Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 1727

Japan Is Getting POKÉMON Vending Machines with Digital Pikachu

For over two decades, Nintendo’s Pokémon franchise has won fans from around the world. But that international affection pales in comparison to Japan’s love for the adorable pocket monsters. To this day, there are Pokémon Center stores that are still incredibly popular in Japan. And now, the official Pokémon Center vending machines are expanding their reach in several cities across the country.

Via ComicBook.com, the recently released Pokémon Center vending machines appear to be advanced model upgrades from the previously available versions. While the vending machines still sell official Pokémon plushies, cards, and other collectibles, the new versions also feature an animated Pikachu who appears on the video screen and interacts with users. Basically, he’s your personal shopping companion. At least one Twitter user has posted videos of the new vending machines, and they seem incredibly charming.

羽田空港にポケモン自販機ピカチュウ可愛いです pic.twitter.com/8XDENMBDBl

— ラティオス（台湾から来ました） (@PokeFans_Taiwan) May 31, 2018

羽田空港にポケモン自販機 pic.twitter.com/Nbc6WoF2N2

— ラティオス（台湾から来ました） (@PokeFans_Taiwan) May 31, 2018

ポケモン自販機 pic.twitter.com/Bb3cUW50LB

— ラティオス（台湾から来ました） (@PokeFans_Taiwan) May 31, 2018

The Pokémon vending machines include optional language support for English, Chinese, and Korean in addition to Japanese. Potentially, that could allow the machines to eventually make their way to America, although there are currently only four Pokémon vending machines in the United States and they are all in Seattle. Those models are the previous editions of the vending machines, so they don’t have the fun features of the newest models.

Perhaps someday the Pokémon fandom in America will be rewarded with more cool ways to celebrate the franchise. In the meantime, fans should check out these machines on their next trip to Japan!

What do you think about the new Pokémon vending machines? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

Image: PokeFans_Taiwan

More on Pokémon!

Pokémon is finally coming to the Nintendo Switch!
You can play as Mew in the Switch’s new Pokémon games
Uncovered Pokémon demo reveals discarded first drafts for the OG 150!

3 Ways You Can Help Immigrant Families Stuck at the Border

A Trump administration zero-tolerance policy has had the secondary effect of separating children from their parents at the border, some of whom are asylum seekers following a US-standard legal process who are being denied due process and access to their children. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, The Department of Homeland Security estimates 1,995 immigrant children have been taken from adults (who the DHS describes as “alleged adult parents”) at the border between mid-April and the end of May.

In some cases, border agents are lying to parents in order to take the children away, saying they’re going to bathe the children, only for the boys and girls to disappear from their parents’ sight. Representative Pramila Jayapal spoke with mothers who had to listen to their young children crying for them through thin walls. One child was taken while she was being breastfed by her mother.

After separation, the children are taken to facilities run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services. The media got a glimpse inside one of the facilities (a former Wal-Mart now called “Casa Padre” in Brownsville, Texas) two weeks after Senator Jeff Merkley was denied entry to it.

We also haven’t seen where and how ORR is taking care of toddlers and young kids who have been taken from their parents under the new policy, but it’s not hard to imagine that they’re experiencing an overwhelming force of grief and horror.

It’s also easy to feel powerless in the face of such a monstrously large act of injustice. Activism is the antidote for despair, so here are a few ways you can help out.

Donate to RAICES

The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services does amazing work by providing legal representation, paying bonds for detained immigrants, and running clinics that inform immigrants and asylum seekers of their rights.

Donate to Texas Civil Rights Project

TCRP is dedicated to protecting voting rights, fighting for racial and economic justice, and reforming the criminal justice system. They’re also going to bat for families stuck on the border. That includes five families separated from their children in McAllen, Texas, who have been given zero information about the children’s whereabouts or well-being. They’re a strong advocacy voice who could use monetary or, if you’re a lawyer, pro bono help.

Donate to Neta

The bilingual media group situated in the Rio Grande Valley not only “amplifies the voices of border residents aimed to challenge mainstream narratives about our region,” they’re also directly aiding asylum seekers stuck in limbo at the border. They’re asking for donations to buy essentials for families.

The best part about Neta is their commitment to giving a megaphone to marginalized storytellers, which is something we can all benefit from. These stories (like this one from a young woman who was detained by the border patrol for five days despite her DACA status) offer new perspectives, challenge stereotypes, and show us the human side of those who are too often flattened into statistics. It may not feel like a big thing, but listening to and sharing these stories can make a significant impact.

