One shield to rule them all

Snagged this cool Captain America shield ring/cupcake topper from the bakery at work the other day. The shields are intended as value-added accessories to adorn cakes that a child or child-like fan can enjoy as a keepsake as a tie-in to the up-coming film Captain America, The First Avenger.

Unlike most of the official promotional items our bakery receives to be included on large and small decorated cakes the shield is remarkably well-constructed. Convex, the shield is firmly seated onto the mount and the paint job is clean, on-model and doesn't easily wear off. I had it in my coat pocket along with my car keys for three days and there isn't a scratch on it.

In comparison to the shield the Pirates of the Caribbean accessories were incredibly cheap and were of poor quality. The Pirates rings consisted of a flat recessed surface with a sticker placed within it. In the shipment we received most of the Pirates stickers were printed off-color and placed off-center. Like the last film, a truly disappointing experience for Depp fans.

I don't know how many Captain America-themed cupcakes we are are going to sell when the film comes out but kudos to the company that manufactured these what are primarily disposable toys.

You had a sale at "Power Ring Included!"

The Power Ring is the only reason I bought the movie tie-in action figure. I'm going to wear it everyday for the rest of my life.

I don't even wear my wedding ring but I am going to wear this.

We all believe in silver linings and rainbows

It's Monday! That means it is Monday With Hayley Mills at Lady, That's My Skull!

Trivia! Did you know that I've been told Lady, That's My Skull features more items about Hayley Mills than her agent does? Wow!

It was in 1963 that Disney and Hayley Mills gave the world the feel-good film Summer Magic, the fourth of six films that Hayley would make with Walt Disney Studios. Originally conceived as a vehicle for Annette Funicello for some maddening reason, Hayley was cast in the part of the Pollyana-ish member of the Carey family, Nancy. As the person who saved her family from personal and financial disaster by sheer good attitude as the character of Nancy the film added to the box office appeal of Hayley Mills.

Trivia! Did you know that the United States would have lost the Cuban Missile Crisis war except for the fact that once Khrushchev, the leader of Communism, discovered Hayley Mills was cast in Summer Magic he conceded defeat? It's true!

The Disney merchandising machine wasn't idle either and the company easily capitalized on the popularity of Hayley and co-star Burl Ives with a soundtrack release that produced a number of hit tunes for the youth market. There was a moderate amount of other licensed merchandise also that is getting increasingly hard to find in good condition. One of those items is the paper doll set featuring Hayley Mills where she can be dressed in fashions from the movie. While I have not punched out the cut-outs from my copy you can be assured that I have reprinted the pages from various sources and dressed Hayley up in clothing as befits a proper young lady.

And now, you can too! As one can observe from the vast selection of period styles available there are several hours of good, clean fun that can be had from dressing up Hayley. I'd suggest against using the accompanying "Julia" fashions though because she is a bit of a pill.

Sunday drive

Kids of the day didn't know it, but they were being secretly indoctrinated in science fiction through this ad. Now look at what those children have done to everything since they became adults.

Hi-Adventure Heroes #2 (August 1969).

Laugh-In

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In Viewmaster envelope and reels (#B497, 1968). Envelope is notable for the comedic catch phrases from the show being printed on the reverse. Goldie Hawn is notable for being ridiculously hot.

Who, Iron Man and links

Movies: Went and watched the Iron Man 2 movie the other day and it was a fun time. The movie isn't as good in my opinion as the first but I still liked it. In fact, I liked it enough to take the time to ad the awesome Sam Rockwell to the poster. It's a crime he was left off it.

My main complaint, and one which applies to nearly every Marvel super-hero movie made in the last decade, is that the story once again was all about someone creating a mess and being hailed a hero for cleaning up after themselves. For some reason Hollywood seems almost incapable of making a comic book film that doesn't involve a threat from within and/or a relative of the antagonist.

The other problem I have is with armored fighters in particular who remove their protective head gear during battle. I'm sure this is done for the purpose of the story and sometimes due to contractual obligations for the actor to get so many minutes of screen time (Yes, I'm looking at you, Toby McGuire). But it still bugs me and has for some time. But then I guess if they didn't show the audience their faces from time to time then the film would be nothing but voice-over work with CGI and actors nodding their helmets as they pretended to speak like a super-ninja from Power Rangers.

