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Weekly News Roundup: 10/05/2008 Games
Movies
Action Figures
- Shawn - 10/05/08 Halo Helmet Heads We all know McFarlane Toys will be continuing their relentless assault of Halo merchandise all next year (yes, this is another Halo post). One of the new items are Halo Helmets of which Spawn.com posted photos of today. I'm the kind of person that doesn't go for busts because character just looks incomplete to me. You're missing the legs and usually the arms. Sure, there are plenty of cool busts out there, but they're not for me. These Halo helmets kind of fit into that same area. I have no desire to get separate helmets and display them. While the helmets can be placed on the 12-inch Halo figures, I don't really have a desire for those either. Besides, with the multitude of colors of the helmets you know there has got to be a similarly-colored Spartan figure coming down the line. If not then the orange and teal Spartan fans won't have a body for their pretty heads. Each of these four, three-packs will be in stores February 2009. All the helmets are pictured below and if you just want to see what a helmet looks like on its display stand, click the below link. For the full photos go to Spawn.com. See what a Halo Helmet on display looks like... - Shawn - 10/03/08 Halo Points Reduced in Series 3
If you collect McFarlane Toys' rad-to-the-max Halo 3 figures, then you may have noticed something a bit off when scanning the card backs of the just-released series 3 figures; the Halo Points have been reduced. See, in the the first two series, Master Chief and all the Spartans are worth 10 Halo Points each, while the Covenant and Cortana figures are worth 20 - 35 points each. For series 3, McFarlane Toys has apparently decided that their prized Halo Points prizes would just be too easy to nab if a few figures had more than 10 points, because now every figure in series 3 is worth a mere 10 points. I don't often go into rants around here, but this is disappointing for any fan or collector that was planning to get the premium Halo items. When comparing similar (in some cases practically the same) figures from the three series, you can easily see the unfortunate reductions. The Human Flood is the more unique figure of series 3, so I'm comparing that to Cortana and the Grunts of series 1 and the Drone of series 2. Therefore, the Human Flood should have a robust 35 points. The Brute Chieftain and Brute Stalker, of series 1 and 2 respectively, each have 20 solid points; so then should the Brute War Chieftain. The Jackal Sniper of series 1 has 20 points and, likewise, the Jackal Major deserves a 10-pointer for each of his screwy sideways eyes (that's 20 points). Finally, the Arbiter from series 2 had a respectable 20 points and the Elite Combat should probably have the same amount. Now, I'm a little more willing to accept the 10 points on the Elite Combat since Elites could almost become the next Spartans. Armor color variations have begun and it would make sense for them to be only 10 points. By my easy-to-do calculations, and excluding the Elite Combat, McFarlane Toys just melee'd fans and collectors who bought these figures out of 45 Halo points. That's almost one tenth of a gold Master Chief. Obviously, by reducing the points per figure, McFarlane Toys wants those that desire their precious prizes to spend as much money as they possibly can. Aren't collectors already spending enough on these? I was expecting the afore-mentioned figures to be worth the similar point values and was sorely disappointed when I saw that they were all only 10 points each. I am assuming that other collectors feel the same way. As well they should. This make me a wary of how many points will actually be on the larger pieces that are coming later this year and next year, the Hunter and Mongoose in particular. Maybe by then the Halo prizes won't be available anymore; McFarlane Toys has yet to provide the important details of the program yet. Anyway, as I previously laid out in my Halo Points Prizes post, it looks like if you were aiming to get all the Halo Points prizes, you very well could be spending over $2000. That stings. - Shawn - 09/30/08 Direct link: Halo Points Reduced in Series 3 McFarlane Toys' Halo 2009 Preview McFarlane Toys' listed their Halo 2009 plans a couple weeks back and now they have posted photos at Spawn.com of the first figures to initiate our 2009 Halo binge. The photos include the big deluxe figure of the Hunter, the first wave of Equipment Edition figures (including more potential exclusives), and the red and blue Heroic Collection Spartans and Lone Wolves. We saw the blue Hayabusa, Security Spartans and Lone Wolves at the San Diego Comic-con, but the rest are all new. It looks like I was partially right about the steel Spartan Security. It will be a GameStop exclusive, however, it will be exclusive GameStop UK and Target Australia, making the third overseas exclusive. These figures will be in stores January and February 2009. Update: McFarlane Toys was late in posting images of the Active Camo Arbiter, but he's here now and has an invisible Bubble Shield. Bubble Shields can be active-camo-ed? So stealthy! - Shawn - 09/29/08 Weekly News Roundup: 09/28/2008 Games
