The post-apocalyptic bounty hunter Vash the Stampede is returning for fans everywhere with the sequel manga ‘Trigun Maximum’ getting a “Deluxe Edition” from Dark Horse Comics.
Anime News Network reports, “Dark Horse Comics announced on Tuesday that it will release a hardcover Deluxe Edition of Yasuhiro Nightow’s Trigun manga, as well as a hardcover Deluxe Edition of the followup Trigun Maximum manga. Both releases will feature the original oversized 7×10″ page format for both manga. Trigun Deluxe Edition will have 672 pages, and will compile the two volumes of the Trigun manga, while the Trigun Maximum Deluxe Edition’s first volume will have 584 pages.”
The manga was originally serialized by the Japanese publisher Shōnen Gahōsha in their ‘Young King OURs’ magazine.
Dark Horse describes the “Deluxe Edition” saying, “On the forbidding desert planet of Gunsmoke, a sixty billion double-dollar bounty hangs over the head of Vash the Stampede, a pistol-packing pacifist with a weapon capable of punching holes in a planet. Every trigger-happy psycho in creation is aiming to claim Vash dead or alive—preferably dead!—and although Vash believes in nonviolence, he won’t go down without a fight. And when Vash fights, destruction is sure to follow!”
They also revealed concept artwork for the release on their Twitter feed:
Today, we're thrilled to be able to reveal something we've had in the works for some time: #TRIGUN and TRIGUN MAXIMUM Deluxe Edition manga! Revealed earlier today on Anime News Network, find more details and pre-order links on our website: https://t.co/LqMv36OfG1pic.twitter.com/KN3NB3mJ19
— Dark Horse Comics (@DarkHorseComics) May 16, 2023
Crunchyroll describes the synopsis of ‘Trigun Maxium: Deluxe Edition’ as follows,
“Vash the Stampede, the galaxy’s deadliest gunslinger, emerges from two years in hiding to help his beleaguered desert homeworld, Gunsmoke. But the Stampede’s many enemies have kept their motors running, and they’re back on his trail and determined to bring Vash to ground—hard! And a new crowd of bounty hunters, badasses, and braincases are also looking to cash in the sixty-billion double-dollar price tag on his head!”
The original ‘Trigun’ ran from April 1995 to January 1997 while ‘Trigun Maximum’ was released between October 1997 to March 2007. The show had two anime spin-offs and a feature animated film ‘Trigun: Badlands Rumble.’
Merch is short for “merchandise,” meaning all the non-comic book stuff you might sell to make money. Merch is promotional material and profit, but only if you can segway into something fans want. On the upside, there is excellent potential profit, but on the downside, you could put out a lot of money and distract yourself from the most critical endeavor: making your comic book. These are the Pros and Cons of Merch.
Pros: It makes you more money.
Price points on comic books are often so low that it’s hard to make a profit. Even today, with (in my opinion) the wildly overpriced floppy comics by indie creators, you’re lucky to make a few bucks per unit. Comic books were meant to be cheap entertainment, so selling a $30 t-shirt is like selling five comic books in terms of profit margin.
Cons: It costs a lot more money.
The capital you put out to make this merchandise is always more significant. So unless you’ve already got a bit of success or a few extra grand burning a hole in your pocket, this kind of expenditure can kill a fledgling comic book company. Think carefully before you endeavor to make a t-shirt for a comic book character you may not be able to afford to publish. And speaking of…
Photo by Pixabay
T-Shirts
For some creators, this is a gold mine. For others, well— At least you’ll have a lot of extra shirts should you go out of business. The guys from Penny Arcade made a mountain of money selling gaming-related t-shirts. Some would argue that they were a t-shirt company launched by a webcomic. At $20 a pop, I watched these guys rake it in and immediately thought, “Gimme some of that!”
Unfortunately, the first roadblock you run into is how many shirts you print and in what sizes. With my first foray into garments, I stuck with all XL shirts. I figured it was a good median size. Smaller fans might still buy it and take in larger fans— Well, I just figured there couldn’t be that many people of large girth asking me for shirts.
Of course, I was completely wrong. Although I think I broke even with my initial run of Super Frat t-shirts, I knew I lost business because I didn’t have enough sizes. It was nuts. I had people asking me for baby-ts and XXXL!
