Bulk Toy Review: Man of Steel 3 3/4" (Mattel)

It looks like this year will go down as one of my favorite movie years of all time. Not only do we get Star Trek Into Darkness and Pacific Rim, but also an all-new Superman movie that looks like it won't suck: Man of Steel! Although Trek was a great movie and I'm sure Pacific Rim will rival it with its giant monster awesomeness, MOS has something neither has: extensive kid-oriented merchandising. And as I've mentioned before, the merchandise of a movie is way more important than the movie itself for me. So let's see what Mattel's 3 3/4" Man of Steel line has to offer!

Toy Pix: TGB Customs Infection Armorvor and Armorvor Heads

I should have a sign on my site that reads: "Will work for toys." As you probably know, I often do illustration work for Marty Hansen of TGB Customs, who then compensates me with the toys he creates. He recently sent me a batch that includes his recent C2E2-exclusive Infection Armorvor and a big ol' buttload of Armorvor heads he's created. Let's check them out!

Movie Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

Has it really been four years since JJ Abrams ushered in a new era of Star Trek? It doesn't seem that long ago for some reason, but if you told me back in 2009 that I'd have to wait four years for a follow up, I would have had a conniption. That's okay, it just gave us extra time to absorb the whole "nuTrek" thing, as they call it nowadays. Honestly, even though I gave Star Trek a glowing review back in 2009, I have to admit that it just doesn't hold up as well as I thought it would.

My Star Trek Original Series Autographs

This week's assignment for the League of Extraordinary Bloggers is a familiar one to me: Star Trek. Instead of taking the obvious route and posting a review of Star Trek Into Darkness (which was awesome by the way, but we'll discuss that later), I thought I'd talk a bit about my collection of Star Trek autographs. Being a Trekkie for 25+ years, I have collected my fair share of autographs from Star Trek conventions. So, in honor of Into Darkness continuing the Trek reboot, this post will be about those autographs I have of actors from The Original Series and the Original Series movies.

Toy Pix: Brachiosaurus

Walking past the artsy-fartsy downtown shops recently, I was stopped dead in my tracks by this Brachiosaurus staring at me out of a store window. With its head stretching up 2 feet in the air, this sauropod is an imposing plastic beast to say the least. I thought he'd be perfect to display on the top of my cubicle's bookcase at work so I picked him up. Let's take a look!

Book Review: Spillover by David Quammen

There are many layers to the onion of my dorkishness, and one of those is a fondness for science books. The sensationalist cover of Spillover by David Quammen caught my eye but it’s the Amazon description that compelled me to read it: “We hear news reports of Ebola, SARS, AIDS, and something called Hendra killing horses and people in Australia—but those reports miss the big truth that such phenomena are part of a single pattern. The bugs that transmit these diseases share one thing: they originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover.” Zoonotic diseases (those transmitted from animals to humans) are big players in the news today as it seems like we have a new bird flu scare every other week. So what’s the big deal? Why are people freaking out over these diseases? Spillover seemed like it could help explain what's going on.

Artwork: Armorvor Infection, Gator and Lion

 

If you haven't checked out my deviantArt page in a while, you might want to take a gander. I've uploaded some of my artwork from the recent Armorvor releases from TGB Customs. Enjoy! And for more on TGB Customs at C2E2, check out TGB Customs blog!