Garbage Pail Kids Card of the Day

The brutality of the GPK trading cards never cease to amaze me. Someone call child services!

Growing Up with Toys: Counting Down the 10 Best Action Figure Series (#5-1)

Continuing from Part I…

#5

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Playmates Toys, 1988-1997)

I had forgotten just how awesome these toys were. Man, looking at the line up here, it brings back so many memories of TMNT toys I owned and my friends owned. Of course, at the core of any decent TMNT collection you have the original versions of the Turtles themselves. Splinter is optional, I never cared for the character or the figure. Sadly, despite being my favorite character, I never was able to get my hands on an original Raphael and had to settle for Breakfightin’ Raphael.

Besides Raph, I never got my hands on Shredder either. I remember going to K-Mart, Tons o’ Toys, Hills, and Roses all the time (this was before the days of Wal-Mart, Target and Toys R Us in my town) and constantly looking for Shredder. Could never find him. Until one day… One day in K-Mart, there was a huge row of Turtle figures and I found the ONE Shredder they had. I had it in my hand, I had parental purchasing confirmation and then, then I heard some kid talking his mom about never finding a Shredder figure and that he wanted one. Well, my heart grew three sizes that day when I heard those familiar Shredder Blues playin’. Out of the kindness of my heart, I walked up to the boy and told him he could have the one I had picked up. Darn. Now I gotta go search eBay for Shredder!

Although Raphael is my favorite Ninja Turtle, the original Michaelangelo is my favorite TMNT toy. I guess it goes back to orange being my favorite color, plus the way his left arm is posed, he was perfect to throw into my WWF ring and make use of the flying elbow drop as his finisher! Those four original figures are just awesome. They captured just the right amount of attitude with their pupil-less eyes and snarls and grimacing, just before the series got all wacky and gimmicky and decidedly more cartoonish (yes, I know it was based on the cartoon, but they took it to extremes later on!).

Another great series was their Mutatin’ Turtles, where you could stick their limbs into their shell, flip their head, and they looked like actual turtles. Usagi Yojimbo also deserves praise thanks to his legs being perfect to use the super kick as his finisher in my version of the WWF.

The series would go from totally awesome to totally awful once every new series pretty much featured almost exclusively Raph, Mike, Leo, and Don dressed up in various costumes and gimmicks (policeman, punk rocker, clown, astronaut, superhero, weightlifter, Universal Monsters, Star Trek, robots, etc).

Favorite Figures: Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Shredder, Foot Soldier, Bebop, Rocksteady, Casey Jones, Ace Duck, Usagi Yojimbo, Leatherheard, General Traag, Baxter Stockman, Metalhead, Breakfightin’ Raphael, Double Barreled Plunger Gun, Muckman, Triceraton, Zak the Neutrino, King Lionheart, Super Swimmin’ Raph, Mutatin’ Leonardo

Vacation Talk

Okay, so I’m back from vacation. It was a swell time down in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and despite the temperature hovering around the low 90s while there, it didn’t affect me much. That’s because I mostly stayed inside, BUT… It really and truly wasn’t as bad I remembered it.

We spent a few hours on Saturday on the boat and out in the water at Crab Island and then out in a cove in Shalimar before it looked like a storm was looming and we headed off for home. Those storm clouds didn’t actually lay the smack down until a few hours later, but that’s Florida weather for you. I think it stormed just about everyday we were there. Those afternoon thunderstorms would roll in and then roll out and by 5 or 6 PM, the air would be hot and the streets dry again.

We had to go from here in Lansing to Cincinatti to Atlanta to Pensacola on the way down and up. Our flights coming back were on time but the Atlanta flight heading *to* Pensacola was a mess. Our flight kept getting delayed, then we got loaded on the plane and sat for about 30 minutes before leaving the gate because they said our luggage was late. Then we sat on the runway for about 30 minutes with a million other planes ahead of us.

No one knew what was going on and we finally started moving aaaaaaaaaaaaaand they turned the plane around. The captain came on and said due to an oncoming storm no one was cleared to take off and because we sat for so long, the co-pilot had “run out of time” (aka – we don’t pay overtime). So we had to go BACK to the gate to drop her off and the captain said they were trying to figure out how to get a new co-pilot. As soon as we got to the gate, the captain said he didn’t know how long this would take so we all boarded off the plane and sat around for about 2 hours until they were finally able to pull someone off another flight to get us on our way. We were supposed to arrive in Pensacola at 4PM central, but thanks to all the delays, we didn’t get there until a bit after 9.

