We often critique a series for its inability to get off the ground running. Perhaps no television series excelled at that (both literally and figuratively) than the one and only original 1969-1970 animated series, Scooby Doo, Where Are You?The entire series is airing this month on Boomerang. The cultural impact of “those meddling kids,” the Scooby Gang, Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and their Great Dane Scooby Doo, cannot be overstated. The pop song introduction, the 1960s van, the clothes, the cameraderie, mix with the first shake cam most of us ever noticed, cool colors, and a laugh track telling us we weren’t the only ones in on the fun.
If you ever needed a big, fun, family game, it’s probably now, right? We’ve just previewed Avalon Hill’s forthcoming summer release Scooby-Doo! Betrayal at Mystery Mansion, arriving in stores later this month, and it’s a winner–no doubt it will go down as the season’s best tabletop game. With dozens of throwbacks to the classic animated series featuring Scooby-Doo and the Gang, it mixes elements of Clue,Monopoly-like strategy levels, and staples of the roleplay game genre including its own Monster’s Tome game book. Twenty-five impressive mysteries and dozens of possible outcomes for each will keep your family busy this summer with your favorite sleuths: Velma, Fred, Daphne, Shaggy, and, of course, Scooby-Doo.
You won’t play this game without piping in with your own ruh roh and jinkies along the way. Clues, objects, and events all point back to elements of the TV show. Colorful tokens (like Scooby snacks, pizza, flashlights, and treasure) are provided specific to each of the 25 mysteries that work together with clue cards (like a painting with eyes following you, a mysterious letter, and a locked box), layout tiles to build 28 rooms inside the haunted mansion and spooky areas outside, along with 8 dice and three guide books, all to set 3 to 5 players on their way to sleuthing out a mystery, Mystery, Inc. style. Everyone plays one of those famous “meddling kids,” then one player steps out to play the monster, ghost pirate (or is that pirate ghost?), masked neighbor, werebeast, alien, witch, henchman… you’ll have plenty of familiar baddies to take on, challenging each other in the style of previous roleplay games like Magic the Gathering with upgradable strengths and dice roll battles.
If you remember last year’s Captain Marvel (the movie, not the character in Shazam!), you’ll be familiar with the pilot Carol Danvers (known as the most powerful Avenger) and her cat named Goose (movie) or Chewie (comics), who is actually a Flerken (an alien with tentacles and a pocket dimension in her mouth). IDW Publishing is re-printing a Marvel Comics series from last year that may be the most fun of all the Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel stories, the all-ages series Marvel Action: Captain Marvel. Now you can get the first three issues in the compilation trade paperback, Marvel Action: Captain Marvel–Cosmic CAT-tastrophe, a blast of a story packed with more than one cosmic cat. Lots more.
It wasn’t enough they got to co-star on Supernatural. We’ve seen them in a few live action movies, but now we get to see Scooby, Shaggy, Velma, Fred, and Daphne on the big screen in animated form in their first full-length animated film. The movie is titled Scoob! and it looks like the animation is cranked up a few notches, more like the style of The Incredibles, The Peanuts Movie, Toy Story, and Ferdinand. And now with theaters closed for the COVID-19 pandemic, this means Scoob!, scheduled to debut in theaters this Friday, instead is coming directly to your home Friday via streaming platforms including Amazon Prime and Vudu. As part of Vudu’s Theater at Home, you can also get a $3 credit via email by pre-ordering Scoob!today–May 14–only.
What’s going on at Mystery Mansion? Scooby-Doo and the Gang are ready to find out. You can take on the roles of the Mystery Inc. Gang in a new board game coming soon from Avalon Hill. Based on the game maker’s award-winning Betrayal at House on the Hill board game, the newly developed Scooby Doo! Betrayal at Mystery Mansion lets you become Scoob, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne, or Fred and explore a mansion and its grounds, finding clues, encountering strange occurrences, and maybe even catch site of a monster. Ruh roh!
Offering 25 haunts based on popular Scooby-Doo episodes and movies, just like the show you collect Clues to learn what’s really going on. That’s when the Haunt starts, and one player will switch sides to play the role of a never-before-seen monster… or maybe a ghost? Will you be able to stop it before it carries out its sinister plan?
Scooby-Doo! Betrayal at Mystery Mansion is designed for 3-5 players (25-50 minutes play time), and designed so every time you play it’s new–the Betrayal at House on the Hill rules have been modified for family night fun (ages 8+)–allowing for lots of repeat play.
