The book or the movie?

First of all does anyone remember these type of monster books from elementary school?

I definitely do which is why you are getting this blog post!  Of course, that was so damn long ago, I don't remember which books I read, but I remember the "orange monster books".  I remember getting them from the 10th Avenue School library.  I showed the book to Cody and he didn't recognize it, but when I had it sitting out on the table in Cranbrook, Matt saw it and said he read those books in school and he went to school out in Ontario.

In fact this book that I found at the thrift store is actually from a school, the Assumption School Library.  I've never of Assumption and had to google it and it's some town called Chateh (aka Assumption) waaaay up in north west Alberta.  Some how the book found it's way down to Cranbrook, then to the thrift store.

Looking at the list of books on the back cover, they are all from Universal movies.  The books are based right off the movies obviously as they use stills from the movies themselves.

I went on eBay and picked up the Universal Vault Series DVD of The Deadly Mantis.  The movie is black and white and was made in 1953.  The DVD is as sparse as it gets, there is literally just the movie on it.  There are no extras, there isn't even a menu!

The movie wasn't bad, it was fun to watch.  One of the main characters was Col. Parkman, and when he was first introduced as Col. Parkman, I called him Col. Fartman.  Then whenever someone in the movie said "Col. Parkman" I would say "Col. Fartman" and eventually it sounded like the actors in the movie were saying "Col. Farkman" as well.  Farts jokes = comedy.

Now I need to track down all the other books in the series.  I did a quick search of "Crestwood House monster books" and there are few articles/videos out there about them and seems like everyone else came across them at the school library as well.

Loot

Today I went to Market Mall just to get a new hoodie from Old Navy, but since I was there I decided to check out Toys R Us and the Disney Store to see what Star Wars goodies they had.  Unfortunately, they didn't have much which sucked.  I got a hoodie and a $3 shirt from Old Navy and they had a cool Friday the 13th t-shirt, but it was $20.  Those licensed tees used to be $14.99, damn you recession!

I also had to get gas and the Goodwill is right beside the Petro Can there, so we checked it out as it's been forever since I set foot in one.  I didn't expect to find anything good, but I did.

A shirt, DVD, and a book!

The DVD is actually from the UK so it's a different region and PAL, but luckily for me I still got my old hacked Philips DVD player.  They also had Scanners and Scanners III, but I already have the first one and the third one isn't supposed to be that great.  I'm just watching it for the exploding head part.  The book is cool because its mostly pictures!  Lots of cool pics of old skateboard stickers...memories.

After the "mall" we went to go check out Burger King because I saw on Instagram that BK has a Halloween Whopper out that comes on a black bun.  This was all a tease as they never had it once we got there.  Its either late getting here or it's a US only thing and not coming at all.  Boo.  Way to get my hopes up internet.

FFF

Another Force Friday is here and for future reference Force Friday can be any day of the week except Friday.  That's how I roll.  I've posted the trailers for the new Star Wars Battlefront video game on here already, but they're announced the date for the upcoming beta!

The beta will start October 8th and run to the 12th and will be on the XBox One(me), PS4(Cody) and PC(Cam and Cody).  The beta will feature three modes, Walker Assault, Drop Zone and Survival.  The Survival mode can be played offline solo or co-op online or split screen local.  I'm sure I can sucker Cody into playing some split screen Star Wars with me.  I'm not sure how we managed to play all the XBox 360 games split screen back in the old days.  It will be a bit of an adjustment.  I just have to figure out to connect my damn XB1 controller to the console.  It disconnected and won't reconnect now.

I also got this sticker but can't decide if I should put it on my lunch box or Trapper Keeper.

Force Friday III

Here is the post that I meant to put up last Friday.  Also, in case you are wondering I am like 20 minutes away from finishing Tomb Raider...well the story part anyway.  After that I'll be picking up collectibles and completing all the tombs.  But on to the "good" stuff...

I mentioned this already, but they released a new die cast Titanium version of the Millenium Falcon and I finally picked one up at Wal-Mart.  It's part of The Black Series which is a fancier version of Star Wars figures and vehicles.

This Falcon is based on one from The Force Awakens as it had a new rectangular dish on the top cuz Lando smashed the old one off.  Remember that?!.  As you can see from the picture the black paint on the cockpit and circles on the nose of the ship looks pretty sloppy.

The plastic dish and turret rotate and there is also another small turret on the bottom of the ship that also rotates.  It comes with a clear plastic display stand that has the Star Wars logo on the front.

