Reasons to LOVE Halloween Day 10

Today we have maybe the best Real Ghostbusters episodes ever! "When Halloween Was Forever"  enjoy!

Where do you find all this crap??

A lot of people ask me where I find all of the stuff in my collection. How in the hell do I fill an entire roon full of stuff from our childhood that has other people wanting to come over with their wallets open?

It's simple. SHOP SHOP SHOP.

Every morning before I leave the house, I check Craigslist. First and most importantly, I always type in Ghostbusters, then it goes to Star Wars, Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, etc.

9 times out of 10 there are no postings, so then I look under Garage Sales and see which ones might have toys listed. When I get time, or am not at work, I hit those up.

When there are no garage sales, or I'm done with those for whatever day it is, that's when I go to thrift stores. The town I live in has about 10 thrift stores to raid. Usually I find something good at one.

Also go to antique malls and flea markets. While sometimes things are more expensive than they would be at a garage sale or thrift store, sometimes they aren't. Just the other day I got a whole set of unopened Power Rangers from McDonalds at an atique mall for 5 bucks. I also scored a 4th Ecto-1 for 5 bucks.

If all else fails, start hitting up your friends. I've always found that anybody the same age as me still has their junk sitting in their parents basement that they will sell to you.

The trick is not to just do this once in a while, but every day. Places like thrift stores add new items multiple times a day every day.

If you have some cool finds of you own, feel free to comment below.

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Dear Readers,

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Wonder Ball

These things were genuinely amazing. I LOVE Nestle Crunch, or anything they make for that matter, but a whole ball of chocolate? Hell yes! If that wasn't good enough, the ball was hollow inside and contained a toy, and more candy! Nestle, I beg you, BRING THESE BACK!!

Goof Troop

When I think back to about 1992, every day getting ready for school, I watched Goof Troop.

The single father Goofy and his son Max are a middle class family who live next door to Pete and his upper class family.

Goofy always seems to foil any of Pete's get richer quick schemes in any form. Pete is even more perturbed that  everybody else in his family gets along with Goofy. PJ and Max are even best friends.

PJ is Pete's son, who longs to have the respect of his father, but usually doesn't get it.
Pete's daughter, Pistol is obnoxious and spoiled rotten, and his wife Peg seems down to earth, yet has the same lust for money.

The series was so popular they made 2 movies from it. A Goofy Movie, and the ill fated Extremely Goofy Movie.

As of this time only one dvd has been released with 3 episodes. No plans have been made to put out the entire series which is pretty disappointing because it truly was one of the better Disney shows.

Reasons to LOVE Halloween Day 9

Today we have Pumpkin Spice Eggo Waffles. They are now in stores, and freakin awesome! I picked some up the other night. It literally tastes like a pumpkin pie waffle. Grab some now!

Power Rangers found!

While at the antique mall, I finally came across a complete, unopened set of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers figures and zords from McDonalds. As you will recall, I posted about these the other day. Now I have extras. I found all 6 unopened for $5.

Also scored another Ecto-1 (yes, I have 4 now) for 5 bucks.

Top 3 WORST movies of Childhood

 toBefore any of you go saying,  "Aww man you suck, I loved that one, it's a classic" hear me out. Just because you like something doesn't mean it's good. I like plenty of stuff that I know is just total garbage. Sometimes, it's just so awful, that it's good.

So below I give you the Top 3 (in my opinion) worst movies of the 90's.

These are not ranked or in any particular order. Just 3 awful movies.

1: Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead

After huge success on Married With Children,  somebody decided to give Christina Applegate her own movie. Well, that's a fine idea, but when your writers are a bunch of monkeys, it usually doesn't turn out to be a good movie. The main character, Sue Ellen (played by Applegate) is left in charge of her siblings all summer long after the babysitter (you guessed it) dies.

She must go find a job, hide the fact that she is fresh out of high school with no college education, and make money.

She takes up as a clothing designer, where she is immediatley promoted to VP. She steals petty cash, her siblings buy all kinds of crap, and then the company may go under.

Really, doesn't sound so awful, except that the dialogue would have been better acted by 2 year olds.

