Retro Spins: The Jets - Magic

Stepping right over their 1986 album, Christmas With The Jets, my return visit to the group is their 1987 album, Magic. Having not really gotten into their 1985 self titles album, I wasn't honestly expecting much from this particular record.

Well, as they say, when you have zero expectations, it's difficult to be disappointed.

It starts okay with the track, I Do You, but then immediately fumbles the ball with The Only Dance - A bland and boring ballad. I was fully prepared to check out at this point with the mindset that things weren't going to get any better from there.

Fortunately, this actually didn't happen. In fact, I heard a song I didn't even remember from the 80's, Make It Real, and added it to my shuffle mix. Not only had I forgotten about the song, but had no clue it was from The Jets. This then happened again when the song Rocket 2 U started playing, and then it happened a third time with Cross My Broken Heart. What the heck!?!? What's been going on in my life that I've been missing out on hearing these songs again?

When it was all said and done, I came away with three tracks for my shuffle from this album. Considering I expected to sit here bored through the whole thing, I'll take that with a smile. I may even go ahead and try to get their 1989 album, Believe, to see what's going on with it.

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A Message From The 80's For The People Of Today

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The Garbage Pail Kids Movie

 

August of 1987 was a bad month for kids merchandise tie in movies. Though I have an affinity for the Dolph Lundgren Masters Of The Universe film, I can openly admit that it's widely panned as one of the worst films of all time. However, many kids who rushed to theaters on August 7th, 1987 to see He-Man may have just been getting over it's sting when August 21st rolled around, and with it, the premier of the film based on one of Topps most popular non-sports card series. I'm of course talking about The Garbage Pail Kids Movie.

When it launched, the film was released in very few theaters across the USA. So few that the movie cinema in my neck of Bend, Oregon, didn't even have it. Considering how poorly the film ultimately performed, this may not have been a bad thing.

Critics were quick to pan the film, calling it, "The dumbest film of all times," and articles spread across local newspapers professing how bad it was. One critic, Harper Barnes of the St. Louis Post-Distpatch, even regales in his write up how the kids watching the film in the same showing he saw mocked the film, making comments about how dumb it was.

Though I can't find anything to confirm this, the word around my school playground at the time was that the film was yanked from theaters in just two weeks. Though it sounds feasible, in hindsight I"m not sure of the validity on that one. Like I said, the movie never even came to our movie theater. So how would any of us have known?

Film review by Harper Barnes of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

 

Film review by Fred Lutz, the Blade's Critic at Large

News article clippings taken from GeePeeKay.com.

Before people could find out how bad the film was touted as, a special collector's edition magazine was released. Within its pages were a slew of photographs from the movie, as well as articles going behind the scenes, pin-ups and posters.

Despite its floundering in the theaters, The Garbage Pail Kids Movie eventually made its was to VHS. It's interesting to note that the film never got released on Laserdisc, the highly popular competitor during the home video wars.

In conjunction with the limited theatrical run and VHS, The Garbage Pail Kids Movie quickly garnered a strong cult following. It became one of those movies that people wanted to love because of how great the cards were, but at the same time, it served as a fantastic film for any bad movie night.

To coincide with the film's release, Curb Records released a full soundtrack on both vinyl and cassette. Though it's not a memorable album, in terms of people knowing it was even released, 80's aficionados have commented that, for the most part, it's a solid listening session. Most will also tell you to avoid the final track, "Working With Each Other," at all costs.

The album is relatively scarce these days, making it not only difficult to find, but also rather expensive. I've never seen the cassette version in the wild, and a vinyl copy can easily set you back a hundred dollars.

In addition to the full soundtrack, Curb Records also released a forty-five vinyl featuring the two tracks people site as the worst from the album; "You Can Be A Garbage Pail Kid" (Side A), and "Working With Each Other," (Side B).

The Garbage Pail Kids Movie eventually made its way to a DVD release in 2005. It's budget friendly price didn't help it to sell well, and copies were quickly shuffled to five dollar bins. These days, it can still be found for a relatively low price. While the film was showcased in a widescreen format, there were no special features included on the disc.

