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New Halo 4 Enemies and Master Chief Figure to Debut at SDCC '12? A couple photos have leaked online of the packaging for Master Chief figure from McFarlane Toys' Halo 4 line. The packaging is fairly standard for a McFarlane Toys' Halo figure, but what I find interesting is SDCC sticker on the bubble. Does that mean that SDCC will be the debut of McFarlane Toys Halo 4 Master Chief? I think so. If this is anything like the 10th Anniversary Platinum Chief from last year, then the figure will also be available at retail, just without the SDCC sticker. The back of the packaging gives us the first glimpse of a few more new figures (Grunt Storm? Sounds cool) and two brand new enemies, the Crawler and the Watcher. Whatever this dog thing and flying thing are, thank Crom that they aren't usual Covenant aliens. When I first saw screenshots with Elites and Grunts I'm disappointed that Halo 4 will still have aliens from the Covenant, but at least there are two new aliens in the mix. There is also a secret enemy figure the back of the packaging mentions, so there's something else new to look forward to. I hope it's called a Secreter to go along with the two alien names. Maybe the figures of these three new enemies will be at SDCC, too. It's probable.
Continue reading New Halo 4 Enemies and Master Chief Figure to Debut at SDCC '12?.. - Shawn - 5/14/12 Gundam Unicorn Adds Episode 7 Gundam Unicorn was originally announced as a six episode series, but at Sunday's Gundam UC event a seventh and "final" episode was added to the lineup. While I love Gundam and am excited to hear that the show will go beyond the original six episodes, it also means that the show will take even longer to finish than before. The length of time between each 50-minute episode is so long that it's easy to forget what happened in the previous one. Episode 1 came out March 2012, episode 2 in November 2010, episode 3 in March 2011, and episode 4 in November 2011. I've definitely seen episodes 1 - 3, although I don't remember a lot of what happened in them anymore. I know I downloaded Episode 4, but I can't remember a thing about it, so I don't even know if I watched it or not. Episode 5 is coming out this month, but episode 6 isn't scheduled until Spring of 2013. There could be nearly a year between episodes 5 and 6. At this rate, episode 7 might not be out until 2014. If you think about each episode being like a movie it isn't so bad, but since it's anime you really need to remember all the complicated relationships, so screw that. Seven episodes in five years is insane.
Continue reading Gundam Unicorn Adds Episode 7... - Shawn - 5/13/12 Jazwares Hammers out Shao Kahn and Reptile Jazwares are continuing their Mortal Kombat figures, revealing Shao Kahn and Reptile via their Facebook page. We've saw the prototype of Shao Kahn at Toy Fair this year, but now he's all painted with his ninja buddy Reptile. Shao Kahn towers over the rest of the MK figures at around 8" tall, just as he should. At least Jazwares is keeping him the right size. Reptile is the same size as the rest of the 6" MK line. Reptile's mask is removable so we can enjoy his extremely creepy face. Shao Kahn's mask is not removable, which is good, because I hated seeing his face in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, but then that was probably the least of the movie's problems. Kahn does include a hammer and if these two include the same number of accessories as Sub Zero and Scorpion, then there might be more stuff included with them, too.
Continue reading Jazwares Hammers out Shao Kahn and Reptile... - Shawn - 5/12/12 Godzilla Set to Explode Upon SDCC Over the past week the Bluefin Tamashii Nations Facebook page had been teasing pieces of an image of Godzilla smashing the San Diego Convention Center. Many fans thought Tamashii Nations' big reveal was going to be the awesome S.H. MonsterArts Burning Godzilla figure from Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah as an SDCC exclusive. Today, Tamashii Nations stopped teasing us and revealed Comic-Con Explosion Godzilla. It's not Burning Godzilla, like many people thought, but is basically Meltdown Godzilla from the end of the movie. The snippets of art from the week were parts of the amazing box art by Yasushi Torisawa. Poe over at Poe Ghostal's Points of Articulation had a good point that Burning Godzilla would have upset lots of collector's if it was an exclusive, and I agree with that. Burning Godzilla is too awesome to be limited to any convention. Even though it isn't exactly what I was hoping, it is still a cool Godzilla exclusive. Plus, with this and the upcoming Burning Godzilla (it is coming out at some point), you can have Big G displayed in all three of his versions from Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah.
