Elfsar Comics & Toys Blog

A message from the YBIA:  On February 11th and 12th, 2010, the Olympic Flame will travel throughout Vancouver on the Olympic Torch Relay Route, including the Downtown area. There will be rolling road closures of 10-20 minutes as the Olympic Torch travels through Vancouver so be sure to expect some delays- vehicle travel to or within Downtown Vancouver will be VERY challenging. However, don’t be discouraged to come out and celebrate as the flame makes its way through the city.  Just don’t bring your car – take transit, walk or cycle, and plan ahead for extra travel time. Tens of thousands are expected to gather every day at the LiveCity sites to watch live performances showcasing Vancouver’s creative excellence and cultural diversity.  We at Elfsar will continue to run our Olympic inspired sale thru the games, so if you are in the area, please drop by the store to say hi.  Come and check out our extra goodies and take advantage of our sale that is breaking records. 

 Okay, back on subject – To mark the flame’s historic arrival in Vancouver, an Olympic Torch Relay Celebration is being planned by the City for the evening of February 11th, 2010. The celebration will take place at 6:30pm at LiveCity Yaletown David Lam Park (only a few blocks away from Elfsar) and will feature live entertainment, athlete appearances, and much more. To support the Olympic Torch Relay Celebration, and to ensure the safe movement of pedestrians throughout the area, the following streets and sidewalks will be temporarily closed:

·         12pm – Pacific Blvd – east-side sidewalk closed between Homer St and Drake St

·         3pm – Pacific Blvd closed – east-bound lane between Homer St and Drake St

·         3pm – Pacific Blvd – west-bound parking (curbside) lane fenced off

No residential or business driveway access will be impacted during this period. More information is available on the Host City website at the link below:

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

Wow, check out Vancouver's "Blackest Night" Rings...lol.

MARCH ORDERS ARE DUE TODAY WEDNESDAY the 27th!
Yep that time is upon us.  Orders are due, so if you have not done so already, please send us your order changes ASAP, Please and Thank you.  As usual we have our handwritten Elfbytes to help you make that final decision: http://www.elfsar.com/Elfbytes Articles/Elfbytes.htm This edition of Elfbytes is a bit special as it contains the information about what the new Free comic Book day book are and how much it will cost if you want to pre-order the books. 

Also the New Previews shipped today!

*************************************************

THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET INTERESTING
Due to the Olympics we will be opening a little later than normal.  We don’t want to give an exact time as we are still unsure how much the traffic and people situation will affect us in Yaletown. We remain hopeful but have our reservations.  It is best to play it by ear and see how it goes.  This means if the street is busy we will stay open.  If it is a ghost town then we will close at our regular store hours.  If you want to be sure just give us a call we can certainly let you know.  In any case, there seems to be a lot going on in the downtown core.  One of which is the LiveCity Yaletown event at the David Lam park which is providing nightly entertainment until 11pm every night.  The best part is …it’s FREE!  Check out more info: HERE

OUR SALE CONTINUES THROUGH FEBRUARY!
Yes our January boxing month sale is now technically over today on the 27th.  However after careful consideration we have decided to carry our sale over the Olympics in February.  If you don’t know what I am talking about yet, our sale is a Buy 2 get 1 Free on all Graphic Novels, Magazines and Comic Book Sets and 20% off all non reading material.  Items on the ‘New This Week’ racks and all special orders, audio/video, supplies and stuff on consignment are not included.   But there is so much on sale it will be difficult to miss a deal.  So in a way, we are taking on the spirit of the Olympics as we are breaking all previous records for longest awesome sale!

BACK ISSUE BIN SALE at 55% OFF!
The best part of our sale is our massive discount on back issues!  What is a back issue?  They are issues that are located in our back issue bins of course.  After about 4 or 5 months or sometimes even up to a year we put our unsold copies of comics in protective bags and boards and store them alphabetically in our long boxes.  We follow the comic book alphabet which means it is as normal except when there are logical groups to be made.  For example: The Batman, Superman, Spider-man & X-men books are grouped all together.  i.e. Amazing Spider-man, Spectacular Spider-man, Web of Spider-man …. are all under “S” for Spider-man.  Looking for something specific?  Or do you have a list of books you need?  Send it to us via email and we will do the work for you and let you know what we have.

*************************************************

Okay, some of you may know that I am a Pro Wrestling fan.  Although it is getting harder and harder for me to watch wrestling on TV week after week, I still try to keep updated with the ‘goings on’ in the business. Back in the day it was the WWF vs WCW (and a helping of ECW on the side). Long gone are the days where two companies struggle for ratings, each trying to outdo the other.

Or has it?

It’s the first time in nine years that two Pro Wrestling companies have gone head to head.  On Monday night Jan 4th, the underdog TNA IMPACT will feature Hulk Hogan  who (among others) will be getting involved both in front and behind the scenes of their product against the giant WWE who is featuring Bret “The Hitman” Hart as there guest host this week on RAW. (note: Bret has signed a 3 month contract leading to this years Wrestlemaina.)

Is this the first of a  long run to make WWE increase the quality of their product and get out of their comfort zone while TNA pull out all the stops to get viewers? How much of a difference will Hogan make behind the scenes and how will the on air product change? Where does this leave Vince Russo? Will Bret Hart be able to connect with the modern day audience?

