Star Wars Day is upon us! by Robert T. Trate     may 04, 2012 Source: Mania.com Star Wars has always meant a lot to me. the film itself is wrapped in so many of my childhood memories. As I got older it started to find its way into my teenage years with the Zahn Novels. then, in college with the release of the prequels each summer. Now there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t see something of George Lucas’ creation. I thought I would really put myself, your humble Toy Maniac, out there and reveal my deepest and darkest secrets when it comes to Star Wars. Some of these things do have to do with toys one way or the other. others do not. So let us go fourth. 

My Holy Grail of Star Wars Items:

I have written about the Holy Grails of action figures before (see column). my Holy Grail of Star Wars figures is a Blue Snaggletooth. why? Ultra rare and the price for one today is close to $200. I know a store that has one and it’s just sitting there.  To be honest, I want my own Stormtrooper Costume more. I was close several years ago to getting one for free. Handed down from one friend to another who no longer wanted it. a Mom cleaning out an attic gave it to a cousin and it never ended up in my hands. I was so close. I have found them for sale online. I have also found sites that tell you how to make your own. I even once sat in on a 501st “Trooping” panel at a Comic Con. why do I want one? why not?! just the hilarity of taking the armor to a variety of places is enough. sure I could go to Comic Con and pose for everyone. Snore. I’d rather recreate John Lennon’s famous pose at the Statue of Liberty, Wear it to a footbal game, or show up at my nephew’s birthday party. the fun of the armor will be coming up with a variety of places and reasons to wear it. 

My Star Wars Dark Secret:

My first year out of college I had a great (and cheap) two bedroom apartment. I also had no roommate or live-in girlfriend. this meant I could decorate the entire place how I saw fit. I’ll cut to the chase, I had a Star Wars bathroom. Episode One had just finished its summer run and I picked up everything (yes, I mean everything) one could get for a Star Wars bathroom: bathroom rugs, toothbrush holder, soap dish, and of course a shower curtain. I decorated the walls with posters and pictures. I miss my little throne room. Currently, I am working on my next Star Wars room, a kitchen. 

The Day I felt the Dark Side:

Like many of you I camped out for Episode One. I was fortunate that my Uncle owned a movie theater and I could get my tickets through him. I went there the day of the screening, very early, and was first in line. my brother and all our friends showed up. At one point we were taking shifts between tailgating and waiting in line. it was a blast. my cousin (who has the same uncle through marriage) shows up and I graciously allow her and her boyfriend to get in line with us. They literally showed up at 10pm, where I had been there since 8am. As we were finally getting ready to go in her boyfriend tells me, “Boy, sucks that Darth Maul dies. He’s such a badass looking character”. Now, I had remained spoiler free since I read “Funeral pyre for Qui-Gon” on the back of the soundtrack. I stayed away from the articles in every magazine and each was carefully preserved so that I could read everything the next day. no tid bit, since the reading the soundtrack, was going to ruin my experience. then this Nerf Herder blabs this to me. I asked why he would tell me this with less than two hours to go? his reply was he figured I already knew. even the thought of it now… well, I can feel the hate swelling inside of me…

Thank you eBay:

There have been many things from childhood that have found their way onto eBay. almost all of the original Masters of the Universe figures. even all my Transformers (except for Jazz because Jazz is the coolest) have been scattered to the wind. it still shocks me that nearly all of my GI Joes are gone. the Star Wars collection has remained untouched. In fact many items have been either added to the collection or replaced. I have purchased two Death Stars (both complete and in boxes) and picked up numerous rare figures or chase figures. I’ve even bought a few lots of figures to build onto my armies. That site has been a god send as it has replaced futile trips to numerous yard sales, flea markets, and over-priced collector toy stores. on occasion these excursions do produce some unique items (a Dagobah playset for one). However if I need a secret compartment piece for the Millennium Falcon, it only takes a quick net search and there it is. EBay can be a horrible pitch goddess sometimes but, when it comes to Star Wars, there is no place I’d rather look.

May the fourth might just be one of those geek holidays; the one where a few of us wear a Star Wars tie to work, pop the John Williams soundtrack in and blast it. Maybe have a movie marathon or catch up on the Clone Wars TV series. For this Toy Maniac, it’s a combination of all these and more. So today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life, may the force be with you.  

PS. Don’t forget about revenge of the sixth on Sunday. 

Robert Trate writes three weekly columns for Mania: the DVD Shopping Bag, the Toy Maniac, and The Geek Life. Follow Robert on Twitter for his for Geek ramblings, Cosplay photos and film criticisms.

Toy Maniac: May the Fourth be with you is a post from: Transformer-Toys.com

The Screening Room for Friday, may 18!  FOX 4 Film Critics Russ Simmons and Shawn Edwards discuss “Battleship,” “What To Expect When You’re Expecting” and “the Dictator.”

BATTLESHIP (PG-13)

SHAWN“Battleship” has more in common with “Transformers” than the board game that inspired the movie.

RUSSSome genius at the Hasbro toy company saw the dough that their “Transformers” franchise was raking in and decided to transform their classic board game “Battleship” into a sci-fi alien invasion flick. the resulting extravaganza is big, loud and very, very dumb

SHAWNIt’s fun. It’s stupid. It’s entertaining. But it’s mostly loud but very good-looking. And worth a watch.

RUSSDirector Peter Berg wants to be Michael Bay in the worst way…and mostly succeeds. the script is so bad and the line delivery so stilted, that even the cool visuals can’t save it. It’s the unintentional laughs that sink this “Battleship.”

WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING (PG-13)

SHAWNWhat to Expect When You’re Expecting is the worst movie I’ve seen in years. It’s a thoroughly degrading unfunny comedy that degrades women, the beauty of pregnancy and importance of fatherhood.RUSS

An attractive and likable cast can’t make up for the sitcom silliness that dominates the ensemble comedy, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.” if you saw “New Year’s Eve,” just picture the women pregnant, and you’ll know what you’re in for.

SHAWNYes, the movie features an all-star cast but not one person adds any life. none the couples have any chemistry. And everyone is completely negative. the tone is so awful it’s to the point if being offensive. the execution is so bad you have to wonder if any professionals were involved.RUSS

To enjoy “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” you have to go in with low expectations

SHAWNThere’s forced sentiment by the end but it means very little. some one please pass the Pepto.THE DICTATOR(R)SHAWNOn the surface “the Dictator” may seem like just another Sacha Baron Cohen movie. But it isn’t. the gifted comedian has ditched his man on the street approach and gone scripted in this brilliant satire that will bit sting and satisfy you.