Continue reading Godzilla Set to Explode Upon SDCC... - Shawn - 5/11/12 Akai Katana Pilot Training Orientation Video The U.S. release of Cave's Akai Katana looming on next week's horizon, around May 15th or so, and Rising Star Games have released a pilot training video for everyone to orientate themselves with the controls of the game. It includes such valuable advice as "Use the D-pad to move your character... to avoid oncoming enemies and bullets," and "Press the B button to use a bomb." Thanks for the great advice? It does go over the different types of attacks and where exactly the hit-box is, which is good to know. This video might be good for anyone who has never played a shooter before, but as much as I want Akai Katana to sell a million copies, I only see the established shooter fans picking this up. Anyways, it's out next week. Be sure to buy Akai Katana so we can see more Cave shooters for the U.S. in the future.
- Shawn - 5/10/12 Direct link: Akai Katana Pilot Training Orientation Video Brock Samson Eats Cylons for Lunch at SDCC Entertainment Earth started showing off their SDCC 2012 exclusives and they appear to be going a little crazy with the tin lunchboxes this year. I'll get back to those in a bit, though, because one of their best non-lunchbox exclusives is a bloody Brock Samson figure. The Venture Bros. 3&3/4" figures were mostly cancelled, but a few will be coming out later this year. Before those saved figures are out, we'll get an awesome white shirt wearing bloody Brock at SDCC.
Continue reading Brock Samson eats Cylons for Lunch at SDCC... - Shawn - 5/9/12 Sprite Gets Refreshingly Xevious'd In the world of videogame cross-promotions, this is a weird one. Coca-Cola Japan and Namco Bandai put Sprite into Xevious for some reason. Yeah, because whenever I play Xevious, I always think how rad it would be if I could shoot soda bottles and bottle caps. Well Sprite x Xevious is a Flash-based version of the legendary Xevious, but with Sprite plastered all over it.
In this version of Xevious, the alien force has allied themselves with Sprite bottles, flying with the aliens. Are Coca-Cola and Namco Bandai saying that Sprite is bad for mankind? It seems that way. Continue reading Sprite Gets Refreshingly Xevious'd... - Shawn - 5/8/12 The Expendables 2 Debut Trailer The first full-length, full ass-kicking trailer for The Expendables 2 blasted the face off the internet today. It begins with a message from Stallone about how awesome of a sequel it is, and it is. It looks like Expendables 2 will take the crown as the manliest movie ever, passing up the first Expendables with a few more big action stars.
This was an IGN exclusive, but quickly shot all over the internet once it got posted. The Expendables 2 has nearly all the big action stars and a few smaller ones with Stallone, Statham, Li, Schwarzenegger, Van Damme, Willis, Norris, Lundgren, Crews, Couture, and Hemsworth. It's missing The Rock, but he'll be in G.I. Joe: Retaliation. I also find it weird that Van Damme is the villain here. I'm so used to seeing him be the good guy, but since he is the bad guy he'll probably die and wont be able to be in Expendables 3. Even so, this movie is going to kick all kinds of ass when it opens on August 17th. - Shawn - 5/3/12 Direct link: The Expendables 2 Debut Trailer A Life-Size Valkyrie to Celebrate Macross' 30th Anniversary Japan has given us such wonders as the life-size Gundam and a life-size Tetsujin 28/Gigantor. Now they grace the world with a life-size Valkyrie to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Macross. From Macross Frontier, the VF-25F Messiah Valkyrie variable fighter 1:1 replica is proudly on half-display at the 30th Anniversary Super Dimension Exhibition going on right now in Japan. The current venue it's at in Tokyo is actually too small for the Valkyrie, so only the cockpit and arms are being shown. Once the show moves to Osaka, then the entire full Gerwalk mode replica will be on display, legs, wings, and all.
As incredible as it is to see a life-size Valkyrie, I'm a little disappointed that they built a fighter from Macross Frontier instead of a Veritech from the original Macross. Continue reading A Life-Size Valkyrie to Celebrate Macross' 30th Anniversary... - Shawn - 5/2/12 Transformers Fall of Cybertron Figures Continue the War into 2013 At this year's BotCon and shortly afterwards, Hasbro revealed more upcoming figures from the sure-to-be-awesome Transformers: Fall of Cybertron hitting in August. Kickback, Starscream, Sideswipe, Ultra Magnus (an Optimus repaint), and Fireflight (a Shockwave repaint) will be released as a part of the Transformers: Generations line, supposedly in 2013. I'm a big fan of the War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron designs and all the figures are looking great. Ultra Magnus and Fireflight both have new head molds and Starscream opens up years of repaint possibilities to bring us all the Seekers.
