SATURDAY, MAY 7th @ 1pm-3pm

Metro Entertainment is very proud to announce that popular voice actor and entertainment star Billy West will be signing FREE autographs in person at Metro Entertainment, May 7th from 1-3pm! Best known for his work as FRY from Futurama and both REN and STIMPY for the Ren and Stimpy Show, BILLY WEST has contributed an amazing list of character voices for a variety television programs, movies and video games including the voice of BUGS BUNNY and ELMER FUDD for the latest Looney Tune cartoons.



This is a FREE event! Don't miss out! Contact Metro for more information!



Metro Entertainment

6 W. Anapamu St.

Santa Barbara, CA 93101

(805) 963-2168

http://www.metroautographs.com

metrocomix@aol.com

If anyone wants to go to this and take photos and what not, please feel free to share it with CGEF. I wont be able to attend this event sadly due to a prior engagement.

Our lovable little rascal Bender/John DiMaggio had a brief appearance on last
weeks "Future-Drama" episode of The Simpsons. Although Futurama characters
and memorabilia have been seen on the show in the past, this is the first time
a Futurama character has actually spoken.

The scene involved Bart and Homer driving in a hover-car going into a "Quantum
Tunnel" and coming out with a little surprise named Bender. Sadly, Homer
didn't like the idea of a new friend named Bender, and threw
him out of the car :

Bender: "Aw right, you guys are my new best friends!"

Homer: "You wish loser! *tosses Bender out of hover-car* hahaha"

*Bender falls apart*



Quite sad, but at least we got some Bender action at all, right?

The episode itself also had many references to how Futurama handles people's
heads.

Jan Erik Vangen, one of the best case modders there is, has built a very nice case-mod. A case-mod is a practice where a person modifies a computer case to give it a unique touch, and some people go very far with it. He built a replica of bender with a Mini-ITX-system and a slot-in DVD-player in the mouth. The antenna on the top is actually a WLAN-antenna, and the arms are bendable. A speaker inside the "case" also spits out classical Bender quotes like "Bite my shiny metal ass!". This case-mod of course got several awards in case-mod competitions.

On the norwegian site, he explains the entire process into making this casemod of his. This is by far one of the best case-mods I've ever seen!

Sources:
Overklokking.no (Norwegian)
Toms Hardware

*Update*: Jan Erik Vangen sent a url in english which has even more information about the bender case-mod: here!

As posted earlier, the "Futurama Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection" DVD set got its original release date postponed. David X. Cohen tells me that the new US date is now tentatively set to August 23, 2005.

The extras on the collection are becoming more clear now, too.

• An overall intro by Matt Groening and the gang (Billy West, John Dimaggio, David X. Cohen, Producer Claudia Katz, and Supervising Director Rich Moore).
  
• Individual intros to each of the four episodes "Hell is Other Robots", "Anthology of Interest I", "Roswell That Ends Well" and "The Sting".
  
• Smaller extras (possibly easter eggs) might include photos and/or very early notes from the development of Futurama.
  
• A long animatic of "Hell is Other Robots", with full-length commentary by all of the above noteed people. As a special treat, you will get to hear David X. Cohen filling in for one or two of the Beastie Boys on their a-capella version of "Sabotage", since the Beasties hadn't been recorded yet at that time.

Cohen says there will be no extra charge for the last one. However, there will also be no refunds given on account of this.