Pod Stallions Episode 55: Tarzan

Episode 55 is all about the Lord of the Jungle, Tarzan of the Apes

J&B (the hosts, not the crappy scotch) discuss their initial exposure to the Lord of the Jungle in his many television, film, print and comic adaptions over their life times culminating with last summer's adaptation.

Some of the subjects we touch upon are Mego action figures, DC and Marvel, Filmation, Mike Henry, Doctor Who, Chimp Genitals, Dakin, Casper Van Diem, Ron Ely, Batman, Sheena, John Carter of Mars, Flash Gordon,  At the Earth's Core, toys, Big Jim and oodles more.

  Download the Show Here

Listen here

Plenty more content on the PodStallions Facebook page!






PODSTALLIONS ON ITUNES
PODSTALLIONS RSS FEED

The 2011 Plaidstallions Retro Awards

It's time once again for my fake awards show dedicated to what I feel is retro goodness of the past year. All in all, 2011 was a tremendous year for this kind of commerce, so there was lots to choose from.


I've also got some news on the book projects and changes to the site for 2012.


More After Jump

DVD Review: Planet Earth

It’s been a while since I did a DVD review, mostly because I’m lazy but also because I usually only get motivated to talk about obscure things people might miss. Planet Earth is one of those things. I saw this film on CFTO one Saturday afternoon in the 70s and it never quite left me. In fact, I went outside and pretended to be Dylan Hunt for several years after that.

How does the Warner Archive release hold up, check it out after the jump...

Astro Blast Power Center Commercial

Uploaded this commercial from the 70s Toy Explosion DVD to our facebook page. So if it doesn't come up head on over here.

I totally remember this commercial, especially the awkward "almost four stories" line from the window washer, it's how I learned what a story was.

Next Sunday, I'll be launching another contest so stay tuned.

Nerdy DVD Day!

While I don't regularly talk about DVDs here, there are just some things I cannot ignore and today there are three of them.

Firstly, the good folks at Cinematic Titanic (who used to be the good folks at Mystery Science Theatre 3000) have a new release in the form of "Danger On Tiki Island".

Not only are the CT Live DVDs absolutely hilarious but the film itself is one of those Eddie Romero "Blood Island" movies retitled. I really enjoy those movies on their own, getting them riffed is like getting free french fries in your onion rings.

You can be environmentally friendly and download the whole affair for $9.99, it's well worth it.



I really have to mention the "Sleazy Sci Fi of the 1970s" compliation DVD available today as well.

Not only does th set include "2069: A Sex Oddysey" (the infamous movie I got busted with as a young lad) but also the camp classic "Invasion of the Bee Girls" .

There is a third film included that I have not seen. It's too bad this set didn't include the (terrible) British sexy sci fi romp "Spaced Out" as it would truly be a trifecta of my puberty movie watching.





Finally, the 1980 cult classic Flash Gordon is out on Blue Ray today. I don't own a player but if there was ever a film to watch in high definition, I'd imagine this would be the one.

The thing is such an explosion of colour and sound, it makes perfect sense. Plus, the bigger and louder the Brian Blessed, the better I say.

The 2009 PlaidStallions Retro Awards

Yep, I'm doing an awards show, except without the musical numbers (this is a good thing if you've met me), stilted humour and most of all, Billy Crystal. Just thought that instead of talking vintage, I'd point out my favourite nerdy retro treats of the last year.

Movies

Star Trek: Oh hot damn did I love this movie, which says a lot because I normally loathe origin stories and the furnace that powers my love for all things Star Trek ran out of coal in the early 1990s.

I don't agree with everything this movie did but it brought back elements of the classic series that I felt were missing in all of the spin offs. The scene of Spock transporting to Vulcan's surface gave me chills, it was Star Trek again.

I'm not sure if this is my favourite Star Trek movie but it's my favourite geeky movie of the year. The other runner up would be Watchmen but I think I'll watch Star Trek more.

Books

Despite what my wife says, I do in fact, read things longer than a diner menu. While the majority of what i read is esoteric, here are two modern books I found captivating.

First is Universal Studios Monsters: A Legacy of Horror by Michael Mallory. A beautiful coffee table book tribute to one of my favourite subjects, the Universal Monsters.

Lots of wonderful photographs and insight here, I was unable to put it down. If you're a casual fan you're learn a lot, even hardcore fans will enjoy the books crisp layout, strong writing and excellent imagery.

