Yep, burned again.

See, I found out a little while back that McDonalds would have a new My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Happy Meal sometime March-ish, and I've been looking forward to it just because.

Pics I saw leaked to the internet seemed to show that not only were these new prize toys be more cartoon accurate, I swear on a stack of Bibles that the Applejack they showed had her proper and true cowgirl hat. AT LAST!

Nope. It's a lie. The new Happy Meal promotion started this weekend and lo! Applejack was the first Pony! YAY!

No cowgirl hat. NO F'ING HAT.

(and there's this combo comb/hook thing that you're meant to use to hang your ponies off your backpack or whatever. SUPER WEAK snap thing and lots of little girls are going to be very sad they've lost their ponies. Smart dads and moms will drill out the solid ring on the head of the ponies and attach a proper hook or loop or something.)

They're small little things, not in scale with any other MLP release, they have a rooted hair tail and plastic sculpted mane, and seem to be in a variety of poses so that's fun.

But, Applejack is still denied her correct hat.

Bah.

Yes, in anticipation of Disney's John Carter (of Mars, dammitall! OF FLIPIN' MARS!) I'm going to lay down and will myself to Barsoom. If that doesn't work I'm going to see the movie when it opens Friday (03/09/12).

It's been really funny seeing the give-and-take on this film. First the press was bad, then previews say it's good, then Disney tried to make it look like it was Avatar, then a fan made an AWESOME trailer that hit every single right note and within a week Disney was kinda sorta emulating it...

See for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BxeHQY1NuM

Film cost something on the order of $250 Million USD. Conventional Wisdom of Hollywood Accounting says it needs to make at least $750 Mil. to be considered a success and 'profitable'. (I say it like that because of course in Hollywood no movie ever makes a profit). I think that's possible worldwide but it's going to be tough. I think opening weekend will be under $100 Mil, likely around 80 or so. It's only got two weeks so social media better do its job!

There's Hunger Games coming up as well as the Marvel Comics Avengers movie. Later on lots of other 'nerd genre' films.

I'm hoping for a fully loaded maxed out DVD release but given recent history everything cool will be on the Blu-Ray. Bah.

Anyway, looking forward to the film. Wish there were some cool toys.

Ok, look, I know you wish I would join up, I would conform, I would 'reach' and live the so-called glory of Facebook.

I'm sorry, no. It's just evil and I KNOW it makes people just nuts.

And now, another reason why I won't. Scammers. Dig it, FB is doing something new and people change their minds, that 'Timeline' look, and guess what? YOU CAN'T GO BACK!

But people want to, and the scammers are out in full force to gank your private info as you seek to undo what can't be undone!

Read it!

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/dont-fall-victim-to-the-remove-timeline-facebook-scam/

Join me. Turn your back on Facebook, on Twitter, on Tumblr, on all those places that are made for people who need, CRAVE some kind of constant acknowledgement of their existence. You don't need that. You don't! Really you don't! It's a damn drug!

I'm just sayin'.

(Also, yes, some might kneejerk about where I'm pulling this from. Shut up, info is info. And feel free to ignore 98% of the comments there, there's a bunch of amazingly stupid and disconnected commentary going on just like at every other public access lightly modded place.)

Don't let the door hit your butt on the way out!!!

Ah, maybe that's too harsh. 2011 was a year like any other, highs and lows, ups and downs. But dammit, the downs were just too f**king DOWN this year and I am glad glad GLAD it's over, and I pray to whatever has power over all that 2012 is better.

Christmas was OK. There was a huge letdown when the new flatscreen monitor mom bought for me turned out to be broken right fresh out of the box, but I took it back, ordered a new one and am using it even as I type. HURRAY! The biggest surprise was getting that new Space Wolf (space fighter aircraft) kit http://www.hlj.com/product/HSGCW-01 and brother, let me tell you, if you like Captain Harlock, if you like building sci-fi model kits or if you just appreciate a really well designed and engineered model, you owe it to yourself to buy this kit! It's a thing of beauty and I hope I can do it justice when I put it together. Thank you Roger, Gordon and Eric! I can't recall offhand who got me what because I am getting so old. Thank you also to Hasegawa for making the kit and Hobbylink Japan for selling it!

I'm thankful and grateful to all my friends for them being my friends. I know I don't always make it easy to be my friend, so I appreciate they stick around. You all know who you are. I'm also grateful for all the people I've known but only met in person at AWA who I count as friends. I hope we'll meet again.

Not long to go now. The big ball at Times Square in NYC will drop soon and it's officially 2012. Time for everything to get done right, right?

Hasbro cooked up a deal with Target to create a section called 'Canterlot' for exclusive MLP toys, and, I assume, whatever new ones are made.

There's a Shine Bright Fluttershy now. I bought it. Her wings light up.

Interesting, they've changed the packaging, probably to lower costs. Instead of the complicated 'inner bubble outer wrapper' package (which, actually, is collector friendly as you can remove and replace the toy inside without any package damage) they've gone to the standard bubble card. Also, they now include a hairbrush. The included catalog is dated 2011 and doesn't mention ANY of the Shine Bright line, which are all dated 2010.

Which means there likely won't be a Shine Bright Applejack. And they probably wouldn't give her the cowgirl hat anyway, lousy rassenfrassin' Hasbro...

Because I bought the 'shine bright' Rarity pony. I now have all of the Shine Bright line.

DAMMIT HELP ME!

So I was in Barnes and Noble the other night.

It's a big store, one of their current 'prototype store of TOMORROW' units and they're still in transition mode as they move things around, because, see, the action line is 'Nobody buys physical media anymore,really' so they're reducing the number of SKUs they carry in books, video to make room for, I guess, toys and games.

Yeah. Shifting from returnable product to non-returnable product. THAT'S going to be healthy for them.

Anyway, among the things that have happened are, Science Fiction has been reduced by about 25% and manga...

Manga has lost roughly 80% of its shelf space. I kid you not. And what there is, it's about 96% Viz.

Well, THAT'S not going to be healthy for anybody, is it?

So what's the 'takeaway' here? The LAST, the ONLY national bookstore chain left in the US of A has decided that they don't want to sell books anymore.

*sigh*

Idiots.

It must be. It can't be real what I just saw, it can't be.

Saturday Night Live just did a total and complete BURN on weeaboo life.

A burn so complete I can't help but admire it. They even name-checked Candy-Candy!

Of course, ha ha ha, a few years late to the party, guys. OR ARE THEY?

No, really, see...

Rainbow Dash is Priss. That's so obvious it's not even funny, right?

Fluttershy is Linna

Twilight Sparkle is Sylia (altho a case could be made for it to be Rarity)

And of course Pinkie Pie is Nene. Duh.

Applejack can be Mackie.

WHY WON'T YOU HELP ME SEE HOW IT BURNS!!! NONE SHALL SURVIVE!!!

(double dog dare someone draw Hardsuits for the ponies.)

Yes, I have bought my second My Little Pony figure.

Shine Bright Rainbow Dash. Her wings glow.

They stare at me with those big eyes...

HASBRO! DEVILS!

And I know I have a problem because I'm unhappy there's no consistent scale to these things, so if I want an Applejack...

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Help me. Help meeeeee.