Happy Friday the 13th!

Celebrate with Jason!
If you get the "Chiller" channel on cable or satellite, tune in this evening for their Friday the 13th movie marathon. They repeat it tomorrow afternoon, if you miss it tonight.

DR.G

Coloring Book Mondays Vol 1: "Shogun Warriors"

I'm going to semi-regularly post some vintage coloring book pages on what will be known as "Coloring Book Mondays" Something light and breezy at the start of each week.

This week: Shogun Warriors: Starring DRAGUN!

This is an odd one, mainly because across the board, Shogun Warriors have been giant robots. Cartoons, comics and the toys all show this. But not the good folks at Whitman Publishing. Dragun is a very human-sized robot, doing normal human things when he's not occasionally fighting robot bats at the beach.

Lets take a look, shall we...

Print and color" or "save and electronically color" these until your heart's content.
-DR.G

Tag! Your it! aka "The Old Price Tag Sticker Post"

I was going through a box of old stuff in the basement (kids books, coloring books, etc) and was digging on the old price tag stickers that were still on the items. You don't see too many place using them anymore (Kmart is the only place that comes to mind). As a collector of all sorts of old nonsense, I like it when they're left on. It's the history of the item boiled down to a 1" square space. And, when it's something from your youth, it triggers the memories of when you first bought the item.

It's like "Yeah, here's that GI Joe coloring book from Walgreens that was bought to keep me quite on a visit to an elderly relative in a nursing home 25 years ago."

And thanks to retaining important memories like that, now when I go to Wal-Mart to buy trash bags, I end up walking out with Night Court season 1, egg rolls and a "Tiger Force" Flint GI Joe figure instead...

Anyway, I think they're fun little reminders of yesterday; from stores long gone or still going strong.

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CHILD WORLD / CHILDREN'S PALACE toy stores

Kmart

SHOPKO

TARGET

WALGREENS

1/2 PRICE STORE

I'm only one years old! Geektarded makes it a full 365 days

Great Caesar's Birthday Ghost. While staring blankly at the blog, trying to finagle a way to find some time to work on entries, I noticed the "May" cover date on the logo.

Geektarded launched a year ago (Give or take a couple of days).

In a mad scramble to make some sort of 1st anniversary gesture, I've slapped together Dr. Geektarded "Top 3, Balls to the Wind, Bestest Childhood Birthdays Ever"

So, grab your goofy hats, donkey tails and "memory lane certified" walking shoes, 'cuz it's birthday time!

#3) 8th Birthday AKA "The Masters of the Universe Birthday"

Having just discovered Masters of the Universe, I was all about He-Man. He-Man Cake. He-Man hats. He-Man decorations. He-Maaaaaaaaan!

Birthday score: Mekaneck, Faker, Triclops, Buzz-Off, Jitsu, Castle Greyskull and a He-Man VHS tape

Honorable mention: Blackstarr "Neptul" monster from a neighbor girl who's parents didn't know the difference.

#2) 9th Birthday AKA "The I Discover Transformers Birthday"

Ah, turning 9 and having a birthday party at Skateland Roller Rink. It is also shortly after Transformers made their debut. I had Bluestreak, but here's were I became a junkie.

Birthday score: Optimus Prime, Iron Hide, Rachet, Starscream, Trailbreaker, Windcharger and Bumblebee.

Honorable mention: A Gobots Herr Fiend from my Aunt and Uncle who didn't know the difference.

#1) 10th Birthday. AKA 'The Transformers Gift Sets Birthday"

The Transformers Special Team gift sets are rare, highly collectible items nowadays. Well, 20 some years ago, they weren't that easy to come by either. The only time I ever saw these was at Richman Gordman, a bygone Omaha/Regional department store chain (changed to 1/2 Price Store and now they are called Gordmans) Anyway, R.G. had a great toy department and I used to buy a lot of Transformers and Super Powers there. Well, one day they have this big Transformers display of toys and sitting on top, as the crown jewels, were these huge boxed sets for the Special Teams.

What followed was weeks upon weeks of begging for one, just one set. But to now avail. They were too expensive, bla-bla-bla. I kid-lusted after these. They were all I talked about. All I thought about. They were my white whale.

Time passed and the 10th birthday approached. I think all I asked for was one of the gift sets. Superion. Devestator. Menasor. Any one of them was fine. That joyous day arrives and what do I receive? Cosmos, Warpath and a GI Joe Sticker Book... I did the forced "this is really cool" reaction, but deep down I was a little crushed. I say my "thank you's". I open a MASK Thunderhawk from a relative and we get ready for Optimus Prime cake. We were in the kitchen and I remember being asked to get something from the living room. I can't remember what, but I walked in and sitting in front of the fireplace was 2, 2!!!, gift sets. Devestator and Superion. I think my brain melted a little bit.

