Sony's Orbis

The next-gen consoles, by rumors, are stacking up to be quite the beasts for every ones enjoyments.

Rumors have recently surfaced for Sony's Playstation 4 or better known as the "Orbis". The claims of the Orbis is that it uses an AMD CPU and GPU and has a release date around the 2013 holiday season. Development kits are already suspected to be possession by 'select' gaming developers.

The CPU and GPU being discussed is and AMD x64 CPU and AMD Southern Islands GPU. The Southern Islands name is associated to a high end range of pc cards that boasts screen sizes of 4096×2160 and a full 3D gaming experience in 1080i.


While all this sounds great there are two major draw backs to the new Orbis. The Orbis is stated to not be backwards compatible with PS3 software but the most controversial downfall is that used games will no longer be able to be used on the system. The hardware is speculated to tie a game to a particular PSN account or even through some sort of digital download.

(In order to be non biased I feel compelled to inform you that the "X-Box 720" claims to have the same lock out on second hand games.)

The gaming industry stands on a back bone of its gamers. Part of said back bone is that of the used gaming community. Since the Atari, borrowing games and/or selling and trading games has always been a part of the gaming community. Video rental stores used to be a staple and in today's day and age, gaming parties.

Taking off of this to a personal aspect, I myself will buy a game and take it to a friends house to play and in my opinion, this helps push the gaming sales. No one wants to pay $60 for a game that no one knows what its like. I know my friends don't. I may be one of the daring but I'd hate to see a world where we push ourselves to only playing Mario, Halo, Gears of War, Street Fighter, and Final Fantasy. Without being able to rent a game or borrow one from a friend or even taking one to a friends house would kill not only the secondary market but also push all gamers back into solitude. Sure there's the advent of online gaming but gaming is social at its core. We all like to get together and play.

So what do you guys think about the revolution in gaming with the new Orbis? Ho do you feel about not being able to play used or shared games?

-"Nurd" Pat!

Upkeeping a Collection

Good evening fellow Nurds!

This update is all about keeping up a collection. No matter if your collection is open for display, just a collection in a toy box to be played with, or even keeping them in their packages, many things can ruin a collection.

If you do keep a collection and intend to keep it mint in package a couple things that you can experience is deterioration of packaging due to access to moisture or even the yellowing of the clear plastic that is the bubble showcasing your figure. Yellowing can be caused my age, access to elements like sun light, and even nicotine.

When you keep a collection out for display or even in a toy box there are other worries to consider. Not only can the color of your collection be tarnished by the elements but you also leave yourself open to wear and tear, scratches, nicks, and even breakage.

This posting happens to deal with Snout Spout from my MOTUC collection.

Snout Spout sits on my shelf. He has ever since I got him, and that's where he still sits as I'm writing this. If you checked out my MOTUC page then you would have seen this picture.

For those not familiar with Snout Spout, he has a robotic elephant head and is the heroic fire fighter of Eternia. He happily sits to the left on the fourth shelf down.

Still can't find him? Maybe this helps.

Snout Spout, from Mattycollector.com had an issue with his elephant trunk. The trunk was made of a spongy material like nerf and was able to be poseble able due to a wire in the trunk. After sitting on my shelf for two months, the material cracked and split. Obviously this is a problem.

With all the characters in the MOTUC line, most head sculpts are unique and every character generally sells out the day they are released. This type of a situation leaves you with few options. No other character has a head that resembles Snout Spout and since he is no longer available on Mattycollector.com the only way to get a replacement is on the secondary market.

Having to collect from the secondary market, for those not familiar, means purchasing from another private collector, secondary stores like BigBadToyStore.com (which usually sells out via preorders), or even ebay.

In my particular situation I was able to obtain one via another private collector and didn't have to pay an outrageous price for him. Matter of fact, I paid the $20 which is the equivalent of what he was priced at on Mattycollector.com. As of the time I'm writing this, I'm waiting for him to be shipped. It also took weeks to find someone who had one available for a price that I was willing to pay so patience is also a factor when looking to replace a piece.

Alot of different scenarios can happen when you try to keep up a collection such as I do, therefore not everything is so simple.

I hope you enjoyed this little insight as to what can damage a collection and a further insight as I had to replace a character in my own.

3/21/12 Update

Welcome back fellow Nurds!

Its been a while since our last update. Since then there has been a few technical issues such as having to reformat a computer, loss of content, as well as a few others. With that being said, there's been alot of updates I've been wanting to add so sit back and I'll take you through them.

Toy Box

The Toy Box page will showcase various other toys and action figures that are not part of my MOTUC collection. You may find such things as Hasbro's Marvel Legends, Transformers, Bandai's Thundercats, among others.

Game Case

The game case is where you will see a collection of games, new and old, as well as showcasing collector's editions of games.

Glossary of Terms

From time to time I may use terminology that the casual browser may not understand, so for better readability by all, therefore a glossary of terms will be implimented.

These are just a few of the tweaks that I've been wanting to add to make this page a richer experience for you guys.

-"Nurd" Pat!

Witchblade #150

If you ever wanna feel like a dodo, here's a good example. Run a nerd blog and go to review a comic, just to realize your about 3 months late because your local comic book shop can't won't carry enough stock for someone to walk in and pick up a copy.

That said, here we are, 3 months late, but I finally got a hold of Witchblade #150, first print, cover A, and to me the book felt like a bit of a swan song for the series.

Sara Pezzini is the bearer of the Witchblade, a powerful and mystical artifact that takes the form of a deadly gauntlet. As as New York City Police Detective Sara, along with the Witchblade, investigates the city's most supernatural crimes.

Witchblade #150, The End of an Era, finds Sara under the eye of Lieutenant Phipps of Internal Affairs as he offers her 24 hours to decide between her career or the Witchblade.

We see Sara go back to where it all began, back to the Rialto where she is confronted by the Witchblade as it takes a human like form. Sara is shown moments from her past, and where she understands that if it was not for her, none of what has transpired would have come to pass.

*SPOILER*
In the end, Sara has to make a choice between the Witchblade or her career as a detective. Citing that she needs time away, Sara walks away, not only from her job, but from Detective Gleason, her boyfriend.

Being a reader of Witchblade for several years now this issue feels like Sara Pezzini has come full circle and ready for a new beginning. Until now Sara has always walked the beat and its felt that she has used the Witchblade as a tool. When confronted by the Witchblade Sara had made the statement that she didn't like feeling "powerless." I feel that Sara has given into the Witchblade and that her decision to leave the force was not her decision after all, it was her destiny. Now after leaving her career and Gleason behind, the Witchblade can take her to fill a much larger role. It feels Sara has a new calling and its exciting.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of this issue, it was written by Ron Marz with artwork by Stjepan Sejic. The writing is superb and easy to follow. It honestly didn't take me long to read this issue because it didn't get too wordy like you can find in some other books. A lot of the panels can be told simply by the artwork. It sucks you in. The work in Witchblade, to be digitally painted and printed on a monthly basis, is top notch. I've been a fan of Stjepan Sejic's work for some time now but there's not an issue that doesn't seem to amaze me every time I pick it up. Overall the writing and artwork come together eloquently and I find it an easy read.

Witchblade #150 ends with lots of goodies (which I don't have any pictures of).

We get to see a 6 page preview of Witchblade #151 with a new artistic team, Tim Seeley (writer) and Diego Bernard (artist). The change in style brings me back to the beginnings of Witchblade so it all feels new again. While Ron Marz and Stjepan Sejic seem to be moving to Artifacts (also published by Top Cow) and I wish them the best of luck, I look forward to Tim Seeley and Diego Bernard and all that they have in store for Sara Pezzini.

Witchblade #150 also includes a time line of the character, a Creator Hall of Fame, and a look back at every cover for every issue that brought us to where we are now. The look back of covers is by far my favorite of all the goodies because it covers so many great works from Stjepan Sejic back to Michael Turner, rest his soul.

Witchblade is one of those books I just can't seem to speak highly enough of. It is truly as masterful piece of art every month.

I do have only one regret of Witchblade #150. That is that I couldn't pick up every cover.

-"Nurd" Pat!