Movie of the Week: Tobor the Great!

What? After doing 2001 last week, this week I'm covering "Tobor, the Great"?!?!?!



Well, yeah... and I've never seen the movie, either, so I can't even discuss it from a personal viewpoint!



But I have a few photos of posters and lobby cards, and a bunch of YouTube videos (not that I have any idea what the order of them should be).



Here's the plot from Wikpedia: Dr. Ralph Harrison, a member of the new government-appointed Civil Interplanetary Flight Commission, resigns in protest against the inhumane treatment being inflicted upon spaceship pilots. His colleague Professor Nordstrom develops an alternative robot spaceman (a.k.a. TOBOR), [which is stolen by enemy agents. Only the scientists' psychic link with the robot can save it from being reprogrammed for evil purposes.]









Maybe if I ever get around to seeing this one, I'll revisit it...



There are a few more videos from the movie on YouTube... maybe even most of the movie's there, but the person who posted them didn't provide any info about what order the clips go in!

So I hope you'll forgive me my laziness in this post... but next time around, starting the first Saturday in August, it'll be time to start another movie series again! Which one will it be... The Fly? Godzilla? King Kong? Creature from the Black Lagoon? Be here and see!

Jon

Cool Stuff: Batman Collectibles!

Time to start looking at more Batman cool things!



And certainly, Batman and Robin are present here, in this assortment of AHI paratroopers (which went for big bucks, I'll tell you... I had a bid on them myself!).

But note also the Hulk, Spider-Man, Superman, Batman variations, two different versions of the Planet of the Apes Galen and Dr. Zaius paratroopers, and Space: 1999 paratrooper!



Is it just me, or is the Mego Batcopter the single goofiest vehicle they produced for the 8" superheroes line? The thing barely resembles a helicopter at all!



Have I posted the box art for the 8mm movie release of the Batman serial?



What about this one? It's not from the serials, and given the comics art, I suspect it may be one of the Filmation cartoons!



Here's a very beat-up 1966 Chemtoy Batman figurine!



The seller of this Pepsi glass claimed it was from 1966, but I suspect it's really from the 1970s.



Here's the Joker figure from Ideal's 1960s Batman playset!



Two views of a 1966 Batman mug... notice one side has the oval around the insignia, and the other doesn't!



I may have posted a picture of this puzzle before!



Now that's what a Batcopter is supposed to look like! A few different companies made toys like these.



Here's a very nifty custom-made Batcycle!



Nifty Batgirl menu from the 1960s... I'm guessing that these came with the back blank, and perforations for the mask, and then the restaurant could just print their menus on them!



Been a while since I showed a pic of an AHI Batmobile, hasn't it?

More Bat-Stuff next time around!

Jon

Give-A-Show Fridays: Monster of the Ocean Deep and The Greatest Athlete Who Ever Lived!

We're still looking at the Adventure Time Give-A-Show set from 1962...









And that's it for this week!

Jon

Slideshow: Batman Collectibles!

OK, there's a LOT of Batman goodies here to look at... 691 items, to be precise (and this is just Volume 1of my files!), so I hope you've got some time to sit and watch!


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

This 'n That Time!

Been a while since I wrote one of these entries... and there's a few things I wanted to mention in brief, so here goes!

ITEM! Wowio, the very cool site that lets you download free digital comics legally, is going international... unfortunately, while they're working on going international, the site's been down, with just the announcement on there and an option to enter your email address when it's up again. It's been well over a month at least since it's been up. Hopefully, this doesn't mean it'll end up just disappearing!

ITEM! You'll remember a while back I wrote that my car got rear-ended? Well, there's a happy ending to the tale... the insurance company gave us $2600 to fix the car, but the following weekend, while we were out at garage sales, we found a 1997 Ford Aerostar van for sale for less than that! So we decided to buy that instead, and later sold the Subaru Outback that was damaged for $1500. I think we came out ahead on that deal! The van is green, which means that my geeky mind immediately realized that it's a Green Aerostar... as in Green Arrow, Star City! Whoo-hah!

ITEM! The family's still recovering from my dad's passing away. The funeral was a nice affair, all things considered, and I got a chance to see some relatives I haven't seen since high school. It doesn't look like my mom's going to be able to keep the house (which has two mortgages on it), so preparations are being made to get it ready to sell, so she can move into something more affordable as well as more manageable.

ITEM! One week from Friday, on August 1, Jessi, Tristan, and our foster daughter Desi (not her real name, but a nickname that's stuck, so I feel it's safe to write it here) are going on vacation for 11 days to Pennsylvania, to visit Jessi's parents and see where Jessi grew up! But as I've said before, I've written enough posts for scheduled publishing here that there won't be any interruption! Of course, it may take a while before I respond to any comments!

