Category: Film & Television Series

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Film & Television Series Toys & Collectibles

Memento Mori: NECA Preps Predator Trophy Room

NECA's Predator Figures Trade War Stories in the Trophy Room
NECA’s Predator Figures Trade War Stories in the Trophy Room

NECA (National Entertainment Collectibles Association) has some really unique additions for your display shelves scheduled for 2013 and beyond. Their broad series of film and video-game licensed products are always expertly rendered and they have a sharp sense of the specialties collectors desire. Previous coverage of their product line can be seen here.

Heads You Lose…
One piece of particular interest spied at New York Toy Fair 2013 is the detailed replica of the Predator Trophy Wall as seen in Predator 2. Measuring 11” high x 12” across NECA says the limited edition diorama was created as “a reward to the fans who have faithfully collected all the various Predator figures and exclusives,” giving them a place of honor for the trophy skulls they’ve gathered. Not exactly what you’d bring home from the local bowling tournament but irresistible none-the-less. The backdrop comes replete with a massive toothsome lizard noggin as an exclusive. 7 more souvenirs of the extraterrestrial hunters’ quarry can be attached from your existing collection or purchased separately.

Limited Edition Trophy Wall…

Series 9 and 10 of the popular Predator action figure series will focus on two classics. Series 9 (June 2013) gives us two versions of Arnold Swartzenegger as Dutch Schaefer from the original 1987 film, as well as a semi-translucent “water emergence” version of his Yautja adversary. The “Jungle Disguise” Dutch is a spectacular piece, bound to be a favorite.

In Series 10 NECA chose to pay homage to the loveably loopy Kenner Predator figures by putting their own spin on the Nightstorm, Lava Planet and Hive Wars styles. These are currently scheduled for August release.

Predator Series 9…

Predator Series 10…

Loving the Alien(s)…
Of course you can barely utter the name Predator without alternately thinking of one of their prime prey, the Alien. NECA gives us a relaunch of the Aliens series, with Colonial Marines Hudson and Hicks, as well as a brand new xenomorph for them to battle. The marines measure approximately 7” inches tall and come with a hefty arsenal of weaponry and tech.

NECA's new 9" Xenomorph prepares to pounce on colonial marines.
NECA’s new 9″ Xenomorph prepares to pounce on colonial marines.

The new Alien measures an impressive 9” high and has 30 points of articulation, bendable tail, and extending interior jaws. NECA debuted these beauties at Toy Fair with a dazzling diorama including customized acid spattering wounded creatures. Sorry fans this one was for display only but it gave a great view of the extensive positioning the new creature toy is capable of. This one is a masterpiece of movability.

Just in case you have a hankering for the characters from the puzzling Alien prequel Prometheus, there is a full line of selections for you.

NECA has lots more in store including stunning 1/4 scale Adam West and Michael Keaton Batman figures and Lone Ranger, Kick Ass 2, and Carrie series. There are plenty of photos to share and I’ll be keeping you up to date as release times approach.

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Film & Television Series Photography Toys & Collectibles

Rumble in the Jungle: A Safari Photo Fantasy

king kong, safari good luck minis
SkeletonPete’s Photo Fantasy: Sarfari Ltd Good Luck Minis Prepare for a Rumble in the Jungle to Honor King Kong’s 80th Anniversary
Convergence…
The original 1933 King Kong – toys and miniatures – close-up photography. These are a few of my favorite things, and a bit of serendipity helped me mash them all up all into this one image.

Let Me Explain…
In the process of preparing continuing coverage of the 2013 American International Toy Fair I opened the little bag of goodies Safari Ltd offered to press folks reporting on their product line. Low and behold out fell a Tyrannosaurus Rex and great little gorilla, both part of Safari’s Good Luck Minis collection.

Since this coming weekend marks the 80th anniversary of RKO’s King Kong, I thought I’d have some photographic fun with the two Minis and a Polaroid close-up lens kit I purchased recently. I wanted to see how far I could push these simple screw-on adapters before shelling out for a “real” macro lens. I’ve also been contemplating what my first posting to Flicker’s Toy Photographers Group might be and this seemed a perfect opportunity to create a table-top tableau mimicking the thrilling battle between Kong and the T-Rex.

What It Is…
Using mostly household items, I did my best to recreate the mise en scene of Gustave Dore’s etchings which inspired the art direction of Kong 33’s Skull Island.

Along with the two Safari LTD. miniatures – which measure 7/8’s of an inch tall – there are brown and green bath towels as the foreground, plastic Christmas flowers that didn’t get stored away yet as the canopy, and a few slate drink coasters are the middle ground. A small acrylic painting of the Sedona, Arizona landscape I did twenty years ago is the distant background and some twigs from my front yard complete the effect. A frosted glass candle holder and a clear plastic bag were used to modify the output of a battery powered 126 LED light source.