And while buying an initial run of a few dozen shirts could drive the per unit price down, that was only because I bought all the same size. Adding sizes made the math more complicated. The oversized shirts cost more (more fabric), and I couldn’t order just one or two of the extreme sizes.
The bottom line was that to justify the expense and hassle of ordering more shirts of varying sizes, I would have to sell dozens of them during a show. Since I was lucky to sell one or two, that seemed like a foolish investment. Additionally, schlepping around the shirts from comic-con to comic-con and displaying them wasn’t exactly feasible either. I don’t know; I guess I’m not big enough to do shirts yet. Your mileage may vary.
After two other failed attempts, I have officially decided to do my shirts on sites like Red Bubble. There, the shirts are printed and shipped; all I have to do is collect the money and point people in that direction. Plus, it allowed me to invent the Pizza Pillow, which I find hilarious (your mileage may vary).
Shirt Strategy: Make a design that people will want regardless of your comic book. In other words, something with just the title requires a fan to be a fan of your comic book to enjoy the t-shirt. Whereas, if you have a cool-looking demon in your comic, putting that on a t-shirt might sell to anyone wanting to wear a shirt with a monster.
Pros: Merch makes your little comic book empire look more prominent and more important. It gives you something other to display than just your comic book. Fans will assume you’re a much bigger deal than you are.
Con: You need something to display the merch correctly at a comic-con, and you’ll be carrying more boxes of stuff. You’ll also need more room in your car or have to pay more for shipping if you’re taking a plane to a big show.
Photo by Pixabay
Games
For my money, games are the best merch you can make from your fans. However, they are usually one of the most complex ones to make. Games require testing, artwork, and, depending on the kind of game, a whole lot of capital. Let’s look at it, cheapest to most expensive.
RPGs or Role-Playing Games
These are the cheapest to make since you’re basically just publishing another pamphlet or book with illustrations. If the RPG is centered around your comic, your comic illustrations can also be reused. The most significant expense will probably be the printing costs.
Unfortunately, writing the game is a big time investment, especially if you have to create your rule system. Some established RPGs have OGLs or Open Game Licenses, which means you can use the established system and create your characters within that system. Unfortunately, the biggest OGL, the d20 System, recently changed its open licensing rules. There are others, but even with an established system, these games require many pages of errata. It’s like writing a small book, and I should know since I’ve written for games and my own OGL RPG, Complete Mafia for d20.
Creating your own RPG system will take up a lot of time. It’s not impossible, but if the game is to survive more than a single game for your customer (and RPG fans desire this), you’d better beta-test the thing to shake out the bugs. Plus, once you have an RPG game, you’ll need to demo it at cons to spark interest.
The good news is, if you do all this work, it will open the door to doing Gaming Cons. The great thing about Gaming Cons is that fans stay for the entire length of the convention to play games, and they are usually much more flush than comic book fans. They come for the weekend, bring plenty of money, and don’t mind throwing fifty to a hundred bucks at a game if they like it.
When I did my fantasy comic, The Travelers, it was published for most of its run at Kenzerco, publishers of Knights of the Dinner Table, and many different games. This opened the door for me to do gaming cons and sell not only my game but my fantasy comics. Since comics are generally much cheaper than games, it was often an easy sell to gaming fans.
Photo by Pixabay
Card Games
The card games require more costs because you’re not just printing cards; it involves some kind of packaging. While more compact than the RPGs, if you design them correctly, they tend to be quick to play. That’s their appeal.
The downside is that you will have to do more artwork and almost as much game design as the RPG. If the mechanics of the game don’t work in an RPG, the players can modify or ignore specific rules because the fun is invested in their characters, not necessarily the game mechanics. With card games, the whole game is about the mechanics, so if that doesn’t work, forget it.
An upside is that you can create exclusive cards to stick in your comic. This can be an incredible boost to your sales if the card game is popular. Unfortunately, I don’t think many people got into the Magic: The Gathering comic books. I saw fans buying the comic with the card exclusive and throwing the comic away. Card games were the hottest thing for a while, but trends come and go. Keep that in mind before investing in this merch, fanboy.