ITEM! Just in case you're wondering, here's what we're watching on TV these days: TNT: The Closer (mostly just Jessi); TBS: The BIll Engvall Show; NBC: America's Got Talent, The Baby Borrowers, Last Comic Standing; USA: Monk, Psych, In Plain Sight, Burn Notice; TLC: Jon & Kate Plus Eight. I would've never thought that USA would be the channel we watched most!And all we're watching on NBC is "reality" shows!

Jon

Castle of Frankenstein #25, Part 4!

While I'm sure most of you know of Paul Williams from his music, or perhaps more pertinently his role as Virgil in Battle for the Planet of the Apes (and maybe his voice work as The Penguin on Batman: The Animated Series), his coverage in this issue of Castle of Frankenstein is for the movie "Phantom of the Paradise," a sort of rock and roll twist on Phantom of the Opera!



This article is basically an interview with Paul Williams about the movie, discussing the plot, the songs he wrote for the movie, locations etc. He does mention his role in Battle for the Planet of the Apes, too!



He also talks about the next movie he planned to make, and there's a synopsis and credits for Phantom of the Paradise.

Next time around: Young Frankenstein!

Jon

Cool Stuff: Original Comic Art!

Bet you've been wondering when you'd see more original comic art recently offered for sale here, eh? I suspect this will be an All-Captain America installment!



First up, here's page 5 from Captain America 143, by John Romita, an issue that may have been the first issue of Cap I remember owning!



More from Romita, this time page 7 from Cap 145!



Here's a Kirby-Adkins pin-up!



Oh, Captain, My Captain... Atom, that is! Wow, I didn't have as many Cap pages as I thought! This is page 7 from Charlton's Captain Atom 89, art by Steve Ditko (as if I had to tell you that!).



Ah, we're back to Captain America again! Here's Sal Buscema's page 9 from Cap 156, and it's 1950s Cap versus the original!



Another page by Our Pal Sal, here's page 2 from Cap 160!



Next is page 28 from Cap 165, again by Sal Buscema!



Page 2 from Cap 166... yep, it's Sal again! Is it any wonder why, when I think of Captain America in the 1970s, it's Sal's art that I picture in my mind?



Page 5 from Cap 166!



This page is from Cap 178, but I'm not sure which page it is. It's page 15 of the comic, but which page of the story....?



Jumping way up to Cap 284, here's page 18... and it's Sal again!



And we're back to earlier issues... specifically, issue 154, page 19! Yes, you know who did it.



Page 11 from Cap 156!



Hey, it's a different Captain now... Captain Marvel Adventures #2, page 13, by George Tuska!



OK, here's a "Token" DC page for you DC-only guys... it's page 20 from Challengers of the Unknown 71, by Jack Sparling!

We'll start the next installment with another Challengers page!

Jon

Cool Stuff: Volume 4 Begins with 8mm Box Art!

Time to start with Volume 4 of my Cool Stuff photos! Yes, it's 655 photos of all kinds of geekish cool things offered for sale on a certain internet auction site, all preserved here (and in my Flickr files) for fans of all kinds to peruse, and say, "Hey! I used to have that!" or "Hey! I always wanted that!" or "Hey! I've never heard of that!" or "Hey! I have that!" or "Hey! I've got to get that!"

We start this volume with some 8mm box art!



Sometimes I think Abbott and Costello must be the kings of 8mm releases, because there are just so many shortened versions of their movies out there!



Here's another Abbott and Costello 8mm release!



And another one!



I was sorely tempted when I came across this listing for a like-new 8mm projector WITH movies, I'll tell you!



I don't recall ever seeing a Dinky Duck cartoon before in my life.



Here's another one of those movies I should really get around to seeing... especially if I want to cover it in the "Movie of the Week" sometime!



OK, nothing specifically geeky about Gentlemen Prefer Blondes... but I've always been rather fond of Marilyn Monroe's movies, so why not?



"The Stowaways" is taken from the Marx Brothers classic "Monkey Business."



Here's "War of the Planets" with rather generic looking box art! But it's not so generic when you find out it's cobbled together from scenes of "This Island Earth," eh?



Here's a classic in condensed form... War of the Worlds! I always thought the poster art this box art came from didn't really fit the movie that well.



When Worlds Collide, another George Pal classic, and one it's been way too long since I've seen it!



A lot of cartoon characters are represented on 8mm... and ones we've all heard of, too, like Woody Woodpecker! Here's a few of his 8mm releases!



Next time around on Cool Stuff... we delve into a whole mess of cool Batman stuff, and you know it'll take several posts to get through them all!

Jon