It’s a Marvel Monday here at GeekTown! Thanks to the lovely folk at Madame Tussauds and Marvel, we have 2 pairs of tickets to give away to their new Marvel Super Heroes 4D Exhibit at Madame Tussauds!

About Marvel Super Heroes 4D At Madame Tussauds!

ARRIVES EARLY SUMMER 2010

• New and unique multi-sensory experience from Madame Tussauds London and Marvel Entertainment, LLC
• Three floors of Marvel Super Hero fun featuring:
  • 4D animated film presentation with high impact surprises
  • themed interactive sets
  • Super Hero wax figures
• ONLY AT Madame Tussauds, Marylebone Road, London, NW1
• Nearest Tube – Baker Street
• Booking number 0871 894 3000 or www.madametussauds.com/London
• Opening times 9.30am – 5.30pm weekdays; or 9.00am – 6.00pm on weekends and during school holidays
• Prices from £12.77
• Save money and jump the queues by booking online

Marvel 4D Competition

A heroic new attraction is arriving at Madame Tussauds London this summer – “Marvel Super Heroes 4D”.   Scheduled to open for June 2010 “Marvel Super Heroes 4D”  brings to life some of the Marvel’s best loved Super Heroes through a mix of 4D animation, interactive themed areas and startlingly realistic Madame Tussauds wax figures.

Atmospheric sets conjure up the high-tech Super Hero world of S.H.I.E.L.D (Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division) and guests will be able to get up close to wax figures of six of Marvel’s most famous names – Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Wolverine, Nick Fury and The Invisible Woman.   There will also be the chance for the public to “turn hero” themselves in a series of interactive experiences including walking on the ceiling with Spider-Man and stepping into Iron Man’s chest shield.

The climax of the experience is a new 360º eight minute animated 4D cinema presentation, complete with high impact special effects.  Screened in Madame Tussauds famous domed auditorium the story unites a crack team of Super Heroes including Hulk, Spider-Man and Captain America in a battle against one of Marvel’s most villainous baddies in an all new adventure.

More info at www.madametussauds.com/4d

Two ways to Win tickets to Marvel Super Heroes 4D At Madame Tussauds

As usual, we have 2 ways to enter.

1. Answering the question below:

Who is playing Captain America in the upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger movie?

Competition is now closed.

2. Enter Via Twitter by following @geektown, and retweeting this message:

In the UK? Win tickets to Marvel Super Heroes 4D by following @geektown and RTing this tweet! More at http://bit.ly/marvelcompgt

You can enter via both twitter and on the site, and double your chances!

The competition closes on 18th June 2010 and is open to UK residents aged 18 or over. There will be 2 winners picked from twitter and geektown.co.uk. By entering this competition, you are agreeing to the rules of this competition. Full rules can be read here.

Win Coloud Darth Vader headphones!

Here’s something to brighten up your Sunday afternoon. Thanks to the lovely people at Coloud, we have a pair of Coloud Darth Vader headphones to give away!

Coloud have teamed up with these global entertainment brands and forged exclusive links with them to develop a range of cool, fashion headphones to provide an enriched music experience. The Star Wars cover designs for the Rebel Alliance, Darth Vader and the black & white Star Wars logo, which you can see here: http://www.coloud.com/category/star_wars

They also have a Marvel range (see our Coloud Marvel headphones review here), which covers such iconic characters as Ironman, X-Men, Wolverine, Punisher and Hulk. http://www.coloud.com/category/marvel

The headphones all retail at £34.99, and are available from Play.com, Forbidden Planet and Truffle Shuffle.

Win some Coloud Darth Vader headphones!

All you need to do is go to http://www.facebook.com/geektown, become a fan, and leave a comment under the ‘Want to win the Coloud Darth Vader headphones?’ post, and we’ll pick a winner!

The competition closes on 18th June 2010 and is open to UK residents aged 18 or over. There will be 1 winner picked from entries on Facebook. By entering this competition, you are agreeing to the rules of this competition. Full rules can be read here.

Some Sunday afternoon sillyness…

Star Trek Meets Monty Python

Apollo 13 - Out on Blu-ray - 14th June 2o10

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the historic space mission, and the 15th anniversary of the Academy Award^®-winning film, APOLLO 13 is being released by Universal Pictures for the first time ever on Blu-ray on Monday (14th June 2o10).

