Wednesday Reminisce: A Toast to Star Trek

Face it. As kids we went to fast food restaurants because we either saw their commercial a billion times and wanted to fit in or we wanted to get the special toys/promotionals that were offered.

And one of the greatest promtionals was Taco Bell's 1984 Star Trek the Search for Spock Glasses Set:



These glass ruled the universe, and I ate for their for weeks to obtain the entire set!! My stomach lining has not yet recovered.

Who would not want to guzzle Kool-Aid with Spock's face glaring at you in all his Vulcan logic?



Although Lord Kruge did make me sort of lose my appetite with his zombie-like glow.



I also never realized how much it looks like Spock's and Kirk's eyes are being ripped out during Fal-Tor-Pan.



And let's not forget the destruction of the Enterprise. If I hadn't been so young, I might have needed a little something stronger the Fruit Punch flavored Kool-Aid to forget this horrific scene.



And with those cool rings at the bottom of the glass, I could imagine that I was imbibing during a voyage of the Enterprise...before it got blown the heck up.

Oh, and they were only 69 Cents!!

Randomness: The Future

I have seen the future, and we all become chickens:

Randomness: The Real Spiderman?

It seems the real Spider Man is a blond...and is French...loves to climb buildings in Hong Kong...and goes by the name of Alain Robert. The French part makes me believe that this may very well be a hoax.

Bad Toys: The Rock Lords

Vehicles/Dinosaurs that turn into robots = Cool.

Rocks that turn into robots = Bad.



I'm not sure what the Go-Bot folks were thinking when they came up with this concept. But, unfortunately, I received a bunch of these one Christmas. As robots, they could easily be played with.



But turn it into a rock, and all you could do was pretty much chuck it at your sister/enemies.



Now, the advertising was pretty darn cool. I actually believed that a hunk of rock could be an awesome combat fighter. Alas, I was wrong.

Randomness: Star Wars Abomination

George Lucas must be rolling over in his grave:



This insane cuteness is about to drive me over the edge.

Wednesday Reminisce: Picture Pages

When I was a kid, computers were these room-sized things that either solved complex math equations or planned on taking over the world.

And, thus, unlike today's spoiled youth, we needed Captain Kangaroo and Bill Cosby to come along and educate us through Picture Pages.



It was simple: Beg your parents to run down to the local library to pick up some free Picture Pages. And then hope with all that is decent to not miss the episode where Bill Cosby actually used that exact same Picture Page.



I believe in my entire lifetime, Bill Cosby only did ONE Picture Page that I actually had. And, frankly, I couldn't wait around, so I did it by myself...feeling sort of dirty the whole time.



And, I can admit it now, I realllly wanted one of those Mortimer Ichabod markers that made a cool sound every time you drew with it. But, alas, it was never meant to be. And that's why I'm no rocket scientist.

Toy Tuesday: Trek Toys, The Final Frontier

I'm just going to come out and say it: I am NOT going to see the new Star Trek Movie (in theaters).

And I'll tell you why. The series was just too high tech for such a dummy as I. And with the multiple series (TNG, DSN, Enterprise), I couldn't keep up.

However, I love the original series. And to live it, I'm going to purchase the Original Star Trek Action Figure Set.



I love how Bones has arms of fur. And Nurse Chapel's and Yoeman Rand's miniskirts definitely make this set a keeper. But let's not forget Kirk, who's looking pretty darn fly in his green Dashiki.

This Model Railroad = Amazing!!

Almost every boy at some time in his life has owned a toy train set. And we've no doubt spent many an hour watching it cruise around on its circular/oval path. Oh, if only my model train set looked like this:







And it takes a NASA launch center to run this layout.

Joe Friday: Sword Action

As a kid, I wanted to be one of two things when I grew up: Engineer or Ninja. Unfortunately, I became neither of these. However, perhaps I would now be a world class ninja, if only the following were available to me in the 80's:



It's a gosh darn replica of Snake Eye's sword!! Imagine dressing all in black and creeping around the neighborhood with this bad boy. My foes would cower before me in terror.