My second favourite book of the year was published in late 2008 but I didn't discover it until 2009, so I say it counts. Wham-O Super-Book: Celebrating 60 Years Inside the Fun Factory is a fun and colourful look into a toy company that I hadn't really given a lot of thought to before.

The effect Wham-o had on our popular culture is truly amazing, these were the people brought the Hula Hoop to America, not to mention super balls, the frisbee, slip n slide and the Super Elastic Plastic bubble. Whether you're a boomer or Gen X this book will bring up happy memories.

Toys

I make it a point to not buy many new toys, concentrating on the vintage but this year was hard and it looks like 2010 will be even harder to keep that mantra. The biggest thing this year for me was the Mattel Retro Action line announcement. Which has been very carefully guided by Paul "Dr. Mego" Clarke of EMCE Toys.

They may not be exact Mego replicas but I'm getting eight inch action figures of Hall of freaking Doom members, that excites me so much I'd like to call my seven year old self and tell him the good news. I'm itching for a Plastic Man something fierce.

Arg! Character options just keeps beating me over the head with stuff that my "inner whovian" needs to own. This Cyberman wave pictured here was one of those things.

As a kid I dreamt of a Doctor Who toy line that would encompass all these strange and wonderful characters, so seeing these things makes it impossible to resist.

Next year will see more Doctors (including Sylvester McCoy!), an Ice Warrior, the Master and some other assorted baddies that will be expensive for me.

Finally, the action figure I never thought I'd see also came out in 2009. I was excited and elated that BiffBangPow! chose to do action figures from the Flash Gordon movie in the first place, even happier when they chose to do characters such as Prince Barin and Dale but when they made a death scene variant Klytus, I knew these guys were hardcore.

I was nine when I saw Flash Gordon, it overwhelmed me with it's colour and score, I was instantly in love. One of the most memorable scenes in the film was Klytus's gory death scene, I'm probably a little too happy to have this.

DVDs

I bought a few DVDs this year but three really stand out for me, the first being Mystery Science Theater 3000: XVI which not only features a little Tom Servo figurine (yay!) but a great selection of movies with honest to goodness extras.

The movie selection is great, the Italian Mad Max inspired "Warrior of the Lost World", the Mexican holiday classic "Santa Claus" (I've been torturing the kids with that one every December), a Bela Lugosi cheapie called "The Corpse Vanishes" and a selection from my favourite season "Night of the Blood Beast" with two versions.

I also have nothing but kind words for the former MST 3K crew's latest DVD "Cinematic Titanic Live: East meets Watts" which is a terrible 70s Kung Fu/Blacksplotation remake of the Defiant ones being riffed on by the masters.

I'll probably never get to see CT live unless they get to Canada (HA!) but I couldn't get over how fun this DVD is, IMO it's their best yet. Digital downloads are only $10 and it keeps them in business.

As I've mentioned earlier on the blog, the fun mid seventies Saturday morning series "The Monster Squad" got released on DVD this year as well.

It's a pretty bare bones edition with nothing by the way of extras. It wouldn't have been that hard to track down some of the cast for interviews but I'm not complaining, it's a dream come true just to have this.

Now if I could only get the Six Million Dollar Man, Man From Atlantis and the Logan's Run TV series on DVD....

Model Kits

While I have to admit to being excited over the Aurora Monster reissues this summer and fall, the big get for me this year was AMT's reissuing of their classic "Mr Spock" model kit from the late 1960s.

I have wanted to put one of these together since I was five and it was a joy to find this just in time to put it under the tree for my son, who prefers Jedi to Vulcans but loves putting kits together with the old man.

And that's it, I hoped you've enjoyed the first annual retro awards, hopefully 2010 will bring new things to talk about. I'll be doing some tastings for Liquor Pig this evening, so tomorrow's Friday Feature may be late and grumpy...

Happy New Year!

DVD Review: Hilarious House Of Frightenstein

I've already talked about how Monster Squad was one of the big reasons I love Monsters so much as an adult, it seemed fitting in October to talk about another big influence, the Hillarious House of Frightenstein.

For those not in the know, Frightenstein is a Canadian series that mixes one part Universal Monsters, One Part Laugh in and a touch of Sesame Street to make an interesting and sometimes surreal cocktail.

Created in 1971 in Hamilton, Ontario. Frightenstein is a really charming and gorgeously made show, it revolves around the characters of Castle Frightenstein in Frankenstone. The centerpiece of making it work is the comedy genius of Billy Van who plays 8 of the 11 characters including The Count, The Wolfman, The Librarian, Grizelda the Ghastly Gourmet, Dr Pet Vet among others.

