Olympics Fever!

It's the end of July, and as promised, here's the Kool-Aid Man comic I've been teasing.

Behold: The Adventures of Kool-Aid Man #2! What's so special about this issue? Well, for one, it was one of the comics that you could only get by sending away Kool-Aid points back in the 80s.

But it's also the comic where this panel comes from:

It was from a time travel story where The Thirsties steal a time machine to stop the Boston Tea Party. More on that it would leave everyone thirsty, and less preventing one of the first shots of the American Revolution. 

Here is the whole page:

According to Jim Salicrup (the writer), the Ben Franklin cameo was just a fun Easter Egg he tossed in.

The next page is just as crazy.

And this is just nuts to see. Kool-Aid Man riding a horse to make Paul Revere's ride to warn everyone about The Thirsties.

After all is said and done, Kool-Aid Man beats up the Thirsties, they travel back to the present, the 4th of July picnic is saved. There's a second story where the Thirsties invade a campsite, but again, Kool-Aid Man just beats them up and everyone drinks of his life juice. And there's two other issues in the Marvel run, and SIX with Archie.

I'll share those another time. But now for this month's topic: It's the Olympics again!

It's been a while since I posted about the Olympic Mascots...SIXTEEN YEARS AGO?! So much has happened since then. The 2020 Olympics were held in Tokyo in 2021, thus averting the timeline shown in Akira.

As I noted in the December 2020 entry, Izzy's Quest For Olympic Gold had been found!

And then there were the mascots. Tokyo's were actually pretty cool.

Meet Miraitowa and Someity, the mascots of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, respectively. Of course it was a given that Japan, the country that perfected mascots, were gonna create some of the best ones I've seen. As the story goes, their designs were based on their respective logos, while Someity's colors were based on cherry blossoms.

So what are the mascots for the current Paris Olympics? I honestly forgot. So a quick Google later...

Meet The Phyrges. They're anthropomorphic Phyrgian hats, nothing too special about them. If they look familiar, you're not alone.

They're more recognizable here in the States as Smurf hats, particularly the red one worn by Papa Smurf.

And just for funsies, let's catch up on the mascots for the Olympics I hadn't covered since then.

Here's 2016 Rio's mascots: Vinicius and Tom. Vinicius represents Brazil's wildlife, while Tom represents Brazil's forests. They're named after Vinicius de Moraes and Tom Jobim, the co-writers of "The Girl From Ipanema."

If they look like they stepped out of Brazilian Adventure Time, you'd be right. They had their own cartoons that aired on Cartoon Network Brazil, and as they say, as was the style at the time.

And here are 2012 London's mascots:

Wenlock and Mandeville, the Olympics and Paralympics mascots. I noted in the 2008 entry that a lot of mascots were oddly phallic, and these two were no exception. At least the trend stopped after these guys.

As their story goes, their bodies are made from the last girder that built the Olympic stadium, and they're made out of "highly polished steel allowing them to reflect the personalities and appearances of the people they meet." Their eyes are cameras, and the yellow lights on their heads symbolize the ones found on London taxis.

I'm just going off Wikipedia, people. Let's move on to the Winter Olympics mascots.

These are 2014 Sochi's mascots, "Leopard," "Hare," and "Polar Bear." I've mentioned before that the Winter Olympics mascots aren't nearly as impressive or creative as their summer counterparts.

The fake mascot the Simpsons created, Fatov, was way more creative and should've been the real mascot.

It's so creepy, but I love how it's just the lower half of Homer's face turned upside-down. 

The Paralympics mascots had a bit more thought put into them. These are "Snowflake" and "Ray of Light." I bet all these names sound more creative in Russian.

Okay, these are more like it. These are 2018 Pyongchang's mascots: Soohorang and Bandabi. A neat looking snow leopard and black bear.

And finally, coming full circle are 2022 Beijing's mascots Bing Dwen Dwen and Shuey Rhon Rhon. A friendly Panda and a Chinese Lantern, respectively.

Since we're still in the midst of the current games, the mascots for the next two games: 2026 Milan & Cortina d'Ampezzo and 2028 Los Angeles haven't been revealed yet. At the rate I'm going, I'll update this post again in 2040.

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Leap Day Sweet Sixteen!

 Can you believe this blog has been around for SIXTEEN years?!

