Merchandise

Finally, a week where we have some interesting things to discuss!

*Season 4 Trailer - DarkUFO broke this originally, but if you have yet to see the trailer, here it is:

*Season 3 DVD Release - The Washington Post had a good article about the Season 3 DVD release - this represents a pretty comprehensive (and compelling) overview related to the content within the boxed set, if you are on the fence about your purchase. Lindelof and Cuse also sat down for an interview related to the DVD release here.

*WGA Strike - Some rumors are circulating that the powers at ABC or debating whether to only release 6, or all 8, of the episodes already finished for Season 4. The story goes that there is a more “natural” break in the storyline after episode 6, and the thought is to push the other two episodes to the second half of Season 4. The problem there, obviously, is that the WGA strike goes on and who knows when production will resume.

Earlier, we posted about the newest clue on the backs of the jigsaw puzzles, which pointed to the use of a classic book as the cipher for the secret codes printed on the back. There was a great deal of debate about the use of the French word Vis, but today, one of the guesses did in fact turn out to be right–the decoding cipher is The Turn of the Screw, a Lost literary reference that was first found in The Swan.

A very special thanks to a first-time poster by the name of Pamela who discovered this, after many other books were attempted! It turns out that some of us were doing this wrong–it was not just by chapter-and-word, but chapter-paragraph-letter; see the Lostpedia page for details. We are halfway through translation.

Nothing blatantly spoilerish has come out thus far, despite the warnings. It has some strange food ramblings, about peanut butter (Claire/Charlie Season 1 reference) and mac and cheese (Season 3 reference, was seen in the supply drop). It confirms some abbreviations from the blast door map (CV = Cerberus Vent, P.R.D. = Periodic Resupply Drop; we now know they occur every 6-8 months).

-Cecilia

EDIT: The puzzle’s now been completely decoded.

THERE IS NO SICKNESS
NEED MORE MAC AND CHEESE
PERIODIC RESUPPLY DROP
ALVAR HANSO
WHAT GOOD IS PEANUT BUTTER AND CEREAL WITHOUT MILK
QUARANTINE IS A HOAX
DHARMA INITIATIVE HANSO GROUP
CERBERUS VENT
EMERGENCY ESCAPE PROTOCOL

Back in August, we first introduced the official Lost Jigsaw Puzzles, and then in September, we broke the news about hidden codes and blast door map printed in glow-in-the-dark ink on the backs of the jigsaw puzzles.

Today, there’s more breaking news, courtesy of ‘P0pnfresh2002′, who is the first one I’ve heard of to assemble the newest “Connections” Puzzle #4, just released last week, and available at TDC Games. View photos of the fronts and backs, including the newest “c-codes” at Lostpedia.

Apparently, there’s a new clue on the back of #4 now, which reads in French:

Un Vis Classique, Chapitre et Vers

This apparently confirms that the “c-codes” (see Lostpedia entry) are indeed a chapter and verse cipher for some book, but which one? The Bible, Bad Twin and Our Mutual Friend have all been attempted, with no success. The confusing part is the “Vis” word, which doesn’t make much sense the way it is used, according to my French friend. Suggestions have been made that it could refer to A Turn of the Screw, or that “Vis” could have other meanings (such as Old French, vis, face). My own thought was maybe that it referred to the poetry book by Alfred de Musset, since these were the pages of French poetry that Locke drew his version of the blast door map recreation on.

Join in the mystery, and help us solve this puzzle… anyone have any ideas as to which book will decipher these hidden clues? Frenchy Florims and other native French readers, we’d love to hear your suggestions!

While waiting for the premiere of “Not in Portland”, Lost Blog reader Josh and his friends felt creative and created their own Dharma Initiative rations:

While waiting for tonight’s LOST party, we realized that normal food wasn’t gonna cut it tonight. We wanted to eat like Hurley and drink like Desmond, and thus was born the Lost Label Project - an effort to make our pantry look way more like this.

A few hours later, we’re proud to present to you the fruits of our labors - the Dharma Initiative Rations. We’ve got Beer (did you spot the Dharma-brand Merlot in last seasons finale?) Cola (just in case Walt comes back), Crisps (to consume alongside aforementioned beer), and Peanut Butter (It’s delicious). Not a bad lineup.

Over at Josh’s site you can look at more photos and best of all, download a PDF to create your own Dharma initiative rations.

This is the latest ad for Post-it in Chile.

Personally, I don’t think I would forget the numbers but I’m sure post-it notes could come in handy on the island. Maybe a few thousand of them could be used to built a tent or something.

Thanks to Alejandro for the tip

The Lost action figures are now in stores everywhere. If you are curious to find out how they look, you are in luck my friend, because photos of the plastic heroes have been published on the Internet by a dedicated fan.

Locke looks spot on, but the rest of the characters look a bit like, well, action figures. Except Shannon, she looks like a Barbie doll with more or less accurate body proportions.

Now you know exactly what you want for Christmas! Yay!

Here is your chance to meet LOST TV star Jorge Garcia (”Hurley”), Todd McFarlane and LOST executive producer Bryan Burk. Be among the first to purchase McFarlane Toys’ new action figures based on the ABC TV smash hit, and you will receive a ticket to a special Toys “R” Us Times Square autograph-signing event.

This exclusive LOST action figure signing will take place at the Toys “R” Us International flagship store in New York City on Monday, Nov. 6 from 3pm to 5pm. Autographs will be limited to LOST action figures.