Also along for the ride are Vincent Price (yep!), Dr. Julius Sumner Miller (providing the educational segment) Guy Big as the Midget Count (Big was supposed to play the count but couldn't maintain his voice).

I loved the show as a kid especially the fact that one guy did so much and thanks to Can Con laws (a rule that Canadian Content Television shows MUST be played for a certain amount of time each day) it was on for the majority of my life along with other Canadian favourites like Spider-Man, Rocket Robin Hood and The Forest Rangers. When it went away for a time in the 1990s, I sorely missed it and it became a regular discussion with friends at the pub.

Well, Critical Mass has brought this Canadian classic back not only to the airwaves but to DVD with this great release (actually there are several Frightenstein DVDs out there all thanks to CM) the picture is cleaned up, music rights secured (I've always been curious how the series managed the Stones "Jumping Jack Flash" but I always think of the Wolfman when I hear it) and it's just a joy to see it again. Plus, free magnets! I needed these for my fridge badly.

Two things come to mind when I watch it now, one how much fun everyone seems to be having, especially Billy Van who is amazing at ad lib and two, how wonderfully psychadelic it all is. From Brucie's peace sign necklace to the Maharishi to the wonderful Wolfman music sequences (check one out here) there is no doubt in anybody's mind what era this came out of.

Overall Assessment: It's fun to be back in Transylvania!

Frightenstein on Amazon.

Check out Frightenstein.com for much more.

DVD Review: Monster Squad the Complete Series

Believe it or not, DVD reviews were originally a part of this site, I just stopped doing them mostly because of laziness (here is one I did almost three years ago) but I just needed to bring it back for the release of the Monster Squad TV series.

Monster Squad was one of those shows I was convinced I'd never see again, it had a huge impact on me as a wee one, I'd take my Lincoln Monster dolls and shove them in the G.I. Joe Capture Copter and pretend they were on patrol. I think my love of monsters stems from this and Hilarious House of Frightenstein. Then it got cancelled and well, I spent the majority of the eighties and nineties looking for tapes and discovering that people had largely forgotten the show.

So when this DVD got announced, it gave me joy and a kind of sick feeling, like a lot of things you like as a kid, what if it turns out to be total crap when you're an adult?

I'm happy to say after watching all 312 minutes, that I was pleasantly surprised at how good this show was. I'm not saying it's for all tastes but if you're a 70s kid who likes the Krofft shows, this is actually a cut above from say things like, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl.

That's probably because the show's creator Stanley Ralph Ross was one of the headwriters on the 1966 Batman TV Series (another show that BEGS to be on DVD) and kind of passed on some of it's goofy brilliance, in fact, Monster Squad could have been a prime time series in the late sixties. It knows it's a stupid show and decides to make the best of it.

The Premise is simple, Walt, a night watchman at "Fred's Wax Museum" (played by a pre Love Boat Fred Grandy) accidently brings the statues of three famous monsters to life with his "Crime Computer" (a big blinky box), Bruce W. Wolf, Frank N. Stein and Dracula want to do good to make up for their past mistakes so they become crime fighters.

So each week the squad battles a new villain played by a celebrity guest star, above is Mephisto played by Barry Dennen, he played Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar in case you were wondering. It drove me nuts until I IMDB'd it. Part of the fun is the guest, you get see the likes of Julie Newar, Geoffry Lewis, Alice Ghostly, even Sid Haig gets in on this!

The show has some witty writing and pokes a lot of fun at itself, especially the scenes with the monsters trying to "act casual" (it always fails), there are other moments that are downright surreal and look like "Mr Show" sketches. The entire series in done on film, so the cheap sets look almost on purpose. Some of the fight scenes suffer from early 70s non violence rules, especially the scene where the Skull (Geoffry Lewis) tries to kill Bruce with a silver bullet, no gun, he just throws the bullet at him!

The bottom line is, everybody looks like they're having a lot of fun and it's kind of infectious. Let's talk about the DVD Fabulous Films has put out:

Film Quality: After years of watching 15th generation VHS, it's a joy to see the Squad so clean again, the film transfers are better than I expected.

Extras: I wasn't expecting anything and that was a good thing, I got a stills gallery and graphics on the menu that were scanned from the board game!

