Big Shiny Robot!s Holiday Gift Guide!

Thursday, November 26th, 2009 at 12:11 pm Category: Blu-ray, Books, Collectibles, Comics, DVD's, Games, Top, Toys, Video Games

Just because we’re robots doesn’t mean that we don’t like to receive gifts for the holidays. And since we’re all geeks, we thought it would be great to put together a list of things you could get the other geeks in your life. The lists of the editors, Swank-Mo-tron and Kill-tacular-tron, were included in IN Magazine’s issue featuring gift guides from prominent Utah Celebrities, which we apparently are.

We asked all of our robots to participate and here is what we came up with:

Swank-mo-tron

• Jawa Yard Gnome: It’s twice as cool to have a garden with a Jawa as its steward.
• A Replica of The Master Sword from The Legend of Zelda: The road is dangerous, take this!
• Clone Wars Season 1 on DVD and Blu-ray A lot of people bag on what the Star Wars universe has been like for the last 10 years, but this show is proving that Star Wars is better than ever.
• Pirate Club Vol. 1: Written and drawn entirely by Big Shiny Robot!s (mainly Budgetron), this is the perfect graphic novel selection to pass off for Christmas.
• Lots and Lots of DVDs. Check out my weekly DVD columns, I pick out the best movies every week for purchase.

Kill-tacular-tron

• Ghostbusters Minimates: Who doesn’t want some pint sized boys in grey? Plenty of great variants to track down and clutter their cubicle with.
• #include <beer.h>: For the coding geek in your life. Even if you don’t get it, they will.
• ThinkGeek Halo Warthog: Time to wreak havoc and terrorize your pets. Steer clear of plasma grenades, Spartans.
• NES USB Controller: Play all those ROMS cluttering up your hard drive in style. Now you’re playing with power.
• 6 or 12 inch Ghostbusters Figures: Seriously the coolest Ghostbusters collectible to come out in a long while. The 12 inch comes with working trap and lights. Heat ‘em up!

Proletariatron

• The Star Trek Bottle Opener: Nerdy but Boozy. And very well designed
• The Kindle DX: Any good geek enjoys reading, why not join it with some tech.
• Bombs Away Shot Glasses: Because they are awesome
• Xbox 360 Play and Charge Kit: Going through batteries gets really old really fast. Plug in for a little while and don’t worry about disconnecting mid-zombiepocalypse.
• Retro Duo NES/SNES system: Play all those old games you’ve got hanging around.
• And Just for Swank: A Darth Vader Alarm Clock and The Star Wars Force Trainer.

