Ask Matty
April 1st, 2010
I'm back!! My movie review yesterday was just a prelude, boys and girls, for I have not covered the travesty that is the Wal-Mart Exclusive How To Train Your Dragon line. If you want Toothless underoos, you can buy 'em. A hooded towel? No problem. T-shirts? Backpacks? Viking Helmets? Easter themed Dragon gummies and eggs? All available. But if you want action figures of the girl characters or even just a Toothless figure that is more cute dragon than vicious man-eater, well, that's going to be a problem.
Well, it’s finally happened. I’m writing a movie review for IAT. Those of you that have been hanging around on the forums know me, but I’m mostly a behind-the-scenes member. This weekend, however, Vault and I wandered over to the local Cineplex to see How To Train Your Dragon.
I have to admit that I was excited to see it. Anyone that knows me can attest to the fact that I will watch anything whatsoever if it’s animated. And How To Train Your Dragon had the added bonus of 1) being bookended by narration (which I’m a sucker for – from Pete and Pete to Arrested Development) and 2) starring an animal companion that just about broke the cuteness meter. I knew I had to see this film.
I should note that I’m not a fan of tossing 3D onto movies for no apparent reason, but I was willing to watch Dragon even if it meant paying the equivalent of an extra ticket.
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. Remember that movie? It came out in September 2009. Six months ago. And roughly six months ago, we reviewed Wave One of the figures from the movie. Mattel wasn't exactly clear about the figures being split into two waves until around the time they hit and that left many fans unsure of when they would be able to complete Brimstone. For me, that was a few weeks ago. Our Target, after five months of sitting on an Icicle and a Banshee, received a case of wave two. I was lucky enough to snag the one Black Lightning and the one Major Force.
“A hidden treasure. A murder. And a village full of secrets. Pit your wits against the puzzles of St. Mystere. Can you crack the case?” These are the words that the trailer for Professor Layton and the Curious Village tempted me with. A puzzle solving murder mystery, with a unique animation style and a playful yet elusive soundtrack. I was sold instantly. If you're not familiar with Professor Layton, I encourage you to check his DS Game's homepage.
Three years later, Japan is about to enjoy their fifth installment of the Layton franchise, with an animated movie soon to follow. So far the United States just got the second game, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, last year. I am jealous to say the least. Lucky for me though, I can satiate some of my Layton cravings with the brand new Professor Layton figure from Japan’s highly popular Revoltech line.
...and we're back! Did you miss us? We missed you. We experienced some technical difficulties on Wednesday night that crashed the site and caused some other behind-the-scenes problems, but we're all better now (we hope!).
We get a lot of MOTU requests in our inbox that go unused. It's not that we don't appreciate them, it's always nice to see requests for some of our favorite MOTU characters, but Mattel makes it seem like the list is made and no amount of requests will change anything. It won't move up Roboto or help Extendar's chances. Still, the requests come in and we decided to toss at least one MOTU character into our 1st quarter poll (voting begins 4/16!). We looked at the e-mails and chose Panthor because we don't agree on how he should be done.