Sasha Baron Cohen of “Borat” fame offers his first scripted comedy, “The Dictator,” and the results are a mixed bag. Baron Cohen plays a bigoted and idiotic North African tyrant who fends off the efforts to bring democracy to his country. the outrageous R-rated movie gets in some very sharp sociological commentary, but the funny moments are sporadic and the movie’s overall mean spirit is a bit off-putting.

Shawn: 4 Popcorn BagsAlso in theaters this week:

-MARLEY (PG-13): Bob Marley, the father of reggae, is profiled in this involving and comprehensive (2 hour and 22 minute) documentary. While the filmmakers rely on the usual elements like talking heads, home movies, interviews and concert footage, the assemblage provides a fitting tribute to a pop music icon.

-HIT SO HARD: THE LIFE AND NEAR DEATH OF PATTY SCHEMEL (Unrated): This warts-and-all documentary focuses on the hard rocking drummer from the alt-rock band, Hole.

Exclusive Popcorn Bag Reviews Here! is a post from: Transformer-Toys.com

Visit any toy aisle in America and you’ll probably find an action figure based on a Hollywood movie, and there’s a very good chance it will stamped ”made in China” — but will that be that same phrase soon apply to Hollywood’s biggest action movies as well? Disney has just announced that “Iron Man 3,” one of the highest-profile popcorn films for 2013,  will be a joint production with DMG Entertainment of Beijing. It’s a major moment in the American film industry’s intensifying courtship of China, which many industry experts say is on track to be the No. 1 movie market in the world by 2020 (it’s ranked third now, up from fifth a year ago).

Tom DeSanto is among the many Hollywood players poised to exploit that surging marketplace. the 43-year-old new Jersey writer and producer was a key figure on the first two “X-Men” films, and he wrote the treatment for the first “Transformers” movie and was credited on all three of the toy-based Michael Bay films. these days DeSanto is ramping up a co-production with Beijing-based Yi Shang Media and is mid-script on “Gods,” a tale of a superhuman pantheon that draws on China’s classic literature, but his more pressing focus is a speech on movie franchises that he will deliver at the Beijing International Film Festival next week. Hero Complex caught up with him on the eve of his trip.

HC: Recount your reaction to learning that “Transformers” was a stunning success in China.

TD: China is the future. We were No. 2 at the box office there, behind “Avatar,” with the first film. There’s nothing more gratifying than finding out that stories you’re setting up are translating across language and culture, that there are no boundaries. each film we’ve released in succession has gotten more and more popular in China. It’s a great time to be a part of Chinese storytelling and Chinese cinema.

HC: But were you surprised your films were popular in China?

TD: I’d known that there were the toys there, but the success [of the film] in China is a little more surprising. I loved my Rock’em Sock’em Robots, but I don’t necessarily think that’s going to make a good movie. but I’m not that surprised that we were successful [in China]. Technology and robots, the soul beneath the machine as a story works well. the title was translated [into Chinese] as “Buddha’s Metal Guardians.”

HC: What are you going to say about U.S.-China co-productions at the upcoming festival in Beijing?

TD: I’ve been blessed by being involved in three projects that I wanted to do since I was a kid: “X-Men,” “Battlestar Galactica” and “Transformers.” It was fun to be the person that was key to pulling all of those things out of mothballs and awakening the sleeping dragon in each of them.… the key for me with franchises is that stories are great, but characters are king. When I was 10 years old, I didn’t care where Han Solo went next; all I knew was that I wanted to be his sidekick.

HC: how early in the process of a film franchise do you have to talk with the toy makers?

TD: I was the kid rushing home from football practice to play Dungeons & Dragons. It was always about the larger imagination mega-brands: “X-Men,” “Transformers” and now, hopefully, “Gods” are all stories where children can put themselves into the shoes of the character…. There’s this whole process, which is kind of magical. There’s nothing more fun than handing an actor their own action figure for the first time. They look at it like they’re 8 years old and they have this twinkle in their eye that says, “Is this really happening?” There’s a joy to it all.

HC: What’s your advice for Chinese filmmakers about learning to work with Hollywood?

TD: the first thing I’ll tell them is, you never want to chase success. you never want to chase money. you never want to chase all those trappings. you want to follow your heart. If you love small indie movies, then follow that and tell those intimate stories about two people around a coffee table talking about life and the trials and tribulations of everyday living. If you love period pieces, then make them magnificent and nuanced and rich and allow the audience to step into that time. and if you love big crazy franchise films that resonate around the globe, then follow that…. What’s interesting to me is the evolution of culture. What’s not really being appreciated is how far China has come in the past 10 years along the very slow-moving wheel of history. It’s a pretty epic leap. They’re moving out of their comfort zone and still trying to keep it together. I think we’re at an interesting point in history right now.

HC: how do you approach the source material on something like “Gods”?

TD: for me the key, in that Joseph Campbell sense of the word, is “What is the story saying about the human condition?” Having grown up with the X-Men and then finding myself with an opportunity to go after that and make it into a film, I had to take almost 40 years of mythology and condense it down into a treatment that could be shot in a two-hour movie. I think with “Gods,” it’s a similar situation. You’ve got a very complex group of characters with a large supporting cast, but what is at the heart of the story? for me, that’s what attracted me to the project — universal themes and a global voice on things like power and abuse of power and things like when does a person stand up and say, “enough is enough”? When do they give up fear about being the nail that sticks out and gets hammered?

HC: What do you make of the challenge of storytelling in a country where the censors’ whims take the place of a transparent film ratings system?

TD: I’m a big fan of the saying “Walk a mile in somebody’s moccasins before you you judge him.” Sometimes artists want an immediacy in change, but it doesn’t happen that way. I think it’s up to the Chinese to decide for themselves. and I think they are. look at the epic leap in China in the past 20 years. It’s probably the most explosive growth that any country has ever seen on the planet, ever. and they’re juggling tradition. in Western storytelling, it’s a little simpler. It’s good versus evil, and good wins. Through my reading of old Asian myths, it’s good battles evil and they have to find tranquility and they have to find peace. That’s something that we in the West could learn from. Every person is your student and your teacher. I’m learning a lot about myself from my visits to China. hopefully, vice versa.

HC: are there Chinese films you like?

