So, picking up from where I left off last week when discussing some of the things that jumped out at me while re-watching the 1st season of the original Transformers cartoon, there were a lot of things that I didn't remember from watching the show as a kid.  I really curious to see how the second season holds up to the first considering the franchise really caught on and became hugely popular between the two.  At some point I also need to go back and see how these first 16 episodes stack up against the Marvel comics.

Did you know that the Autobots can SURF!

Whereas a motif in the series is to introduce new characters with specific alt-modes that work in a specific environment (ala Jetfire to help give the Autobots flight capabilities or the Constructicons to enable the Decepticons to burrow under the Autobots base), sometimes this is thrown out the window because there are no toys to back up these needs.  In episode 13, "Revival", part 3 of "The Ultimate Doom" mini series, the Autobots need to infiltrate the Decepticons new energy station from the sea.  Instead of building a boat or introducing a new character (Sea Spray was a year or so away from release), the Autobots instead decide to catch a tidal wave and secretly surf into the complex.  Hey, maybe skateboarding mutated giant turtles weren't such a groundbreaking idea after all!?!

Did you know that Soundwave can read your mind?

In episode 5, "Roll For It", we’re introduced to a new human, Chip Case, who is working in a laboratory with a scientist on an antimatter formula.  Of course Megatron wants to steal it as a means of producing energon cubes, and though he tried to out-smart those big evil bozos by memorizing the formula and destroying the only electronic copy, Chip Chase soon learns the folly of underestimating the Decepticons!  Again, another motif of the Transformers was for the writers to introduce new powers for each of the robots, but largely these were dictated by the plots and from a continuity standpoint didn't make a whole lot of sense.  For instance, sometimes Optimus Prime's antennae on his head can work as a long range communications device, yet other times when he's stranded and needs help these aren't utilized.  Hell, just consider his trailer which rounds out his vehicle form nicely, but then typically it disappears when he transforms (except the episode where he's badly injured and Huffer helps out by hauling it back to their base.)

So when Megatron is confronted with Chip holding the antimatter formula hostage in his brain, he simply orders Soundwave to read the puny human's un-evolved mind.  At first I thought Soundwave was going to utilize some sort of device, but then I was surprised to see him bend down and place his index fingers to Chip's head, downloading all the pertinent aspects to the formula.  How utterly weird!

So Soundwave was a streetlight on Cybertron?!?

One of the cool aspects to the first episode, and something I'm really glad that the writers and story editors decided to include in the Transformers series was to highlight the Autobot and Decepticon's alien natures by giving them different alt-modes before they come to Earth.  It isn't until crashing on the planet and being awoken millions of years later that the Transformers get their iconic alternate modes (Teletran-1 is awakened and send out a satellite that scans various vehicles and items and then sends that data back to be reprogrammed into the Transformers.)  For instance, before becoming fighter jets, the Decepticon seekers Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp have an interesting pyramidal alt-mode, referred to by the fans as Tetrajets…

These al-modes back on Cybertron were typically similar in nature to their eventual vehicles counterparts, with a couple weird exceptions.  Apparently on Cybertron Soundwave was a streetlight!  Granted, as far as spying on the enemy faction goes, this would be an awesome alt-mode, but with the playability factor in mind for the toys this would have been a nightmare.  Some of the characters were also somewhere in the middle of oddly alien and their new Earth counterpart.  Take Laserbeak for instance.  He seems like a weird flying disk, but also has the head of an avian…

Even though this concept was decently thought out by the writers, there was one major stumbling block that couldn't be overcome (at least not without confusing the young target audience.)  Having an alien alt-mode is one thing, but what about the iconic appearance of the robot characters?  How would the kids know who is who if for instance Bumblebee is introduced in a robot mode that retains some of the parts of his Cybertronian alt-mode, and then changes after he's programmed to convert into a VW Beetle on Earth?  Sure, he might still be yellow, but then so is Sunstreaker.  Nope, to circumvent any confusion and to keep the iconic designs of the robots intact Sunbow decided to keep aspects of the eventual Earth alt-modes on the characters.  So Bumblebee's feet are still the front end of the VW Beetle, Optimus Prime still has the big rig front end on his chest, and Soundwave still has the playback buttons of a tape recorder on his chest…

So there was already a 2nd set of seekers, before the introduction of Dirge, Thrust, Ramjet?

