20th Anniversary of Hoodwinked! (Limited Release date: December 16, 2005)

Almost twenty years ago, while my wife and I were on vacation, we found ourselves flipping through the channels on our room's television, and we stumbled upon a movie that reminded us of Shrek (already a few years old at this time), but instead of lampooning fairy tales in general, this movie focused on "Little Red Riding Hood," specifically. Upon our arrival back at home, we looked up the movie to secure the DVD, thus allowing us to finally watch Hoodwinked^* in its entirety.

Authentics Elita-1 (2025)

A generation or so ago, most toys came from one of five major retailers: Walmart, Target, Toys"Я"Us, Kmart, and KB Toys. Any toys sold outside of those "Big Five" were thus often referred to as "market six" toys. While many of the toys sold in these retailers were the same toys found elsewhere (sometimes well after those toys had disappeared from the "Big Five"), Hasbro would even create the occasional toy specifically intended for these more obscure venues. Fast-forward to today, and the reality is that three of those "Big Five" no longer even exist (well, as we established a few weeks ago, there is a Toys"Я"Us operating again, but it's really not the same company), and so the term "market six" became less and less accurate, and finally seems to have fallen out of use. 

Batman #457 (1990) and 35 Years of Tim Drake as Robin

In the over 85-year history of Batman, there have been many partners who have taken on the identity of Robin. While the original, Dick Grayson (who was introduced only a year after Batman himself), will probably always be the most well-known (despite now having spent almost half of his existence with a different identity entirely, that of "Nightwing"), the third Robin, Tim Drake, may well be the next-most popular. Tim's tenure as Robin, itself, is now 35 years old,^* and it's time to recognize this achievement.

Happy Halloween with Casper - "The Friendly Ghost" (1945)

If you're reading this on the day it drops, it's Halloween, but how to celebrate? Sadly, there are only so many appropriate Transformers to cover (that last one was, admittedly, a stretch), and I really want to focus on something fun rather than creepy. 

It turns out that Casper, the Friendly Ghost, is just about to celebrate his 80th birthday! Casper first appeared in a cartoon entitled (appropriately enough) The Friendly Ghost, which first appeared in theaters on November 16, 1945 (oddly, a couple of weeks after Halloween!). Also, conveniently, this short is in the Public Domain, so I can safely drop the whole thing right here and not worry about whether or not my usage qualifies under Fair Use doctrine:

Voiced by Walter Tetley (better known to many as the voice of Sherman from the Peabody's Improbable History cartoons that aired alongside Rocky and Bullwinkle), Casper was intended just to be a one-off, but proved so popular that he went on to star in dozens of further cartoons, and I don't think I'm exaggerating to say literally hundreds of comic book stories! Other cartoons often followed much the same plot as The Friendly Ghost. Casper is a lonely ghost, who struggles to make friends because nearly everyone he meets runs away in fear. Eventually, Casper finds another lonely soul, perhaps in danger from some persecutor from whom Casper is able to save them, and the cartoon ends with a new friendship forged. Why Casper always seems to be lonely again by the time the next cartoon begins is never addressed, and it's best not to think about it too hard. The later comic stories tended to give Casper a far more stable social life.

Whatever your Halloween plans, have a happy and safe one!

Jeffrey Prime (2016)

7 years ago, we said good-bye to Toys "Я" Us. At that time, I picked up this toy, a Japanese-exclusive, one of the surprisingly-few examples of a Toys "Я" Us-branded Transformer item, as a memento of the chain. It has hung quietly on a hook on my computer desk ever since. I never really intended to keep it in its package. I seldom do, anyway. Toys are meant to be played with, as I often say. But this toy is more of a symbol, certainly. So, for 7 years, it just stayed on the hook....

...Until now.

The Wild Wild West Comic Mini-Series (1990)

Before there was Legend, there was The Wild Wild West, a melding of western and spy genres that aired on CBS from 1965 to 1969. Its popularity was so great that it not only spawned two "reunion" specials (one in 1979, and the other in 1980... and there might have been even more if one of the leads didn't unexpectedly pass away the next year) and a theatrical spin-off starring Will Smith in 1999 (which wasn't generally well-received, but was responsible for rescuing a damaged historical locomotive engine. I say more about that here), but also a couple of comic book series. There was a series published by Gold Key in the '60s, which I've never seen, and a more recent comic book mini-series published by a company called Millennium in 1990, which is what I'll be talking about here.

Thrilling 30 Sandstorm (2013)

About mid-way into 2013, Hasbro started (perhaps prematurely?) to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Transformers franchise (which started well into 1984) with what they called the Thrilling 30. Toys were released as part of already-established Generations line, revisiting characters from all of the various aspects of the franchise to this point (not just "Generation One," although it's undeniable that those characters were given a bit more attention than other specific lines that came later, and which had been on toy shelves more recently).