Poll of the Day > GeekHouse of Horror LXXII

(+) Yeah! (+)

Good to still have Wave among the living. Close call, though.

Zeus posted...

I was inclined to think that season 32 was the worst season (as of now, anyway) of the Simpsons... which it still might be.

I seem to recall Season 13 holding the title of Worst Season of The Simpsons, but that might have changed. Your opinion? (And should I page Ogurisama?)

Also: Cincinnati should never be mentioned on TV in any capacity. Source: I live there. It sucks.


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I_Abibde posted...

Good to still have Wave among the living. Close call, though.

I seem to recall Season 13 holding the title of Worst Season of The Simpsons, but that might have changed. Your opinion? (And should I page Ogurisama?)

Also: Cincinnati should never be mentioned on TV in any capacity. Source: I live there. It sucks.

What about WKRP in Cincinnati? That show was awesome.

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The Wave Master posted...

Anyway, in gaming news Cyberpunk is running like garbage on anything except space age super computers, and even then it's still got bugs. Sony is giving PS4 gamers refunds on the purchase and advising to wait for a patched and optimized Next gen version.

No ****!

If only Steam did that for like...everything since it always seems like I'm playing the lottery when I buy any game to see if it'll run at double-digit frame rates despite what the spec sheet claims. I have a hundred games out of a few hundred that just fuck off to fuckoffistan when I try and run them for no discernable reason and by the time I have a better computer, they won't run anyway...whatever.

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The Wave Master posted...

I'm trying to keep posting, but I'm really sick.

=(

The Wave Master posted...

Yes, I have Covid 19. My whole family does, which means I got it from one of them. It seems to be a mild strain as I can still breathe and only have mild to moderate symptoms. My fever spiked to 102 last night, but I took copious amounts of medication and I feel better finally.

Stay well.

Kinda buried the lead there, though. When I saw "sick," I wasn't thinking it was with that potentially fatal disease that's killed close to 300k Americans.

I_Abibde posted...

I seem to recall Season 13 holding the title of Worst Season of The Simpsons, but that might have changed. Your opinion?

I'm legitimately curious when people might have made that determination, because it was an okay season. Not great, not terrible, but okay.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Simpsons_(season_13)

Given the nature of the show (with its almost purely episodic content with virtually no running storylines), it's hard to evaluate it by seasons at times. However, this was the first season where it had gone this long before I wound up watching an episode I liked (well, that's not entirely true, "Podcast News" was also pretty fun). In fact, it's probably home to what might be a few of the show's worst episodes. "Three Dreams Denied" notably had an A, B, *and* C-side story where all three felt incomplete and awful.

The kinda sub-issue is that while I've seen the early seasons many times, I haven't really done repeat viewings of the show's latter half (other than select episodes -- "Halloween of Horror" I've watched three or four times, and it's easily among the best later-season episodes).

In short, I'd probably need to either re-watch or go through the episode synopses per season to make that kind of a determination. The shorter, offhanded answer is that season 28 was pretty bad. "The Caper Chase" was really funny and I remember "Camp Krustier" being a pretty cool revisit to an earlier season, plus I guess "A Father's Watch" was pretty good (and not just for the trophy lampooning, although it handled it surprisingly well). However, much of the rest of the season was terrible from what I remember and from the episode list I glanced over.

I_Abibde posted...

Also: Cincinnati should never be mentioned on TV in any capacity. Source: I live there. It sucks.

To be fair, most of the episode is focused on getting there and we really don't see much Cincinatti (unlike that time we saw a ton of Buffalo, which was hilarious in itself).

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Whose turn is it to suggest the topic title?

I have no clue as I'm seeing spots and can't remember what happened last week let alone a few months ago.

Anyway, suggest topic titles and we can all agree on the best one.

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Geeks R Us

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The Wave Master posted...

Whose turn is it to suggest the topic title?

I have no clue as I'm seeing spots and can't remember what happened last week let alone a few months ago.

Anyway, suggest topic titles and we can all agree on the best one.

Sticking with:

I'm thinking "2020- *exists*, 2021- "Hold my beer".

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The Wave Master posted...

Whose turn is it to suggest the topic title?

Pretty sure it's PO's turn, if anybody can find him >_>

The Wave Master posted...

Anyway, suggest topic titles and we can all agree on the best one.

2020: End of a Geekade
Geekade's End
Geekade's Revenge
Untitled Geek Project
PO is Missing!
Geek Trek III: The Search for PO
Geek Topic 2020, Now Pushed Back to 2021
Thunder Geek 4: Minimum Cool
His Dark Geekterials


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Zeus posted...

Untitled Geek Project

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I did not know that Allison Brie was married to Dave Franco. 3 years nowin fact. The only reason I found out is because my niece put on 6 Underground on Netflix and Wikipedia informed me.

