Before I start my Countdown to Halloween proper, I wanted to give a quick update on my candy findings for this season.  Thanks to the Insidious Bogleach who indirectly urged me not to give up hope on pharmacy Halloween sections.  I really haven't found anything good at Walgreens, CVS, or Rite Aid in years, but that has turned around a bit.  From Flix Candy, the same makers of the Box of Boogers, Zit Poppers, Bed Bugs, Freaky Fingers, and the Spooky Lip Pops comes the insanely awesome series of Monster Gummys!

          

These things are huge, and the concept is just fan-freaking-tastic.  Personally, with my goofy love of cephalopods, I think the gummy tentacle is probably the best designed confection known to mankind.  The choice of color, the little sugarcoated crunchies inside the suckers, it's just a brilliant work of art.   And the gummy earthworm?  Well that is just the perfect grotesque extension of one of the most basic gummis out there.  It's the Tremors sandworm of gummi worms.   It puts the gummy worm in the chocolate cake "mud" to shame.  Scratch the Tremors reference.  It's the Dune worm of gummi worms.  I want to strap on a nose plug, put in some neon blue contacts, and ride this worm.

But, like almost all Flix candy, these monster gummis have one unfortunate flaw.  They taste a lot like what I'd imagine licking the Toxic Avenger's mop would taste like.  I could barely get a bite of the tentacle down, and don't get me started on the earthworm.  It smelled like a racquetball with a similar consistency to boot.   Seriously, all kidding aside, this is a plea to the folks at Flix Candy:

"For the love of all that's holy, please fire your chef and make your overpriced and exquisitely designed gummi candy edible.  Thank you."

The Halloween season is pretty much in full swing.  It looks like the Netherworld Haunted Houses are just about to open their doors here in Atlanta (as well as accepting a new performer/puppeteer, congratulations Liz from Puppatoons!)  Most of the stores have their seasonal sections up, and the candy is flowing freely.  Also, it seems like every year I go through a similar phase during September.  Around the 1st of the month I start getting excited for the holiday, and then before I know it the entire month flies by in a haze.  The Countdown to Halloween night begins in just one week!

As I mentioned on Monday, I plan on announcing my theme on the 25th (this Friday), and then the festivities will properly begin just after midnight on October 1st.  We should also have the preliminary list of Countdown to Halloween bloggers up around the same time as well, so keep and eye out for that.  As for today, I thought I'd take a second and mention some of the interesting candy I've seen so far.  Honestly, besides the Bat and Candy Corn Dots, I really haven't found anything that's peaked my interest.  Most of the stuff is pretty standard fare, or repeats of stuff from the last couple years.  Aside from the various mini candy bars, Twizzlers, and multi-packs of Wonka branded confections (like the Giant Nerds), I've seen a lot more off-brand "gourmet" candy corn in all sorts of odd fruity flavors.   I've even seen some chocolate covered candy corn which sounds utterly decadent, and not in a good way.



One thing that popped out at me this year is another selection from Flix candy called Spooky Lip Pops.  These have been around for the last couple years but I've hesitated in picking them up because the track record for decent tasting Flix candy isn't all that good.  They seem to have a great handle on design, but that's about it.  Surprisingly, these creepy variations on the tried and true Ring Pop are pretty darn tasty.



I was glad too because I'd of hated myself if I ended up only liking the packaging…

Next up we have a staple of candy lovers everywhere, Pez.  Though it's nothing new or exciting, I did think it was interesting to see a bag of mini Pez refills on the bulk candy shelves.  Typically you only see some season dispensers in the novelty candy section, and most people probably wouldn't pop for a bunch of those to give out to trick-or-treaters.  Hell, most kids these days probably aren't enamored with Pez (relegating it to the much maligned Smarties category), but I've always loved it.  There are even mini packs of Cherry Pez, which I've never actually seen in stores (only heard about in movies like Stand By Me.)



Ever since the appearance of the Gummi Frog Dissection Kit at Target a couple years ago, it's become a yearly tradition to try and find the most ostentatious gummi product on candy shelves, and each year I've managed to find something bigger and crazier.  Last year Wal-Mart had a three-foot long gummi snake.  This year they're offering something doubly as crazy, a 48", two-headed monstrosity of a realistic gummi snake that even features two gummi rats as snake food!







Granted, I'm well aware that if you really want an insane gummi you can order one of the 5lb bears from Vat19 for $30, but for only $5 you can have more freaky gummi goodness than most people can handle.  The two-headed snake design is just crazy, but 48" of solid gummi candy is insane.  Luckily it even tastes good; though there's no way I'll be able to finish it.   It's just too much gummi for one man.

I had wanted to do a write up of this year's Wal-Mart Halloween section, but honestly it was pretty bland.   I did want to mention a weird trend in their candy pail offerings this year though.  Aside from the growing number of cartoon and movie branded candy buckets which are never very seasonal, I noticed that the large display of your standard plastic pumpkins have abandoned their tried and true orange hue.  All that were on the display were various neon variations in blue, purple, green and yellow.   Maybe the store hadn't fully deployed it's plastic pumpkin army, but if they have then it's a crying shame…

I talk a lot about this idea that I have about branding and how one can transmute the miasma of corporate products and logos that clogs our everyday existence into something useful.   All of this packaging, product placements, all these mascots, and these slogans are really just glyphs on a Rosetta stone.   It's an obscure dialect that contains a key to our memories.   If we're going to live in a manufactured world we have to learn to use it to our best advantage.

Similarly there's an odd rift that develops in the level of acceptance for this monster of commercialistic branding.  The further away we get from something, or if we have a window into which we can see the process of business entropy, the fonder our memories become.  As a for instance, who absolutely, 100% adores the corporate branding of McDonald's?  My guess is that most people would say "Not me."  Of the various demographics that would respond to the corporate branding and products offered, I'd be willing to bet a good percentage wouldn't hate McDonald's, would even admit that they eat there from time to time, but would also admit that they either don't like being sold food through the various cartoon characters or special promotions or they just plain wouldn't care.  At the same time though, I wonder who out there misses McRib sandwiches, Shamrock shakes, Officer Big Mac, the Professor or Captain Crook?  My guess is that most of the people who would recognize these things would probably admit to a fondness for these products and characters.  It's still the same type of low quality food and shilly mascots, but through the haze of memory they seem so much cooler.



So why am I bringing this up today in a post about some pre-Halloween excitement?  Well, I can't help but love Target around this time of year.  In fact, of all the Halloween traditions I've been adopting over the past decade, exploring the new spooky displays each year at the mega department store chain is fast becoming the start to my seasonal fun.  I know there's something a little unhealthy about getting so excited about new store displays, seasonal branding, corporate themes, and intellectual property partnerships, but I do.  

In fact, for once I can feel the future nostalgia building as all of this stuff, the characters, products, and signage starts seeping into my consciousness.   I can already see the day when the company will switch gears to follow a new, cheaper, pared down trend, and I can already feel myself missing the current one.  It's sort of like that cliché wish where one imagines utilizing time travel to go back and grab all the stuff that you miss from your childhood, except I'm already there.  The future me is sending back messages via brainwave wifi technologies, begging me to scoop up every piece of flat scan-able branding, or else…



Honestly, this isn't even a reaction to the undeniable awesomeness of this year's crop of Target Halloween goodies.  Some of it is pretty darn cool, but it's nothing all that special.   I just know I'll miss it when it's gone. 

So what exactly is it that I'll miss?   For one, Target finally hit the nail on the head in terms of finding the perfect pre-existing property to partner themselves with.   In years past they've featured unique branding like the Edgar and Ellen characters, which, though appropriately seasonal, were a little bit too spindly in design, and maybe a little too specific in character as they have a well-defined back story in the book series.  Last year the theme was Domo, which though neat in and of itself, was sort of a misfire in terms of Halloween branding.  Dressing Domo up like Frankenstein doesn't make him seasonal (that's a trick Disney has been attempting to much greater success with much more recognizable branding and characters for years.) 

This year though the partnership is with Skelanimals, a line of gothy, stuffed animals and clothing.  The basic premise revolves around a spooky design for what I assume are dead animals that makes each character look like a living x-ray where the skull and bones are visible.  It has the taste of Johnny and his gang of Cobra Kai during the Halloween dance scene in Karate Kid.  Personally I think this is a genius licensing agreement.  Not only are the Skelanimals cute and iconic, but they've got a head of steam developed via stores like Hot Topic where they've been featured prominently for a few years.  For the uninitiated they don't necessarily carry any anti-goth resentment baggage either.  They're at the perfect buoyant level between under and over exposed, and they just feel like something that Target would have come up with on their own.  Oh and my wife loves them to death.



Along with some neat exclusive glow-in-the dark plush variants, the Target Halloween section also features a million other Skelanimal branded products like pillows, key chains, hats, gloves, t-shirts, hoodies, candies (M&M exclusives and little tins of mints), as well as a trifecta of brand merging with the release of Target specific Skelanimal Bounty paper towels & napkins and Puffs tissues.  There's also a line of hard plastic figurines that could easily be mistaken for vinyl toys (because we did)…



One of the aspects of the Target Halloween section that I love is that they don't put all their eggs in one basket.  In addition to the main theme each year there are also mini ones directed at different demographics.   Where as Skelanimals are there to target the tween, teen and twenty-something's, there is also a more generic house branding that aims at the 30-something's and older crowd.  For the past few years this section has been devoted to El Día de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead holiday.  This year this is being morphed into a more tattoo centric crowned skull and dragon theme…



Personally I think it's a little weird and trendy, but then I tend to stray away from most generic iconography when it doesn't have a particular story to tell.   I love skulls in general, but they're so simple and relatable (we've all got 'em.)  When you throw a crown on them, then it becomes pointlessly specific and enters into that realm of punk/biker clip-art that just makes my stomach queasy (like the ace of spaces, a set of snake eyes dice, barbed wire, an eyeball in a ball of flame, or a burlesque girl lounging in a martini glass.)  I just don’t get the appeal, especially considering that this subculture tends towards individuality, but these symbols just become a uniform.

