Back in the 80's & 90's every fast food restaurant had an array of high end glasses for sale in an attempt to get customers to saunter through their doors in hopes that they would keep returning to finish the whole set and buy some food & drink while at the establishment. Some of the most fondly remembered of these glasses include Star Wars, E.T., The Muppets, Garfield and of course Batman! On the rare occasion that my parents would take us to one of the restaurants, I always fawned over these sweet looking glasses with amazing artwork, but alas, we never ended up taking any home! Recently, my wife was at a community yard sale and found some of these glasses for a fairly cheap price. She picked them up thinking the kids would love them, little did she know that I would be the one who would be using them every night during dinner! Below you can view the small collection of glasses that currently hang out in our kitchen cabinet.
Care Bears from Pizza Hut (1983)
Pizza Hut gave us all one heck of a deal with these Care Bear glasses. You could get 2 glasses for 99 cents with the purchase of any Pizza Hut pizza! That is a freakin' steal! There were 4 glasses in total and the set included Funshine, Tenderheart, Grumpy and Cheer Bear. I just need 1 more to complete the collection!
Peanuts "Camp Snoopy" from McDonalds (1983)
These glasses were 49 cents with the purchase of any Coca-Cola drink at McDonalds in the early 80's. There were 5 in total and I have 2 of them. The glasses are nice and as the commercial says, they were designed by Peanuts creator Charles Shulz himself, but the real star here is a brand new animated Peanuts commercial featuring Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy & Sally. We need more great promotions like this!
Smurfs "Happy Smurfday" from Hardee's (1983)
Hardee's went all out with this promotion and dubbed July 25th as "Smurfday"!. The glasses were available until September 4th at their restaurants, but they also offered a new drink just for the occasion! This drink was called "Smurfberry Punch". I have no idea what it tasted like, but it looked like a fruit punch sort of drink. Wonder if we'll ever see this return?
This year Christmas is returning to a little bit of normalcy after last year's restrictions. Either way, nothing has stood in the way of my family taking part in some of our favorite Christmas traditions like watching Christmas Specials, decorating the tree and just enjoying the season together. Below may seem like another random dump of photos, but it is a peek into what the season is like in my household. I hope you and yours have an amazing holiday season. No matter how you celebrate or what you celebrate, appreciate those around you and just remember the good times. Feel free to let me know about your family's favorite traditions in the comment section below and have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Our Elf on The Shelf, Buddy, has been surprising our kids for years. He shows up the day after Thanksgiving and he usually brings my kids donuts and chocolate milk for breakfast on his arrival. After that, we never know what type of shenanigans he will get into. Here he is during his audition for "Into The Spider-Verse".
The Smurfs are a must watch every year. I remember having the original 80's cartoon on VHS back in the day. We have recently upgraded to DVD. The other Smurfs special is a more recent addition to the rotation and is a pretty good take on the characters.
Every year, my family visits Hallmark and gets an ornament for our tree. This year, we all agreed on getting this Mini-Pufts version, but when we got to the store...they were sold out! I went back a few days later and the kind lady behind the counter informed me that they would be getting 4 more of these cute & delicious ornaments in and she put me on the wait list for purchase. A few days later, I got the call and finally I GOT ONE!
The kids and I watched "We Wish You A Turtle Christmas" this year. It was a first time viewing for my family and my kids really enjoyed the crude absurdity of the special. They are still singing about "4 Manhole Covers"!
Speaking of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, IDW did not disappoint with this years festive covers. These are always a welcome treat and addition to my ever growing TMNT comic collection.
A few other Christmas specials we knocked off the list this year were Heathcliff's Christmas and "A Wish For Wings That Work". These are not the typical upper tier of Christmas Specials, but they do hold a place in my 80's loving heart and now my kids are able to enjoy them also.
Last year my family chowed don on the Elf on The Shelf "Sugar Cookie" flavored cereal. This year we decided to try the "Hot Cocoa" flavor and I can honestly say, I don't know how it tastes because my kids ate it all before I could get a bowlful!
It wouldn't be Christmas without a visit from Vader Claus. Also featured is the Star Wars Christmas Caroling sign my wife picked up on clearance last year from Hobby Lobby.
