The Mantis-Eye Experiment

Until March 1st, Deep Discount DVD has each season of Venture Bros. on sale for only $15.98. So for those of you without the DVDs, still, for whatever reason, that's a pretty sweet deal. On top of that the season three Blu-Ray version is also on sale for a measly $26.98, so if you were waiting to grab that for whatever reason, here's your chance. There are also a ton of other Adult Swim DVDs on sale as well, should they strike your fancy.

Jackson has a teaser of sorts for the upcoming Venture Bros. figures. It's what appears to potentially be a prototype version of the back of maybe Dr. Venture's head. Not much more to say about that I guess, so head over for a peek.

Friendly reminder for those of you who somehow still haven't seen season four, starting this weekend it will be airing at 11:30pm every Sunday for the next nine weeks (with no episode airing March 7th) which puts into a time slot that maybe is less effort to stay up late for. Either way you are out of excuses for not having seen it yet! The last episode is scheduled to air April 4th, so there's still a considerable gap between that and the tentative August 22nd start date for the second half. No news on how official or set in stone that date is just yet. Enjoy the schedule if you like that sort of thing.

More news on the Venture Bros. action figure front, Bif Bang Pow! has just put out a new press release announcing their plans for "70's style" action figures which includes the planned Venture Bros. line:

The Venture Bros. creator Jackson Publick, who has been working closely with Bif Bang Pow! to bring these to market, noted that the upcoming figures are "very impressive and extremely faithful to the characters, while also finding a very comfortable middle ground between 2-D and 3-D design. Bif Bang Pow! has deftly solved a number of design problems I thought anyone attempting a 3-D interpretation would get thrown off by. Brock, especially, is going to make the fanboys crap themselves. Let's show these to the world already!"

"We're very excited about launching this new range of action figures. For the first time in Bif Bang Pow! history, all of our licenses will be living in the same universe. So if you've always wanted Dr. Girlfriend to seduce Dexter Morgan, or for Ming the Merciless to fight The Dude, now's your chance!", said Jason Lenzi, CEO of Bif Bang Pow! "And the exceptional articulation makes the posing possibilities virtually limitless, which comes in handy for animated characters!"

So there you go! Sounds pretty awesome, and of course more info as it becomes available. Read the full press release with extra info if you're into that sort of thing.

Since I haven't covered it in a while, here's all the latest Venture Bros. related merchandise new to the Adult Swim Shop in the last month or two.

• Guild of Calamitous Intent Cap ($20) - Clearly the Guild logo is a big seller, and now you can own it in ballcap form!
  
  
• Sergent Hatred Military Cap ($20) - For those of you who want to be a former Hatred henchman without any of the potential for death at the hands of a hero or bodyguard, this is probably for you! Plus military-style hats are totally in style this season.
  
  
• Family of Action T-Shirt ($18) - Totally new art and doesn't include any Shirt Club logos to boot! Tell everyone how much you love the show in style! Everyone loves guns, right?
  
  
• Guild of Calamitous Intent Hoodie ($50) - To go with the black zipper Guild hoodie, now we have a red non-zip one! It also houses the smaller Guild logo (also used for the tie-tack) for that extra bit of variation!

Update (2/2 @ 2:32pm): I've been informed that, even though the store doesn't mention it, the art for the Family of Action t-shirt is from Bill Sienkiewicz's rough sketches made during the planning stages of the season one DVD.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet and a web site called BumpWorthy.com (which I had somehow never heard of before today) I have screen caps from the now infamous August 22nd/December 5th scheduling bump. It should be noted that the bump begins with the disclaimer: "Subject to constant change." So, grain of salt and all that. Click to enlarge.


You can also watch the bump here if that's your thing (plus it contains other valuable info). More info as it becomes available of course.

While I can't give you a specific source, a ton of people have mentioned Adult Swim has run some bumpers saying that season four's second half (sometimes called season 4.2 or 4.5) will commence on August 22nd and end December 5th. For those of you breaking out your calendars there are sixteen Sundays between those two days (including those two days) which means the final eight episodes will be spread over twice as many weeks. When the gaps occur and at what frequency remains to be seen, but there you go.

Not to be overshadowed by Toy Fare, but today we have our very own interview with Bif Bang Pow! co-founder Jason Lenzi. I contacted him with a few questions about the Venture Bros. toys his company is making and he was awesome enough to answer them. So what are you waiting for? Go check it out!