TV News- Lauren Cohan will return to The Walking Dead Season 9.

Julian Cannon Leave a Comment

Lauren Cohan’s stint on The Walking Dead isn’t dead after all.

Cohan, who plays Maggie Rhee (née Greene) on the acclaimed AMC post-apocalyptic horror series, confirmed at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Tuesday night that she’s definitely coming back to the show for season 9.

The actress later reiterated to Entertainment Weekly, “I’m going back. There’s a lot more Maggie story to tell.” In terms of what Walking Dead fans can expect from season 9 Maggie, Cohan couldn’t reveal anything but did offer a tiny tease: “You know we’re not allowed to tell you anything, but it’s good.”

Cohan’s connection to The Walking Dead has been jumbled-up, perplexing, and anything but clear in recent months. When her costars Andrew Lincoln, who portrays Rick Grimes, and Norman Reedus, the man behind the formerly badass Daryl Dixon, signed on for season 9 seemingly without batting an eye, Cohan was holding out while she negotiated for higher pay and a better deal. AMC reportedly offered the actress a “modest salary increase” in exchange for her signing a long-term contract for the series, but she rejected it, an apparent standard practice in high-stakes re-negotiations.

Shortly after, Cohan was said to be in “active negotiations with AMC to extend her Walking Dead deal into season nine and beyond,” and hadn’t given the Walking Dead team any indication that she was seriously considering leaving the series. However, the situation grew more complicated — and past reports seemed to get negated — when Cohan climbed aboard the ABC pilot Whiskey Cavalier.

It appears that now, Cohan is signed on for both her long-standing role as Maggie on The Walking Dead and her new gig on Whiskey Cavalier. Fingers crossed she can juggle both commitments.

Follow me on instagram and twitter for more @julianexcalibur

TTPM® REVEALS ITS 2018 SPRING ‘MOST WANTED’ LIST AND CELEBRATES THE TOY AND BABY INDUSTRY’S NEWEST PRODUCTS

Rob Leave a Comment

Toys, Children’s Lifestyle Products, Baby Gear and More Honored
at Media-Only Showcase Event

NEW YORK, NY. – April 26, 2018 – Today, TTPM®, the leading review site for Toys, Tots, Pets, & more, unveiled their 2018 Spring “Most Wanted List.” During a press conference for hundreds of members of the media, analysts, social influencers and bloggers at the TTPM 2018 Spring Showcase, the TTPM editorial team revealed the toys they’ve predicted will be hits with consumers for the spring and summer season.

2018 Spring “Most Wanted List”

From, action figures and characters to creativity toys and outdoor fun, the TTPM editors selected 13 toys representing the most innovative, playful and on-trend. The list includes new products in established brands and innovative playthings, some making their first appearances at the Spring Showcase.

The TTPM 2018 Spring “Most Wanted List” products are:

Movie Toys

Role-play toys have become most popular with children as they want to become their heroes, not just play with them. For other kids and lifelong fans, contemporary collectibles are more popular than ever.

Avengers: Infinity War Hero Vision Iron Man A/R Experience (Hasbro)
The Incredibles 2 Jack-Jack Attacks (Jakks Pacific)
Jurassic World Super Colossal Tyrannosaurus Rex (Mattel)
Jurassic World Chomp ‘N Roar Mask Velociraptor Blue (Mattel)
Star Wars Han Solo Mighty Muggs (Hasbro)

Classic Play

Activity toys and collectibles are big sales drivers at this time of year, as toymakers deliver the novelty kids want at values parents appreciate.

Bob Ross The Art of Chill Game (Big G Creative)
L.O.L. Surprise! Confetti Pop, Series 3 (MGA Entertainment)
Nickelodeon Slime Super Slime Studio (Cra-Z-Art)
Hatchimals Colleggtibles Season 3 (Spin Master)
Twisty Petz Series 1 (Spin Master)

Outdoor Toys

Warm weather means outdoor fun! This season, kids and families can enjoy the sunshine together with sand, water and bubbles.

Fiesta Cruise Sand & Water Table with Umbrella (Step2)
Watermelon Smash (Yulu)
Glove-A-Bubbles (Zing)

TTPM 2018 Spring Showcase

All of the “Most Wanted List” winning products were on display at the TTPM 2018 Spring Showcase. The event gave media representatives the chance to photograph, film and play with the latest toys and baby gear, scout products for upcoming segments, meet new companies and make great connections with leading and new brands. Dozens of leading, influential, and cutting-edge toy brands, including Mattel, Spin Master, Just Play, Hasbro, LEGO Systems, Nickelodeon, Step2, and more brought their most in-demand products.

