Animecon UK | BAFTA Game Awards | X-Men '97 | Geek of the Week

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the geeky, Brummy podcast. Joining me today, Mister Keith Bloomfield. Hello, Mister Lee Price. [00:00:06] Speaker B: Hi, Mister Sam. [00:00:07] Speaker A: David Edwards. [00:00:08] Speaker C: Hello. [00:00:09] Speaker A: And of course special guest, Mister Pete Burke. [00:00:12] Speaker B: Welcome back. [00:00:12] Speaker A: It's been a few years. [00:00:14] Speaker D: Yeah, it's been a little while. [00:00:15] Speaker A: Yes. Right. Coming up today, we'll be talking a little about conventions, especially Animecon UK, and we'll be talking about some other events coming up, including ESL, one free comic book day maker Central, and UK Games Expo. We'll have a quick chat about X Men 97 after the latest episode. Apparently things have happened. I haven't watched it, so I'm avoiding spoilers. And we were talking about the BAFTA game award winners. Plus, as always, our one gig thing, but we shall join you in a second. [00:01:06] Speaker E: So you might all remember a good few years back, Fox used to run a tv animated show called X Men, which was hugely popular, ran across five seasons and multiple episodes. And Disney have resurrected that franchise now with X Men 97, which launched a few weeks ago. And as of the recording, we are now up to the fifth episode, episode, which has caused quite a cry of grief amongst the X Men fans. So Ryan and Pete have stepped out because of spoilers. So if you're not up to date with the X Men 97 show at the moment, then perhaps you may also want to do that. But Sam, I'm just going to hand to you first. What do you think so far of what they've done with this show? [00:01:46] Speaker C: I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far. It feels like a proper continuation of the original one. They've kept the same animation style and the same voice actors, so it literally takes up where the last one left off and I feel like it. They've done a great job of keeping that kind of tone and style it. Yeah, it's been exciting. And yes, this last episode was just incredible. I checked this morning. I believe it's currently 9.8 out of ten on IMDb for that episode, which is amazing. [00:02:23] Speaker E: I've got to admit that when it first started, I was a little bit taken back by the stiltedness of the animation, purely because I'm so used now to kind of modern animation being quite so slick and smooth, so being taken back to that kind of like old school nineties animation style way, it's a little cheaty sometimes and things are not animated to their fullest extent. [00:02:47] Speaker B: How I remember that time, well, yeah, not specifically from the original X Men cartoon, because even as a kid I hate superheroes. But it is like, there's so many cartoons that era had that sort of animation style. So it is good that they are bringing it back, though. [00:03:03] Speaker E: And it won me over. After about the first. After the first episode, I kind of got into the fact that actually they're kind of keeping it in keeping with the fact that this is almost literally an immediate continuation of the show from when it stopped in 97. So it's like, oh, yeah, this is fair enough, but they've enhanced it enough to kind of go, actually, this is a new show, and we are doing some interesting things, particularly as they're adapting various comic stories as we go forward, which is what the previous show did as well. And I think it was episode three, which kind of covered the Inferno storyline, which is, if people don't know, it's when Scott discovers that Jean Grey isn't Jean Grey. In fact, she's actually a clone from Mister Sinister called Madeline prior, and they have a son, and he becomes cable. Honestly, there's so many spoilers here, but I love the fact that when they did the Inferno thing, they went full on horror anime style illustrations in that. What did you think of that episode? [00:03:59] Speaker C: I loved it, I think, as well, I'm not as familiar with the comics as you are, but there's sort of bits and pieces that I'm aware of. And I loved that they carried on using the name Goblin Queen, which just feels so wonderfully kind of incongruous, like it's out of it fantasy film or something. [00:04:17] Speaker E: But, yeah, I actually think they're doing it better than the comics did because I think comics struggled a little bit, particularly when they were written to deal with the Madeleine prior storyline. And Scott Summers came off as an absolute jerk, which is kind of his thing a little bit. But I thought in this particular episode, they did a much better job with the whole clone mother of Nathan Summers kind of stuff, which I really quite liked. [00:04:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:04:43] Speaker E: And then I think episode four did introduce the kind of mojo verse again, which I thought was quite cool with the hints to video games, which I think, Lee, you should just watch, because basically it's only half the episode. The second half is a story called Life Death, which is kind of the repercussions of storm losing their powers in episode two. I think it was. [00:05:05] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:05:06] Speaker B: So now I'm. Now I'm thinking, because I know there was, like some X Men game, which notoriously had, like, a really terrible line that, like, played when you fought like a boss or something. I can't remember what the line is or which game specifically it was. I think it was like an arcade game from, like the, the early nineties or something. And I think it's just like one of those really bad, like, it was made by a japanese team, and it was like, obviously just a poorly translated. [00:05:29] Speaker E: Line kind of thing, misinterpreted thing. It's quite cool because it is that. [00:05:32] Speaker B: So I was just imagining that that's probably what they did. [00:05:34] Speaker C: I mean, you should love it because. [00:05:35] Speaker E: It'S that it's like five person scrolling, side scrolling, beat em up, much like Scott Pilgrim versus the world game and stuff. So it's quite cool. So they've been doing a really good job with, with this, with this season so far. But then we get to episode five, which kind of starts off okay. We kind of have Gambit, Rogue, and Magneto. Magneto visiting Genosha, which, if people remember from the comics, particularly from the Grant Morrison run, has a big part of X Men history. It's the kind of place where mutants got to live as their own society. And so we go through this episode, and you think, this is cool, you know, it's all kind of nice. Magneto and Rogue are kind of re establishing their link. Gambit's getting a little bit jealous of the whole thing. [00:06:19] Speaker C: There's some lovely little snipes between Magneto and Gambit as well. I love the bit weather in the plane, and Magneto just casually reminds Gambit that he's the only one who wouldn't be able to fly if something went wrong with the plane. [00:06:32] Speaker E: If the, the x bird flew, that exploded, which it has a tendency to do. I think it did it in the first episode of this season. So that was really good. And then there's a moment halfway through the show where, if you're watching closely, you'll see a distinct shadow appear in the sky as the camera pans down. And if you know anything about this character, he's a big part of the Marvel what if show, you kind of go, all right, something is happening. And I must admit, I was quite taken aback by exactly what happened because I didn't think they'd go to this story quite so soon. What did you think of what happened when the tri headed Sentinel appeared? [00:07:09] Speaker C: Well, I think before the tri headed Sentinel, there was cable appears as well. And I think that was the point where I thought, oh, God. So he's clearly there for a reason, and this is not going to go well, but, yeah, the sentinel was just like a force of nature. I almost wanted to see a bit more of his design because he kind of got hints that it was like this kind of big beetle y kind of thing. And, yeah, you never really see it properly, but really quite intimidating. And the fact that he's clearly not bothered about any of the very powerful mutants that he's just kind of carving his way through. [00:07:54] Speaker E: I mean, that's straight out of the. I think it's new. X Men 114 115 around there is Grant Morrison and Frank quietly who did that. And the design of the tri headed Sentinel is pretty comics accurate, as far as I could see. And I was just devastated by the fact they actually went with this whole, we're just going to wipe out the island state of Geonosia and took down omega level mutants like magneto. And then the fact that our favorite kind of occasion also suffers a rather life threatening injury. Yes, one was fine, but two, but also as well, the fact that we'd lost lots of other mutants, you know, the Morlocks. We meet the Morlocks again. And the fact that there was just no qualm about, yeah, we're just wiping out half of the mutant population. [00:08:42] Speaker C: Well, that's the same part. The joy of the first half of that episode was the number of little cameos in the background, and a lot of those characters seem either dead or seriously injured. And I think there's, it's going to be interesting watching the next episode and just seeing how much further that disruption went, because there's a bit where Banshee seems to get hit by a laser beam, for example, and it's not clear whether he would have survived that or not. And members of the Hellfire club, like you say, the Morlocks, some quite young Morlocks as well, leeches there, which is. [00:09:23] Speaker E: Quite, again, another very emotional moment because a couple of episodes before, we'd had Magneto speaking directly to Leitch, saying that he would always protect him and everything would be fine. And then he's kind of, he's basically. [00:09:40] Speaker C: Murdered by a sentinel while hugging magneto. [00:09:45] Speaker E: So it's pretty powerful stuff for a kid's tv show. [00:09:47] Speaker C: It's really intense. [00:09:49] Speaker E: And again, it's kind of riffing on the more recent comics as well, because we've had, in the kind of Jonathan Hickman Krakoa era, we've had regular Hellfire galas, which is where mutants gather together and have a party. And in the recent times, in the fall of X Men run, we had basically the destruction of Krakoa, and lots of mutants were killed again. So it's kind of riffing on older stories and newer stories, but it's a devastating effect. [00:10:14] Speaker B: So I've double checked the arcade game, 1992, featured Magneto, when you faced against him, would yell, welcome to die. So that's that. So I was hoping that at least they would put that in there somewhere. [00:10:29] Speaker C: I don't remember that line. But now you've said that, it feels like a wasted opportunity. [00:10:35] Speaker E: They should have used that in that episode particularly. What worries me, though, is the fact that they've gone, yeah, this is nothing compared to what's coming. [00:10:42] Speaker C: Well, that's the thing. We are only halfway through the season, and we're already reeling from the effects of it. Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing where they go next, but also slightly dreading it. [00:10:53] Speaker E: Yeah. But I fully commend them for bringing it back and actually doing something really good with a superhero franchise. I think a lot of people recently have been very disappointed with the filmic efforts, particularly those from Sony themselves. So it gives me high hopes, really, that if Marvel are clever and they've got such good people writing animation, which is in a lot of people's eyes, just throw away entertainment for children. If they can do this good a thing with these kind of stories in an animated half hour show, you know, they really need to up their game when it comes to introducing the X Men to the actual filmic universe. It's like, because, you know, if you do worse than this, you really need to seriously take a look at yourselves as script writers and filmmakers. [00:11:36] Speaker B: I mean, the general opinion does seem to be the animated efforts within Marvel stuff tends to be better because obviously the Spider man movies as well are also, like, widely praised, while literally everything else from Sony is not. [00:11:50] Speaker E: It's a turn of fortunes, really, because the, the older Spider man and X Men cartoons, some of them were really good. X Men evolution was pretty cool. Wolverine and the X Men was pretty cool. And I think that was the post two thousands era when they kind of started to catch up with what DC had been doing, because DC had had a really good run of things like Batman animated series, Superman, the animated series Young justice, and they were doing a really good job with their Warner Brothers animation of doing really nice animated stuff where the Marvel stuff was a little bit, some good stories, but generally was pretty poorly animated and not great. So I'm quite pleased that Marvel have gone, yeah, whatever DC can do, we can do just as well. And I'm looking forward to the rest of this season. [00:12:33] Speaker C: Like you say, one of the criticisms with the films is that it never feels like the heroes are particularly under any threat. Like, the stakes are never all that high because you know, they're going to come out fine at the end, and even if they're not, they'll be resurrected or it'll turn out to be some other version or from another universe or something. So yeah, Marvel have clearly laid down the gauntlet in terms of having some actual stakes in there as well. [00:13:04] Speaker E: Well, I'm quite excited of what happens. Obviously cable will return and at some point Mister Sinister is probably going to have to play more of a part in the ongoing story. So if you're interested in watching X Men 97, it's available now on Disney. If you have a subscription, you can also watch all five of the previous X Men series, which is also available on Disney plus. And I highly recommend that you do catch those episodes as well. [00:13:27] Speaker C: And if you haven't already seen it, sorry for spoiling everything so far, but there's still second half of the series to enjoy, which we haven't. [00:13:36] Speaker E: So catch up. [00:13:37] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:13:48] Speaker A: Who are you? [00:13:50] Speaker F: Yes, so I am Chris Brown. I'm the founder of Burnin Gamers and a big old. [00:13:56] Speaker B: What do you do in real life? [00:14:00] Speaker F: So by day I work in pr communications for a professional services company, and by night I run Birmingham gamers and play a lot of board games and video games as well. [00:14:12] Speaker A: What got you into being a geek? [00:14:15] Speaker F: I think I was a bit of a late bloomer when it came to being a geek. I'd