TD: Having grown up in new Jersey, we’d get “Kung Fu Theater” on Saturday afternoon on television, so we’d watch these old Shaw Brothers movies coming out of Hong Kong. They were the chop-socky of that era. I became very familiar with “Five Deadly Venoms” or Sonny Chiba. I was looking at that form of storytelling, which is very different from Western storytelling. as I grow older, some of my favorite films are Chinese films. “Hero” is a masterpiece. I love that film. I’ve watched recent stuff, too, such as “Confucius” with Chow Yun Fat, or [John Woo’s] “Red Cliff,” to try to see what’s working and not working. at the end of the day it’s about trying to see what the audience is responding to and how do we tell stories that make them care. in “Red Cliff,” some things work and some things don’t. With “Confucius,” it was pretty to look at and he’s such a great character in history, but I’m not emotionally invested and it feels a little bit distant. That’s a problem when you’re trying to have the audience say, “Whose shoes am I putting on when I sit down with my popcorn? whose journey are we walking through?”

– Jonathan Landreth

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‘Transformers’ producer seeks ‘Gods’ and profits in China is a post from: Transformer-Toys.com

Film: Coming to a theater near you this summerGraphic/Photo Slug:SH12E007SUMMERFILMCARLA MEYERSacramento Bee05-01-12

Iron Man, Spider-Man, Batman and the battleship from the 1960s board game are the summer’s most prominent movie characters. Summer 2012, like all summers, will be filled with popcorn movies. but it also will offer stories for grown-ups and, on occasion, even food for thought. the maturity starts with Christian Bale in “The dark Knight Rises,” the final film in director Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy. Nolan’s “Batman Begins” and “The dark Knight” set the standard for all modern blockbusters via superior acting, production design, music and special effects. Boy or not, teenager or not, any movie fan can be a fan of Nolan’s films. “Dark Knight Rises” helps bridge the gap from blockbusters to the quieter, boomer-friendly films of summer. these films are directed by Woody Allen or star Meryl Streep or Judi Dench, or feature a nearly 50-year-old Tom Cruise as a bare-chested rock star. Distributors are not just grasping for counterprogramming. Streep (“The Devil Wears Prada”; “Mamma Mia!”) and Allen (“Midnight in Paris”) are proven summer draws. Here is a select list of 2012 summer movies, divided into 10 “blockbusters” and 10 “others.” Films in the “others” category share a few traits: a) minimal effects budgets; and b) few to no souvenir-cup or lunchbox tie-ins. Dates are subject to change and vary from city to city.

“The Avengers”: A comic-book fan’s dream, this film brings together Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), Bruce Banner/the incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo, going where Eric Bana and Edward Norton unsuccessfully went before), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and the Black Widow (a catsuit-wearing Scarlett Johansson) to save Earth. Joss Whedon (“Buffy, the Vampire Slayer”), a deity to message-board frequenters, directs. Opens May 4. “Battleship”: the trailer brags that this film comes from Hasbro, the toy company behind “Transformers,” before showing a Transformer-like creature emerging from the sea. “Friday Night Lights” veteran Taylor (“John Carter”-was-not-his-fault) Kitsch leads the cast. Pop diva Rihanna plays a Navy gunner, which really strains this film’s credibility. oh, wait — it’s a movie based on a board game, with metallic sea aliens. May 18. “Men in Black 3″: Former summer-movie stalwart Will Smith makes his first big-screen appearance since 2008. Judging by his prominent mug on the movie’s poster, he still makes the suit and shades look good. Smith returns as alien-fighting Agent J, who goes back in time to find Agent K (Josh Brolin plays Tommy Lee Jones’ character as a younger man). May 25. “Snow White and the Huntsman”: Julia Roberts went for camp in “Mirror Mirror,” and Lana Parrilla’s fierceness on ABC’s “Once and Again” sometimes gets diminished by her over-the-top costuming. but Charlize Theron appears to be all-evil, soul-sucking business in “Huntsman.” She looks as if she could crush Kristin Stewart’s Snow White with a pointed look, despite Snow’s feminist-revisionist armor and sword. June 1. “Prometheus”: It was supposed to be a sequel to “Alien,” then it wasn’t. regardless, Ridley Scott’s return to his sci-fi roots looks highly promising, or rather, scary and ominous. Theron, Noomi Rapace (from the Swedish version of “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”), Michael Fassbender and Idris Elba lead an international cast playing space explorers who should be less curious. June 8. “Brave”: Pixar and Disney tap the current fairy-tale craze with the story of a flame-haired Scottish princess skilled with a bow and arrow. Kelly Macdonald (“Boardwalk Empire”) voices the lead character, and Billy Connolly, Craig Ferguson, Kevin McKidd and Robbie Coltrane also lend their voices. That’s a lot of burr. June 22. “The Amazing Spider-Man”: Andrew Garfield (“The Social Network”) suits up as Spidey, with Emma Stone as Gwen, Peter Parker’s primary love interest here. A reboot of the Tobey Maguire “Spider-Man” films seems premature. but the leads are likable, and Marc Webb, whose best-known movie is “(500) Days of Summer,” an unlikely, interesting choice as director. July 3. “The dark Knight Rises”: It will be interesting to see Anne Hathaway’s approach to Catwoman, and what Tom Hardy does with his heavy-breathing, mask-wearing villain Bane. It also will be exciting to see what wonders Nolan has created with his Imax cameras (he reportedly shot more than an hour’s worth of footage). mostly, though, you wish Nolan’s “Batman” series would not end here. July 20. “The Bourne Legacy”: Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne is out of the picture. Jeremy Renner plays a different CIA agent. Renner (“The hurt Locker”), like Damon, always gives good performances. Director Tony Gilroy wrote the previous “Bourne” movies and directed “Michael Clayton.” so those are pretty good credentials, if any credentials can be believed in the “Bourne” world. Aug. 3. “Total Recall”: Colin Farrell fills the Arnold Schwarzenegger role as a guy who wants a virtual mini-break but gets a hassle instead. “Underworld” filmmaker Len Wiseman directed, and “Underworld” leading lady and Wiseman’s wife, Kate Beckinsale, co-stars. this means acting might be sacrificed at times for more blue lighting. Aug. 3.

