We pick interesting products and trends for you!
A change is coming in comic books and that is the “Rise of the Female Superhero”. Yahoo! News with Katie Couric releases a neat documentary with a chock full of interviews with industry giants like Jim Lee, Grant Morrison and many female creators Amanda Conner, G. Willow Wilson, Gail Simone and many others about the change and rise of the female superhero protagonist.
There have been many video games where you can play as tiger, shark, cat, even a turtle, and now a goat. The Goat Simulator game has been available for a couple of month’s now, but now it’s a FREE download. The Goat Simulator is IGN’s Free Game of Month. You play a goat and get points by tearing-up a rural town. The Goat Simulator is available for iPhone, iPad and iTouch.
If you’re a comic book reader veteran, then you’re probably familiar with the usual once-a-year mega cross-over event like in the DC and Marvel Universe. Well, this summer 2015, Titan Comics will mix-it up with 4 Doctors and 3 companions meeting up in this 5-issue mini-series. Doctor Who: Four Doctors #1 (1-5) follows the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors and their companions on a mission against an unknown foe. The epic crossover-event is written by Paul Cornell (Wolverine) and illustrated by Neil Edwards
(Assassin’s Creed).
Dan Bernstein (actor), Dave Moutray (director), Marcus Sams (actor) and Jess Reich (make-up)
I feel very fortunate to be one of the crew members of “Lost in the Sun“, a feature film with a mysterious cult happening that takes meditation of body, mind and the discipline of gazing at the sun ritually to transform one’s life. The only catch is that someone has gone missing through the process, and the cult of sun gazers are not exactly your typical sun gazers, and that’s about all I can tell you.
The 1982 film was absolutely on point for it’s science fiction noir story taking place in 2019, because we still have neon lights and newspapers! 
Directed by Ridley Scott , Bladerunner accomplished its look with a raw and real-life edge of art direction and special effects that we see influencing today’s futuristic films; the modern caper wardrobe intermingled with stylized space-tech outfits depending on the defined identity of the character – to the atmosphere of space age flying vehicles through a sky rise metropolis contrasting the ground level of real city life eclecticism of street cyclist, people walking with umbrellas, to grime that exists in rainwater running down a gutter in a dark alley street. There was no superficiality, but dark romanticism to this futuristic film which made it a cult noir classic.
Okay, not a Pikachu, a Raichu. Anyway, lets find out what Sayori Chu has to ask this Raichu?
Adult collectors familiar with the 1970s/80s era Jumbo Machinder toys and, of course Star Wars get a East meets West collaboration thanks to Super7 and Funko. This is the Super Shogun Boba Fett – Empire Version. First off, the box packaging looks awesome with the Japanese kanji and logos. The figure stands 24″ tall with rotating wheels on the feet, spring-loaded firing rocket from jetpack and wrist.
I had fond memories as kid reading and looking at pop-up books. Thanks to Poposition Press, we now get pop-up books for us older folks. The Pop-Up Art Book features 6 incredible art pieces by Aaron Woes Martin, Skinner, kozyndan, Junko Mizuno, Tara McPherson and Jim Mahfood.
We’ve been a little behind editing many videos from various events we’ve attended this summer. Here’s a quick recap of the SF Anime Festival & Cosplay in Japantown that took place on July 18, 2015. The Ramen crew was there to see all the cosplay fun and meet-up with special cosplay guest Reika from Japan.
One of the legends of anime is Hayao Miyazaki and this fan-made anime-video tribute is pretty cool. As you watch the video montage, many of Hayao Miyazaki’s characters appear in a roll call. Sit back and enjoy.
Lifestyle brand Rocksmith releases Kickstrike graphic tee collection for the summer 2015. The models, the Clermont Twins rock the Kickstrike tee collection inspired by NYC graffiti artists.
A few months back I reviewed the first issue of Des Taylor’s new Scarlett Couture 4-issue mini-series, and today, the last issue with two variant covers drops today at your local comic book store racks.
“Scarlett and Trent are imprisoned by the villainous Dante Ramon when they learn of the impending destruction of Las Vegas. With less than an hour to stop the devastation, Scarlett and her team must do everything they can to save hundreds of thousands of lives, and finally uncover the evil mastermind behind it all.”
