February theme for Loot crate is "Dead"!

So the January Loot Crate themed "Invasion" is due to drop in any day now. Can't wait for that. Loot Crate announced the theme for February via e-mail today and it is "Dead".

This means stuff from Deadpool and The Walking Dead. Nice!

Subscribe to Loot Crate here.

How it works!

First two weeks....

So the blog has been running for about two weeks and I got really great feedback from readers, especially on twitter, and I've received a lot of ideas for future content and articles. A big thank you to everyone that contributed and pointed me towards interesting directions.

Earlier I wrote a post about Loot Crates upcoming monthly them "Invasion" and they did post their theme video for January. Let's say it didn't get less interesting than it already is. Check out the video on the left. Hopefully my Loot Crate will come a little earlier this month. December with all the holidays did slow down the last delivery a bit. I mean it is a little like Christmas once a month.

One of the franchises represented  in this months crate is The X-Files and we are looking forward to the upcoming reboot of the show starting on Fox January 24th. There are far more greater fans than me for The X-Files, but I did like the show, followed it and also have seen the two movies. I have not heard which channel here in Sweden that will pick it up but a fair guess is TV4 who aired the original show. Not more than a couple of days behind I hope. I will see it in some way though.

Another show is starting with its 6th season later this spring, on April 24th. Yes its The Game of Thrones people! This is the type of show I normally do not follow, but what the hell...it is contagious. The big question....is Jon Snow alive?

Some news that makes me proud and happy as a Swedish person is the fact that makeup artists Love Larson and Eva von Bahr have been nominated for an Academy Award for Makeup & hair styling in the Swedish movie The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared. It is truly amazing how they transformed actor Robert Gustafsson to make him look like he is 100 years old. I sure hope they win! I will try to get a hold of them for an interview.

Later awesome Nerds!

Give a massive community support to Cos Culture Magazine at Kickstarter

For my own part, I have for a decade been very interested and impressed by the cosplay culture but work, child raising and house remodeling has made me not able to engage very much personally until now. I believe that the cosplay culture is an amazing world and has a huge and dedicated community with very many talented creators who deserve great respect. I also like the fact that beginners will feel welcome in the culture and has the  same value as the experienced cosplayers and that there is a level for everyone. In Sweden, cosplay, is perhaps not as big as it is in the rest of the world even though it is coming strong. Through my blog I want to share the cosplay world as a whole, not least the Swedish community. The general public need more insight in this world and be informed how great it is.

Cos Culture Magazine

Cos Culture Magazine (CCM) is an independent print and digital publication with the same dedication and goal as myself. As a single person, I can not do much, but combined, WE can. I mean this is a community who love what they do.
The CCM is created and published by Nikko Marie through her independent creative media publishing company NH Creative Inc. Nikko is the driving force behind the magazine and its vision, and she is behind it all the way working as editor, marketer, publisher, researcher, and graphic designer. The magazine is slowly building a group of supporters who help make the magazine the best it can be.

Each issue contains work of different cosplayers, photographers and prop-makers/artists. Interviews, tutorials and stunning photography is kind of a benchmark. The first edition was released in summer 2014, and did receive massive support and positive feedback from the community.Since then two more print issues is released, as well as 9 digital issues through their website.

The uniqueness of CCM

"We've focused on themes such as gender stereotypes and identity confidence in cosplay, and have a number of great stories to share in future issues, including one woman’s story of how she overcame her depression and anxiety through cosplay. We focus on the craft, dedication and passion that is involved in this hobby, and are eager to share more of this amazing community with our readers. We are a very small company, and as such can guarantee that our core values of non-discrimination, positivity and inclusivity will be maintained throughout the duration of the publication".

Support CCM on Kickstarter! 

 

The dedication, drive and know-how is all there. Support is the only thing needed. The purpose of the Kickstarter campaign is to raise money enough to keep the magazine alive, and to increase print publication to 6 times per year. All expenses of the magazine as of today is paid out-of-pocket by the magazine's editor Nikko and with no extra support the magazine's existence will be in danger. With more people helping, the magazine can maintain its publication, add new improved content, increase circulation and even bring new people on board. CCM also strive for an ad-free magazine and has so far managed to do so. The goal here is to ensure the maximum of cosplay related content as possible.

You can support Cos Culture Magazine at Kickstarter here.

Please enter your comments below! 

 

Oscar nominations for 2016

Best picture 

 

The Big Short  
Bridge of Spies  
Brooklyn  
Mad Max: Fury Road 
The Martian  (My vote!)
The Revenant 
Room  
Spotlight

Embed from Getty Images

Directing

 

Adam McKay, The Big Short
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, The Revenant (My vote!)
Lenny Abrahamson, The Room 
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight

Actress

 

Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room 
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy (Expected!)
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Actor

 

Bryan Cranston, Crumbo
Matt Damon, The Martian (My vote!)
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant 
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

Embed from Getty Images

Supporting Actor

 

Christian Bale, The Big Short
Tom Hardy, The Revenant (My vote!)
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed

Supporting Actress

 

Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara, Carol 
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl (My vote!)
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

Adapted Screenplay

 

Charles Randolph & Adam McKay, The Big Short
Nick Hornby, Brooklyn 
Phyllis Nagy, Carol
Drew Goddard, The Martian (Expected!)
Emma Donaghue, Room

 Original Screenplay

 

Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, Bridge of Spies
Alex Garland, Ex Machina (My vote!)
Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley; story by Docter, Ronnie del Carmen, Inside Out
Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
Jonathan Herman & Andrea Berloff; story by S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus and Berloff, Straight Outta Compton

 Foreign Language Film

 

Embrace of the Serpent (Colombia)
Mustang (France) 
Son of Saul (Hungary)
Theeb (Jordan) 
A War (Denmark) 

Animated Feature

 

Anomalisa 
Boy and the World 
Inside Out
Shaun the Sheep Movie
When Marnie Was There 

Documentary Feature

 

Amy
Cartel Land
The Look of Silence
What happened, Miss Simone?
Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom

Cinematography

 

Edward Lachman, Carol
Robert Richardson, The Hateful Eight (My vote!)
John Seale, Mad Max: Fury Road 
Emmanuel Lubezki, The Revenant
Roger Deakins, Sicario

Film Editing

 

Hank Corwin, The Big Short
Margaret Sixel, Mad Max: Fury Road
Stephen Mirrione, The Revenant
Tom McArdle, Spotlight
Maryann Brandon & Mary Jo Markey, Star Wars The Force Awakens (My vote!)

Embed from Getty Images

Production Design

 

Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Rena DeAngelo and 
Bernhard Heinrich, Bridge of Spies
Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Michael Standish, The Danish Girl
Production Design: Colin Gibson; Set Decoration: Lisa Thompson, Mad Max: Fury Road (Expected!)
Production Design: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Celia Bobak, The Martian
Production Design: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration, Hamish Purdy, The Revenant

Costume Design

 

Sandy Powell, Carol
Sandy Powell, Cinderella
Paco Delgado, The Danish Girl
Jenny Beaven, Mad Max: Fury Road (Expected!)
Jaqueline West, The Revenant

Makeup & Hairstyling

Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin, Mad Max: Fury Road
Love Larson and Eva von Bahr,
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared (My vote!)
Siân Grigg, Duncan Jarman and Robert Pandini, The Revenant

Original Score

 

Thomas Newman, Bridge of Spies
Carter Burwell, Carol
Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight (My vote!)
Jóhann Jóhannsson, Sicario
John Williams, Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Original Song

 

Earned It, Fifty Shades of Grey
Manta Ray, Racing Extinction 
Simple Song #3, Youth
Til It Happens To You, The Hunting Ground 
Writings On the Wall, Spectre (My vote!)

Sound Editing

 

Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Sicario
Star Wars. The Force Awakens (My vote!)

Sound Mixing

 

Bridge of Spies
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian (Expected!)
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Visual Effects

 

Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Expected!)