Please just stay away from this movie, even though you're tempted to hear "the dishes are done man"


2: Batman and Robin

After a string of successful Batman movies, including the much underrated Batman Forever, Hollywood was at it again, Bringing back Chris O'Donnel to play Robin, they teamed him up with a new Bruce Wayne / Batman, none other than George Clooney. Also making her debut was Alcia Silverstone as Batgirl.

Our villans this time around were Poison Ivy played by Uma Thurman, and Mr. Freeze played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Where to begin?

Basically the whole movie is built around a made up disease called McGregor's syndrome. Mr. Freeze's wife had it and now Alfred the butler has it.

Freeze is trying to find a cure while teaming up with Poison Ivy to take over Gotham City.

Meanwhile, Batman and Robin fight over the love of Ivy who had cast a spell on them.

Just an awful movie all the way around. Arnold did not deliver here. He looked good as Mr. Freeze, but any time he had to speak, it hurt the movie. The Poison Ivy character was made out to be nothing but a lazt whore. George Clooney may very well be the worst Batman ever, and adding Batgirl was just plain awful.

3: Home Alone 3

I don't remember a ton about this one, but I remember just enough to know how awful it is.

Did the people at 20th Century Fox really think that after 2 hugely successful movies, they could go and make a third one 4 years later, and take out the main star?

In fact they didn't just take out Maculy Culkin, they took out everybody. No Harry, no Marv, NOTHING! It was a whole new kid with a whole new set of robbers who were looking for a micro chip that was placed in the kid's toy car he got for Christmas.

What was even worse is they made Home Alone 4, which visits the original characters ) played by new actors.

Did you think it could be worse than that?

Well it can. Home Alone 5 debuts this Christmas season on ABC Family.

Nick Game shows. We could have done it better, but never had the chance.

Face it. You always wanted to run the slopsticle course on Double Dare. You always wanted to find Mikey on Nick Arcade. You wanted to take on any challenge on Wild & Crazy Kids,  you wanted the chance to scale the Agro Crag on Guts, and you wanted to stump the celebs on Figure it Out.

You always knew whatever kids were on that show were totally stupid and you could do it better, and win it all!

But you never had the chance.

You lived in some state, with fields and fields of corn and nothing to do. You lived all the way across the country, going to bed at night only dreaming of one day being at Nickelodeon studios.

But it never happened.

You're now in your late 20's and you still wish you could go, and haven't. You've never even been to Florida. For all you know, the place doesn't really exist.

To this day, you long for it. You want nothing more than to win a pile of crappy prizes to show off to your friends.

But you weren't one of the lucky ones.

That's ok, neither was I, and I turned out fine. As fine as one person can be when they never had the privilege of hoisting a piece of the Agro Crag over there head, or never showing off their mad gaming skills on Nick Arcade, but hey, we can still dream.

Reasons to LOVE Halloween day 8

In today's Reasons to LOVE Halloween I give you McDonald's Halloween Buckets.

Sure, they weren't THAT exciting, but in a way, they are. Not only did these serve as a toy, and container for you Happy Meal, but they could also be used for Trick or Treating, although the intention was good, nothing, i repeat, NOTHING could beat a pillowcase full of candy. For me I would have to have about 90 of these things to make the trip count.

Still though, it's amazing to come across these. I was out and about this evening and picked up 3 different ones for under 2.00.

There have been many versions of these done by McDonald's over the years, dating back I believe to 1986, with the latest being last year.

They were all similar looking, but all a little different as well. Some were just buckets, some had tops that doubled as cookie cutters, and some had different designs from previous versions.

I miss these days, and I'm glad that I was able to score a few of these, not only to have as decorations this year, but also for my collection of nostalgia.

Where is my Ghostbusters Firehouse!?!?!?!

So, I was going to save this, but, I couldn't help myself. My legendary rant of not getting a Ghostbusters Firehouse for Christmas when I was 4.

It was 1989. Christmas was coming. I couldn't wait. For weeks and weeks my parents had asked me what I wanted. They even took me to Santa, the one man in the world who would do it for me. He wouldn't disappoint me. Never. He had ALWAYS brought me good stuff in the past.

I was 4 years old. Gone were the easy years for my parents. Instead of just getting me whatever action figures they saw fit, and me being happy, they had asked me what I wanted. It was my call this year.