“Dark Shadows”: Johnny Depp plays weirdos. It is as much a fact about him as his name, birthplace or the shabby clothes he wears to premieres. another fact: It’s more fun to see Depp play a weirdo in a goofy setting. this Tim Burton film provides one, by releasing centuries-old vampire Barnabas Collins (seductively played in the old, serious “Dark Shadows” series by Jonathan Frid, who died last week) from his crypt and into swinging 1972. Collins returns to his Maine estate, where his Collins relatives, including Michelle Pfeiffer, now live. Fish-out-of-water hijinks hopefully ensue. May 11. “The Dictator”: Sacha Baron Cohen immerses himself in character and potential offensiveness again, this time in a scripted movie. Baron Cohen plays a trigger- and insult-happy Middle Eastern despot visiting America. Respected actors Ben Kingsley and John C. Reilly also appear in “The Dictator,” if that means anything. May 11. “Moonrise Kingdom”: Director Wes Anderson (“The Royal Tenenbaums”) brings his retro sensibility and wide, static shots to a New England summer camp in 1965. A bespectacled 12-year-old boy and his dream girl run away together. the boy’s mother (Frances McDormand) worries, his dad (Anderson favorite Bill Murray) mostly shrugs. Other characters, one anticipates, will react with Anderson’s signature blend of absurdity and ache. June 15. “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”: A group of English retirees is sold a bill of goods about an Indian hotel for seniors. They arrive in India to (gasp!) crowded streets and less-than-stellar accommodations. the premise is predictable. but the cast brims with great actors, including Bill Nighy (“Notes on a Scandal”), Tom Wilkinson and Maggie Smith. Judging by the trailer, though, it’s Judi Dench’s movie. She glows as a woman coming in to her own in this exotic locale. (Another cliche, but who cares?) May 11. “Rock of Ages”: Tom Cruise does his own singing and leather-pantsed strutting as an Axl Rose-like rocker in this adaptation of the Broadway musical. Set in big-haired 1987, it also stars “Dancing With the Stars” performer Julianne Hough, Alec Baldwin and Catherine Zeta-Jones and the music of Pat Benatar, Whitesnake and Poison. June 15. “Magic Mike”: Drawn from actor Channing Tatum’s experiences as a stripper, this movie stars Tatum, Alex Pettyfer (“I am Number Four”), Matt Bomer (“White Collar’) and Joe Manganiello (“True Blood”) as the peelers. Matthew McConaughey, in a brilliant, well-oiled bit of casting, plays the strip club’s former owner and unofficial dean of the dancers. Director Steven Soderbergh makes films like “Traffic,” “Erin Brockovich” and “Contagion,” but also movies like this and “Haywire,” which starred cage fighter Gina Carano. Soderbergh is an examiner, a populist and just plain interesting. but who will see “Magic Mike”? It’s hard to imagine men willingly accompanying their girlfriends and wives to this skin-fest. June 29. “People Like Us”: Chris Pine (“Star Trek”) plays the son of a recently departed man. Heavily in debt, the son could use an inheritance, but his father left money instead to an adult daughter (Elizabeth Banks) Pine’s character never knew about. Michelle Pfeiffer plays Pine’s mother (yes, she is old enough), but the focus is on the half-siblings’ relationship. the premise intrigues, and Pine and Banks are likable actors who don’t usually star in studio comedy/dramas like this one. Come to think of it, there aren’t studio films like this. June 29. “To Rome With Love”: Woody Allen continues his cinematic tour of Europe. Advance details on Allen movies always are scarce, but Allen veterans Penelope Cruz and Judy Davis have roles, as does Alec Baldwin. Ellen Page (“Juno”) and Greta Gerwig also appear. July. “Hope Springs”: Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones play a married couple who travel to a retreat hosted by a renowned relationship therapist (Steve Carell). Just seeing Streep and Jones as a couple is worth $10.50. Aug. 10. “Sparkle”: Singer Jordin Sparks plays one of three sisters who form a Motown-era girl group. this period-true remake of the 1976 film of the same name also marks Whitney Houston’s final film appearance. She plays the young women’s mother, who had her own musical aspirations. Aug. 17.

And here we thought comic-book films were sequel-happy. “Ice Age: Continental Drift” (July 13) continues the adventures of acorn-pursuing squirrel-rat Scrat, woolly mammoth Manny and sloth Sid. … Animals also are on the run in “Madagascar 3: Europe’s most Wanted” (June in which the New York City zoo animals pose as performers in a traveling European circus. … the live-action “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days” (Aug. 3) follows Greg from the “Wimpy” book series on his summer break. … “The Odd Life of Timothy Green” (Aug. 15) stars Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton as a couple with fertility issues who imagine their perfect child. then he shows up on their doorstep.

(Email Carla Meyer at cmeyer(at)sacbee.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, scrippsnews.com.)Bytes: 30,720 Word Count:9999

Film: Coming to a theater near you this summer is a post from: Transformer-Toys.com

Hasbro is suing California computer maker Asus, saying the company’s new Transformer Prime tablet violates trademarks related to popular children’s action toys.

The Transformer Prime, which uses the Android-operating system, touts itself as a potential rival to popular alternatives like Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle fire. the Asus device doesn’t appear to change shapes into a truck or a robot but it does feature an attached QWERTY-style keyboard.

The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles federal court last week. In an email statement to paidContent, Hasbro wrote:

“Hasbro continues to aggressively protect its brands and products and the specific actions we are taking today against Asus underscores yet again Hasbro’s willingness to pursue companies who misappropriate our intellectual property for their own financial gain.”

Asus could not immediately be reached for comment.

Hasbro is seeking damages and a temporary injunction to prevent Asus from selling the tablet which is currently available from Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) and other retailers.

On its face, Hasbro’s lawsuit seems like a long shot since it’s unlikely that consumers would mix up children’s toy and a tablet gizmo of the same name. Trademark law typically only applies to certain categories of goods — that’s why, for instance, Delta Faucets and Delta airlines can co-exist. But Hasbro is likely to argue that the popular Transformers brand is expanding rapidly (it also includes a movie franchise) and so the name should be protected for a wider category of goods.

Hat tip to Jonathan Fingas who has noted below that the most famous Transformer character is named Optimus Prime. Hasbro’s case for consumer confusion over “Transformer Prime” is looking a little bit stronger..

As for Asus, the company is still a minnow in a booming tablet market that is for now dominated by the iPad.

The case is Hasbro Inc v. Asus Computer International Inc et al

Toy Maker Sues Android Tablet Maker Over 'Transformer' Tablet is a post from: Transformer-Toys.com

In 1996 a young mathematician and computer scientist named Erik Demaine became fascinated by a magic trick that Harry Houdini used to do before he made his name as an escape artist. the magician would fold a piece of paper flat a few times, make one straight cut with a pair of scissors, and then unfold the paper to reveal a five-pointed star. Other magicians built on Houdini’s fold-and-cut method over the years, creating more intricate shapes: a single letter, for example, or a chain of stars.

It’s an odd subject of study for a computer science professor, but Demaine had an unorthodox background. when he was hired by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001, he was, at 20, the youngest professor in the university’s history. Pale, thin, and soft-spoken, with a pickpocket’s long fingers and a fox-colored ponytail, Demaine was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and raised by his father, Martin, a renowned glass blower.