Lastly, just wanted to share this Turtly Magnificent Christmas light set up that the wife and I took the kids to see this year. AMAZING! I hope your holiday is full of cheer and good times. From all of us at 20 Years Before 2000...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
Saturday, August 14th is Free Comic Book Day! You can go to your local comic shop and choose from a variety of great comics from publishers like Marvel, DC, Darkhorse and more! If you want more info or need to know what shops are participating, check out the Free Comic Book Day website. Every year I take my kids out and make this day an event. It's something we look forward to every year. Here are my top five comics for the 2021 FCBD:
STRAY DOGS (W) Tony Fleecs (A) Brad Simpson, Tone Rodriguez (CA) Tony Fleecs (A/CA) Trish Forstner For FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, a special expanded edition of the hit IMAGE series, STRAY DOGS! Meet Sophie, a dog who can't remember what happened. She doesn't know how she ended up in this house. She doesn't recognize any of these other dogs. She knows something terrible happened, but she just...can't...recall...WAIT! Where's her lady? This FCBD edition also features a BRAND NEW prologue, "That Doggie in the Window" the unnerving story of the very first dog to ever come to the Master's house.
MARVEL SPIDER-MAN VENOM FCBD 2021 #1 (W) Al Ewing, Ram V. (A) Bryan Hitch Free Comic Book Day is the perfect chance to dive deep into the Marvel Universe with new stories and exciting adventures alongside some of Marvel's most acclaimed creators - and this year, Marvel is bringing you the biggest and boldest stories yet! Starring Spider-Man and Venom! Exclusive Original Material
SMURFS TALES (W) Peyo (A/CA) Peyo The Smurfs are back! To celebrate the new animated TV series premiering on Nickelodeon Fall 2021, Papercutz is releasing a new series of graphic novels entitled THE SMURFS TALES. This new series is three times bigger than the previous SMURFS Papercutz graphic novel series, and what that means is a lot more Smurfs plus other beloved creations by Peyo such as Johan and Peewit, the young page and the court jester; and Benny Breakiron, the super-powered little boy. Join Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Brainy Smurf, Hefty Smurf, and so many smurfy others for fun and adventure in the comics that inspired the cartoons, toys, and Nickelodeon series. But be careful, Gargamel, Azrael, and trouble never seem to be too far behind!
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 30TH ANNIVERSARY (W) Gale Galligan (A) Thomas Rothlisberger (CA) Tracy Yardley Celebrating 30 years of the world's fastest hedgehog! There's no telling how Sonic will react when he sees the results of Amy Rose's new hobby-she's been making tell-all comics about her adventures with Sonic, Miles "Tails" Prower, and their friends! New York Times bestselling author Gale Galligan (The Baby-Sitters Club graphic novels) spills the beans! Plus, fun extras to catch readers up on Sonic's ongoing adventures, on the road to issue 50! Sonics 30th anniversary celebration will be a huge priority for IDW and Sega this year!
SUICIDE SQUAD FCBD SPECIAL EDITION
Just in time for The Suicide Squad movie written and directed by James Gunn, releasing in theaters and HBO Max on August 6th, with this incredible special edition that features the world’s deadliest villains. Discover more about the breakout character from Task Force X in an originalSuicide Squad: King Sharkstory written byNew York Times bestselling author Tim Seeley (Nightwing) and illustrated by award-winning artist Scott Kolins (The Flash). This 32-page issue also includes a preview of the sensationalSuicide Squad: Get Joker!limited series by writer Brian Azzarello (Batman: Damned) and artist Alex Maleev (Checkmate). An incarcerated and angry Red Hood receives a chance at freedom from Amanda Waller. All the former Boy Wonder needs to do to gain his freedom is lead the Suicide Squad on a mission to terminate The Joker. Paired up with Harley Quinn and Gotham City killers such as Firefly and Killer Croc, he doesn’t care if any of them come back alive, as long as The Joker dies!
A few weeks ago I showed off some incredible items that myself and the fam saw at a local antique store. some incredible items there. Of course the majority of it was way over priced, but I did manage to score some solid deals on a few items. These are those items!