Shot on a Nikon D300 with 50mm lens and +2 close-up adapter. I think the super-shallow depth of field produced by the adapter helps convey the look of an other worldly jungle. Aside from a slight crop the image is posted as shot, there’s no Photoshop post production.

Calling All Scream Queens…
Along with other “Kong-o-philes”, I’ll be celebrating the king’s birthday at NYC’s Film Forum screening this Sunday, March 3, 2013 at 11AM. The event includes a Fay Wray “scream-a-like” contest which should be a highlight.

What’s Up Doc…
Also see my recent post about Altus Press’s soon to be released pulpy pairing of Doc Savage and King Kong on Skull Island.

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Art Books & Graphic Novels Film & Television Series SkeletonPete Says

Walk On The Wild Side: Doc Savage & King Kong at 80

doc savage and king kong
Octogenerian Birthday Babies Doc & Kong

2013 marks 80th anniversaries for two icons of adventure, Doc Savage and King Kong.

My love for King Kong stems back to the 1950’s when the RKO Pictures catalog first came to television. That group of films was relentlessly screened by WWOR Channel 9 in New York as part of their “Million Dollar Movie” format. It offered proto “monster kids” like myself an opportunity to see the great gorilla trilogy of King Kong, Son of Kong, and Mighty Joe Young as many as 7 times in one week! What a wonderful way to imprint young brain cells forever.

My early 1970’s film writing professor’s cringed at my glowing critiques of Kong, a film they clearly considered high camp but the ensuing years have looked on it with a kinder skew. The world at large seems now more likely to agree with my view that it is as an elemental example of cinema where unfettered imagination and technical talent converges.

Alternately, I became a fan of Doc Savage fiction back in the 1960’s when Bantam Books revived the series in paperback format adorned with spectacular James Bama cover paintings. At the time I had no idea they were reprints of pulp books from thirty years earlier. Much like the Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars and Earth’s Core novels I was devouring concurrently, they were exciting and timeless stories aimed pretty squarely at a boy my age.

Two On An Island…
To celebrate these fortuitous 1933 births Altus Press will publish a pulp inspired tale bringing the two titans of American pop culture together. Scheduled for release in March Doc Savage: Skull Island will be the fifth installment of the company’s Wild Adventures of Doc Savage series and will be penned by neo-pulp and comics author Will Murray (aka Kenneth Robeson). Murray has been the leading legacy author of Doc Savage stories since he completed several of Lester Dent’s outlines for Bantam books.

Cover art will be rendered by Joe DeVito who is no stranger to the octogenarian characters. DeVito previously illustrated Kong:King of Skull Island, which is available for your iPad or Nook tablet, and has supplied art for Altus Press’s previous Doc Savage extrapolations.

The new story will take place in flashback after Kong’s fall from the Empire State building which also serves as Doc’s NY headquarters. Doc relates his first encounter with the outsized gorilla in the 1920’s which Murray notes will interconnect with Savage’s familial backstory. “I knew it had to be written with reverence for both of these immortal characters. So I used the locale of Skull Island to tell a larger story, an untold origin for Doc Savage. It all started back on Skull Island….”

Bama – Lama – King – Kong…
It’s interesting to note that Bama also illustrated the cover of Bantam’s first paperback edition of the Kong novelization. I still treasure my well worn first printing, purchased off the local newsstand back in 1965.

Should you not already own it, Brian M. Kane’s book James Bama – American Realist pulls the artist’s key works (including his art for the classic Aurora monster model kits) under one cover. It’s beautifully printed and offers a look at some of the photographic model poses Bama worked from for the Doc Savage paintings. I was fortunate enough to grab a signed and numbered deluxe slip-cased edition (with DVD) when it was first published in 2007, but hardcovers are still out there for a reasonable price. Highly recommended to say the least.

SkeletonPete Says…
This mash-up of two of my favorite adventure characters is an irresistible lure and I’m personally hoping it’s a grand slam rather than an offbeat footnote in their histories. I will admit to a bit of wariness based on the need to keep the power and mystique of these archetypes unmarred. Nonetheless this is one of the few books in recent memory I can say I’m eagerly awaiting.

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Film & Television Series Music

666 Rules, OK! The Devil’s Carnival Hits the Road


The Devil is in the Details
Yes, the devil is in the details when you’re trying to get an original film idea funded. The more outre, the less likely you’ll find willing investors who, not surprisingly, look for sure fire returns. That is how Darren Lynn Bousman explained the process to a goth bedecked audience at New York City’s Times Scare haunted house attraction. The director has been on both sides of the coin, overseeing three Saw sequels and the Mother’s Day remake. These kinds of projects find backers based on franchise popularity but in turn crowd out new concepts with “rehashed” retreads. Alternately, along with writer Terrance Zdunich, Bousman has created the indie as indie gets Repo, The Genetic Opera.

