If you don't know any actual fallen warriors to commemorate, there are some great ones in fiction. At least one of whom now has a toy.

Now, I'm turning this post over to regular commenter FakeAssName, who has a gift for fellow readers. It's up to him to deliver on it, but I'd bet he will.

Since I'm still riding the warm fuzzy from all the nice things you all said about my over sized Matrix redevelopment plan; I decided to hold my own give away! Memorial Day weekend here in USAlund, I figured what better way to celebrate than by giving away some good-old-fashioned Blood?

Ok, I'm actually talking about the PC Video Game's "Blood" & "Blood 2: The Chosen" ... a couple of games from back in Monolith's early days (they of now WB property, you probably have heard of their "F.E.A.R." games) wherein you play a homicidal, undead, demonic psychopath on a quest for vengeance against his own Evil cult after being betrayed by them. I will be giving out each game to two separate winners on Sunday, decisions will be C/O a random number generator.

and yes I am aware that the subject mater is somewhat inappropriate / sacrilegious for the event, but I'm a Vet myself, so stuff it; the right to sacrilege is part of the benefits package for living in the same pair of underwear for a week as you are forced to wander around death valley.

Editorial note: since he doesn't actually say how to enter - just express your interest below and we'll let him figure out the details - LYT

Please note that Memorial Day is a day off for me too, and minimal holiday posting will be in effect. I never lost a relative to war, but my paternal grandfather whom I never knew came back missing the use of one arm and half his sanity, and my late maternal grandfather was an RAF POW in Germany, who later re-met and forgave his captors.

My father-in-law to be, however, lost many, many comrades to Vietnam. I don't want to debate the politics of any given war on this site (in the end, they're all terrible in their way), but if you want to tell the tales of any you've lost to battle, by all means do so below. And know that anyone being a dick to you about it is subject to moderation.

Were the various patent rulings of the early aughts stating that Lego couldn't trademark the shape of its bricks a blessing, or a curse? On the one hand, competition in the marketplace theoretically makes for a better product. On the other, Lego was always doing just fine thank you, and none of its imitators has ever quite managed to be as reliable in construction, though they can all stab your bare feet with equal vigor.

You probably think I'm exaggerating. Ehh, you've seen worse, right? NECA's Die Hard figure wasn't great. Is this 8" figure so terrible? Like, it has a well and everything.

It costs seventy-five dollars. Also it's soft vinyl and has only two points of articulation. For that, I expect to at least be able to see the one creepy-as-fuck upside-down eyeball that's key to her dominating way more scary dreams than her U.S. counterpart Samara. Or to actually kill my enemies in seven days. (I suppose I could try to convince them to swallow her and they might choke...)

NECA actually sculpted a Samara figure years ago, but were never able to clear all the legal hurdles to releasing it. A prototype is on display in their studio and was recently caught on camera by Figures.com (warning: clicking over may make you weep for cool toy you will never have).

Is soft vinyl Sadako better than none at all? My hope here is that maybe the license is now loosening up and someone else can do something better with it.

Before I die...I want to see that thing.

The Dutch equivalent of "like molasses in January" is "als een slak op een teerton," or "like a snail on a tar-barrel." In As You Like It Shakespeare describes "...the whining schoolboy...Creeping like snail/Unwillingly to school." And of course, with the advent of email the conventional posting of letters became known as "snail mail."

All of which is to say that snails are slow, both proverbially and in fact. Thus the little creatures just aren't a natural fit with the hyperactive, quick-cut, short-attention-span idiom of contemporary pop culture.

Yet it's shaping up to be a higher-profile-than-average year for gastropods. The animated fantasy Epic, opening this weekend, features a comic-relief snail and a slug. And slated for July is Turbo, another animated feature, this one about a snail with racing ambitions. Then there's this distressing development.

Here are 13 other notable snails:

13. The Doorkeeper Snail in Pinocchio

"Snails are never in a hurry," says this domestic of the Blue Fairy in Collodi's classic children's novel. She makes an exception in Pinocchio's case: it only takes her nine hours, while he waits outside in the rain and cold, to come down four flights and let him into the house. When he asks for something to eat, it's only a few more hours before she returns with a tray for him.

Apparently she was too slow to make it into Disney's 1940 film version; however there's a charming statue of her in The Pinocchio Park (Parco di Pinocchio), a tourist attraction in Tuscany.

It is the suit, not who's under it, that defines this figure. As a Comic-Con exclusive, Square Enix is releasing this movie Batman figure in special metallic deco. At $65 it isn't cheap, but that's about par for their regular figures so it's actually less of a mark-up than most companies will have.

Best of all, you can preorder it now and avoid the long lines. I'm always afraid these figures will break in my hands, but visually the stuff they're doing seems very cool.

Any readers collect these? Are they as fragile as they look?

What else would it be?

42 by 44 feet, 5.2 million bricks, with an inner metal structure to support the weight, this mega-set was just unveiled in Times Square. And yes, you can sit in it.

I know it's something I say to myself on a regular basis: "You know, I'm just not tired enough, and those five-hour energy drinks mixed with vodka and crushed vitamin B tablets just aren't helping things any. I need the stuff of nightmares in my house to deter any reasonable chance of restful slumber while I worry about something wanting to bite my face off."

Oh hai Morbid Enterprises. You say you haven't just made a realistic, life-sized replica of the zombie girl from The Walking Dead's first episode, but that that she also has motion-activated snarling and grabbing action?

And she costs less than most Hot Toys figures despite being four times the size and having an action feature to scare the piss out of me?

Not that I'll ever be allowed to actually have this in our home, but yeah, thanks for making it, guys.

UPDATE with assist from GrimlockPrime: She's available now and cheaper as another site's exclusive, and has been for a while? Kinda skeezy, Entertainment Earth.

We heard about these back around Toy Fair time, but they've been holding back on at least one: the Ice Warrior. It's also the first time I've seen the new Gaiman-version Cyberman figure.

Toys in the UK cost about twice as much as they do over here, so I'm surprised it's taken this long to reduce the scale of the figures and cut costs. Yes, it means collectors may have the annoyance of starting all over again in a new scale - however, these will be more compatible with the old Dapol line, and you can finally have the Doctor take on Darth Vader if you like.

The whole set can be preordered for $69.99, which puts them at more than $10 a figure. That strikes me as a little steep, but then again back in my day flibbidy blibbidy blah.

If I were one of those kids on new Who, I'd ask to go back in time and buy, like, a Kenner Alien figure while it's still on the shelves. And several Eternia playsets. But nooo, going somewhere that endangers your lives is way more sensible. Dumb kids today.

These figures are in 12" scale, are two of the best robot toys I've ever seen, and I'd bet money that they'll cost more than I have money to bet.

NECA's working on more affordable versions, but if you feel like shelling out for the "Fuck you, I've got disposable income and will spend it in awesomer ways than you would" versions, 3A Toys are the way to go.

Figures.com has the details on where and when you can expect them to become available.

Credit the tag-teaming of Gallen_Dugall and Someguy for coming up with the name. There were cleverer offerings, but this struck me as the one that would accidentally lead the most pervs here, and that's crucially important.

Okay, so I went to Disneyland this week, as part of a scouting trip for my upcoming honeymoon there in September. And as you know if you've ever been there, the marriage of Lucasfilm and Disney was a strong flirtation long before it was made official. Pretty sure this li'l guy I picked up, for example, was produced last year prior to the big announcement:

I know I should probably find him appalling, but he mashes up my favorite Disney character with one of my favorite-looking Star Wars guys, so I couldn't say no.

Still, I'm not here so much to talk about him...