Week 7 13th February 2026

Well con season has begun with Monopoly Events For The Love Of Vampire Diaries event, which i heard was a great success and extremely busy. Still a wait for me though, my first planned Event is For The Love Of Horror in April. But that doesn't mean I'm not still meeting people. Last weekend i did a couple of stage doors and a signing at HMV. The main one for me was Maggie Siff who pretty much completes my Sons Of Anarchy main cast meets, she was very sweet and a lovely meet. The Ballot for this years BAFTA event closed and i was unsuccessful, I may try to hit up some of the event parties but will see nearer the time. 

After not watching any movies last week, i had a few days off this week for a good Horror marathon. So I'm getting back to regular reviews.

 

 

In Memoriam 

James Van DeBeek

Just heard that James Van DeBeek has died- i never had the chance to meet him but always heard nice things. I was never a big Dawsons Creek fan but i loved him in Rules of Attraction and the B in Apt 23. Rest In Peace James 

Convention News

Cute fox - cliffcon guest announcement https://cutefox.co.uk

Monopoly Events: Guest Announcements 

Liverpool Comic- Con : HOME | Liverpool Comic Con | Comic Con UK

Love Of Horror Horror Convention | For The Love Of Horror | Manchester

 

TFnation Manchester guest announcement https://tfnation.com/TFN-Manchester-2026

Movie Review

Primate

I love a good horror movie, and this one genuinely delivered.

The story unfolds over a single chaotic evening, when Lucy and her friends return to her dad’s rural property for a weekend away. What’s meant to be a relaxed visit quickly spirals into a nightmare after their “pet” chimpanzee, Ben, becomes infected with rabies and turns violently aggressive. It’s a simple setup, but the film uses its contained setting and tight timeframe to ramp up tension from the very start.

One of the standout elements is Ben himself. The filmmakers rely heavily on practical effects—a blend of a costumed performer and animatronics—and it pays off massively. Ben feels disturbingly real, with movements and expressions that are uncanny in all the right ways. The lack of obvious CGI gives the film a tangible, gritty edge that enhances both the scares and the emotional weight.

The kills are bloody, visceral, and brutal, yet the movie shows surprising restraint. There’s plenty of gore, but it also relies on implication, shadows, and sound to fuel the audience’s imagination. That balance makes the violence more impactful than if everything were shown explicitly.

What sets this film apart from many modern horrors is the likability of the characters. Lucy and her group come across as genuine friends with believable chemistry. There are no intentionally obnoxious or disposable personalities here, which makes their fate hit harder. When things go wrong—and they go wrong quickly—you actually care about who survives. It’s rare for a horror movie to make you dread each potential death because you don’t want to lose anyone.

Interestingly, the film also threads in moments of dark humour, mostly through Ben’s increasingly sadistic behaviour. As the night progresses, he doesn’t just attack—he toys with his victims, giving the sense of something more twisted than a simple rabid animal. These unsettling beats add personality to the chaos without tipping the movie into parody.

Verdict: 8/10 - At a lean 90 minutes, the pacing is tight and focused. There’s no filler, no dragged-out exposition, and no attempts to be something deeper than it needs to be. This isn’t a philosophical or metaphor-heavy horror; it’s a straightforward, adrenaline-fuelled creature feature that knows exactly what its audience wants. And in that sense, it absolutely succeeds.

TV Review

Lord of the flies

Verdict: 7/10 — worth watching once, and these young actors are absolutely ones to watch in the future.

I know Lord of the Flies is considered a classic and taught in most schools, but I’ve never read the book or watched any of the earlier adaptations. So when this new BBC mini-series appeared, I figured it was finally time to give the story a try. I already knew the broad strokes thanks to years of pop‑culture references — including, of course, The Simpsons — but not the actual details.

The premise is simple but powerful: during a WWII evacuation, a plane carrying a group of schoolchildren crashes on a remote tropical island. With no adults to guide them, their attempt at forming a society slowly collapses, and they descend into fear, tribalism, and eventually violence.

Overall, the series was good but not great. The standout strength is the cast — all incredibly young, yet delivering performances far beyond their years. They capture the confusion, frustration, and growing brutality with an unsettling level of authenticity.

My main issue lies with the cinematography. As a film student, I can appreciate the artistry — and yes, many shots are genuinely beautiful. But the pacing suffers because some scenes linger far too long. Instead of building atmosphere, they sometimes stall it. With only four hour‑long episodes, you’d expect a tighter pace, but the series takes its time. They never explicitly say how long the boys are on the island, but there are enough clues to suggest it spans several months.