Zombietron

Assassin’s Creed 2

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Dragon Age: Origins

Borderlands

NBA 2k10

More-than-a-sex-machine

• Asterios Polyp: Easily the best graphic novel of the year, David Mazzucchelli’s decade-in-the-making formalist masterpiece about an aging architect trying to rebuild his shambled life is expertly constructed and densely layered, inviting multiple readings to fully appreciate, and, like Watchmen and Jimmy Corrigan before it, raises the bar on which future graphic novels are measured.
• Chronic City: Like a hipster version of Seinfeld, Jonathan Lethem’s new novel is about, well, nothing in particular, really, but rather a free-floating, hilarious look at New York through the eyes of a handful of characters, ranging from a former child sitcom star to an underemployed cultural critic, and what it lacks in likeable characters and plot, it more than makes up for in sharp observation and satirical wit.
• The City & The City: China Mieville’s hard-boiled detective novel set in two cities, which coexist in the same physical location, but are separated only by their citizens’ refusal to perceive the other, is one of the cleverest and most metaphorically rich pieces of speculative fiction of this year, and a near-perfect blend of literary value and pure entertainment.
• Criminal: The Deluxe Edition: Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ modern noir series is arguably the best periodical that Marvel is publishing at the moment, and this new hardcover edition complies the first three loosely-related storylines of down-on-their-luck men and women and the highly readable things they do for sex, money and revenge.
• The Criterion Collection on Blu-ray: Film lovers tend to associate this series of important classic and contemporary films (usually presented with the highest technical quality and equally great supplements) with quality, and so far, every one of their Blu-ray releases has more than lived up to the expectations of cinema aficionados. Amazon currently has most of them on sale (for up to 57% off).
• Death Note Manga Box Set: The manga on which the currently airing anime series is based is crack in comic book form, as the creators take their admittedly absurd concepts, such as the titular notebook, which gives its wielder the power to kill anyone he desires, and weave them into some of the most suspenseful plotlines ever seen in comics. Contains all thirteen volumes in one convenient package.
• Momitsu BDP-899 Region Free Blu-ray DVD Player: The only Blu-ray player that is region-free out of the box, meaning it allows its users the freedom to choose and view Blu-rays and DVDs from anywhere in the world, and not solely based on the region in which they happen to reside (and where a particular film might be completely unavailable, or only offered in an unsatisfactory edition/presentation/transfer). Seriously a must for any lover of foreign cinema.
• However, since a lot of online retailers have recently discontinued the sale of the Momitsu, for reasons on which we can only speculate, another alternative is the expensive, but otherwise incredible OPPO BDP-83, which plays everything from Blu-ray and DVD to DVDA and SACD at the highest possible audio and video quality, and which can be turned region-free with one easy software update.
• The Prisoner: The Complete Series on Blu-ray: The complete collection of the cult British TV series following the adventures of a former secret agent held captive in a highly secured village intent on breaking him and/or driving him insane is a lovingly put-together and stunningly re-mastered testament to the enduring vision of one of the strangest and most unique television shows in history (whose influence is still felt in series like Lost and Twin Peaks), and well worth every penny.
• The Year of the Flood: A Novel: The long-awaited new novel by critical darling Margaret Atwood is a visionary dystopic masterpiece, following a small community of survivors of a global environmental catastrophe, and the most disturbing post-apocalyptic novel since Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

Brusr-Bot

• Fight Club on Blu-ray: Everyone wanted to join one, most still do, and now you can watch people get smacked around in awesome Blu-Ray clarity, what more needs to be said?
• Amazon $50 Gift Card: Nothing says “I love you” like giving a gift card. Don’t know what to get someone? Are you the type who just returns most of what people give you so you can use all the new big fund to just buy what you REALLY wanted? Gift cards are the way to go, nobody wants to carry cash around anymore, grandma, I’d rather keep it all on plastic.
• The Kindle: Come on, every geek wants the technology that everyone is gushing about, you don’t want to be left in the cold with a serious case of blue balls like you did after prom night. Even with the pricey tag, make your whole family pool in for one mega gift instead of a whole bunch of things you only half wanted.
• Star Wars: Run R2D2 Hoodie: Pointless hoodies are awesome. If it’s a Star Wars reference? Even better.
• Serenity, Vol 1: Those Left Behind: I was late to jump onto the Firefly bandwagon, about 5 years after the show was canceled late. Even though I missed the televised run, I still caught on with DVD releases of the series and the Serenity movie. Every fan of the series would love the books that keep our dreams of being a Space Cowboy alive. Sorry Han Solo, I’m a Browncoat now.

Dr. Cyborg Robot M.D. Attorney At Law- Five

Before going into the list, I’d like to turn the figurative microphone around and ask you a few questions about your potential loved ones. (I say “potential” because a bad Christmas gift can change the tides, like the phase of the moon.)

Question #1: How much do you know about said “receiver”?

Answer: The safe gift. The safest gift of the season this year is the Star Trek 3 disk Blu-ray set. An easy out, because this movie greatly appeals to everyone, men and women alike. Everyone except hardcore Star Trek fans, and we all know that they don’t have friends to buy them gifts.

Question #2: How well do you actually know them?

Answer: The cheap gift, and if that’s what your looking for than this is the best week to look, Amazon is having tons of Black Friday sales, my favorite of which is Space Balls on Blu-ray for $8.99.

Question #3: Are you purchasing with someone with a low attention span?

Answer: The fun but ultimately button smashing video game, The newly released God of War: Collection will do nicely, and when was the last time you were able to buy a new PS3 game for less than forty bucks?

Question #4: Low attention span, but you don’t want them to slip into the pit-fall that is video game? (Not Pit-fall the video game.)

Answer: No problem, Inglourious Basterds (2-Disc Special Edition) [Blu-ray] and/or Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut [Blu-ray] which would be wise to buy fast, because it’s nearly half off.

Question #5: Do you actually love the person?

Answer: If so, the answer is clear, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.