The event was also the debut of TTPM’s Baby Shop section and featured brands including Fisher Price, Britax, LÍLLÉbaby, Little Me and more. In addition, more than 100 children were in attendance at the event alongside their parents, to experience the event first-hand in celebration of “Take Your Child to Work Day.” They were able to get hands-on experience with the newest toys and find their favorites!

Summer is also the most important season for ride-on toys, and visitors had many to choose from. Pacific Cycle and Razor each showcased its newest entries, and Mattel introduced a new Jurassic World version of its popular Power Wheels vehicle.

Other popular exhibits included Super Impulse with the World’s Smallest Hot Wheels track and VTech’s Play Area that let preschoolers play with the company’s newest additions to its Go! Go! Smart Wheels product line. Children also had the opportunity to play laser tag at the ArmoGear and NSI International booths, swing on the oversized PlayMonster swing set, and play outdoor games like Zing’s bow and arrow archery set or Antsy Pants’ picnic table and Build and Play Kits.

For more information and to view details on the 2018 Most Wanted List, please visit: https://ttpm.com/mostwanted/

Another Top 10 Banned Yu-Gi-Oh Cards

Julian Cannon 5 Comments

I originally did this list back in 2014 and now i feel that it is the right time to do another one since many cards from my original list are not on the banned list anymore and more were added on since then. Here is my list for another top 10 banned Yu-Gi-Oh cards along with the reason that these cards were put on the list.

#10. Chicken Game (Field Spell Card)

This card is brutal for First Turn Kills as a Field Spell Card and it can also speed up a duel, or force a lifepoint gain depending on the choice. This card can also cause an unbalance due to the player getting more advantage if their life points are much lower than the other.

#9. Pot of Greed (Spell Card)

Pot of Greed has been on and off the ban list and the limited list for years and it seems like it will not be off any list in the near future. It allows the player to draw 2 cards from the deck but now since there are more cards that responds to or supports deck drawing, this card has become more stronger due to this. Imagine playing this card on your first turn (this matters more these days since you cannot draw on the first draw phase anymore since 2015).

#8. Subsitoad (Effect Monster Card)

One of the most broken cards of the game Subsitoad is on the list. The attack points may be very low, but it’s effect is very brutal. Also, as soon as the Shinning Darkness booster support pack was released, it became an issue. A complete FTK deck was made with the frog cards including Subsitoad and look at it’s effect, it can easily trail through most of your deck with no trouble and is on top of things very easy to search and recover for its very solid Aqua-WATER type/attribute pairing.

#7. Time Seal (Trap Card)

This card became banned over 12 years ago and it is a strong reason why. It makes your opponent skip their Draw Phase. With this card and the deadly Yata-Garasu, it became the most deadly combination in Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments at the time and it needed to be forbidden.

#6. Dandylion (Effect Monster)

Dandylion should have been banned since day one. It’s effect was easily abused for many years especially for players who want to summon powerful monsters in the next turn, or to use spell or trap cards involving tokens.

#5. Cyber-Stein (Effect Monster)

Cyber-Stein should have been on my original list. His effect years ago was at a high cost to summon a fusion monster from the extra deck. Now that there are way too many lifepoint support cards, there is no way that this card will ever be taken off the forbidden list EVER! Also to note out, Cyber-Stein has not been reprinted or re-released since 2004.

#4. Super Rejuvenation (Quick-Play Spell Card)

The card encourages terrible resource management in the monster type that makes the most use of discarding and tributing. It is, in general, just a poorly designed card and one of the main reasons as to why Dragon Rulers were such a power house. The reason it was banned is because the Baby Dragon Rulers and other Dragon Rulers turned the card into an insane draw engine that could in no way be described as fair given how the deck operated. Currently if the card were to come off the ban list I suspect Blue-Eyes, Red-Eyes & Odd-Eyes would probably be the biggest abusers of it not that Sky Iris can be used more than once a turn.

#3. Mass Driver (Continuous Spell Card)

Recently added on the list back in the fall of 2017, It was banned because of its easy abuse on OTK and FTK Burn decks, that focused on continuously summoning frogs to sacrifice them and drain your opponent’s lifepoints. Before then, nobody has ever thought of using this combination and once people started to put the puzzle together, it had to be added on the forbidden list.

