5/31/11

Acme Ray Gun...er I mean ray gun-PEN!




Yes, the classic acme ray gun seen used by such classic looney tunes characters like Marvin The Martian or the ever lovable Duck Dodgers ,is now available in pen form!  Well its not exactly as seen on all the shows but the second you look at it all you can think of is a retro cartoon ray gun
The Acme Ray Gun Pen can be yours for the not so Low price of $129.95!! (I know right, but if I had 130 bucks to burn I would consider it.)


to check out the store selling this beauty hit here.  For those who prefer you ray guns in paper form here is my favorite paper craft from the creators of the great venture brothers follow the link for the paper craft :

click for the papercraft

( I know I said I'd post regularly on the weekends but right now in order to get more availablity through search engines and lack of viewers I will post randomly throughout the week but the larger number of post will be on the weekend)

5/29/11

Nos Shock! Pepsi brought back there old cans

Though I am looking forward to Pepsi making the Back to the future Pepsi , They have however brought back this nostalgia lovers pepsi in a new/old way. Pepsi Throwback   where they brought back real sugar (?) isntead of the high-fructose corn syrup  they do now. With this change they also brought back the old look to the cans (with the exception of the word throwback). Still its great to see and brings back alot of memories, I havent tried it or bought any yet and I guess it was available in the states already but its here in canada now.

heres a pic and wiki link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throwback_%28drink%29

The Original voice of sonic returns. Urkel's return as sonic the hedghog

That right folks Sonic the hedgehog is Currently getting a independent live action fan film. Oddly enough , usually fan films are the best films in respect to the adaptation (not budget and sfx). mostly, I believe, its because they have nothing to loose.  Now thanks to the sonic team they are getting a live action fan film which need help getting funding but that's not the good news. The Good news is is that Jaleel White,  also known as Steve Urkel, will be reprising his role as the speedy blue hedgehog.  Urkel...Uh I meant White(who is black??) was a legend both in animation and television for being the voice of sonic and the every famous nerd of all time Steve Urkel on family matters. There's not a whole lot released on the official website but through searching the blogs I had foudn they posted some images of the concept art for sonic.

And yes it is official on both Urkels and the fan film's website that he is playing the voice of sonic once again and good for him taking his time out of his life to do something for little to no money. It really looks like a labor of love here folks and its obvious the Family Matters star really had love for this character.

but if you still don't believe follow the links to the websites below and look at the YouTube clip for yourself.
(Granted many of you already know all this info but I'll keep you all posted as we learn more)

http://jaleelwhite.com/

http://www.sonicfanfilm.com/

Ninja Turtles Webcomic


Turtles will always be the Ichiban- most famous of all the nostalgia cartoon/ products of the 80's and 90's! Ninja were a legend and to this day are still around in fact another series is out much like the tmnt back in 2004 to last year with tmnt forever its a new take of the turtles (trying to get away from the campiness of the old show though it was a classic). I will discuss more about the shows and  the like later on a Saturday postings in the future (so be on the look out.)
What I want to show you all is one of my favorite web comics to date. It has been out for quite some time and sadly doesn't get updated on a weekly or even monthly basis  as other web comics do. its very detailed series so I think that intentional , plus  the guy is doing it for free on his own time so whatever right? It's called Ninja turtles gaiden and the idea is that its Set in the future where the turtles are no longer teenage but are still mutant of course. Master splinter is dead and the turtles have disbanded. Raphael is training a mysterious young new Mutant Turtle found after a bizarre killing of a high school student and has somehow become that student (don''t ask as far as I'm concerned his soul is in him). Anyway I've enjoyed it thus far and have been reading it since 2008 or  so. the series is really a nice combination of all the turtles incarnations referencing the Archie comics, the tmnt cartoon in the 2000's to even the original cartoon and comics in the 80's. its more violent then the cartoons though. It's really a treat to read when he gets the comics out though it tends to take a long time. As someone who also has been working on his own ninja turtle based stories for my own comics its worth reading and gives me that warm fuzzy feeling that only my ninja turtle PJ's  could give me when I was a kid.
check it out for yourself:
I encourage everyone to enjoy it free and really should be its own comic

http://www.mntgaiden.com/en/

I am going to try and eventualy set up a series of questions in a chance to interview the author of this webseries. lets hope he answers his mail

after school was where kids ruled

well after some thought I decided to post Friday, Saturday and Sundays  leaving Monday -Thursdays open for creative juices to flow.
Saturdays will be the the largest amount of postings and articles including even some done by others wanting to share there experiences and memories and reviews. Eventually this will all lead up to a web page in the next year.
The reason for this decision is simple though Saturday mornings  was the most memorable time with a large number of cartoons, there was another time. After school Television, just like Saturday mornings many  channels on TV for usually 1-2 hours had there own line up of cartoons. basically kids got home parents where likely working and supper in the west wasn't for another few hours.  One of the most rememberable after-school lineups was the Disney afternoon.