At the time I lived in a small town that didn't have many shopping options. There was Wal-Mart, and Pamida. That was it. No mall, no Target, no Toys R Us, nothing.

A couple months before that, we had gone to the big town. We were shopping in the toy aisles of Target, and my mission was to pick out a toy I wanted. As we turned the corner to the action figures, there it was on an endcap.

The Ghostbusters Firehouse playset.

I begged, I whined, I screamed, but no. Not today they said. So I ended up settling on a Power Pack Heroes Louis Tully figure.

But as the approach to Christmas grew, I knew this was my shot.

Christmas morning had arrived. I rushed out of the bedroom. Santa had come!

In my stocking was a Real Ghostbusters video tape.

I got some Lego's, Mario pajamas, a Ninja Turtle vehicle, a Ninja Turtle Shooting Gallery and some other stuff I don't remember.

After it was all opened, came the question, "Where is my Ghostbusters Firehouse????"

The response was "I guess Santa ran out"

Ran out?? How the fuck does Santa the one guy who has every freakin toy known to man just "RUN OUT???"

Well, after that disappointment was over, I did eventually get a Ghostbusters Firehouse. I still have one to this day, as well as the Ninja Turtle Vehicle and Shooting Gallery.

But Santa, you let me down, and I'll never forgive you for that.

Reasons to LOVE Halloween day 7

If your'e looking for Day 6, it's under yesterday's post Welcome To October, Welcome to HALLOWEEN.

For today's edition of Reasons to LOVE Halloween I give you :

McDonald's Pumpkin Pies.

At just 69 cents, these little baked bars of goodness come around every fall. Be sure to eat up, because come December, they will go back into hiding, giving way to Custard pies.

Ode to a Nicktoon

In this edition of Ode to a Nicktoon, I give ou

Ren & Stimpy

I found a vhs tape (orange, of course) at a yard sale last weekend, and decided to pop it in.

MAGIC.

It was the episode where Stimpy farted, but had never discovered that he had the abilitl to do this, prompting him to say

"Ren, my butt made a noise"

Of all the magic this cartoon gave us, here are a few highlights

Powder Toast Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnn

Log

and finally, Happy Happy Joy Joy

Beanie Babies, the stupidest thing ever made

There have been millions of bad products marketed to the general public, however only one disgusts me to no end.

Beanie Babies.

They were EVERYWHERE. Every kid had to have them. They came in Happy Meals. Except for the fact that every time you went to McDonalds they were all sold out.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about these sad little animal shaped sacks filled with plastic beans, is that it inspired every 350 pound 45 year old woman to collect them. And don't you dare fuck up the little heart shaped tags! They will be worthless. They even made little plastic cases for the tags.

I can remember going to a yard sale a couple years after these things had kind of died down.

Somebody picked up one of these stupid things that was shaped like a rooster, and asked how much it is,

The slack-jawed redneck lady then said "$20, that one is retired"

Retired?? WTF!

Yeah, as if it wasn't bad enough that these idiots told people that these things would be worth money, they even went so far as to "Retire" certain animals, so that price and demand would skyrocket.

Well my friends, here we are in 2012. Now these things can be found at every garage sale, and thrift store nationwide. Even better? THEY'RE WORTHLESS!!! Totally freakin WORTHLESS!!!!!!

I still find it funny to see these at a yard sale ran by some old woman in her 60's, and she wants at least $5 a piece for them. NO!!!

These things aren't even collectable now. You can't tell me that anybody who has an education higher than the 2nd grade would possibly go tracking these things down and paying good money for them that could be spent on action figures.

R.I.P. Beanie Babies, nobody misses you.

The foods of the 90's that we wish we still had

For me, when I think back to my childhood and growing up in the 1990's, there is a myriad of things I wish were still produced. In fact, just yesterday I wrote a post about Hidden Treasures Cereal, which you can view just down below.

I've attempted here to go way way back in my memory bank (which was harmfully clogged with crap I had to learn in school) to find some of the things that I think we all wish we still had.

This post is the first of what will be an ongoing journal of 90's foods. If there is any you'd like to see covered, all you have to do is comment here or on our Facebook page.

SURGE!

If ever there was a drink that was the equivalent of beer to a 5th grader, it was Surge. I can remember people freaking out about how bad it was, or how it could kill you. Then again, living where I do, most people are so dense it's scary.

I can remember when this came out. I would go to my Grandma's every weekend. Every Saturday we went on our usual run to the grocery store, and then McDonald's. Every Saturday I made sure I picked up either a 6-pack or 2 liter all for myself.

Sadly Surge was discontiniued in 2002, and a few years later the Coca Cola company gave us Vault, which was not at all the same.

Seeing this old can inspired me to look on ebay to see if I could find one for my collection of nostalgia. Sadly, while there is a few listed, they are going for very very hefty prices of nearly $100. Hopefully one day I can come across one.

Nickelodeon, the Ginger Network

Nickelodeon in the 90's saw plenty of quality kids programming, but what many don't realize is that in most shows, there was always a token Ginger kid.

Let us review.

Bobby Budnick- Salute Your Shorts

Roger Klotz- Doug

Chuckie Finster - Rugrats

Ferguson Darling- Clarissa Explains it All

 

Big Pete, AND Little Pete- The Adventures of Pete and Pete

 

There was even a whole show devoted to a ginger named Ginger! As Told By Ginger,

 

We all know the logo was orange, but for god sakes, even the video tapes were gingers!

MMPR The Movie McDonalds toys

Back in 1995 when Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie was released, McDonald's gave us yet another reason to scream our heads off at our parents until they took us there. But this time, it wasn't just to gorge ourselves with awesome food, it was a more urgent reason.

The Power Rangers had arrived.

For just $1.99 with the purchase of any large sandwich or Happy Meal you could get 1 of 6 Power Rangers Figure and Zord toys. They were all there, White, Red, Black, Blue, Pink, and Yellow.

I'm lucky enough to have a partial set of these. I do still run across them from time to time, I even have the White and Yellow Rangers in their package.

 Unfortunately, there are still some I need. I need the Blue Ranger and Wolf Zord, and I need figures only of the Red, and Black Rangers. If you have them, please send my way!

Anyways, these were actually really cool toys. The figures themselves were about 3 3/4" tall, and each fit into their respective zords.

And lets not forget the Happy Meal toys.

Yes, I had to "borrow" this picture from Ebay since I spent over 32 seconds trying to find one with no luck.

First we have the Communicator (I SOO NEED ONE OF THESE. ONCE AGAIN SEND IT MY WAY!!) which when flipped open shows a picture of Zordon.

Next we have the Power Morpher, complete with 3 double sided Power Coins that display each rangers animal.

The Power Siren was a weird toy. Nothing that was ever used in the movie or tv show. Basically you blew into it and it made a whistling noise to annoy the hell out of everybody.

Lastly we have the Alien Detector. Once again nothing used in the movie. But you had a knob on the side that when you scroll through showed pictures of Ivan Ooze, Lord Zedd, and Rita.

The first of many Power Rangers tie ins with McDonald's. After all these years, I still need a few of these, but luckily run across them from time to time.

DID YOU KNOW?? We are on Facebook., Just search Camp Anawanna.

Hidden Treasures Cereal Crack in a box

In the days of eating healthy, high fiber content, and American obesity, I take you back to a better time.

Hidden Treasures cereal was just that, a treasure. You would eat who knows how many bowls just to find those special pieces filles with red sugar.

There was truly no better cereal, even if you had to beat the sh*t out of your friends or little sister and make them cry, just so they wouldn't eat it.

Every morning that summer I can remember eating a bowl of this while watching "The Alvin Show" on Nickelodeon.

A picture and memories alone can never do this cereal justice. This cereal was what made us all learn that when something says "For a limited time" you better go out and buy way too much of it because just as you get hooked on itm it's gone.

There have been numerous imposters, most recently Kellogs Krave, but none stack up to the original.

To this day I would gladly do anything, and I mean, anything just for one more bowl.

Welcome to October! Welcome to HALLOWEEN!!

Thats right kids, it's October 1st! Who says Halloween should only last one day? Here it lasts ALL MONTH LONG!

For today's Reasons to LOVE Halloween here is our theme song for the year.

Yes everybody, This is Halloween.

The time of the year of leaves falling from multi-colored trees. Pumpkin flavored everything. Bats, skeletons, Dracula, Frankenstein.

