For those of you who've been following the saga of the house, here's an update!
As of this point, all the curtains and blinds have been put up (thank goodness... I HATE hanging window blinds!). We're only halfway done with painting the living room (the wall extends over the landing/stairs, and we don't have a ladder to reach high enough)...
BUT, on the other hand (I got interrupted after the previous paragraph), we've got our new front door installed, which is much more inviting than the old one. We've also got some "new to us" furniture for the living room upstairs, as well as a "new to us" dining room table and chairs, as well as a hutch for the dining room.
The house is really coming together... hopefully,the painting will be done next weekend, assuming we get the ladder, and we'll be ready for a housewarming party!
Jon
Jon's Random Acts of Geekery is your five days a week destination for old-school geekery!
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Found on eBay: More TV Toys Plus View-Master and More!!
So, where was I?
Ah, yes, TV toys... is this the first Space: 1999 toy I've presented so far? It could well be... after all, I was never a fan of the show by any means. I did watch a number of episodes, and I thought the SFX and the props, etc. were all cool, but the show never really caught on with me.
On the other hand, my friend Jim H. Cobb (if the name sounds familiar, he's achieved a bit of success in the past 15 or so years as a novelist, writing technothrillers and the like) was a HUGE fan of the show.
Anyway, name-dropping aside, this is another of those wonderful AHI toys that was so cheap to buy way back then that is so expensive to collect these days! It appears to be a figure of Commander John Koenig (played by Martin Landau) that walked... not sure if it was battery powered or you'd wind it up!
The Time Tunnel, on the other hand, was a show I really enjoyed (if there's anything I enjoy more than giant creatures battling each other, it must be time-travel stuff). While the show's production values and effects weren't great, I really enjoyed the traveling in time aspect... even if there was a LOT of stock footage employed! This game, as you can see, was made by Ideal.
Click this one for a major supersize view... it's Illya Kurakin (or something like that) as a rubber hand puppet! I recall a long time back, I posted a photo of a Sean Connery James Bond puppet, and I'd guess this was by the same manufacturer, since it's the same style. I'm afraid I never got into The Man From UNCLE, but this was just too cool not to grab and share!
Now, another mini-gallery... There's No Need to Fear, Underdog Collectibles are Here!
Yep, a very mini-gallery... only two items! Neither of which seem to be very on-model to my eye, but both look like they were produced well after the last episode was created!
Hey, how about some View-Master stuff to help fill out this post?
Sometimes I think I need to start collecting View-Master reels... if nothing else, it could help satisfy my curiosity when I see something like this set, featuring the DC Super-Heroes! Was it basically a Super Friends set? After all, the core members are there... and the photo isn't large enough I can read the titles of the individual reels!
That same reel set may have been part of this Good Guys View-Master Gift Set... but I honestly don't know! I do know I wish I had a better photo than this one to show.
Here's another View-Master gift set... featuring Indiana Jones, and I'm guessing it was a Temple of Doom tie-in of some kind... I mean, doesn't that look like Indy's sidekick there? What was his name, Short Round or something like that? You can tell it's been a long time since I saw that movie, eh?
This would've been a nice lot to win, wouldn't it? All four of Irwin Allen's 1960s TV shows... Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, Time Tunnel, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea! OK, so I would've only been interested in Land of the Giants and Time Tunnel...
...especially Land of the Giants. I mean, Deanna Lund in 3-D?
Somehow, I'm not sure how well the Monkees would've translated to View-Master form, but I should probably tip off my sister-in-law that this exists, because she's an even bigger Monkeemaniac than I am!
OK, so this is by no means a TV toy, but it's here in alphabetical order, so here it is: The Wizard of Oz! And, like with the previously-presented Frankenstein and Dracula View-Master sets, rather than license a movie, the View-Master people created their own 3-D set using what appear to be a variation on the kind of stop-motion animation puppets that were used by Rankin-Bass! Although to be honest, they used this same approach for some licensed stuff, too... I know I've shown the Road Runner one, but I recall a Peanuts set that had original 3-D photos taken using models, too.