L to R - Darren Bousman, Terrance Zdunich, Joseph Bishara, Briana Evigan

The Event…
The NYC Devil’s Carnival Tour event found Bousman and company halfway through an interesting experiment. Part film experience, part live performance by local acts, part audience participation, Q&A and a meet and greet, it proposes a unique but risky DIY model that circumvents industry gatekeepers. It is quite a commendable effort and I believe inspiring to creative outsiders. Afterall, today’s harebrained schemes can turnout to be tomorrow’s business models. Tapping into the comicbook, sci-fi, horror and cosplay communities puts the creators directly in touch with an established fan base, kind of like a live version of Kickstarter. Their affiliation with goth goddess Emilie Autumn is what peaked the curiosities of both Ken Pierce and I in the first place.

The concept is somewhat akin to “midnight movie” culture where screenings of films like “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” had costumed audience members break the prosenium arch and become part of the event. It allows it’s producers to create a different experience at every tour stop. At the NYC event were treated to a contortionist, an audience member costume contest, a behind the scenes reel from the production of “Repo” (sing-a-long!), and a troupe of young ladies who offered an erotic tableau one might have expected to see in a Victorian bordello. Bousman, Zdunich, actress Briana Evigan and soundtrack producer Joseph Bishara were all on hand for a post screening Q&A session. A protracted meet and greet where they kindly signed posters and CD’s. They were genuinely thrilled to meet their fans and marveled at the creative costumery.

The Film…
The film itself follows a trio of characters castoff by a Geppetto like God (played by Paul Sorvino.) These folks are having a hard time on Earth and an even worse stay in Hades, inevitably caught by one of the 666 rules of the realm. Their individual narratives are based on the fables of Aesop. Meager change in the human condition over millennia validates the longevity of those simple parables.

Like “Repo”, “The Devil’s Carnival” is a musical. Unlike its progenitor – which is based in futuristic sounds – producer/engineer Bishara noted that the Carnival soundtrack reaches back to “ancient” instruments for its sonic landscape. The tuba driven low-end gives the film the feel of a Kurt Weill operetta or the rickety rawk of Tom Wait’s albums “Rain Dogs” and “Bone Machine.” Amazingly it was all tracked in one day long recording session. It ain’t rock, but it ROCKS.

Based on its budgetary constraints the film is quite opulent visually. Make-up, lighting and camera work are all top notch and inventive. The fairy tale stagecraft will likely remind you of Laurel and Hardy’s timeless “March of the Wooden Soldiers” (1934) but with strikingly saturated color. Think Mario Bava or the look of Juan Lopez Moctezuma’s “Alucarda, La Hija de las Tinieblas” (1977.)

The cast includes Briana Evigan (Mother’s Day), Ivan Moody (singer of Five Finger Death Punch), Slip Knot’s Clown Shawn Crahan, Dayton Cally (Sons of Anarchy), Sean Flanery (Boondock Saints) Emilie Autumn and plague rats, Alexa Vega (Spy Kids franchise), Jessica Lowndes (Altitude) and screenwriter Zdunich as the dark lord himself.

The film, which runs under 1 hour is a cliff hanger, it’s follow-up script already completed. Bousman revealed teasers that part 2 will include more views of the “Heaven Carnys”, thereby more Paul Sorvino (Yay!), and a duet between Emilie Autumn and Clown.

SkeletonPete Says…
I love the way the ensemble tune “Six Hundred Sixty Six Rules” parodies Rent’s “Seasons of Love” (aka “525,600 Minutes”), what a hoot.

If you have the opportunity to catch “The Devil’s Carnival” in the latter half of the tour be assured of a great time. I suggest you dress to the nines in your best fantasy fineries and participate, it’s rule #667.

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Film & Television Series Toys & Collectibles

Avengers Resembled, Toy Fair 2012 Round-Up

Toy Fair 2012 Was Awash in Avengers Movie Tie-in's

Joss Whedon’s recent denial of writing either The Kree or The Skrulls into the upcoming Avengers movie has fandom buzzing again about who or what the villainous planet attackers that we’ve been seeing in the trailers are. While that little tempest in a teapot continues to brew I thought I would go back to my Toy Fair 2012 photos and pull together a gallery of what was on display there.

Expect a deluge of Avengers themed toys, games and action figures from Lego, Neca, Funco and Diamond Select (I love those mini-mates). Check out my earlier posting on tokidoki for a look at their cool Avengers baseball caps, and the Peavey musical instruments story, illustrated with images of their superhero adorned guitars.

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