JoeCon . . . IT's PEOPLE!!!!

I admit it, I've kind of dropped the ball on the blog. Moving, and a very full schedule will do that. It's not dead though, it's just not truly started yet. Since I last posted, I've moved to Florida, gone to the G.I. Joe Convention in New Orleans, and I'm now spending time with family. After that, more travel is planned for a while.


In the mean time I've also relocated Captain Cosmos Collectibles. You can now shop with me in Ocala, Florida, at the newly opened Wildwood Antique Mall. Just to clarify, it's NOT the Antique Mall in Wildwood. It's the same company, but they have opened a new location in Ocala. The new mall is located at the shopping center at State Road 200, and 27th street, very easy to find if your in Ocala.


Of course I have to talk about the G.I. Joe Convention. To swipe Dickens, it was the best of con's it was the worst of con's. If you have followed the plight of Master Collector at all this year, you know the company has had a rough time of it: credit card security issues, product delays, a rescheduled convention to coincide with the G.I. Joe movie, then the devastating blow of the movie being pushed back 9 months for 3D conversion. I'm sure I'll talk about that in another blog at some point. But for now we can concentrate on the results of all that: NO money for advertising. In terms of attendance, and dealers, 2012 was on of the smallest International G.I. Joe Conventions in more than a decade. That was fantastic for those did show up, but not so good for the dealers. On the upside, the people that were there tended to be the high rollers, so the dealers were not hurt as bad as they could have been. Sure it would have been nice to supplement those big sales with a lot of little sales, but at least they had the big sales.


The best part of the show was that the lack of walk in traffic really allowed the regulars to mingle. Old friends talked for hours, new friends met, Hasbro had plenty of time to interact with fans. The overall atmosphere was much more laid back and relaxed than the usual hustle and bustle of Joe Con. If there was any doubt before, this show more than any previous one, really nailed down the true reason for a convention . . . People. Sure the toys are nice, the exclusives are great, but it's the people that truly make a convention something special.

Is it really 3D? Avengers and Men In Black 3D

I don't see movies in the theater all that often. Just no time for it. So I'm a little behind on this new wave of 3D. This week I was able to see not 1, but 2 movies on the big screen: Men in Black 3D, and Avengers 3D. Previously I had only seen Tron: Legacy in 3D, and I thought that 3D was subtle, and very well integrated.

Avengers had pretty decent 3D. For the most part it drew you into the story. Though some of the "tricks" were a little annoying. Like looking down at a Helicopter on a airfield with a really close up lamp post floating off in the corner. Just seemed a little cheap to force the issue of 3D. In a lot of scenes I felt like I was watching something closer to a pop-up book. Sort of 2 1/2D. So many moments seemed to be a flat image floating in front of a flat image. For the most part that wasn't too bad, but occasionally, it was something really obvious like the Hulks fists. They sometimes looked like 2 flat pictures of fists floating in front of a flat Hulk, who in turn was in front of a flat city. Really takes you out of the moment.

The final battle had the most jarring moments though. Overall, a phenomenal battle in a phenomenal movie. Those armored space whales were quite impressive. But the aliens on those little air skiff's, those looked like cartoons. They just didn't look the least bit integrated to me at all. Just a CG alien pasted onto a post card of New York City.

Beyond a few missteps with the 3D technology, I have nothing but good things to say about the movie. The plot was solid, the dialog great. Certainly what we have come to expect from someone like Joss Whedon. 3D aside, the special effects were amazing. The S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier was . . . perfect. So much better than that horrible made for TV Nick Fury movie with Hasselhoff a few years back. Someone really put some thought into this Helicarrier. Side note; now that they have pulled this off, what could possibly stop them from making a live action Robotech movie? Hulk was finally done right. Very realistic. Well as realistic as a completely fabricated, 10 foot tall, green skinned character can be I guess.

Men in Black 3D on the other hand, not so good. The story was good, the acting really well done. Josh Brolin was so good at mimicking Tommy Lee Jones that I serious thought they were dubbing the voice several times. He just had it nailed, even right down to the mannerisms. Will Smith, just as funny as ever. While watching the movie, I never once doubted that Boris the Animal was anyone other than Tim Curry, turns out it was actually Jemaine Clement from "the Flight of the Conchords." Never would have guessed. A fine performance never-the-less.

