New Additions to the TMNT Collection III

Over the last few months I have succumbed to the addiction that is on-line shopping. Seriously, once you start you find so many other cool things and you just can't stop...that is until your wife reminds you that you have children and bills to pay. This realization led me to be pretty selective of what I've purchased recently and as a huge fan of the Green Machine there are a ton of options. So without wasting anymore time, here is part 3 of the newest additions to my TMNT collection!

TMNT: The Incredible Shrinking Turtles Book

I had some of these books as a kid, but never this one. This book came as a gift in a package from the ultra-cool Hoju Koolander! If you want to check out some of his radical retro flavored articles or videos you can check them out at RetroDaze.org or on the WIZARDS! Podcast on Youtube.

TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze VHS Tape

I have extremely fond memories of owning this VHS tape as a youngster. Me and my brother would watch this movie daily. This copy is a special one though. It comes from the Mirage Studios Archives and was in the collection of TMNT Co-Creator Peter Laird! Don't believe me?

I bought it off the Mirage Studios website and it came with this sweet Certificate of Authenticity! It only cost me about $10 and I love it! If you would like to own a piece from Mirage Studios, they typically hold weekly ebay auctions. You can view the items available by clicking HERE.

TMNT Party Wagon: Hot Wheels

I kept seeing this mini version of the Turtles' Party Wagon pop up in my Twitter feed. People were finding it everywhere. I searched my local Walmarts, Targets and Dollar Tree stores, but had no success. Instead of continuing the trend of disappointment, I decided to buy this off ebay for $5. After I made that purchase, I began finding these all over the place. I picked up a few extras and gave my son one, Ieven sent one to a collector in Canada who was having trouble locking one down. I really like the details and for $1 or less, you can't beat the usual Hot Wheels quality of this toy!

Funko Pops!

My wife scored me the Target exclusive Metalhead figure for Christmas. This was a big surprise for me and she was really proud of herself for tracking him down. She's a keeper. The Casey Jones, I found in a clearance section at Walmart. This was odd to me since they had just recently came out. I didn't have a Casey in my Pop! collection yet, so I took advantage of the possibly mislabeled figure and now he stands proud next to my Turtles on the shelf in the basement!

TMNT Valentines

I found the vintage looking TMNT Valentines on clearance for around $1 and my wife found the other 2 boxes for me. Of course the kids wanted to use some of these for my friends and I let them go to town. I remember what a thrill it was to receive a Ninja Turtles Valentine. I received a card featuring something I loved on the biggest love day of them all and it was AWESOME! Who am I to keep another child from experiencing that same thrill?

Thanks for bearing with me and checking out some of the latest additions to my TMNT collection. I gotta say, I'm running out of room and may have to expand my basement collection area because I'm sure there is more to come for this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fanatic! COWABUNGA!!!!

Flight of Dragons

This past weekend I took the kids to a book fair at the local library. While we were there I let the kids each grab a few movies to take out. To my surprise I came across a DVD copy of the animated movie "The Flight of Dragons"!

If you're not familiar with this movie it was produced and directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr. as a direct to VHS release in 1982. It wasn't until the movie was shown 4 years later in 1986 as the ABC Saturday Night Movie that I had known it existed. We taped the movie off TV onto VHS and watched it many times and it became one of my brothers and my favorite animated movies.

The story centers around a mystical realm and it's inhabitants who are losing their power due to man trusting more in logic than magic. Four powerful brothers meet to figure out what to do about this. Three of the brothers agree to seal off a part of the world as a retreat for these creatures to live and thrive away from humans, but the fourth brother wants to wage war on the humans and never concede victory. It is at this point that a quest is recommended to destroy the Red Wizard, so no harm comes to anyone. And who will lead this quest? Why Peter Dickinson, voiced by the late john Ritter of course! The quest is long and perilous, but if you are a fan of fantasy I think you will enjoy this film. Here are 5 things from the movie that I found the most fantastic!

1. James Earl Jones as Ommadon

James Earl Jones gives a great performance as the big bad guy in "The Flight of Dragons". His booming voice fits perfectly with the evil and menace of the character and every line he speaks makes you take notice. Jones has a commanding voice and he never let's it go to waste with this frightening character!

2. The Good Guys

Every quest needs a wide variety of skilled warriors with varying abilities to become victorious. Here we have Danielle the archer, Giles the elf, Sir Orrin the brave Knight and Gorbash the dragon who Peter is trapped inside!

