80's Day 2021!

80's Day was something I started a few years ago to show my kids how cool the decade was. I share some of my favorite 80's music, movies, video games and food with them and they seem to really enjoy it! Typically we head out and take part in some activities that I liked as a kid, but of course, again this year we had to make some changes and I think we were able to pull it off and everyone seemed to have a good time. Here's what we did!

We started the day as most kids in the 80's did, eating cereal in front of the TV while watching cartoons! This year was extra special because I was able to track down some Ghostbusters cereal thanks to an acquaintance on Twitter. The taste was good and fruity, but I just wish they made the cereal pieces look like the "No-Ghost" symbol like the original cereal had. I guess nothing is perfect and I should be thankful Ghostbusters cereal is a thing at all in 2021! I did enjoy the Ghost shaped marshmallows though!

Anyway, to the cartoons! My son chose the Boogeyman episode of The Real Ghostbusters, my youngest daughter and wife chose My Little Pony and my oldest daughter chose Jem! My choice for the morning led to some head scratching as the kids and even my wife had never heard of the Centurions! I seem to do this to them every year and pick a semi-obscure cartoon from my youth. After all was said and done, I don't think I created any new fans to the sci-fi super hero series. The kids had so many questions and could not grasp the concept of an outer space base that beams down parts of an exo-suit to our heroes back on Earth when they yell "POWER EXTREME"! Also, they questioned how the bad guy set the atmosphere on fire and why there was a monkey. My response to that was "Why not?". Anyway, you can view a clip of the episode we watched at the YouTube link below:

Even though they did not care for the Centurions, I did discover that they all have a lot of love for the "Where's The Beef?" lady! I added some 80's commercials in between cartoons and they thought Clara Peller's portrayal of an annoyed fast food customer was hilarious. I told them how popular she was and that I even had stickers of her saying her well known catch phrase. This truly was the golden age of advertising.

After cartoons it was time to throw on some of our best 80's licensed character t-shirts, so we could go out and hit the town! Represented in my kids' attire were the Ghostbusters and Care Bears. I chose to wear my Masters of the Universe shirt and my wife had her My Little Pony shirt on. 

Looking good and ready for some adventure! We hopped in the van and the soundtrack for the day would be a random assortment of CDs containing some of the biggest hits from the 80's! My kids favorite, which led to a car ride sing along, was "Careless Whisper" by George Michael!

Our first stop was the local mini-golf course! On our way in we were greeted by what we thought was an abandoned dog with 3 legs and one eye. He was sweet and we thought he was probably a dog from one of the nearby ranches. So we went inside and hit the mini-links! 

I usually kick everyone butts, but this time around my wife was on fire and I only beat her by 2 strokes! Too close for me. We left and that dog was still outside and my daughter and her big heart did not want to leave the dog by himself without water, so I dug through the van and found a bowl and she poured the water from her water bottle out so the dog could have a drink. We let the folks inside know about the dog and as we were leaving a bunch of what can only be described as "Yokels" came out of the arcade area and it was their dog! Ugh! BTW, that is my son wearing the Proton-Pack Backpack.

By this time we were ready for lunch, so we hit up McDonalds and the kids all grabbed cheeseburger Happy Meals, my wife got a spicy chicken meal and I got a Double Quarter Pounder Meal with a Hi-C Orange Lavaburst for my drink! I loved this stuff when I was a kid and I am ecstatic that it is back at McDonalds restaurants!

We fueled up and were ready for our next stop at the local comic shop! I picked a Spider-Man book and let the kids each pick out an item. Their picks included an IDW Godzilla comic and a Pokemon binder. It had been a while since I had taken them to the comic shop and they had fun perusing the shelves and looking for something new to read and help with their overflowing Pokemon collection.

After the comic shop we decided it was time to head home and play some retro video games. We played many NES classics like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game, Super Pit Fall and the kids favorite of the day Bubble Bobble!

We had a great time playing games and I was able to share some of my old favorites with the kids, but we were getting hungry, so it was time to head to the hut...Pizza Hut that is!

Every year I gush about how much I loved our local Pizza Hut in Newton, NJ back in the 80's. It had a Rygar arcade cabinet and a juke box loaded with all the hits. I still vividly remember going there one afternoon after my Mom took us shopping. 

I had just bought the Inhumanoid Auger action figure and I made him dance to "Burning Down The House" by The Talking Heads on our table while we waited for our pizza! Too bad this Pizza Hut didn't have a juke box or arcade, but at least we got what we wanted, a Stuffed Crust Pizza!

We chowed down and after dinner, we got ready for the night's movie. Our local zoo does a "Movies Under The Stars" series each summer where people can go to the zoo and view some movies in the common area of the zoo. This past weekend was supposed to be "The Never Ending Story", but at the last minute the zoo pulled a switcheroo and instead ran Disney's "Lilo & Stitch". This is one of my daughter's favorite movies and she had never seen it on a big screen before, so that was cool. Just kind of bummed that the 80's vibe went a few years off track. 

It was late when we got home, so myself and my wife put the kids to bed and we watched the 1988 horror classic "Pumpkinhead". My wife had never seen it before and it had been decades since I last saw it. The wife was surprised at how good it was and wondered why Pumpkinhead doesn't have the same type of following as Freddy or Jason? We'll have to add the sequels to our Halloween watchlist this year. Overall a pretty successful 80's day was enjoyed by all. Hopefully next year we can make it bigger and better! Thanks for taking this journey with me. I hope you'll start your own 80's Day traditions. 

80's Day 2020!

80's Day was something I started a few years ago to show my kids how cool the decade was. I share some of my favorite 80's music, movies, video games and food with them and they seem to really enjoy it! Typically we head out and take part in some activities that I liked as a kid, but of course this year we had to make some changes and I think we were able to pull it off and everyone seemed to have a good time. Here's what we did!

We started the day as most kids in the 80s did, eating cereal in front of the TV while watching cartoons! My son chose The Legend of Zelda, my daughters chose Gummi Bears & Muppet Babies and my wife chose Jem! My choice for the morning led to some head scratching as the kids and even my wife had never heard of the BIONIC 6! After all was said and done, I don't think I created any new fans to the sci-fi super hero series. If you haven't seen this cartoon for yourself check out the episode below. You may not like the show, but I think we can all agree that Bionic 6 has one of the best intro songs of the decade!

After cartoons it was time to throw on some of our best 80s licensed character t-shirts, so we could go out and hit the town!

My kids had on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars and Legend of Zelda. I chose to wear my Thundercats shirt and my wife had her My Little Pony shirt on. Looking good and ready for some adventure!

We hopped in the van and the soundtrack for the day would be some old school DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince and the soundtrack from Ghostbusters II!

Our first stop was the local comic shop. I picked up a few Spider-Man, Batman and Ninja Turtles comics and let the kids each pick out a book. Their picks included Care Bears, My Little Pony and Duck Tales. It had been a while since I had taken them to the comic shop and they had fun perusing the shelves and looking for something new to read. Coincidentally, all of the books they picked were 80s related!

After the comic shop, we had to make a quick stop at Target which was within walking distance. Of course since we were there I checked the store for any NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures I could find and as usual I struck out! The main reason we went to Target was to pick up a classic movie for the night's main feature! Also checked for some My Little Pony CCG cards for my youngest daughter and bought a new soccer ball.

After all that shopping, the kids were hungry. What better place to stop than McDonalds. Growing up, they had some of the best Happy Meal toys like Fraggle Rock, Muppet Babies, Garfield and Berenstain Bears. This time around the Happy Meals featured plush toys from Disney/Pixar movies. Each kid got the main character from the new movie "Soul" and I got a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal. I just wish they still had that old school Orange Drink. It tasted so good, but for some reason always made my throat feel weird afterwards.

With all that delicious food in our bodies, it was decided that we needed to work some of it off. I pumped up the tires in our bikes and we rode to the kids' school for some RAD action! My son was riding like crazy and he rode around the school for a good hour.

The girls and I took a break from riding and shot some hoops in an epic game of H-O-R-S-E! Trick shots were aplenty, but somehow I edged out a win over my 8 & 11 year old kids. We drank some water, ate some fruit snacks and headed on our journey home.

It was almost 100 degrees out, so that bike ride really wore us out! What better way to cool off than with a Klondike bar? My kids loved them! I could have sworn we had these before, but they said they had never had them. As a kid, we never had the name brand Klondike bars, but it was always AWESOME when my Dad brought us home some knock-off "Polar Bars" from the A&P supermarket! Anyone else ever have these growing up?

We finally went inside and got away from the heat and the kids insisted we play some retro video games. Who was I to argue with them? We played many NES classics like Super Mario Bros. 2, Bubble Bobble, Contra and Adventure Island.