1989 Topps Baseball Pack
I have collected baseball cards since 1987 and recently the hobby has become quite the cluster. Resellers are snapping up everything they can before collectors like myself can even get a pack. Cards that used to sell for around $2 a pack last year, will now set you back at $25 on the secondary market. I found this unopened Topps pack at one of the booths for $5! I could see the pack contained several Hall of Fame players like Kirby Puckett, Rickey Henderson and a Craig Biggio rookie card. Those guys alone justified the $5 price tag. Hoping to score a fresh Bo in this pack!
Masters of The Universe: Buzz-Off
Buzz-Off was one the first Masters of the Universe action figures that I ever owned, so he holds a soft spot in my heart. He was $7 and I was happy to find that he still had his wings, so Buzz-Off is now hanging with He-Man & Skeletor on my MOTU shelf in the basement.
Mighty Ducks Puck
Myself & my kids had been watching an episode of the new Mighty Ducks: Game Changers series on Disney+ every Saturday as part of our weekend morning routine. We just finished the series a few weeks ago and we all loved it! It was nostalgic and a bit predictable, but still a very fun watch. We saw this puck in a case and probably overpaid for it at $5, but we were still in the afterglow of the Don't Bothers big win. It now resides on my daughter's dresser in the girls room.
Pac-Man Candy Tin
I am a sucker for anything that is vintage Pac-Man. This tin was produced in the early 80's at the height of "Pac-Man Fever" and at one point held candy inside. I know this because their was still 40 year old candy residue in it! I did a quick Google search and saw that these tins can go for around $30, so not a bad pickup for $3.
Swimming Smurf and Peewit
We saw quite a few Smurfs at some of the booths in the antique store, but the prices were higher than what I would like to pay. As I said in a previous post, I have loved the Smurfs for as far back as I can remember. I still even have the Smurfs blanket my Mom made back when I was about 2 years old! Anyway, I found these 2 Smurfs figures for $3 each. I picked the swimming Smurf because my neighbor used to have him and I loved playing with him and I had never seen a Peewit figure before and thought he would be a cool addition to my Smurf collection. Now I just need to find a figure of his buddy, Johan!
Street Shark Streex
Any time you find a Street Sharks figure, you must pick it up! This one was in good shape for around $7. My younger brother loved the show and toys back in the 90's, but I always thought they were a TMNT ripoff. I guess that's partly true, but it wasn't until recently that I have come to appreciate these heroes who kick some serious fin. I have been watching the cartoon with my son recently and I see the joy in his face while it's on and I can finally see it for what it's worth. It's a fun trip back to the 90's full of absurd action and characters with a JAWSOME intro song. I'd like to end this post by sharing that song with you below...ENJOY!
It has been a while since myself, my wife and kids have been out and about at our local downtown shops, but a few weeks ago we decided to go to one of the antique stores. We found some incredible items there. Of course the majority of it was way over priced, but I did manage to score some solid deals on a few items. After our trip through time the kids were feeling exhausted, so we took them to grab some ice cream. It was a beautiful day outside, but I would like to share with you some of the "antiques" that we saw inside the antique store. I didn't pick any of these up, but I thought they were worthy of a post.
Assorted Smurf Figures
As far back as I can remember, I have loved the Smurfs. My Mom said I used to sit in my height chair and dunk my Smurf figures into my milk and then suck the milk off of them. Pretty gross, but hey I was like 2 years old! Anytime I see these figures at a store or garage sale, I take the time to check them out. These were a bit over my comfort price at $30 for the "Jungle", "Trick or Treat" and "Zombie" Smurf. The others were around $10 each. I did pick a few up for cheaper, but I'll show those in a future post.
Old Metal Batmobile
I don't know much about this toy. It was behind glass, so I couldn't find a manufacturer or production date on it. I tried searching Google and found a few from the 60's that look similar, but not exactly the same. Those were going for around $400, so I assume the $185 price tag on this awesome looking Batmobile is a fair price?
Baxter Stockman & Bendy Captain America
The Baxter Stockman figure was around $10 and was in pretty good condition. I thought about picking him up, but I already have one in my collection, so I left him for another collector to add to their TMNT collection. I thought these Lifesavers promotional Bendy Captain America's were pretty neat, but at $10 I didn't pull the trigger. These look like they were from the early 90's but I can't seem to find any info on them or the promotional giveaway campaign. There were a ton of them at one booth, so maybe next time I stop by Cap will be coming home with me!
