![]() ![]() Welcome to MuchGames.com, largest gaming social community on the net. With over 20,000 games to play, you should never get bored again. We add new games like Twisted Cooking Mama 2 every day. Play games, rate them, post comments, add them to your favorites, share them and chat with other online gamers. Furthermore, we add new every day so you can play against your friends. When you sign up as a member, you get to discover the social community part of the site which offers you the ability to upload and share photos, customize your gamer profile, draw sketches, make friends, start private chats, exchange gifts and keep track of what your friends have been up to. ![]() ![]() Okay, so this is sort of a bit of content recycling of stuff I’ve shared almost a decade ago here at Branded, but in the spirit (pun fully intended) of the new Ghostbusters flick debuting today I thought it would be fun to share my collection of Ghostbusters stickers again. Besides, it gives me an excuse to dig out all of these from my archives and stare at them again for a bit First up, I want to go way back to the first Peel Here column at Branded and take a look at one of my favorite kinds of sticker merchandising from the 80s, the Antioch sticker storybooks! These slim small books were released in the mid to late 80s and had a mix of heavily picture-driven adaptations of movies and TV shows. Each book also featured a sheet of 12 stickers at the back of the book that were meant to be applied to each page as a sort of accomplishment for reading through the book. My all time favorite Antioch book is the adaptation of the first Ghostbusters flick Man, I love the cover design of these books so much, in particular that “12 Stickers” rainbow badge. That always got me jazzed. Here’s a look at the copyright page that has one of my all time favorite pieces of Ghostbusters artwork How badass is that illustration?! Play the Cooking Mama game online for free! In Cooking Mama. Mama 3 twisted cooking mama 2. Social community on the net. With over 20,000 games to play. (twisted) cooking mama, free online games, flash games, free flash games, online games, play game. Here are the stickers that accompanied this book Now these were covered in the. When I tracked down the book to share here at the site, I was a little curious about the stickers that were included, as I seemed to remember ones that weren’t on the sheet that featured speech bubbles with Ghostbusters quotes and taglines. It wasn’t until a year or so later when I found a picture online of the sticker sheet that I was thinking of. Since there isn’t really a resource on 23 year-old sticker storybooks, I sort of made an educated guess, figuring that there were probably variants of the books, one with more traditional stickers of the actors, and one with the GB quote stickers. Well, it turns out that I was wrong, and I was actually combining memories of two separate Ghostbusters books, both printed by Antioch in 1984. I believe I had both, but for some reason I seem to remember the book portion of one more and the stickers of the other. Memory is such a weird thing, and it makes me wonder how many of mine are muddled like this; my brain picking and choosing the best moments to combines into a pleasant recollection of the past. ![]() It’s funny; I think this same phenomenon has also led a lot of people to remember things that didn’t exist at all, one of the best examples of which is a finally plot-resolving episode of the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. The people who believe it exists, fervently believe that it exists, as they have specific memories of events in the episode, in particular a plot point in which one of the main characters was reunited with someone they came across in the realm. I’ve seen every episode of the cartoon, and there is no final episode (well at least not one that was filmed), and honestly the best explanation I can think of is that they are remembering various parts of separate episodes, combining them in their memory into an amalgamated final episode. Like I said, memory is a really weird thing. Anyway, I eventually managed to track down a copy of the second Ghostbusters Antioch sticker/storybook from 1984, the Official Ghostbusters Training Manual: A Guide to Catching Ghosts Here is a scan the stickers that were included with that book What’s fun about tracking down older books like this, especially ones that came with disposable components like stickers, is that sometimes you can get a feel for how the owners felt about it. Typically, if you found this book in a used bookstore or on eBay the sticker sheet would be lost or used up with absolutely no evidence as to where they ended up. In the case of Antioch, a lot of