HANS OF DOOM

If you follow my Instagram, you'll see a post today of a picture of a poster with the title "Hans of Doom" on it.  If you are from Cranbrook or Kimberly then you'll pick up from the title and outline of the menacing figure on the poster, that it's horror featuring Kimberly's mustachioed mascot, Happy Hans.

I took the picture because the poster looked pretty cool, but I really wasn't sure what it was.  I thought maybe it was some kind of play, but it's actually a short film which is good because now I'll actually watch it.  You can too!  It's on YouTube, so you can check it out below.  If
you want to know more then just google it, don't be so lazy.

Smash and grab

Hey guys, check this out...

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/thieves-steal-atm-from-signal-hill-superstore-1.4022716

Who could have committed such a dastardly act?  

Imports

I'm back at again having to bring over another Marvel movie on 3D blu-ray from Hong Kong because Disney won't release it here in North America.  They will release it in all other parts of the world, but not North America.  I thought Disney loved money, so why not?

So I got Black Panther in a 3D blu-ray and blu-ray pack to add to the GOTG Vol. 2 and Thor: Ragnarok 3Ds I also had to import.  Now I own all the Marvel movies starting with Captain America: The First Avenger to Black Panther in 3D.

Of course I thought it seemed a waste to order just one movie when I could order a couple more and still pay the same for shipping...

I picked up two Jackie Chan classics, Armour of God and Armour of God II.  If Armor of God II looks familiar it's because it was released in North America as Operation Condor.  Too really confuse North American movie viewers Amour of God was released here as Operation Condor II.  So the second one became the first and the first became the second.  At least now I can watch the original uncut and undubbed versions. 

I have a lot of Jackie Chan movies, some the Chinese version, some the US version and for some I own both versions.  I don't think I own Armour of God at all, and I haven't watched it in forever and Armour of God II I've only seen the US cut.

Before I can watch these I still have to finish watching the last batch I ordered from Hong Kong.  I've got one disc left from Ultraman X to finish the series then that's it.  Oh plus the other stack of crap I've bought at Wal-Mart...and the thrift store...and Phoenix...

Also, it's okay Mike, I know you are not a robot.

XXXXXXX!!!!!!

Does anyone even read this anymore?  I know the bots do because I see my comments section is full of annoying spam comments.  At least I'm still getting hits!

I did a movie order from Hong Kong a few weeks ago, although all the titles were Japanese.  Their shipping is getting really good, the past couple orders my movies have arrived in a week, and I always use the cheapest shipping option.

I got Ultraman X the series, in two volumes.  Volume one is three discs of 12 episodes and volume two is three discs of the final 12 episodes.  I just finished watching volume one and while the A/V is pretty good, and I only spotted one error in the subtitles, the packaging could've been better.

I'm not sure why the three discs have to be in three separate cases when each discs only holds four episodes.  There isn't much in terms of extras, except a lone trailer and the episodes are only 25 minutes each, so they probably could've put six episodes on one disc and put the entire Vol. 1 in a single case holding two discs.  Instead I'm going to have two box sets with six cases total taking up valuable shelf space.

Aside from the bulky packaging, the series is pretty good so far, lots of fun monsters and big monster fights.  I'm sure people would complain about the "guys in rubber suits", but it looks real, way better than some CGI stuff.  There is a lot of CGI in the show, but usually it's used to enhance stuff and make it cooler.

Ultraman doesn't get much exposure over here in North America which sucks if you want to watch it.  I know there is a niche steaming company has started offering multiple Ultraman series to watch plus lots of other Japanese content, but unfortunately it looks like it's only available in the US.  I'm assuming due to rights issues or something.  

The current trend in Japanese cinema is to make movie based on popular manga/anime series and Attack On Titan is one that came out a few years ago.  The movie was split in two parts and reviews were mixed for the movies, but I had only seen the first episode of the anime, so my knowledge of the material was limited.   That is probably why I liked it more than a fan of the manga or anime would, I'm not going to be too critical.  It's not perfect, but it was a fun way to spend a couple nights, plus lots of goopey deaths.  It is probably on Netflix, so check it out if you are bored.

Unlike the Ultraman X series, this one does it right, putting both movies on one disc with a few extras, like trailers and a photo gallery.