By the time we wrapped up our retro gaming session, it was time for dinner. The kids and I wanted pizza, but from where? The most 80s of all pizza establishments of course...PIZZA HUT! I loved our local pizza hut back in the 80s. It had a Rygar arcade cabinet and a juke box loaded with all the hits like "Burning Down The House" by The Talking Heads! Too bad this Pizza Hut didn't have any of that, but at least we got what we wanted.

Stuffed Crust Pizza loaded with pepperoni! We dished up and got ready to watch the night's main feature film. A film beloved by millions and never seen by my kids, a film called E.T.

This was the original cut, not the revised anniversary edition. I was surprised that Target had this for only $5. I swore that E.T. was on Netflix, but when I looked that morning it was no longer there which prompted our trip to Target to purchase the film. It had been decades since I had seen the movie and I was surprised at how little of it I remembered. It was almost like watching it for the first time. My kids enjoyed it and it was time for bed. Overall a pretty successful 80s day was enjoyed by all. Hopefully next year we can make it bigger and better!

My Top 5 Nostalgic Nintendo Games

This fall the Nintendo Entertainment System will become 35 years old! This was the first video game system that me and my brother owned. I remember he got it for his 7th birthday in 1986. Our mom was picking us up from school and when we got in the car, the NES and the game Ghosts & Goblins were in the back seat. We immediately freaked out and couldn't wait to get home to hook it up. Of course, I was only 6 and my brother 8 so we had no idea what needed to be hooked up where, so we had to wait for Dad to get home. Once he did, he hooked up the NES, we pushed in that "Power" button on the front and as soon as that little light went red, we were in a brand new world of fantasy controlled by us! Our system came with R.O.B. the robot, the game Gyromite, the NES Zapper & Duck Hunt. Since that October day I have been a die hard Nintendo fan and in the 80s Nintendo was king. Here are a few of the games I had growing up that still bring out the warm fuzzies in me!

Contra (Konami, 1988)

This game is probably on most people's top Nintendo game lists, but the reason it is on mine is because of the fun we used to have trying to beat this game. This was before the age of internet and we had no idea of the "KONAMI CODE" at the time. When we did discover this code that is now burned into every 80s kids brain (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Select, Start) our minds were blown! At that point it wasn't about if we could beat the game or not, but how fast we could beat the game. This opened our eyes to the possibilities of other cheat codes and hidden treasures in our favorite video games.

Double Dragon II: The Revenge (Acclaim, 1990)

Back in the day, myself and my brother had to save our money and then pool it together so we could buy a new game. This meant money from allowances, extra jobs and birthdays all were spoken for. Most of the time we had an idea of what game we wanted and this was one of those times. We loved the first Double Dragon and couldn't wait to sink our teeth into the sequel. The reason this game stands out to me is because, this was a co-op game which meant me and my brother had to work together to defeat Willy and avenge the death of Billy's girlfriend Marion. We had a ton of fun doing so, but mostly when we played the 2-player game "B". This was the version where you would play side by side, but still have the option to beat each other up. My brother took full advantage of that!

Dragon Warrior (Enix, 1989)

My family got their copy of Dragon Warrior as part of the great Nintendo Power giveaway campaign in the early 90s. We subscribed to Nintendo Power Magazine for 2 years and got the Dragon Warrior game, strategy guide and a cool Nintendo Power pin! I honestly, didn't like the game to begin with, but my Dad became hooked. He would play the game every night after us kids would go to bed and every morning when we woke up, he would tell us what he had accomplished the night before. My Dad's enthusiasm for the game and the game itself introduced me to the world of RPGs. Eventually I became hooked and beat the game on my own, which was very satisfying. Not bad for a FREE throw-in game!

Major League Baseball (LJN, 1988)

This was actually a game from LJN that didn't suck! I remember my Dad got this game for us the summer of '88 along with the NES MAX controller. I remember playing this game on cool summer evenings, with the windows open in our house and listening to the motorcycles drive by. I always played as the NY Mets and to this day I am still trying to top 100 runs in a single game!

Gyromite (Nintendo, 1986)

This was the first ever Nintendo game I played. What a crazy introduction to the world of 8-bit video games! We played the game with R.O.B. the robot initially as we were sucked in by the novelty of the toy, but over time we got bored watching how slow he would react. You would walk up to either a red or blue colored pillar and R.O.B. would recognize this, he would grab a spinning top off the spinner, and slowly turn towards another controller that had a blue or red button. Once the button was pushed by R.O.B. dropping the top on it, the pillar would move. Eventually it evolved to either us being able to push the buttons with our toes while controlling the character on screen or we would play co-op style which led to many unfortunate and deliberate squashings of our character.

