Today is the 105th anniversary of Vincent Price's birthday, always a cause for celebration around here! Today is also Christopher Lee's birthday (he's 94!) and yesterday was Peter Cushing's birthday. Talk about a trilogy of terror!
Here's a great video of Lee reminiscing about his horror cohorts.
Vincent Price has been getting a lot of love recently in the collectibles market, in no small part to the recent surge of Batman '66 stuff.
All these items are available from Entertainment Earth, just click the pic!
He even got a mini figure as the Inventor in the Edward Scissorhands blind box set
And then there's this, which I am seriously thinking about ordering.
It looks amazing!
If you're a Price fan, I can't recommend enough that you subscribe to his daughter Victoria's blog. She frequently shares family photos and stories about her dad's legacy not just as a horror icon, but also as a human being. It's good, uplifting stuff. Something we all can use more of in the world.
I look at May the 4th as the modern commercial Christmas equivalent of Star Wars days. Companies have special products and sales to celebrate. But to me, today is the true Star Wars day! The original movie was released 39 years ago today and the world was never the same. I truly cannot imagine what my life would be like without it. It's helped me meet awesome friends and my wife and I might never have met without it.
So Happy Birthday, Star Wars!
And now back to your regularly scheduled post...
Some people root for the Rebels, some people egg on the Empire, but others appreciate the bad -assery of bounty hunters! Playing with my Star Wars figures as a kid, the aliens and bounty hunters were always the coolest ones. Because they weren't the main characters, we knew nothing about who they were so there was no preconceived limit on how to play with them. A lot of my cantina alien figures wound up being bounty hunters for Jabba. But that's enough waxing nostalgic, let's check out the box!
So I finally decided to decipher the Aurabesh on these things. The pins always say Smuggler's Bounty, which makes sense. I tried to translate the Boba patch but was having a hard time matching the letters so I gave up. It's still a pretty cool patch.
We got a great shirt this month featuring most of the bounty hunters. For some reason, poor Dengar gets the short end of the stick and was not included on the shirt. Just because he looks like he's got toilet paper wrapped around his head is no excuse!
IG-88 is the first of two exclusive Pops this month and he might just be one of my favorite Pops of all time! You can't really tell from the photo but his eyes look really cool the way they stick out. Actually, I'm not even sure if those protrusions are his eyes. I mean, he's a droid so who knows, right? I always though the big light was his eye. Just like his original action figure, he's packing a Stormtrooper blaster and a DLT-20A long rifle
The second exclusive is the junior Fett in mid-flight. Funko continues the streak of another damaged Pop box. You can kinda see on the left of the photo where the box is dented. I don't really care that much but if it keeps happening, it's going to get annoying. They should really consider packing these exclusive items better for collectors.
That aside, he's freakin awesome! He was designed by the former Overlord of the Dorke Horde, Reis O'Brien, who you should be following on Instagram. I really like the jetpack effect and it's an inventive way to give us an exclusive Boba that's not just a pose variation.
With the theme being Bounty Hunters, I was definitely expecting a Boba and was curious what it would be. When you do bounty hunters, everyone expects Boba, but I would have been pleasantly surprised with a Jango instead.
(Stage Whisper) I actually like Jango over Boba.
I say this box collects the full bounty it deserves! The Pops are amazing and the shirt is very nice, even if it's missing Dengar.
Smuggler's Bounty is an every other month subscription box.
Before The Force Awakens opened, the pre-orders went up for the Hot Toys Captain Phasma figure. I hear about Hot Toys all the time on the collecting podcasts I listen to and had just been waiting for the right one to come along. Like a lot of people, I got sucked up in the Phasma marketing pre-movie release and loved the look of the character.
Knowing Hot Toys often sell out during pre-orders I decided this was the one and put in my pre-order. I could not wait to get my hands on a Hot Toy finally! And then about a month and a half later, I made the choice to buy a new car. Despite hoping beyond hope that Phasma will come back with a vengeance in Episode VIII, I cancelled my pre-order.
Then I found the Kotobukiya Art FX+ statue up for pre-order. I have a few of these already and think they're a great deal for the price and quality. So, no Hot Toy but something still very cool for a third the price? Sold!
I busted her out of the box to show her off. If you want to see really good photos of this statue, go ahead and Google it. Lighting shiny things properly is one of my weak areas.