In episode 6, "Divide and Conquer", a group of Autobots travel over the spacebridge back to Cybertron in an attempt to find a crucial component to save Optimus Prime's life.  While there Megatron orders three Decepticon seeker jets to attack them by causing an acid rain storm.  These seekers have mostly different color schemes than Starscream (red, white and blue), Thundercracker (mainly blue with red accents), and Skywarp (purple, grey and black), and are neon green, bright yellow and completely blue…

Though not named in the episode, these characters are dubbed the Rainmakers by fans (since they create the acid rain storm), and eventually some of them would get monikers.  The green one is named Acid Storm, and was released by Hasbro recently in their Transformers Classic line of toys.  The yellow one is technically unnamed by Hasbro, though there is a seeker jet named Sunstorm with similar coloring that some fans assume is this character.  I don't believe the blue one was ever given a name or a back story.

So Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon swiped the overall plot MacGuffin from the original cartoon?

Yup, from the three part series "The Ultimate Doom", episodes 11-13, Megatron conceives of a plan to conquer Earth by building the ultimate spacebride, large enough to reach through space and transport Cybertron into the planet's orbit.  The idea is to capture the energy released by this cataclysmic cosmic disturbance and funnel it into Cybertron.  Part of this plan even involves setting up Pylons around the globe, all of which is part of the new big screen movie.  Personally I'm not a fan of these films, but it was interesting to see this plot point ripped out of the cartoon…

As a last bit of interesting trivia for the Transformers 1st season, I thought it would important to point out the level of action and violence.  Generally, when I think about the action cartoons of the 80s I tend to remember them having a whole lot of lasers with none of them actually finding any of their targets.  I mean there are running jokes about Cobra Troopers being horrible marksmen and then there's the idea that the Decepticons must of have a lot of accuracy training between the end of the second season and the beginning of the '86 film.  The fact of the matter is that there was a ton of violence in the 1st season of the Transformers and actually there are scenes that rival the movie for its gritty reality.  In episode 6 Optimus is hurt so badly in a fight that he's on the verge of death.  This scene could have been ripped right out of the '86 film, complete with him lying on an operating table with exposed inards and such…

The main difference between the movie and the 1st season is the finality of the violence.  No one dies in the series, not like in the film, but there are plenty of scenes that surprised me because of how gritty and action packed they were.  Just goes to show that the zeitgeist, though ever-present and affecting everyone, isn't always accurate.

Longtime readers of the site will know that Halloween is a big deal at Branded.  It's the one main time during the year where I do my best to update every day, making October a month full of scary goodness.  It's also around that time that I help to organize and encourage a community of like-minded spooksters via the Countdown to Halloween website, a portal for hundreds of bloggers taking a shot at a month long blog-a-thon.  Typically around this time of year, specifically towards the end of July, my mind starts to wander a bit and I have a hard time not thinking about jack-o-lanterns, candy, and packing in as many scary movies as possible.  Traditionally, July is the time of year to start yearning for Christmas, but here at Branded, Halloween trumps Xmas, Thanksgiving and pretty much all of the other holidays.

Well, with the many rooms of my mind already decked out in orange and black, it came as a very welcome surprise to start stumbling across a bunch of Halloween-themed goodies in the stores and I thought it would be fun to share some of them here.  First up, 2011 marks the return of Mountain Dew Pitch Black.  Probably one of the first sodas specifically designed for the season, Pitch Black made its concord grape-flavored debut back in 2004 and it didn't stick around for very long.  Released to coincide with the holiday season, the soda left store shelves only to return the next year as Pitch Black II (a sour-tasting variation of the soda), which again was pulled from store shelves after the end of the season, though this time it seemed for good.  Over the last five years there have been many new contenders for the official soda of Samhain, including four years worth of Jones Soda mini cans in a variety of Halloween-y flavors, a series of monster-head A&W/7-Up mini cans, and a purposefully generic Halloween soda offered at Aldi's.  Though any Halloween soda is better than none, I've still been silently waiting for the return of Pitch Black, and finally the wait is over.

