Last night, Hailee Steinfeld (Petra) was a guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and after talking to Jimmy about learning how to drive in LA and her Halloween costume, presented a new clip of Petra offering to teach Ender some moves in the Battle Room.
Thanks to Hannah for the tip. Watch it on Hulu HERE.
Source: NBC
Happy Monday, Launchies! This past weekend I got motivated to do some Ender’s Game cupcakes. The army logos are great for doing fan artsy stuff and since I do a lot of these kinds of cupcake things for my other blog Fictional Food, it was really only a matter of time until I tried to tackle these.
And for those of you wondering where Leopard and Centipede is, just go look at those logos and tell me if you think it’s humanly possible to cut those things out of fondant. š
To make the logos, I rolled black fondant really thin and then let it dry for a bit to make it easier to cut. I’d printed out the logos on paper and cut them out first. For Phoenix and Griffin, I used a photo from the Ender’s Game Experience I found online, since my good photos of the logos got eaten on my corrupted SD card.
After that, I laid them over the frosting and started cutting with an X-Acto knife. Sadly, the paper got stuck to Phoenix and Salamander, which is why those don’t look too good.
Here are the logos all cut out and drying. The white stuff is powdered sugar to keep it from sticking to the bottom.
Since I only had Halloween cupcake cups, they would have looked kind of dopey from the sides, so I made cupcake wrappers. I first did these kinds of wrappers for my Effie Trinket cupcakes and they worked really well for these too!
If you want to try wrapping your own cupcakes, I have the wrappers in PDF formĀ for you to download. They may need a little trimming and you’ll also need to leave a little tab on one end to glue/tape together.
Here’s the side of the Dragon cupcake. I put book and movie quotes on the opposite sides of each of them.
I don’t think Graff likes me insinuating he’s a “rat” by putting him on the Rat Army cupcake…
Here’s the Salamander cupcake. It’s still got little bits of sugar on it and his poor tail fell off. It was too hard to separate the belly sections, so I just cut into the frosting and it turned out fine. To make this color I used green fondant mixed with gobs of yellow and orange color gel.
Griffin Army cupcake! The ear was hard to cut, but I like how it came out overall. I should have made it bigger though. This was just straight green, nice and easy.
As I mentioned earlier, the Phoenix got a little dinged up. I didn’t pat enough sugar onto it and the paper got stuck to the frosting. The color was made by mixing blue and green fondant.
Rat Army cupcake. I thought the whiskers and toes would be impossible, but they weren’t too bad. I just used basic red fondant for this. If you’re wondering why I have so many colors, it’s from making cakes like this Mario one for my son and this Hello Kitty one for my daughter. I just have a fully stocked fondant pantry!
Here’s Asp, which was pretty hard to cut. This is one of my favorite logos. Totally reminds me of the auryn from Neverending Story.
And finally, here’s the Dragon. Still my favorite design! Tonight I’ll take some more photos and then let my kids fight over which cupcake they get. This morning my son was giving me a hard time because I always freak out with them touching my stuff before I get to do photos and video. He was barely touching one with his pinky and taunting me, saying, “Ooohh look Mommy, look look! I’m touching the cupcake, oh no!!!”
The kid needs some sitting on. This is on the agenda for tonight. I took video so you guys can see the wrappers better and will post that later this week.
Here’s one last photo with the poster:
I could go into a number of dorky lines for these.
“The enemy’s cake is down.”
“We need cakes like yours, Ender.”
“You will be the one to frost mankind.”
I’m sure Graff would have gotten appropriately fat if I’d been supplying these to him at Battle School.
This is a friendly reminder to take the Battle School aptitude test at IF-BattleSchool.comĀ to get your army assignment, Launchies!
Not sure if it was there when it first launched, but at the top of the site is a notice that the first “challenge” will commence on 8/2. That’s this Friday! What do you guys think we’ll be doing? What do youĀ want it to be?
Also, here are the four Facebook cover images that they provide in case you want to use them:
Here’s a scan of a new image of Ender in the Battle Room in his Salamander Army flash suit. This image appeared in the print edition of Entertainment Weekly’s op-ed piece Pop Culture’s Big Gay Panic. If you’re not sure which issue it is, it’s the one with The Walking Dead on the cover.
Thanks to Ender News for the tip.
San Diego Comic Con is just over two weeks away and Summit has sent us a preview of the exclusive items they’ll be giving away at the convention!
These are static clings. Notice there are a total of eight army logos including what I’m presuming is Centipede, Griffin, Phoenix, and Leopard in addition to the ones we already know. These will be given out at the Summit booth.
