Welcome to 2015

In 1989, as an eight-year old Troy emerged from a movie theater in Vail, Colorado after having seen Back to the Future: Part II with his parents, visions of 2015 swam through his head as the idyllic future. Hoverboards, flying cars, a Pizza Hut dehydrator that would make him pizza in mere seconds. That young version of me was more pre-occupied with the gadgets and futurist technology that would be available to me all those years later than where I would end up.

But now, reflecting on the movie as I sit here a little over 24 hours into the real 2015, I find myself identifying more with Marty McFly at the end of the first film. In the final moments of the first Back to the Future film, Marty has saved the day and changed his present: his father is now an accomplished author, his brand new truck is all waxed up and ready to go, and life seems great. Until Doc Brown crashes in on the party and tells him its imperative that Marty and Jennifer accompany him to 2015. "It's your kids, something has to be done about your kids," he tells the couple. He's not concerned about all the cool stuff that he can have in 2015, he's concerned about what he would become.

We have a lot of incredibly cool gadgets in 2015: iPhones, streaming internet movies, a seventh Star Wars movie (instead of a 19th Jaws), and I can at least order my pizza from several of the gadgets even if it isn't quite as sexy as rehydrating one from a Black & Decker oven. But there's no possible way that eight-year old me could have predicted where I would be twenty-six years later. Married, writing, and most definitely not hoverboarding for fun as I originally romantically visualized.

My life is a lot different than the eight-year old me thought it would be like thanks to Back to the Future: Part II, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I have a feeling 2015 is going to be a good year, and that it's going to bring about a lot of good changes too. 

Funny enough, 2015 also marks the 10th anniversary of Still Playing with Toys. So expect some stuff on the horizon concerning that as well. Hard to believe that it was ten years ago that I was sitting in my then girlfriend's dorm room struck with the idea for the "company." Thanks for being here for those ten years, and hope you'll join me for what's to come this year and in the future. 

JoBlo Review of "MAOS: Season One Declassified"

At risk of patting myself on the back, during a regular visit to JoBlo.com, I caught a review of the Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season One Declassified book that made me so damn happy that I had to share.

From JoBlo.com:

While the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season One Declassified is equally beautiful in design and execution, it is not a mere art book. With Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. delivering over 20 hours of Marvel goodness, this book serves more as an episode guide for the freshman season. The opening chapters give a background on the origin of the series with comic book history for the organization. There is also a nice section on the return of Phil Coulson and how Clark Gregg's portrayal has permeated the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Each chapter covers an episode of the season, giving a synopsis of the plot, key easter eggs you may have missed, and even the running behavioral themes from each character that you may have missed on first viewing. The biggest perk of this book is learning all of the Marvel Comics references that were peppered through each episode. We may have seen the character references and appearances from Deathlok and Graviton, but there were numerous other ones you may have missed.

In addition, almost every episode comes with a schematic, map, or diagram of a key scene from that episode. These are very cool treats for fans of the show as they can both see how the show developed these intricate scenes as well as a nice way to delve deeper into the series. The layout fo the book acts as if it is a S.H.I.E.L.D. computer, so everything appears encoded and gives the impression that the reader is accessing this top secret database of information.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. got a lot of criticism for having an unbalanced debut season. While it didn't quite find its legs until the final half dozen episodes, this book supports that the showrunners and producers had a definite idea of where they wanted the show to go. There are few hints at where the upcoming second season my go, but if they plan to put one of these books out every season, it would be well worth the investment for fans.

New Still Playing with Toys Podcast with Drew Drescher

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Happy Monday, SPTers! The week already getting you down? Fear not, we've got some goodness for you to put into your earholes to cheer you up. An all-new episode of the Still Playing with Toys Podcast is live and on the webs featuring the amazing Drew Drescher. An old friend of mine from high school, Drew and I sure miss getting to geek out over all sorts of things and as a former Games Workshop staffer and all-around cool guy, Drew and I chat Gen Con 2014, his excitement over new Fantasy Flight titles, his venture back into Diablo III after some time off, and a little Guardians of the Galaxy chat. Spend a minute (or twenty) with us, will you?

Listen to and subscribe to the Still Playing with Toys Podcast in iTunes here!

