Lost Pops! On The Way

Lost Pops! are on the way, they are expected to hit store in Feb. 2017. Finally! Can't wait to get these in our collections. They will be available in the Shirtnado Shop as soon as they show up!

Westworld (Spoilers and theories)

Alright I was a bit late to the party on this one. I figured Westworld would be something I could get into but I'm pretty bad about keeping up on shows. Netflix has spoiled me like soo many others to just binge what I want when I want. So I was letting this one go until at least the season was over then I could just binge it how I liked. Cut to Thanksgiving night and I was full of turkey and decided to give the first episode of Westworld a shot. Well I am now putting up a blog so you can tell how this goes but I tore through the 8 episodes I had missed and now I am with the rest of the world wondering how the season finale this weekend will go.I will just say now that if you aren't up to date go get that handled right now. For the rest of us this will be a bit of a refresher on the big points heading into this weekend and some ideas of what may go down.

First let me just say please don't Bernard be done. I mean it, he is my new Charlie.(Talking about Charlie from LOST another show I went down the rabbit hole with) I was genuinely surprised when he was revealed to be a host and even more so when his apparent plan to show his independence went so badly. Is Ford really so far ahead with his planning that all of these seemingly free will based choices are just moves he has made or was he lucky to have the safe guards up he did and barely made it out? What will be his story coming out of the finale? He has a new "story" he has been working on for a while and it seems to involve the town in sand that seemed to be the start of all of the trouble in the park 35 years ago. There is also the other hosts who seem to be coming to and working their way free of the control put upon them one by one. Will Maeve get her army and make her way to freedom or is this another idea that is destined to fail at Ford's hands? Will we find out who Wyatt is and will the theory that it is Dolores be proved true? After last weeks revelation that she killed Arnold and he flashbacks to the massacre it seems like there are enough hints to show it could be her. If what she said to Teddy in episode 1 about "his path always leading back to her" maybe their stories were changed after the massacre and he is meant to always be tied to her either as a safety measure or a punishment. After all their love story is doomed to fail in their loop again and again. If you had the power that Ford has and someone killed your best friend an ongoing loop of misery might be how you punish them. Then we have the Man in Black and like LOST it just feels right to have a character referred to as the Man in Black. Will he get to the maze and will another popular theory that he is actually William be proved true? On this particular theory I am pretty undecided. William had a real rough go on the last episode and his newfound murderous intent does seem to go in line with the Man in Black's ways of doing whatever he feels needs to be done to get to the maze and learn the truth of the park. Here is where I am just tossing out an idea though. I haven't watched the Michael Crichton directed Westworld film from 1973 but I have seen the trailer and it seems to show a Man in Black wrecking shop who appears to be a host. Now I could be totally wrong on that and even if it is, who is to say that parts haven't been changed from the film to the show. I am holding off on the movie until after the show ends in case they are following it and I end up ruining the show for myself but that part has managed to keep popping up as I watch. We didn't even touch on some of the smaller story lines like Stubbs being caught going to look for Elsie or what will happen with William's best bud Logan. If you are wondering where I stand on those 2 long story short is Stubbs is Ok and Logan slightly less so.

I could easily turn this into novel but we are all a bit confused and making connections as we go so I won't go deeper into my own ideas. Trust me you don't want that. During LOST I was one of the people reading the books Sawyer read, pausing to see where the numbers popped up, and being on the message boards during commercials. I can get way too deep in these things so I will spare you all from that, unless you want to get into the deep in which case feel free to comment here, facebook, twitter, instagram, hell come

stop by the shop we can fire up some episodes and really nerd out. Until then though we will leave you to rewatch the first 9 episodes before the finale comes this Sunday. In honor of my newest obsession we have put out a shirt for everyone's favorite watering hole and we are tossing in a free maze sticker to the first 50 orders here. 

One last thing is you are in the Pittsburgh area come check us out at the Steel City Con in Monroeville next weekend. We have some new designs premiering at this con and a load of Funkos that you will have first dibs on there. So come out say hey and tell me what you thought about the finale. 

Looking ahead to Spider-Man: Homecoming

In case you didn't notice we are pretty into all the comic movies that we have had since Iron Man came out and showed that these characters can be put on the big screen and bring the masses in. While we are a few months away from a new one hitting I have been biding my time rewatching and rereading a good bit of Marvel stuff. Which all lead me to this - What do we think the next Spidey movie will be like? There have been 5 Spider-Man movies since 2002 and so far 2 different actors have played Peter Parker. Some have done it well (Spider-man 2) and some have not (Spider-man 3). The current Peter Parker is played by Tom Holland who has made his introduction already in Captain America : Civil War. I wasn't sure how Marvel was going to set him up as he is basically being re-introduced to the audiences this time living in the current MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) through Civil War. I was beyond happy that they skipped the origin story out right. At this point I think even kids who never heard of Spider-man just know that he was bit by a radioactive spider, kind of sort of let his uncle die, and then decided to become a hero to make up for it. The last thing Civil War needed was a long Spidey origin tale in the middle of it so instead we find him 6 months into the job. Since we have met Peter and seen what he can do what can we expect in his new movie Spider-Man: Homecoming?

