Since people are doing gift-y things, I'll figure I'll review something I own.http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ee4a/Product: Sonic Screwdriver Universal remote controlPrice: Around 100(+S&H)___________________________________________________________________________________________The sonic screwdriver, the iconic tool of The Doctor. Capable of opening doors, scanning, working as a microphone(it was the Christmas Carol episode with the flying sharks) Controlling electronic devices.Now, unfortunately, it can't do all that, but it can control TV's and home media systems, and as a bonus, it works as good as the Doctor's when aimed at wood.___________________________________________________________________________________________Out of the box, it's covered in a protective wrapper, and bound to the base by annoying plastic ties. After cutting these(Carefully mind you. You paid more than 100 for this, anything that happens after it arrives on your door is your fault!), you will have to care fully unscrew one of the rings on the upper half of the sonic. Then you're gonna need a screwdriver to remove a screw(Irony, how I love you!) the upper half. You're gonna need some batteries for it. So remember to stock up. After you're done putting it together(With the batteries inside!), just press and hold a button on the bottom of the sonic and it should turn on(make sure the batteries are right before returning it).___________________________________________________________________________________________Programming the remote: it's not a hard task getting acquainted with it, after quickly pressing the button 2times, it should say "Entering programming mode"(Yes, it talks!Well, a little anyway. And with a the voice of a British woman) then you preform a gesture, like tapping on the top, and you hold out the traditional remote in front of the green tip and press the button you want the sonic to do . then press the button on the bottom of the sonic to exit programming mode.___________________________________________________________________________________________Appearance: It looks screen accurate, minus the spring loaded extension claw-y mode that the toy version has, which may disappointing some. Feels nice and solid in the hand and has a fair bit of weight to it. Which makes it feel more real. The white part is not pure white. It's still white, just with a slight gray tint. Personally though, I think it looks fantastic. It has a brilliant shine since it's actually copper plated. The black part feels nice, and has a smooth but grip-y material. Feels far more comfortable than the toy version. The grey "Claw" area has a slight worn design____________________________________________________________________________________________Performance: It works with precision around 95% of the time. But it's very easy to confuse some gestures at first(and even after sufficient practice). It's very sensitive to gestures to it tends to mistake them sometimes.Base: The base is nice looking, if a bit plain. It is marked with green Galifreyan lettering(Circular Galifreyan, not high old Galifreyan). But the lettering is hard to see unless you're looking from just the right angle. The base is mostly grey painted, but has a a smooth stone-y look to it, and has a little black wire-y things molded to the side.A side note, the part of the base that holds the sonic is made of hard plastic. Thinking it may scratch the sonic, I placed a little tape on it to prevent potential scratches.___________________________________________________________________________________________Sounds: it can do many sounds from the TV show. 3 of which are sonic screwdriver sounds.For some strange reason the "control mode" has a different "sonic" sound than the one in the show has.Fortunately "FX Mode" has the other two sounds one of which sounds screen accurate.In "FX Mode" different gestures will activate different sounds.____________________________________________________________________________________________Modes:Practice mode: Used to learn geaturesControl mode: Default mode to control devices. Makes Sonic Screwdriver sound.Quiet control mode: Not really quiet, makes a (somewhat) quiet click-y noise.FX mode: basically pretend mode(and fun mode). preforming gestures activates 13 different sounds____________________________________________________________________________________________Personal notes:I love it, using it to turn on the TV to an episode of Doctor Who, while "I Am The Doctor" is playing on an MP3 is a really fun thing to do. I'd recommend it to others, and I give it a 4.4 out of 5

LOL there is more nerd news in the comments for this story than there has been on TR in a week.

This list failed to list the most depressing, horrible What If? ever - What If Gwen Stacy Had Lived?  A story which is exhibit A in my case for J. Jonah Jameson being Spider-Man's greatest villain.Basically, Peter saves Gwen, reveals his secret ID, proposes and then explains that so long as the Green Goblin is out there, there's no way they'll ever truly be safe and no way he can give up being Spider-Man.  Peter hunts down The Green Goblin as he did before but is so angry thinking about what MIGHT have happened, he goes over the edge and nearly kills The Goblin.  Scared, The Goblin enacts his emergency plan and sticks an envelope in the mail before fleeing back to the Osborn mansion.  Peter follows him there and is in the middle of beating seven kinds of hell out of an unmasked Norman Osborn when Harry Osborn walks in.  Knowing only that his dad is in danger, Harry charges in and starts trying to fight Spider-Man.  Seeing his son actually stand up for himself and fight a battle he can't win breaks the Goblin personality's hold on Norman Osborn and a grateful Norman thanks Spidery for saving him from himself.Everything is fine and dandy until the day of Peter's wedding, when J. Jonah Jameson bursts into the church with a small army of police men.  Seems The Goblin's envelope was addressed to The Daily Bugle and contained photographic proof that Peter Parker was Spider-Man and Jolly Jonah decided to sit on it so he could ruin what was meant to be the best day of Peter's life.  Aunt May has a heart attack in the ensuing shootout as Peter escapes and we're informed that Peter spends the rest of his life on the run and never sees the heartbroken Gwen again.Say what you will about The Green Goblin, Doc Ock and Venom... they just wanted to kill Peter, humiliate him or drive him crazy.  None of them ever tried to get him arrested on murder charges in the middle of his wedding.

