Let's check out the oddity that is the Kotobukiya Collection light-up Thing statue

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but there wasn't a lot of merchandise put out for the 2007 Fantastic Four movie sequel, "Rise of the Silver Surfer", at least when compared to the previous film in 2005. I remember watching the movie when it came out - I was in the state of Washington for the summer, and I found a drive-in theater that was playing it. It was apparently labeled as the kids' feature, as it was paired with the animated film, "Surfs Up".

There are only a few things I remember about that night at the drive-in. First, "Surfs Up" was a terrible movie. Just awful. I'd never remember it even existed if I didn't force myself to stick it out just so I could see the Fantastic Four sequel. Next, "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" was not worth sitting through "Surfs Up" to see. As disappointing as the 2005 movie was (don't kid yourself with that "it wasn't that bad stuff"), the Silver Surfer movie was a directionless disaster, one that featured a not-at-all-tongue-in-cheek Mr. Fantastic dance scene. Most people (justifiably) gripe about the Galactus cloud, but for me, I checked out after seeing Reed Richards do that weird spiral dance move that was almost certainly made for what I assume was a 3-D release.

Anyway, it wasn't long after that I first saw the Kotobukiya Collection Thing statue, based on Michael Chiklis's portrayal of the character, but it took another ten years or so for me to actually buy it. Despite the fact that the statue does actually look pretty good, I wasn't in a hurry to purchase something that came from such a boring film. Several months ago, though, I found one on eBay at a good price and pulled the trigger. So let's take a look!

Kotobukiya is a Japanese company, and as such, there was a Japanese influence on the production of this item, as you can see with both the characters on the front of the box...

...and the Punisher, Daredevil and Blade designs on the back. The box itself feels like part of the product, and you could display it as such.

Case in point: the box has a front "cover" which attaches to the inside with a magnet. The inside flap has a window box where you can see the Thing, trapped I guess, along with a numbered mini placard and the movie logo.

Here's a better shot of the metallic numbered slip. I guess there were 1500 of these made.

The statue itself is very nicely made. You can tell this is designed after the Chiklis-Thing, but the body is rougher and rockier than the foam-like suit worn in the movie.

The base is a little weird, with columns or pillars seemingly holding the Thing up on his pedestal.

The front of the base is set up, I imagine, to look like a movie marquee, with the movie's logo again showing up. The less we're reminded of this film, the better, Kotobukiya!

This is the bottom of the statue, which is where the electronics are held and accessed. I didn't mention this feature until now. Did you know that this statue...

...lights up? It's not a terrible feature as far as novelties go. It does seem pretty odd to add this to a "fine art" statue, and it does attract even more attention to that damn logo, but it doesn't look too bad.

This honestly might be the only piece of merchandise I own from the 2007 film. It's not the best Thing statue I own, but I like it, and if nothing else, it's certainly the brightest!

Denny's Thing Burger taste test...why I hate the Fantastic Four movie...and an evening with the Steelers

Last summer, I took a drive out to Canton, Ohio to try out the new Thing burger from Denny's. Okay, I didn't drive out there SPECIFICALLY for that, but still, it makes it seem like I was on a trek to eat a hamburger named after the Thing and would stop at nothing to accomplish this goal. Why not.

I was surprised to see any kind of marketing campaign come out of the 2015 Fantastic Four movie, which had tons of bad publicity hanging over it even before filming was completed. Denny's seems like an odd choice, but I guess if you're Fox and someone wants to promote a film you've put a lot of money into, beggars can't be choosers.

It wasn't long before the film was scheduled to debut that I first saw the commercial:



It was also the first time that I said "huh, the Thing doesn't look so bad!" with regard to the new film. Of all the things the movie messed up, giving the Thing five fingers and making his eyes ANYTHING OTHER THAN BLUE is probably something I could have lived with. But it still annoyed me. Anyway, seeing a Thing promotion was pretty neat in any context.

The Denny's I went to had promotional imagery all over, which was, again, a surprise.

They even had special menus with Fantastic Four logos on them. I considered putting one under my shirt and walking out, but then I simply asked the waiter about them - and he gave me four (there were four different menus, each designed after a different character). Now I have four Denny's menus at my house. What will I do with these things? I don't know. But I'm glad I got them.

The Thing burger was the item being promoted most heavily, but there were actually a number of limited-time offerings, including a Human Torch skillet and Invisible Woman...pancakes:

Interestingly enough, Mr. Fantastic was the only member of the group who didn't have a menu item specifically named after him. There was a Fantastic Four-Cheese Omelette, but nothing that mentioned Reed. There was even a Dr. Doom-style dessert!

I don't often eat at Denny's (it had probably been two or three years since I had been to one), and the FF specials were limited-time deals, so there was no way I was taking a chance on anything but the Thing burger. Here's what it looked like:

The Thing burger came on a cheddar-cheese bun and came topped with bacon, cheese, an egg, hash browns and...Thing sauce (plenty of jokes to make there) with a side of fries.

The sauce tasted rather mustard-y. All in all, I liked it for a fast-food burger. I enjoyed the egg on top and the sauce was okay. I probably would get the hash browns on the side the next time I order it, in a parallel universe where this promotion lasted more than a few weeks and I felt like making another trip to Denny's. I'm glad that I was able to try out one of these - how many Fantastic Four-themed food items have there been since the 1970s? Now I've got visual proof that I tried some out in 2015.

So, I haven't seen the Fantastic Four movie yet. Is it strange that I bought FF-themed merchandise even though I have no interest in seeing the film? Yeah, I guess. I'm sure I'll see it at some point - hell, I'm sure I'll buy the DVD in a few years, when it's cheap - but everything leading up to it put a bad taste in my mouth (and not even the Thing burger could overcome it!).

I understand that Fox wanted to do something different this time around, if nothing else than to differentiate this new film from the lackluster effort that was made a decade ago, but it seemed that everything that could have gone wrong did, from casting to filming and everything in between. My biggest beef was with director Josh Trank, who seemed almost combative when presented with a skeptical audience. At every turn he seemed to ignore and outright refuse to pay attention to anything that had made the concept so popular over the last 50 years. And yes, I'm aware that the FF aren't as popular as they were in the '60s and '70s, and I'm aware that the Avengers and other Marvel properties have leapfrogged them in recent years for a number of reasons. But that doesn't take away the core elements that can still be something great, on screen and in comics.

I bought the above magazines a few weeks ago and was amused at how downbeat everything is, from the headlines to the inside article, about the film...and this is just weeks before it was released. It all came across as "the new Fantastic Four movie! People think it'll be terrible! But maybe it won't be!" It's obvious everyone involved was hedging his or her bets pretty heavily on this thing. My favorite part of the inside article came at the very end, from Trank himself:

So Trank "insist[ed] he wouldn't do anything differently" with the film...and then, a day after it premiered, he put out a tweet that said, basically, "I would have done a lot differently".

What a train wreck. Fantastic Four was easily one of the biggest flops of 2015. And, unfortunately, I can't help but feel like everyone involved on the creative and management end of it deserved everything they got. Do I sound bitter about all of this? I guess I am, but only because I love the characters so much. Movies - good or bad - don't define the franchise, but wouldn't it be great to see an Avengers-level Fantastic Four movie? One in which the Thing gets all of the attention and exposure the character deserves? I know I'd like to see it, and so far Hollywood is 0-for-4.

Oh well. We'll always have the Thing burger.

So what was I doing out in Canton, anyway? Why, I went there to see Pittsburgh Steeler great Jerome Bettis finally get inducted into the pro football Hall of Fame.

It was a great evening. Steeler fans outnumbered others by at least nine-to-one. It was raucous and lots of fun.

There were lots of pro football players at the event, including a number of Bettis's teammates. Here's James Farrior.

And here's Brett Keisel! What an impressive beard.

What else have I been up to? Oh, I made it into the trailer for the Christmas movie "Love the Coopers" with Olivia Wilde. In this scene I'm reading my copy of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, vol. 3. How...exciting? Sure.

