There’s no doubting that Pat Regan is an amazing guy. More specifically, he’s an amazing fan on the 1954 Disney film, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (I’m a big fan. Pat’s an amazing fan.) He’s build and used his own working replica of the film’s diving suit and even built a working minisub based on the Nautilus. Most recently, he posted these plans for an inexpensive and easy-to-build replica of Captain Nemo’s shark-zapping rifle. It’s made from common hardware store parts and looks within the skills of the average hobbyist. Let’s give it a try.

While you’re there, have a look around at Pat’s great 20,000 Leagues website, Vulcania Submarine. It’s one of the best, if not THE best.

Captain Nemo Rifle
Vulcania Submarine
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (Special Edition) from Amazon.com
Rent it by mail with Netflix

Stargate SG-1 may not be a series anymore, but it lives on in the direct-to-DVD medium. New Stargate: Continuum follows Stargate: The Arc of Truth as a continuum of the series and features a returning Richard Dean Anderson in his role of Major O’Neil along with others from the cast, including Amanda Tapping (Colonel Samantha Carter ), now on the Atlantis beat. Seems time traveling Ba’al is trying to keep the Stargate program from ever starting. I’m pulling for our guys.

Stargate - Continuum $16.99 at Amazon.com
Stargate - Continuum [Blu-ray] $26.95 at Amazon.com

Other machine movies among this week’s video releases:

Avatar The Last Airbender - Book 3 Fire, Vol. 4$11.99 at Amazon.com
Dark City (Director’s Cut) [Blu-ray]$18.95 at Amazon.com
Doomsday [Blu-ray]$27.95 at Amazon.com
The Hunt for Red October [Blu-ray]$18.95 at Amazon.com
Top Gun [Blu-ray] $19.95 at Amazon.com
War Games (25th Anniversary Edition)$12.99 at Amazon.com
Witchblade - The Complete Series$44.99 at Amazon.com

George Lucas and his greatest creation are parodied in Seth Green’s Robot Chicken: Star Wars. Priced to move at $9.99, it is currently the #2 new release at Amazon.com.

Also new this week: Transformers Cybertron: The Ultimate Collection, $39.99 at Amazon.com, The Ray Bradbury Theater, $21.99 at Amazon.com,

Dr. Horrible’s inventor of many an emitter– he seems to have a thing for shooting RAYS!

• Transmatter Ray - Can teleport hard matter, but according to his patter it transforms gold to other forms like MUD!
• Freeze Ray - Horrible, it seems seeks fulfillment of his dreams with a ray that will freeze any person in their TRACKS! Requires wonderflonium to use, the beam in shades of blues can further perpetrate his evil ACTS! From 30 feet at least, it freezes man or beast, it’s power is it’s only FATAL FLAW! To warm up it takes time which can foil the perfect crime and it’s size and swivel base can hinder, TOO!

• Stun Ray / Death Ray - A handheld rifle at his side, it was quickly modified from a stun ray to a ray with mortal FORCE! Faulty it may be or Hammer did not see it’s misuse would lead to a different COURSE!

• Horrible Van Remote - Mythbusters might go queasy for how this makes it easy to drive away with autos from AFAR! In two parts it is made: a magnetic can that’s laid on the van to drive from wherever you ARE! The handheld control is small like a cellphone you can call, but operates a van if not too GREAT! It steers this way and that. Honks the horn from where you’re at. A clock will let you know if you’re too LATE!
• Hammer Cycle - At Hammer’s base unseen, he feels it’s pretty keen. A chick magnet at least, as he would SAY!
• Hammer Jet - Another thing he’s got for times when he cannot just leap atop a van and save the DAY!

— Thank God I don’t have to write poetry every day!

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog is an original web series created by Joss Whedon and is available at iTunes (DVD soon, I hope).

http://www.drhorrible.com/

At first thought it’s an absurd idea: reproduce classic Aurora model kit box art, box, shrink-wrap and all. Sell it for 25x the cost of the original-with no model inside! But admit it, the box was often much cooler than what you ended up with after you put the model together. So why not collect empty boxes. MorbidMonster.com sells loving reproductions of many of the great Aurora monster and movie vehicle kit boxes. Maybe even cooler are their boxes of kits Aurora did not make, but should have. These include the Fantastic Four, King Kong on the Empire State and the 20,000 Leagues Nautilus.

A side note: I actually still have the Aston Martin Super Spy Car original box and my buildup I purchased in the ‘60s. Note that it does not say “James Bond” or “007″ anywhere on the label, even though it’s exactly the same as the car from Goldfinger.

http://www.morbidmonster.com/index.html

Pandorum - Sci-Fi suspense thriller about “two two crewmen who awaken aboard their spacecraft unaware of their mission or identities and then make a discovery that threatens the survival of mankind”.
Starring Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster. Tentative release date: February 2009. (Variety, IMDB)

Buck Rogers - All we’ve got is that Nu Image/Millennium Films has acquired film rights and to give it the big screen treatment this time. It’s been rumored that Frank Miller (Sin City, 300) might be attached to the project, but it’s not official. (Variety)

Conan - Also in development by Nu Image/Millennium Films and to be released throught Lionsgate, the aim to launch a new series, so the script being prepared by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (”Sahara,” “Cowboys & Aliens”) had better be their best yet. (Variety)

G.I. Joe - For a film that already has footage in the can, this one has a long release date: August 2009. Expect the Hasbro toy concept to be distorted beyond recognizability, with a tough guy plotline that rings of a first-person shooter video game.
Word has it that it stars Brendan Frasier, Dwayne Johnson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dennis Quaid, Sienna Miller, and Christopher Eccleston, among others. I guess it will take a year and a half just to find something for all those actors to do!

On your Mark! Get set! Go!

See you in line tomorrow!