Yesterday I headed over to Wizard World in Philly for the second time ever, but the first time as a regular guest. You might remember that Frank and I headed there about two years ago trying to plug Shamoozal.com. We were so under prepared for that event, with only a handful of flyers, some tiny character cut outs, a “Shamoozal” yellow table cloth, and a laptop that only ran for about two hours a day to actually show our shorts. Oh, and the stickers we wanted to hand out didn’t come until AFTER that weekend… and I’m still stuck with about 500 of the things all this time later. This year was all about just enjoying the show, which I didn’t have much of a chance to when we were trying to sell people on typing in our URL when they got home.

Wizard World isn’t really my thing since I’m not really into comic books. That is essentially the bulk of the show, a way for collectors to buy MORE comics and more toys. I love toys, but I chose not to look at them this year since I’m in the process of figuring out what to do with the current toys I already have. The good thing is that there is enough other stuff to still make it an interesting trip. For instance, getting to meet the friendly Newgrounds staff, the always great B-List celebrity alley, the more grass roots Artist alley, and of course lots of video game stuff. Oh, and plenty of cosplay and Jedi too.

This year the Newgrounds guys had a huge booth in the front of the show floor with lots of goodies to buy and several of their popular artists chatting it up and doing commission work. I introduced myself to Tom Fulp, the creator of Newgrounds and he seemed like a really nice and down to earth guy. It was nice being able to chat it up with him. I also had the chance to meet the extremely popular Egoraptor, which was a really fun encounter. Frank and I spoke with him for a bit about the show and Newgrounds in general. He’s a really nice guy and is about as quick witted as you’d expect. I also met Steve V (SardonicSamurai) who was also a really nice guy. There were a bunch of other regulars there that I saw but didn’t actually get to speak with like Swain, HappyHarry, and Tomamoto. To be quite honest, it was actually a really overwhelming moment for me because there were so many people there. What I can say is that is a pretty tight group and they came from all parts of the US to be there, which is pretty impressive and shows they’re dedicated to the brand that Fulp created. Pretty cool stuff, I look forward to running into those guys again and hopefully spending a bit more time with them.

I guess my love for the Ninja Turtles will never truly fade. I’ve loved the Turtles since the second or third grade and while I didn’t really follow the comics, newer animated series, and the terrible live action series, I’ll always have a special spot for them.

As a grown adult, I still enjoy my fair share of TMNT merchandise. A buddy of mine handed me this super sweet “Artobiography” about the original TMNT comics that is full of all sorts of great content. The book is packed with tons of drawings, story boards, character designs, and behind the scenes insight all compiled by Kevin Eastman himself. It’s a great book, even if looking at it now shows me that Eastman and Laird weren’t exactly the greatest artists. That doesn’t matter because their idea was so solid, and their work ethic so dedicated that they were able to take TMNT from their small apartment and turn it into a world wide phenomenon that has become ingrained in culture as much as anything from Marvel or DC.

Second, I ordered a beat up copy of TMNT: Fall of the Footclan for the original Gameboy for a whole six cents off eBay. The thing looks like it’s been through a bomb blast, but I cleaned it up, threw some double A’s into the old green beast and played through the first stage of the game. I loved this game back when it came out, but it’s a rather average action game these days. Since I didn’t want to deal with the ancient Gameboy screen, I ended up playing through the whole game using Super Gameboy. There was some great TMNT fan service in here including lots of great stills right out of the pilot episode of the cartoon. Sure, it’s really dated now, but back then Gameboy games just didn’t have graphics that looked like the real deal.

So during the Superbowl tonight, we’re supposed to be treated to new official trailers for both Transformers 2 and G.I. Joe. It’s kind of fitting that the both of these are shown in this manner as I remember the two franchises coming on almost simultaneously back in the 80’s. Myself, I fell in love with robots that turn into cars, planes, and guns as opposed to a bunch of misfits dressed in silly fatigues ejecting out of helicopters.