"The Incredible Hulk Meets the Ever Lovin' Blue Eyed Thing" 1980s fan film

Fan films based on comic book properties are nothing new, but I had quite a shock a few weeks ago when I found the above 8mm film featuring none other than the Hulk and the Thing.  At this point, it's almost 35 years old, so I'm surprised that a copy survived to be digitized, but I'm glad that one made it to YouTube.

Despite the technological limitations of the period, the film quality is decent, all things considering.  It's amusing to see all of the different costumed characters in this film, from Superman to Darth Vader (Star Wars was pretty new at this point) to the Thing himself.  The costume belongs to Gerry Giovinco, who relays the story behind this film here.  Joe Sinnott even drew what amounts to the flyer for the film, as can be seen above.

The film itself is fairly crude and, interestingly enough, it doesn't feature the Hulk and Thing fighting - they just hang out and drink for a bit.  Maybe the people behind the film were worried about messing up that great Thing costume.  As Giovinco explains, he created the costume to wear at a convention - and 35 years later, I still have yet to see a better Thing getup at any con I've been to.

The entire film has its audio dubbed, which is, of course, a sign of when it was filmed.  One of the directors listed in the credits is none other than Bob Schreck, who went on to be a top editor at DC for a time and is part of the Legendary line of comics (publisher of Holy Terror) today.

The film even has an IMDB page.  I can't figure out if the Thing only has one eye, as you can only see the right eye throughout the film, of if the other is just perpetually shadowed.

The date for this film is either 1982 or '83 (I found both dates listed), and the Hulk obviously takes its cues from the Ferrigno version.  What a strange find.  The film seems pretty random and madcap throughout - someone compared it to the Rocky Horror Picture Show - but it's fun to see.  I wonder what these guys are up to today.  I'd sure love to chat it up with Giovinco about his Thing costume.

Unboxing the Marvel Collector Corps Avengers blind box! Plus a quick Avengers: Age of Ultron review!

A few months ago, Marvel announced that they'd be launching a new "blind box" subscription service.  These have become fairly popular over the last year (maybe the most well known is Lootcrate) as collectors and fans apparently like to have random things shipped to them several times a year.  I can relate to this; getting a package in the mail is always exciting and is one of the factors that defines my eBay obsession.  Having Marvel jump on this bandwagon is no surprise as its existing fanbase seems the perfect type of consumer to sign up.

Marvel calls the subscription service the "Marvel Collector Corps", which almost certainly tries to evoke memories of the Merry Marvel Marching Society of years past.  Each kit costs $25 plus about eight dollars in shipping.  Marvel claims that every box is packed with items that would retail for at least $50, and they ship six times a year.  I decided to give it a try, thinking that I could keep what I wanted and sell the rest.  The gamble here is that if I only wanted one or two things from a box, I could conceivably make most if not all of my money back by piecing out the rest; the danger is that I will want to keep everything in every box and lose money and space every other month.

The theme for the first month was the Avengers, which of course made sense because of the Age of Ultron movie that came out at about the same time.  My box came in the mail at the end of April, and it was really a sight to behold, with Captain America's head on the top and "Avengers" printed in bold letters on the side.  The packaging design was a nice bonus on top of the items inside.  Whoever at Marvel and Funko (Marvel's partner in the service) put the box together did a good jab at making even the packaging a collectable item.  The inside of the top lid had comic book panels from various books (featuring Avengers members) printed on it.

The first surprise upon opening the box, and something else that harkened back to the MMMS, was a patch and pin welcoming you to the Collector Corps.  These two items just oozed nostalgia, and they're the little things that collectors will probably be searching for in years to come.

The second lid folded back and revealed the main compartment with four different items.  It was an impressive sight.

The biggest and probably the most desirable item was probably the Hulkbuster Iron Man Funko Pop figure.  This (and each item) was an exclusive to the service and it was without a doubt the centerpiece.  It's a hefty piece, bigger than the average Funko figures from the same line.  It's an impressive figure.

