Captain America & Master Chief

Halo is wicked hot. The beta for Halo 3 starts Monday. Halo gets a comic book series this summer from Marvel. Captain America was recently shot and killed, and we're not yet sure what up (sorry if I ruined it for you, but it was in the New York Times, kids).

And crossovers are hot. Like the New Avengers / Transformers crossover that's also coming this summer.

And Marvel keeps mentioning Halo and Xbox. Like in Avengers: Initiative #2 (how blatant is that?).

So, I've merged grassy knoll theory with a crossover that should happen, but in my imaginings has gone horribly awry. I'm guessing there's a subset of intersected geeks that will find this funny. That subset will get the additional homage on page 1.

The Captain America is the unmasked variant from the Marvel Legends Face-Off Series 1. This is a great, well balanced and painted sculpt (another great one from Dave Cortes). I can seriously pose him in more positions without him falling over, because of the weighting. I'm not crazy about the lack of mobility of the head (couldn't get it to "snap back" from the sniper shot), and it'd be nice if the waist rotated.

The Master Chief is the original Halo figure from the Joyride Studios Series 1. They know how to sculpt these things (other than the knees, on this particular model; but John's a cyborg, so they get latitude).

I think my theory of a second shooter holds water ...

Captain America and Optimus Prime

Oh, Optimus, Cap, please don't fight. I mean, you're cut from the same cloth metal atoms, when it comes right down to it.

Face it, Optimus is the robot bastard child of John Wayne and Captain America. Don't get me wrong, but when the incomparable Peter Cullen voices Prime, I often hear some version of the Duke saying, "Is this an energy dagger I see before me?" (I love you if you get this.)

The Optimus Prime above is the Hasbro Titanium Series die-cast version from The War Within Transformers comic book relaunch by (now defunct) Dreamwave Productions. I really like this incarnation as a character re-imagining, and as a vehicle and robot sculpt, it's great. However, despite its articulation, the incredible looseness of joints makes it nearly impossible to "play" with (or more importantly, use for stop-motion animation). 'Tis a bummer, but I may create some small rubber cement plugs to tighten the jointings if I've got a script that really calls for my favorite Transformer. And if I'm feeling ambitious. And crafty. And have rubber cement.

And the itty bitty (pretty much scale) Captain America pictured is the (possibly) variant version from the WizKids "Ultimates" line of Marvel HeroClix (I also have the regular and unique Caps from the "Inifinity" series, but not the "Armor Wars" version; yet).