Beasts of the Four Nations: Creatures from Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra $37.19 (was $40) | Releases September 23 Preorder at Amazon Beasts of the Four Nations: Creatures from Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra (Deluxe Edition) $80 | Releases September 23 Preorder at Amazon Earlier this year, Nickelodeon announced Avatar is coming back with a new animated series called Avatar: Seven Havens, and there's a new Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action movie on the way, too, making now a good time to brush up on the lore and rich worldbuilding the franchise is known for. One way to do that is with the upcoming Beasts of the Four Nations, a 128-page hardcover bestiary offering in-universe lore and behind-the-scenes details on the wildlife and mythical creatures of both animated series. You can preorder the standard edition for $37.19 (down from $40) or secure a copy of the $80 Deluxe Edition that includes exclusive cover art and a lithograph print. Preorders for both editions are available at Amazon, and both ship September 23. Beasts of the Four Nations: Creatures from Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra $37.19 (was $40) | Releases September 23 Written by John O'Bryan, Beasts of the Four Nations includes illustrations and information on the many fantastical beasts of The Last Airbender's world. Everything from the Air Nomads’ flying bison to Kyoshi Island’s elephant koi and the Earth Kingdom’s singing groundhogs are detailed in the book, along with commentary by Avatar and Legend of Korra creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino. The standard edition launches September 23 and is available to preorder for $37.19 (down from $40) at Amazon. A Deluxe Edition will also launch on the same day that includes a few extras, which we've detailed below. Preorder at Amazon Beasts of the Four Nations: Creatures from Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra (Deluxe Edition) $80 | Releases September 23 The Beasts of the Four Nations Deluxe Edition contains all the contents of the standard edition, but features a few notable upgrades like foil highlights on the cover art and a protective slipcase. The book also comes with an exclusive lithograph print depicting Cai, the cabbage merchant who appears throughout the Avatar series, and his cart pulled by two ostrich horses. You can preorder the Beasts of the Four Nations Deluxe Edition for $80 at Amazon. Preorder at Amazon Beasts of the Four Nations Deluxe EditionIf you want to explore more of the Avatar franchise’s visual history, you're in luck, as several more official Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra art books are available, and some are even discounted. There's a giant Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Art of the Animated Series art book that covers all four seasons of the show. It's packed with concept art, design, and production materials, ranging from the very first sketch through to the series finale.The Legend of Korra has a multi-volume art book series available as well Each volume focuses on a specific season of the show and features creator commentaries and exclusive artwork. Standard and Deluxe Editions are available for each volume. The Deluxe Editions include slipcases, lithographs, new covers, and bonus sketches by the show’s creators.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Magic: the Gathering has officially announced an exciting new crossover coming to the beloved card game, teaming up with Sega for an exclusive set of Sonic the Hedgehog cards. The massively popular trading card game developed by Wizards of the Coast has looked to break bold new grounds with its crossover content in recent years. Magic: the Gathering ramped up its "Universes Beyond" initiative this year with multiple new crossover sets, debuting Final Fantasy in June with Spider-Man and Avatar the Last Airbender expansions to come. Now, another iconic franchise is set to make the jump to Magic.

Strava drama has become the name of the game in the fitness tracking world. I suppose when your favorite fitness app also includes a social media element, a little tension is inevitable. Add competitive leaderboards into the mix, and you've got a recipe for intrigue that would make reality TV producers salivate.If you're tuned into leaderboard controversies, you'll know that runners and cyclists are deeply divided on whether the platform is doing too much—or not nearly enough—to combat fake entries. If you ask me, when some users are deploying electric unicycles to dominate local climbing segments, that's evidence enough something needs to be done. And now Strava is doing something: The company has announced the launch of AI-enabled Leaderboard Integrity, a new tool intended to separate legitimate athletes from creative cheaters. How Strava is using AI to root out cheatersFor the uninitiated, the reason people cheat is usually to claim King of the Mountain (KOM) and Queen of the Mountain (QOM) titles—coveted crowns that represent the fastest times on specific segments. Peruse the Strava subreddit for a few minutes, and you'll be sure to see grievances about leaderboard cheaters. Strava's latest update is designed to identify and flag "irregular, improbable, or impossible" performance recorded on the platform. The system acts as a digital referee, capable of detecting when an impossibly fast e-bike ride has been mislabeled as a regular cycling effort, then politely prompting users to correct their entries.The technology goes beyond simple speed checks. Strava revealed in February that its machine learning system analyzes activities using 57 different factors, including speed patterns, elevation gains, and acceleration data, to determine when something doesn't add up. The result of this crackdown? Strava has already removed 4.45 million activities from its platform. The deleted activities generally fall into two main categories: entries uploaded with the wrong sport type (like labeling an e-bike ride as regular cycling) and activities recorded while in a vehicle. To be fair, the latter category likely includes everything from users forgetting to stop their tracking while driving home, to more deliberate attempts to game the system by recording car or train journeys as part of legitimate running segments.How Strava users are reactingThe fitness community's reaction to Strava's cheater detection has been characteristically split. Serious athletes and segment hunters generally applaud the stricter measures—after all, leaderboard integrity is what makes the app's competitive element at all meaningful. If the numbers are fraud, what's the point?However, some users worry about false positives—that is, legitimate exceptional performances getting flagged by overzealous algorithms. And the AI is overzealous: Some users have commented that their personal records are being deleted without any sort of prompt or ability to dispute the AI's findings. If you're a serious athlete, seeing your genuinely impressive times being questioned by an automated system that might not account for peak human performance is naturally going to rankle.Outside of leaderboard integrity, Strava's AI initiatives are generally overzealous and inaccurate. I'm not alone in noticing how absurd its new route generation can get. I'm talking routes with concentric loops, cutting through buildings, major roads instead of residential paths, and other issues that will make no sense to a real human moving through the world. Given the immense heat map data that we've all effectively donated to Strava, to be given such shoddy AI-generated routes is fairly bonkers, and it's hardly surprising that its cheat-detecting tools would also be less than precise.The bottom lineControversy aside, Strava's competitive features should be more about personal motivation than serious competition. If cheater detection is ruining your experience, I recommend some perspective. Try not to let it spoil what should be a fun, social fitness experience—especially given the AI tools don't (yet) seem accurate enough to reflect reality.But with 4.45 million activities already in the digital trash bin, Strava's message is clear: The days of easily gaming the leaderboards are over. Of course, as fitness tracking technology continues to evolve, so too will the methods people use to fool the system. Hopefully Strava stays one step ahead of creative rule-benders.

