Though he was best known for playing cops and crooks, James Gandolfini - who just died very suddenly in Italy at the age of 51 - never touched my heart more than in his indisputably nerdiest role as Carol in Where the Wild Things Are. Voicing a giant, semi-scary plush creature of the imagination, he encapsulated both the unpredictable rage and the desperate neediness of a child who feels powerless against the larger world. He could eat you as easily as he'd hug you, but deep down all he needed was affirmation.

I'm pretty sure the actor who played him so well had it. Rest in peace.

The above is not an actual quote. The actual quote is longer, and also doesn't say, "Gosh, we had no idea Sony would one-up us by not including the features guaranteed to annoy everybody." But yeah, Xbox One no longer has to stay connected to the Internet any more except for a one-time set-up, and you will be able to play used games on it the same way you do now on 360.

You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc. The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world.

Paraphrasing Norm McDonald, this knowledge and more has been available for years in the scientific journal Duh!

So where's the part where you say, "We understand also that you don't like to pay $100 more for things when you can get similar things cheaper?" I guess that issue of Duh was sold out.

Now that Microsoft has listened to the consumers for once - does this change your decision on buying their new console?

h/t SlyDante

Duh image credit: The SNL Archives

Not every project at the recent Red Bull Creation Challenge made it into the spotlight, sometimes with good reason. The company undoubtedly wants to reward good ideas. Here on the Internet, though, we get way more mileage out of the bad, especially when it feels like something that gets us one step closer to Futurama actually happening. And so it is with the concept of a robot designed to "overheat, go crazy and urinate everywhere." Funnily enough, that's what I do whenever I drink Red Bull, so it makes perfect sense.

Sadly, there is no video yet of him in action. But you can get a sneak peek at his creation at Hack A Day, and in the video after the jump...

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I think more than a few of us were a bit worried by the teaser image above, implying to those who didn't necessarily know the characters depicted that Batman would be part of a team with a gun-toting Alfred and Katana as an obligatory affirmative-action partner, facing off against giant mutant animal-people. However, the first real footage is out, and it doesn't seem that way it all - it's a Batman in solo action the way you would hope, with slick martial arts and the usual gadgetry. And while I'm not entirely familiar with all the new villains, it's nice to see things changed up on that front and the roster probed a bit more deeply.

I hope they do some dark reimaginings of the Minstrel and Egghead. There has to be some new deconstructionist way to make them actually threatening, right?

Watch after the jump. I think I'm sold on it. The show debuts July 13th.

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"Snaaake...Surprise!"

"What's the surprise?"

They waited until Indiana Jones was at retirement age to pull this one...

I suspect this is propaganda for the round-knob lobby, and as much as those things bug me when my hands are wet and slippery - this bugs me more. Where's fake Latin Jon Voight when you need him?

h/t Matt Ufford

The Learning Channel isn't necessarily a place you normally go to for toy-collecting interests, but this week's episode of Cake Boss featured renowned sculptors the Four Horsemen, and their relaunch of the Wayne Barlowe-designed Power Lords toys.

Meanwhile, on last night's The Daily Show, John Oliver picked a fight with WWE's fake Tea Party caricature Zeb Colter, though I think he got confused when he started blaming Colter for remarks by the commentary team. Regardless, he issued a challenge and got some surprising backup; I can't imagine Vince McMahon will miss the chance to capitalize.

Next week: Lilo & Stitch demolish Toddlers and Tiaras, while the Duck Dynasty boys get bought out and downsized by a vengeful waterfowl named Scrooge. Alas, only in my dreams.

I think the reason Anchorman remains the most avidly cult-followed of Will Ferrell's movies is that, more than any other, it lets him be extremely weird and take the story in whatever direction his muse led him. As such, the ostensible premise and story became almost irrelevant.

So aside from its taking of Ron Burgundy and his team into the '80s, I'm not sure the story here in the sequel is really the point. Indeed, I hope it isn't, because I'm a little burned out on "ironic" racism as a cheap taboo gag. I will grant that it probably better befits a clueless newsman in the '80s than, say, Sarah Silverman today. The scene at the end of this clip makes me wince more than laugh, but I'm hoping that the R-rated version will go in a more interesting direction.

Watch after the jump and see what you think.

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It's become something of a long standing comic book tradition - famous super hero gets injured, crippled or even killed off, and is then replaced by a new hero wearing their famous name and costume, with the original hero eventually returning to the role after a series of struggles, not to mention fan demand for their return to their rightful place. One could say the whole concept of passing the superhero mantle to a newer,younger hero goes back to the fifties, when original Green Lantern Alan Scott and original Flash Jay Garrick let those new whipper-snappers Hal Jordan and Barry Allen take over their roles as Green Lantern and the Flash, respectively. Of course, there was a separation there of several years between Flashes and Green Lanterns, but still, you get the idea; new characters taking older heroic identities ain't nothin' new in comics.

But the trope really became popular (and overused) over the past twenty-five years or so, and is now something of a tired cliche. But as much as replacing iconic heroes is a cheap gimmick, let's not forget superhero comics are nothing if not soap operas, and ongoing soap operas are full of gimmick storytelling. Doesn't mean those some of those stories weren't entertaining, or some of those gimmick characters didn't grow into something more over time. As with all things...some gimmicks (and characters) are just cheaper than others. And some cheap gimmicks can last for years before they are undone. Case in point, our entry at #11...

11. Spider-Woman Julia Carpenter Replaces Spider-Woman Jessica Drew

The original Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew, was created out of corporate need more than any other reason; at some point in the seventies, Stan Lee realized if they didn't make a Spider-Woman spin-off character to their flagship hero Spider-Man, sooner or later another comic book company would take the name. So as a way of securing the copyright, Spider-Woman debuted in an issue of Marvel Spotlight in 1977. She was just meant to be a one-off character, created soley for that reason, but quickly Marvel saw potential in her, and within a year she not only had her own comic book series, but her own cartoon show on Saturday morning television.

Despite being created to be a female version of Spider-Man, much like Supergirl and Batgirl were female analogues of their popular DC Comics male counterparts, Spider-Woman ended up being an analogue in name only. Her origins, powers, and costume were totally different from Peter Parker's, and aside from also living in the same Marvel Universe as Peter, had no other real connection to him. This was a much smarter and more interesting way to approach the character, as opposed to just making her a cheap knock-off of a popular male character (and before anyone flames me for that comment, no, I don't think Supergirl and Batgirl are just cheap copies...but they did kind of start out that way). In the late seventies and early eighties, Spider-Woman was found on most products and merchandise featuring the Marvel icons, right alongside the Hulk and Captain America. She was clearly being positioned as Marvel's top female hero.

Then, in 1983, after fifty issues of her own series and an earned place in the Marvel Pantheon, her series was abruptly cancelled and her powers and costumed identity removed. Rumor has it that Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter thought a female version of Spidey (even though she really wasn't at all) emasculated Spider-Man himself. This sounds ridiculous, of course, but the fact that Jessica Drew was all but erased from Marvel gives some validity to this rumor.

Nevertheless, Marvel needed to have a character named Spider-Woman floating around occasionally, otherwise they'd lose the copyright. So in the epic crossover miniseries Secret Wars, the same event that introduced Spider-Man's new black costume, Marvel introduced Julia Carpenter, the new Spider-Woman. Although not a terrible character by any means - and with enough personality traits to not just make her a female counterpart to Peter Parker - the fact that her costume was identical to his, and her powers were far more similar to his as well, just made the the whole thing smell rotten, and well...a tad sexist. This version of Spider-Woman never carried her own ongoing series and was never fully embraced, leading to other characters taking up the name and mantle eventually.

The Better Replacement For Jessica Drew: Jessica Drew (Again)

So there were other replacement Spider-Women after Julia Carpenter, but none of them stuck around for too long either, because the truth was Marvel got the formula right the first time. In 2004, nearly twenty years after she was sent into comic book exile, Brian Bendis revived the original Jessica Drew Spider-Woman, original powers and costume intact. OK, OK, that version was really a Skrull agent in disguise, but we got the real Jess back in due time. And she is now once again a mainstay of the Marvel Universe and a high profile member of the Avengers.

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In what I assume is a licensing loophole of some sort, NECA will be doing a line of Simpsons toys, but rather than giving us another set of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, we're getting Hef, Tom Hanks, James Brown, Yao Ming and Kid Rock.

From the press release:

Available to consumers in early 2014, the limited-edition boutique collection will feature diverse product roll-outs, highlighting the guest stars' animated likeness as depicted on The Simpsons. Additional celebrities showcased for the program will include other iconic music sensations, award-winning actors, actresses, sports heroes and more. New products will be introduced every two to three months, containing different groupings of guest stars, with limited quantities available at select pop-up shops and retailers worldwide.

Twenty-five figures will be released in total.

If I had to guess, I'd say that, like Minimates, this might be a partial end-run around likeness rights. In which case, the figure I most want from the deal is Clint Eastwood.

Who do you hope to see in the 25?

In semi-related content, here's a supercut of every Troy McClure movie title...

Lego movies get made every day by fans. But this one is actually coming to theaters, and you might say it's the Avengers of Lego Movies.

I'm guessing that with this being a WB movie, we'll only be seeing DC superhero minifigs and not Marvel, but who knows? If this truly does play like a Roger Rabbit of construction bricks, I think it'll prove that Lego can do anything.

Watch after the jump.

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