Character Collectible Spotlight: Super Juniors and Super Babies!

Yes, I'm going to group these together, and I'm only using the DC characters for this! Batma, Robin and Superman Super Jr. squeaky toys!

Toy Spotlight: Mego Bend n Flex Superheroes!

Mego expanded their line of World's Greatest Super-Heroes (as well as other lines, but we'll get to those another time) with their Bend N Flex line!

As you might've noticed, the Super Gals figures are the hardest to find these days in the card. It's kind of funny, but with all the retro-Mego-style toys that've been made the past few years, nobody's looking at reissuing the Bend-N-Flex stuff!

Cliffhanger: The Vanishing Shadow, Chapter 2!

Kirby Kovers!

Time for more Kirby Kovers! First up, it's Fantastic Four #62, and this is another example of Kirby's using a triangle design for his covers. It's a really nice piece!

My Toys: Yellow Submarine Beanie!

So, when I was living in Wisconsin with my first wife, Barbara, we kind of entered into a new golden age of Beatles collectibles, with all sorts of new items coming out -- especially stuff based on Yellow Submarine, which was coming out in a new release on home video, with extra footage added in (most notably, the missing "Hey Bulldog" sequence). There were two "beanie baby" type of toys produced -- the Yellow Submarine itself, seen above, and the chief Blue Meanie. I used to have both of them, but after Barbara passed away, and I moved back to Washington, jobs were hard to come by, and I had to sell a bunch of stuff off... so this is what's left of that set of two. Apparently, it didn't sell all that great, as I can't seem to find a current listing for any of these on eBay -- and I'm not interested in selling mine!

It's a remarkable likeness of its animated counterpart, and the attention to detail is striking! I just find myself wishing they'd done versions of the Beatles from the cartoon as well!

Comic Reading Library: Four-Color 930 - Maverick!

Fandom Library: The Amazing World of DC Comics #11!

Cool Stuff!

Wow, this should've been the set of stuff to run last time, five days before my birthday, as it begins right away with stuff I would've wanted! Time Machine German lobby cards, with more after the jump!

Geek TV: The Greatest American Hero!

Concept: High school teacher is given a red suit by aliens that gives him super powers, but he loses the instruction book, and then teams up with an FBI agent and his girlfriend to fight crime.

Total Episodes: 44

Original Air Dates: March 18, 1981 – February 3, 1983

Original Network: ABC

Geek Factor: 8

Characters:

Ralph Hinkley/Hanley (William Katt): The title character, he hates wearing the suit, and his attempts to use it often lead to comical results. At least during the first season, when Ralph would crash while flying, he'd simply say, “Damn.” His last name was changed after the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, although this was only temporary, returning to Hinkley in the second season.

Bill Maxwell (Robert Culp): FBI Agent who ropes Ralph in to use the suit to help solve his cases. He doesn't have a lot of respect for Ralph or his teaching, and would prefer that Ralph use the suit full time.

Pam Davidson (Connie Selecca): Ralph's lawyer girlfriend, she actually handled his divorce. By the end of the series, they're married. It's amazing she's able to continue practicing the law, given how often she's helping Ralph and Bill.

Paco Rodriguez (Don Cervantes), Rhonda Blake (Faye Grant), Tony Villicana (Michael Paré), Cyler Johnson (Jesse D. Goins), and Les Carlisle (William Bogert): Ralph's students, all unaware of Ralph's other “job.”

Geek Guest-Stars:

Bob Hastings guested in a few episodes, he was Hal on Captain Video and His Video Rangers, guested on Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, had several roles on Dennis the Menace (1961-1963), voiced Superboy on those segments of The Superman-Batman Hour and variations thereof, voiced the Raven on The Munsters, guest-starred in The Twilight Zone, I Dream of Jeannie, Batman, The Flying Nun, Nanny and the Professor, voiced Henry Glopp on Jeannie, D.D. On Clue Club, did assorted voices on Challenge of the Super Friends, guested in The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, played the Phantom of the Opera in The Munsters' Revenge, and later, achieved new fame among geekdom for voicing Commissioner James Gordon in Batman: The Animated Series and the spin-offs. Oh, and in his youth, he voiced Archie on the Archie Andrews radio show!