This article includes spoilers for The Legend of Korra. Janet Varney and Dante Basco aren’t just stars of beloved animated epics The Legend of Korra and Avatar: The Last Airbender, respectively, they are also hosts of Nickelodeon’s Avatar companion podcast, Braving the Elements – a status that makes them, as they joke, Ph.D. holders in “Avatarism.” The show is dedicated to all things Avatar and season 4 is set to dive into the 2012 sequel series, The Legend of Korra.  Den of Geek spoke with Varney (Korra) and Basco (Zuko) ahead of the podcast’s season 4 premiere to discuss their early reactions to seeing Korra (which Basco is watching for the first time), the possibility of a comic season of the podcast, and their advice for the star of upcoming sequel Avatar: Seven Havens. DEN OF GEEK: For the podcast you’re both starting your journey into watching Korra. How did you feel when, in Korra’s first episode, they just brushed away that long-held question of “Whatever happened to Zuko’s mom?” Dante Basco: I don’t know if I was prepared or not, but I already knew. I already went through the comics [which finally answered that question]. I was fine with that because I’m hip to the situation.  Janet Varney: I think by that time [creators and showrunners] Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko knew that answer was going to be very available. So they intentionally planted it in [the Korra premiere] as like a little tip of the hat. Dante Basco: A little wink to the audience. Obviously the podcast still has a lot to cover with Korra but, speaking of the comics, do you have any plans for how you’ll tackle them in the future? Could this possibly be a good chance to get an official radio play of those comics out there? JV: Oooo, a radio play would be fun. Talking about the comics has definitely been something that we talked about from the beginning. It’s just a matter of timing and what the powers that be decide about the when’s and how’s of it all. But we’ve weaseled in as much as we can on the podcast with people like [comic writers] Faith Erin Hicks and Gene Luen Yang. We’ve been like “come to the podcast, let’s lay the groundwork.” DB: A little radio play of the comics would be fun. JV: We did one for “Turf Wars” during the pandemic with Seychelle Gabriel [Asami], Mindy Sterling [Lin Beifong], David Faustino [Mako], and P. J. Byrne [Bolin]. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! There needs to be a version that comes with the book and it says, “when you hear the firebending sounds, turn the page.” DB: *firebending sounds* JV: Jeff Bennett [Radio broadcaster in Korra] can do all the stage directions! The just-announced Avatar: Seven Havens is set to be a sequel to Korra and will feature an Earthbender who discovers she’s the next Avatar. What advice do you two have to whoever ends up playing this new Avatar?  JV: Get ready for a wild ride, my friend. DB: Take it in stride. Have a good time on the journey. It’s a journey – the whole thing. You get to go through the show, the fanbase, and just being a part of this wonderful world. Janet, do you remember what you were told when you were brought in to do Korra? Especially since you were coming into a franchise that already had a huge fan base.  JV: When we had started recording, Sarah Noonan, who was heading up casting, grabbed me outside of Studio A, took me by the shoulders, looked deeply into my eyes and said, “Are you ready for your life to change?” I was like, “Sarah, I love you, but I’ve been told that before because it’s Hollywood.” Dante knows. DB: Sometimes it’s yourself telling you that. JV: So you get really good at pushing that into the background. DB: You have to or we’d all be put away a long time ago. JV: But Sarah was more right than anyone ever has been. Yes, my life is completely different and so much of my life is connected to this thing that she was dead-on about. DB: No one told me that at all, not even Mike and Bryan. No one knew this was gonna happen the way it happened. It was like, “we’re doing a show. We all have done shows, so let’s just have a good time.” I don’t think anyone was prepared for it to be what it became. Truly. Janet, due to events in – Foreshadow Report! – the Korra series, this new Avatar in Seven Havens is not going to have the ability to call on all the past Avatars. What do you think an Avatar will be like with only Korra to call on for advice? JV: First of all, I just want to point out: it’s not Korra’s fault. I just wanna cover my bases. Let me just go ahead and remind everyone that losing that connection to the past Avatars was definitely not her fault. You wanna go ahead and blame someone? You can blame any number of people. You wanna blame Unalaq? Go for it. You wanna blame Vaatu? I welcome you to do so. DB: Vaatu for sure. Vaatu has the biggest blame in this situation. JV: At least Vaatu is …there has to be dark and light, right? But Unalaq? Gross ambition. Come on, guy. DB: These shady Waterbenders out there. There’s all these nice Waterbenders but when there’s bad apples it’s very bad. JV: Genuinely though: we don’t know any details about Seven Havens. Even if we did, we could not say! JV: Who knew that was such a dominant trait? DB: It’s such a dominant trait, it just happens in every generation. You talk about people reincarnating? That voice reincarnates every generation. If you get great grandpa’s voice? That means you’ve got to do something special in your life. Don’t squander that. What are you both most excited for people to hear in this upcoming season of the podcast? JV: Dante has been predicting what he thinks might happen. Every episode we revisit what he did predict for whatever Korra episode we’re watching and then we look to the future. I want to give you an extra shout out, buddy, because it’s not easy being wrong about something. But right after you found out you’re wrong about one prediction, now you have to make a new prediction about the episode. You showed up for that every time. It’s a decent track record. What’s the hit-to-miss ratio? DB: At least 50/50. JV: It might not be 50/50… but, yeah, you know what? Let’s call it 50/50!  DB: I’m excited for the whole audience to get into Korra again. It’s the 20th anniversary of Avatar and that’s amazing but going into revisiting (or for me, the first time) the Korra world in its entirety? It’s very fascinating to take a look at the Korra world in a new space and time. For fans of the podcast, they’ve seen me on the spot kind of defending Fire Nation for many years now. There are good folks in the Fire Nation! Some have economic anxiety. DB: Yeah, but I like to see Janet now a little bit on the hot seat. Not just Janet, I’m gonna have to throw the whole Water Tribe under that bus. There are some evil Waterbenders in Korra!  JV: What a gift we gave you. It’s like we made it for you. DB: There’s a whole world thinking ill thoughts of the Fire Nation and I want to point the camera a little at the Water Tribe for a while. JV: The whole Industrial Revolution thing has been so fun and great to dig into. It’s such a different piece to talk about with our guests. That setting is so rich and it’s something that we see the guests bringing up time and time again. It’s just an aspect of the show that really excites people because it’s closer to our technology. It opens up different perspectives from people on what is valuable about bending. I think it’s really fun to get into. The newest season of Braving the Elements is now available wherever you get your podcasts.