Along with this theme Target is offering a new version of their over-sized skull candy dish greeter that I fell so hard for last year, though it's less Day of the Dead and more brushed metal…



The last demographic that Target has been attempting to capture is the more obvious youth market which is the bread and butter of Halloween.  In the last couple of years they've been doing this a little awkwardly with the Edgar and Ellen and Domo branded products, but there's always been an in-house branding that hasn't gotten a lot of attention featuring cute child-like versions of Frankenstein, Dracula, a witch and some creepy animals like cats and spiders.  Mainly these characters have ended up on the various paper products (plates, one-use table cloths, paper towels, etc.) and in my opinion they weren't pimped quite enough.  This year Target has introduced seven new characters, three of which are being heavily featured on a lot of different products ranging from candy to candy bowls.  There's a neat blue witch (that looks like a cross between Sally from A Nightmare Before Christmas and Jill Thompson's Scary Godmother), a little kid dressed up as a devil (that's reminiscent of Lock, also from A Nightmare Before Christmas), a ghost, a weird one-eyed bat, and three monsters.  These three monster characters are what really impressed me with the new spread in the store..



They've even gone so far as to name them, giving them a little bit more individual identities.   First up we've got Trex, the green Godzilla-esque lizard monster…



Next up is Schmorg, the furry, orange, one-eyed, Cousin It, chocoholic of the gang…



And last, Zen, the three-eyed, happy, blue gangly monster…



On the one hand I love the character designs, even on Zen who is straying from the typical Halloween color-scheme.  These are a weird cross between the work of comic writer/artist Evan Dorkin (of Milk & Cheese, Hectic Planet, and Dork fame) and the tone and feel of the monstrous characters on Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.  In fact Dorkin has been doing a series of monster drawings on his blog that are so close to these Target characters that if they didn't hire him to design them, then the folks who did must have been fans and heavily influenced.  My favorite bit of branding with these monsters are the ceramic candy dishes…



Unfortunately, as far as the actual candy and goodies go, besides the new additions to the Dots family, there wasn't much to speak about this year at Target.  The Jones Soda offerings are the same from last year and I haven't found any interesting candy that wasn't available before.  I was hoping to find a new series of the Nerds test tubes or some other obnoxiously giant gummies, but there really wasn't anything exciting.  Oh well, I guess I'll just have to make due with the new branding.

Again, since I'm invoking Halloween, I thought I should point to the Countdown to Halloween site.   It's a resource for finding excellent Halloween blogging content during this coming season.  As I've mentioned, it's the home for a list of blogs participating in the ghoulish fun of the holiday.   I've also created a couple badge/buttons you can use to show your creepy pride and participation in the event if you'd like.  I plan on posting every day during October, and I've chosen a wicked theme that I hope everyone digs.  The festivities start in 13 short days!

You know, aside from the couple of upcoming DVD announcements here and there it's hard to believe that I really haven't talked all that much about the Smurfs over the last three years.  Then again, I'm not sure what I really have to add to the pantheon of pop culture commentary on these little blue Belgian guys and gals created by Peyo (Pierre Culliford) back in 1958.   Like most kids who grew up in the 80s I watched the Hanna Barbera cartoon every Saturday morning, and like most reminisces I've read over the years I got bored of the show and stopped watching as soon as Johan and Peewit came on the scene (even though the characters pre-date the Smurfs and seem to be beloved in much of the rest of the world, I felt they just got in the way on the cartoon.)  I never really got into collecting the little PVC figures as a kid, probably because they seemed kind of cutesy and my mom knew I was really into He-Man at the same time.

For me the Smurfs have sort of become the perfect icon for Saturday morning cartoons of the 80s.  They had such a huge revival here in the states at the time and there’s something so simple and pure about the character design that they speak to me much in the same way that Mickey Mouse speaks to most other people.   In the mid 90s when I was fumbling around for an online handle and e-mail address I couldn't get my brain off the idea of utilizing the Smurfs.  It was around that time that I first started feeling pangs of nostalgia for my childhood, and it just seemed fitting.  Somehow or another I ended up with smurfwreck, and it's just stuck.

Anyway, I haven't really tried that hard to put together a collection of Smurfs stickers.   I think I received all of these as extras with other sticker orders I've placed on ebay or from friends who've sent some collections my way.  But they added up enough to be worth a Peel Here post.   First up is a sheet of sports-themed puffy stickers dated 1980, though I think these actually hit store shelves around 1982…



Then we have a handful of these die-cut stickers from 1983 that were originally offered on large rolls.  You'd tear off the number you wanted and pat for them by the sticker.  There's something kind of neat about that idea, almost like stickers by the pound or something.   Again, it just goes to show how crazy the sticker collecting phenomenon was back in the day…





These are only a small sample of what was available.  Being part of one of the largest fads in the 80s, the Smurfs were on all kinds of merchandise from t-shirts to lunchboxes.  I know I've seen a series of Trend-like scratch-n-sniff stickers, and I'm sure there were the more standard sticker sheet stickers as well.  You know, considering how popular they once were, it's surprising that the Smurfs haven't made a comeback before now.  I just recently saw some new plush toys at my local Toys R Us, and then there's also that new all CG film on the horizon, but this franchise really does seem like it's ripe for something bigger.  My idea for the perfect product tie-in are Gargamel brand gummi smurfs, so you can eat them just like he always wanted to...

I swear I'm starting to get a little crazier every year now.  The beginning of September rolls around and I tell myself I’m not going to start getting all antsy for the Halloween festivities.  There are two full months before the actual holiday and a solid 30 days before I start belting out my annual Halloweeny posts at Branded.  I keep telling myself that and then I walk into a Target looking for some pistachios and I find some new Halloween candy that I can't ignore.  If it's just been the seasonal wrapping on some packages of M&M's I would have walked right past them.  Even a candy combo bag with Frankenstein's monster peering at me wouldn't have been enough to break my icy patient exterior of waiting-on-the-season sternness.  I don't want to turn into one of those retail zombies that starts shopping for Christmas wrapping paper on Black Friday.   I'm supposed to rally against big box giants pushing holiday merchandise on me three months in advance.   Halloween is for October damnit!  Sigh.  Here I am though.   It's Sept. 5th and I've officially started my season off by picking up some great packages of candy that were just daring me to buy them, take them home, unwrap them, photograph them, and taste test them…



I suppose I should start with something old.  My favorite Halloween candy from the past two years has to be the genius Ghost Dots from Tootsie.  When I first saw these in 2007 I couldn't believe just how perfect this variation on your standard Dots candy seemed.   It's so simple, and yet so intriguing.  They started with the run of the mill mystery flavor gimmick, removing the typical colors (but keeping the original flavors) and going with a monochromatic scheme.  The first inspired stroke of genius was choosing the glow-in-the-dark pale minty and slightly translucent green evoking all sorts of ectoplasmic ecstasy.  Then it must have been clear to call them Ghost dots as they're already iconicly shaped (just a jagged trim along the bottom short of being the perfect Pac-Man ghosts.)  It's just so freaking simple and pure…



There were no new additions to the spectral Dots family last year, but this year the guys and gals at Tootsie surprised me by introducing two new varieties.  The first one I'd like to showcase is better, both design and taste-wise, of the new duo (though it doesn't quite trump the awesomeness of the Ghost Dots.)  Blood Orange flavored Bat Dots…



Though visually these aren't as interesting as the Ghost Dots, I have to say that I'm digging the inky black little guys.   I'm not a big fan of the licorice flavored gummi candies, but I've always thought black candy just looked cool.  Hell, everything looks so much better in black.  I'm sort of lamenting the fact that Tootsie chose to stick with the classic shape for the candy.  I think these are screaming out for bat wings, though I'm sure it would have been cost prohibitive for a seasonal confection…



As for the taste, these guys aren't half bad.  They strike a nice balance between sweet and tart with a good hint of citrus, though I'm not sure how accurate the blood orange flavor is.  I'm pretty sure they chose to utilize the creepy nomenclature specifically to evoke the holiday, but this opens up another area where these candies could have become legendary.  Though classic Dots (as well as the Ghost variety) are individually comprised of a single color, the other new entry into the Dots family this year introduced a dual-colored Dot.  Since the technology already apparently exists, I think the Bat Dots should have utilized this and had transparent red tops or bottoms.  It would have just had that extra bit of fun.  These are hardly a failure though…

Anyway, the other new variety is another in a long line of candy corn influenced sweetness.   I've written about my feelings towards the uber sweet tri-colored kernels before, and I have to say that I’m really not a fan of candy that tries to disguise itself as the classic Halloween staple if for no other reason than the flavors end up tasting way too much like cotton candy (which I despise, at least flavor-wise.)



I have to give this variety points for looking pretty cool, but it pretty much ends there.  The first CC Dot I popped into my mouth wasn't bad.  It had a mellow flavor more along the lines of caramel or sweet cream.  The second was just too sweet.  The 3rd, 4th, and 5th just tasted like chemicals, and the rest will probably find a home in the trash.



One out of two isn't bad though, and adding Bat Dots to the family portrait with the Ghost Dots gets me excited for future installments.   I'm personally holding out for Witch's Warts Dots, all white Ghost Dots II in a new flavor, and Silver Bullet Dots (you know, for killing gummi werewolves.)

While I'm on the subject of Halloween, I might as well take this opportunity to announce a new website called Countdown to Halloween!



Basically, over the last three years I've noticed an amazing trend in some spooktactular holiday spirit when it comes to the celebration of all things Halloween.  There have certainly been those (like Matt at x-entertainment.com) that have been spreading the good word for awhile, and there are a plethora of wonderful sites out there dedicated to making every day of the year a little bit more orange and black, but in the last few years there has been a surge in fiendish fun around the month of October that really gets this dried up and dusty ticker of my beating again.  In particular, in the past two years there has appeared a list, usually cobbled together by a couple of swell guys John Rozum and John Knutson, that gets passed around from site to site and really makes the whole experience fun and exciting.  For one, it provides a virtual vault of horror, a crypt of terror, a, um (well geez, I guess EC Comics should have come up with another great title for me to lift from), oh wait I know, a tomb of dread, a virtual cornucopia of amazing stories, photos, comics, reviews, crafts, toys, songs, radio plays, jokes, and general commentary on a holiday that a lot of us hold dear.  This list also serves as a centerpiece for a spur of the moment community, a virtual meeting place, and the type of communal experience where the internet is the perfect forum.

Countdown to Halloween is a home for this list.  Note, it's not the home.  Part of what makes this season of creepy blog-a-thons so special is that there is no expectation, no rules or guidelines, but at the same I think it would also be beneficial to have a place to point to, a hub.  This isn't a union; it's intended as a resource.

So if you're planning on another year of terror inducing blogging during the Halloween season, or if this is your first time trick-or-treating alone, feel free to let your intentions be known.  You can either comment at the Countdown to Halloween site, add your voice to the comments on Mr. Rozum's blog, or you can @tweet or follow Halloween_Blogs, on twitter.

As for my plans for this season, well, I'll announce those as we get a little closer to October…

I'm sure I've written about this before, but one of the aspects I love the most about pop culture is how I can chart the time line of my life by what was bouncing around my skull at the time.  Back in the late 80s, early 90s, my family was going though a lot of changes, mostly geographically, taking us from Florida to Massachusetts, then to New Hampshire, and eventually back down south to Georgia (all within a one year period.)  This was a tough time for me as I was always in flux, leaving behind best friends and family, jumping into new climates (in particular dealing with snow for the first time in my life), and continuously changing schools (as well as going from middle back to elementary because the programs up north had 6th grade as part of elementary.)  The only constant in my life at the time was my love for and addiction to the DuckTales cartoon.  Actually it was DuckTales and the movie Willow as my mother was also in a weird place, and we ended up watching Ron Howard and George Lucas' under appreciated fantasy flick almost nightly.

For me, sitting down in front of the TV and hearing the opening synthesized drum beats from the DuckTales theme was like a warm blanket and a cup of chicken noodle soup.  There was nothing more comforting at the time than watching Huey, Dewey, Louie, Doofus, Uncle Scrooge, Duckworth, Webby, Ms. Beakley, Launchpad, Gyro, Gizmoduck, and Bubba the prehistoric cave duck battling the likes of Magica de Spell, Flintheart Glomgold, the Beagles Boys, and El Capitan (from the original miniseries.)  It was always a treat when Donald duck would make an appearance, getting some shore leave from the Navy to spend some time with his nephews.

The below sheet of stickers was released in 1986, though I'm not sure if it was part of a Hallmark set or if it was just distributed by Disney (or a subsidiary) in other retail outlets…



Aside from ditching one of the Beagle Boys in the set above (and replacing it with a Magica de Spell sticker) I think this sheet does a nice job of representing the main characters of the show.  I was surprised to see Doofus getting some love here as he was pretty annoying, though I'm not sure who he's be replaced by.  I love Gryo Gearloose, but I'm not sure if he was a fan favorite, and I'm not surprised there isn't a Ms. Beakley sticker.  Gizmoduck would have been cool, but this sheet was printed before his appearance on the show.  Actually, I'm sort of surprised there wasn't a Flintheart sticker as he is more or less the main villain of the show, at least in terms of being Scrooge's nemesis.

Getting back to the show itself for a second, Ducktales, the second Disney cartoon released in the 80s (after the Adventures of the Gummi Bears), and the first of their syndicated fare (which would be followed by shows like Rescue Rangers, Talespin, and Darkwing Duck throughout the 90s) is probably the best written and executed of the various Toon Disney shows (at least IMO.)  Also, the revamp of the Duckberg characters was probably the most subtle of the various Disney chartoons adding hints of Indiana Jones' adventures to spice up the shenanigans of the greedy Scrooge and his mischievous nephews (as opposed to throwing a bunch of the Jungle Book characters into the odd air pirate setting of Talespin, or making Chip and Dale into makeshift MacGyver's in a Wings sitcom setting.)

For me, DuckTales marks the end of my afternoons watching more or less realistic action cartoons after school (like Transformers, G.I. Joe, Thundercats, Silverhawks, and Bravestarr), and the shift into more cartoony action/comedy fare (like Tiny Tunes, the Disney Shows, Animaniacs, and Freakazoid.)  Luckily the show has begun to be released on DVD by Disney (there are currently three volumes containing 75 of the 100 produced episodes, including the original mini series, available), though the sets are a bit lacking.  The episodes are out of order, and currently there are no plans to release the final 25 episodes of the show, which is kind of a shame, though if nothing else, the sets are pretty cheaply priced.

New Halloween candy has really been a mixed bag this year.  Overall I was pretty disappointed with the crop, but I have to admit that there were some pretty crazy concepts and designs floating about.  There were some really fun repackaging designs as in the Halloween Nerds that popped up way back in early August…



I mean as Nerds candy goes, it's kind of hard to find new ways to market it outside of pretending that the little candy coated grains of sugar are edible aquarium pebbles.   So when Wonka put 'em in plastic test tubes with monster shaped stoppers and called them antidotes, vaccines, makeovers, and morphs, it was pretty ingenious.  In essence I'm getting a little plastic monster toy, candy, and imagination fodder for pretending that the only thing keeping me from sprouting fangs and draining my wife of her life blood is the test tube of candy that is just outside my reach!  Seriously though, these were a great way of getting me excited about a candy that I've known and loved for years.   It also doesn't hurt that the werewolf figure/stopper bears an uncanny resemblance to A.L.F.!



In that same vein (oh ho, what a bad pun), we have Confectionery Lane's Halloween contribution this year in the form of a crazily realistic liquid candy Blood Bag!



When I saw Harris Smith write about this candy wonder over at his blog Negative Pleasure, I knew I was going to have to rush out and find the nearest Walgreen's and procure a bag for myself.  This is the essence of perfect Halloween candy, at least in concept.  What kid wouldn't squeal with glee at getting one of these realistic bags of blood plopped into their goody bag come Halloween night?  Unfortunately, as Mr. Smith points out in his post, the liquid candy is pretty awful.  It's way too sour and chemically enhanced sweet that it would be quite the chore to consume the bag without puking up blood colored vomit minutes later.

Also in the fun-in-concept-but-awful-in-execution department we have yet another large gummy severed hand make a debut this year, this one from Amos Sweets…



This severed gummi hand is about the same size as this year's severed hand gummy from Flix Candy, and just about as inedible.  I'm getting the feeling that the larger gummi candy gets the more and more it starts tasting like rubber or plastic…



So, going by this thought one would think that any "normal-sized" gummy candy would probably taste fine right?  Wrong.  I had very high hopes for a late comer in the Halloween candy department, Sherwood Brands line of Gummi Scary Treats candy…



These four boxes of gummi candy had some of the most fun packaging designs I've seen in recent years.  These die-cut wraparound boxes scream love and attention to detail, so it was a real disappointment when the candy housed inside was pretty bland, and a little chemical tasting.



Probably the best effort in the gummi candy department as far as merging a great concept with a good taste was the 3-foot-long Big Fat Hissie Fit Gummy Snake I found at my local Wal-Mart…



This is a pretty impressive piece of confection as it's pretty much a life-sized gummy snake and it's pretty good as far as over-sized gummi candy goes.   I could see myself easily making my way through this monstrosity during a day watching horror flicks, though I'm sure I'd regret it soon after.   How much gummi candy can one eat in a day anyway?

All in all, I think I'm too easily swayed by the wolf in sheep's clothing when it comes to Halloween candy.  I want the crazy insanity of a giant lollipop Halloween mask, but I also want the quality of your everyday Nerds or fun-sized candy bar.   I think this is asking for a bit much though, at least not without a heft price tag.  Who knows, there's always next year…

Last year during the ghouliest season of the year I wrote about a piece of Halloween candy that completely floored me as it was the single craziest, and largest gummi I'd ever seen called the Mad Lab Frog Dissection Kit (which was part of the Target-specific branded candy under the Edgar & Ellen heading.)  Though I was completely dazzled by the kit, in particular the molding on the frog gummi itself and the concept in general, I sort of lamented a couple of the design elements (or lack thereof.)  The set came with some gummi flies that were tucked away in a little baggy hidden in the hollowed-out belly of the frog.  Personally I thought this was a missed opportunity as the set is a 'dissection' kit, and it would have been so cool to have to cut into the frog (with the provided plastic knife) to liberate the flies.  I also thought that it might have been cool to include some sort of liquid candy (like the innards of a Squeeze Pop) to give the impression of a gruesome reptilian autopsy.

Well I was pretty happy this year when I first glimpsed the 2008 Target candy section and saw that the gummi frog dissection kit had made a comeback.  It's a bit smaller, though just as heavy, and I hoped as I was standing in the checkout line that it's reduced stature and increased heft might mean that there were some dreamed of improvements…



Target ditched the Edgar & Ellen branding this year in lieu of their new Domo theme (as I mentioned in the inaugural post for this year's countdown), and the new dissection kit has since been relegated to the normal Target monster character branding (as well as being a great example of the design of this year's offerings, package-wise.)  It's been re-dubbed a Gummy Dissection Kit (a bit more generic to give room for other varieties as we'll see in a minute), and is pretty much just a pared down version of last years affair…



Basically the gummi flies and a good bit of the molded details have been dropped, and though the frog itself has shrunk, it's now solid and has an opaque section of gummi layered on top of the more standard green translucent base.  As I plunged the little orange plastic knife into the tough gummi flesh I still had hopes that there was a liquid surprise inside, but I was disappointed as it's just one sold gummy frog.  Also, it's still green apple flavored (not my favorite by a long stretch) so I didn’t really care for the taste, though it has a better consistency than the Flix gummies I talked about a couple days ago.

This year we can also choose a second dissection kit if the frog doesn't float our boat.  The gummi heart is a welcome addition to the stable of oversized (almost life-sized) confections around this season.  It's exactly like the frog with no fun little discoveries tucked inside, and is strawberry flavored, so it might be more palatable for those of us who don't care for green apple candy flavoring.



All in all, I'm still a little disappointed at the missed opportunity of putting more 'dissection' elements into the candy, but it's still a neat idea that I'm sure kids are going gaga over.  Maybe next year, huh?

It's funny, I've spend a ton (for me) on candy for this Halloween season, but I've yet to talk about any of it yet, so I thought today would be a good day.  The crop of interesting new stuff in the stores right now can hardly be described as a banner year for Halloween candy.  Like most years, 90% of the treats are your basic fun-size output from the major companies, so you won't have a hard time finding any Snickers or Reese Peanut Butter Cups, and of the remaining 10% most of it is retreads of last years new products.  Don't get me wrong, I'm just as happy to see Ghost Dots on the shelves again as finding something new, but it sure doesn't help me with content for the site.

Anyway, I don't really have a preferential list of favorites, but I do have a handful of candies that feel like they deserve to be at the bottom of a proposed list, so it's as good a place to start as any.  Basically this year, some of the candy I was most excited about picking up ended up being some of the worst tasting dreg I've ever shoved into my mouth.  Flix Candy is sort of making a name for themselves in the odd/grotesque department with a whole assortment of gummi stye candies, ranging from the mildly amusing (Gummi Popcorn), to the out right nauseating (Zit Poppers gummi pimples.)  I first rand across them a couple Halloween seasons ago with one of their first big entries into the market their Fresh Box of Boogers.  What caught my eye initially was the super detailed mascot character on the packaging and the very odd concept of snot gummis.  Back then I didn't care for the flavor and consistency of the product (they fell into the category of sugar coated gummis that were on the sour side, not some of my favorite things), and even though they supposedly have been improved in the past two years I haven't been able to bring myself to picking them up again.  This year I couldn't help but notice how much the company has grown (in terms of product offerings), so I decided to give them another chance and I picked up 4 varieties including Zit Poppers, Bed Bugs, Freaky Fingers, and a life size gummi Gecko that I didn't bother to photograph after trying the rest of this stuff (it too was awful.)