Now, I could go for the offically licensed sword at $250.00. Or, I could purchase the knock-off version for $40.00.



Unfortunately, I believe Storm Shadow would then own me when my sword broke in two.

Wednesday Reminisce: The Powerjet XT-7

Remember the days before a couple hundred cable stations. Yep. Those were the cave man days alright. Or were they?

I present to you The Captain Power Powerjet XT-7.



We didn't have no fancy, dandy plasma screen televisions back in the day. But we did have TV shows that could interact with your toys. And the cool thing bout the Powerjet XT-7 was that you could rack up points shooting stuff on the Captain Power Television Show.





But beware. Get you rear kicked enough by the boob tube, and Captain Power gets ejected from his Powerjet.



I had no idea how in the world something on television could become tangent in the form of blowing my toys up. But dang if the Powerjet XT-7 didn't provide me with endless entertainment. Well, endless until the show got cancelled and my videotape wore out.

Toy Tuesday: Bikes of the Future

I guess that maybe someone somewhere would go on bike rides a bit more, IF bikes were a bit cooler and more compact.

Well, buddy, here you go:




Perhaps you're a big klutz, and riding a bike fills you with dread. Well, never fear:



Or maybe you just don't think that today's bicycles make much of a statement. Now everyone will know where you're coming from:



If none of these bikes fit your style, then head on over here to find a ton more.

Monday Misc.: Star Wars Art

We all know that Star Wars is the epitome of art. Now, it's the epitome of Fine Art thanks to this fine fellow:

Sunday Game Day: Little Kong

Gather round all and I will tell you a tale of absolute wonder. Back when I was but a little whipper-snapper we didn't have your fancy dandy portable video games that could fit in the palm of your hand. Oh no. We had fancy dandy portable video games that looked like this:



And Donkey Kong was my absolute favorite!!





My local convenient store had the arcade version right by the front door. And that game just called to me to buy lots of candy and spend my quarters in hours (okay, minutes) of bliss. So when I found out I could, in a way, take this game home with me, well it was a done deal.

Cartoon Saturday: Pole Position

Nothing says exciting television than another cartoon made from a video game. This time it's Pole Position!



Now, in case you were wondering, the Pole Position is the inside, front row position on a race track...the best spot. The Pole Position cartoon was about a bunch of stunt driving teenage special agents taking on the family legacy and hunting down the bad guys in their super cars. Oh, and one of these super cars talked and had the cool name of Roadie.



I always thought that Pole Position had a very Speed Racer vibe about it. From the tricked out cars to the helmet visors, it's really similar. However, while I always sort of felt Speed Racer's them song was lame, the Pole Position song rocked. And I can hear it to this day.

Bad Toy Thursday: Sit 'N Spin

Sure, let's develop a toy that allows children to become nauseated, staggering children. It's like a frat party minus the frat.



The concept was simple. Sit on the disk. Grab the handle. And spin your cares away. However, this device ended up turning children into reeling little zombies. And if you weren't careful, you'd soon be seeing that fruit punch you just drank make its way all over the walls.



Perchance this toy was just a government ploy to prepare future generations for space travel to other galaxies. That does make sense...

Wednesday Reminisce: Speeder Biker Club

Even with those ever so cute and cuddly Ewoks, Return of the Jedi had one of the greatest chase scenes in history: Speederbikes through Endor.



Sure I felt a little woozy in my stomach watching this on the big screen. And, yes, I regretted eating all that red licorice and pop corn. But, dang, this scene blew my young mind. But, then, I almost had a coronary when I came across this while perusing the shelves of my local toy store:



Whoa. You mean I can treat my living room like the Wookie's home planet? AND if I push the right button my speeder bike will blow up? How can I not purchase this?



And, let's admit it, the Biker Scout was one of the coolest Storm Troopers ever!!



Alas, with constantly blowing up my Speeder Bike, it finally fell apart. But fortunately George Lucas has never met a dollar he didn't like. And in 1997, I was reunited with a Speeder Bike COMPLETE with Biker Scout. Life was indeed good.





And if only life could truly be like this: