The Toy Box

Retro Spins: Rick Astley - Whenever You Need Somebody

Rick Astley
Whenever You Need Somebody
1987

Poor Rick Astley. He went from 80's superstar to internet joke in 2007 and remains the ever mocked persona of rickrolling people. Oh...He's also been a successful radio personality, has returned to a successful singing career, is married to producer Lene Bausager and worth an estimated sixteen million dollars. Dang. Poor Rick Astley, nothing.

Astley made his debut in 1987 with the album Whenever You Need Somebody and with it came a whole lot of success. Unfortunately for the singer, the money he should have been making for three top ten hits, two of which went to number one, was going to someone else. Why? Because he didn't write them and as such was only getting Performance Royalties.

For those of you who don't know how this works, let me break it down for you. Songwriter Royalties (or Mechanical Royalties as it's known in the music business) is money paid to the songwriter every time a physical or digital copy of an album is (legally) purchased. A Performance Royalty on the other hand is the money paid to the singer (possibly also the writer) every time the song is played - Such as on the radio, in bars or at sporting events. Another way writers and performers are paid are through Synch Fees which are when a song is used for television or movies. Last, there's the record label who takes a "fair" chunk of the money for themselves.

Now that you know how it works, you can see that while Astley's music career was lucrative (hello, 16 million dollars), it could have been more so had his name been associated with the writing credits for his most popular songs.

Never Gonna Give You Up was his first number one hit. It first hit the charts in December 1987 at number seventy-one. It reached the number one spot by March of 1988. His second number one hit, Together Forever, entered the charts at number sixty-two in April of '88 and reached number one by June of that same year. Though It Would Take A Strong Man would be the last hit from the album, it was by far Astley's last hit in general. The song charted in July 1988 at number seventy-eight and peaked at number ten in September. By then, hits from his follow up album, ~~F*%k You, I'm Rick Astley~~ Hold Me In Your Arms began charting. That's a post for another time though.

As a whole...Meh...The album is kind of boring. The hits, and I use that term lightly from my perspective, are the only stand out tracks to be found. I could honestly feel just as fulfilled in my life if I never heard them or the album in general ever again. Astley may have his fans out there, but I don't think I'm going to be one of them. Considering I picked up the album for a buck on a secondary market, I don't think he'd personally care or miss me that much anyway.

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Army Men (Playing Mantis)

Army Men
Playing Mantis
2001

The classic army man. How can you not love that little two inch piece of green or tan plastic decked out in full military gear with a unique weapon of accessory permanently sculpted in place? So much fun I had as a kid flicking marbles at these things to simulate a war across the hallway of my parent's house. Hours of entertainment for nothing more than the cost of a bucket (or bag) of "figures" and a sack of marbles.

Playing Mantis, a company often skipped over by many toy enthusiasts, gave the ultimate nod to the army man toy in 2001. Granted these iterations were more so based on the 3DO video game, but that too in and of itself was an homage to the toys.

Sergent Hawk*Hoover

The figures stood an impressive eight inches high and came with a unique weapon or accessory. Additionally they featured a few points of articulation - Not much, but enough to give them a little posability options. To round out each carded figure, each one also included a fun dog tag style figure stand.

Colonel Grimm*Riff

Six figures in total were released, but in a bit of an unfair ratio. Five green soldiers (the good guys) and one tan (the bad guys). Okay, to be fair, it was actually only four green soldiers and a fully decked out female character.

Vikki Grimm*General Plastro

These figures are quite the challenge to find on secondary markets these days, and believe it or not, Vikki, the female character, is the easiest of them to find - Also the cheapest. Sergeant Hawk shows up here and there. However, the remaining characters, especially General Plastro, are incredibly difficult to find.

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Goodbye, Peter Mayhew

Another sad day for Star Wars fans across the world as news breaks about the death of actor, Peter Mayhew. Peter, of course, was the man who brought Chewbacca to life. His mannerisms, movements and genstrues all an identical part of the character, but also a glimpse into the man himself.

As Chewbacca, many of us learned just what a true friend was. Loyalty. Honor. Compassion. Strength. Bravery. Chewie had all of these traits. He was the kind of guy you wanted watching your back, and if he was your friend, he did just that.