Time to stock up on Halloween candy, not to give out to Trick-Or-Treaters (because let's face it, if your any kind of fan of Halloween, you're somewhere in a costume contest) but to enjoy for yourself while watching every episode of The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror.

It's the time of the year for all the great Halloween specials and Horror Movies.

Do I need to go on? No? Well, I will anyways.

Everybody break out your favorite costume (or get to work if you haven't started yet, TIME IS RUNNING OUT!) and be sure to send me pictures. I do believe I will be holding a costume contest of some sort depending on how many entries we get.

If you decide to enter said contest, post your photo on our Facebook page. Wait, what??? You didn't know we had a Facebook page?? Where the hell have you been? Quit masturbating to 35 year old pictures of Princess Leia, and check it out!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/campanawanna8090

Halloween is in full swing! WELCOME TO OCTOBER!

My thoughts of the Dinosaur Dracula site

I used to be a big fan of X-Entertainment / Dinosaur Dracula. In fact it's partly what inspired me to start this blog.

A few days ago when I launched this page I went to Facebook to put the link on the Dinosaur Dracula page, even praising him for his work, to which I got NO response.

Well tonight, I visited that page again, only to find out I have been blocked from commenting on anything.

From now on, I can honestly say I will no longer read his page. I have no respect for someone who can't help out someone else. I have always thought that the idea of buying toys that are over 20 years old only to open them and take ridiculous pictures of them was absurd, however now I can see that this man is nothing more than a self absorbed douchebag.

If any of you know this guy, or read his page, feel free to tell him what I wrote, at least that would mean that he's reading.

Pee-Wee's Playhouse the set everybody MUST own

Where to being?

Pee-Wee's Playhouse has to be one of, if not, the best Saturday Morning shows EVER.

This box set (divided between 2 volumes) was a great Amazon.com score for me a couple years ago.

While most every episode follows the same pattern, they are all in their own way so different and entertaining. Pee-Wee's Playhouse was very much ahead of it's time in the 80's. It allowed us all to use our imagination, and be creative, while at the same time, having educational and comedic value to it.

Nearly every episode stars right away with Pee-Wee telling us all good morning. Then one of the other characters (Chairry, Magic Screen, Globey) ask Pee-Wee what the secret word is.

The "Secret Word"?????

Pee-Wee then turns on Conky 2000 to ask. Conky prints us out the secret word.

You all know what to do whenever anybody says the secret word, right?

Of course! SCREAM REAL LOUD!!!

The story continues with Pee-Wee in all sorts of adventures (and misadventures) featuring all his friends like Miss Yvonne, Cowboy Curtis, Mrs. Renae, Reba the Mail Lady, Ricardo, Tito, Captain Carl, and the ever important King of Cartoons.

And we always have such prominent features like, Snack Time and a Penny Cartoon.

If you've been living under a rock for the last 25 years, or just need a good way to re-live your childhood, Pee-Wee's Playhouse is the way to go.

While you can pick up these tapes on Amazon for about $9 a set, they are also on DVD.

And don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the Christmas Special, I'm simply trying to contain myself and hold off on that until December.

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$5 Halloween movies at Best Buy

Went to Best Buy today, hoping to pick up The Pee-Wee Herman Show on Broadway dvd.

Of Course, I get there and they don't have it at all.

While walking around looking for something to salvage the trip, I noticed a couple racks of Halloween themed dvds for $5. They have tons of Goosebumps movies, the usual Nicktoons, and Charlie Brown.

But one stuck out more than anything. A GREAT movie that I remember watching time and time again.

Little Monsters

Starring Fred Savage and Howie Mandel, this is the story of every child's biggest fear, Monsters under the bed!

But little did we all know, even though they are awful looking, they live in an underground world of junk food, video games, and staying up all night!

Being a big Wonder Years fan, I love how this movie has Fred Savage, and Daniel Stern playing his father.

Head to best buy and grab a copy of this. You'll  get every bit of $5 of enjoyment out of watching it.

Reasons to LOVE Halloween Day 5

Reese's Pumpkins

at 99 cents a piece, they are easily the best tasting rip-off you will ever find.

go buy $20 worth now.

Exactley how I felt when I found this today

Garage Sale Finds 9-29-12

Quite a few good things today.