You can also check with Informed Immigrant to see if there are any organizations in your area you can volunteer with, donate or volunteer with the Cesar Chavez-founded LUPE, and keep your eyes open for Amazon Wishlists like this one from Sacred Heart Church in McAllen that let you send diapers and baby clothes directly to kids who need them. Kids In Need of Defense (KIND) also has a list of things you can do (and donating to them is a great idea, too!).

Of course you can (and should!) call your representatives (the Senate switchboard is 202.224.3121) to ask them what they’re doing about this urgent problem.

Image: Texas Civil Rights Project

There’s a Hidden Cypher in the New DEATH STRANDING Trailer

As if all of the info we’ve gotten surrounding Death Stranding wasn’t cryptic enough, it turns out there’s even another layer of secrecy hidden in the new trailer. We were all shocked when the first look we got from Sony last week revealed ’70s television star Lindsay Wagner as a member of the game’s cast, but what we didn’t notice was that her necklace has a code-like patten in the beads. Of course, nothing escapes the eyes of the internet, especially when we’ve been conditioned to scrutinize every frame of anything Hideo Kojima puts out (let’s be honest, the man is a crazy creative genius). Russian Twitter-user Nik Ambors was one of the first to notice the code, and was able to decipher it only two days after the trailer dropped. Apparently, the pattern is inspired by the quipu method of record keeping, a system the Incas used in ancient Andean South America.

Мелодия из шифра на шее Линдси Вагнер – припев песни "Give me an Answer" группы Low Roar pic.twitter.com/4o619Wv7d4

— Nik Ambors (@NikolsaNNN) June 13, 2018

Turns out it translates into a musical melody, which leads to the chorus of the song “Give Me an Answer” by Icelandic electronica group Low Roar. After discovering the band’s work, Kojima personally reached out to have them create a song specifically for Death Stranding. According to the video’s director, the song and music video were created with the game’s plot and setting in mind. So more clues about the game have been sitting out in the open for almost a year, and no one had any clue. Classic Kojima, am I right?



The video depicts a group of people driving to a motel and drawing straws. We also see some weird devices with tubes coming out of them, lights flickering on and off rapidly, and the characters being covered in a mysterious black goo. So it’s just about as bizarre as we would expect.

But what do you think? Does this mean anything significant for the game’s plot? Could there be any more hidden messages? Let us know in the comments!

Image: Kojima Productions, Tumblr user asexualnathandrake

More Gaming News!

Stranger Things is getting a Telltale game!
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STAR WARS Concept Yoda Becomes a Comic-Con Exclusive

People sometimes describe Star Wars‘ Yoda as a Muppet, but he could have been a lot more Muppet-like. Conceived as a science-fantasy take on the archetype of the wise old martial-arts master, his design began humanoid and gradually went through stages that evolved him into something stranger, more alien, and ultimately easier to love. The closer puppets get to humans, the more likely they are to have a bit of an “uncanny valley” effect in three-dimensional motion.

But take a good look at this early concept, now immortalized in a bust by Gentle Giant, and you see the start of several ideas that wound up going in other directions. Labyrinth‘s Hoggle and The Dark Crystal‘s Gelflings, for example, look to share some DNA with this green guy. And Mel Brooks definitely got some Yogurt inspiration.

The concept Yoda is a San Diego Comic-Con International exclusive, limited to 750 pieces (i.e. if you want one, go line up at GG’s booth before you do anything else) and costing $100. However, a handful are available to current members of the company’s Premier Guild premium membership, with platinum-level members having access right now, gold-level getting it starting at 9:30AM Pacific on Tuesday, June 18, and all guild members starting 9:30AM PT on Wednesday at Gentlegiantltd.com.

Check out some more pics of this alternate-universe Jedi master below. And should you decide you’ve gotta have one, may the Force be with you.

Do you like this different spin on a classic? And how do you think Dave Filoni will inevitably find a way to work him in to the new canon as a totally different character? Let us know in comments.

Images: Gentle Giant

Also in Star Wars:

George Lucas had wild sequel ideas.
Stephen Colbert baits overly entitled fanboys with a recut trailer.
Hasbro’s bringing Doctor Aphra to Comic-Con.

Mexico’s World Cup Goal Sparks Seismic Activity

After forward striker Hirving Lozano scored Mexico’s pivotal goal against defending World Cup champions Germany last Sunday, fans in Mexico City caused such an uproar that their celebrations were recorded on a seismic level. According to the Institute for Geological and Atmospherical investigations, via Yahoo Sports, their monitoring systems detected a seismic current running at 37m/s2 occurring immediately after the goal, speculating that the celebratory “massive jumping” that ensued may have caused the seismic activity.