their books were designed with a page at the back that the owner was supposed to stick the stickers on, and in this particular book’s case, the stickers were designed to be applied on every other page. Luckily there was only one sticker missing from the sheet, and it ended up in the book, so technically it’s still sort of entirely intact. Unlike the other GB book, which was a straightforward concentrated version of the movie story, this book is actually something new, a training guide to becoming a Ghostbuster. According to this manual, after only ten short lessons (well 9 lessons and a graduation day celebration) anyone who is looking for a change in their life can become a ghost hunting fool. There is of course the matter of making sure you apply the correct sticker to the correct lesson page, but thankfully there are silhouetted hints to help with this. On this episode of the all new Branded in the 80s podcast I spend little time talking about one of my favorite 80s era collectibles, movie tie-in novelizations! I cover a bit of the reason why I love them as a concept before diving into some discussion talking all about the 1985 Ghostbusters: A Supernatural Spectacular novel written by Richard Mueller. I cover some extended and deleted scenes as well as some all new material that wasn’t either in the script or the finished film. If you want to read the book and don’t have the mulah to drop on the vintage copy,! You can find the episode on, Stitcher, the, or you can also stream it directly from the handy player below, or download it directly. In this episode’s shout-out I take a minute to point to my bud and his new. You can find Philip’s previous ultra rad books on Amazon by click in the covers below. So, one of the small projects I’ve been working on this past month is the resurrection of the. It’s been over five years since I last recorded an episode of the show and even though I find solo-podcasting terribly frustrating, I’ve always missed it a little. I started this site with the podcast and for the 10th anniversary I felt it would be a fun challenge to see if I could dust off the show, clean it up a bit and put a new coat of wax on it. I’m not sure how long this new incarnation might last, but I intend to try and keep it going throughout the rest of the summer at the very least For the first new episode of the show I decided to sit down and record some thoughts on the return of and why it might be a good experiment to try and find the positive aspects of the pop culture we love and love to gripe about. I’m still playing around with the format a bit, so excuse me while I make a fool of myself. There are a few ways you can snag new episodes of the show. I’ve submitted it to iTunes and Stitcher, so those avenues should go live soon, but until then you can feed or right click and. You can also stream it via the player below or on the. So for all two of you who have been asking for it, yes, the Branded in the 80s podcast is back. But before I get to that, let me back up a second. One of the most bittersweet nostalgic experiences is the yearning for food and drink products that are long gone from this Earth. I mean, so many other things can easily be revisited. The prints and master tapes of long lost television shows and movies are typically stored in studio vaults and can be re-released at will (well, as long as it’s profitable.) Old books and magazines are all floating around in dusty second hand and comic shops (or in the middle of a precariously stacked section of trash in a horder’s bedroom.) Any pretty much every toy, video game or or plush doll is available on eBay, Etsy, or digitized as a rom for your downloading pleasure. But defunct food and drink products become extinct by design. Sure, there are actually plenty of old, full boxes of cereal, cans of pasta and cases of soda readily available for purchase, but it is all beyond safely consuming (.) So where does that leave a generation of kids who grew up loving certain tastes and textures? It leaves us mostly unfulfilled. Hey, no one ever promised us we’d have Keebler Pizzarias, Quackers, Fruit Corner branded fruit snacks, Bonkers candy, or yes, Hi-C Ecto Cooler forever. And on the scale of things that one needs to survive in this world, re-experieincing the flavor sensations of old junk food is pretty low. That being said, when left to our own devices we will try pretty damn hard to recreate those products. Whether it’s finding the closest possible substitutions (did you know that El Sabroso brand Salsitas chips make a pretty damn good stand in for Keebler Pizzarias?) or trying our best to recreate the recipe. About five or six years ago an Ecto Cooler recipe started floating around the internet. I’m not sure who originated it, but I scoped it at my bud’s site,, and tried it myself for a special Halloween treat. It consisted of 1.5 cups of sugar, 1 packet of orange Kool-Aid mix, 1/2 packet of Lemonade Kool-Aid mix, 3/4 cup orange juice (with no pulp), 3/4 cup of tangerine juice, 14 cups of water, and 4-5 drops green food coloring. The concoction tasted pretty close, but it was way off in consistency and because it used orange and tangerine juices as a base it was way too opaque. And backing up again for a second, why is Ecto Cooler so beloved anyway? Where did this drink originate? Well, it might be a bit of a surprise to some but Ecto Cooler as we know and love it is actually a rebranded version of one of Hi-C’s earliest flavor varieties from 1965, Citrus Cooler Drink (which was the same green, tangerine-flavored 10% juice drink). Image courtesy of That’s right, kids and families have been chugging that sweet green tangerine drink since the 60s. In 1986-87, as part of a deal to work a Real Ghostbusters cartoon promotion into the Hi-C drink line the Citrus Cooler was rebranded to Ecto Cooler and featured everyone’s favorite ugly spud Slimer on the packaging. Though the actual drink was not new, it was one of the coolest and longest lived of all the Ghostbusters merchandising tie-ins that not only outlasted the cartoon series it was shilling, it far exceeded the company’s expectations fandom-wise. Even if it was just a rebranded Citrus Cooler, a who generation of kids thought it was new and amazing. It was like drinking citrus-flavored ectoplasm, or as I used to think of it, the essence of Slimer. It’s such a simple tie in that fit so perfectly that it became a part of the fabric of so many kid’s lives for a full decade (from 1987 to 1997.) In 1997 the Slimer and Ghostbusters promotional aspect of the drink was dropped and it was again rebranded to Shoutin’ Orange Tangergreen for the next few years. In fact, back before I started Branded in the 80s, around 2001 or 2002 I was doing some research online to try and find out if Ecto Cooler was still being manufactured when I stumbled on a site called X-Entertainment (run by.) Pretty sure it was there that I learned that the drink was now called Shoutin’ Orange Tangergreen, and after reading his article I just had to have a taste of Ecto Cooler again. Unfortunately no stores in my area at the time stocked it, so in what seemed like a very desperate and insane choice at the time I ended up contacting a store in upstate New York and had them ship me a case down to Georgia. I think I paid something crazy like $40 in shipping for $9 worth of the drink, but for a couple months or so I had my Ecto Cooler nostalgic drink fix. Since it was so expensive to procure, I didn’t try and order any more, so I was unaware until recently that the drink had one final rebranding back in 2006. The Coca Cola Company brought the drink almost full circle by renaming it Crazy Citrus Cooler before finally retiring it for good a year later in 2007. I think it was pretty safe to say that up until the announcement of the new Paul Fieg Ghostbusters movie starring Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon, Ghostbusters and nostalgic food fans had given up any hope that we’d ever have a taste of that electric green tangerine flavored beverage. Thus, the fan concocted recipes began bouncing around the internet and a hundred online petitions to Coke were created. Every time there was a whisper of a potential Ghostbusters 3 movie in the works all of us fans would speculate as to whether it would be a big enough deal to raise Ecto Cooler like a spectral form from the junkfood graveyard. Then a few months ago something amazing happened. With all the hubbub surrounding the new Ghostbusters flick taking the internet by storm, a lone empty can of Ecto Cooler popped up on eBay that very possibly signaled the return of our beloved juice drink It looked official, was obviously not vintage (because of the calorie count shield and the 2016 Coke copyright), and was hotly bid over. In fact, it topped out at about $200. Now this is noting new for empty Ecto Cooler packaging. There are routinely empty cases, juice boxes, and even full 32 ounce cans popping up on the auction site for up to $300. But at the time no one was quite sure if this was an elaborate ruse or the real deal. And if it was the real deal, wouldn’t it be less impulsive to wait until the movie came out to get cans at retain for way cheaper? But this is the life of Ecto Cooler fans, and really all nostalgia fans. We pay crazy amounts of money for tangible evidence of our pop culture obsessions. Well, it turns out that that can was in fact the real deal, and we can fast forward back to the present and this past Thursday when a handful of bloggers