@VoltronRanger

Your retro Saturday morning flashback!

[isquirtmilkfrommyeye]

So this is my new game room. 

My friend @r0ck3r-10 was nice enough to let me borrow the N64′s so I could take the pictures since I haven’t gotten around to buying them yet.

[cuberpunkgroupie]

Batman/TMNT Crossover?!

You read the title correctly. DC Comics and IDW Publishing are putting together the Turtles and the Dark Knight for a 6 issue mini-series. The mashup will take place in Gotham city after the Krang transport the green brothers into Bat territory. To make things interesting, Shredder joins the team in Gotham. Not much is known how Shredder will fit into the story, but seeing Shredder fight Batman would be an epic scene. I can’t wait to pick the first issue up! The miniseries begins this month, November.

[cuberpunkgroupie]

MMPR Movie Drops Major Details!

The new MMPR film team just dropped some major movie news. So far, they’ve casted Naomi Scott  as the Pink Ranger, Dacre Montgomeryas the Red Ranger, Ludi Lin as the Black Ranger, and RJ Cyler as the Blue Ranger. That leaves the Yellow Ranger left for casting. I’m also wondering if there will be a Green Ranger (THEY CAN’T MAKE THIS FILM WITHOUT HIM!).

The Director, Dean Israelite (Project Almanac, Battle Los Angeles), also dropped the official title: SABAN’S POWER RANGERS. We also got the character names released which left me a bit surprised. I had originally thought they’d use the original MMPR characters for the film, but it looks like they’re creating a whole new team. Here are the names:

Callum Oliver – The Red Ranger/Tyrannosaurus

Priya Patel – The Pink Ranger/Pterodactyl

Brian Olson – The Blue Ranger/Triceratops

Oscar Fernandez – The Black Ranger/Mastodon

Teyana Jones – The Yellow Ranger/Sabre-tooth Tiger

[cuberpunkgroupie]

Transformers 5 & Cybertron Film Details

The Transformers film franchise has expanded exponentially since the first film hit theaters in 2007. Since then, billions of dollars and innumerable explosions have been rampant. So it’s no surprise that Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay and other film gods have been working together to explore the future of Transformers.

The recent writer room had some good news and ideas being explored. According to Deadline, Akiva Goldsman will be spearheading the next Transformers film screenplay. This is nothing but good news because like most of you, I’m ready for a more serious toned Tranformers film and Goldsman’s portfolio is impressive (e.g. I, Robot, I am Legend, A Beautiful Mind). 

One of the more confusing pieces of news is that Mark Wahlberg will be starring in the next film. Wahlberg is an excellent actor, but he didn’t have the most comprehensive characterization in the last film. 

But the best news of all is there’s to be an origin story set on Cybertron. The story is going to be an animated feature exploring the beginning of the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons.

[cuberpunkgroupie]

5 Flaws in Retro Games

5) The original Super Mario Bros. is a unique game where its characters have some crazy-epic abilities (e.g. shooting fire from their hands, swimming underwater for extended periods of time without air, the ability to fly), but with all that power, sometimes I’m surprised at how easy it is to die. I mean, Mario can break blocks of solid brick with his bare hands and head but he doesn’t have the ability to withstand a hit from one of the Hammer Bros?

4) When SEGA hit the markets in the early 90s, most kids remember their first game for the console being Sonic: The Hedgehog. Sonic was super fast and could turn into a lethal weapon simply by rolling. But one thing that always confused me was that Sonic was able to talk and was really large when compared to the other woodland creatures he typically saved at the end of each level. Why is that?

3) Mario Kart is a franchise that’s been popular since the first game released for SNES. But one thing that’s always puzzled me is where do we go when we fall off the Ghost Valley track? We’re always picked back up by our friend in the cloud, but where is he picking us up from? Oblivion?

2) Joust was a great old-school game that I had on my Atari system. But I always wondered what each knight was riding. When I got a little older I found out the jousters were riding ostriches. How the hell does an ostrich fly, especially with a 160 pound man on its back?

1) Donkey Kong became a huge title after the original game dominated arcades. The game was so popular it even launched the Mario franchise. But why the hell is the monkey named Donkey Kong? Was his mother a jackass?

[rinnegades]

A gif I made awhile back to promote an old IDW Don blog. I deleted the blog due to lack of activity but Im still kinda proud of this so I thought I would upload it here to share.

[peteneems]

[cuberpunkgroupie]

Awwww yeeaahh

[cuberpunkgroupie]

Krang Appears in TMNT 2

Well, it’s official - the mouthed-brain creature from Dimension X will be joining Bebop and Rocksteady for Dave Green’s sequel to the controversial re-make of our favorite turtles’ upcoming film. 

