Retro Spins: The Motels - Shock

 

The Motels was a group from the 80's that I really didn't pay attention to. They had a couple hits, and those were okay. However, invested in their albums or overall music careers, I was not.

As I built up my music collection, I decided to add their 1982 and 1983 albums to my massive CD pile. For my purposes, that was more than enough, and remained so for quite some time.

It was during a local used CD shop peruse that I came across their album, Shock. I knew nothing about any of the songs on it, and at $13.99, wasn't sold on grabbing it. However, for some reason, the cover intrigued me enough to carry it around with me while I continued to look. I ultimately ended up grabbing it, and quite frankly, I'm glad I did.

As it turns out, Shock was the last album from the group to be released in the 80's, as after its release, lead singer, Martha Davis, went solo. She released an album in 1987, which was not well received, and by 1989 asked her record label to be released from her contract. With the exception of a few contributions to soundtracks, and a cameo appearance in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, she relatively disappeared from the spotlight for the better part of a decade.

Davis re-emerged in 1997, and toured as a new incarnation of The Motels. However, she wouldn't release a new solo album until 2004, and it wouldn't be until 2007 that a new Motels album would be released. Neither were critical successes.

Since then, the band has continued to chug along, releasing a handful of albums up through 2018. However, they never seemed to recapture that moment in time from the 80's where they found steady rotation on radio stations, and more important were, well, relevant, for lack of a better word.

Turning on Shock, I was caught off guard by the title track, which immediately had my attention. This was followed by Shame, which I equally enjoyed. What this also did was set my expectations incredibly high for this album. An expectation that while it wasn't met, I still wasn't left disappointed.

As a whole, Shock was a decent play session. Though I only ended up grabbing three tracks for my shuffle, the two above plus, Icy Red, I also didn't hear anything that I would say was "bad". It was an enjoyable forty-four minute session.

I think the title track may very well be my favorite song from The Motels. As I've said many times, I love finding new stuff, and not only did Shock provide this, but it intrigued me enough to go back to their previous two albums I've already heard to double check them for treasures I may have missed.

And with that said, that's what I'm off to do.

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THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS
January 5, 1980

 

THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS
January 5, 1985

The 12 Days After Christmas Of Peg People - Day 8

Someone set their computer up! Just in time to dig into G.I. Jigsaw's fantastic day eight of Peg People! Today's bag was heavy, and that's because there were a few larger size figures inside.

6-Arm Peter Parker

The Watcher

White Dragon

Grey Hulk

Major Victory

Havok

Fear Itself Spider-Man Suit

And with my computer set up, I was finally able to update the checklist! It was in doing so that I made the swap out of Spider-Woman, and discovered that George made an extra figure. Turns out that Lotus Shinchuko was not on the list below. That's an oversite on my part, and a good catch by George. She was intricate to the Sons of the Tiger, and appeared alongside them with Spider-Man many times. I can't believe I missed her! I also changed the Mark III armor to officially be Iron Man. This way George wouldn't feel obligated to make an additional one for the Spider-Man version...I mean, he can if he wants to, of course (hint hint).

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Retro Spins: Maywood - Maywood

 

Let's get a bit obscure today.

Maywood takes me back to my youth when living in South Africa. Picture two brother's and a sister sitting in front of the latter's record player, as she played radio DJ. Through these sessions, she would frequently spin Springbok and Top Of The Pop records, introducing our young and impressionable minds to music she herself liked. It was here that we would first hear the song Rio, a track that would stay in my mind for years to come.

The dutch duo consisted of sisters, Alice May (Aaltje de Vries), and Caren Wood (Doetje de Vries) who together released albums from 1980 through 1992, and formally split up in 1995. They never had a major impact in the United States, but stayed relatively popular in the Netherlands where they had a handful of hits.

I don't know that Maywood was on my list in 2017 when I first started putting my CD collection together. In fact, I highly doubt it. However, by 2020, their song Rio made it to the forefront of my mind, and from there I began a search for their 1981 studio album, Different Worlds to obtain the tune from my youth.

I don't remember the website, or how I finally found it. But, after searching and searching, I finally came across a site that had three of their albums, 1980's Maywood, 1981's Different Worlds, and 1982's Colour My Rainbow. Knowing nothing about any other songs beyond Rio, I took a chance and picked up all three of them. If nothing else, I figured I would probably never see them again, so it was best to get them while I could.

Well, while I listened to Rio over and over these past several years, I admittedly never got around to any of the albums in their entirety. So, today, here we are, starting with their self titled 1980 debut.

