Book Review! Marvels Rocket & Groot - Keep on Truckin'

Rocket & Groot - Keep on Truckin'!

BUY ME!!

Rocket and Groot is a new line of books for ages 8-13 which is high on events, fast paced and written with a hilariously witty style with a hint of toilet humour!

I remember being this sort of age and any mention of farts and pee were hilarious in jokes and this book has some great phrases!

Just by knowing the Author Tom Angleberger from his previous books like the Yoda Origami Series,  this link actually goes to Amazon's kindle download, of which I will probably do myself as these books look brilliant! 

The story goes, that our Pair of (unlikely) heroes crash land on planet Happyhappyfunfun and soon realise it's not as "Fun" as the planet name suggests. What ensue's is a plethora of crazy silly trouble for the two, and by the end you'll be turning the pages of this book as quickly as the pair are racing through the town! Loads of great moments and some of Rocket's quotes are fantastic! "Flaming Walrus Mustaches! We're going to die!"

The way this book is laid out and written is amazing. It read's a little like a script, with each characters phrases on each line, but it's extremely simple to follow with a different font for each character.. there's also an added bonus of sounds of everything that's going on e.g. "Sound of totally awesome tape dispenser gunning the engine" which sets the scene quite nicely.

As I said at the top of this review, the pace is very fast and there's so many little jokes and snidey comments from the "Awesome Tape Dispenser", she's a really great character and the banter between Rocket and her is genius.

There's also tons of illustrations to go with the story too also actually created by Tom Angleberger and also an amazingly gorgeous doublespread by Isidre Mones!

This is in fact the second in this series and I'm very much hoping there's more! Here's the first below and a link in case you wish to purchase!

BUY ME TOO!

All in all, these books are a great read for 8 plus year olds, if they know of the Guardians of the Galaxy films then this is sure to be a favourite for them, personally I have an 8 year old and before picking up these books to review, he already picked this off a shop shelf and said how funny and good it looked. I'll be giving both of these books to my son to read and I'm sure he'll thoroughly enjoy them! 

Rocket and Groot - Stranded on Planet Shopping Mall is out now and available from Amazon for a mere £4!!! 

The new Keep on Truckin' book will be available from 4th May (STAR WARS DAY in fact!) and RRP is £6.99, also available from Amazon to PRE-ORDER!!

Star Wars: Identities!

 

What Is It?

Star Wars Identities is an exhibition, currently showing the O2 in London. 

The show is designed to take a nose dive into the identities of our favourite characters aswell as teaching visitors about what males US tick and how you as a person grows, in terms of who influences us and how we react.

Aswell as some awesome interactivity regarding the above, there's some amazing props and obviously this is accompanied by a history of the props and even how certain characters were imagined and then brought to life. 

What I Thought

When I was originally advised of Star Wars Identities I was extremely excited, obviously, I'm a Star Wars fan. Anyway, I was thinking I'd be going on my own and then invited my 8 year old along for some Father/Son bonding, he LOVES learning and museums, so because of his appreciation for Star Wars too, this was a perfect combo. In the end MY Father also came with us, so there was 3 generations of my family.

The props were amazing, as above, there was tons of info about these that even as a seasoned fan there was stuff I didn't know. 

It was also great to see how some of our favourite characters were brought to life, from the imagination stage where they were mere sketches, to the models so you can see them evolve and then learn about their distinct characteristics. 



I interactivity came in the form of an audio walk, where there were audio stations along the way, as well as lots of videos, each explaining each part of the exhibit. There was also a wireless wristband we had to wear throughout and with this answer certain questions to create our Star Wars Character and learn about their living journey. I'll come back to them at the end of this review.

The questions:

10 questions, to be answered using the interactive wristband, to ultimately create your Star Wars image. This was alot of fun! I'll run through the questions very quickly for you..

1. Species - Nice and simple.. are you a boring Human? or maybe a Bith? It's up to you! 

2. What were you born with? Strength? Intelligence? Whats your most prominent attribute and the all important question, how Force sensitive are you?! If at all? 

3. How were you raised? What parenting style did your parents take? Did they let you roam free? or did you have chores to be done before you have any kind of fun?

4. What planet are you from? And when you were there, what did you and your family do while growing up? Did you go on holiday?

5. Who do you look up to? Who were your mentors growing up? Who helped build you as a person, Physically, Spiritually and Intellectually?