Think about that on there for a second, and you’ll realize that these franchises are simply steeped in the ridiculous. It doesn’t cease to amaze me that people from my generation don’t seem to grasp this concept. For example, I just read a comment from someone on Comingsoon.net that went something along the lines of “I hope they don’t ruin my childhood”.

Now think about THAT one for a second as well. How can any of these big budgeted Hollywood films even come close to doing any of the original material for these properties any justice when they are already based on ludicrous ideas. The fact that there are giant sentient robots from another planet that can somehow turn into a firetrucks, and no one even notices until it starts shooting lasers from its headlights is insane. No one in G.I. Joe ever dies…well, Duke came close to death in the animated feature from the 80’s, but he came through. The premise of these shows is paper thin in the first place.

Usually when I buy a gift, I’m just happy I was able to come up with something to give someone. I feel like with age, I’m getting worse at buying gifts for people. My wife on the other hand, she’s not only good at buying cool gifts, but she even goes the extra mile and throws in little things you wouldn’t think about. Case in point, attached to my Christmas gifts this year was a Mario Galaxy Star Bit charm for my DS (she picked a Red one, to match my Red/Black Lite) and this Nintendo mystery figure. This mystery figure is awesome, and I wish they were available domestically because I’d probably buy a bunch of them.

Each mystery egg comes in it’s own box (above) and is all wrapped up in foil. Removing the foil reveals a chocolate egg…

I was over at the local mall today buying myself a new pair of glasses. I decided to take a trip to Samgoody, aka the most over priced store on the planet, and see if they had anything cool. Samgoody is an awful store by the way. I was trying to browse through their Playstation collection and it was a nightmare. Nothing is in order, it’s this mix of old and new product, and everything is ridiculously expensive. There was a used copy of Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter which looked like it was wrapped up in a shit, and was going for 20 dollars, where as I bought a copy for myself at Gamestop a few months ago for 6.99.

Unfortunately, there are no more specialty shops in this mall, so this store is the only place where you’ll find cool American and Japanese toys that you likely won’t find at Toys R Us. Case in point, the new Jack Bauer figure from McFarlene. I wrote about this figure before, but it looks like it finally came out. At 20 bucks, it’s a little steep. Problem is, even if I found this thing on the net for cheaper, I’d probably still end up paying around 20 dollars with shipping. Since I’ve been looking so flipping forward to this figure, I didn’t mind the price so much. Heck, I’m on vacation too, I’m allowed to toss away some money if I want (glasses not included).

Of course he doesn’t look as good as the prototype, but it’s damn close. The problem is I don’t really have room for this figure anywhere. I’m debating taking it out of the box, not that I’m anal about that stuff, but sometimes certain figures look better packaged. This one might be one of them. For the Bauer fan, it doesn’t get much cooler than this.

In South Jersey, there aren’t many options when it comes to buying rare and classic video games. Obviously we can look up anything we want to on eBay, but nothing beats browsing around, holding items, looking at them, and salivating over their very presence. High off my Gamestop haul from a few months back, I asked an acquaintance where I could find old Dreamcast games (since the one Gamestop was clearing out DC titles, but only rubbish like NFL2k). He pointed me towards Next Level Videogames, a privately owned joint that was apparently only 30 minutes away from my house.

The Great Wall 

I never ended up checking the place out, but for some reason I’m completely obsessing over the PS2 game Gradius V, so in an attempt to find the title I decided to take a ride down to Next Level Games. While I didn’t find a copy of Gradius, it was totally worth the trip and checking out the store. I nearly passed out when I held a boxed copy of Super Mario Brothers 2 for the NES (used, but still decent condition all things considered), and when I turned around to find a section of import titles including stuff from the Dreamcast, Famicom, Super Famicom, and PC Engine, I nearly had a heart attack. I hadn’t felt the urge to spend so much money since I stumbled upon Super Potato back in Japan. Along the floor lie bundles of classic and modern consoles, including Sega Saturns, TurboGrafx, and even old Atari units. The moment I saw the Saturn, my mind started racing and I asked the clerk if they had any copies of Radiant Silvergun, had he said yes I seriously would have bought it and the Saturn (plus it doesn’t help that I have a copy of NiGHTS sitting on top of my PC, waiting to be played).

Whew! What a weekend so far. Today was the second day of the convention and foot traffic picked up a whole hell of alot in general from yesterday. There are tons and tons of toys and comic books to look through that if you were a hardcore comic-head, you’d loose your mind.

There’s all kinds of stuff going on. Sony has a pretty cool section with a bunch of playable games for all their platforms like “Lair” for the PS3 and “God of War” on the PS2. Unfortunately, we dont get much time to peruse the isles as we’re off to the side away from all the commercial tables and booths. There are a bunch of panels and what-nots happening from industry professionals. There’s a whole bunch of cos-players walking around, but most of the time I forget I have a camera and I don’t get to take their picture. However, we DID have a run-in with a particularly famous internet-celeb that we’re just gonna’ have to tell you all about later.

So in short, the con is going pretty well for us at The Shamoozal. We’re not exactly widely known. Most passerby’s look at our characters and don’t think much of them because they’re not your classic, comic book super hero, nor are they highly rendered artwork with cross hatching and shading. Most people don’t understand that these are ANIMATED characters that actually move, and that the characters are simple in design for this purpose. However, we do get some people when they walk by and see our work they get it. They like what they see and understand it. A few people even recognized our shorts and some actually laughed at a joke in them. Of course, this makes us feel all warm and giddy inside that I promptly peed myself like a child. Hah.

Well, that’s all for now. I just wanted to do a quick and dirty update and let all the Shamoozalites in on what’s up. We’re planning on going into all the nitty gritty after the dust settles from this weekend so hang tight for more updates.

We Jack Bauer fans have a lot of waiting to do over the next few months. Okay, so this past season of 24 certainly wasn’t the finest in the series, but that doesn’t mean I don’t miss spending Monday nights with my favorite CTU agents.

That said there is a whole world of 24 out there, including plenty of ways to spend time with Jack while we wait for Day 7 to arrive in January. You might be surprised by the amount of options, ranging from books to video games. Take a look.

24: Declassified Books

Neca is working on a series of Castlevania figures which are due out before the end of the year. The smart folk over at Neca realize that the Simon Belmont from the original NES cover art as a barbarian is “the man” and have based their figure on his appearance. I think it’s a great decision, and I’ll be hunting that figure down the moment it’s released. Belmont has never looked better.

It’s not all barbarians though, as the other figures are Alucard, Dracula, and a Succubus. All of those designs are based off of their Symphony of the Night counterparts. You can find images of those figures (minus the Drac Attack) over at Neca’s Myspace page. My guess is you can expect to find them around the time Konami ships the Dracula X Chronicles for PSP. Can’t wait.

I certainly was a child of the 80’s. I remember when the very first episode of Transformers was aired, and then witnessed the glut of cartoons based off of toy lines sprawl across television. It was quite a spectacle. In an earlier post, nerdlogger “tdb” suggested we do a post on one of the other cartoons with transforming vehicles: M.A.S.K. I thought it was a damned good idea.

M.A.S.K. stands for “Mobile Armored Strike Kommand”. Dig that “K” in there. Now, if you ask me, Ed Boon and John Tobais must’ve been a huge fans of this show when they came up with Mortal Kombat’s title. That “k” just gives it that 80’s edge it so rightly deserves. It already has an insane cast of wacky characters none of whom wear the same uniform yet all belong to the same klub (hah I’m so clever), so all it needs now is a jamming 80’s theme song sung by some hair band wanna-be. Lucky for us it does:

One of the great things about the animation from this time period was that all the opening segments are really well done. Clearly, the budget for an entire half season was spent on polishing up the intros. The rest of the actual show doesn’t quite live up to the standards set by the first sixty seconds. However, we get treated by a menagerie of goofy good-guys and bad-guys that more than makes up for the gaps in the animation.