Board Games
Unlike card games, board games are a bit more universal in their appeal. In terms of game design, they tend to be simpler, especially if you’re designing it for younger fans.
Unfortunately, the big expense here is usually the component pieces that come with the game: dice, figures, game pieces, cards, etc. These all have to be designed, manufactured, and boxed. If you’re doing that all yourself, it can be quite an undertaking if you’re fulfilling hundreds of units for stores and fans nationwide.
And just like any other piece of merch, the more complicated the game, the more expensive it will be to make, and you’ll have to make more of them to drive down the cost per unit to sell it at a reasonable price for your fans. You could spend more time designing and building this game than your comic, which may defeat the purpose of making this merch in the first place.
Photo by Pixabay
Video Games and Apps
Although these can be your most affordable merch, they only exist as software on computers and phones. All the expense, time, and energy will be in the game’s design. Additionally, if you can code it yourself, great. If you can’t, well, you’ll need someone or a service to do all that.
It can be an expensive and time-consuming process to get something that’s cool enough for your fans to be impressed. The downside is monetizing the investment. Many games and apps are free online, so why would anyone pay for yours? I did one for Super Frat many years ago, and one of my fans did all the work. It was online at a server somewhere, and eventually, the link stopped working. It was a fun freebie for a while but didn’t bring me too much in the way of sales.
Games, Broadly Speaking
If you can afford to do them and know how to design them, why not? People with access to a company or other people that can make this stuff or give you a good deal— Well, that’s worth it. If you want to do it for the sheer thrill of making your own game, I understand that, but I would expect little in the way of sales for your comic.
The upside is that you could find yourself with a hit game and be in a situation where the profit of the game funds the comic. (A good problem to have!) That’s unlikely. (Although I did work with a gaming publisher who stumbled upon a hit comic and was able to do the opposite.) Games are their own thing and take tremendous capital, time, and energy. If you have those components, go for it. If not, stay away.
Pros: Merch can bring your comic book characters to a new audience that never knew they existed.
Cons: If the merch outshines the comic books, this can be disheartening for a creator, even if the money starts rolling in.
Photo by Pixabay
Action Figures and Toys
There’s a big market for this kind of merch, and it can open the doors to toy cons you would not otherwise be able to do. Most creators would love to have action figures of their characters. I had someone do custom Jersey Devil action figures and even sold a few of them.
But just like anything else, doing things right cost money. You’ll need a sculptor/designer or someone to build a prototype, and you’ll have to find a company to make them at a cost that won’t leave you charging $200 a figure. There’s also packaging and designs for that and possibly even warehouse space if you think there’s enough interest.
It’s going to be expensive, but at least you won’t have to design a game. If you want to go the cheaper route, do what I did— Find a guy that modifies existing action figures. He can take an old figure and repaint and reshape them into your character. You can at least have a few for the table, and if there’s interest, you can have a short run made for resale. If you get bombarded with requests, you can upgrade to a production run, but something like that would require a crowd-funding campaign.
Pros: Your comic book empire looks legit with all the merchandise on your website. You have multiple streams of potential income.
Cons: Shipping all this stuff can get expensive, and the comic book (which should be the center of everything) looks marginalized next to an extensive line of merch.
And the Rest
Over the years, I’ve seen creators do all kinds of wild merch: flying discs, bumper stickers, books, beer, hats, phone cases, candy— The list is endless. Which one is right for you? That depends on your comic book.
When picking out the kind of merch to do, you want something that makes sense with the comic. Currently, I’m promoting The Pineys, which is about a family of hunters that hunts the kin of the Jersey Devil. Besides the big three, I’d want merchandise that would go along with hunters. Hats and hunting vests might go over well for me.
With your comic or project, it would be completely different. I knew a creator who did a knitting comic, so naturally, she could sell branded needles and stuff she knitted. When I was promoting Super Frat, I devised a way to make Frat paddles and sold them at cons. (They came with a Super Frat comic strip mounted on the back.)
Image by Nightcafe AI
Cater the Comic to the Merch
Maybe you already make something cool at your Etsy store. If you made a comic book that somehow tied in your product, the comic helps promote the product and vice versa. There were some guys that did a comic about brewing beer, so naturally, they made beer too. They couldn’t sell it at cons, but they could promote it, and these days, local brewing is big business.