Hey, Scoob! It wasn’t enough they got to co-star on Supernatural. We’ve seen them in a few live action movies, but now we get to see Scooby, Shaggy, Velma, Fred, and Daphne on the big screen in animated form in their first full-length animated film. The movie is titled Scoob! and it looks like we get an answer to the question about Scooby Snacks (psst… in real life they were for dogs only and colored red, gold, and green, not just gold as seen in the show, but now they are available gold-colored and only in a people version). The animation is cranked up a few notches, looking a bit more like the modern animation style of The Incredibles, The Peanuts Movie, Toy Story, and Ferdinand.
The original voice actor for the entire four-decade history of Fred, Frank Welker, now takes on the voice of Scooby, with Will Forte as Shaggy, Zac Efron as Fred, Amanda Seyfried as Daphne, and Gina Rodriguez as Velma. The slate of actors voicing supporting characters looks great, with Mark Walhberg as Blue Falcon, Jason Isaacs as Dick Dastardly, Ken Jeong as Dynomutt, and Tracy Morgan as Captain Caveman.
And, yes, not everything needs an origin story, but why not one for Shaggy and Scoob? Check out this preview for Scoob!—the new Scooby Doo movie:
Archie with a crossbow. Betty with an axe. Jughead with a wooden spike.
No it’s not some strange version of Clue. It’s all part of Vampironica, the Archie Comics series, now available as a trade paperback from the Archie Horror imprint. Collecting Issue #1-5 of the series, Vampironica, Book One introduces the Veronica Lodge you always knew, until she is bitten by a centuries-old vampire. So then what’s a teenage girl to do? Turn Riverdale upside down in a search for blood, of course.
Siblings Greg Smallwood(Moon Knight) and Meg Smallwood partnered to co-write the story, adding a new realm to the imprint’s great re-imaginings of the 77-year-old Riverdale characters along with Afterlife With Archie, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,Chilling Adventures in Sorcery, Blossoms 666, and Jughead: The Hunger. Interior artwork and covers were created by well-known cover artist Greg Smallwood, and he worked on interior art along with Greg Scott, with colors by Matt Herms, and lettering by Jack Morelli.
The series has a great, lighthearted, pop culture vibe, like Scooby Doo and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and it’s not too much of a stretch to swap the leads in Buffy for the leads in this series, for anyone missing their Buffy fix). The book includes a section with a few of the variant covers for the series, by Francesco Francavilla, Audrey Mok, Djibril Morisette-Phan, Marguerite Sauvage, Robert Hack, Fiona Staples, Matthew Taylor, and a bonus, Issue #4 of Jughead: The Hunger.
Later this month Jughead: The Hunger faces off against Veronica in the next iteration of the two series, Jughead: The Hunger vs. Vampironica,Issue #1.
The Jughead/Veronica crossover will feature a story by Frank Tieri, interior artwork by Pat and Tim Kennedy, Joe Eisma, Bob Smith, and Ryan Jampole, colors by Matt Herms, and lettering by Jack Morelli, and covers by Pat and Tim Kennedy, Bob Smith, and Matt Herms, Francesco Francavilla, Robert Hack, John McCrea, and Dan Panosian.
Here is a preview of the new trade edition of Vampironica, Book 1, Issue #1 of Jughead: The Hunger vs. Vampironica, and some future covers from the series, courtesy of Archie Horror:
This weekend at New York Toy Fair 2019, toymaker Mezco Toyz surprised fans of the classic Six Million Dollar Manseries with a peek at two new 3.75-inch scale, five points of articulation action figures from its “5 Points” line. Zica Toys previously discontinued its line of Six Million Dollar Man action figures for low sales back in 2014. The sculpts for the two new figures revealed at the Mezco Toyz booth are similar. Fans of the 12-inch Steve Austin action figure from the mid-1970s will recall it being the #1 toy of its day, following on the success of 12-inch G.I. Joes. A later generation in the 1980s and 1990s would experience G.I. Joes reduced in size closer to the Kenner-sized figures. Now Mezco Toyz has created homages to the 12-inch Bionic Man and the other popular action figure from the original line, the 15-inch Bigfoot.
Although Zica Toys released both a red (and blue) track suit small version of Steve Austin and a Bigfoot, the new figures take it all a step further, revealing the cyborg chips in Steve’s right arm similar to the design of the large-sized classic figure, and Bigfoot features the chest button that, when kick-punched, revealed the robotic circuitry inside (we’re not sure how the Mezco Toyz version will work). New Steve also comes with the accessory engine, which the large-sized figure easily lifted over his head. With the classic Adidas Dragons, the only thing missing is the removable skin, chest patch, and bionic eye. If you’re watching Doom Patrol, you’re seeing DC’s Cyborg borrowing his clothes from the original Cyborg.
