Friday, August 12, 2005

Free Prize inside!



The other day while buying groceries I had a coupon, buy 4 Kelloggs cereals for the price of 3 (or something like that) and since I hadn't had Rice Krispies or Frosted Flakes in awhile, I bought a few. I noticed that they're having a Disney promotion. Inside marked boxes are these "wobblers". They're pretty sturdy stuff, and at 3" by 1.5" pretty damn big. The kicker is that there are 50 in the whole set!!!
Yowza.



I'm not looking to collect them but I wonder, what are the odds, how many boxes would it take before I would get a double? Here I have 5 out of 5. (oh and you'll notice that they include Pixar characters, though I don't think The Incredibles are in the group.)

Happy Birthday! (8/12/05)



He was my least favorite Stooge, portraying the drab named "Joe" in the Stooge shorts after the death of Shemp. BUT- he did portray the annoying, pain-in-the-ass "Stinky Davis" in the excellent 1950's TV series, The Abbott and Costello Show (so I guess that makes up for his lousy Stooge shorts).

Here's a "Oh, you'll get such a pinch" Happy Birthday to...
JOE BESSER!

Babu from the '73 cartoon Jeannie would have been
98 today.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

"Remove Funnybone..."



"Ha, Ha, Ha"
Or something like that. I think that's how the old Operation TV Commercial went.

I needed some reference for work, so the other day I stopped in at Toys 'R' Us. I hadn't been at TRU in quite some time. Back when I was buying tons of "Simpsacrap" I used to go there regularly, but since I've just about ran out of space in my Toy Room I only get there once every few weeks.

Besides checking out all the stuff at the Action Figure aisles (some cool Justice League Unlimited figures and a talking Thing doll from the Fantastic Four movie) when I got to the board game section, I noticed a sorry trend. (and I don't mean the game Sorry)

There's been a lot written about the sorry state of American films these days. Besides all the usual sequels we've been flooded with horrible TV Show adaptations and even more horrible, unnecessary remakes of classic movies. Well, something similar has been happening at your local Toy Store.

Nearly every board game I saw were remakes (or more apt, reformatted) of classic games.
For years one version of Monoply
was enough. Now we have Star Wars Monoply, Lord of the Rings Monoply, Marvel Comics Monoply, etc... There must have been at least 10 different versions of that one game alone!

Monoply wasn't the only board game to be bastardized. There were a plethora of Clue versions, The Game of Life versions and a TON of Trivial Pursuit games!!!! At least three full shelves filled with a multitude of versions of the same exact game!

Whatever happened to, you know, NEW ORIGINAL STUFF!!!!!

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I will mention that I did see a remake of a game that actually made some weird kind of sense. They've remade Operation, the old "shocking" body parts removal game by Simpsonizing it.



And damn it if it doesn't work! The image of Homer in his briefs seems like it was made for that game.

OK, so I'm being a bit hypocritical here. After getting ticked off at the lack of originality by the game makers I'm actually heralding a non original game. It still ticks me off that we've come to this, milking whatever life is left from existing ideas rather than come up with new ones, but you know if I was still working at Hasbro I think pushing a new version of the popular marble eating game could be kind of cool.

I could see it now, "Hungry, Hungry Homers"!

Happy Birthday! (8/11/05)



I always like announcing a Birthday of a cartoonist or comic artist, since In my humble opinion, they don't get nearly enough accolades as they should. Today's recipient was a long time friend of Beetle Baily
creator Mort Walker and wrote and penned not one, but two comic strips.

Here's a Boners Ark Happy Birthday to...
DIK BROWNE!

The daddy of Hagar the Horrible
would have been 82 today.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Fun Gum!!



Since I'm constantly working on new candy and gum products and packaging my office here at work is filled not only with my companies products but with the competitors' stuff as well. I've meant to post some of these before and late this afternoon caught myself looking at some of the cooler fun ones (again), so here are a few.

These are small, rectangle packs from Blue Q. Blue Q is a small company from Pittsfield, Massachusetts that makes fun magnets, stickers and other cool novelties.

* - Above right is a pack of Cat Butt Gum.

* - Here's a pack of Ex-Boyfriend Gum:



* - Here's a pack of Fugidaboudit Gum:



Check out Blue Q's site and check out all their other cool stuff.

(and I get no kick back whatsoever)

Happy Birthday! (8/3/05)



His face may not look familiar and his name may be somewhat vague but he was responsible for many sit-coms in the early 70's both as producer ( Welcome Back Kotter and Love American Style) executive producer ( Chico and the Man) and as a supporting actor (The Courtship of Eddies Father).

Here's an obscure actor/producer Happy Birthday to.....
JAMES KOMACK!

The director of Porky's Revenge would have been 81 today.
(if he wasn't dead)

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Looks like a "Giant Pickle" to me.



Amongst the advantages of living here in the north east are all the medium to small towns that have minor league baseball teams. All along the north east corridor are towns like Trenton, Kinston, Erie, Durham, Camden, Atlantic City, etc... that aren't huge but are big enough to house these Single, Double and Triple A teams.

Before you say "but I don't like baseball" (perish forbid) you don't even have to like the sport to attend these games. Though the rosters are filled with unknowns, young stars and players at the end of their careers these small franchises do as much as they can to keep the crowds entertained.

This past weekend I ventured south to Wilmington, Delaware (about 40 minutes away) and attended a Wilmington Blue Rocks game. The team plays in a small, relatively new ballpark (Frawley Stadium) in the town's River District.

When you go to any of these minor league games you're usually assured of coming home with some sort of souvenir. Whether it's a freebie that they give before the game starts (this night for example they were giving "magnetic picture frames" sponsored by "Happy Harry's Drug Stores"), a foul ball (I missed two that night) or a t-shirt fired from a cannon (shot by the team's mascot, "Rocky Bullwinkle" a large blue moose) you get more than just a ball game.

And for those of you out there who are always complaining how there never seems to be anyplace to take your kids to, these places really cater to the family. Between every half inning there are prizes, games and contests that keep the crowd entertained. (In fact sometimes you may forget that there's even a ball game going on.)

As I mentioned before the Blue Rocks mascot is a giant Moose. OK, I guess I can buy that. And on many of their merchandise, as part of their logo, is a cool little blue rock character, holding a pick named "Rubble".




Alright, the team's name are Bluerocks, so that makes sense.

But for the life of me, I have no idea why, but every time the Blue Rocks score a run, a giant, psychotic, piece of celery (named- what else, Mr. Celery) runs out on the field.

?????

So if you're looking for some place different to go to, as the summer winds down, and you don't want to spend a lot of money, you can't go wrong by seeking out one of these small town ballparks and enjoying a night watching minor league baseball.

After all, where else could you eat a funnel cake, while dodging gun-fired T-Shirts and watching a large, crazed vegetable cavort about?

Happy Birthday! (8/2/05)



Not much of a large resume for this guy, but since he probably appears in just about every Toy and Collectable Show in America each year he sure knows how to milk his only claim to fame.

Here's a Wolf-Wolf Happy Birthday to.....
BUTCH PATRICK!

The star of Lidsville is 52 today.

Monday, August 01, 2005

Happy Birthday! (8/1/05)



Before this rotund fellow was mostly known as Burt Reynolds fat, laughing sidekick, he'd had a pretty decent career appearing in Mel Brooks films ( The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles and Silent Movie) and even had a his own short lived sit-com, "Lotsa Luck" in the early 70's.

So here's a "French Mistake" Happy Birthday to.....
DOM DELUISE!

The author of "Eat This!" is 72 today.