Good bye and good riddance to 2017

I'm spending the last couple of hours of 2017 doing what I did at the end of 2016; social media. Yeah, social media is frivolous, but after the year I've had, I just want a bit of enjoyment. Perhaps I will go into length as to what happened this year. Perhaps not. All I know for sure is I'm more than ready to put the year behind me. And I hope that 2018 will be a much happier and more productive year, because the alternative is catastrophic.

Hopes for Hal-Con 2018

1, See more friends and acquaintances.
2, Eat more sushi.
3, Find more deals.
4, Not get sick again.
5, Not spend too too much.
6, Meet more celebs.
 7, Have at least two cosplays.

Nerdy Questions for 2018

·        Will we get a new Skylanders game? 

·        If so, will the Imaginators be compatible?

·        Will the Infinity-inspired Disney Toybox figures continue?

·        What will the new Gravity Falls graphic novel be about?

·        Will "Rise of the Ninja Turtles" be good?

·        What will the first Nintendo Direct bring us?

·        Will we get a game where all amiibo are usable? 

·        Who will the guest character be in Soul Calibur 6?

·        Will WWE and NJPW clash?

·        Will “Woken” Matt Hardy be any bit as fun as #BROKEN Matt Hardy?

·        Will we finally get some answers as to what's going on in the Cloverfield universe?

·        How will Avengers: Infinity War balance such a large cast?

·        Will Godzilla get any bloody bigger? (Like, seriously, 2016 Godzilla is over three hundred feet tall and only comes up to 2017 Godzilla's knee!)

·        Will toylines like the Grossery Gang Putrid Power action figures or the Mega Construx Heroes line ever actually reach my local Wal-Mart?

·        Will we find out what happened to the 02 kids at the end of Digimon tri? 

·        Will Marina get an amiibo figure? (Oh, and Pearl too I guess.)

·        How will the Ninja Turtles play in Injustice 2?

·        Will I finally get Primal Rage 2 working on my PC?

·        How will Them's Fightin' Herds play?

·        How will Indie Pogo play?

·        Will more Beast Wars characters get the Masterpiece treatment?

·        Is there truth to the rumour of a Beast Wars revival?

·        Will we get more Bucky O' Hare content?

·        Will more old franchises return?

·        How amazing will Mega Man 11 be? 

·        Will more Ocean voice actors be brought in for Funimation's Dragon Ball Super dub?

·        Will the winner of the Royal Rumble be as predictable as recent years?

·        Will Alita: Battle Angel help the Gunnm series finally become mainstream? 

·        Will the eventual Battle Angel Funko Pop figures be from the movie or from the manga? 

·        Will we hear anything about the Bone movie?

·        If Contra gets another console game, will we get to play as that polar bear character from the Chinese mobile game?

·        What is the story behind My Hero Academia's upcoming movie? 

Thoughts on Alita: Battle Angel

Full disclosure; I own (and have read) all nine volumes of the original Battle Angel Alita manga. I have seen both episodes of the OVA. I've only got a couple volumes of Last Order, and have not followed the series for quite some time. To illustrate to you just much time I've spent away from this franchise, Mars Chronicle was completely new to me.

We've known that James Cameron was interested in adapting Battle Angel Alita for a long time now, early '90s I think.

I didn't really get interested in the series until 2008-9. I ordered volume 1 at the local bookstore, and I was hooked. The art, the detail, the story. It all pulled me in and kept me there for eight more volumes. I started losing interest in Last Order, I kind of forgotten about Alita.

If I Wrote A Sixth Season of the 2012 TMNT

Despite the news that Eric Bauza will be portraying Master Splinter and Rob Paulsen will be taking over as voice director, I still have reservations about Rise of the TMNT, the new series debuting in 2018. (Raph ain't no leader.)

As much as I complained about the 2012 series, I feel like it wasn't beyond saving.


So, if you'll indulge me and my fanboyism and poor grammar, here is what I would do if Nickelodeon had said to me "Hey. Write us a season."

Captains

A commissioned work, an encounter between Captain Absolutely and Captain Hero, two superheroes who have little in common, besides their voice actor, one Jess Harnell.






Sorry for the lack of updates. It's been a long couple of months...

Cloverfield review (2008)

When Transformers premiered in theatres in July of 2007, movie-goers got a surprise with the debut of a new movie trailer. It started off with footage of a surprise party for a man named Rob, who has just taken a job in Japan. But as time passes, the lights go out and the earth trembles, as a nightmarish howl pierces through the night. The confused and frightened party-goers do what comes naturally in this situation; head to the rooftop of the building to see just what’s going on. The man behind the camera comments to Rob that he probably should have left earlier, just as a huge explosion emanates from the harbour, sending flaming debris falling onto the buildings. Rob and company then run to the streets below just in time to run for cover as a large metal object crashes into a building, then drops to the streets below as the panicked people run for their lives. The large metal object is the head of the Statue of Liberty.

EMBEREDGE second chapter

CHAPTER 2;

          It was later that morning when Henry and Tom loaded their gear into Henry’s personal mini-carrier arrived at the front gates of the legendary Warriors of Avalonia Academy, the massive complex building at the center of Yar Yu City, the largest city in the country.

          Tom didn’t grow up in a cityscape, so for him it was somewhat of a treat to be able to spend time within the city was somewhat of a treat for him. In the country, Tom never had much a chance growing up to explore the vastness of the city

          For Henry, being in a city was nothing new. He had grown to personally found the countryside much more visually pleasing than the stone and metal buildings he had been around the majority of his life. To him, tranquility was found in nature.

EMBEREDGE first chapter

 CHAPTER ONE;

          Moonlight broke through the clouds this night, casting shadows throughout Yar Yu City. A lone figure moved swiftly across the cityscape. Jumping from roof to roof, the figure found its target outside of the magnificent structures as he reached the border between Avalonia and the Ancient Forest. The figure sees a solitary transport carrier traversing the back roads of the Forest. The city was normally quiet at night, but the rumble of the massive vehicle’s tires could be heard for miles.       

          The sound was so intense it rattled the men’s insides. It crunched the already beaten down gravel under its wheels as it backed in to the dock of the Hornetblade Industries equipment factory. Two security guards were on hand this fateful night.

crab girl character

I honestly forgot I drew her.

After three months of Crunchyroll

A little bit of Digimon Tri. A tad of Monster Hunter. A handful of Dragon Ball Super. And a heck of a lot of Kyatto Ninden Teyandee, which, for those who don't know, is the Japanese version of Samurai Pizza Cats, a franchise I adored as a kid. That was my time with Crunchyroll this year.

So, I got to thinking, should I try to do more cartoon reviews here? I mean, the main focus of this blog will always be artwork, but I've got a real hankering to watch some old and new cartoons. I did do a few episode reviews of Dino-Riders awhile ago. 

I'm just thinking outloud I suppose. ^^'

Eugene Meltsner custom vinyl toy

My first amiibo custom

He didn't turn out exactly how I planned. I guess you could say he's a 'training' craft. (That's a thing, right?) I'm probably not going to be selling this one either.

Celebrating Kirby's 25th Anniversary

(No, not my dog Kirby.)

Waffley's sellin' stuff on the book of Faces!!

Currently, I am in the process of just figuring out which website is best to use as an online store for my crafts, my art prints and general things I no longer need. For the time being, I have decided to use Facebook. At least for the time being. So, if you like the kind of art I've been producing on this blog for almost a decade and would like to support me in my future projects, please feel free to take a gander here and see what might tickle your fancy.

Regarding "Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"

Fred Wolf's Ninja Turtles series lasted ten years and one-hundred and ninety-three episodes. 4Kids' Ninja Turtles lasted seven years, one-hundred and fifty-six episodes, a TV movie and countless shorts.

Neither one of these series had a colossal juggernaut like Nickelodeon backing them up.

Thoughts regarding the Beast Wars Netflix revival rumour

The initial article.

Beast Wars, or Beasties as it was curiously called in Canada, was the second-ever 3D animated series. Debuting alongside an incredible toyline, Beast Wars was three seasons long, and a sequel series, Beast Machines, and two Japanese-only spinoffs, Beast Wars the Second and Beast Wars NEO. The games...well, nevermind about the games...

Beast Wars was one of my favorite cartoons ever. I rank it up there with the Ninja Turtles and the Ghostbusters, I really mean it. Even today, the show holds up. Yes, it shows it's age, but the characters still appear in Transformers media to this day. So, you can imagine when the rumour about a Beast Wars Netflix revival popped up recently.