Usually when it’s a comic book tie-in with popular TV program, the comic book usually sucks. The art is not up to par and the stories and world-building does not tie-in enough to the TV show, there is a disconnect of sorts. But over the past year, I have the pleasure of reading the various Doctor Who releases by Titan Comics and it’s been a blast. Each creative team on the books have done a fine job building upon the Doctor Who universe and mythos. Marvel and DC comics may dominate the comic-book racks, but if you’re looking for something different and something British, then look for these Titan Comics’ Doctor Who books dropping Wednesday, July 29, 2015 at your local comic book store.
If collecting the Funko/Super 7 ReAction retro-sytle 3.75″ action figure line isn’t your thing, then try Funko’s Legacy line of 6″ figures that has more points articulation, details and accessories. Funko’s Legacy over the past years have featured Magic The Gathering and Game of Thrones action figures, now the Legacy line-up expands to Joss Whedon’s Firefly series, The Rocketeer, The Book of Life and Fantastic Mr. Fox action figures.
If you’re fan of Disney cartoon series Miles from Tomorrowland, then you might want to pick-up this nifty spacecraft/playset featuring lights, sounds, and 3 separate spacecraft that can combine into one bigger craft. The Stellosphere does require 6 AAA batteries that are not included.
Ramen’s newest member Sayori Chu roams the vendor floor looking for cool stuff to buy. We take a look at the Panda Hat and Tech Shop booths at Fanime.
As the Ramen crew roams the show floor at this year’s FanimeCon, newest member Sayori Chu grabs some fun interviews with various cosplayers.
I remember being a big fan when Cassandra Cain took over as the role of Batgirl and I bought every issue at the comic book store, but of course during the eventual run, it got weird and basically a bad storyline cancelled the series. Now my Batgirl interest has peaked with curiosity with new an new artist Mingjue Helen Chen coming into the DC fold. The Academy of Art graduate whose worked on projects like Wreck-It Ralp and Big Hero 6 is now bringing her own unique digital anime-cartoon style to Gotham Academy #7 and Batgirl Annual #3.
This year Hasbro kicked-off it’s new theme for their Transformers toy line-up, calling it the Combiner Wars. It’s an homage to the G1 combiner toys and most fans have been waiting for Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Devastator. The 6 Constructicons: Scrapper, Hook, Bonecrusher, Long Haul, Mixmaster and Scavenger have all-new molds, but retain their G1-look. As the Constructicons combine into the Devastator, it now stands a behemoth 18-inches tall.
If you’re a huge The Dark Knight Trilogy fan and have around $900 bucks lying around, you can buy this 1/12 scale The Dark Knight Trilogy RC Tumbler Deluxe Pack.
NYC and the musical genre of hip-hop are synonymous and this summer 2015, Stussy celebrates the iconic NYC rap group A Tribe Called Quest (ATCQ). ATCQ music heavily influenced Stussy’s work in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and this Stussy capsule collection showcases it.
Now thanks to VAT19, you can have very own old-school 19th century-style film projector, the BusyBody Animated Illusion. It comes with the spinning base carousel and 10 Q-Man figures that you can pose every which way for cool movie action scenes.
If you’re on a LEGO budget like me, then I find myself liking this LEGO DC Comics The Batboat Harbor Pursuit 76034. Recently I wanted to get some type of LEGO Age of Ultron product, so I settled for The Hulk Buster Smash 76031, which to me had all the mini-figs I wanted. The Batboat is an okay build, but I like 3 minifigs in this set: Batman, Robin and Deathstroke.
Like my fellow Retrenders super blogger Stevie Jang, we like LEGOs, but we usually follow the instructions. Yes, I like having a the manual in-hand and looking at the pictures to see how it’s been built. I’ve seen lots crazy imaginative LEGO builds, but this MOC Ito Sushi Bar LEGO build is insanely neat. Built by Denil Oh, this sushi bar has incredible details and even right down to the sushi pieces with custom stickers to enhance the diorama restaurant build.
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