Starting it up, I was immediately grabbed by the opening track, Late At Night. Something about the vocals of Caren Wood just resonate throughout me as she sings. It's almost haunting in a way. I found myself heavily invested in the first three songs, and as such, it was pretty disappointing when things took a nosedive from there. Fortunately, things picked back up with track eight, and stayed there for a few more tunes.

Overall, it was a pretty good listening session. I found some great songs I didn't know existed, and of course added these to my playlist and shuffle. More importantly, I am super amped to jump into their other albums. Unfortunately, that won't be today.

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The 12 Days After Christmas Of Peg People - Day 7

 

I'm over the half way point of opening fun packages from the box George of G.I. Jigsaw gave me for Christmas (bummer). This box!

Of the six remaining red bags, this one was the lucky winner of the day. It's been fun opening one a day, and spreading this out. I guess in a way, George gave me the Christmas I otherwise wouldn't have had, and I really appreciate that.

Inside this one were two bundles, each with four awesome Peg People, ready to join the Spider-Man lineup.

Judas Traveller, Martinex, Debra Whitman, and Corona

Lotus Shinchuko, Bob Diamond, Abe Brown, and Lin Sun

With still no access to my checklist to put that together, I began to do the math in my head. I'm beginning to think George may have finished the entire series that was laid out. Now I'm really eager to set up my desktop, and see. Unfortunately, the earliest that's probably going to happen is this coming weekend. So many boxes still to unpack. Can't really sit down and "play".

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Comics Corner: The Amazing Spider-Man 203

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Title: The Amazing Spider-Man
Issue Number: 203
Release Date: April 1980

Highlights

• Peter, Harry and Flash go to the theater to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which uses an altered panel from the Marvel Comic adaption
• Dazzler's power, "pluck" Lightmaster from the dimension of light, reincarnating him
• Reference is made to Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man 20

Low Points

• None

Oddities

• Lightmaster makes giant cymbals out of light to smash Spider-Man, and a moment later, a fly swatter to swat him
• Dazzler makes a giant vacuum out of light to attack Spider-Man
• Editor's Day Off - I don't even know what Spider-Man is trying to say here, "Yeah...It's working...Now it move quickly on my own...

Top Image: The Amazing Spider-Man 203
Bottom Image: Star Trek: The Motion Picture Adaptation 1

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Retro Spins: Prince - Lovesexy

 

Prince's 1988 album, Lovesexy, answers the question of how many albums you need from the singer that features him naked on the cover. The answer. Zero. Absolutely none. By far this is the worst, and most unappealing album cover from Prince in my collection. Yeah, it just doesn't work for me.

Though it went gold, critically, Lovesexy was the least successful Prince album since 1981's Controversy. It also wasn't initially the album intended to be released. In December of 1987, Prince was going to release The Black Album. However, citing a spiritual epiphany and believing it was evil, he opted to withdraw that record, and cancelled its release. This led to The Black Album becoming one of the highest bootleg records of the era, created from the few promotional copies that were known to be in existence at the time.

With no new album, Prince rushed back into the studio, and began work on what would become Lovesexy. Unlike prior albums, it simply doesn't have the commercial hits that would be expected from the artist who delivered 1999, Purple Rain, and Sign 'O The Times. However, that stated, that's also not to say it's bad.

I think a lot of the critical reception was that this album was on the heels of Sign 'O The Times, and that was considered to be his opus. So, in that regard, I can understand the negative response.

However, for me, I feel quite the opposite. I like this album front to back. It's quite frankly a diamond in the rough of relatively unknown Prince material. The title track has a very familiar sound in retrospect of things to come on his 1989 Batman soundtrack, and to me, that makes it one of the standouts because I love that album.

I suppose if I didn't like the whole thing that this could be problematic. While it does contain nine tracks, early pressings of the CD don't break these down individually. Instead, it's just one long extended play track. This could make it annoying to get to the song you want if you're not playing it in its entirety.

While I certainly don't need any Prince albums with him stark naked on the cover, this one is definitely one you should check out. Don't skip the classics by any means, but also don't miss this one.

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The 12 Days After Christmas Of Peg People - Day 6

Day six, half way point of the wonderful box from G.I. Jigsaw.

Today's lucky bag selected from it was this one.

But, what's inside, you ask? Well, let me show you!

Chance, Webby-Two, and Hornet

Grey Hulk, and Nathan Lubensky

I sent George a text about the below. All in good fun, so hopefully he didn't take it wrong. Basically ribbed at him that this wasn't an Iron Man line. The Mark III on the checklist was the Spider-Man version. But, still, can't go wrong with a good Iron Man figure.

