Battle of the Network Stars

Anyone remember Battle of the Network Stars? There's no way you could get something like this done on television today.

The Lone Ranger

Image via Wikipedia

I'm not a huge fan of the Lone Ranger, or westerns in general. I do have a fondness for Clint Eastwood westerns, but I don't think you can be male and not like a western with Eastwood.
Having said that, the Lone Ranger has a long history: radio, comics, movies, television...you name a media and the Lone Ranger has been a part of it.
There was a time when every boy in America wanted to be the Lone Ranger. You'd see kids running around outside (yeah, I know...amazing!) chasing each other around yelling, "Hi-yo, Silver! Away!" Alas, now we have Bakugan, Playstation and Wii. *sigh*
There is a lot to be said, both good and bad, about the Native American stereotype of Tonto. I'll leave it for you to judge, or not, for yourself.
For now, though... 
Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear!



Word is Disney is gearing up a "reimagining" of the character. You know what that means: suck! The good news? You can still watch television episodes of the original series on Hulu.com. How nifty is that? And maybe, just perhaps, children will once again get up and move around outside!

Related articles

• Lone Ranger Cam: (cbcburke9.wordpress.com)
• Lone Ranger Gets An Official Logo (bleedingcool.com)
• Death of the Lone Ranger (snopes.com)
• The Lone Ranger Podcast - original radio episodes: (otrwesterns.com)
• The Lone Ranger fan club
  

TRON

As we all bask in the seasonal goodness that is the release of TRON: Legacy, let's not forget the original movie, shall we? What? You don't remember?
Really, neither do I. But, I do remember the standee arcade-style game Discs of TRON. You can play the original game here at the official Disney TRON website.

 

There were quite a few TRON-based games out there in the day.  

• The Original TRON Arcade Game
• TRON: Deadly Discs (for Intellivision)
• TRON: Solar Sailer (also for Intellivision)
• The Adventures of TRON (for Atari 2600)
• TRON 2.0 (for Mac and PC)

By far my favorite, though, is an unofficial game all of us can (probably) download and play on our computer. GLTron is pure lightbike excitement fun. And did I mention addictive? 

In fact, many of these games are available for download and playing on the PC or Mac platform. All you need is a game ROM and an emulator for the various game systems. And, thanks to Xemnu, I've searched the interwebs and found them for you. 

Say, "Thank you, Xemnu."

"You're welcome."

Enjoy your gaming TRON-o-philes. I have more TRON-related goodness coming in a while. Until then, be patient and break out the Jolt Cola, sit back, download a few ROM's and emulators and get to it!

PLEASE NOTE: The dubious legality of game ROM's and of game emulation means I take no personal responsibility for your actions. I merely provide the links as an educational and demonstrational service.

TRON game links:

MAME is a multi-machine emulator for playing game ROM's. Xemnu highly recommends!

Discs of TRON

Adventures of TRON

TRON: Deadly Discs

TRON (set 1) - for MAME

TRON (set 2) - for MAME

TRON (set 3) - for MAME

TRON (set 4) - for MAME

You're a Mean One...

...Mr. Grinch! But we love you anyway!

Tom the Cat

Xemnu has a few heroes floating around the interwebs and real life. Tom the Cat is distinctly one. Not because he's a bad guy. Not because he's misunderstood. No, no. He just doesn't know when to quit! Never give up!
Tom first appeared in the short 'Puss Gets the Boot" in 1940. At first his name was (gasp!) Jasper but was quickly changed in the next animated short to Tom.
Over the years Tom has been beaten, battered, flattened, burned and blown apart so many times the infamous nine lives' were gone long, long ago. Anyway, here are a few of my favorites!

Transformers: The Search for Alpha Trion

The Green Lama!

Not to be confused with the Blue Iguana, the Green Lama is a lesser-known superhero and pulp adventurer from the 1940's. Amazingly enough, the character was a practicing Buddhist!

The Green Lama was popular enough to appear in pulps, comics and even a short-lived radio program featuring the great Paul Frees.