The 3D was the only real issue I had with the movie. It felt really gimmicky. OK jumping off the Empire State Building is 1 thing, that's fine, I can live with that. But so much of the rest just seemed forced, and more distracting than immersive. The scene in the electronics store, with all the lasers, that bordered on ceasure inducing. It was just insane. There was a moment with a horse . . . was there a horse or am I remembering that wrong? Could it have been a motorcycle? No I'm pretty sure it was a horse. That just goes to show you how much it too me out of the moment. Anyway it's a chase scene, and the they have to turn the horse around. But it doesn't look like a three dimensional living horse turning around. Instead it looks like a paper cut out of a horse turning around. Really odd looking. The rest of the 3D was just really over done. Scenes that didn't need much to enhance them were forced into a disorienting 3D blur. And I do mean blur. The backgrounds at times were almost incomprehensible. I know they were trying to make it seem like a real, tactile, visual experience, but we just don't see the world that way. Yes we tend to focus on the person talking, and the background just sort of blurs out of existence for that moment . . . but not THAT much. It was like the characters were suddenly thrust into an impressionist painting, all color and motion, no substance.

One last thing. I felt like there was a major plot hole in MIB3. Others might not feel the same, but it was just a glaring omission to me. What happened to Agent K the first time he met up with Boris the Animal to make him so cold? And what exactly changed the second time to loosen him up a bit? It's implied that meting the young Agent J as a boy was what softened him up. But it seem's to me that he might have met the boy either way, and it certainly doesn't deplane what happened the first time through.

These Are the Disney Droids your looking for

Not quite ready to go blast on the blog just yet. Still trying to figure things out, and waiting for my schedule to settle down a bit. A major move to another state can really cut into your time. But I did want to start putting a few things on the map, and give a taste of what this blog will be about. Disney theme parks recently unveiled their new Star Wars Build A Droid Astromechs, and I've got to say I'm very excited about them.

At the moment they are only available at Disney MGM's Star Tours store. In the future they might be found at other Disney locations such as Once Upon a Toy Store in Down Town Disney. The plan is that there will eventually be 71 unique Droid parts available so that you can create your own unique Astromech. For those that don't know, R2-D2 is an Astromech Droid. So far only about 2/3rds of the parts have been released, the rest should be out soon. The parts include Disney themed hat's like Mouse ears, the Indiana Jones fedora, and a Yoda hat, all scaled to fit your personalized Droid.

The 71 parts break down to:

25 heads, some of which are brand new designs that have never been released before.
13 bodies
10 of each of the 2 legs
5 of the middle foot
8 different hats


Crunch the numbers on that and you actually get over 1,000,000 possible Droid combinations. That's a whole lot of Droid's to be looking for.

And it took 60 years to become a comedy. I recently watched a 1997 DVD of the 1953 science-fiction movie "Project Moonbase" based on a Robert Heinlein story. Yes the same Robert Heinlein that brought us such classics as "Tunnel in the Sky," "The Door into Summer," and "Stranger in a Strange Land." As far as I can tell "Project Moonbase" was written to be a movie, and was never published, at least not in any form I can find record of. I suppose it could be based on one of his early works under a different name?

I have no doubt that this movie was very serious fare at the time. After all we didn't know a whole lot about the dangers of space travel in 1953. They certainly fell short in a few areas . . . most notably in shorts. They actually wore shorts, T-shirts, and a beanie as their flight suit. I think the idea was lower weight meant lower cost. Still, shorts seem a little to casual for space travel don't you think? I always thought of it more as black tie affair myself.

Another strange addition to their wardrobe was the side arm. In the story America was the only country in space at this point. So with no enemies to fight, why did they need to carry a .45? Let's not even bother to address the results of explosive decompression. To make it seem even more out of place, you know the old idea in writing, "never introduce a gun if you don't intend to use it?" Well . . . they never used them. I guess the wardrobe department just assumed every branch of the military would carry a side arm no matter what the setting.

But enough about their fashion choices, let's get into the plot. The movie seemed to start with 1 plot, completely abandon it, and finish up with something totally unrelated. That's pretty hard to do in only 63 minutes. We start out with the machinations of an unnamed evil force in business suits. Though unidentified, this was the 1950's, so like every other movie of the era, they were Commies. The idea was that America had the upper hand by not only being the first in space, but also being the first to establish a space station. Apparently we skipped all the small steps with satellites, and just jumped straight into the deep end with a full blown manned space station. This space station gave the US a jumping off point to further establish the first moonbase. Hmmm . . . You know I bet that's where they get the title from?