Photographs by Leonard Greco for Bloomberg BusinessweekCurved-crease origami at Erik and Martin Demaine’s shared studio at MIT

When Demaine was six, he and his father started a puzzle company. when he was seven, his father took him out of school and they spent four years traveling the U.S., choosing their destinations together. they spent a few months in Florida, Demaine recalls, “because it was so flat and good for riding bicycles.” Martin home-schooled his son while they moved from place to place. the traveling stopped when Erik returned to Halifax to enroll in Dalhousie University at age 12.

It was his father who brought the fold-and-cut problem to his attention when, still a teenager, Demaine was searching for a dissertation topic. it was clear that one could create complicated shapes by folding and cutting, but how complicated? What were the limits? it was a simple but potentially universal question, exactly the sort that most appealed to Erik. he worked on the problem for two years and in 1998 published a paper with his answer: there were no limits. Fold-and-cut allowed you to make any shape in the world, any collection of shapes, even, as long as they had straight sides. One could, in an angular font, create the entire text of this page with the right folds and the right cut. in a paper published two years later, Demaine expanded on this idea, extending it into three dimensions: Any faceted solid, he showed, no matter how complex or irregular, could be folded from a single uncut sheet of paper. start with a piece of paper big enough, and you could model Notre Dame down to the last gargoyle.

At least in theory. Demaine’s computational origami work assumed an idealized sheet of paper with a thickness of zero, a sheet that could be folded an unlimited number of times. Still, his method gave a sense of the possibilities of folding. he has since become an accomplished origami artist. He’s also made a robot from a single sheet of plastic.

When we think of mass production, the image is of a factory floor. Take a car. the engine block is cast, either from iron or aluminum. the hood, doors, and roof are stamped out on 100-ton presses. Gears are carved from metal blocks by milling machines or punched out by dies. the console and interior handles are injection-molded or carved, the mats and seats woven or stitched together. some of these processes date to the Industrial Revolution, others to the Iron Age. the natural world doesn’t use any of them. One of its favorite methods is to take something flat and fold it into a three-dimensional form. Flowers, leaves, wings, proteins, mountain ranges, eyelids, ears, DNA—all are created by folding.

Today researchers in robotics, biology, math, and computer science are immersing themselves in that method. Scientists are looking at how materials and molecules wrinkle, drape, flex, and crease. They’re using folding to design everything from robots to cancer drugs, from airbags to mirrors for satellite telescopes. an Oxford University engineer named Zhong you has used origami to design better-crumpling car bumpers and flexible, low-cost stents. a team at Wake Forest University has used origami folding to create a fabric of densely layered nanotubes that can generate power from body heat. in a range of fields, fabrication by folding has the potential to be far faster, cheaper, and less energy-intensive than traditional methods and to work at very, very small scales, where even the most precise mills and lathes have all the accuracy of an earthquake. Makers of medical equipment and consumer electronics are looking at folding as a way to streamline manufacturing processes.

“We have a paradigm where we want to build things by having a solid block and then etching away at the block until you get whatever shape that you want,” says William Shih, a Harvard University biochemistry professor. Think of Michelangelo chiseling his forms from boulders of marble, or a milling machine carving an engine part out of a hunk of steel. “The way that nature does things is different,” Shih says. “It uses a folding algorithm, and it’s something that seems to be very efficient. we can look to nature for inspiration.” Shih himself has designed devices at the nanoscale that assemble themselves out of DNA strands, a process known as DNA origami.

Photograph by Leonard Greco for Bloomberg BusinessweekRobert Wood in the Harvard Microrobotics Lab, which he runs

Folding is, at heart, a geometry problem, and the groundwork for much of the new research is being laid by mathematicians. the increasingly ingenious applications, though, are driven by collaborations between engineers, scientists, and programmers: “Biologically inspired engineering” is an ambitious new way of doing science that treats living organisms like mechanical systems. Just as the diameter of a gear or the strength of a spring determines how a clock works, the shape and tensile qualities of folded proteins determine their roles in the countless processes that keep the human body running. Deciphering those relationships and building off of them are part of what the new science of folding is about.

Two of Demaine’s collaborators are the roboticists Robert Wood of Harvard and Daniela Rus of MIT. Rus is one of the world’s leading researchers of “programmable matter”: substances that can change their own physical properties. Programmable materials could allow for the creation of devices that take on multiple dissimilar tasks, repair themselves, or evolve. the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, has a programmable matter project, and it helped fund the work that Wood, Rus, and Demaine have done together.

Most programmable matter research has focused on small modular robots and other devices that can combine into various larger forms. Folding is a different approach, and it has the advantage of having been studied both by mathematicians such as Demaine and by generations of origami practitioners. As Rus, Wood, and Demaine wrote in a June 2010 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, programmable matter that folds could be used to create a Swiss Army knife-like tool that could morph from a wrench to an antenna to a tripod. Rus has spoken of the possibility of kinetic maps that could reproduce the topography of the landscape they’re showing, and Demaine of solar panels reconfiguring themselves to more efficiently capture sunlight.

The first challenge to realizing such machines is figuring out whether the sort of folding required is conceptually possible. Origami is all about crease patterns: choosing a fold pattern locks one into a single final form, whether it’s a crane or a flower. Demaine wanted to find out whether there was a crease pattern that was an exception to this, a sort of universal origami building block. he discovered it in a fold called the box pleat: a square grid of creases with alternating diagonals that origami artists had long known could be used to create a wide variety of different shapes. Demaine’s contribution, once again, was to prove just how wide that variety was. Using computational geometry, he proved that the box pleat worked as a three-dimensional pixel (a voxel). “If you want to make any shape out of little cubes, then this crease pattern is enough,” he says. Geometrically speaking, all you had to do was start with enough squares.

In the summer of 2008, Rus, Wood, and the researchers in their labs set out to see if Demaine’s mathematical proof could be translated into an actual device. Their aim was a small prototype, a sheet that could fold itself into two simple shapes: an airplane and a boat. Paper thickness and paper size, the issues that always separate computational origami from real world folding, would only be exacerbated in this transformer robot. the “paper” would need circuitry, and the wires would have to be able to stretch at the robot’s joints, since each fold doubled the sheet’s thickness. in addition, the motors at the folds that would drive the transforming process would have to be very thin but also powerful, since they would be acting at the joint, the point of least leverage (think of pushing open a door right next to the hinge rather than at the side where the handle is).

Over the next year the designers came up with solutions to each of the challenges. the final sheet, a square half a millimeter thick and 4 centimeters to a side, comprises 32 identical fiberglass triangles with silicone rubber joints between them. to create the wiring for the joints, Rus and Wood cut copper-laminated plastic into a mesh so it could expand, accordion-like, across the folds while still carrying a current. the robot’s muscles were thin foil strips made of a “shape memory” metal alloy that would either fold or straighten when electricity was run through it. its robot brain was a sticker.