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Geez, that's news to me, too. Lucky guy.

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Watched the rest of season 15 of Supernatural, which is now on NF. As far as send-offs go, it wasn't terrible. The second "half" (really 7 episodes) of the season was a lot better than the first, but it was also fewer episodes and a bit more focused.

The kinda big thing I had wondered about was whether they'd go with an open or closed ending. They wound up (major spoilers) American Horror Storying the fuck out of the ending, defeating the season's (and technically the series's) big bad in the penultimate episode then having an epilogue episode. Dean ends up getting killed just due to shit luck and then waits in the afterlife for Sam, who we see live his life and raise a son (they *never* show the wife/mother, which is just weird; it could have been Eileen (who we don't see at all in the second half, but she's mentioned a few times), or an unrelated character)

I'm mostly disappointed to see it go, considering I'd followed it for maybe 13-14 of the 15 seasons (the first episodes I watched in a row were from season 2, but I'm not sure if I was watching steadily afterward). It's also disappointing that it never got a spinoff, since they could have easily done the same thing with different characters and they even introduced some. However, the show's first backdoor pilot went in a completely different direction then the second backdoor pilot involved some alternate world bullshit. All they needed to do was keep it really simple, just take the same concept but use girls instead of guys. They could have easily got 5 seasons out of it, maybe more.

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I bought that Skeletor POP.
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I'm still sick as a dog. I'm physically and mentally exhausted, the crud coming out of my nose is unreal. My wife is going better, but we're both wasted.

In gaming news people now hate CDProjektred more than than stuff that people hate. Any good will bought from The Witcher 3 is dead. Lawsuits are being filed and refunds are being given. This has turned into a collective mess.

At least Mando is great.

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Blindboxes continue to be my weakness. And some of it is just stupid shit. Wound up getting some blindboxed Batman figure -- not sure who makes it, I think it's the same company that did the Ducktales and other ones a while ago -- and, after shaking the containers, was disappointed to pull a Batman instead of King Shark (who I'd been trying for) or one of the other villains. It's just kind of a low-quality thing.

My local Wal-Mart had the series one of the Masters of the Universe minis in (the ones with the Grayskull container). Once again, that's a very strong value because you kinda get two collectibles in one since the molded plastic container is a display piece. Got Trapjaw from it, which is a little meh. I was tempted to get another of the series 2 ones, but figured I'd limit myself.

And I got one of the Loyal Subjects Aliens figures, wound up pulling a Ripley rather than a Xenomorph. Kinda whatever on that. It's really worth noting that I tend to hard-pass on the Loyal Subjects stuff where I can see the figure, then go for the blindbox. >_>

And, because I hadn't debauched myself enough, I got one of those Super Mario wonder ball things with the metal coin. At $3 where I basically just want the coin, it's a waste. The first time I did it, I think it was discounted (and I got a Bob-omb coin so I was happy). This time I paid full pop (and got a Bowser coin, which I liked... although I think anything other than Yoshi would have made me happy).

I did avoid buying a Freddy Freeman Pop! which I came close to buying because I saw it for $2. The other stuff I can kinda justify doing just because it's smaller.

Revelation34 posted...

I bought that Skeletor POP.

The one where he's riding Panthor that was mentioned earlier in the topic?

The Wave Master posted...

In gaming news people now hate CDProjektred more than than stuff that people hate. Any good will bought from The Witcher 3 is dead. Lawsuits are being filed and refunds are being given. This has turned into a collective mess.

Deets?

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Zeus posted...

Got Trapjaw from it, which is a little meh.

The original MotU Trapjaw figure was one of my favorite as a kid. He had a ring on his head that let him zipline all over the place with some strategic use of string. It brought me great joy as a child during some very bad years. So many feels right now.

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The Wave Master posted...

I'm still sick as a dog. I'm physically and mentally exhausted, the crud coming out of my nose is unreal. My wife is going better, but we're both wasted.

In gaming news people now hate CDProjektred more than than stuff that people hate. Any good will bought from The Witcher 3 is dead. Lawsuits are being filed and refunds are being given. This has turned into a collective mess.

At least Mando is great.

That's ridiculous. Those lawsuits are going to be thrown out.

Zeus posted...

The one where he's riding Panthor that was mentioned earlier in the topic?

Yes. For some reason Amazon didn't register everything in my cart or something so I had to order twice and had to use my card to make up the difference for free shipping. Got Mario Uno too.
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Revelation34 posted...

That's ridiculous. Those lawsuits are going to be thrown out.

Eh, I'd rather someone fight for consumer rights than not.

shadowsword87 posted...

Eh, I'd rather someone fight for consumer rights than not.