Marvel also launched its "Dorbz" line with this kit.  It's funny that included in this blind box is another blind box, but I guess that's a successful marketing ploy at the moment.  Inside the box is a vinyl figure featuring yet another Age of Ultron character.

Next up was an Avengers shirt.  Apparently every box will include a shirt, and at least this time around, there were a total of four Avengers shirts, randomly inserted, each featuring a different avenger taking on Ultron on what looks like a boxing match promotional poster.  I got Thor.

Lastly was a variant to the first issue of the new Guardians Team-Up series, of course featuring the Avengers.  I'm glad that Marvel didn't forget to include actual comics in this subscription service.

All in all, I thought that the first box was a triumph for the company.  It included so many cool items - presented in a fun, collectible way - that it was hard not to get excited about it.  These boxes are big - bigger than shoe boxes by half, I'd say - and they'll start taking up a lot of room in people's garages before too long.  I signed up for an entire year of the boxes, so I'll be interested to see what June brings and what theme Marvel decides on.

Of course, my big hope is that one day soon there'll be a Fantastic Four-themed box.  Marvel is downplaying the team right now as it tries to reacquire the movie rights, so I don't expect it to happen soon, but eventually...I have to believe that there'll be some FF items arriving at my mailbox.  Now that is a box I'll keep in its entirety.  I might buy two.

Free Comic Book Day and all of the things surrounding that weekend kept me from seeing the Age of Ultron movie when it came out, but I finally got a chance to see it a few days ago.  It was a solid movie worthy of the franchise that has such lofty expectations placed on it.  It wasn't a perfect movie, and I don't think it was as good as the first one - it seemed uneven in places, and I think there was an over-reliance on really long action scenes as opposed to the quieter character moments that made the first movie so wonderful - but it's worth going to see.  It definitely tries to set up the movies that will come after, and seeing how this sequel is bringing in an ungodly amount of money, it's hard to envision a summer without a Marvel tentpole film for many years to come.  Here's hoping the quality remains high and the movies remain enjoyable.

"Weird Al" Yankovic's UHF movie screening, 5/31 in Greensburg, PA

Hey folks, it's been a long time coming, but I am finally ready to reveal my very first Kickstarter project: I'm screening a copy of "Weird Al" Yankovic's 1989 classic film "UHF" in Greensburg, PA on Sunday, May 31st.

If you've ever looked at this blog for at least one second, you probably realize that I'm a big fan of "Weird Al" Yankovic and all of the different projects that he undertakes.  UHF marks his only foray into moviemaking (for now) and it has become a cult classic in the years since its release.  Last year was the 25th anniversary of the film, and this year is the beginning of the Mandatory Fun tour, so I thought it'd be fun to put the two together and show the film before Al's May 31st stop in Greensburg.

The movie will be held at Latrobe 30 Theatre and Cafe, which is about 10 miles from Greensburg.  My hope is that fans will want to see the movie in the afternoon before going to see the concert later in the evening.

On this page I've posted a number of the Kickstarter rewards.  Directly above is an image for the full size movie poster, a 27x40 affair with art by Adrian "Bago" Gonzalez.  I'm really taken by it and hope that it's well received.

For those in the Pittsburgh area, I'm offering up tickets to the show itself, with four different images, each depicting a character from the movie with art by Rafer Roberts.

I realize, of course, that not everyone is from Pittsburgh (try it out some time, everyone), so there are a lot of rewards that can be had whether one attends the movie or not.  These pins feature 8-bit art of characters from the movie by artist Randy Riggs!  There's more of this 8-bit art to see if we hit our goal.

I might have shown this artwork before, but it's so great that it deserves to be shown again.  It serves as our opening, postcard reward with art by Pietro.

I'm also offering up several 11x17 prints, like this one with art by Caroline Moore...

...and this one, with art by Joe Badon.

I'm obviously very excited about this project and hope that it's successful.  If you'd like to view the project (and maybe even contribute to it!), just click on the following link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffmcclelland/uhf-movie-screening

Think of it as a love note to UHF, 26 years after the fact.  Take a peek and, if you can, share it with (close, personal) friends!

