Did you know HannaBarbara once rescued a daycare from Disney?

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yogibearYesterday I was happy to be on an upcoming Nerdiversity 101 podcast discussing Hanna Barbara. As you wait for it to be posted, I wanted to share a touching story that can be confirmed on Snopes about Hanna Barbara that might make you interested in the company.

Despite being well known for classic cartoons like Yogi Bear the Flintstones and others, or even for more mature efforts like Johnny Quest or Swat Kats, I always associate the Hanna Barbara name with swooping in to save a day care from a threatened law suit from Disney back in 1989.

A day care came under fire when Disney learned they were using unlicensed paintings of Disney characters on their wall. Rather than seeing it as free advertising (which come one, it was going to mentally imbed these kids with the image of Disney characters!) Disney wanted money or the images removed. The big corporate Giant could easily squash the daycare center, as they would later go on to i many lawsuits with other company over the years, but thankfully the law-suit didn’t need to proceed as the images were taken down.

Hanna Barbara swept and foot the bill for a repaint removing the Disney images and giving the day care official artwork of cartoon characters. Granted this did get them some free publicity, and made Disney looks like a cruel corporate giant, I’m sure those were bonuses to Hanna Barbara, but I’m sure the kids and day care workers were thankful.

stay tuned for the podcast, in the meantime hit up our forums for all manner of nerd discussion. The forums now match the new nerd Nation name and theme.

-revsears

 

 

Marvel Universe Professor X review

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Time to finally Catch up with my reviews starting with a third in a series of three reviews I started in MARCH!  First up Marvel Universe’s Professor X!

I got in a trade with forum user and CFA owner JJlecaros and since then i have picked up a few extra and love them for parts.

xaiver1the chair and head are new, but the rest are from San Diego Comic Con Exclusive Rise of Cobra Destro.

Continue reading →

G.I.Joe Dossiers interviews by Skinny featuring Bombstrike and Roadblock in episode 1 and 2

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08_CobraCommander Nerd Nation Forum user skinny is a great contributor to Joe fandom, often tipping folks off with news and of course the recent Mindbender’s clinic.  Now he has put some work into live action interviews with G.I.Joe characters! Actors portray some of our favorite Joes as their backgrounds, characters, and interactions with other Joes and cobras are explored.

First up is Bombstrike the 3rd Stall sibling. While on receiving one figure in the Valor Vs Venom days her brothers and their conflict  have received a lot of fan praise. Barrel Roll and Blackout were most recently in the Joe Club’s figure Subscription Service were Blackout was the mysterious 13th figure only available to subscribers and is one of the rarest official Joes ever produced!

Boy does go in depth and stay true to the filecards! Love the character, loved her pre-production name (bombshell) and  loved the stalls story in the DDP comics, which doesn’t exactly match what’s shared here but is very much worth read!

Episode 2 features  a more familiar Joe, who in the movies now the leads the team, check out Roadblock:

Another good performance that digs deep into Joe Lore, specifically Marvel Comics this go around.

Skinny did an excellent job with these and i look forward to more!Hit up his actual youtube page via the videos above and give him some likes and subscribe !

Hit up the forums by clicking here to discuss them.

-revsears

Additional Domain Name added, and additional site updates!

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nerdnationminilogo To further demonstrate my intent to cover a wider range of nerd topics and in cooperation with Nerdiversity 101 podcast, I announced a name change awhile back, now you can view us at the additional url, http://www.yournerdnation.com . In additional I have further tweaked our new logo,and added it to the message boards, which have a new url as well (just click on the forums link above that route still works.)

I have also continued to tweak the forums as I learn the software and have added some previous less trafficked forums back, but as sub forums so the forums look a little more tidy, but still have plenty of places for discussion. Please continue to let me you know what you think.  I have more free time than the past couple of months and hope to further improve the site.

Minor Update:

Of course it should be noted that any previous link to the forums will now no longer work and I will work to update some of the past stories, especially those who still get hits or i refer back too, to a correct link on the forum!

-revsears

Quick Xbox one notes pt 2

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Emphasis on Tv and interaction with storytelling .

Live action Halo Tv series with Spielberg heading it up! Called a premium show

Nfl partnership with exclusive content and real time fantasy league updates

Nothing to dispel drm rumors

No price

Xbox one launch date only “later this year”

Few games shown but 15 exclusices in first year

All dlc for cod launched on Xbox first

Call of duty ghosts shown!

It is all knew world and characters and game engine

Ghosts are essentially GI joes after attack on US cripples us

Dogs are a part of your squad

Better story hired award winning writer from traffic

Dynamic maps, more character customization

Model comparison shows great improvement

New trailer looks great

Quick Xbox one notes pt 1

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It is name Xbox one

Kinnect 2.0 is mandatory and comes with each system. Can now tell the difference between even te turn of a wrist

Cloud powered

New trending panel

Dedicated game DVR

An extra tab can be snapped opened

Voice activated instant switching between TV games movies etc

Background updating

Espn can bring up a fantasy tab live

Skype using the 1080 p kinnect

5 Hopes and 5 more realistic predictations regarding tommorrow’s Next Xbox announcement.

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5by5nThis article has been half way done for a long time, but seeing as how the news comes out tomorrow/today, and my 5 month old just went to sleep, I thought I’d Just through it up for discussions sake.

