mecha

The year 1993, man. For Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their fans, it was the best of times and kinda the worst of times. On one hand several TMNT comics were going strong, the animated series was in its seventh season and Playmates was on the cusp of releasing some of its most tubular toys yet. On the other hand... the near-universally loathed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III dropped and a lot of kids were moving on to watch the newly-launched Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. With so much going on, many fans probably didn't realize what they missed out on: A ninja-piloted Party Wagon toy that "mutated" into a giant mecha warrior suit.

TV: Firefly sort of pops up in a new Arrow Promo for the show's January 16 episode. Movies: Jamie Foxx's Electro costume in The Amazing Spider-Man movie sequel apparently won't be green and yellow like in the classic comics. Community: The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has posted its annual report, summing up its accomplishments in 2012...

Baked Goods: Clutzygeek transforms the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into delicious (and turtle-free) pancakes. Digital: Select Marvel graphic novels are now available in the Amazon Kindle store. Upcoming: She-Ra is getting a Masters of the Universe digital one-shot from DC by Mike Costa and Drew Edward Johnson...

Animation: The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Vol. 5 DVD will include an exclusive unaired episode of the show, entitled "Powerless," when it arrives on September 25. TV: John Rozum, Jesus Saiz, Jimmy Palmiotti and Paul Lee's Vertigo series Midnight, Mass...

Upcoming: Fantagraphics Books and Alexander Street Press are making the complete archive of the The Comics Journal available as part of its Underground and Independent Comics online collection. The archive will serve as a scholarly online collection and include "more than 25,000 pages of interviews, commentary, theory and criticism from the 35 year history of The Comics Journal...

Gaming: Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes "Heroes" & "Villains" DLC that was previously exclusive to certain preorder deals will soon be available on the XBL marketplace and PSN. Theory: Centives looks at how much it would cost to be Batman, within the Nolanverse, anyway. ...

Threads: Mondo shines a neon light on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle's greatest foe. Movies: Twilight/Snow White and the Huntsman star Kristen Stewart has supposedly been offered the role of Kei in the live action Akira film from Warner Bros...

Animation: An upcoming episode of Batman: The Brave and The Bold, "Scorn of the Star Sapphire," will kick off with a Wonder Woman open including Steve Trevor and her trademark invisible jet. Lists: On a team that values even crushingly specific skills, these G...

I know that President's Day is over, but just like its neighboring holiday of Valentine's Day, is it fair to set aside just one day out of the year to honor our nation's greatest leaders? Maybe it is in some cases, but when it comes to a mechanized Theodore Roosevelt, exceptions should be made...

I've been having some paranoia about the robot community lately -- though it's not entirely unfounded, I'll tell ya -- so it's nice to find some reassurance that sometimes, just sometimes, robots are still utterly awesome. The kind folks at Nuthin' But Mech are responsible for reminding me that robots are still cool and aren't all out to get us...