Continue reading Transformers Fall of Cybertron Figures Continue the War into 2013... - Shawn - 5/1/12 Bruticus and Zombie Cliffjumper Fall from Cybertron to SDCC Shortly after photos of the Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Bruticus toys debuted, there was a little confusion. There were the toys with the muted colors based off the original Generation 1 Combaticons, but there were also photos of more brightly colored versions that were based off Generation 2. No one knew why there were two different versions of the five Combaticons. After this year's BotCon, it turns out that one of them is an San Diego Comic-Con exclusive for 2012. Strangely, it turns out that the G1 colored, and Fall of Cybertron accurate, Bruticus will be the SDCC exclusive, with the G2 colored version getting the regular retail release. This doesn't make sense. In Fall of Cybertron the Combaticons sport the mostly G1 muted colors, meaning that the game-accurate Fall of Cybertron Bruticus will only be available at SDCC. It would make a lot more sense for G1 colored Combaticons to be available everywhere at retail with the G2 colored Combaticons as the SDCC exclusive. Anyone should be have the chance able to get the game-accurate version, but as an SDCC exclusive, that's sadly not possible. The five Combaticons will come packaged together as Bruticus in a big box inside of another bigger box. Both boxes are going to be big and that is one huge combiner box thing to be lugging around SDCC. Even though the G1 colors are an SDCC exclusive, it's a damn awesome one. Also that box art is fantastic.
Continue reading Bruticus and Zombie Cliffjumper Fall from Cybertron to SDCC... - Shawn - 4/30/12 Revoltech Jehuty Powers Up The next Zone of the Enders Revoltech figure isn't a transformable Vic Viper or Viola, unfortunately, it's another Jehuty. The third Revoltech Jehuty is the 2nd Runner version with the enormous Vector cannon. The Vector cannon is as big as Jehuty, if not bigger. They could have just released this as an accessory pack, like they did for the Evangelion figures, but Z.O.E. isn't nearly as popular as Eva and re-selling a figure probably gets them a little more money. Also, the Jehuty could have needed to be modified so the giant cannons could be attached. This super-powered Jehuty will be out in July. Check out tons of pics at AmiAmi.
- Shawn - 4/29/12 Direct link: Revoltech Jehuty Powers Up Metal Gear REX Light-up Railgun Video from ThreeA's Re-Venture Nearly a year ago we got our first look at Metal Gear REX's light-up railgun. Now, straight from ThreeA's Re-Venture show in Hong Kong, we get our second video of the railgun in action from the REX on display. Yep, still awesome.
Continue reading Metal Gear REX Light-up Railgun Video from ThreeA's Re-Venture... - Shawn - 4/28/12 Metal Gear RAY, Atlas, Peabody, and Carter at ThreeA's Re-Venture ThreeA's Re-Venture show is going on in Hong Kong right now, showing off lots of incredible art and figures from Ashley Wood and ThreeA. Thanks to these photos and those photos posted on the ThreeA blog we get our very first look at Metal Gear RAY. We also get to see full non-teaser shots of Portal 2's Atlas and Peabody, and Halo: Reach's Carter. Time to for videogame fans to start saving up for the awesome. ThreeA also has tons of amazing non-videogame-related things, too, but I'm just posting the game-related stuff here. Head to the ThreeA blog and the Re-Venture blog to check out all the rest of their goods.
Continue reading Metal Gear RAY, Atlas, Peabody, and Carter at ThreeA's Re-Venture... - Shawn - 4/28/12 Darkstalkers Ultimate Edition Pussyfoots into a Hardcover Udon's Darkstalkers Ultimate Edition is now available in the even more ultimate hardcover version. The hardcover features a dust jacket with new art of Felicia by Alvin Lee. The actual cover art by Omar Dogan is of the male characters as females. Huh. It's cool, but a little weird. On the inside of the Ultimate Edition, no matter the hard or soft cover, the pages feature both of Udon's Darkstalkers and Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors series plus a gallery of all the variant covers.