Anyway, the bad guys are under orders to take out that station by any means necessary, thereby preventing the establishment of a base on the moon. Problem is that they have no space program of their own to work with. So naturally that means they have to get an agent aboard that station, and they can only do that with a double. The how isn't important, but they succeed in getting a double aboard the next rocket to the station. Though never mentioned, it is a suicide mission. You can't exactly blow up a space station and expect a rescue.

So we now have our crew. It's very progressive for 1953. A woman is in command. Her name is Colonel Briteis, Pronounced "Bright Eyes" . . . are you there with me? As if the name wasn't enough, they further undermine her position by making it clear that as a woman, she's lighter than an average man, and therefore cheaper to send into space. Next we have Major Moore. He was passed over for promotion by Briteis, again, because of her weight. Glad the Military doesn't actually use that as a criteria for promotion. Needless to say, there is some resentment on Moore's part, the 2 butt heads quite a bit. Last but not least . . . no forget that, he is least, we have "Doctor Werner" our evil impostor. Their mission is to orbit the moon, and photograph the dark side to seek out a probable location for a moonbase. They are under strict orders not to land, because they don't have the fuel necessary to take off again. The doubles mission is to take over the ship, and crash it into the space station when they return.

Major Moore quickly figures out that Werner is a fake, and a very brief fight ensues. As a result the rockets are fired wasting precious fuel. Now they can't possibly make the return trip to the station. Briteis makes the snap decision to land on the moon. Now they have a problem, they are on the dark side of the Moon with no hope of rescue or even communication. They are only 10 miles from the light side of the Moon. Their space suits have just enough oxygen for a round trip of that distance. But it takes 2 to set up the communications equipment. They can't leave the saboteur alone on the ship, so Moore asks Werner to help him with the communications equipment. After all, he's literally in the same boat, and it's his only chance of rescue as well. Totally forgetting that he's on a suicide mission as it is, he agree's to help because "if he wasn't forced into it, he wouldn't have done it in the first place." Doesn't work out for him though, because he dies by falling off a rock while setting up the communications equipment.

At this point the whole terrorist plot to stop America's progress into space is done. Never mentioned again.

Now we can focus one real issues; the intersection between the practicalities of space travel, and 1950's sensibilities. The two are not exactly compatible.

Though not exactly pleased with the results, their superiors decide that their ship's landing site is as good a place as any to start a moonbase. So the ship is re-designated as Moonbase 1. Their rescue is next on the list of priorities, but there's no real plan in place for such an operation. The crew is told that they will have to ration their food and oxygen to 10 days . . . Wait? Wasn't this only going to be a 1 or 2 day mission at most? And weight was a big deal. Shouldn't they each have a sack lunch and a cookie for later? Even at just 1 meal a day, why would they have had enough on board for 10 days? Moot point I guess. Soon enough they are able to get a regular supply of cargo pod's, but it's still going to be at least a couple of weeks before they can properly be rescued.

That's where the real problem comes up, and we finally get to the point of the movie. Their commanding officer back on earth has a private conversation with Major Moore. Or at least as private a conversation as they can have on a 2 room space ship. This is where things take a real 1950's turn. Remember what the bedroom looked like in every 1950's TV show? Even as a happily married couple Ricky and Lucy NEVER shared a bed. They always had their own single beds with a nightstand between them . . . Always! So how would the American public react to a young man and woman being cooped up all alone on a space ship for several weeks. Oh that just won't do. That won't do at all. Those two have to be married. They simply HAVE to be.

So it's decided, Major Moore [who of course really likes the Colonel anyway, despite all his posturing] should ask Briteis to marry him. She over hears the conversation of course. When the Major can't work up the nerve to do it himself, she takes matters into her own hands, and has her own private conversation with the general. We don't get to find out exactly what was said, or even who asked who, but the 2 are married by way of video screen shortly thereafter.

As something of a honeymoon gift, they are given new official orders, and addressed directly by the President of the United States, who, shockingly is a woman. Again, very progressive for 1953. Though I should mention, not that it makes much difference, the movie is set in the far flung future of 1970. They are congratulated, and officially separated from the command of the space station. Major Moore is placed in command of the new and future moonbase with a promotion to, get this . . . Brigadier General. Nothing like an accidental Moon landing, and a sham marriage to skip over a few rungs of that corporate ladder.