Leonard Greco for Bloomberg BusinessweekIt takes a week to assemble a RoboBee by hand—and a fraction of a second by pop-up folding fabricationSince his days as a University of California at Berkeley graduate student, Wood has been working on developing a life-size robotic bee. a tiny aerial robot, he argues, could be used to gather information in military and search-and-rescue operations, to explore hazardous environments, even to pollinate plants if bee populations continue to decline. Today, Wood’s RoboBee is part of an arms race of small drones: There’s also the Nano Hummingbird, built by AeroVironment for Darpa, and the 22-inch quadrotors being developed at the University of Pennsylvania (their feats of coordinated flying have made them YouTube (GOOG) sensations). the RoboBee remains a more rudimentary flyer; its designers are still working on getting it into a stable hover. the considerable challenge of sustained, controlled flight is exacerbated for the RoboBee by the fact that it’s a fraction of the size of its competitors—39 mm from wingtip to wingtip, 18 mm from head to tail, and one-sixtieth the weight of a quarter.

The RoboBee’s miniature scale has also created fabrication problems. Until recently the robots had to be built by hand using microscopes, tweezers, and superglue. the laborious process took a year to learn, and even then the merest twitch of an assembler’s fingers could ruin the work. Nine out of 10 parts ended up defective. At Harvard, Wood and the graduate students in his lab were constantly looking for ways to improve the process. a couple of them, including Wood, have small children, and two years ago they realized they had a model for how to rethink their fabrication process right in their homes: pop-up books. “You open up the page, and out pops this complicated structure,” Wood says. “All of the assembly trajectories are built into that laminated two-dimensional structure.” the magic of pop-up is that the clumsiest infant can make it happen. the unfolding is easy; what’s tricky is making the cuts and folds beforehand that ensure that everything properly deploys. if the engineers in the lab could create an assembly method that did the same thing, they would be able to turn a painstaking task into a mass production process. the minirobots could be stamped out by the sheet.

Two of Wood’s graduate students, Pratheev Sreetharan and J. Peter Whitney, set to work on pop-up assembly, poring over how-to books on pop-up design and trading e-mails with a German pop-up sculptor. Sreetharan, a physicist by training, took the lead in creating a production process for the RoboBee. he had to map out the dizzying choreography that would, in a single movement, lift every piece of the bee from two dimensions into three, without any of the parts colliding as they swung into place. he spent months on a computer design program diagramming the cuts he would have to make to guarantee the right folds, and he built large-scale models in cardboard and glue to test his ideas. “One of the strengths I brought to this,” says Sreetharan, “was the fortitude to just spend that long working on it.”

The basic concept was to stack all of the bee’s building materials—multiple layers of carbon fiber (for the body), titanium (the wing frames), piezoelectric ceramic (to flap the wings), and a flexible plastic polyimide film (the joints)—one on top of the other like plywood, using dowels to align them. Each of the 18 strata was precision-cut with a laser, about 3,000 cuts per layer, and bonded to its neighbors at particular points with a solid adhesive. some of the robot’s structural elements, such as the wing frames, were made from just one layer. Others emerged from the interaction of multiple strata—the joints, for example, are polyimide sandwiched between layers of carbon fiber, with small gaps cut out of the stiff carbon to allow for articulation, like the elbows in a suit of armor. the circuitry for sensing and controlling the RoboBee’s flight, Sreetharan says, can simply be printed onto some of the layers with the same techniques chip companies use to make circuit boards.

Leonard Greco for Bloomberg BusinessweekShawn Douglas is the creator of the DNA origami nanorobot

Wood is one of 17 founding faculty members of an ambitious research alliance at Harvard called the Wyss Institute, whose mission in large part is to work with researchers to commercialize their ideas. What particularly excites him and his colleagues about pop-up folding is that it potentially can be used to make all sorts of complex devices. “It’s a manufacturing strategy that we think is going to revolutionize everything from microelectronics to toy manufacturing,” says Donald Ingber, a Harvard Medical School professor and director of the Wyss.

One of the companies working with Wood’s group is the Hong Kong-based toymaker WowWee, whose past hits include the Robosapien toy robot and Paper Jamz, a set of musical instruments made out of circuit-embedded paper. “We’re very interested, ” says Davin Sufer, the company’s chief technology officer. “We have a few product concepts that we’re working on together right now.” WowWee is looking at using pop-up fabrication to make toys that, like the RoboBee, would combine complex electronics with precision moving parts. “Toys are typically very labor intensive; we can save costs and make products more efficiently this way,” Sufer says. “We’re also looking at making products smaller and more compact than we could otherwise.”

For many researchers the true measure of folding’s potential is the profusion of ways nature uses it. One of Wood’s colleagues and collaborators is L. Mahadevan, a Harvard mathematician who studies the fold algorithms of insect wings, leaves, and flowers. also at the Wyss, a biophysicist named Shawn Douglas, working with immunologist Ido Bachelet, has built something called a DNA origami nanorobot, a drug-delivery device one-ten-thousandth of the width of the period at the end of this sentence. the bot has shown the ability, at least in petri dishes, to identify cancerous cells and release a payload of antibodies that kills them while leaving healthy cells untouched.

Photograph by Leonard Greco for Bloomberg BusinessweekIn a petri dish, the DNA origami nanorobot kills cancerous cells while leaving healthy ones untouched

Douglas and Bachelet built their smart bombs using DNA origami, which takes advantage of the way DNA base pairs—the teeth in the zipper of the double helix—bond to each other. the method involves mixing single strands of DNA to form a three-dimensional structural lattice. By determining the base pairs’ order, DNA origami designers can determine where the strands bond and thus the three-dimensional form the lattice folds itself into. It’s not really origami; it’s more like the world’s smallest, most complicated balloon animal.

Researchers elsewhere are working on the puzzle of how proteins fold. the building blocks of human cells, proteins are strands of amino acids—they are extruded, spaghetti-like, from cellular machines called ribosomes. Biologists still don’t fully understand what determines the intricate shapes that the long molecules snap into once they’re completed. It’s a question with huge ramifications—Alzheimer’s, mad cow, and various cancers are thought to be caused by protein misfolding.

One particularly promising approach to understanding protein folding is a website called Foldit, created by David Baker, a biochemist at the University of Washington. It’s a game—anyone can go to the website and play—that awards points for finding the most likely folding pattern for a protein. certain players have proven to have a real knack for it, and their cumulative efforts have solved problems that have long stumped biochemists.