The film was re-released on DVD in 2012. It appears to be nothing more than a repackaging of the exact same DVD released in 2005.

With a resurgence of The Garbage Pail Kids trading cards, including numerous new series, it was only natural that a rekindled interest in the cards would transfer to a desire for the film, which was released on Blu-Ray in 2015. This time around, the film not only featured a widescreen transfer, but theatrical trailer and all new interviews with the cast and crew.

Despite missing it in theaters, I would eventually get my chance to see the film. Though I don't honestly remember when exactly it was, I can say it was either a VHS rental back in the late 80's, or when it hit one of the many channels of my dad's satellite dish. It was bad, and that's putting it lightly.

Though you would think that all things Garbage Pail Kids would have come crashing down around the 1987 film, it's interesting to note that a short lived animated series was also in the work, and scheduled to air as a Saturday morning cartoon in September. However, due to controversy to the the brand, the series was ultimately cancelled in the USA before airing. All thirteen episodes were eventually released on DVD in 2006.

In a retrospective viewing of the show, it's actually not bad, as far as a cartoon series from the 80's go. It's not mind blowing, or necessarily memorable, but it's okay.

Article from Diane Haithman of the Los Angeles Times
about the cancelled Saturday morning cartoon

A reboot film was initially talked about in 2012 by the Tornante Company, but was quickly abandoned in July of 2013 when it was reported that there was a negative reception to it. Since then, the concept has been confined to trading card sets, which continue to thrive among GPK enthusiasts.

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Retro Spins: The Cars - Panorama

As someone who is very familiar with the hits of The Cars, I wanted to delve into them deeper. Specifically, I wanted to hear things I didn't know, and see just what the group had in the repertoire of tracks. Because I own all of their albums, this was not difficult to do, beyond selecting which album to choose.

As I scanned the back of their 1980 released Panorama, I immediately noticed I didn't know any of the songs listed. As such, it instantly became the album I wanted to hear because I felt it would fit the bill perfectly for what I was looking for.

The first thing I noticed when firing it up was that it was very unique in its sound. While it was definitely The Cars, it wasn't mainstream by any means. It did manage to hit the charts at number eighty with Touch And Go. However, the song only went to number thirty-seven, and there were no other tracks from the record which charted.

Though the sound was unique, I actually ended up tuning it out around the halfway point. It wasn't until the final few songs that I remembered I had something on in the background. As a result, there were actually only two songs which I pulled for my shuffle list, Touch And Go and Up And Down.

Overall, I guess I can't really form an opinion since I really didn't pay attention to Panorama as a whole. However, did this happen because the reality of it was the album just wasn't that good to hold my attention? I may need to listen to this one again to find out.

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The Official Nintendo Sticker Book And Stick-Ons (Imperial)

 

The Official Nintendo Sticker Book And Stick-Ons
Imperial
1988

Stickers were a big part of the 80's. Kids collected them, traded them, and in general horded them. If it was a brand, you could rest assured a sticker set was out there somewhere. I've often wanted to put together a collection of some of my favorite sets, and though it's a slow (and somewhat expensive process), this is definitely one of my favorites.

The Official Nintendo Sticker Album and Stick-Ons were released in 1988 by Imperial. Yes, that company known for producing all of those generic action figures found in grocery stores. Each page of the sticker album featured a unique theme to it, based on some of the most popular games on the Nintendo Entertainment System, such as, Super Mario Bros. The Legend Of Zelda, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out and more.

In correlation with the album, Imperial released twelve different sticker sets. However, six of them are only subtly different from the first half of the set.

It's unknown if Imperial released the above six sets first, or the below six. If you take a close look, you'll notice that the majority of the stickers included are the exact same as those shown above with one very subtle change. One of the stickers from each sets has been removed, and replaced with one based on the Nintendo game, Rad Racer.

