Monday Skull Rattling: Come Across the Rainbow Bridge and Be My Friend

I think I’ve discovered the secret of how other people maintain content on their websites without actually posting anything: covering stuff that other people have already posted.

With that in mind I thought today I might do the same thing in the spirit of self-interest.

San Francisco with Venus setting in the background. Or Saturn. Depends on who you ask it seems.

-First off, I’d like to recommend everyone follow @Astro_Ron if you’re on Twitter. Better known as Astronaut Ron Garan, he flew on the Discovery before its recent retirement and has now returned to the International Space Station on Expedition 27. What he doing up there? Why he’s sending Twitpics of Earth like this one here or the view of San Francisco seen above. I know a lot of people debate the usefulness of the Space Program (and the ISS in particular) but you can't deny that the pictures aren't beautiful. 

This is from Finland!

 -So last week Capcom decided it’s had enough of dwelling in what I would call “polite obscurity” following a massive slowdown after RE 5 that wasn’t broken until recently with MvC3. “Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City” was announced, with a surprising move into the realm of FPS for the franchise. Apparently you’re playing as (and with) a team of commandos who work for the Umbrella Corporation, all of whom take their visual cues from Hunk. I've seen the game described as a fusion of SOCOM and Left 4 Dead, which admittedly makes me anxious in light of the co-op elements of RE5 basically extinguishing the single players impact. One thing to note: one of the missions is apparently to kill Leon and Rockfort Island (of Code Veronica fame) is one of the locations. You can get a surprising amount of details here including stuff I hadn't heard on the first pass around. [Source: NeoGAF]

-Want to see something that burned one of my neurons with pure frustration? Well look no further than lucky dog Jeff Parker’s Guest Review of the Hot Toys figure of Friend from 20^th Century Boys! Made for Hot Toys' 10th Anniversary exhibition in Tokyo, he joins a Michael Jackson figure in the outfit from "Beat it" and a special set of the Scarecrow and hallucination Batman from Batman Begins. Hopefully one of those two is enough to make you guys jealous since I'm still bitter about not having one figure from Hot Toys ever.

Naoki Urasawa’s great manga receives a figure I’ll never be able to have and I most definitely want to share my misery with you, even if you have no experience with the man or his works. Fun fact: one time around campus I saw a girl wearing a t-shirt with Friend’s symbol on it but I was in a car and couldn’t stop to talk to her. Where did you go local girl with excellent taste?! [Source: Michael Crawford's Review of the week]

-You guys may remember a few weeks back when we last had Poe Ghostal on that he was talking about a surprise figure on his website. Well the secret is out because today he posted pictures of his very own Poe Ghostal Minimate! Head over there for the scoop as I don't want to steal any of his thunder [Source: Poe Ghostal's Points of Articulation]

None of the Thor posters have been amazing but this is one of the better ones

-So the first reviews of Thor are coming in and most of them seem pretty favorable if not enthusiastic. So far no one's screaming about how much the movie shoves the upcoming Avengers film in our faces the way they were with Iron Man 2. Maybe they've gotten over it as SHIELD is all over the movie from the trailers (and promotional campaign) and Hawkeye apparently has a role substantial enough that my clueless boss at work knew who I was talking about when asked. Anyway, full reviews are here, here and here from some of the fortunate bastards that got to see it already. [Sources: IGN, Hitfix and Comic Book Resources]

A connection only made by how they both appeared in the last batch of episodes for Batman: The Animated Series

-As a side note, it's been a thrilling week for me in toys which you'd already be aware of if you're following us on Twitter (@Orccacast for those of you who aren't and WHY AREN'T YOU?). I found all of DCUC 16 in the space of about 2 days just before I was about to order them online. By this point I figured they were going to be like Wave 8 and never appear at retail so I was doubly pleased to find them with an amazing price point of $10.99 apiece at Kroger. I think that makes this the cheapest wave since the first and that's only because Wave 1 only had 5 figures. It's a better wave than I thought it would be and I'm pleased to see they fixed the springy chest attachment on Mercury. I also finally found a Jedi Luke from the new VOTC collection after falling asleep at the wheel long enough for him to mostly disappear. He's just as great as everyone said he is 4 months ago.

Mercury is saying "You don't see any dust on the mantle. NONE!"

So that's all I've got for you today. Hopefully this was an enriching experience, even if you just learned that I'll talk to any girl wearing a 20th Century Boys t-shirt. Have fun with the rest of your day while I sit here and try to organize my demented thoughts to finish what I was working on.