Wizards of the Coast has got such a release cadence going with its long-running trading card game, Magic: The Gathering, that you’re only ever a few weeks away from a new set.While at the time of writing, we’re eagerly anticipating the Final Fantasy set, anyone looking for a ‘Universes Within’ fix after the excellent Tarkir Dragonstorm won’t have to wait too long, although Edge of Eternities perhaps couldn’t be more different.Out August 1, 2025Magic: The Gathering Edge of Eternities Play Booster Box (30 Packs)$164.70 at AmazonOut August 1, 2025Magic: The Gathering Edge of Eternities Bundle (9 Play Boosters, 30 Lands, 1 Alt-Art Card + Exclusive Accessories)$57.99 at AmazonOut August 1, 2025Magic: The Gathering Edge of Eternities Collector Booster Box (12 Packs)$299.98 at AmazonOut August 1, 2025Magic: The Gathering Edge of Eternities Collector Booster (1 Pack of 15 Cards)$24.99 at AmazonOut August 1, 2025Magic the Gathering: Edge of Eternities Commander Deck SD1$44.99 at AmazonOut August 1, 2025Magic the Gathering: Edge of Eternities Commander Deck SD2$44.99 at AmazonOut August 1, 2025Magic: The Gathering Edge of Eternities Commander Deck Bundle - 2 of Each Deck$179.96 at AmazonThe upcoming set, which will debut on August 1, hasn’t had any card spoilers just yet, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know at least a little about what’s coming. Here’s everything we know about Magic: The Gathering: Edge of Eternities so far.What is MTG Edge of Eternities?This year, Wizards of the Coast is leaning hard into Universes Beyond sets, with Final Fantasy the first of three sets this year which leans on established franchises outside of the company’s own characters and settings, followed up by Spider-Man and Avatar: The Last Airbender last in the year.Whatever your thoughts on that, Edge of Eternities is the opposite, offering a new set with a more cosmic focus but still within Magic’s own universe (although it is sandwiched between Final Fantasy and Spider-Man).We’ve seen little more than concept art, but we do know the new set will mark the beginning of the final story arc of the Metronome storyline, which began with Wilds of Eldraine (if you’re still following).Play BoostersMagic The Gathering Edge of Eternities Play Booster BoxMagic The Gathering Play Booster BoxSee it at AmazonPlay Boosters have become the de facto way to open packs now, replacing Set Boosters and Draft Boosters.These packs are draftable for sealed play, and contain 15 cards each (although the last one in the pack is usually an advert, art card, or token). Cards 1 to 6 are commons, while card 7 is a common card that can be a reprint.Cards 8, 9 and 10 are uncommons, while card 11 offers your rare/mythic. Card 12 is a Land card, and can be foil or have full art, while card 13 is a “wildcard” that can be any card from the set.Then you get a wildcard that’s a guaranteed foil for card 14, with the idea being that players have more of a chance to get chase cards from these packs. You can buy Play Boosters individually or pick up a booster box.Collector BoostersMagic The Gathering Edge of Eternities Magic The Gathering Collector Booster BoxSee it at AmazonCollector Boosters are much pricier than their Play Booster counterparts, and offer 16 cards (although again, one is a token).In these, you can find five rare or mythic rares, as well as four uncommons and five commons, as well as one land.They’ll also come with a slicker frame design in many instances, with 12 - 13 of the cards included being foils.Again, you can pick them up individually or as a box, but expect to pay a high price.Commander DecksOut August 1, 2025Magic: The Gathering Edge of Eternities Commander Deck Bundle - 2 of Each Deck$179.96 at AmazonCommander has become Magic’s most popular format, with the thrill of “last player standing” matches and 100-card decks playable right out of the box making for a great jumping-on point for new players.The number of decks included in each set has varied wildly this year. For example, Aetherdrift offered two Commander options, while Tarkir: Dragonstorm had a whopping five, and Final Fantasy offers four.Edge of Eternities is scaling back the volume, with two decks: World Shaper and Counter Intelligence.The former comes in Black, Red, and Green colors (Jund), and the text on the box says players will “Sacrifice Lands” and “Grow Back Stronger”.Counter Intelligence, on the other hand, is Blue, Red, and White (Jeskai) and says you can use its contents to “Boost Artifacts” and “Proliferate Counters”.Bundles and Prerelease PacksMagic The Gathering Edge of Eternities BundleMagic The Gathering BundleSee it at AmazonFinally, as is tradition now you’ll be able to pick up a Bundle and Prerelease Pack for the new set.Bundles include a series of 9 Play Boosters, as well as one promo card with exclusive alternate art, as well as a full set of 10 Full-Art Lands in foil and non-foil, as well as a spindown dice and a card storage box. Prerelease works a little differently, with the idea being that the set is used at a prerelease event.Players open the box, and use the six Play Boosters inside to build a deck comprising of 40 cards. Prerelease boxes are found at your local game store.Lloyd Coombes is Gaming Editor @ Daily Star. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay. He's also a tech, gaming, and fitness freelancer seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, IGN, and more.This article includes contributions from Hannah Hoolihan.