The reason I believe the Rad Racer sets to be the latter of the stickers is because of how rare they are. This would coincide with industry standard practices of releases towards the end of a series being the more difficult to find due to the low production run. These ones are definitely challenging to obtain.

In addition to the "Official" series of stickers, Imperial also produced a set of six packs based on SNK games of the era. Of all of the stickers shown in this post, these are by far the easiest, and subsequently, cheapest, to come by.

It's fun to think about what further stickers could have been made had Imperial gotten the license to Konami, Data East or Capcom, just to name a few of some of the most popular publishers of Nintendo Entertainment System games. The possible sets could have been endless.

Though these stickers are both challenging and fun to collect, they're also a bit pricey for what you get. The SNK sets can easily set you back fifteen dollars per pack, and the six sets of the "Official" ones, without the Rad Racer stickers, can go for fifteen to thirty dollars a pack.

The packs with Rad Racer stickers are so rare that it's impossible to set a price point for them. They rarely show up on secondary markets, and there are several collectors looking for them. Prices can get incredibly high when a bidding war is occurring.

With that said, due to the age of all of the stickers noted in this post, it's fairly common for the adhesive to wear off or disintegrate. This is a common problem with collecting vintage stickers, and something you need to be prepared to accept if you pursue this particular hobby. The bright side to this is that rubber cement fixes any sticker you want to adhere to an album, and even a tear. It's not like they're designed to be stuck and removed anyway.

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Crunching The Numbers

 

I recently received a happy box from Action Figure Barbecue, which contained a G.I. Joe Classified Alley Viper within.

Having this figure did something I didn't expect. It reinvigorated my excitement for the Classified line, which up until today, I was just going through the motions on, keeping up with the series, but not necessarily feeling all that interested. This in turn made me all the more excited for the second figure in this wave, the Cobra B.A.T.

I had both of these figures on pre-order through Entertainment Earth, but the status showed that they wouldn't ship until July of 2022, allegedly. So I decided I would, for curiosities sake, check ebay for a B.A.T.

What I found actually surprised me.

Yes, it's true, many sellers on ebay are scalpers, which means you're going to pay an up charge past retail. However, most of these sellers also offer free shipping with that increased price.

In looking at B.A.T. figures, the prices fluctuate between as little as $22.00 for figures in hand, to $60.00. Obviously, the higher end is excessive, and quite frankly, a rip off. However, when crunching the numbers, I was quite shocked to see that I could purchase a figure off of ebay, and still spend less than what Entertainment Earth was charging.

I purchased my B.A.T. from a seller for $28.95, and this included free shipping. Naturally, ebay calculates in sales tax for my order, and with this added, the total cost came to $30.73.

Whereas, if I purchased this figure from Entertainment Earth, They are charging $33.01. This includes the figure at $22.99 plus $1.38 sales tax, and $8.64 shipping. This revelation blew my mind. Not only was buying it from a retailer higher than a scalper, but if Entertainment Earth is indeed shipping this in July of 2022, I'm getting the figure a full six months in advance prior to them.

In running the numbers further, I discovered that at 6% sales tax, I could spend upwards of $31.00 on this figure (with free shipping) from ebay, and still spend less money than what it would cost from Entertainment Earth.

This is a game changer for me, and it completely makes me rethink if it's worth taking the stance of not buying from scalpers.While it would be ideal to find these on store shelves, that's not realistically something we've seen in the past. So if I'm going to be bound to ordering these online, then 1) I want to spend as little as possible, and 2) Available now will always trump pre-orders. Especially when those pre-orders are months out from people who already have the item in their hands.

This is definitely something I am going to have to keep an eye on for consideration in the future, placing pre-orders when they are available, but then watching secondary markets for potentially faster and cheaper delivery. Heck, even paying a few dollars more trumps excessive wait times for pre-orders.

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Retro Spins: Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party

It baffles me to this day that some people don't know who Oingo Boingo are. Especially when those same people can stand there and talk to you about the music of Danny Elfman from all the Tim Burton films. To me, they're as iconic as Aerosmith, Queen, Duran Duran, etc.