Less than a year after the world marvelled at man’s first moon walk, the American public thought of the April 1970 Apollo 13 moon mission as just another ‘routine’ space flight. But soon that would change… After hearing four little words uttered by spacecraft commander Jim Lovell (brilliantly played by Tom Hanks in the movie) form a sentence, creating the greatest understatement of mankind… “Houston, we have a problem”.

Stranded 205,000 miles from home in a crippled spacecraft, Lovell, and two other astronauts, Jack Swigert (played by Kevin Bacon) and Fred Haise (played by Bill Paxton), fought a desperate battle to survive, while mission control’s heroic ground crew raced against time, and some very long odds, to bring them home.

Apollo 13 unfortunately hasn’t been the only hitch on the race into space. This inspired us to take a look back at some of the other brave souls that have risked everything to see what lies beyond our world.

Apollo 1

Apollo 1 – Date: January 27, 1967

Mission: Apollo 1 was the first planned piloted space mission of the Apollo program. The crew, Command Pilot Gus Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger Chaffee, were all killed due to a fire at Pad 34 during takeoff.  The name Apollo 1 was officially assigned in commemoration of the crew.

Soyuz 1 (Soviet space program) – Date: April 23, 1967

It wasn’t just the US that suffered tragedy during the space race. Soviet Commander Vladimir Komarov was killed when the spacecraft crashed during its return to Earth after a mission plagued with mechanical problem.

Apollo 13

Apollo 13 – Date: April 11, 1970

Apollo 13 was the third Apollo mission intended to land on the Moon, but an oxygen tank rupture disabled the command spacecraft. This was a successful failure as the crew, commander James A. Lovell, command module pilot John L Swigert and lunar module pilot, Fred W. Haise all survived.

Soyuz 11 (Soviet space program) – Date: June 30, 1971

Soyuz 11 was the first successful visit to the world’s first space station, Salyut. The mission ended in tragedy when the crew capsule depressurised during preparations for re-entry, killing the three crew members on board- Vladislav Volkov, Georgi Dobrovolski, and Viktor Patsayev

Challenger's Crew

Space Shuttle Challenger – Date:  January 28, 1986

This was really the first space tragedy I personally remember. Being only 11 at the time, I was just sat at home watching cartoons when they cut into the program to go to the BBC newsroom. I remember watching, just stunned, as they showed the American space shuttle, Challenger, exploding apart 73 seconds after takeoff.  The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida, United States, at 11:39 a.m. (EST).

The explosion killed all 7 astronauts onboard – The five men and two women – including the first teacher in space – Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuke, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis and Judith Resnik.

Mars Polar Lander – Date: September 23, 1999

On a rather lighter note, NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter, after an embarrassing mix-up over metric and imperial measurements… I’m guessing shortly after that, some one had a very bad CV day…

Columbia's Crew

Space Shuttle Columbia – Date: February 1, 2003

The most recent tragedy in the space programme happened in 2003, when Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas, United States during re-try into the Earth’s atmosphere, and lost all seven crew members.

The explosion of Columbia was a result of damage created during launch when a piece of foam insulation (the size of a small briefcase) broke off the external tank.

Crew members were commander Rick D. Husbend, pilot William C. McCool, payload commander Michael P. Anderson, payload specialist Ilan Ramon, mission specialist Kalpana, mission specialist David M. Brown and mission specialist Laurel Clark.

Despite these tragic events, we have the resolve to continue manned (and womanned) space exploration. Even now there are  tests running on the effect of long term space travel, in the hope that we will one day manage to travel further than our own moon.

With a bit of luck (and hopefully within my lifetime) we’ll see a crew make it to Mars, and who knows, maybe even further.

Just a quick update on the whole Jacques D’Azur thing we ran back in march. Stella Artois 4% discovered the true heir to legendary film producer Jacques d’Azur, and whisked him away to take Jacques’ place at the Cannes Film festival, in the luxurious style that Jacques is accustomed to. Looks like he had a pretty decent time!

Spinning Streak iPhone App

Just been sent a link to this great little free iPhone game/app called Spinning Streak. It’s described as ‘a game of skill and balance’, where your purpose is to ‘become the most famous Spinning Streak act on the planet’.

The object of the game is to keep the coins spinning on the poles by flicking the screen. The longer you can keep them going, the more points you get. Like a lot of iPhone apps, it’s a pretty simple premise, but also amazingly addictive. As you improve, you move up through the ranks, performing at various locations, until you manage to reach the ultimate goal of spinning your coins in Las Vegas.

Spinning Streak is a great little free and fun app which runs on all flavours of iPhone.

Just follow this link for the free download!