While other streaming services thrive on carefully selected and endlessly curated (meaning: limited) selections of movies, Tubi's a bit different: It feels like the Wild West, with everything from originals; to popular hits; to critically acclaimed favorites; to the lowest-brow, lowest-budget movies you'll find this side of an old Blockbuster. In that spirit, here's a sampling of some of the best stuff currently streaming on Tubi, and it's a wide variety—the streamer will not be pinned down. If you're unfamiliar, Tubi is a free, ad-based service, but generally I find the ads to be less obnoxious and less frequent than on other, similar streamers. Interstellar (2014) Christopher Nolan's mind-bending, but oddly plausible, sci-fi epic takes Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain on a hunt through space and time to find a new home for humans in a near-future during which we've made Earth unlivable. You can stream Interstellar here.Color Out of Space (2019) Nicolas Cage is at his Nic Cage-iest in this H. P. Lovecraft adaptation about a family's descent into madness. A beautiful, horrifying, utterly unique sensory experience. You can stream Color Out of Space here.Friday (1995) An unquestioned classic of stoner comedy, Friday sees Ice Cube and Chris Tucker accidentally smoking weed that they were meant to sell. And who among us hasn't? The two slackers set out to borrow or make the money back during a misadventure-packed Friday. You can stream Friday here. Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan (alongside Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis) led Everything to Oscar glory a couple of years back, with Yeoh starring as Evelyn Quan Wang, a middle-aged immigrant running a laundromat with her husband. An IRS audit leads to a trip through a wildly outlandish, and ultimately emotional, journey through a multiverse of possibilities. You can stream Everything Everywhere here.Dune (1984) You've probably seen the recent Denis Villeneuve adaptation, but you might be less familiar with this messy and fascinating take from director David Lynch. Kyle MacLachlan leads an all-star cast in a movie that doesn't quite an achieve greatness, but nevertheless offers up a bevy of wild ideas, distinctive visuals, and Lynchian madness. You can stream Dune here. Some Like It Hot (1959) Tubi offers up a better assortment of classics than many of the other streamers, most of which have shifted to a newer-is-better focus. Hot stars Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as a couple of jazz-age musicians who run afoul of a mob boss, deciding to escape by posing as members of an all-female band (one that, memorably, includes Marilyn Monroe). Director Billy Wilder pitches the farce just right, at the intersection between smart and silly. You can stream Some Like It Hot here. Evil Bong (2006) No socially redeeming value here, just a goofy comedy horror movie about a bong that transports smokers to another planet, one where they're to be murdered by exotic dancers. Tommy Chong co-stars in this movie from Full Moon Features, purveyors of fine low-rent horror movies. You can stream Evil Bong here. Ghost World (2001) Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) face high school graduation, and a crush on Steve Buscemi, in Terry Zwigoff’s indie dark comedy. You can stream Ghost World here.Donnie Darko (2001) Jake Gyllenhaal stars in this memorable emo mind-bender about a troubled teenager who dodges disaster thanks to a bit of sleepwalking. An instant cult classic, it's the movie all the cool kids were talking about back in the day. You can stream Donnie Darko (director's cut) here, or the theatrical version here. Hollywood Shuffle (1987) Robert Townsend directs himself as Bobby Taylor, a satire about the perils of navigating the Hollywood system for an actor simultaneously too black and not black enough for the tastes of studio bosses. Through elaborate fantasy sequences and parodies of popular movies, Townsend creates a sharp and often extremely funny sendup that’s (sadly) still relevant. You can stream Hollywood Shuffle here.Barbarian (2022) One of the more divisive horror movies of the past few years (I love it), Barbarian stars Georgina Campbell as a woman who rents an Airbnb only to have a man (Bill Skarsgård) show up claiming that he also has rented the house. He seems nice enough, so she lets him in—enough of a premise for a horror movie right there, but Barbarian has twists that you'll never see coming. You can stream Barbarian here.Showgirls (1995) As with most of Paul Verhoeven's other films, it's possible to view his notoriously trashy film as either dark satire or unintended camp. It's tremendous fun either way and, though it quickly gained a reputation as garbage, it's far more watchable than many other better-reviewed films. You can stream Showgirls here.Rec (2007) This Spanish import is top-tier found footage, involving a group of firefighters on an emergency call who wind up trapped inside a building at the center of a creeping zombie infection. That limited, specific geography is key to the movie's brisk, efficient, and nerve-jangling effectiveness. You can stream Rec here.Planet of the Apes (1968) Astronaut Charlton Heston finds himself on an unknown (wink wink) planet in the distant future where he rather quickly finds himself in the power of the world's ape overlords. From a slightly goofy premise came this dark, disturbing, and timely fable. You can stream Planet of the Apes here. The Apartment (1960) Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine star in this searing, bittersweet, but ultimately humane