Last time I talked about them, it was regarding their 1983 album, Good For Your Soul. Today, I want to talk about their 1985 (technically) follow up, Dead Man's Party. Admittedly, this one's going to be a bit of a "gimme". One, I'm clearly going to have a bias opinion. Two, it happens to be my all time favorite studio album from them.

First, let me step back a moment and clarify the "technically" part of my last paragraph. That would be the 1984 album, So-Lo, which was credited to Danny Elfman. However, the album is still very much an Oingo Boingo record. It was only released under the singer's name in order to circumvent a dispute with the band's record label. While So-Lo is credited to the bands complete discography, those unfamiliar with the group will of course only associate it to Elfman.

To me, Dead Man's Party is a masterpiece. The album delivers consistently fantastic tracks, one after the other. It's one of the very few records I have which I want to listen to front to back because I'm not about to pick a song here or there. It's up there in the ranks of my all time favorites alongside Michael Jackson's Bad, Prince's Purple Rain and, well, anything from Queen.

I believe it also showcases Oingo Boingo at their strongest. Granted, this was at the loss of some of its prior members leaving. But, sometimes less is more, and that certainly rains true here.

Fans of John Hughes films will immediately recognize the title of the movie, Weird Science. The band included an alternate take of the song as the last track on the album. This version is approximately six minutes, two minutes longer than the version from the soundtrack. Unfortunately, it was the shortened version from the film which received airplay, and eventually went to number forty-five on the charts.

Just Another Day, the opening track from the album also hit the charts at number ninety in early 1986. Sadly, it was gone the following week. To date, Just Another Day and Weird Science remain the only two songs from the band to land on the charts.

I highly recommend this album to anyone who hasn't heard it. You're missing out.

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Speak & Spell, Speak & Math And Speak & Read (Texas Instruments)

 

I don't recall having any "educational" toys as a kid, and I'm fine with that because educational toys are stupid. There was nothing worse than hearing people say, "Want to go to the toy store?" and then they go to Zany Brainy. Ugh....Awful.

As a result of only having cool toys, I don't know much about the various ones designed to teach children, but I do recall one specifically. One which was featured in the blockbuster Steven Spielberg film, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Texas Instrument's Speak & Spell.

Even as I put this post together, I was stunned by how many variations had been released between its inception in 1979 and today. Not only that, but by how many different "branding" versions there were. I never knew until I started looking into this that there was Math, Reading and (UK Exclusive) Writing versions.

For today's post, I'm going to be looking at the 1979 to 1988 era, and for the most part, just the actual devices, and not the the cartridges. However, in doing so, I will be focusing in specifically on 1982.

Speak & Spell was launched in 1978, and with it came a slew of modules for use with the basic unit. These included, but again, are not show, Vowel Power, Super Stumpers 4 - 6, Super Stumpers 7 - 8, Basic Builders, and Mighty Verbs.

In addition to its United States, or  North America  release, the basic unit also got distributed in the United Kingdom. However, only two of the modules were distributed for the latter; Vowel Power and Mighty Verbs.

The "console" became such a successful educational tool that by 1980, Texas Instruments began expanding on the product. They not only reissued the original Speak & Spell, this time with a red banner at the top left of the package, but also included all new modules; Homonym Heroes, Noun Endings, Magnificent Modifiers, and Vowel Ventures.

Texas Instruments also branched out into two all new units in the "speak" series with Speak & Read, and Speak & Math.

Though the units served their purpose as educational toys during these noted years, 1982 would bring it to the forefront in a big way, when it was not only featured in the blockbuster film, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, but utilized heavily to advance the story.

Now obviously, E.T. is a stupid movie that is ultimately pointless thanks to the gaping plot hole in the film. I've talked about it before, but I'll sum it up again. When E.T. lift's Elliot's bike into the air for the iconic flying scene, the entire weight of the film comes crashing down. If E.T. could fly, why did he stand on the ground to be left behind by the very slow ship lifting off at the beginning? Just fly up to it, pop open a hatch, in, gone, done.

