Empire Online has the dramatic first look at the Transformers Revenge Of The Fallen toy line with the two preview figures to be released in May.
Bumblebee has been revamped from the first movie with a new head, some new paint details and the car mode has been altered to more greatly resemble the production version of the Camaro.
Soundwave is of course a brand new toy, showing his Cybertronian form, not unlike the 2007 preview toys. What other form he might take in the movie remains a mystery.

Virtua Tennis did for videogame tennis what NFL Blitz and NBA Jam did for football and basketball respectively. No, there aren’t any big head codes, you won’t be hitting the court with Bill Clinton and Will Smith, there is no loudmouth announcer, and players don’t burst into flame. What I mean is that Sega and AM3 has taken the sport of tennis and made it fun to play. At first it wouldn’t seem to be much of a big deal, as tennis is rather easy to implement in video game form. In fact, the very first video game was basically a version of table tennis. However, there is a lot of strategy involved in the sport. Speaking as a former high school tennis player, it’s important to position yourself correctly, use the proper shot for returns, and figure out how to prepare and set up the next volley. There is a lot of thinking involved, and little time to do it in. Thankfully, Sega Sports’ tennis series has always eschewed any of these complications and focused upon the bare essence of what tennis is: two (of four if playing doubles) people knocking a ball back and forth between each other and moving as fast as possible while doing so.
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Mattel has been hard at work lately trying to meet the concerns of fans of the DC Universe Classics line. One of the initiatives to try and better meet demand is to offer “open stock” to online retailers. This is basically a solid case of a single figure. So if Shazam is doing really well, but Killer Moth isn’t getting any orders, the online retailers can adjust their orders and order a few more cases of Shazam without worrying about getting Killer Moths that there is not demand for. Unfortunately the Wave 6 and 7 chases will not be offered in open stock due to an error or some sort, but it is the intention of Mattel to offer the Wave 8 variants in open stock. This is really great news for fans who order online.

In addition to this news, Mattel also announced that they were able to redirect all remaining stock of the KB Exclusive Maskless Batman Beyond and Sonic Arm Cyborg to online retailers. The status of these figures was in question since KB Toys has gone into liquidation and the exclusives were difficult to come by in the first place.

Great news all around and its good to see Mattel trying to address the concerns of fans and correct some early mistakes in the line’s life.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Academy, for your consideration of Best Actor In a Motion Picture and In a Wrestling Ring, I reccomend Mickey Rourke.

After a command performance as over-the-hill wrestler Randy The Ram in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, he’s apparently going to keep the act up. Vince McMahon has invited Rourke to compete in Wrestlemania 25 on April 5. He announced such on the red carpet at the SAG awards Sunday night, see video here.

I really loved The Wrestler and thought Mickey was great inhabiting that character, so flawed but immediately likable. The very fact that he’ll be taking The Ram into the ring against Chris Jericho proves he deserves that Oscar more than anyone else in the category. Is Sean Penn going to keep doing speeches in character as Harvey Milk? Is Frank Langella going to keep talking like Nixon? Is Brad Pitt going to get progressively younger? NO! Mickey Rourke runs this.

Talk more in our forum about the Oscar Nominations

Squaresoft (these days known as Square-Enix) sure diversified itself after first leaving Nintendo. Even though their name is associated with some of the finest RPGs ever made, they set out to prove that they were anything but a one trick pony. During the Playstation 1 years alone, they released a modern-day themed RPG, a survival horror game (which was a sequel to said modern-day themed RPG), and no less than 5 fighting games (with only 4 of them making it to U.S. shores). The early years of the PS2 era saw them release everything from beat-em-ups, to racing games, and even a pro-wrestling game. If anything could demonstrate how far off the beaten path Square had gone, it’s this side-scrolling PS1 shooter. Other than a few key flaws, it isn’t a bad first effort, considering this came from the guys who made Secret of Mana and Romancing Saga.
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Episode 1.5 (are we Galactica fanboys or what?) of the POWETcast is now available for your streaming and downloading pleasure. Won’t you please join us as we discuss all the games, movies, TV shows, comics, and toys we’re looking forward to in this year of years.

Direct Download
EXPLICIT.
Show notes after the jump.
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The FANtastic Exclusive is an annual event that I promote every year.
Here’s the rundown.
Four Horsemen Studios runs a series of polls that anyone and everyone is allowed to vote in.
The voting determines different aspects of an action figure.
After all the voting has completed, the Four Horsemen create an action figure based on the results of all of the polls.
They then offer this figure as their SDCC Exclusive for the year.
Traditionally several variants have been made as well and are sold as retailer exclusives on specific toy-related websites.

The rounds of voting determine everything from the actual character to its articulation and even the accessories that are included.

In this first round of voting we have a battle royale of 28 character designs from various original Four Horsemen properties. Some new and some old. All amazing! The top 6 left standing at the end of this round move on to the next winner-take-all vote.

Go here to vote!