Okay, I know Gantz: 0 is on Netflix because I watched it on there a while ago.  Hopefully, it's still on there.  I haven't watched this one yet, but I'm getting to it.  I picked it up just to add to my Gantz live action movies, even though they aren't directly connected.  Just more monsters, shiny suits, crazy sci-fi weapons and more goopey deaths.

The weird thing with these discs is that while they are all region A, they won't play in my Sony blu-ray player which doesn't make sense.  I've never had a problem with it before, when I put in the Ultraman X and Attack on Titan discs it played the warnings that all discs have on them when you load one up, but instead of going to the disc menu, it just kicks back to the player main menu.  I thought maybe it was the disc, but I tried them in my X Box and they played fine and the X Box can be finicky.   Maybe I'll have to upgrade my player soon.

Battle of the Bands

So I was at London Drugs near my place last week because I went to mail a package.  Whenever I go there I also at least browse the food aisles looking for a snack.  This time I also went down their meager toy section that has books and trading cards.  Unfortunately, there were no Star Wars trading cards, I ended up buy a pack of Garbage Pail Kids just for the hell of it.

Garbage Pail Kids were an 80's parody of Cabbage Patch Kids.  Topps Trading Cards made trading cards of gross out characters and it was popular enough to spawn a terrible movie.  In fact, I just watched the movie not too long ago and I can confirm that it is indeed terrible.  Like everything from the 80's, Garbage Pail Kids are seeing a resurgence in various sets of trading cards.  The pack I bought parodies the music genre in Battle of the Bands.

There are different musical genres represented in the set, here some I got in my pack.  Now, let's see if we can recognize the actual bands the cards are making of.

Okay, this one is pretty easy, its a riff on Mastodon.

I'll admit I'm not sure who In Control Curt is, so I'm going to need some help.  The back of card says "Alternative" if that helps.  I thought Nirvana, because the left hand guy looks like Kurt, but the other guys don't really resemble Dave and Krist.  Well, the other puppet guy maybe kinda looks like Krist.  What do you guys think?

Lol, it's Green Day!  That one was pretty easy.

Love Shack Cindy is obviously from Love Shack by the B-52s .  I noticed this card had a green splatter around the border while the other cards didn't.  I looked online at a checklist and this card is a puke parallel.  Makes sense when you think about it.

Grateful Dead.

It's Pitbull, I guess the kids like him, or they did.

Here we go with Cracking Corgan smashing some pumpkins.  It's seems familar, but I just can't put my finger of who this reminds me of...

You know you've made it as a performer when you are parodied in a Garbage Pail Kids trading card.  Congratulations to Rivers Cuomo, those 26 years of hard work have finally paid off.

According to the package you can get artist sketch cards, too bad I didn't get one of those.  I also saw they had other GPK card sets there, one was called We Hate the 80's.  Sounds kinda funny, I might pick up a pack next time I'm in!

I'M BACK!!

Well, this place has certainly gone downhill pretty fast.  I'm pretty sure I just saw a tumbleweed roll by.  But I'm back, but after nothing exciting happening for so long, what would possibly come up that would deserve a post?  Well,  it's two of my favorite words, "free" and "socks".

I saw a display of these at work when I was leaving today and didn't pay much attention like I do to everything and everyone else at work, but as I passed by I caught the "Free Socks" on the box and nearly got whiplash.  I went upstairs and grabbed my jacket and went back to buy a box.  I even had to wait in line to pay for one box, but it was worth it.

One box is one pair of socks.  I was hoping you wouldn't need multiple PIN codes and luckily you only need one code to get a pair of socks.

The box does say to "Collect all 3", so you aren't limited to a single pair.  I will try my damnedest to get all three.  I'll probably start with the CTC pair, then Honey Nut Cheerios and finally Lucky Charms.  In tiny printing on the back of the box it does say "Designs subject to change.", but I hope they stay the same.  I also hope they will fit me.

As always supplies are limited so if you want a pair you better some quick.  What pair will you be getting??

SUPER RAD!

In what appears to be to now my monthly blog post, I'll just randomly hype up a TV show that I've recently watched and really liked.  I actually meant to do this before with TV shows "Pickle and Peanut" and "Agent Carter", so you should watch those ones or whatever.

I'm here to talk to you today about the totally awesome, totally rad "children's" TV program, "The Aquabats! Super Show!"  The Aquabats! are a band I've been aware of for like the past fifteen years or more.  I had heard of them, but then bought one of their cassette's from a thrift store because back when I was still driving my truck which had a tape player.  Anyway, over the years I bought more of their albums and kept and eye on them.