Despite the poor film writing, Texas Instruments made sure to cash in on the Speak & Spell's cameo appearance. This first began with a sticker being adhered to boxes in noting that this was the toy as seen in the film.

What's interesting about this is that Texas Instrument also slapped the label on the Speak & Read and Speak & Math, neither of which were in the film.

Texas Instruments would then double down on this advertising opportunity by releasing not only an E.T. boxed basic unit, but also a module, which I will show, entitled, E.T. Fantasy Module.

I don't honestly know if this helped to sell more Speak & Spell's in 1982, but if nothing else, the boxes are cool, and nostalgic E.T. fan's dream come true for fun and unique products to hunt down.

TI followed up this release with the redesigned Speak & Spell Compact, however the unit didn't sell well, and was ultimately recolored and shuffled off to the UK, where the majority of the stock was sold.

In addition to this, the UK also saw the exclusive release of the Speak & Write Compact. France also received the exclusive Speak & Math Compact. However, due to their limited releases, I was not able to obtain a sufficient photo of the boxes to post here.

There wouldn't be a "new" package design for the Speak series until 1984, when Texas Instruments released these very colorful iterations. It's funny how they incorporated a bunch of children on the box with the unit, as if it were some form of group activity, or video game console.

What's interesting to note is that if there were any new modules released during this time, nobody seems to have a list of them. Did TI really try to float these based on just the original ones? I honestly don't know.

The 80's saw one final release for the Speak & Spell, this time with the newly designed Super edition.

Super Speak & Spell, released in 1987, featured all sorts of upgrades, such as all new buttons and a new display. Additionally, the unit was designed with a flip cover, making it more sleek and mature. There was however one drawback to this. The new design also featured slimmer module cartridges, meaning all the older ones were not compatible with it. A Super Speak & Math followed this release in 1990.

Since then, Texas Instruments has released classic versions of their Speak & Spell unit throughout the past decades. However, in this growing age of digital learning, Smart devices and other such handheld items that many children have at their fingertips, I can't help but feel that it's more so as a nostalgic nod, aimed at the adult collector, versus a child. Much like the calculator, there's really no reason for its existence other than to serve as memories of a time long gone.

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Retro Spins: Newcleus - Space Is The Place

Jam On Revenge, the first album from Newcleus, was an album I really enjoyed. Mainly because it was so different from what I was accustomed to listening to. However, even with that said, I didn't nab more than one song from the record.

Still, hearing it got me pretty excited to hear their follow up album, Space Is The Place. I had picked up the two albums at the same time, but because I was listening to other stuff, I didn't get around to it right away.

With this year's theme being all about before and after albums, I thought it was an appropriate time to swing back around to them.

Space Is The Place is on par with Jam On Revenge. It's enjoyable, but at the same time, it also doesn't produce singles. It's one of those albums which are best enjoyed from start to finish because each song fits into its intended place. Unlike JoR, the tracks are not intertwined with sound effects, which does make it easier to know when a new track is starting.

I did end up grabbing one song off of the album for my shuffle. Track five, Cyborg Dance. Again, it's not that the other songs were bad. This one just stood out the most for me.

Track six, I Wanna Be A B-Boy, did get me a little nostalgic excited around the four minute thirty second mark because I heard the distinctive scratching of Herbie Hancock's Rock It. Coincidence? I'm not sure. But I enjoyed it immensely.

Overall, it was a good album, but it's not one I'm going to be listening to often. Mainly because I have so much music I'm trying to get through, and I really don't have time to re-listen to full albums - With the exception of the best of the best which have been ingrained in my head since the 80's. Still, I can see myself getting back around to this one, and Jam On Revenge, some day.