always been interested. I'd always been a video gamer when I was younger, but it's only perhaps since like late twenties, early thirties, where, you know, little bit more disposable income and I can embrace that a little bit more. I think one of my big gateways was dungeons and dragons and tabletop gaming. Anyone that's watching this, they can probably see some of the books behind me. If not, there's quite a collection behind me. So I'm actually sat in. We've got like a little den at the bottom of our garden, which is kind of my office, and it's. I'm surrounded by minis, Warhammer, D and D maps, all sorts of things. This is kind of like our little haven, as well as 3d printing for printing our own figures as well. So, yeah, a bit of a light bloomer. But I think D and D was one of the big things that really introduced me to the geekiness, really. [00:15:13] Speaker B: What is your favorite geek franchise? [00:15:17] Speaker F: Probably it's a toss up between X Men and Dungeons and Dragons. I think X Men is something that I grew up with, obviously the original cartoons and the early films as well. Then I massively got into the comics. I've got quite a collection at home as well as a few games and things. It's something that kind of just opened my eyes to the comic book world and that kind of broadened out into all manner of things, really. D and D was the Cosmos and dragons. All of that has had a massive impact about bringing friends together as well. So that will always hold a soft spot in my, in my heart and constraints on my purse strings as well. Tight grip with the spending on that front as well. [00:16:08] Speaker A: Who is your favorite mud? [00:16:11] Speaker F: Oh, toss up between Scarlet Witch and Storm, I think both incredibly powerful mutants. Some sensational storylines and it's great to see some of those storylines being explored in the new X Men 97. So life, death, which is kind of just concluding this week. Yeah, there's so many fantastic storylines and characters, it's just really difficult to pick. But I am going to go with Storm and Scarlet Witch, I think. [00:16:42] Speaker A: Tell us about Birmingham gamers. [00:16:47] Speaker F: Yeah, so Birmingham gamers started, uh, just as we were coming out of COVID pandemic and lockdown, it came back. I was chatting to a few friends who were struggling to get people back together for board games. A lot of people had lost their connections and we feel a little bit uncomfortable and haven't got the confidence but going out and talking to people. So we set up Bonnie gamers. The idea was initially it was kind of just going to be like maybe five or six of us that would, that would just regularly meet up. And then word spread around. We now have over 200 people on our discord server and we get around 40 people to each event. So we pack out all of our events. We host two events a month. One is at Cherry Reds upstairs. We've got a private room upstairs where it's kind of like a bring your own board game. There's loads of board games that people bring so you can kind of swap with each other and stuff. It's quite a chilled out. You don't have to play board games and you certainly don't know, have to know how to play board games because there's quite a few of us that will demonstrate and demo and show you how to do things. And then we also, now we've expanded that to weekends as well. So in the middle of the month, we meet at the hideout in the jewelry quarter, which is a fantastic board game cafe and they've got some escape rooms there. Those events are proving particularly popular at the moment, which is great to see. It's great to support local businesses as well. We have loads of regulars, but we get loads of new faces as well. And if you can come one month and not come again for a while, that's perfectly fine. Doesn't need to be a regular thing. But for us, it was all about creating those safe spaces for the LGBTQ community and allies to kind of get together and be themselves more than anything, without fear of judgment, whether it's your sexual identity or whether it's how geeky you really are. They're all facets of people's personalities and descending this one is so easy. I swing Dale. So I swing Dale was one of the first video games that I have had for D and D. Very, very early on. I think I had it on. On PC years and years and years ago, and then they re released the remastered version, which I've now got on the Switch. We also did the campaign for it as well in D and D. But it's one of my favorite settings because it's the. The enemies are amazing. There's new trials and horrors and the elements that people have to battle with in terms of the cold, and it's more about survival as well. Yeah. Iceman Dale is one of my favorite settings. If you haven't played the Frost maiden game or the re released video game, highly recommend that as well. [00:19:38] Speaker A: What classic film RTV show have you ever watched? [00:19:45] Speaker F: Oh, okay. Um, so I think there's a couple, really. One of the big ones is Titanic. It's just never really appealed to me. And when people kind of hear that, I get some shock and, like, how have you not seen that? Um, so, yeah, Titanic isn't something that I've seen. Probably won't either. It's just not really my cup of tea. [00:20:08] Speaker A: So what is your snack of choice? [00:20:11] Speaker F: Oh, I mean, a lot of snacks. Aldi do a bag of, like, their gummies. [00:20:21] Speaker B: They're like. [00:20:21] Speaker F: They're called flick and mix, and they're really, really good. It's like just under two quid. You get a big bag of, in essence, kind of like, similar to Harry bow sort of thing. I will devour a bag of those. Or crisps. I'm a sucker for savory things as well. So, yeah, crisps and nuts. So, yeah, a lot of food gets eaten during board game evening, that's for sure. [00:20:42] Speaker B: What is one game you reckon you can beat the geeky drummy team at? [00:20:49] Speaker F: So despite me running a board game meetup and having quite a big selection, I'm really rubbish. [00:20:59] Speaker E: I really am. People get really surprised. [00:21:02] Speaker F: They just think that you are just going to win everything. But I think the one that I could beat you at is a game called Destinies. It's one of my all time favorite games, board games. It's by a company called Lucky Duck Gaming and it integrates an app on your phone or your tablet, which might pop a lot of people off, but it's fantastic. It's an rpg game setting, quite a dark, disturbing world, and you have to explore this map, uncover clues, defeat monsters. But it's. Each player is their own character and they have their own mission and objective to complete. And the app tells the story for you. So from an accessibility point of view, you really don't need to know many rules, which is fantastic because the game literally tells you what. The app literally tells you what to do. Maybe that's why I'm good at it, because I don't need to read the rule book. But, yeah, destiny. So I'll be well up for playing that with you guys. [00:22:00] Speaker A: What is your favorite geek spot in Birmingham? [00:22:05] Speaker F: Oh, right. So bias. But I am going to say the hideout in the jewellery quarter. I remember going there for the first time to meet the guys when we were chatting about running events there and I just loved it. I have a soft spot for the jewellery quarter anyway, in Birmingham. I used to live there, I used to work there. I've got a lot of friends there. When you kind of go in, it's kind of like dimly lit, there's a lot of woodwork. It's all under the arches in the jewelry court as well. They've got a fantastic selection of games. It just feels really cool. So, yeah, I absolutely love it in there. So I would recommend. And you know what, if you don't play ball games, me and some friends went and took our Warhammer sets a couple weeks ago. We grabbed a table and played Warhammer there as well. So, yeah, it's a really good spot. [00:22:55] Speaker A: Where can we find you online? [00:22:59] Speaker F: Yeah, so we are on instagram and we are on Facebook, so you can search for Birmingham gamers if you want to pop along. We've got a discord server as well, where we talk about all manner of things, not just board games, we also talk about video games and there's a lot of crafty people in the group as well. I mean, I'm a big. I crochet quite a lot, but we've got crocheters, knitters and all manner of craft things as well. So it's not just about the board games, but if you hop onto discord and search for Birmingham gamers, we're pretty. Well, we're at the top because I think we are the only one. Only ones. Give us a search on socials and we will be there. [00:23:36] Speaker B: Goodbye. [00:23:41] Speaker A: Hello, Pete. [00:23:42] Speaker B: How we doing? [00:23:43] Speaker A: All right. Been a while. [00:23:45] Speaker D: It has been while since last time I was in was five years ago. Yeah. Promoting a different convention, promoting my own. But now here to push anime Con UK. [00:24:02] Speaker A: So anime Con Uk launched back in June 2023. I think we went along, didn't we? We went along, yeah. [00:24:09] Speaker D: You've got a nice little YouTube video that I direct. A shout out to Clive loved. So, yeah, it's. We are still a new event. We are still a growing event. And the 2023 was at the NEC, where we will be this June as well. Much smaller event. We've moved from Hall 20 and the one side of the NEC. We're now moving across to hall one and hall two. So the growth is very big in between those two places. We had our London show at the start of the year as well. [00:24:47] Speaker A: That was at drumsheds in February. [00:24:49] Speaker D: Yeah, drumshed, which was a nice, interesting venue. It was a former Ikea that was kind of gutted. And I think for the most part, it was like a big rave and kind of party venue like that. But then we converted it into a convention and then we kind of had this. It almost looked like a kind of a Mad Max dystopian anime convention, which all those things shouldn't combine, but it did, and it was wonderful. And. Yeah. So the original for Birmingham moving on to London and now back into Birmingham for this coming June. [00:25:29] Speaker A: So it's launching on the 15th and 16 June, as you said. Halls one? [00:25:34] Speaker D: Halls one and two. Yep. [00:25:35] Speaker A: So much, much bigger. Much more space. [00:25:38] Speaker D: Much more space. Much bigger. [00:25:39] Speaker A: Lots more to come. [00:25:40] Speaker D: Lots of room for cosplays and big swords and. [00:25:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I think the last time we were there, there was a guy in a Warhammer 40K costume who was probably one of the biggest costumes I've ever seen. It was about eight foot tall. Do you know what, about eight foot wide. [00:25:54] Speaker D: I think that guy came to London as well. And he's just like, that's. It's a phenomenal class behind. Like, the dude's done. [00:26:00] Speaker B: So I'm pretty sure I've seen him in every corner. I mean, like, fair play to me. Usually someone will walking around in a massive warhammer. [00:26:08] Speaker D: It's such commitment to the cause. Like, that's just awesome. I love it. [00:26:13] Speaker A: So what have we got coming up for this event this year? [00:26:16] Speaker D: So at the event, we've got. We've got loads of little activities. So we're gonna have silent disco, which we had in London, which was brilliant. We've got all of our guests, so we've got guests who are voice actors across many of the different anime shows. [00:26:33] Speaker A: I think you've got a bit of a my hero Academia reunion going on. [00:26:37] Speaker D: Yeah, a bit of a theme with some of it. So some of the guys have worked together on different shows. So we've got Alejandro Saab, Zeno Robinson, Megan Shipman, Jamie Marachi, Natalie van Sistine, Joey Montana McCoy. So all these guys have been in Pokemon, my hero, Academia, Spy X family. [00:27:04] Speaker A: Like some video games as well, I think Honkai, Star Rail, Genshin Impact, which Lee is probably still addicted to. You still playing Honkai? [00:27:11] Speaker B: I haven't actually played it for a while. There are a lot of games that I'm playing at the moment, so I recognize the first two names. I do recognize Alejandro Saab and Sina Robinson. I don't specifically know where. I think Alejandro Saab is basically the guy who, every time I hear him, I'm like, oh, it's Matt Mercer. Oh, wait, no, it's someone else inside of him. Well, I think he's done dragon Ball. [00:27:35] Speaker A: Legends, Pokemon journeys, hori armor. So some big games there. And Xeno Robinson, as you mentioned, I. [00:27:39] Speaker B: Think he's in the new Contra. [00:27:42] Speaker D: Interesting. [00:27:44] Speaker B: I can't remember which character he's playing. He's one of the two leads, obviously, but. [00:27:47] Speaker A: Yeah. And Xeno Robinson's, of course, Pokemon and my hero academia as well. [00:27:51] Speaker D: Yeah. So like I said, we've got silent disco, we've got our voice actors, our stars. We've got karaoke, we've got all the cosplay meets. We've got all the panels, obviously. You've got all the merch, the sellers, who will be selling figures, props, posters, everything you can possibly want to use all your hard earned money for. We've got Lego Minecraft. There go Minecraft. If I could say it, the Vtubers japanese folk duo as well, who I will pass over to Ryan because I am almost certain I will say their names wrong. [00:28:30] Speaker A: I will say their names wrong, but I will try my best, which is Hibiki Ichikawa and Akari Mochizuki, I believe, who are doing a japanese folk duo. [00:28:37] Speaker D: If he said it wrong, it's on him. [00:28:39] Speaker A: It's on me. And see Yosakoi London, Tempuzu, who are a japanese dance troupe as well. [00:28:46] Speaker D: Yeah. And there is much more to be added as well. [00:28:50] Speaker B: You could have handed them over to me because I probably would know how. [00:28:52] Speaker D: To say so for next time. Japanese names. This is the direction we're headed in. But, yeah, there's content being added all the time, there's guests being added all the time, there's different merchants being added all the time. And obviously, like, the cosplay meetups, there's going to be panels about cosplay. So if there's any budding cosplayers out there who think, okay, I've just got to go buy my stuff, we've got Bex and her team who run the cosplay hospital, and they will physically go through with you how to create, how to kind of bring that out in yourself, to feel confident, to build your props, to build your uniform, to build your outfits, like, all that kind of stuff. Like everything is really kind of centered around the community aspect of this. We go to a lot of conventions naming no names, but it almost feels like it's a very soulless bye bye bye. Things like the silent disco, like