Here's a really early View-Master Gift Set, featuring Popeye! I would guess this was an early 60s set, that tied into the ultra-low budget made-for-tv cartoons that disappeared from sight for about 20-30 years until recently released on DVD (and I'm definitely not talking the Fleischer or Famous Studios cartoons, either).
Here's two more "mystery" View-Master Sets... a Spider-Man and Batman set... and I'm not sure if either of them were based on cartoon episodes, or were all-new for View-Master!
This Superman set, which must be a reissue of the original set, certainly appears to be based on the Filmation 1960s cartoon series... I remember looking at these reels when I was a kid!
OK, we're very near the end of Volume 2 of "Found on eBay" photos... so here's a gallery of movie posters and lobby cards!
There will absolutely be more War of the Worlds stuff in future posts!
As well as more Beatles stuff, naturally!
And we wrap up Volume 2 of "Found on eBay" with another appearance of Rocketman/Commando Cody! Been a while since I posted one of these!
Next time around, we'll start up with Volume 3 of my "Found on eBay" photo files, which means we'll start at the beginning again, alphabetically speaking! We'll start off with 7th Voyage of Sinbad, a Mego item, some AHI, Archies, and more!
Jon
Ah, yes, TV toys... is this the first Space: 1999 toy I've presented so far? It could well be... after all, I was never a fan of the show by any means. I did watch a number of episodes, and I thought the SFX and the props, etc. were all cool, but the show never really caught on with me.
On the other hand, my friend Jim H. Cobb (if the name sounds familiar, he's achieved a bit of success in the past 15 or so years as a novelist, writing technothrillers and the like) was a HUGE fan of the show.
Anyway, name-dropping aside, this is another of those wonderful AHI toys that was so cheap to buy way back then that is so expensive to collect these days! It appears to be a figure of Commander John Koenig (played by Martin Landau) that walked... not sure if it was battery powered or you'd wind it up!
The Time Tunnel, on the other hand, was a show I really enjoyed (if there's anything I enjoy more than giant creatures battling each other, it must be time-travel stuff). While the show's production values and effects weren't great, I really enjoyed the traveling in time aspect... even if there was a LOT of stock footage employed! This game, as you can see, was made by Ideal.
Click this one for a major supersize view... it's Illya Kurakin (or something like that) as a rubber hand puppet! I recall a long time back, I posted a photo of a Sean Connery James Bond puppet, and I'd guess this was by the same manufacturer, since it's the same style. I'm afraid I never got into The Man From UNCLE, but this was just too cool not to grab and share!
Now, another mini-gallery... There's No Need to Fear, Underdog Collectibles are Here!
Yep, a very mini-gallery... only two items! Neither of which seem to be very on-model to my eye, but both look like they were produced well after the last episode was created!
Hey, how about some View-Master stuff to help fill out this post?
Sometimes I think I need to start collecting View-Master reels... if nothing else, it could help satisfy my curiosity when I see something like this set, featuring the DC Super-Heroes! Was it basically a Super Friends set? After all, the core members are there... and the photo isn't large enough I can read the titles of the individual reels!
That same reel set may have been part of this Good Guys View-Master Gift Set... but I honestly don't know! I do know I wish I had a better photo than this one to show.
Here's another View-Master gift set... featuring Indiana Jones, and I'm guessing it was a Temple of Doom tie-in of some kind... I mean, doesn't that look like Indy's sidekick there? What was his name, Short Round or something like that? You can tell it's been a long time since I saw that movie, eh?
This would've been a nice lot to win, wouldn't it? All four of Irwin Allen's 1960s TV shows... Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, Time Tunnel, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea! OK, so I would've only been interested in Land of the Giants and Time Tunnel...
...especially Land of the Giants. I mean, Deanna Lund in 3-D?
Somehow, I'm not sure how well the Monkees would've translated to View-Master form, but I should probably tip off my sister-in-law that this exists, because she's an even bigger Monkeemaniac than I am!
