No Red One!

Good news, I earned a few extra bucks teaching at a friend's school tonight. Bad news, 2 new Gatcha machines!

There goes all that earned dough...

Ooh, a new Godzilla Gatcha featuring some rarely reproduced figures. Colour coded capsules, I got 3 green, 3 black and 3 orange, BUT NO RED ONE!

Ooh, a new Rocket Raccoon series! (I never did complete the first series!) I don't know how long this machine has been in operation, I ended up getting the last three, a black, purple and green, BUT NO RED ONE!

Ah well, it's getting late, I'll go through my goodies tomorrow. 

I finished at 9:00 and there was a late show of RED ONE starting at 9:35. With ads and previews, it ended around 11:50, I had to skip out early in order to catch the last subway so NO RED ONE end credits for me. I have no idea whether or not there was an after-credits gag.

Fortunately, the Warners website has a whole heard of trailers and you can watch them all here. Here's a taste:

 It seems that EVERY main actor in this movie has had a comic book movie connection.

Dwayne was Black Adam, Chris of course was Captain America AND the Human Torch, Lucy Liu was Kalisto in Shazam 2, Kiernan was in Riverdale (TV, that counts), J.K. Simmons has been a newspaper guy in both Spider-Man and Superman, Bonnie was in Jumanji (does that count?), the kid Wesley was in WandaVision, even Krampus himself, Kristofer, was in Game of Thrones (does that count?)!

All in all, I really like the movie. I don't think you can portray Santa for a couple of decades and not feel sentimental towards the RED ONE!

Just so I have a little Godzilla content, here are 15/20 stickers that I have wrangled and surprisingly have received no doubles.

I only wish they were numbered in some way so I can find out which ones I'm missing.

FYI, there's a Moomin Pop-up at Sendai Station if you're in the area.

And there's a honking-big Christmas tree up with some unusual ornaments.

I'll show off my Gatcha loot tomorrow.

WwBN.

Late last night, I caught the very first Marvel TV Special featuring Werewolf By Night. I loved it from beginning to end! Without getting all spoilery, I will make a few observations. 

I liked WwBN comic when it first came out. I missed a few first appearances but read it consistently from about issue 5 onwards. Mike Ploog rules. Ploog also ruled with early Man-Thing art of which I read every issue. I also read and enjoyed the first few appearances of Ulysses Bloodstone. 

 

Those covers were scammed from the internet. Enough comics talk and back to the special.

Opening credits...AWESOME! Cameo head appearances by several famous monsters. Great fight scenes albeit a little gruesome for Marvel. I'm sure the black and white format helped. ALL the leads were wonderful. Ted looked great! 

The dude who played one of the hunters, Jovan, is Kirk R. Thatcher. He was the punk on the bus in Star Trek IV who was taken down by a Vulcanized nerve pinch. There are a few nods to Wizard of Oz in this special and Kirk also happened to direct Muppet Wizard of Oz!

Another unintentional coincidence is that Verussa Bloodstone is played by Harriet Sansom Harris. She was also Frasier's agent on his sitcom. The dog Eddie on that show was a Jack Russell Terrier. Awooo!

Nice little heads up to several (not all) the creators in the end credits.

Furthermore, I like this Special Thanks as well.

I hope there will be future TV specials and many more horror characters brought into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One small quibble about this show was the lack of mention of Moon Knight. Ah well, it was only 52 minutes long.

I happen to have a few items of a lycanthropic nature in my collection. Such as this Silver Bullet.

Apparently if I keep it in the freezer and then place it in shot of whiskey, it'll remain cold.

I also have another boozy item. I think it's a spout that attaches to a wine bottle so it pours slowly and grotesquely. 

I also have a large sticker, though nowhere to stick it.

No Wolfman t-shirt handy. How about a Frankenstein instead?

I've already watched two Dr. Phibes movies today and the new Scooby Doo. Yay Velma comes out! (Spoiler but Google spoiled it already.)