we've got an after party on the Saturday night as well that you can buy tickets for. Everything is based on how do we keep each other, interacting with each other, like, how much community can we bring in? How much, whether it be London or Birmingham, is there, like yourselves, a local thing that we can bring in and make it bigger than some of its parts, but doing it very organically and very naturally and having people appreciate that we're in their city, but it's not just give us your money, it can be part of it. Like, it's come and share the love of the medium with us and have a great time while you're doing it. [00:30:18] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [00:30:18] Speaker A: And you're asking for people who want to apply to either run a panel, run mate, maybe do a workshop, maybe a cosplay techniques, etc. [00:30:26] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:30:26] Speaker A: So you're looking for those or content creators who want to turn up and. [00:30:29] Speaker D: Absolutely. So if you're, we spoke about the, the Warhammer guy as an example. If you've got cosplays and you're really proud of what you do and you think, you know, I'd love to show people my journey. You can apply to run a little panel where you can show the start, the middle end of how you produced what you produced your journey. Talk to other people that are either on a similar journey with you, or they're just starting out and thinking, oh, okay, I'd love to do this in cosplay. How do I go about doing it? All these kind of things, content creators. So if you are an artist, we've got artist alley. Everything is around people coming to us to share what they're about, what they want to do, and then just little things as part of that. It's the community as a whole. We arranged meets as well. So we had a league of legends meet in London and they took over and it got to the point where the staff on the venue were like, oh, no, no, you're not. You can't all come through this area. And we're like, there's like 100 people that were all legally and they were all phenomenal and amazing. We're like, no, they're coming through. They're coming through because it's just brilliant. It's such a brilliant and rewarding community to be part of. [00:31:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:40] Speaker A: And it's been amazing to see how much Codpro has progressed, especially in the years that we've been running. I know, Sam, you're a bit of a dedicated cosplayer in the background, very. [00:31:48] Speaker C: Amateur, but yeah, I enjoy giving it a go. [00:31:51] Speaker A: But now with 3d printing, access to materials, design works, people putting stuff online, it's so much more of an art than people think. [00:32:01] Speaker D: I genuinely often see some of the costumes and think, I wish I was as good at, as anything as these folks have been at building these kind of suits, the outfits, the armor, the props, and what I feel, the leds, the smoke. [00:32:14] Speaker C: Sometimes it's just the dedication to be in that costume for more than an hour because some of them looks like. [00:32:19] Speaker D: Oh, shout out to a cosplayer that I met in London, Stevie Moon, if she's listening, she had these heels on that were. And all day she just rocked it. And I was like, that's just amazing. Like, if I go to work in trainers for 4 hours, I'm like, my feet are hurting. But she rocked these heels all day and she looked amazing. So like, it's just like, those guys are phenomenal. [00:32:45] Speaker B: Yeah. The most dedication I've, like, I've done cosplay exactly once. And the most dedication that that involved was carrying around a morgana plush from Persona five for the whole day, which was mostly just stuffed in a bag anyway. But like, so when I do see some of those bigger ones, it is like, how are you doing this? [00:33:05] Speaker A: But of course it's also about protection and making sure that everybody enjoys their good time. So you put a bit of code of conduct together on the website. [00:33:12] Speaker D: Yeah, I think more in line with how we do very much try to preach that we are community and that what we would like as part of that is everyone to. To come with those kind of same values in that same level respect. So the code of content, literally is that cosplay isn't consent. So if someone has an outfit on that is slightly revealing, that doesn't mean you can touch, it doesn't mean you can just take a photo. If you like their outfit and you think they look amazing, approach the person, say, oh, I think your outfit looks amazing. Ask for a photo. If it's a child that's in a grey outfit. The times we're in, you ask the parents, you ask the guardians and say, hey, guys, can I have a photo with? It's just mutual respect for each other, and I think that gets overlooked sometimes, but it's something that we do very much. We put posters up around the venue as well, just to let people know, hey, look, we're all here for the same reason, for the love of the content, for the love of the community. So just respect and look after each other. It's really simple. [00:34:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:10] Speaker A: And tag with the creators as well. [00:34:12] Speaker D: Yeah, tag the creators. Give them the credit, because if you're going to take a photo and go, hey, here's my instagram, like, ask for the person's at, tag them in it. Like, try and get them the exposure that quality and dedication deserves. [00:34:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:25] Speaker A: It's something we always believe in quite a lot here at geeky brimming, we always make sure we get consent before we take. [00:34:29] Speaker D: Yeah, no means no. So if a creator says no, sorry. Because for whatever reason, doesn't matter what the reason is, you just say, okay, thank you, have a great day, and on you go. Enjoy your time. [00:34:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:39] Speaker C: It is important because, like you were saying when you mentioned the cosplay hospital, it's part of the experience of going out in cosplay is feeling comfortable in what you're wearing. It's sort of. It's a character that you identify with and you want to almost make it part of your Persona, and you need to feel comfortable and safe doing that. [00:35:00] Speaker D: Yeah. And the after party and the cosplay and the hospital and everything we do is all from that. That position of respect. It's all from that position of, we're one community. Everyone looks out for everybody. Everybody looks after everybody. And everyone's accepted regardless of who, what, where, how, everyone is part of it, and everyone is welcome. [00:35:21] Speaker A: So talk more about the after party then. So it's one of the big event draws. [00:35:26] Speaker D: Yeah. So you gotta get the VRP ticket kids to get in your normal ticket won't get into the after the show party, but you can buy the extra and that will get you in and it's music and it's entertainment and it's the community and it'll be cosplayers. It's just really good fun. In London, we had it in a side room from the event and people were karaoke, singing the Pokemon theme tune and everyone was joining in and there's this cascade of that final note of Pokemon, like that last bit and like it's, again, back to that community thing, like it's just such a great, fun little extra to the show that it just kind of, yes, you can do the day, yes, you can do your convention and then just in the evening you get to wind down still in cosplay, still in however many shopping bags you've bought, and you just get to kind of go like those dudes are singing the Pokemon theme tune or they're singing the tune tune to this and I want to sing along and just go and do it and just. It's, it's a be free moment. [00:36:30] Speaker A: Yeah. I think one of the advantages as well, being at the NEC, it's very easy to get to by public transport. It's got its own train station pretty much with Birmingham International versus. There's plenty of hotel rooms nearby if you do want to stop over for the evening, etcetera. [00:36:44] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, I'm sure that everyone has been to a convention of any description at the NEC. Yeah, easy to get to hotels on site. If there is any questions, our website fully details how to get there. It fully details like we've mentioned the code of conduct, it's got the link to the tickets which we'll post for this on our rails and everything like that as well. So you guys can go and check out anything that we haven't quite covered. [00:37:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, there's great guide to accessibility of the menu as well. So if you've got some accessibility issues, there's great ways getting in the safe spaces there if you neurodivergence, etcetera. I mean, you've got a fantastic crew of volunteers as well who are on site to help. [00:37:29] Speaker D: Yeah, and we are still looking for volunteers. So if anyone is interested and wants to come and be part of the convention, you may be not a cosplayer, you may be someone that just loves the medium and thinks, you know, hey, I'd love to just come and help out. So if you go to the website, if you contact us on any of our socials and say, hey, look, I want to register as a volunteer. We'll get you on a little register. Noah and the team and Ella will be in touch and we'll start doing details and get everyone along and get you in some nice branded merch. So you look the parts. [00:38:03] Speaker A: Yeah. And you mentioned as well about the contract creature applications, that's finishing soon, I believe. [00:38:08] Speaker B: Yes. [00:38:08] Speaker D: So the content creator applications via the website and there's a form at the bottom of the page so you can fill it in. That'll go through to BECCs and the team. That closes the 30 April and they're going to try and get back in contact with anybody in around the 7 May. [00:38:25] Speaker A: Awesome. So suppose one more thing before we get onto it. You're doing a mini forbidden planet international tour in the run up as well. [00:38:33] Speaker D: Yeah, we've got a great little partnership going with Forbidden Planet International, so we're going to do a little tour across May. So from the 4 May through to the 26th, I think the tour kind of finishes. So we're each weekend across multiple stores. So Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Leicester, Nottingham, Stoke. I think there's actually a bit of scope. So we're going to be covering Sheffield and Manchester as well, because obviously Birmingham's nice and easy to reach from those areas, so it could be that people are like, oh, hey, I'd still like to come. And it's an hour and a little bit on the train, so each of those shops, we're going to be there. So if anyone wants to buy a ticket, we'll have our card reader. There we go. You can buy a ticket. We can hand out. We'll be handing out flyers, speak to people if they don't know our convention, don't know what we're about. We'll be appearing in store and just chatting with people. And at each store we're going to give away two free tickets as well. So each store will run a different type of competition. Whether it's cosplay, little question, performance, whatever it is, we're going to put something together for each individual store. People can come and win vip tickets and that will get them into the show and the after party, the exclusive after party. [00:39:48] Speaker A: Awesome. I mean, when we went down last year, I mean, it was a fantastic day out. We only did the one day out, the two, unfortunately, but it was really good fun and we really enjoyed it, didn't we? [00:39:58] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And the community atmosphere really struck me as well, and the community as a whole, but also the little kind of sub communities. It was just lovely. Kind of dipping your toe into different worlds that I remember there was a stand about. I think it was people who build and paint kind of gundam makesuit figures, and they clearly had this huge community. They all knew each other, chatted about it online, and it's just something I've never even thought about before. [00:40:30] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, the Gundam building scene is massive. [00:40:34] Speaker A: It was the intricacies of it, micro leds, all the little kits and how they'd taken the kits and modified them, and the modding scene was insane with that. And, like, how they do, like, I. [00:40:44] Speaker B: Mean, if you think it's. It's big here, like, when I went to Japan in Akiobara, they have, like, just entire shops that are just Gundam parts. That's all they sell. They don't sell anything else, but it's just an entire shop that only sells that and they're just like, okay, so. [00:41:02] Speaker A: Now they've just had the giant Gundam statue. I believe it's just closed after, like, running for almost a year, was only supposed running for a few days. [00:41:09] Speaker B: I think they change it regularly. [00:41:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that was insane to see that footage online. But, I mean, we've all been to conventions at the NEC quite a long time. As you've said, pete, I think some of it has got a little bit stayed. Some of it is the kind of. It feels like a Scooby Doo cartoon as you run up and down the aisles. It's Funko pop seller. Yeah, old merch. Funko pop seller. Old merch. Funko pops. Video games that are massively overpriced. Funko pops. And you're trying to get away from that quite a lot. I mean, we've been to conventions at the NEC for what, nearly 1015 years now in league. [00:41:44] Speaker B: Do you feel like it's getting a. [00:41:45] Speaker A: Bit staid with the convention scheme? [00:41:47] Speaker B: I mean, it depends on where you're going. Certain conventions are definitely better than others. I mean, obviously I'm going to talk a bit more about it later in the show, but the UK games Expo is always a good time, for instance. But like, obviously, yes, there are other sort of bigger ones which you can kind of tell that they're just kind of a bit rote. It's kind of a bit the same thing at times, but I think that. [00:42:11] Speaker D: I think there is room for all of these different aspects. Funko and what have you. I think just some conventions. It's, oh, you want to come and sell here? Yeah, fine. And it's like you said, it's just like ten rows of people selling funkos amongst the eleven rows of merch, which is fine for that convention. We have a lot of repeat custom. We have a lot of new people. We try and look at what people are selling. So when someone comes along, you can get that bandai exclusive, whether it be a UK version or a Japan version. There will be a stand selling funko. There will be someone selling some of the squishmallow type figures, teddies and what have you. There'll be the big posters, there'll be