I'm a big fan of Garage Sales and Thrift stores. It's truly amazing what kind of things you can find from your childhood just laying around in someone else's home.

First up I found a working Nintendo 64 for a buck. Even went and bought Star Wars Racer.

Found a Ren & Stimpy VHS

Some kind of Power Rangers SPD Command Zord (will have to do more research on it) for a dollar,

A Star Wars 3D Star Destroyer Puzzle for a dollar

And now, the 2 big finds of the day

First up a talking Baby from Dinosaurs $1.00

 

And the BIGGEST find of the day, straight out 1989 a talking Beetlejuice doll

 

 

 

 

Reasons to LOVE Halloween day 4

Forget going house to house only getting apples, fruity flavored crap, and Jesus will save you brochures.

I WANT CHOCOLATE

Give me a bag full of Butterfingers.

New TMNT cartoon is here!

After months of waiting and anticipation, today is the premiere of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Nickelodeon at 10am!!!

Retro Toy Review. MMPR Auto-Morphin Tommy

Last Spring I went to a giant indoor Garage Sale and came across this for a quarter. I had it when I was a kid, and knew it rightfully deserved a place in my collection as an adult.

The problem is, while yes, it is the Green Freakin Ranger, they were not exactley detailed, even for their time.

I mean if you squint hard enough, after staring at the sun for an hour, it kinda looks like Tommy.

These figures had good articulation, but when you played with the, you couldn't get the best fighting poses and it looked plain awful.

The cool feature here though, is the fact that all you have to do is push the power morpher on his belt, and he morphs. From oridinary teen to Power Ranger.

Though, I'm not sure that it wouldn't be a dead giveaway that he's the Green Ranger when he's unmorphed since he still has the suit on.

Oh well, it was only a quarter.

Get excited, Christmas is coming....kind of

Just letting it be know I have some big things planned for the Christmas season. Including old commercials, my christmas memories (which will include the infamous rant of how I didn't get the Ghostbusters Firehouse when I was 4) Christmas movie reviews, and more.

As a special preview of what's to come here is one of my favortie commercials from when I was a kid, a 7-up commercial from the 80's.

Reasons to LOVE Halloween Day 3

In day 3, I give to the The Real Ghostbusters "The Halloween Door"

Just freakin AMAZING

Enjoy

E.T. the sh*t that scared me til I was 16

Yes it's true. I was scared, no frightened, no PETRIFIED of E.T. until I was 16.

My first introduction to E.T. was at 4 years old. We rented it from the Video Store. What's a video store, you ask? You see back in the day we had these big bulky things called VCRs..eff it, just google it.

I went the whole movie being OK. I kinda liked it, didn't understand it, but liked it. Then came the end. Oh man. E.T. was going home. I cried my ass off for a long time. Geez. Still gets me sometimes to this day, That's why I watch it when nobody else is home, because if anyone sees me being a pussy, I'm done for.

So I was fine. I loved it. But then came bed time.

It started with thinking E.T. was under my bed coming to get me. Then came the nightmares. I remember most vividly a dream where my Grandma and I were in the living room watching tv. There was a commercial for E.T. 2. Yes I know it was never made but hey, it's a dream. Then came a commercial for E.T. on ice. As if none of this was bad enough, I look out the window, and there's a big E.T. pushing a baby E.T. in a stroller. Then frightened as I was, I look for my Grandma to save me, but she was nowhere to be found! E.T.'s started popping up everywhere!!!

Then I woke up. Horrfied.

What looks like this to most

Looked like this to me

God it was scary.

Luckily though, I (kind of) grew up. 2002 saw the re-release of E.T. in theaters for the 20th anniversary. I manned up (as much as a 16 year old boy can do) and went to the first showing.

Oh My God! I loved it. I was no longer scared. I could now look at this movie, not as a source of torture and grandma-less nightmares, but as the classic that it truly was.

I think I ended up going to see it about 3 more times.

Today, I still love E.T. but I'll never, ever forget the anguish that the little bastard caused me for so many years.

Nintendo, the most innovative game system, for a couple years

I still have a NES. It's one of those things that every home in the country had when I was a kid. I got my first one for Christmas when I was 5.

The only game I had, for years and years was what came with the Nintendo. Super Mario Bros / Duckhunt. The games were so insanely expensive, even by 1990's standards, that if you wanted something else to play, you either rented it, or had a buddy that was an over privileged little bastard, and you played his.

You don't immediately realize it when you're a kid, but eventually Ninetendo was outdated. What? Outdated? No effin way.

Yep.

Sitting in the living room one night watching TV, here comes an ad for Super Nintendo.

Damn it.

No more being one of the cool kids. Now all of your friends would be playing Super Mario World, and you're still stuck trying to get past world 8.3 in the original.

I wouldn't get a SNES until I was 12, and even then, when I wanted Super Mario World, it came with a lame ass Mortal Kombat ripoff called Killer Instinct.

Below I leave you with a handful of old Nintendo ads, to take you back to a time where you saw the ad's and knew you were only cool enough to play Mario.

Reasons to LOVE Halloween Day 2

Here it is, day 2 of why we love Halloween so much!

In all it's splended glory, the full episode of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"

Who can't resist laughing when Charlie Brown goes from house to house in a raggedy ghost costume only to continiue to exclaim "I got a rock..."

Random Garage Sale Hoard

Some days you wake up just knowing it's going to be a good day to be a nerd. Today, was one of those days. After work a little while ago, I stopped at a yard sale on my way home. My $15 and haggling with a toothless man, and his b*tch of a mom, yielded me these.

First up, a vintage Lando in skiff guard disguise for 50 cents. One of the small handful of vintage figures that I still actually need. I'm thinking he will look pretty damn good with Jabba the hutt.

Next up is 2 boxes of uneaten Star Wars episode 2 cereal that expired about 10 years ago. God knows what's inside.

Speeder Bike with Scout tropper in the box!

Boba Fett on a red card. Neede this for a while.

A wayyyy too buff looking Luke Skywalker on a red card from the first wave of POTF2.

And last, but damn sure not least, the Micro Machines Millenium Falcon playset, 99.99999% complete.

The stick that changed the world

What was it about Stick Stickly that made Nickelodeon afternoons so enjoyable? Better yet, why did they base a whole block of quality programming around a popsicle stick with eyes?

Either way, that whole summer was spent watching Stick Stickly in the afternoon. I even remember the jingle to write to him. Sad I know.

Now you wanna know what it was don't you?

"Write to me, Stick Stickly, PO Box 963. New York City, New York State 10108"

It takes a special person...

Stick wasn't alone either. He had Holly B Wood (her beeper's on and her hair looks good) who was nothing more than an ice cream stick with hair.

Perhaps the best segment was "Dip Stick" where fans could write in and choose what to dip him into.

Or there was that WHOLE SUMMER where a camera and a Popsicle stick went around finding celebrities to chew a gumball so that it could be put into the "Chewed Gumball hall of fame"

Oh the memories....

Cool new TMNT Facebook App

TMNTmask.com is a new Facebook app that you can use to give a photo of yourself a Ninja Turtle mask. Check it out!!

Sexy eh??

The fate of MY Green Ranger

Recently McDonalds was offering Power Rangers Samurai toys in their Happy Meals. When I saw that they had a Green Ranger, I had to get it.

Through a few days of getting boxes full of stale McNuggets, and a size of fries that wouldn't even please a midget, I finally scored the Green Ranger.

Little did I know that my 4 year old nephew also wanted, no needed, no HAD TO HAVE a Green Ranger. So, I did the nice thing that anybody would do, and begrudgingly gave him mine.

I was sad to see it go, I may have even cried on the inside for a little bit, but I knew it was the right thing to do.

Well, as fate would have it, he went to Mcdonalds a few day later, and he found one as well. Little did I know that after he "promised" to give mine back, he beheaded it.

Well shit. Now what was I to do? I have no Green Ranger, at least one that has a head.

Luckily for me, I went garage sailing last weekend. In a bin of toys, lay the Green Ranger. Some ungrateful little kid decided that Power Rangers were beneath him and he didn't want it. The asking price?? A whole nickel.

So there you have it, once again the world is a safe place, more so my shelf is a safe place for the Green Ranger.

The coolness of Ecto Cooler

Let's face it. We're all old now. But what we wouldn't give to have just one more box of Ecto Cooler.

This item was a must back in the day. We all sat about 3 inches from the TV even though grown ups told us it was bad for our eyes, and watched The Real Ghostbusters while drinking our Ecto Cooler.

This awesome product was on shelves until about 1997, which yes, was 15 years ago. In 15 years, our begging, pleading, screaming, and crying still haven't convinced Hi-C to put this back out. There are other forms of it under a different name, like Orange Lavaburst, but how can you mentally convinve yourself that you're drinking Ecto Cooler without being able to look down at the box and see Slimer?

If Hi-C would take 30 seconds and learn that this stuff is STILL in high demand, they could capitalize on the profits from Ghostbusters fans, nerds, and man children everywhere.

Todays secret word is.....

For the rest of the day, whenever anybody says the secret word, scream real loud!!!!!!!!!!!!

My most prized possesion

Yes, that is a copy of Ghostbusters signed by Ernie freakin Hudson!
And Yes, it says "To Andrew, Tell em about the Twinkie"

Retro Toy Review

Welcome to the first of what I hope will be many Retro Toy reviews.

In the first installment we will review a piece I recently picked up for my collection. A piece I was too poor to afford in the 3rd grade. A piece so legendary it could only be called MEGAZORD.

When the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers craze took full effect in 1993, the shelves in toy stores around the world were littered with this stuff. Today I'm proud to say that I own some of this, but unfortunatley lots of it is still wayyy too expensive, even on Ebay.

Luckily a couple months ago I was able to find this. I have wanted it forever!

Behold, MEGAZORD.

Far cooler than every version that came after him. Megazord was made up of the Tyrranosauraus, Mastadon, Pterydactyl, Sabertooth Tiger and Triceritops.

While not extremley articulate by any means, when combined this badass toy towered over everything. I don't know how many times recently I have taken apart and put together this thing. Probably way too many considering I'll be 27 next month.

All in all, if I can't have the overpriced Dragon Dagger in my collection, I'll gladly take MEGAZORD (yes it has to be all caps, because he deserves it) any day of the week.

No dick drawings here.

I do own 2 of these. However what once what a piece of childhood innocence and a container filled with Jell-O Pudding and a warm sandwich, has been molested by the movie Superbad. While funny, and an appreciative Ghostbusters reference, I'm not sure I can look at these the same knowing that the character in the movie used this to hide penis drawings. What do you think?? Comment Below.

Review: New TMNT Figures

Not sure yet how to feel about this new version on TMNT. Sure it's great that it's living on, but look at them. Compared to what we grew up with, it's sooo far different. And replacing "Cowabunga" with "Booyakasha" seems like a felony.

I guess we will see on Saturday morning how this new version of Turtles stacks up.

Regardless, for about the last month the toys have been on shelves. I'm proud to say I've picked up all the basic figures, and a couple vehicles.

The new figures are all 4 Turtles, April, Splinter, Shredder, Krang and a Foot Soldier.

The figures look very much like their new cartoon counterparts. Blocky and strange. Yet they have certain attributes of the classic TMNT line. There's just something about seeing the Playmates logo on the package that takes you all the way back to when you got your first Turtle in 1988.

All figures were pretty easy to find. I started with all 4 Turtles because I figured that if it was anything like when I was a kid, all of today's kids would want them first.

However, all 4 turtles, as well as the rest of the set, have all been readily available wherever they are sold. The pegs have gotten kind of empty as build up to the cartoon has increased. Guess it pays off to get them early.

Each figure comes with accessories or weapons. Shredder looks like a jakked up version of his 1988 self, while Krang is not just Krang anymore, but one of a whole army of brain-like creatures who are a whole race called "Krang."

April looks very different from her 1988 self. Now she looks more like the April character from the cgi TMNT movie. Not sure is she'll be a news reporter or Baxter Stockmans assistant, or neither in this version.

Splinter has also taken a dramatic change as well. Gone is the old brown rat. Now he is replaced with a black/grey and white fur covered rodent. Still, he is the master, and you must bow to him.

All in all, I'm pretty excited about this new cartoon. Not only because TMNT lives on, but because now we have even more awesome crap to collect! Let's just hope that some of the big name actors they have hired to portray the voices dont demand tons of money or back out of the project. Nickelodeon seems to have a track record of letting things just disappear without notice.