Fisher Price Queen Buzzy Bee Toy
My family had one of these pull toys when I was a kid! I'm sure it was a hand me down from one of my older sisters, but I thought it was pretty cool and would pull it around the house while watching the wings spin and antennae bobble around. The one in the picture above was from the 60's and I found that Fisher Price still makes a version of this toy for it's "Classics" toy line!
Flintstones Movie Action Figures These Mattel produced figures were released alongside the theatrical release of the Flintstones movie in 1994. I remember seeing this movie in the theater and being sort of disappointed. I never had any of these figures as I was starting to reach my teen years at this time, but seeing these takes me back to some of the hype surrounding the film. I thought John Goodman did a solid job as Fred, but that wasn't enough to make me want to take him home with me. A few booths later I found a figure of Cliff Vandercave as played by Kyle MacLachlan! The resemblance was uncanny!
Character Glasses
I'm pretty sure 50% of the booths at this antique store had old character glasses from the 70's & 80's. I already have quite a few Peanuts, Smurfs and Garfield glasses in my collection so I passed on this group. They were about $10 each on average at the antique store. The glasses I am currently seeking out have our favorite pellet muncher on them...Pac-Man!
Pulsar Action Figure
Pulsar was released in 1976 by Mattel to try and capitalize on the success of Kenner's Six Million Dollar Man toy line. This figure had a pumping organs feature that was able to be seen through Pulsar's clear plastic torso. The line was not very popular and only produced 2 figures, Pulsar & Hypnos (The Bad Guy), and one lone playset called "The Life Systems Center". The seller was asking $50 for this figure which is fair based on going rates on the internet. I vaguely remember hearing of this toy, I never had him, have no memories of him, so he stayed on the shelf.
Snoopy Phone! This awesome phone was released by Telecom in the 70's and the one at the store looked fantastic! This was one item that I was really second guessing, but my wife gave me that "really" look when I told her how much it was. At $75 that seems to be fair as I've seen these go for anywhere between $50 - $150 online. There is a rotary version of this phone that seems to be more sought after which makes those prices fairly high. I can't say that I'm not a little sad that I left Snoopy behind, but I guess we don't even have a landline at home that I could have hooked this bad boy up to anyway.
Vintage Lunch Boxes & Thermos
I saw this cool Pac-Man Thermos for $12 and there were also some sweet looking metal lunch boxes at a few of the booths. I saw a Muppets, Dukes of Hazzard and Mr. Merlin lunch boxes. These were priced between $30-$40 without the Thermos. Does anyone remember Mr. Merlin? I don't, but a quick search on Wikipedia tells me this show ran for one season in 1981-1982 and was about a boy named Zac who pulls a crowbar from a bucket of cement. Of course this crowbar was actually King Arthur's sword Excalibur and now Merlin disguised as a mechanic in San Francisco must train Zac in the magical arts. Sounds pretty crazy right! Well, you can view some of this insanity below by watching an episode of this lost piece of television history!
A few weekends ago, myself and my family went downtown and visited a few antique stores. I enjoy going to these kinds of stores, because you'll never know what you're going to find. Most of the time the cool stuff that I like is way over priced, but it's cool to know it's out there if I really want it. below are some of the items we found this time around.
The Dukes of Hazard Personal Radio: $14.95
I was never a huge fan of The Dukes of Hazard television program. My sisters loved it though and that's where my introduction to the series happened. We never had this specific radio in our home, but my sisters had a very similar one with the Charlie's Angels logo emblazoned on it and that's where the nostalgia kicked in for me. I remember sitting in my sisters room and playing with the tuner on that radio hoping we could actually get a signal from the local radio station. Good times!
Smurfs Lunch Box: $29.99
As I've said many times before, I love old lunch boxes! This Smurfs one was actually complete with the Thermos which is pretty rare. That's why I had no problem with the asking price of almost $30. It's a fair price, but I passed. I loved the Smurfs as a kid and had a big collection of the figures, but I never toted my PB&J sandwiches around in this box. I am still on the lookout for a complete Thundercats, Ghostbusters or Super Mario Bros. box. Those are the ones that really bring back the memories for me.
Mattel Electronics Star Strike game for Intellivision: $10
It's always cool to see old games still in the box at these antique stores. The Intellivision was a little bit before my time. The first system we owned in my house was the Nintendo Entertainment System. If I saw any of those original NES games in box for $10, you better believe I'd be all over that!
