Bread Body Parts

I don't know whether to be hungry or terrified!!!

My First Vignette!

Well we all have to start somewhere! Here is my first official Vignette (small Lego scene, typically 8x8). It was originally going to be a platform for the zombie, but I decided a gravedigging scene would be more fun (and tell a better story than just having a zombie standing there). Enjoy!

Lego Halloween Sets Discovered!

Well I know what I'm getting my little one for her Halloween treat-bag! Lego is releasing two Halloween sets this year, one with a ghost/bat/pumpkin and one with spiders. While the spider set pic hasn't surfaced the other pic has, so take a gander at this!

Set 40020 in all it's glory!

There are lots of little cheese slopes in this, so I'll have to get one or two for myself.

40 Days Til' Halloween!!!

It's getting close! Time to put the styrofoam tombstones in the yard and hang the plastic skeletons!

Speaking of skeletons, am I the only one who loves the original Lego skeletons with the floppy arms? For some reason I imagine a re-animated skeleton would have floppy arms if it got up and walked around. The Lego skellys with the posable arms just don't have the same magic.

You Had Me At 'Zombies'

I'm too cheap to buy a Pandora account, so every hour or so I get the "Are you still listening?" prompt. I chose to complete an advertisor's little quiz so I could get 4 hours of uninterrupted play. It's a small price to pay, I mean I'd have wasted that time stopping what I'm doing an hour from now to restart the music, and then an hour later, and so on . . .

This one made me smile, though. It was some computer advertisement, but they worked zombies into the video and the little quiz. Things like that make a monster lover happy.

I'm still not buying your computer, though.

The Thing Trailer Makes Me Sad

I love John Carpenter's The Thing. I have it on Blu-Ray. I watch it a few times a year and I recently introduced it to my daughter (who loved it). When word of a prequel came along I was highly skeptical, though. Early set visits talked about a drive to keep the practical effects that made the original so gruesome and engaging, but deep down I knew. I knew that the CGI would come, and come it did.

I haven't seen one practical effect shot in this trailer. I have, however, seen many computer-rendered monsters that look like they belong in a Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie. I'm of the opinion that CGI should only augment practical effects. Jurassic Park accomplished this perfectly with a blend of animatronic dinosaurs and computer-generated dinosaurs (watch it again and see if you can tell which is which). The funny thing is that Jurassic Park came out in 1995. Two-Face in The Dark Knight is another shining example - a subtle removal of eyelids and cheek made the effect powerful and freakishly real! Even the unsuccessful Where the Wild Things Are shows us how CGI should be used.

Then, there is the other end of the spectrum. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and their giant turd-monsters. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark and it's little darkness-dwelling turd-monsters. And as much as I wanted to like Super 8, guess what, a giant CGI turd-alien. Compare that unrealistic beast to the original alien in Alien - big difference, right?

Here's the trailer for The Thing. There are americans in the Norwegian camp for some reason, and I didn't see anyone speaking Norwegian, either. I dream of a 1980's follow up with the same crew, Norwegian subtitles, and the only computer animation being a cheating bitch of a chess-computer.

2012 Lego Brown Bear

Here is a follow-up to yesterday's news on 2012 Lego animals. I found a picture of that brown bear I was excited about. He's going to look great in the haunted castle trophy room!

Grrrrrrrrr!

New Lego Snake From 2012 Ninjago

Some spy pics of the 2012 lego sets have popped up online, and as we all know, once it hits the web it stays on the web. It looks like Lego is hitting all the big sites with cease and decist notices so I'll refrain from posting them myself, save this tiny snippet. Behold! A new type of snake (from the new Ninjago sets). It will be nice to have some new serpants to slither around the haunted castle I'm working on. I also saw a pretty cool brown bear that seems to be molded differently than the polar bear, and the new Dino sets look awesome. Plus there are new "Lego Friends" that my daugther will probably want. Looks to be a good year.

Here's the old snake for comparison: