Mark's Epic Blog of Randomness

 By Mark Rodriguez Krang is working with Hob and the Pantheon and have brought Shredder back. Krang set up a contest for the Pantheon members to see which one can take out the Turtles first so they can gain the leadership role. So far Drako and Golgotha have tried and failed, so now the Rat Queen is taking a crack at it. What happens when she teams up with the Rat King? "The Queen's Gambit" opens with Krang bringing up how Drako lost his fire-breathing abilities and Golgotha burnt out her hypnotic vocal chords. Krang says it's odd that more than one of them have powers that come out of their mouths. He also states that they have spent so much time at the top, that they're not used to single combat and can't defeat the Turtles on their own. He suggests they turn to him for new leadership since he has conquered worlds. The Rat Queen says Krang hasn't conquered this world and she's willing to take her shot to gain leadership than follow him. Shredder say...

 By Mark Rodriguez This has been one of the largest hauls yet. It's some books from Alpha Comics, some books from Third Eye, and even some from my oldest comic haunt, Velvet Underground Comics. We even got a book we'll probably never open.   TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures # 29- The Pantheon members are taking turns trying to take out the Turtles so they can take Hob's leadership position. Now it's the Rat Queen's turn and she's teaming up with the Rat King. TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures # 29 Review   Street Fighter and Friends Swimsuit Special 2025- This was in the Alpha Comics pullbox, and there were two of them. I'm guessing this is the same book twice but with variant covers. Based on the cover it seems it'll be several Capcom characters from games like Darkstalkers, Power Stone and Rival School. Perfect timing for the release of Capcom Fighting Collection 2.  Darkstalkers V Street Fighter- Dark Love- Another Darkstalkers and Street Fighter one-s...

 By Mark Rodriguez While I'm sure there have been several theatrical re-releases throughout history, for me the most modern example of this was when they played the classic Ghostbusters and Star Wars movies when the pandemic was easing up a bit. Recently we had several retro movies coming back to theaters for a limited time, such as the 90's TMNT movie, 1989 Batman, Batman Returns, Casper and the Toby McGuire Spider-Man trilogy. Here's a few movies that I wish would get a theatrical re-release that so far haven't. These are in no particular order. 1. Terminator 1 and/or 2 I'm not sure if people would want the original or skip straight to the sequel, but definitely re-release T2. That movie was definitely the summer movie of 1991, the literal definition of 'if you can only afford to see one movie this summer, make sure it's this one!'. One of the biggest movies in Arnold Swartzanegger and Robert Patrick's careers, the killer cyborg from the future ret...

 By Mark Rodriguez Things are winding down but we were still able to hit a few sights and hang out with Tasia before our trip was done. Day Six- We started the day with breakfast at the hotel and hitting the slots. We met up with Johnny and some friends at Seafood City, and despite the name, we had some fried chicken at the JollyBee. We also hit Daiso, an impressive shopping center with some interesting goodies. We grabbed some anime-inspired drinks and Wendy got herself a Hello Kitty 2026 calendar.  We then went to the Bouvelard Mall, mostly to see the theatrical re-release the 1995 Casper movie in the Galaxy Theater. We had some time to kill so we checked out some of the shops. One of them was Poor Boy Comics, which wasn't around the last time I visited. They had a cool collection of comics, new and old, as well as Funko Pops and anime prints. I found an issue of the 90's Detective Comics run I am collecting. I also wanted to revisit the Pop Shack which is full of Funko Pops...

 By Mark Rodriguez The day has finally arrived! The big reunion with our classic VGM crew after not having seen them since 2019. While there were some snags along the way, we still had a good time and made some fun memories. Day 4- After running all over Vegas for the last few days, we decided to take it easy that morning and just have time to ourselves. We had a simple breakfast, nothing too crazy, but the most notable thing was Wendy ordering a Bloody Mary that had bacon in it. We actually tried the slots and Wendy won 47 dollars. She started with 20 bucks and cashed out 67.88. After that we met up with Johnny and hung out with him for a while until it was showtime. Once it hit 5 in the afternoon, we all met up at Neonpolis in downtown Fremont. From there we checked out the arcade bar, The Nerd. Finally Wendy got to meet our old friends, Lan Moore and WickaDarko (who now only goes by Wicka) alongside Tasia and Sweet Pete who she met prior.  Unfortunately, the arcade bar was ...

 By Mark Rodriguez So far we've been in Vegas for three days, and like previous mentioned, it was more about seeing our old stomping grounds and seeing our old friends than it was about seeing the sights. Here's a quick rundown so far of the highlights. Day 1- This was pretty much a day to get settled into town and whatnot. One of our friends, Tasia, was nice to enough to not only grab us at the airport, but to take us to Town Square. One of the main things we wanted to do during this trip was to take Vegas-style wedding photos, and Tasia offered to buy Wendy a lovely dress at a fancy custom-made fashion boutique called Wassa Boutique. We checked out the Town Square and then hit an In-and-Out Burger, which we don't have at our general area back home. Afterwards we went to Tasia's house where we got to meet up with our old friend Sweet Pete from our earlier 2010-2011 VGM episodes. Wendy got to listen to our old behind-the-scene stories as Johnny, Peter and I reminisced a...