Thanks For Everything Mr. McQuarrie

The artistic visionary, Ralph McQuarrie passed away at the age of 82.

"The world of science fiction and fantasy art and design has lost one of its true legends as Ralph McQuarrie died today at the age of 82.McQuarrie began his design career after moving to California from Indiana in the early 1960s. While he started out working as a technical illustrator for Boeing, he also found jobs designing film posters and providing animation elements for CBS News coverage of the Apollo space program.

An offer to work on concept art for a film project followed, and his designs caught the eye of director George Lucas, who had an ideal for a little movie about adventures in space. McQuarrie worked on designs for Star Wars before it was even known by that name and, in 1975, was commissioned to provide the now iconic designs for the likes of Chewbacca and Darth Vader, plus many concepts for the sets and ships. His art actually helped convince 20th Century Fox to take a gamble on Lucas’ dreams, making him a key component in one of the most beloved franchises of all time.“I just did my best to depict what I thought the film should look like, I really liked the idea,” he’s since said. “I didn’t think the film would ever get made. My impression was it was too expensive. There wouldn’t be enough of an audience. It’s just too complicated. But George knew a lot of things that I didn’t know.”

Lucas naturally asked him to work on The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi, and he even got to appear on screen in the uncredited role of General McQuarrie. But despite his close connection to the Star Wars universe, he declined Lucas’ offer to return for the prequels, commenting that he’d rather hand the baton to a new generation of artists and designers.Outside of Star Wars, McQuarrie worked closely with Steven Spielberg on Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and ET, providing the jaw-dropping designs for alien vessels. He also contributed to Raiders Of The Lost Ark and won an Oscar for Cocoon before moving on to work as either a consultant or the concept artist for such films as Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Batteries Not Included and Jurassic Park.A true original, McQuarrie is survived by Joan, his wife."

Sympathies to his family. Thank you for everything Ralph. You envisioned and influenced a huge and happy part of my youth, and you will be missed.

Wall Street. "A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy"

"I feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and where suddenly silenced." - Obi-Wan

Remembering D-Day

Today it is the 67th anniversary of D-day. Every year fewer and fewer of these veterans are left, so try and take a moment to remember all of those who died in the name of freedom.

Happy Star Wars Day!

Today is (unofficially) Star Wars day. May the 4th be with you!

DC Universe Online

Well, I have been playing DC Universe for a little over a week now, and I have to say, I like it! So far so good, Sony! I have a few issues with the control system, but I guess that is what you get when you design a MMO for both the PC and a console. Hopefully they will get that all sorted out. In my opinion, I don't think console players are the type to play MMO's over the long hall like hardcore PC gamers, but we will have to wait and see I guess.

As for the over all look of the game, I am liking what I see so far. One issue right out of the gate is the character creation area. It is a little basic and you don't really get a good selection of uniforms and emblems, but from what I can tell so far you get more and more as rewards and as drops in game. So the more you play the more you can customize your uniform, and there seem to be really cool reward ones as part of the end game content. The staring area is well set up and navigates you through the area while acting as a tutorial for you to master your new superpowers. The environment is very cool to look at, and you really have the feeling of being in a large city in the quest areas. Some of the other areas seem a little dull and could use more NPC's (like pedestrians walking around on business and traffic, stuff like that.) The graphics are pretty good as well. The game looks good on my desktop, and it is a couple of years old, so even people without top of the line computers could still enjoy this game.

As for what the whole point of this game is. Does it make you feel like a superhero (or villain)? So far for me, yes. whether flying over the city or jumping from rooftop to rooftop, it does give you the feel of being a hero. If you are the type of player that enjoys a little quiet solitary game play, the quests and quest chains are easy to solo. Perhaps higher levels require more team play. As for PvP in game, spotting enemy players is a little difficult. Unlike other MMO's hero's and villains are all in the same city's and start to run across each other almost right away.

All in all, not a bad start for DC Universe Online. If it will keep my attention for years remains to be seen.

Retro Cool

When I was a kid, some of the coolest toys you could have (and almost everyone who was a kid in the seventy's did have at least one), were Mego's Action Heroes. They were just the best and for the most part they were pretty durable and had a super high degree of "playability". That and because of the nature of product licencing back in the 70's they had the licence for just about every and any thing cool. From super-heroes to sci-fi, Mego made it. All in that same awesome 8" scale. A couple of years ago Diamond Select began releasing Retro Star Trek figures based on the original molds from Mego, and they were a huge hit.





So big in fact, that after they had released all the original figures that Mego had produced, they started releasing figures that Mego had never got around to in the same style as the original ones. Of course, being the huge geek that I am, I picked up as many of these as possible, and they were fantastic. A great trip down memory lane, without having to pay an arm and a leg on ebay!


The latest to jump on this bandwagon is Mattel, with their Mego-inspired "Retro Action DC Super Heroes". I have picked up a couple of these, and have for the most part, been pleasantly surprised. Even the packaging is reminiscent of the old Mego style of packaging. They are quite faithful to the original Mego figures, while fixing some of their short-comings. The Boots are much better than the thin molded plastic ones the originals had, the hero's "symbol" is of a higher quality (the old Mego figures were just a sticker, that would come off if you were not careful) and there has been some re-designing in the body. Mattel also seems to be releasing them in "pairs". One hero, and a matching villain, which is kind of cool. The only complaint that I have, and it is a minor one at that, is that it seamed to me that Mattel underestimated the popularity of these figures, as the first wave of them (including Superman) was almost impossible to find in the stores. Hopefully they will re-release these ones at a later date. Still there are lots of online shops that you can find the first line where the prices haven't been marked up yet.



So all I have to say about this trend is...cheers! It is so cool to see these toys, or copy's of them at least, back on the toy shelves. Cool enough for collectors to want and still a awesome toy for a kid that is into super-heroes to play with and make some of their own memories. And isn't that what toys are for.

Where I'm Not....*sigh*

It's getting near the end of July. My daughter in particular (because she is almost as big a geek as her dad...lol) was looking forward to going. Sadly while the family was planning to head down to San Diego, events (my beautiful wife's new job, and my son couldn't get the time off)have transpired that have prevented it. Sad but true. At least I might be able to cheer my daughter up, as there is a big Anime convention here at the beginning of August.

Oh well, maybe next year we will make it down. Here's to Comic Con 2011!