Is anyone planning on getting the Bionicle GWP? If so, would you be interested in trading it for the current blacktron promo? I have enough I want to get right now that I’ll go over the $190 threshold, but I would rather have the Bionicle one and there’s nothing from the qualifying themes for that promo that I want to get. Let me know if anyone is interested, otherwise I think I’ll wait until double vip points.
My point stands, because the Harley Quinn show - going off of how the people who actually use the term define it - is as "woke" as they come. It's odd to criticize just the comics as "woke" and to not also include Harley Quinn. Especially since the people who actually use the term "woke" use it as a dog whistle.
Hell, if this is what we are talking about I would say the show is far more "woke". It won an award for being super lgbtq+, is super focused on gender, advertised itself as for the gays in the trailer for season 3. All totally conservative stuff unlike the Batman comics which get written by white american military men these days and until recently struggled to commit to Harley's past twenty years of character development to have her hanging off of Joker's arm again. Also the show cast an initially white character as an African-American, I do not see too many people of colour in my Batman books right now, with them basically all being shoved off into a single book unentangled from the wider continuity.
Amazon is selling the 4 packs of the Super Mario Character Packs for anyone looking to try and minimize duplicates. I don't see this anywhere else and my wife stumbled across it while looking if any stores nearby have them in stock. https://smile.amazon.com/LEGO-Super-Mario-Character-Packs/dp/B0BLSXX31C/
So I was thinking about whether to buy the Blacktron Cruiser GWP, and it got me thinking about adaptations of older source material. The first two that spring to mind for me are two episodes of The New Batman Adventures. Two episodes of TNBA were adapted directly from the Batman Adventures comics: Mad Love and Holiday Knights. Holiday Knights kept the spirit of the original comic while also adding the Tim Drake Robin for something new. Mad Love was a direct translation with a new coat of paint. The Forestmen’s Hideout GWP is an update of the original set that puts its own spin on things - the design of set feels like a mixture of old and new and one of the two Forestmen in the set is female, unlike the two male figures included with the original set. In its own way, the Forestmen’s Hideout GWP is the Holiday Knights of Lego set updates. The Blacktron Cruiser is a much more direct adaptation - aside from being smaller and having a different name than the Invader, it’s pretty much the same thing as the original set. Both of them have the same gimmicks, right down to being able to split into three separate ships. It’s very much the Mad Love of Lego updates. So I feel that it’s better for me to skip the Blacktron Cruiser and buy a loose Blacktron Invader instead. It’ll be cheaper, bigger, and have printed tiles which the new set replaces with stickers. In terms of GWPs, I’ll wait for pictures of the pizza cart and see if that’s any good.
Here's what I'm working on currently, taking a break from Optimus. I'm sure some of you can guess what it is
Picked up the Ghost Rider mech. Is it any good? Well, let's start with the mech itself. Let's start with the most obvious change with the "3.0" mech design here, no elbow or knee articulation. I thought this would bother me, but I actually think I'm ok with it because it makes the limbs look so much better. Compared to the earlier mechs the new ones just look so much bulkier. Combine that with a new torso piece that finally closes up the sides, hip joints that are properly lined up, and a dedicated waist joint I think these are real winners and would be happy to pay $10 for them. Unfortunately, possibly thanks to the large torso and limb parts, they now cost $15. And this one in particular costs $35, but of course that's because... You get a bike! And is the bike worth the extra $20? I'd say... maybe? I'll admit it's bigger than I was expecting, but I also feel like it needs something more. Maybe more flames, or steering action, or... something, y'know? I love Ghost Rider and was able to use about $8 in Target points so it was worth it for me, but I'd say overall it should either cost closer to $30 or, preferably, do a little bit more at the $35 it's at.
I was referring to the comic books from the last couple of years that are pandering to the woke, not other media. Gay Superman, Black Batman, Bisexual Robin, Superheroes at protests for Climate Change etc. The funny thing is it’s the same company that would not let an already established gay character get married less than 10 years ago. Marvel is doing the same thing in their comics. Harley Quinn show is heavily based on the New 52 run of Harley Quinn (which was incredibly popular during it’s run).
That’s a tough choice, but I’ve been eyeing up the Daily Bugle lately more than the Galaxy Explorer, so if it were me, I’d probably go with the Bugle.
The fact you’re complaining about all of that sets off major red flags. The fact you also unironically use “woke” to describe it all tells me that you’re probably just a nasty human being under that bravado.
Somebody's gonna make those faces as stickers and the gates are gonna open. Still can't believe it's a GWP. But boy, seeing that name in that classic font... got me a bit. Too bad it doesn't come in a can. But the landscape of social commentary has not always been as it is today. Social media makes these topics household and daily conversations. Where once the notion of social commentary was a novel if not groundbreaking concept for media and often one of the few ways social issues could be disseminated to the wider public, it's now inescapable and overbearing. When 99% of media is some social conversation or another, it feels less like our media exists for any other reason. Those who seek escapism or even simple entertainment are finding less and less media willing to venture outside that comfort zone of "relevancy." To say nothing of the quality of writing itself, which ranges wildly from clever and thought-provoking to blunt and cringe-inducing. People all on ends of the political spectrum are starting to tire of it, regardless of if they agree, because the sheer volume of it has outpaced demand. Twenty-thirty years ago the social commentary of media was a fraction of what it is today. Now it is nearly impossible to find any media without an overt, if not dominating ideological message. This isn't inherently bad or good, but it is changing how people view this media. (again, not helped by the examples that are notably lower in quality) This can be even more frustrating when existing characters of franchises are retooled to act as a vehicle for this and little more. It's like how The Simpsons went from controversial counter-cultural to simply culture itself. They existed to mock the status quo, now they are the status quo. And this is coming from someone who has historically enjoyed media that in one way or another reflects and deconstructs our culture. (and has had social commentary in his own written works) Sometimes there is such a thing as "too much."
I'm not arguing any of that, but the idea that comics have ever been anything but "woke" is an outright falsehood. Comics tackling current social issues isn't anything new and has been an intrinsic part of the medium ever since comics started.
