Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Night Flight Movie Review: TMNT II: Secret of the Ooze



Ah, the Turtles. Such favorites around the Geektarded underground labs. The Green Machines made us fans in the original black and white comics and then stole America's heart with their late 80s to mid 90s toys, cartoons, pies, adhesive medical strips and even live action films.

Released in March of 1991, barley a year after the original was released, TMNT 2 dives shell-deep into the turtles' origin, sees the return of zombie Shredder and adds a couple of evil mutants, Rahzar and Tokka. We also get a sexy new April and a kung-fu pizza delivery boy with voice-cracking issues. If they could have worked in Krang, you would have had the warmest night on television.




Everyone ("everyone" being the three other people I know who saw the film) says the first TMNT is the best and I won't argue that it is the superior film in the series. But part 2 is just so much fun. It's like they combined the best elements of the original comics and the goofy cartoons. Sure it looks like it cost 20 bucks to film and the acting and set pieces are on-par with a Power Rangers episode but I'll be damned if Secret of the Ooze isn't more enjoyable movie.

The turtles spend more time goofing-off than fighting. The Foot Clan is now a joke, living in a junkyard. And zombie Shredder's best laid plan is not to go and buy a gun and take out the turtles, but to dump toxic waste on a wolf and a snapping turtle, hope they don't get Super-Cancer, and try to mutate them into turtle-killing deathbringers. And the movie's big finale, like most major events in my life, takes place during a Vanilla Ice concert on the waterfront.

THE STAFF AT GEEKTARDED WOULD LIKE TO TAKE A MOMENT TO HONOR RAHZAR, AS HE JOINS THE ILLUSTRIOUS RANKS OF MONSTERS WITH DOWN SYNDROME!


RAHZAR joins past winners like King Kong (King Kong vs Godzilla), Goomba (Super Mario Bros.), Captain Labia (Star Wars Pt 6: The Jediening) and the Chinese Wildman (Big Trouble in Little China). Golf clap, people! Gold clap!


Sunday, August 19, 2007

Can you smell it? It's in the air...

It may be hotter than FrankenHitler's ass-crack outside, but I know it's coming. My geektarded senses are tingling. Halloween's on it's way. The kick-off to 4 months of seasonable weather and holidays.
The tell-tell signs are out there. There's a few decorations making their way into the dollar stores. Shopko had a horror section started in the DVDs. I can feel it!

To get me in the mood, I bought a auction lot of 96 vintage Halloween masks (9 different ones, lots of multiples; old store stock or salesmen samples, I think). They are works of art. I plan to build a shadow box and mount a set. They really got the Halloween juices going.


So, starting Sept 16th, I will start the first annual
Dr. Geektarded's 46 days of Halloween.
Aside from the usual posts, there will be Halloween themed posts and starting Oct 1st, there will be the 32 films of Halloween marathon list with a daily recommended movie suggestion to end on Oct 31st with a double feature. My goal will be to watch each move listed on each day and at the end, I'll tally them up my score. I think my ass is up to the challenge.

Big pussy and the 6 inch Lizard: An experiment in TERROR!

Growing water figures. We've all heard about them. Some might know a relative or neighbor afflicted with one. Me, I had a Stripe, from Gremlins, one when I was a kid. They are the promises never kept. Disappointment on a blister card. Plus, you couldn't really play with the slimy buggers.
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But, while at the Dollar Tree, these 2 caught my eye. I thought maybe with 20 years of absorbing technology behind them, these might grow to the monsters of my youthful dreams. Puss in the boots from "Shrek Pt 8: Manhattan Donkey Mystery" and the Lizard from Spider man. I can only assume these were the left over sucks from mainstream retailers, since there were no Shreks or Spidey to experiment on.
So, the package claims that after a few days submerge, they grow to nine inches.

And there they are! Nowhere near nine inches. I can't really blame them though. I've made the same claim many times too, only to disappoint.

In reality they grew to be about 6 inches and that was after 10 days in the bowl. And they look like wads of tumor meats.

But having them standing up gave me an idea...

Only partially submerging the figures. Wooo! Puss got back! And Lizard sports the Torgo thighs and a tiny arm. Now we're having fun.