Embed from Getty Images

Documentary Short Subject

 

Body Team 12 
Chau Beyond the Lines
Claude Lanzmann 
A Girl in the River 
Last Day of Freedom 

Live Action Short Subject

 

Ave Maria
Day One
Everything Will Be Fine
Shok
Stutter
  

Animated Short Film

 

Bear Story 
Prologue 
Sanjay's Super Team 
We Can't Live Without Cosmos
World of Tomorrow

Movies I need to see 2016

There are a bunch of great movies coming up for 2016 that I'm looking forward to see. This is my "must see" list.

Steve Jobs

January 22nd

Embed from Getty Images

I thought the film about the same topic with Asthon Kutcher was a little....meh. Looking forward to this one for the simple fact that two of my favourite actors is in it - Seth Rogen and Kate Winslet. Michael Fassbender portray Jobs himself. Directed by Danny Boyle.
See the trailer here.

The Jungle Book

April 14th

This is looking cool. I grew up with the cartoon version since it aired on Swedish TV every christmas. With Neeli Sethi, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson and Ben Kingsley.
See the trailer here.

X-Men: The Apocalypse

May 27th

I really like the X-men franchise. No question about it. Can't wait for this and I really like James McAvoy as an actor. With Michael Fassbender, Oscar Isaac, Jennifer Lawrence. Directed by Bryan Singer.
See the trailer here.

Warcraft

May 27th

This movie is what I know based on the early Warcraft games and the conflict between humans and orcs. I did play some of these games when I was younger. I have also played World of Warcraft extensively over the past 10 years, but not lately. Love the games though and this movie I am looking forward to. Success or not? Time will tell. With Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster and Dominic Cooper. Directed by Duncan Jones.
See trailer here.

TMNT 2: Out of the Shadows

 June 3rd

The first movie I had some issues with story-wise but I still want to see the sequel just for the fact that we have come to a point where the movie technology made it possible to make films like this look good. First one did look good, but the script left things to be wanted. Hope this one has a better story. With Brian Tee, Megan Fox, Stephen Amell, Johnny Knoxville. Directed by Dave Green.
See trailer here.

Independence Day 2

June 29th

I loved the first movie and it sure was a big hit. Looking forward to this even though we will not have the pleasure to see Will Smith in his old role. This should be a really good summer movie like the first one. Expect a lot of action and humor. With Vivica A. Fox, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman. Directed by Roland Emmerich.
See trailer here.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 

December 16th

Well, well. I will not lie to you. This is the movie I am waiting for. The first released photo looks awesome and the feel is "dark". Interesting cast with my fellow Scandinavian Mads Mikkelsen up front. He is a great actor. With Felicity Jones, Alan Tudyk, Ben Mendelsohn. Directed by Gareth Edwards. No trailer out yet and I guess we need to wait for Star Wars Celebration 2016 for an official trailer. Maybe a teaser prior to that.

Assassin's Creed

December 21st

I have played the games at some extent, but I can surely say that I am no great fan of them even though I find them really cool and rather fun to play. The style of the games and the design of outfits is awesome though and I really think this movie is going to be fun to watch. With Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons. Directed by Justin Kurzel.
No trailer released as of today.

What movies do you look forward to the most this year? Please comment below.

The Scandinavian SCI-Fi, film and game convention 2015 - in the eyes of my nine year old son

The convention center in Stockholm

The Scandinavian SCI-Fi, film and game convention is annual and take place in the great venue Stockholmsmässan, just south of Stockholm city center. This last December (2015), I took my two boys with me for the first time and this article is how my youngest son, Mattias, viewed the whole thing. All pictures is taken by Mattias himself.

501st Legion's Nordic Garrison.

This is the first time you visited the convention, Mattias. How did you like it?
It was very fun to see and learn about all the different movies and games.

What was the most fun about the convention?
The cosplay contest was the best thing with all the nice costumes. I really liked that.

Harley Quinn, Mattias' favourite.

What costume did you like the most in the competition?
The girl who was dressed as Harley Quinn was really cool.

