I lumping hate Monopoly. It’s long, it’s boring, and I never win, but my love of Adventure Time is much greater than my hatred of Monopoly. That’s why I’ll probably be playing it sometime soon just so I can use Finn on a raft or Lumpy Space Princess in a car as my game piece. Collecting properties in the Land of Ooo sounds fun, and using Treehouses and Castles sounds way better than houses and hotels.

Adventure Time Monopoly is available on Amazon now and hopefully will be in my hands in a few days. We’ll see if the art and humor of the show makes the game fun again. I’m crossing my fingers.

Via The Mary Sue. Ps – The Mary Sue is right, how did an Adventure Time Candyland not happen first? That would be ridiculously appropriate.

The Top Hat Sasquatch team reads a lot of blog posts every day, and some slip through the crack or just don’t warrant their own post. That’s where Missing Links comes in. Every few days we collect the best links we’ve come across and pass them on to you.

‘Gravity’ Teaser Trailer: Alfonso Cuarón Strands Sandra Bullock and George Clooney In Space
I've been hearing about this movie for ages now and from the awesome poster and trailer, it looks like it's going to be one of the most unique movies of 2013.

United | We Love Fine
The winning T-Shirt design in We Love Fine's X-Men contest. An awesome shirt.

‘The World’s End’ International Teaser Trailer: A Sci-Fi Conclusion to the Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy
'The World's End' is my most-hyped movie of 2013 by a long shot. Edgar Wright is one of my favorite directors and I can’t wait to see the final chapter in his Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End).

‘Ender’s Game’ Teaser Trailer: A Landmark Sci-Fi Novel Finally Comes to Theaters | /Film
I'm such a bad geek, I still need to read this book.

LEGO Master Builder Academy Level 4 coming!
Even though Steampunk is kind of lame and outdated now, these LEGO Master Builder sets look really cool.

I promise I don’t care about a TMNT movie produced by Michael Bay and starring Megan Fox, but since I’m completely obsessed with the Turtles I’m at least keeping an eye on the news. Set photos recently pegged Arrested Development’s Will Arnett as playing the whiny cameraman Vernon Fenwick from the 80s cartoon, which is actually kind of cool casting. Still, Megan Fox?

For a movie that is already shooting and supposedly comes out next summer, there is a surprising lack of casting and plot details. The no-name actors that were revealed as being the Turtles could be voices or motion-capture only, but no one has said. Weird.

I was checking IMDB to see if anyone else had been announced and saw this plot logline that I hadn’t seen anywhere else. If this is official, it kind of explains Bay’s dumb comments about the Turtles having extraterrestrial origins in the movie.

Aliens invade Earth and inadvertently spawn a quartet of mutated reptile warriors, the Ninja Turtles, who rise up against them to defend the world.

That makes sense, the movie could treat Krang/the Kraang/the Utroms as an alien invasion, and their ooze give birth to the Turtles. That sounds fine for a movie, and I’m all for a TMNT movie that goes for 80s cartoon nostalgia, I just wish it was in better hands.

One thing I think is a guarantee though is that if Vernon Fenwick is in this movie, Bebop and Rocksteady have to be in it too. I’ve wanted those characters in a live action Turtles movie since I was little, and even if this movie sucks as bad as I think it will, I’ll see it for that reason alone.

I would also count on seeing the Technodrome pop up in this movie, but I doubt we’ll be lucky enough for it to have a giant eyeball on top.

Seriously though, how has there not at least been a Shredder casting announcement yet? Somebody call Ken Watanabe.

Happy Star Wars Day! There haven’t been a lot of podcasts around here for a while, but that’s going to change! Not only will Bubble Pipe Theater and Saturday Morning Central be starting back up soon, we’re also starting a brand new podcast dedicated to Star Wars called Wookiee Tuxedo. With Disney buying Lucasfilm and new movies in the works, there won’t be a shortage of things to talk about any time soon.

In the first episode, Tim and I talk about the future of Star Wars, Ewoks, Muppets, and why Wookiees don’t wear pants.

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As an aging geek, I’m starting to fall victim to stuff only old people do. For instance, I get up somewhat early on Sundays and watch CBS Sunday Morning. You youngins may know about this news magazine TV series hosted by octogenarian Charles Osgood. It’s a very well-produced show with a wide variety of news and features that we old people enjoy.

I know what you’re probably saying to yourself, “Whoa, slow down, grandpa. You’ll break a hip.”

Risking a shattered pelvis, I settled in for this week’s edition of the show and its Future theme. As usual, the show was exciting but not too exciting so as to soil my Depends. I was thrilled to see a segment about the “retro future” of the 1960s cartoon The Jetsons.

It’s hard to believe that the show is over 50 years old. I’m old but I’m not that old. I watched The Jetsons as a kid in the ’80s when it was already considered an old show. The Hanna-Barbera creation always surpassed predecessor The Flintstones in my eyes. As CBS reporter Lee Cowan indicates, the show’s charm is intensified by its role as a retro futuristic relic.

The short segment includes Jetsons expert Matt Novak. They only mention it in passing but Novak has a thorough report on each of the 24 episodes over at Smithsonian.com. Yes, even more remarkable than the half-century age of The Jetsons is that the fact that the original series only had 24 installments. The sci-fi sitcom lasted just the 1962-63 season but has had more cultural resonance than shows with 10 or more seasons.

Novak’s recaps even have the episodes themselves embedded. Even more important to the detail-rich reviews is his essay on why the show still matters. I couldn’t agree more.

If you’ve never experienced The Jetsons or just need to re-familiarize yourself, I strongly suggest reading Novak’s reviews and watching the episodes. In fact, I insist you do. Everyone knows they should listen to their elders.

