Black Friday Baby! Better known as Ugly Shopper Day!

Man I love the madness that is Black Friday.

If you ever want to sample a glimpse of what the apocalypse in America will look like, all you need to do is venture out among the masses that rise before the sun once a year to push, pull and scream their way through discount shopping.

Also, next to a state fair, this is the largest gathering of ugly people in one place. And mass retailers like Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy know how to dangle cheap carrots in front of the consumer's faces.

Check out this woman with the white jacket and black sweats (the walmart shopper choice in dress sweats): "Haw, haw, toys fall down, go boom. It Funny."
This is a Target...and the end of a long line at the back of the store waiting to check out!

Mattel's DCU Failure at Mass Retail

Mattel's most recent round of product updates on their Mattycollector facebook site confirmed that for the first time ever, an entire upcoming wave of DC Universe action figures would be available for purchase via thier own online store.

On the surface this is fabulous news to long suffering hardcore collectors who are tired of the runaround and poor distribution of nearly every wave of this brand over the past year. As we've recounted here in this blog many times, Mattel's team handling this brand have done nothing but a piss-poor job getting this line to retailers and thereby into the hands of the collector.

But while this news of online sales may seem great on the surface, consider the larger picture and fate. Why would Target or Wal-Mart bother to invest in a line of toys when the main repeat customer in the toy aisles, the collector, can simply sit home and order them directly from the vendor? Outside of desperate retailers like Toys-R-Us, the other big boys don't have the time of day for that kind of a deal. As a toy buyer, how do you justify giving up the valuable space on the shelf or dealing with the constant headache of inventory controls when you now know a good percentage of your customer will buy directly form your vendor who is now a COMPETITOR for the same sales?

The answer is that they won't. Mattel has already caused the main retailers plenty of trouble this year with the brand. If Target hasn't already told Mattel it's done messing around with the DCU (which is our bet and why Mattel is announcing this online route now), then they absolutley will soon enough.

The DCU brand is not strong enough to support itself longterm with only online sales and reduced mainstream retail distribution. Proof? Show us any Mattycollector.com DC Universe exclusive that has yet to sell out in thier store.

Yes, the online route will be great in 2010 and will save the Bittergeeks just as much frustration as anyone out there trying to track these figures down. But we know better and can see the bigger picture and ramifications long term. The brand is severely damaged and now limping home to a likely demise.

And all because Toyguru and his team blew it.

How to gain easy blog hits with one post

An easy post in order to gain search engine hit results!

Hey, just practicing the same standards as Newsweek here is by selecting this photo of Palin for their cover out of hundreds of thousands of choices. Sales go up and credibility comes down.

Nice legs though for a politician!

DC Direct and their Homosexual fixations

Newly solicited for 2010...aside from the fact that the costume and colors are all wrong for an iconic look...does anyone possibly think poor Aquaman here looks anything other than totally gay?

Thanks for destroying my childhood memories of the Super Friends George Brewer (Head of DCD).

Hasbro has the Micronauts AND JJ Abrams wants to do a film?!

If true as currently reported, I'm in! Wow. As always when it comes to Hollywood and the Toy industry, what's old is new again. I have fond memories of this Mego toy line of the late '70s. All those kids from the swingin' seventies and early '80s now grown up and running around Hollywood are constantly strip-mining those eras lately for potential easy cash cows in the 21st century. So yes, potentially a very good move for both groups.

We are very interested to see where this development leads. We're sure Thundercats and Rom, Spaceknight can't be far behind.

Snooze you loose fanboys

The 4-DAY PASSES FOR THE 2010 SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON ARE NOW SOLD OUT!

Holy Shit!

No one even really knows what's going on during next year's event. You are going to see record scalper prices for these passes next summer on ebay.

Single day passes will likely go on sale very soon but look for those to now sell twice as fast. Especially the Friday and Saturday badges first.

Thankfully the Bitter Geeks obtained their badges!

GI Joe: Rise Of Cobra Blu-Ray & GI Joe Resolute DVD Reviews

Against my better judgement, I bought this blu-ray (only $19.99 pre-order from Amazon) after thinking it was pretty limp in the theatres. Nursing a horriffic cold, I only managed to stay awake for about painful 20 minutes before dozing off, mercifully regaining conciousness as the credits rolled. Here are the original notes from my first (theatrical) viewing of the film:

Minuses:
* Fake snake
* Holograms have audible footsteps?
* Wayans awful
* Quaid awful
* Dialogue awful
* Acting awful
* Accelerator suit double awful
* Montage training = world police
* Turning invisible allows you to escape?
* How much did double bubble gum pay for product placement?
* Cobra G3 hummer? Weak.
* Cold breath in arctic is the weakest cgi I've seen outside of syfy
channel
* Cobra commanders mask falling off
* Oh wow! Everyone knows each other!
* Oh wow! Another flashback!
* Shock ending telegraphed so bad

Plus:
* Sienna Miller

It's hard to say this without breaking down into a giggle fit, but Stephen Sommers is no Michael Bay.