6.  Who do you hang out with? Friends and family?

7. Which Experiences have marked you? How have they affected you as a person?

8. What do you do? What's your job?

9. How do you behave? What kind of person are you? Easygoing, Happy to learn?

10. What's Important to you? Aspirations? What leads your choices?

Finally, Do you go Dark Side? Or Light Side? 

As you can see from the questions above, at the same time as being very fun building your own Star Wars character, OR you could go through this exhibit answering the questions as yourself! Which is actually what I did.. albeit to choosing a species and background story for the homeworld.

My Father the joker.. 

My 8 year old Son.

Me!

To take home, you get an e-mail with your characters picture, plus an amalgamation of information based on how you answered the questions, which is really like your characters bio.

The Verdict!

The whole exhibit was alot of fun and there's so much still to learn about the props.. Take this mural for example, which was in the scene when Anakin confronted the Emperor in Revenge Of The Sith. It apparently tells the story of the Sith battling the Jedi, why didn't the Jedi notice this and ask about it??! 

 

The only disappointing thing about this exhibition was actually the shop! It was SO ludicrously expensive! It's no wonder they manage to sell anything!! £8 for a keyring??! No thanks! I desperately wanted a programme which was packed with every part of the exhibition pieces, BUT this was £20!! 

The Star Wars Identities Exhibit will be at the O2 until September 3rd so there's still plenty of time to take a peek! Click HERE to book your tickets!

  

  

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Ultimate Guide to the Cosmic Outlaws

What is it?

Another fantastic reference book from DK, this time centered around the soon to be a blockbuster Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2!

 

What I thought

The thing that struck me most about this book was the fact that the comics for this team of misfits was first published by Marvel in 1969! In fact those Guardians of the Galaxy were a completely different team from the Guardians we now know and love from the hit film!

 

This book is amazing! In full colour it guides you through the original comics timeline, pointing out Key Characters for each of the key moments in the pivotal history of the aforementioned timeline.

Key Character info includes where the character first appeared in comics, their origin and also details in general about the species and of course how they fit in with the story and also the team of that era. 

Due to the ever changing characters and as the story moves on, there's lots of other tidbits of information regarding the characters, facts and figures as it were. This book is a treasure trove of Guardian information!


The Verdict!

My son and I love these reference books from DK, they're so informative and really fun just to pick up every so often. They make fantastic gifts for the nerd in your life. and I'm sure that when the Sequel is released on the 28th April this book will act as an amazing companion!

Preorder NOW on Amazon.co.uk!

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Ultimate Guide to the Cosmic Outlaws, published 30th March 2017, £17.99, DK

(c) Marvel 2017

Guardians of the Galaxy Toy Review! Star-Lords Elemental Blasters!

What is it?

A pair of Star-Lords Elemental Blasters from the upcoming hit movie Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2!

What we thought

NERF had a great version of this blaster for the original movie release, but these in my mind blow NERF out of the water! Ok, so you press a button and it popped open to fire the darts, BUT.. did it have sound? NO! Did you get TWO in a pack? NO!! Was it really worth it's price tag??! MAYBE!...

 

Anyway, with that out of the way, this PAIR of Electronic sounding blasters which ALSO fire darts are brilliant! The sounds are great (only 2 on each but hey!) and they are actually a little smaller for mini Star Lords like mine! 

The pic below shows my son with his Nerf blaster, its pretty big and only one of them.. He does look pretty cool though doesn't he!?

 

The Verdict

Ok, so I'm not too sure about the darts that come with this, they're pretty hard and I'd be worried about "poking someones eye out"! with those (they fire pretty far too!), however, if I'm completely honest, the electronic aspect of these blasters is what really sold them for me, totally completes my sons costume, they're the perfect size for him! 

Order yours online EXCLUSIVELY at the Disneystore! They go for only £22.99! So for just over a tenner for each blaster, (for a near replica) for your child is really great! JUST DO IT!

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 will be released on April 28th!! HERE's the trailer! 

Blast From The Past Review: Titan A.E.

What is it? 

Titan A.E. Released on June 16th 2000. Now usually I'd write and review about Star Wars stuff, however I'm pretty passionate about this film. It came out 17 years ago and I remember seeing it back then, it's still great and hasn't really aged! It's awesome! So I thought I'd give it a bit of a mention!

If you like Star Wars or any kind of good versus evil, you will like this film.

Primarily, there's a Father Son relationship always in the background. Cale, a boy, our Luke Skywalker was left in the care of his fathers colleague. Cale never really understood why he went away or why he never came back.

Their world was dying, then the Dreg (pronounced Dredge) destroy Earth. Cales Father was the creator of the TITAN.. The "Only Hope" for the Human Race, we learn later on in the film that it has the ability to create life, a new world even..

So how does this tie in with Star Wars? Well apart from the obvious characteristics of each of the characters, which I'll run through them now? Not masses, but some of the story with seem a little familiar, alot, but I thought this would be a fun post!

Cale (Luke/Anakin Skywalker):

Like Luke, he doesn't realise how important he is, but VERY determined once he understands.  He's the last hope too, the key to saving the human race..

Oh yeah, also very good with his hands..

Korso (Han Solo):

He's the sly, cocksure pirate. He's the guy who comes back at the last moment screaming "YAHOOO!" yeah, Korso does that too..

Akima (Princess Leia/Padme):

She's NON damsel in distress which handles herself VERY well, gives orders and takes them. The love interest and Cale also saves her..sound familiar?

Gune (R2D2/Jarjar?):

Now Gune, I had a little trouble placing, see, he's wise, but shows it in a very crazy way, he's also a little silly but very lovable all at once. You'll notice watching the film he helps ALOT along the way, helping to navigate the ship, very good with ships sensors and also piloting and gunning at the end of the film, WOW that was a relief he was ok right? Of course! R2D2!  "I'VE FINISHED MY NAP!!!" The Feels!! hehe! Wish R2 came onto a scene like that! 

Preed (Lando Calrissian):

 

Preed is a liar.. now a dead liar, but before he decided to back the Dreg, him and Korso were in cahoots, Korso's Lando of sorts.. but then as I say the mutiny happened and he would have done anything to kill Korso and Cale. Good job Korso is good at turning heads :P

Stith (Chewbacca?)

 

I was going to say that Skiff was Gune's C3-P0 but she's actually mental.. maybe she's an exact opposite of 3-P0? A gunner, engineer, Skiff does it all.. 

Colonist (Rebel?):

 

There was also another character in the film who only had a small part to play, he was the colonist, I have to mention him as the Voice Actor is the extremely now well known Star Wars voice-artist, STEPHEN STANTON! Yes, Grand Moff Tarkin, Ben Kenobi! AP-5 and several Stormtroopers and Imperial officers! More recently he played Admiral Raddus in Rogue One!

The Valkyrie (The Millennium Falcon):

The main cool ship of the film. There's a great flying sequence with some really awesome music aswell as fantastic graphics too! 

The Titan (The Anti-Death Star):

Whilst the Death Star destroys stars, the Titan literally creates them, and with them, life too..

The Phoenix (Cales X-Wing):

Every Hero needs their own awesome ship! Our Anakin archetype rebuilt his ship from scrap, and it turns out to be an amazing piece of machinery, extremely maneuverable, just like the X-Wing!

The Review

After a quick chat about the film, I thought I'd give you a nice little review of this old(ish) film. 

Don Bluth, who brought us the hidden classics of The Secret of Nimh, An American Tail (and its hilarious sequels) and who can forget The Land Before Time!! (The original was clearly the best!) 

But as you can tell from the types of films above Titan A.E. was cutting edge stuff! And also the first kind of Sci-fi genres that Don produced. 

It's a great mix of feels, disaster, humour, fisty cuffs, space battles. It's really good fun.. It also, surprisingly, for an animated film stands the test of time, the feel is kind of Steampunk, also like Star Wars it has a very lived in feel with no kind of 'advanced' tech as it were, food replicators and such, and the colours are a warm gold or a darker colder blue when we have the alien enemy on the screen.. I cant praise this film enough and at only £3.99 on iTunes you'd be mad to try it out.. 

I really hoped for a prequel of this film but it never came, it would be great to see how the characters got themselves to where we first see them in the film. Also to find out what exactly happened to Cales father when he left Earth. Hey ho, its animation so they can do it anytime I guess.. 

I also showed this to my 7 year old boy and he really liked this movie too! 

Titan A.E. is available on iTunes, and also still available on Amazon so go get it! You will not be disappointed!!