If they give refunds then there's no consumer right to fight for.
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Refunds themselves are a right, and the legal world works off of precedence as much as possible.

LuciferSage posted...

The original MotU Trapjaw figure was one of my favorite as a kid. He had a ring on his head that let him zipline all over the place with some strategic use of string. It brought me great joy as a child during some very bad years. So many feels right now.

I was never a Trapjaw fan in general and his figure's pose is a little off. Basically he's kinda staring down, which is honestly my biggest issue.

https://i.imgur.com/H2dgbCt.jpg

Out of the wave 1 line-up, he was definitely something I wasn't terribly excited by.

https://media.toyhypeusa.com/2020/09/ee7ba51e-mattel-masters-of-the-universe-minis-wave-1-figures-06.jpg

I was probably hoping for either Ram-Man or He-Man, followed by Buzz-Off. Man-at-Arms and Jitsu would have been after that. I guess the worst-case would be Skeletor, simply because it's identical to the one I have from Series 2.

Apparently they actually have package codes, so I don't need to RNG it again >_>

https://wehadthatstuff.blogspot.com/2020/09/motu-eternia-minis-review-and-package.html

Going to totally use that to get a Beast Man next time I stop at Wal-Mart.

Speaking of the classic He-Man/MotU stuff, they still didn't have a Scareglow in for the... well, I don't even know what to call that line. I figure I want to see the damn thing in-person before I decide whether or not to buy it since the other figures in that line are kinda dicey.


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Don't fuck with the very few things in my childhood that gave me some joy.

Just saying.

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shadowsword87 posted...

Refunds themselves are a right, and the legal world works off of precedence as much as possible.

I didn't want to deal with it and it was only like $8 anyway due to my gift credit. Plus it was stuff I eventually wanted anyway.
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Then you, personally, don't need that right, and that's ok, you can continue to play it however you would like.
Other people, though, have the same rights as you, so if you keep saying "I don't need this right anymore", then everyones rights are gone, not just yours.

LuciferSage posted...

Don't fuck with the very few things in my childhood that gave me some joy.

Just saying.

I was talking about the Eternia Mini Trapjaw figure's pose looking down, the original. There were certainly other Trapjaw figures that looked amazing:

http://www.oafe.net/yo/motutj.php

https://www.poeghostal.com/2010/02/review-trap-jaw-masters-of-the-universe-classics-mattel.html

But as far as Skeletor's henchmen go, I was always more a fan of Beast Man, Evil-Lyn, Webstor, and a few others. Then I really liked the look of the Snakeman faction, which is why I really have to watch the 2004 reboot one of these days.


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shadowsword87 posted...

Then you, personally, don't need that right, and that's ok, you can continue to play it however you would like.
Other people, though, have the same rights as you, so if you keep saying "I don't need this right anymore", then everyones rights are gone, not just yours.

Wat.
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Zeus posted...

I was talking about the Eternia Mini Trapjaw figure's pose looking down, the original.

That should read "not the original"

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Hasbro made a Drizzt figure >_>

https://hasbropulse.com/products/dungeons-dragons-forgotten-realms-drizzt-guenhwyvar-hasbro-pulse-exclusive

They've owned the rights to D&D since acquiring WotC years ago, but I don't think they've really done much with it. It's even weirder when you consider the fact that, despite Hasbro being a toy company, they've outsourced their MtG merch to Funko and other companies (which wouldn't be weird if it was just Pop!s (or if they'd done Mystery Minis), but Funko was making 6-inch articulated figures, the kind of stuff Hasbro does).

I've only read a few of the novels so I'm not terribly invested in the character, but that's one cool-looking design. I only learned about it because I happened to stumble onto Fwoosh's YT playlist when posting the link to that Masters stuff the other day and they had a review for it on the feed. (And Fwoosh's videos kinda suck, but they're informative.)

idk, I wonder if Hasbro will do the same for other characters. I also realize that there aren't that many super-huge name D&D characters, outside of some of the gods. I think I'd probably pick up a Lord Soth figure if they made one.


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Yeah, I could see some cool dragons and claiming they're bahamut.
But, D&D settings are actually super complicated when it comes to making merch, because the original authors for the setting are still around doing stuff. Ed Greenwood still shows up to conventions, for example.

Bahamut isn't even a proper dragon. He's more Ifrit than Ifrit is.

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So? That doesn't stop making figs

shadowsword87 posted...

So? That doesn't stop making figs

I'm pretty sure there are Gilmore Girls funko's at this point, so not the strongest argument for things that exist just because there's a fandom.

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shadowsword87 posted...

Yeah, I could see some cool dragons and claiming they're bahamut.
But, D&D settings are actually super complicated when it comes to making merch, because the original authors for the setting are still around doing stuff. Ed Greenwood still shows up to conventions, for example.

