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.

Grandma Got Run Over By CHiPs...

Alright, I've got to get this off my chest: CHiPs is the greatest cop show to ever grace the small screen. Comedy. Drama. Action. Romance. CHiPs had it all. To this day, whenever I'm in L.A., I expect to see Ponch and John cruising down the Santa Monica Freeway on their Kawasakis hunting down a gang of thieves that use trained hawks to steal purses from unsuspecting old ladies.

Unfortunately, I never realized my dream of working with Ponch, John, and Sgt. Getraer. But never fear, I've got the CHiPs Color-Form set to keep me fulfilled in life.






This bad boy is jam packed with delicious CHiPs goodness. And in case my imagination is shot, it comes with a booklet of delightful CHiPs ideas.



I love how I can knock some speeding scum bag upside the head. Unfortunately, it doesn't come with the option of having Ponch and John use their .45's to draw down on some low-life that stole an orphanages bus just days before Christmas.



However, it does come with these freaky half bodies. Did the CHiPs officers ever have to face down a sadistic serial killer? Maybe that's a scene waiting to happen.

Don't Beat Me Up

You know the old piece of advice that says: "If you ever have the opportunity to travel to the past via some sort of time tunnel, don't step on a grasshopper because it just might cause humans to have a third arm."

Well, I've experience that first hand. You see, Lunch Time at my school was quite the social affair. God help you if you carried your lunch in a paper bag. No, you needed a cool lunch box.



I, unfortunately DID NOT have a cool lunch box.



For those of you who didn't spend hours as a kid in front of the television, the Fall Guy was a show in the early 80's starring Lee Majors as a grizzled stunt man who moonlights as a bounty hunter.



Now, don't get me wrong, this show RULED. It did star the Six Million Dollar Man for crying out loud. And his name was COLT SEAVER. And he did stunts. But, unfortunately, he was NOT cool lunch box material. And while this is a travesty, it didn't matter to the non-democratic kids at my lunch table. So, alas, had I had a kick-butt lunchbox, I might very well be President today.

Saturday Night Alive

So, back in the day, Saturday night at the Nerdlander home was spent watching the delicious programming that only network television could provide. One of those shows that truly impacted my life was Diff'rent Strokes. This showed exactly what could happen when a successful business man broadens his horizons by taking in his dead housekeepers kids. Priceless.



Arnold and his older brother Willis were constantly having misadventures with hilarious consequences. But then, one day, the suits decided that they needed to have a very "special" episode:



What the?!...Kidnapping, Child Molestation. My mind exploded at the fact that one week Mr. Drummond was trying to hide the fact that Arnold's gold fish died, while the next week Arnold and his buddy were about to be molested by the guy from WKRP. In all honesty, I learned alot more about life during the episode where Arnold foiled a bankrobbery than I did during this one.

But alas, then Diff'rent Strokes jumped the shark and Mr. Drummond married the chick from Designing Women. However, again, the suits decided that even though they added a little tow-headed boy, they needed another "special" episode. And, oh dear lord, Sam eventually gets kidnapped!!!



But, not to go out on a downer, here's an episode in stereophonic Japanese:



Not sure why the A-Team has picked the Drummond household to shoot in, but, hey, it works for me.