As you can see, she comes with blaster, cape, and a total of four arms, two for each side. She has waist and chest articulation and a good range of head/neck movement when she isn't wearing the cape. All the pieces snap together to make a solid looking figure. Koto does a fantastic job at hiding the seams on these statues. Once they're put together, you can't tell by looking at it that it's a vinyl piece.
All their figures also come with a matte black square base. While it's nothing special visually, the figures have magnets in their feet to attach them to the base so you don't have to worry about them falling off a shelf. Plus, it allows you to put multiple figures close to one another.
She doesn't look that bad without the cape, but she does look like just another variation of a stormtrooper, albeit with a slightly longer neck. I didn't take a photo of her back but she does have the traditional 011 markings on the back of her armor and a grenade at the back of her belt. The figure is 1:10 scale and stands about 7 4/5 inches. She's about a half head taller than the Clone Troopers that I have.
And here's the cape giving her a decidedly more bad ass look. The right arm can be a bit troublesome to swap out while the cape is on but it's very easy to pop the head off, remove the cape, and swap out the arm.
I was going to use my chromakey app to put a Star Destroyer bridge or Jakku scene as the background but given how shiny the armor is, it didn't turn out that great.
One crazy detail I almost didn't notice is that the foregrip on the rifle is articulated and can be swung down for a two handed grip! This piece is also not attached, so if you get one of these and play with the grip, be careful not to drop it. Once you move it though, it does become a little loose and wants to swing down on its own. It's not a huge deal as I don't plan on having her not hold it with both hands. I gave it a squeeze where the hinge is to tighten it up a bit.
If you like the idea of high quality statues but not the price tag associated with them, Kotobukiya Art FX statues are the perfect middle ground. They never slack on the detail and the interchangeable parts give you a few display options to keep things interesting. They look just as good as more expensive pieces when on display.
There's been a recent explosion of news regarding it being the 30h anniversary of the movie Labyrinth this year. Or maybe it's been trickling out slowly and I just found out about everything all at once. Either way, I'm bringing it to you in case you missed it.
First up, the Labyrinth board game from River Horse Games is up for pre-order. The game will set you back $50 USD. You can order directly from the game company's site or from CoolStuffInc (which is currently out of stock) for $32 USD.
If you've got an hour to spare, here's a play through video so you can see it in action.
Also, if you leave a Labyrinth limerick in the comments of this video, you could win a 3-Up Jareth figure.
There are three comic collections coming from Boom Studios' Archaia imprint.
You can read a great interview about those at EW.com.
Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: 30th Anniversary Special in August.
A 48-page comic showcasing some favorite Labyrinth characters.
Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Tales in September
This book takes you into the lives of some of the Labyrinth's notable inhabitants including Ludo, Hoggle, and Sir Didymus. It will be similar to the 30th Anniversary Special but be in a more kid-friendly format.
Then, in October, we have Labyrinth: The Ultimate Visual History. This is the one I'm really looking forward to the most! It promises interviews with cast and crew, concept art, some of Henson's notes, and plenty of behind the scenes goodness.
As to be expected, the film is getting a home video release with new content on September 20th! There's also an Amazon exclusive package that looks totally amazing (above). However, I don't know about schilling out $75 to get this multi-format set. I'll probably stick with the BluRay which will have all the same features.
And the icing on this absolutely delicious cake is a theatrical re-release set for September 11th-14th. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to Magic Dance my butt down to the local movie house! Baby slapping optional.
I would not be surprised to see more Labyrinth related merch hitting the shelves over the summer.
In fact, I'm hoping for it!
A happy May the 4th to all my fellow Star Wars fans out there!
I was very excited to find the new Topps Star Wars Sticker Album in Target recently. I think for a lot of us collectors, we like being able to revisit things from our childhood that brought us so much joy from a simpler time in our lives.
Of course, back in the day (and even now) I've collected my share of Topps Star Wars trading cards. When checking my local big box stores for the latest cards, I've always come across other Topps sticker books for sports or properties I had no interest in and I'd get a little reminder "Oh yeah, they used to make those for Star Wars." And now, they're finally back with the release of a new sticker series based on The Force Awakens.
It could be my memory, but the book seems to be of higher quality than I remember the original ones being. They've done something pretty cool with the pages instead of just retelling the movie. A lot of pages, like this one, tie the new movie back to some aspect of the originals. I think that's a great way to bring everything together.