Rotten Tomatoes "Your Opinion Sucks: Critics vs. Fans" 2014 Comic-Con panel

It's not always easy to see a panel at Comic-Con.  You've got to invest significant time - sometimes hours - to see what sometimes amounts to an hour-long advertisement.  That's not to say you can't take in a panel and enjoy it, but the sheer number of people trying to attend, many of whom have the same interests as you do, can often make it nearly impossible to see more than a few each day.

It's because of this that I try my best to pick out one or two panels each day at Comic-Con that I really want to see more than any others.  If I tried to see every panel that looked interesting, I'd spend all day jumping from line to line, probably missing out on most.

The Rotten Tomatoes panel, thought, affectionately titled "Your Opinion Sucks!", is one of those panels that is a must-see.

I didn't know too much about the panel until I saw Rotten Tomatoes EIC Matt Atchity walking on the convention floor during preview night.  Matt is a great guy who I've had the fortune of seeing at the show for the past three years.  I'll never understand why he recognizes me, but we were able to have a nice chat on Wednesday evening, during which he told me about the panel, which was to take place on Friday evening, after the convention had closed up shop for the night.

At around 7:00 on Friday, I made my way up to the second floor of the convention center and found the room in which the panel was to take place.  I went in early and caught the tail end of the Zenescope panel (which was something).  At 7:20, the room cleared and I took at seat at the front.  I'm glad that I made it there early, because the room filled to capacity quickly with minutes to spare.

I honestly didn't know what to expect.  The panel was described as "critics vs. fans", and Matt had mentioned that it had gotten a little rowdy in previous years.  Panelists began to file in and I got a few pictures before it all started.  The emcee for the evening was RT senior editor Grae Drake, dressed as Crow T. Robot from Mystery Science Theater 3000.  To say that she is quick witted isn't doing her justice.

I grew up watching Leonard Maltin on Entertainment Tonight with my parents, so I was taken back when he came in.  I had to get a picture to send to my mom.  It was well received.

In many panels, the line for questions and answers fills up almost immediately.  This panel offered something much different, though.  Audience members were encouraged to discuss a movie and rate it as either "fresh" or "rotten".  Then they had to justify their choice to a panel of professional movie critics.  We were all given paddles with the icons on them and everyone in the room, panelist and audience member, could vote on whether or not they agreed with the speaker.

I jumped up and got in line pretty quickly.  Above is a picture of me standing in line, apparently very pleased with myself.

In addition to Leonard Maltin and the Atchity/Drake team from RT, there were a number of other critics, including Alonso Duralde from The Wrap, Scott Mantz from Access Hollywood and Tiffany Smith from Fandango.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that it's probably the most fun I've had at a Comic-Con panel.  The back-and-forth interaction between the audience and panel was spirited and exciting.  It was one of the few panels I've seen where it seemed like everyone in the room was actually enjoying themselves.

I had a few people ahead of me in line, which moved quickly and dealt with a wide range of films and included some passionate debate and keen insight (a fan's review of Hancock changed the way I'll look at that movie forever).  To give you a little context as to the below video, the two people directly ahead of me talked about the Transformers movies (the first in the series and then the third).  They each provided some great setup for my entry into the discussion, which my wife happened to film, unbeknownst to me at the time:

I've apparently kept a lot of pent up frustration about the television show "Lost", and it was fun to let it out and tell my opinions to a large group of others.  The reaction to the show was fairly mixed at the beginning, but I think that I at least got my point across to those who might disagree.

Completely unexpected (and very much appreciated) was Matt's mentioning of the Tick after my rant was over.  I'm just glad I kept my composure and didn't totally freak out in front of a group of people, who all seemed genuinely excited that I was writing the book.

As the event let out (and we all went on to other events...pictures from which I'll post soon), I managed to get one more picture with some of the panel critics.  What a fun time.  The Rotten Tomatoes panel is on my permanent "do to" list as long as it has a forum at Comic-Con.  If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it.