Some creators might say doing merch at all is somehow devaluing your artistic vision. If you feel that’s true, no one is forcing you to do it. But if you have a popular comic and need to monetize more, or if you can make a unique item that goes perfectly with your comic book, why wouldn’t you make it? It’s not like you’re making it to rip people off. If it’s fun and fans want it, you give the customer what they want. It’s only when you ruthlessly pursue every dollar at the expense of your creative endeavor that it may damage your rep as a creator.
Combine the Merch with the Comic
RPGs and other game systems can put game material right in the back of your comic, and it’s easy and doesn’t take up much room. This encourages the gamers to buy the comic and the comic readers to check out the game.
Giving Up the Merch
Special offers, contests, and giveaways can help promote your comic. Even if the merch turns out to be a total bust, have a contest and give it away. At least you’ll get some promotion out of it. Fans seldom complain when they get something for free.
I’ve been around long enough at cons that I have tons of material I know isn’t going to sell anymore. Or, it’s a comic I’m just not promoting, but I still have a few hundred copies. The solution is to give it away as added value. If someone buys a lot of something, I might throw in a few of those comics as a bonus. Why not? They’re just sitting in my basement. This can also be done with merch that didn’t sell. When you’re sick of seeing it clutter up your storage area and need it for something new, give it away.
Crowd Funding Merch
If you have enough fans, you should crowd-fund the merch. When The Webcomic FactorydidPost Apocalyptic Nick, we did a Kickstarter for the book that made its goals. We added t-shirts, stickers, and pins along with the comics. If you have a big enough following, you can crowd-fund just about anything— But make sure you know the cost ahead of time. And if it is a stretch to raise the money for an action figure, crowd-fund it separately from the other items.
They say if you have 10,000 fans that 1,000 of those fans will be loyal enough to buy your stuff. And with that many paying customers, a comic book creator can make a living. If I had to translate that into YouTube fans, the number would be closer to 20 to 30K. And, although it’s changing, Twitter does not monetize well, in my opinion. I would not trust a following to buy anything, and that goes doubly for Tik Tok. You may have better luck with platforms with realistic engagement and websites that you control entirely.
Anyhow, get out there and create some merch creator. The fans are waiting! Until next time, fanboys— See you at the con.
People who love to play video games with giant robots will remember a mech game released in 2011 called Hawken. It was one of the few free-to-play online games back then to feature controllable mechs in a multiplayer setting. And while the game was short-lived, it did have a positive reception from mech enthusiasts and competitive players. Now it looks like Hawken will be making a comeback, but in a different way than you might remember.
505 Games revealed Hawken Reborn in a brand new trailer, coming soon to early access May 17th on Steam. The trailer shows a bit of gameplay, which is not focused on player vs player (PvP) action. Hawken Reborn will instead pivot its gameplay to a more PvE design. The game will be a mostly single-player experience at launch, with co-op multiplayer modes set for release sometime afterward.
Hawken Reborn senior producer Brian Decker spoke with PC Gamer about what fans can expect from the return of Hawken. “By going PvE, it lowers the barrier to entry a little bit with people who might see a PvP game and get discouraged, just because they think they don’t have the skill set needed to come in… There is something very engaging about playing games, especially mech games, with other people… So the co-op is our sort of chance to tick that box … to let you enjoy the experience with your friends… The sky’s the limit on what’s to come…”
As of now, Hawken Reborn will have five mechs to control, with six missions to play through. Players will have around nine different weapons to use in-game, with more to come later after it releases on early access. Mechs can be tweaked and customized in different ways to give an edge in combat where you need it most. Luckily, players won’t have to worry about things like loot boxes coming into effect. While there will be options to purchase materials with real money, you can still earn everything by playing the game and earning them through progress. The game’s director Luigi Fusco explained more of the team’s approach to progression in Hawken Reborn. “The foundational philosophy of the game’s monetization system was based on the premise of anything that a player can purchase using real money they must be able to play towards…”
The original Hawken was released in 2011 for PC, which was actively played online until servers for the game were shut down in 2018. Hawken Reborn isn’t a remake or reimagining of the original game, but a continuation in some ways that build upon what was already there. Hawken Reborn is set for release on early access on Steam May 17th.