Zip Poppers…



These are packaged in a very similar manner to the Boogers from a couple years ago and I was expecting them to be the worst of the bunch.  Inside the box is a bag full of wet, translucent flesh-colored gummies with angry looking red tips that are filled with a bit of liquid candy (they are billed as Ozzy, Sticky, Goo Filled Zit Gummies after all.)  Comparatively these are the best tasting candy I've sampled from Flix Candy to date, though they aren't nearly as good as most common brands of gummi candy and I'm not a fan of the sticky messy factor as it feels like an "eat-the-whole-bag-or-throw-the-remainder-away" kind of candy.  The "zit-popping" aspect was lackluster at best (I've had better oozing experiences with Freshen Up gum), though there are quite disgusting to look at…



Bed Bugs …



I was really impressed by the quality of the design on the Bed Bugs candy, as it's pretty rare to find gummies with this many colors and this much detail in the molded design.  Taste-wise their pretty damn horrible and a bit too tough for my gummi palate.  If there was one saving grace (beyond their interesting appearance) it would have to be that fact that 4 of the 8 included gummis had a camouflaged candy sugar coating that make for a ghastly and realistic (I'm assuming here) bug crunch that really took me aback…



Freaky Fingers…



I’ve come across two large sized gummi severed hands this season which in and of itself is cause for celebration.  For this Flix candy severed hand installment I was really jazzed by the coloring and the detail in the molded design.  This looks like a perfect gummi zombie or decompsed corpse hand, though unfortunately as far as taste and consistency goes, this was horrible.  The candy tastes like it's laced with a low quality gasoline or petroleum product of some sort, and it was tough as all get out.  Maybe this is the trade-off for such a nice appearance and design, but if that's the case give me less detail and colors and a better taste and mouth-feel.  This is candy we're talking about and it shouldn't be a chore to eat it.



If nothing else, I hope Flix candy keeps plugging away at their formulas and hopefully they can find a nice middle ground between appearance and taste.  They are trying which is something I can't say about a lot of other companies out there…

Well, I did a little bit of website maintenance this past weekend, most of which is geared towards making it easier to browse the archives.  Well actually particular portions of the archives like the Saturday Morning Cartoon ads and the podcasts I've out up.  I whipped up a couple new banners (which I've placed on the sidebar to the right) so the majority of my Essential stuff and columns (Hostess Ads, Cartoon Commentary!, Peel Here, Saturday Morning Cartoon Ads, TV Guide, etc.) are now more accessible.

While doing this I remembered that I actually found a new SMC ad from the 80s (which browsing through junk comics a couple months ago), so I thought I'd go ahead and post it here…



The ad is for the 1987 cartoon lineup in NBC Saturday mornings and featured some long running shows like Alvin and the Chipmunks, ALF, Foofur, the Gummi Bears, and the Smurfs as well as the cartoon incarnation of Fraggle Rock, and the New Archies cartoon.  It's basically in keeping with the style the NBC ads were taking since around 1985 or so and featured characters from these cartoons mingling with each other which I think is a pretty fun way of illustrating the lineup.  I also dig the half drawing of Don Johnson to the right.  Now why wasn't there an animated Miami Vice?

I'm glad I found this one because it helps to plug the three-year gap between the '86 and '89 ads in my collection.  Again, if there's anyone out there that knows of any ads (in particular ABC and CBS) from the late 80s please drop me a line via e-mail or you can leave a comment on the blog.  Pretty soon, after I've completed sharing my collection of vintage TV Guide Fall Preview issues, I'll go ahead and gather up all of the black and white cartoon ads for yet another Essential list.

So last year was sort of fun for me because it was the first year where I really took the time to seek out Halloween past the odd grocery store where I'd be doing my weekly shopping. I hit everything from Wal-Mart and Target to Dollar Tree and the many gas stations near my abode. I hit drug stores, discount chains, toy stores, department stores, specialty stores, convenience stores, party stores, you name it, in search of the best (or at least the most fun) schwag I could find. There were some awesome moments (like all of the Universal/Hammer monster stuff at Dollar Tree and finding all of the Friday the 13th flicks at Wal-Mart for $4.88), as well as a lot of misses (you'd think art and craft stores would be overloaded with awesome stuff, but not really, at least not in my area.)

This year I was hoping for the same experience, if not better. Though there's been some great stuff around, I haven't really had that jaw dropping moment yet (well unless you count the Frog Dissection kit.) Most of the stuff I'm finding on the shelves this year is more or less the same stuff that was out last year. There have been some interesting finds (particularly in the candy department), but overall it has been kind of "eh." That's all right though, I'm really not complaining (and hopefully I don't sound too whiney), I guess I'm just lamenting. Actually, I think the problem I'm having is that I really hoped there would be a second set of the Universal/Hammer monster figures. I love my disconcerted little Frankenstein's monster, my Dracula that looks like a little kid, my spot on mummy, my unfortunate if not poster-accurate King Kong, my fearsome Hammer-influenced werewolf, and my not-quite Godzilla. I so could have done with a goofy creature from the Black Lagoon, a snide un-masked Phantom, a lackadaisical mad scientist, a swanky Invisible Man, a bulbous little hunchback, and maybe even a crazed little London After Midnight vampire in a top hat. A guy can hope right? Maybe next year (you hear me X One Archive Inc.?)

Anyway, continuing my look at the various places pimping Halloween this year (see my Wal-Mart entry), I'm going to take a look at what you can expect to find at your local Target (Tar-jay if you're so inclined.) Now I don't typically cover costumes all that much, especially at places like Target, because honestly they're hard to photograph. Suffice it to say there is a whole new movement in children and adult's costumes that is both very similar to the whole Ben Cooper thing, and amazingly different. You can pretty much find a pre-made, and pretty darn accurate looking costume of any big pop culture character these days, from full on Spiderman suits (with muscles included) to Ghostbusters jumpsuits (including inflatable proton pack.) What really gets me jazzed though, are the awesome selection of inexpensive props that are turning up in stores these past few years, offering kids and adults a chance to have some really nice accessories…



The selection of plastic weapons available at your local Target is crazy. I remember when you’d be lucky to find anything other than a meat cleaver and a scythe, and now you can have anything you could dream of up to and including a pretty realistic chainsaw with working chain and sounds. I don't know, I just find this fascinating.

One of the things I enjoyed last year was Target's dollar bins as they were full of all kinds of cheap fun. This year's selection was sort of dull (though there is a pretty fun three pack of little gargoyles that would darken up any cubical for the season.) In stead there was a display of blister packs that where a little more expensive but not too much. It was mostly little party gifts pens, pencils, plastic spider rings and the like…



…but there was also a couple of fun packs of gore balls, as well as a nice little eyeballs in a plate of worms deal. You can also see that Target is indeed going for the whole Edgar and Ellen Halloween theme this year, ditching their cute and more original spider/ghost/witch/vampire characters from years past.

There was a nice selection of Styrofoam tombstones and gargoyles, though noting really new.



Another trend I've been noticing is the influx of cheap statuary for the front yard. I'm a pretty big fan of this type of thing, especially considering the price, and the stuff is decent quality and should last a number of years (unlike the almost totally Styrofoam/balsa wood fare at WalMart.)



There were a few new items in the little knick-knack section including some really nice (and quite hefty) metallic skulls. For some reason or another I've managed to amass a pretty large collection of skulls and these were a nice addition.



There was another larger (and I assume outdoor) item that caught my eye and seemed to be new for 2007, these oversized metal spiders…



…but I wasn't what in the heck I'd do with one. We live in an apartment and I know they'd get stolen if we left them outside. They are pretty cool though.



There was also a nice selection of party items, including a very awesome skull candy dish (2nd from the right on the second shelf) that I also have no idea what I'd do with (I actually have two other skull candy dishes already.) I really do like the designs on some of this stuff. It's a little cute, but still interesting and pretty easy on the eye…



Coming back for a second year are the seriously awesome mariachi skeletons. I bought one last year and it’s worked its loveable way into our year-round decoration scheme. For $10, it really is a steal. When I was down in Florida this past summer we went to Epcot and there were some amazing wooden hand carved Mexican skeletons, but all of them, even the small 3 inch ones started at $50.



Though I'm not all that fond of the Edgar and Ellen theme, I was impressed by the huge mechanical cardboard house in the in the center of Target's Halloween section…



Now when exactly did pirate and Halloween themes start converging? Sure, I realize that pirates are all the rage right now, but there was a ton of if pervading the merchandise I was seeing. I mean, I guess I get it, skeletons and Halloween go hand in hand, but really, enough already.



Another thing I like about Target over say Wal-Mart as far as discount places go, is their attention to detail in design. Wal-Mart hit a nice note this year with their awesome Frankenstein packaging, but Target has been pretty steadily producing nice eye catching design work for years. There are a whole series of pumpkins that are gracing the candy shelves this year that have some really fun artwork to them…



In the candy section was where the real new and fun stuff was. Take these molded white chocolate confections for instance…



That is probably hands down the coolest looking skull and jack-o-lantern candy I've ever seen. Unfortunately I really don't like white chocolate, but still…

There was also an expanded section of 'gourmet' candy including Halloween themed gummi candy as well as wacky flavors of candy corn. I tried the candy corn last year and hated it, and though the gummi candy looked fun, it was nothing more than interesting than you'd find in a candy shop any other time of year, just in spiffier packaging.



There is also a nice section of drink mixers. I particularly liked the ones in the beakers…



My favorite candy of the year has to be the Edgar and Ellen themed stuff. There's an end cap dedicated to it with stuff ranging from the Gummi frog dissection kit, to test tubes and beakers full of candy powder, and even a 13 day Halloween advent calendar.





There was also a nice selection of more Target specific candy including various gummi and hard candy…





My favorite of which had to be the gummi vampire tongue…



I thought it was an ingenious way to repackage and sell your tried and true plastic vampire teeth, both as a novelty and as part of the packaging design.  (You can actually find these elsewhere, so apparently there was a 'how to repackage vampire teeth' conference that I wasn't invited to...

I also liked these hard candy snakes (which I mistook for gummi snakes when I bought them.)