comedy. MacLaine's Fran Kubelik is an elevator operator having an affair with the big boss at an insurance company, while Lemmon's Bud Baxter gets ahead by loaning out his apartment to upper management for various extramarital assignations. The budding friendship between the two threatens both of their careers. You can stream The Apartment here. Whale Rider (2002) Pai is a 12-year-old Māori girl and the direct descendant of their tribe’s traditional notable ancestor, the Whale Rider—except that, traditionally, women can’t lead. Star Keisha Castle-Hughes became the youngest nominee for a Best Actress Oscar for her open, genuine performance. You can stream Whale Rider here. The Descent (2006) Getting lost in those caves is scary enough, even before we discover that we're not alone down there. The ultimate in spelunking horror. You can stream The Descent here.Menace II Society (1993) A searing, raw portrait of urban violence in the 1990s, the Hughes Brothers' film follows Caine Lawson (Tyrin Turner) and his friends as they struggle for a better life amid crime and poverty, but who find themselves drawn deeper into crime and cruelty. The performances here are all phenomenal. You can stream Menace II Society here. Beauty Shop (2005) This Barbershop spin-off follows widowed hairstylist Gina Norris starting over in Atlanta with her daughter, and opening her own shop when a job doesn't pan out. Queen Latifah is as delightful as ever, and is joined by a great cast including Alfre Woodard, Della Reese, Alicia Silverstone, Andie MacDowell, Kevin Bacon, and Djimon Hounsou. You can stream Beauty Shop here.Room 237 (2012) This fascinating documentary explores, without judgement, the many (and often truly wild) theories and interpretations around Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Probably not what you're after if you want a bit of film analysis, but as an exploration of conspiratorial thinking? You could do a lot worse. You can stream Room 237 here. Terrifier (2016) Damien Leone's low-budget slasher series quietly build into a queasy empire, with the most recent film being a legit box office smash. Here, literal clown-from-hell Art stalks partygoer Tara Heyes and her sister Victoria (Scaffidi) on Halloween night. You can stream Terrifier here. Return of the Living Dead (1985) This horror comedy with punk style is both a knowing parody of zombie movies while also managing to be an impressively gory thriller in its own right that moves the whole genre forward. Plus, it’s got a great death-rock soundtrack. You can stream Return of the Living Dead here.Frankenhooker (1990) A disreputable and goofy but surprisingly effective horror comedy, Frankenhooker stars former Penthouse Pet Patty Mullen as the movie's take on Mary Shelley's monster, made in the image of a med student's dead fiancée and built from sex workers. The style and special effects here are pretty great. You can stream Frankenhooker here.Ghost in the Shell (1995) One of the best anime films of all time, at least when it comes to sci-fi and cyberpunk, Ghost in the Shell boasts impeccable style in addition to the thoughtfulness and complexity of its story. Major Motoko Kusanagi is a cyborg security agent hunting an enigmatic hacker known only as "the Puppet Master" in the rapidly approaching year 2029, a time when the rise of AI threatens even the idea of individual existence. You can stream Ghost in the Shell here. The Leather Boys (1964) A classic of British kitchen sink realism, a movement in the 1960s that saw hyperrealistic portraits of, often, angry teens and young people, The Leather Boys sees young couple Reggie and Dot becoming increasingly estranged when Reggie mostly wants to just hang out with his biker friends. Among those friends is Pete, who seems to be developing an attraction to Reggie that goes a bit beyond that of a typical biker bro. You can stream The Leather Boys here. North by Northwest (1959) One of Hitchcock's best (and that's saying quite a bit), North by Northwest is a nearly non-stop thrill ride, seeing Cary Grant's Roger Thornhill hunted across the country by criminals who've mistaken him for someone else. It's as funny as it is clever, and nearly impossible to stop watching once you've started. You can stream North by Northwest here.Lars and the Real Girl (2007) The sweetest, most charming movie about the romance between a man and his life-like love doll that you're likely to encounter. You can stream Lars and the Real Girl here.They Call Me Trinity (1970) A classic spaghetti western, Trinity (kicking off a trilogy, appropriately enough), stars Terence Hill and Bud Spencer as brothers Trinity and Bambino, who help defend a Mormon settlement from bandits and a land-grabbing Major (Farley Granger). It's a rare comedy to come out of Italy's obsession with westerns, and a lot of fun for it. You can stream They Call Me Trinity here. The Wiz (1978) Long before Wicked reinvented (or at least reinterpreted) L. Frank Baum, the Broadway musical on which this movie is based imagined Dorothy Gale as a Black teacher from Harlem. The joyous film version is nearly a who's who of Black talent in the 1970s: Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Mabel King, Theresa Merritt, Thelma Carpenter, Lena Horne and Richard Pryor all play roles, while Quincy Jones, Luther Vandross, and Charlie Smalls all contributed to the music. You can stream The Wiz here. Cabaret (1972) Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey star in this essential musical about the good times and extravagant style of Weimar Germany giving way to the rising tide of fascism. You can stream Cabaret here.