This Ender’s Game tote bag will be given out at the Summit booth. No doubt to be used to fill will awesome static clings and…
Lapel pins! In case you can’t tell, these are little pins stuck to Ender’s Game card backs. These will be given out at the Summit booth.
These bad boys will be given out at the Ender’s Game Fan Experience, which will be across the street from the convention at the Hilton Gaslamp.
15 days, Launchies!
Even with two kids and more blogs than I know what to do with, I clearly have nothing better to do than to think up ways to show what a ridiculous fangirl I can be. Last week, while trying to figure out a way to save money on those silly little stickers my daughter is always begging me to buy her, I decided to look up whether you can print your own nail decals. Turns out, you definitely can.
I ordered a set and then the Ender’s Game part of my brain started churning and this happened:
I made teeny ones for smaller fingers and bigger ones for thumbs, with the little ones being 1/4 inch and the thumbs being 1/2 inch.
The next step is to coat the printout with clear nail polish, though this became tricky as the ink began to run with strokes. I had to dab and will have to look into just getting an acrylic spray for the whole sheet. I waited for it to dry and painted my nails in various Battle School colors: orange, blue, red, green.
Once they were dry I cut the edges off. Actually, I got lazy on the second hand and left the corners, but you’ll be able to see why this is a bad idea.
Next, submerge it in a bit of warm water. Once the paper backing is soaked, you can remove it from the water to a paper towel and gently peel it off the paper.
Here’s the tiny little decal ready to put on a nail.
Flatten the decal down and then paint over with clear polish.
Here’s my right hand and you can see the corners on the three small army nails. Definitely take the time to cut the corners off! And yes, I know, my nails are kind of sad looking. I only just recently grew them out after like 30 years and my daughter’s constant scolding. I don’t know why but I had the hardest time with the IF decals and they both went on horribly crooked.
My first attempt on my left hand was ridiculous. I made the Rat and Asp upside down, but the Dragon looked okay. All in all, it’s pretty close to what I’d envisioned. Petra Arkanian would scream in horror, no doubt.
I’m hoping to take the thumbnail sizes with me to Comic Con and anyone who can find me while I’m waiting in the Hall H line can get a Battle School thumbnail. If you’re willing to give me a thumbs up pose for the EnderWiggin.net Instagram, that’d be sweet!
Those of you that commented and guessed the results of the Egg Army fights can now view the results here. Winners are announced under the video!
Sadly, I suspect my kids’ Egg Launchie status skewed the results a bit, so everyone who commented got at least one entry.
Random winners drawn from all entries:
Since there’s no contact info for Rick and Hannah, you guys will have to email me at valentine @ enderwiggin.net with your address information to claim your prize! Congratulations!
Happy Easter, Launchies! Hope everyone is having a fun day today. My family dyed eggs earlier and I reserved four for myself to decorate Ender’s Game style!
I made one for each army logo released so far, Dragon, Salamander, Rat, and Asp. I had some printouts from making buttons and so I had it in front of me while I sketched into the eggs with a pencil then I colored it in with a sharpie pen. Here’s a look at each egg individually:
Dragon:
Salamander:
Rat:
Asp:
We probably can’t eat these because I used a sharpie, but it was still worth it. We’re about to go outside and have our hunt with the kids and I’ll make sure I hide these well. Whoever finds Dragon Army gets a chocolate bunny!
I’m thinking the same thing you guys are. Finally something new! Now that we have a new still to pick apart, let’s get started shall we? You can click any image to see a bigger one.
First, the full image:
With only the expression on their faces to go by, I’d guess this is when Petra first offers to show Ender what she knows in the Battle Room on their own time. At this point they’re all in Salamander, Ender’s first army, so it’s a safe bet. They’re in the Battle School mess hall, which shows at least five or six teams and a Launchie. It’s possible that Fly Molo is in this image as well, sitting on the far table on the right end.
The other boys were talking about thingsāthe big scoreboard on one wall, the food, the bigger kids. Ender could only watch in isolation. The scoreboards were team standings. Win-loss records, with the most recent scores. Some of the bigger boys apparently had bets on the most recent games. Two teams, Manticore and Asp, had no recent scoreāthese boxes were flashing. Ender decided they must be playing right now.
Rat and Asp are on the board and therefore currently in the Battle Room, so I’m assuming the red patch on the soldier in the middle is actually for another army, despite the logo looking very similar to Rat. On the far right, you can see a group with teal patches and a guy with a darker red logo, though he could be in the same army as the red patches in the middle. Update: I received a tip that the dark red patched soldier is Cameron Gaskins, who plays Leopard Army commander Pol Slattery.