It first aired September of 1990 and ran up until 1997 and was a 2hour line up of Disney's cartoon series at the time.  from Gummi Bears to Darkwing Duck, Gargoyles to Chip and Dale, all of them aired at one point or another on this line up. Eventually Disney even began to air at the end of the 90s a Saturday morning line-up known as Disney's one Saturday morning, showcasing their experimental and new kids shows outside of the usual Mickey Mouse inspirations. Shows like Doug, Pepperanne, Weekenders and the many more.

The  two-hour block was broken up into four segments. As each season ended, the first cartoon shown in the lineup would typically be dropped and a new one added to the end. Sometimes the shows were canceled, but usually aired at different times such as Saturdays on other channels. The Disney Afternoon itself featured unique animated segments consisting of its own openings, commercials, hosts and "wrappers"
like all good things it came to an end it also seems like once Disney stopped showing these, children also forgot  them as well...Seriously, there are kids that can't even tell what  mickey mouse or any of the famed trademarks look like or is!
Afternoons where a fun time, lets face it school wasn't fun for all of us and we all just wanted to get home to kick off the old shoes and watch alittle Darkwingduck and Talespin!

5/28/11

Best cd ever to cover saturday morning cartoons

Well Many of you may already know it. I own it (I think i still have it packed somewhere) and I'm sure many of you out there do to.
The Saturday morning cartoon greatest hits CD. the Ramones and other punk and rock groups playing old classic cartoon melodies. Most of them come from the 1960's and 70's and disappointed that they didn't have a few others that were popular at the time like the jetsons theme or the flintstones, but they had "eep op ork uh huh" from the episode of the Jetsons where Trudy entered her song in a contest to be played by her favorite rock singer  but instead Elroy's coded message got sent in by her father.
you can download it from various resources or purchase it if you want the CD for the collection  at  amazon

 Here is the track list:

1. The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana) - Liz Phair With Material Issue
2. Go Speed Racer Go - Sponge
3. Sugar Sugar - Mary Lou Lord With Semisonic
4. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? - Matthew Sweet
5. Josie And The Pussycats - Juliana Hatfield And Tanya Donelly
6. The Bugaloos - Collective Soul
7. Underdog - Butthole Surfers
8. Gigantor - Helmet
9. Spider-Man - Ramones
10. Johnny Quest/Stop That Pigeon - The Reverend Horton Heat
11. Open Up Your Heart And Let The Sun Shine In - Frente!
12. Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah (Means I Love You) - Violent Femmes
13. Fat Albert Theme - Dig
14. I'm Popeye The Sailor Man - Face To Face
15. Friends/Sigmund And The Seamonsters - Tripping Daisy
16. Goolie Get-Together - Toadies
17. Hong Kong Phooey - Sublime
18. H.R. Pufnstuf - The Murmurs
19. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy - Wax 

comic book ad stuff I use to owned or still do


remeber the good ol days on saturdays after watching cartoons and going over to the convience store to pick up a comic book , soda and aome penny candy? Remember those colourful ads in the back and throughout those old comicbooks we loved so much and most still do? Well here is a list of some of my favorite things from them. If you are wondering Yes I still own and or did own  these items.
The List :
cystal clear contact juggling balls
juggling ballsmagic money roller
whoopi cushion
x-ray specs-( i remember chasing the girls with them)
rubiks cube
Sea Monkeys
spy pen (the telescope/magnifer)
survival binoculars (was a magnyifing lens, mirror, whistle,compass all in one that folded up and even had a pouch for matches)

fake snake ( I once put that in a jug of kool aid at a friends house and scared the crap out of his mother hahaha )
spypen( super hearing magnifier thing that lets you hear from far away)
venus fly trap (got it at chapters but it never grew )
hypno coin(does not work!!)
marked deck of playing card
hand buzzer...piece of crap
kryptonite...(actualy it was just silly putty in a metor shape container!!)
microphone radio (like bart had when he fell down the well on simpsons)
ant farm
stretch armstrong

little dinosaurs that you put and water and watch them grow
autograph picture of chuck norris (i wish i never gave that away!)
green lantern rings
pez gun
squirmles (magic fuzzy worms)
official justice league membership (actualy was just a cut out you put your photo and sign)
fake vomit
fake cigarettes


