I also purposefully didn’t show them their superheroes from the previous year.  I didn’t want them to simply recreate their old heroes.  I wanted to see what more recent influences might being to their heroes.

Let’s start with JSL.  Last year, he made this hero:

He named his superhero “FireGuy.”  So what did he make this year?

Meet Super Agent JSL Buzz Lightyear.  Breaking down the name first, the “Super” part comes because, to JSL, a superhero must, obviously, be names super-something.  I’m not sure why he thinks that.  Most of the superheroes he knows don’t have names that begin with “Super.”  “Agent” comes from Agent P, from Phineas and Ferb.  We had recently watched the Phineas and Ferb movie so he wanted to be a secret agent.  Buzz Lightyear comes from his favorite Toy Story character.

The shield is based on the one that his favorite superhero, Captain America, has.  The color scheme incorporates his favorite colors.  I’m not sure if there was a particular rhyme or reason behind the rest of the outfit, though.

Next up, was NHL.  Last year, he made Disco Man, so named because he had “disco eyes.”

This year, NHL made Toolguy/Mathman/Cordman.  Yes, you read that right.  This superhero has three names.  I tried to get NHL to shorten it, but he was adamant that it needed to be all three and include the slashes.

The name is based off his love of building things, his love of math, and the fact that his superhero has a whip.  The head was based loosely on Hulk.  For the body, NHL insisted that his superhero was part-robot and so it needed to be grey.  In retrospect, I wonder if this comes from Perry the Platyborg from the Phineas and Ferb movie.  It was interesting that NHL picked out the same tail that he chose last year.  He also chose the same eyes at first, but then changed his mind.

Have your kids used HeroMachine?  If so, what kinds of superheroes have they made?

The story is a mash-up of two of my personal favorites: Star Wars and Winnie the Pooh.  Winnie the Pooh combines with Chewbacca to become Wookie the Chew.  Christopher Robin and Han Solo become Chrisolo Robin.  Piglet merges with R2D2 to become Droidlet.

The story unfolds as Wookie the Chew, having obviously inherited his appetite from Pooh, embarks on a mission to get something to eat.  Except, instead of honey, he’s looking for bobaberries.  (Tip: Don’t eat the cloneberries.  They all taste the same.)  Along the way there’s a hive of bees-crossed-with-tie-fighters, a balloon-crossed-with-the-Millennium-Falcon and a giant-tree-combined-with-the-Death-Star.

I’ll admit that the book wasn’t quite what I was expecting.  Having seen James Hance’s fabulous art, I thought it would be a picture book with few words.  Instead, it is mostly words with enough sketched artwork to see the story through.  While I was initially disappointed, that feeling changed upon reading the story to NHL.

At every turn there’s a saying or setting or character that calls back to both Star Wars and Winnie the Pooh.  The story was great and left us wanting more.  Indeed, Hance is working on a follow-up book titled “When We Were Very Jedi.”  Once the book is ready for ordering, you can bet I’ll be ordering a bunch.

In fact, the only downside to this book is the shipping cost.  The book itself is a steal at $5.  However, shipping costs $10!  The solution?  Get a bunch of family, friends and co-workers to order with you.  Shipping rises to $15 if you order 5 or more books, but it still winds up being cheaper per-book.  Place one order for five books and the cost per book (price + shipping) drops to $8.  Plus, each book comes signed by the author.  (Custom dedications are available as well.)

I’ll close with a few photos of the book and of NHL reading it.

Disclaimer: I didn’t receive anything in compensation to review Wookie the Chew.  I purchased the book with my own money and liked it so much that I thought I’d share my thoughts on it.

NHL has also formed an interest in Harry Potter.  We caught some of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on TV one day and was transfixed.  So we took Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone out of the library and watched it with him (and JSL too).  NHL loved it from the first moments of Harry discovering his talents to the ending battle.  We think he’s developed a crush on Hermione as he specifically begged us to get him the Lego Harry Potter set with her in it.

Anyway, while shopping this past weekend, NHL spotted a Smurfs activity/coloring book.  He looked through it quickly, spotted the evil wizard who tries to capture the Smurfs and commented to me that Voldemort was in the book.  After prompting from me and a bit of rethinking, he recalled that Gargamel, not Voldemort was actually the Smurfs’ foe.

Being the geek that I am, I began picturing what would happen if Voldemort happened upon the Smurfs.  At first, it might seem a slaughter fest as Voldemort Avada Kedavra’s Smurf after Smurf.  (Perhaps Cruciatus-ing a few for fun.)