The first posts went live on February 27th and 28th 2008. For whatever reason, I never posted on the 29th that year. Nor the next time in 2012. But I've posted on the 29th every time after that.

As the internet landscape has changed so much over the years, I nevertheless still manage to post here once a month, every month. I'm grateful for anyone still reading this site.

But I can't let this Leap Day go without acknowledging the death of Richard Lewis.

Comedians joking about death is nothing new, and Richard Lewis is a guy that's talked about dying for as long as I've been alive. Still feels weird to actually see it happen. He hadn't been doing too well with Parkinson's lately, and a heart attack is what does him in?!

Richard Lewis was never one of the biggest comedians, but he is one of the most well known. Neurotic Jewish Man was his niche, and boy did he ride it. You needed that type of guy, you called him up and he came running.

He was even the neurotic Jewish spokesman for Boku, and the commercial is painfully 90s. It's incredible.

And Total cereal!

It made him the best kind of foil for Larry David, especially the exaggerated versions of themselves on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Hell, he was just in an episode last week talking about leaving something for Larry in his will!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJcI1Shd75A

Blogger won't let me manually embed youtube videos anymore if I the little search bar can't find it, but I assure you it's hilarious. 

He will be missed. I hope you left Larry something good.

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Come On Down!

This past week we lost the legendary Bob Barker.

He came as close to 100 as he could without going over. (Yeah, yeah, I'm not the first one to make this.)

To folks of a certain generation (ie, anyone older than 25), The Price is Right was synonymous with sick days and summer vacation. It certainly was for me. My grandma and I would watch him all the time. He was old in the 90s, and he managed to outlive Nana by 13 years. It's still crazy to think about.

Day in, day out, you'd hope that they'd play Plinko.

Or, barring that, Cliffhanger.

But usually they'd play High or Low or that golf game and I'd tune out until it was time for the old ladies and college students to spin the big wheel.

And we can't talk about Bob Barker without mentioning his appearances in Futurama

and Happy Gilmore.

He was also a filthy old man that harassed his Barker's Beauties, so he wasn't leaving behind a stellar personal life.

But with that out of the way, some positive stuff!

I met a duck! Well, not just any duck, it was Wrinkle The Instagram Duck! You might know her as the duck that ran the NYC marathon.

This was at a small convention called LI Tropic Con a couple of weeks ago. I had no idea they were even gonna be there!

I might've been a little too excited to get a picture with her. I even got to pet her! She was really soft.

I also got to see a real Kid's Choice Award. I did not pay the thirty bucks to pose with it. It was a bit steep to cross off "hold a Kid's Choice Award" off the bucket list.

I also met Matt Hill, the voice of Ed from Ed, Edd n Eddy! He was real nice and surprisingly cheap (only twenty chickens!) His Ed voice is not too far off from his real one, either, and kept talking in that voice. I got to talk to him about Captain N and Cartoon All Stars to The Rescue.

And finally, I managed to fill up my pin board! And this isn't all of my pins. There's still the ones that hang on my NYCC lanyard, plus a few more I couldn't fit on this one. So that means a trip to Michael's to buy a new pin board is coming soon.

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Tribute to Tracy

 It's the end of January once again, so you know what that means!

NATIONAL GORILLA SUIT DAY!!

I figure that since this month would have been Larry Storch's 100th birthday, today would be a nice time to pay tribute to one of his former co-stars.

Tracy The Gorilla from Filmation's The Ghost Busters! 

Yes, predating the more famous movie by quite a few years, this sitcom ran for a single season back in 1975 and starred Larry Storch (Eddie Spencer) and Forrest Tucker (Jake Kong).

Tracy himself was "trained" by Bob Burns, but we all know that's just showbiz talk for being in the suit.

In a sense, the show was pretty much a low budget Scooby-Doo by way of actors from F-Troop and a gorilla sidekick. The boys get an assignment to go hunt down a guy in a monster costume, they zap it away, mild laughs would be had. Repeat.

It was for this reason was why that other Ghostbusters Saturday morning show had to call itself "The REAL Ghostbusters."

By the way, Filmation Ghostbusters also had a Saturday morning cartoon in 1986, to compete with the other one.

It had a slightly better budget, and it looks as well as it could for 1986 Filmation standards. 