Did you get to play Hawken back when it was first released? Are you a big fan of mech games or giant robots? Share your thoughts on everything down below in the comment section!
Batman Returns is getting some love! The 1992 sequel to Tim Burton’s mega-hit is often cited as a misstep, but I love it just as much as the first film. Now LEGO is focusing on the movie with a 3,981-piece Batcave that doubles as a display case.
Once assembled, the closed display case mode measures 20″ long and 11″ tall. Even when closed, the shadow box shows off much of the Batcave’s detail and the Batmobile.
The Batcave is modeled after its appearance in 1992’s Batman Returns, but it can easily be used as the 1989 version. However, the mini figures included only apply to the sequel. You’ll get the following characters:
Max Shreck
The Penguin
Catwoman
Two versions of Batman
Alfred Pennyworth
Bruce Wayne
Like most things LEGO, the Batcave will cost you. $399.99 is, the asking price, and June 8th is the release date. LEGO VIP members will have access to order the kit on June 5th.
Dynamic action – Movable items can be controlled from the rear: turn the chair, change the computer screen, and open and close the tool store and illuminated Batsuit™ vault
Realistic Batmobile™ – The roof opens for the Batman™ minifigure with the fabric cape to enter. Turning the cog on the side causes 2 hidden shooters to appear. A flame element attaches to the exhaust.
Would LEGO fans be interested in a Batman Forever set similar to this? Those final two films did have a vastly different aesthetic and were more … what did Joel Schumacher claim that WB wanted? Was it Toyetic? Warner Bros. wanted his movies to sell toys and the film’s designs to be toy friendly. There. Boom. LEGO Batman Forever kits with lots of translucent green plastic and Bat Nipples. Sold.
Check out the Rivendell LEGO kit about WB cashing in on their IPs.
Marvel Comics is shifting the line-up of the Avengers once again ahead of their new pull list. With some fan-favorite members, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will join the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, and Captain America in their titles ahead of this week’s releases.
“In this week’s Marvel Comics, Jed MacKay and Stormbreaker C.F. Villa take the reins of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes!,” they said on their website. “The Star. The Icon. The Witch. The Construct. The God. The Engineer. The King. The world is ever in peril, and a new team of Avengers mobilizes to meet any dangers that dare threaten the planet in AVENGERS (2023) #1. But when Terminus attacks, a new and insidious danger rears its head: one that the Avengers know all too well, and one that comes to them in the most dangerous of guises—that of a friend. Assemble with the latest team of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in AVENGERS (2023)…”
Marvel revealed the complete list online:
New Comics
AVENGERS (2023) #1
BLOODLINE: DAUGHTER OF BLADE (2023) #4
CAPTAIN AMERICA: SENTINEL OF LIBERTY (2022) #12
DANNY KETCH: GHOST RIDER (2023) #1
FANTASTIC FOUR (2022) #7
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (2023) #2
HULK ANNUAL (2023) #1
MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN (2022) #6
PLANET OF THE APES (2023) #2
PREDATOR (2023) #3
RED GOBLIN (2023) #4
SCARLET WITCH (2023) #5
SHE-HULK (2022) #13
SPIDER-MAN 2099: DARK GENESIS (2023) #3
STAR WARS: BOUNTY HUNTERS (2020) #34
VENOM (2021) #19
X-FORCE (2019) #40
X-MEN (2021) #22
New Collections
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN BY ZEB WELLS VOL. 4: DARK WEB TPB
CAPTAIN MARVEL VOL. 9: REVENGE OF THE BROOD PART 1 TPB
INCREDIBLE HULK BY PETER DAVID OMNIBUS VOL. 5 HC WEEKS COVER
IRON MAN EPIC COLLECTION: THE CROSSING TPB
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: HOWARD THE DUCK VOL. 2 HC
THE MIGHTY THOR OMNIBUS VOL. 4 HC KANE COVER
THE UNCANNY X-MEN OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC KANE COVER [NEW PRINTING]
X-MEN LEGENDS: PAST MEETS FUTURE TPB
Marvel Unlimited
