Last month right before Comic-Con, Loot Crate released one of their best crates with a phenomenal Villains crate that included a totally original and exclusive Joki shirt alongside, amongst other things, a pair of Deadpool socks. It was going to be pretty hard to follow that up. But who better to show up the Villains than… the Heroes.

This month WallE and JC put their physical prowess to the test in an effort to capture a bunch of items based off of some of their favorite childhood heroes along with an exclusive Pop made just for Loot Crate. As some of you have seen in past crates, WallE and JC have an addiction for the little guys and battling over an exclusive one could possibly end their friendship and Whiskey & Waffles as we know it.

I feel the same way as most of the people reading this. You’re here because you’re a late 20s to early 40s male who is scared that Michael Bay is going to ruin something else from your childhood. After the last two Transformers films, I can understand it. But think back to the first Transformers movie. While there were certainly some decisions I’d disagree with, like Optimus Prime having a mouth, for the most part Bay did a good job with it.

Looking at the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles teaser released yesterday (and seen below), the internet have fallen into one of three camps. The minority seems to be wholly optimistic of the project.

For now, we’ll call these the blissfully ignorant be it that they have absolutely no taste at all or they have never seen what Michael Bay can do to a franchise when left unchecked or had to watch Megan Fox attempt to act. Then there is the grouping I am currently in which is okay with the current trailer, excited about the positive possibilities but is still have trepidations about getting our hopes up too high because we know that never ends well when it comes to Michael Bay.

As mentioned before, the geek lifestyle isn’t a cheap one. Even when we find things we like that aren’t individually expensive, we end up buying enough of them at once so it ends up costing us more than we would have wanted in the first place on one single larger purchase. That’s the danger of the impulse buy.

It is easier to mentally justify to ourselves a spend if we get more items out of it, even if it costs more than what we wanted to spend because we as geeks value both quality AND quantity. As long as something isn’t terrible or poorly made, it is good enough for us. And if we can get a bunch of them on the cheap, we want them all.

This week on Whiskey & Waffles, WallE and I address our recent disaster of impulse buying with Mash’Ems. After WallE had already begun purchasing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, I got pulled into the mix too which resulted in the blind box purchase of some TMNT, Power Rangers Samurai, WWE and Marvel Mash’Ems.

If you aren’t familiar with Mash’Ems, they are little oversized heads and shrunken bodies (except in the Marvel series which is just heads). They are soft and squishy and perfect to have on your desk as a miniature stress ball just in case.

When I was younger, like most kids, I had Michelangelo pegged as my favorite Ninja Turtle. He was the fun one, the cool one, the one that everyone wanted to be. But as I matured (as mature as you can get when still being a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that is), I began to lean more and more towards Leonardo.

Of the four brothers he is the one who had to balance a father’s expectations along with brothers who were either immature, socially outcast or rebellious. He also has the most badass of any of the weapons.

In this new darker TMNT game coming to the PlayStation Network and XBLA this summer, Leonardo may very well be the first turtle I choose to be. In the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game his swords were second only to Donatello’s bo for range and damage and later iterations put in him the role as team leader amongst his band of brothers.

If you’re close to my age, one of your favorite video game memories is most likely being in the arcade playing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game in all its side scrolling, beat-em-up glory. With the upcoming downloadable title Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, we may get to relive our past glory while a whole new generation gets to experience it for the first time (without pumping the arcade machine full of $27 in quarters.

In the latest trailer, we get to take a look at Michelangelo in action. The first thing you’ll notice is that the combat doesn’t resemble that of a simple brawler as the moves done by Mikey more closely mimic that of the Batman: Arkham franchise. Combat looks to have a dynamic feel, and though there are bound to be some canned animations (like Mikey’s head spin) it appears as though there will be a plethora of different moves happening during a fight as opposed to a few basic swinging animations from the classic arcade series.