In Stores Now: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season One Declassified

I was sitting having lunch during a break on the set of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. with three of the amazing Marvel folks that work on the show, Megan Thomas Bradner, Samantha Thomas and Emma Fleischer. As often happens on a film set, the conversation turned existential and we started talking about things that we've always wanted to do in our lives.

As a kid growing up in Franktown, Colorado my only exposure to the behind the scenes of films and TV were the short segments on Entertainment Tonight, Scott Patrick's occasional Hollywood One-on-One show that aired at one in the morning on KUSA, and the amazing "Making Of" books that were readily available at the library. Lengthy love letters to films that poured over every detail, gave you glimpses at concept art, behind the scenes photos, deleted scenes, and storyboards that gave you a slice of what it was like to be a part of the production. I probably still hold the record for most times Alan Arnold's Once Upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of Empire Strikes Back was checked out from the Parker Public Library. Don Shay and Jody Duncan's Making of Jurassic Park was a volume that read cover to cover more times than I could count on family road trips. I still guard a copy of Making Ghostbusters as if it were my birth certificate. And J.W. Rinzler's amazing Making Of books for the Star Wars trilogy as of late have been absolutely outstanding.

So, in that moment at lunch, I mentioned that I'd always wanted to write making of books like those I had grown up reading. I don't know where it came from. Like Ray Stantz says, "it just popped in there." But apparently those three amazing Marvel execs took note, and several weeks later they had vouched for me and helped me embark on my first adventure as a Making Of book author.

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My wife was kind enough to photograph me like Christmas morning when the final copy arrived via FedEx on 7/11/14.

In the introduction of the book, you'll read that I had the pleasure of chronicling one of the most welcoming and familial sets on which I've ever had the pleasure of working. One of the absolutely enduring things about some film sets is that a bond is created with those that work on the show and no matter what the challenges are, that warm kindness never fades. Long days and late nights didn't stop many from always greeting me with a smile and a handshake or a chuck on the shoulder. You often hear people speak of their sets feeling like a family, but this is one that it's the absolute truth.

What resulted with the book is a cool hybrid between an episode guide and analysis, behind the scenes, and a reference book that makes me immensely proud. My hope is that it gives fans old and new a background on the series' origins, some insight that helps them see the series through the writers room's eyes, and that it's something that can be read and re-read as many times as I tore through that Making of Jurassic Park book. Marvel always does such an incredible job with their Art Of books, that I can only hope this is a fitting companion to those awesome compilations.

In the Acknowledgements, there were far too many people to thank to list. The amazing editors that were patient and kind probably would have flogged me for trying. Those that championed for me, that helped me out by sending me photos and information, who spent huge chunks of time in the middle of trying to finish out the tail end of a whirlwind first season's worth of episodes to sit down and conduct interviews for the book with me. Here's just a handful of those names of people who I owe an enormous debt to for so many reasons, and whose book this truly is regardless of who it says wrote it (and apologies to any that I've left out still):

Sabrina Arnold, Scott Bauer, Jeffrey Bell, John Bernstein, Thomas Boucher, Megan Thomas Bradner, Garry A. Brown, Sarah Brunstad, Katie Carroll, "Chewie", Marc Christie, Gary D'Amico, D.J. Doyle, Allen Easton, Sarah Halley Finn, Emma Fleischer, Brent Fletcher, Ann Foley, Blair Foord, Shalisha Francis, Kenn Fuller, Tanner Gill, Tamara Hunter, Kyle Jewell, Rafe Judkins, George Kitson, Mark Kolpack, Harmony Kummer, Brian Kwan, Lauren LeFranc, Jeph Loeb, Lee Malin, Geoffrey Mandel, Bear McCreary, Gregory Melton, Monica Owusu-Breen, Denise Anderson Poore, Corey Reeser, Greg Rementer, Nelson Ribeiro, Erin Shade, Arune Singh, Daniel Spilatro, Sonya Strich, Samantha Thomas, Aiyana Trotter, Joe Quesada, John Vertrees, Jed Whedon, Joss Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen Whedon, Maileen Williams, Jeff Youngquist, Paul Zbyszewski and so many others including the amazing cast who was so patient with me, that it's not even funny.

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The truth is, I had the time of my life working on this book. For me, having that volume on my shelf will remind me of the amazing time that I had and the incredible people that I met in the process. I'm so tremendously grateful to have been a small part of everything, and can't wait to take all that I've learned from them into whatever the next adventure may bring.