Darkstalkers Ultimate Edition hardcover is limited to 300 copies and the Udon store is running a very limited early-bird pre-order bonus of a set of a Darkstalkers #1-6 foil cover set, but only for the first 20 orders. Continue reading Darkstalkers Ultimate Edition Pussyfoots into a Hardcover... - Shawn - 4/26/12 A Double Tap of G.I. Joe Retaliation Trailers Two new G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailers went online and continue to unapologetically put the first movie to shame. Mainly, I'm posting these so I can watch them again because as an old-school G.I. Joe fan, so far I am loving just about everything about this movie. It just seems like a live-action G.I. Joe movie that feels like a live-action G.I. Joe. I don't want to get my hopes up too much and be let down by the final movie, but when they keep releasing trailers like these it's difficult not to get excited. After the new story-driven U.S. trailer is the new international trailer, which is similar, but has a little more action and about 87% more Storm Shadow. Retaliation is out on 6/29/12.
Continue reading A Double Tap of G.I. Joe Retaliation Trailers... - Shawn - 4/25/12 ThreeA Drops a Halo: Reach Carter Teaser Today ThreeA posted, and quickly removed, a teaser collage of Carter-A259 from Halo: Reach's Noble Team. The figure will be a big 1/6 scale and the level of detail for the figure is already amazing, even from these constrictive shots. It's difficult to tell the kind of joints and articulation the figure has from the photos, but I'll say that it won't have the obtrusive ball joints of the Play Arts Kai figure. In the ThreeA forums there is lots of speculation on the figure, like if it has a bodysuit to cover the joints. Given the usual quality of ThreeA, it'll certainly be incredible.
Continue reading ThreeA Drops a Halo: Reach Carter Teaser... - Shawn - 4/24/12 Mass Effect 3 Play Arts Kai Figures Do Not Include a Mechdog Companion Square Enix's Mass Effect 3 Play Arts Kai figures debuted at Toy Fair2012 with unpainted prototypes, but now the figures have gone up for pre-order at various places along the internet and have brought official painted photos with them. The first three figures are Garrus, Ashley, and boring-ass default male Commander Shepard. The Garrus figure looks amazing and Ashley looks pretty good, too. Then there's standard Shepard. He looks good for the default look of the character, but I have no interest in this Shepard that isn't mine. Each figure includes at least a couple weapons and alternate hands. Sadly, none of the figure include the Mechdog found in the Collector's Editions of the game. While relatively useless in the game, it was nice to see my little vertically eyed buddy roaming the cargo bay.
- Shawn - 4/23/12 Continue reading Mass Effect 3 Play Arts Kai Figures Do Not Include a Mechdog Companion... Expendables Minimates will be the Manliest Minimates Ever With it's near who's-who of action movies cast, The Expendables was basically the manliest movie ever by default (at least until the sequel hits). Diamond Select is now making Minimates of eight of the characters, which in turn will be the manliest Minimates ever by default. There will be two four-packs split into a Toys 'R' Us and a specialty store exclusive. The TRU set will have Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Eric Roberts, and Steve Austin, while the specialty store set will have Jason Statham, Terry Crews, Bruce Willis, and Mickey Rourke. Both sets will feature a dozens guns with knives and batons for tons of 2-inch manly action. They're missing Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, and Randy Couture, but there are also plans for two Expendables 2 sets, so maybe see them in those. The Expendables Minimates will be out sometime this Summer, with the Expendables 2 sets hitting sometime after.
Continue reading Expendables Minimates will be the Manliest Minimates Ever... - Shawn - 4/21/12 There are New Photos Available of Packaged Borderlands Figures Greetings, traveler! It's been years coming, but the wait is almost over because NECA's Claptrap figure will, hopefully, be out by the end of May. There is also a figure of Borderlands' cover star, the Psycho Bandit. NECA has released packaged photos of these long-awaited figures, so they'll be out soon, unless there are more weird delays and we don't actually see them for yet another year. The packaging is pretty eye-catching, so the only way you'll miss these on store pegs is if they're already sold out, which is a possibility considering how long fan have been waiting for these. Check out a few more photos at ToyNewsi.
Continue reading There are New Photos Available of Packaged Borderlands Figures... - Shawn - 4/21/12 DoDonPachi Saidaioujou Trailer DoDonPachi Saidaioujou, Cave's new shooter where the Element Dolls wear less for more bullet hell intensity, now has an official trailer. At over three-and-a-half minutes long, there is a brief history lesson with an Element Doll yelling and some awkward silence before we get to the Saidaioujou portion of the Saidaioujou trailer. It shows off the Dolls and the various bullet attacks they provide, set to some excellently techno-y shooter music. Saidaioujou is out now in Japanese arcade, where we can't play it. Some day. Go to Cave's Saidaioujou site for more about the game and the Element Dolls dressed in their less is more shooting attire.