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Marvel Swimsuit Special (Marvel Comics)

 

I had to move some posts around from last year's schedule in order to fit in my ten posts related to cartoons of the 80's. As a result, I have several posts which got shifted into 2022, and those are going to be coming at you for the next several weeks. So for now, back to the old format.

Marvel Swimsuit Special
Marvel Comics
1990's

They'll never do this again.

The 90's were an exciting time for comic books. The industry was at an all time high, talent was surpassing the actual books they were working on, and prices were skyrocketing on issues that just hit store shelves the week prior. Variant covers, gimmick covers, mini-series, crossover events, a newly founded independent label and more were turning the industry upside down, and fans across the world were all enjoying the ride.

Between 1992 and 1995, Marvel released a series of swimsuit issues that featured some of its most popular characters of the era. There's no doubt in my mind that the publisher was aiming for a more mature audience with these over the top provocative issues. Naturally, as a fifteen year old boy, I was all over the 1991 and 1992 magazine size issues when they first came out.

With the current direction of Marvel Comics, I can't help but think that something like this would be completely frowned upon. It's just not socially acceptable to objectify women like this anymore - Or so I hear. Additionally, from what I've been seeing from the "talent" in recent history, they use their books to fulfill political agendas, as well as to protest and publish activism. So something like this would be out of the question.

Marvel Illustrated
Marvel Comics
1991

Though it's obviously in line with the above, and some collector's consider it to actually be the first issue, Marvel initially released a swimsuit issue in 1991 entitled, Marvel Illustrated: The Swimsuit Issue.

Time line wise, it would make sense that this was the first issue, making 1992 - 1995 issues two through five.

Basically, what you get from any of these magazines are pinups of some of your favorite Marvel characters, guys and girls, clad as skimpy as possible, and drawn by some of the hottest artists of the era. What's not to love?

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Retro Spins: Falco - Wiener Blut

Falco is one of those singers I really wish would have done better in the 80's than he did. He struck American shores hard with his hits Rock Me Amadeus and Vienna Calling, but then sadly couldn't recreated that success with any of his follow up albums. Even for me, his tunes are pretty hit or miss. I find they're either really good, or just bad.

Today, I'm taking a look at his 1988 album Wiener Blut, or Viennese Blood, as it translates to in English from German. At least I hope it's German, and not Dutch, because then it would translate to wiener broke.

Wiener Blut didn't produce any hits for the signer, and as a result he unfortunately continued to struggle with waning popularity, declining sales and as a result, personal issues. Falco wanted so badly to recreate the lightning in a bottle he found with Falco 3, but sadly never could.

Admittedly, and I'm sorry to say this, the album really isn't that good. In my listening session, I pulled three tracks for my shuffle. Whoever, with eleven songs in total, that's a pretty bad ratio of good to bad. Now, with that said, the three songs I did enjoy, I really enjoyed. They're up there with some of my favorites from "3" (the album). Those were, Wiener Blut, Untouchable and Garbo.

Hearing the record also made me want to dig a little deeper into the singer's past albums to see if those would be worth picking up too. Unfortunately, after a quick peruse on Youtube to see what I'd be getting myself into, I didn't hear anything that I enjoyed. As such, I passed.

You just kind of have to take it for what it is. Falco had his fifteen minutes of fame, which is more than most of us get, so you really just have to enjoy it for what it was. It would have been great if Falco was a break out artist who produced hit after hit, but he didn't. What more can you really say?

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Snow And Chili!

 

When the world looks like this...

It's a good day to hunker down with this...

This chili was made with three pounds ground beef, three diced onions, four different beans (navy, cannellini, kidney, and black), two cans diced tomatoes (15 ounces each), one can tomato sauce (15 ounces), and my homemade chili seasoning - Recipe "HERE". I used about eight tablespoons, and seasoned to taste with salt and pepper. Just put it all in the pot, and simmer over low for four to six hours.

My ritual for chili has always been this: eat two bowls of it over two days, make chili dogs the next, and chili mac the following to finish it off.

UPDATED PHOTOS in the life of chili.

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