El #sismo detectado en la Ciudad de México se originó de manera artificial. Posiblemente por saltos masivos durante el Gol de la selección de #México en el mundial. Por lo menos dos sensores dentro de la Ciudad lo detectaron a las 11:32. pic.twitter.com/mACKesab3b

— SIMMSA (@SIMMSAmex) June 17, 2018

This seismic activity, however, was not large enough to be measured in magnitudes and as such could not officially be classified as an earthquake. The Institute claims only very sensitive seismographic equipment was capable of perceiving the activity. Therefore, the general population in Mexico would not have felt the seismic event.

The Institutes also notes a similar event occurred a few years ago when a touchdown run by Marshawn Lynch during the 2011 NFL Playoffs incited such a rumpus in the stadium that a local seismometer recorded a seismic event equivalent to a magnitude 1 earthquake. The event would later famously be referred to as the “Beast Quake.”

While the incident in Mexico City was not officially an earthquake, there is no denying the sheer euphoria Mexico felt after pulling one of the first major upsets in the 2018 World Cup, thereby placing them in a very secure position to advance to the Round-of-16 stage. If, however, Mexico manages to indeed break its Round-of-16 curse, then more than just sensitive equipment will be able to feel the country’s rapture.

Image: Steve Evans

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Will Ferrell on the history of Blades of Glory.

Can Superheroes Save the Multiverse in JUSTICE LEAGUE #2? (Exclusive Preview)

After the multiverse-shattering events of Dark Nights: Metal and Justice League: No Justice, the world’s greatest heroes have restructured the Justice League, and the long absent Martian Manhunter has rejoined the team as its leader. J’onn has taken it upon himself to coordinate the team to face the upcoming threats coming to the Earth due to the break in the Source Wall at the very edge of the universe.

Together they’ve faced Darkseid, the Injustice League, and every variety of giant monster from outer space, but now the League has learned that the Multiverse itself is dying, with maybe less than a year to live. Thanks to the break in the Source Wall, a new energy source called the Totality has arrived on Earth, and may be the key to saving the Multiverse. Can a newly reformed League find the answers to save reality in enough time? Find out in issue #2 of Justice League from Scott Snyder and Jorge Jimenez!

Publisher: DC Comics

Writer: Scott Snyder

Artist:  Jorge Jimenez

Cover Artists: Jorge Jimenez, Jim Lee, Scott Williams (variant)

Here’s the official synopsis for issue #2:

“THE TOTALITY” part two! The League faced an impossible decision…and now they must face the consequences! While Martian Manhunter and Batman attempt to recruit an old ally back into the fold, The Flash and Hawkgirl are blindsided by new challenges that could rewrite their mythologies!”

You can check out the first five pages from Justice League #2, along with the variant cover from  Jim Lee featuring the Martian Manhunter, down below in our gallery. The regular cover by Jorge Jimenez can be seen above. 

Justice League #2 is due to hit stores on Wednesday, June 20th

Are you as excited as we are to see big, cosmic adventure return to the pages of Justice League? Let us know your thoughts down below in the comments.

Images: DC Comics

 

More comics news!

Our first good look at Aquaman.
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The largest, greatest custom LEGO Batcave ever.

WESTWORLD Builds to a Showdown, as Dolores Made Us Hurt

The pain isn’t the only thing that’s real. So are the spoilers through Westworld season 2, episode 9.

Che Guevara shot defectors. He was a doctor, a gregarious and overwhelmingly educated man, but if you deserted the Cuban revolutionary cause and escaped his bullet, you’d soon find a squad hunting you down to kill you.

Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) is the Che of Westworld. She pulled the trigger on Teddy (James Marsden) back in episode 5, but the bullet didn’t connect with his temple until last night. Her love. Her lieutenant. By altering his coding to remove a compassion she thought was incompatible with her rebellion, she planted the seed of his suicide.

How could she not know this is how he’d end? Blindness brought on by revenge. In the end, the person who knew the most about the paradox of asserting mental control over someone with free will doomed her partner to an existential crisis: one that could only be quelled by allowing him to be who he truly was, or by his destruction.

Dolores has been single-minded this season, which has left her owning the role of master tactician, but reprogramming Teddy may have been the tactical error that undoes her. There’s hope that this kind of confrontation with the truth about her inflexibility will catalyze a change. Crises are crossroads.