Thanks for checking out the blog and stick around for another year of nonsense.

-Dr.G

Indiana Jones and the Kindom of the Crystal Gayles

Well, Indiana Jones 4 hits theaters next week, but the toys are out in full force.

But a word of caution to early buyers. The back of the packaging contains a massive spoiler for the surprise ending of the new film...



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Aliens, time travel and some of the most blatant cross-branding in years!

Here he comes... ya' know, that guy with the car...

Well, in case you've been under a pile of moist rocks, the Wachowski Brother-fueled Speed Racer hit theaters next week. Personally, I'm giddy about it. The 9th can't get here fast enough for me. I really hope it doesn't blow...

The original Speed Racer is one of my all-time favorite cartoons. Watching reruns of it is one of my earliest tv memories. Speed Racer, Battle of the Planets, Looney Tunes and Yogi Bear are the first cartoons I can remember. As a kid, I watched and re-watched Speed everyday until it went out of syndication. Years later, during junior high, came and NOW comic books and the mail order vhs tapes, which rekindled my interest. Soon, Speed Racer was popping up on Mtv and later Cartoon Network and the Speed Channel. Speed showed up in spots on ESPN, Volkswagen and Geico commercials too. Now the entire series is on dvd and a live action film is days away. Awesome.

Speed Racer started out in Japan as a comic series called "Mach Go-Go-Go". The character and look was inspired by Elvis during the racer at the end of "Viva Las Vegas" and the Mach 5 came from James Bond's gadget-filled Aston Martin. The comic quickly made the leap to animated series and was immediately snatched up by American syndicator Trans-Lux. The redubbed show was now called Speed Racer.

Tivia: Speed's name in Japan is "GO", hence the "G" on his shirt. "Go" is also the Japanese word for the number 5, the number of the car. Clever, clever.

My standing opinion on comic, cartoon and other genre films is "Well, even if the movie sucks, at least we'll get some kick-ass new toys to collect" Thanks to the new movie, there's been a flood of new Speed Racer merchandise and promotions.

But before I do the new stuff, I want to show my first Speed Racer toy, that's not actually a Speed Racer toy at all. It's the Hot Wheels "Second Wind" race car from the 70s. From what I've read, Mattel was developing a Mach 5 Hot Wheels car but didn't get the rights, so they modified it and changed the paint apps. I never knew the difference when I was little. To me it was just the Mach 5.

Now for the newy-goodness!

First is the Big Sounds Mach 5. This big ole' badboy is a bargain and a half at $19.99 (Target). It looks like it'd fit a 6" scaled figure, though I've seen none fore sale. I might have to track down on of the Speed figures they put out a few years back. Anyway, it's huge and beautiful. My only complaint is why the 2 sound buttons couldn't have been done in white plastic instead of black, so they could blend in better?

Next up are the car and figure combos. Considering I paid $8.39 for a single Indiana Jones figure at K Mart yesterday, these are a steal at $9.99 with a vehicle and action figure.

The cars have goofy action features like the March 5 shooting saw blades. (What the standard Mach 5 gadgets didn't come to mind? Pop out saws or Spring loaded auto-jacks come to mind).

But they look great and are lots of fun. If I would have had these when I was 5 or 6, I think my brain would have melted.

If you buy one, the Speed figure's helmet has these goofy looking strap-things on the helmet. Trim those suckers off with an exacto knife. It makes the figure look 100 times better and closer to the old cartoon design.

Hot Wheels cars. a decent variety. A little pricey at $3 each, but very cool. Each comes with a plastic gadget accessory that snaps on.

The reason for my being, at least for this week. The Speed Racer helmet. I love cartoon/comic/movie props. The Sword of Omens, Light Sabers, Han Solo's blaster, He-Man's sword, etc. My top 2 dream props are Speed Racer's helmet and Mark's G-Force eagle helmet. Now I'm half way there.

There are also some classic style toys out there. This 1:32 scale classic die cast Mach 5 is the steal of the year at $4.99 at Toys R Us.

In addition to all the goodies in the stores, there are some promotions. McDonald's will have Speed Racer toys starting next week. On the cereal aisle are a couple of cool things too.

Buy 2 boxes of Cookies Crisp and send $4.95 to get this cool Mach 5 cereal bowl. I'll post pics when it arrives.

And Lucky Charms has Speed Racer Turbo Cars packaged inside marked boxes. These are plastic pull-n-go toy cars. A little smaller than a Hot Wheels car and come packaged with a sheet of decals to decorate the cars.

Speed Racer pt 2: A couple of favorites