The Two Faces of Skeletor

Here are a couple of recent creations I figured regular TMR readers would enjoy. First, as the title suggests, we have a Lego Skeletor minifig, which I put together from various extra parts I had. Obviously, it's far from perfect, but it's a good start.

The shade of blue is all wrong, of course. I'll need to hunt down some parts in the proper shade of blue before I go trying to add any details to make it more accurate. That'll be a challenge; while I used to customize action figures pretty frequently, I'm rather out of practice, and I never really did any detail work on such a small scale. I may look into printing custom decals or something.

As for the promised second face of Skeletor, we have a Lego version of an old favorite, Skelepimp!

Skelepimp first came about-- my version, anyway, as the web has since shown me that I was not the only person to come up with a version of Skeletor who was inclined to peddle booty-- around ten years ago, when I was playing a WWE video game. The main draw of those games for me is the robust collection of creation modes. The roster of real wrestlers remains mostly unused, as I spend all my time creating my own wrestlers and playing them against one another. Since Skeletor is damn near my favorite character from anything, I naturally wanted to make him in the game. Sadly, the game was lacking the proper clothing and gear. I already had a good Skeletor base made, so I started outfitting him with some of the other things in the character creator, and wound up going with a pimp version. Skelepimp was born! He's been remade in every version of the game I've gotten ever since. Here are a couple of photos of Skelepimp from WWE '13. (I'm not equipped to record from my game consoles, so photos of the TV screen will have to suffice.)

So, the minifig isn't 100% accurate, but it's pretty damn close! The skull also glows in the dark, though efforts to get a decent photo of this were futile. I modified a sports car set to give Skelepimp a nice ride.

 When I get more parts in the proper colors, I want to mod it further, extending the body, and making the overall shape a little blockier and more Cadillac-esque. In the meantime, however, the ladies just can't resist Skelepimp, no matter what he's driving.

Rant Ramblings: Week of 7-12-13

Big news this week! In case you missed it, I announced Tuesday that my next book will be Apex Predator: A Grant Mercer novel! Check out that post for the details.

I finally picked up WWE '13 during Xbox Live's summer sale last week for $15, so I've been busy re-making characters in it when I haven't been working on Apex Predator. I only "upgrade" with this series every 2 or 3 years, so the changes are plentiful from the 2010 version I was accustomed to. The changes are mostly positive, although a few quirks in the character creator are annoying. If I come up with a way to capture decent gameplay videos without buying any new equipment, I'll post some videos in the coming weeks.

Here is a chronicle of the art created by a restaurant server who decided to do something special with order sheets. Pretty cool stuff.

Hold the mushrooms and onions, please.

We have AMAs by David X. Cohen (the head writer of Futurama) and John Malkovich, so get reading!

That's it for this week; I've gotta get back to writing!

Rant Ramblings: Week of 5-10-13

Happy Whacking Day, everyone! The month-long Whacking Day event in the Simpsons: Tapped Out game has ended, but today is the actual date of the holiday. Speaking of the game, how did everyone do? I finished getting all the prizes a week or so ago, and managed to get the final Whack Box Wednesday night, just under the wire. (For those of you who don't know about the Whack Boxes, they're no big deal. Once you got the final Whacking Day prize, you won a Whack Box for every 1,000 snakes you whacked after that. You either got money or up to three donuts, and the money, obviously, was far more common. I got a total of four donuts out of the ten Whack Boxes.)  It's possible that there will be something special in the game today, but as I'm writing this section of the post early Friday morning, it hasn't happened yet!
Edit: Of course, soon after this posted and I opened the game again, I saw that the level 29 update had arrived. Additonally, Whacking Day has been extended until the 16th! Good news for those who still don't have all of the prizes. Get back to whacking!

There's been a lot of grumbling around the 'net over DC's announcement that He-Man will be getting a new costume in their Masters of the Universe comic this summer. (I find the Ed Benes art far more disagreeable than the new costume, but whatever.) Much of the dismay is directed at He-Man's swanky new pants. I've seen a ton of bitching, mostly by people who, by their own admission, don't even read the comic. There have been a couple of valid points made, but everyone seems to have forgotten a few things:
1. This is not permanent.
2. This is not the first time He-Man has worn pants. The character will miraculously survive.
3.  The costume is an updated version of the classic Battle Armor He-Man, so it actually has a basis in classic MOTU lore. (Yeah, the old BA He-Man toy didn't have pants, but the design is the obvious basis for the new costume.)
4. The whole thing is stirring up some interest in the MOTU comic, which is a good thing, since it's a pretty good comic that has been unjustly ignored, for the most part.
5. This "controversy" is pretty dumb, even by internet argument standards.
Everyone just needs to take a few deep breaths and relax. Everything is gonna be okay(well, as okay as things ever are). And for the people I've seen complain that the new design is a sign that DC is getting ready to integrate MOTU into the main DCU, and that we'll see He-Man on the Justice League before the year is out, I say that I'd be thrilled by that, honestly. I seriously doubt that's gonna happen, but I'd love it if it did.
Edit: And now, this news has broken. Masters of the Universe vs. DC Universe kicks off in August! I really thought this was too much to hope for, but it's happening! C'mon, DC, put Teela or He-Man on the Justice League when this is over!

Here is a novel from 2006 that features WWE wrestlers working as secret agents for the government. It sounds so awful that it has to be great! I have no idea how it existed for this long without me hearing about it.