Unfortunately, like in years past, this is a limited edition return to store shelves, and as cool as it is to have it back, I have a feeling it won't last until coming Halloween season.  Guess I'm just going to have to stockpile some and hope for the best next year…

If the return of Mountain Dew Pitch Black wasn't enough to get me in the mood, Toys 'R Us and Diamond Select Toys have partnered to release a series of Real Ghostbusters Minimates figures!  I knew the first series was scheduled to hit the shelves sometime in July, and in this first batch there are 4 monster figures exclusive to the toy chain (The Boogeyman, a Terror Dog, The Pharaoh Ghost, and Sam Hain.)  I was on the hunt for the figures while vacationing in Florida, but even after tracking down my original childhood Toys 'R Us location, all I could find was one set featuring Janine in her pink Ghostbusting gear and a Slimer.

Upon returning to Atlanta I took one more shot and scoped out my local TRU.  Low and behold they had one set left of each of the monster packs, which I quickly grabbed up.  So what can you expect out of these toys?  Well, besides the fact that this is the first time we're getting some of these cartoon accurate characters in toy form, they leave a little to be desired.  As far as the good aspects go, these figures look great, in particular the Boogeyman and the Energy Terror Dog…

…the thing that I find frustrating about these figures is that for some reason the toy designers felt an unholy urge to stick so strictly to the basic minimates design that all decent articulation and functionality has been thrown out the window.  Basically all four figures have a variation of the standard minimate buried underneath various wrap-around coverings (e.g. Sam Hain's cloak, etc.) and attachments.  To think that there is a normal minimate at the center of the Terror Dog is just weird adherence to toyline's design, not to mention the fact that it hampers the figure's poseability to just one stance.  Some of these coverings and attachments, though beautifully sculpted with great paint applications, are also unfortunate as they make some of the figures insanely top-heavy (in the case of the Booglyman) or impossible to keep the figure together (in the case of Sam Hain whose head won't connect to his neck joint because of the cloak.)  It really makes these figures frustrating in the form over function department.

Oddly enough, I believe that the designers intended to have the figures taken apart as there are some cool hidden details.  For instance, if you take Sam Hain's head and cloak off you'll reveal a clear orange minimate with some fun exposed ribcage paint applications on the chest.  Similarly, if you pull off the Pharaoh Ghosts's head and chest covering you'll expose the original un-haunted Thief's body underneath.  Though I'm kind of disappointed in these figures, I'm really glad that I finally have some of these characters displayed on my shelves and they make a nice accent to some of the animation cels I have in my collection (like the Pharaoh Ghost, The Boogeyman, and the Terror Dog)...

I've just discovered that there will be a second series released this coming September just in time for the Halloween season that'll include Evil Slimer, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Sandman, and oddly enough, the living embodiment of the Ghostbusters logo that always reminded kids to stay tuned during the commercial break interstitials!

In other Minimates news, while searching for the Real Ghostbusters figures I also stumbled upon a bunch of Universal Monsters figures on the Toys 'R Us clearance pegs.  I couldn't pass these up at $2.50 a set, so I picked up a couple of Creature From the Black Lagoon figures (one normal and one that glows in the dark) as well as a Wolfman figure.  These have prompted me to dig out my collection of Creature figures including a Little Big Head, my Creature Tech Deck Dude, and the very Creature-esque Lizard Man from the Secret Saturdays line.

Since I was already displaying these I decided to also bring out my collection of Frankenstein's Monster figures including the Scooby Doo, Little Big Head, Tech Deck, Lego, Dollar Store, Smurf, Rubber Ducky, Glow-in-the-Dark and wind-up Frankys…

Finally, this past week saw the release of Rankin/Bass' 1972 animated special Mad Mad Mad Monsters, the sort-of sequel (prequel?) to R/B's 1967 swanky stop motion creepfest Mad Monster Party.  Though it's not quite as fast-paced and fun as MMP, Mad Mad Mad Monsters is still a fun flick and a reminder of a better time when studios were still producing holiday cartoon specials.  There aren't very many Halloween specials floating around, let alone being released on DVD (check out this episode from the Saturday Supercast podcast where I join in on the conversation on some classic Halloween cartoon specials), so it was really cool to see this offered by ClassicMedia.  The disk also features a Halloween-y entry in Rankin/Bass' 1972 series Festival of Family Classics called Jack o' Lantern.  The best part?  This single disc release is only $7, and that's the MSRP!  Here's hoping ClassicMedia releases some more cult Halloween specials in the near future.

