Swords and Spaceships

A great article on the Death of Saturday Morning Cartoons. It kind of makes you sad, knowing that a new generation is missing out on that phenomenon. Of course, back then, you could pretty much only watch cartoons on weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings, unless your parents had cable so you could get Nickelodeon, or if they paid for the then-premium Disney Channel. Now there are entire networks devoted to cartoons, and I doubt I'll lament the quality of modern cartoons, since I don't watch them and I bet people my age in 1987 thought The Real Ghostbusters was a terrible cartoon. I guess the point is that, even though kids don't have cartoons on Saturdays on networks, they still have more access to cartoons than we had. Though getting up on Saturday mornings and watching Gummi Bears and Ghostbusters was fun, it was more a symptom of a simpler time, when most couples stayed married and kids weren't afraid to like cartoons or spend their parent's money on toys. I

Yes, I finally bought one of these today. $30 plus Iowa's share. And to think this guy was on my Christmas list. :) I'll have comparison pics between this and the "real" G1 Soundwave soon. I'm still not keen on the double tape deck door. It makes 'wave look fat. But the reason I bought it was for Laserbeak and Ravage. I remember always looking for Ravage for my Soundwave back in the day, but never finding him. And I always thought the tape that was included with Soundwave, Buzzsaw, was actually Laserbeak. But now, I have that all cleared up, and now I finally have those two difficult-to-find Cassetticons. Also included are two cassette cases for Laserbeak and Ravage. A very nice touch. Everyone seems to know how to transform Soundwave, so there's no need to go through that here. The instruction sheet says the following near the top: NOTE: Some parts are made to detach if excessive force is applied and are designed to be reattached if separation occurs. Adu

Whilst I'm throwing together a post on Toy Fair and what I dig from this year, enjoy this little He-Man platformer video game I just found. http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=20964

Here it is- exactly what us Viper nuts have been asking for since Hasbro started reissuing the RAH molds. A multi-pack of Vipers in red and blue. The weapons may not be 100% correct to that great 1986 Viper, but I doubt Hasbro would have done that even if they could have. As it is, you get five grunts, one officer, four funny-looking rifles, two little guns (if you can't tell, I'm no arms expert) and two of the machine guns that came with the 2006 SAW Viper. Plus, you get six red stands, which always come in handy for displaying either Joes or vintage Star Wars figures. The officer is the one with the gold faceplate. It's an interesting way to change up the diorama a little bit, but I might have preferred all silver-masked Vipers. I'm sure I could trade it off for a silver-masked one if I wanted to, but I'll just leave it be. I have quite a few of the green Viper that Hasbro issued in 2002 in their GI Joe vs. Cobra line (and just as many of that awful Mirage figure.