Alien action figure from 1979

I had this toy and I melted the head by accidently knocking it over onto a hot lightbulb. But I have a model kit of the same toy which I have yet to build.

Star Wars Retro Day

Happy Mothra's Day!

The Great Race (1965)

We watched "The Great Race" last night and it is one of my favorite "classics" because I am a huge fan of Laurel and Hardy, and this film was dedicated to them.

Directed by Blake Edwards of Pink Panther fame, it is huge in scope and genius in characters.

The film is led by Tony Curtis as the dashing  hero Leslie, or as he is well known, The Great Leslie. The femme fatale is wonderfully played by Natalie Wood as the steadfast suffragette, leading the way for womens rights.

The favorite of all the characters are the pairing of Jack Lemmon (who also has a dual role) as Professor Fate and Peter Falk as Max, his sidekick. Trying to foil Leslie's attempts at breaking world records in the early 20th century, they enter an automobile race across 3 continents from New York to Paris. Hijinks ensue!

This is one of those films from the mid 60's that has an overture at the beginning, an intermission, and a closing song. At 160 minutes, it seems like 3 movies in

 one but all enjoyable. And of course it wouldn't be complete without a pie fight at the end!

Keep an eye out for some of your favorite character actors throughout, including Vivian Vance.

Trivia: As slapstick as the film is, the story is based on a true race. 

http://www.greatrace.com/newsite/index.php/the-great-race/greatestrace/

Check out how close the cars look.

TV Land Awards 2009

For me, the highlight of the show, was the fun tribute to Sid and Marty Kroft. They are the creators of the sugar bomb cereal induced, Saturday morning drugged out shows like HR Pufnstuf, Lidsville, The Bugaloos, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters and many more.

Fun musical numbers, Cyndi Lauper singing Electra Woman and Dyna Girl and all your favorite characters. But I swear, Reba was playing Witchiepoo!

Catch the reruns! You'll enjoy it.

Star Wars Retro Day

Here's an extra one for fun:

Star Wars Retro Day

Video arcade gum

I loved this packaging. Gum that came inside video arcade boxes. These came out in 1983 and I'm surprised didn't take off and continue onto other famous games. Some of the games that were included were Q-bert, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Zaxxon and Centipede.

Star Wars PSA for drunk driving

Euro Disney Days

These are pics from our trip to Paris Euro Disney where we had a really fun time. We had 2 days in Paris and did a whirlwind tour of the city one day and did Disney the next day. 

Star Wars retro day

Here's another for March. A Ralph Mcquarrie poster that was designed for character design.

My younger days at Disney World!

These are snaps of me at I think around 12. They are very random but bring back a lot of good memories

Star Wars retro day

Behold the image for February!

Sleeping Beauty Awakens!

Today is the day that Walt Disneys "Sleeping Beauty" premiered at the Fox Wilshire Theater in Los Angeles. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend to get the BluRay version that is out now.
The restoration is incredible and is one of the most beautiful animated classics I've seen in a long time. It's a timeless classic!

RIP Ricardo and Patrick!

Ricardo Montalban 11-25-1920 / 01-14-2009















Patrick McGoohan 03-19-1928 / 01-13-2009

Retro-fantastical Star Wars images

This is the Star Wars Iron-on book that came out in the 70's after Star Wars was released and when they knew how to do promotional tie-ins before the abortions that a certain bearded fellow put forth as "prequels".

As campy and corny as the cover of the book is, it's still holding the magic of the characters of the film that we all love originally!

As much as I wanted to use them and wear them to school and know that I would be held in the highest regard in gym class, I kept it with out using them. Why? I don't know. I just thought it was a cool book with cool images and tucked it away. Don't judge me!

Luckily I did and now I can scan them and print them on iron-on paper and create my own geekified t-shirts and not have to pay $100 for one at a retro store or Macys.

I'll keep posting them throughout the year. Maybe like a calendar.

Behold: January

Reviews

Well, I'm getting into 2009 head first and not slowing down, BUT, I'm going to take a breather and review the films form New Years Eve so I can concentrate on writing new stuff for the...new year.

The first film we watched is the classic 1974 The Poseidon Adventure starring an eclectic cast of stars including Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Roddy McDowall, Stella Stevens, Red Buttons and Jack Albertson.

The story is like this: New years eve cruise going from Greece to New York gets hit by a tidal wave caused by an underwater earthquake and capsizes the ship making the survivors have to make there way through an upside down ocean liner to make there way to the top (or bottom) and out the engine room where the steel is the thinnest.

It is a well played disaster film and the scene chewing by Hackman and Borgnine makes it even more fun. If you are a disaster film buff and you haven't seen this but only the marginal remake, this is the one to watch. I also recommend Earthquake, The Towering Inferno and The Swarm!
The 2nd film we saw was one I have been dieing to see for a long time. This little gem is called Sleepaway Camp and it was released in 1983 so it makes it the perfect early 80's slasher film to watch with other friends who appreciate schlockey horror films (with a tub of sangria and champagne).
It's your basic camp filled with teens and pre-teens who run amok in mid-riff T-shirts (and these are the boys!) and do teen-like things. It's starts off with the tragedy at the camp that lives on through the years and you have to find out who the survivor is that has returned to wreak vengeance. You get your fun gorey kills and your silly kills... but all adds up to a very creepy and totally unexpected twisty ending!