Well, there you have it! Some of my fond memories from the early days of gaming. Of course there are a million more like playing Ice Climber and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or that time I left an ice pop on top of our NES and it melted (I can never forget the look on my Dad's face as he took the thing apart and tried to clean it at the dining room table in the dark), but those can wait for another time. Let me know about some of your favorite NES games or memories in the comments below and always remember when your playing Nintendo, you're playing with POWER!

My Old Sticker Book: Part 3

While visiting my family back in New Jersey this past October, I took it upon myself to wander into my Mom's attic to see if some of my old stuff was still up there. To my surprise, she had not thrown anything out! So away I went, searching through bins and boxes looking for things that I could take back with me or at least get pictures of to share with you guys. One of the things that was uncovered was my old sticker album. Let's stop this chit-chat and continue with part 3, which will be the final look at these old stickers...shall we?

 Nintendo Puffy Stickers

Puffy stickers were AWESOME and these are no exception. I really dig the old school Mario, Zelda and Punch Out artwork. Look at King Koopa from the early days of Nintendo. One could argue he is even more cool looking than the version we have today!

 Random Holiday Stickers

The vast majority of the stickers on this page were compiled from stickers that were placed on worksheets or tests that I did well on. Teachers used to spoil us with neat stickers when we did well back in the day. Now when my kids come home with good grades they get drawn on smiley faces or stars. Appreciated, but not as exciting as stickers!

 Ghostbusters II and Skateboard Candy Stickers

The top Ghostbusters II logo sticker came from a Troll book order. It was rare that we got to order from these school issued order forms, but I'm sure I convinced my Mom to get something, just so I could get the free Ghostbusters II sticker. I am trying to remember, but I think the smaller stickers on this page came from a candy in the 90s that had a skateboard shaped container? I believe it came with these stickers so you could customize it your way. I may be totally wrong on this one, so please feel free to correct me in the comments below!

Simpsons Stickers

Here are more Simpsons stickers from the same trip to Showbiz Pizza with our Aunt. They are fantastic and remind me of a time when the Simpsons was still fresh, funny and new.

 Ninja Turtles Prism Stickers

Speaking of that epic trip to Showbiz Pizza...here are the real winners from the sticker machine. Yes me and my brother got rolls of quarters to play games and remember I told you in the last post that we spent the majority of that money on a single game? Well that game was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade Game! We plunked down quarters while kids watched over our shoulders until we defeated the Shredder and became local legends! Then the remaining quarters went to stickers, glorious prismatic TMNT stickers!

 Random Stickers Page

The stickers on this page are represented by a sweepstakes Ace card, Dinosaur stickers, an extra TMNT metallic machine sticker from the A&P supermarket and a freakin' Rude Dog Sticker! This Rude Dog sticker came with some shirts my Mom had bought us and lived on our bed headboards for a while until I decided to rip it off and post it into this book for posterity! So glad I did that so I can share it with you today!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Sticker Sheets and Bookmark

Yes, that is my original sticker sheet that came with my Mondo Gecko action figure back in the early 90s. His skateboard already came with the skull sticker on it, so I saw no need to add anymore. The other sticker sheets, I can't really remember where they came from, but there are 3 sheets still in the pack. Finally, the bookmark was actually supposed to be a gift for my brother, but I decided to keep it for myself. I just couldn't give away this great piece of TMNT merchandise!

Well, that's it! We are done taking a look at this sticker book and let me tell you, it was AMAZING to relive all the memories that came from these colorful pieces of my childhood. Thank you for taking this journey with me, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. See you next week with something non sticker related!

My Old Sticker Book: Part 2

While visiting my family back in New Jersey this past October, I took it upon myself to wander into my Mom's attic to see if some of my old stuff was still up there. To my surprise, she had not thrown anything out! So away I went, searching through bins and boxes looking for things that I could take back with me or at least get pictures of to share with you guys. One of the things that was uncovered was my old sticker album. Let's stop this chit-chat and continue with part 2 of this look at old stickers...shall we?

 Vending Machine Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Stickers (Page 2)

Looking back now, I think me and my brother may completed the whole set of the metallic Turtles stickers? We got all the characters available to us, but we wanted to collect both the Silver & Gold versions. Even back then I was a hardcore completist! Also, if you look to the bottom left corner of the page you'll see the sticker that was included with the TMNT movie soundtrack tape that I purchased in 1990 when I was 10!