#2. Cold Wave (Spell Card)

Ah, THIS card. It’s one of the cards that had the longest lifespan before getting hit with a ban, mostly because until Glad Beasts came into the picture this was fully an awful card. This is mainly because the most it could do was provide backup stun and was fully outclassed by something like Trunade who was for a time at 2-3, and this was at the time VERY outdone by Heavy which directly got rid of the problem. To my knowledge this first became popular when Glads came onto the stage and I assume so probably because of major stun factor combined with brutal control and setup for safer Bestiari plays.

Honorable Mentions

Super Polymerization (Quick-Play Spell Card)

Painful Choice (Spell Card)

Vanitiy’s Emptiness (Continuous Trap Card)

Self-Destruct Button (Trap Card)

Ancient Fairy Dragon (Synchro Effect Monster)

#1. Maxx “C” (Effect Monster)

This card and effect changed the way of special summoning for a long period of time. Maxx “C”. The effect lets you draw one card every time your opponent special summon(s). Before the errata changed, you can have three of these monsters on the field with this effect. Even after they changed the errata, the effect was still highly abused especially for FTK. I think this will never be taken out of the list since it just got on the list not too long ago.

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @julianexcalibur

The 2018 WWE Superstar Shakeup thoughts.

Julian Cannon Leave a Comment

 

The WWE Superstar Shake-up is the 12th edition of the WWE Draft. A select number of WWE Superstars from Raw and Smackdown switch brands from either show with the addition of call ups from their third brand, NXT. The 2018 edition of the Superstar Shake-up had many switches over the course of two days and i will go over each one that got switched over.

FROM SMACKDOWN TO RAW

#1. Jinder Mahal- Mahal coming off a huge push from 2017 is now on Monday Night Raw. He took the United States Championship with him to Raw and his title was immediately put on the line against Jeff Hardy but more on that in a few minutes. His Smackdown run is still debated to this day so hopefully, this will be a fresh start for him on the Raw brand.

#2. The Riot Squad (Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, and Sarah Logan)- With Paige being the new General Manager of Smackdown, it makes total sense to have these three switch brands. But do i think that it was too early for these three to get switched? I do. They have been on Smackdown since November and all three of them have not had a talked about moment at all yet since their debut so lets see what will happen to these three down the road.

#3. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn-I actually did not think that this would happen since they were storyline fired from Smackdown. It appears that Stephanie McMahon (keep this in mind since over 6 months ago, Kevin Owens headbutted Vince McMahon) overruled the decision to keep them off Raw. Will Kevin Owens go back to the main event scene on Raw like he did before, or will him and Zayn will begin in the tag team division. Good pick for Raw in my opinion.

#4. Zack Ryder- His announcement was made via Twitter that he has been drafted to Monday Night Raw. I do not know how they can use him since he has been a comedy act for a very long time.

#5. Fandango and Tyler Breeze- Another comedy act from Smackdown that were never taken seriously by the casual fans. Just like Ryder, i do not know where they will go from here.

#6. Natalya- Natalya i believe is the only female veteran currently on the roster right now. She has had a good year on Smackdown Live last year so i believe that she will be able to help carry the women’s division on Raw.

#7. Mojo Rawley- For some odd reason, i think that either he or someone else who i will mention on the Raw selections will get that “Jinder Mahal push” sometime this year. He was not getting anywhere on Smackdown so i will give him a shot on Raw.

#8. Dolph Ziggler and Drew Mcintyre- Drew needed to go to Raw and Dolph is now back on Raw as well. I already see the fans making the Diesel and Shawn Michaels comparison with these two but i think that Drew will get that “push” i just mentioned on Raw so this is a great choice and we will have to see how well he will do. Anyone noticed that the former 3MB members are all on Raw now?

#9. Baron Corbin- Yeah. He has fought a lot of guys on Smackdown in the past two years and he needs a fresh new start since his disastrous summer last year from losing his Money in the Bank championship match, to losing to John Cena at the opening of Summerslam.

#10. Mike Kanellis- I keep forgetting that he is on the roster but i do not think that he will do much on Raw.

#11. The Ancension- Like Breezango, this is just another tag team to add for depth. No major shakeup here.

#12. Bobby Roode- This is a GLORIOUS addition to the Raw roster and i think that he will do great there. He had a decent run on Smackdown and he still gets a good crowd response every week. I think that a heel run from him is where the money is.

#13. Chad Gable- I thought that him and Benjamin would get drafted to Raw but i think that he should have stayed on Smackdown. Unless he teams up with Jason Jordan, i do not have a good feeling for Gable on Raw.

FROM RAW TO SMACKDOWN

#2. Jeff Hardy- The first televised shakeup announcement that happened on Smackdown started with a bang. I initially thought that the Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins will be drafted to Smackdown, but i was totally wrong. Jeff Hardy did great on his previous run on Smackdown from 2008-2009 so he will do great here too.

