The Toy Box: August 2024

Retro Spins: Taylor Dayne - Tell It To My Heart

As the 80's were headed towards the finish lines, some great artists were still emerging, impacting hard with debut albums which would launch them into the stratosphere. Among them was twenty-five year old, Leslie Wunderman. AKA, Taylor Dayne.

Before emerging as her alter ego, Wunderman first took on the persona, Les Lee, and under that name released the dance singles, I'm The One You Want (1985) and Tell Me Can You Love Me (1986). In a retrospective review, they're not bad, but definitely not her best work.

When Taylor Dayne's debut album, Tell It To My Heart, was released in 1988, it was already making waves with it's lead single released in 1987, coincidentally of the same name. Of the ten tracks, four would go on to crack the top ten.

It's interesting to note that when Tell It To My Heart was first released that it featured a very colorful and almost provocative album cover, featuring Dayne in a tight black dress, decked out in makeup against a pink background. So basically, the cover to the left.

While it's unknown why Arista ultimately changed the cover, many speculate it was a result of the track, I'll Always Love You, which reached number two in the adult contemporary charts, and became the biggest success for the album. The more toned down, and I suppose, "mature", cover purportedly replaced the original so as to draw in an older audience (alternate cover shown below).

Whatever the reason, Taylor Dayne impacted in a big way with a broad age ranged audience, and this helped to propel her debut album to double platinum status in the US.

For me, the stand out tracks are easily, Tell It To My Heart, Don't Rush Me, and my favorite, Prove Your Love. These three songs alone make the album a must buy. It's a staple of the 80's as far as I'm concerned. With that said, the remainder of the album is pretty hit or miss. Some songs definitely feel like filler material, such as the three minute Want Ads. While others, such as The Darkness, almost resonate, but just don't punch as hard as the hits. Overall though, if you're an 80's fan, this one definitely belongs in your music collection.

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Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution.

Big Lick NOVA 2024 - John Beatty

The main comic talent I came to Big Lick NOVA 2024 to see was John Beatty. John is one of the most well known inkers and artists of the 80's, having worked on hundreds of books across all spectrum of heroes and villains. In addition to getting a lot of books signed, I wanted to get a sketch from him. Unfortunately, when I told him what I wanted, he said he didn't do that type of in depth work at shows. He favors remarks, and head sketches, but these were frankly priced too high. You can see his prices on the flier to his left.

Instead of getting any drawings, I opted to focus on what I brought with me.

First up was my entire run of Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars. This was a must have for my Spider-Man symbiote series, being the mini-series where it all started.

First release error print (white Galactus).
Also signed by Jim Shooter,
at Big Lick NOVA 2023,
and purchased pre-signed by
Michael Zeck on the first page

First print with error corrected.
Also signed by Jim Shooter,
at Big Lick NOVA 2023

Second print.
Also signed by Jim Shooter,
at Big Lick NOVA 2023

Also signed by Jim Shooter,
at Big Lick NOVA 2023

Also signed by Jim Shooter,
at Big Lick NOVA 2023, and
Bob Wiacek at Baltmore Comic
Con 2023

Also signed by Jim Shooter,
at Big Lick NOVA 2023

Also signed by Jim Shooter,
and Rick Leonardi at
Big Lick NOVA 2023

Also signed by Jim Shooter,
at Big Lick NOVA 2023, and
Bob McLeod at Baltmore Comic
Con 2023

Also signed by Jim Shooter,
at Big Lick NOVA 2023

In the same vein I also wanted to get a couple issues of Marvel Age, which featured previews, and behind the scenes of the series.

Also signed by Jim Shooter,
and Rick Leonardi at
Big Lick NOVA 2023,
and Jim Salicrup at
Awesome Con 2024

Also signed by Jim Shooter,
at Big Lick NOVA 2023

I took the opportunity to also get my GraphicAudio edition of the story arc signed. Still kicking myself for forgetting to get Bob Wiacek to sign this at Baltimore last year.

Also signed by Jim Shooter,
at Big Lick NOVA 2023, and
Bob McLeod at Baltimore Comic Con 2023

There were also a handful of other non-Spider-Man related titles I wanted to get signed. First up was my set of The Punisher mini-series.

Also signed by Jim Shooter,
at Big Lick NOVA 2023

Followed by the two issue The Thanos Quest mini-series.

Also signed by Renee Witterstaetter,
at Big Lick NOVA 2023,
and Jim Starlin at
Baltimore Comic Con 2023

Beatty was charging $10.00 per signature, with exception of Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars number 8, which he charges $30.00 for. You can thank the scalpers for that.