The goal of researchers such as Baker isn’t just understanding how protein folding works and how it can go awry but also designing entirely new proteins. the forms proteins take determine their function—the corkscrew shape of actin is the mechanism by which muscles contract, the long, clingy arms of fibrin molecules form blood clots. Creating proteins that fold into new shapes could lead to compounds with new abilities: pharmaceuticals, chemical catalysts, molecules that take carbon dioxide out of the air or cause toxic compounds to break down. Baker has developed a protein that seems to block H1N1 flu infection, and Foldit players are at work on similar proteins for other flu viruses. As Baker describes it, what he and the Foldit players are doing is essentially protein origami.

“Living systems have all these different things that they can do and all of these different chemical reactions that they can catalyze, but those are just the chemical reactions that were of interest during the evolution of life,” he says. “We in our modern world have a whole bunch of problems that were never encountered during evolution, so we’d like to be able to make new proteins that solve those problems.”

Demaine has also studied protein folding. along with advanced geometry, he’s using some of the same assumptions behind Foldit. “If we can find efficient, nice folding algorithms for proteins,” he says, “maybe nature is following those.” What excites him at the moment, though, is something called curved-crease folding, a method that dates to the 1920s and the artists and designers of the Bauhaus. Curving folds, it turns out, have a particular power: a simple pattern can create a menagerie of intricate three-dimensional shapes and can change the qualities of a piece of paper, giving it the ability to stretch and drape in new ways. Demaine is curious why that is. “There’s very little theory on curved-crease origami,” he says.

He’s not sure whether anything useful will emerge from the work, and as a mathematician that’s not his concern. His father is now an artist-in-residence and visiting scientist at MIT, and together the two have created a series of curved-crease sculptures. some are in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, others were on view earlier this spring at a Manhattan gallery. they look like some sort of mutant mollusk rendered by M.C. Escher. they seem, at the same time, both impossible and perfectly natural.

Is Origami the Future of Tech? is a post from: Transformer-Toys.com

A few days ago my oldest son was sitting at the kitchen counter trying to finish up some difficult science homework.

I banished my younger son and his little sister to the basement playroom so that I could help my 10-year-old without the distractions of the TV or game-playing in the adjacent family room.

My 8-year-old complained at first, but then went downstairs. a short time later, he came back up and said, “Look what I found!”

With a huge smile on his face, he held out a Transformer toy I hadn’t seen in months. “I’m so glad we went down to play. I forgot about this!”

After his brother went back downstairs, my oldest looked at me and asked, “Does he have a happy heart?”

“Yes,” I said. “He finds joy in just about everything.”

It was a continuation of an ongoing conversation we’ve been having.

My oldest is polite, can be very helpful and is a creative soul. but he is also solemn, driven, stubborn and controlling.

I recognize that his determination will probably help him become a successful adult. but it won’t make him happy.

Several weeks ago I had to take away some of his video games because he wanted to play for hours until he won. he would scream at his siblings if they interrupted, and hit his younger brother when they were playing together.

When I took the games, I told my son I would only give them back when he had found joy in other things and had a happy heart.

For the first week or so he cried almost every day, begging me to give him back his games. he was like an addict.

When I didn’t relent, the pleas became less frequent and irrational. And he started asking me what I meant by a “happy heart.”

“I want you to play outside with your friends, get excited about learning something new at school, help your brother practice your Tae Kwon Do forms, read a book to your sister, watch a funny movie with me and laugh, hug your brother and sister and forget those video games exist for a while.”

Trying to explain to a 10-year-old that a happy heart comes from inside, from finding joy in loving and caring for others, is pretty difficult. It’s similar to telling them, “It’s not the gift, but the thought that counts,” when they’ve just opened a box containing hand-knit socks instead of something fun to play with.

But we’re working on it.

I think most parents would say they want to raise confident, successful, intelligent and caring children. but if asked what they wanted most for their kids, those same parents would probably say they just want their children to be happy.

Since I can’t wrap up happiness in a box and give it to my oldest son — even in video game form — I suppose I have to show him how to be happy.

“It’s like meatloaf for dinner,” I told him.

“You love when I make meatloaf for dinner,” I said. “So I make it pretty often, because when you smile it makes my heart happy.”

That, of course, he understood.

MOMMY TALK: Finding a happy heart is a post from: Transformer-Toys.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Considering this is a Pirate-free, Transformer-free, Harry Potter-free summer, the news for middle-schoolers is about as good as it gets.

This summer-movie preview is aimed squarely at 13-year-olds. I’ve tapped my inner awkward stage and picked the 10 movies that I would be the most excited about if I were a seventh-grader heading into summer.

Included are the odds that each movie will be the most awesome flick of the summer.

Openings are subject to change and can vary from city to city.

“The Avengers”

Advice for a 13-year-old: Yes, this film already came out. but a summer-movie roundup for 13-year-old boys without “The Avengers” is like a Hulk movie without the shredded purple pants. with plenty of Iron Man and a fun script, fans — especially middle-schoolers — got their money’s worth.

Odds it will be the summer’s most awesome film: 6-1.

“The Dictator”

Advice: Assuming you don’t have a cool older brother or a friend working at the multiplex, the R rating presents an obvious barrier. we like the idea of Sacha Baron Cohen bringing one of his characters into a fictional realm. And in the movies, throwing a trash can at a taxi is always funny.

“Battleship”

Advice: The aliens in this look like the ones from “Halo,” so that should appeal to the younger generation. And Liam Neeson’s in it, so Dad might want to go. “Battleship” will be OK, and then we’ll all forget about it in a week.

“Men in Black 3”

Advice: This film features will Smith, time travel and Josh Brolin playing a young Tommy Lee Jones. It all looks kind of entertaining and completely unnecessary.

“Prometheus”

Advice: It must have been hard growing up in a world with only “Alien vs. Predator” movies. Ready to have your mind blown? Original “Alien” director Ridley Scott returns for this prequel to “Alien.” Don’t be alarmed by the low explosion count. This movie promises to be awesome.

“Brave”

Advice: The trailers have looked good, with the tone falling somewhere between mass-appeal Pixar (“Toy story 2,” “The Incredibles”) and the more subtle we’re-not-going-to-sell-as-much-merchandise Pixar (“Wall-E,” “Up”). You can look forward to an animated feature that doesn’t cater to 8-year-olds.

“G.I. Joe: Retaliation”

Advice: Robot bees! a motorcycle that turns into a missile! Ninjas fighting on a cliff! The first G.I. Joe movie was surprisingly tolerable, and this one looks as if it adds an element of self-deprecating fun. Plus it has Bruce Willis (“Die Hard”).