#3. Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville- These two were paired up with now Smackdown Geneal Manager Paige over on Raw and just like The Riott Squad, they were brought up way too quick but the difference is, these two improved far better than Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan. I thought that these two would be split up but lets see how long that these two will be paired up.

#4. Samoa Joe- Another great draft pick and one i did not see coming is Samoa Joe. Joe was about to start a feud with Roman Reigns on Raw but now it has been scrapped. Joe will be a big deal on Smackdown and it is an amount of time before he has a match with AJ Styles.

#5. Sanity-Another NXT act that has been rumored for a call up since late last year. About time! I know everyone is upset with NIkki Cross not coming up too, but that is fine. Remember Carmella didn’t join Big Cass and Enzo in WWE either right away. She was called to the main roster on her own and benefited a bunch. Cross has more to do – on her own. If she joins the group down the road, fine. But I like her potential as a stand alone act. Sanity did okay in NXT; I am curious to watch it translate on the bigger stage.

#6. Big Cass- Interesting. I imagine WWE will ride with him for a little bit as an upper mid-card heel. Then we can all check out his progress summer time.

#7. Auska- Oh yeah! I thought she might switch with Charlotte. Instead, they are now on the same brand. That is fine but also ironic following WrestleMania 34. Asuka has wiped the floor with the entire Raw women’s division. Now it is Smackdown’s turn. I am a huge fan of this. Her and Charlotte are kept away from Ronda Rousey until the time is right for them to do battle.

#8. The Club- No Finn Balor. Really, that is the takeaway here. The Club on their own…nobody cares. With Balor, fans care.

#9. Cesaro and Sheamus- Another move that was easy to predict. They have done it all on Raw. My take on this is that this opens the door for new tag feuds but also solo feuds. Sheamus and Cesaro will have to remain their single’s careers again eventually. I am ready for that to happen. They can lose and finish their Raw business Friday at the Greatest Royal Rumble event.

#10. R-Truth- – If No Way Jose is on Raw, then Truth can be on Smackdown. They are simply a fun opening match act that gets the crowd hyped up. If WWE does want to give him a renewed push though, they know he is a well respected veteran and more than capable. Win-win.

#11. Andrade “Cien” Almas and Zelina Vega- The pair of these two will be great for Smackdown. Move over Alberto Del Rio, these two are what fans care about and i think that Andrade will get a shot at the United States Championship sometime within the year.

Follow me on twitter and instagram @julianexcalibur

 

The DC Comic Universe Joins the World of Gallery PVCs!

Rob Leave a Comment

The DC Comic Universe Joins the World of Gallery PVCs!

Diamond Select Toys’ Gallery line of PVC dioramas is expanding into new worlds! After exploring the worlds of DC animation and DC television, the Gallery has found a home in the DC comics universe! Capturing the comic-book looks of DC’s greatest heroes and villains, each 9-inch PVC diorama is sculpted in the 9-inch scale, with varying heights depending on pose and environment. Featuring dynamic designs and scintillating sculpts by today’s greatest artists, and the first few in the line are available for pre-order through your local comic shop or favorite online retailer!

Harley Quinn is the woman of the hour, the year and the decade, and the first DC Comics diorama captures her latest comic book appearance, with her corset, trademark hammer and red-and-blue pigtails! Sitting atop a crate of dynamite, Harley measures approximately 8 inches tall, and is made of high-quality PVC plastic with collectible-quality painted details. Designed by Shawn Knapp and sculpted by Jean St. Jean! (Item #MAR182419, SRP $45.00)

DST brings out the big guns with the second DC Comics Gallery, this superior sculpt of the Man of Steel! Sculpted in a 9” scale, this approximately 9” statue of Superman features detailed sculpting and paint, and comes packaged in a full-color window box. Designed by Shawn Knapp and sculpted by Joe Menna! (Item #APR182181, SRP: $45.00)

A Batman who laughs is a Batman who wins! From the pages of Dark Nights: Metal comes the Batman Who Laughs, the leader of the Dark Knights, a team of evil Batmen from across the multiverse. This fully Jokerized Batman debuted at C2E2 in Chicago, stands about 9 inches tall, and features a detailed sculpt with exacting painted details. The high-grade plastic statue comes packaged in a full-color window box. Designed by Caesar and sculpted by Alterton! (SRP: $45.00)

Future comic-shop/specialty store releases include Batman, Aquaman, Supergirl, Flash, Catwoman, Green Arrow and Shazam! One per month will go up for pre-order, with monthly releases starting in late Summer 2018. GameStop stores will also get in on the action with a few exclusive-debut figures, of Green Lantern, Nightwing and The Joker, which will ship in late 2018 and eventually make their way to comic shops.