They're nothing more than glorified granny candy, but they were still fun.

Next week I'll make sure to talk about the Spirit store as well as the secret (if it really is one) to the store's origins…

Well, here I go with my first episode of Galaxy High on Cartoon Commentary!, and I hope I don’'t blow my wad, commentary-wise, as I've mentioned that this show was harder for me to get into than Dungeons and Dragons. Who knows, I managed to take more notes than I thought I would, so it's probably just worrying for worry's sake.

This first episode was written by show creator and series consultant Chris Columbus and originally aired on September 13th, 1986 on CBS Saturday mornings. The episode, aptly titled Welcome to Galaxy High, was the only one that Columbus took full writing credit on, but I'm sure he had a hand in the tone of the rest of the series considering he stayed on as a consultant. As I've mentioned before, the show's back story on how Doyle and Aimee come to be exchange students in space is more or less told through the ultra concentrated opening theme song and credits. On Earth Doyle was popular, athletic and not very good in his studies, while Aimee (who is very short changed in the song) was apparently the opposite.



Now, even though he's portrayed as popular and sort of dumb, Doyle is far from a villainous character (I mean he is one of the points of view we’re supposed to follow into this strange space high school), but there is a tinge of ill will cast over him by a scene in the credits where he knocks Aimee down while playing Frisbee. From the moment the kids arrive at the school, almost every scene for the next twenty two minutes focuses on beating Doyle down and treating Aimee like a queen, to a point where I think the show becomes a little unbalanced.

Also, from the opening shot of the school onwards, the audience is treated to an almost uncomfortable amount of loud colors, sounds and non-stop zany antics. I mean you know you’re in for it when the school's name is in flashing pink neon above the door…



In fact, the two main colors in the show's palette are pink and yellow, not always the best combination.

In addition to the scene in the credits, there are also a couple of moments at the beginning where Doyle comes off as an ass, which sort of pit both Aimee and the audience against him, but I think this dynamic would have been a little easier to swallow had we seen some of this in a comfortable environment, like on Earth. In this fashion the show moves a little too fast (in fact, it moves a little too fast in most other fashions as well…)



Though the show doesn't really break any new ground in terms of plot (there was a very similar premise in the cartoon the Partridge Family 2200 A.D.), I was surprised buy some instances where the show didn't stoop to the level of making a million Star Trek references. The main mode of transportation throughout the school (and possibly to other locals) is by pneumatic tubes (ala Futurama) and not by transporter beams…



The first resident of Galaxy high that the kids run into is class president, Milo De Venus (whose name is a play on Venus De Milo, though instead of having no arms, he has six.)



For some reason this is when I started counting the number of fingers each character had. Apparently, all of the aliens have three fingers and a thumb, while Doyle and Aimee have the more normal four fingers and a thumb. It seems like you tend to see the three finger hand in more comedic cartoons (like the Simpson's or Looney Tunes), whereas in more serious or action/adventure cartoons characters typically have four. I suppose that the reason there would be varying amount of fingers in Galaxy High could be to show the difference in Earth and otherworldly characters, but I wonder if it was also influenced by the comedy cartoon convention (if only because the character design would sort of call for it?)

Part of the reason that I was dreading the idea of deconstructing this show is that the cartoon itself was so loud in terms of color palette, action, and character design. I realize that the show is set in the future and in space, but man was this show wacky. Part of this insane wackiness is the fact that everything moves in this show, the characters, the backgrounds, everything. This is very distracting, unsettling almost, and one of the most extreme examples of this is that practically everything at Galaxy high is alive. For instance, Doyle and Aimee are introduced by Milo to their lockers, both of which are basically robots with extreme personalities…



We'll end up seeing more, much more, of this later as well.

Another comedy convention that I noticed this show delving into is the practice of breaking the fourth wall, which was pretty big in the 80s (just watch Ferris Bueller to get enough to last you a lifetime.)



Seriously, everything is alive at Galaxy High, even the gymnasium…



At this point in the cartoon my head was reeling from things bopping all over the screen. If it was Columbus' intention to throw the viewer off balance, mission accomplished. What's funny is that this is, more or less, a common practice in cartoons, especially in the eighties. I've shown friends the Transformers movie (guys who never saw it the first time around) and they are completely lost in all the frantic action and quick plot movements. I guess I was weaned on it enough to be used to it, but I can certainly see (going back to GH) how it could be off putting.

Like I mentioned earlier, loyalty-wise, the show leans heavily towards Aimee as she's portrayed as smarter and more of the underdog (even though the second she steps foot into the school she is instantly and for no reason amazingly popular.) Reinforcing this is the number of (more or less) main cast members who are both female and 'on' Aimee's side. When I say main cast members, I'm sort of referring not only to the reoccurring characters, but also to the ones that are considered 'good', or at least the ones advancing the plot in a positive way. There are a couple of guys who would serve to balance out the cast if they weren’t basically the villains of the show.



When Doyle and Aimee are shown the gym, they meet Booey Bubblehead (literally an almost brainless girl with an apparently glass 'bubble' head), Gilda Gossip (voiced by Nancy Cartwright of the Simpson’s), and Wendy Garbo (who is possibly named after Greta Garbo.)

In these scenes we get some queues to the extent that the physical and visual comedy will go with some Looney Tunes conventions (e.g. the love inspired eyes turning into hearts gag.)



Did I mention that EVERTHING is alive at Galaxy High?



It's at about this point in the episode where Columbus really starts sticking it to Doyle, who has just watched Aimee be rewarded with a full scholarship and a brand new car (not to mention plenty of confetti dropping, when taken into context with the opening credits you have to wonder who on this production had such a hard on for confetti as a means of celebration…) Doyle, who as far as the audience is concerned, seems to be just as qualified to be at Galaxy High (I mean he is there and all) is told that not only will he not be getting any sort of scholarship, but that he also has to get a job and is only shown a little bit of the happy with the revelation that he's now the proud owner of a used intergalactic scooter. At this point Doyle even wants to go home, but is refused with the knowledge that (and I'm paraphrasing here) Galaxy High is his last chance at graduating.  Not to look too deeply into a cartoon plot, a comedy plot at that, but this isn't the story I was set up with in the credits. As far as I knew, Doyle, though a little inconsiderate and dumb, was the king of his high school, and could easily have breezed by on his athletic merits alone. So why is this all of a sudden such a dire situation for him? I think this should have been covered in the credits…



Pretty much (with one exception we’ll get to in a minute) the rest of the episode is a beat down on Mr. Doyle Cleverlobe, starting with his introduction to the school janitor, Sludge, an unassuming little pink puppy who can change into a lumbering monster at the drop of a hat (or a pat on the head)…



Sludge chases Doyle through the school, corners him, and is about to do God knows what, when Milo happens by and stops him. To complete the zany atmosphere, Milo explains who Sludge is, and then in an attempt to illustrate his capabilities, Sludge mistakenly causes a tide wave inducing plumbing snafu that whisks the three (and eventually Aimee) away into a garbage dump…



This is sort of a tone in cartoons that was kind of missing in the 80s, hearkening back to the Hanna Barbera cartoons of the 60s and 70s, and the Loony Tunes shorts as well. Sure, there were plenty of Gummi Bears, Smurfs, and Get-Along Gangs to cause silly havoc in their towns, villages and hollows, but it was never quite as zany as it was in the HB and Looney Tunes cartoons, and in turn in Galaxy High. Though I doubt he had a hand in setting up the gags in the show, John Kricfalusi did work on the project, and he is a big fan of this style of animation.

Of course weird space food equals antennae, holes, and negative colors…



So rounding out the cast of male characters you have Beef Bonk (the odd red chicken-looking guy with the Earth Stinks shirt), Rotten Roland (the weird blue egg-centric guy in the overalls), Earl Eccchhh (the anthropomorphic pile of slime), and the Creep (the flying yellow guy who almost literally attaches himself to Aimee.) All of which fall into the seriously annoying or basically villainous category, so they don't seem like main characters as much…



Just to illustrate that the show throws all conventions about physics out the window, in space humans can be turned into French fries, and then reformulated into many creatures before being reconstructed to a (temporarily silly-putty-esque) human…



As far as the geography of the show, everything is basically just floating in space, ala some sort of high school themed space station. There's at least a mall and a pizza joint connected by the afore-mentioned pneumatic tubes to the school. Also, you can really see the Jetson's as an influence in these scenes as all of the vehicles make the patented Jetson's space sputter.



Like the Ferris Bueller moment when Doyle broke the fourth wall, there's another huge 80s cinematic convention in the form of a montage as the girls take Aimee 'Style' shopping at the galleria. It's really weird to see a montage in the middle of a cartoon, but then again it was the 80s, even commercials had montages.



It's interesting to note that by the end of the style-shopping Aimee has changed in appearance enough to almost push her away from human and into alien territory. Add to this the fact that she’s getting attention and praise heaped on her at every turn, her character seems close to losing the audience as far as following her through the series. Because of this Doyle pretty much becomes the defacto main character, which is weird as he was painted the schmuck at the beginning of the episode. This is another bit that alienates the viewer…

Even in space there are amazingly silly stereotypes as in Luigi, Doyle's boss at the pizza joint (who-a talks-a like-a this-a.)



Towards the end of this episode Columbus shoves a second plot into the mix as Doyle tries to befriend Beef Bonk and his cronies, only to piss him off to the point of getting, um, blue with anger. By this point I'm getting pretty comfortable with not being comfortable with the odd visuals and stuff, but having a character turning blue with anger illustrates a pet peeve I have with design. I am not a fan of using cool or dark colors as a means of highlighting or illustrating anger as it's ironic, but not in the good way. (As an aside, I also hate it in DVD menus when there is a choice between options and the the highlighted option is dark or of a cool color and the rest of the options are like yellow or bright colors. It messes with my head.)



Also, as far as Rotten Roland is concerned, I think it's really disturbing that he has a tendency to throw 'rotten' eggs at people, eggs that look so much like they came from him that it's a little bit more than weird.

So have I mentioned that everything is alive…oh you get the picture…



It was kind of fun to see the 'puck' written and animated as a masochist. Not only is it fitting, but it's funny.