Speaking of naked technology.  Maybe your a spoken hater of Nintendo and it's new Wii U (Like Rob Bricken)  or Maybe you love Nintendo (like Rob Bricken :Hey, did he talk about any other consoles in the past 3 months?)  Well love or hate the guys at ifixit.com has disassembled one for our pleasure.  

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nintendo+Wii+U+Teardown/11796

If you love seeing electronics more intimate parts or just like to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their motherboards then this is where you want to be.

Thanks to ifixit.com for the education.

Were not done yet.  Hey anyone waiting for Evangelion 3.0 to hit video.  Well it did hit theaters in Japan.  But to ramp you up  Nippon Television Network not only has info (in Japanese) but they also played some of the beginning.  If you have been itching to see Asuka with her eye patch kicking butt and calling Shinji Stupid (馬鹿）Then head over to Kotaku.com to check it out in it's native Japanese.  (Not much of real importants is said)   

http://kotaku.com/5961064/watch-the-opening-minutes-of-evangelion-30-right-here

Then head over to http://www.ntv.co.jp/kinro/lineup/20121116/index.html to see more info.  For those browsers who don't translate or can't read any Japanese may I suggest either Babelfish or if you 小さい日本語をわかることができる　may I suggest Jim Breen for your translating assistance.

Thanks to Kotaku.com and NTV for telling me what I missed.  

Regarding gift ideas, I had a really cool thing last year , teddy bears with Jedi and Dark Knight costumes from a shop called build a bear. they were really well done and looked just like the movies. I think I emailed Rob about them, but it didn't reach him.

http://i.imgur.com/oScbp.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/xDT8k.jpg

Wow there is a new Riddick movie how did this get past me. Any of you know about this and Not share?

http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/173689-first-look-at-the-riddick-logo

If it's not already been mentioned, there was a great (ie:extremely upsetting to a nine year old) issue of 'What If?' where Kraven the Hunter shot and killed Spider-Man. I forgot the details but it ends up with The Human Torch and Captain America tracking down Kraven to his hideout - where they find him EATING SPIDER-MAN'S WEEKS' OLD CORPSE.

A little something for the game nerds in the room 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elBORRab4mQ

New post called "You will not stop us MVN  Topless robot will live!!"

Hey, the Holidays are coming.  Do you have a gift to buy?  Me too.  Are you going to do it?  "At the dollar store",you say.  Great that will leave you money to buy these,

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f128/

Portal not your thing?  How about Retro Doctor Who?

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ed66/

Thanks to Thinnkgeek.com for these.

Well, I guess in the meantime, some good news. There's been a stay of execution for Hostess. I did that hoarding for nothing.

https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/270618055544041473

and here is my contribution to today's topless robot content                                                                   Gothan High!                                                                                                      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4BjTsjgk3Lg#

So just the 1 post today compared to the 3 at the end of last week. someone pls tell me that there is another site like this used to be out there.

Somewhere amid the infinite parallel universes there is one where the transition was seamless and eventually considered an improvement... I say we invade that universe, abduct their TR editor, and then destroy that universe so they can never return. Or is that going too far?

What if...Village Voice Media didn't want to hemorrhage readers because it might look like the site is shutting down to the casual reader?

What if...Village Voice Media actually hired someone anyone to be a temporary editor until someone was able to take it over full time, rather than for just two days last week? 

What if...we got an update on how things are going and when we can expect things to return to some kind of normal?

What if...Village Voice Media doesn't understand that there are worse things they could be doing than this right now, but not much worse?  Article specifically for this site = good, yay, thank you.  One article = not so good.

What if...Village Voice Media didn't decide to alpha test its new commenting system on its audience?

You're right: "What if" stories are depressing.

I remember volume 2, issue 25 where "Atlantis Attacks" ends with pretty much every Marvel hero killed in battle against Set and Set's sons start spreading to other dimensions, the Watcher looking right out to say "YOU might be next" like a 1950's movie.

...I've been trying to come up with a "Village Voice Media"/"Had to destroy the village in order to save it" snark about the site, today, but I'm still groggy. The best I could think of was some crack about them hiring Gen. Westmoreland to run TR.

All right people, I'll field this.  According to comicsalliance. http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/11/15/agent-coulson-hot-toys-clark-gregg/

and some Traitor at http://www.io9.com who will remain Name-Rob-less.

Agent Coulson figure that is $200 more dollars then most of us can afford.  Looks awesome though.

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2012/11/htagentphilcoulsonmain.png

Thanks ComicAlliance and traitor at io9 for this info.