She’s also been flattened by getting what she wanted, and her continued watchability is a testament to Wood’s strength as an actor (especially since she’s been saddled with an unfair amount of exposition this go ’round). I examined why her march to victory has felt stale while discussing last week’s Hall of Fame episode, but it boils down to not understanding her motivations because we don’t fully know her endgame. What has all of this been for besides the general notion of overthrowing Westworld and the real world?

Can Dolores possibly stay the course after watching Teddy kill himself, knowing it was her fault? Sure. After all, she’s come this far. She killed her father. She willingly sacrificed Angela (Talulah Riley) for the cause. She views her programmed past attachments as obstacles to overcome on the path to bloodshed. She will shoot defectors.

Dolores has also responded to consciousness far differently than Maeve (Thandie Newton), who could have escaped, but chose to blaze a path through the park to save a daughter who was only a programmed past attachment.

It will not surprise me at all if we see a Dolores vs Maeve showdown in the finale.

The other side of the Dolores coin is The Man in Black (Ed Harris), who also proved his obsession was more powerful than flesh and blood. There’s no doubt that MIB represents toxic fandom in all its destructive disgrace. He’s let a theme park game become his identity. This dude definitely would have bullied famous actresses off Instagram.

His rejection of reality for the cold comfort of playing cowboy cost him his wife (played by legendary dynamo Sela Ward). And now it’s cost him his daughter. A daughter who tried to save him the way she couldn’t save her mother. Grace (Katja Herbers) was a remarkable character who was her father’s equal inside the park (and definitely had her own proclivities about real stakes how best to experience its fantasies) who knew the truth about her father and still reached out to save him drowning.

This trip into the past was gorgeous and sickening. Like Dolores, MIB caused a loved one’s suicide, and we can see even more reason for why he’s broken inside. That’s the generous read at least. It’s entirely possible that MIB was too far gone even before Juliet took her own life.

MIB’s toxic fandom is so blatant that it’s not even subtext at this point, and now it’s cut down two powerful women who could have made a deeper mark on that universe. Love what you love and be passionate, but don’t allow the nooks and crannies of art you worship to become a substitute for a personality. When that art evolves, and it will, you’ll be alienated, and you might murder your own daughter because of your pain.

So the same question that applies to Dolores applies to MIB. Will he change because he just descended into Greek tragedy? What would that even look like? It’s not likely.

I say that because it would require him to quit the park when he seems, still, hell bent on getting to the Valley Beyond to burn it all down. Again, not knowing how his journey through the maze has connected with that action or his intentions leaves all of this wishy washy. To turn around and say he’s doing it so no one else ends up like him would be hollow, especially since he’s endeavored to do this all along.

No, the only action that would prove he’s changed is to take off his hat and ride out of the park without playing any more. Unplug from Fortnite, my dude. There’s a big, real world out there. And therapy. Lots of therapy.

The finale, when Bernard (Jeffrey Wright), MIB, and Dolores will all meet up at the Valley Beyond, is next week, and in addition to geeking out about all the potential twists and Easter egg revelations, I’m glad to be wondering what the characters will do.

STRAY THOUGHTS:

Ford digitally copied himself and hung around to ensure his creations’ incipient freedom was safeguarded? Get outta here.
Who’s going to end up flooding the valley? My money’s on Dolores.
Teddy’s body is in the lake, so did Dolores bring his body there? A sign of respect? Or something creepier?

Images: HBO

Previously in TV-related stories:

Voltron showrunners talk season six.
The American Horror Story crossover season is coming.
Telltale Games will be adapting Stranger Things.

The Todd Glass Show #350: Dave Ross (Part 1)

Todd welcomes Dave Ross onto the show!

Like The Todd Glass Show on Facebook, follow @ToddGlass, Eric Ohlsen, John Brand Wagner, and Lyricist Joe on Twitter!

Watch Act Happy on Netflix and buy his book The Todd Glass Situation!

Subscribe to The Todd Glass Show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

An Official Statement from Nerdist

We were shocked to read the news this morning. Nerdist prides itself on being an inclusive company made up of a positive, diverse community of people who come together to share, celebrate, and discuss the things we love. That type of behavior is contrary to everything we stand for and believe in, and we absolutely don’t tolerate discrimination, harassment, and other forms of abuse.

There are many ways you can help a friend or loved one who has been affected by abuse. There are resources and support available:

National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-HOPE (Free and confidential. 24/7.)