The new Titanium Black Series Falcon on the left, while the Hot Wheels Falcon is on the right.  I like the Hot Wheels Falcon better just because it looks cleaner, it's bigger and it's cheaper.  The new one does look cool, but the paint on it could've been a little better especially it's part of The Black Series.

Head over to Wal-Mart to get yours today!  I had to go to a Wal-Mart across town because the one closest to us is a total ghetto welfare Wal-Mart.  Also, sorry you wait for four days for that.  LOL!

#monstermask

I've been meaning to post something since Friday, but I've been busy every night either watching a movie or playing Tomb Raider.  Tomb Raider: The Definitive Edition is the free right now on XBox One as a part of Games with Gold, I also downloaded Crysis 3 on the 360.  I wasn't sure if I was going to like TR, since right at the start there is some lame quick time events, but it got better.

It's pretty serious, but kind of funny at the same time.  At the start you are just traversing the environment, until you start to run into the bad guys.  You get in a fight with one guy and end up shooting him in the head.  Lara is all freaking out that she just killed some guy, and they try to make it all emotional, but like less than a minute later you are gunning down other guys, breaking necks and shooting them with your bow.   That whole moment seems pointless after that, like why even bother?  Also, while I was on the beach I shot a crab with my shotgun and got an achievement.

Anyway, here is a picture I forgot to put in the Boo Berry post.  If you flip over the box there is a cut out mask on the back.

According the instructions on the back they want you take a picture of someone(a kid I guess) and post it online and tag it #monstermask.  I searched Instagram for that tag and got a ton of hits, but only like two General Mills cereal related ones.  I guess I'll have to make it three then...

Something smells fishy around here...

Today I went to Chinatown and went to the movie store in hopes of picking a few movies and while I got some movies, they weren't the ones I was specifically looking for.  Good thing for me my mom will be in Hong Kong the beginning of November.  I also stopped by the snack food store to grab some Hi-Chew and similar candy because I can't resist buy 2 get 1 free.

Most of the candy is fruit flavoured and I usually get green apple, cherry, strawberry, grape and cola too of course.  This time I spotted a new flavour because all the others just had picture of fruit on them, but this package had a character on it.  I'll take a mascot or character based candy over a piece of fruit any day.  While I still don't read Japanese it was pretty obvious it was salmon or sushi based which sounds pretty gross, so you know I had to buy two packages.

Say hello to Kirimi-chan, the newest Sanrio character who is a salmon fillet and "a star in the sliced food world".  Pretty weird for a slice of fish to be a marketable character, but apparently that's what the Japanese people want as Kirimi-chan was the winner of the Food Character Election held in 2013.  The runner up was an egg.  I swear I'm not making this up.

For sale in Japan only?  Haha, I don't think so.

It's pink like salmon.

Even the bottom of the candy is grey which is what the back of a salmon fillet would look like if the skin was removed.  I like the attention to detail here.  It looks the part, but does it taste like salmon?

I tried a piece and at first it doesn't taste like much, but after a few chews it does have a weird salmon-y taste.  I gave one to Cody and told him to eat it and let me know what it tasted like.  He didn't like it and said it tasted like "beef".  I guess since I knew it was a salmon flavoured candy I "knew" what I was tasting.  Still he was close I suppose.  The end result is that it's not very good and next time I'll stick with cherry or cola.  Still this is what everyone is getting for Christmas this year.

Boo

Remember last year when Count Chocula and Frankenberry made their long awaited return to cereal aisles in Canada?  Well, it took a year, but Boo Berry has finally made it as well!

Cody found these at Co-op and they've yet to be spotted anywhere else.  The look exactly the same as Count Chocula and Frankenberry, they are just a different colour, purple.  They do taste the best though.  Hey General Mills, we still need Yummy Mummy and Fruit Brute!  But wait...Co-op isn't done yet because they also had Count Chocula treats!

Cody just bought the Boo Berry, but he told me about the Count Chocula treats, so I had to grab myself some.  He said he saw  "Count Chocula granola bars" so I was expecting a box of maybe six cereal bars, not a giant box of 40 mini treats.  I have a feeling they might still be sitting around come Halloween, so I have something to give out if I decide to answer the door.

These are both limited edition, so get yours before they are gone!  

Force Friday II

Last Friday was Force Friday, the day all the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens crap was released.  I was at work, but I did go to Wal-Mart...on Saturday.  There wasn't much left except for some vehicles and some lightsabers.