James Whitmore Jr. guested in a number of episodes, earlier he'd guested in a Battlestar Galactica, and later, guested in a Knight Rider, and in three episodes of Quantum Leap. His directing credits include 15 episodes of Quantum Leap, episodes of The X-Files, Nowhere Man, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Strange World, The Pretender, Angel, Roswell, Dark Angel, Star Trek: Enterprise, Dead Like Me, Witchblade, and Cold Case.

Glenn R. Wilder also guested in a number of episodes, he'd previously guested on The Green Hornet, Batman, Mission: Impossible, The Magician, Logan's Run, and Planet of the Apes. He later guested on Swamp Thing. His stunt credits include Ice Station Zebra, Planet of the Apes (TV series), Logan's Run, Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century, TRON, My Science Project, The Last Starfighter, The Adventures of Superboy, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Swamp Thing, Edward Scissorhands, and many others.

Three-time guest star Kurt Grayson had also guested on The Six Million Dollar Man, Mission: Impossible, and The New Adventures of Wonder Woman. Chip Johnson had guested in three episodes of Battlestar Galactica, appeared in the TV movie Captain America (1979) as well as an episode of The Amazing Spider-Man (1979), an episode of Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century, two episodes of The Incredible Hulk, and later appeared in Real Genius.

Multiple guest star Red West had been seen in Journey to the Center of the Earth as well as the Elvis Presley movies Blue Hawaii, Follow That Dream, Kid Galahad, Girls! Girls! Girls!, Fun in Acapulco, and many others, because he was part of Elvis' “Memphis Mafia.” He also can be seen in The Navy Vs. the Night Monsters, two episodes of Mission: Impossible, an impressive 30 episodes of The Wild Wild West as various henchmen and thugs, episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man, Battlestar Galactica, Knight Rider, and The Twilight Zone (1986).

Guest star Melvin F. Allen had previously appeared in The Return of Dracula, as well as guesting in episodes of Shazam!, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Incredible Hulk, Time Express, and The New Adventures of Wonder Woman. Benny Medina, who played Chaffey in three episodes, also guested on a Shazam! Anthony Charnota, who guested thrice, had earlier appeared in a pair of The Amazing Spider-Man episodes, playing Quinn in the two-parter “The Chinese Web.”

June Lockhart played Pam's mom in two episodes, and of course, you'll remember her as Maureen Robinson from Lost in Space, as well as a bunch of other roles that I'll cover when we get to her main show.

Geek Pedigree:

William Katt's other geek credits include guesting on Kung Fu, starring in Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend, playing Roger Cobb in the movie House (a horror film, not the medical show), voicing Zowie in an episode of Batman: The Animated Series, voicing the Green Guardsman in two episodes of Justice League, guesting on Andromeda, House M.D., Alian Vs. Hunter, Heroes, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold (voicing Hawkman).

Robert Culp had guested on The Man From UNCLE, a few episodes of The Outer Limits, and a Get Smart. Of course, he also starred opposite Bill Cosby on I Spy. He also starred in the TV movie Spectre (a Gene Roddenberry pilot), guested as Mr. Darryl in two episodes of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, voiced Halcyon Renard on Gargoyles, played a businessman in Spy Hard, and lent his voice to a stop-motion Bill Maxwell in an episode of Robot Chicken before he passed away in 2010.

Connie Seleca was married to TV Buck Rogers Gil Gerard, but that's just trivia. She had starred in Beyond Westwood, and appeared in Captain America II: Death Too Soon.

Faye Grant, who played Rhonda on the show, also guest-starred in episodes of The Incredible Hulk, Voyagers!, and Tales of the Gold Monkey. After GAH, she played Julet Parish in the original version of V.

DVD Release: Boxed sets of each season.

Website: http://the-greatest-american-hero.com/ is a nice fan site.

Notes: In 1986, the original cast reunited for a pilot called The Greatest American Heroine, in which it was revealed that Ralph's identity was revealed to the public, making him a celebrity, and so the aliens make him give the suit to someone else, and then erase all memory of Ralph's exploits. The new hero is Holly Hathaway (Mary Ellen Stuart), an elementary school teacher. The pilot was not picked up, and the pilot was edited into a regular episode and added to the syndicated package. As of this writing, a feature film version of the show is planned for release in 2013.

Fandom Library: Flying Saucers #3!

Something a bit different this time around... a vintage UFO magazine!

Comics They Never Made!

ANother bunch of faked-up comics covers here!

