Category: Movies

Supreme Leader Snoke

September 14, 2019

The ‘big bad’ in the last two Star Wars films was this guy, Supreme Leader Snoke:

He remains a mysterious and somewhat controversial figure, and everyone has a theory about him. I wonder with The Emperors (apparent) return in The Rise Of Skywalker later this year if some of our outstanding Snoke questions will be answered?

I doubt it.

At any rate, recently I found this in the clearance aisle for $2 and couldn’t say no:

Apparently this wasn’t the first time I took a liking to this figure since when I got home I saw it on my shelf! I’d bought it again, albeit for an 85% discount. So – and considering it had been years since I had done so – I decided to (shudder) open this one!

Look at that lovely gold cloth robe! Look at the detail on the sculpt down to the obsidian ring on his left hand (although the scale of which unfortunately doesn’t allow for a legible sculpt of the Dwartii tunes inscribed on the band). Overall, at first impression, a good figure.

However – and this is a big disappointment – it can’t stand. The feet are just too small and the center of balance too high enough for him to stand. This is perhaps why he’s almost always sitting in the films?

Anyway let’s see what’s under that cloak:

Not much about Snoke has been officially revealed (or likely even established) but apparently his gold robe was inspired – at the design level – by Hugh Hefner! His name is also an obvious derivation from the fact that initially he had serpentine features. But in the end he’s an old disfigured alien wearing a flashy bathrobe and slippers.

As a figure he’s incredible poseable:

And with no small amount of effort and the cloak removed, I even got him standing:

Sadly an idle breath in his direction knocked him down.

His cloak was returned, and he’ll now forever live in a box. Unless you want him, in which case please say so in the comments.

As a Star Wars character it’s unsurprising that even such a minor (albeit important) character as Snoke has seen many different figures:

Even if we’ll never actually know who he really was, at least there’s a toy of him to please every type of fan 🙂

The Drive-In

June 27, 2019

For about ten years now we’ve been going to a local drive-in many times during the summer.

We usually bring some food and snacks with us but always get the delicious French fries they sell as well. They sell all sorts of snacks and have an ice-cream stand as well.

We always try to arrive right when the gates open, which is 60-90 minutes before the first film. Time passes reading or playing phone games as we listen to the endlessly repeating tape of 1980s radio that they’ve been using as their intro forever.

It costs $10/person for two movies and for the low price we frequently see movies we’d never go and see at the cinema. They do a decent job of pairing films by genre/rating and nights with children’s or Marvel films always the most popular.

Originally the picture was a little fuzzier and darker than a normal cinema but they upgraded to a digital projector a few years ago and now it’s sharp and bright. The audio is broadcast on FM radio and is super-clear and perfectly synced. It’s obviously not as fancy as a cinema, but it’s perfectly adequate for all but the most special films.

Of course it’s outdoors, which means the weather sometimes gets in the way. I love when it rains (KLS doesn’t!) but we’ve had a few gigantic thunderstorms over the years that made it seem like we were watching a movie underwater! But the best was the evening with fog so thick we could barely see the screen. It was funny, but we left early 🙂

Last week I noticed that I’d never blogged the drive-in despite a decade of attendance. We attend so frequently now we almost prefer it to the normal cinema and may even buy the season pass in future years. If you’ve still got a drive-in near you, why not go and enjoy seeing a movie under the stars!

Sydney

January 12, 2019

I arrived in Sydney yesterday by train, and after checking in to an extraordinary hotel room wasted no time seeing the tourist sites.

I walked from Central to Darling Harbour to Circular Quay and back – some 30k steps – and by the time I crashed in my room after dark I was ruined ?

This morning I was up bright and early to pack, before heading to the Star Wars Identities exhibit at the Powerhouse Museum.

This is a remarkable exhibit of original props, costumes, models etc from the entire Star Wars saga (including Clone Wars). It is beautifully presented and it was magical to be so close to iconic items like the Millennium Falcon model actually used in Empire:

Or costumes worn by most of the major characters:

In addition, via interactive stations throughout the exhibit you create your very own Star Wars character!

I suppose the idea is to reproduce yourself in Star Wars firm, but I found myself compelled to spawn a uniquely original creation. Dear readers, I present my own Star Wars creation, Gab Frogger:

The name was my creation, and I’ll humbly suggest it’s much better than what others used (I saw an Ewok pilot named Brendan). Here’s Gab’s bio:

As with all Gungans, Gab is immediately endearing despite his dark side tendencies, and I’ve grown to love the froggy scamp already. I hope he turns up in Episode IX!

That’s Sydney Tower, which has stood since 1981 in the center of the city. I’ve been up several times but not in quite a few years and figured it was time once again.

Admission includes a surprisingly good (but short) 3D film which you watch before going up. I’m not quite sure why it even exists since it has almost nothing to do with the tower but I imagine the purpose was originally line-management which is redundant now since the tower doesn’t seem too popular.

But it was good! Today was sunny and clear and I could see forever. It wasn’t busy up top and I spent much longer than I’d expected up there. If you like observation towers, this is probably worth it at the slightly elevated price.

This will be my last post from Oz this trip, as early tomorrow I head to the airport for Tokyo where I’ll meet Bernard for the next 8 days! Stay tuned for our eastern adventures…

Robot Claw