large-sized C-3PO is much more detailed than its smaller version. For example, the large-sized sculpt includes the restraining bolt that the Jawas attached to the droid shortly after he arrived on Tatooine.

Kenner's C-3PO features joints in the neck, shoulders and hips, and that's it; there are no panels to open or accessories to add. The hip joints are cut at an odd angle so that he can only sit with his legs splayed outward. (From what I remember, Kenner’s large-sized Stormtrooper had hip joints cut the same way.)

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Hasbro's C-3PO

I got my Hasbro C-3PO as part of the C-3PO: Tales of the Golden Droid box set, which was part of the short-lived Star Wars Masterpiece Edition series of box sets. These sets--of which there are only three that I know of--were released to coincide with the release of The Phantom Menace in 1999. The sets included a 12 inch figure of a particular Star Wars character and a hard cover book devoted to that character: how the character was created, the history of the character within the Star Wars universe, and all of the merchandise that was produced between 1977 and 1999 that bears the character's likeness.

Hasbro put a lot of details into its C-3PO figure, including blaster residue on his gold plating, wires as part of his exposed midriff, and his mismatched silver plated leg. He has joints in his neck, shoulders, waist and hips, as well as limited movement hinge joints in the knees and ankles. Oddly, the hip joints in this figure are cut the same was as the Kenner version.

An added feature to this particular version of C-3PO is that it can be disassembled into various parts, so fans can recreate all of the times that the droid was damaged during the saga. The figure also comes with a netted backpack similar to the one used by Chewbacca to move the damaged droid around Cloud City in Empire Strikes Back. (I couldn't tell you if the backpack actually fits on a Hasbro Chewbacca figure, since I don't have one.)

Comparing the two C-3PO figures reveals how much closer Hasbro's sculpt is to the original movie version than Kenner's. The dimensions of Kenner's C-3PO sculpt makes it look bulkier than the droid should be, with a wider torso and broader shoulders. I suspect that, for the sake of convenience, Kenner based its C-3PO sculpt along the same dimensions used for the large scale Stormtrooper and Darth Vader figures.

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Putting the droid figures together into their respective pairs shows that Hasbro did a better job at recreating the droids' details, except for one glaring error: Hasbro's R2-D2 is not to scale with its C-3PO figure. In contrast, Kenner's large-sized versions of R2-D2 and C-3PO are in scale with each other in spite of all the other details that were missed, which makes them a better complementary set than Hasbro's.

After getting so many details right, it seems odd that Hasbro would get this scale issue wrong. All I can conclude is that Hasbro really did base its R2 on MPC’s R2 model kit, because it would be easier and cheaper to base an R2 figure from a pre-existing design than to create a new one from scratch. As you can see from the comparison pics below, the MPC R2 was designed to be in same scale with the MPC C-3PO model kit, which is not 12 inches high. Thus, Hasbro’s R2 is in scale with MPC’s C-3PO but not with any of Hasbro’s 12 inch Star Wars figures.

From left to right: Hasbro's R2-D2 figure and MPC's R2-D2 model kit.

From left to right: Hasbro's C-3PO figure and MPC's C-3PO model kit.