When I was in middle school I would make sport of searching the house around Christmas time in an effort to uncover my gifts prior to the big day. Perhaps I’m just not big on surprises but I would make it my quest to find as many presents as possible and enjoyed the foreknowledge of … More Star Wars: Shadows Over Christmas
When the Nintendo 64 was released it blew people away with the groundbreaking Super Mario 64 and the graphically impressive Pilotwings 64. Unfortunately that was the ENTIRE launch lineup; two games. Back in those early days of the Nintendo 64 it seemed like console owners were constantly waiting for the next release while enduring one … More GoldenEye 007 (N64, 1997)
When I was young I was obsessed with board games. Putting aside the old reliables of Monopoly, Clue, and their ilk, I also had a ton of cool concept games. The games that appealed to me where the ones that looked the most complex. Often putting the games together took longer to do than actually … More The Omega Virus (Milton Bradley, 1992)
The Death of Superman wasn’t exactly my introduction to comic books, but it was my introduction to the major comic book characters in their original form. I had a collection of some animated Ninja Turtles and Scrooge McDuck comic books that I got from a nearby 7-Eleven, but I had never gotten any of the … More The Death of Superman (DC, 1992)
Ralston was known for their licensed cereal brands in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. If there was a property popular with children, a shopper could be pretty certain that Ralston would dump some processed nuggets in a box and slap a logo on it for a quick buck. Ralston-Purina sticks to making pet food and … More Batman Cereal (Ralston, 1989)
Jurassic Park was my Star Wars. When it first appeared in 1993, I was 10 years old. As you can imagine, that Christmas I asked for, and received, many Jurassic Park toys. With the previously reviewed Electronic T-Rex, and other miscellaneous dinosaurs, something was missing. The Electronic Command Compound pretty much brings everything together. You … More Jurassic Park Electronic Command Compound (Kenner, 1993)
Way back in 1989 a company named Larami changed the landscape of backyard water wars forever when they released a brand of high powered high accuracy water guns known collectively as Super Soakers. Up until that point water pistols were inaccurate, low powered, had poor range, and barely spritzed their target with a few droplets … More Larami’s Line of Super Soaker Toys
I briefly touched upon the WWF LJN figures in my feature on the Macho King Randy Savage figure. To summarize, from 1984 – 1989 toy company and terrible video game maker LJN had the rights to produce officially licensed WWF action figures and toys. What they released were very realistic looking but completely inarticulate large … More WWF Sling ‘Em Fling ‘Em Wrestling Ring (LJN, 1985)
In my opinion, one of the best part of being a movie fan is the anticipation. Sometimes, the very idea of a movie that is coming up can be better than the movie that follows (Phantom Menace, anyone?). The hype leading up to movies can come from many different things. It usually starts with a … More Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country – The Official Movie Magazine (Starlog, 1991)
Back in 1992 Virgin Games released McKids for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was basically just an advertisement for McDonald’s restaurants with most of the gameplay elements revolving around imagery from the franchise. One thing I never understood is that the game is actually titled M. C. Kids. I’ve never eaten an M. C. … More M.C. Kids (NES, 1992)
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