CBT: Mary Poppins Sticker Fun!

Just a short one this time around!

Dog of the Geek: Hector the Bulldog!

Breed: Bulldog

Original Appearances: “Peck Up Your Troubles,” 1945

Other Appearances: The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, The Looney Toons Show

Biography: Hector, usually shown as Granny's pet, is most often seen as a protector of Tweety Bird, saving him from being eaten by Sylvester (not that Tweety's really needed that much help). Typically, Hector's defense of Tweety involves his immense strength, although sometimes he does outwit Sylvester (In The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, he was portrayed as strong but dumb, with Sylvester outwitting him regularly). He's also sometimes been called Spike.

Powers: Immense strength.

Group Affiliation: Typically, Granny's household.

Miscellaneous: Hector's second appearance was in A Hare Grows in Manhattan, which starred Bugs Bunny.

The Monkees, Season 1, Episode 8: "Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth"

This episode, "Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth," was written by Dave Evans, and directed by Robert Rafelson. Both of the songs used in the episode, "All The King's Horses" and "Papa Gene's Blues," were written by Michael Nesmith. As noted before, the latter song appeared on the Monkees' self-titled album, while "All The King's Horses" wouldn't appear on any of the original Monkees' albums; instead, a version was released on Rhino's "Missing Links 2," although it's a different mix than what was on the TV show. The original version is available for download as a bootleg (not that I'm saying you should do that, of course). The guest cast was Henry Corden as Mr. Babbitt (the landlord), Jesslyn Fax as Mrs. Purdy, Jim Boles as Farmer Fisher, Chuck Bail as Jenkins, Kerry MacLaine as Jonathan, and Jerry Colonna as Dr. Mann.

The Indexible Hulk #39!

Issue: Tales to Astonish #83

Title: “Less Than Monster, More Than Man!”

Credits: Written by Stan Lee, Layouts by Jack Kirby, Pencils and Inks by Bill Everett, Letters by Sam Rosen.

Supporting Cast: Thunderbolt Ross, Glenn Talbot, Betty Ross, Rick Jones

Villain: Boomerang, The Secret Empire

Hulk Intelligence: We're ptetty much at dumb brute Hulk here.

Guest-Stars: None

Plot: Having rescued Betty from Boomerang, the Hulk stands over her, brooding, while Betty wonders if she's gone from the frying pan into the fire. The Hulk starts to walk by her, to the side of the mountain they're on, and digs himself a handy cave, which he carries Betty into to get her out of the rain. Betty asks him to take her to her father, but the Hulk refuses, because he knows her father hates him. She starts believing that the Hulk is really Bruce, and asks what could have transformed him into the Hulk, but of course, there's no answer. Meanwhile, the Secret Empire isn't happy with Boomerang, but when they catch a radio report that a task force is being gathered to track down the Hulk, Boomerang takes off again for another try at the Orion Missile, which he was supposed to steal for the Secret Empire. Ross is determined to find the Hulk, meanwhile. At the cave, the Hulk notices the rain has stopped, and gathers up branches for a fire, which he starts by smashing two rocks together with such force it ignites them. He then leaps off in search of food, but is soon spotted by the soldiers, who fire on him. Back at the base, Talbot's been left behind to guard the Orion Missile, but then Boomerang attacks, causing an explosion in the warehouse the missile's being kept in! To keep it away from the flames, Talbot orders the missile removed from there, which is what Boomerang wants! Meanwhile, at a meeting of the Secret Empire, Number Two is accused of trying to rise to number one, no matter who gets in his way, but when he's confronted, he throws a stun grenade, which he's immune to thanks to wearing armor under his robes. Meanwhile, the Hulk attacks the soldiers who were shooting at him, but Rick shows up, and kind of calms the Hulk down; the Hulk stops his rampage, and instead grabs Rick and General Ross, and leaps off with them, taking them to Betty! When Betty tells her father she wasn't afraid, that she really believes he is Bruce Banner, he can't believe it. The Hulk gets angry at this interchange, and leaps away, despite Rick trying to get him to stay.

Invention Exchange: Number Two's Stun Grenade and Armor.

Reprinted In: Marvel Super-Heroes #38, Essential Hulk #1

Notes: Adapted as episode 39 of the 1966 Hulk animated series. There's a lot of different plots going on in this issue, isn't there?