First, let’s start of with Hopes

1. NO DRM.

I’ve been to your future. When I loved in Alaska Bandwidth was limited, and it went quick, and guess what that’s a growing trend among Cable providers. Not to mention the constant cluster of early sim city and Diablo III playing time, or power outages, or cable outages etc. Internet providers continue to move towards a model where they at least cap a certain bandwidth and then lower speed, and the reason they are doing this? Constant streaming data they can’t handle! A new Xbox that was always online would only further aggravate their problem and push them to move to a bandwidth cap, which would then destroy future sales of the XBOX.

2. Reverse compatibility.

Rumor is the next xbox doesn’t have, but look what the 360 did, slowly add titles overtime, at the very least i think this an option, I should be able to move my old 360 to a new room, and give a new console a place in my living room, and be able to play ALL the Halo games on it.

3. Acheivement points carry over

What fun would it be if we had to start over? Why not allow an account to occupy one 360 and one new console?

4. Kinnect 2.0 is entirely optional

please?

5. More control over my dashboard

If I pay for a background, why is half of it whited out? Give us more control, at least for Gold subscribers!

Realistic expectations.

i thought about doing fears, but I realized most of my hopes are really addressing rumors or fears that already out their in the public.

1. A much more accurate Kinnect

Kinnect in itself is not a terrible idea as an option, but the current version started out much like the Wii’s waggle, to imprecise to be anything more than a gimmick, but with work, it could be a nice distraction. I think Microsoft knows this and will be showing they have been working on it.

2. Halo 5

it’s a given!

3. DRM optional/ shipped turned off for now

I think the public outcry has likely swayed Microsoft’s mind. Some rumors are it can be turned on by individual game publishers, that would be a great way to make the publishers potentially have what they want to prevent used games, but make THEM the bad guy instead of Microsoft.

4. DVR

I think it’s highly possible that the next xbox could also be used as a DVR so you can watch shows whenever you want. While a neat concept, it seems a little late as many cable providers are cheaply providing these now, but it is rumored and it adds a nice check on the box.

5. No Ring at the startup, thus no red ring of death.

Similar to the newer models, I suspect Microsoft is going to pre cover it’s butt!

Your thoughts on my predictions, or after tomorrow, of the actual announcements? Let us know in the comments below!

 

Hasbro Continues Lay offs, What does this mean for our favorite brands?

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5by5nSeibertron.com recently posted that Hasbro’s lay offs have continued. A combination of factors have lead to this, including the obvious shift to video games for many, rising production costs which now not only includes  oil prices but also increasing wage demands, lack of a TF movie, and a huge struggle with Paramount moving G.I.Joe.

It’s unfortunate, and my heart goes out to those who now find themselves unemployed. I was pleased to meet a few former Hasbro G.I.Joe designers at con that were really nice guys and had produced some amazing work and I wish them in particular, and all those leaving Hasbro the best in finding new positions in this hard economy.

But i can’t help wonder what does this mean for our favorite toys? So I thou

1. Transformers:

Recently many fans where shocked when Prime was going to be cut short and we would see a new branding after TF 4.  Execs know about layoffs before they happen, was this a related attempt to draw in new fans that were pleased with prime and to put more money towards TF 4? The TF movies, especially the first two, really  helped Hasbro with profits but they haven’t been able to capture that level of success in non movie years.

I think it’s likely related!

2. G.I.Joe

Poor G.I.Joe,  with Paramount moving the movie to post convert it the toyline was left in a mess. First it has been moved up to cover Star Trek, and so Hasbro rushed out inaccurate movie toys, then with the delay, Hasbro was left with no product on the shelves and let go most of their Joe team.  No Retaliation was a bigger financial success than Rise of Cobra, but what about the toys?  Next year marks the 50th anniversary of G.I.Joe and the action figure itself, but with no Joe team in place, and no confirmation that there will be any Joe toys at all next year and the rising cost of action figures, what comes next?

I suspect we will see some toys, but a very limited amount of them. Joe fans rebelled against reduced articulation figures, and that looks to be where Hasbro’s other lines are heading:

3. Marvel Toys:
See those Iron Man 3 toys with 5 points of articulation? Welcome to your new marvel! licensing is expensive and unfortunately for us these are moving on the pegs.I’m speculating Marvel Universe figures will officially die this year with collectors getting their ML’s and kids getting unarticulated 4 ”

4. Star Wars:

Similar to Marvel, new collector oriented 6″ line, and the 4″ guys are going to continue parts re-use,repaints, and reduced articulation.

5. Hub

This is my big worry, I’m worried the Hub is not working out as Hasbro as hoped I’m very curious to see what happens here.

So you have my predictions, want to join in on the talk? CLICK HERE to jump to the forums.

Nerdiversity 101 podcast pilot episode, Sci-Fi movie discussion starting with the earliest sci-fi movies!

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filmreelI’ve been way behind here, but here is the first Nerdiversity podcast is up. You may remember that I’ve teamed with Jaxs Trugrave and this podcast. Names changed along the way and I didn’t make it to the first recording, but we working on some changes behind the scenes. The topic is broad as  the panelists tackle their favorite sci-fi movies. Give it a listen by CLICKING HERE and  CLICK HERE to leave feedback on the forums.

It’s full of great one-liners such as, “I bet an Ewok would taste great.”

-revsears