Cannonball, Dracula, and Mark III Armor

Progress is still going slow at the new house. I literally spent all morning re-arranging my collection room, unsatisfied with how it was initially set up. It took a couple hours to finally reach a point of satisfaction. From there, I finally got around to unpacking some toys.

We're hoping to make a good final push this upcoming weekend. My girl and I have to. Otherwise, we're never going to settle in, and this is never going to feel like home. We've put all our trust in Jesus that everything will work out. We just need to get out of the weeds. Please feel free to send some prayers our way.

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Comics Corner: Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man 41

   

Title: Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man
Issue Number: 41
Release Date: April 1980

Highlights

• Reference is made to Marvel Team-Up 34
• Origin of Meteor-Man
• Human Torch in a Hostess Twinkies ad
• Meteor-Man's backpack / device explodes in the sky with him wearing it -is he dead? No

Low Points

• None

Oddities

• Editor's Day Off - When thinking about Meteor-Man, Spider-Man refers to him as Meteor-Mind
• Spider-Man makes a directional arrow for Giant Man out of webbing

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Retro Spins: Queen - Hot Space

 

In 1992, Queen's Hot Space was the last studio album I needed to complete a full collection from the band, and when I got it, I was mortified. My ears simply couldn't process what they were hearing. What was this Discoteca sound that was assaulting my ears? Why did it keep reminding me of the Blue Oyster Bar from Police Academy?

Turns out, I wasn't alone in that thought. Fans of Queen point the finger in all sorts of directions. Paul Prenter, Freddie Mercury's personal manager at the time, gets the majority of the blame. He is cited as consistently manipulating Mercury, pushing him to create an album that would be heard in gay bars.

However, John Deacon's hand's are far from clean in this matter. The bassist is infamously known as the band member who pushed for synthesizers to be used on the group's records. This was something the band was so adamantly against that pre-1980 albums proudly stated, "No synthesizers" on the liner notes.

Throw on top of this all the members filling their free time with drugs, alcohol, and non-stop partying, which led to an excessive recording period of the album, and you can see how we got to Hot Space from prior albums. It's panned by fans and critics alike as one of the worst Queen albums of all time. I think Flash Gordon, their misguided soundtrack from 1980, is the only one regarded as worse.

Me personally, I was coming into this one after hearing every other album they had released to date, barring the yet to be released Made In Heaven (1995). I begged my dad on a trip to my grandfather's house to buy it for me, and in a rare moment from him, he actually did. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that mentally this album was poised to be important to me. Not only was it the final one I needed, but I got my dad to buy it for me on a random day just by asking. Then it sucked! Badly!

I remember putting my headphones in, and firing up my portable disc player. As Staying Power started up, I immediately thought, "What the crap is this?" I don't think I even made it through the song in its entirety before skipping to the next one, Dancer. Things didn't get better, and from there I skipped and skipped through each track within seconds. It wasn't until the last track, Under Pressure, a song I had heard before on live albums and greatest hits, that I finally listened to one song from start to finish.

I was mortified. I was disappointed. Dang it, I was angry! This was Hot Space? This was the last Queen album that I begged my dad to buy, and was so excited to receive? I couldn't believe it. Had this been the first Queen album I ever heard, it would have been the last.

This album sat forever on the shelf as the one Queen album I avoided like the plague. Mind you, I was very fond of Flash Gordon, so that was saying something. To me, Hot Space was nothing more than a space holder between The Game (1980) and The Works (1984). A check mark on my completion list, but always a blemish on the career of what I considered my favorite band of all time. I can certainly understand where the critical reception came from back in 1982. I was right there a decade later feeling the same shock.

As the years went by, and I grew older, I made it a point one week (or two) to listen to every Queen album back to back in chronological order from start to finish during my drives to and from work. With this, I forced myself to give Hot Space a playthrough just to be able to say I did what I set out to do. Believe it or not, it grew on me, and I actually found an appreciation for it. Even now, as I listen to it again for this post, I'm bobbing my head to Body Language. It helps that I know where the album came from, and can appreciate it as something different from the band. If nothing else, it definitely has a unique sound. If you can get past the overall shock of it, the tracks are still solid, and I can honestly say that I like Hot Space these days. To me, it's just as good as any other album from Queen.

So, there you go. Even this story has a happy ending.

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Happy New Year!

 

I don't know if G.I. Jigsaw intended to start a trend, or if he just inspired me to start putting up my figures.

Though I won't profess to know what Jigs is going through from last year, I'm kind of right there with him. I just need to get past 2024, and start 2025 out on the right foot. There have been a lot of changes for me in the past few months, and they've kind of taken their toll.