This version starred the sons of Spencer and Kong, along with Tracy and a girl from the future named Futura as they battled Prime Evil and his horde of ghost henchmen/action figures.

It also ran for a single season, sadly. But back then "one season" lasted 65 episodes.

But we'll always have the toys. Tracy still stands watch over my figure collection to this day.

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Some New Stuff!

July is done, and somehow it was just as stressful as June!

Granted, I didn't get any new flat tires this month, so that was a plus. Not a big plus, but a plus nonetheless.

First thing's first: I got yet another cel in the mail this month.

This one is great. It's a cel from that one Fruity Pebbles commercial where Barney pretended to be a rapper.

The pose in the cel appears about three seconds in. For you youngins out there, there was a period in the late 80's and early 90's where every type of media was legally required to feature someone rapping, and cereal commercials were no exception.

Sesame Street got in the act, too. And it seems that both Barney and Cookie Monster took their fashion choice from Run DMC. The boys had taste.

I'm not gonna lie, this is probably the most well known Fruity Pebbles commercial after the Christmas one.

Barney FINALLY got to have a bowl of cereal! Kids today have no idea how monumental this was.

From that, let's move on to snacks.

I finally found some of the new Dunkaroos! I missed this the first go around as I wasn't much of a snacker back in the day. I'm still not, but I had to indulge just this once.

My verdict is...it's fine. Not bad, but nothing too special, either. If you wanted to dip tiny wafers into cupcake frosting, this is the treat for you. I honestly expected more out of the two bucks I paid for it, and THAT felt like highway robbery.

Besides all that, July wasn't much of anything to note. We still got the Covid lingering around, and there's not much else to do or go to. I've lost my patience for this month ages ago, and the sooner I get done talking about this July, the sooner we can all move on.

If there's an August, I'll check in with you guys again.

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Still a Toys R Us Kid

We've all seen the news: Toys R Us officially closed for business (at least in the states) yesterday, June 29th, 2018.

I think we've all seen the famous picture by now and whoever took this picture lacks a soul. I'm sure they had good intentions, and I know that TRU is planning a comeback, but they knew this was gonna go viral.

This is the one I went to on Thursday, in Carle Place. My attitude since then was like Milhouse right here:

So what was left in that giant store with one day left in business?

Not much, I'm afraid. Literal crap in baskets. This is the only picture I took inside because the rest of the store looked this empty, and also it was too depressing. If anyone wanted the Duck Dynasty game for PS4, the store still had half a dozen copies in what was left of the video game section.

I did, however, not leave the store empty handed.

I don't even know if I actually have this amiibo (not likely), but I liberated it from the store for two bucks and change.

Someone asked me if I walked away with this poster, but I'm sure that some employee already had dibs on it. I'd like this to go to someone who actually worked for the company. If this store had handbaskets with the logo on them, they were long gone, not to mention I wasn't able to haul one of the shopping carts home with me.

My childhood store was this one, in Massapequa.

So many memories in that store. I know I bought my SNES there, among many, many other toys.

The last toy I bought there was this Funko Pop of Sprocket from Fraggle Rock, knowing (correctly) that I wouldn't get a chance to get one once the actual clearance sales started. It sucks knowing that TRU is one less trusted Funko retailer, and that its exclusives (usually the Teen Titans Go line) have either become commons or went off to other companies. Also, yeah, it's stacked with a few of the rarer Pops that I have, be jealous.

But enough of the depressing present. Let's look back at some fond memories, shall we?

Remember Geoffrey Money? Yes kids, before gift cards were the norm, Toys R Us gift certificates came in the form of actual dollar bills. To teach kids how actual money worked, we were given this fake money that was only good at one store to spend at our leisure. Every birthday and Christmas I looked forward to getting cards stuffed with these, and I swore off any relatives that decided to get me something else instead (that weren't already toys or the like, of course). I was seriously bummed when this got phased out, but I know it was for the best. If you lost even one of the bills, there was no getting it back. I wish I saved at least one of them for posterity, though. I can always assume a trip to eBay would indulge me, but I'm afraid to look what the asking price is for one these days.

On that note, Kids R Us used to be a thing, too. I don't have much nostalgia or a lot of fond childhood memories for this place. For those not in the know, this was Toys R Us' foray into kids clothing stores, and were usually situated near other Toys R Us, much like how Babies R Us stores were usually nearby to the mothership.

