A few years ago I first wrote about the possibility of an animated version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer over at ScifiSlacker.com and much like the ill-fated animated Star Trek they teased me with as well was never to be.
After fours year one gives up hope that anything will ever happen. The one day you stumble on a tiny little blip in the TV Guide telling you that just this month someone leaked the 3 minute pilot for the BtVS animated series and your little heart starts a pumping. Hell, with the success of the BtVS Season 8 comics (gosh those are good) maybe they could see fit to bring about this once shelved project and breath life back into the Vampire Slayer franchise on the small screen.
The clip is very nicely done and done in a style of animation that I really like similar to the Batman The Animated Series cartoon. Very cool (if this does ever come into being I hope they stick with this style and don’t screw it up by making it pseudo anime).
Now this little pilot does have all our favorite characters doing their own voices except Sarah Michelle Gellar who apparently is too good to go back to doing anything Buffy related (what has she done lately besides the voice of Bufy on Robot Chicken?), but the girl doing Buffy’s voice (Giselle Loren) is most excellent and you would never even miss that other actress (what’s-her-face).
So to read more about Buffy the Vampire Slayer the Animated series or sign the petition to bring it on (maybe a DVD movie like the resurrection of Futurama) head over to BuffyAnimated.com. Watch and enjoy while you can (I am sure this will be yanked from YouTube at some point).
It is getting to be that time of year again. Time to go back-to-school. I live with a teacher so even though I don’t have to head back to school myself I get all those old feelings stirred up every year as this time of year rolls around. For teachers the school year has technically already started. They have to go in and get their rooms ready for the arrival of all the kids that will be flooding into the rooms.
I honestly cannot say I miss going back to school at all. I was a total wreck every year. I was (still am) a disorganized mess. Way back in my day (when we used to walk 12 miles to school in the freezing rain) we did not have handy organizational tools like the Dymo label maker. I wish I had one of those back then. I would have labeled everything, my books, notebooks; I would have used it to put my schedule on each and every one of my books and folders. I had an irrational fear of losing my schedule and not knowing where I was supposed to be. The labels would have been great and Color labels even better. They certainly would not have faded like writing on the book covers does and it certainly would be much neater that’s for sure.
So when you’re getting ready to head back to school be sure to add a Dymo label maker to your shopping list. It will make heading back to the classroom so much easier no matter whether it is kindergarten or college. You’ll find a valuable use for it, I’m sure.
The Lego Star Wars Deathstar has reached new heights with the new Battle inside the Death Star™! This is not just a Lego model it is a playset to beat all playsets (and maybe it should at a $400 price tag). Look at everything this cool Lego set has to offer.
Includes 25 heroes, villains, droids and creatures!
Includes 6 new and exclusive minifigures and droids only found in this set: Luke Skywalker™ (Stormtrooper™ outfit), Han Solo™ (Stormtrooper outfit), Assassin Droid™, Interrogation Droid, Death Star Droid and 2 Death Star Troopers™!
Also includes Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi™, C-3PO™, R2-D2™, Princess Leia™, Chewbacca™, Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight), Darth Vader™, Grand Moff Tarkin™, Emperor Palpatine™, 2 Stormtroopers, 2 Emperor’s Royal Guards™, R2-Q5™, and mouse droid!
All-new Dianoga™ trash compactor monster!
Movie-authentic Death Star environments include the Superlaser control room and target monitor, Imperial conference chamber, TIE Advanced hangar bay with moving launch rack, Emperor’s throne room, droid maintenance room, detention block, trash compactor, and much more!
Rescue Princess Leia from the detention block cell, then escape through the secret hatch to the trash compactor below!
Reenact the final duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in the Emperor’s Throne Room!
Death Star measures 16” (41cm) tall and 16½” (42cm) wide!
TIE Advanced measures 3½” (9cm) wide!
Recreate the action and adventure of the Star Wars™ movies with the ultimate Death Star playset! This amazingly detailed battle station features an incredible array of minifigure-scale scenes, moving parts, characters and accessories from Episodes IV and VI on its multiple decks, including the Death Star control room, rotating turbolaser turrets, hangar bay with TIE Advanced starfighter, tractor beam controls, Emperor’s throne room, detention block, firing laser cannon, Imperial conference chamber, droid maintenance facility, and the powerful Death Star superlaser…plus much more! Swing across the chasm with Luke and Leia, face danger in the crushing trash compactor, and duel with Darth Vader for the fate of the galaxy!
I love robots and I love Lego. So what better combo for me than a Lego Robot? I have the first version of the Mondstorms system and really need to get myself the new one. I love the new functionality and the new look (not such a fan of the technic sets so I was disappointed when this was first announced, but I guess there is only so much one can do with the good ole brick).
Wii lets you download old school video games by buying points and using those points towards those downloads. Technically you are not buying the games you are licensing the games so I am not sure what will happen should Nintendo ever pull that license. I guess your Wii would just stop playing the games. Which really kind of sucks. Also you cannot play your games on other Wii systems. Again this sucks. I “bought” it I should be able to play it where ever, when ever. So what good is saving the games to an SD card if they can’t travel? Okay, so I’ll still download as it is easier than digging out the old NES to play Zelda.
Disney will be rocking the boardwalk in Jersey this summer when the Radio Disney concert hit Wildwood. Guess what? These concerts featuring stars like Raven Symone (That’s So Raven), Mitchel Musso (Hannah Montana) and others will be coming to Morey’s Piers this July.
There will be a free concert every Monday for three weeks ending in a spectacular finale being held at the Wildwoods Convention Center. Tickets for the Wildwood events finale with Raven Symone on July 26th will be on sale through Ticketmaster, the box office and on Morey’s Mariner’s Landing pier during the concerts on July 7, 14, 21.
The free Radio Disney concerts will take place next to the giant ferris wheel on Morey’s Mariner’s Landing pier. Those shows are scheduled for 1pm and 4pm. Parents love that these concerts are free and kids love the Disney stars. It is a match made in heaven (okay, maybe not heaven, just the Disney PR offices).
Here is a list of the free concerts for interested parties:
July 7 - A Cursive Memory
July 14 - Jordan Pruitt
July 21 - Drew Seeley
Morey’s Pier is the place to be this summer for family fun.
Hey, the fun doesn’t stop after the concerts are over. Morey’s Piers is offering season finale ticket holds special deals like ten bucks off admission Morey’s Piers Beachfront new jersey water park or ten dollars off a wrist band good for all three of Morey’s piers, but the best deal is fifteen dollars off the Splash and Ride combo ticket. So if you are looking for things to do in New Jersey head to the Jersey shore this summer for some great music and family entertainment.
Cold Stone Creamery is holding a delicious contest. Before I get into how cool and wonderful this is let me tell you it is for young adults 13 to 19 (which sucks for me because I would have so been there). Okay, so now you know and if you are between those ages you can do this.
All you have to do is go a Cold Stone Creamery and create your best combination of ingredients. Once you have the ultimate yummy combo name it and head to the internet. Yep take your ice cream to the masses.
Sign up for the Awesome Cold Stone Contest online. Here’s where the fun part comes in get all your friends, both from the real world and the internet, to head to Cold Stone and taste your creation. Once they have given you two thumbs up have them vote online for you and your yummy ice cream concoction. In a competition kind of like those I have seen on the food network your entry will be judged first by the masses then if it passes the public opinion then you get to face the judges at Cold Stone.
I have not even mentioned that you are competing for over $30,000 in prizes! The iMix America contest has already started so get out there and create the ultimate ice cream mashup and get to promoting yourself online you only have until June 5th! Oh, and good luck.
I noticed the scale of action figures seems to be going back down in size. Instead of all the hulking, big seven inch pieces of plastic we are once again seeing smaller three inch scale figures in the toy stores.
Since plastic is basically a petroleum based product do you think the trend in smaller toys is being caused by the higher oil prices? I know the cost of action figures and toys is going up. So where does that leave me and my collecting days? Are they numbered? Will I have to stop collecting or simply cut back in the amount of toys I buy? Honestly, I don’t like either option. I don’t want to stop or even reduce collecting my Star Trek figures. Maybe I just need to stop with the other items. No more Indian Jones. No more monsters. No more Lego. NO!
Not all cats are scardey cats. At least not when they start out. Our big boy Boris never was overly afraid of things like trucks driving by or even the vacuum cleaner running. He would just lie there looking around like he was saying, ‘what the heck?’ Yet he never got up to run and hide.
Our other three cats always scurry and hide as soon as the slightest noise starts to spook them. Well, we have noticed that Boris would get caught up in that hurry to leave the room along with the girls. Because of them he has now learned to hide at a loud noise that would not have bothered him before. Thanks a lot girls! (To be honest I do have to say he learned how to be afraid of kids all on his own.)
I love miniatures. Anything in a small scale is great to me. I have been fascinated be mini stuff since I was a kid. Maybe that’s why I like LEGO so much, the mini figures that come with each set.
Most recently I was very excited to hear Playmates toys would be getting the license to make the action figures for the new Star Trek movie. Even more excited when I heard that one of their new figures would be in a 3” scale. Yeah! I saw they have a small 2” line of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and just introduced new small-scale play sets for these mini figures too. So perhaps in this day of the mini block figures (Kubrick and Minimates have been all the rage for the last few years) I am not the only one who likes small things.
Hasbro brought us the mini 2” Galactic Heroes in their Star Wars line a few years ago too. While these are geared more for the younger kids they are still a must for me. Then they gave us Marvel heroes and now Indiana Jones. I picked up three of these sets already and since they have a mail-away exclusive figure I will be getting at least three more as well. Since I have these little guys stuck to my car’s dash with Velcro I can swap they out every once in awhile. So the more the merrier!
As a kid I always wanted an ant farm. I never got one so maybe that is why I think the ant farms of today are really pretty sweet. Heck these ant farms are not just your average ants and dirt sandwiched between two pieces of plexi-glass, oh no! These suckers are high tech.
AntWorks Ant Farm uses a gel instead of dirt. The gel doubles as nutrition for your little insect buddies as well as their home. Boy are those tunnels cool in that gel. Now you can see all the ant activity. There will be no hiding in the dirt for you my little chums.
If the way cool blue gel wasn’t enough for you the base contains an LED light so you can see your bugs in the dark too. Check out the video for just how cool this ant farm really is. This is recommended for age six and above, but I think any responsible ant fan of any age would enjoy this as a gift. [Hint, hint. I think it would be perfect sitting on my desk at work.] Just a heads up the AntWorks Illuminated Ant Farm is a Bring Your Own Ants [BYOA] project so you may have a little hunting and catching to do as well, or you might see if they have live ants available for purchase so you can start the fun right away.
This post was made possible by the fun folks over at Vat 19 purveyors of curiously awsome gifts. They really do offer up a bunch of unique gift ideas for anyone on your shopping list.
Beer and cigarettes, not your usual treats for kids is it? When my nieces were little and my mom would be watching them they would stop by this little local general store and buy just that, beer and cigarettes.
Okay, so it was root beer and candy sticks (called candy cigarettes back in my day). They would love this. Made them feel like they were being bad and all grown up. (Funny thing about this is no one in the family drinks or smokes in real life. So where do the kids get these ideas? TV?)
Now they are just about all grown up (20 and 17) but the other day when we were passing that little store we asked if they wanted to stop in for beer and cigarettes and the answer was yes. We got an added bonus of (bubble gum) cigars too.
So we had ourselves a wild little party of Guitar Hero, beer and cigarettes. Pretty fun afternoon especially since the teenagers decided to hang out with us old farts.
I just stumbled onto a Star Trek Toy I had never heard of before. While this is not a very surprising statement to many people, I pride myself in knowing quite a bit about Star Trek collectibles. After all I have been collecting the stuff for nearly twenty years now.
I am far from an expert on these things more of an obsessed fan really. Check out StarTrekToysOnline.com if you need proof of just how crazy I am when it comes to Star Trek toys and collectibles.
Today’s find is a Coleco handheld Star Trek game based on Star Trek: The Motion Picture. According to the Handheld Museum this toy was most likely never made. The really good ones often aren’t. Just look at the Palisades Roddenberry/Captain Kirk set which never went past the prototype stages.
There really are a lot of Star Trek things I still don’t know about out there [so feel free to post a comment to this and let me know of anything out there that you see that is unique].
After fours year one gives up hope that anything will ever happen. The one day you stumble on a tiny little blip in the TV Guide telling you that just this month someone leaked the 3 minute pilot for the BtVS animated series and your little heart starts a pumping. Hell, with the success of the BtVS Season 8 comics (gosh those are good) maybe they could see fit to bring about this once shelved project and breath life back into the Vampire Slayer franchise on the small screen.
