We’ll be covering as much of the San Diego Comic Con news as we can across our many blogs, so stick with the Starstore blogs for a unique British perspective on the latest developments from SDCC 2009!

We swear one day we’ll make it there and report to you live from the event itself, but until then, we’ll be scouring the net for the best news and announcements so that you don’t have to!

This year’s event runs from the 23rd to the 26th of July, with a preview night on the 22nd before the shenanigans commence for real. There are some suitably awesome panels, previews and product unveilings going on this year, and we’ll cover as many of the big ones as we can.

There are some fantastic workshops and signings right across the event, but the big ones for many fans will be the TV previews, movie previews and merchandise previews. We’re personally really looking forward to finding out what Sideshow Collectibles have on offer this year in the way of new products.

Other panels and stuff of note throughout the SDCC weekend? Summit’s Astro Boy preview, the reveal of details on the next Tetsuo movie, a preview of The Twilight Saga: New Moon, a look at the groundbreaking new James Cameron science fiction epic Avatar, the next developments in the Halo franchise, a presentation of material from Terry Gilliam’s Imaginarium of Dr Parnassuss, a Doctor Who panel with Russell T Davies and David Tennant, a panel on the Kick Ass movie, a talk with fantasy legend Terry Brooks, the premier of the animated Green Lantern movie, The Guild, Farscape’s 10th Anniversary, a look at the new version of The Prisoner, Star Wars Day, Sideshow Collectibles‘ panel, Dr. Horrible The Totally Rad Show Live, Ray Bradbury… gah, so much!!!

We’ll be covering as much as we can right here! It may not be as cool as actually being there, but we’ll be bringing you as much of the AWESOME as we can.

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Have a look and see some sneak previews of the greatest movie collectibles from Sideshow - Visit now!

TERMINATOR SLAVATION TRAILER NOW ONLINE

The first teaser trailer for the forthcoming first part in the new Terminator trilogy, Terminator Salvation, is now online for you to check out! It doesn’t show much, but this teaser alone makes up for the travesty that was T3. Is the new one going to be as good as this trailer makes it look? Lets hope so!!!

NEW LIVE ACTION NINJA TURTLES MOVIE COMING?

Word has it that Mirage are gearing up for a brand new live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. This is a bit of a surprise as the general opinion was that if any more were to be made, they would be CG movies like last year’s hit film. Then again, it would be fantastic to see the Turtles done with today’s expertise. I wonder what Elias Koteas is up to? ;P

JON WOO TO DIRECT COMIC BOOK MOVIE

Variety has reported that John Woo is to helm a live action adaptation of the comic book series Caliber! Pitting King Arthur and his Knights against 19^th century gunslingers, this is going to be one hell of a ride.

DOCTOR WHO- What the?!
After the breathtaking cliffhanger to Doctor Who episode 12, ‘The Stolen Earth’, speculation has gone into overdrive as to the events of the final episode, to be screened this coming Saturday. Has the Doctor actually regenerated? Is this the rumoured botched regeneration? Will he split into two Doctors? The fans are going insane, and tomorrow will see our full writeup of that episode in our weekly TARDISWATCH feature. Is the end nigh?

FRIDAY THE 13TH: JASON WILL WEAR HOOD *AND* MASK
Platinum Dunes have gone on record to say that Jason Voorhees will wear both the sack hood and the Hockey mask in the upcoming remake of FRIDAY THE 13TH. This is cool, as it will shut geeks like me up from complaining the he’s not supposed to get the mask until the third film.

ALIEN FIGURES NOW IN
The new ‘Original Movie’ ALIEN figures are now in stock in both 7 and 18 inch versions. The 18 inch version is already available to order! Check out the 18 inch Alien Figure.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: BLACK AND WHITE FIGURES ON THE WAY
Black and white editions of the recent Ninja Turtles figures will be released soon, featuring an alternate paint job that returns them to their black and white roots as an indie comic. The figures already looked cool in the first place, but these TMNT noir ‘series 1.5’ figures look even better. They should be available in July. Check these out:

 

LABYRINTH: JARETH AND HOGGLE SET COMING!

An action figure double pack containing Jareth the Goblin King and Hoggle from the legendary 80s masterpiece LABYRINTH will soon be available from NECA. Due to be part of their Cult Classics range, the figure looks set to be another huge hit with fans of that seminal movie.

We now have a new internet Monkey colleague in the form of Jon, who out-geeks most of the rest of us by being an avid WoW player. Thankfully he isn’t quite so knowledgeable on comics and movies, so the balance is steady, for now at least. Anyway, the nerdometer is about ready to explode as it is right now, thanks to me frothing at the mouth with glee at the current series of Doctor Who (See our regular TARDISWATCH and TORCHWATCH features for proof of that), so my crown is still residing safely upon my shiny head. Anyway, welcome Jon!

The hot merchandise of late has been the Gears of War action figures, the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures, the Halo 3 range. The AVPR range is still proving to be popular, so as long as you guys want the Hybrids, Aliens and Predators, we’ll do our utmost to get them in.

Everyone’s getting stoked for the imminent release of the new Batman film THE DARK KNIGHT, and quite rightly so. The posters and some of the merchandise has started to arrive, and we’re proud to have it on our shelves as we all love what Christopher Nolan has been doing with Batman. Its been quite a year for superheroes so far, what with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Batman getting people excited about superhero cinema again. The direction the Marvel movies are taking is really quite brilliant, and things are coming together nicely for a coherent Marvel screen universe, which if course will lead nicely into the AVENGERS movie.

There’s been some shifting around of stock and shelves and the layout of the shop is mutating into something much cooler. The shop layout is something that never really stays still for long- like your home, there’s always something that would look ‘better over there’. We’re trying to get everything displayed nicely and keep the store fully accessible for visitors.

We’ve been trying to figure out which crossover event we’re more into at the moment- Secret Invasion or Dreamwar. It looks like Dreamwar is edging ahead in the Starstore popularity stakes as stuff actually happens in it. Secret Invasion is cool as hell but the pace has been a bit too slow in picking up to keep us guessing. Elsewhere on our comics racks, the new Tank Girl series has been picking up a bunch of new readers and keeping the iconic, foul-mouthed anti-heroine in the public consciousness, so that’s a good thing. On the graphic novels front, the reissue of Batman: The Killing Joke has been flying out, and there’s also the first collected volume of THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY out now for all of those My Chemical Romance fans who suddenly found themselves reading comics and discovering they’re actually rather good. My advice to those new comics fans? Get hold of WATCHMEN so you can be like the rest of us here and know all about the greatest comic series ever released, before the movie comes out next year. That way you get to say ‘I TOLD you it was brilliant’ once Zack Snyder’s adaptation hits the screens.

Anyways, I gotta get back to sorting out the new layout and mocking Greg’s scene kid hair.