Well, this rumour got me excited. Very excited. Like, almost giddy. I like that. I like that things can still make me feel excited and giddy and something close to what you humans call "happy." Until I started to think about it a bit.

The article listed eleven characters as being apart of this new series, which I assume will be a reboot, if in fact it is true. Looking at this list makes me somewhat...wary; Optimus Primal, Megatron, Rattrap, Ravage, Scorponok, Cheetor, Blackarachnia, Terrorsaur, Inferno, Rhinox, and...Magmatron?

First off, why Ravage? Yes, the Ravage in Beast Wars was the same character as in G1, but he only showed up for three episodes. And he wasn't exactly the best designed character in the series either. (Tigatron's beast mode head's glued onto a recoloured Cheetor.) Why out of all the characters to show up on this list, why Magmatron? If you are unaware, Magmatron was the villain of the Japanese-only series NEO. Yes, Magmatron showed up in the IDW comic, alongside practically every other Beast Wars character imaginable, but not in the original cartoon. Although, I suppose, if the Nickelodeon TMNT cartoon can feature characters from all other TMNT continuities, so could this potential new Beast Wars series.

Lastly, why doesn't the list feature Dinobot? Or Waspinator? Or Silverbolt? I'm not talking about cannon fodder characters...okay Waspinator was literally cannon fodder, but you know what I mean? Why include characters like Ravage and not Dinobot or Silverbolt or Waspy? 

Regardless, if in fact Beast Wars is being prepped for a revival, I shall watch it with much anticipation. It's a series that I loved as a child and one I still love to this day.

(If the art style is confusing you, click here for context.)
(If you'd like to see the lineart for this piece, click here.)

My most desired Funko Pop toys

Funko Pop is slowly taking over the Earth.

Okay, maybe not. But they do have an incredible line-up of figurines. Literally everything from Star Wars to Star Trek, Marvel to DC, Disney to Warner, Ninja Turtles to Power Rangers, WWE to...Golden Girls?

13 Questions About Kingdom Hearts 3

It's one of my most anticipated games of...whatever year it actually appears.

Someone has a birthday

Happy Birthday Mewtwo! Try not to conquer anyone today, k?

Mewtwo is (c) Nintendo, Game Freak

A number of posts have been removed.

Due to past YouTube-related issue, a number of videos posted on this blog no longer exist.

From September to May
Wafflevision
Three in the Morning
Once I Was The King Of Clams
King Of The Kitchen
After Effects Experiment
Angry Birds Speed Draw
A Big Tent
Nixxie and Me
MASTODON!
Eh, What's Up Doc?

In the future, when I figured out whether or not these videos would run the risk of DMCAs (Wafflevision would pretty much be inviting one) I may repost them to YouTube.

On a sidenote, many past videos are being uploaded to my Facebook page, as well as a considerable amount of past art and photographs.

I guess you could say my Facebook page is a time machine now.

MOVIE REVIEW; Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story

When an adaptation has nothing to do with the source material beyond a couple Easter eggs, is it really an adaptation?

Nope. Not at all.

It is Friday the 13th!!!

And this was the best I could come up with...Nightmare on Miitopia Street, lol...

The Spaghetti Ninja

Based off of an older design.

If you would like to own this design to hang on your wall or wear as a t-shirt, please feel free to visit my Redbubble page here.

My first ever 1080p video

I didn't add any music this time. I made this more to test out a different rendering method. I think it succeeded. I don't think I've ever had a video that was 1080p.

The Surfing Waffle meets the Durgels, Ensens and Endiff. It does not end well for the Durgels.

Surprise video!

Want to watch me colour this character? I've got a screen capture program again, so I can make videos again! (Kind of wish I had coloured this character instead but oh well.)

I'll be working on more videos like this this year. Good practice for digital drawing and video editing.

Fat Squirrel

A commission done earlier in the year for a local start-up.

Last post of 2016

It's been a lousy year. But, this year has shown me that I have career options (comics and videography). For that if nothing else, I am thankful. And I hope that 2017 brings the world more happy moments than sad, in spite of a certain oompa-loompa's best attempts.

Cheers.