If you were born after 1980, the names Leonardo, Donatello, Rafael and Michelangelo aren’t just a bunch of names you ignored in fine arts class. For almost three decades, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been a part of the lives of so many different generations with some of their iterations being better than others and their history in video games is no exception.

While the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game is renowned as being one of the most difficult games on the NES (even though its key audience was kids), the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles four player arcade cabinet is one that hordes of us pushed quarter after quarter into and did so happily.

With the most recent version of TMNT hitting big on Nickelodeon and a Michael Bay (shudders…) feature film in the works, it’s no surprise that a new game would be making its way to consoles. Thankfully it isn’t based off the Michael Bay film but instead off the Nickelodeon franchise in TMNT: Out of the Shadows.

I have been vocal in opposition to the intensely wrong-headed internet overreaction to the Michael Bay produced Ninja Turtles reboot. A single misinterpreted statement and geek level distrust of Bay led to a firestorm of misinformation and backlash.

Unfortunately we will never get a definitive answer to who was right in that debate as Paramount has shut down this particular reboot and pushed it’s release date:

The effects-heavy film, which was in pre-production in Vancouver, was set for release in December 2013. That date is being pushed to May 2014, according to sources…The issue is said to be the script… Now it has halted work on its planned holiday movie for 2013, temporarily laying off pre-production staff and informing those prepping the film that the work stoppage is “indefinite,”

I really think we are missing out on what could have been a fun take on the characters. That said, anytime a movie like this is pushed in pre-production to work on the script is a good sign. It would have been very easy for them to rush production and fix the script as they go along, which rarely works for these types of films.

In the interim Ninja Turtle fans have a new TV series to look forward to that will have to keep you satisfied until the movie gears back up. Keep your eyes peeled to The Flickcast for more updates on this project in the coming weeks.

It is really easy to sit behind a keyboard and bitch. It is really easy to fling bile at filmmakers who make films that don’t match our personal version of the movies we want to see. This has been true for as long as there has been the internet, and will likely be true for our children’s children and their children as well.

There has been a disturbing trend in the general internet fan community that has played off that universal truth. It has manifested as one of the biggest problem facing Hollywood today, there is no trust anymore. There is no faith that the professionals, who are talented and/or driven enough to make this their career, can actually make quality cinema from our beloved franchises.

The most recent example of the internet’s pigheadedness is the backlash to Michael Bay’s comment that the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film will feature an expanded back story that exposes potential Alien origins for everyone’s favorite heroes in a half shell.

Kids are going to believe one day these turtles actually do exist when we are done with this movie. These turtles are from an alien race, and they are going to be tough, edgy, funny and completely loveable. – Michael Bay

Ever since Mirage Studios published the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1984, fans of the series have been hoping for an authentic, decent big-screen adaptation of their beloved shell-heads.

The first try at a live action movie was in 1990 with a dark and gritty attempt at the comic featuring ridiculous rubber suits. Due to the popularity of the cartoon, the film was a financial success, which sadly brought sequels featuring Vanilla Ice, wrestler Kevin Nash and freckled Turtles.

Well, the time has come when the dream of a decent Ninja Turtles movie may come to fruition, as there is information that another live-action adaptation of the franchise is in the works. According to an article over at Variety:

“The Mirage Group, which owns the property, is moving forward with a live-action film focusing on the origins of the iconic crime fighters. News coincides with the Turtles’ 25th anniversary celebration, which kicks off Thursday in New York as the first “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” film unspools at the Tribeca Film Festival.

[Co-creator Peter] Laird said the film will remain true to the spirit of the original comicbooks. He added that the pic may employ face replacement technology, which would allow the turtles to be much more expressive.”

2007’s CGI reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise proved to be mildly successful, but not enough to continue with sequels. So will we see more freckled turtles? Will Corey Feldman return to voice Donatello? And most importantly, will Sam Rockwell reprise his role as the pivotal character “Head Thug”? Only time will tell.