and websites received care packages from Hi-C containing a very special advance shipment of one of the most desired soft drinks of the past 30 years, Ecto Freaking Cooler! I have to hand it to the marketing department on the production of this advance giftbox. Having it designed to look like a cross between a ghost trap and a containment until was pretty rad. The two doors on top flip open to reveal the contents inside, a single can and juice box of the newly released Ecto Cooler Rounding out this set is a small barrel of toy slime which as you can see in the first picture above made for some great photo opportunities So how about the taste? How closely was the Coca Cola Company able to reformulate the original taste of Hi-C Ecto Cooler? To me it tastes the same as it did back in 2002 when I last had it, and as close as I can remember to those hazy days in the 80s when I was drinking a 32 ounce can every week. In fact, I had pretty much no doubt in my mind that it would taste the same as it’s a specific product variety that they’d manufactured for over 40 years before they retired it in 2007. I mean, it’s only been 9 years since it was last on store shelves, though it feels more like 20 since it wasn’t called Ecto Cooler since the late nineties. It was hard getting accurate pictures of just how green this amazing drink is, but rest assured, it looks exactly as you remember it too. As an added bonus, the Hi-C logo on the can changes colors when the drink inside is chilled. Pretty nifty little design element. The cans and juice boxes should be hitting retail chains on May 30th. I’m going to go ahead and say that your best bet will probably be checking out your local Target or Wal-Mart, which typically carry specialty movie tie-in merchandise like this. My hope is that much like the original launch of Ecto Cooler, this one outlasts the movie that it’s tied to and that it hangs around for the next decade. But just in case, stock up because it’s advertised as being a limited run only So, are you excited for the return of Ecto Cooler? Any plans to do anything crazy with it, like making popsicles, mixed drinks, or baking? Will you be checking your local stores on May 30th? This entry was posted in,, and tagged,,,,,,,,,, on. Poor Winston Zeddmore and Ernie Hudson, it seems like outside of the Real Ghostbusters cartoon and the various comic book series Winston/Hudson is always getting the shaft. Whether it’s being dropped from 95% of the merchandising of the first film not appearing on the posters or on some of the home video releases over the years, the fact that Hudson is (there’s even a montage of everyone who is starring in the film and when it gets to Hudson, the footage is there but only silence from the announcer), or the fact that Hudson was even for crying out loud. Both the character and the actor can not catch a break. I’m surprised they didn’t put William Atherton on the poster just to rub it in a little more Well, I’ve been aware of these slights for awhile, but I never realized just how deep this snubbing went. Last week I found that copy of Starlog (issue 98 from September of 1985) and while flipping through it there was a spotlight on Ernie Hudson, specifically in reference to his recent stint as one of the Ghostbusters. At first I was just skimming the article because I thought it was probably a fluff piece, but the more I read the more I realized that even though he was overjoyed to work on the film and is happy with the final result, the Ghostbusters he helped make was not the one he signed on to star in. In fact, if the version of the script that swayed Hudson to sign on had been filmed things would be a lot different! Sigh, Hudson doesn’t even get a blurb on the cover First of all, the way Hudson frames it in this article the character of Winston was in the film longer, originally hired at the outset with Janene when the trio of Stanz, Spengler, and Venkman open the business. But aside from that there was originally a much richer back story for the character including the fact that he was ex-military, and not just some random guy off the street looking for a job. He always felt like the odd man out in the films since he wasn’t a scientist like the other three (well Venkman is debatable.) On top of those slights, some of his bits from the original script were dished out to other characters during filming. For instance Winston was originally the character that was to be cornered by Slimer in the hotel hallway, which of course went to Bill Murray. Then later in the film it was Zeddmore that had the Stay Pufy brain fart that brings the Destroyer in the form of a giant marshmallow man! Well, at least he still gets the “big Twinkie” line You can read the article for yourself below. