This week the Retro Revival Challenge from the Retro Ramblings website is to tell about OUR FIRST TIME AT A MOVIE THEATER!What was the first movie you saw at a theater? How old were you? Do you remember a lot about it? Tell us everything!" I'm not sure if this was my first movie going experience, but it is the first one I can vaguely remember!
It was 1985 and I was 5 years old. My entire family went to see the film "Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend". To a 5 year old me this movie was amazing! There were real dinosaurs in it! I remember really enjoying the movie, but that's not why I remember this trip to the theater.
We must have recently watched The Peanuts "Bon Voyage Charlie Brown" cartoon special. Because for some reason the part where Linus is stuck in a burning house and yelling "FIRE! FIRE!" stuck with me. During the previews before the movie I stood up and yelled "FIRE! FIRE!" in a well attended theater for no apparent reason. I did not do it to cause panic or hurt anyone. My mom was so embarrassed and she had every right to be. I learned my lesson to never yell "FIRE!" in a crowd again unless I was the one on fire. It was about 20 years later when my Mom went with us to the movies again.
So this week, participants in the Retro Revival Challenge were asked to write about our first comic or comic book experience. I still remember the first comic I ever received...Heathcliff #16!
My sister bought this for me in 1986 when I was around 5 years old. She also bought my brother a Mickey Mouse comic that same day. She brought them home and read them to us on the couch. I still have this comic packed away somewhere in a long box.
One thing I remember from that book was the advertisements. My sister would read them to us as if they were commercial breaks in the comic. The one that stuck out the most was the ad for Bonkers! Ugly Balls. These balls were just a rip-off of the popular Mad Balls franchise, but man did I want one. I never did get it in the mail, but the search on e-bay has begun!
Another great first in my comic collecting career was my first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic. It was the Archie published Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #20. My Dad bought this for me when I was really sick one time and I could not leave the couch. I remember reading this issue over and over again. Me and my brother were huge Turtle fans at this time. We had the toys, played the games and watched the cartoon, but I had never experienced the Turtles in comic form before my Dad bought me this book. Since then I have completed the Mirage 1st & 2nd series, the Image 3rd series and I'm close to completing the Archie Adventure series and the Mirage 4th series. This was the one that started it all! Thanks Dad.
Check out these other participants and their comic firsts:
This week Retro Ramblings has tasked all Retro Revivalers to talk about toys! Ourfavorite toy or toys of all time, toys we collected, new toys, toys in movies, or whatever else we felt like sharing about toys. I could talk forever about Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters, Voltron or Thundercats, but I decided to go a different route and write about Nerfuls! Remember them?Back in the mid 80s I owned one single Nerful toy and his name was Frankie. I loved him!
Let me start out by telling you a little bit about the Nerfuls. According to their original marketing, Nerfuls are a group of bouncy, colorful little creatures who love fast action and great fun! They've traveled far from their tiny planet, Erf, just so they can roll around, bounce around, and always be around children. They were released around 1986 by Parker Brothers as a toy line loosely connected to their popular Nerf sports balls. The characters themselves came in three pieces, a hat or ears, body and a head. The head was to be used as a bouncy ball or a top you could spin on the nose.
They weren't really great at bouncing, but they were still fun characters to play with. My original Frankie that I owned as a kid may still be packed away somewhere in my Mom's attic. I purchased this boxed version off ebay years ago for around $10 and he is now featured prominently on one of my toy shelves.
Obviously these guys were not as popular as some of the toy lines released in the 80s, but they were still able to snag a coveted Burger King Kids Meal promotion.
I really did enjoy these toys as a kid, even if it was a challenge to try and not lose any of the parts. The concept was fun, it was different than all the other action figures on the shelf and the sculpts were great. I remember Frankie having a frog popping out of his back pocket that was fully painted! The Nerfuls really were "a ball to be around!"
Don't forget to check out these other challenge posts:
This week the Retro Revival Challenge is to reveal the one annual television event that makes us drop everything we are doing, turn on the TV and become zombies for a few hours! Back in the day there were so many things that were events to us, watching Rudolph at Christmas, The Simpson Sunday nights on FOX and the Super Bowl. But thanks to the invention of DVDs, Netflix, Amazon TV and more, there really isn't any appointment television. I have Rudolph and a hundred other classic Christmas specials on DVD, The Simpsons can be streamed and I have boycotted the Super Bowl every year the Patriots are in it. But there is one event that keeps calling me back...
NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND!!!! This is the one time of the year where you can see all of the top NBA stars showcase their skills in one place! Ever since I can remember, I used to record the entire All-Star weekend on VHS and rewatch it over and over. Everything from the Slam Dunk Contest to the skills challenge to the game itself. I wish I had those tapes in hand today, I would totally watch those with my kids, not only for the athletic feats, but for the amazing commercials! Here are my top memories from those games:
1991-92: Michael Jordan meets Bugs Bunny for the first time!
Oh man, was this an advertising milestone! Not only did it lead to some awesome kicks, but it also gave us the brilliant "Space Jam" movie! I wonder when that sequel is scheduled to hit? Athletic companies always saved there best commercials for this showcase.
NBA All-Star Game 2003: Michael Jordan's final All-Star Game
This was a hard one for me. I idolized Jordan for so many years and his impact on the sports world can never truly be measured. He was the greatest ever and I'd be lying if I said his final All-Star Game didn't bring a tear to my eye.
NBA All-Star Game 2000: Vince Carter wins Slam Dunk Championship
These were the dunks that made you jump out of your chair, freak out uncontrollably and then question what you just saw! Vince Carter brought something no one had ever seen before! He did the reverse 360 windmills, a honey dip, and a between-the-legs dunk off a bounced alley-oop from his cousin Tracy McGrady. But he did it with such ease and smoothness it was ridiculous!
NBA All-Star Game 1992: Magic Returns and wins MVP
This was Magic's one and only game that season. This was supposed to be his final game after finding out he was HIV positive. He scored 25 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists on his way to MVP honors.
NBA All-Star Game 2009: Krypto-Nate defeats Super Dwight
I saw this one go down in 3D! One of the local movie theaters was broadcasting the event in 3D and even though it was on Valentine's weekend, my wife bought us tickets to see the contest. It was amazing! Nate Robinson is one of the most athletic dudes I have ever seen play the game.
NBA All-Star Game 1997: Glen Rice sets scoring record for a quarter
This one sticks out because I had a friend who was a huge Seattle Supersonics fan and he keep arguing and complaining that Gary Payton should have won the MVP that year. Glen Rice set some records, won the award and that is history!
BONUS: NBA All-Star Game 1996: Jordan pulls off Penny Hardaway's pants
I thought this was hilarious when I saw it happen live. I always held onto my pants whenever I stepped out onto the court from that point on.
One of these years I will make it to an NBA All-Star Game. It is one of the top things on my bucket list! Who will make a historic highlight this year? I'll be watching! Now go see what these other Retro Ramblers viewing habits are:
First of all, I am excited to be back in the "Blog Challenge" game. I truly did enjoy being a part of the Pop Culture League and now Retro Revival. This week's challenge topic of "Snow Days" immediately brought me back to my winters in New Jersey. Where we lived there was a gaggle of kids who were around the same age. We would get epic games going during our time off during a snow storm!
We would play legendary games of manhunt throughout the neighborhood and hardcore games of hockey. When I say hardcore, I really mean "budget". None of us had real snow gear, so we would wear 3 layers of pants, a coat on top of a sweat shirt on top of a t-shirt, multiple pairs of socks with Wal-Mart bags tied around our feet to keep them dry and whatever sneakers were available. Then we would find a frozen pond to play on. But, before we played we had to do the kid test to see if the ice was thick enough. That meant finding the biggest rock around and throwing it as close to the middle of the pond as possible. If the ice held we were good. If it broke, we were on to the next one.
I'm pretty sure our sticks came from some budget shopping store. I almost want to say maybe even the dollar store. They would break so easily and we probably spent more money on duct tape fixing those things up than a new solid hockey stick would have cost! No puck either, just whatever small ball we could find!
I remember chasing that ball across the ice, only to lose my balance and slip head first into the frozen pond. I hit my chin on the ice and chipped my tooth, but kept playing. No we didn't have the best gear or the warmest clothes, we weren't even really hockey fans, but damn we had a ton of fun on those snow days!
Check out how these other Retro Revivalists spent their snow days:
