She-Hulk and WonderMan are brought to us today via the minimatemultiverse forums. I’m pretty excited about this entire wave. Tomorrow the entire wave will be revealed all together. It’s unlikely, though, that anything new is left to be shown.

I innocentedly rented Burnout 3 a couple years ago. I think I read on Penny Arcade that it was fun.

Something inside me changed that day. I became a firm believer in not only crashing cars but also that Xbox Live is awesome. Burnout Revenge was even better, and even though I hated the DS entry, I still looked forward to a next Burnout. The pilot episode of Powet.TV was me gushing for over 20 minutes about Revenge. Don’t look for it, I wisely never posted it. I’m a Burnout fan and when I meet people who are not Burnout fans I can only assume its because they’ve not played the game and therefore are unaware of the awesome they are missing. Or, it’s because they are stupid.

1up has a preview of Burnout 5 on PS3 and Xbox 360. The game promises to use the Revenge feature from the last game and implement it into the multiplayer in a much bigger way and also into the single player. Oh yeah, Burnout is going for an open world this time. I don’t know if I like that, but as long as the races are nuts and the crash courses are deep and I can still use non-racer traffic like ballistics, I’ll be happy. Oh, they’re also bringing back all the goofy cars and trucks from Burnout 3 instead of focusing on just race cars.

Theres very little to show from the game now, but considering how good the previous games looked on PS2, theres little doubt they’ll blow away Motorstorm. And the new physics engine controlling everything (not just your car) definitely should yeild some more interesting crashes. Release date is set for summer, which is just the kind of excuse I need to stay inside when the weather is actually hospitable in Wisconsin.

Oh, and the series will continue on PSP and PS2 since that console still has some life left in it. Burnout: Dominator will be out in March. Dominator is being developed in house by EA and not the series creators Criterion Games, so it’s hard to say if it will offer any innovation or just more tracks. Either way, anyone who didn’t make the next-gen jump will have a pretty good game to play.

The next pair of Avengers destined for the Marvel Minimate treatment in wave 16 were announced earlier today on Raving Toy Maniac. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch make their minimate debut. Pictures below. Can’t wait for this two pack!

 

Marvel Adventures: The Avengers #9
written by Jeff Parker, art by Juan Roman Cano Santacruz, cover by Cameron Stewart

Holy. Crap. Look at that cover, man.

Now, to be fair, the Avengers aren’t fighting your traditional M.O.D.O.K. They’re fighting M.O.D.O.C. This is because the K in M.O.D.O.K. stands for Killing – as in, Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing – and the Marvel Adventures line is supposed to be more kid-friendly, so the words “kill” aren’t allowed. So the C stands for Conquest. I guess it’s alright if the kids lead lives dedicated to conquest, then.

For those of you out of the loop, the ‘Adventures’ line is like the Ultimate line: It’s a separate continuity from the main Marvel U, allowing for more accessible, less continuity-intensive storytelling. The lineup for the team (in case the picture is a little unclear) includes: Captain America, Iron Man (on the same team? gasp!), Spider-Man, Wolverine, Storm, the Hulk, and Giant-Girl (as I understand it, it’s Janet Van Dyne, AKA the Wasp, but she uses her powers for BIGNESS).

The writer also happens to be Jeff Parker, the writer of the excellent Agents of Atlas, and the successful X-Men: First Class. I’m not as familiar with Santacruz, but I’ll say this about him: He draws a GREAT Avengers-as-M.O.D.O.C.s (see the preview pages).

For more M.O.D.O.K.-related reading and links, go here and enjoy – And definitely continue after the jump for that 6 page preview!

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Its been quite a busy week in the world of Minimates. The DC Minimates will have another wave coming. This one will hit around September of 2007. Wave 5 will consist of the following pairings:

Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel	Guy Gardener and Kilowog
Hawkman and Hawkgirl	Red Tornado and Ma Hunkel

DC fans should note that this is only the second wave to not include a Superman. The only other wave, Wave 3, to not feature Superman featured Batman.

Yesterday, Diamond Select Toys revealed the most asked for marvel minimate for the past several waves, The Mighty Thor. Wave 16 of the Marvel Minimates will be an Avengers themed wave. Each day this week, starting today, a new pair of figures will be announced with the whole group being revealed on Friday. Each announcement will be made on a different site. (Today, ArtAsylum.com; Wednesday, Raving Toy Maniac; Thursday, MinimateMultiverse.com)

The initial announcement featuring the Thor pictures was here at Diamond Select Toys.

Today’s announcement was made on the ArtAsylum boards. They revealed Loki and Bearded Thor (Eric Masterson) as the first pair. This bearded Thor will be the variant.

 

From a couple smaller fan forums comes fresh looks at resin prototypes for 2 of the biggest and most talked about Transformers figures for the new movie.

Gen1TF and Nuklear Power have diverging looks at what may be the Optimus Prime that will populate toy shelves this summer. Also, get a load of Megatron, who definitely takes after his Energon counterpart.

It’s nearly impossible to tell how big these resin prototypes are without comparison shots, but the level of detail leads me to believe we’re looking at something in the $40 range, like Transformer leaders of the last few years.

There’s been a lot of pictures floating around the net of various toys lately from this line, but I didn’t think many of them were that special until I saw these.

In a move designed to avoid a situation like The X-Files(went on too long) or Alias (too short), TV Week reports that the producers of Lost are in negotiations with ABC to determine an end date for the series.

Lost has been very successful in its first 2 and a half years on air, but fans and critics worry the show may be wearing too thin or may pile on more mysteries than it can solve. A definitive end date would push writers toward a finish line they know when they’re supposed to cross. Its been suggested they go to 100 episodes or 2 more seasons, which may be a comprimise between those who want to end it before it wears out its welcome and those that might want to keep it on air until its dry.

Whatever the case, the good news for fans is February 7, 2007 is the date the show returns from hiatus; now over 70 days from the crash. ABC.com is running short clips until then.