Of course, in Harry Potter’s world, love seems to be a magic in and of itself.  Love prevents Voldemort from killing Harry when he was a mere infant.  Love protected Harry long after his mother’s death.  Love was the one magic that Voldemort couldn’t quite understand.  Given how lovey-dovey the Smurfs tend to be, maybe the battle wouldn’t be so cut and dried.

In a one-on-one duel, Papa Smurf would be toast, but, in a guerilla war against Voldemort, they might just stand a chance.  The Smurfs seem especially good at hiding and Papa Smurf knows his way around magic.  He would undoubtedly consult various magic texts and have his army of Smurfs help him assemble some potion to affect Voldemort.  Perhaps a pair of shoes that force Voldemort to dance forever while the Smurfs sing?  Truly a fate worse than death!

And yes, I’m aware that I’m a huge geek for even contemplating this whole scenario due to my son’s misstated name.

tech that makes me drool.  I need to prioritize and bargain shop and Walmart is always on my bargain shopping list.  Here, in no particular order, are some tech items that I’d love to get for Father’s Day.  All of these items were spotted during a recent stroll through our local Walmart.  They are also all available from Walmart’s Father’s Day electronics page or Walmart.com.

Video Games:

Playing video games is fun.  Playing video games with my boys is extremely fun.  NHL, while not a master, has learned how to operate the controls nicely.  JSL wants to work it right, but just can’t figure it out yet.  I think he just needs more practice.  Which means I need to play more video games with him.  Oh the never-ending chores us dads must undertake!

Roku

Yes, we already have two Roku players.  One in our living room and one in our bedroom.  Why do we need a third, you ask?  Well, our upstairs room (used by the boys as a play room) doesn’t have one.  In fact, since it only has basic cable TV (and a DVD player but the DVDs are kept downstairs), that TV would benefit greatly from a Roku player.  Plus, the boys could rock out with Pandora in the larger play room space.

iPad 2

Don’t ask me how we didn’t get a photo of this.  I drool over the thought of having an iPad to use.  Oh the web browsing I’d do.  The apps I’d download.  The Angry Birds I’d fling at green pigs.  Excuse me while I get my drool mop.

LCD Monitor

I recently inherited a desktop computer that my parents didn’t need anymore.  I want to set this up to be a print/file server, but I need a monitor.  I have two CRT monitors I could use but they are big, hulking affairs.  They work fine, but they take up so much desk space.  How much nicer would it be to have this slim number on the desk instead of the giant dinosaur?

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of Walmart and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

This year, will be a bit more complicated.  B’s going to meet someone for lunch tomorrow.  This means she’ll be out for most of the time that Free Comic Book Day runs.  The complication is that I don’t usually drive on Saturdays for religious reasons.  My geekiness (“must take boys for free comic books”) is battling my religious side (“must observe Shabbat”).  Who will win?  To be honest, I still don’t know.

Meanwhile, I’ve been introducing my boys to various superheroes.  They love the Avengers (Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Ant Man, Wasp, Thor, Black Panther and Hawkeye), Young Justice (Robin, Superboy, Miss Martian, Kid Flash and Aqualad) and Batman on the TV.  They have also been introduced to the Green Lantern.  My boys just love superheroes and would love to pour through new comic books.  Somehow I’ll have to make this work for them.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Who is your favorite superhero and why?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #86

To facilitate the party, Mattel and MomSelect provided me with a big box of Green Lantern goodies including some figures (Hal Jordan and Tomar Re), a pair of Colossal Cannons, some Green Lantern comic books, a DVD of Green Lantern: First Flight, and some power rings.

I had seen the movie before and knew that is, while exceptional, wasn’t appropriate for kids my sons’ age.  I also pre-read the comic book and found this to be inappropriate for their age.  (There was a lot of blood and people being killed.)  Again, it was a great comic book, but was just a little dark for kids in the 3 – 7 age range.  Were my oldest son 5 years older, I would have had no qualms about giving it to him to read.

On the morning of the party, we packed everything up (except for the DVD, but including the comics) and headed to a local park.  We brought some snacks and drinks with us and met up with our friends: Christina, Tom and TJ, Ali, Zach and Ro, Irene, Ben and Garrett and Laura, Doug and Isaac.

Each kid that attended the party got a power ring and every adult got a comic book.  (Well, 1 per couple).  I decided that opening the figures in the busy playground was a recipe for lost toys, so we kept those for parting gifts.  Instead, we broke out the cannons.

