If you were a kid in the 80s, then you were following the battle between two of the world’s super powers at the time.  No, I’m not referring to the US versus the Soviet Union.  There was something BIGGER going on and it threatened to tear families and friendships apart even more than the US Civil War.  That’s right, I’m talking about the battle between the two greatest shape-shifting robots ever created - the Trainsformers and the GoBots. 

If you were a fan of robot toys in the 80s then 1984 has got to have been one of the greatest years of your life.  In 1984 both the Gobots and the Transformers both made their way to toyshelves across the US and I for one experienced my first erection.  Although I enjoyed both lines of toys, I had an immediate preference for the Transformers from the very beginning.  Their good guy vs bad guy branding and statistic cards on the back of the toy packaging reminded me of the GI Joe figures I was already buying and made me feel like I was taking part in some storyline greater than myself.  To me, the Gobots were cheap and nowhere near as cool. Read More »

It’s another exciting week here at the Nifty Nerd and we’ve got a new episode of Comics That Piss Me Off to go along with new comic day for the week of April 23, 2008.  This week we’ve got some good stuff and some bad stuff, and a new Modern Master volume all ready to become the latest addition to my “bathroom reading” stack of books.

Let’s see what wonders are waiting in this week’s buy pile:

1. Mighty Avengers #12
2. Hulk #3
3. Number of the Beast #2
4. The Spirit #16
5. Justice League of America #20
6. Modern Masters Volume 16: Mike Allred

First up, Mighty Avengers #12 by Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev.  I am a regular reader of the Mighty Avengers, in spite of it being a fairly poorly written book, and I have to say this new issue confused me.  I say this because as I read the issue I kept flipping back to the cover to make sure it was an issue of the Mighty Avengers and not its companion book, the New Avengers.  Bendis must have been confused himself as he wrote the book because it features not a single member of the Mighty Avengers, and focuses almost completely on the renegade team and Nick Fury.  This book is even worse than regular Marvel books which require you to have read every previous issue of a book for the past 5 years…this book requires that you have read every issue of some other series.  Marvel really needs to get rid of Brian Bendis if they want to open their books up to new readers…or open the books up to good writing. Read More »

As a child of the 70s and 80s, I am an absolute arcade game addict. To this day, I love going in to a good arcade and playing video games on an upright cabinet. There is just something ingrained about arcades in my DNA. Heck, standing next to my desk is a 4-player Konami X-Men arcade for 1992…I can literally spin my chair around right now and play me a game of X-men whenever I want to take a break.

Nothing is more satisfying than standing at an arcade cabinet and playing a video game. Unfortunately, while the old-school games are fairly cheap to get (anywhere from $100 up to $2500 or so, depending on the game), the full-sized cabinets take up a lot of space and, if you’re like me, most homes don’t have enough room for every game you want to get.

Lucky for all of us, the folks at X-Arcade have the answer to our prayers: the X-Arcade Machine Cabinet. And that, my friends, is what arrived fully assembled on my doorstep last week, a present from my wife. My wife is awesome! Read More »

Some interesting things in the world of Nerddom went on this week.  A sex tape, a Youtube divorce announcement, tons of comic book releated film and game projects, and G4TV gets stoned…wait, that’s an announcement?  From the look of their recent programming, I’d say they’ve been high there for a while now.

And awaaaaaay we go!

Sex from Beyond the Grave!

Hollywood’s latest sex scandal may turn out to be one of its oldest.  That’s right, a 15 minute, 16mm reel of film has been uncovered which shows Marilyn Monroe administering some oral-loving on an unknown man whose face was just off camera.  In the early 60s, J Edgar Hoover spent weeks trying to proove the unknown man was either John F Kennedy or Robert Kennedy.  Whoever it was, I have to give him props…if it had been me in the reel, the footage would only have been about a minute and a half long.

The recovered footage was sold to an unnamed businessman for $1.5 million dollars, who said he would not be releasing the tape out of respect for Marilyn.  I’d say that means we have about 6 months before it hits YouTube. Read More »

“Wax on…Wax off.”

Being born at the end of 1972, I was in the midst of full blown puberty through most of the 1980s. And, as a nerd with no real social graces of any kind, I used to do what every other teenage boy with cable did at the time…I would sneak out to our family living room to watch the marvels of late night cable programming. I would turn down the tv as low as I could in hopes of not waking up the parental units and, in what I thought to be sheer genius, I would cover both the television set and my head with a quilt to keep the light leaking out to a minimum.

Perhaps it was the paranoia of getting caught, and perhaps it was just watching way too many teen sex comedies, but my fond memories of my late night adventures in the 80s are much more exciting than any hardcore porn you can download online. I probably should have classified that under “too much information.” But, if the title of this post didn’t scare you off, I’m guessing a little quilt confession won’t either.

What I bring you today, my loyal readers, is my top 10 list of the ultimate spank-it movies of the 80s. They have have damaged my eyes and put hair on my palms, but they also helped me reach manhood…sometimes 2 or 3 times a night.