If you can chose a character to cosplay, what would it be?
I can't decide. I would chose between Steve from Minecraft or either one of Kylo Ren and Captain Phasma from Star Wars The Force Awakens.  

Do you look forward to the next convention?
Yes, absolutely.      

Star Wars - The Force Awakens box office news

Latest news on box office numbers regarding The Force Awakens. As of Tuesday, the new Star Wars movie is the highest grossing domestic movie of all time with $758.2 million.Avatar’s domestic box office total is $760.5 million. Today The Force Awakens will surpass Avatar's record. More impressive is that Avatar was in theaters for 7 months and with an additional release.

Embed from Getty Images

World wide The Force Awakens has a bit left. Avatar's total is $2.78 billion, and The Force Awakens is currently at $1.56 billion. The movie isn't released in China yet, so expect it to come strong once it's in Chinese theaters on January 9th.

Will The Force Awakens beat out Avatar? Yeah, most likely.

Loot Crate theme for January is "Invasion"

I actually recently started my Loot Crate subscription and got the e-mail today revealing the theme for January.

The theme "Invasion" mean that we will be looking forward to great loot from these franschises:

• Aliens
• Space Invaders
• The Fifth Element
• The X-files

Want to subscribe to this awesomely geeky box? Click here!

Loot Crate -  How it works 

Observe that Loot Crate is available for shipping to Sweden,  most other similar subscription services are not!

Swedishfanboy is here!

Pretentious heading? Yes maybe. But this is no concept that I am normally associated with. Headlines can be difficult, however, now I have one anyway. About myself -  41 years old, father of two, full-time student and resident on the outskirts of a small town. As heard on my alias, I'm Swedish, but I have chosen to run the blog in English for a couple of reasons, among other things because I want to reach a wider audience and because English somehow fit the topic more than Swedish does. I am a person with a great interest in many things and have far too little time for those interests. Compromise is the key here. In this case, it has become that this blog will focus largely on my winter interest, ie, the most in geek world such as film, cosplay, collecting as a hobby and pop culture in general. I am a true fanboy if I may say so myself. Others might not say that I am, but I do not care.
 As I mentioned earlier is that I have too little time for all my interests, so this also applies to my geeky side. Foremost I am interested in Star Wars and have been since childhood since I grew up with the original trilogy and also collects the various toys from the vintage era, ie 1977-1985. 

 I also like other things in pop culture but are not as versed in everything. For example, I have never stuck for Star Trek, but I do not despise the fans of Star Trek for that matter (other than for an occasional joke of course). I can appreciate the phenomena from other franchises without for that sake to have vast knowledge or interest about these or even like to collect stuff from it.  

Anime is something that I have no greater knowledge of but I love the phenomenon, the characters, and have some sort of childlike fascination with design and look of the anime world. I have never followed any anime series slavishly although I have seen some of them. I have also played a lot of video games over the years but it is by no means a gamer other than on a casual level. Most likely, there are 12 year olds who are better than me in both World of Warcraft and Counter Strike and I am rather fine by that fact. This does of course not mean that I like the phenomenon less than those who may even live on their gaming. If I had to define my interest in pop culture as it is in large part about Star Wars. This is where my interest began. Moreover it is very much about film in general and often in the adventure fantasy and science-fiction realm, although I see a lot of movies in general. This has been expanded gradually and become sprawling over the years when I also taken a liking to such comic books and collecting primarily Star Wars toys but also other types of collectibles.

 Music is a big interest I have and I collect vinyl records. This might not normally belong to the geek world but it is one of my interests, so it will be a part of this blog. I'm omnivorous in music but much will be about the direction I have in my vinyl collecting right now. Cosplay is a new thing I've become interested in, or more correctly, I have always been interested in it but small children to raise and many other things in life have given me limited time, of course. I am new to the area and was introduced to it by my Star Wars interest when I recently decided to make a costume from one of the films. This should go into production in 2016 and I have jumped the gun a bit. More on this later.

Have a great day nerds!