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Showing posts with the label Big Bugs

Get Your 8-Bit Kaiju on in Smashy City

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You know the old saying: If at first you do succeed, shamelessly exploit it until it stops making money. I previously reviewed a video game called Smashy Road , a fun experience in 8-bit car racing chaos for smart phones and tablets. Now, just a few weeks later, I found another game that's extremely similar to the look and feel of Smashy Road : Smashy City by Ace Viral . Read on for my complete review. In Smashy City , players select a giant monster to attack an endless cityscape, and the monster keeps going until enough tanks, missiles and attack choppers bring it down. The game begins with a giant ape that looks a lot like King Kong, and players unlock a variety of other monsters as they rack up points or make in-game purchases by using real money. If Smashy Road and the classic arcade coin-op Rampage had a child, it would be called Smashy City . Then again, Smashy Road recycles many of the ideas that were already present in Crossy Road , so all we need at this point is a gam...

Is a Reboot of The Fly Actually Happening?

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It's amazing what you can find when you're just buzzing around the Internet. I'm currently working on a review of Curse of the Fly for a book called Unsung Horrors , which is being assembled by the same people who published 70s Monster Memories . I've been assembling my thoughts about the movie and looking around the web (no pun intended) to see if I can find any little-known factoids about the second sequel to the original The Fly . During my searches, I found a graphic arts company called Stormbrush, which is owned and operated by illustrator Calvin Chua, which has a design page titled "Project Fly Reboot" . Based on the information and pictures provided on the page, I'm guessing that this artwork is for a proposed remake/reboot of David Cronenberg's The Fly , which itself was a remake. The page includes some interesting designs, such as what the new telepod and teleportation process would be like, but the best part is the artwork for the new man-fl...

A Look At Monsters vs. Aliens: The TV Series

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One of my all-time favorite CGI animated comedies is Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), a loving tribute/sendup of the pulpy sci-fi flicks from the "Atomic Age" of the '50s and '60s. What I didn't know was that MvA went on to become a short-lived CGI cartoon on Nickelodeon that ran from March 2013 to February 2014. I found out about this series completely by accident last month when I was scrolling through my digital cable TV menu and saw an ad for MvA that looked familiar but included characters that I didn't recognize from the movie. Boy, was I surprised--not just to find it, but to see that it's a worthy follow-up to the movie that should have lasted longer than a single season. Read on for my complete review. Running at 26 episodes that still air as reruns on Nickelodeon, MvA picks up shortly after the events of the movie (and, presumably, after the two specials that followed-- Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space and Night of the Living Carrots ). The cast...

IDW's The Fly: Outbreak Lacks Buzz

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Sometimes it's nice to see a movie franchise find a second life in another medium, like novels and comic books. Other times, the second life turns out to be a turn for the worse. In the later category is The Fly: Outbreak , a comic book miniseries published by IDW Publishing. This miniseries recently concluded its fifth and final issue and after reading the entire series, I feel that this is one insect monster story that needs to be sent back to the telepods. Read on for my complete review. Outbreak was written by Brandon Seifert and drawn by menton3. It takes place after the events of The Fly II . Martin, son of the late Seth "Brundlefly" Brundle, has returned to Bartok Industries to continue his research into his father's telepods in order to find a lasting cure for his condition. At the beginning of the story, Martin learns that his work to permanently fix his own DNA has inadvertently created a transgenic pathogen that can turn people into insect-human hybrids. A...

More Zoids Robot Toys: Tribots and R.A.T.S.

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Way, way back in 2010, I posted a retrospective about Tomy's toy robot line Zoids and two of its less popular spin-offs, Starriors and Z-Knights. I recently learned that Tomy produced two other spin-offs during the '80s that weren't sold in the United States: Tribots and the Robot Anti-Terror Squad (R.A.T.S.). These two other lines also less popular than Zoids, but that doesn't make them look any less fun. Click below for more details and pictures of these interesting yet obscure robot toys from the '80s, and how they fit in to Tomy's approach to motorized, mechanical play. I learned about Tribots when I was looking around the ever-awesome Collection DX site. It posted a review of one of the Tribots toys, along with a picture that placed a Tribot and Starrior next to each other for comparison. Even though these robot figures are from different lines, both share Tomy's aesthetic of interchangeable parts and bulky, mechanical shapes--the same aesthetic that...