Now, you may recall that I previously reviewed the Colossal Cannon and deemed risk of injury as a downside.  I need to modify that review now.  As we fired the discs at the playground, I noticed something interesting.  They were flying far and fast but seemed more like they were floating discs than injury-causing projectiles.  Perhaps it was the presence of wind or the open air rather than indoors close quarters, but the toys seemed much less dangerous and more fun outside.  Indeed, on more than one occasion, a projectile hit one of the boys and never did they sustain any injury.

We (or the boys) would fire the projectiles and the boys would run around trying to collect them all.  Other than some tense moments where we thought we lost a few of the discs (green disc on green grass = hard to spot), we had a blast.

If you noticed that the boys were both wearing green shirts, good eye.  B (who wasn’t photographed) and I had green shirts on as well though mine was a darker green that looks more grey in the photos.  Green shirts, green grass, Green Lanterns!

Of course, being a park with a playground, we didn’t limit ourselves to Green Lantern toys in the fields.  The boys played in the playground, in the sandbox and even used their rings to navigate a hedge maze.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted, but it was a good kind of exhausted.  Of course, my muscles may have been tired, but my geeky heart was soaring because another piece NHL’s geeky education was in place.  He could now recite the Green Lantern oath!

In brightest day, In blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil’s might,
Beware my power, Green Lantern’s light!

Disclaimer: Mattel and MomSelect provided me with the Green Lantern toys/comics/DVDs to throw the party.  I didn’t receive any other compensation and all opinions expressed above are my own.

If the preceding verse is familiar to you, then you are probably already a fan of the Green Lantern.  If not, here’s a quick rundown.  The Green Lantern Corps are a galactic police force.  They protect and defend the innocent and bring the guilty to justice.  They are given rings which they can use (along with their willpower) to create objects out of a green energy.

The two toys that I received to review are the Colossal Cannon and a Kilowog action figure.

Kilowog Action Figure

Kilowog won’t be winning any beauty pageants anytime soon, but this member of the Green Lantern corps is a fierce fighter and has a keen mind.  His action figure includes a “blast” green energy construct (which can attach to other constructs) and a Green Lantern ring.

My boys had fun playing with Kilowog, but I’ve got to admit that they were most intrigued by the ring.  NHL claimed it as his own and pretended to be a Green Lantern.  Of course, he decided to play fair (with some coaching from dad) and allowed JSL to wear the ring a few times.  Sadly, the ring was too small for my fingers so I didn’t get to play with it.

Colossal Cannon

This toy, as the name implies, is a big cannon.  A child (or.. ahem… grownup) puts his hand inside it and pulls on a trigger inside.  This fires off plastic “lantern” projectiles, makes the cannon light up and causes it to make firing noises.

This was a hit and my boys (ahem… and I) kept fighting over who would wield it next.  There was just one problem.  As you can see in one of the photos, NHL is firing the discs at couch cushions.  I rightfully surmised that the cannon’s projectiles could hurt a person and forbade them from using it unless a) it was empty or b) it was pointed at the cushions and away from anyone else.

This worked well until one time when we thought NHL had fired all 10 projectiles.  He raised the cannon in the air, squeezed the trigger and out shot a disc.  It bounced off our wall and landed without anyone getting hurt or anything being broken.  Still, I decided not to risk future breakage and confiscated the discs.  I would count this as the only downside to the Colossal Cannon.

Of course, any projectile-shooting toy bears this risk and this can be easily managed by only giving kids the discs under proper supervision.  Even without the discs, the Colossal Cannon is fun.  Kids can put it on and imagine that they are a Green Lantern firing blasts at bad guys.

Disclaimer: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of Mattel and received Green Lantern toys to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Anyway, as we were planning to go to Disney World for DisneySMMoms, I noticed a Cake Wrecks post that mentioned that Jen and John reside in Orlando.  I asked if they’d be interested in a meet-up and they said yes!

While walking through Disney World, I was so looking forward to meeting the folks behind Cake Wrecks that I began seeing Steampunk influences in various locations in Disney World.  Ok, this might require some explanation.

Many of you are probably saying “What the @%^# is Steampunk?”  First of all, you should all be ashamed of yourselves for using that kind of language.  That aside, Steampunk envisions a world in which steam powers everything.  (For a detailed analysis of Steampunk, consult Wikipedia.)  From many readings of Jen’s other blog Epbot, I know that they like Steampunk.  So my brain seemed to home in on Steampunk elements.