Then it was announced they were getting their own TV show on a network called, The Hub.  I don't get that one, so I had to wait for a DVD release and when Season 1 was finally released I added it to my Amazon wish list and then never got around to buying it.  I'm not sure why, I always ended up just buying something else instead.   In that time the show aired and then unfortunately got cancelled.  Years passed...

Then not that long ago I was bored and was looking at random crap on the internet and made my way to the Aquabats! website where I found out they just released season 2/3 of The Aquabats! Super Show! on blu-ray.  I figured it was finally time to cave it and ordered the blu-ray from the Aquabats! website and then ordered the DVD from Amazon.

Now that I finally had both the season sets, it was time to get to work.  I worked tirelessly and managed to get through everything in three days.  That wasn't too hard to since since it is only 13 episodes for season one, 5 episodes for season two and three "specials" which I guess are season three.

I feel like I'm rambling a bit here, but long story short, it's good and I want more!  It is a children's show, but some of the humor is aimed more at adults.  It's like a mix of the old Batman show, Power Rangers and The Monkees.  The effects and monsters sometimes look cheesy, but it actually makes them look better.  Each episodes usually has the band fighting a monster and includes two cartoon shorts and a fake parody commercial.  The show was nominated multiple times for a Daytime Emmy and even won one.  I made Cody watch the episode, "Haunted Battletram!" and he even laughed!  Usually, Cody hates everything, so you know it's good.

Check out the full length Christmas episode!

I bought some stuff....Volume 731

I've been getting worse at updating the blog here.  It doesn't help when I go days without even turning on my laptop.  So here is a filler post of some stuff I bought on a trip to Phoenix/Melodyia this week.

I bought the new Beck album "Colors" on vinyl!  I got the CD for Christmas and it's actually really good.  It is a straight up pop album, nothing alt rock or folksy or countryish from Beck this time.  The vinyl sounds pretty good, but that's more because I'm listening to through an actual audio system and not the crappy stereo in my car.

I got some used CDs as well starting with an Eagles of Death Metal album.  I've of course heard of them, but never actually listened to them at all.  I'm pretty sure Cam recommended them to me at some point, but I'm surprised it's taken me this long to find a used copy of one of their albums.  For some reason I tend to get them confused with Queens of the Stone Age.  

I also got a Smashing Pumpkins Peel Sessions single released in 1992.  The three songs on the disc were released later on two different releases, neither of which I have so it all worked out in the end.

The Dead Milkmen album is more Cam again as he was just telling me in an e-mail that he was listening to them recently.  I saw the album and just picked it up.  It has "Fillet of Sole" on it, so I'm stoked.

The last one was a blind pick, so hopefully it's good.  If it's not, it isn't a big deal as it was used and not super expensive or anything.

I went down the stairs to the bargain basement where they have less CDs now, but a ton of DVDs and toys.  It's too hard to even look at stuff when it's just randomly stacked and piled every where.  Also, it's dark and a little creepy.  I did pick up two things though.  I got R.I.P.D. only because it was the 3D version, and I picked up cheap 3D blu-rays any chance I get.

I also got the One Missed Call Trilogy which is a Japanese horror series.  I've never actually seen any of the films, but I've heard decent things about the first two films, the third film not so much.  It sounds like it's a copy of the Ring but using a cell phone.  I'll add it to my movie que.  There are actually six discs inside the standard size case, one disc per movie plus one extras discs per movie.  Ignore the $36.00 price tag on the front because it only cost $1.00!  R.I.P.D. was also $1.00, so it was worth going down the fun house stairs to the dark basement.  

That's it for now! 

To a Tee

Go back a bit and you'll see a post about free Reese NHL t-shirts I did.  In order to get a chance to win a free shirt you had to buy two Reese products and take a picture of the receipt with your phone and then go online.  It's actually more complicated then I was hoping for, but I still ended up winning two shirts!  Wait, make that three I guess?

I actually received my first t-shirt just before Christmas.  After I had filled out all the info online I realized that I wasn't asked what size of t-shirt I wanted.  I was asked to pick what shirt I wanted from three different designs, but that was it.  Maybe I missed it or something I'm not sure.  Anyway, it decided I wanted a large because that's what I got.

It's only a large, so it's a bit on the tight side, but at least I can sleep in it.  I would never wear it outside though.  It sucks that is doesn't fit because it is surprisingly nice for a free t-shirt.