the laminate stickers choice. It's a load of different things that for whatever your fandom needs are, there should be stands for you. [00:43:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:14] Speaker A: And I think that's the thing that people get confused with anime because they think in their heads, maybe it's just cartoons. It's a medium, it's an art form. Same as we always talk about with comic books on here. It's an art form, it's a medium. You can tell many, many different stories and many, many different styles using the form of anime or using comics or using manga or different ways. And it's a great way to get a lot of collaboration going on as well. I know specifically, conventions are great places, people to meet and collaborate, and artists you'll see will pop over to the stand, see their styles, have conversations together. And it's always a great kind of community feel as well. [00:43:50] Speaker D: Well, that's part of it. So if anyone's actual, they're selling merch or they're a creator and they're in artist alley, what have you, as part of their booking, they get to come to the after show party as well. So it's not that, it's just someone sat at a table during the day going, buy my comic or buy my artwork. You can come and speak to that person in the evening, you can come and say, hey, what was your inspiration? Like, you can. This is where the community thing always comes back. The after party, you can come and I love your work, dude. And I can come and speak to you and ask why you did it and how you did it and what your inspiration was. And you can kind of touch base with all these people, like, oh, where did you get those bandais from Japan? Like, did you bring it in this way? Like, can you give me an email? It just allows people to network, to love the community they're in and kind of really build up those friendship groups ultimately. [00:44:42] Speaker B: So on that, I do like seeing the little community moments with the artists where they're sort of communicating with each other. One of the things that stood out to me at the most recent MCM was an artist who I think made sketch or something, which was basically, I survived the Neil newborn queue because that queue is ludicrously long to go see, like, the voice of asteroid for bald skate three. And like, so one of the artists sat down and we're just like, I'm gonna sell this thing. It's basically just like, like sort of, I was there, I survived that. Cue. [00:45:19] Speaker D: The sense of humor across the group is brilliant. Like, everyone is so funny and everyone's got so much kind of banter is the wrong word for it, but everyone can bounce off each other so well. It's such a friendly, welcoming place. It is brilliant. [00:45:33] Speaker A: It's always fun to watch the fan meets as well because you'll get people, as you said, from across the country, from up north, down south, and you see people start, these friendships start budding sometimes. It's like, I'm a big legion Legends fan. You're a big league of Legends fans. We're dressed to the same character. Let's have a conversation. Let's talk about how we did our cosplay techniques. [00:45:50] Speaker B: You also just get people kind of like gathering in groups based on properties. It's like, oh, you're this character. I'm this character. Let's all hang out because we're like the group from the anime. [00:45:59] Speaker A: I mean, it's always fun because you always get a load of Final Fantasy seven cosplayers. So you always get the Aoriths and the clouds, like, coming mingled together and always fun to see stuff like that. But the thing as well is you keep these as reasonably priced as well to ticket wise. I mean, it's not insane prices, especially for a convention. [00:46:17] Speaker D: No, no. Again, we tried to price that. Obviously we're a business, but also we tried to price that. We know that given the current financial times, everyone's in that. We want you to be there. We can't be a convention if you guys aren't there with us. It doesn't work. So you've got the two day vip pass, which is 50 plus the booking free with VAT. And that gets you to express entry, vip lounge, you get a bag, 20% off merch, collectible laminate and the after show party. That's a lot to remember in one moment. You've got weekend passes, which is just 30 pounds booking fee VAT, Saturday only, which is 20 pounds booking fee VAT, and Sunday, which is $17.50 booking fee VAT. But yeah, so everyone is welcome regardless of which day, how much or how little you want if you come and buy tickets and go. You know what? I wasn't going to stay around for the aftershave party, but now I want to. You can buy them on the day, it's fine. We're selling our own personalized merch there. You can buy additions to your tickets while you're there. If you're loving what you're doing, why not stay? [00:47:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, we haven't really mentioned the day yet. That would be a good thing to mention. [00:47:36] Speaker D: 15Th and 16, June at the NEC, Birmingham. [00:47:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I think you may have mentioned it very beginning. [00:47:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it's been a while since we delivered it, but yeah, it's been. I mean, it's a fantastic convention. We loved going last year. It was great to see this kind of new convention on the scene. As you said, the ones that have been around have been around for quite some time nowadays for most of them and something we worked with, Birmingham Anime Film Festival, of course, is how anime as a genre is exploding now at the moment. And it's one of those things where I think we had the first wave. If you think about the Toonami era, I remember being a kid watching like, Fox Kids Cartoon Network, seeing that first run of end of Evangelion, big o gun, grave, outlaw star, that kind of period. And I think we're in the second phase now where it's just gone crazy and people are really enjoying anime. And it's great to see people like Netflix and all the anime and Crunchyroll and the support coming out. [00:48:33] Speaker D: Yeah, I think everyone's bought in now. It used to be that it was this. Oh, it's. It's this thing over here and now it's. It's so immersed into so many different things. It, like said all the streamers. I know backy stuff. I mean, like, even my personal levels of interest, I'm a huge Batman guy. But, like, that Batman ninja was kind of like. It was amazing. And they. They also did it in around the same time they did a Batman stuff where it was, I think it was like six or seven different short stories done by anime artists. And they were all done in such different styles. And it was just stunning. It was beautiful. And it made me change, like, no, Batman's not meant to look like that easement. But then I loved it in the same way. It was like, oh, my God, it's such a fresh take on things. And I think that's where. Because the community's growing, because the artwork and the concepts are more widespread now, they're more accessible, like you said crunchyroll, Netflix, etcetera. I think it's just, it's a great new wave of fandom and I think it's really good to be riding that journey with it and seeing all the wonderful stuff that's coming out. [00:49:42] Speaker A: Yeah, that's fantastic. And time to give away some tickets, I think. [00:49:47] Speaker D: Yeah, so we're going to give away two tickets. So you're going to need to listen to what I say next because it will sound a little bit difficult, but it's not. So we're going to give two free tickets away to people chosen at random who can finish this quote. But you've got to finish it by posting on your show socials. So if you finish the quote, you can draw it, you can animate it, you can act it out, you can cosplay it, you can just type it in text, whatever you want to do. You follow us, you tag us and you finish this quote and you'll enter into the competition and the people who are on our socials will pick you at random. Now that that's been explained, and I hope somewhat succinctly so that people understand. So the quote is. And that you just need to finish the quote. That's all it is. You don't need to tell me who it was, how it was, when it was, you just need to finish the quote on your socials. So the quote is, if you live, you live. If you lose, you die, if you don't fight. What's the quote? [00:50:59] Speaker A: So just to repeat that, if you live, you live. If you lose, you die. If you don't fight. Dot, dot, dot, finish the quote. [00:51:08] Speaker D: Finish the quote. So you can post it anywhere on your socials. Like you said, you can act it out, you can animate it, you can just stick person draw it, you can text it, as long as you follow us on whichever platform it is, tag us in whatever post in however you want to do it, finish the quote and you'll be entered into the prize draw for two VRB tickets, which will get you into the conventional weekend and the after show party. [00:51:31] Speaker A: And what date was that? Close. [00:51:33] Speaker D: We're going to close that to coincide with free comic book day, so that will be closed as of the 4 May. [00:51:39] Speaker A: Cool. All links, etcetera. Social medias will be in the description below or on the post on the geeky Brummy website. We'll probably be running a few preview articles in the run up as well to Animatecon UK and remind you of that. But yeah, thanks very much for coming, Pete. [00:51:54] Speaker B: Thanks for having me. [00:51:55] Speaker D: And I look forward to seeing you all guys at the event. [00:51:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:59] Speaker A: And we'll be probably talking about a lot more coming up very soon. [00:52:02] Speaker D: Absolutely. [00:52:06] Speaker A: There are some other events coming up in Birmingham and the surrounding area, which we picked a few out, which we think you might be interested in. The first one I'm doing on behalf of Matt, who is busy practicing, I think, in readiness for said event, which is ESL one, which is Dota two. I can never remember what Dota stands for. Defense of the ancients or dawn of the Ancients, or something like that. [00:52:31] Speaker B: I think I did see someone, like the other day, find a different acronym for it. That was something entirely different, but they realized that. Hang on a minute, its acronym is DoTa. [00:52:41] Speaker A: I think it's of the ancients. I can remember what the first word. [00:52:43] Speaker B: Is, I think, like a sort of department of the department of the Agriculture or something. [00:52:51] Speaker A: Anyway, it's one of the massive MOBAS, similar to League of Legends, and it's one of the big, big events. And it's valve owned, I believe. It is defensive. [00:52:58] Speaker E: It is defensive. [00:52:59] Speaker B: I got it right. Well done. [00:53:01] Speaker C: Cool. [00:53:01] Speaker A: So it's making its triumphant return to Birmingham this month, actually, at the time of recording. So, historically, this was the most successful major in the dota pro circuit, known as DPC, was put on high acids in 2020 because of certain events that happened around the world in the year 2020, which we all can probably remember if you haven't got any short term memory loss. But it's back. It's bigger than memory. [00:53:27] Speaker B: I mean, you might have short term memory loss because of what happened, because. [00:53:31] Speaker A: Of that, but, yeah, so it's back, back. It's bigger than ever. And this time it's taking part at Resorts World arena, which is just on the NEC, next to the NEC grounds. I think it's same owners. It's the same as resorts world, but off to the side. [00:53:44] Speaker B: Yeah. So where it is. So you got like the south car park and you've got resorts world, and just across from that, you've got the resorts world arena. And it's like, as you're going into the NEC proper from the car parks, it's along that way. [00:53:58] Speaker E: This is basically the music venue. [00:53:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:53:59] Speaker A: It used to be known as the NEC arena. Used to be before it was the genting arena and before that was the NEC arena. It's the big place that you go and see a music. [00:54:08] Speaker E: They change the name regularly, but yes. [00:54:10] Speaker B: Because it's just the NEC. Because in Birmingham, we cannot keep the name for an arena for more than six months. [00:54:17] Speaker A: So it's a phenomenal milestone for Birmingham, to be honest. It's the biggest esports event in the country. I think one of, if not the biggest, a lot of young esports are becoming to experience best that Birmingham has to offer, and, well, they'll be experienced in the NEC and resorts world have to offer. And it will also, I think they're playing for a prize pool of roughly about a million pounds. So it's big money in esports nowadays. [00:54:42] Speaker B: Kids get clicking steam money being put to good use. [00:54:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's on from April 26 through to the 28th. Tickets on the website and links will be, as usual in the description. But Keith, something else is happening on May 4 this year apart from Star Wars Day. So do you want to tell us what's going on? [00:55:00] Speaker E: So because it happens on the first Saturday of May every year, it does align with Star Wars Day this year. So 4 May is free Comic Book Day 2024, which is basically the comic book shop's annual event where participate in comic shops around the globe, not just in the UK, give away free comic books to their customers. And this is just, like I said, traditionally held on the first Saturday of May. So what they have is they have a range of comics that are coming from all different publishers to encourage people to try a title so they can pick it up. So they have a range of gold comics, which are the kind of top tier comics that are a bit more difficult to get. And then they also have their Silver comics. But what they also do to make it easier for prospective comic buyers is they have the free comic day banner at the top of each title. And these are color coded, so if you have green, that's an all ages title. So that's suitable for everybody from, you know, babies through to 90 year olds. [00:56:02] Speaker B: Many babies are reading comics. [00:56:04] Speaker A: Well, you can't read yet. Pretty pictures could be read to. [00:56:12] Speaker E: Their blue banner is kind of their teens one, so that's appropriate. Kind of up to the age of about 13. So quite a few titles are there. And then their red banners are kind of their mature readers. So kind of 13 plus titles on that. So there's a massive amount of titles available. [00:56:26] Speaker B: I hope they don't get those mixed up. [00:56:28] Speaker C: Yeah, color coded. [00:56:29] Speaker E: Green's good, blue's okay. Red's no. Do not give to children. Basically, don't give to children. So depending