Value: I can't tell you how many bootlegs I've spent $20 on, this is a bargain. Amazon has this for $21.

Bottom Line: Not into Saturday Morning Cheese? Stay away in droves. However, if you're a Monster Kid or you dug the old Shazam! series then this is a lot of fun to be had. my kids really dug it as well.

Girl's Toy Day!

Seeing as it's my darlin' daughter's birthday today and her long (and much missed) afternoon naps are what inspired me to create this blog three years and five days ago (which I probably should have mentioned) I thought I'd dedicate the day to her favorite subject, dolls!

In this case Barbie's with two classic commercials from our DVD, first is the Barbie Townhouse.

Most Mego collectors I know would liken this to the Wayne Foundation playset but did you also know it was released for Big Jim in Europe? It was a killer spy headquarters that makes you wish you born in Italy, You can see it here.

The second commercial is for the Fashion Face, which is one of those disembodied heads you put makeup on, they creep me out and my daughter wants one, in fact, she wants this one. Something tells me I won't find this at Toys R Us.

Now, if you'll excuse me I have go buy some toys...

Holy Tooth Decay Batman!

I'm abundantly aware of how hacky and shameful that blog title is but it's unavoidable, I assure you. As much as I begged for a Batman and Steve Austin electric toothbrush as a child (because commercials told me I needed one) it was the one luxury my parents refused to provide me with. Somehow, I made it out of childhood OK despite this huge void.

Speaking of Batman: Here is another fine selection from Erick (of Wonderful Wonderblog) and he's wearing the Ben Cooper Batman costume. I've always wondered why BC decided to put the Batman Logo on the mask itself and why they felt it important to give Superman a dominoe mask. I guess I'll find out in the afterlife....

DVD DAY:

What better a time than October than to release the DVD of the Classic Tom Baker story"The Brain of Morbius"? It has all the classic horror movie elements, mad doctor, dead bodies, brain transplants, hunchback assistant, a (goofy) patchwork monster and of course, angry villagers in the form of an ancient cult.

The BBC is pretty good at packing these DVDs with extras such as commentary from Tom Baker and Liz Sladen as well little behind the scenes documentarys. You'll also get one of the bigger continuity goofs done on the series as the Doctor reveals he's had more than four past lives!

Also this week is the complete box series set of Speed Racer, it's over 1,200 minutes of the groundbreaking series that lead the charge of Japanese animation.

This is the one good thing about big Hollywood remakes, you end up getting deluxe box sets of the original series. I can't wait for Hollywood to remake "Logan's Run" just so I can get the shot lived series on DVD, it could star Carrot Top and Larry the Cable Guy for all I care, just gimmee! gimmee! gimmee!

Jump-Alike

This is one of the few examples of dressing alike where it hurts both parties equally. I love the tagline that states "Casual Styles too smart to just stay at home" Yes, indeed show the world your matching jumpsuits and space age flip flops.

DVD DAY

If you're Canadian and grew up in the seventies, chances are Canadian content laws had you watch at least one episode of The Starlost before. the series was supposed to be Canada's answer to Star Trek but thanks to some US backing falling through, ended up looking like a poor cousin to Doctor Who.

Starlost follows the adventures of three young people who grew up on an Amish farm only to discover they are really on a floating space ark, whose crew has been wiped out by a "Radiation Virus" (science boo-boos like this caused creator Harlan Ellison to disown the whole show) and they must explore the other communities in the ark hoping to find someone that can steer tham away from a collision course with a sun.

All in all, the actual premise of the series is very good, it's also well acted, it's just the execution that suffers a little. The series is shot on video and much of the effects are chroma key based, the writers also seemed to have pacing problems, the exciting music breaks in at times seeming almost as if it's being ironic. With the Canadian series available, one wonders if CTV's "The Trouble with Tracy" (worst sitcom ever to many) may see DVD release.

Also available are the second season of Adam 12 and the complete series of George Peppard in Banacek.

Back to Basics

They say fashion is cyclical, how come I still can't own a fine jacket such as these without it smelling like Value Village?

DVD Day: In terms of 70's stuff, there isn't a heck of a lot to mention this week but if you were a teen in the eighties then the High School Flashback Collection which consists of three of John Hughes classics Sixteen Candles, Weird Science and The Breakfast Club is up your alley. I am most fond of Weird Science and can still act it out from memory. I am available for birthday parties and barmitzvahs, thank you.