They lose any copyright/trademark rights when creating content for a company.
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That can depend on the circumstances. Work-for-hire and contracts like that means that anything created while working for the company goes to the company. It's also possible that they sold the character rights to the company. However, you do occasionally have collaborative ventures where the creator maintains control of a property or licenses it out. I have no idea what arrangement may be in place. Honestly, up until Shadow suggested otherwise, I just assumed it was a typical work-for-hire.

While under normal circumstances authors are autonomous, these guys were writing things set in a company's shared universe so I just assumed it was work-for-hire (especially since the characters have been adapted for various media within the property). The only D&D author I've personally met was a ghostwriter who iirc was strictly work-for-hire.

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I started Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, its pretty sick

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Revelation34 posted...

They lose any copyright/trademark rights when creating content for a company.

Zeus posted...

That can depend on the circumstances. Work-for-hire and contracts like that means that anything created while working for the company goes to the company. It's also possible that they sold the character rights to the company.

While working for them, sure, but, forgotten realms was actually produced before D&D existed, it was just a guy who liked worldbuilding.
I don't know what the exact details are on their agreement, or if it transferred after D&D was taken over from TSR to WotC. You're looking at decades old legalese for a company that doesn't exist anymore, it's not super straightforward.

shadowsword87 posted...

While working for them, sure, but, forgotten realms was actually produced before D&D existed, it was just a guy who liked worldbuilding.
I don't know what the exact details are on their agreement, or if it transferred after D&D was taken over from TSR to WotC. You're looking at decades old legalese for a company that doesn't exist anymore, it's not super straightforward.

I'm really not sure where you're going with this, but most of D&D's iconic characters appeared *after* D&D was a thing, many of them appeared well after TSR was commissioning people to write them, and some appeared after WotC bought the company. However, for the Forgotten Realms setting, that seems unambiguous -- TSR must have bought that around the time they hired its creator to work for them and much of Forgotten Realms was specifically written when Ed Green worked for the company.

And I was reading an article about Lord Soth (because I've read the stuff set in Ravenloft, but I can't remember that much of the before or after... and, honestly, it's been so long that even some of the between is a little foggy-- or misty, if you'd prefer a pun >_>) and it seemed to partially address the question where it discussed that the creators didn't approve of him appearing in Ravenloft but in the next sentence noted that they hadn't been working at the company at that point, etc, and suggested that their approval didn't matter anyway (and the fact that he appeared there and nobody was sued suggested where the rights lie in that case).

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hey zeus can you please address this topic thanks

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/3-poll-of-the-day/79187447

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Actually, if PO was still around, he'd probably know where things stand with D&D issues like those.

At any rate, I've been watching some Defunctland videos again, after seeing them recommended after a few PBS documentaries about prehistoric animals (how one thing connects to the other that it got recommended, I have no clue).

Apparently the Black Cauldron featured big into the Tokyo Disney's original Cindarella's castle, which sounds a lot better than other versions of the castle. (Granted, it also took the place of the Haunted Mansion so... that part isn't as cool.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6rnPqSrE40

Then one of the other Disney ones (HK?) went into a longer discussion of the company's practices regarding parks and the overall approach where a lot of the failures were blamed on the company trying to play things safe.

There was also a video on the Times Square Toys R Us, which I hadn't realized was so recent.

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Zeus posted...

Actually, if PO was still around, he'd probably know where things stand with D&D issues like those.

Not really, the man doesn't follow the drama/inside baseball stuff as much as you could.
Like the whisperings of D&D 6e coming out, and that's why WotC is consolidating their sellers market (similar to MtG cards).

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

Saying that WW84 is really bad. Like really bad. Like if I saw it in theaters I would be upset and want my money back bad.


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The Wave Master posted...

Saying that WW84 is really bad. Like really bad. Like if I saw it in theaters I would be upset and want my money back bad.

Well, it stars Kristen Wiig so...

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I'm still saying that WW84 is trash after seeing it a second time, and this time it makes me sad because of so much potential.

Either way, thanks for posting everyone and see you next topic.

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Yeah it was pretty meh.
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The Wave Master posted...

I'm still saying that WW84 is trash after seeing it a second time, and this time it makes me sad because of so much potential.

Either way, thanks for posting everyone and see you next topic.

I finally got access to my brother's HBO Max so I'm probably going to watch it soon, but before that I still need to watch the first film.

At any rate, as soon as I saw Kristin Wiig was playing Cheetah, I had my expectations set low. Very, very low.

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Only three posts to go.

*starts drumroll*

Make that two!

I am going to watch WW84 at one point or another, since I now have HBO Max, but the amount of condemnation I have seen is not encouraging.

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time for the last post

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500