The good news is that Micro Machines are back making Star Wars vehicles.  They had packs containing an assortment of ships and a couple itty bitty SW guys.  I went and bought the cheapest thing they had, a Micro Machines blind bag containing a single vehicle.  You don't know which ship you will get, and whenever I buy one of these blind bag/box toys I always get the one I don't want.

Yep, a Naboo star fighter.  Boo.

The bottom of the ship has a hole where it looks like a stand would go, but it didn't come with a stand.  The thing is that I didn't see stands in the larger packs either which sucks.  The old Micro Machine Star Wars vehicles all came with display stands and what's the point putting a hole in the bottom if there aren't going to be stands?  Long story short, a bit of a disappointment.

There were also some new die cast Star Wars vehicles, but not from Hot Wheels.  The new die cast vehicles came in black boxes and were a mix of classic Star Wars and The Force Awakens vehicles.   The did have a Millenium Falcon one which is weird as I mentioned there was a Hot Wheels die cast Falcon released not that long ago.  They do look pretty similar, but I did notice the new version has a different dish on it, so maybe the new one is modelled on the The Force Awakens version of the Falcon.  I should've bought the die cast Falcon instead of the Micro Machines.

Random picture off my phone

Could be re-sized to make a sweet avatar.

Space Wars

When the Chinese aren't making bootleg Lego guns they're making bootleg Star Wars Lego which is twice as bad because they're really ripping off two properties at once!  I forgot I had this picture on my phone as I was too distracted by bootleg Lego guns at the time.  It's here though just in time for the anti-Force Friday, something that starts with a "M" Monday.

This box has it all, a picture of Darth Vader, Star Wars style font, even the Lego guys(or one of them) is a total rip off of Battle Droid and the ship is called a TIE Interceptor.  Despite being a total rip off it still looks kinda cool and has spring loaded shooters.  It is also much more affordable at $12 where if it was an actual Lego Star Wars ship it would be more like $30.  I also saw a different Space Wars kit that came with a bootleg Obi-Wan figure.  As cool as it is I would still buy a Lego gun.

Force Friday

If you didn't know today, September 4th, is Force Friday!  All the new Star Wars toys for The Force Awakens have been unleashed in stores everywhere.  Lots of exclusives and freebies at different retailers made it all really annoying, but I was a work, so missed it all.  Remember when The Phantom Menace toys came out and everyone was buying that crap like crazy and Darth Maul was really hard to find?  Now it sells all for next to nothing, so I'm sure it will be the same with all this new stuff.  

When the The Force Awakens trailer first came out we (Cam and I) complained about a couple things, X-Wings manoeuvring in the atmosphere, a lightsaber with a hilt and BB-88.  BB-88 is the roller ball droid and at the time I was like, that's so CGI.  Then I found out, that he wasn't CGI, but a real functioning piece of tech.  Well now, he's an actual functioning toy from Sphero.  I bought Logan a regular Sphero last Christmas, so I know how they work.  The BB-88 is obviously an advanced version with more features and a head!  If you're interested just google BB-8 Sphero and you'll see a ton of hits.  And they all say it's awesome.

I was bored and looking through the Google Play store on my phone and went and download the Star Wars app, which is free.

It is just a basic Star Wars app with weather, latest Star Wars news, and extras like selfie booth, a lightsaber trainer, augmented reality as well as pictures and sounds.  The force trainer has you using your phone as your lightsaber blocking blasts from a remote.  It's pretty cheesy.  The augmented reality thing is a bit disappointed as you need to scan special posters with your phone to activate it.  So I guess you'll have to visit Toys R Us or Wal-Mart to find one.  The Selfie booth I actually used, so check it out!

It works, but I didn't like how it just put your face in a pre-built character.  It would be awesome if you could put pictures of yourself in Star Wars scenes or yourself beside Star Wars characters.  That would be something I might actually pay for.  Get on it Disney.

I know you are, but what am I?

Today was one of my days off, so I was out cruisin' and I was wearing my Loners & Rebels t-shirt inspired by Pee-Wee's Big Adventure from 8bz.  I was in some store and some dude with a bandanna on his head asks me, "Is that a local club?"  I was really paying attention and was thinking "What is he talking about, is that guy talking to me?"  Then he says again, "Are the Loners and Rebels a local Calgary club?" because he thinks my shirt is a shirt for an actual biker gang!  Then I told him it was just a shirt inspired by the movie Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, then he started laughing.  At least he had heard of the movie because everyone knows that movie is awesome.