WoW Item – Six Demon Bag

This item is a reference from the movie “Big Trouble in Little China”, starring Kurt Russell and Kim Cattrall.  Even the flavour text is a quote from the movie!  You can get your own Six Demon Bag from Nefarian in Blackwing Lair for lots of blasting fun.

Jack Burton: Hey, what more can a guy ask for?
Egg Shen: Oh, the six-demon bag!
Jack Burton: Terrific, a six-demon bag. Sensational. What’s in it, Egg?
Egg Shen: Wind, fire, all that kind of thing!

NPC – Grohl Grohl

This was brought to my attention by Swenyola of Panda and the Priest.

This hard to find Hozen is found in the North western part of Kun-Lai Summit, near the shoreline.  You can hear him playing the drums as you approach his location.  He’s named after Dave Grohl, the drummer for Nirvana.  I guess he’s kind of furry IRL, like a Hozen…

WoW Items – Syrio’s Gloves of Tutelage

This was brought to my attention courtesy of Zeirah of Azeroth Life.

These gloves are a reference to a character from George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series – Syrio Forel, who was employed by Edward Stark to be the “dance teacher” (aka fencing instructor) for his daughter, Arya Stark.  The item flavour text is his line “What do we say to death?  Not today.”

NPC – Dos-Ryga

It’s already quite obvious that pet battles are a throwback to Pokemon, but this is the first Battle Pet that I’ve seen that seems to be named after a Pokemon.  Dos-Ryga is a water type Fable battle pet, found in Kun-Lai summit (added in Patch 5.2).

Dos-Ryga is an angram of Gyrados.  Gyrados is a dual type water/flying pokemon (information from Bulbapedia) with a dragon like appearance.  Gyrados evolves from Magikarp, which more closely resembles Dos-Ryga.

Magikarp – image courtesy of Ken Sugimori

Gyrados – image courtesy of Ken Sugimori

Interestingly, Magikarp have an extremely strong immune system and can live in polluted waters.  Perhaps that is why you find Dos-Ryga next to the Sha polluted water in Kun-Lai.  Gyrados however are destructive – it appears Dos-Ryga is somewhere in-between the two.

NPC – Willy Wilder

This image comes courtesy of Luxy who snapped him outside the Black market Auction House!  Extra info from Bubbles of Mischief and Wowhead.

Though I havent’ seen him myself, Willy Wilder is a play on Willy Wonka (played by Gene Wilder in the original movie of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).  He spawns in The Veiled stair and bids on Blood Soaked Invitations.  He is an angry fellow – he attacks you with Stuffed and Violets and Blueberries – very Willy Wonka type attacks!  If you kill him he is really does have a blood soaked invitation

Jurassic Park NPCs in WoW

With patch 5.2, 2 new islands appeared off Pandaria.  The Isle of Giants is located North of Kun-Lai and is inhabited by lots of elite dinosaurs!  It’s Jurassic Park!

Now this is hilarious.  Does anyone remember the scene from Jurassic Park II: The Lost World when they took the T-Rex on a boat to the city?  Does this not remind you of that scene?

And of course there are a whole heap of NPCs on the island named after characters in the movies, both Horde and Alliance.

Named after Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park, the fat computer tech guy who was stealing the embryos and got killed by dilophosaurii whilst trying to get off the island

Named after Dr Ellie Sattler, the paleobotanist in Jurassic park. She says:
“At least there are no electrified fences. Or trolls.”
“Be careful, Agrant!”
“How could we know anything about an extinct ecosystem? Even the plants are poisonous!”
“I told you that you weren’t machine compatible!”
“We can make it if we run!”
“You only brought enough food for seven days! Seven! That’s just great.”

