Spinoff Links

Holy Bricks! I Love Everything About Lego's New Classic Batman TV Series Batcave Set. Holy (insert Lego pun here) Batman! This is a fantastic looking set. It's nearly $300 but you're getting a lot of Lego for your money. 3 vehicles, 9 mini figs and a HUGE playset with lots of features. It sure beats the pants off the Batcave set my son already has.

They really hit it out of the park with the little details on this set, from The Joker's hidden mustache to the pictures of Martha and Thomas Wayne beside the fire poles. I really hope they make more of these sets based on the old TV show. I can't imagine ever fitting this thing in my budget but I'd love to have a Adam West Batman.... I mean my son would love it.

Kurt Busiek on Loss of Public Domain. Kurt Busiek, noted comic book writer and cool guy I talked too once, had a lot of interesting takes on copyright and public domain. It's funny to think that every time something interesting is set to enter public domain the copyright laws keep getting extended. It's almost like some big entertainment company has a vested interest in keeping others from using their beloved mouse mascot.

Agents of SHIELD’s “Marvels Most Wanted”: ABC orders pilot for Marvel spinoff. So Marvel doesn't want me to watch Agents of SHIELD anymore? The show is already on my "I'm not sure I'm enjoying this anymore and there are good shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime I could be watching" list. Take away Adrianne Palicki and things are looking pretty grim.

5 Huge Products That Failed Because Of Hilarious Oversights. I like Cracked but this is a great example of how you can't always take their lists at face value. One of the items on this particular list is the IBM PCjr a computer that was a spectacular failure. Cracked attributes the failure almost 100% to the terrible keyboard the PCjr shipped with and while the keyboard was really really bad It wasn't the single thing that doomed the machine.

You could make a much stronger argument that the PCjr was ill conceived right out of the gate, targeting a market that wasn't there. It wasn't 100% compatible with the standard PC software most businesses ran so you couldn't bring work from home. It was far more expensive than offerings from Commodore or Atari AND it didn't run games very well.

It was a serious computer that couldn't handle serious software AND an overpriced hobby computer that couldn't play most games. It came with weird features no one would use like swapable ROM cartridges and a co-axial output so you could hook it up to your TV. Rumor has it that IBM intentionally nerfed it's compatibility because they were afraid of businesses buying PCjrs instead of the hgher end work stations.

Who cares if the keyboard is terrible (something they addressed almost immediately anyway), at the price they were asking (some $3,000 in today's money) why would anyone want one?

The funny thing is that the Tandy 1000, which was a huge hit, is based on a lot of the same hardware as the PCjr but by cutting the price, simplifying the peripherals and making sure it was near 100% compatible with PC software Radio Shack sold a ton. It was the perfect entry computer to the PC market, not the flawed mess IBM tried to hoist on customers.

And now both of us know way more about the IBM PCjr than necessary.

2014, Back to the Future

Based on just the overall number of posts, 2014 was actually the least productive year I've had blogging since I started. I think I did a lot more reviews and long form ramblings than I have in past years. So I guess it's a trade off. Less posts but they take like a minute and a half to read instead of 30 seconds. I guess that's progress? I don't know man, I'm barely awake this morning.

So, without any further pomp and circumstance, let's take a look at the most popular or memorable posts of 2014.

I forgot I even wrote this post on Fantasy GI Joe Draft Rankings. I think I had plans on making this a big series of rankings and never got around to it.

2014 showed us the some of the worst the internet has to offer in The Fappening and Gamergate. The ring of hackers trading on celebrity nudes had been rumored for years but it's one thing to hear about something it's another to actually see it. Anyone that has any sort of internet connected device should be terrified of the Fappening. Anyone can steal anything, it's horrifying.

As always, Cosplay posts get lots of hits. ZOMG Cosplay is Killing Conventions! and Emerald City Comicon 2014 Cosplay Showcase both got a lot of hits. Maybe in 2015 I'll double down on Cosplay. I can practically taste that $100 pay out from adsense.

Back in my 2013 wrap up I predicted that the new generation of consoles would roll out a bunch of titles that really blew away the launch ones and have me jonesing for a PS4 or Xbone. Man was I wrong. Sure, there are some nice looking new games out there but most stories revolved around nerfed graphic settings or buggy launches. Except for the WiiU. Have you played a WiiU? The new Mario Kart is the heezy for sheezy.

My High School Reunion: The Review. Sweet Christmas, when did I get so old?

Squirt Guns: The Review. I guess whenever I started reviewing squirt guns?

Anytime I can take a subject that's making some hay on the internet and turn it into a post about me I'll do it. Too much Puff not enough Power with these girls is a perfect example of this. Can't critique someone else's art without talking about my own!