Lastly, I picked up a few prints. Though I'm not going to turn down a good Spider-Man drawing, my goal moving forward is to also broaden my horizon of images to hang on my wall. Spider-Man is great and all, but I'd like to start getting some variety. What better way than to start with this awesome Punisher.

Beatty also had a Wolverine and Captain America one, but since his prints were three for fifty, I of course gravitated to the Spidey related ones from there.

My girl dropped this in
the parking lot, causing damage to
the top...so that was disappointing

All and all, not a bad bit of signatures. Though it took me a while, well past the initial draft of this post, I made my way to Michaels for frames, and got them hung up with all the others.

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Cleaning Up And Reorganizing My Cartoons On DVD

With all the great new DVD's I got for myself, and from my girl, it came with the unfortunate necessitation of putting them all on my shelf. Ugh...Is there anything worse than shuffling things down a row to fit other items in?

Since I had to do it, I took the long needed time to reorganize some of them. In the past, everything had been alphabetical order. However, this made things sometimes a little difficult to find. As such, I pulled everything down, and grouped things together. Basically, all the Scooby-Doo titles got put under Scooby-Doo, Batman under Batman, etc. I can already tell I like it better this way, and I'm glad I finally took the time to do it.

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Peg People Series Six - A Final Birthday Gift Celebration!

George of G.I. Jigsaw continues to smash it out of the park with his Spider-Man Peg People! He gifted me a slew of them for my birthday...which the dog needed first rights at...

Once he was done destroying the wrapping paper, he left me to the plastic box inside.

Right off the bat, this felt heavier than what George had made in batches before, and boy oh boy, there was a reason for that. As I sifted through the paper towel partitions, the figures kept coming and coming.

Tombstone was the first, and immediately recognizable with his business suit attire, and white skin.

This was followed by the obscure 60's villain, Looter, AKA, Meteor Man, who first appeared all the way back in The Amazing Spider-Man issue 36. Fun fact. I had both Looter and Meteor Man on the checklist, so I had to update it to remove one, which means I had to replace it with another character. Fortunately, George already had me covered in that regard.

Still more were extracted from that same roll, which also included a member of the Sinister Syndicate, Beetle!

You sticking with me so far? Man, if these don't make you happy, there's something wrong with you. I know I was smiling ear to ear as I pulled out the classic creature, Man-Wolf. He's J. Jonah Jameson's son, you know.

I gave a little chuckle when I pulled out this next one, because it was immediately so recognizable. George made it a point to shave off the top of the head for Hammerhead, creating that iconic flattop look of the character. That's really where I say hats off to George. He has a way of dialing in on specific details which make characters immediately recognizable.It's subtle, but he also has that typical open mouth toothy snarl, which filled many a comic book panels.

Even the most obscure figures, like Tinkerer, another classic Spidey villain from the early pages of The Amazing Spider-Man.

Then of course, there was one of my all time favorite villains among the bunch, the one and only Hobgoblin.

Next up was Tarantula, underrated villain of the week, who often showed up in both The Amazing Spider-Man, and Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man.

At this point, there were two more bundles left in the box. The first had a little more girth to it, and contained three characters. First up was the misunderstood villain, turned hero, turned villain, Will-O' the Wisp.

This was followed by the man behind all the clone nonsense, Jackal, AKA Professor Warren.

Last up, in the villain department, was the misunderstood, Vermin.

Packed all up all by its lonesome was probably my most absolute figure to date that George has created. I smiled widely, I'm talking ear to ear, when I unwrapped this one.

For those of you following this blog, you know that when I get custom artwork from comic creators, that I ask them to create it based on a series I conceptualized called, Peter Parker, Decisions. This is basically Peter Parker, deciding if he's going to wear his black suit, or classic red and blue. George got in on the game by creating an homage to the drawing crated by Jim Salicrup.

Like I mentioned above, I had both Looter and Meteor Man on the checklist, so I needed to remove one, and add a new character. This one took that place nicely, and I even decided to make it figure 100 on the list. It just felt appropriate.

The shelf is filling up, but that's okay with me. A couple thumb tacks for those Marvel Legends Retro will get them out of the way, and make plenty of space for more.

If I had to choose one, this would be my favorite section.
Again...IF I HAD to choose.

And last, but not least, the beautifully updated checklist! That first sheet is almost filled up!

Thanks again, George! I really mean it when I say this is my absolute favorite action figure line. This really means a lot to me that you made and gave me the very first batch back at Christmas time last year, and since them, you've been so amazing to keep cranking them out.

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