The comic book I am most excited to read this week is... THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS #10 (W) Akira Himekawa (A) Akira Himekawa Sensing that total victory and the total destruction of Hyrule is within his grasp, Ganondorf unleashes his armies. Link, Midna, their friends, and many others they have met on their journey now fight side by side to save the land. Even some former enemies find themselves allied with Link as he presses on into the heart of Ganondorf's stronghold. When Link confronts Ganondorf, defeating him will take every ounce of skill and courage he has... SRP: $9.99 Synopsis Provided By: PreviewsWorld.com
80's Day was something I started 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 to do as a kid. The recreation may not be 100% faithful to what life was like back in the 80's, but I feel like we did the best we could with the resources we had available. Here's a re-cap of what we did in 2022!
We started the day as most kids in the 80's did, eating cereal in front of the TV while watching cartoons! Here is what the lineup consisted of: The Legend of Zelda, Popples, M.A.S.K. and Blackstar! Every year I pick a semi-obscure cartoon from my youth for my kids to view. Of course they know He-Man, Ninja Turtles and Transformers, but they were all scratching their heads when Blackstar hit the screen. As was the case with the Centurions viewing last year, I don't think I created any new Blackstar fans. They correctly identified it as a "Bootleg Masters of the Universe" that was done by the same company, Filmation. Anyway, you can view the episode we watched at the YouTube link below:
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 Care Bears and The Legend of Zelda. I chose to wear my Mirage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt and my wife had her Jem 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 "The Goonies 'r' Good Enough" by Cyndi Lauper!
Our first stop of the day was the local comic shop! I picked a Spider-Man book and let the kids each pick out an item. I know it's not 80's, but my twins each picked a pack of Pokemon cards and my oldest daughter grabbed a Stranger Things book. 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.
Next we went to the mall and hit up Gamestop to check out the latest games for our Switch and then we headed to the candy store. I let them each pick out a Pez dispenser and I grabbed some gummy bug candies.
I love how the 80's was represented with everything from Warheads to Whatchamacallit candy bars to these awesome looking Golden Girls mints!
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. Again, my kids were jumping with crazy joy to find out the toy this time around was Pokemon cards! Yay! More Pokemon cards!!! It was pretty cool that we did get the table with the video games built in though!
Usually we go home and play some retro NES, Super NES and Atari video games, but this year I asked the kids if they wanted to go to the local arcade. They rejected that idea, but they did suggest going to Chuck E. Cheese and playing some games there. Who am I to argue with that!
We actually had a ton of fun and they had some pretty cool games including Guitar Hero, Monopoly and of course Skee-Ball!
My kids had something like 5,000,000 tickets which was just enough for them to get a few Tootsie Rolls, some stickers and a small plastic Chuck E. figure. Next time maybe we'll stay for the show and grab some pizza!
Speaking of pizza, it was close to dinner time by the time we left Chuck's, so we stopped by an old 80's staple...PIZZA HUT!
We got a stuffed crust peperoni pizza and a traditional supreme pie. We were going to eat in the restaurant, but when we walked in we were told that due to the lack of staffing the dining area was closed! Oh well, I guess we'll take it home.
When we got home, we dished up and prepared for the night's feature presentation, the 1986 classic...Labyrinth! The kids had seen this movie before, but it had been a while and there was so much that they forgot about. They laughed and thoroughly enjoyed this masterpiece of a film by Mr. Jim Henson featuring catchy tunes by David Bowie. Overall it was another successful 80s day that was enjoyed by all. I know I say this every year, but hopefully next year we can make it bigger and better!
Happy Halloween everybody! Hope it's full of frights, candy and lots of fun!!! Can't wait to go out with my kids this year! Each year my girls and wife go as a unit. This year the girls will be characters from the Disney movie "Descendants" and my wife will be Maleficent. Can you guess what me and my son are going as?
Santa was really good to me as a kid. Most of the time I got what I asked for and loved it! Some of those gifts though, bring back more nostalgia than others. Not too say those other toys were complete bombs, but some just hold a really special place in my heart. Like I said Santa was good to me and even the year he kinda screwed me over (Read all about that here) he gave me one of my most favorite toys of all time. That toy was...
Real Ghostbusters Slimer (Kenner, 1984)
I loved this toy! I was a huge Ghostbusters fan, so anything Ghostbusters would have been a winner, but Slimer was super cool. I would always have him flying around sliming my brother's Ghostbusters team and eating anything and everything he could. Am I the only one who still remembers the smell of the plastic food Slimer came with? That smell alone is Christmas to me!
M.U.S.C.L.E. Thug Busters Set (Mattel, 1985)
This was a fun gift! This big box of M.U.S.C.L.E. characters was a combo gift for me and my brother. We tried to split them up equally. Usually my older brother would take advantage of this situation, but I feel like I made out pretty good. After this Christmas we always had a pocket full of these little, rubber pink guys to keep us entertained on any trip our Mom took us on!
Thundercats Cat's Lair (LJN, 1986)
1986 was another year of disappointment for me as you may have read already. This amazing play set didn't show up under the Christmas tree, but came a few weeks later. When it did though, the battle for Third Earth was on! The Cat's Lair was incredible and stands as one of my fave places to play of all-time!
Super Mario 2 & Adventure of Link (Nintendo, 1988)
This was a big one. We usually got our big console gifts at Christmas. Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Playstation, but the biggest joy came from getting these games in 1988. Every kid wanted these games in their collections, but the rumors of a chip shortage causing delays to The Adventure of Link led many kids to believe they would never see this game at Christmas. I was one of those kids. That year during mine and my brothers annual snooping we discovered these in my parent's closet. We couldn't wait til Christmas. When it came we were full of joy and elation!
Nolan Ryan Limited Edition Kit (Mennen, 1994)
This one is kind of an odd ball. Who really likes getting these bathroom sets at Christmas? I didn't really want it, but I used it and the smell of Skin Bracer takes me back to the holidays of the early 90's. Isn't it crazy how certain smells or certain songs can instantly take you back to the good ol days? I still have that Nolan Ryan ball in my sports collection to this day.
This weekthe comic book I am most excited to read is...
LEGEND OF ZELDA TWILIGHT PRINCESS VOL 04
Link and Midna head for Death Mountain to dispel the darkness that is plaguing the Gorons and hopefully obtain another shard of the Shadow Crystal. If they can recover the shard they'll only need to find one more piece of the Crystal. But their journey is far from over-shadows are gathering at Hyrule Castle and there are still many grave dangers and terrible foes to face!
The SNES Mini has come and gone. I was one of the lucky few that was able to find one at a retail store and I LOVE IT! In fact, just the other day me and the kids were playing Super Mario World, F-Zero and Street Fighter II: Turbo Edition. I just wish there was a way to add more Super Nintendo games to it? Well, now all the talk and speculation has come to Nintendo releasing a Nintendo 64 Mini! If this happens, I want one! Here's my top ten list of games that I would like to see on an N64 console based on how much I enjoyed them as a kid.
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