2014 was a weird year to be a nerd. The #1 movie of the year stared Groot and Rocket Racoon so it's not like nerds had it rough or anything but there's still this undercurrent of exploitation you have to deal with. She Hulk is a Porn Star and you're a nerd pretty much sums that up. The guy that co-wrote the Batman trilogy just throws shade on a whole slew of nerds without realizing he moved into a glass house. It's like it's cool to be nerdy but only if you're the right kind of nerd.

The Belgians Booty Rock Dvořák's Sypmphony No. 9 was a very popular post for reasons. In fact there was a lot of ass shaking in 2014, like a lot.

I could have included any number of posts on comic book movie casting but this one on From Wonder Woman to Mockingbird was the big winner for the year. It's almost like if you post pictures of attractive ladies you get more hits. I know, I know that sounds crazy but you can't argue with science.

And now just for fun, here are the top 20 search keywords:

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Nicole scherzinger boobs? Cosplay nip slip? Abbey Clancy ass? Jimmy Fallon hair loss? You're all a bunch of perverts aren't you?

Here's to a fantastic 2015, with your help maybe we'll find that nicole scherzinger sex tape everyone is looking for.

From Wonder Woman to Mockingbird

Adrianne Palicki of the hilariously bad Wonder Woman pilot has been hired to play Bobbi Morse on Marvel's Agents of Shield. Despite it's flaws I enjoyed the first season of Agents of Shield and Adrianne Palicki is not unattractive. Those facts combine with me not having time to do a links post today was enough motivation for me to write a post about the casting.

Who is Bobbi Morse? Lets' let her ex-husband Hawkeye explain:



Yes, that Hawkeye is her ex-husband. She's not a major character in the Avengers-verse, having only served briefly on the West Coast and Great Lakes teams but she's a fan favorite. I doubt Marvel/Disney/ABC will actually link the two characters. There was a bit of nerdy hand-wringing when Captain America 2's plot dovetailed off events that were happening in Agents of Shield. If I had to guess I'll bet Marvel is very careful to let the movie-verse bleed into the TV show while keeping the show out of the movie-verse. With the way all the tumblers ship Hawkeye and Black Widow they probably won't write any connection to Hawkeye in the TV character. For all we know they've simply cast Bobbi Morse and we'll never see Palicki dressed up as Mockingbird, which would be a shame...

I feel like this costume has real potential.

Last Friday's Links (that I'm finally getting to)

Chloe Bennet In ‘Esquire’ Is A Good Reason To Catch Up With ‘Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Chloe Bennet is definitely not unattractive, but the best reason to catch up with Agents of SHIELD (I refuse to use all that punctuation) is because the show got really good near the end. SHIELD kind of pulled a reverse Heroes. Heroes had tremendous build up and then just shit the bed with a terrible season finale while SHIELD stumbled and bumbled its way through the build up but had a really excellent final act that they were smart enough to stretch over the last 5 or 6 episodes. If the season had been 10 or 12 episodes I think everyone would have considered it an outstanding debut season. As it was, there was so much filler in the first 15 episodes that I'm afraid a lot of people wrote the show off completely.

Empty THQ Building. File this under weird but interesting. When THQ went out of business they left a bunch of stuff in their corporate office, a reditors company is moving into the offices and he took a bunch of pictures of all the things they left behind. Including what looks like a 7 foot Warhammer statue. Why would they leave all that stuff behind?

Under Armour makes X-Men compression shirts. A couple of these are pretty awesome. If they weren't $60 I'd think about getting one for winter soccer games. The compression shirt I wear now has this giant hole in the armpit and that's not comfortable. Of course the scam of compression shirts has kept me from replacing it. Seriously.. lets add some spandex to cotton and we can charge 5 times the cost of a regular shirt!

Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Misogyny, Entitlement, and Nerds. Last week there was A LOT of talk on the internet about Misogyny, Harassment, Feminism, etc. That lunatic who shot a bunch of people and stabbed his roomates because he was a nice guy and ladies didn't like him sparked a lot of discussion. This article by Jeopardy super contestant Arthur Chu does a great job of pointing out how media has sort of let a generation of introverts down.

I believe that everyone is responsible for their own decisions but recently I've felt like books, movies, tv shows, even music have set up a lot of introverted kids for failure when it comes to connecting with the other sex (ie. I'm talking boys and girls here). There's an unrealistic expectation of what relationships should be and how a successful one even starts. The example he gives from Revenge of the Nerds is probably the worst thing ever and is mind bottling that it ever made it into a popular film.

Bring Reading Rainbow Back for Every Child, Everywhere. If you were on the internet or even watched any local news last week, you probably saw that Levar Burton and Reading Rainbow put out a Kickstarter last week and completely blew the doors off their expectations. It took all of 2 days for them to be at 2 million dollars. Well, the Kickstarter is still going and their long term goal is 5 million so if you want to donate there's plenty of time. If you didn't watch the video and just heard about the story you should check it out, it's both heartwarming and funny. Make sure you stick around for the Brent Spiner cameo.