WAR MACHINE: Zodanga, Predator City!

"Zodanga, the predator city. Moving, devouring, draining Barsoom of energy and life." --Tars Tarkas

The city of Zodanga as portrayed in the film John Carter makes for one hella huge war machine! The John Carter wiki calls it a "walking refinery" which is a good start if you want to make a carnivorous metal monster.
 

In the movie, the city moves in an undulating, centipedal fashion atop dozens of enormous fingered-foot gear. Every mile, it's stirring up a dust cloud as it claws its way across Mars' arid landscape. With the Martian surface being marred with craters, canyons, and canals, the city's tapdancing spine could also act as a land bridge, allowing it virtually limitless passage. I imagine anything that lies in it's path is summarily rendered to rubble--including enemy settlements.


"Nothing speaks more powerfully than pictures and to see a city moving across the landscape, leaving a scar in its wake--it's ugly, and nothing says 'bad guy' faster than that."
--Andrew Stanton (Director, John Carter)

While the city doesn't seem to have any sort of (giant) primary weapon (unless you count it's feet, which is more like force of nature!) but it does carry a formidable complement of airships atop it's launch deck.

John Carter: "That doesn't look like a fair fight."

Tars Tarkas: "Zodanga never fights fair."

Airships are armed with a variety of short-range radium cannons for ship-to-ship, broadsides-style combat. According to the film there's also a fairly healthy number of soldiers (air marines?) aboard for when things get dicey and they need to overtake a captured vessel.

I'd wager there's probablly plenty of radium cannons (short-and long-range) mounted to the city itself, turning it into a mobile fortress of sorts.

Funny thing--after seeing Zodanga on the big screen last year, I was instantly reminded of the cover of Epsilon Cyborgs:

Though that looks a little like an evil cruise ship with giant tank treads, it's still pretty badass! For a Gamma World or Mutant Future campaign, Zodanga would make one awesome hideout for an evil sorcerer or a formidable clan of wasteland thugs.

Learn more:

• Zodanga on the John Carter Wiki
• Zodanga on the Barsoom Wiki

WAR MACHINE: The Technodrome!

What do you get when you put treads on a Death Star? 
In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle universe, nothing matched the sheer menace or mechanical brutality as the Krang and Shredder's mobile HQ--THE TECHNODROME!

It was a massive, burrowing war machine, bristling with weapons and advanced technology. So OBVIOUSLY, It would make for a great set piece in any RPG.

As is, that is--a giant, earth digging, castle/tank for a mutant warlord looking for revenge against subterranean Valids.

Here's a scanner readout of some of the known features of this massive warmongering battlestation, courtesy of the TMNT wiki:

Equipment and Armament:

• A trans-dimensional portal
• Eyeball missile launchers
• 4 trident-shaped laser cannons
• A mounted surveillance eye on the top
• A mouser factory
• Training facilities for Shredder's henchmen, Bebop and Rocksteady
• Three-foot-thick titanium armor
• Huge tank treads
• Robot walker legs that can be used instead of tank treads (scene at the end of Season 3)
• Large holding cells
• Earthquake machine (used during Season 2)
• Various drilling mechanisms

Design Features

Classical Japanese Dojo Rooms

Balance control (during near the end of Season 3)

Anti-gravitation generators making the technodrome able to hover slightly above the ground (used during season 2 )

Disintegrator Unit (season 2)

Relay Room

Engine Room

Laundry room

For more, checkout...

• Technodrome image gallery on gammaworldwar.tumblr.com
• Great background info and episodes for inspiration at the TMNT wiki
• News of TMNT LEGO sets for 2013 bodes well for DIY Technodrome!

Mad Max 4 in production, sounds crazy/awesome

So you heard they're making a fourth Mad Max movie, right? Yep. With this guy as Max:

Tom Hardy wants to be friends

I'm pretty sure that the guy who played Bane has the street cred to pull off Max Rockatansky, post-apocalyptic badass.

And Charlize Theron is in it. Probably because she's in everything. But I heard she shaved her head for the role, so we definitely appreciate her dedication, don't we kids (yes, yes we do). She plays someone called "Imperator Furiosa".

New vehicles from Fury Road

Venerable geek temple io9 has a snippet about the plot which barely makes sense and that's why it's cool:

"Mad Max is caught up with a group of people fleeing across the Wasteland in a War Rig driven by the Imperator Furiosa. This movie is an account of the Road War which follows. It is based on the Word Burgers of the History Men and eyewitness accounts of those who survived."

Read the full report, including the new cast. FAIR WARNING: You'll likely run into spoilers for other movies on that page since it happens to be called MORNING SPOILERS.

UPDATE: What's an imperator anyway? And should she be called "imperatrix" instead?

UPDATE 2: io9 has posted some spoilerific photos of mutants and more vehicles which I won't post here for those hoping to remain blissfilly unaware...at least until the trailer hits.

UPDATE 3: Even MORE images of vehicles over at Comic Book Resources.