ALIEN (2022) #6
AVENGERS: FACSIMILE EDITION (2023) #8
AVENGERS: WAR ACROSS TIME (2023) #2
BISHOP: WAR COLLEGE (2023) #1
BLACK PANTHER (2021) #14
CAPTAIN AMERICA: COLD WAR ALPHA #1
CAPTAIN AMERICA: SYMBOL OF TRUTH (2022) #10
DAREDEVIL (2022) #8
GHOST RIDER (2022) #11
GOLD GOBLIN (2022) #4
HELLCAT (2023) #1
JOE FIXIT (2023) #2
MOON GIRL (2022) #3
NAMOR: CONQUERED SHORES (2022) #5
RED GOBLIN (2023) #1
SECRET INVASION (2022) #4
STAR WARS: DARTH VADER (2020) #31
STAR WARS: HIDDEN EMPIRE (2022) #3
STAR WARS: THE HIGH REPUBLIC (2022) #5
STORM & THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUTANTS (2023) #1
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2022) #19
X-23: DEADLY REGENESIS (2023) #1
X-MEN LEGENDS (2022) #6
These issues will be available on May 17, 2023, in print or digital formats.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosted the 2023 BAFTA TV Awards on May 14, 2023, where they honored television documentaries, dramas, comedies, and more! Several popular shows from Great Britain were highlighted at the event held at the Royal Festival Hall with the ceremony hosted by Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan.
Total Film revealed the list of nominees and winners for the event:
Drama Series
Bad Sisters WINNER
The Responder
Sherwood
Somewhere Boy
Mini-Series
A Spy Among Friends
Mood WINNER
The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe
This Is Going to Hurt
International Show
The Bear (Disney Plus)
Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (Netflix) WINNER
Wednesday (Netflix)
Oussekine (Itineraire)
Pachinko (Apple TV Plus)
The White Lotus (Sky Atlantic)
Leading Actress
Billie Piper – I Hate Suzie Too (Sky Atlantic)
Imelda Staunton – The Crown (Netflix)
Kate Winslet – I Am Ruth (Channel 4) WINNER
Maxine Peake – Anne (Channel 4)
Sarah Lancashire – Julia (Sky Atlantic)
Vicky McClure – Without Sin (ITVX)
Leading Actor
Ben Whishaw – This is Going to Hurt (BBC One) WINNER
Chaske Spencer – The English (BBC Two)
Chaske Spencer – The English (BBC Two)
Cillian Murphy – Peaky Blinders (BBC One)
Gary Oldman – Slow Horses (Apple TV Plus)
Martin Freeman – The Responder (BBC One)
Taron Egerton – Black Bird (Apple TV Plus)
Female Performance In A Comedy Programme
Daisy May Cooper – Am I Being Unreasonable? (BBC One)
Ubisoft has had a rough relationship with fans over the past few years, with a number of controversies and industry discussions hammering at their reputation. One shining point for long-time Ubisoft that played the Assassin’s Creed series was the announcement of Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Assassin’s Creed Nexus in development. But that goodwill may be quickly diminished soon. A recent posting indicates Ubisoft licensed NFTs are inbound, and it’s rubbing people the wrong way.
According to a post on the website smartcollectibles, Assassin’s Creed NFTs will be dropping soon. While there is no official date that has been revealed yet, the website has information on how exactly they will work. The NFTs are called Smart Collectibles, which represent various characters from the Assassin’s Creed series. Each one will have varying outfits and weapons to make them stand out. A higher rarity for higher tiers will give gamers more options for customization. These NFTs are being made by Integrated Reality Labs, a company that has worked on other projects looking to blend gaming and NFTs together. Besides Ubisoft, they have partnered with other companies like GameStop and Dolby Family Ventures in the past.
The Smart Collectibles are officially licensed by Ubisoft and can be purchased using the Polygon blockchain, which can be customized and made into a 3D physical print within a glass cube. The physical versions will have a chip that can be scanned and interact with a companion application, verifying its authenticity. Outside of this, Integrated Reality Labs is selling 1500 Pieces of Eden Passes, which grant access to extra things like exclusive drops, limited collectibles, and priority for the physical prints.