As I said above, this was probably a very serious subject in 1953. I'm sure the very idea of an unmarried man and woman in a space ship together for anything more than a few days was pure scandal. But 60 years later, it's down right comical. I had a seriously good laugh at this film.

A comparison of the book "I Am Legend," and it's first adaptation "The Last Man on Earth."

"I Am Legend has been presented in several forms over the years. The novel by Richard Matheson was published in 1954. Since then it's had 3 official movie adaptations: "The Last Man on Earth" staring Vincent Price, 1964; "The Omega Man" staring Charlton Heston in 1971; and finally Will Smith's 2007 "I Am Legend." When I first heard about the 2007 movie, I remembered that it was one of my father's favorite books. So I decided I'd have to read the book before I saw the movie. Then I decided, I'd have to see the other movies.

I have nothing against the 2007 movie on it's own merits. It's a decent enough movie in it's own right. Certainly better movies have been made, so have much worse movies. It is what it set out to be, a popcorn action movie, and there is nothing wrong with that. For the most part it sticks pretty close to the original source material. obviously something's had to change. You simply can't adapt a 1954 book, and set it in 2012 without addressing things like cell phones, and the Internet. So that sort of thing can be forgiven.

However, the 2007 version does fall short as an adaptation, because it completely-misses-the-point-of-the-book. The book, on the simplest level was about role reversal. Our "hero," Robert Neville is actually the monster in the end. He dies the same way Frankenstein would, at the end of pitchforks, and fire. Just as one man's rebel is another's revolutionary so to can the hero become the monster with a simple change of perspective. There is no happy ending for Neville. For better or worse society has changed around him. When being a zombie becomes the norm, those hanging on to their humanity become the outcast.

This is where "The Last Man on Earth" succeeds where the 2007 "I Am Legend" fails. It doesn't forget the point of the book. In fact despite being greatly abbreviated in some areas, it sticks fairly close to the novel. 86 minutes just can't cover everything in a 160 page book.
The 1964 adaptation only really deviated on 1 point as far as I can recall. In the book there were the living infected, and the resurrected dead infected. They were all more or less zombies / vampires, but the living were able to function better than the dead for obvious reasons. They were able to work cooperatively and form rudimentary communities. This slightly more organized living group send's one of their least infected girls to spy on Robert Neville [or Robert Morgan in the movie], gain his trust, then unlock his door from the inside so they can get him. They hate and fear him because he spends his days finding and killing their people.

That's basically how it played out in the movie. But instead of there being living and dead infected . . . well I guess I should qualify that. There were different levels of infection, they just didn't really qualify what made them different in the movie Though in a flashback Robert's wife had died and came back, but the origin of other zombies was never made as clear. It's mentioned, but never really clarified, it simply appears that there are more, and less infected zombies. The "less" infected were able to develop a pseudo-cure. They were still infected, but they were able to get by much easier. Sort of like chemotherapy. Your not being killed by the cancer anymore, but your not much better off either. The main point being that there was now a wider gap between the more infected, and the less infected.

As a result of the pseudo-cure, our hero was able to develop a real cure. So he cures the girl, but it's too late. The zombies are able to get in, and kill him before they find out he has a real cure. They still consider him a monster, but the fact that he had a cure provides a mirror for them, making them monsters again.
Other than that, it was very close to the book. It even had the sad part with the dog, another point the 2007 movie took great liberties with. But it wasn't nearly as sad as it was in the book. Honestly the chapter with the dog is one of the saddest things I've ever read. If you can't make it through Bambi, don't even consider reading the book. The whole chapter only took about 4 minutes in the movie. He see's the dog, it run's. He searches, and can't find it. The next day the dog comes back. He cleans it up, bandages it's wounds, and talks with it for a while. Then realizes it is infected. Cut to the next day and he's burying a blanket covered dog with a spike through it. In the book it was not clear if the dog was infected or not, but died as a result of it's injuries regardless. In other words, he didn't kill the dog himself. Yes it's sad that he's forced to kill the dog in the movie, but it's downright heart wrenching in the book when the dog dies despite his best efforts.

All things considered, especially the amount of time they had to tell the story, "Last Man on Earth" is a very good adaptation of the book "I Am Legend. Now I just need to track down a copy of "The Omega Man."