Another odd aspect to the show is the amazing amount of background characters in all of the scenes. In fact there's so many of them that the animation almost becomes claustrophobic at times, but I have to give the designers a hand in putting so much thought into the background. Of course having this much leeway can only lead to insanity mixed with a little bit of stereotypical character design, and a pinch of salacious design. Let's take these in turn. In the screen shots below you can get a feel of the mass amount of BG characters as well as the claustrophobia (in particular in the top two shots on the left.) In the shot on the bottom left you can get an idea of the insanity that comes out in crazy space crowd shots (I'm more or less referring to the flowery pig creature.) There's also the muted craziness of the little brown Droopy looking dog in the shot on the top right. Now, in the middle shot on the right, there's a very stereotypical Asian caricature that’s actually fun to watch as it's in a looped bit of animation that has him dancing. Finally, in the bottom right shot we have, well, we have a giant penis. Man, I thought I was going to be leaving the odd sexual imagery behind when I took a hiatus from writing about D&D…



Lo and behold, Giant Penis Man in the crowd. Penis man.  That is just wrong on so many levels...

Okay folks, I think that does it for this episode of Galaxy High. Hope there's still stuff left to talk about in the next episode…

All right, I just really can't hold back on the Halloween blogging goodness any longer. I've been sitting on three pounds of candy for weeks now, and it just sits there on the kitchen table staring at and taunting me. Well some of it is actually appearing to stare at me what with all the lifeless, molded, sugary eyes, eyes that I just can't keep hidden any longer.

As I've stated before, when it comes to candy I am basically a gummi/hard/chalky kind of guy. It’s not that I don't like chocolate or anything, I'm just not all that into sweets in general, and so when I do reach for something it's usually in the form of a watermelon Jolly Rancher or Twizzlers. Typically I also hold out on candy all together, that is until the stores start stocking up on Halloween candy, and then I feel an irresistible urge to stuff my face with everything that I see. In the past my wife and I have pretty much held off until all the ghoulish loot goes on clearance the day after the holiday, but we've begun to notice that more and more stores are changing their practices on discount candy. More often than not, the candy goes on sale before Halloween and then when we go looking it's practically all gone.

So last year I decided pretty much to buy one big bag that was hopefully varied enough to get me through, and I thought I had found a goldmine in the Scare-n-Share bag. How wrong I was. So this year I've learned my lesson and I've stuck more or less to buying individual bags and goodies, but I had to take a chance on another mixed pack when I laid eyes on the sexy looking box of Wonka Creepy Treats!



When I saw this sitting on the shelf at my local Target I just stared googlie-eyed with glee, probably because it was so tightly and neatly packed with practically all of my favorite candies from when I was a child. I did balk at buying it on the first trip though, as the stock-lady was still working on that four-foot section of candy and honestly it's sort of steeply priced (at about $12 give or take a few cents.) I mean it is a pound and a quarter of candy, but still, when was the last time you slapped down $12 for Runts, Fun Dip, Nerds and Sweetarts? I couldn't help myself the next time I was in though, as I had a chance to take a much closer look at what was included in the set. If I remember correctly, in the past the Wonka candy offerings during Halloween have been relegated to pretty much their normal candy (though in fun sized portions) in pretty much run-of-the-mill holiday packaging. Not that there is anything wrong with that, Halloween candy is built on the tradition of getting smaller portions of normal (and some seasonal) candies, but there's a dark little demon that sits in the pit of my stomach making it ache for more creativity in Halloween candy. So what was in this set that took me over the edge and got me to eagerly plunk down 12 hard earned bucks?



Well there are 4 varieties of Wonka mainstays (Runts, Nerds, Sweetarts, and Fun Dip) in five flavors (there are two separate Sweetart flavors), with three packages of each for a total of 15 (almost normal-sized) packages of candy. The kicker for me was that each separate variety was branded with a new Halloween-y name and a themed character.

The most interesting candy in the set are the Nerds branded Giant Chewy Bumpy Warts, if only because these are the only ones included that are doing something a little different candy wise. On the back of the box these are listed as Nerds Jelly Beans, which I've never seen in stores (the closest product would be the Nerds Rope I guess), and essentially that's exactly what these are. Think of a regular jellybean with the normal soft candy shell removed and replaced by a crunchy shell with Nerds candy mixed in. The packages found in these Halloween sets are grape flavored and feature a slightly gross variation on one of the patented Nerds characters with a very warty schnoz, which I assume these jellybeans are meant to represent.



Following the candy variation of the Bumpy Warts, my favorite candy in the set has to be the boxes of Runts Fungus Toenails…



At the end of the day these are just boxes of banana Runts, but they also happen to be my favorite flavor (and yes, I admit that they are terrible chemical tasting as most banana flavored products tend to be, but I love 'em anyway) and I would have to vote the new name and concept as pure genius. What a perfect and gross way to capitalize on an existing candy shape (bananas make for awesome thick toenail clippings) for a seasonal item. The picture on the box is fun as well with a sufficiently disgusting close-up of some gnarly Lumpa toenails. The only thing that would have catapulted these into the stratosphere would have been if the color had been tweaked a little to more of a tan or khaki shade of yellow, but I'm not really complaining here.

Coming in third place are two separate flavors of the liquid version of Sweetarts called, Sweetarts Squeez Sticky Snot (green apple) & Gooey Blood (cherry).



I think the Sweetarts Squeez are normally available in a variety of flavors, but their inclusion in this set is pretty cool, in particular the Gooey Blood variety as it reminds me of an edible tube of stage blood (with a vampire Umpa Lumpa no less.) Even though I'm not all that much of a fan of the Sweetarts flavor in general, these are pretty nifty, though I think they out balance the rest of the set with six tubes (almost half of the set), but it could be worse I guess.

Rounding out the set are three packages of (get this) fun size Fun Dip (one lik-m-aid stick and one pouch of candy dust) re-branded as Toad Dust. Though this is probably the least changed of the various candies, it's still pretty gruesome, what with the cartoon toads happily going to their end in a meat grinder. The dust is the color (and supposedly flavor) changing blue raspberry to green apple variety, which though again isn't my favorite, it is at least fun and interesting.



All in all the set probably isn't worth $12 (I think $7-8 would be a much more comfortable price point), but it is pretty creative and fun. Like the giant gummy frog dissection kit I reviewed last week, this set seems less about giving to trick-or-treaters on Halloween and more tailor made for splurging on one's own kids (or in my case, my own adult self.) Though normally I'd find this aspect neat, it's part of a trend in Halloweening, which is shifting the way the holiday is celebrated. I know it's nowhere near as dead as I'm making it out, but it seems like parents and companies are sort of shifting away from a community celebration to a more personal one, and I find that kind of sad (even if it does mean a whole bunch of useless Halloween swag that I can splurge on ever year.) Call me a traditionalist.

There are about three or four more packages of candy that have really caught my eye this year, so I'll probably be sharing those over the next week or so to gear up for the insanity that is 31 straight days of Halloween blogging (and if that weren't crazy enough, Cartoon Commentary! columns as well.) Man I love this season…

So while I was spelunking though crap comic book bins at my local Book Nook looking for old Hostess ads, I kept running across other ads that I thought would be fun to share on the site. In particular I kept passing over some familiar Saturday Morning Cartoon ads, mostly for the later 80's NBC lineup, and nothing I hadn't seen before a million times while reading back issues of Ambush Bug and the Uncanny X-Men. Then I caught sight of an ad I'd never seen before, one for ABC in 1983, and I began to wonder if there were ads for all the big stations, ABC, CBS, and NBC, for every year.

So the search began anew, and I started digging for cartoon ads, year by year, and I managed to find a decent amount. Unfortunately I couldn't find one for every station or for every year during the 80's, but I'll be damned if I can find them, and I've run out of cheap resources, so this'll have to do for now. Without further ado I present the Essential Saturday Morning Cartoon Ads, Vol. 1 1979-1989.

This first ad is for ABC's cartoon lineup form 1979. Though I was only two years old at the time, I do remember watching my fare share of both the Super Friends and the Plastic Man show. I also, of course, watched plenty of Scooby Doo, especially the Scrappy Doo episodes. I remember distinctly wanting to murderize Scrappy on many occasions. I don't remember ever seeing any of the additional Plastic Man cartoons like Fang Face, Rickety Rocket or Mighty Man and Yukk, so I'm thinking maybe I caught Plas later when it was edited down or something. I'm dying to see some of the Spider Woman cartoon and have been since I used to stare at the one video copy my Blockbuster used to stock, though I never did rent it for some weird reason.


This CBS ad, also from 1979, is pretty much 50/50 in terms of what I remember seeing on TV as a kid. I definitely remember Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle, and, like Scooby Doo, obviously I remember watching the Looney Tunes. Scooby Doo and the Looney Tunes are pretty damn timeless though, and I think in one form or another have been playing since they were introduced in the 60's and 30's respectively.  That's also the worst miss-coloring on Foghorn Leghorn I've ever seen.


The second half of this ad is pretty foreign to me though, at least for the time. The first Popeye show I remember watching was the Popeye and Son revamp that came a few years after this, though I'm sure I caught some of the really old stuff at one time or another. Though I do remember seeing an episode or two of Fat Albert, I want to say that it wasn't on Saturday morning, but instead part of another show like Pinwheel, the Electric Company, or Kaptain Kangaroo or something. Bill Cosby was pretty much all over the place in the 80's, especially on kids shows, what with Picture Pages and his appearances on the Electric Company, so I might be getting this mixed up. I didn't discover Jason of Star Command until this past year from reading a bunch of other blogs like Bubblegum Fink. It's definitely a show I'm dying to see because I want to see Sid Haig in a kid's show; he's got to be a pretty bad ass villain. As far as that bottom rung of shows, I'm completely baffled. I've never seen any of those and I'm surprised that there was a Batman show on ABC and CBS simultaneously.


Now in 1980, with this ABC ad, we're getting into more familiar territory. Other than the crazy Fonz and the Happy Days Gang cartoon, I watched all of these shows. The introduction of Thundarr is pretty sweet, and goes to show that there was certainly precedent set before the Masters of the Universe toy line hit shelves 1983, much to Roger Sweet's chagrin. Now, is that supposed to be Joni in the Happy Day's cartoon? 'Cause that's a Joni that I could love like so many Chachis.


CBS's lineup didn't change much in 1980, but I'm really keen on some of the additions. Though I've never seen it, I'm really interested in the Drac Pack show. I'm curious if it's in line with something like the Groovie Goolies? It sounds a lot more action packed, though I'm not sure how much, seeing as the rebirth of the "Action Cartoon" was still a couple years off. I also notice that Batman, Freedom Force, and Jason of Star Command were replaced by the Lone Ranger show. I don't remember that one either, though I did have some of the toys that came out around then. I dug the hell out of the Lone Ranger toy because, if I remember correctly, his pistols would fit in his holsters, which was very uncommon for 3.75" toys in the 80's.

