Friday, February 15, 2013

Not Your Father's Action Figures

In 1978 a little toy company called Kenner began selling a line of action figures based on one of the biggest box office hits of the time, known then simply as Star Wars. At the time, the figures represented the state of the art in miniatures featuring movable limbs and heads and boasted an arsenal of tiny little blasters and light-sabers available for waging intragalactic war. In time, other action figures from competing toy franchises eventually hit the scene, such as G.I. Joe,  which featured more points of articulation, more artistic detail and better "extras," however, because they were ultimately being sold as children's toys, the craftsmanship of most 1980s action figures was not up to the calibur demanded by serious collectors (read: kids that never grew up). Now, current Star Wars toy licensee, Hasbro, has decided to answer that market demand with the introduction of its new Star Wars: The Black Series six-inch scale action figures.

Then and now




Slightly larger than their distant Kenner cousins, the Black Series figures feature top-notch sculpting and detailing, previously unavailable to the Star Wars toy market, along with expertly crafted accessories that match their movie counterparts perfectly. Finally you can recreate your favorite scenes from the Star Wars films without having to squint to make Luke look less like a generic toy as the Black Series figures look as much like the actors who portrayed them on screen as is physically possible on such a small scale. While the original Kenner series action figures cost anywhere from $1.50 to five dollars, and the current line of Star Wars dudes chime in at about nine bucks each, the Black Series will set you back a whopping $20 per figure. Hasbro is said to be showing off the new line at the massive annual TIA Toy Fair in New York this weekend. Let's keep our fingers crossed and wallets at the ready!


Sunday, February 3, 2013

Star Trek: The Television Series

J.J. Abrams, the creator of such excrement films as Cloverfield and Super 8 as well as the brains behind the recent Star Trek movies, has, as many of you already know, been charged with the task of finishing off George Lucas' zillion-dollar space-baby, Star Wars, with episodes 7, 8 and 9 starting in 2015 or something like that. (Whew! That's a lot of links!) Well lately, Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy, American Dad) has been showing a lot of love for the classic 80s/90s TV show, Star Trek: The Next Generation (ST:TNG). He's made no secret of his fan status and has repeatedly stated that he would enjoy taking a shot at rebooting the classic sci-fi show for television. Most recently, Seth appeared in one of the documentaries included on the new TNG Blu-ray releases, and a few years back, he actually managed to reassemble the entire main cast for a special episode of Family Guy, in which Stewie builds a transporter and kidnaps Picard and company, which was a wet dream for any classic Trek fan. Check out this video featuring a montage of clips from the show and Seth himself talking about the possibility of his vision of Trek coming to the small screen.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Superbowl Retro-Mercials

Hey cats and kitties! With the big game coming up tomorrow I figured I'd post some classic Superbowl commercials of yesteryear. Oddly most of them seem to be for soft drinks.  Enjoy and gooooo Patriots! What, they're not playing this year?! Fine. Gooooo Green Bay! WHAT?!























Friday, February 1, 2013

Spaceport Madness


Training videos, they're a part of every kid's summer job nightmare. When I was a kid, I used to think working at an arcade would effing rock and as a "grown-up" I still did...until I saw these employee training videos from the long defunct mall arcade chain, Spaceport. They absolutely reek of the early 80s and should give you a good chuckle to help start off your weekend. Enjoy.

Part 1



Part 2