Many children giggled with glee at the opportunity to dress up as the character in 1978 when Ben Cooper released the Chewbacca costume and mask set. For that moment in time, we not only could act like Chewie, but look like him too. To this day, many fans continue to cosplay as the character, not because it's fun to dress up, which it is, but because Chewie expresses the kind of person they want to be. I can't help but feel like all those characteristics I listed above weren't just a character, but also Peter Mayhew.

Peter was beloved by fans, and always took the time to share in their joy through numerous convention appearances and autograph signings. He made it a point to meet fans, and not just shuffle them along through a queue. Even when the likes of Luke, Han and Leia were nowhere to be found in the convention scene, you could always count on Peter to be there.

Though we as fans started out loving Chewbacca as a character, over the decades since the first film we've been privileged enough to also get to know the man behind the mask. Be it through watching interviews, reading stories, or for those of us lucky enough, to meet him in person.

Peter Mayhew will be deeply missed. Not only by fans, but those who worked so closely with him for all these years. It will be odd to go to any kind of Star Wars convention and not see Peter there. At least he'll be there in spirit.

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Retro Spins: Nu Shooz - Poolside

Nu Shooz
Poolside
1986

Despite two prior albums, Can't Turn it Off (1982) and Tha's Right (1984), Nu Shooz didn't have much success until their third album, Poolside (1986). It featured the bands most successful hits to date, I Can't Wait (not to be confused with Stevie Nick's song of the same name released in 1985), Point of No Return (not to be confused with the same titled song from Expose released in 1987) and Don't Let Me Be the One.

I Can't Wait has an interesting history to it. The song originally appeared on the band's 1984 album Tha's Right. Poolside's version is actually a remix the band produced while overseas. While the remixed (and more widely known) version retains the integrity of the original '84 version, it incorporates and features the memorable bouncing synthesized vocals heard predominantly throughout the track.

Overall the album plays out well. It's got a fun synth pop style to it and makes you want to tap your feet to track after track. There's actually not anything on the album I would label as "bad". However, beyond the hits, there's also nothing really memorable. The hits are hits for a reason and quite honestly you don't really need anything beyond those. As a whole, it didn't leave me with the sense of, "I've got to hear more from this band." More so, "Thanks for the hits, take care of yourself now." Cause you know, you have to at least wish people well.

Nu Shooz released one final album in the 80's (Told U So 1988) and then disappeared until 2010 when their new album Pandora's Box was released. Since then they've released two additional album. Unfortunately, none of their albums before or after 1986's Poolside garnered any hits for the band.

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Return of the Jedi Widevision (Topps)

Return of the Jedi Widevision
Topps
1996

Alright, let's do this. I think at this point you readers knew this was coming. I hit A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back so let's wrap it up with Topps Star Wars Widevision Return of the Jedi.

Taking a page from the prior two series, the set once again got advertised via promotional cards. However, one stood out of the bunch in this lot of seven cards. If you look at the photo below, the top right card doesn't state, "Coming this winter," as the others do. Instead, it is the regular card from the series with the only difference being the "P" number on the back and the back itself which advertises the series. It's so unique in terms of the other promo cards that it is often times missed by collectors who mistake it for a random loose base card.

Promo Cards

This time around, Topps produced a promotional poster as well. Much like the promo cards, there are several collectors out there who "need" this item in order to consider their collection to be complete.

Promo Poster

Once again there are 144 cards to collect in the base series and each of them fits together meticulously to tell the full story of the film.

Base Set

The chromium chase cards return with more of that wonderful art from Ralph McQuarrie.

Chrome Chase Cards

Topps once again encourages collectors to buy multiple boxes and / or cases in order to get a complete set of box topper mini posters. However, considering it's going to take you a few boxes to pull all those beautiful chromium cards, it may be well worth it.

Box Topper Mini Posters

For me, this was it for the Widevision series of cards. For starters, I never expected it to become as popular as it did that it would spawn sets not only for all the Prequel films, but also the Special Edition Trilogy. It blossomed into too much. Especially when they began making hobby and retail sets. It was difficult enough to track down the Original Trilogy sets with all chases, promos and posters.

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