On the left, the bright yellow color of the Launchies. The scoreboard differs a bit from the book in that it doesn’t seem to list the standings of all the armies, but I do love that the Battle Room’s layout is in the center.
You can see the matching colors on both sides of the sphere, so these have to be the gates. The white obstacles floating around being the star configuration of that particular battle. Next to each army logo you can see several meters.
Next to the vertical meter are what appear to be soldier profiles of them taken in the plain whites we saw Ender wearing in the first still. It’s possible these swap screens in and out with the rest of the army because I think we asked how big each army was and although I don’t remember what it was, I know it wasn’t 8.
I’m not sure what this is, but my guess would be it’s the top three soldiers in each army. There are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places on both sides of the board with a line graph. Shooting record perhaps?
If you’re wondering why I’m zooming in on what I’m assuming is Battle School breakfast, it’s because I want to try to recreate this for my blog Fictional Food. I even found and ordered one of these trays on Amazon already! It’s a lot shinier, but I’m pretty sure it’s the exact same model.
I can’t say I’m all that impressed with Battle School lunches. They have what looks like an energy bar as the main course, a pastry, gelatin, a green pudding, and a small loaf of bread. Is this really enough calories for a school of teenagers? Maybe the energy bar is packed with tons of protein.
Zooming in on Petra, you get to see the Salamander army patch on her arm, which doesn’t appear to be sewn on. It looks textured too, which makes me want one even more. Her nametag says Arkanian.
A few soldiers down from Petra at the other end of the table is Bonzo. His food appears to be untouched and he’s just sitting there staring either at something off the table or just at his hands. What do you guys make of his posture in this still? He looks like a bit of a loner in this one.
I can spot at least six girls in this still based upon hair buns, which is interesting as I would have thought they’d have the girls cut their hair short as well.
That’s all I’ve got for this one. Do you guys notice anything else interesting? It’s such a busy image and I wish we could see the board more in focus, but clearly the blur is intentional at this point. I can’t wait for more!
Now that you’ve seen EnderWiggin.net’s exclusive reveal of the official Salamander Army logo, as well as the logos for Dragon, Rat, and Asp armies, it’s time to show you why that was just a teaser for today’s reveal. (make sure you enter to win a set of Ender’s Game army magnets or pin buttons HERE)
I’m very happy to be one of four fansites revealing the second official still from the Ender’s Game movie, which, as of today, is 253 days from release. This new still is chock full of amazing new content for fans who have been dying for more since December, when we got our first look at Colonel Graff staring down young Ender Wiggin.
Without further ado, here is a first look at the Battle School mess hall with Salamander Army:
Not only do we see Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin again, you get your first look at Hailee Steinfeld as Petra Arkanian (left), Khylin Rhambo as Dink Meeker (right, next to Ender), and Moises Arias as Bonzo Madrid (end of the table on the left). Since there’s a whole lot more going on besides these four characters (see the Battle Room sphere on the board!?), be sure read my still breakdown article coming later today.
In the meantime, I get to dish a little bit more about our visit to the set last year.
We’d been given a list of people we might be seeing and Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, and director Gavin Hood’s names practically screamed themselves from my laptop. I was pretty pumped. We’d also be talking to Conor Carroll (Bernard), Khylin Rhambo (Dink), Aramis Knight (Bean), and Suraj Partha (Alai).
I went into the set visit expecting to see and speak to these seven people, which made me unprepared for all the other people we got to spend time with that day. One of the first surprises of the day was when we were introduced to producer Roberto Orci, which almost made my head explode.
I’d only seen photos of him and hadn’t a clue he’d be there on the set, much less that we’d be spending the day with him. And while it sounds odd to be a “fan” of a movie producer, you have to keep in mind that I’m a huge fan of things like LOST, Fringe, the Star Trek reboots, the Hawaii Five-O reboot, all of which he’s produced or written. I see his name everywhere. And since I have a young son, I’ve seen or been forced to listen to the Transformers movies at least two dozen times which, again, he wrote.
We were in a room whose walls were covered in concept art and storyboards and I almost felt like I should avert my eyes because I’m so used to not seeing such things until a DVD release. A presentation began and we met several producers from Odd Lot Entertainment.
They told us so much in that first hour and a half that I admit I was confused. I’d never expected them to be so open and passionate about the movie, rivaling us fansites. It was like sitting in a room with fans who were 10 times the fans you were. It was humbling to say the least.
After the presentation, they took us on a set tour that included the Launchie barracks that we saw in the first still, Ender’s private quarters, and the infirmary. We were taken to the video village where we saw some scenes being filmed. Garrett Warren, the film’s stunt coordinator came by to talk to us and was so fun to meet.
