This Weeks Assignment From The League: Robots!

This Weeks Assignment From The League Of Extraordinary Bloggers:

Danger! Danger! Danger! Pacific Rim has finally hit the theaters, and it seems like everyone is now an expert on giant monster-fighting robots. I thought it would be fun to talk about all the different mechanical wonders that have appeared in our pop culture. This week’s assignment for the League of Extraordinary Bloggers…

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Robots!

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As you may or may not know I am a Co-Host of the ‘Geek Fallout’ podcast.  On the show we end every episode with a ‘Top 5’ countdown where we name off our favourite top 5 for a particular subject. For this blog post I am going to name off my top 5 favourite robots (or robot pairs) in pop culture, excluding androids and cyborgs: Pure Robots ONLY. So here is my list:

5- H.E.R.B.I.E. (From the 60’s ‘Fantastic Four’ cartoon, later added to the comic book continuity). As a kid I loved watching those old cartoons and as much as I missed having the Human Torch in the cartoon I did like that little flying robot that took his place. Apparently the animators were worried about kids lighting themselves on fire so that is why Herbie is on the team. He often played jokes on Ben Grimm which made me laugh, and every time I see him make an appearance in the comic I take notice.

4- Starscream (From the 80’s ‘Transfomers’ cartoon). I always liked Starscream best out of all the Decepticons. His high pitch screetchy voice, his hunger for power, his willingness to stab Megatron in the back when it suited him, all equalled a cool villain. Also as a vehicle he was a fighter jet. If I were to be a Decepticon I would want to be a fighter jet for sure.

3- V.I.N.CENT & Maximillion (from the Disney film ‘The Black Hole’). Vincent was the good floating robot that saves the day, voiced by the late great Roddy McDowell. Maximillion was the robot that scared me as a little kid. All he did was float around, never talking, with a glowing Cyclops eye and arms with spinning grinders that could kill anyone who was unfortunate enough to face the deadly Maximillion. But as I said earlier Vincent saves the day by ‘killing’ the evil Maximillion. These two robots were my favourite characters from that underrated iconic sci-fi film.

2- Optimus Prime (From the 80’s ‘Transfomers’ cartoon). As much as Starscream was my favourite Decepticon, Optimus was my favourite Auto-bot. He was a great leader, fought for the right things, and could transform into the coolest big rig ever conceived. As a kid (and maybe as an adult) I cried when he ‘died’ during the Transformers cartoon film. Then I cheered as he was resurrected towards the end of the series. I am not a fan of the current films but I think it is cool that they brought the original Optimus voice actor, Peter Cullen, to breath life again into this iconic character.

1-    Who else could be number 1 but R2D2 & C3PO from ‘Star Wars’. It was these 2 who really peaked my interest in robots. I have had the privilege to ‘meet’ R2D2 several times at conventions and every time I turn into a kid again. Apparently for about $10,000-15,000 you can build your own movie quality replica of Artoo, that can seemingly do most things the ‘real’ Artoo can, via remote control. If I were to win the lotto I think I might create my own Artoo…

Well that is all folks. Thanks for reading. Check out these other blogs associated with League of Extraordinary Bloggers…

www.coolandcollected.com

www.goodwillhunting4geeks.blogspot.com

www.infinitehollywood.com

The Cavalcade Of Awesome at: http://blog.paxholley.net/

See you in the future…

Blog #23: Edmonton Collectible Toy And Comic Show 2012

Last Sunday, despite the monster snow fall and poor road conditions, my Wife, youngest daughter Shelby and I made the trek into Edmonton to attend the 2012 Edmonton Collectible Toy And Comic Show. This is a fun little convention which is held at the Shaw Conference Centre. This year they included 'Photo-ops' at the convention, where a photographer will take a picture of you and the celebrity of your choice and develop the picture on site, something they have done at the Calgary Expo but a new option at the Edmonton show. This year the celebrity guests included John DeLancie, better known as 'Q' from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Julie Benz best known to me as being 'Rita' from the TV series 'Dexter'. I had the opportunity to get my photo taken with 'Q' which was very cool. He was extremely nice and shook my hand. 

I could have had a photo taken with Julie Benz but I chose to get her autograph instead because I just didn't have the time to wait for a second photo to be developed. Julie Benz was extremely nice and even talked with my daughter who was waiting in line with me. I did manage to ask her a few questions of my own. I asked her if she would be making a return appearance on 'Dexter', perhaps in a flash back sequence and she said No, she will not be on 'Dexter' again. *** SPOILER WARNING *** I also told her how devastated I was when her character 'Rita' was so brutally killed off on 'Dexter', so much so that I couldn't sleep that night after seeing that episode. She thought that was sweet and she admitted that she herself couldn't sleep after watching that episode. Another celebrity my daughter in particular was excited to meet was R2-D2. We got our picture taken with him. 

This was also my first opportunity to start rebuilding my classic 'He-Man' toy collection. I managed to secure many figures:

I also bought myself a complete set of the 1991 Star Trek/ Star Trek: TNG trading card set. I also bought several of the 'Star Trek: Titan' book series. And finally I got my own replica 11th Doctor 'Sonic Screwdriver', as seen used by The Doctor on season 5 and 6 of the 'Doctor Who' television series. It wasn't cheap but the hours of enjoyment I have got out of playing with it makes it worth every penny. I am a huge fan of the Matt Smith 'Doctor Who', and I intend to discuss that series in a future blog post. 

The Edmonton Toy Show was an excellent time, and apparently there is supposed to be some big announcement coming in the next few weeks from the organizers of the event. 

It was really awesome having photo-ops!!! But to improve the show it would be awesome if this were a 2 day event, maybe later in the year too like June-ish. So us people driving in from out of Edmonton don't have to brave the roads in April snow storms. The drive in last Sunday was not pleasent, and not much chance of a snow storm like that in june. All in all it was a great event!