One thing about Steampunk is that gears and bronze coloring are big.

Those shots are from the Dumbo ride.  Yes, the ride known for letting kids of all ages fly atop an elephant is secretly a Steampunk ride!

This robot can be found outside of House of Blues in Downtown Disney right near where La Nouba is located.  I’m not positive that Steampunk includes robots, but if it did, I think this is what one might look like.

Of course, my imagination being what it is, I couldn’t help but expand on Steampunk.  Introducing Junglepunk!

These are from the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.  The river turns the big wheel which pulls ropes to move a series of buckets.  The buckets collect water, get lifted high up and then spill their contents onto a series of drainage gutters which lead to a storage vessel in the kitchen.  I’d bet you could design a whole series of “technology based on running water”  I believe Futurama has already provided one:

Getting back to the Swiss Family Treehouse (which my boys loved so much that we walked through it twice back-to-back and then they complained when we didn’t go through a third time), I loved the look of this piano.

Getting back to the “*punk” genre expansions, though, how about “Toypunk”?

I’m thinking that the Lincoln Logs could be miniaturized and used to replace gears in a Steampunk-esque design.  Steampunk meets Toy Story!

Of course, this post wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the Cake Wrecks-TechyDad/TheAngelForever meet up.  We had agreed to meet in Epcot’s France area.  Twice prior to this, the boys and I (and B on one of the occasions) ate at Patisserie.  Both times, the boys had Cheese Tartine – French bread topped with a touch of sauce and some cheese.  No, it’s not pizza.  That would be found in Italy and this was France!  Both times I had the vegetable quiche.  Both times, I eyed the pastries.  Please excuse the drool as I think of them again.

When we met, we got a seat and then John, the boys and I went to procure some snacks.  JSL wanted chocolate cake, NHL saw John getting a strawberry tart and wanted one.  Me?  I had my eyes on the Napoleon.  (There’s that pesky drool again.)

As good as it looked, it tasted even better.  As we ate, we talked about various subjects both online-related and offline-related.  A good time was had by all.  Even when JSL – with perfect kid-timing declared he needed to use the restroom and I had to walk all the way from France to Morocco to find one for him.  The lengths dads will go for their kids and I didn’t even get any frequent flier miles!

Pretty soon the snacks were consumed and it was time to head out.  We said goodbye and went out separate ways.  Here’s hoping we can meet again the next time we go to Disney or if they happen to be in the Upstate NY area!

The next day, we stopped by Downtown Disney’s DStreet shop to get each of the boys a Vinylmation.  JSL was hoping to get Buzz Lightyear, but he wound up getting a Green Army Man.

NHL, also opted for a Toy Story Vinylmation and found Wheezy in his box.

For my Vinylmation, I went the Geek route.  Disney has a line of geeky Vinylmations with glasses, braces and pocket protectors.  Since my favorite character is Goofy, I got him.  Now, I think Goofy’s a geek as it is.  Think about it.  He’s a bit socially awkward, accident prone and is interested in a wide variety of subjects (including skiing, swimming and gliders).  Add in the accessories and he’s Geeky to the Goofy Max:

He quickly brought this fascinating fact to my attention.  “Daddy!  Daddy!  It sticking!  See?!”

After entertaining himself with his new magnet-location, JSL did something that impressed me.  He took the magnet off the turtle and tried sticking it to the cabinet.  Why did this impress me?  Simple.  He was experimenting.  He had found a new and interesting phenomenon and was testing the limits of this.  Magnets stick to fridges (known) and dishwasher doors (new). Do they stick to cabinets?  No.  What about walls?  Also, no.

He asked me about the sticking so I took the time (which still packing lunches) to explain to him that magnets stick to metal which the fridge and dishwasher have in them.  He asked what else was metal and I mentioned that the oven might be, but he would need to try it out.  He excitedly put the magnet to the oven door and… it fell off.  So much for that theory.

Still, his excitement at testing a new theory fills my geeky heart with joy.  I know that NHL has an inner geek (he loves Star Wars, is enthralled by super hero cartoons, loves playing on the computer, etc), but I wasn’t completely sure about JSL.  I’d say this is some good proof that JSL has a bright future on the Geek Side!

P.S.  Sorry for the cell phone photo above.  As I mentioned earlier, I was rushing to make lunches/snacks and get NHL to school.  I didn’t have time to get my camera out for a proper photo.