Nursery School Nightmares

In the 70's, the folks in the jumpsuit industry must have been rolling in it. There is something so weird about that red CB inspired pit crew looking jumpsuit, like the pockets are for Skoal or something .

What I was doing 32 years ago Department: I'm pretty jazzed about the first day of school for my kids and thought I'd share a ritual in my family. My mom would pose us against the wall of school every first day which seems weird now. The shirt I'm wearing appears to act as camoflague. This ends when we become teenagers, thankfully....

DVD Tuesday

Quite a doozy today, the long awaited release of Quark, the 1977 Science Fiction sitcom created by Buck Henry (Get Smart) and starring Richard Benjamin as Adam Quark, captain of a intergalactic Garbage vessel.

It may have only ran 9 episodes during the summer of '77 but Quark seemed to be the kind of show that you didn't forget when you saw it. I was one of those people, I have an episode on tape somewhere and it still holds up. I have to own this set, at $15.00, it's a no brainer.

Also available this week is the classic Peanuts special It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, I plan on going nuts this Halloween so it's another one to add to the basket.

For Doctor Who fans, the 1977 Tom Baker Era story "The Invasion of Time" is now available on DVD. This six parter is about the Doctor fighting off invading hoardes of Sontaran Warriors as they try to gain control of his home planet of Gallifrey. Despite my love for 70's era Who stories, this isn't my favourite. The budget seems to be stretched waifer thin (the cavernous inside of the Tardis looks like an unused recreation center) plus this story is the departure of the wonderful Leela, so maybe I'm just bitter...

The Super 7!

I was looking through this cool puffy stickers catalog (which I am going to get to in the fall) and my I found this killer box for the Filmation Super 7 Stickers. It's very rare to find any merchandise for these characters. I remember a kid in my class having these and me being very jealous of that fact. It's a damned shame that this series may never see the light of day on DVD, so far only the Freedom Force shorts are available.

Oh Web Woman, when will we be reunited?

Speaking of DVD's, it's Tuesday: Gosh, it's slim pickings today, the only thing new that may be of interest is the Fletch Collection, which is a box set of Fletch and Fletch Lives. The first one is Chevy Chase at his peak, even if it isn't really faithful to the (very good) series of novels. The sequel is one of those things I'll watch on a hung over afternoon, so like every time it's on.

Seeing as the rest of the week's releases is mostly stuff I'm not into, I'll give a mini review. I managed to finally pick up a copy of the Legacy collection of the Mummy and really recommend it, some of the extras are the same on all the Legacy sets but the little piece on Jack Pierce was quite nice.

If you're a fan of the Universal Monsters, I would give it a giant undead thumbs up. I'm sure a Wolfman DVD is in the works what with the remake coming up, can't wait!

Duhnuhnuhhnuh Batman Blue Ray Winners

The results are in from our first DVD contest, my kids picked the winners this morning, because I had to be fair, there are now four prize lots. First the answers:

1) Who was the better Riddler, Frank Gorshin or John Astin? There was no wrong answer in this although I was curious if anybody preferred Astin in the role. Hey, I cried when they stopped making new coke, so it's not impossible. For the record, nobody picked Astin, who is a wonderful actor, just not the Riddler.


2) What does Batman have toruble getting rid of in the film? Well it's a bomb but I also would have accepted a shark, seeing as it's technically true.

And now Ze Winners:

1st Prize: (Batman Blue Ray and set of PS cards) Phillip Lozano

2nd Prize: (the Same as 1st) Bill McFarland

3rd Prize: (a Copy of 70's Toy Explosion and some PS cards) Chris Flagg

4th Prize: (a copy of 70's Toy Explosion and PS cards) Dave Bellmont

Congrats to all the winners, I'll be in touch this evening to gather your address info. Hopefully I'll have more fun giveaways soon

Be sure to check out this fun little Batman Boxing Game based on the Movie as well.

Jason of Star Command DVD Review

I've been meaning to do more 70's DVD reviews for the site but never find the time, so today I did a quick review of the classic kids series Jason of Star Command. If you want it in a nutshell, I loved it, otherwise click here.

DVD Reviews : FIlmation Cartoons and Post Nuke titles

I kind of went hog wild and bought some DVDs, so I thought I'd justify the purchase by reviewing them on the site. Filmation Cartoons and Italian post nuke movies are the things that make my heart go pitter patter:

Space Seninels Freedom Force

The Filmation Flash Gordon DVD

Post Apocalyptic Triple Feature