Simpsons Stickers

I remember getting these stickers while me and my brother were being baby sat by our Aunt. She took us to a Showbiz Pizza in NY and gave each of us several rolls of quarters. Most of the money was spent on one video game and the rest was spent on the shiny Simpsons stickers you see above. The Lisa and Marge stickers at the bottom of the page were taken off of a few sports disks we won at the fair. They were carefully removed and placed lovingly in this book for generations to enjoy.

 Batman Stickers

These stickers, like a majority of the stickers in this book, came from a vending machine at our local A&P grocery store. My Mom would have to take us when she did the shopping and if we were good, we got to chose a machine prize as our reward. I vividly remember spotting that Batman logo sticker on the ground of the parking lot at the A&P and picking it up for myself. It looked like it had been run over a few times, but hey, Batman was huge back then and it had to be mine!

Topps Ghostbusters II and Desert Adventure Stickers

The Ghostbusters II stickers came from packs of Topps Ghostbusters II cards, but the Desert Adventure stickers were given to me by my 4th grade teacher as a reward for helping tutor another student in English. She wanted to give me a Charms Blow Pop, but I wasn't having it, I wanted those stickers!

More Nintendo Stickers

These all came from random places. Some from friends, some from vending machines and some were bought. Those Mario vending stickers are pretty cool though as they included a scratch off Tic-Tac-Toe game. Looks like I won one and lost the other.

Darkwing Duck Sticker Sheet

Included in the sticker album were a few sheets of unstuck stickers. One of those sheets was of Darkwing Duck. I believe these were given out to subscribers of Disney Adventures Magazine as part of a "Thank You" pack that came with your first issue? Not sure on that one, but I am sure that Darkwing Duck was AWESOME!

That's it for Part 2 of a look through my old sticker book. Stay tuned for Part 3, coming next week!

My Old Sticker Book: Part 1

While visiting my family back in New Jersey this past October, I took it upon myself to wander into my Mom's attic to see if some of my old stuff was still up there. To my surprise, she had not thrown anything out! So away I went, searching through bins and boxes looking for things that I could take back with me or at least get pictures of to share with you guys. One of the things that was uncovered was my old sticker album. Let's stop this chit-chat and get to looking...shall we?

The first and last pages in this album were dedicated to this old NBC Saturday morning lineup advertisement. There are some great things going on here from Mr. Miyagi teaching Daniel how to karate chop wood to Smurfs sharing a campfire with John Candy, but the main reason I taped this into my album was the appearance of Captain N! Coming up on the next few pages, you will see that I tried to keep these stickers in some kind of order. Each page has it's own theme. On to page 1!

The World of Nintendo featuring the Super Mario Bros. & Legend of Zelda

Back in the late 80s & early 90s Nintendo was everything! It was that one common bond that all kids had (except the ones who owned a Sega Master System). We would talk about high scores, what level we made it to and the latest cheat codes. Sure we all bragged about what we accomplished and some of us made up a bunch of crap about our victories. These stickers and their early art design really take me back to those days of the new and outstanding NES system.

 

 Hockey Stickers
I am by no means a hockey fan. I've been to 1 New Jersey Devils game in my entire life and I never collected hockey cards outside of Pro Stars alum Wayne Gretzky. I was given these stickers by one of my grade school teachers for achieving some kind of high score on a test and I turned them into the wacky game of shoot the puck that you see above.

 Garfield Stickers
Let me start off by saying Garfield and Friends was tha shiznit. We loved that cartoon in my house and watched it every weekend. That is probably what led me to buy these stickers.

 Ninja Turtles Stickers from TMNT Magazine and TMNT Pies
Yes, I had a subscription to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Magazine. That is why I have these awesome stickers in my collection. It really bugged me that they all had red bandanas when I was a kid. I wasn't aware until a few years after getting these stickers that in the original Mirage comic all the Turtles wore red bandanas. It wasn't until the cartoon came out in 1988 that the different colors were introduced for each Turtle. Not much to say about the TMNT Pie stickers except they were AWESOME and I thank my Dad for packing them in my lunch all those years ago!

 Mello Smello Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Stickers
Not too much to say about the TMNT stickers. Me and my brother were huge fans of the Mean, Green Machine and I bought these at the local Hackettstown, NJ Mall with my allowance money. I doremember it being quite a hard decision picking which sticker sheets would come home with me though. Those are were true real world problems!

Vending Machine Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Stickers
We tried so hard to collect the whole set of these and begged my Mom for quarters when she took us shopping at our local A&P grocery store.. Me and my brother came close, but alas the machine was changed out before we could complete it!

Stay tuned for My Old Sticker Book: Part 2, coming soon!