Movies
- Shawn - 09/28/08 First Art of Megatron in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen If you don't want to spoil what Megatron looks like in the second Transformers movie move along, however, you'll probably see it before the movie anyways with all the toys and the huge marketing push this thing is going to get. The first images of Megatron as a tank were leaked online and according to the Hasbro Licensing Summit this is indeed what Megatron will look like. Megatron comes back as a Cybertronian tank. It certainly goes along with Megatron's few tank modes in past toy lines and kind of has a little H.R. Giger look to him. It's pretty cool except for Megatron's face which is visible in the front tank crotch area. Vehicle modes don't need faces. For other characters, the Hasbro Summit also confirmed that Sideswipe is the Chevy Corvette Concept and that Ravage will be in the film. Continue for more Megatron as a tank images... - Shawn - 09/24/08 Weekly News Roundup: 09/21/2008 Games
Movies
Science
- Shawn - 09/21/08 Mega Man 9 NES Box of Awesome This is the coolest thing I've seen this year. When the first official trailer for Mega Man 9 debuted, I though it would be great if Capcom actually released the game on a NES cartridge. Well, Capcom did. Kind of. They made an NES-style box that contains a Mega Man 9 cartridge. Since making a real NES cart would be way too much of a hassle, they have a CD with some game info, artwork, and screenshots. A few of these were sent to their "friends of the press." Well, since I'm just a small guy in the world of gaming press, I'm pretty sure I won't get one. However, they will be selling a very limited number on the Capcom store. How limited? Only 200. Only 200? Surely Capcom sees how much love that Mega Man 9 is receiving and will produce more than a mere 200 of these. They will come with a voucher code for the PSN or XBLA version of the game, which is cool, but if they only have so many codes just sell the box and cartridge without it. Please make more of these Capcom, the gaming world begs you. - Shawn - 09/16/08 Weekly News Roundup: 09/14/2008 Games
Movies
Science - Shawn - 09/14/08 McFarlane Toys' 2009 Halo Plans
If you thought McFarlane Toys was already releasing a ton of Halo figures this year, just wait until you see their plans for 2009. It's mind-boggling how much is coming out next year. Let's get started. There will be two waves of new Equipment Edition figures. These will have a figure with an extra piece of equipment; something that is used with the X button in the game, like a bubble shield. The smaller Heroic Collection figures will have a wave of regular Halo figures and two waves of Halo Wars figures. A deluxe Hunter action figure will make its debut and will be in scale with the 5-inch figures at 8-inches tall. The 12-inch figures will see two waves Spartan figures with two released at a time. There will even be a series of Spartan helmets that fit on any of the 12" figures. These helmets will come three in a pack and will have two waves. It looks like that when the two waves of Equipment Edition figures are done, they will be replaced with Medal Edition figures. These seem to have a Medal for some of the achievements from Halo 3. Finally is a Mongoose boxed set that will have an in-scale Mongoose for the 5-inch figures. This is the first full-sized vehicle from and I can only hope that this leads to an in-scale Warthog. There is just so much (too much) Halo stuff coming out next year. They have not revealed any photos, but rest assured they will be coming. The full list has been copied and pasted after the link and keep in mind that these are just their plans through May. Who knows what else they'll reveal for the latter months. Click here for the full list of McFarlane Toys' 2009 Halo releases. - Shawn - 09/11/08 McFarlane Toys Announces Halo Wars Figures
As if McFarlane Toys' Halo 3 figures aren't successful enough at both retail and diminishing our bank accounts, they are preparing an additional assault of Halo merchandise. Today, Spawn.com announced the Halo Wars line that will kick off in Spring 2009. The figures will be approximately 2.5 inches tall with articulation at the waist, which more or less makes them figuines. Apparently the Halo ActionClix and Halo Interactive Board Game figurines weren't enough tiny soldiers for Bungie. The first series of figures includes four sets with three figures each. Set one is a UNSC set of three Spartan soldiers with Assault Rifles. UNSC set two includes a Spartan soldier with an Assault Rifle, one with two Magnums, and a Marine Infantry with Assault Rifle. A third UNSC set will include two more Spartans (one with an Assault Rifle, one with dual Plasma Pistols) and a Marine Infantry with Assault Rifle. Finally, the fourth set brings the Covenant into play with two Elites with Plasma Rifles, and a grunt with Needler. With all the focus on Spartans in
the first series, I have a feeling that the Covenant pack could be difficult to
find. Fans are going to want to build their Covenant armies. According to the
press release, the characters will be in different colors. Hopefully this means
that all the Spartans won't be "Master Chief green" so there's a little variety.