OK, so this is by no means a TV toy, but it's here in alphabetical order, so here it is: The Wizard of Oz! And, like with the previously-presented Frankenstein and Dracula View-Master sets, rather than license a movie, the View-Master people created their own 3-D set using what appear to be a variation on the kind of stop-motion animation puppets that were used by Rankin-Bass! Although to be honest, they used this same approach for some licensed stuff, too... I know I've shown the Road Runner one, but I recall a Peanuts set that had original 3-D photos taken using models, too.
Here's a really early View-Master Gift Set, featuring Popeye! I would guess this was an early 60s set, that tied into the ultra-low budget made-for-tv cartoons that disappeared from sight for about 20-30 years until recently released on DVD (and I'm definitely not talking the Fleischer or Famous Studios cartoons, either).
Here's two more "mystery" View-Master Sets... a Spider-Man and Batman set... and I'm not sure if either of them were based on cartoon episodes, or were all-new for View-Master!
This Superman set, which must be a reissue of the original set, certainly appears to be based on the Filmation 1960s cartoon series... I remember looking at these reels when I was a kid!
OK, we're very near the end of Volume 2 of "Found on eBay" photos... so here's a gallery of movie posters and lobby cards!
There will absolutely be more War of the Worlds stuff in future posts!
As well as more Beatles stuff, naturally!
And we wrap up Volume 2 of "Found on eBay" with another appearance of Rocketman/Commando Cody! Been a while since I posted one of these!
Next time around, we'll start up with Volume 3 of my "Found on eBay" photo files, which means we'll start at the beginning again, alphabetically speaking! We'll start off with 7th Voyage of Sinbad, a Mego item, some AHI, Archies, and more!
Jon
Found on eBay: The Time Machine, TV Toys and More!
Let's see if I can squeeze in a quick "Found on eBay" post before wife Jessi, son Tristan and I run out to do even more errands for getting our house more like a home...
Comansi made this bagged Thunderbirds spacecraft toy, which doesn't bear any resemblance to any Thunderbirds craft I remember -- but it's been a long time since I've seen any Thunderbirds eps at all! Comansi did a lot of toys based on British SF shows, and is probably a UK company.
Next up, a mini-gallery of lobby cards and the like for "The Time Machine," which was one of the first movies I bought on DVD, and sadly, sold off when I was out of work for a time and haven't replaced yet!
Told you it was a mini-gallery! Now, for some TV Toys:
Here's Ideal's Addams Family board game... nice artwork on the box, isn't it? As with pretty much all the board games I've featured in "Found on eBay," I have no idea how well they play... and unfortunately, the seller of this copy didn't include a photo of the board itself (which usually gives us a clue as to how the game is played)!
I'm guessing this Maxwell Smart figure from "Get Smart" was released sometime in the last five or ten years, but I don't recall ever seeing it on the shelves! There was probably a 99 doll, too, but I don't know if they did any figures aside from the pair (kind of surprised they didn't just do a two-pack, too).
As with Remco's 1960s Star Trek toys, this "Land of the Giants" space sled has nothing to do with the show whatsoever, and I'd guess it was something they'd already developed that they just slapped a "Land of the Giants" logo on the pack to give it some more commercial interest!
Kind of a cool-looking toy, though, isn't it?
If I didn't tell you this was a talking Mr. Ed hand-puppet, you would probably be wondering just who the heck it was supposed to be, wouldn't you? It doesn't particularly look like Mr. Ed, does it?
This batch of Pufnstuf rings is probably going to be one of the last photos I post that desperately needs to be cropped... the next volume of "Found on eBay" photos is all cropped much better!
OK, time to do home stuff... I'll be back with more later!
Jon
Comansi made this bagged Thunderbirds spacecraft toy, which doesn't bear any resemblance to any Thunderbirds craft I remember -- but it's been a long time since I've seen any Thunderbirds eps at all! Comansi did a lot of toys based on British SF shows, and is probably a UK company.