Usually, in other free shirt deals, the shirts tend to thicker, heavier material and a bit scratchy feeling.  The Reese shirts are a nice light soft and thin material.  These are best quality free t-shirt I've ever gotten.  But why aren't you XL?!

I posted on Instagram that I won another t-shirt back on December 2nd and then today it showed up along with a bonus shirt!

I got two packages containing the same style of shirt, again both are size large.  I gave one to Cody and I'll give one to Cam because I know he is a huge Reese fan.  I'm not sure why I got two shirts, but I'm not going to complain.  Oh wait, yes I will because they are only large, why not extra large!!

Made in China

As previously shown on my Instagram I picked up an all region 3D Blu-ray/DVD player last week as a late Christmas present to myself.  I had been thinking about getting one for a while, but finally decided to go for it.

I had seen one in Chinatown months ago, and had looked on Amazon as well.  Amazon sells them through third party sellers, but they cost a bit more, but at least are recoginized brands like Sony and Panasonic.  Since I have a Sony as my main player, this new player would simply be a back up or obviously for watching region locked discs.  I figured I didn't need to pay more for a Panasonic when it wouldn't get that much use.  Besides a Panasonic is kind of boring, now a Giec that's a little more exciting.

Ooohhh....aaahhhhh.....

The contents of the box; the player, user manual, remote, HDMI cable and single pair of 3D glasses.  It's nice they threw in an HDMI cable, I don't think I've ever bought a DVD or Blu-ray player over here that actually came with a HDMI cable.

The remote is of course all in Chinese.  Cam suggested using a label maker to mark the buttons, but there really isn't that much room, but it was a good idea.  You really don't need all those buttons anyway, all the major functions can be accessed with only a couple buttons.

Most remotes have separate buttons for toggling the audio and subtitles.  I couldn't really locate those buttons on this remote.  I did find a button that brings up a mini menu that will let you access audio and subtitle options as well a ton of other stuff.  I also found a button dedicated to subtitle customization.  You can change subtitle font type, size, colour and even adjust the timing.  It's nice, but seems pretty excessive to me.

Once I started the player up for the first time this was the menu.  Again, all Chinese, but once I did some digging I got the language switched over to English and it was all good.  The little cog icon on the bottom right is obviously the settings.  I am so smart!

There is a Wi-fi icon, but it doesn't actually have built in wi-fi, you need a dingle or dongle or whatever that is.  I see an Internet Explorer icon as well, but that's pretty useless without the dingle.

The is the home menu after changing it over to English.  Hey, where did all those other tiles go???

I've watched a couple movies and some stuff via the USB port on it and so far it does what it's supposed to.  Looks like Sony and Panasonic got some competition now!

Yes, I'm still here

I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post.  I just kept putting it off and then I realized it had been a couple weeks.  Oops.  Anyway, I haven't even been on my laptop that much and it was four days after I came back from Christmas break to even turn it on.  I'll try and give a brief wrap up of everything that's happened since.

My Christmas break was pretty quiet and cold.  My mom was sick with a cold and then Julie and Avery left on Boxing Day to go to a hockey camp.  Willie and I went and checked out all the sweet deals on Boxing Day, I got a movie and a Star Wars Nerf gun.  We also went to the Ice game the night before I left.

The weather in Cranbrook was cold, but not as cold as Calgary.  Haha, Cam!  It was sometimes sunny and didn't snow until the day I left...of course.  It was cold, so the snow was very light and wasn't coming down very hard.  On the drive back I got held up just before Hosmer from what I figured was probably an accident.  We sat there for quite a while and I considered turning around, but decided to stick it out.  I even pulled out my phone because I knew there was a traffic camera at Hosmer, so I had a look to see nothing but cars sitting on the road.  Damn.  Eventually we slowly got moving and things picked up after the accident site which was probably a few kilometers down the road.  The traffic was backed up the other direction as well, in fact all the way to Sparwood.  I'm pretty sure the line behind me went all the way to Fernie as well.  I should've been home at around 3pm, but after sitting on the highway and some slow going after that I didn't get to Calgary until 5:30 pm.  Yeah, it sucked, but at least I made it back.

Since coming back I haven't done much but work and sit around.  I did get something that will be featured in an upcoming post though.  I'll also try and finish the Star Wars Advent Calendar at the end of the week as well.