Here’s how it works. To get a ticket for this event, customers must pre-order LOST’s “The Hatch” Boxed Set ($33.99) at Toys “R” Us Times Square from Personal Shopping on Level Three between 10am and 7pm starting Friday, Oct. 27. LOST’s “The Hatch” Boxed Sets will be available for pickup at the event for all ticket holders with a valid receipt. Due to high fan demand, tickets are expected to sell-out quickly!

More information at Spawn.com

Well, as some of you have noticed, LOST Season 2 DVDs became available on September 5. Unfortunately, I had preordered them, so had to wait for them to ship; I’ll admit I was tempted just to run out and buy them from a brick & mortar store! But I waited patiently, and today when they came, spent quite some time going through the fun extras in Disc 7, the Bonus DVD with extras.

To start off with, it has one of the most creative opening menus I’ve seen lately, with Dr. Candle directing you (the viewer) on your “mission”. The extras are thus divided into 3 “Phases”: “Observation” (1), “Conditioning” (2) and “Conclusion” (3).

The basic outline of the discs:

Phase 1:

Phase 2:

Phase 3

So far, I’ve gone through about 1/3 of the features (trying out this-and-that), and still no end in sight… but that’s a good thing. :) I think compared to the S1 DVDs, there was more thought put into this. I get the impression that they know what most fans are looking for now… a little hint of the “insider secrets”, and are giving us more to explore this round.

Read more below, but be forewarned that I do go into some small details about what is in the extra sections.

Possible Spoilers

The “Lost Connections” section takes some getting used to for navigating. I know a few people have mapped out most of the connections online… again, Lostpedia has a nice page on this. There’s been quite a bit of speculation on who the “Mysterious Waving Figure” is (shadowy figure in static) that connects Jack, Claire & Christian (leading back to this idea that Jack and Claire could be siblings).

Check also Lostpedia’s main S2 DVD page for all the Easter Eggs (hidden features that will only come out if you play around with the buttons of your remote a lot). For instance, when you register your DVD, you can press the “left” button of your remote until a Geronimo Jackson record pops out, and when you press “5″, you’ll hear the producers discussing the background of this fictional band.

My favorite part so far is probably the “Secrets from the Hatch” section. Probably because there has been so much speculation about Swan Station and its purposes since the beginning of Season 2, and now we get an inside look at how and why it was built (both as a set, and a conceptually, in the story). Damon Lindelof mentions an interesting metaphor that the Swan is like a “thumb” keeping a leak in a dam from getting through (that it was built to contain the electromagnetism since the Incident).

I’ve still yet to go through all the deleted scenes. There are little tidbits gleaned from those, such as that Rose tells Sun she had a daughter that passed away…whether anything can be made of them is anyone’s guess (since we don’t know why the production team cut them).

All in all, recommended if you are like me, and want to squeeze every bit of insight or hint that TPTB (”The Powers That Be”) are willing to drop. It certainly does help pass the time before October 4!

-Cecilia

Possible Spoilers

Last month, we first wrote about the Lost Jigsaw Puzzles here. There is a “Spoiler Warning” on the box that suggests it may have something which gives insight for future episodes, but I didn’t know if this was just a gimmick, so had forgotten about it.

Recently, someone by the name of P0pnfresh2002 emailed me with an interesting tip: there are glow-in-the-dark notations that can only be seen when the completed puzzle is carefully turned over; they can’t be seen under regular light. It appears that all four puzzles, when pieced together, form parts of the map seen in “Lockdown” on the blast door that comes down on Locke’s legs (the one Radzinsky and Kelvin Inman painted)… except there are new numbers and notes on it that we haven’t seen before because the door didn’t come all the way down. This is what P0pnfresh wrote it says on Pattern #1 (”The Hatch”) verbatum:

c12/1+3 c14/8 c21/9 c6/1 c2/5 c7/37 c6/1 c2/5
c21/9 c14/8 c18/5 c20/1+1 c12/1+3 c12/6+5 c12/2 c1/7
c7/8 c10/1+1 c8/2 c12/1+3
Arrow Station Primary Function: Restocking and staging area for DIHG
Possible terminal point for subterranean EEP tunnel network?
Final destination in case of code 42?
Hub of DIGH road system or other major route of overland travel
Possible manufacturing facility with light industrial equipment
Suspected shutdown date 10 28 84
c20/4 c11/2 c8/2+5 c2/7 c21/9
c18/3 c7/2 c11/3 c10/8 c8/2
c14/1 c3/1 c10/4 c9/2 c7/4+3 c1/5 c5/1 c7/37 c7/1 c10/8
c12/6+6 c14/8 c2/7 c1/13 c16/6+9 c9/2(or 1*)
c16/20 c20/1+1 c9/2 c12/2(or 1*) c14/8 c21/9 c 20(or 10*)/4 c8/8 c7/8
c2/5 c16/13 c20 (or 10*)/1+1 c10/1+2 c70*/4 c12/2
c14/1 c1/1 c9/2 c3/1 c5/1 c3/1+5 c15/1
c12/2 c6/1 c12/2 c14/1+3
Geological composition of rocks likely to cause magnetic disturbances interfere with weather forecasting project interference also prevents
*(I couldn’t tell if some numbers were 1s or 2s and if that was 70, it could be the handwriting or it could be that the glow in the dark was messed up.)

(more…)

Lost branches out once again with a new piece of merchandising:

Lost: The Board Game

Lost: The Board Game, designed by Keith Tralins and developed by MegaGigaOmniCorp, is a strategy game that puts players on the island in the roles of their favorite characters.

Read the full article on About.com HERE. Supposed to be available end of August in Target & Walmart stores.