I've only grabbed a few packs of stickers but so far it seems like there are 4 types of stickers: two sizes of movie shots, larger holofoil-ish sparkly ones, and...text? Who thought text stickers were a good idea? The first one I came across I thought they had started putting text on the back of the stickers like they do for trading cards.
As a kid, when I had extra stickers, I'd put them on notebooks or anywhere else a Star Wars sticker would look cool. Which, let's face it, is pretty much anywhere!
Collecting cards is fun but I like the sticker albums better. You can cross cards off your checklist as you get them, but there's something more satisfying about being able to flip through your completed sticker album and not see any empty spots. Plus, you have the added interaction of placing the stickers in the book. I remember when they used to have puzzle images that took multiple stickers to complete. The kid brain doesn't stop to think maybe you should wait until you get all the pieces before putting them in the book.
The only thing missing is a mail order form they used to include so that you could send away for those last few stickers that you needed. I think with the internet, I can get by without it.
For today, May 4th only, head over to Richard Cheese.com to grab his album "The Lounge Awakens" recorded live at the Mos Eisley Cantina for free!
Welcome back for another movie month in review. And check out that snazzy logo, huh? I figured it was about time I tossed something together so that when I post to social media there's some kind of image to entice people to click it.
As always, title links will take you to Amazon to purchase the movie (or anything else) and contribute a couple coins to the AEIOU coffers.
Jurassic City (2015)
Barely on par with your average SyFy Original Movie. I don't expect much of a plot but there has to be a better way to get a few sorority girls into a correctional facility than for a DUI charge. Also not sure why the dinos are being brought there, but to be honest, I wasn't giving it my full attention because it was so ho-hum.
Cool: I love Ray Wise but even he can't make this much fun Lame: Mostly takes place in a prison and doesn't take on the titular city until the end
Rating: 3/10
Seeing BvS made me realize I'd fallen behind on my DC animated movies!
Batman vs Robin (2015)
Continuing the story from Son of Batman, lil Damien starts getting rebellious and falls in with the Court of Owls. I've been wanting to read the Court of Owls story but never got around to it. They managed to fit it in here but even without knowing about it, it feels like a lot may have been left out.
Cool: Seeing this may finally get me to pick up the comics Lame: Damien is still a character I love to hate
Rating: 7/10
Batman: Bad Blood (2016)
I really like that DC is establishing an animated movie universe. This one opens up the Bat Family bringing in Batwing and Batwoman (Kate Kane) who, along with Damien and Nightwing dressed as Batman, have to rescue a captive Bruce Wayne.
Cool: More villains than you can shake a batarang at Lame: Just like the live action, I don't like it when they kill off any of the bad guys
Rating: 7/10
The Boss (2016)
Not as many laugh out loud moments as you might expect but it was good. The plot is nothing new but it's the actors that make it fun to watch. I didn't know Tyler Labine and Peter Dinklage were in this!
Cool: Dinklage absolutely steals all his scenes. The troop vs troop girl brawl in the streets. Lame: Melissa McCarthy...again, funny but playing pretty much the same character she always does. I really hope she does something different in Ghostbusters.
Rating: 6/10
#Horror (2016, Netflix)
When I found this on Netflix, I challenged myself to watch it. I mean, how many movies have # in the title? There's a really good story at its core, but I feel like it's a little hampered by the girls being pre-teens. If these were older girls and the script was tweaked, this could be a Scream for the social media generation.
Cool: I really like the plot idea of exploring cyberbullying. I thought most of the girls were really good in this for being so young. Lame: I can't tell if this is supposed to be serious or satire at times and that makes it hard for me to figure out how much I enjoyed it. When the girls tag photos they use a hashtag at the start and end of the words...why?
Rating: 5/10
C.H.U.D II: Bud the C.H.U.D. (1989)
Straight to video PG zom-com. It's funny, but in a so bad it's almost good way. I got a very strong Return of the Living Dead vibe from it despite it not being a lot more tame. Almost like it could exist in the same universe. Also got a very strong Brendan Frasier/Encino Man vibe from Bud.
Cool: Plenty of familiar faces like Norman Fell, June Lockheart, and Robert Vaughn Lame: Needs more gore! No C.H.U.D. creatures.
Rating: 5/10
On a side note, check out the link to see the 8 movie collection this is part of.
You can't spend a better $5!