Prior to going comatose with the live action film, I watched the "adult" Joe cartoon, "Resolute" written by Warren Ellis, who is clearly not only a whore, but is also losing it. Nothing here that we haven't seen a million times before in the Joe comic book, and why is it "for adults"? Because they kill Bazooka and say "Hell"? An episode of Ben Ten has more drama than this.

A self-congratualtory "extra" featuring a bunch of in-house Hasbro hacks yakking about how ground-breaking this mess is only serves to illustrate how arrogant and out of touch the company is when it comes to their properties, a sin of pride that cause both this cartoon and the feature film to fail miserably.

Holiday Price Wars off to a blazing start...thanks to Amazon.com

You just knew all the major retailers were primed to battle it out this Holiday season for the shrinking budgets of the almighty American consumer. Especially after the majority of these peddlers took it on the chin in the Holiday bloodbath of 2008. The really savvy retailer knows you have to make a big splash early in the game. As soon as Halloween ends, the kid gloves come off. In the past week alone I think our household has received at least a dozen different shopping catalogs each packed with promises of deep discounts and free shipping.

Last year while nearly every retailer suffered shocking losses in the make or break fourth quarter, only Amazon.com saw not only an increase in year to year sales but profits as well. So while it's no surprise to see very good bargains on Amazon early here in November, it's absolutely jaw-dropping to see them pre-selling many of this year's summer blockbuster films IN THE BLU-RAY format well under $20. It's always a good deal when you find new releases on DVD around or just under $20 but up until this year it's just been unheard of in the Blu-Ray format.

Examples as of November 4th:

Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince: List Price is $35.99, Amazon preorder price is $16.99!

Terminator Salvation Director's Cut: List Price is $35.99, Amazon preorder price is $16.99!

Even a Disney/Pixar title like UP! that originally listed at $45.99 is currently $19.99. For a FOUR DISK Combo set. No way Target or Best Buy will beat deals like this in their circulars.

If anyone has been on the fence about Blu-Ray because of cost, this is clearly the Holiday season that excuse will end. Already, Wal-Mart is advertising they are about to offer reliable brand Blu-Ray players for under $150.

Even if you are not interested in purchasing any Blu-Ray product the point is that these offerings are indicative as to how crazy the price wars are about to become and Amazon.com is determined to lead the way. Amazon and Wal-Mart are both clearly ready for the war. Target, Best Buy and the rest better have learned from last year's mistakes and have some tricks up their sleeves.

It's going to be a fun year to shop and even more fun to watch. Best deals of the season are always offered in November when they need YOU. By the second week of December, YOU need them as the final shopping days for Christmas count down.

SDCC 2010 4 Day Passes Almost Sold Out...IN NOVEMBER!

The calendar says November 3rd, 2009. Comic-con begins July 22nd and apparently the geek world is abuzz over the news that all available four day passes (not single day passes) for the event are nearly sold.

WTF?

Can we say now officially this show is no longer for or about the comic nerds? Comic fans have never been that hardcore about purchasing passes to any related event this far in advance.

This is now a total Hollywood love festival. When you have thousands of teenage GIRLS spending several nights sleeping in front of the San Diego Convention Center to get into a COMIC BOOK CONVENTION so they can wet themselves attending a 45 minute Twilight cast panel then you have a completely new event.

The Twilight sequels are planned one a year back to back which means another cast panel at the event in 2010 and 2011. No matter if New Moon completely sucks or is the biggest film of the year, you can bet all those girls that attended the con in 2009 are already buying up passes and planning their invasion for 2010.

The Twilight army is not the sole reason the con is selling out so fast for 2010 but they are a prime example of what is now the inevitable evolution of the San Diego Comic-con.

Prediction: If Comic-con International remains in the San Diego Convention Center for years to come, the show will need to split into two separate events. One for Comic Book publishers, creators, dealers and fans and one for everything else the show is evolving into. The pressure to raise exhibition rates will be too much for the average comic dealer and publisher to bear. There are many pop culture, Hollywood, mass retail, tech based would be participants with fistfuls of cash pounding on the convention center door dying to set up.

If you plan to attend the show next year for the full four days, buy ‘em soon or you’ll be crying in yer long box if you wait to buy your tickets in 2010.