You’ve got to listen to some of this. The narrator reads the (abysmal) story with the enthusiasm of a dead insurance underwriter.
Archive for September, 2013
Kid Stuff Records: G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero in The Captive City (1984)
Published September 9, 2013 G.I. Joe , Kid Stuff Records , Records (LPs) and Cassettes 6 Comments
Do war toys glorify war? I think so, but the president of Toy Manufacturers of U.S.A. makes a savvy point in this 1966 Gettysburg Times article: “Unless you eliminate the adult activity, you can’t stop the child from duplicating it.”
Anyway, this Marx set is beautifully made. Can a toy be art? Can a war toy be art?
Super 8: Mikey Walters’ Target: Earth (1979)
Published September 5, 2013 '70s Movies/TV , DIY , Kid Films , Sci-Fi Movies/TV 6 CommentsAs if there weren’t enough evidence* that Mikey did more before he turned 13 than I’ve done ever, here’s a movie he shot during the summer after 6th grade. He gave me some production notes to go with it.
- My dad shot the scenes that I was “acting” in. Shot in order, no editing.
- Original film had no sound, but I made a cassette tape using the Star Wars soundtrack and various sound effects. The tape is long lost, but I “recreated” the sounds for YouTube.
- Stop-motion titles and credits.
- Nerf ball planet, Earth image cut out of National Geographic.
- My idea of kitbashing was gluing two battleships together (standard plastic model kits) and painting them white.
- The famous black helmet that we both had is featured!
- The control panel includes a Merlin.
- Please ignore the hanging potted plant when the ship takes off.
- Lasers were scratched directly onto the film.
- The doomed city is an HO-scale train set and a bridge building set that I loved to play with.
We think the top button on the control panel says ‘power’. The other two say `take off’ and `fire’. The dials and graphics on the control panel were cut out of Mikey’s dad’s old Air Force training manuals, and the buttons were capsules from vending machines.
As for the movie itself, the violence the director perpetrates on our poor planet is shocking! The slow head turn of the caped figure (who in no way resembles Darth Vader) is unnervingly menacing. And what about that innocent kid, sadistically vaporized right out of his clothes? Is there no mercy? No. Only death and destruction, and the realization that all men are mortal, that everything we build will eventually crumble.
By the way, Mikey hadn’t seen 1954’s Target Earth, a classic robot invasion movie starring Richard Denning, before he made his existential sci-fi flick, although he says he might have come across the title in Starlog.
*Mikey’s homemade D&D modules are here. His published (and now playable!) Atari BASIC video game is here. My interview with him is here.
***
If you made a movie as a kid, I’d love to feature it. Contact me at 2warpstoneptune@gmail.com.
Kids Reading Comic Books, 1946
Published September 4, 2013 Comic Book Stores , Comic Books , Kids Reading Comics 4 Comments
My daughter and her friends will know the exhilaration of spending summer days sifting through stacks of books and comics. If I have to open my own store and lose money steadily over several years to make it happen, so be it.
Easton Avenue in Wellston, Missouri, once a thriving business district, is now an “urban ghost town.” More on the decline of Wellston here.
(All images via Comic Pix Jones)
A Portrait of Young Geeks Playing D&D (1980/1981)
Published September 3, 2013 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , D&D , D&D Portraits 3 Comments
From David Thiel, who gives us the entertaining back story:
It should be a surprise to no one that I was one of the founding members of the Hobart High School Dungeons & Dragons Club. Each Saturday morning, about twenty of us took over the basement of the Hobart Public Library for a half day of imaginary violence.
Here, courtesy the HHS yearbook, is the sole photo I have of me In flagrante dungeon…
Note that I was both wearing a Star Wars T-shirt and using an Empire Strikes Back school folder as a Dungeon Master’s screen. Yeah, I was stylin’.
What’s truly scary is that I’ve just realized that all these years later I can still immediately identify the D&D adventure being played by the two virgins in the background: the infamous “Queen of the Demonweb Pits.”
All this is my way of pointing out that I am indeed an old-schooler when it comes to dungeoneering […]
Read the rest of the post. No mention of the luxurious lip fuzz, David?
1981 TSR ‘Gateway to Adventure’ Catalog
Published September 3, 2013 Catalogs , D&D , D&D Art , D&D Non-Gaming Merchandise , David C. Sutherland III , Erol Otus , TSR 11 Comments
You can thumb through a PDF of the whole catalog at Recycled Thoughts from a Retro Gamer. You can also see the complete catalog at Mikey Walters’ Flickr. The images above are from eBay, where you can usually find a copy for $5 – $10.
The shirts are very cool, but apparently not very well-made. Here they are, courtesy of Grognardia.
The D&D Basic Set advertised in the catalog is the just released 1981 edition, written by Tom Moldvay with cover art by Erol Otus. The images on the t-shirts on the top left are from Sutherland’s cover to the original Basic Set—written by M.D. and fantasy writer-promoter John Eric Holmes—from 1977.
I found the Grognardia post via the Original D&D Discussion forums. Zenopus, who writes a terrific blog “exploring the underworld of Holmes Basic,” posted a number of different photos showing the famous Sutherland red dragon, including this beauty:
It’s from the magazine Games Merchandising (a retailer magazine), and shows the TSR booth at the Hobby Industry of America (HIA) 1981 trade show. Dig the red Face logo chairs!
2 Warps to Neptune 