on your comic shop, you might find that you have a certain selection of comics, and the way they give them out might be slightly different. So generally worlds apart, which is our local one. It's a pick. There's a number of comics that you can pick up to. Some of the shops will be blind bagged, some will be other. So you might get some titles at one shop and not at another, depending on what they have to order. Because the comic shops have to actually buy these in as comics, although they're giving them away, it's part of their kind of sales thing. So they are actually paying for these comics. So the best thing you can do if you buy a comic or pick up a comic in free comic book by a graphic novel, or buy some other comics. [00:57:13] Speaker A: So worlds apart, our lovely friends in Birmingham, who one of the premium comic book shops, one of the oldest comic book shops in the UK, they always have a fantastic manga offer, I think at three for two. [00:57:23] Speaker E: Yeah, they're always doing their manga offer, so you could always pick up some of the kind of manga titles. There are a few manga free comic book day books out this year as well, which are always really good. Some of the other ones, there's Doctor who. So shooting Nagwa's 1st, 15th Doctor is having his free comic book day. So that's pushing the kind of Titan books. The big kind of Avengers and X Men books are the blood hunt. Where is the Marvel superheroes versus vampires? Once again, there's a. [00:57:53] Speaker A: They got bored of the zombies. [00:57:55] Speaker E: Well, they'll get. The zombies will be back at some point. There's a lots of Disney stuff as well, so young readers stuff. There's Energon universe one, which is kind of. If people haven't been on board with the Energon universe, that's the return of Transformers, but through the image line. So they're doing the tie in between GI Joe and Transformers, doing more kind of stuff like that. There's also a teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles book because 40th anniversary iDLW are finishing their current series with issue 150. And then it will start again in, I think it's June that it picks up. And also a newish publisher, to me, Mad Cave are doing a Gatcheman book, which is promoting their new series, which is also coming out in June. But there's generally a good selection of titles from all. [00:58:45] Speaker B: But the real question is, any Star wars comics? [00:58:48] Speaker E: There is, there's quite a few. There's three or four Star wars books. [00:58:50] Speaker B: So I was gonna say it is a real missed opportunity if they do not put any free. [00:58:54] Speaker E: There's a standard kind of Star wars book, and then there's also ones for high. They do the various eras now. So they've got, they've cottoned onto the idea that there's kind of high Republic and kind of modern Star wars and all the rest of it. So there's quite a few titles on there. So there's, I think there's three Star wars titles that will be available on the day. So sometimes they're self contained. Sometimes they're kind of preludes to stories that will start in the regular issues going down. But it's always a good opportunity to, you know, try a comic you might not have tried before, but always try and buy something else from your local comic shop if you can. [00:59:29] Speaker B: Yeah. When you said about blind bags, I was just like, that sounds terrible. I know what would happen. I would pick it up hoping to see something interesting, and it's just all superheroes, and I'd just be like, right, trash. Yeah. [00:59:40] Speaker E: Hopefully you would get. I mean, there's an Archie horror. Archie comics are doing a horror range as well, which has been really good over the past few years, which is quite cool. So that's in there as well. [00:59:49] Speaker A: Any Godzilla comics? I don't think there's a Godzilla book. [00:59:53] Speaker E: This year, although it's his 70th anniversary. I don't think there's a free comic book day. There are anniversary books coming down the line, but I don't think he's got one. [01:00:01] Speaker A: No, he's done a lot of partnerships recently. Good old Godzilla. Was it Power Rangers? [01:00:05] Speaker E: Power Rangers. Godzilla versus Power Rangers. [01:00:07] Speaker A: Transformers. [01:00:08] Speaker E: Godzilla with pirates. [01:00:10] Speaker B: Yeah, Godzilla's just showing up everywhere right now. Yeah, he's Dave the diver, of all things. I don't know how that even happened. Well, he. [01:00:19] Speaker E: I think there's another thing that he's partnering up with. Another video game, mobile game. I think. [01:00:24] Speaker A: I think it's been in Fortnite. Or is it Call of Duty? [01:00:27] Speaker E: It's been Call of Duty. [01:00:28] Speaker C: Call of Duty. [01:00:28] Speaker E: Yeah, there's another one coming soon, but, yeah, so, yeah, buy comics, get free comics. But that's May 4, which is coming up four weeks. [01:00:37] Speaker A: Awesome. Sam Maker Central. Do you want to tell us what's going on? [01:00:41] Speaker C: Yes. 18th to 19. May. Again at the NEC is makers central. Makers of what, you might ask? [01:00:49] Speaker A: Everything makers as in the June 2 makers June, just in case. [01:00:55] Speaker C: Everything. [01:00:58] Speaker B: It is also not the Disney owned content creator platform that I thought it might have been like. I thought it was a Vidcon type thing initially, and I was like, huh, interesting. But obviously it's not. [01:01:11] Speaker C: Yeah. So make some. Everything apart from those things. Basically any kind of hobby craft or artistic kind of creative industry is going to be represented there. So they've got different companies who manufacture the tools and that sort of thing, workshops. So basically, if you're into any kind of crafting or cosplay or anything along those lines, go along and they'll have youtubers and social media influencers and that sort of thing, who you might have been following giving demonstrations. [01:01:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I know two of the big youtubers, because they were quite big fanfare about it is the hacksmiths, which he's got one of the biggest YouTube channels. I think he's the guy who made the first ever lightsaber. So I think there's a video about that. And he's like made Iron man gloves, full suits, Captain America Shield, done lots and lots of interesting stuff. So that's really interesting. And Colin firs, the crazy british bloke who has just done weird stuff, I think he's currently digging a tunnel from his garden to the front of his house to park his DeLorean, which will rise into his driveway. He's done crazy stuff in the past. I think he made a moped, which has got a pizza oven on it, so you can like, do pizza delivery and get your pizza made on the way. Tank tracks. I think he made a full on tie striker for the second sequel, Star wars sequel. So he built a full on one to one scale model. Man is crazy. And this funny stuff is always fun to watch. So some really good youtubers there, as you said, sam 3d printing, a lot of raspberry PI stuff usually going on there about Arduinos, how to do control. [01:03:01] Speaker C: Stuff, lots of workshops as well. So if you've been sort of thinking, oh, I quite fancy giving metallurgy a go, you can go along and have a go at making some little metal things or leather working or really all sorts. And like I mentioned, I'm sure a lot of people listening to this are into cosplay. If you're into it and you fancy sort of taking it in a different direction, maybe with some like honing up your sewing skills or adding some, buy. [01:03:35] Speaker A: A new 3d printer or a CNC machine or one of those. [01:03:39] Speaker C: Yeah, there really is all sorts in there. So, yeah, go on. It looks like fun. [01:03:44] Speaker E: Just remind us where and when that is again. [01:03:46] Speaker C: 18Th to 19 May at the NEC. [01:03:49] Speaker A: Awesome. And Lee, one of the bigger flagship conventions coming up. [01:03:54] Speaker B: Yes. [01:03:55] Speaker A: Board game fun. I'm sure San will be very interested in this one as well, which is. [01:04:00] Speaker B: So UK games Expo, which is also at the NEC, is the 31 May to the 2 June. So it's always like that weekend where you're sort of crossing over into June is usually when it's on basically just big board game convention takes place across three halls, I think it is. So the halls one to three, but it also spills over into the hotel that's on the NEC site as well, where they do all the open gaming stuff. It is always a really good time. It is basically just. You've just got people showing off their board games and most of the tables, you can go and sit down and actually sit down and play whatever's there. The great thing about board games is, you know, being so tactile, they can just, you can just have them there and you can see what they're all about straight out of the gate. And like, obviously we were talking about like how, you know, community for conventions. This is probably one of the best for community because it's board games, so you have to play them with other people. So even if you're going on your own, you end up kind of, when you want to test stuff out, you end up kind of getting grouped up with people and. And that's a good time. [01:05:15] Speaker A: And also there's big TTRPG focus. [01:05:18] Speaker B: Yes. This is what I was about to get to. You can also. One of the things they do in the hotel is they will run tabletop rpg campaigns. So very short little one shots and you can sign up for them on the website and go along and just participate in those. I've done a couple of those in the past. There was one, I can't remember what the system was, but it was something about like, you're all servants in like a haunted house. So it's almost like you're sort of like the staff for the Addams family, effectively. So there's like weird stuff going on in the house and you're the ones who have to kind of deal with the fallout of it. And there's like, there was one whole bit where like, me and another player had to try and like, remove a body from the house before someone important arrived and that's it. So it was a very like fun time. They also do a lot of like, tournaments for board games and stuff. Stuff. I took part in a seven wonders one in a previous year. So, you know, it's just a really good time. So it's for three days. You get to just play a lot of board games. [01:06:18] Speaker A: I always love seeing the people with their giant bags full of like 300 board games that they buy coming back on the train like this. [01:06:25] Speaker B: I mean, this is the thing. You also have, like, the bring and buy thing. So, like, if you. If there's some board games you want to get rid of, you can go sell them there, but then while you're there, you can then pick up even more, because there's usually, like, stores which just sell tons of them as well, so it's always useful. And also there is the living history village, which is basically just a whole bunch of vikings just hang out outside for the entire duration of the convention. So that's always a fun time as well. [01:06:52] Speaker A: They're there. Usually they just put a sign up when uk games. [01:07:00] Speaker B: No. Awesome. [01:07:01] Speaker A: So some fantastic events coming up, and don't forget, there might be a film festival coming at the end of September, October. More news coming soon. [01:07:11] Speaker B: So a couple of episodes we talked about the BAFTA Film awards, and, well, it's not the only thing that BAFTA do, as well as the film and tv awards. They also, for the past 20 years, have been doing the BAFTA game awards as well. It really has been going for 20 years. 20 years. Yeah. They said they put, like, a whole montage at the beginning of the ceremony. [01:07:31] Speaker A: Why have they not put the g letter into BAFTA then? Because it should be the BAfT gas now. [01:07:36] Speaker B: Really? I don't know. But, you know, baftkas. That's probably why. But, yes. Anyway, so the ceremony happened this week. At the time of recording, I watched the. The whole thing, and I always love watching the BAFTA game awards. It is so much better than Jeff Keighley's game advertisements in December. [01:08:01] Speaker A: So you mean the advertisement awards with occasional bits of game footage? [01:08:05] Speaker E: Those ones, yeah. [01:08:05] Speaker B: So, basically, like, the thing about Jeff Keighley's show every year is that it is so exhausting to watch. It's, like 90% ads and another 5% celebrity appearances. And occasionally you might get, like, 20% Christopher judge. You get like. Yeah, and. Or you'd get. And, like, the most recent one had, like, the whole thing where, you know, everyone had about roughly 5 seconds to speak, and that included the time it took them to walk to the stage. BaFTA, by contrast, genuine celebration of games, same length. The show was the exact same length. It was 2 hours and 15 minutes. But it wasn't exhausting. It was genuinely exciting, genuinely, like, pleasing to watch, because everyone was celebrating the games of the past year. Like, everyone got to speak properly, and everyone got to, you know, and everyone presenting the awards, they didn't bring out celebrity appearances. It was journalists, voice actors, content creators, people who actually have some association with video games, actually. And best game award was presented by John Romero. So the co creator of Doom. So obviously this is someone important to the games industry. [01:09:23] Speaker A: I don't know. He created Doctana, but he will make you his bitch. [01:09:30] Speaker B: But anyway, so, yeah, obviously the awards, unsurprisingly, Baldur's gate three was the big winner of the night. It got best game, but it also won four other awards, including player choice. I'm not gonna bring up the sponsor like they kept doing throughout the show. [01:09:50] Speaker A: The mobile phone network company. [01:09:52] Speaker B: It is a mobile phone network company, but other mobile phone network companies are available. But also it won music and narrative and it also won performer in a sporting role for Andrew Wincott as Raphael, who was like the demon guy that. [01:10:07] Speaker A: Pops up, not Asterion, who everybody thought was in the back. [01:10:11] Speaker B: I mean, he was nominated for performer in a leading role along with two other baldurs gate three roles because the narrator, and let me double check who the other one was. It was Karlak, her voice actor. So all three of those were nominated for performer in a lead role. I may as well bring that one up because it was actually won by one of the two Spider Men that were nominated. So I like that. It's three Baldurs gate three party members, two Spider Men, and then the guy from Star wars, it was Naji Jetta, who played Miles Morales in Spider man two, which surprised even him because by his own admission, when he accepted the