1/ Smart Collectibles™, a Short Thread
In this thread we will be providing some tech and ordering information in regards to the Smart Collectibles™ that we are very excited to debut with all the @assassinscreed fans!
— IRL Smart Collectibles (@IRLSmartCollect) May 11, 2023
There’s been a very contentious relationship between gamers and anything that involves NFTs. The backlash at many companies from the gaming community has been loud, despite multiple publishers trying to find ways to get involved with the NFT craze. Ubisoft was one of the first large publishers to show interest in NFTs and how they can be implemented into games, including the announcement of Ubisoft Quartz in December 2021. However, heavy criticism from fans has seemingly prevented the company from exploring the NFT landscape with their games until most recently.
Other large companies in the games industry have looked towards NFT implementation with their games, including Square Enix and SEGA. Both of which also received massive criticism from their respective fan bases. Very soon Ubisoft will be hosting their Ubisoft Forward presentation, which was originally going to be their E3 presentation until the company pulled out of attending this year. More information about the Smart Collectibles, such as pricing, may get revealed by Ubisoft during then. If things remain consistent, how Ubisoft fans may react to it might not be what the company is expecting.
What do you think about the Ubisoft NFTs coming to Assassin’s Creed? Do you have strong feelings about seeing anything NFT in new video games? Share your thoughts down below in the comment section and let your voice be heard!
If you grew up in the 90s and early 200s watching television, then you’ll remember how big Cartoon Network was for fans of anime. The network was one of the main stations where new anime fans were born, watching mega-popular shows that were aired on blocks like Toonami. Cartoon Network was the place where many fans first got a glimpse of shows like Dragon Ball Z and many others that became smash hits in North America and other places outside of Japan. One piece of media that was made during this timeframe was believed to have been lost forever but has recently been found to the delight of longtime anime and Cartoon Network fans.
Thought to have been lost for the last 23 years, an episode of JBVO: Your All Request Cartoon Show that featured Dragon Ball Z has now been rediscovered and found. The episode was uploaded to the Internet Archive by users SandersPlanet & Jericho, which was afterward shared by YouTuber LSuperSonicQ to everyone over Twitter. The lost episode has a viewer request to see an episode of Dragon Ball Z, which is then given commentary by Johnny Bravo in a 2X speed summary.
The episode of Dragon Ball Z that was requested on the show was the one where Goku kills Frieza on Planet Namek after becoming a Super Saiyan. Because the JBVO show had a rule to not show half-hour shows for their caller requests, Johnny Bravo could only fulfill the caller’s request by doing a quick 30-second expositional commentary of the DBZ episode.
AFTER 23 YEARS, THE DRAGON BALL Z EPISODE OF JBVO HAS BEEN FOUND!
This lost episode of JBVO aired only once on May 7th, 2000, and was never aired again afterward. For a long time, it was nearly impossible to rewatch the episodes since it was never shown again on Cartoon Network nor included in any VHS or DVD releases. The rediscovery of this episode of JBVO, and sharing of other JBVO episodes online, is part of an effort online by many to help preserve animation history from various eras. Many have taken it upon themselves to find and upload clips and episodes of many shows thought to have been lost or forgotten over the years.
JBVO was a spin-off series of the cartoon show Johnny Bravo, one of Cartoon Network’s biggest series that aired back in the day. It had a total of 28 episodes that aired on Cartoon Network from 2000 – 2001, which had Johnny Bravo hosting and taking requests from viewers on what cartoons they wanted to see. This would include showing segments of other Cartoon Network shows of the time. JBVO was canceled after only one season.
What do you think about this lost JBVO episode that featured Dragon Ball Z in it? Would you want to see other lost media from that era get found so you can watch it? Share your thoughts about everything down below in the comment section!
Despite the lukewarm reception of the Middle-Earth-based show Rings of Power, Amazon is far from being done with the world of The Lord of the Rings. Multiple video games based on the J.R.R Tolkien-created universe have been in development for some time, including the upcoming The Lord of the Rings: Gollum for multiple platforms. But Amazon Games is planning a return to the MMO realm with a new game based on The Lord of the Rings franchise. Whether it will have strong ties to the Rings of Power show or any specific age within Tolkien’s universe is still unknown, for now.