I probably going to watch a werewolf movie now that I've never seen before. (Ginger Snaps, maybe.)

May I suggest that you check out AEIOU and sometimes Why just to see what they've got cooking this Countdown...

Wakanda Fool Am I?

It's breaking all kind of records in North America and on Thursday, we fans in Japan will also get to see what the hype is all about. Fortunately, some goods have come out prematurely so I can show them off to you now.
This is a Double-Clear File with pockets.

A boring old single Clear File.

This one has a nifty insert page within that looks cool but is tough to photograph.

A couple of stickers.

And a set of four note pads. I think I'll give these out to my graduating classes in a few weeks.

When at the Cinema, I had the opportunity to Cosplay as one of the few white characters in the movie.

This is what the backdrop looks like without the chubby guy.

The cinema mag has a little write-up of the movie.

As you can see from the above photo, Momota Kanako of Momoiro Clover Z portrays the voice of one of the leads.

Credit where credit is due department, today's blog title was scammed from this mash-up page.

Take a Wakanda Wild Side.

March comes in like a Panther this year for the First is the Japanese premiere of Black Panther. Sure it opens a few weeks earlier in North America and is already touted to be a Box Office Bonanza based on advanced ticket sales.

Speaking of advanced tickets, the above picture is of my advanced ticket that I just purchased. With it, one receives a little packet.

Within that are four little cards and one is sparkly!

The flipside of those cards makes up a mini puzzle.

There are three different sets of cards to chose from. I may have to go back and buy some more tickets to assuage the completist in me.

This is a copy of the promotional flyer for the film. Pretty nifty!

Before Black Panther shows up here, we'll be getting another Marvel movie making its debut, Marvel's Inhumans! Sure, that was a rather unsuccessful TV show in the US but over here, it'll be big blockbuster!

Unfortunately, this movie won't be shown locally so I'll have to try and track it down in a nearby city.

At least we have something to look forward to until Avengers Infinity War which surprisingly will be released a week earlier than North America!!

More Movie Mayhem, Mainly My Mummy.

So I wonder, when Ahmanet is winking is she actually blinking?

I saw the latest version of The Mummy on opening day and by ignoring the latest trailers and critics' reviews, and 8 weeks of the Web,  I managed to go into the movie with a mostly unspoiled frame of mind. That being said, I did still know a little about it, such as its involvement in the Dark Universe and that Tom Cruise will be hamming it up on screen.

I was not disappointed, Tom was as hammy as ever. Sure, I still have to ignore the huge plot holes and undead zombies instead of mummies and occasionally off-putting FX, yet I managed to enjoy the comic relief and the crows (including Russell Crowe) and the gals in the movie, especially Sofia Boutella, as seen in the pics below and at that link. 

One thing that I hope to track down is this collaborative Mummy Manga. Click that link for a few more details.

When at the cinema, I convinced a couple of High School gals to take a photo of me inside this sarcophagus. Cheese!

   

While I had my photographers with me, I asked them to take a pic of me getting an X-ray.

I did not expect to have an unwanted guest in my belly! (Click the pic to embiggen it.)

At first, I was taken aback by this character...

But then I looked in its eyes and I met my new Ghoul-friend!

I bought an advanced ticket for Tokyo Ghoul and hope to see it tomorrow. After that, I plan to download the new Augmented Reality app I was given with the ticket. Hopefully, I'll be able to point my phone at something and see a Ghoul sitting there!



Another movie I saw recently was John Wick 2. Lots of dumb ol' fun, recommended if you liked the first one (and the inevitable third one.) Here is the clear file I landed when I bought an advanced ticket.

   

Hey, I just got that joke. His name is Wick. Light a candle again and it is RELIT. Tee hee!

Finally Spider-Man will swing its way into our cinemas in less than two weeks. In the interim, you can check out this contest...
*Edit: thanks to a commenter, here is a link to a 109 Twitter campaign.

And in a few weeks after that, I can enjoy some Wonder Woman/ Hello Kitty popcorn!