“The amazing Spider-Man”

Advice: Didn’t this movie just come out last year? we like some of the casting, and the Lizard is a good villain choice. but there’s no way this is better than “Spider-Man 2.”

“The dark Knight Rises”

Advice: The trailers look great, even with completely unintelligible dialogue from the villain Bane.

“The Bourne Legacy”

Advice: Apparently Jeremy Renner is the new Matt Damon. we were suspicious about this new Bourne-less “Bourne,” which had the look of “The next Karate Kid” on paper. but the presence of actress Joan Allen and reliable writer/director Tony Gilroy has us on board.

Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, scrippsnews.com.

Summer movies geared toward making tweens happy – Kearney Hub: Local Entertainment is a post from: Transformer-Toys.com

10 May 2012 Last updated at 15:38 ET Share this page by Muhammad Shukri BBC Monitoring mr Mursi has been portrayed as a spare tyre

Egyptians pride themselves on their sense of humour – which they believe is the most sophisticated in the Arab world.

And with presidential elections looming, the leading candidates have been mercilessly lampooned by Egypt's satirists.

Thirteen contenders have joined the election race, which is due to start on 23 May.

Humorous posters have been published online by critics of candidates seen as front runners – Mohammad Mursi, Amr Moussa, Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh, and Ahmed Shafiq.

The comic posters tend to focus on what the critics believe are the candidate's weaknesses.

the ‘spare’ president

Mohammad Mursi, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) candidate, was chosen by the group as a reserve candidate because the legal position of their preferred option, Khairat al-Shatar, was uncertain.

Mr Shatar was subsequently disqualified by the Higher Presidential Election Commission on legal grounds.

For some, mr Mursi does not cut the figure of a president, although he is backed by the MB's powerful propaganda machine.

His choice as a substitute has been the theme of a flurry of comic posters published online.

In one poster, mr Mursi appears with a car wheel and a jack. It reads: "Mohammad Mursi, the spare tyre of Egypt. the real alternative to a proper tyre when it deflates."

The slogan used by the MB during the recent parliamentary elections, "We are bringing good to Egypt", was turned on the same poster into "We are bringing the jack to Egypt".

‘Fulul’ mr Moussa is depicted as a transformer

Amr Moussa, another front runner, is also criticised in a number of posters, mainly over his service in the former regime. He served as foreign minister under ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

His critics call him "fulul", which refers to the "remnants" of the Mubarak regime. In one poster, mr Moussa appears raising his hand during a meeting of the World Economic Forum, with the words "I am fulul" added.

Mr Moussa's critics also focus on what appear to be contradictory statements from him about mr Mubarak. a poster, headlined in English "the biggest transformer" (a reference to the make of toy with the same name), depicts mr Moussa as an animated transformer and quotes him in different years.

"In 2010: 'I will vote for Mubarak because I respect his way of managing things.'

"In 2011: 'the Mubarak regime is responsible for sectarian violence.'"

Mr Moussa has explained the apparent contradiction by saying that, given the situation in Egypt under the former regime, he would have voted for mr Mubarak, as the alternative would have been his son, Jamal.

‘Real MB candidate’

Satirical posters have been also published about two other prominent candidates, Ahmed Shafiq and Abdul Moneim Aboul Fatouh.

Mr Shafiq, who served as minister of civil aviation and prime minister during mr Mubarak's last days in power, is taunted by his critics as being close to the former president.

Critics poked fun at the ubiquity of the Salafist candidate's posters

One poster shows half of mr Shafiq's face and half of mr Mubarak's put together, clearly suggesting that they are two sides of the same coin.

Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh, meanwhile, was dismissed by the MB over his decision to run for president, in contravention of the group's stance at the time.

However, it seems some question this version and believe mr Aboul Fotouh is the hidden candidate of the MB.

A poster shows him with the logo of the MB's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). It reads: "the FJP, established by the MB for all Egyptians, supports Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh, the real candidate of the MB for president."

Disqualified candidate mr Abu-Ismail was even portrayed under Lionel Messi's jersey

The idea of posters poking fun at presidential candidates had emerged earlier, before Salafist preacher Hazim Saleh Abu-Ismail was disqualified from the race over his mother's dual nationality.

Before his exclusion, mr Abu-Ismail's posters were on almost every street in Egypt. This led to a flurry of humorous posters online.

In one poster, US President Barack Obama is having a conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with mr Abu-Ismail's picture hung on the wall in the background.

Mr Obama says: "can you believe it, Erdo? This morning, I was going to give my children a lift and I found Abu-Ismail's picture stuck on the car."

Erdogan: "That's serious…!!!"

Other posters showed mr Abu-Ismail's posters on another planet, and even imprinted on the jersey of Barcelona's football star Lionel Messi.

BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad.

Egyptian satirists laugh at presidential candidates is a post from: Transformer-Toys.com

“A little Bit of Heaven” (May 4)

To judge from the trailer, Kate Hudson’s latest date flick isn’t much different from the ones that came before it, except that instead of planning a wedding or searching for treasure, she’s battling cancer and Gael Garcia Bernal helps her find true love.

the Bottom Line: it will be on your cable box the same day it’s in theaters, which isn’t a great sign. even if this effort proves the exception to her recent disappointments, it’s time for Hudson to rethink her career. E.W.

“Dark Shadows” (May 11)

the cult vampire soap of the Nixon years rises again, thanks to director Tim Burton and his ever-ready-to-be-weird muse Johnny Depp. In their retelling, Barnabas Collins (Depp) is a member of the undead whose 200-year slumber ends in the early ’70s, just in time for hot pants and women’s lib. Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green and Chloe Moritz co-star.

the Bottom Line: To paraphrase Max Von Sydow’s character in “Hannah a nd Her Sisters,” if Barnabas were to come back and see what “Twilight” was doing to the image of bloodsuckers, he wouldn’t stop throwing up. J.N.

“The Dictator” (May 16)

Sacha Baron Cohen goes for a third try in his can-I-fake-people-out comedy genre, which includes “Borat” and “Bruno.’ He’s already made a splash, appearing at the Oscars in character as General Aladeen of “the Republic of Wadiya,” where he pretended to spill the ashes of Kim Jong-Il all over Ryan Seacrest. Directed by “Borat” helmer Larry Charles, and generating great buzz.

the Bottom Line: Baron Cohen’s straightforward acting in movies like “Sweeney Todd” and “Hugo” have shown he can do more than just foolish fakery. still, if the faux videos out of “Wadiya” are any indication, he may have found a home. J.N.

“Battleship” (May 18)

Daily News critics unveil their summer movie preview is a post from: Transformer-Toys.com