Mezco Toyz also featured several new licensed figures from its six-inch line–the One: 12 Collective–including Brie Larson′s Captain Marvel from the coming 2019 film, David Harbour′s Hellboy from the upcoming film, Jon Bernthal′s The Punisher, classic Wesley Snipes as Blade, The Warriors, and yet another They Live alien figure following on Super7′s new 3.75-inch figures. Plus many more.
Our borgBest of 2018 list continues today with the best in television. If you missed it, check out our review of the Best Movies of 2018 here and the Kick-Ass Heroines of 2018 here.
Without further ado, this year’s Best in Television:
Best Borg TV Series, Best TV Borg – Humans (AMC). No other series touches on the ramifications of technology, specifically the perils of an onslaught of real-world cyborg technology, like AMC’s Humans. This year three characters stood out, including Gemma Chan’s Mia, the cyborg Synth from past seasons, who sacrificed everything for the liberty of cyborgs in the UK. Then there was Ruth Bradley’s Karen Voss, a Synth who refused to live segregated from the humans, opting instead for a normal life for the cyborg son she assumed care for. And Katherine Parkinson’s Laura Hawkins, a human lawyer who fought so hard for the cause of the Synths all year, only to throw away all the good she had done, failing the first real challenge that was presented to her. This year’s best TV borg is shared by Synths Mia and Karen, as each showed the uphill battle any future outsider must overcome when faced with humans.
Best Sci-fi TV Series – The Man in the High Castle (Amazon). What had been a two-season build-up all came together in the series’ third season with the audacity of killing off key characters, wisely adhering to the framework of the source Philip K. Dick novel. The use of science fiction to tell an often gut-wrenching array of subplots and unique characters has set up a fourth season with plenty to address. Exciting, smart, scary, and even fun, it is an unusual science fiction show that isn’t merely trigger-happy sci-fi. Honorable mention: Humans (AMC), Counterpart (Starz).
Best New TV Series, Best Reboot, Best Ensemble Cast – Magnum PI (CBS). If you would have told us a year ago our favorite show this year would be a reboot of Magnum, p.i. starring Suicide Squad’s Jay Hernandez and an actress in the iconic role of John Hillerman’s Higgins, we wouldn’t have believed it. And yet, even as diehard fans of the original, we had to acknowledge that many elements of the reboot series were even better in the new series. With the dangerous risk of taking on a beloved property, the production maintained loyalty to the original while making it fresh, scoring Magnum PI high marks on all counts. Every character was smartly written–suave and confident Magnum, energetic Rick and TC, and a savvy Higgins–every actor was perfectly cast, and each show was another round of nostalgic fun for fans of the original. Best New TV Series Honorable mention for Best New TV Series: Counterpart (Starz), Lodge 49 (AMC).
Best Series, Best Drama, Best Comedy – Lodge 49 (AMC). Lodge 49 told two stories: a darkly serious drama of real people dealing with real-life 2018 adversity, and the other a comedy farce like no other. Hanging over our heads was the idea that this was going to be a fantasy show, complete with secret codes, hidden rooms, and psychic visions. If you’re looking for all the elements of great fantasy the hint of it all could be found throughout this series. And yet it wasn’t fantasy at all. An oddball Cheers? A southern Twin Peaks without the Lynchian weirdness? Star Wyatt Russell’s hero Dud could be dismissed as a typical young man with no vision, or maybe he’s that idealist that everyone needs to strive to be. Maybe we’ll learn more about that next season. Honorable mention for Best Drama: Counterpart (Starz). Honorable mention for Best Comedy: Baskets (FX). Continue reading →
We’ve been raving about the three and three-quarters inch scale Kenner-style action figures from Funko’s ReAction line here at borg.com for a few years now. If style and nostalgia are your jam but not necessarily screen-accurate sculpts, it’s hard to beat the myriad of licenses that Funko has secured. What you may not have seen is that Figures Toy Company has been producing a similar series of figures reflecting the larger, eight-inch Mego action figure line also popular in the 1970s.
Your editor with the original Mego Robin figure, and at right the new Figures Toy Company version.
The toy company has also stepped ahead into more recent licenses, creating a line of Mego-style Harry Potter action figures. Some of Figures Toy Company’s action figure lines are also offered in a 12-inch and 18-inch version. Many lines were released in limited editions and exclusives, and some can only be found on Amazon and eBay, and many are still available with new figures released frequently. Not only do many have the Mego-style retro packaging, others have the Kresge Stores-style packages your parents could pick up in the 1970s as point-of-sale purchases at checkout in local dime stores across the country.