I agree the Mandarin needs to make an appearance as the villain in the next film. I don't see that character as a racist sterotype as much as some do. It is probably a knee-jerk PC reaction to the name and the fact that the character has an origin during the Red-baiting days of Stan Lee being at the helm of the Marvel books. I think the company has redeemed the Mandarin as a viable character not only from the animated movie of a year or so ago but also in the classic Fin Fang Foom storyline from the comic book. No longer a Commie, just a megalomaniac who wants to use the trappings of the past to secure power in the present day.

I don't see the Ten Rings mentioned in the film being the magical or technological rings from the comic book series. That would be hard to accomplish and not look silly. More than likely the rings will turn out to be a family symbol of some kind or the crest of a branch of a guild. A film from years ago that featured a Thugee cult as the villains had the members being awarded a ring to place on the hilt of their murder-dagger every time they passed a stage in their training. Eventually the rings would complete the hilt and when held up to the light, the shadow cast by the rings on the handle would show a profile of the leader of the cult. Maybe the Ten Rings would turn out to be be something like that.

DVD: Re-watched Real Genius. Such a great and funny 80s movie. Liked Val Kilmer (how the mighty have fallen!) irked by the kid. Still inappropriately attracted to the weird girl.

Re-watched Night Shift. In my opinion Henry Winkler did his best job ever in front of the camera for this comedy though a pre-Cheers Shelly Long and then new-comer Michael Keaton stole the film. Fav quotes: "That Barney Rubble. What an actor!" and not to forget "Hello, this is Chuck to remind Bill to SHUT UP!"

Comic Books: Slight yet geeky Iron Man movie spoiler! The stunt of "crossing the streams"? Iron Man first did that way back in Avengers Annual #6 (1976).


Television: The up-coming television series Terra Nova is getting a lot of internet press lately. Many are comparing it to The Land of the Lost because of the time-travel element in which a family is thrown back to the dinosaur age. From what I'm reading it sounds more like Jurassic Park but without all the messy licensing and contractual issues. I'm looking forwards to watching it. Even if it is terrible some SF is better than no SF. I'm tired of the long periods in which the best science fiction on TV is contained in car commercials.

Doctor Who: Been watching episodes of the Jon Pertwee interpretation of the Doctor recently. His version is full of humor and honest horror. Not a lot of running but a heck of a lot of shouting and yelling.

The new Doctor played by Matt Smith is fresh, the fans are negative goofs and so far the show is keen to watch. Vampires of Venice was notable for one trait of the Doctor that a lot of people miss because they always accept him as some sort of super-hero. The Doc, as much as he meddles, would stand by and watch (albeit with sadness) if the entirety of humanity were killed and eaten by aliens if that were the natural order of things. He gets involved usually only when the characters are evil, monstrous and get a thrill when applying their rapacious ways.

Lost: Enjoying this show. Can't wait for the climax. Dread the inevitable very special Lost Christmas Reunion Special in 2020.

Fringe: This is the show I'm most excited about right now. Waiting a week for each new episode is painful. But if I had the power to cancel the show with extreme prejudice I would have done so after that storyteller/noir episode a few weeks back. That was nearly unwatchable. Happily the next episode redeemed it. I'm a sucker for alternate universe stories and the appearance of Walternate totally nailed.

Toys: 30 years ago I would have killed for an Iron Man toy. Fortunately nowadays I can avoid the moral implications of murder and jail time by a visit to the mall and about 6 bucks. Yesterday I picked up the classic comic series toy for my desk. It is cool. This Iron Man game I may get just because it is silly.

Immigrant 1/American Citizen 0: It bears repeating that they man who called in the failed Times Square car bomb planted by an American citizen of Muslim faith was an immigrant from Senegal who is also of the Muslim faith. The media however is continuing to demonize the naturalized citizen and has made little or no mention that the hero of this tale has the same basic religious philosophy as the bad guy. The more I read about Shahzad the more he comes off as an bitter loser and there are no shortage of people ready to take advantage and use someone like that. A second well-deserved tip of the hat to Samurai Frog.

