Our Hauls of the Week! (Sept 27) DVD's, Bluray's, Tattoo's Plus What Did I Build??

Our Hauls of the Week! (Sept 27) DVD's, Bluray's, Tattoo's Plus What Did I Build??

Greetings and a howdy from the Dimension compound. Hopefully your week is going great. Like many, I have been caught up in the Pope visit. Its one of those things that I'm just enjoying watching on TV, not in person. A lot of people down in Philly and I'm just happy sitting at home, minus all the crowds.


OK, let's get to the horror:

Mine/Kim's tattoo's

On Sept 18th, I turned an elderly 45 years old. While it still doesn't register as being 5 years away from 50, I have just been enjoying life, especially this past year (probably the best year of my life). For this years birthday, I had decided to take the artwork that Godzilla designer/artist Shinji Nishikawa sketched for us at Monster-Mania and make it a tattoo. I called my boy, Buz Hasson from Explosion Tattoo down in New Castle, Delaware and give him the lowdown and he was happy to hook me up. After 3 hours of sitting in the chair, Godzilla is now permanently on my arm. You can also see, Kim got the Little Godzilla sketch tattoo'd on her arm also. We are both extremely happy and already made appointments for November to go back.


Let's move on tho the loot...I haven't been grabbing much as we are prepping for Monster-Mania in Hunt Valley, MD next weekend and we just had "back to school" shopping (and thats never cheap for a 15 yr old). I am, however super happy with what I did grab:

Spaced Invaders, The Deadly Spawn, Mad Monster Party, Return of the Swamp Thing and The Stuff. As you can tell, my tastes have changed for this month and I'm watching more schlocky horror stuff. More like B movies, especially when you add Swamp Thing into the mix.

Speaking of Swamp Thing, I've really been watching a lot of the older USA series. It's like Hammer Horror's drunken, more immature brother....sort of.


I feel like the best deal I grabbed was Mad Monster Party, especially since that's typically $20 Bluray that I've stared at tons of times debating if I was gonna grab it. This time it was only $7!! Super happy and excited.

Let's talk arts and crafts....the last few years I have been all about making things out of nothing. Cardboard, glue, foam, old crap that we don't want or need and stuff from the dollar store. I have expressed my love for Drawless animation and even used some in Mortimor Tromblay (now available)


I had made a Power Rangers helmet from cardboard and it was too small to fit my melon. I decided, hey, let's cut it up and see what happens. I took an old mailing tube, glued it to some cardboard and made myself a stand.





Then, I took some foam that Kim was using (as she has been trying to make

a Godzilla suit to cosplay in...that still hasn't happened). One of her earliest attempts was just sitting and instead of wasting the foam, I hacked, cut and started to glue it together. I decided to make some sort of puppet monster thing...kind of feeling it out as I went. If you follow the pictures, you can see it kind of taking some shape. This is my 1st attempt at building my own puppet. Weird right? Considering I use puppets and all kinds of oddities in my films.


I finished the shape and now need spikes and more actual shape plus, I ordered latex and some cheese cloth for look and feel. They came yesterday (Saturday) but I had already started on a new project so it got put on the back burner. Not for long, but at least a few days.


You can see some shape based off the silhouette that we are on our way but I have a lot of work to do still. Latex isn't cheap and since this is my 1st, I don't want to waste it. I will keep people updated as things progress.


I plan on updating again this week with what else I made. I'm proud of this one but figured I can do some videos and a discuss a bit more in-depth. Take care and enjoy your week!!

Phantom Menace in 3D - Was my mind blown or was Uncle George blowing smoke?

Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace 

Was my mind blown..or was Uncle George just blowing smoke..?

Now, we all know that The Phantom menace was a turd of a film in relation to the Star Wars universe, probably the worst of the 6. Darth Maul was marked as one of the most bad ass villains in Cinema history only to die a quick death with less than 10 minutes of screen time...yes, I know, very frustrating.

Without going into a review of the movie, because if you haven't already seen this...chances are you won't anyways. I would rather focus on the amazing 3-D effects that I would be looking forward too. Knowing how Lucas Arts is an innovator, knowing that good ole George would have something special up his sleeve for this, just to hook all of us nerds in for more merchandise and future releases...and knowing that my hopes are high as I've defended this release and looked forward too it...Uncle George wouldn't let me or the rest of us Lucas fanboys down...would he???

I went in with every intention of being in awe, with a complete open mind. Regardless of how bad Jake Lloyd was (even in High Def) I was going to enjoy the chills during the opening crawl and be wow'd like never before!! Well, I wasn't. Let me state this...the quality of picture was amazing. You could not ask for a better transfer to screen than what you get. Every detail sticks out, every background character has a face and we see everything with amazing depth. The 3-D effects just were lackluster.

Sure, I know that this wasn't "shot in 3-D" but come on Mr Lucas, you Sir, are on top of the world with Technology, you are cutting edge...you Sir are the creator and reason why movie magic is so epic. I was expecting to duck during the podrace scene, I was expecting to need oxygen during the space battles...I was expecting to be able to punch Jar Jar but in the end....I simply felt that I watched a Blu Ray version of the movie. It looks amazing, just not amazing 3-D.

My son, @BroccoliRob11, who wasn't born when this film came out, yet has seen this film at least 40 times was my theater pal for the day. When he was younger, he enjoyed Jar Jar, in fact...while everyone hates Bink, I noticed that the kids still laugh at him. I often have to step back and say to myself "I feel in love with Star Wars when I was 8yrs old. George Lucas doesn't make these for me, he makes them for the kids".

In closing, let me say this...I will continue to support George Lucas. I am a Star Wars junkie, I have been since 1977. I've seen every release in the theaters, I've even seen most opening night. I've shared this special Star Wars bond with my Wife, my kids, my friends and many, many strangers. I will always love Star Wars and I encourage people...if you love it, then love it, if not..that's cool too. It was great to take my son today, it's memory I will always cherish and I know he will too. And to George Lucas...Thank you for what you have given so many of us (even though you're a greedy, money hungry bitch)