Have you had a chance to check out the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run game that just came out recently for the iPhone and iPad? I bought it not knowing if it would be any fun or not because I want to support Nickelodeon’s awesome TMNT effort as much as I can, but thankfully the game is actually pretty fun.

Rooftop Run is a Canabalt inspired running game, and even though there’s plenty of money grubbing ala Tiny Tower and Jurassic Park Builder, the game is still fun for TMNT fans who need to be distracted for a few minutes here and there.

Even though we’re getting a “serious” type TMNT game this summer, I’m dying for a full-fledged game based on the new Nick show. The CG, music, voices, and everything else is perfect for a fun brawler-style game, and that’s even obvious with this little iOS game. There’s a fun 2D cut-scene at the beginning that thankfully uses the shows actual voice cast, and the modeling and animation are pretty faithful to the show.

The premise of the game is simple; you’re just running from the Kraang and fighting enemies along the way. You have to jump over barriers and collect enough green thingies to keep your meter from emptying, along with making sure you don’t fall off any roofs. I’ve played a million games like this, and it may be because this is TMNT, but I still had fun playing Rooftop Run.

The thing I really hate about the game is the use of coins. My biggest pet peeve about iOS games is when companies make it so obvious that they’re just trying to get you to spend money in their games by buying things to make the game faster/more fun. When you start up Rooftop Run, choose your Turtle wisely because you won’t be able to play as the other Turtles until you collect (or buy) 3600 coins to unlock them one by one.

There are also upgrades and gear you can buy with coins, but I haven’t unlocked anything yet.

Still, the game is fun and actually makes me wonder if they accidentally included a spoiler. After a while I noticed that the enemies I was going up against changed from Foot Soldiers to weird Wasp/Fly/Winged Dudes. There wasn’t really an explanation for this, and it instantly made me think of the 80s cartoon version of Baxter Stockman.

Is Nickelodeon going to play to our nostalgia for the original series by having Baxter create an army of fly soldiers? I hope so. I think that would be a cool nod to the 80s cartoon without losing Baxter as a human character in the process. How cool would it be for the Turtles to have an army of 80s-like Baxter soldiers to fight? Anyway, I digress…

If you’ve got an iPhone or an iPad and you’re a fan of the new TMNT cartoon, you should check out this game. At least until Nickelodeon gives us a really-for-real video game based on this awesome show.

I don’t know about you, but I could use some distraction today. What better way to distract ourselves from scary people than by watching a delightfully retro animated toy commercial? Being born in 85, I feel like I completely missed out on Masters of the Universe. I never had any of the toys and I only vaguely remember the cartoon. Sometimes I get the urge to read up on the mythology, buy a bunch of vintage toys, and cram every episode of the cartoon just to feel like I know what all you guys are talking about.

Usually I repress that urge before I spend any time or money, but this recently unearthed commercial for MOTU from the early early 80s is really making me want to dive in to Eternia.

Something tells me that actual cartoon doesn’t look this cool though.

In case you didn’t know, our friends Shawn of Branded in the 80s, Jaime of ShezCrafti, and Paxton of Cavalcade of Awesome host a great podcast called Cult Film Club. If you haven’t listened to it, you’re missing out.

Shawn recently put together these awesome “No Tipping” sticker packs featuring the disembodied head of Mr. Pink himself, Steve Buscemi. In Shawn’s words:

These 4 die-cut stickers measure between 2.4″x2.4″ and 3.4″x2.4″, and feature the CFC Logo, Official Membership Badge, our mascot the Phantom Ticket Taker, and the one, the only non-tipper Mr. Pink!

They’re $7 and the profits go to help power their site and podcast, so you should order a few. Like seriously, order ten. Where else are you going to find Steve Buscemi stickers?

Go buy some!

It’s hard to feel guilty about being obsessed with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and spending a ton of money on them when everywhere you go stores are filled with awesome TMNT products again. One thing I’ve had my eye on for weeks now since I first saw one at Target is the collection of TMNT Cuddle Pillows (or Pillow Buddies, depending on where you find them). Plush Turtles are always a staple of Turtlemania regardless of the decade, but these are hands-down the best I’ve ever seen, and I knew I had to have them.

The thing that made me even more interested in them was how hard they are to find as a complete set. For a while it seemed like Target only carried Leonardo and Raphael, Toys R Us had Leo and Donnie, Kmart had Leo, and nobody had Mikey. That baffled me, because if you were going to make a cute and cuddly version of a Turtle, why not start with Mikey?

I ended up snagging a Leo at Kmart on sale one day, but just swapped him out for a Donnie. I gave the Leo to my nephew Brady for his 5th birthday, and he loved it. The only thing keeping me from getting them all (because being a 27 year-old guy with no kids wasn’t enough) was the fact that I didn’t think Mikey existed. Well, he does, and even better, you can get each Turtle on Walmart’s website for less than $18 each. Yup, Donnie, Leo, Mikey, and Raph.

You’re welcome.

I’ll make sure to post some ridiculous pictures of me snuggling with my cuddly Ninja Turtles as soon as the other three get here.

Thanks to Cody at Crooked Ninja for tipping me off that these Funko Pop TMNT vinyls have been revealed. I saw a teaser image for them a couple months ago and have been dying to see what the final products would look like, and damn, these are amazing.

I’ve been resisting the urge to get into Funko Pop for a while but this will break me. I’ve had my eye on the Power Rangers vinyls but have never bought any. I think I’ll be getting those as well as every one of these TMNT Funko Pops as soon as they come out. I love how the Funko Pop vinyls are uniform in their cuteness, but the characters still look unique.

What do you think? Will you be ordering these?

Via Crooked Ninja