From the details that have made it out things are looking pretty good. This movie seems to be centered on the high school Peter Parker. A lot of the actors announced seem to be cast as either students or teachers so looks like the school will be a major point throughout the story. I have been reading through the Ultimate run written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Mark Bagley until Stuart Immonen took over. If you never checked it out this was a retelling of old web head for a new audience. It focused mostly on the high school Peter and retold a lot of his famous story arcs taking place in a post 2000 setting. I could just be being hopeful because I loved this run but it looks like this new set of movies could draw heavily from the Bendis ultimate story. Focusing on establishing himself as Spider-Man while dealing with his everyday problems is what made the character so popular throughout the years and the ultimate line updated those stories for the new generation.

This movie is also giving some villains that haven't been seen on the big screen their time. The main villain looks to be the Vulture with some help from the Tinkerer and the Shocker. There is also a rumor that there could be a fourth bad guy thrown in as well. That seems like a lot to put into one movie but after seeing that the last few Cap movies have basically been Avengers-lite with good guys and bad all over the place Marvel seems to know how to give everyone enough time for them to make sense. Plus if it seems a bit one sided Iron Man can always pop in since he took up being a mentor to Peter in the MCU and maybe we will get the Iron Spider suit (if you don't know what that is go check out the Civil War story in the comics from 2006. Good guys fight each other, some don't make it, and our boy Spidey gets himself a fancy new suit).  

We still have to wait until July 7th to see how this new Spider-man movie goes but you can keep the hype going by wearing a little Midtown High pride with our shirt here.

Dr. Strange Review (No Spoilers)

I finally saw Doctor Strange last night and while I won't spoil it I will say you need to go see this movie. For background sake I am a pretty big comic guy. I know the books and characters well enough that I don't go to these movies expecting to be surprised. Out of the 4 of us who went I was the only one who knew who Doctor Strange was. One other guy had heard of him from some of the Marvel video games and the others had no idea. We all walked out talking about when we will go see it again so even if you have no clue about this part of the Marvel universe don't worry you will still enjoy it. 

The major knock against Marvel movies I hear is that they are all the same origin story again and again. To be honest if you saw the first Iron Man movie then you have more or less heard this story before. Guy is a very successful, cocky, dick who suffers a traumatic setback and goes down the road to redemption and finally being a hero. While the story isn't anything new it is the way it's told that makes this movie amazing. 

In a comic the art shows you the beginning and end of Doctor Strange casting a spell and you mind fills in the gap between the panels. Here they had to show the whole process and they nailed it. Magic isn't saying a few words and there it is here. You can see that they are pulling the energy for what happens in as believable a way as possible. That leads into the special effects and this movie is alone in that area. I was watching it and amazed at what I was seeing. The scene with New York folding in on itself is a lot better than the ads make it seem. The other scene you have seen of what looks to be a outer space is done like the old Steve Ditko era comics. It is crazy to see it on the big screen and not done in a cheesy way. I thought the scenes in Inception were done well but Doctor Strange is that times 10. I saw it in 3d and that can be hit or miss but this is the kind of movie thats made for it. 

I also think its worth pointing out that this is very much a standalone movie. After the last few Marvel movies have had cameos or co stars of other major characters this is purely Doctor strange. There are a few easter eggs for you to catch but you could walk into this without having seen any previous movie and be totally fine. Of course stay till the end and the end of a Marvel movie is only once the lights are on, all credits have finished, and the guy coming in to sweep up gives you the all clear. The after credit scenes tie Doctor Stange into the overall Marvel movie universe and give a hint to whats to come both for him and with the bigger MU.

If I go on any more it would be spoiler stuff and nobody wants that. So I will just say if you are a fan of comic movies (and if you are here checking out our stuff you most likely are) I completely recommend seeing the good doctor in his first appearance on the big screen. Bonus points if you walk in wearing our shirt ode to his house the Sanctum Sanctorum.  You can pick yours up here .

UFC 205 (Spoilers)

Well we gathered round and watched UFC 205 this weekend, and can't say anyone was too shocked. It was an awesome event, and great to see MMA finally landing in New York. Overall, what can you say, McGregor faced off with lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez in the main event, and exactly as promised, delivered the KO, making it look nearly effortless, at one point even toying with him by putting his hands behind his back. It was a show for sure, but Alvarez looked nowhere near prepared for Conor. 

One of the main things we took away was that if there is one fight we need to see next, it's Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor for the lightweight belt. We'll have to wait and see what Conor calls for next, but Khabib is an absolute beast on the ground, maybe due to wrestling actual bears as a child. (seriously, we'll have the video at the end of this post) It's a matchup that would be great for the sport, but we'll have to wait and see! We're definitely wondering who would win in a fight between Conor Mcgregor & Khabib Nurmagomedov?

 Check out our tribute to  the first 2 weight champion Conor here. And our tribute to the undefeated Khabib here. 

Steel City Con Summer '16

We had a great time at Steel City Con this weekend. Thank so much to everyone that came out and supported. There were so many great vendors to check out, appearances by Christopher Lloyd, Tom Felton, Michael Rooker, Ryan Hurst, Lou Ferrigno, Sid Haig, Bill Mosely, Tom Savini, & Doug Bradley. Kristy Swanson herself now has the Sunnydale shirt! We're already booked for the next one, (December 9-11) this year, so don't miss us for some last minute holiday shopping! We can't wait.