Cartoon Crossover Trade Post: Future Quest Volume 1 & Lobo/Road Runner

Posted on by TJDietsch

A while back when DC announced their new line of comics based on classic Warner Bros.-owned comics, I was intrigued. You’ve got Scooby Apocalypse, Wacky Race Land, The Flinstones and, the one I was most excited about, Future Quest! Frankly, I was completely sold by the art above which features characters from Jonny Quest, The Herculoids, Space Ghost, Frankenstein Jr., The Impossibles, Birdman, Mightor and more. Even thought they all debuted and were cancelled decades before I was born, these shows meant a lot to me because of reruns hitting when I was a kid. I’m such a devoted fan that I didn’t allow myself to watch Space Ghost Coast To Coast or Harvey Birdman for a while because I didn’t know if they were being disrespectful or not! So, how did the first half of Future Quest hit me? Hit the jump and find out! Continue reading Cartoon Crossover Trade Post: Future Quest Volume 1 & Lobo/Road Runner

Toy Commercial Tuesday: M.A.S.K. Cars

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but M.A.S.K. may have been the perfect 80s toy line. Shrink down G.I. Joes and put them inside Transformers? Yeah, I’m on board that idea all day long. It’s been a while since I shined the spotlight on these rad 80s ads, but I was dazzled by the use of actual race cars in this one to sell toys! Back at my folks’ place, I have two duffle bags filled with these vehicles and after watching this spot, I want to dig them out! This reminds me that I should watch the animated series on DVD and also catch up on the IDW comic. I’m missing out on so much M.A.S.K. goodness!

Toy Commercial Tuesday: Spider-Man Spider Wars

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I’m returning to the well a bit with today’s Toy Commercial Tuesday. I’ve been writing about the Wall-Crawler a lot for Marvel.com lately and it reminded me how much I enjoyed the Toy Biz line in the 90s. So, having already covered the original line, Spider Force and even Web Splashers, I hope you enjoy this look at the Spider Wars line!

Of the figures shown in this spot I’ve got Hydro Man, Kingpin, Black Cat and Doctor Strange. Hey, since I have all of my toys here, I can now back that up with photographic proof and talk about them in a bit more detail!I still love the enormous Kingpin figure, Doc Strange and his bendy cape (it’s still in the garage somewhere) and, no kidding, everything about Hydro Man from his six pack to his water squirting action feature.

My daughter and I both like the look of the Black Cat figure, but she refuses to stand up. In fact, moments after snapping the picture, she and Kingpin both toppled over. The resulting pile is NSFW. I remember seeing that crazy Cyber Spider-Man and the Doppleganger figure in stores, but they didn’t really appeal to me. I do give Toy Biz credit for coming up with interesting takes on their lead character, though.

We Want Action: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

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teenage mutant ninja turtles posterI know it’s in vogue to just automatically dislike any new take on beloved childhood icons, but I don’t have the energy for hating things I haven’t actually experienced. As such, I took the Michael Bay-produced, Jonathan Liebesman-directed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie from a few years back with a grain of salt. I had to cover a lot of the pre-release outrage for Spinoff back when it all happened and yet still decided to give it a watch on On Demand recently. Continue reading We Want Action: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

Book Report: Ready Player One By Ernest Cline

Posted on by TJDietsch

You wouldn’t know it to look at the blog here, but I’ve been reading a LOT lately. I’m working on a few posts that will cover my experiences reading Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lecter books while I also watched the series Hannibal and then the films, but they’re not ready yet. However, after finishing the book Hannibal, I found myself not wanting to get into Hannibal Rising, but still needed something to read. A buddy had just recommended Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One from 2011 and I figured why not? I really enjoyed the book, but a few things stuck with me in different ways. Continue reading Book Report: Ready Player One By Ernest Cline

Toy Commercial Tuesday: Children’s Palace Ghostbusters

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMQKd8n9lFs%5D

As you can probably tell between last week’s TCT and this one, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole on YouTube looking at various Children’s Palace ads. This was my local toy store as a kid. There’s a Best Buy where it used to be, another place I spent a lot of money when still kicking around Toledo. The Ghostbusters are just the best.

Toy Commercial Tuesday: GI Joe Mega Marines

Posted on by TJDietsch

It seems pretty clear that Hasbro was desperately grasping for ways to make kids want to buy G.I. Joe toys in the mid 90s. At one point they went with awesome live action commercials then switched gears from the war on drugs thing to neon ninjas to the environment to monsters!

According to the fantastic YoJoe.com, Dr. Mindbender whipped up Mega Monsters Bio-Viper and Monstro-Viper to take on the Mega Marines who have moldable armor in the form of Play-Doh. The monsters look rad, but the idea of putting play clay on my figures sounds super-messy now. My kids love Play-Doh and I’ve seen how hard it can be to get the hardened stuff out of crevices and whatnot! Jeez, I sound old.

Anyway, I though this would be a good way to kick of TCTs for October as I love bonkers mash-ups like this! Enjoy and come back for hopefully-maybe daily posts leading up to Halloween.

Toy Commercial Tuesday: Star Wars Droids

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I still think it’s amazing that, back in the 80s, it was standard practice to simultaneously launch a comic book along with a cartoon/toy line. These days, comic book characters are bigger than ever, but I’m not so sure that reflects back on the medium itself, but back then it was assumed that kids would want to plunk down the money they didn’t spend on toys on a monthly comic to fill out the story.

Just today, I wrote a post for Marvel.com about the tie-in comic for Star Wars Droids as part of my weekly Star Wars Spotlight column. While researching, I was reminded that the Kenner toys based on this short-lived cartoon were actually pretty rare so this will probably the most I ever see of them. It’s too bad because those vehicles sure look cool!

DC Trade Post: Sensation Comics Volume 1, Mad Love & A Few Others

Posted on by TJDietsch

I found myself with another pile of trades from the library recently and figured I’d write about all four of them. Two of the experiences were great, the others? Not so much. Let’s start with the good!

sensation comics vol 1I’m a big proponent of anthologies in comics. At their best, they’re a great way to both test new talent and also give those with a lot more experience the chance to write or draw a character they don’t otherwise get to spend much time with. Sensation Comics Volume 1 does both and to great effect. This is one of DC’s digital-first books that allows creators to just go wild telling whatever kind of Wonder Woman story they want to from any of her many eras. It was nice to see the pre-New 52 costume so many times for this fan of that bygone era! Continue reading DC Trade Post: Sensation Comics Volume 1, Mad Love & A Few Others

Toy Commercial Tuesday: The 12-inch Talking Cryptkeeper

Posted on by TJDietsch

I was pretty excited to hear that TNT is working on a new Tales From The Crypt series produced by M. Night Shyamalan. That show was a huge deal to me as a kid watching the edited versions that would show on my local Fox network. As a kid who had zero interest in horror at the time, it was my first real foray into the genre and I still love it even if it’s a bit over the top (and very 90s) to these days.

It seemed like the perfect time to talk about some of the TFTC toys that came out from that era when this show really took off. Here you can see the Ace 12-inch Cryptkeeper based on the cartoon that was based on the HBO show. I remember seeing these and the more traditional action figures around when I was a kid, but never got any of them. I would definitely drop some coin on this guy if I saw him at a flea market or yard sale, today though.