Up next, giant heads!

More random stuff

COBRA!!!
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Cool old 12" spaceman from '67. Found it at the flea market for $4. No clue what his name is, but I love the design. LASER HELMET POWER!

DC Super Friends. Super cute pre-school versions of the classic superheroes. They seem pretty happy to be Lex) evil Batman) Have had both parents killed and Superman) Have had both parents exploded along with his entire race.


Extremely cool golden age Superman statue by Hallmark. A buddy (and die hard Superman/ DC fan) at work was clearing out some excess and multiples and offered me one of these beauties for $20. Never seen him before and just love it to death. Best Superman statue I've seen.


Star World carrying case. Made for 3 3/4" scale figures. Found at a flea market for $5. I had a couple of these when I was a kid to store my Star Wars figures. We would buy them at the TG&Y.

One of those things you completely forget about until you see one and then you're like "Hell yes!" Great art on the box. All Star Wars knock-off looking aliens and robots.

Pillow Buddy Prime. So goofy, you can't help but love him, despite his $21.99 price.

Prime 360 degree Unleashed statue. Another overpriced Prime, but pretty damn cool.


TMNT Shredder. Loved the movie and picked up some of the series 1 figures. Had no clue they were making Shredder. I love being surprised like that at the store.


TRAN-ZOR ZEEEEEEE!!!

Ah, Tranzor Z (aka Mazinger Z). Loved this cartoon when I was a kid. This was a pricey die-cast figure, but it's insanely cool. Shiny and full of ass-kicking robot powers.


Old Pac-Man toys. I was obsessed with Pac-Man, Ms Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Saturday Supercade when I was about 6-7 years old. Just recently rediscovered the old collectibles and have started tracking down some on eBay.

Snowbunny Padme. I had heard about the Bust-ups, but never really ran across any up close. But saw Padme at the Suncoast and had to have one. Loved the Clone Wars cartoons, especially the designs. Great little figurine and I plan to pick up some of the others next time I'm forced into the mall.


Cool skeleton pirate "army men" from the Dollar Tree. "Haunted Hull". One of the many Pirates of the Caribbean knock-offs popping up.


More Prime. I'm obsessed with the new Transformers movie. I've haven't been this stupid for merchandising since the summer of Batman '89.





A shit-ton of Masters of the Universe toys. I had lost almost all of my figures in a move when I was a kid. Loose and complete figures a shockingly cheap online. I got most for $3-4 each, some for a $1. I know the later series are going to hurt a bit, but I plan to collect most of the originals. only collected He-Man for a year or two when I was a kid, but loved the cartoon and obsessed over the later figures in the stores while collecting Transformers and GI Joe. Rio Blast and Ninjor, you will be mine!


Cool Sigma 6 firefighter, Inferno. Granted Inferno was the name of the C.O.P.S. firefighter and the of course Inferno from Transformers, but I would have gone with Barbecue from the classic Joes.


And speaking of classic Joes, how cool is this? I was at walmart this afternoon and they had these reproduction Adventure Team GI Joes (Land, Air and Sea) in classic style boxes. Very cool for $10 and the figure looks exactly like the originals.

Random stuff from the last couple of months

Bumblebee "Robot Replica" action figure

Captain Cupcake giant blow-up


old Flash Gordon and Ming action figures

Easilly the coolest toys in years...

Updated classic GI Joes in the classic style old packaging. I get chills looking at these. They are awsome.

BBought a set of the individuals and the 2 boxsets + a Snake Eyes to open. Got home, opened him, was blown away by the figure, got back in the car and drove back to Target to buy some to open. They are pretty much perfection.


The Joe team...

Sunday, August 5, 2007

The TERROR SOCIETY OF HORROR (tm)

While perched upon the Thunder Mug this morning,
I pondered who would make the ultimate super-villain team?
So, without further adu, here's Dr. Geektarded's 2007 "Terror Society of Horror (tm)"

From L to R: Krang, Ed Rooney, Megatron (team leader), Hordak, Capt. Harris, Johnny Lawrence, David Lo-Pan, Biff Tannen, Pizza the Hut, Dr. Hill (bat head)


Stay tuned. The ultimate super team to follow...
-Dr. Geektarded