Terrifyingly Fun

In the world of kids, nothing beats a great playground. After all, isn't romping and frolicking what life is all about?

However, I think my heart would have burst with the evil blackness that resides in these playgrounds:


Yay!! Climbing around on giant, mutant killer wasps is fun!!


Mommy!! I want to see the killer croc with the ferocious teeth and various kitchen implements sticking out of his back!!


Wheee. The Dumbo ride at Eastern Euro Disney is better than I could ever have imagined!!


Murderous doctors are fun for the entire family!!

Head over to Darkroastedblend for even more diabolically fun playgrounds.

A Crimson Christmas

God Bless movies made on toys from my childhood. I'm not saying the new GI Joe movie coming out next year will be good, but it's forced Hasbro to start releasing "25th Anniversary" GI Joe toys.

And one of these nuggets is the Cobra Crimson Guard.




Let's face it. While Cobra is an evil entity that needs to be exterminated, they did have some uniforms that were unbelievably cool.




Imagine this guy coming at you from across the battlefield. I'd wet myself and renounce freedom in all its glorious splendor.



The best thing about these re-releases is that the packaging is almost identical to the original.




I love how the Crimson Guard is good at accounting. I'll remember that next April. I'm sure he's great at write-offs. Stolen booty?...Oh, yeah, that's deductible.

And Hasbro has gotten me salivating with this tid-bit:


Mwaaa-haha...More to come!!

Christmas Gold

I was a Hot Wheels fanatic. And it all started, I believe, during the Christmas of 1979 when I received an explosion of gold in the form of:

Gold Hot Wheels!!


These little pieces of metal joy came in a set, and I remember the Christmas tree lights blazing off of the perfect gold paint jobs.

There was:

Spoiler Sport


Hot Bird


Jaguar XJS


Corvette Stingray


Datsun ZWhiz


For years when I mentioned these beauties, my friends would look at me like I told them I once owned an invisible dragon named Herb. But I now have my vengeance. So suck on this!!

The Gift that Keeps on Giving

So, for years, one could actually name a star and give it as a Christmas gift. Now, I thought that was pretty cool until I learned this:

Purdue has a gift idea for you: Name a new species of bat
Center for the Environment's Species Naming and Conservation Initiative
Would you like to name a bat species for a family member or friend this holiday season, and help support important environmental research and conservation efforts?
Purdue University is offering the naming rights to a newly discovered species in honor of a donor to the Center for the Environment. This unique species is a rare family member of the little yellow bat, the smallest known bats in the New World. They weigh less than a tablespoon of water, and are sensitive environmental sentinels of their habitat.



This might just be the greatest gift one could ever give. Who wouldn't want to be associated with a terror-inducing creature named Mike?



In the spirit of Christmas, I beg my loved ones to name a bat after me.