The four prototype photos only show the regular Spartan armor, so the alternate
Spartan armors from the regular 5-inch figures may be a ways off yet. Click onward to check out photos of the Spartan clay sculpts. - Shawn - 09/09/08 Weekly News Roundup: 09/07/2008 Games
Movies
Comics / Toys
- Shawn - 09/07/08 Resistance 2 Collector's Edition with Chimera Figure The Collector's Edition for Resistance 2 was announced today and it includes a substantial amount of goodness for the $79.99 price tag. The limited edition contains the special cover art (selected by fans), behind-the-scenes DVD, tiny hard bound art book, an in-game goodie (HVAP Wraith weapon skin), and the over-sized box that are all fairly requisite among the super-extra-special-limited-expensive-collector's-editions of today's games. Pre-ordering the game from GameStop will also grant you access into the public multiplayer beta in early October. This collector's edition also includes a sweet Chimeran Hybrid action figure made by DC Limited, an off-shoot of sorts of DC Direct responsible for the World of Warcraft figures. The figure is very cool but suffers from what most DC figures suffer from: limited articulation and poseability. It looks like our angry Chimeran friend will be stuck in a certain stance, but I'm a sucker for limited action figures with games. I'd get it even if it had no articulation, like the Big Daddy figure from the BioShock limited edition. The Chimeran Hybrid stands 5 inches tall, which means it could be in scale (or close enough) with the Halo 3 figures so I could have the Halo / Resistance crossover that I've always been dreaming of... for the past twenty minutes. Resistance 2 hits November 4th. - Shawn - 09/02/08 Direct link: Resistance 2 Collector's Edition with Chimera Figure Weekly News Roundup: 08/31/2008 Games
Movies
Action Figures
- Shawn - 08/31/08 Halo 3 Bonus Figures... Bonus Figures? McFarlane Toys collected the extra plastic power-up and has some bonus Halo 3 figures coming in October. Bonus Figures? Yes, this set of five figures are outside the regular Campaign and Multiplayer figure assortments. This bonus assortment consists of two Elite Combat figures (one blue with yellow trim and the other red with silver), an Active Camo Brute Stalker, an Active Camo ODST, and a silver CQB Spartan. Since this is a bonus round of figures, these will only be available at Toys R Us and Wal-Mart. This is fantastic news for someone who has never seen any of either retailers' exclusive figures. Since this is an entire assortment of exclusives maybe I'll actually have a better chance of seeing them on retail shelves. Yeah, I doubt it, too. Click the continue link to see the figures or head to Spawn.com for all the new photos. - Shawn - 08/29/08 Death Smiles on Xbox 360 Cave's Gothic-Lolita side-scrolling shooter, Death Smiles, is coming to the Xbox 360 according to the latest issue of Famitsu (via Kotaku). Yes, yet another sublime shooter is heading to the shooter-friendly 360. I've been told I should play this, so hopefully I'll be able to wait out for a region-free or North American release. Unfortunately, neither option will probably happen. Cave needs to start releasing games on the region free PS3 to help out all us shooter fans that don't want to mod our Xbox consoles. It just amazes me that the Xbox 360 is doing so poorly in Japan, yet there are many quality shooters for it. The developers would surely make more money if they made the discs region free with all the shooter fans in the U.S. and Europe. There must be some deal that Microsoft struck with shooter developers so the 360 gets all the good bullet-hell shooters. Someday we'll get out shooters. Someday. Death Smiles will be out in Japan in Spring 2009. - Shawn - 08/27/08 Direct link: Death Smile on Xbox 360 Death Note II: The Last Name in Theaters Save the dates, Death Note fans, Death Note II: The Last Name will be in theaters October 15th and 16th at 7:30 pm (your time). Viz Pictures and NCM Fathom are once again presenting the second live-action Death Note feature in a limited theatrical release. Tickets will be available first to Shonen Jump newsletter subscribers on August 29th. If you're like me then you don't subscribe to the newsletter, so tickets for the general public will be up on September 5th. All your meaty ticket information will be at www.FathomEvents.com. The first live-action Death Note film was released in very limited release for two nights back in May. I was able to catch it and figured that the second movie would also make its way into theaters and now we have an official date. At the screening I attended of first film, people were noticeably surprised and disappointed that it was dubbed, especially when the promo stuff said it would be subtitled. So just keep in mind that it will be dubbed when you're going to this one. This screening will also have a behind-the-scenes featurette following the feature, which wasn't too impressive for the first film, but maybe they'll have a better one this time. Live-action-CGI Ryuk was balls-awesome in the first film and I'm sure Rem will be just as great. I, for one, can't wait to see this.
Continue for the press release... - Shawn - 08/25/08 Legal Stuff: All articles, reviews, and photos taken by our staff, are copyright and may not be used without permission. Any communication we receive becomes our property and may be used by us for whatever purposes we see fit. |
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