All in all this has made for a wonderful Halloween in July!

**UPDATE**  The winner of this set has been picked!  Congrats Mark H.  I've notified you via the Facebook messaging system.  Stay tuned next week for another DVD giveaway!

With the new Thundercats revamp set to launch on July 29th on the Cartoon Network I thought it would be a great time for a new contest!

I'm sort of psyched to see where new production team takes this new series even though I'm a pretty big fan of the Rankin/Bass original.  I've always been impressed by how insane the Rankin/Bass animation villains were in shows like the Thundercats and the Silverhawks, and it would be really cool to see if this new series can match that old intensity.

Anyway, back to the contest, I happen to have an extra copy of the Warner Bros. original season one, Volume one DVD set, which contains the first 33 episodes (including the episodes that form the pilot movie)…

So, to enter for a chance to win this copy of the Thundercats Season One, Volume One DVD set, head on over to the Branded in the 80s Facebook page (like it if you haven't) and leave a comment/response on the discussion board under the Thundercats DVD Contest thread with the name of your favorite Thundercats character.  I'll be picking a winner at random on Thursday, July 28th at 2:00pm est.  Remember, these are region 1 DVDs, so if you’re an international reader take note.  Good luck!

Did you know that Nickelodeon, based on fan outcry, was planning to bring back a chunk of their early 90s original programming back to the network?  Starting Monday night TeenNick will begin airing a block called "The 90s Were All That", which will feature episodes of Doug, All That, Kenan and Kel, and Clarissa Explains It All.  They're also launching a new Facebook page that'll let viewers vote on 90s era programming for possible inclusion in the block (hoping to see Pete & Pete, Rocko's Modern Life, Nick Arcade, and Double Dare.)  If it wasn't already evident, I tend to find nostalgia fascinating, and now that we're breaking into a new decade it seems like the kids who grew up in the 90s are starting to get the same pangs to revisit the wistful days of their childhoods that I was suffering from back in 2001.  I've already noticed a bunch of 90s era ephemera and branding popping up on websites and in stores, most notably with the initial crop of DVD sets of cartoons and teen shows from the era.  Through Amazon's MOD DVD program we've already seen a bunch Nickelodeon shows like Doug, Rugrats, and Ahhhhh! Real Monsters, but just recently Shout! Factory announced they were going to start distributing these along with some new to DVD content like my personal favorite Hey Dude.

I was recently interviewed by Jessica Goldstein of The Washington Post about why there's so much interest in these 20 year old Nickelodeon series, as well as why those shows in particular tend to hold up so well.  You can read the article here, or click on the image below.

Personally, one of the reasons that I think Nickelodeon shows were so cool, especially back in the early 90s when the channel started producing a ton of original content for the first time, is that the network had a very interesting viewpoint dating back to its inception in the late 70s.  First, most likely in an effort to save money when it first launched, Nickelodeon ignored the typical American programming standards and sought to distribute mainly international programming (mainly from Canada, but also from France, Japan, the U.K and other countries) that had a vastly different and less hindered take on children's programming. Coming off of this broad worldly influence and bolstered by the ideal to provide shows that felt like they were made for kids, by kids, the network concentrated on creating content that felt like nothing was off the table.  The shows catered to the idea that anything was possible, which is a viewpoint that most adults lose along the way, but it's something that kids never forget.