All things considered it’s an exciting time to be a Pro Wrestling fan and January 4th should be very, very interesting.

The most important question though is, which show will you be watching

Well last night was Wrestlemainia 25.  The 24th anniversary of the biggest night in Sports Entertainment.  Here is my quick grading and thoughts on the event.  (Graded on a 5 point scale)

4.5 Undertaker vs HBK
Wow! I enjoyed the pace of the Undertaker HBK match, they made another match for the young up and comers to study.  I swear I thought Taker broke his neck when he went over the top rope.  I would say this was almost a 5 star match and probably would have been without the botched Superkick and blown turnbuckle spot.

3.5 Hardy vs Hardy
Although I enjoyed the Hardy vs Hardy match it felt hella rushed.  I’m guessing they were told that they only had a certain alotted time and as an act to not disappoint fans they felt forced to squish as many spots in as possible.

 
3.0 Orton vs HHH
I felt Orton really should have won in the main event and provided a reason for people to turn into RAW on Monday.  In my opinion, it would have been the smarter play.

 
3.0 Jericho vs Legends
Seeing Mickey Rourke get into the ring was great to see but I would have thought they would milk it a bit more than a couple jabs and a two punch combo.  I somehow suspected that if Jericho wins, he would then turn to Rourke and ask him to get into the ring.  I also hoped that Jericho would say something along the lines of  “…I can beat any Hall of Fammer and that there is nobody in the Hall of Fame that could beat me.”   Then cue the shattered glass of the newly inducted 2009 Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin’s music.   Now that would have been a huge pop.  I guess getting Austin to put a stunner on the lionheart would cost the WWE too much $$$.

 
2.5 The MITB match
This match scared the heck out of me.  I hope MVP is alright.  We will be seeing this match on many episodes of botchamania shortly.  Without all the botches I would have ranked this match higher as it was still entertaining.

 
2.0 Cena vs Edge vs Bigshow
Meh… No Comment. It felt like just an episode of Smackdown.

1.5 Mysterio vs JBL
I guess this made room for the other matches.  But I can’t seem to shake that this match was an insult to previous Intercontinental belt holders.  This belt has always been known to be the “workers belt” and I can’t say that these two put the work in. We will be seeing JBL on commentary soon.  Seems the logical choice since Tazz is gone.

 
1.0 Mrs Wrestlemainia
What a waste of PPV time.  But hey it’s your token gimmick match.

My Final PPV rating: 2.625 out of 5

Well I just finished watching UFC 92 and wow, it just goes to show that fights on paper (and what you think might happen) in reality can be very different.  Of the 3 Main events, I was wrong in predicting the outcome of 2 of them and correct about another.   Anything can happen.  It’s why I love Mixed Martial Arts.   The usual way to enjoy UFC Pay Per Views is to go out to your local sports bar and order up a couple of pints of your favorite brew and enjoy it with a crowd.   But sometimes, things come up and you either can’t get away or can’t seem to justify paying the full amount and ordering the whole PPV at home.

I can highly recommend a free download that allows you to watch live PPV streams.

TVU networks or  SopCast

They both have an MMA channel and I’ve watched the last 3 or 4 PPV’s on it.  They both are coming from the same feed, but depending on the traffic one is usually better than the other. Some of the time there are minor issues like the audio not syncing up etc, but most of us can deal with that.  Plus you get what you pay for.

Now if you are a new fan of the sport or are looking to see past matches and simply can’t afford every UFC, MMA or even WWE, TNA Wrestling PPVs Let me introduce you to http://www.thescoreboards.com/forums/
This is a free board where you can view PPV’s Shoot Interviews (I certainly love my Wrestling Shoot Interviews) and even DVD’s.  All you have to do is post six or seven times and you can gain access to the awesome Video Forum.   There is an impressive amount of fights from around the world on the board as well.

Put “Elfsar” as your referral and you can shorten your required amount of posts in half and gain access to the Video Forum sooner with less posts.

Well fight fans, UFC 82 just finished and I have to say I was not surprised by the outcome.  (with exception of the Herring vs Kongo match, which in my books I thought was really a draw)  However, Herring was able to inflict a lot of pain with knees he threw to Kongo’s rib cage. This was a nice win for Herring after his loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and he will remain a top contender in the Heavyweight division. Kongo needs to work even more on his ground game before becoming a true threat for the Heavyweight title.

As for the main event Silva vs Henderson, the match started good for the former Pride title-holder with all three judges giving the first round to Henderson.  But in the second round Silva got a bit looser and came out much more aggressive, both fighters exchanging a barrage of punches, but in the final seconds of the Round 2, Anderson Silva sank in a rear-naked choke and Dan Henderson tap at 4:52 into the round. There’s nobody left to challenge the champion but Yushin Okami at this point.

I thought I would give you a Here’s your “MMA Moment of Zen” – Bas Rutten vs. Frank Shamrock from one of the trio of Pancrase fights between the two. Make sure to keep your eyes open for the tackle between the ring ropes and down to the floor at around the 5:00 mark.  Gone are the days of Pancrase… I sure do miss fights like this.

Enjoy.

Rutten vs. Shamrock, greatest line ever…”That’s a #@*!ing fist.”
Is that a technical term?  Frank Shamrock also had some of the best facial expressions I have ever seen in a fight.