Back in 2010, when Cartoon Network first announced its plan to reboot the beloved 1985 animated TV series Thundercats, the first thought that went through my mind was, “That’s great! Do Blackstar next!” In 2014, when Boat Rocker Media announced its reboot of 1981’s Danger Mouse, same thing: “Huh, interesting, but do Blackstar next.” 2016’s Disney reveal about its reboot of 1987’s Duck Tales? “Rad. But… Blackstar?” And so it went, year after year, with the announcements about 2018’s Netflix reboot of She-Ra: Princess of Power, 2021’s He-Man reboot Masters of the Universe: Revelation, the CG version of Inspector Gadget, the American Voltron update Voltron: Legendary Defender, half a dozen new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers projects, a little-loved second Thundercats series, and every single Smurfs movie. I get it — the kids of the ’80s are producers and writers and showrunners now, with enough clout to get their childhood memories turned into new shows. But apparently none of them watched Blackstar, easily one of the coolest animated series of the 1980s, built around the coolest sword. There’s a direct genetic line between the success of 1977’s Star Wars and the wave of space-set, fantasy-themed Saturday morning cartoons that closely followed. Star Wars beget ABC’s popular Thundarr the Barbarian, a post-apocalyptic dystopian-future fantasy about a muscular hero who fought oppressive magical villains while wearing a fur skirt, hanging out with a leotard-clad sorceress, and more or less carrying a lightsaber and traveling with a Wookiee. Thundarr helped inspire Blackstar, CBS’ equivalent show, about a muscular hero who fought oppressive magical villains while wearing a fur skirt, hanging out with a leotard-clad sorceress, and carrying his own form of laser sword. (No Wookiee, though — instead, series hero Blackstar got to ride a dragon.) Both shows were on the leading edge of the post-Star Wars dark fantasy wave, leading to movies like Excalibur, Conan the Barbarian, and Dragonslayer. But unlike most of those ’80s fantasies — Flash Gordon aside — Thundarr and Blackstar kept a foot in Star Wars’ science fiction roots, hanging onto the idea of worlds where technology and mysticism met and clashed. Thundarr was more popular, but Blackstar was more compelling: a weirder, darker, richer world with a lot more going on, and a much more imaginative sword that wasn’t just a lightly reskinned lightsaber. Though the show only managed a single season and 13 episodes (compared with Thundarr’s two-year, 21-episode stint), Blackstar’s potential still sticks with me decades later. The story in brief: An astronaut from a future Earth, John Blackstar, enters a black hole in his experimental timeship, and winds up trapped on an ancient alien world, full of magic and monsters. (It’s essentially an isekai series, decades before isekai was the hottest trend in anime and manga.) The local Sauron equivalent, the Overlord, dominates the planet Sagar with an artifact called the Powerstar, a huge two-handed crystalline energy sword. Somehow, the Powerstar gets broken into identical halves, producing two badass weapons: the Power Sword, which the Overlord still holds, and the Star Sword, which falls into Blackstar’s hands. Blackstar winds up as the figurehead in a growing rebellion against the Overlord’s. Meanwhile, the Overlord wants not just to squash this budding rebellion, but to reclaim the Star Sword and take up the Powerstar again. In a series of interviews for Blackstar’s 2006 DVD release, the creators and writers cop to some of their influences in writing the show: The protagonist is a little bit John Carter of Mars (the original Edgar Rice Burroughs version, not the 2012 fantasy-movie version) and a little bit Flash Gordon, though he also closely resembles the protagonist of the 1979 live-action series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The Trobbits — tiny comedy-relief people who find and rescue Blackstar after his timeship crashes — take a little inspiration from J.R.R. Tolkien’s hobbits, and a lot more from Disney’s seven dwarfs, complete with the “one personality trait apiece” dynamic, and a youngest member who never speaks. (There are also seven of them.)  The Overlord is somewhere between Darth Vader and Ming the Merciless, while Blackstar’s sorceress companion, Mara, is basically just a reskin of Thundarr’s Princess Ariel, with very similar powers, a similar elegant, educated personality and role as party historian, and similar obvious crush on the oblivious hero. Although these characters rarely feel unique, the mythology and setting of Blackstar’s world very much do, and the central plot device of the Powerstar is unique in fantasy animation. The symmetry of the central villain and hero each having half of the world’s most legendary weapon — which is to say, half of the power left in a world struggling to define itself — is a clever riff on the idea that heroes and villains should mirror each other for maximum thematic impact. Their connection through the sundered Powerstar gives the protagonist and antagonist an intimate personal connection, a reason to clash again and again. It also helps define their characters, and what they do with power. It’s no coincidence that in the Overlord’s hands, the Power Sword is all blunt force, used solely to blast or slash, while Blackstar uses the Star Sword as a finesse weapon with flexible magical abilities. (Too flexible, really: Its magic is ill-defined, and the show’s writers invented new Star Sword powers in nearly every episode.) The idea of these two swords as yin and yang, perfect halves that assemble into a greater whole, is unusually elegant for an ’80s cartoon — and one of the series’ many ideas that was never really explored to full advantage. For modern viewers Blackstar is fairly close to unwatchable. Its production company, Filmation, emerged from a series of commercial jobs in the 1960s, but by the 1980s, it specialized in budget-priced television animated entirely in America, rather than in cheaper overseas production houses. That necessitated a lot of cost-saving devices, like recycling the same hand-drawn sequences many times over, often within the same episode, and using a hilariously limited library of sound effects. Blackstar’s sound design is garish and repetitive, with vocal work that sounds like almost everyone is shouting. The scripts are clunky: Blackstar is conceived as a quippy hero who peppers his foes with snarky one-liners, but his jokes are cataclysmically stiff. About the best he can muster is a jaunty “Putting on a little weight, aren’t you, Rocko?” when hefting one rock elemental to toss it onto another during a battle. And the series is designed for the syndication of the era, meaning that episodes might re-air in any order. So there’s no story development, no character arcs, not even an opening episode to establish Blackstar’s origins. Continuity glitches, inconsistent design and storytelling, and budget-saving slow pans across paintings abound. But the world it’s set in is fascinating. There are hints here and there of ancient technologies and centuries-old civilizations buried under what’s become a verdant forest, centered on the magic of the gigantic central Sagar tree, a mystic font of power the Trobbits live in and tend to. Sagar is a world full of weird creatures that seem either like evolutions of familiar animals, or like magical constructs — shark-bats and frog-rabbits and monkey-birds, long before Avatar: The Last Airbender made these kinds of amalgams a running joke. Those slow-pan, cash-saving painting backgrounds are rich, elaborate, and colorful, suggesting a world with the darkness and detail of Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal.  