award, he's like, I haven't even written a speech because everyone else is better than me. So I didn't think I was going to win this. So I don't know what to say. [01:11:01] Speaker A: So now you've flown over from America just for it, and it was basically booking it straight. [01:11:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:11:07] Speaker B: So he was just sort of like, I've got to figure out where to pack this. It's really heavy. [01:11:12] Speaker A: Just carry on the plane. [01:11:15] Speaker B: But I mean, you know, obviously, like one thing that this is. But part of that was kind of back to this sort of celebratory idea, is when you see the reaction shot of him winning, you also see Yuri Lowenthal, who played Peter Parker. And he's like properly hyping up Naji Jetta, even though he lost technically, he clearly is happy for his colleague. And that's the sort of thing I loved seeing. Similarly, when I'm going to butcher his name. But Borislav Slavov from Baldur's gate three, who was the composer, won best music. He was on the verge of tears. And that's the sort of thing that, like, you know, you sort of see the people behind this and all this. But so, you know, obviously, other big winners of the night, we also had Alan Waite two, which won two awards for artistic achievement and audio achievement. [01:12:11] Speaker A: I liked that. It was kind of like a bookend. It was quite nice that they picked both of those together because it was kind of like. I appreciate remedy. Games are very artistic, and I've heard there are scenes in Alan wait two which are very odd artistic choices, but work fine for the said game. [01:12:26] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a very. So the great thing about remedy is that they just kind of do whatever they want. It's whatever weird thing is going on in Sam Lake's head ends up in that game. Doesn't matter what it is. That's just how their games work. And one of the great things that they've been doing with some of their more recent games is combining a lot of CGI stuff with live action, so they'll blend gameplay with live action footage. And the way that they do it is so phenomenal. I've never seen anyone else do it quite this. They built their engine specifically for this purpose. So you just have live action stuff layered on top of the gameplay, or, you know, it'll suddenly. You'll walk in and it's in an area. Now you're watching a live action thing, or you've got a whole, like, experimental movie playing on the cinema inside one area. And it's, you know, just. It's really good how they just throw all this stuff together. And also remedy kind of got other representation when they did the in memoriam segment, which I think may be the first time they've done an in memoriam segment, but they had late goodbye by poets of the fall, which was used for. I believe it was used for the end credits of Max Payne two. And the reason they used that is because of the passing of James McCaffrey, who was the voice of Max Payne. So he passed away in like December. So obviously he was like one of the last names that they showed. But it meant that, like, at both the big award shows, poets of the fall effectively got to do a musical performance because obviously at the game awards, they did the old gods of Asgard thing. [01:14:02] Speaker A: This fake band's doing incredibly well, aren't they? [01:14:05] Speaker B: Well, poets of the fall is the real band and all sorts of fake one. But yeah, other so big winners. We've got super Mario Bros. Wonder also won two. It won multiplayer and family. It is really not surprising that a Nintendo game won family if it's a Mario game. It's probably going to win best family game. And then viewfinder was the only other one to win multiple awards, which was best british game and best new intellectual property, which is the most business name they could have given it. Viewfinder, for those who don't know, is kind of like, it's like a small indie game. It's like a puzzle game, and you've got, like, a Polaroid camera, and you take pictures of the scenery, and then you can use the polaroid to, like, place on the scenery, and that becomes the scenery. It's a very interesting concept. I've not actually played it myself, but, like, you know, I'm very. I always forget that it was a british game until it won best british game. But, for example, like, one of the things I've seen in the trailer is, like, you take a picture of, like, a building, turn it on its side. Now you made a bridge with the photo. So it's. It's very interesting. I don't know how it holds up across the whole game, but it won two awards, the baftas, so, yeah, then we had a bunch of other things. Animation was won correctly by hi fi rush. [01:15:22] Speaker A: Just glad I saw it one, because I know it was one of your top three of last year. [01:15:26] Speaker B: So, I mean, just the door scene alone is indicative of the great if. Hey, good. The animation is in that game because that's just brilliant physical comedy done entirely through animation. I'm sure Keith appreciates a lot of the animation in that game as well. [01:15:41] Speaker E: Yeah, it's a great game. I'm glad it's getting recognition because it kind of came out of nowhere when it was released. [01:15:47] Speaker A: Dropped January last year. [01:15:48] Speaker B: Yeah, they literally announced it and released it at the same time during an Xbox showcase. [01:15:54] Speaker E: Yeah. And now it's multi platform as well, isn't it? [01:15:56] Speaker B: Yes, they released it. They did a PS five version, and then we also had debut game was won by Vemba, which is the. [01:16:04] Speaker A: The cooking mama style. [01:16:06] Speaker B: Yeah, it's like this sort of. You are like, it's based around an immigrant family. It's like an indian family moved to Canada. And it's sort of about sort of finding your place within a new area while holding onto your identity through cooking. And a lot of the game centers around a cooking mini game, which is, you know, and it's all about, like, you know, making these traditional indian dishes and kind of putting, like, western twists on them and all this sort of stuff. It's a very interesting setting game. I don't know if I'd personally play it but I appreciate the stuff. Like, this exists. Game design was won by Dave the diver, which I always forget is korean, until, like, I saw the guy accepting the award come down. Oh, yeah, this is a korean maker, isn't it? [01:16:52] Speaker A: Owned by some massive chaebol or something? [01:16:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it's owned because it wouldn't. [01:16:55] Speaker A: Indie game. [01:16:56] Speaker B: It's classified as an indie game by some places because I know it wouldn't. I know it was nominated for best indie game at the game awards, which caused massive controversy. But it's owned by the people who made maplestory, I believe. So. One of the big korean mmos. So it's like, you know, it's not an indie game by any stretch of the imagination, but, like, it's the one. It's basically a game about you run a fishing. You run like, a fish restaurant. So, like, half the game is you go diving and catch fish and get stuff, and then the other half of it is a cooking mini game and running restaurant management, basically, so. [01:17:31] Speaker A: And now Godzilla turns up. [01:17:32] Speaker B: And now Godzilla turns up. I don't know, like, dredge made sense when that did a crossover because that was another, like. Yeah, sort of nautical, like working on the seaside kind of game. [01:17:42] Speaker A: Wasn't that like lovecraftian horrors, basically. So that makes perfect sense. [01:17:46] Speaker B: But at least it makes sense because it's like, you know, they both are better. [01:17:50] Speaker A: Are you feeding Godzilla? This is the bit I don't understand. Is Godzilla a patron at the restaurant or are you trying to capture him. [01:17:58] Speaker B: For feed the restaurant? And then game beyond entertainment, which is usually games that sort of touch on sort of interesting subjects, sort of try and say something was won by a game called cheer, which I think is mostly centered around the fact that it was highlighting the culture of New Caledonia, which tends to not get mentioned much in media in general. So that's obviously a pretty good thing. Evolving game was won by Cyberpunk 2077, which is probably going to cause controversy. [01:18:28] Speaker A: Again, I think if that game still has its apology to auto a certain point, isn't it? It's like, look, we put Idris Elver in now. Are you guys happy? It's not just Keanu. Now we have Idris. [01:18:38] Speaker B: I mean, that did bring one of the best moments of the show because they decided we're going to let sweet Anita, who's a streamer with Tourette's, present this award. So she called CDPR a dad, which she shows up to these things all the time and they know what's going to happen. And that's why they do it. And it's why she agrees to it, because she also acknowledges that, like, my tics are actually quite funny. [01:19:11] Speaker A: Make a note of time stuff. [01:19:14] Speaker B: But, yeah. Then also technical achievement was legend of Zelda, tears of the kingdom, which does not surprise me, considering, well, the switch. [01:19:22] Speaker A: Is, what, nearly ten years old? [01:19:25] Speaker B: It would be seven. [01:19:27] Speaker A: Yeah, I thought it was older than that. Yeah, seven years old. And it was an old processor at the time because it was one out the Nvidia shield, which is why I'm thinking it's ten years old, because I think the processor itself is ten years old. For that game to run on ten year old hardware and to look as beautiful is, it just does not make sense. [01:19:43] Speaker B: Well, it's also, like, when it came out, I saw a lot of other game designers reacting to it. We're just like, how so? Like, because it's got all the crafting mechanics, and you can basically just build a whole bunch of additional stuff. And, like, a lot of game designers, like, how did they put this together without the whole game just falling apart? Like, it doesn't make any sense. Like, this. This needs to be like, what kind of wizards do they have working in Kyoto? [01:20:10] Speaker A: You know, you got to know the hardware inside and out, don't you, for that to work properly? [01:20:15] Speaker E: It's a game like that that just disproves the constant rush to get to the next generation to create what is supposedly the next, the better. Better games. Isn't as. Isn't as much a thing as it is if you can do something with seven year old technology, put together a game that is crafted as well. Like you said, the things I've seen people have made out of those crafting elements just go, you know, it seemed unlimited. Really? [01:20:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Some for the good, some for the bad. I've seen some very disturbing things being made in the trailer, but, yeah, it's the whole art versus graphics, which is the race that some customers always seem to stretch. [01:20:58] Speaker B: But, yeah, like I said, it was one of those where, because of how baftas are selected, I knew that that was probably going to be heavily in consideration for it. Although I did find it funny that Starfield was nominated for it. I'm like, all right, it deserves a. [01:21:13] Speaker A: Technical achievement award because it's such an old engine that Bethesda refused to move away from, and it's still being used for modern games. It is insane, but it's definitely a. [01:21:24] Speaker B: Game where they seem to have made a lot of compromises. Well, it's because of that reason it's insane. [01:21:29] Speaker A: It's the same engine, I think, that's in Skyrim, which came out in 2011, and they're still beating that engine. [01:21:34] Speaker B: I think it's. I think, honestly think it's the same engine that's, like, in, like, Morrowind oblivion or something like that. [01:21:39] Speaker A: It's the creation. It's not the creation engine, is it? Creation engine? [01:21:43] Speaker B: It might be. [01:21:44] Speaker A: It's an old engine. Make anything run on that. [01:21:47] Speaker B: Yeah, it was in Skyrim, but I think it's older than that. But, yeah. Those were the BAFTA awards. [01:21:54] Speaker A: I think there was one more award for. Special award of. The. [01:21:58] Speaker B: Special award went to the disability charity special effect. And so they do a lot of great work in basically helping people with access needs be able to play video games. So they do things like they have a partnership with a company that makes eye tracking technology so people can use, like, their eyes to control games. [01:22:21] Speaker A: They also were custom one handed or adaptive controller. [01:22:26] Speaker B: They were also, like, heavily involved in the production of Xbox's adaptive controller, which is, like, one of the things I absolutely do praise Microsoft for, because it is just a really cool bit of tech, that it's a fully customizable controller that's very much been designed with access needs in mind. And Xbox threw a lot of money behind it because they were like, we want as many people to be able to play games as possible. Special effect with one of the consulting charities on it. So, you know, they've done a lot of great work there. So I think it is very well deserved. So, yeah, and that was. That was the BAFTA awards. It was a really good, fun show. Like I said, definitely worth watching. It is on the YouTube channel. Definitely give it a watch. You've got Phil Wang presenting it, doing a. Because they always get, like, some random comedian to present it, but it's always, like one of the Nerdier comedians they get. And it's always great, and, you know, you've got. It's just. It was just a really good show, and it's absolutely a celebration of video games, and it reminded me exactly what I love about the medium. [01:23:36] Speaker A: So that's fantastic. I'm hoping one day. One day they'll put it on tv to the same extent they do the film and tv awards. [01:23:43] Speaker B: Well, I mean, I think the BBC did a little bit of coverage of it, but most of it was, like, reporters who didn't know a thing about video games, going, oh, did you know that video games make a lot of money now? Did you know that women play video games now? I'm just like, is it 1995 again. [01:23:57] Speaker A: You know what they should do? They should get Barry and nuge from Geek syndicate to do it on BBC two or something. That'd be a fantastic way of doing it. [01:24:06] Speaker E: Well, it should be as celebrated as film and music, really. It's a massive, massive industry, and it's. [01:24:14] Speaker A: A bigger entertainment industry than film and. [01:24:16] Speaker B: Tv, to be honest. [01:24:17] Speaker E: And I think the exposure of, you know, even if it was just an 1 hour highlights on a Sunday afternoon or whatever it is, to expose people to the range of