Art: The news that Frank Frazetta died sure sheds some light on the fight going on between his son and the rest of the family. It will probably be some time before fans find out if the various members of his family was fighting to protect his legacy or being greedy poopy-heads. Conan vs. the Man-Ape is one of my favorite illustrations from one of my favorite Howard stories.

Be First Back To Your Cave

This is an Operation: Awesome Christmas update!

I am a difficult person to buy presents for. If it isn't the newest Gerber multi-plier my wife has no idea what to get me for special occasions. So some of the time we agree upon a budget and I buy myself something nice. This year for Christmas we did just that and I really scored.

After more than a few unsuccessful years trying to find a vintage Land of the Lost board game for my own I finally managed to snag a good specimen. I had searched for the LotL game from the first series in an on-again, off-again fashion for a few years now. Professional collector resources were ridiculously expensive and the grifting nature of the sellers of most auction sites made my attempts to buy one exercises in frustration. Bids at a more than fair price were routinely lost at the last possible second as Seller ABC, under the guise of sock-puppet Buyer ACB, purchased the item from themselves to prevent it from being sold at less than what they wanted monetarily.

Discouraging, but I knew that interest in the 2009 Land of the Lost movie would see a greater proportion of LotL-related merchandise for sale than were previously available. While the studio predictably did not market a line of toys there were a few promotional and licensed memorabilia items available. One internet pal has sent me on several occasions promotional gear from the film such as a shirt, compass and hat. That was cool and was very welcome.

It was over the course of the last several weeks I managed to successfully purchase two examples of vintage Land of the Lost merchandise. My experiences with the sellers were positive and not merely because I won the sales but because they acted like professionals running a business, something that is sorely missing from much online retail.

Here are the two recent acquisitions to my collection of Land of the Lost memorabilia. Click the photos to make them Dino-sized.

Safari Shooter
The first game I purchased was the Land of the Lost Safari Shooter pinball game from 1975 (though I suspect this is a recently-made toy claiming to be vintage). It is in excellent condition and if I ever go insane I'll take it out of the wrapper. The backboard image for the pinball machine is pretty sweet and I'd love to take it apart just to scan it. If I ever find one for real cheap that is a mess I will. More than likely it will go in a shadowbox and get hung on the wall.


Land of the Lost game
The second item is the big prize and is the favorite of the two. It is the 1975 Land of the Lost board game by Milton Bradley. It is relatively rare to find one of these games in acceptable condition and this one is in really good shape. Here are photos of the box cover, inside cover, rules with adjacent spinner and the game board.

This is the best Christmas ever.

Note: I'm not usually one for watermarking my images but I put a bit of time and effort into acquiring this awesome vintage game. I did take pains to avoid placing the LTMS logo over the image itself because I like to share. If someone is going to gank these pics and use them without attribution or go so far as to slap a 'Mecha-Droid Ten' logo on it and act like they own it then they are going to have to spend a few minutes working for it.

Now with more lens flare

Got this Beam-Me-Up Star Trek movie tie-in badge in my dinner cereal last night. Not that I'd ever wear it, red is Engineering and that's what division Security is under, right? Wearing anything associated with a Redshirt is just asking for it.

Besides, there isn't any way to attach the badge to a shirt short of using a hot glue gun. I don't know what this thing does other than light up behind the insignia and at the tip and then only if you press the button pretty hard.

The picture on the box led me to believe there was a base for the badge included so it could stand up and look cool on a desk. But there isn't. Unfortunately, all it does is lay there. As far as promotions go the badge is kind of lame even as a flashlight. It would have been geek-cool if it had sound FX, could stand on it's side without falling, a clip to attach to your underwear or even a little hole in the body somewhere to run a chain through so you could attach it to your keys. Like the movie, the badge has potential and seems like it was intended to do something cool, but the company gave up somewhere between the licensing and the design stage.

Acro-Pets

New Funnies #254 (April 1958).

MAD Magazine: If kids designed their own Xmas toys

This classic entry is from the January 1963 issue of MAD Magazine. Pure comedy gold.






Click the photo to unwrap.