By Jeremy Azevedo

Have you ever had one of those mornings in which you sneeze all over your shirt in the car on the way to work, someone eats your breakfast before you get there, and then you spill scalding hot coffee on your hand before even reaching your desk?

So you’re all pissed off to begin with, but then you sit down and you find a giant “Bender the Robot” head filled with Futurama DVDs waiting for you, being all awesome and futuristic. This, of course, triggers an epiphany of sorts about the contextual give-and-take that occurs everyday in our life. Have you ever had somehting like this happen to you and said to yourself, "Wow, this seems all the more awesome in comparison to the setbacks that preceded it"? Because that’s pretty much how my morning went earlier this week.


Camouflage for an urban asault on Bed, Bath & Beyond?

Futurama fans have been granted a wonderful gift in the form of a life-size bust of everybody’s favorite alcoholic robot, Bender. Inside of this bust you will find all 72 original episodes of Futurama, as well as all four of the most recent direct-to-DVD movies, all neatly stacked up inside. Some people that were at this year’s Comic Con in San Diego will say, “Hey! I thought this collection was going to be a super limited edition and that I’d always be the only one to ever have one of these!” To which I might reply, “F**k you, nerd, your bullshit pop cultural elitism was just dealt a fatal blow this day, sir! This Giant Bender Head full of DVDs belongs to the proletariat!” Or something along those lines.

Futurama: The Complete Collection 1999-2009 is the ultimate catalogue of animated hilarity, leaving absolutely nothing out. For starters, not one shred of any episode has been left behind. Also, every single episode includes full-length audio commentary. Not just some, or most, but all. There’s all kinds of other bonus features, like deleted scenes, “how to draw” featurettes, animatics, character art and virtually anything else Futurama-related that you can think of. Barring Rule 34 (If it exists, there is porn of it.), of course.


Slurm!

I really can’t say enough to praise the presentation of this set. The Bender bust comes packaged in a box that is designed to have the appearance of one of those jars that historical figures always keep their heads in on the show. It’s a very fan-service-y detail. The DVDs are all stacked inside pretty nicely, but be careful when removing your Bender head form the “jar”. Mine wasn’t taped shut or anything, and the door swung open, spilling all of my discs ass-over-teakettle. Don’t let the same thing happen to you.

Futurama: The Complete Collection 1999-2009 retails for around $199.98, which sounds a little steep, I know. But it can be had for much less if you cop one right now on Amazon, more in the ballpark of $117.99. But when you consider that this set comes with 19 discs of one of the most well-written shows in television history, animated or otherwise, and I think it’s safe to say that it’s worth the cost either way.

I award Futurama: The Complete Collection 1999-2009 ten out of ten Unicorns Fighting a Robot Dolphin:



Lastly, it also bears mentioning that there is more good news for Futurama fans on the horizon. The entire cast and key writers have signed on for a new 26-episode season to air on Comedy Central beginning in mid-2010! Too bad there isn’t room for any more discs in that head!