Throw on your best swag wear, and head to the disco as we take you back to the 70s! Without further ado, here is the 20 Years Before 2000 THROWBACK JAM OF THE WEEK!
Artist: The Sugarhill Gang
Song: Rapper's Delight
Album: Sugar Hill Gang (1980)
Peak Billboard Hot 100 Position: 36
Bonus Fun Fact: This song was preserved in the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress in 2011! "Rapper's Delight" was recorded in a single take!
This week, I really don't have too much to share with you all. I just want to thank everyone for their support of this blog over the years. It has gotten more traction and I've met more cool people with similar likes as myself than I could have ever imagined. All that said, here are some of my favorite retro commercials that bring back that sweet summer nostalgia for me. I hope you enjoy!
This week the comic book I am most excited to read is...
TMNT: JENNIKA #3
(W) Brahm Revel (A/CA) Brahm Revel
Jennika's collision with her past reaches its climax as old enemies return! Alone and seemingly outmatched, Jennika must search inside herself and ask if the cure for mutation is worth the price...
Throw on your Wireless Microphone, and head to the bricks of Boston as we take you back to the 90s! Without further ado, here is the 20 Years Before 2000 THROWBACK JAM OF THE WEEK!
Artist: Bobby Brown
Song: Humpin' Around
Album: Bobby (1992)
Peak Billboard Hot 100 Position: 3
Bonus Fun Fact: This song was co-written by Bobby Brown, L.A. Reid & Babyface and reached #1 status on the Australian charts! Rap was performed by Stylz of the B. Brown Posse!
Last weekend my wife took two of our kids out to a neighborhood garage sale. She asked if I wanted to go and I said "No" since the last few times we went out they were a bust and I had some things to do around the house. Surprisingly my youngest daughter wanted to stay home too! I got nothing done around the house, but did get some quality daddy/daughter time in. When the fam got home, my wife told me of this one house that had a bunch of comics for sale. We went back the next day and I was able to get about 70 comics for $60 bucks. Not a bad deal. There were some cool old Marvel comics:
and a lot of 90s/early 2000s Image comics for sale. The guy said he collected back when he was in college and stopped once he got married. He needed to make some space in his home, so he was selling off his collection.
I grabbed some of those for my collection and kept looking. There were a few more independent books that I picked up too including more Transformers and my favorite 90s "Bad Girl" comic Shi.
But the real bargain I got was buying his collection of Witchblade comics. I was only interested in the first issue, but he would not let it go as a single sale. So I walked away with 47 of the first 50 issues of the series for $40. That's why my purchase was so inflated.
Overall, I am happy with what I picked up and knocked some things off my comic book wish list. I wish every time we went out to garage sales we could find cool stuff like this, but at least now I know my wife has my back and will alert me if another sale like this pops up in the future! Watch the video below to gain some knowledge on the Image comic "Witchblade"!
This week the comic book I am most excited to read is...
DARK NIGHTS: DEATH METAL #1 (OF 6)
(W) Scott Snyder (A) Jonathan Glapion (A/CA) Greg Capullo
Get ready for the earth-shattering encore! The legendary team behind Dark Nights: Metal and Batman: Last Knight on Earth take center stage and reunite for one last tour. When the Earth is enveloped by the Dark Multiverse, the Justice League is at the mercy of the Batman Who Laughs. Humanity struggles to survive in a hellish landscape twisted beyond recognition, while Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman have all been separated and fight to survive. Unleash the beast and let the head banging begin!
Throw on your Baggy Clothes, and head to the Jazz Club as we take you back to the 90s! Without further ado, here is the 20 Years Before 2000 THROWBACK JAM OF THE WEEK!
Artist: Digable Planets
Song: Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)
Album: Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space) (1992)
Peak Billboard Hot 100 Position: 15
Bonus Fun Fact: This song won a Grammy Award for "Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group" in 1994 and was featured in the movie "Freedom Writers" in 2007.
BarNone was originally released by the Hershey company in 1987. This delicious candy bar was composed of milk chocolate, chocolate wafers, peanuts & chocolate filling and came in packs of 2, much like the more famous TWIX bar. In 1992 the formula was tweaked a bit and caramel was substituted for the chocolate filling. As it is with most food products, as the want for BarNone declined so did profits which led to it being discontinued by Hershey in 1997.
Even though BarNone was only on shelves for about 10 years it did give us this fantastic commercial from 1993. Whenever I would see this on TV, the song would get stuck in my head. I hadn't given much thought to BarNone in many years, but then I went into our local mall candy store and there it was staring back at me!
The name was recognizable, but the packaging was way different than I remember. The ingredients may have been tweaked a little again as I did not see caramel listed as a part of this bar. Also, gone are the days of 2 bars together as a team. We just got one big bar.
I'm not complaining. This one bar looks amazing! So much chocolate! I am ready to eat this nostalgic candy bar. Honestly, I never had a BarNone back in the 80s or 90s that I can recall, so I don't have much to compare it to, but man am I ready to try it! This bar is AMAZING! Total chocolate overload...in a good way.