I wonder why they even bothered to throw in that bit about the 30 Minutes of news spot at 1:30. What self-respecting kid was watching news highlights on Saturday mornings?


Well, apparently NBC was in direct competition with CBS, as they both had variations on the Looney Tunes, and then NBC also introduced the Frankenstones, I assume to offset the Drac Pack. Their lineup was pretty heavily, classic Hanna Barbera laden, what with the Jetsons, the Flintstones, the Herculoids, and Space Ghost. Crazy, it was like a regular Boomerang on NBC in 1980.


Now, I couldn't find an ABC ad for 1981, but I think the lineup stayed relatively the same, though I believe that Laverne and Shirley was added as a spin-off addition to the Happy Days cartoon much in the same way the original show was spun off of the live action Happy Days show.

CBS on the other hand dropped Heckle and Jeckle, the Drac Pack, and Tarzan in favor of some new blood including, Zorro, Blackstar (I assume to compete with ABC's airings of Thundarr), the Trollkins, and the Kwicky Koala Show, none of which I'm all that familiar with. I had a few of the Blackstar toys, which I mentioned when I talked about the Blackstar puffy stickers, but other than that I don't know much about these new shows. I know that Zorro, much like the Lone Ranger was at least strong enough to get one toy line release, but pretty much CBS is a mystery to me at age 4. I notice they're still pimping the weekly news highlights though.


In 1981 NBC began to feel like more familiar ground in terms of my personal nostalgia for Saturday morning cartoons, what with the introduction of the Smurfs and Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends. I can recall associating the Spider-Man theme song, in particular, with waking up on the weekends.


Apparently, ABC was all about spinning off cartoon versions of their popular 70's sitcoms as 1982 would see three shows, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and Mork & Mindy all with animated counterparts. Mmmm, animated Pam Dawber. ABC also dove into programming based on video games with the introduction of Pac-Man. I wonder which station was playing Q*Bert and Donkey Kong in the 80's? Well we'll get to that.


Not to be outdone on the sitcom-to-cartoon-conversion front, CBS introduced a Gilligan's Island cartoon in 1982. They also ditched half of the previous years lineup including all the news shows from 1981 like Zorro, the Trollkins, and that weird Koala show. I guess they were feeling boxed in by the other networks and were focusing on competition rather than sticking with new ideas, though they did introduce two new shows, the panda themed Pandamonium, and Meatballs and Spaghetti (not familiar with either.)


I didn't find an ad for NBC for 1982, though I believe they added the Shirt Tales to the lineup as well as an Incredible Hulk cartoon. How do I know that? Context clues.

For 1983 ABC ditched all of it's sitcom cartoon spin-offs in favor of some new material including a show based on the Rubik's Cube, one on the Monchhichis, an awesome Littles cartoon, and the crazy Menudo show. Can you pick out Ricky Martin from this horribly printed ad?


For 1983 NBC ditched it's classic Hanna Barbera lineup in favor of a half and half mix between action and cutsey. With the introduction of the Mr. T cartoon, added to their Spider-Man/Hulk hour and the Thundarr cartoon, they were going pretty strong with action. This was balanced by the introduction of Alvin and the Chipmunks, which joined by the Smurfs, the Shirt Tales and the Flintstones, whoch would fill out the more cute and cuddly earlier morning hours.


Though I didn't find a CBS ad for 1983, I can tell by this 1984 ad, prominently featuring Richard Pryor, that they were picking up the slack on the video game-to-cartoon front with their Saturday Supercade shows including Q*Bert, Space Ace, Donkey Kong and Pole Position. I freaking loved the Pole Position cartoon. I've also noticed that there is a similar balancing act between cute and action packed shows this year on CBS, much like the 1983 NBC lineup, including the Supercade, and Dungeons and Dragons being offset by the Muppet Babies and the Get Along Gang. I'm pretty sure my eyes were glued to CBS on Saturday mornings during 1984 because I remember all of these shows very fondly.


Of course, just as soon as I say that I was only watching CBS, here comes the 1984 NBC AD, which has just as many shows that I remember watching as well, so maybe I would switch off week to week or something. Or maybe there was a clone Shawn that I was able to siphon off the memories of. Either way, 1984 was a great year for Saturday Morning cartoons with a few more of my favorite shows getting introduced including Kidd Video, which I've written about before, the Snorks and the Pink Panther and Sons. Oh, to have episodes of all these shows on DVD. Man, look at David Hasselhoff's grinning mug in that One to Grow On segment...


After 1983 I couldn't find anymore ABC ads.  I don't know if they stopped running them, or if they're just super rare.

This CBS ad from 1985 shows us that Cyndi Lauper was becoming so common place in pop culture that her popular song titles were being reworked into cartoon ads. That's all right though, because also in this ad is the introduction of Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling, yet another of my favorite shows as a kid, which featured Capt'n Lou who was a Lauper friend and mainstay. Though I was never all that into the actual wrestling shows, I dug the hell out of the cartoon, the trading cards, and those giant rubber action figures. George "the Animal" Steele anyone? Capt'n Lou was pretty awesome as well.  Yes, they were favorites of mine. Any wrestler that would pierce their cheek with rubber bands or dye their tongue green and eat turnbuckles were okay in my book.

 

Who in the hell are those purple monsters filming the Muppet Babies though? I don't remember anyone other than Bunsen, Beaker, and that damn rabbit making guest appearances. This was also the last CBS ad I found, so from here on out it's all about NBC.


I think this 1985 NBC ad is probably my favorite so far because I remember every single bit of this lineup. We get the Punky Brewster cartoon added (and even with Glomer I loved it) as well as the Gummi Bears cartoon, probably one of the best 30 minute Disney cartoons ever (at least on par with Ducktales.) Add to that Mr. T, the Smurfs, the Snorks, Kidd Video, Spider-Man and Alvin and the Chipmunks and you have a recipe for Shawn's perfect Saturday morning.


I think it was around this time in 1986 when I began missing Saturday morning cartoons. Though I'd like to see what was on ABC or CBS to confirm this, I think I was losing interest in waking up for TV when a lot of the shows I loved were no longer on. This year NBC ditched practically every action show in favor of more cutsey fair like Kissyfur and Foofur. I mean, put 'fur' in every title why don't ya? Smurfyfur, Punkyfur, Chipmunk-fur, everything was fucking furry or cute on NBC in 1986.

I think by this time I had switched my cartoon watching habits almost entirely to the syndicated fare on the weekday afternoons, stuff like G.I. Joe, the Transformers, the Silverhawks, Bravestarr, M.A.S.K., He-Man, and Turboteen.  I think I also discovered the joy of sleeping in until noon around this time as well.


Now as well as not finding any ABC or CBS ads for the later 80's I also didn't find many for NBC either. The only other ad I could find for Saturday mornings was this one from 1989.


Though I remember watching the Alf cartoon, all the rest of these are pretty foreign to me. I knew of these shows, but didn't watch them, even though I was heavily into Nintendo, John Candy and the Karate Kid.

Though this is far from complete, there are at least six ads missing that I'm pretty sure are out there somewhere (NBC for 1979, ABC for 1981, NBC for 1982, CBS for 1983, ABC for 1984-85), this gives a pretty good idea of what was on Saturday Mornings through the early to mid 1980's. Now I want these on DVD more than ever...

So today’s Halloween blog entry is all about candy. See I don’t really have a sweet tooth, I’m more of a salty/crunchy kind of guy, but around this time of year I get unnatural cravings for all things tooth decay and I pick up one mega bag of candy. When I do lean towards candy, I typically stay in the fruity, gummi, hard candy family, though I’ve been developing quite the taste for seriously dark chocolate (the woman went nuts when out local farmer’s market closed and put all their merchandise at 50% off, she bought like $25 worth of dark chocolate.) Every once in awhile though, I do like the smooth, creamy, oh-so-chocolate-y delights that the season has to offer, so this year I opted for a mixed bag of all of the above.


I thought this would solve all my candy issues and seeing as there are 80 pieces it’ll probably set me till Christmas. I was pretty excited to find this particular mix because of all the fruity candy, Twizzlers and Jolly Ranchers are my favorite, and if I had to pick only on chocolate item to eat for the rest of my life it would probably be Take 5’s. Now I know it’s not regular Jolly Ranchers, but I’m all up for trying something new.


I broke open the bag in a fit of excitement at work and was immediately taken aback by the powerful waft of candy air that soon filled my entire mailroom. Pretty strong stuff. Not that great of a smell either. I was beginning to wonder if my perfect mix was anything but, so I unwrapped my first piece, a Kit Kat and took a cautionary bite. Capitol G-ross. Apparently all the gummi/fruity flavor had seeped into all of the chocolate in the bag. I even tested the Take 5’s that are sealed a little more air-tightly. Nope, even they were a noxious mixture of cherry & green apple Twizzler Pull-n-Peel. Ugh. $7.50 down the tube. Well not quite, the gummi portion of the bag is fine, though the green apple pull-n-peel’s are made of stuff from underneath the devil’s couch (I still can’t get that noxious aftertaste out of my mouth.) Well at least the Jolly Ranchers are good. What’s the moral of the story? Stick with individual bags, or at least segregated mixtures, it’s just safer that way.

Well kids, Halloween is officially here as the local Target has finally spilled its Halloween beans all over the store (is that a horrible misused phrase or what?) I am so giddy right now, I just want to go out and buy 16 tons of candy and other related Halloween crap. But I’m trying to reel myself in on the spending. That doesn’t mean I haven’t splurged a little though. So today I present you with my initial Halloween crap haul culled from my local Target and Toys R Us.

To start, I’ll hit the candy I picked up at Target. First off, I am so not a candy person. My palette is much more geared towards salty than sweet or tart and even though I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for some 80’s staple candies like Nerds, Bonkers, and Jolly Ranchers, I tend to not be all that excited with the basic Halloween candy fare. Usually it’s nothing all that exciting anyway, just fun-size versions of basic check out line stuff like snickers bars and Skittles and stuff like that. There are a couple of fringe companies that try to go in a more gruesome direction like molding chocolate into roughly shaped body parts like ears and eyes. In fact you typically see bags of chocolate eyes, and I’m surprised no one has packaged cherry cordials as eyes now that I think of it. There is one type of candy that I do tend to like year round though, and that’s gummi stuff like bears and worms. I can’t take it in huge does, but if I have to pick something, it’s usually gummi in nature. Well this year Target is carrying a bunch of gummi candy and I couldn’t help but buy a bunch of it. First up, Gummi Boogers by Flix Candy.