<--They use to have ones for live monkeys, butI think  they are like "illegal" now...go figure... I always wanted that one. Oh  well,  I do know of this, while in Japan the pet stores sell them, but for ridiculous prices. They're also native there too (monkeys) I've seen them in the wild there (ugly ones though)
Did I miss anything ? What are some of your memorable ads or items?

funny comicbook fails: Batman's touch

so I know this is old but i plan to post one of these a week as well

commercial break s between cartoons: remember fido dido?

If there is one thing I can never forget and is most notable during the 80's and 90's was that every major television channel had there own lineup of cartoons.NOT JUST THE CARTOON NETWORKS OR FOX!
 Every channel was covered with 2dimensional animation. It was hard to keep track as times! Sadly even though it  was the age of picture to picture (will discuss more on that in future blogs), it was difficult to to try and catch them all. So as a child, you learned what shows you thought were worth watching. As a child I had a VHS player (remember those?) and with that came the ability to record shows and pause over commercials. thankfully there was assistance with this and that was a commercial break announcer.They were  commercials that came on before and after the commercial line up to introduce the sponsors , also known as a "bumper".(see the classic ABC claymation bumper on the side)



These bumpers where great, especially if you hated commercials and recorded those old shows. Prior to torrents and downloads we had the old  rec' button on the VHS. One of the most notable was CBS had started using a spokesperson (see YouTube link above). This spokesperson would be my first real introduction to a character that haunted the early 90's and was everywhere but few knew who he was outside of a citrus soda known as 7up.
Fido Dido. Yes Fido Dido,  many will look at him now and most likely think, "Oh the For dummies book guy."  Fido Dido never really had a cartoon or comic strip at first,  but was everywhere, some knew who he was while other did not .Fido Dido was created by Joanna Ferrone and Sue Rose  in 1985 on a napkin in a restaurant  and  Pepsi even use this origin story in one of the commercials (see the YouTube link at the bottom). They later stenciled Fido on T-shirts with the credo: "Fido is for Fido, Fido is against no one."<---I dunno what this means, perhaps it meant the 90's were just as high as the 70's.

Fido was your typical to cool for school stereotype teenager of that 80's and 90's gen. a rebellious underachiever but still being of good natured youth (you know when the time kids and teens where children and not trialed as an adult for doing stupid kid shit). Fido was license by Pepsi in 1988 and between 1990-1993 was theSaturday morning bumpers for CBS  and it also included the large set of the other dido friends (sadly no Unknown Fido which was my favorite).

Strangely, he was famous but never had his own cartoon show and it wasn't until later in the life line of Fido that a comic strip or comic was introduce. Fido Dido from what i remember was everywhere! I recall yo-yo's 7up machines, books and even had his own video game for Sega Genesis.--------------->

 I never played the game, but just got the ROM and gonna try it out. One thing I did own, that I remember greatly ,was this activity/ guide book called "Fido Dido 101, Or, Living Life in the Third Lane." It was one of my favorite childhood books and recall finding it at a flea market at my elementary school. According to the wikipedia page Fido is still around, also a official website (link below). From what it says Fido Dido is still used by Pepsi companies and was used here in the west until the early 2000's and is used overseas in India and Europe still! (apparently because the old world is old and behind in the times lol I kid you crazy oldworlders you!)
Sadly Pepsi ended his "reign"(I mean this sarcastically) by introducing a more simple character (and just as lame) the "cool spot" who also had his own license of games.  Fido will remain an important part of that Saturday morning icon to kids during that time frame thanks to CBS and Pepsi. As you see above on the youtube link on top of this article, Fido Dido was on every saturday during the same time as the biggest cartoons of on Saturdays, so all of us had a chance to experience him. We may not all have known his name, being young, but we remember his look and he will always be remembered to me as the CBS bumper and to some that 7up guy...and to a small few, Fido will be confused with the for dummies mascot. seriously! what the hell man!? really, you dont see it? :


 wikipedia:

(as you can see the origin of Fido Dido is shown in this early 90's commercial)
Heres the offical fido dido website:

the weekly Retro Cereal box: Morning Funnies

So I decided that being called the cereal box and being about Saturday morning and nostalgia. I will post a Cereal box once a week to really bring back that retro feel. some times I will Post information on it. Sometimes It will be just a picture of the box and I will leave it for you to comment on it. Whatever it is and whatever i decide to do I hope you enjoy!  the first one here, which I have been searching for years to find it, is one I remember as a child but haven't been able to find it ...Seriously! It's been on my mind since I was 15 (I'm 27 now)! Thank you Internet, it took forever, but I found pictures of the box aaaaand here it is!

That's right "Morning Funnies" , I thought it was fitting for being a retro Saturday cartoon morning blog and my first post. I've been trying to find this cereal for years just to tell my friends about it.  They never understand when I try to explain it to them. As an aspiring cartoonist, I think this may have assisted with me wanting me to pursue that as a career. Sadly, like the Sunday funnies that arrived in the newspaper every week and like Saturday morning cartoons this cereal also has disappeared.(I hope that I will at least make it as a cartoonist/comic artist one day)
wow i remember dennis the menance do you?
The  packaging allowed the back flap of the box to be opened revealing additional comic strips, different on each edition of the cereal box. Poor sales and negative consumer reaction led to the cereal being discontinued in 1989. Oddly enough, it was this company that provided many MANY of those nostalgic cereals devoted to children. I remember liking it for some reason, but I guess it was listed as one of the worse tasting cereals (being in the top ten) ever made. look on the wiki page for yourself  to see the harsh comments: "if you prefer good taste to gimmicks, you might want to stay away from this technicolor treat." (ouch)
Now skipping the fact it didn't work because they didn't have enough variety in comic strips, taste and over all marketing, the cereal is still a great idea.  If only they worked out better selection of comics (some originals) and better tasting cereal they would stay to this day. I think the concept is great and wish there was more like it. maybe marvel or dc should consider this as one of there future product ideas.

wiki link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_Funnies

1st BROG EVER!!!

Herro Every one! This is basically a pet project of mine which I really have to thank my friend Kevin Cooney (also known as Tokyocooney on YouTube). we Hung out several times in Tokyo and glad to call him one of my good friends. Though a busy man and rare to get a chance to hang out I'm happy to say we had some good times.  anyway enough sentimental garbage , I told him about a business/ project I've been wanting to work on for a while and he suggested making web based  like a website/web store or blog. That was around new year so, now I'm back in Canada and hoping to return but at the same time trying to figure out a lot of things about myself.
This blog is essentially more like my idea of a weekly zine devoted to Saturday morning cartoons! That's right folks, its nostalgia time. The blog (eventually will become its own website over time) is devoted to the glorious time now forgotten. The one day a week where all kids woke early in the morning grabbed there favorite cereal and watch cartoons until the afternoon! also lets not forget television after school hours as well. the 80's and 90's where marketed towards kids and being kids. its sad that culture is gone. Its sad to turn on the television early mornings and the only cartoons that are on are on the cartoon networks and children's channels (and not even good ones).
Lets face it People Saturday mornings are dead and well with the help of my YouTube channel and this blog I hope to share with you what I have and know and remember about those cherished years. As an adult I have become a serious collect of the old retro paraphernalia and thanks to the modern age of DVDs and the Internet I know can say i own almost every show I ever watched as a child. complete series of shows that we may never see on DVD like The Muppet babies (that was a hard find) or even EEK the Cat. Sadly I cannot find everything but have at least a large variety and my goal when i eventually have a complete website is to post a live streaming show airing a list of these cartoons every Saturday morning. that where sponsorship and AdSense will come in handy so please view and follow this blog!.

As stated every Saturday will be several post throughout the day including fun activities, nostalgia, reviews, trivia...etc. So enjoy this blog I will work hard and I encourage your emails and comments.


So I figured its best seeing how this is the first post to also have this link here showing a cavalcade of cartoon stars of the 80's/90's : cartoon all stars to the rescue