games that are now available, because it's amazing how many people just think of video games as still being Mario and Sonic, and that's it. And to be able to show the diversity of games that are available now. [01:24:39] Speaker B: Well, it's like I said, some of the BBC coverage being a bit kind of like, did you know that women play video games now? I'm like, yeah, they've played them for a while. What are you talking about? [01:24:49] Speaker A: Since the beginning, if you'll be aware of it. [01:24:52] Speaker B: And, like, you get people who do, like, present, who, like, introduce something about video game music, who go, it's not just bits and bops, bits and boops anymore. I'm just like, CD audio came in in the nineties. What do you do? [01:25:04] Speaker A: I think it's the same problem. And you picked it up in there when we just talked about the Oscars episode. This kind of childification of industry, which isn't cinema or tv. It's like. Or music industry. It's kind of. No, they are valid art styles and arts in their own right. [01:25:25] Speaker B: But I think this is why I like that BAFTA do honour it in the way they do, because they do take it seriously. BAFTA themselves definitely do. Yeah. [01:25:32] Speaker E: I think that's one of the things that we should be very proud of BAFTA doing, is that they. When they're giving awards, it's taken as this is a proper, genuine art form, and we really want to celebrate the best that is on offer. [01:25:46] Speaker B: And like I said, the fact that they do have people from the industry present the awards as well. Like, they had the original Lara Croft come out. So, you know, and it's, you know, that's sort of acknowledging the history of the industry as much as anything else. So it's all great. [01:25:59] Speaker A: So, yeah, fingers crossed they'll put it on tv next year. [01:26:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:26:07] Speaker A: It's time for our usual issue, round off of what's the one geek thing that has been peaking our interest over the last few weeks since we last recorded. I'm gonna start with Lee. [01:26:21] Speaker B: Okay. So I'm gonna shock everyone. I'm gonna talk about a tv show, not a video game. It's a superhero tv show. It is a. [01:26:33] Speaker C: It's not that shocking. [01:26:34] Speaker B: It is a samurai tv show. So I've been watching Shogun on Disney or wherever you watch it if you're in another country. But, yeah, I've been. I've watched the first four episodes of it. So this is the adaptation of the novel Shogun from, like, the seventies. [01:26:56] Speaker A: James Clark. [01:26:57] Speaker B: James Clevel. Yeah. [01:26:58] Speaker A: Asian saga, I believe. [01:26:59] Speaker B: Yes. So it's set during, just before the kind of rise of the shogunate in Japan. So it's sort of like the 16 hundreds. So you've got the Portuguese. It's when the Portuguese have sort of come over to Japan and they've forced Christianity onto the population. And it's for. Focuses on a british guy whose name escapes me right now. [01:27:28] Speaker A: It's Edward Blackthorn, the pilot. [01:27:32] Speaker B: It's John Blackthorn. Blackthorn, british guy who is basically followed the Portuguese to their magical new trading land of the Japans, as they keep calling it, which is very funny. And it's basically just about him trying to sort of, like, navigate this new society where, like, he doesn't understand the language, but he does know some Portuguese, which is represented throughout the entire show as English. But this is one of the things I do like about the show, is that they do have all the japanese actors speaking in Japanese, and then everyone else is speaking English, even though it's supposed to be Portuguese. [01:28:20] Speaker A: Because I know it was an original series in the seventies. [01:28:23] Speaker B: Yes. [01:28:24] Speaker E: Richard Chamberlain played the lead character. Yeah, I remember loving that. It was a great show. [01:28:29] Speaker A: But I think it's probably a little bit more violent compared to the original. [01:28:35] Speaker B: It is very. There is one scene in the most recent episode I've watched involving cannons. [01:28:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:28:42] Speaker B: So. And they do not hold back, showing what the canons can do. But, yeah, it's really. It's a really good show. It's mostly sort of John Blackthorn sort of siding with one of the lords, played by Hiroyuki Sanada, who is always great in everything, and he's. Everyone's sort of just kind of playing off everyone else at all times. Like, you've got the Portuguese, you've got the Japanese and the five lords all kind of working against each other as well as, like, John Blackthorn trying to get his own way. And it's. It's just really kind of. It's just kind of really devious. Just kind of seeing, like, everyone trying to, like, go up against each other and try and try and get their way. I did like that. There was a description of the show that I saw recently where someone said that Shogun teaches us that no matter what language we speak, no matter where we're from and what we believe in, we can all unite against our common enemy, the Portuguese. [01:29:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I remember reading, well, reading the book and listening to the audiobook quite a few years ago. It's one of my. I love the James Clavell series. I mean, there's King Rat. There's quite a few other books in the series. Typhon, Typan, one of my other favorites, which I'm hoping they're going to do after Shogunate because it's one of my all time favorite series of books. But, yeah, I mean, the casting has been great, maybe apart from Cosmo Jarvis, he's very, very. To be honest, he's playing it very well. He's playing an Englishman who is overseas. [01:30:18] Speaker B: Yes. [01:30:19] Speaker A: And he basically just shouts loud. [01:30:20] Speaker B: I legitimately love his performance as this just useless british guy, like, navigating a foreign language. It is exactly what you'd expect, especially of a guy of that era, just sort of waltzing and be like, hello, I'm english, and I'm. You will do what I say. You can order shit. [01:30:40] Speaker A: You can imagine him ordering chips in Benidorm in a cafe. [01:30:44] Speaker E: You call this tea? [01:30:46] Speaker A: But Hiroyuki Sanada, I love him so much. He was fantastic in John Wick. Oh, he's been fantastic in lead stuff. Can't remember what he's just been in everything and everything. [01:30:56] Speaker B: So it's. It's. His career is fascinating because, like, he kept showing up in, like, hollywood stuff as, like, we need, like, a distinguished japanese man to show up. And then I realized he was the dad in the ring. The original ring. [01:31:10] Speaker E: Yep. [01:31:11] Speaker B: Like, I forgot that he was in that. But then you go back to it, you're like, oh, yeah, that is him. [01:31:16] Speaker A: That's going to also call out Anna Sawoyer as well, who plays Mariko, who is one of the best characters ever in any kind of book. And her duality, it's her trying to deal with her catholic faith and her interpretation of God versus being introduced to this english person who's a Protestant, versus her trying to deal with her japanese and the regency and the courts. [01:31:36] Speaker B: I mean, that is one thing that I am enjoying about the show as well, is obviously there are plenty of japanese people who have not taken to Christianity, but, like, you know, the Portuguese have provided, like, the catholic perspective and this guy's come in and he's is protestant. And so there's all this sort of tension between him and the Portuguese. And you've just got people like Hiroyuki Sanada's character, who's just sort of sitting there going, what is this? What is this christian nonsense? Like, that term is actually used at one point. I have no time for your christian. [01:32:11] Speaker A: It's fantastic. Fascinating piece and period of history, and it's fascinating interpretation. [01:32:18] Speaker B: And it's also just great that, like, kind of both sides of the equation are kind of given a chance to shine. It's not like, sort of like, oh, look at the weird foreigners. It's like they're presented seriously with their own characters. And, like, it's also just, which I think is exemplified by the fact that right out the gate, they're both calling each other savages. And I just think that was the perfect way of demonstrating this. I'm enjoying it so far, but like I said, four episodes in, but it's really good so far. Yeah. [01:32:47] Speaker A: I was gonna say my favorite cliff is when he goes, oh, you need a bath. And it's like, but you gave me one yesterday. [01:32:51] Speaker B: I don't need two baths a week. [01:32:53] Speaker A: I believe one now till may or something. [01:32:57] Speaker B: Two baths in a week. I'm not doing it. [01:33:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I think Disney plus think it's FX, so whatever streaming service FX is on overseas. [01:33:07] Speaker E: Awesome. [01:33:07] Speaker A: Thank you, Sam. How about yourself? [01:33:11] Speaker C: Well, I'm slightly kicking myself for using three body problem last episode because I've now seen it, and it's awesome, and I would love to talk about that, but I'm not going to do the same thing two episodes in a row. So instead, I'm going to talk about a film that just came out in the cinema yesterday at time of recording, which is civil war. Not to be confused with Captain America civil war. Much more serious. [01:33:35] Speaker A: Not to be confused with the English Civil War either. [01:33:38] Speaker C: No. So it's new film by Alex Garland, who directed ex Machina and was a writer for 28 days later as well. [01:33:50] Speaker A: Was it annihilation as well? [01:33:52] Speaker C: Yes. [01:33:54] Speaker E: And dread. [01:33:56] Speaker B: Very good. Very good film. [01:33:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Very, very good filmmaker. And basically, the concept is America is in the grips of a civil war. It doesn't really go into what caused the civil war because we already know. Well, that's kind of the thing. I'll come back to that in a minute. But basically, California and Texas have kind of formed an alliance. [01:34:23] Speaker A: Two unlikely bed partners. [01:34:25] Speaker C: Yes. But obviously both very large states, and they've kind of rebelled against the rest of the United States. States. That whole kind of political thing, though, I think I went into it and a lot of other people have gone into it expecting it to be a big commentary on the state of politics in America at the moment. They haven't really done that. They've kind of sidestepped a lot of the politics behind it. There's kind of nods to some real life political issues. So the president, who's played by Nick Offerman, which is great casting, but he's sort of very much in the Donald Trump mold. [01:35:13] Speaker B: No, I was just imagining him as Ron Swanson, just went off totally against his ideals. [01:35:20] Speaker A: I think he's mustache less, so it wouldn't have been wrong. [01:35:23] Speaker C: No, but he does sort of open the film by making big claims about how he's winning the war, and then it quickly becomes apparent that he's not. So it's, it's that kind of fake news. Don't necessarily believe the person in power kind of message. But really what the film is more interested in is the kind of human level effect of war, how it brings out the best and worst in different people. So it focuses on a group of reporters, and in particular, Kirsten Dunst as a photographer, and she's a veteran war photographer. And their plan is to go from New York to Washington and try and get a final interview with the president before the western forces sweep in and basically kill him. But as they're moving through America, you see all these different kind of landscapes. It's very war torn in the sense of how you would see it on the news with coverage of Ukraine or Middle east and that sort of thing. And it really, really is effective because we're also familiar with scenes of New York and Washington, in particular from all these other movies, and just seeing them as battle zones. And because the reporters are there and you're sort of seeing it through their eyes, it feels uncomfortably realistic, but it's incredibly well made. [01:37:07] Speaker A: We're all used to New York and LA being blown up by aliens or. [01:37:11] Speaker C: Ghosts recently, but this is people. And again, because they're not that interested in the politics behind it and because, like you say, California and Texas are kind of polar opposite ends of the political spectrum. [01:37:29] Speaker B: Normally. Yeah, like that. I heard that about the movie and was just kind of like, that doesn't make any sense. Like, yeah, I can see both states rebelling against the wider thing, but for very different reasons. Yeah. So it doesn't make sense that they'd ally with each other, but it's, but. [01:37:44] Speaker C: It, what it does is as an audience member, you're not sort of thinking, oh, these guys are the good guys and these guys are the bad guys, based on your political leanings and really is. Yeah, it's not about good guys and bad guys, but there are some very bad guys in there as well. [01:38:00] Speaker A: I think Jesse Plemons in there is always going to be meth Damon to me. You want to, you want the dirty version of Matt Damon, you get Jesse Plowman. [01:38:11] Speaker C: The fun part about that is he is a particularly horrible character and he's obviously married to Kirsten Dunst. So I can sort of see them having some awkward family dinners after, after those scenes were shot. [01:38:24] Speaker B: Okay, now I recognize his face. Yes, you are correct. [01:38:28] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. He's a very recognizable face, mostly because. [01:38:32] Speaker B: It looks like Matt Damon. [01:38:35] Speaker C: He's always brilliant. I love Jesse Plemons. He's a good reason to watch anything. And as a slight aside, apparently his black mirror character is making a return in the next black mirror, or, well, that kind of plotline is making a return in the next season of Black Mirror. [01:38:52] Speaker A: That was one of the better episodes. [01:38:54] Speaker C: Yeah. So, yeah, I won't go into detail about what happens in case people want to watch it, but it's well worth watching. And I saw it in IMax as well, and it felt like I was stood in the middle of a firefight. Yeah. [01:39:10] Speaker E: Maybe not 40 x. [01:39:12] Speaker C: Probably not 40 x. No. But definitely recommend IMax. [01:39:16] Speaker A: Awesome. [01:39:17] Speaker B: Thank you. Keith. [01:39:20] Speaker A: How about yourself? [01:39:21] Speaker E: Well, I'm going to cheat ever slightly, because I'm not going to. I don't want to talk about something that I've been seeing, I've been reading, but something I'm looking forward to. But I want to flag up to people because I mentioned it in our segment earlier about new comic book day. There's a relatively new studio to me called Mad Cave. They've been putting out some interesting books, and I've seen their books being promoted quite recently. Haven't picked any up generally because I've not seen them in my local comic store, but I got in touch with my local comic store this week to say, can you put this comic on order for me because I don't want to miss it. And in June, Mad Cave, I'm going to be putting out a range of Gatchaman comics, which people in the UK might remember more as battle of the planets. So they've had various comic iterations in the past, but this one seems to be going back more towards the original anime stuff. So the science ninja team Gatchama. So what they do in it is one continuity, infinite possibilities. So it all ties back to everything that's happened in the past. It's all been part of this bigger, wider story. Cullen Bunn is the writer on the series, and Chris Battista is the artist. He's not done the main cover, but he's done one of the variant covers. But it just looks really interesting. And I'm kind of. I used to love the cartoon show before I even knew what it was associated with because it was kind of a random amalgamation of a couple of different shows. When we saw it in the UK with seven, Zark seven, which was just added in for the uk audience because they thought we all needed a cute robot character. I was gonna say, for people who. [01:41:01] Speaker A: Haven'T seen Battle of the planets or Gatchaman, explain the concept. [01:41:06] Speaker B: Yeah, the problem is I hear Gatriman, and I'm just imagining a superhero who, like, has, like, little capsules come out of him with random. Somebody who's given his salary over to. [01:41:17] Speaker E: They are essentially superheroes, but they're bird themed. So you have, like, eagle, owl, pigeon. [01:41:25] Speaker C: Duck. [01:41:26] Speaker A: Pigeon. [01:41:29] Speaker E: Isn'T the one guy, like, pigeony type thing. [01:41:33] Speaker B: Does he just, like, give people random diseases? Just poo's quite a lot. [01:41:39] Speaker E: And then they have lots of gear and stuff, and it's all like special tech and all the rest of it. [01:41:45] Speaker A: Lots of capes, if I recall. [01:41:46] Speaker E: Lots of really cool looking capes. The costumes are pretty awesome. I've always wanted, like, action. They've done some japanese action figures of the characters over the years, which are really nice. And Emagi did propose a CGI animated version of the show a few years back, which there are various trailers and kind of like, sizzle reels that you can find on YouTube, but it never came to anything in the end, looked magnificent. So I'm kind of just looking forward to this comic, just bringing that world and those characters back into people's memories and kind of realizing how good a premise it all is. They're also doing in the same month, Flash Gordon comic, which looks quite interesting as well. Obviously, Flash Gordon's had a lot of comic iterations over the past game for. [01:42:36] Speaker A: The 2030 era, or they're gonna go. [01:42:38] Speaker E: I've not. I've not read up on it so far. I think it's gonna be a. It looks like it's gonna be a contemporary take on the character, which I think is sensible. [01:42:47] Speaker B: So no Brian blessed? [01:42:48] Speaker E: No, not. Not that I know of so far. There will be. There'll probably be a leader. [01:42:53] Speaker A: I mean, they can probably get one of the blue Peter presenters in. I mean, kind of mandatory now for him. [01:43:00] Speaker E: What is it? Dalton's got nothing else. [01:43:06] Speaker A: He's good playing a bad guy nowadays. I mean, I could see Dalton doing a good ming. [01:43:10] Speaker E: Yeah, he could do quite a good ming, but yeah. So I think just because it's an unusual publisher, that if you are interested in these comics, you're probably going to have to go to your local comic shop and say, can you order me? Mad Cave Studios Gatchaman series. They're doing two kind of one shots in the lead up to the release. So one is featuring Ken, who's one of the main heroes, and one is featuring one of the villains. I can't remember the title of that one, but I've asked my comic shop to pick them all up because I'm kind of. I'll see how it goes. And the art looks kind of cool, very scratchy, kinetic, looking a bit kind of like, not quite as rough as Darren Warren Johnson's been doing in recent Transformers books, but that kind of very dynamic, action, heavy looking book. So I think it should be pretty cool. But that's coming out at the end of June, I believe. But if you are interested, you should be able to pick up the free Comic Book Day edition, which will be kind of like a prelude to the series, so you get a taste of what it's going to be like. But I kind of just wanted to highlight it just purely because it's not one of the big publishers that you would normally get in this country. So I think if you were looking to find it in a comic shop in the UK particularly, you're probably not going to pick it up. But some shops may do it if there's a particular interest in that kind of story, but it's probably not going to be something you'll get, or they won't have a lot of copies, so they'll probably get snapped up pretty quickly. So if you're interested, check out some of the previews online. There's a lot of great variant covers being done for the first issue, which is you order the full set. No, I have a real problem with variant covers because we never get the good ones in this country because I didn't get my right ones that they did for a few episodes, a few Marvel comic books a while back. And if you did, they were really expensive. So it's like, yeah, but check it out from Mad Cave Studios, Gatchaman, issue one at the end of June. [01:45:05] Speaker A: Awesome. Thank you. I was going to go with invincible, but you haven't watched it. We need to talk about the final episode. [01:45:12] Speaker E: I've just not watched the final episode yet. [01:45:13] Speaker A: Well, I think we need to have a proper conversation about the final episodes at some point, because there's lots of stuff that happens at the final episode I think you will appreciate as a comics fan. That's all I'm gonna say. So I'm gonna go with Star wars, the bad batch instead, which is something else that you need to catch on. [01:45:28] Speaker E: I'm so bad. I've only done two episodes of it. [01:45:30] Speaker A: So far, so it's in its final season. There's three episodes left at the time of recording, I believe, and then that's it. So if you're unaware, the bad batch follows on from the Clone wars. It's kind of a bit of a bridging series between the Clone wars and Star wars rebels. So kind of filling that gap of what happens at the very creation of the galactic Empire. So it's all about the stuff that's going on about how clones being treated, what happened at the end of the Clone wars, basically, and what happens to all these hundreds of thousands of clones they've churned out over the day, over the decade to fight the Clone War, and then they've got nothing to do. So what happens to all these people? So it's been somewhere been some interesting episodes. There's been some very dark episodes across the season, but as we come into the finale, it's getting a little bit darker and darker. We're moving more into, like, Empire strikes back territory of Star wars rather than the funner side of it. So it's Dave Filoni. So if you're aware of Dave Filoni, he did the Clone wars, he did the Mandalorian, along with Jon Favreau. I think he was involved in the Boba Fett series, Obi Wan. That's his Brit, which just Mister Star wars nowadays, isn't it? This is Mister Star wars, but yeah, so then you got Dee Bradley Baker, who is doing 99% of the voices, as you can imagine, with a clone army, and Michelle ang playing the voice of Omega. So we've got a female clone in the series, which is the first time we've had a female clone pop up. [01:46:56] Speaker B: It's been really interesting to see the. [01:46:57] Speaker A: Premise of that about, well, why would you create a female clone? And what was the purpose? And we're finally getting into that as we come towards these final episodes. But it's been really kind of not rushed, but it feels like, there's a lot. They've got a pack in these last four episodes, and I'm hoping they might get a feature length episode to finish off with. I'm hoping I'm not guaranteed, but. [01:47:24] Speaker B: Pleasure. [01:47:25] Speaker A: Is there's been quite a lot of pop ups of people who we've seen in previously in the Clone Wars. Commander Wolfpack pops up, we get Gregor up here, we get the return of Admiral Rampart from season one. If you ever watched Clay War, season one and the whole situation that happened. So it's really getting towards that kind of crunch point here. And it's the whole, what happens with Omega? What's this resolving storyline? And if you were a fan of the Clone wars, which I kind of watched and made sure I watched in chronological order because I was too confused with the episode, sort of wobbly, wobbly nature about it. But I think it's one of the most interesting periods of Star wars they could pick of how do you turn from a republic and a democracy into an empire that's kind of who has their actual control? And we can actually see Palpatine doesn't really get that involved in the empire creation. He's have to sit back and do all this wibbly, wobbly forcy, dark side stuff. And it kind of a little bit with Andor, it celebrates the banality of the empire. And you can see these people who are just wanting to take control because that's they're just carving out their own little fiefdom in the empire and just looking into that a little bit more. And it's a little bit about how does the banality and how does just following orders turn people into something that they're not willing to be, and how do you fight against that? So it's kind of really that early genesis of the republic, which see a lot of Captain Rex echo pops back up for a few episodes. So we're seeing that kind of. So what the clones doing of those who are loyal to the republic versus those who are more than happy to jump on with the empire, there's a lot of message in it. And I think, again, as it's a cartoon, it gets overlooked. And as much as the Clone wars got overlooked in its final few series, there's something there. [01:49:15] Speaker E: It's got a lot of mature themes hidden amongst its kind of child friendly storytelling because you would have thought a series called the Bad Batch, it would be consistent. It'd be like, you know, any kind of tv show so that this group would last from beginning to end. Yet the batch themselves have changed and morphed and had to deal with a lot of things, which I think is really interesting. It's shown the inconsistency of life that, like, things change and they've used omega as a catalyst for how do you deal with that when people leave or people pass or things change or whatever it is. So it's dealing with a lot of things, I think, particularly in the post COVID era, themes and things that a lot of younger people might struggle with because of what happened during that time of isolation and whatever it is. So I think he's doing a lot of really interesting stuff that I think adults are missing out on if they're not paying attention to this, because it's a really sharp, mature show that can still do silliness and frivolity when it wants to. [01:50:28] Speaker A: I think it's definitely hit the tonality of the final season of Rebels is where it's heading towards. And if you've not seen that, Rebels is one of the best things that Star wars has ever played out. And I really recommend it. It's got such a unique art style because it looks more at the Ralph McQuarrie style, original drawing, slightly painted, less. So it's a really different art style, but really, really recommend that. And that's where Ahsoka kind of breathes out from is that kind of era of rebels. [01:50:55] Speaker B: But it's. [01:50:55] Speaker E: It's. [01:50:57] Speaker A: I think it's not getting as much attention as it should be. That's the only reason I really wanted to give it a highlight, and that was it. [01:51:06] Speaker E: So Shogun Civil War, upcoming Gatchaman comic. [01:51:12] Speaker A: And Star wars the bad match. So thank you for joining us on this issue of the Geeky Brummie show. We hope you've enjoyed it. Sam, where can we find you online? [01:51:27] Speaker C: You can find me on Twitter at Dragonsam 89 or on Instagram at sdedwards 89. And I'm also on the geeky Brammy website every Thursday doing a film roundup. [01:51:38] Speaker A: Keith, where can we find you? [01:51:39] Speaker E: You can probably find me on the interwebs under the nom de plume of hard luck hotel. So if you find that and it's not Count Ducula, Count Ducula, probably me. And then mostly most of my tweeting goes out on Wednesday and on a website on the Wednesday as well. When I do do my roundup of what I consider to be some of the most interesting looking comics of the week. [01:51:59] Speaker A: And Lee, where can I find you? [01:52:01] Speaker B: You can find me on YouTube, ipecferrit. You can also find me doing freelance games writing, mostly on Silicon era. You can find me on Twitter hecheapferret and you can find me on the geeky Brewery website every Friday talking about the latest video game releases. [01:52:23] Speaker A: Awesome, thank you. And you find us [email protected]. As I mentioned, games, films, comics, roundups, more and more articles popping up soon. You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, bluesky. Though we still don't use that. I need to really start using that. Mastodon, was it Mastodon? Sabertooth Tiger. [01:52:41] Speaker E: Nobody does Mastodon anymore. Mastodon's gone. [01:52:43] Speaker A: Mastodon's gone. [01:52:44] Speaker E: I even Mastodon. [01:52:45] Speaker A: And yeah, so bluesky, Twitter, which we need to really start using blue sky threads as well. Threads, yep, threads are on there as well. Instagram, YouTube, TikTok. So if you're probably watching this, you're probably watching it on YouTube. So hello, if you're not watching it, we're on podcasting services. So iTunes, Spotify, etc. Or your favorite podcasting app of choice. And don't forget to come. We shall be back again. [01:53:09] Speaker E: So if you are watching on YouTube, don't forget comment, like subscribe, all of those things. [01:53:16] Speaker B: Oh yeah. [01:53:16] Speaker A: I got told I need to give a shout out to one of my work colleagues, Luke, because he was very disappointed. You gave shout out to one of your students and he didn't get a shout out. So Luke, if you're watching, enjoy. [01:53:29] Speaker E: Hello, Luke, or should I say hello there. [01:53:34] Speaker A: Thank you very much for joining us and we shall see you again soon. Bye.