Amazon Games Orange County, the development team behind New World, is making the newly announced Lord of the Rings MMO role-playing game. The team is teaming up with Embracer Group’s Middle-Earth Enterprises, the current entity that is in charge of everything that is related to media based on The Lord of the Rings. According to news released by Amazon Games, this new game will be an open-world MMO adventure set within Middle-Earth and will be made for PC and consoles. The game is now in the early development stages and probably won’t be completed for a long time.
Amazon had previously tried to put together an MMO based on The Lord of the Rings before but to no avail. That game was canceled by Amazon back in 2021 according to a report by Bloomberg, citing the cause of the cancelation being a business disagreement between Amazon and Tencent. Since the cancelation of that game, there have been very few game releases based on The Lord of the Rings, despite Amazon expressing interest in trying again for some time.
Amazon Games vice president Christopher Hartmann commented on the announcement of the new MMO when speaking with IGN. “Bringing players a fresh take on The Lord of the Rings has long been an aspiration for our team, and we’re honored and grateful that Middle-earth Enterprises is entrusting us with this iconic world… This is a completely new game because the license is much, much wider… It’s really the freedom we have in terms of gameplay features where now anything is possible, and the limitation is where it’s technically possible or not…”
Many gamers will remember another game that was released back in 2007 called The Lord of the Rings Online. It was an MMO role-playing game that was released shortly after the mega-popular World of Warcraft, which caused a renewed interest in the MMO genre. While The Lord of the Rings Online was popular among Tolkien fans and MMO players, it never achieved the same type of success or critical praise that World of Warcraft had. Lord of the Rings Online was active for a long time and received a boost in player activity in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic when the DLC content for the game was made free for everyone to play.
Other details about the newly announced Lord of the Rings MMO from Amazon Games are currently unknown. Because development is in the very early stages, we won’t be hearing much about it for a long time. This includes any specific details on whether the game will be set within a certain age of Middle-Earth, or if any of the classic characters featured in Tolkien’s stories will make any appearance in at all. Depending on when the game takes place, who knows if we’ll be receiving quests from fan favorites like Gandalf, Aragorn, Galadriel, or even Elrond. Or if we’ll be fighting the forces of Sauron in any capacity.
CEO of Freemode, Lee Guinchard, also shared some words about the upcoming MMO. “We have the clear ambition to create the highest-quality entertainment products for this IP, whether we utilize internal resources or team up with the best industry partners that complement our capabilities. We’re taking every care to deliver an MMO which will do justice to the expansive Middle-earth universe and delight players around the world.”
What do you think about the newly announced Lord of the Rings MMO game? What do you want to see done in it? Share your thoughts about the game in the comment section down below!
Although he didn’t get the kind of screentime Thanos had in the MCU, Darkseid was still a menacing figure in the soon-to-be-defunct Snyderverse. His more significant presence in the director’s cut of the film showed that he could have been one hell of a foe for the small group of demigods and metahumans.
Regardless of the DCEU’s fate, the film’s version of Darkseid lives on thanks to the collectibles market. One such item is a massive 1:1 bust of the legendary DC Comics baddie made by Queen Studios.
Although Darkseid is stunning, the bust is probably easier to care for than other DCEU statues we’ve seen in the past from this studio. The ruler of Apokolips does not have individually rooted hair or silicone skin. Instead, it looks like Darkseid is made out of mainly resin and polyurethane.
The New God does, however, come with glass eyes that are lit via LEDs, as is the base. On the backside of the base sits a smaller version of Darkseid on a throne.
Of course, like many other Queen Studios releases we’ve covered in the past, this mega-bust isn’t available in the United States. So only Darkseid fans in Mainland China, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa may drop a few grand on this 1:1 sculpture.
If you are from one of those areas listed above, make sure to pre-order your Darkseid statue soon because only 99 of these will be made.
The New Gods may have been some of Jack Kirby’s best work in comics. It’s too bad we may never see them properly represented on the big screen. What do you think? Can James Gunn right the ship and bring about a new comic book movie renaissance? Let us know below.