Because if there's nothing kids love more than toys, it's being forced to shop for clothes with mom! It could really explain why most of them closed down in the late nineties, with the last of them shuttering in 2004. Before empty storefronts were as depressingly common as they are now, my association with dead stores were Kids R Uses that closed twenty years ago and still remain empty to this day. Well, it's not true. Out of the The two I knew of, one stayed vacant for years before Circuit City took it over, and when THAT closed, it stayed empty again until an Aldis moved in about three years back; the other was under a Bally's Fitness and when it closed in the late 90s, stayed empty until the gym finally took it over about a year or two ago. Both were host to Spirit Halloween stores on and off for a few years, but seeing nothing in that space for most of your life really stays with you.

Before Geoffrey became that cartoony giraffe, he used to look like this:

He's got my vote. Geoffrey actually had a number of looks over the years.

The 1988-1999 versions are what I remember the most. I was not a fan of that freaky live-action giraffe. All I remember from that era is this one commercial:

And Geoffrey used to have a family!

In case you're wondering, the wife is Gigi, the son is Geoffrey Jr., and the daughter is Baby Gee. They got phased out over the nineties, but most old stores still had them plastered everywhere well into the last decade. Newer versions of Geoffrey made him a swinging bachelor, the fools.

And who could forget how you bought video games back in the day? You took a slip for whatever you wanted, then brought it over to the window in the corner of the store and then the guy went through that dungeon and brought out your copy of Donkey Kong Country. I was both scared and really intrigued by that little window.  It's a shame that the video game section became open air by the time I could drive myself to these places. You could actually SEE all those games behind the glass case, but it wasn't the same.

And I REALLY miss when aisles looked like this. The 80s/early 90s was a magical time, long before three toy companies owned everything and kids actually BOUGHT toys. It's so stuffed with toys, I love it! It's a shame I can't find any pictures of the old school Transformers section, but it looked exactly like this.

Farewell, Toys R Us. We'll always have the commercials.

The reason why I refused to grow up was I always wanted to remain a Toys R Us kid. I may be growing older, but I'll always be a Toys R Us kid...

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Flea Market Finds - May 2016 Edition!

Flea Market season is upon us once again, so last week I went down to the Bellmore Train Station once again for their weekly flea market. This time, however, I ended up arriving around 12:30, a bit late in the day. It didn't help that it started to drizzle, which was a fine prompt for vendors starting to quickly pack up as soon as I got there. I thought all the good stuff would be gone, but I was wrong. I was so happy to be wrong.

I might be burying the lede here and I might be using hyperbole but this was by far one of the best things I have ever found at this flea market. The famous Rappin' Rodney album! Back in the day, rap was the new music thing, and old fogies that tried desperately to be hip to the kids attempted to insert raps whenever and wherever they could. The most well known of these fogies to dip their toes into this craze was Rodney Dangerfield.

Even in the rap game he gets no respect. If you've been following this blog, you'll know my weakness for silly novelty albums, and this is as novelty as they come. Here's the back.

As much as I'd like to find out what "Rodney Continues Rappin'" sounds like, I had to leave the album there. I don't collect vinyl and even if I did I don't have anything to play it on. You have my permission to act disappointed in me.

Oh crap, vintage cereal boxes! Just the boxes. If I were to pay the 35 bucks for the C-3PO's, I wanted to make sure the hideously stale cereal came with it.

Same goes for this fifty year old box of Variety cereal. I'm actually amazed that the little boy on the box was letting his sister play with that model racer. Seemed pretty progressive for its time.

Everyone was into the POG scene back in the day, and it seems that Michael Jordan was no exception. I was never a fan of officially licensed pogs, I was always more partial to random nameless ones like these: 

Like these. Sadly, this is not my personal collection. Hell, I don't even know what happened to all of mine. For all I know they're all in some storage bin in one of my closets. 

It's even lamer for some officially company (in this case Topps) to try their best to create their own rules out of the classic "stack them all up, then slam them with a slammer and you keep whichever ones land face up" game that nobody really played to begin with.

This was a cool looking wastebasket. If I didn't already own a wastebasket...

Own a set of old, plastic Mounties! Yeah, I don't know why I took a picture of these. Maybe because finding anything to related to Mounties in the states is enough to stick out?