Next up, a mini-gallery of lobby cards and the like for "The Time Machine," which was one of the first movies I bought on DVD, and sadly, sold off when I was out of work for a time and haven't replaced yet!
Told you it was a mini-gallery! Now, for some TV Toys:
Here's Ideal's Addams Family board game... nice artwork on the box, isn't it? As with pretty much all the board games I've featured in "Found on eBay," I have no idea how well they play... and unfortunately, the seller of this copy didn't include a photo of the board itself (which usually gives us a clue as to how the game is played)!
I'm guessing this Maxwell Smart figure from "Get Smart" was released sometime in the last five or ten years, but I don't recall ever seeing it on the shelves! There was probably a 99 doll, too, but I don't know if they did any figures aside from the pair (kind of surprised they didn't just do a two-pack, too).
As with Remco's 1960s Star Trek toys, this "Land of the Giants" space sled has nothing to do with the show whatsoever, and I'd guess it was something they'd already developed that they just slapped a "Land of the Giants" logo on the pack to give it some more commercial interest!
Kind of a cool-looking toy, though, isn't it?
If I didn't tell you this was a talking Mr. Ed hand-puppet, you would probably be wondering just who the heck it was supposed to be, wouldn't you? It doesn't particularly look like Mr. Ed, does it?
This batch of Pufnstuf rings is probably going to be one of the last photos I post that desperately needs to be cropped... the next volume of "Found on eBay" photos is all cropped much better!
OK, time to do home stuff... I'll be back with more later!
Jon
Friday, March 14, 2008
Movie of the Week: Frankenstein!
And we're back on track with this weekly feature... at least so far!
What can I write about Frankenstein that you guys probably don't already know? I'm sure you knew it was the second official film based on Mary Shelley's novel (the first, of course, being Edison Studios' silent version), and that Bela Lugosi, fresh off the success of Dracula, was considered for the monster, but for whatever reason, he declined the role...
(Trailer for the movie)
...or how Jack Pierce's makeup came up with the flat head motif because he figured Doctor Frankenstein would use the easiest method of opening up the skull to replace the brain, or that Universal copyrighted the look so that non-Universal Frankenstein features had to come up with their own, lesser (in my opinion) Monster make-ups...
...or that Karloff wasn't originally credited onscreen as the Monster, that edits were made on the movie almost immediately after its release, that a prologue was filmed and inserted in the beginning explaining what was going to happen (something I understand director James Whale didn't approve of)...
...or that Karloff would only play the monster twice more, in Bride of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein, before leaving the role forever...
...let's see, what else can I write about this movie that you already know? How about that it's a true classic, not just a classic horror movie, but a classic, period! Unless I'm seriously misremebering, the AFI named it one of the 100 greatest movies of all time!
I have way too many Frankenstein images to post in a single entry, but instead of posting them all here, even in multiple entries, let me just give you this link to a Flickr slideshow of all my images directly related to Frankenstein (1931 version)! It'll be stills, posters, lobby cards, and other cool stuff... although I don't think there are any toys!
One of these days, I've got to figure out how to create an embeddable slide show from Flickr...
Next week's movie of the week: We continue the Frankenstein Saga with "Bride of Frankenstein"!
Jon
Give-A-Show Fridays: Captain Kangaroo & Bozo the Clown!
Just a bit later than my previous standard for posting this, but at least there's still most of Friday left! We start out this week with Captain Kangaroo!
I don't recall Bunny Rabbit ever speaking on the show, but it's been a while.
And by the way, no matter what anyone tries to tell you Mr. Greenjeans isn't Frank Zappa's father.
Next up, it's Bozo the Clown!
Next week's Give-A-Show Fridays Double Feature: The Wizard of Oz andd Robin Hood!
Jon
I don't recall Bunny Rabbit ever speaking on the show, but it's been a while.
And by the way, no matter what anyone tries to tell you Mr. Greenjeans isn't Frank Zappa's father.
Next up, it's Bozo the Clown!
Next week's Give-A-Show Fridays Double Feature: The Wizard of Oz andd Robin Hood!
Jon
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