Parker Brothers Star Wars Board Game: $25
I've seen similar games go for way more money than this. So why the lower price? There were a bunch of pieces missing and the box had some minor wear. With all that considered the box art alone is worth the $25 asking price.
Batman Forever The Riddler Action Figure: $14.95
I actually liked Batman Forever. Of course the movie doesn't hold up when compared to the Tim Burton masterpieces that came before it, but it actually was a fun movie. I enjoyed Jim Carry's portrayal of the Riddler. He added some of his own personality into the character and that's what I like to see. I don't want a carbon copy of how someone else played the character. All that said, I never collected nor played with this series of figures, so it was a pass for me!
The Simpsons Colorforms Set: $9.99
This was the item I would take home! I love the early look of The Simpsons cartoons. They are classic. I remember watching the Simpsons Christmas Special when it aired on FOX on December, 17th, 1989. One watch of this episode and I was hooked! 30 years later and I am still a big fan of the Simpson family. A sealed Colorforms set from the early 90s for $9.99! Yes, please!!! Below you can enjoy an early episode from The Simpsons run on the Tracey Ullman show in the late 80s.
While driving to work a few weeks ago, I was scanning through the local radio stations and stopped on a classic hits station because something caught my attention. The hosts were talking about an upcoming animation art display that was coming to a local gallery. This show was dedicated to 50 year animation veteran Ron Campbell and the hosts were talking to him about some of the highlights from his career. If you don't know who Ron Campbell is, here is a brief rundown of some of the iconic cartoons he has worked on during his career: The New Scooby-Doo Movies, The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, Captain Caveman, Heathcliff, Pac-Man...and the list goes on and on!
Ron Campbell may be remembered most for his work as an animator and director for the Beatles cartoon and their feature length movie, Yellow Submarine. But it was his work on some of my favorite cartoons that really drew me in to see him at the art show.
Ron was an animator, story director for the 80s Smurf TV series from 1981-1987. He also served as a story board artist for the specials My Smurfy Valentine (1982), The Smurfs Springtime Special (1982) and my favorite Smurfs special of all time The Smurfs Christmas Special (1982). We watched that every year as kids and now I watch it with my kids!
Ed, Edd & Eddy debuted on the Cartoon Network when I was in my late teens/early twenties, but I had a younger brother who loved it and once I sat down to watch it with him I was hooked! It reminded me of myself and my friends when I was younger. The depth of characters and the inventive ways the Eds would try to scam nickels to buy jawbreakers was genius! Ron Campbell served as a director on the show from 2002-2007.
Ron created these special gold record plaques for his various shows and it once again presents the bond between himself and the Beatles animated personas beautifully! My youngest daughter is a huge Beatles fan, so it was especially amazing to her to see these hanging on the walls.
Scooby-Doo! What kid doesn't love Scooby-Doo. My favorite iteration of the character has to be the Pup Named Scooby-Doo cartoon from the 90s. I loved the art style and the humor that was in the show. We need more Red Herring in future Scooby movies! That is one cartoon Ron Campbell didn't work on, but he did serve as a director on The New Scooby-Doo Movies in 1973 and also as a director on the Scooby & Scrappy-Doo Puppy Hour (1982).
Rugrats was a classic cartoon that came out in the 90s during the golden age of Nicktoons. Guess what? Hold on to your diapys! Ron Campbell was a story board artist for the show from 1993-2001!
This was my favorite picture of them all! I wish I would have picked this up at the show, but bills and car repairs took priority over this beautiful piece of art work featuring my favorite group of brothers, the green machine, the heroes 4...the TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES!!! Ron once again took on storyboard duties for the original Fred Wolf version of the TMNT!
This guy was seriously talented and was able to make a career out of giving generations joy on the small screen. Seriously, name a cartoon and he probably had a hand in bringing it to our living rooms. Men In Black: The Series, Aaahh!! Real Monsters, Garfield & Friends, Darkwing Duck, Bionic Six and so many more. Check out his IMDB page for more info on his career and tell me this man was not epic! Thanks Ron Campbell for sharing your gifts and for making us happy...and thanks for the autograph!