Free Comic Book Day was a resounding success, and our local shop was much busier than we've ever seen it. We arrived at about the same time we did for last year's FCBD, and the store was at least twice as crowded! It's great to see it grow bigger each year. I picked up most of the free comics I wanted, and snagged the Sergio Aragones variant cover for Justice League #19 for $3! I normally can't manage to give a damn about variant covers, but this one was a must-have. Lunch at one of downtown Hattiesburg's great restaurants followed, then visits to a couple of the thrift stores I enjoy diving into so much. I picked up some nice fodder for future Trash Rants, so consider this your warning. ;)

After all that, we went to see Iron Man 3. While I am sure there are many hardcore Iron Man fans who are royally pissed about the big reveal, I thought it was a fun movie overall. It had the requisite plot holes and shortcomings that you just have to ignore in the name of enjoying most action movies(most movies in general, really), but there was one in particular that was so huge that it just bugged the hell out of me. This is gonna involve a spoiler, so highlight the text if you wanna keep reading. Tony had dozens of fully functional suits of Iron Man armor ready to go at a moment's notice, so why, exactly, did he wait to use any of them until the end of the movie? There were several times where he was well and truly fucked, not to mention the times other people were as well, and he couldn't be bothered to summon a suit of armor. Obviously, the reason he didn't was plot convenience. It wouldn't have taken much- just a line to explain why he didn't or couldn't summon the armors earlier than he did-- to smooth the whole thing over. Like I said, I'm accustomed to ignoring plot holes as long as a movie is fun and generally well-made, but this one really stuck in my craw. 
All that aside, it was a fun movie that didn't measure up to the first IM film. Regarding all the rumors that RDJ may not return to the role over payment disputes, Marvel/Disney need to just give him whatever he wants to continue. Most of the other roles can be recast without too much fuss, but they need RDJ to be Tony Stark for as long as he is willing to do it. The first Iron Man movie took a character who was a solid B-lister, not to mention a complete unknown outside of comics readers, and made him a huge star and a solid A-lister practically overnight. So much of that is due to RDJ's performance and charisma, and the movies-- and their profits-- will take a huge hit if and when he departs. Marvel Studios needs him far more than he needs it. That said, the rest of the cast and crew are due some serious raises, with the kind of insane profits these movies are making. It's disgusting that co-stars such as Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner made so little for The Avengers when RDJ and the studio is raking in so much.

Anyway, rant over for now. I've still got a good bit of stuff to move back in, so I'm out for today.

The tree is up!

I put my tree up a couple of days ago. I don't have much space, so it got stuck in the area between some shelves against one wall. Here it is, for your viewing pleasure.

Lots of Simpsons ornaments, as usual. A couple of Batman-related ones as well; those Brave and the Bold mini-figures convert to tree ornaments nicely. The bag of ornaments that included my Masters of the Universe ornaments has gone mysteriously missing, so no Skeletor or Mer-Man this year. Some lanterns representing the various factions in the Green Lantern universe were added once I realized their little handles made them perfect for hanging on the tree. Since Macho Man Randy Savage served as the tree topper last year, I gave the Nature Boy himself top billing this time around.

Here's a side shot in which a few more ornaments can be seen, including a Terminator endoskeleton peeking out.
Thanks to Cindy, I also have a nifty extension cord for the lights with a built-in floor switch. Sadly, my blue lights are in the bag with the missing ornaments, so I only have clear ones this year.
As usual, right click on the pics to embiggen them.

Edge is retiring...

The WWE released this statement yesterday:
Less than a week after his successful title defense against Alberto Del Rio at WrestleMania XXVII, World Heavyweight Champion Edge has been forced to retire from in-ring competition due to injury. The unexpected news brings to an end a storied WWE career spanning 13 years and consisting of 11 World Title reigns.
The Rated-R Superstar had been suffering numbness and uncontrollable trembling in his arms and hands. This is not the first time Edge has experienced these symptoms of nueropraxia. An MRI in Atlanta last Monday was sent to Dr. Joseph Maroon, a renowned neurosurgeon and professor of neurosurgery at The Pittsburgh School of Medicine. After careful examination of the MRI, it was determined that Edge would never be cleared to compete again, and thus, he is forced to retire.
In 2003, Edge underwent a two level spinal fusion of the discs between his C5, C6 and C7 vertebrae. After being cleared to compete, The Rated-R Superstar returned to the ring, resulting in stenosis of the spine, or a narrowing of the spinal column, above and below the fused discs. This narrowing resulted in less and less of the vital fluid needed to protect the spinal cord. Medical professionals cannot clear Edge to compete ever again in WWE since doing so could result in paralysis or even death.

And obviously, everyone who watched this week's episode of Monday Night Raw saw his emotional farewell address to the WWE audience:

As Edge himself says, he knew he was wrestling on borrowed time when he returned after having broken his neck eight years ago. We all knew this day would come, but somehow I never anticipated that it would be so soon. Edge is easily one of my favorite wrestlers of all time, and it still has not really sunken in that we've seen him wrestle his final match.
At least he is going out as World Champion, at the absolute pinnacle of the industry. He's a lock for the Hall of Fame, as well. Edge has one of the best minds for wrestling, and can still be invaluable to the business. Hopefully, although his in-ring days are over, he is still far from done with the wrestling business.
But in the end, no matter what kind of positive spin I try to put on it, I love the guy, and I'll miss him.