Fan Picks

Obviously Darth Maul's lightsaber is the one you'll want when it's time to go into battle, but stylistically I'm kinda diggin' Yoda's yellow beam of awesomeness. Which lightsaber do you like the best?



[via Geekologie]

Welcome to I Would Revisit/Abandon, a new regular SciFi Squad feature where we take a science fiction or fantasy universe, franchise or series and examine whether or not we would like to see more of it or if the door should be permanently shut. Expect new entries every Wednesday and Friday, and watch out for potential spoilers beyond the jump!

This week, we'll be re-thinking those plane tickets to...



Place: Anywhere in time and space Ziggy decides to take us -- It's Quantum Leap!

Dirk Benedict is back in the news, talking trash about the upcoming film based on The A-Team (a film he even agreed to cameo in). "They'll screw it up," Benedict told Sunday Mercury. "They will do to it what they did to Battlestar Galactica, probably."

Really? You mean they'll re-invent something cheesy and simple into something emotionally complex? Of course that's not what Benedict means -- he's still complaining that people found his roles so compelling, they're willing to re-invent them. That's a compliment, by the way. You can deal with changes with grace and wish the new guys luck, or you can grouse and complain that nothing will ever be as good as the (far less than perfect) original.

Benedict goes on, "I played an iconic character, but they turned him into a girl! When you do Star Wars you don't turn Han Solo into a girl, Hannah Solo." It's not the first time Benedict has railed against Katee Sackhoff taking on the Starbuck mantle -- the two had a public falling out over a 2004 editorial from Benedict in which he expressed his dismay at the show's focus on female characters.

The reality is that the characters are very, very different. Benedict's Starbuck was a late-70's riff on Han Solo, a roguish charmer always staying one step ahead of serious trouble. Sackhoff's Kara "Starbuck" Thrace was a tough-as-nails survivor, often sabotaging herself with her own stubborn independence. Which one is better? That's for you to decide.

Vote on your favorite Starbuck after the jump.

I can't remember exactly how I came across Preston Tyler Jarvis' YouTube channel, but I'm glad I did. For 2 months now, this young southern gentleman has been releasing enthusiastic reviews of Iron Man 2 action figures to relatively little fanfare. We need to change that. Watching PTJ (as I like to call him) talk about his favorite toys is a pure shot of untainted, non-snarky fandom that reminds me of how it felt to be a kid in love with Hollywood action movies. YouTube wasn't around when I was PTJ's age, but if it had been, this is exactly what I'd have been doing with my time.

Here's PTJ's review of the new Marvel Universe Ultimate Alliance 2 Iron Man figure:

Welcome to I Would Revisit/Abandon, a new regular SciFi Squad feature where we will take a science fiction or fantasy universe, franchise or series and examine whether or not we would like to see more of it or if the door should be locked up and the key thrown away. Expect new entries every Wednesday and Friday and although you're safe right here, be warned that potential spoilers lurk beyond the jump!

This week, we'll be re-thinking those plane tickets to...


Place: The planet New Texas. It's just like old Texas, except newer. Also, planet-sized.

As we mentioned earlier in the year, toy company Bif Bang Pow!™ (in cooperation with EMCE Toys) has been working on a series of 8" Mego-styled action figures and 7" bobbleheads for the [adult swim] television series The Venture Bros. (as well as LOST, The Twilight Zone and Flash Gordon) . Prototypes of the six action figures were show at New York's Toy Fair 2010 in February, but this is our first look at the bobbleheads of The Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch.

The Mantis-Eye Experiment says the bobbling figures cost $12.99, are "brimming with attitude," and can be pre-ordered at Entertainment Earth along with The Venture Bros. action figures. Collectors take note: the Dr. Mrs. The Monarch bobblehead will be an Entertainment Earth exclusive.

While the bobbleheads and figures won't be released until August 2010, word is all the toys will be available at the San Diego Comic-Con in late July. Better start saving now.

Venture past the jump for more VB news!

I haven't seen Damnation Alley since I was a kid, but remember it being among my favorite post-apocalyptic films. I think I was primarily impressed with the futuristic ATVs. I mean... they were no Battletruck, but what is?

Click through for a look at the Beta cover art from CBS Fox Video's release, an odd "screw you South America" copyright sticker, and a TV Teaser that features the fantastic line "All the dead are dead... and all the livin' are dying!"

"Thunderball Fists?!?!"

I love Super Inframan. I will not feel one iota of guilt for this guilty pleasure -- a 1975 Shaw Brothers superhero monster-mash that plays out like a Power Rangers fever dream. I discovered the film about fifteen years ago, sitting at the bottom of a 99-cent VHS bin at a rural Wal-Mart. My life has never been the same.

Please ignore the giant Superman logo prominently displayed on the movie poster. Copyright laws, schmopyright laws. If this poster doesn't want to make you see this film right away, I don't know you.

You can see the poster and the trailer after the jump.

Rip-offs just aren't as blatant as they used to be. Take 1981's Inseminoid for example -- a sci-fi horror film about space miners that come across an alien that impregnates humans (available on Netflix streaming under the title Horror Planet). It's basically Alien with a budget of $1.98 (although, it is a British film -- what's the conversion on $1.98?)

It's so low-budget, in fact, that there's one main set in the film that's just an unlit stage containing a handful of TV monitors and what appears to be a professional soundboard standing in for some high-tech computer controls. The walls aren't visible, and the objects in the room look like set dressing for a minimalist high school play. The movie is awful, but there's an odd sort of conviction about it that makes it watchable -- or maybe I was just waiting for another moment to come like the one in which the alien rapes a human with a plexiglass tube of what appears to be ping pong balls rolling in snot. (I didn't get one.)

Check out this poster after the jump, though. If that image doesn't sell you a ticket, I don't know what will.

I've never seen Lifepod (1993), but after I found out that it was a Ron Silver/Robert Loggia-starring, made-for-TV reworking of Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944), I became very curious to track it down.

Click through for the Swedish cover art. If you've seen the movie, let me know what you thought of it in the comments.