The Tubes have been abuzz the past few days with rumors that Blizzard Entertainment will announce a sequel to their smash hit strategy game, Starcraft.

The initial rumor, here, indicates that Blizzard will make an announcement on May 19th at the World Wide Invitational that will supposedly reveal that Starcraft 2 is currently under development. Accompanied with this would be some rough videos of the progress so far.

According to this link, Blizzard has responded with the following statement:

We do intend to announce a new product at the Worldwide Invitational next month in Korea, and we appreciate the enthusiasm and interest in getting an advance look at what that will be, but players will have to wait until May 19th to find out more. Also, we have a very strong connection with the characters and settings of StarCraft, and we do plan to revisit that universe at some point in the future, but we don’t have anything new to announce in that regard at present.

I’m not convinced that the announcement will be something other than Starcraft 2, but there is a high chance it will be Diablo 3 instead.

Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.

Source: USA Today

Botcon.com posted some images today of Exclusive Classics Thrust that have eased any concerns I had on the figure. Images of both modes have been mirrored below. As the last of the original seekers to be revealed, it was significant that his wings have been remolded to more accurately portray his original namesake. Dirge and Thundercracker did not really need any retooling. While all the ‘coneheads’ (Ramjet, Thrust and Dirge) had differently molded wings, Ramjet and Dirge’s wings were similar enough that a straight repaint was not out of left field. Thrust, however, had very different wings in that they had VTOL fans in the center and were placed in the mid section of the fuselage with additional tail fins, whereas on the other jets the main wings were based further back on the fuselage.

You can view some pictures of the original toy and its cartoon counterpart here. To see the previously announced exclusives, see here for Dirge and here for Thundercracker.

In honor of the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars, Cartoon Network’s Robot Chicken will dedicate an entire episode toward the film classic.

CNN reports that its got George Lucas involved, as well as Mark Hamill who will reprise his role as Luke Skywalker in the stop motion animated satire. The rest of the voice cast is decidedly un-Star Wars, with Conan O’Brien, Joey Fatone, and Hulk Hogan. Lucasfilm will also provide the authentic sound files for Chewbacca and R2D2.

Source: Lucas, Hamill reunite for ‘Star Wars’ spoof

The Transformers Club was kind enough to update their site again without sending a complimentary heads up email to members of the club. I’m not bitter though. I enjoy reading about club updates on other news sites even though I’m a paying club member.

Anywho, the club has posted some teaser art for the summer comic. Art is by Alex Milne and story by Forest Lee. Below the art is the following text:

I have mirrored the art below. Its interesting, in that, it shows some new characters/molds. In the forefront appears to be a repainted Cybertron Armorhide in blue and yellow (Punch/Counterpunch??), Cybertron Thunderblast as Elita-1. Behind them is Classics Ultra Magnus. I believe a repaint of Cybertron Defense Hot Shot (in green? Springer?) is to Magnus’ left. Grimlock is on his right. Two others are in the further background that I cannot make out. Let the speculation begin!

If you haven’t read on numerous other sites such as Bites & Bytes before, then you need your eyes checked. However, we’re reporting it here as well. (mainly because I feel ashamed in having not reported on this sooner as toys isn’t my usual domain)

It seems that NECA will be producing its own line of Castlevania action figures, starting with releases of traditional Simon Belmont (not Chronicles version), as well as Alucard from Symphony of the Night. This will just be the Series 1 releases, which leads the reader to believe that there will be other series releases as well. Castlevania fans haven’t seen anything of this calibur since a few homemade figures were once featured at the Castlevania Dungeon. (which have mysteriously vanished….weird o.O) More news will be brought up about this as I run into it.

[EDIT – Crazy: Just wanted to mirror the two pictures that surfaced in this post. See below]

 

Catwoman #66
written by Will Pfeifer, drawn by David Lopez

It’s a bit of a slow week, so this time around, instead of whoring this space out for the Next Big Event (it’s Amazons Attack, if you must know), I’m going to push this book because the previous issue, according to the Invincible Super-Blog, contained “killer robots, explosions, time travel, and a heroine who smack-talks the cornerstone of the DC Universe just because she isn’t in any mood to deal with him at the moment.”

The book’s been reviewing extremely well, and what art I’ve seen looks gorgeous (I’m not just talking about Selina Kyle), and a cursory glance at the solicitations tells me that this book should be accessible to a newcomer. So instead of digging deeper into the event-driven mess that the comics landscape has become, live a little, and try out a good book that seems to be accessible to newcomers – something of a rarity in the world of comics.

Earlier today, I posted that the first figure in the Botcon box set had been revealed last week. That figure was Dirge. I’m pleased to say that the second figure in the set has been announced today. Thundercracker. “The ringing in your ears is the sound of your own destruction.”

For those who keep track, it appears Thundercracker will feature the running change on the seeker mold that I mentioned in this video on Classics Skywarp.

Outside of that small factoid, there’s not much else to say. The figure is pretty much exactly what we were expecting (and hoping!) to see. A straight up repaint of Starscream/Skywarp with the appropriate colors. As always, images mirrored below.

Source: Botcon.com