3. The Bad Guys

Of course if you have some awesome good guys, you need some truly terrible bad guys for them to fight. The Flight of Dragons has some real memorable villains including Bryagh the devil dragon of Ommadon, the Ogre who guards the gates to Ommadon's realm, the brain melting Sand Murks and the Worm of Sligoff that oozes sulfuric acid. All of these adversaries are formidable foes for our heroes, but they have weaknesses that can be exploited. Each defeat brings the team closer to their goal of peace and a symbiotic relationship of logic and magic.

 4. The Intro Song

The opening song is sung by Don McLean of "American Pie" fame. Once you hear it, it will be stuck in your head like the sounds of a Sand Murk! It is slow, melodic and fits the tone of this movie perfectly. I had not seen this movie in decades and I couldn't remember much about it, but I could hum this tune whenever I felt the need.

5. The Flight of Dragons Book

Peter Dickinson wrote this book back in 1979 and it isn't really a story book, but more of a book about how dragons could have existed and how they could achieve things like flight and fire breathing. This book takes a scientific approach to explain these items. The character of Peter Dickinson in the film takes this same approach when trying to figure out how to be a dragon and his character is even writing a book called The Flight of Dragons. It's a cool piece of literature to have that links directly to the story in the movie. You can find copies of this book for less than $10 on Amazon right now.

The Flight of Dragons is a great movie filled with action, adventure, great characters, excellent animation and even a little romance. It has elements to keep both kids and adults interested in the story. If you have not checked out this forgotten early 80s animated gem, You need to find a copy soon and take part in the magic. You won't be disappointed! Not convinced yet? Check out the trailer below and enjoy.

TMNT Alliance Video VHS

About a week or so ago, a coworker of mine was having a yard sale and said he was selling a bunch of movies for about $1 a piece. He is a big movie aficionado, so I was curious to see what flicks he was selling. I dug through his DVDs and grabbed a few. Nothing too great, but he did throw in about a dozen more of his picks for me to watch for free. On the way back to my car I noticed a box of VHS tapes stashed under a table. Something told me to take a look. I noticed the familiar box of the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie box and took it out. Something was different about this box though. It was a lot slicker and was missing the familiar FHE logo. Also, the Turtles on the front were flat, not embossed as usual! What the heck was this?

I took a closer look at the sides and noticed some more slight differences. Once again the FHE logo was replaced by an odd Alliance Releasing Home Video logo and a small Ninja Turtles cartoon head was placed under the picture of Donnie.

I took a look at the other side and noticed the same thing along with the addition of an MCA logo at the bottom of the box. I pointed these differences out to my coworker who never noticed these irregularities before. As a collector himself, I thought he was going to take the tape back, but he let me keep it. I asked if he knew where he got it from and he could not remember.

I took the VHS Turtles home and excitedly told my not so excited wife what I had found and noticed a few more things were awry on the back of the box! The first critique was not highlighted in red and the info on the bottom of the back was different too.

Finally I pulled the tape out of it's box, now this is where the differences were the most noticeable. This was a rental copy complete with green "Family" sticker and "BE KIND PLEASE REWIND" notice plastered to the tape. I love finding things like this. I wanted to see if anything was different with the actual movie recorded on this tape, so me and the kids popped it in and got ready for some radical action! The movie was exactly the same, except the commercials that ran before the movie were missing entirely!

Later that night I did what I should have done as soon as I got home and Googled "Alliance Releasing Home Video". It turns out this is the Canadian version of the TMNT Movie VHS tape! Who knows how it ended up in my buddy's yard sale, all I know is I am glad I have it! Now the question is, should I start seeking out all the other countries versions of one of my favorite movies of all-time?

NBA Jam Session!

In 1993 the NBA was on the top of the sports world! Michael Jordan and The Chicago Bulls were on their way to their first three-peat, the Dream Team had dominated the globe in the Barcelona Olympics the summer before and the slam dunk was the most exciting play in sports! Not one to pass on a golden opportunity the NBA created the Jam Session brand.

The first item I remember from this marketing initiative was the "NBA JAM SESSION" VHS tape! It had highlights from the best players in the league at the time. Everyone from Karl Malone to Harold Miner to Alonzo Mourning was featured on this mixtape. I remember going to our local mom & pop rental store, "Video Sights & Sounds" just so we could rent this tape! Now as an adult, I own my own copy. I found this baby at Goodwill for about a quarter. If you ever see one out in the wild for a cheap price, I highly recommend you pick it up! Another thing came from this brand that cemented the world of hip-hop culture with the NBA. This informal partnership led to the next item on my list...

The freakin' "NBA JAM SESSION" album!!! I used to listen to this on my Walkman all the time, especially on trips to basketball practice or basketball camps. There are some pretty big names for the time on here and some pretty fresh cuts! 