While so much of 1980s animation was about the clear line between good and evil, there’s a sense throughout Blackstar that most of the world of Sagar isn’t aspected in such a black-and-white way. It’s just a chaotic ruin, where hungry monsters, prim but weary civilizations, and barbaric enclaves all exist side by side, divided by lethal geography. Every scattered outpost and wandering monster is equally dangerous to Blackstar and the Overlord, but ripe for either of them to exploit for an advantage in their ongoing war. There are even hints at a nuanced system for magic, where the mental power of sorcery and the elemental power of nature magic are different things that work in different ways. After Blackstar’s single season ended, Filmation immediately followed it with the Mattel-backed and far better funded He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, a series based on an existing toy line, but just as clearly based on elements borrowed from Blackstar. Once again, there’s a muscular hero in a fur skirt with a magic sword, battling a sorcerous villain in a chaotic technofantasy world packed with environmental hazards and weird, wildly diverse humanoids. Filmation regular Alan Oppenheimer voiced both Blackstar’s Overlord and He-Man’s Skeletor; similarly, Linda Gary voiced Blackstar’s leading lady Mara and He-Man’s Teela. Filmation staff writer Tom Ruegger developed the series bible for both shows, and it shows, in everything from the similar heroes’ and rogues’ galleries to the sprawling high-and-low-tech world where magic and robots co-exist. One He-Man episode, “The Remedy,” even reused several Blackstar sequences, reintroducing Blackstar’s dragon-horse Warlock as a beast He-Man saves from a giant spider, then rides around. While He-Man had many of the same budgetary and aesthetic limitations as Blackstar — frequently recycled animation, obnoxious sound design, goofy and often ineffectual comedy relief — He-Man was immediately more popular. So popular, in fact that toy maker Galoob tried to nab some of Mattel’s sales success by putting out a weirdly modeled toy line for Blackstar, two full years after the show was canceled. (Those toys did not do well.) Now, we’re in an era where He-Man gets reboot after reboot — an all-ages animated version, a CG version for kids, a new live-action movie scheduled for 2026 — while Blackstar is all but forgotten. And I find that so strange. The bid to reboot and update every hit cartoon of the 1980s seems like a natural enough progression for an era of media fueled by nostalgia, but I’ve never understood why there isn’t more of it for Blackstar, a series that was more imaginative and ambitious than either the predecessor it was trying to outdo or the follower that got all the glory. In the way of so many other ’80s cartoons, my interest in a reboot is much less about re-creating an often janky, limited, cheaply made TV series, and much more about realizing the potential these characters and this world couldn’t take advantage of in the 1980s. A modern version with up-to-date animation could give John Blackstar a proper backstory, and actually make some sense of the biggest hero/villain themes the ’80s version lightly touched on. It could take advantage of the retro-future magic setting and the sprawling original world of Sagar in ways Filmation never dreamed of.  And most importantly, a proper modern update could finally dig into the event that split the Powerstar and turned its two halves into thematic weapons. There are so many story possibilities for that particular cool sword, just waiting to be discovered by a new generation.

Inside Boston Children’s Hospital, 3D printing and digital planning are “transforming” pediatric care. The 156-year-old institution uses Materialise’s Mimics software to turn two-dimensional patient scans into detailed 3D models, streamlining preoperative planning and enhancing surgical outcomes.    Dr. David Hoganson, a pediatric cardiac surgeon at the Massachusetts-based health center, called 3D technology a “total game-changer” for clinicians. Speaking at the Materialise 3D Printing in Hospitals Forum 2025, he outlined his role in leading the hospital’s Cardiovascular 3D Modelling and Simulation Program. Mimics has become part of routine care at Boston Children’s Benderson Family Heart Center. Since 2018, the Program’s engineers and clinicians have created over 1,600 patient-specific 3D models. Last year alone, the team made 483 models, which accounted for about 50% of its Operating Room surgical cases.     During Materialise’s healthcare forum, I spoke with Dr. Hoganson about his unique path from biomedical engineering to clinical practice. The Temple University graduate outlined how 3D modeling is no longer a futuristic add-on but an essential tool transforming the precision and planning of modern surgery. He revealed the tangible benefits of Mimics modelling versus traditional medical imaging, emphasizing how intraoperative 3D planning can reduce heart surgery complications by up to 87%. Looking to the future of healthcare, Dr. Hoganson discussed the need for more seamless clinical integration, validation, and financial reimbursement to increase adoption.    Dr. David Hoganson speaking at the Materialise 3D Printing in Hospitals Forum 2025. Photo via Materialise. From the factory floor to the operating theater When Dr. Hoganson began his career, it wasn’t in an operating room but on the factory floor. He started as a biomedical engineer, developing cardiovascular medical devices for two years, before transitioning to medicine.  This pedigree has been instrumental in shaping Boston Children’s 3D Modeling and Simulation Program, which was co-founded by University of New Hampshire Mechanical Engineering graduate Dr. Peter Hammer. The team has grown to include 17 engineers and one clinical nurse. “It has been an engineering-focused effort from the beginning,” explained Dr. Hoganson. He emphasized that the team prioritizes using “advanced engineering analysis” to plan and conduct ultra-precise operations.  Dr. Hoganson believes this engineering focus challenges the structured nature of clinical medicine. “The mindset of medicine is much more focused on doing things the way we were taught,” he explains. In contrast, engineering embraces constant iteration, creating space for innovation and rethinking established practices. He argued that engineers are not “held back by the way medicine has always been done,” which makes them an invaluable asset in clinical settings. When engineers deeply understand clinical challenges and apply their analytical skills, they often uncover solutions that physicians may not have considered, he added. These range from optimized surgical workflows to entirely new approaches to preoperative planning. For Dr. Hoganson, the “secret sauce” lies in collaboration and ensuring “zero distance between the engineers and the problem.” Dr. David Hoganson speaking at the Materialise 3D Printing in Hospitals Forum 2025. Photo via Materialise. 