He has experienced a bit of a resurgence lately being resurrected for Dynamite Comics by Alex Ross.

For more adventures of the Green Lama, check out these radio episodes found at the Internet Archive, and a few other links below. I think you'll find them entertaining!

• Apparently, the Green Lama is rampant via social media websites: MySpace & Facebook. Oh, and Facebook again.
• Green Lama merchandise at DarkHorse.com.
• Wikipedia entry.
• Go green with these Green Lama items at Cafepress. Me? I want the wall calendar.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Way, way back...back before Mickey...there was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney for Universal Pictures in the 1920's, he is the quintessential proto-Mouse. Disney released a collection of Oswald cartoons in their Treasures DVD line, but there are a few on YouTube.
Enjoy!

Lightsabers 'R Us

What happens when you replace swords with lightsabers in some of the more famous movie fight scenes of all time? Awesomeness, that's what! Take a look...

In Search of...The Abominable Snowman!

From season 4 of the television show In Search Of...narrated by Leonard Nimoy.

The Spider!

Harry Steeger created the pulp character The Spider in 1933 and the character punched, clawed and fought with .45's blazing through the '30's and '40's pulps like worms through a rotten apple. In many of those stories (written by the intensely talented Norvell Page), that rotten apple was New York. And in 1938, as the Nazi's were storming through Europe, The Spider fought his own battle against the Nazi allegory in the pages of his own pulp magazine.
Now, Age of Aces Books is releasing the collected three-story anthology, titled Fight The Empire State. There's even a nifty little website to promote the book.
I've only read a couple of these pulps but I'm completely hooked already. I love characters like this and the old pulps in particular. If you're interested in learning more about the pulp era or The Spider in particular, check the links below. You won't be disappointed.

Spider Links!

• Go to this website. NOW. Then, when you're finished, come back here and check the rest of the links.
• Girasol Collectibles publishes tons of pulp-related items and pulp reprints, including The Spider.
• So, you like The Spider, eh? It's a tad late for Halloween, but you can still hunt villainous criminal thugs dressed like The Spider thanks to Chris Kalb. Tell him Xemnu sent you.
• Moonstone Books has published a prose anthology as well as several graphic novels featuring The Spider. Now, a new bi-monthly comic is coming in January, 2011!
• A nifty blog started about Norvell Page.

70's TV Show Intro's

A few infamous TV show intro's. Enjoy!

A Real American Hero!

G.I. Joe: Kicking ass around the globe since 1964.











And...a really well done book-and-record tribute.




Links:

• The Official G.I. Joe website
• The Official G.I. Joe Collector's Club
• The Official G.I. Joe Collector's Convention
• Yo Joe! Collectors website (awesome!)
• JoePedia

Monster Cereals

Wow. It's been almost 40 years since General Mills introduced the monster cereals Count Chocula and FrankenBerry. In fact, it will be 40 years next year in 2011.



The first two cereals proved popular enough to spawn several follow-up/sequel cereals, including:

BooBerry -



Fruit Brute -



and Yummy Mummy -



The popularity of these cereals waxed and waned over the years but General Mills continues to produce the 'Big 3' monster cereals (Count Chocula, FrankenBerry, and BooBerry) every year around Halloween. The Big 3 are available year-round at Amazon, though, so you don't have to worry about a monster cereal shortage anytime soon. Fruit Brute was discontinued in the early 1980's only to be replaced by Yummy Mummy which was unraveled at some point in the early 1990's.
Not to wax too nostalgic, but I have particularly fond memories of these cereals from my childhood. Especially Fruit Brute, which was my favorite. Occasionally the discontinued creatures feature into monster-cereal-themed merchandise, like these bobbleheads from a couple of years ago.

I really, really hope General Mills has enough respect for an all-time great cereal line to do something uniquely special for their anniversary next year. Like, maybe, re-release Fruit Brute and Yummy Mummy? Please, please, please!?!

Link: It hasn't been updated in awhile, but here is a neat monster cereal blog. Enjoy!