Scrye-ing over spilt milk...
Scrye magazine will be ending with issue 131, I'm sorry to say. It's been a good run for this magazine devoted to collectible (and other) games, but hard times are turning a number of print publications into memories. The internet is also doing its part to take large chunks out of publishing's profitability, with up-to-the-second news about your favorite things being just a mouse click away more often than not. Still, there was something fun about getting it every month and looking at the price lists for my old Arabian Nights "Magic" cards and thinking, "the second I decide to sell my cards that are worth over 200 bucks, the bottom is SO going to drop out of this market." So to those out there dealing in these playable bits of cardboard: I'm supporting your collectibility by keeping my "Scheherazade" cards (currently worth about $62, according to Scrye) tucked away in a closet.
On to movies made from toy-commercial shows. They've released photos of the toy based on "Soundwave" from the next Transformers movie. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who thinks that looks nothing like a boom box. Of course, the original Soundwave suffers from two problems: One of scale (I never did quite get how he could transform down into a carryable size, much less be light enough for a human to carry) and the other of cassettes being quite the legacy format. While his new incarnation will no doubt allow for much robotic tuchus to be blasted, part of me wouldn't minded having seen him appear as a giant iPod. :)
And there's a Ghost Rider sequel in development. I saw the first one and thought it suffered from several things: One, it seemed to lack a sense of supernatural urgency by turning what should have been a plot into a video game (first boss: Made of earth. Second level: water, and so on). Two, (and I don't know who's at fault) Ghost Rider didn't seem terribly agile. The second the flames went on, the guy became pretty much as stiff as a board. Perhaps the CGI budget was limited, but given all that could be done with a bike and chains (as in this pretty much fanservice scene), ol' Ghosty seemed to have stiff joints. Third, it says something about the movie when a short cameo by a previous Ghost Rider makes me want to see more of the Wild West version than the "new guy." Then again, I'm partial to "Deadlands," so I could be biased on that one. I guess I wish they'd made the Ghost Rider scarier. Or at least, his enemies scarier. I also don't think it was so much a "curse" as "here's a superpower you'll have a little trouble with at first, but in the end, you'll not only learn how to control it, but the guy who gave it to you won't take it back for some reason." And then there's that toupee Nicholas Cage glued to his head...
"Battlestar Galactica" is back in the political/military arena. No spoilers, but I think this series might be subtitled, "The Evolution of Felix Gaeta." And I thought the maturation of G'Kar in "Babylon-5" was a roller coaster; Gaeta has gone from background bit-player to "most altered by his circumstances" on the show, and he hasn't even died and come back (like others who shall remain nameless)!
But let me close on a movie I'm hopeful for: "Watchmen." Now that it's out of litigation (I believe), we'll get to see if the film version of the comic classic is as cool as the trailers make it look. Just released are some new photos, starting with The Owl's arctic suit. Photo #4 is kind of... interesting. I wouldn't have thought to see Nazi outfits like that outside of some very suspect areas with lots of red lights and people not making eye contact.
"Watchmen," the movie, will lack a giant squid (see the comic if I sound like I'm off my meds), and so does this weekend's batch of links:
- Ever wonder what "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" would be like as an Italian opera? Now it can be told...
- And in case you'd rather create your own Star Trek episode, here's a handy flowchart for just such an endeavor!
- Via "Toplessrobot.com," apparently KFC discovered what word 'frak' stands for, though I do think they're mistaken about not being able to say it...
- Alert reader Mike brings us Star Wars: The Battle of the Younglings, which wins "best use of the Wilhelm in a fan film" I've seen. Plus it's durn cute. :)
- I'm posting a warning on this one, as the contents are "unfiltered." Here's a page listing the searches for 'Let Me Google That For You', a page used to remind people that Google exists and is easy to use. It's oddly voyeuristic to see what's being looked for.
- From the pages of alternate history (or as a stimulus for a comic book. Grin) comes this gallery of Soviet flying fortresses, and a few shots of what appears to be a Nazi flying saucer.
- It's the weekend. We need bacon. Who do we call? Baconman!
- A bit of morbid chain-reaction gaming with Chain of Fire. Try to set everyone and everything ablaze by picking one poor sod to kick off the conflagration.
- And another game, this one with shades of the old "Robotron" arcade classic, Magi Wars, where you run about zapping as many foes (and the occasional house) as you can.