Marvel just released covers for April issues today, and as you can see on the cover on the left, Black Panther #27 features Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, Storm, and the Black Panther riding in a FantastiCar. The previously touted image (featuring Ben and Johnny with Stardust and the Silver Surfer) is going to be the cover to the same month’s FF issue #545. And, a little more research says that the original leaked cover was just the cover to issue #544, which conveniently remains unviewable on Marvel’s website. So, it seems the team WILL consist of Storm and T’Challa, for at least a month, though the Ben and Johnny rockin’ duo may start playing russian roulette with the two open spots left by Reed and Sue. And, if the original leaked cover really is just FF #544, and the new space one really is the cover to #545, then this also tells us that Marvel’s putting Turner on FF covers. Which I guess is newsworthy to some. All in all, Marvel’s clearly playing the hype game they play whenever they leak something on accident, but history tells us that initial reports do tend to have it right. So, hopefully, that’s the end of that.

Before creating the Playstation, Sony was a 3rd party developer known as Sony Imagesoft. The company’s primary purpose was to develop games for the 16 and cd-based systems of the time. Besides a bunch of crappy licenced games, they put out a few gems, one of them is thie little-known SNES title Skyblazer. It took bits and pieces of other games such as Castlevania, Zelda, and Mega Man and combined them with a Southern Asian-inspired atmosphere to create an identity all on it’s own. While you play as the typical hero in the typical “save the princess” story, the gameplay differences make up for what the plot lacks in originality tenfold. You move on an overworld map, which soon gives you choices in which way to go next. As you progress through the game, you’ll gain new abilities, almost like an RPG. Mode 7 flight stages and some cool boss battles also help break up the action. With Sony Imagesoft being absorbed into 989 studios, there is zero chance of it coming to virtual console, so be prepared to spend some bucks on Ebay hunting this down.

Waaaaay back while this site was still on Blogger, I featured this game’s predecessor. Midway Arcade Treasures 2 adds in more retro goodness from Midway and Atari. This collection seems geared towards fighting games, as Mortal Kombat 2 and 3 are on here, being joined by Pit Fighter and Primal Rage. Also on this collection are APB, Wizard of War, General Carnage, and more. These games vary in terms of quality, but they all come with cool developer interviews and promotional material. Overall, this is a fun game to pick up if you long for the old days of gaming.

Don’t forget to check after the jump for more information on minimates and lots of additional pictures of other properties with the minimate license!
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R2-D2 seems capable of so much with his rockets and all that stuff. Well what if someone configured him to be used as a home theatre system? Just your luck! The fine people at Nikko Home Electornics have done just that.

The R2-D2 Communication System, a 1/5 scale version of the droid, is a complex audio communication device equiped with radio, sounds effects, phone, webcam and is controled by a Light Saber remote! All this for a somewhat affordable $350.

The larger 1/2 scale R2-D2 Mobile Entertainment System is quite a bit more elaborate. He is equiped with a 2D projector (no crappy hologram?!), can play DVDs, CDs and many file types, has a dock for an iPod, has USB slots, memory card inputs for viewing photos, a number of audio/video inputs, radio and sound effects. And this is controled by a Millenium Falcon remote. This one will cost you quite a bit more at $2500.

Check out this clip of the larger MES model in action at CES courtesy of Shiny Media:

Spider-Man 3 may be months away, but Sideshow Collectibles already has three 12-inch action figures from Medicon available on their site. You can find each of the toys here: Spider-Man, “Black Suited” Spider-Man, and the spooky villain of the show. (Hint: It’s not Old Man Withers in a mask.)

Or, just click through to see the images mirrored here.
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News from CES 2007 is showing that many major porn studios are now leaning towards HD-DVD over Blu-Ray for a variety of reasons. A trend I’ve noticed while browsing in stores is that a lot more family oriented films seem to be going Blu-Ray with studios like Sony, Fox and Disney having a lot to offer that demographic, while HD-DVD has a larger selection of adult oriented titles, which is a phenomenon which will only be encouraged by this trend in the industry.

The high cost of Blu-Ray seems to be a major deterent of the format. A representative for the studio Bangbros mentions that the HD-DVD player is felt to have had better market penetration when compared to Blu-Ray largely due to the HD-DVD add on available for the XBox 360.

The number of XBox 360 consoles on the market surpasses PS3s by a considerable factor but PS3 has the advantage of it’s Blu-Ray technology being built in, while the HD-DVD add on for the XBox 360 is a seperate upgrade, which has on it’s own sold less units than the PS3. It goes without saying that anyone who buys an HD-DVD drive is actively interested in playing high definition movies with it though the same can’t be said about everyone who buys a PS3 or rather for those people who bought a system with the intention of ebaying it only to learn the market had been saturated.

Thanks to Matt of BoNR fame for the heads up.

2006-01-13 – Update!

According to this article it’s not only the industry that chose to go HD-DVD. Sony also doesn’t want porn on Blu-Ray and doesn’t allow distributors to make porn discs. I guess they’re trying pretty hard to maintain a certain family friendly image.

ActionFigureeXpress comes through with yet another hot exclusive. This time in the form of a King Randor staction. Masters of the Universe officianados may remember that King Randor was an SDCC exclusive for 2005 from the Four Horsemen. You can see a review of this convention exclusive Randor here. This time around Randor is sporting a new head sculpt, cape and shield. The shield replaces the staff accessory that came with the convention exclusive and if you look closely sports some memorable acid burns. His color scheme also matches that of the original Randor figure from the 80’s line.

(Classic Randor picture from He-man.org)