Crisis Text Hotline: Text HOME to 741741 for free, 24/7 crisis support in the US.
RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) offers a National Sexual Assault Online Hotline to chat one-on-one with a trained RAINN support specialist, any time 24/7: online.rainn.org.

National Suicide Prevention Hotline: call 1-800-273-8255, 24/7.
If you are outside the U.S., an inventory of international domestic violence and abuse agencies is available on the Rape Crisis Network Europe: https://www.rcne.com/links/sources-of-help-for-survivors/

Our parent company, Legendary issued this statement:

“Chris Hardwick had no operational involvement with Nerdist for the two years preceding the expiration of his contract in December 2017. He no longer has any affiliation with Legendary Digital Networks. The company has removed all reference to Mr. Hardwick even as the original Founder of Nerdist pending further investigation.”

How Being Non-Binary Left Gaps in My Geek Nostalgia

Wonder Woman taught me how to spin. As a kid growing up in the early ’80s, I used to watch reruns of Linda Carter’s Wonder Woman and try to recreate her famous twirl transformation. But unlike Diana Prince, I was still the same when it was all over, just dizzier.

Wonder Woman first exposed me to superheroes and played a huge role in my lifelong love of superheroics. Her selfless actions, helping those who couldn’t help themselves, shaped me as a child. but one day, I stopped watching or talking about Wonder Woman with adoration. As much as I loved her, I wasn’t supposed to. She was “for girls,” and girly things weren’t part of the geek canon.

I’m non-binary, but I was assigned male at birth, and as a burgeoning geek growing up in the Midwest in the ’80s and ’90s, that meant exposure to a lot of  “boy” media and popular culture, while missing a lot of “girl” culture. It wasn’t for lack of interest. I was transfixed the first time I saw the ads for She-Ra: Princess of Power, though I was never brave enough to actually watch an episode. I was a bit too young for Tiffany’s famous mall tour, but that didn’t stop me from singing along to “I Think We’re Alone Now” when I was home by myself. But I kept that secret, knowing it would make me a target for mockery and bullying.

Instead, I avoided a lot of things I was drawn to so I could meet gendered expectations. The results, decades later, are very gendered gaps in my pop culture nostalgia, omissions which I’ve found all-too common in the male-dominated geek community. I wasn’t the only one who missed out: while our young female peers were immersing themselves with cartoons like Jem and the Holograms, live action shows like Punky Brewster or Blossom, or reading fantasy like Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series, boys and other AMAB kids were largely consuming different media.

But that’s a problem, since boys grew up to define and dominate geek culture. Media for young women was largely left out of the canon and has been historically ignored, relegated, or at times, outright mocked.

There’s nothing inherently geekier about Transformers than Jem—Jerrica uses her holographic computer, Synergy, to become Jem, after all—but one has a firm place in the geek canon, while the other is all-too-often treated as a joke. The things boys liked in the ’80s and ’90s are considered sacrosanct, no matter how terrible they are, while the things girls liked are dismissed. Cartoons like G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and ThunderCats are revered, while shows like Rainbow Brite and My Little Pony are not. There’s little logic at play.

As a result, I often find myself in a weird place with cultural blind spots. Despite how much I wanted to watch or read media from the other side of the spectrum, I largely didn’t. So, I have ended up sharing a lot of the boy-centric pop culture nostalgia that that dominates geek culture, even as I recognize how biased and sexist it is.

The good news is that geek culture is starting to change incrementally. The last few years has brought a series of revivals of previously-ignored properties, most notably the wildly-successful Wonder Woman movie under the direction of Patty Jenkins, with a sequel coming next year. She-Ra, is coming to Netflix under the helm of Noelle Stevenson of Lumberjanes and Nimona fame. Meanwhile, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has become a major franchise, with a successful TV show, comics, and a movie released late last year. Jem, got its own live-action film in 2015, as well as a critically-acclaimed comic series originally written by rising comics star Kelly Thompson. Women creators have finally been able to create a niche to celebrate their own nostalgia.

But I still don’t feel fully part of it. I might enjoy the Jem and the Holograms comic on its own terms, but I don’t have the same connection to it that a child who grew up watching it—or who heard her mom tell her stories about it—has. I can watch My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic with my daughter, but I can’t geek out by telling her about all of the Generation 1 ponies. I have a lot of feelings, without a lot of context, and no matter how much I spin, I still just feel dizzy.

Images: Warner Bros. Television, Filmation, Hasbro, and IDW Publishing