Besides that one bit, it was a good trip overall and maybe I’ll post some pics in the next week or so.

VACATION!

Well, I’m outta here for a bit, kiddies. Going to Florida, I shall return next week!

WWE Great American Bash 2008 Predictions

Bold text means that’s my predicted winner.

WWE Championship
Triple H (c) vs. Edge

Many people were thinking they would play up the Vickie/Edge break up, meaning no wedding/reception, up until the PPV with a swerve of La Familia helping Edge win. Well, given last night’s events on Smackdown, I still think Edge will win. He’ll find a way to pull this one off, setting up Vickie giving the go-ahead for ‘taker to return and chase Edge for the belt for a bit. Well, I actually, I hope we don’t see a chase. There’s just been too much Edge/’taker. Just gives us one more match and end it. Or make it a ‘taker/HHH/Edge feud, at least if this is going to be another long program.

Oh, and don’t you love how whatever belt HHH holds is current the “main” title in WWE and gets top billing? It’s always been whatever title RAW had that was most prestigious, but now that HHH holds a title on Smackdown, *that’s* the big belt.

World Heavyweight Championship
CM Punk (c) vs. Batista

So Punk has been getting the Rey Mysterio World title push, meaning he’s doing a lot of jobs and just getting punked out in general. He’s been made to look like he’s not worthy of being one of the “big dogs” and main eventers and WWE is actually encouraging this despite the decent ratings the Punk reign has brought. Punk jobbed to Batista in 2 minutes right after the RAW cameras stopped rolling, but I think that’s a red herring.

I say Punk retains, probably thanks to Kane interference on Batista. They probably won’t even let him pin him, it’ll just be a countout or DQ, furthering the notion that Punk is a punk. But, this is a good choice if they’re thinking the way I am.

Here’s my pitch: Batista loses, getting him ever closing to turning heel because he keeps obsessing over the title and choking in title matches. This also can set up a heel turn for Punk down the line who by him constantly trying to “prove” himself to the company, wrestlers and fans. Let him continuously get unintentional cheap wins via interference and countouts or put him in three-ways and let him pick the bones after the other two guys take each other out. People will say he still hasn’t proven himself with legit, definitive wins and this can push him over the edge as well and make him hyper-aggressive towards everyone and go on a whiny rampage about how much better he *knows* he is than everyone else.

ECW Championship
Mark Henry (c) vs. Tommy Dreamer

Look! Tommy Dreamer is a main eventer in WWE! Is there really any doubt? This’ll probably set up a Henry/Atlas vs. Dreamer/Delaney match. Wouldn’t you love to see that?

WWE Tag Team Championship Fatal Four Way
The Miz & John Morrison (c) vs. Finlay & Hornswoggle vs. Curt Hawkins & Zach Ryder vs. Jesse & Festus

The only team that has a chance of winning the belts if Finlay & Horny. Jesse & Festus are a joke and H&R are treated like ones as well. Plus, there’s no reason to make a heel to heel title change. M&M retain. These guys have done such a well job as champs (even though they lose non-title matches often), that it’ll mean more for them to the lose the belts in a two on two encounter.

NYC Parking Lot Brawl
John Cena vs. JBL

It’s a logical booking to have the attempted murderer to do the job. Could be a fun brawl, despite the ludicrous backstory. JBL is such a joke these days.

Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho

I’m loving this feud and my heart tells me Jericho should get the win here to keep the feud going, but my brain tells me HBK goes over. I hope I’m wrong though.

United States Championship
Matt Hardy (c) vs. Shelton Benjamin

Could be a decent match. Hard to tell with Shelton these days. He was on fire his first two years in the company and somehow fell behind. With Matt being an ECW “Superstar” holding a Smackdown belt and the recent affirmative action throughout WWE, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him drop to the Gold Standard here.

Then again, Miz & Morrison are ECW guys and have held the Smackdown tag belts for a while. I’ll say Hardy retains.

For the vacant Divas Championship
Michelle McCool vs. Natalya

Hmm… Michelle is dating the Undertaker. Which one do YOU think is going to win?

 

This looks like a real solid car on paper.