I'm really curious to see where this fan initiated change in programming will lead, as it's a step away from the older network standards of relying on outdated ratings structures that don't represent the audience's viewing habits like they did 40 years ago.  These days people want their content on their own terms (DVR, DVD, streaming, etc.) and it's kind of cool to see Nickelodeon going outside the comfort zone to see what their audience really wants to watch…

I've spent the last five years building a library of cartoons on DVD and sometimes I fear that I get too caught up in acquiring new series and not spending nearly enough time actually sitting down and watching them.  Since it had been awhile, I decided to devote an entire afternoon of my recent vacation to planting myself on the couch and getting reacquainted with the first season of the Sunbow Transformers cartoon, a feat that I haven't attempted since I was in middle school.  I've always been more apt to watch the 1986 film than the actual series that proceeded it, and over the years I'd forgotten how many of the little things that I loved about those first 16 episodes.  I thought I'd talk a bit about some of the highlights over the next week or so...

So, first things first, can the Autobots fly?

For some reason I was always under the impression that one of the things that separated the Autobots from the Decepticons was the enemy's ability to fly, regardless if they had some sort of aircraft for their alternative mode.  In fact some of the most common scenes from the series are consist of a sky full of Decepticons either flying into the extended opening to their hidden sea base or while retreating from battle.  But the Autobots on the other hand seemed to very rarely take flight, and when they did it seemed to be limited to Sideswipe or Sunstreaker (the two flashy Lamborghinis of the team) who had jet packs.  That concept always made sense to me since the Autobots mainly consisted of cars and trucks while the Decepticons were an assemblage of jets, birds and insects.  If nothing else, the Decepticons alt modes are fashioned after war or spy-influenced devices and it kind of makes sense for them to have powers above and beyond the heroes.

So I was taken aback a bit by the first few episodes that showcase the entire Autobot team flying into battle.  This is the kind of storyline continuity debate that really brings the nerdiness out in the fandom, and honestly it's something easily explained by the differences in cartoon writers ideas and how difficult it is to create a consistent set of rules and guidelines when creating a fictional universe.  I'm not sure whether flight was addressed in the Transformers series bible (developed by the story editors and show creators to help the writers keep the series consistent), but my guess would be that writers like George Arthur Bloom and Donald F. Glut wanted/needed the characters to fly for the scenes they were working on and so they didn't hesitate in making that happen.  I can imagine it's a pain to have to constantly flip through the bible while writing a script, and I doubt at the time that they were considering that people would be watching these episodes almost 30 years later.

Spike really wanted to blast some Deceptichops!

When the Decepticons come calling the Autobots are usually there to stand up and fight, but every so often they're just too damaged or scared to carry on the fight.  That's when it's Spike's time to shine, and these scenes usually involve him grabbing one of the Autobots oversized laser guns and then comedically hoofing it into battle.  There's something really absurd about these scenes, and it's not the huge blaster he’s toting and firing, but the fact that the Autobots let him get that involved in the battles.  This is the kind of weird logic-defying writing (employing a relatable vehicle character for the audience to feel connected to) that bugs me a bit about the cartoon, and honestly it's one of the main things that keep me from enjoying the recent big screen adaptations.  I'm watching the Transformers to see giant robots square off, and all the human drama tends to get in the way.  Don't get me wrong, it can be done well, just look at the original Japanese Godzilla film, but there are times when it's just a bunch of whining and overly implausible situations that take me right out of the story.  I do have to admit that Spike's passion to fight the good fight gets to me emotionally; I just wish it didn't typically involve hefting a blaster that's bigger than his own body…

Energon Cubes = the Flashiest MacGuffin ever!

If there's one thing I've learned from re-watching these episodes it's that Megatron wants his damn energon Cubes, and like right NOW!  Every single episode revolves around the Decepticon tyrant devising a plan to manufacture energon Cubes, be it stealing energy from a power plant, tapping into the Earth's core, or utilizing an antimatter formula.  And in every single episode his plans are thwarted, the energon Cubes are destroyed, and it's back to the drawing board.  What I never understood as a kid was why the Autobots weren't on a similar quest to find the fuel they need to replenish themselves and to get them back home to Cybertron.  If energon is the fuel that these sentient robots need in order to survive, wouldn't they all need it regardless of political stance or faction?