The Walking Dead Season 8 Review

Julian Cannon Leave a Comment

Season 7 of AMC’s The Walking Dead had hits and misses especially with the sheer amount of bottle episodes after the season 7 premiere that turned a number of viewers away. I did not turn away however since i am a fan of the series whether if there is a good episode or not. Season 8 corrected most of the mistakes that season 7 had with a great story with very shocking moments with a great conclusion at the end. Here is my review of AMC’s The Walking Dead season 8.

Season 8 uses material from the comic series of the same name and it covered the All Out War arc from that series. If you would like to read the comic series’ story line that matched the episodes of this season, i would suggest to pick up issues #115-#126. The three communities of Alexandria lead by Rick Grimes, Hilltop led by Maggie Rhee and The Kingdom led by Ezekiel join together to go to war with Negan and The Saviors. The other communities of The Junkyard and The Oceanside played their parts of the war as well. The first battle happened at The Sanctuary as the three units attacked the place and at the same time, navigated zombies to The Sanctuary. While Negan and his group were stuck there, Rick and gang attacked the other outposts that Dwight told them about. During these outposts attacks, Rick met Morales (who has been missing since season 1) and to find out that he is not part of The Saviors, Ezekiel’s tiger Shiva dies, Aaron’s partner Eric dies, and soldiers from each community dies during the attacks. Jesus also convinced everyone to not kill the members who are prisoners or surrendered as other characters debated on why he made this decision.

During this time also, Carl Grimes meets a new character named Siddiq as he ran into him twice this season. Rick was also captured by Jadis and then set free after he convinced her to join the battle with the gang. While this is happening, Eugene who has been on Negan’s side since season 7 made a plan to clear all of the zombies that flooded into The Sanctuary and Negan then plans to attack Alexandria and The Kingdom. The attack on The Kingdom failed as Gavin was killed during the attempted attack, but the bombing of Alexandria happened as Carl tried to sacrifice himself to not only prevent the attack, but to stall Negan as the people of Alexandria secretly leave. Houses were exploded along with cars as Rick and Negan had their first fight. As Negan escaped, Rick finds everyone in the sewers and the big reveal down there was that Carl was bitten. Carl says his goodbyes to everyone and wrote everyone letters (including Negan) along with telling his dad Rick about the visions of the future (those visions of the future is what happens after the time skip after All Out War ends).

The rest of the war involved the infected weapons attack at The Hilltop, Tara wanting to kill Dwight for killing Denise back in season 6 and the deeper conflict between Rick and Negan. Carl’s death affected everyone no matter which side is good or bad. Carl wanted them both to end the war and Negan and Rick were still bloodthirsty to try to kill each other. The final battle took place in an open area as all of the guns of The Saviors deflected thanks to Eugene secretly plotting against Negan (the trick he did goes back to the Vietnam War). Rick and Negan had their final fight as Rick cut Negan’s throat with a broken glass. As Negan falls, Rick told Siddiq to save his life as Maggie screamed out in anger to kill him. Negan lives but Rick will put him in the cell that Morgan built back in season 6. Speaking of Morgan, he went back and forth with his emotional state to whether if killing was worth it or not. He is off now to the spinoff show Fear The Walking Dead.

Overall, i loved this season. I loved season 7 as well, but this season did not have filler or bottle episodes that took away from the main plot. Scott Gimple said that this season will not have bottle episodes and that actually came out true. The most controversial death of all time in this show will have to go to Carl Grimes and that is a decision i will never agree with. But his death actually did bridge in the gap between the final battle that he [Gimple] thought had a gap in the comic series. There was behind the scenes drama also especially when the actor died on set during the filming of one of their episodes and much more. Despite having a decline in the ratings, The show still pulls in an average of 6 plus million viewers a week and is still the number 1 show on Sundays. Season 9 will have a new show runner and i believe we will finally get The Whisperers in that season. Who will play as Alpha and Beta boggles me but we will have to see once it premieres.

The acting is very phenominal. Jeffrey Dean Morgan knocks it right out of the park with his role as Negan and Andrew Lincoln, Danai Gurria, Lennie James, Austin Amellio, Steven Ogg and Melissa McBribe stole the show this year in my opinion with an honorable mention to Chandler Riggs as both the 8th and 9th episodes of this season were his best performances since season 4, episode 9.

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @julianexcalibur