The new Beyblade Tournament/Training Day schedule is done! Check it out:

January 29th, 2012 – Tournament
$5 to register/1-3PM

February 5th, 2012 – Training Day
Free/1-3PM

February 12th, 2012 – Tournament
$5 to register/1-3PM

February 19th, 2012 – Training Day
Free/1-3PM

February 26th, 2012 – Tournament
$5 to register/1-3PM

March 4th, 2012 – Training Day
Free/1-3PM

March 11th, 2012 – Tournament
$5 to register/1-3PM

March 18th, 2012 – Training Day
Free/1-3PM

March 25th, 2012 – Tournament
$5 to register/1-3PM

Space is limited for the tournaments, so register for them ASAP. All participants need at least 1 beyblade.

So DC’s new logo started popping up around the web about a week ago, leaving many people scratching their head.

What’s up with this thing? Did DC turn into a sticker company? I liked how modern it looks, but I had no idea what the peeled edge represented. The page of a comic book turning?

Now the logo all makes sense.

It represents secret identities! The idea is that they’ll stylize the logo for each of their different titles. Right now, the only ones that are obvious on their own (for me, anyway) are the Green Lantern and Watchmen logos. It’ll be more obvious once they’re on the covers of the comics.

My friend Cory summed the feeling up nicely: “Really didn’t like it too much when I first saw it. Now it really does make sense. Well played DC.”

Well played indeed.

(Also, I got all the stuff from bleedingcool.com, which is a great website for comic and movie news, but not really great for kids. Use caution, potentially NSFW.)

A second congratulations is in order for our friends Marquis, Lucas, and Al, publishers and creator of FrankenDie! Their Kickstarter campaign is now over and they raised a total of $13,127! This means that they’re going to include a special treat.

It’s really rewarding to see your friends’ projects become reality, and we here at Toys on Fire were happy to lend support where ever we could.

Now comes the exciting part for FrankenDie – actually getting this game printed up and sent out. I can’t wait for my copy and the store will be receiving a bunch of copies of the game as well. So if you’re interested, but couldn’t bring yourself to support for whatever reason, you can buy it from your friendly neighbourhood game shop.

We’ll keep you posted on the progress.

FrankenDie’s Kickstarter Page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theotherside/frankendie-the-party-game-for-the-madly-insane

On Thursday night, Heroes Force (the Canadian Military action figures), was featured on CTV. It caused a phenomenon I like to call “Hot Cake Syndrome”. Suddenly, Friday morning, we had sold out of the figures completely, and their were about 40 messages on our machine wondering when we would get more! This was at 8AM, 2 hours before we actually open.

So we’re trying our darnedest to get more to meet the demand. Until then, we’re just taking orders and creating a waiting list of sorts. It’s first come, first serve, and we’re not charging credit cards until the order is filled (obviously). Take a look at the CTV report here at this link:

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20111226/canadian-forces-toy-soldier-series-120105/

This is going to sound crazy, but it’s true! We have assorted GoGo’s for $1 each! It’s not just your regular everyday GoGo’s either, no sir! Mixed in are rares and gold series GoGo’s too! The good ones are going to sell first, so if you need any GoGo’s, come in ASAP!

So apparently France has fast food. I thought it was all baguettes, wine and cheese over there! I’m kidding, I know no self-respecting person can say “Non” to a burger. They may wish they had once the regret sets in, but before that, fast food burgers seem like a good idea for everybody!

But back on track here: France-based burger chain, Quick, is putting out burgers as a crazy cross promotion for the 3D rerelease of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace in March. They’ve made 3, different burgers commemorating the different sides of the force, including a black-bunned Darth Vader burger! We’re overlooking the fact that Darth Vader didn’t really show up until Episode 3 because it’s got (what we hope is) a black-dyed bun! It looks slick!

Note that I said “slick” and not “appetizing.” Novelty food is just for fun! Anyone remember the green and purple ketchup? I liked the idea on paper, but I couldn’t bring myself to apply it to my own food.

Here’s hoping we get some sort of Star Wars novelty burger in the North America! The burger-force is strong with us!

A celebratory pat on the back goes out to our friends Marquis, Lucas, and Al for achieving their funding goal for their game, FrankenDie, which I have blogged about before. Now you may think to yourself, “Wow, they did it! I guess that’s all finished now! Case closed!” and then maybe slap your hands together like your wiping away some imaginary dust. Well, I’m delighted to inform you that such is not the case; this cased in most definitely not closed! If you notice on their Kickstarter page, there’s still 6 days to go! In these last 6 days is where stuff starts to get interesting…

They’ve already promised us a bunch of extras for reaching the second goal of $15,000, but the further we reach beyond that, the more stuff they have to promise us! Are you catching my drift? Here, just take a look at what happened for D-Day Dice:

• Started out with a modest goal of $13,000
• When funding reach $40,000, they offered the first gift
• When funding reach $45,000 they offered the second gift
• Fast forward to $170,000 and suddenly I’m bidding $100 because I’m going to get 3 copies of the game, and 11(!) gifts with each copy!

These aren’t little rinky-dink gifts either. They’re going to send me ton of expansions, a special tin box, special dice, a really wicked-sweet tote-bag to carry it all in, and an 11th gift they haven’t even figured out yet, because, really, what do you get the backer that already has everything?

FrankenDie could easily be the next D-Day Dice. I didn’t know much about D-Day Dice when I bid, but it just comes with so much swag that I couldn’t pass it up. FrankenDie, I’ve played and I know for a fact that it’s good. I know that your kids will like it, I know that your non-board gaming friends will like it, and I know that you – yes, you, Mr./Mrs. Hardcore-Gamer – will find that somewhere in your Columbia Games-hardened heart of yours to find at least some shred of joy in playing it. It’s simple, it’s fast, it’s hectic, and it’s fun! What more could you ask for?

Oh, and it’s local, you got to support the local stuff!

So what do you say, ladies and gents, why don’t we get the word out there and earn us some more FrankenDie swag!

-Chris

FrankenDie on Kickstarter:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theotherside/frankendie-the-party-game-for-the-madly-insane

Heroes Force is a series of action figures based on the different areas of the Canadian military. Think G.I. Joe, but Canadian. These toys were created by Shannon Thibodeau (Canadian Forces Member), an Aircraft Structures (ACS) Metal fabricator Instructor from CFSATE, 16 WING Borden, Ontario. What a mouthful! Anyway, these are Shannon’s project, and $1 from every figure sold goes to The Soldier’s Fund.

We’re selling these toys as a favour to Shannon, and we’re not making a single dime off of these. What we are getting is new customers who’ve never been in our store before, so it’s a win-win for everybody! We’ve already sold a butt-load of these, but we still have a bunch more. They won’t last forever, so get this set while you still can!

Check out more information at the Heroes Force website!