Regardless, I love how crazy and versatile these cubes are.  Typically created by Soundwave out of his tape-deck chest, the cubes are clear and empty until filled with some form of energy (from fire and lightning, to oil or ever the energy released by volcanos and natural disasters) after which they turn into a rainbow of flowing back-lit colors.  It's one of the most stunning light and animation effects in the series, and it certainly helped to define and differentiate the look of the Transformers series from other syndicated action fare of the 80s.

Wait ... Hauler?  I thought his name was Grapple, and he didn't come until later!

One of the things that I was really curious about when re-watching these episodes were which characters appeared and when.  I've read in interviews with some of the Sunbow story editors that Hasbro wasn't overly restrictive in terms of trying to match up characters that were on the toy shelves to those in the current episodes, but then again there was that idea to kill off the majority of the original Autobots and Decepticons for the '86 film to make room for all the new movie characters on the toy shelves.  From what I can gather though, all of the characters present in the first season were part of the first two waves of toys from 1984-85, and most were from wave one.  The wave two exceptions were the Dinobots, Skyfire, the Insecticons and the Constructicons, all of which were special and more or less had specific origin stories.  Well, except for a character named Hauler who shows up in the first episode only in his alt mode.  What I find strange about this is that Hauler would later appear as the character Grapple both in the cartoon's second season and in the second wave of toys.  I'm sure George Arthur Bloom, the writer for this episode, included the character in the script with no thought to the release schedule of the toyline, probably after seeing a variation of the toy or box art.  I always find these little mistakes in continuity interesting though…

Reflector, generic Decepticon clone or just as cool as Soundwave?

Finally I wanted to talk about another odd character from the first season that I feel never really got a fair shake, the Decepticon Reflector.  Though he, and by he I mean the three robots that speak in conjunction and make up "Reflector", gets plenty of screen time in the first sixteen episodes, there's something awfully generic about his character design that tends to keep him in the background.  I think a big part of this is that he is comprised of three robots that all look alike with the exception of the "main" bot who has different markings on his legs and has the lens of his alt mode camera on his chest.  Since repeated character designs are extremely common in the series (consider the Decepticon seeker jets Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker or Ironhide and Ratchet), when you see a set that has the same color scheme and design it tends to make them feel like drones instead of main characters.  It also didn't help that the character didn't receive an American toy release until 1986, and even then only as a mail-away figure which made him even more rare.

I find that this kind of a shame because when you stop and think about it, Reflector is just as dynamic and interesting as Soundwave, but not nearly as popular.  Both characters are comprised of multiple robots (if you consider Soundwave's arsenal of cassettes), both transform into common household electronics (camera/tape deck), and both are commissioned by Megatron to spy on the Autobots.  Soundwave does have a leg up in that his voice (provided by the ever awesome Frank Welker) is a bit more interesting and iconic.  I think in the pantheon of Transformers characters Reflector is the one that got the shortest shrift and probably deserves a nice Classics redeco toy to be released.

Next week I'll discuss another handful of topics that struck me including the characters pre-Earth designs, some more interesting and weird powers, and a weird plot connection to the new summer blockbuster Transformers 3!

One night when I was about 4 years old my mother was helping me get ready for bed when she asked me a silly question, if I could change my name to anything that I wanted, what would it be?  This was the first time I was challenged with this sort of idea, of being given the power to create my own personality and identity.  Without much thought and with almost no hesitation I declared that I wanted to be named Tiger (most likely because I loved He-Man's steed Battle Cat.)  15 years later I was taking my first plunge into the world wide web and was again presented with the question of picking a name, an identity that would be my handle in that brave new technological community.  I was barely an adult at 19 and was living on my own for the first time.  When thinking about how I wanted to represent myself online there was one thing that I wanted to point to when it came to identity, a childlike wonder.  If there was one thing I knew for sure it was that I'd never stopped feeling like a young boy and I'd since had enough distance from the glamour of barbarian and giant cat fantasies I wanted to come up with something a bit more meaningful to my experience as a kid.  Upon reflection there was a much more iconic and universally identifiable property than the Masters of the Universe that encapsulated what it was like being a kid in the eighties, The Smurfs.  For anyone familiar with the odd linguistic tic of these little blue guys, you'll certainly know their penchant for replacing nouns and verbs with the word "smurf".  I settled on an adjectival use when picking my online handle, Smurfwreck (which is in homage to the final landing thud Brainy Smurf always made after being ejected from the village for being a useless know-it-all.)

