Sunday, April 11, 2010

Whedon Statue Wishes (aka where Xander and Giles at?)

A few lines of statues for Serenity and Buffy the Vampire Slayer have come out in the last few years. They’ve been great if not complete. What I mean is that while a few statues have been released, not all the main characters have been represented.


Serenity started out with its Diamond Select statues. Each one featured a character in a pose from the movie with a base that matched. For “Inara Strikes,” Inara is standing behind a barrier while taking aim and for “River Trumphant,” she is standing on a base of Reaver bodies just as she was in the film. After the release of these two statues, “Zoe’s Revenge,” was announced and never released. The statues were great even if the actual likenesses weren’t great.

River Triumphant from Diamond Select

Then came Quantum Mechanix’s series, Little Damn Heroes. It’s been about a year since the last maquette, Jayne, came out and no other characters have been announced so I’m guessing that the series has ended. It was an amazing series – affordable, unique, and fun. Each figure was ‘toon’ style on a plain base but all holding or wearing episode specific items like Mal’s trench coat and gun, Kaylee’s overalls (with teddy bear patch) and umbrella, and Jayne’s hat and ‘Vera.’

Kaylee from Little Damn Heroes

For those keeping score at home, if you were to put together the Diamond Select statues with the Little Damn Heroes, you get: River, Inara, Mal, Jayne, and Kaylee. We’re missing Zoe, Wash, Book, and Simon.

Then, from my favorite show of all time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we have the “Essence of” series of statues from Diamond Select. These statues showed the characters in situations that weren’t show-specific but very cool (Buffy in action with a vamp being dusted, Willow levitating, etc.) and each one had a unique light-up bases. Unlike the Serenity statues, the “Essence of” statues had great likenesses. But after four great statues, the line ended.

All of the statues from the "Essence of" line

Now we have the ‘Tooned Up’ series from Electric Tiki. This series, I am very happy to say, is ongoing. The statues were ‘toon’ style and is what the highly-anticipated-and-never-delivered cartoon series would have looked like. The Buffy statue comes in two or three different episode-specific outfits (same pose) with different hands that contain a stake, bo staff, and the slayer scythe. Willow comes in ‘Vengence’ (from the time she went after Glory) and ‘Dark Willow’ versions (again, same pose – just different paint jobs). Every statue so far (except for Glory) has had different versions but all have been awesome. The ‘Tooned Up’ version of Faith just came out and has an interchangeable hand so that she can hold a stake or her signature knife.

Buffy, Glory, and Dark Willow from the 'Tooned Up' series

Buffy, Angel, Spike, and Willow each got “Essence of” statues from Diamond Select. Electric Tiki has put out ‘Tooned Up’ versions of Buffy, Willow, Glory, Faith, and has just finished a sculpt for Spike (with a human and vamped-out version).

The forthcoming Spike statue looks awesome

There have been a lot of great statues but no line has lasted long enough to give me the core group of characters from either Serenity or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’ve already mentioned the characters that are missing from Serenity core characters. As far as Buffy statues, Buffy and Willow are in both series but I want a Xander and Giles statue. Cordelia would be nice too but I’ve always considered Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles the core of the series and it would be great to be able to have those four united on a shelf.

The problem with a statue series is that the items come out one at a time and take a month or a few months between releases and don’t last very long before they’re discontinued. Most of the items are limited which means that you have to get the pieces that you’re interested in before they sell out and hope that they come out with other characters you want.

Now Sideshow Collectibles has another Buffy statue series. Their first statue, “Buffy: Throne of the Slayer” is due in September. If I order the first statue, will they eventually release a Willow, Xander, and Giles statue. Probably not, but I still ordered the first statue and will hope for the best.
Sideshow Collectibles' "Throne of the Slayer"

Friday, April 2, 2010

Ghostbusters 3

"The wounds from GHOSTBUSTERS 2 are healed." – Bill Murray

I remember hearing that a new Ghostbusters film was in the works a few years ago at Comic Con. It was when Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson were promoting the awesome Ghostbusters video game (if you have an X-Box 360 or PS3 and haven’t experienced busting ghosts, what are you waiting for). I just thought it was talk. It isn’t unusual for some fan to ask, “How about Ghostbusters 3?” and get an answer like, “We’ve been thinking about it” or “It isn’t out of the question if the script is right.” Suddenly the gossip is that they’re making Ghostbusters 3.

It looks like it's going to happen.
Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Murray have all mentioned it in interviews and Ivan Reitman confirmed that he was back to direct. Variety reports that Ghostbusters 3 is supposed to begin filming in May for a release on January 7, 2011. The film has a release date!

And what about the plot? Dan Aykroyd said, "There’ll be a whole new generation that has to be trained and a leader that you'll all love when you meet her. There'll be lots of cadets, boys and girls who'll be learning how to use the neuron splitter and the inter-planet interceptor - new tools to enable them to slip from dimension to dimension." The new leader was a mystery until Eliza Dushku let it slip during an interview with Hollywoodspy.com, that she might star in Ghostbusters 3 because she’s a friend of Dan Aykroyd, and he really wants her to be a part of the project.

I’m a huge Ghostbusters and Eliza Dushku fan – I would love to see her in a Ghostbusters uniform.

So will the film go off as planned? Will we be buying tickets for Ghostbusters 3 next year? Will it rock harder than the first one? I don’t know. I hope that I’ll be able to watch the original Ghostbusters train a new generation and I hope that new generation will get their own movies.

I can't wait to see the originals back in action
And I can't wait to see Faith bust ghosts
A scene from the video game. Try it - busting makes you feel good.