One thing I do admire is that the adaptation doesn’t shy away from the darker aspects of the story. The violence isn’t gratuitous, but it isn’t sanitized either. Kids suffer, and kids die — and while it’s not graphic, the implications are enough to stick with you. It respects the tone of the original story without trying to soften it for modern audiences.

Without getting into spoilers, I’d say it’s definitely worth a watch, though it’s not something I’d revisit. Some stretches feel slow, but the performances carry the weight, and a few moments genuinely linger in the mind.

Toy Reveiw

 

Since they started the Studio Series 1986 Movie line, the big question was... how would they do Megatron? since the line has been very faithful to the animated movie designs and with Megatron transforming into a gun, which these days is a no no.

Compromises were made, he has an amazing screen accurate robot mode and continuing the more modern trend, he turns into a tank.

Many have been vocal online regarding this change, but these days its just impossible to give him his original mode.

Packaging

 I love the Studio Series boxes, they are elegant and clean. Bringing back the plastic windows really gives the box a prestige feel. The blue back drop pops and highlights the figure well.  The Box is rather large, they could have made it a bit smaller but seeing this on the shelf does grab your attention and it feels like a special like a special item.

The rear of the box has some great photos of the figure in both modes and is nice and clean, again it feels very high end.

Robot mode

This mode is amazing,  he looks like he has walked off the screen. His face sculpt is the most faithful of any Megatron figure, featuring the defiant face he has during the movies big battle.  The head has  full 360 movement and can be posed from every angle.

The main thing that jumps out at you as you look at him, there is no tank kibble. The figure hides all the usual telltale signs of what he transforms  into.  Unlike all other tank Megatron's, this figure has a clean robot mode.

The only sign that this figure even has an alt mode is that there are slight tank treads at the back of his legs.  Other than those you could easily forget this was a transforming figure and not an action master style robot only figure.

His arms are fully moveable, he has a full waist swivel and his legs have full 360 motion.  This leads to him being able to pull off any pose  you can think of, recreating movie scenes to your hearts content.

His hands have moveable fingers for added poses and he can hold his accessories securely for battle.

As he is a leader figure, you do expect the figure to feel sturdier than the lower classes and this figure sure does. He has a nice weight to him. He feels prestige, that there is an assurance that he wont break in your hand an he is going to stand the test of time.

Megatron comes with his iconic fusion cannon, his purple energy sword and a small recreation of him in his original gun design so other characters can hold him for a nice compromise to recreate scenes.  Many have complained that they didn't include his Energon mace, but he never used it in the movie so I don't see this being any issue.

Vehicle mode

This is where the figure falls down, its a great feat of engineering to hide the tank mode inside the figure so well. But this does lead to a rather lackluster vehicle mode. Its not bad, its just bland.  Its not a mode I plan to show off as much.  The tank has full motion on the turret and does look like a tank but weirdly has more robot kibble on display in this mode than tank in robot mode.

This is defiantly where all the compromises were made. With a robot mode as clean as this, its a shame the vehicle mode isn't as strong but we let it slide. 

 

 

Verdict : 8/10

We are never going to get a 100% faithful recreation of the animated Megatron. Times have changed, toys have changed so with that in mind this is probably the best Megatron figure there has been so far. That clean fully posse able robot mode is a 10/10 the only real downside is the vehicle mode. For a leader class and for the price point you do hope for both modes to hold up on their own. 

Saying all that, this is a must buy for generation 1 fans and i do wonder how they could improve on this in the future.

 

Recent Celeb meets 

Jeff Rawle

Shadowlands Stage Door February 2026

Maggie Siff

Shadowlands Stage Door February 2026

Rosa Salazar

High Noon Stage Door February 2026

Billy Crudup

High Noon Stage Door February 2026

Lorna Shore

HMV Signing February 2026

View log 

6th February 2026- 13th February 2026

New Movies Watched : Please Standby, Fuck Valentines Day, Primate, Anaconda (2025), The Whistle, We Bury The Dead, Send Help, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, The Conjuring: Last Rites, Anabelle, Predator Badlands

Rewatched Movies: K Pop Demon Hunters

New Seasons Of TV watched :FBI S4, Star Trek Starfleet Academy , Gladiators s3, The Beast Games s2, Lord of the Flies,, The Beauty, The Story of only fools and horses

Rewatched Seasons Of TV: How I Met Your Mother s1, Boy meets world s7,Malcom In The Middle s1 & 2

 

Total Movies watched: 32

Total Shows Watched: 33

Completed Seasons of TV: 27

Final thoughts 

Is is April yet? i wanna get my con on. 

Remember today is Friday the 13th, make sure you leave out some sex driven teens in the woods for him to find. For each kill you get 1 month of good luck