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The 12 Days After Christmas Of Peg People - Day 5

Happy New Year! It's time to return to the magical box from George of G.I. Jigsaw.

So many bags still remain, which is awesome. However, with so many to choose from, blindly, one must be selective. Today's lucky winner is this one!

This batch of Peg People were totally awesome, not that they all haven't been so far. But, today's were particularly great.

Red Sonja

I'm forever bummed with myself for not putting Conan on the checklist...yet. Unlike Red Sonja, I don't believe Conan ever had a crossover with Spider-Man. I think the closest correlation you can draw is either Sonja (Marvel Team-Up 79), or the McFarlane Conan 241 cover.

Marla Jameson, Wonder Man, and Future Foundation Spider-Man

Then this last batch from the bag, which totally tipped the scales. The icing on the cake, so to speak.

Lois Lane, Clark Kent, Perry White, and Superman

Wait, DC / Superman in my Spider-Man series? You bet! Head back to the two classic Treasury Edition reads for those crossovers. To this day, I still can't believe I found the second book at an estate sale for a mere $10.00.

So many hyperlinks in this post, are you clicking them all to visit their correlating posts? You should! It's fun to re-read the old entries. Also, don't miss every day here at The Toy Box in 2025, where I'll be posting a new Retro Spin post daily. Yes, 365 days of album reviews, with a sprinkling of the usual Monday post going live at noon. This means, that I'll need to re-allocate any of these remaining 12 Days After Christmas posts which fall on Monday to a later time in the day. That way they don't get buried. I hope to see all of you here. Thanks for reading over the years. Let's keep it going in 2025.

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Comics Corner: The Amazing Spider-Man 202

   

Title: The Amazing Spider-Man
Issue Number: 202
Release Date: March 1980

Highlights

• First appearance of Alfred, Arnie, Reis, Seaman, Hatay, Lu Sing, Ralph Robbins, Jack Masters, and Mehemet
• Death of Lorenzo Jacobi
• Despite the cliffhanger ending eluding to it, The Punisher doesn't actually know Peter Parker is Spider-Man
• J. Jonah Jameson is still acting crazy, having recently escaped the hospital after his nervous breakdown

Low Points

• None

Oddities

• The Punisher says that Peter Parker is secretly one of Lorenzo Jacobi's men, to which Peter refutes, only for The Punisher to immediately change his mind without proof
• The Punisher's van was wrecked and sank in the river in the prior issue, but he already has it back, and on the street in perfect condition

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Retro Spins: Expose - What You Don't Know

 

It's a big year for Retro Spins at The Toy Box. This year I'm playing catch up in a big way, and presenting an all new post EVERY SINGLE DAY! That's right! Three hundred sixty-five posts of 80's goodness. Join me, won't you? Kicking off 2025 is Expose.

The trio of girls, Jeanette Jurado, Gioia Bruno, and Ann Curless, wasn't a story of success, fame, and fortune at first. Instead, it was a story very reminiscent of what happened to New Edition. While the money rolled in from the success of their 1987 debut, Exposure, the performers themselves were paid pittance wages, earning a mere $200.00 each for each live show. Eventually, the record label would intervene, and an undisclosed settlement was reached.

With renegotiated contracts, the girls began work on their second album, 1989's What You Don't Know. Monetarily, it wasn't as successful as their first. However, commercially, it garnered several chart toppers, and eventually was certified gold.

Sadly, their momentum would be halted suddenly in 1990, when Bruno began having throat problems from a benign tumor on her vocal cords. Shows were abruptly cancelled to allow her time to heal. However, the matter got so serious that she ultimately lost her voice, and couldn't sing for years, and had to keep talking to a minimum.

Bruno would eventually be replaced by Kelly Moneymaker, and Expose would return in 1992 with their self titled album. Though more mature in its sound, and eventually certified gold, it was not the critical success expected. The group never officially disbanded, but to date, have not released any new albums.

And with that, I fire up 1989's What You Don't Know, which punches me right in the face with the title track, and sets the tone for a good time. In listening to it, I can definitely see what the critics were talking about. It's decent, but it certainly doesn't deliver with the force that their debut Exposure had.

With that said, I'm definitely a fan of the title track, Tell Me Why, When I Looked At Him, and Your Baby Never Looked Good In Blue. Those alone are worth the price of admission, and make this a must own record for me.

In looking at my playlist for 1989, it's almost prudent that Your Baby Never Looked Good In Blue is the second to last track for the decade. It's the perfect closure to an era of music that meant so much to me. It's all the more fitting that the track that follows it, Youth Gone Wild by Skid Row, is a perfect segue into things to come from the 90's. But, I suppose that unto itself is a whole other story.

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