When I saw this box I was in love. The design and gimmick are pretty damn awesome and the art department pulled no punches with their gruesome mascot, the gummi chef!


This is the first time I’ve seen a product mascot that looks like it was drawn by Evan Dorkin or Simon Bisley! Now not all gummi candy is created equal. There are very distinct differences in taste and texture, and I do have my preferences. Let’s see there is your basic gummi’s in the vein of gummi-bears and gummi-worms. Then you have your more marshmallow-like gummi’s like your gummi pizzas, tacos, and hamburgers. There’s your more dense variety like your Betty Crocker fruit snacks. And then there is the sugar coated marshmallow gummi’s like peach rings and Sour Patch Kids. Out of these, my favorites are probably the more dense fruity ones, but I can deal with most of them. If I had to pick one that I just don’t like it would easily be the sugar coated ones because they are too sweet and I just don’t like the consistency of the sugar coating, not to mention that because we are in the middle of a decades long sour candy boom, they are typically tart and I’m just not big on tart. Well unfortunately these gummi’s were of the sugar coated variety, which is a bummer because the picture on the box makes it look like the dense fruity kind. Oh well.

To make up for it I did take another chance on a similar product. Galerie Candy’s Monster themed gummi assortment.


Included were Gummi bats, brains, fingers, and teeth. This set was a little pricey at $3, but it more than made up for what the Gummi Boogers lacked which was great quality and to top everything off stickers!


Each box contained a bag of five or six gummi candies and a sticker of the box art. As far as Halloween themeing goes, I think I enjoyed these gummi fingers the most as they’re all Frankenstein-y.

This past weekend the fiancée and I had an extra day off so we decided to take a trip up to a wondrous place, the Pendergrass Flea Market, the largest flea market in Georgia! I hadn’t been to a flea market in like 12 years and even then it wasn’t a proper one, it was inside an actual air-conditioned building and most of the venders were on the level selling outlet style overstock and stuff. What kind of fun is that? In fact I was convinced that I’d never get to relive the amazingly run down, junk, bootleg and garage sale style flea markets of my youth. So my hopes weren’t very high for the Pendergrass market, especially when I read that the main area of booths were constructed to be a replica of a small town’s main street. Seemed a bit too upscale. Oh, was I ever wrong, and much to my personal glee.


When I first walked in I was still not convinced as the booths really were replica buildings and that just sort of felt like too much money was invested in the place to really be bottom of the barrel, and I think at one time this was the fact.


But upon entering the first store my mind began to change as I was surrounded by cheap knock off Asian weaponry in every imaginable permutation. I was instantly transported back in time and space to the kick-ass flea markets of my youth in Florida where I would stand transfixed at booths full of ninja stars, sai and over priced swords that I knew I would never be able to afford. I used to try and convince my parents that it was vital that I get my hands on this stuff so that I could protect the homestead, just like Ralphie’s daydreams in A Christmas Story. Maybe there weren’t any Black Bart’s around anymore, but there sure were giant evil robots, elite members of a terrorist organization known as Cobra, not to mention thousands of faceless ninja waiting to get us at every turn. Then never bought the story, and consequently they never bought me any ninja swag.


So as I perused the cramped shop I marveled at everything from replica Hatroi Hanzo swords to officially licensed Blade swords and throwing stars. They had sai and ninja stars priced at 10 for $10. And what’s that, there, against the wall behind the giant cardboard standee of Bruce Lee, yes are those Nunchaku!?! Called Nun-Chucks back in the day, these wooden sticks bound by a short bit of chain were the pinnacle of cool ass ninja weaponry. Swords were cool, but were heavy and obviously dangerous in a way that made them not very play friendly. Nun-Chucks though were perfect, with just enough pizzazz while swinging them around that you never had to do anything else with them. There was a kid down the block from me that managed to find a pair of yellow plastic ones that had Bruce Lee on the handles and everyone in the neighborhood coveted them.


I made a vow to come back, but I had to see the rest of the place before I blew whatever money I had decided to spend on this place. One other thing that I thought was pretty funny about this place was that besides sharp objects and Bruce Lee memorabilia they sold bongs. There was a whole counter set up for pipes and bongs and rolling papers and junk. I’ve seen this at Dragon Con and sex shops here in Atlanta and stuff, but never out in the open in a setting like this. What made it even weirder and very uncomfortable was these two off duty cops that came in while we were looking around.


The sight of real guns always makes me uncomfortable and having the cops staring at a case of tazers right next to a display of bongs just didn’t seem right.


As we left the ninja store and made our way past the actual indoor buildings my suspicions subsided as we realized that the built up portion of the flea market was very small and pretty much the majority of it was just in this giant trailer like warehouse. Just around the corner we found another flea market staple of my youth, the odd dried food and candy by the pound booth. Unlike the booths from my childhood, all the merchandise had already been weighed and portioned out but it was the same principal. I remember the first time I found a barrel full of just banana runts as a kid and I was in heaven. Most of the candy here was kind of pedestrian, but there was a bunch of rock candy (don’t find it all the often in the city here) and more gummi stuff than you could shake a large gummi stick at. I found an awesome gummi assortment that I’ll talk about in a minute; I want it to be a surprise.


One of the things I found that was awesome though were entire cartons of candy cigarettes, ‘cause in Georgia kids have a two pack a day habit to support.


Now there was a bunch of crap in this place like old appliances, a butt-load of stuff to trick out your car, and clothes (mostly used), and occasionally this stuff would be cool like in the case of the bikini pictured above, but a lot of it was just crap and there was a lot to wade through. But this is the life of flea market shopping, and ever vigilant we pressed on looking for the wonders of the import bootleg market. Which were apparently just around the next corner!




Bootleg toys are the coolest. Well, not really, but damn they make me smile. The above two sets were my favorites being so mismatched and fake that they’d make a bootlegger blush. What kid would be fooled by the Super Hero toy set or the awesome Justice Hero League featuring a weird assortment of knockoff movie versions of figures (Batman and Spiderman with silver webbing?), animated figures (the Incredibles), and a truly rad evil twin gray Batman. Did I mention that they all have sweet golden swords, ‘cause that happened in the comics. Man, I can’t count the number of times Batman and his evil twin Namtab fought each other with golden swords. I so wanted to buy a set of these, and even though I’m convinced they would be cheap, they weren’t marked and I find it hard to haggle when there is no price showing.


The other type of toy that was plaguing the place was amazingly realistic machine guns. That AK-47 in the above shot would fool even the KGB. Most of these guns could be field stripped too, which was crazy funny though kind of creepy too. These were actually expensive (meaning over $20) and I just didn’t have the heart to drop that much on any one item, though there was a replica Robocop pistol that was screaming out to me.




Another awesome item were these two anime themed slot machines. Both played full cartoon episodes on the top screen, so you could zone out to TV while you threw your money away on slots. I hope there are machines like this in Vegas.


By and large though the best moment of the day was running into Peter Porker the amazing Spider-Ham! Not really, but this over the hill electronics salesman was pretty sexy in his teen sized Spiderman get up. He had the thickest Middle Eastern accent I’d ever heard and he wanted me to meet Superman and Catwoman (his son in a Supes T-Shirt and his very depressed looking wife in a Batman T-shirt) inside where they sold jewelry, knives and bongs! Boy, Peter is pretty sad in his later years huh? He happily posed for a few pictures, though I felt real bad when I didn’t buy anything and he let out a sad sigh.

We managed to get though the entire place, though it was sort of downhill after we left Spider-Ham. What kind of bummed me out was that there were two other types of stalls I was hoping to run into, a comic/baseball card shop and a gag/practical joke/magic shop, and though we did find them, both were closed on that day. But we had hit some fun places and I had a ninja store to get back to! Anyway, here’s a few pictures of my haul:














I managed to get all you see before you for a measly $30. I was so stoked when I got to pick out my Nunchaku. It was a hard decision and it ended up between the pair you see above and a pretty cool pair that was clear with images of Bruce Lee painted on them in black line art. The wooden ones above just seemed cooler. I also picked up a handful of ninja stars and a sweet pair of Batarangs that are pretty damn sharp and sturdy.

The other awesome find was a huge package of gummi’s called the Mexican Fiesta Meal. Included were some of the weirdest gummi molds I’ve ever seen including Huevos Rancheros and the crème de la crème Chili Con Carne! Holy crap that’s specific and gross, but cool. Now with the tiny gummi eggs I can pretend to be Pee Wee Herman from Big Top Pee Wee when he eats the meal Midge prepared for him!


I also loved buying this Spiderman figure. See there was this one booth that was all girls under wear at like 6 for $5 or something and under the table was a box of individually packages super hero figures marked 2 for a $1. I rummaged through the box and pretty much all they had were Power Ranger knock offs and like 20 of these Spiderman toys that had two spider symbols on his chest for some weird reason. So I brought one up to the table with my 50 cents ready and the guy started yelling “No! Two for Dollar!� over and over. I kept trying to pay for one, but he kept yelling, so I ended up buying two. I’m guessing he had some kind of OCD with numbers and he couldn’t stand to see one Spiderman sold with out a buddy…

Oh well, it was a fun day all around and now I can finally protect my family from Cobra and the various scattered ninja that are plaguing my small southern city of Duluth!

Holy freaking crap! So as far as 80's cartoon on DVD news goes, this is a whopper. Disney has announced that they are going to release the Gummi Bears on DVD November 14th. This was one of my favorite shows and I'm so glad that I'll finally be able to own it. What's better is that Disney is trying something interesting by releasing the first three seasons, 47 episodes in total (well actually it's 30 episodes with about half of them being two 12 minute mini episodes combined, so Disney is counting the half episodes as full ones), on the one set, for the price of only a single season set, $34.99! It won't, but I would love to see that become a trend in the cartoon on DVD department, in particular for older shows that most people aren't willing to fork over a bundle for (ahem, cough, Jem, cough, MSRP $60, cough).

To add to the news, Disney has also announced the second season of DuckTales for release on the same day and price, and even though it's only going to have half the episodes that the Gummi Bears release will have, it will contain the five-part pilot movie. That's great news, as they're my favorite episodes of the series and they weren't included on the 1st season set.

Disney has been doing awesome after a late start in the TV on DVD market, what with these, The Muppet Show, and the upcoming releases of The Tick, Darkwing Duck, and Talespin. My only hope is that they will also think about releasing season sets of the 90's X-Men show, which I think is the last of the Disney owned properties that I've been waiting for on DVD.

All of this news comes from TVShowsonDVD.com, which has an awesome set-up for getting e-mail updates on DVD news and releases.