3D printing and digital planning enhance surgical outcomes  In pediatric cardiac surgery, speed matters. According to Dr. Hoganson, this is why digital 3D modeling takes priority in pre-operative planning and intraoperative guidance. Materialise’s Mimics software streamlines this process. Users can import CT and MRI data, which is automatically transformed into detailed, interactive 3D models. Surgeons can then run simulations and apply computational fluid dynamics to forecast the most effective treatment strategies. Boston Children’s 3D simulation lead described these capabilities as offering “tremendous benefits” beyond what traditional imaging alone can provide. Traditional scans are viewed in stacks of two-dimensional slices. Whereas, Mimics 3D models offer virtual segmentation, interior views, and precise spatial mapping. Dr. Hoganson called this a “difference maker” and “totally transformational” for surgeons.  Dr. Hoganson’s team uses this technology to perform a range of complex cardiovascular repairs, such as reconstructing aortic and mitral valves, closing ventricular septal defects (VSDs), and augmenting blood vessels, including pulmonary arteries and aortas. Materialise Mimics’ value is not limited to preoperative preparation. It also guides surgical procedures. During operations, clinicians can interact with the models using repurposed gaming controllers, allowing them to explore and isolate anatomical features in the operating theater.  One key breakthrough has been identifying and mapping the heart’s electrical system, which governs its rhythm. By integrating 3D modelling into intraoperative planning, surgeons have significantly reduced the risk of heart block, where electrical signals are delayed as they pass through the organ. With the help of Mimics software, incidence rates have fallen from 40% to as low as 5% in some cases.      Given the advantages of digital modelling, surgeons might be tempted to sideline physical 3D printing altogether. However, Dr. Hoganson insists additive manufacturing remains vital to refining surgical workflows. His team conducts a “tremendous amount of 3D printing,” creating patient-specific anatomical models, mostly with a resin-based Formlabs system. These models allow clinicians to test and validate plans in the lab before donning their scrubs. Boston Children’s has sharpened its surgical edge by using materials that closely replicate the mechanical properties of target tissues. This allows the team to 3D print anatomical models tailored to each child’s size, age, and physical makeup. For instance, Dr. Hoganson’s team can fabricate neonatal-sized aortas and pulmonary arteries that replicate the texture and elasticity of an infant’s vessels. Developed over several years, this approach enables accurate simulation of complex procedures, such as patch enlargement of pulmonary arteries. The team conducts rigorous preclinical testing by combining anatomical precision with lifelike tissue mechanics.  Dr. Hoganson explained that in-depth testing is crucial for refining techniques, reducing surgical risk, and minimizing complications in pediatric patients. This, in turn, slashes healthcare costs as fewer children spend extended time in the ICU following procedures. 3D planning and simulation empower surgeons to “do things right the first time, so we can reduce those reinterventions and complications,” Dr. Hoganson added.         Dr. David Hoganson demonstrating cardiovascular 3D models at the Materialise 3D Printing in Hospitals Forum 2025. Photo by 3D Printing Industry. Overcoming challenges to adoption in hospitals    What key challenges are limiting clinical adoption of 3D technology? For Dr. Hoganson, cost remains a critical barrier. “Having the efforts reimbursed will be a very important piece of this,” he explained. “That enables teams to grow and have the manpower to do it,” when 3D planning is clinically necessary. In the US, medical reimbursement involves a long path to approval. But progress is being made. His team has started billing successfully for some aspects of the work, marking an “encouraging start” toward broader systemic change. Adoption also hinges on easier integration into existing workflows. Dr. Hoganson noted that if 3D technology adds efforts and time to procedures, it won’t be chosen over existing methods. Therefore, “the more streamlined you can make the whole process for the physician, the more likely they are to adopt it.”  In response to these demands, Boston Children’s 3D Modelling and Simulation Program has designed a system that feels familiar to surgeons. “It’s not just about providing the technical aspects of the 3D model,” added Dr. Hoganson. “It’s about integrating the whole process into the clinical workflow in a way that works for the clinician.”  His team works at the center of these efforts, ensuring “there’s almost no barrier of entry to find and use the model they need.” Dr. Hoganson claims to have simplified the process to the stage where it looks and feels like regular medical care, removing the mystique and misconceptions around 3D technology. “There’s nothing special about it anymore,” he added. “That’s been a huge step towards this technology being a part of routine medical care.”   Boston Children’s integration strategy is working. The team expects to use 3D models in around 60% of heart surgeries this year. However, making 3D technology a standard of care has not been easy. Dr. Horganson said, “It has taken a very diligent effort to remove those barriers.”  In the broader tech space, 3D printing has sometimes suffered from overpromising and underdelivering, a pattern Dr. David Hoganson is keen to avoid. “We’ve tried to be extremely transparent with what is and is not being delivered,” he added. That clarity is crucial for building trust. A 3D model alone, for instance, serves a vital but defined role: enhanced visualization and preoperative measurements. Hoganson emphasized that 3D printing is not a miracle cure, but another tool in a surgeon’s toolbox.  For Boston Children’s, the future of 3D printing in healthcare lies beyond static models. Dr. Horganson believes additive manufacturing will be a basis for “taking the next step and impacting how surgery is conducted, and how precisely and perfectly it’s done the first time.” Over the next eighteen months, Dr. Hoganson’s team will double down on demonstrating how preoperative 3D modeling translates into better surgical procedures. This will include measuring outcomes from surgeries using 3D technology and assessing whether predictions have matched surgical results. He believes validating outcomes will be an “important step forward” in moving 3D modeling from supportive technology to an indispensable clinical standard. The number of patient-specific digital 3D models created annually at Boston Children’s Hospital’s Benderson Family Heart Center since 2018. Photo by 3D Printing Industry. Take the 3DPI Reader Survey – shape the future of AM reporting in under 5 minutes. Read all the 3D printing news from RAPID + TCT 2025 Subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter to keep up with the latest 3D printing news.You can also follow us on LinkedIn, and subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry Youtube channel to access more exclusive content.Featured image shows Dr. David Hoganson speaking at the Materialise 3D Printing in Hospitals Forum 2025. Photo via Materialise.