Friends

Yesterday was the release of the new Rebuild The Galaxy series so I ended up watching it and it was really fun. The Lego Star Wars shows are always really great and fun, and this was no exception. It was really cool to see Pirate Queen Amidala and to have the Skywalker family altogether which you really couldn’t have anywhere else. I watched all four eps (the first 3 in one go, the last one at night) and I’m glad I did.

At times though it did feel a little… product placements. Like there were the big K-2SO, droideka and most prominently Chewie. Plus there was the new Death Star set shown off. Having said that it did make me wish there was more than one set down specifically based on it. Not that I’d know what but it would be nice to have Jaxxon and pirate Queen Amidala.

I also did some more Silksong and the bell beast battle was so much harder than the first boss fight. I died so many times damnit but at least I beat it and now he’s my friend.

In the night, after debating what to do, I watched the new Ghost Files which was fun, though so funny to have Ryan say daddy so often. (And even as he said it he knew it would be clipped like crazy)

This morning I had a delivery, which ended up being the last issue of Dungeons And Dragons Adventurer. Now I’ll have to sort them out (along with the many MANY dice sets). I wish I was able to use the stuff in them though.

Today was the trip out so off I went to town. I made a few stops, including getting a pumpkin kit and bat bag from the works, some cute pins from a Pokémon card shop (that I didn’t know was even there??) and picking up a copy of SFX. I did go in B and M and it’s infuriating that it has two whole aisles of Christmas stuff and only half of one for Halloween. What the fuck is the world coming to?? I did see they had void series stranger things figures, but just Hopper and Eleven. (Does anyone know if there’s a list of the figures? I can’t seem to find one and wanna know if there’s one of my boys to hunt down?) The bm site said they have other Stranger Things stuff but I didn’t see them alas.

It’s sad that town only has one place that has new dvds and blu rays, Asda, which is utterly useless. I didn’t expect there to have Clown In A Cornfield but it’s still sad they didn’t.

I did manage to go in the art gallery which was nice. I didn’t know there were two more floors and one is impressively high ceilinged with an exhibit called shelter which was mostly nice. There’s even tours of it so might look into them. There was also the exhibit mentioned in the fest which was so random, it included metal sculptures and even prosthetic wound make up.

And ahh I looked to see about the tours and they’re doing some Halloween crafts! To make lil bats and pumpkin art.

(Also there’s a scare maze coming to town too which I didn’t know would be a thing there?)

The trailers for today’s stuff were mostly kids stuff (bar the last two) but most did look pretty good.
The Cat In The Hat: This looks like it’ll be really fun, it’s bright and colourful and I feel I’ll definitely see this.
SpongeBob: I had heard there was a SpongeBob film coming. I’ve not seen any SpongeBob stuff in ages but this feels like I remember it.
Zootopia 2: looks like it could be fun, I do really enjoy the first one. I have been guilty of not watching Disney stuff in cinemas cause it comes to Disney + but with the pass I might see it.
Pets On A Train: I’d not heard of this one but it did look pretty good, with a train being hijacked and the titular pets trying to stop it.
Night Of The Zoopocalypse: I’d seen a poster of this and was curious. It does look pretty good though, with something turning zoo animals into zombie like things.
Hamilton: Yeah that surprised me to be there too. Apparently it’s getting a cinema release, with a reunion of the cast too? I’ve never seen it personally but if there’s any Hamilton enjoyers look out for it
The Golden Spurtle: this is a documentary about the world porridge making contest. Yeah I didn’t know this was a thing either

Bad Guys 2 was a lot of fun so I’m glad I got to see it cause I didn’t expect to. I saw the first film on tv earlier in the year and that was fun and this one was too. (Ok I mostly went for Mr Wolf, but have you seen him?) It’s mostly a fun caper film though the last part is set in space cause of a wild plan (using mcguffinite to make a magnet for gold and attaching it to a strangely empty space station to steal all the worlds gold). The last scene did feel like set up for a sequel (as did the mid credits scene) so I do hope it gets one.

Also the art style is so great, it’s bright and pretty and the effects look so great. Plus everyone just bounced off each other so well, you can tell they had a fun time.

After that was Thunderbirds which ahh! Thunderbirds was a show I grew up with as a kid (which, of course was a rerun since it originally came out in 1965). I dunno if non-uk people know of it, but it’s about a group called International Rescue who save people from various disasters. And it’s all done with puppets and model work. The models are absolutely incredible and still hold up even all these years later.

This was a 4K re-release of two episodes, Trapped In The Sky and Terror In New York City. The first makes sense cause it’s the first ep of the show, the second is the 4th ep.

Trapped In The Sky is about a plane (the very cool looking Fireflash) that has a bomb in its landing gear which means it can’t land. The rescue here really shows off how awesome the model work is, from the Fireflash itself to all the airport rescue vehicles to the radio controlled things used to help it land.

It is funny though that the Fireflash is able to fly for 6 months because of its atomic reactor… but that same reactor means the people on board would get hit by a fatal dose of radiation in a matter of hours if not serviced, which seems like a pretty big design flaw!

The second ep has the navy shoot down one of the Thunderbirds (cause it didn’t even bother to give the unidentified craft a chance to identify itself!) which means it’s unable to be used for the main rescue. Said rescue is certainly a crazy one. There’s redevelopment in New York and they have decided to move the Empire State Building. (Yep move the whole thing in one go) naturally it goes badly due to underground streams causing subsidence, trapping two news crew as the whole building collapses, rending the whole thing moot.

I do wonder if this was chosen cause it gave thunderbird 4 a chance to shine (which didn’t happen too often!) though it could be that it was done because it had a lot of awesome model work again. As bizarre a concept as it is, it was all incredible well done and you have to admit it’s an original idea.

It has made ime wanna get the fancy boxset of the series that’s coming later in the year, and to find something with cutaways if the ships/locations. I feel I had one as a kid but who knows where it might be.

As I was leaving they were setting up a new promo thing for the Black Phone 2, which looked like the phone booth from the trailer, which is pretty cool. I’ll have to get a pic when I next go. Alas I missed the train by 2 minutes, but cause everything was shut (and it was starting to rain) I just stayed at the station and read some of the SFX reviews.