- Shawn - 4/19/12 Direct link: DoDonPachi Saidaioujou Trailer
Kojima Says Play Arts Kai Solidus is "Pretty Big" Neither Solid, nor Liquid, the next Play Arts Kai sneaky shots from Hideo Kojima are of a fully painted Solidus Snake. Kojima says Solidus is pretty big and he definitely looks it. Play Arts Kai figures are already large, but that extra armor and tentacles beef him up even more. Solidus is also the splitting image of Big Boss, so he has to be big. Metal Gear Solid 2's main villain and ex-president wields dual Katanas and dual P-90s, so his accessories didn't take a hit due to his larger size. The tentacles look a little strange to me with having ball joints instead of being bendy, like most other figures with tentacle-like things, but even with the big ball joints Solidus is looking amazing.
Continue reading Kojima Says Play Arts Kai Solidus is "Pretty Big"... - Shawn - 4/18/12 ThreeA & Valve Tease 12 Inches of Peabody By now the ThreeA/Valve collaboration should be known amongst both ThreeA and Valve fans. Last month ThreeA showed off the first piece of the collab, a Companion Square crossover that embodies both companies. Today, Valve posted a teaser image on their Facebook page of what clearly looks like a prototype in progress of Peabody from Portal 2. Also, thanks to the measuring tape in front of the figure, it's easy to see that Peabody will be 12-inches tall. Who knows when more images will be shown or when the figure will actually come out, but if there is a Peabody then there will definitely be an Atlas. Time for a well-deserved high five. (via the ThreeA forums)
- Shawn - 4/17/12 Direct link: ThreeA & Valve Tease 12 Inches of Peabody The Monkey's News Box: 4/15/12 Games
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- Shawn - 4/15/12 Direct link: The Monkey's News Box: 4/15/12 Street Fighter X Tekken and Tomb Raider Minimates Crossing Lines at C2E2 Again, thanks to a Capcom crossover title, we get to see characters that we never thought we'd see as Minimates. Much like last year, Diamond Select used 2012's C2E2 to debut some brand new Minimate action, this time with Street Fighter X Tekken. Series 1 looks to include Poison, Lily, Cammy, Nina, Zangief, Craig Marduk, Guile, and Raven. If there are Toys 'R' Us and direct market exclusives like the Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 Minimates, then we'll see a few additional characters, too. I can think of many better choices in Tekken characters than Marduk and Raven, but I guess all the A-listers can't be in Series 1. Also, Zangief should only be paired with Kuma.
Continue reading Street Fighter X Tekken and Tomb Raider Minimates Crossing Lines at C2E2... - Shawn - 4/14/12 Akai Katana USA Trailer has a Game Over Screen The U.S. release of Cave's bullet-hell shooter Akai Katana is on the horizon, so Rising Star Games has shot up a new trailer for the game, complete with a game over screen (one that we'll probably be seeing a lot of once we start playing this). Unlike the previous trailer which was for both U.S. and Europe, this trailer is specifically for U.S.A. to make us feel special. The trailer boats the game's three gameplay modes, online leaderboards, local two-player co-op, and the epic game over screen. Man, what a weird screen to show in a trailer. I like the ballsy move of including it, though.
Since we're a few weeks into Spring, a solid release date should be coming up soon. - Shawn - 4/10/12 Direct link: Akai Katana USA Trailer has a Game Over Screen The Monkey's News Box: 4/8/12 Games
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- Shawn - 4/8/12 Direct link: The Monkey's News Box: 4/8/12 Kaneda's Motorcycle Cruising Across Japan Kaneda's Motorcycle from Akira is now a real thing and it was cruising across Japan. Showa Studio's Shinji Tejima, who built the bike, isn't just riding it around to look like a totally awesome badass, he's actually doing it to raise money for the Bokura Company autism support group... and to be a totally awesome badass. After the road trip, the bike will be on display at the Katsuhiro Otomo GENGA Exhibition April 9th - May 30th where people can have their photo taken on it to help raise money for reconstruction efforts from the tsunami and earthquake disaster. Tejima took seven years and spent 10 million Yen ($121,400) to build the bike, which is the only officially recognized replica of Kaneda's motorcycle. The Gengaten Otomo YouTube page has more videos of the motorcycle in the various cities it's been in. We need to see more, longer, videos of it, though, because it's just amazing to see an actual recreation of Kaneda's iconic motorcycle. (via Anime News Network)
- Shawn - 4/7/12 Direct link: Kaneda's Motorcycle Cruising Across Japan
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