The talent roster included Bell Biv DeVoe, Heavy D, Notorious B.I.G., Bobby Brown and Wreckx-N-Effect! Not too shabby for an NBA mix tape. I bought this CD online for about $1 and put it on in the house from time to time so I can relive those athletic golden years when my team in NJ went on to win 2 championships in 3 years. Over that span, we only lost one game and got to go to the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford to watch the Nets play as a reward for our hard work. Because of this I was able to see some of the "JAM SESSION" stars in person like Tim Hardaway, Shaquille O'Neal and David Robinson.

The only thing cooler than the soundtrack album quite possibly was the "NBA JAM SESSION" cards that were randomly inserted into the '92-'93 Fleer Ultra packs. I loved checking out the stats on the back and seeing how many jams the top players in the league had amassed over the years. Who knew the Admiral had 155 dunks during the '91-'92 season?  Recently and sadly though the dunk has fallen out of flavor in the NBA. The All-Star Dunk Contest has become mediocre and thanks to the Golden State Warriors, the 3-pointer has become the shot of choice around the league. One day the dunk will again reign supreme, but until that day comes you can relive the glory days of the 90s NBA by watching the "NBA JAM SESSION" highlight tape in all it's glory in the video below!!!

Home Alone: 1991 VHS Release

In 1990 the United States was held captive by a young boy named Kevin who was left Home Alone by his negligent parents. When I say this movie was huge, I mean it was huge! I remember Home Alone playing in theaters well after the 1990 holiday season on it's way to grossing over $280,000,000 in the US. I saw the movie in theaters and it really felt like I was part of a cultural event. You weren't cool on the playground unless you could recite at least one line from the movie. My go to was the following quote by big brother Buzz:

"I wouldn't let you sleep in my room if you were growing on my ass!"

Naturally when the VHS was released in 1991, I had to have it! Me, my brother and all our neighborhood friends watched the hell out of that video until we could recite the whole movie line by line! Yes it was annoying, but man we loved that movie!

I still have my original copy of Home Alone on VHS from '91 and drag it out every year after Thanksgiving to watch with my kids. I still catch myself blurting out lines during our watch parties, much to the annoyance of my kids.

There is just something about the old artwork of the VHS tape. From the side panels to the cover art, it just makes me happy. Yes you can find better quality on Blu-Ray, but it does not match the nostalgia of rewinding a tape and fixing the tracking on your VCR so you can watch a grainy picture on your television set. Yes, I can also watch this on demand, but does that come with AN AMZING HOME ALONE BATTLE PLAN POSTER?!!!!!

I was one of the lucky kids who got this free poster when my parents bought the VHS tape. Mine is long gone, but I still remember it hanging on our bedroom wall for years. 

We would look over the plan and use our imaginations to see what we could do to protect our house in case the Wet Bandits made a stop on our street. This thing was AWESOME!

Of course it wasn't an exact replica of Kevin's Battle Plan, but hey it was still a cool thing to have this on our wall for all our pals to see when they came over to play Ninja Turtles or some NES. It gave us bragging right for a short time and what a time it was...unless you were Harry or Marv, THEN IT SUCKED!

Second Hand Score: Indiana Trilogy

For a while now I have been wanting to watch the classic Indiana Jones trilogy of movies. I do not own them and just never pulled the trigger to purchase the set on DVD/Blu-Ray and Netflix does not have these movies on demand. So, I would just watch something else like Lethal Weapon or Beverly Hills Cop to get my 80s action fix. Then I found these 3 VHS beauties for $0.25 each! I dusted off the tape player and enjoyed these great movies.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981): This was not the first Indy movie I saw and it would be years after it's release before I watched it. This is how adventure movies should be done. Lucas and Speilberg at the top of their game.

The highlights are obviously the opening where Indy avoids the giant boulder and the end where the Nazi gets melted by the ark. Checking IMDB, I just found out that Dr. Octopus himself, Mr. Alfred Molina was in this movie!

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984): This movie was my introduction to Dr. Jones, and what an intro it was.

From the opening where a guy gets a flaming skewer thrown into his chest, to Data from the Goonies, to still beating hearts being ripped out to bad guys being torn apart by alligators there is just so many memorable moments to this movie! I didn't even mention the cart race of good vs. evil in the mines! Amazing movie!

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989): As the alleged last movie in the Indiana Jones series, this movie did it right.

They introduced Indy's dad, played by the great Sean Connery which was a great addition and the adventure was just as exciting and dangerous as the previous installments. Even Hitler has a cameo! A nice way to send off the franchise. Let's not talk about that other movie. The less said, the better.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)