30 years ago on a Saturday morning in 1981 I was introduced to the wonder that is the Smurfs, and though I didn't realize it at the time these little blue creatures would burrow their way so deeply into my consciousness that I've been living with them ever since.  Though they were introduced by Belgian artist and entrepreneur Pierre Culliford (better known by his nom de plume "Peyo") as side characters in his successful comic The Adventures of Johan & Pirlouit in 1958, The Smurfs (Les Schtroumpfs) helped usher in an amazing decade of Saturday morning cartoons for North American children during the 80s and have since become synonymous with the era.  Though the Rubik's Cube might be the most iconic single item from the eighties, I would argue that the decade was personified by the Smurfs (coming out on top of the likes of Michael Jackson, Mr. T, and even ALF.)  Unlike the straight comedic or action cartoons, the Smurfs was one of a few series that really painted an interesting escape into the realm of fantasy that the whole family could get into.

I wanted to talk about the Smurfs today because I recently had the opportunity to sit down with a copy of Matt. Murray's (punctuation his) excellent new book called The World of the Smurfs, A Celebration of Tiny Blue Proportions.  This coffee table book published by Abrams (the same folks who brought us the wonderful Wacky Packages books) is unique in that it combines a beautifully illustrated look at the phenomena of the Smurfs with the styling of a scrapbook that includes replica mini posters, sticker sheets, replica animation cells and model sheets, as well as reproduction mini comics in the same style that the Smurfs were originally printed in the pages of Spirou in the 60s.  I first stumbled across this style of book with the Star Wars Vault (published by Simon and Schuster) that came out during the 30th anniversary of the first film, and this Smurf volume follows in the steps of another Abrams scrapbook, The Transformers Vault, which hit bookshelves earlier in the year.  Though these scrapbooks can evoke the feeling of reading a pop-up book at times, The World of the Smurfs strikes a nice balance between a book and a binder full of props.  It's pretty darn cool to be able to pull out a replica animation cel while learning about the origins of the Hanna Barbera cartoon, or to unfold a detailed map of the Smurf village while reading up on some of the key characters in the universe.  It makes the whole experience one hundred times more visceral than reading a straight prose history, or even a heavily illustrated one.  For the generation of collectors that grew up in the 80s this style of publishing really taps into the nostalgia much in the same way that eBay and other auction sites have helped fans connect to ephemera from their past.  Here Abrams does that legwork for you.

Though the actual book reads pretty fast, not dwelling on any one topic for very long, Murray, the self-proclaimed World's Leading Smurfologist, does a rather decent job of covering the history of the property and its creator without it feeling like a long wikipedia entry.  Actually if there was one thing that I felt was a bit lacking was that after reading through the book I wished there was a bit more coverage of the merchandising.  There are some very interesting images that show some of the various video games, food products and ephemera that aren't talked about or really mentioned.  I also wanted to see more of the PVC figurines that have been produced over the years.  Even so, there are a lot of treasures to be found, in particular the artwork and pictures which dig a bit deeper than what you might find on the average fan site, illustrating the history with some personal photos culled from the Culliford family archive as well as the various Belgian publications that have most likely not seen print before in North America.  Included is also a look into the making of the Smurfs' first foray into live action filmmaking which is set to hit theater screens later this month.

Overall, this volume is beautifully bound and presented and would make a great addition to the library of anyone who grew up during the 80s, in particular for casual fans of animation and the Smurfs property.  Hardcore fans will still enjoy the book, though they might find it lacking as a reference for the toys, merchandising, cartoons or comics.  After reading this volume I immediately did two things, ordered a copy of The Transformers Vault and put in the Season One, Volume Two Smurfs DVD to re-watch the Purple Smurfs episode (Gnap!)  If you’d like to pick up a copy of this book you can head on over to the Abrams site, or you can pre-order it from Amazon (it'll be released on August 1st.)