Results tagged “sideshow collectibles”

With all of this Star Wars talk lately, I’ve been thinking about adding something into my work space that reflects my love for those movies.

So while out hunting today for the perfect item, I ran across one of my favorite Star Wars scenes ever—in statue form!

As you can see above, Sideshow Collectibles has produced a simply great piece of work in Yoda & Clone Trooper. I happened to really enjoy Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith—minus the love dialog between Padme and Anakin, of course—and one of my favorite scenes from that movie or any of the six movies is highlighted in that statue.

A lethal Yoda storming the Jedi Temple, having thrown his light saber through the chest of a Clone Trooper, leaps up to withdraw his weapon.

It gives me shivers just looking at it!

I must have it. It’s perfect.

If you haven’t checked out Sideshow Collectibles, do it.

Your inner geek will thank you!

Now if I could only afford that Venom statue too…

Hmm…..

The San Diego Comic Con 2009 is less than a month away!

That’s right, fan boys and girls! The largest extravaganza of pop culture is mere weeks away!

Comic books, comic book artists, comic book writers—all in one place. Novelists, editors, dust jacket artists—all in one place. Graphic artists, sculptors, special FX people—all in one place. Free advanced reader copies, free comic books, free goodie bags—all in one place. People dressed as Wookies, people dressed as Darth Vader, people dressed as Slave Princess Leia—all in one place. Hollywood actors, Hollywood directors, Hollywood trailers and premieres—all in one place. Stan Lee, Jim Lee, Jae Lee—all in one place.

Last year, Stan Lee even bumped into me while gaining his hotel room key.

It’s enough to put a big grin on my face! Once again, Team Suvudu will be bringing coverage of the San Diego Comic Con 2009 to the internet(s), through posting, interviews, pictures and video!

But I have a guilty pleasure in going—the Exclusives galore!

Comic Con. 126,000+ people crammed into a convention center. The San Diego Fire Marshall must sweat every minute of all four days every year. With all of those people in one spot, exhibitors must do what they can to entice the most people to their booths instead of a competitor’s booth. They do this in various ways, but the coolest is the use of Exclusives—rare items either given away or sold at Comic Con or bear the Comic Con logo in some way.

Here is a list of my Top 5 Comic Con 2009 Exclusives!

#5. Grifball Spartan
McFarlane Toys has been a leading toy manufacturer for more than a decade now, creating some of the coolest toy figures on the market. One such property that has been given the toy treatment is the Microsoft game Halo, a first-person shooter released in 2001 to much acclaim. With sales comes merchandising and Todd McFarlane has taken advantage of that, producing very cool Halo figures for the franchise.

The Grifball Spartan is a character from a team-oriented game called Grifball that is similar to lacrosse but with hands. The ball is used to score points but the other team tries to prevent its foe from scoring by wielding gravity hammers and/or swords. Since I played Halo quite often when I was in college, this figure appeals to my past and is a pretty cool exclusive at Comic Con this year!

The Grifball Spartan is limited to 6,000 pieces and will sell for $15. This exclusive will be available at the Toys “R” Us Comic Con booth, in limited quantity at the Toys “R” Us Times Square store, and through www.toysrus.com.

The Fellowship of the Ring was a juggernaut, even before it was released in theaters—for many not very obvious reasons.

When I heard a movie adaptation of Tolkien’s epic work would be coming to a theater in three massive installments, there were several scenes I truly looked forward to viewing on the silver screen.

Above all scenes, however, was the Last March of the Ents found in chapter Treebeard.

I can’t explain why. It probably has something to do with growing up at the base of Mt. St. Helens in Washington State, out in the craggy mountain wilderness where Old Growth trees of various species more than five hundred years old still exist, their limbs gnarled and ancient, their boughs bearing streamers of rich dark moss. Even in a minor breeze the trees appear to move, made more alive than the forest around them. The Ents to me represent all that is good and clean where I grew up, all that is good and clean in the world.

When I first read Lord of the Rings I had just moved to Seattle for college. It was then I first encountered the Ents. Having seen the big city in all of its concrete and cold grey glory, I had a new appreciation for the plight of the trees. I discovered I missed the trees of my youth, still do if truth be told, and the Ents reminded me how wild and wonderful nature can be.

So when the Ents go to war against Isengard, there is just something about pissed off trees wreaking havoc against the establishment that appealed to my sense of cinema—and right and wrong.

Pissed off trees. Gotta love it!

From the moment the Fellowship of the Ring teaser trailer was released—revealing the fellowship led by Gandalf cresting a hilltop en route to Mordor—it was apparent the vast marketing potential the movie held. It had wizards, warriors, dwarves, elves, hobbits and so much more. George Lucas pioneered merchandising in the late 70’s and 80’s, proving money could be made outside of ticket sales, and like Star Wars, the Lord of the Rings movies had a diverse world to draw from and capitalize on in various marketing fronts.

Out of the numerous merchandising licenses New Line Cinema sold, Sideshow Collectibles piqued my curiosity right from the start. It proved, before Fellowship was even released, that it would succeed through quality and beautiful renditions of the movie’s characters. After all, the Lord of the Rings has been around for decades, its readership vast not only in age but in economic means, and Sideshow Collectibles hoped to capture that huge fan base. People were going to want well done figurines and statues to place in homes and workspaces. To miss out on all of that potential would be folly. Sideshow Collectibles rose to the challenge, crafting beautifully detailed polystone statues, toy figures, busts, masks, coins and so much more.

All but one facet from the movies—the Ents!

Sideshow Collectibles created a Treebeard bust. It was a large bust, standing more than a foot tall. But it’s not what I am looking for. Not exactly. I want Treebeard from the roots of his feet to the moss of his head, in respective size to the other polystone figures in the series. With the growing current political and cultural emphasis on being “green” and trying to make the world we live in more environmental friendly, I would imagine there would be a growing desire to have an Ent statue representing how we should be treating our world.

I think we all should get a polystone treatment of Treebeard. Or Leaflock. Or Skinbark. Or Quickbeam. Or any of the others! Maybe holding a boulder or crushing an orc or carrying Merry and Pippin. I want the birch and beech, oak and fir, chestnut and ash, the rowan and the linden. Bring them all out of the forest and into my living room!

So, a challenge to Sideshow Collectibles! Release the Ents!

After all, a wizard should know better!