Named after Dr Alan Grant, the paleontologist in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park 3

Though the name is a bit obscure, this one is named after John Hammond, played by Richard Attenborough. It even looks a bit like him with the beard and the small stature!  He has cool quotes when you talk to him from the movie:
“Agrant? Nellie? Isn’t it a bit dangerous to be outside of the zeppelin?”
“For some odd reason, I love to stare at this cane. Hmmm…”
“How could the expedition be a failure? I spared no expense!”
“What we need is some sort of protein-based population control. Perhaps we should have thought of that before coming here.”
“When we have control of the expedition again, everything will be fine…”

Named after Ray Arnold (played by Samuel L Jackson) the Chief Engineer of Jurassic Park in the original movie.

Named for Ian Malcolm, played by Jeff Goldbloom in the Jurassic park movies, he apparently even says some awesome movie related quotes:
“It’s, ah, the cycle of life, mm. The light creates troll, troll creates dinosaur, dinosaur eats human, trolls inherit Azeroth.”
“Do you think they’ll have this on the, ah, tour? Hm?”
“Anyone, ah, hear that? It’s ah, it’s ah, an impact tremor.”
“Am I, mm, talking to myself? I am? See there, I’m right again.”
“Remind me to thank Hamlock for a lovely weekend.”

NPC – Sam the Wise

This came to my attention courtesy of Pando of Lighter Side of WoW.

Sam the Wise <The Metal Brewmaster> is found in the Shrine of Fellowship in the Jade Forest.  Another one of those double references, it’s a reference to Samwise Didier (one of the art directors at Blizzard and the senior art director on Starcraft II) as well as to Samwise Gamgee (of Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings).  You can see some of his art here.

Samwise (Blizz artist) is the creater of the Pandaren, and is the frontrunner of Level 90 Elite Tauren Chieftains (The Artists formerly known as Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain), is an American band comprised of Blizz employees.  They performed at Blizzcon 2008 and you can see them in game at Darkmoon Faire.

Samwise Didier as you can see is a metal music fan (hence the Metal Brewmaker) and if you talk to him he says Meatloaf quotes at you!

“I would do anything for love. But I won’t do that. At least, not right away”
“What is best in life? Brothers, Ballads and Beer! “
“I like my woman like I like my beer: full-bodied.”
“When dawn rises, the hammer shall fall!”

I wonder if Samwise likes Meatloaf?

Samwise Gamgee is also reperesented here because Sam the Wise is found at the Shrine of Fellowship (referring to Fellowship of the Ring).

 

NPC – Spraggle Frock

I think this is a reference to Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock, a puppet television show in the 1980s.  Do they think goblins look like Fraggles?  Hmm, I don’t think they do.

Image from Wikipedia

WoW Items – Hexu’s Amplifying Helm and Davidian’s All-seeing Eyes

Image from WoWInsider

Last year, there was a really inspiring article in WoWInsider about Ben and Alex, who play the toons Hexu and Davidian respectively on the EU server Chamber of Aspects.  Hexu the Orc Shaman (Alex) is blind, and Davidian the Orc Deathknight (Owen) plays as his guide dog, and through Mumble and lots of keybinds, they play, they raid – and do it quite successfully!

When I read the article, I was amazed, and in awe.  What a totally awesome duo. In Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard has honoured these two with items named after them!  Hexu’s Amplifying Helm has the tooltip “A man with a friend is never without vision”, and Davidian’s All-seeing Eyes has the tooltip “Sharp enough to see for two men”. Both of these items are rare trash drops. Which is totally suited IMO.  That duo is a fantastic rarity indeed.  If you ask me, the items should be epic

(BTW, Ben now plays a Panda Rogue named DirtyPawz)

NPC – Jack Arrow

Oops.  Took a picture of him after I farted, sorry.

Jack Arrow is suspiciously very similar to Captain Jack Sparrow, of Pirates of the Carribean, who is played by Johnny Depp.  Jack Arrow the Alliance Captain, when killed, drops Captain Jack’s Head which starts a quest Captain Jack’s Dead, Horde side.  He is found in the Tigers Wood, Jade Forest.