We headed over to interview the very well-spoken and lovely Hailee Steinfeld, a very intense but also very nice Asa Butterfield, and director Gavin Hood. While it was amazing to interview the young actors who would be playing Ender and Petra, it was eye-opening to talk to Gavin Hood. It was immediately plain to us that he’s a huge fan of the book and after talking to him, I personally felt like the film was in great hands with him.
Having been a fan of Game of Thrones for over ten years, it was surreal when the monstrously large Nonso Anozie (Sergeant Dap in Ender’s Game and Xaro Xhoan Daxos in Thrones) walked– or rather, hunched over — to get into the room. Getting to then discuss movies and Pop Tarts with him was just amazing. We met a lot of the Battle School cadets, including Bean, who all seemed to be great kids who were huge fans of the novel and extremely excited to be a part of the film.
Our tour continued after lunch with a meeting with costume designer Christine Bieselin-Clark, who actually let us touch the flash suits. Nerd out!
We continued on to the props department, which was really cool because even that guy could bring up scenes from the book as if it was nothing. We then talked to set designers Ben Procter and Sean Haworth, who immediately passed our now standard Did-You-Read-Ender’s-Game Test. We were back to sitting in the Launchie barracks again and with that scenery around us, I think the sole question in all of our minds was just, “How do you build something like this from the ground up?” It was a continual thought in my mind as we walked through the Battle School and Eros sets.
And with that, yes, we did get to walk around on Eros. We were actually very fortunate in that they were at the point of production where they were filming Ender’s final battle scene. We stood on that set and I had to resist the urge to turn to my fellow tourists and shake them senseless in excitement. All I will say at this point is that the finale scene that I’d imagined seemed like a shriveled raisin compared to what they had in production.
As if that wasn’t enough, towards the end of our day, they told us they were able to get us 10 minutes with Sir Ben Kingsley. Let me tell you, sitting in a dark Formic room frantically trying to think of questions to ask a knighted actor is a whole lot of pressure.
Those of you that have been reading my site for a while have probably wondered why I seem so on board with the film despite some the changes (which are inevitable with a book to film adaptation). Hopefully this gives you a better idea of why. Everyone we met from the crew to the actors to the producers were all fans of the book and were all so excited to be working on the movie.
As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve left out specific details and quotes, as that’s all still to come as we approach the movie’s release come November 1st.
To stay up to date with all the latest news about the movie, the actors, and upcoming book releases in the Enderverse, be sure to follow EnderWiggin.net, available on the following social media networks:
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If you’ve been looking for an Ender’s Game podcast, be sure to check out the podcast EnderCast, which I co-host with Kelly from Ender News.
Have the logos gotten you all excited about Ender’s Game? Today, four fansites released official army logos for Dragon, Salamander, Asp, and Rat armies and now I’ve got some prizes to give away to two lucky fans!
I’ve got up for grabs one set of four army magnets and one set of four army pinback buttons. These are not official merchandise, but wouldn’t you love to have them anyway? I’ve already got a set on my fridge, looking awesome!
To enter to win, simply comment on this post and tell me which of the four logos is your favorite and why. Then, use the Rafflecopter widget below to log in your entries and to get yourself some extra entries to up your chances.
This giveaway is open worldwide and will end on February 27, 2013. Limit one prize per person.
āEnder,ā said Alai.
Ender turned around. Alai was holding a little piece of paper.
āWhat is it?ā
Alai looked up at him. āDonāt you know? This was on your bed. You must have sat on it.ā
Ender took it from him.
āI donāt want to go,ā he said.
(above is a fan-created image by EnderWiggin.net)
It’s been a long time since our very first glimpse at the Ender’s Game movie and I’m very happy to announce that those of you that have been patiently (and impatiently!) waiting for the next release need wait no longer.
Tomorrow at 1100 Eastern, return to EnderWiggin.net for a fansite-exclusive first look at the second still from Ender’s Game, which will feature a new still with an expanded look at the Battle School. However, to tease what’s coming, we’ve got something really special to reveal.
Today the four Ender’s Game fansites that flew to New Orleans, Louisiana to visit the set of Ender’s Game last May are exclusively presenting to fans four Battle School army logos.
EnderWiggin.net is very excited to give you an exclusive first look at the official SALAMANDER ARMY logo from the Ender’s Game movie:
To see the other three logos head over to:
Don’t forget to return tomorrow at 1100 Eastern time for your first look at the second still from Ender’s Game. You won’t want to miss this!
In the meantime, be sure to follow EnderWiggin.net!
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If you’ve been looking for an Ender’s Game podcast, be sure to check out the podcast EnderCast, which I co-host with Kelly from Ender News.