The wafers are crispy the chocolate is delicious and the peanuts and a little somethin' somethin'! Overall I am really pleased and thankful that the Iconic Candy Company decided to revive this brand in 2019. If you see on I suggest you pick it up!
BarNone definitely delivers on it's promise of being "The Chocolate Lovers Bar". As the old marketing used to say "It tamed the Chocolate Beasty" in me!
I would purchase this again and again! If you care to read more about old candies brought back to life, please check out my reviews of 5th Avenue and Whatchamacallit!
This week the comic book I am most excited to read is...
BATMAN: THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE #1
(W) Paul Dini, Alan Burnett (A) Ty Templeton (CA) Dave Johnson
From the visionary producers of Batman: The Animated Series come all-new stories in this seminal animated world. In this opening chapter, Wayne Enterprises in Gotham City is attacked by a giant robot that steals an entire room from the laboratory. Who's controlling the robot? How will Batman stop the mechanized menace? And what does it all have to do with Lex Luthor's sudden appearance in Gotham?
Stand up for what you believe in as we take you back to the 90s! Without further ado, here is the 20 Years Before 2000 THROWBACK JAM OF THE WEEK!
Artist: Tupac Shakur
Song: Changes
Album: Greatest Hits (1998)
Peak Billboard Hot 100 Position: 32
Bonus Fun Fact: This song samples some of the lyrics and instrumentals from the song "The Way It Is" by Bruce Hornsby and the Range. It was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2000 for "Best Rap Solo Performance", but lost to Eminem's hit "My Name Is".
I have a fairly big collection of loose figures from the 80s & 90s. The collection keeps expanding so right now, I would like to share a few of my faves with you at this time. Here we go!
This is actually the Bebop action figure my brother got on a shopping trip to K-Mart back in 1988! My Mom bought us almost the entire original TMNT line on that trip. I remember they were on such a good sale, my Mom couldn't pass it up. I got Leonardo, Rocksteady and the Foot Soldier. My brother got Michelangelo, Bebop, Shredder & Splinter. It's not like my Mom to spoil us like that, so they must have been damn cheap!
Care Bears: Funshine Bear (Play Along, ?)
I got this Funshine Bear in a grab bag from my local Goodwill Store. I think the bag was about $2 and I am always a sucker for anything Care Bears. I have been down with these happy characters since the 80s when I got my first plush Bedtime Bear!
Star Wars: IG-88 (Kenner, 1980)
Growing up I was a Star Wars nut! Between myself, my brother and our friends, we probably had every action figure created by Kenner! IG-88 was not one that I had in my collection, but our friend Ron did and he was so cool! A bounty hunting robot...YES PLEASE! The details on this figure are outstanding for being from 1980. The folks at Kenner really did an excellent job in providing so much care in their sculpts that it made you feel like you were creating your own movies set in a galaxy far, far away when it was playtime!
California Raisins: Singing Raisn ( Calrab,1987)
I have written before about my love of the California Raisins in the 80s. I collected the trading cards and even had one of their cassette tapes. They were so cool and the figures are pretty inexpensive when you can find them and when I do find them, I add them to my collection!
Thundercats: Vultureman (Kidworks, 1987)
I had a good collection of these miniature Thundercats figures back in the late 80s. I loved taking them on road trips or to the park. The only issue I ever had with these guys, is that I would loose the tiny weapons pretty quickly. But that's okay because one does not need weapons to continue the battle between Mumm-Ra's Mutants and the Thundercats. Fists of fury will fly! And they did in epic fashion in the back of my Mom's station wagon. Below is a video with a great collection of Thundercats toy commercials for you to enjoy!
This week the comic book I am most excited to read is...
CATWOMAN 80TH ANNIVERSAY SPECIAL #1
(W) Ed Brubaker, Paul Dini, Tom King, Ann Nocenti, Mindy Newell, Will Pfeifer, Others (A) Cameron Stewart, Mikel Janin, Adam Hughes, Emanuela Lupacchino, Steve Rude, Jim Balent, Tula Lotay, Others (CA) J. Scott Campbell
Our gal Catwoman is turning 80 next year (and looking very good, if we meow say), and DC is celebrating with nothing less than with a huge soiree, invite only, packed with creators who mean the most to her and to whom she means the most! Stories featured in this 100-page spectacular include a tail-sorry, tale-that takes place at the end of the Brubaker/Stewart Catwoman run, in honor of artist Darwyn Cooke. Plus, Catwoman is caught by an exotic cat collector, runs into a wannabe thief trying to prove himself as her apprentice, encounters a mystery involving memorabilia from alternate continuities, and of course some Bat/Cat fun.
Throw on your Space Suit, and head to White Castle and grab a Crave Case as we take you back to the 90s! Without further ado, here is the 20 Years Before 2000 THROWBACK JAM OF THE WEEK!
Artist: Beastie Boys
Song: Intergalactic
Album: Hello Nasty (1998)
Peak Billboard Hot 100 Position: 28
Bonus Fun Fact: This song won a Grammy Award in 1999 for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group and also won a 1999 MTV Video Music Award for Best Hip-Hop Video. The video for this song was directed by Adam Yauch under the pseudonym Nathanial Hornblower!