A kid bed that doubles as a tiger cage! At least I think it's for kids. No matter who sleeps in that, I guarantee that they'll be uncomfortable in it.

This booth was full of cool, vintage Batman stuff. Unfortunately it all looks like it's seen better days. Such is the gamble of the flea market.

See, here are those political campaign buttons I keep telling you guys about! Losers and everything! I'm actually sad that I'm just now paying close attention to this set, because there's some pretty old ones here, like ones for Taft and Coolidge and Woodrow Wilson. And you can't forget famous losers like Goldwater, Dewey, but no Ben Carson just yet. Stay tuned.

Above those buttons were some pretty rare vintage buttons for old comic strip characters that no one remembers! Maybe Gasoline Alley? Dick Tracy? Thimble Theater? I know that I see Little Orphan Annie's style in a bunch of them. I'll admit I was drawn to that rebellious "Dracula Sucks" button.

That sane booth had loads of old vintage stuff that once again I'll admit to paying attention to the wrong items. I'm sure I was drawn to the awesome vintage Batman cards, but look at those funky rings! You gotta zoom in, but there's something for everyone: Three Stooges! Howdy Doody! Mickey Mouse Club! JFK! Elvis! I even spy ones for Soupy Sales (kids show host from back in the day), McDonalds, even something for the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.

Something that really caught my eye was in this picture. No, not the $30 Schmoo on the right. If you're wondering what that is, Schmoos are characters from an old comic strip called Lil Abner. They were white blobs that were meant to be "all purpose animals." They were docile so they could be kept as pets, but every part of their body was useful. They dropped dead when you looked at them with hunger (yeah), and being boneless you could cook it for a hearty meal. Or you could cut the skin to use for shoe leather, or use their eyes for buttons. And for some reason they were cute enough to become cultural sensations, essentially on the same level of fame as Snoopy or Garfield. This is all real folks. All from a comic strip about a simple hillbilly town.

What I was interested in was that set of little Marx figures of various Disney characters from what I'm assuming was the fifties (note the Sleeping Beauty castle in the corner). Not only are the character choices odd (The Master? From Dumbo? Seriously?), the colors are all off. Back then nobody really cared about screen accuracy, and you weren't gonna complain about having the only physical figure of Panchito from Three Caballeros (I know I would've). But at $125? I'm gonna say no to that.

Mr. Peanut stuff! All stuffed into a box for easy pickings! As far as food mascots go, Mr. Peanut is pretty far down my most wanted list, but all that merch in one place is interesting enough.

When your establishment had to get red of cigarette ads, I guess this Mr. Peanut light was a sufficient replacement.

If this wasn't already dead, I'd swear that it's giving me the kind if look that'd be begging me to put it out of its misery.

Propaganda from when Hitler was just the crazy German guy with the silly mustache and before we found out about all the atrocities was just plain silly. I honestly would've gotten it but it was too rusty. Yeah, that and I really don't want to explain owning that. This is coming from someone that has a signed print of Discord from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic framed and hanging on their bedroom wall for all to see.

Let's move on.

Never even knew they made Heroclix of various SNL characters. Couldn't have been from no later than 1999, they have the Ladies Man and Mango there among the Coneheads and Land Shark.

Now here's one of the most unusual things I found that day. A windup sightseeing cart from the Wildwood Boardwalk. How a little thing from Wildwood New Jersey ended up in a box of old Hot Wheels at a flea market in New York is a mystery that I'm not gonna solve, all I do know is that it came home with me.

And here's the other things I bought. You folks are probably aware of my other weakness for weird Hot Wheels cars, and I couldn't turn down a toilet car. Every time I think I find the weirdest car Hot Wheels ever made, I come upon Hot Seat. It's from a few years ago, so the blister pack isn't in perfect condition but frankly I didn't care.

I also found a tiny bendable figure of one of my favorite advertising mascots ever: the 7Up Cool Spot! Yes, I hold this guy higher on my most wanted list higher than Mr. Peanut. Much higher. For one, I never thought I'd find a little figure of this guy. Now I imagine it coming to life Toy Story style to mess with my non-7UP sodas when I'm not around.

I love these guys. All in all this entire trip cost $3.50. Not too bad if I may say so.

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