The second season of the new American Gladiators debuted last night, and yeah, it was awesome. One competitor was already taken out for an injury, three new Gladiators - including the two winners from last season - debuted, and the missing events from the OG Gladiators show are starting to appear. A few notes before we get to the video clip below that obviously shows that The Incredible Hulk will be promoted by good old Titan later this season.

- The one-legged competitor was BAD ASS, but did they have to make the dude climb the wall as an event? OK, he actually did amazingly well in the event, but still…it seemed kind of cruel.

- Last season’s female winner, repackaged as Jet, has gone from soccer mom cute to full-blown hot. Damn.

- Still gotta dig on Wolf, especially since the dude’s gone all out with his character and gotten prosthetic fangs. If he had them last season, I somehow managed to miss them - I might have been blinded by his awesomeness, I admit.

- Enough - watch the clip below. Show’s way better than it should be, and two hours last night blew by like nothing.

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So, a month or two back, I ordered myself the following belt buckle as a belated birthday gift to myself, and I was totally stoked to be receiving such an amazing present. It took a while to arrive, as Merch.com was not exactly prompt about sending the thing out, but once it arrived, all was forgiven.

The buckle is a loving recreation of the Maryland license plate, with the letters raised and the Maryland flag shield flat out pops. The photo above truly doesn’t do it justice - even the little screws in te plate are raised, with indents for your imaginary flathead screwdriver to go into. The backside of the belt has the unmistakable Clutch logo imprinted into it, and that’s about all, but that’s cool. The only problem with the buckle, which measures an impressive 2.125 inches by 4 inches, is that the hook is pretty poorly designed and likes to pop free of the belt hole at inopportune moments. Really, today’s belt buckle technology has licked this issue pretty well, and it shouldn’t have been all that difficult to add that little ball on the end of the prong to ensure people’s pants stay up while they’re steady rocking.

All in all, I dig it and, despite the retarded-high price tag, mediocre service from Merch.com and the fact that the buckle pops free at random times, I’d buy it again in a heartbeat. But, hey, I’m kind of stupid that way about some things.

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That’s right — it’s been 6 years (give or take a few days) since Triumph the Insult Comic Dog visited and playfully tormented Star Wars fans waiting to see Attack of the Clones at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York, making for 10+ supremely funny minutes. Robert Smigel, we salute you!

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First Showing is claiming they’ve found Captain America’s shield in the impossible-to-avoid-thanks-to-us Iron Man movie.

The scene in which you can see the shield is after Iron Man returns from Afghanistan after fighting with the Mark III red/gold armor for the very first time. Right after he fights the two F-22 fighter jets, it shows him back in his lab trying to remove his armor but having trouble. Right as Pepper Potts walks down into his lab and asks him “what is he doing?”, the shield can be seen sitting on one of his tables behind him in the lower left corner. This happens around 1 hour and 30 minutes into the movie. Make sure to account for trailers if you’re going in. We confirmed it at a 6:40PM showing and the scene played at around ~8:18PM. Here is a very low quality photo just for reference. It looks much better in the movie.

Check out the site for a blurry still that, in true Loch Ness/Sasquatch form, may or not be the actual shield.

Thanks for the tip, Tae!

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I actually like that Amazon sends me sporadic emails full of “You bought X recently, maybe you’ll like Y!” suggestions, but sometimes it just makes me sad. This morning, for instance, I received an email because I buy toys online from time to time. You know - for the kid and her friends. At any rate, it was the summer toys email, full of inflatable water games and the like. Generally nothing special, and I’ve gotten used to not owning a pool so I gloss over most of them. However, right now I’m a very, very sad nerd dad because there’s no chance in hell I’d be able to fit this beauty in my lovely, ultra tiny and concrete covered SoCal backyard.

Instead, I think we’re gonna settle on getting this little guy. For our daughter, that is. I hope she understands…

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“To ME, of course… Only DOOM himself is truly worthy of this POWER BEYOND COGNITION! Only DOCTOR DOOM must wield the POWER SUPREME!”

-Dr. Doom, from Fantastic Four #408

Excerpted from:

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This made me laugh. Spotted this dead 360 sporting the notorious “Red Rings of Death” at a Toys R Us in Staten Island (by The Mall, for any locals out there). Nothing inspires consumers to buy your $350 product like a broken display unit!

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Not sure if white dudes can really rock this…but hey, here’s a brilliantly brutal tshirt celebrating the greatest TV show of all time. Don’t think your little emo mall punk brother will be carrying this out of Hot Topic anytime soon.

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