Most people guessed that Krang would make an appearance, but it wasn’t official until Cinema Blend posted that a source close to production confirmed his role. This made me gitty with delight because of all the possible storylines that could follow his introduction. Dimension X is a crazy place full of all kinds of nasty and silly things. Be prepared for TMNT 3 being nuts!

[cuberpunkgroupie]

Transformers: Prime is a 9/10!

This weekend was an eventful one for me. I checked out M. Night Shyamalamadingdong’s new horror flick, The Visit (meh), and spent the remainder of the time watching two seasons of Transformers: Prime. I have to say, I could’ve saved myself $10 if I’d just stayed home and watched Prime instead of giving misplaced hope to the floundering career of Shyamalan.

Without a doubt, Transformers: Prime has got to be one of the best iterations of the franchise, thus far. I started casually watching season 1 on Netflix while working on other projects, but quickly found myself drawn into the show.

As far as characterization goes, Prime does a better job of giving each character a unique voice than the original 80s series. I know I’m definitely going to get some flack from my buddy Aaron, who’s a die-hard original cartoon series fan, but it’s true - this new series has an excellent team of writers who made each line of dialogue rich with personality. My favorite, by far, is Starscream. Instead of using the material from the first toon, the Prime storyline features more of the Beast Wars series’ concept for the sniveling side-kick to Megatron. So that makes him more of a formidable and cool character than some of his more whiny personas from the past.

The story is simply epic by Transformers standards. And it makes sense (*cough* Michael Bay *cough*). The first few episodes are a bit slow while the Autobots and Decepticons setup base and begin setting the scene for the more hardcore storyarcs to come. Somewhere around the middle of the first season things start to come together and develop into a more cohesive and longterm story. That’s fairly typical with new shows since there’s never a guarantee for a budget after the first season; writers are forced to put out material that’s more flashy than grounded for the sake of drawing in viewers. But once Prime hits its stride, it becomes addicting. I couldn’t stop watching until I knew how the next episode would continue the story.

I give Transformers: Prime a 9/10 rating. The only reason I didn’t give this show a perfect score is because there are moments that focus too much on how the immaturity of the children paired with the Autobots gets them into trouble. It becomes a bit annoying at times, but not enough to ruin the overall feel of the show.

[cuberpunkgroupie]

We had such better rolemodels. 

[cuberpunkgroupie]

He-Man Magazine Poster

A lot of kids didn't know this, but He-Man had his own magazine! I picked this poster up from an insert to one of them. The poster is in fairly good condition and has a copyright mark of 1986. The poster had this text description at the top: 

"Buzz-Off is caught in the Slime Pit, the latest evil creation of Hordak. it grabs unsuspecting warriors and covers them with green slime. Once trapped, the helpless victims are made to do Hordak's bidding."

What a cool find. I think I might get this framed.

[cuberpunkgroupie]

Garbage Pail Kids

I was browsing through my local retro-toy shop and as I looked beyond the He-Man display, I found this gem: an unopened pack of Garbage Pail Kids! I couldn't believe it. I hadn't seen a Garbage Pail Kid pack in over 20 years. I just had to open it. 

Most of you probably remember these little guys. They caused quite a ruccus back in the 80s. One of the shop owners I was chatting with said these were banned in most schools across America because of the lewd nature of the cards. I guess Barfin' Bart and Bony Tony weren't ideal images for kids.. Who knew? 

Garbage Pail Kids was a cards series that began in 1985 and was produced by Topps, Inc. This is the same company that made the popular baseball cards of the era. Each pack came with a stick of gum and 5 unique cards. Topps was eventually sued by the Cabbage Patch Kids brand for copyright infringement and ceased production by 1988.

[1980s-90sgifs]

[cuberpunkgroupie]

Good times

[cuberpunkgroupie]

I just picked all this up and feel like a kid on Christmas!

[cuberpunkgroupie]

Ghostbusters 3 Tears Fans Apart

Every generation has their iconic pop films. The 80s had the final two films of the Star Wars trilogy, Indiana Jones, and Ghostbusters.

As the media news sites continue to pump out information about next year's GB flick, the original fans are beginning to take notice and take sides.

On the one hand, there's an argument for continuing a franchise that left an undeniable impact on hundreds of millions of people and helped create iconic stars like Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd. These finds think it's a logical and needed next step to keep the franchise alive through another generation.

On the other hand, some fans are livid for even hinting at another installment without the original cast. These fans see the beauty and amazing talent it took to create such an popular and offbeat film and are fearful that the new film won't measure up or is, quite simply, not even needed. These fans think if you want to see a good Ghostbusters film, you simply need to watch the original.

As for me, I'm definitely going to watch the new film, but when I think of Ghostbusters, the originals will always be the only films I think of.

[80scartoons]

MOTU - Skeletor 13 by paulrich

[cuberpunkgroupie]

Leo looks cranky in the morning.