Read More »

Hey there.  I’ve got a bit of shameless self-promotion to throw at you right now.  We’ve got a brand new Nifty Nerd t-shirt from the fine folks at Cafe Press.  The new shirt, one you’ll be seeing my wear in a couple of upcoming “Trapped in the 80s” videos, is our “Frankie Say Fuck Off” shirt.  Now, before any faux-80s fans jump up and proclaim, “Hey…shouldn’t that be ‘Frankie Says’??”  No. It shouldn’t…please follow the advice of the shirt.

Click image above for ordering info.  Frankie Say Fuck Off T-Shirt, Buy now for $11.99

Check out this great, retro-80s shirt and pick one up for as low as $11.99.  It’s a lot of fun and lets people know exactly where to go.

-Mat N., The Nifty Nerd
http://www.TheNiftyNerd.com

Yo, yo, Yoda!

You know, week in and week out I take a bullet right in my bank account for you, my loyal readers.  It’s true.  Every week I go in to my local comic book store (Comic Cellar, off of Myrtle Avenue in Monrovia, CA) and I pick up a lot of books I don’t normally read…and, inevitably, I wind up picking up a number of books I know in advance are going to suck ass.  That’s right, I waste my money so you don’t have to.

Let’s take a look at what is in this week’s buy pile:

1. Brave and the Bold #12
2. Legacy of Doom #1
3. Captain Action #0
4. Superman #675
5. Dream War #1
6. Captain America #37
7. Wonderlost #2

Definitely a mixed bag for me this week. Read More »

Dagon
Directed by: Stuart Gordon
Screenplay by: Dennis Paoli
Story by: H.P. Lovecraft (short stories “Dagon” and “Shadow Over Innsmouth”)
Starring: Ezra Godden, Raquel Meroño, Macarena Gomez, Francisco Rabal, Brendan Price, Uxia Blanco, Birgit Bofurull, Ferran Lahoz
Running Time: 98 minutes
Rated: R
Release Date: 2001
DVD Release: 2002

“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn”

Anyone familiar with me at all knows I am an absolutely monster H.P. Lovecraft fan.  I was introduced to his writing back in the late 80s and it has stuck with me through the years.  He was a master of atmosphere and mood, and there are few who have been able to match his ability in the horror-genre.  In fact, the nature of his stories makes them very difficult to film.  There isn’t a lot of action or big scares.  Everything he does is in the building of terror and hopelessness, and a film based on someone slowly being driven insane really isn’t the most exciting thing to an audience raised on slasher or heavy-gore flicks.

That being said, a lot of people have tried to adapt his work in the past to varying degrees of success.  Which brings us to Stuart Gordon and his film, Dagon.  Gordon is best known for his Re-Animator and From Beyond films, also loosely based on Lovecraft tales.  The Dagon adaptation, originally named “Shadow Over Innsmouth” after the inspiration for the movie, was originally to be Gordon’s third film after Re-Animator and From Beyond, but he was never able to raise a large enough budget to do the film justice.  After 15-years, Gordon hooked up with friend Brian Yuzna and was able to get the cash to shoot Dagon.  Read More »

When I first met and started dating my wife a few years ago, she and her friends introduced me to what would eventually become one of the banes of our relationship.  That trouble spot, one of the only we have, was a little game called “Scene It? The Movie Trivia Game.”  As a hybrid DVD-board game, my wife and her friends absolutely loved to play Scene It and would do so at all hours of the day or not, and a lot of times they were doing it while a bit drunk…I’d say “high” but I don’t want to rat anyone out just in case her parents are reading this.

What Scene It? revealed to me about my wife, her friends and her family, was how insanely competitive they all are.  I swear their games of Monopoly have broken down in to physical altercations on a number of occassions.  Since they loved Scene It? so much, and knowing that I had spent a lot of time working in film and television in a number of roles since the early 90s, they all wanted to play against me so they could show how badass they were at the game.

Unfortunately for them, I am a professional nerd and proceeded to obliterate them at every turn, no matter how many of them teamed up against me.  We played at holidays, family gatherings, whenever I came over to my wife’s place to hang out.  They brought in what they thought to be ringers (including a cousin who wanted to go to film school), but they couldn’t defeat me. Read More »

“Life is just blocks…trying to fit together to make lines. And that’s who we are.”

You know, as much as the G4TV Cable Channel really annoys me these days, the Feed section of their website is something I hit every day. It has a lot of good information for the Nerd-On-The-Go — and I totally love the MMO Report. Blair Butler, on the other hand, is terrible.

Anyway, today the Feed a little tidbit popped up that put a big ol’ smile on the Nifty Nerd’s face. The article contained a link to the “Tetris the Movie” trailer over on Black20.com’s website and I have to say it was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time. In spite of the moron’s leaving messages over on the Feed article, the trailer was in fact done for fun by Thomas Seymour and Mike O’Gorman. You can tell from watching the trailer that these guys had an absolute BLAST doing the “Tetris the Movie” trailer. Good stuff and good times. Check out the high quality Tetris the Movie trailer or view the lower res version below.

A brother dies. A hero is born. Get in line for adventure. Tetris is here.

The guys did a great job and I look forward to seeing more from them in the future.

-Mat N., the Nifty Nerd
http://www.TheNiftyNerd.com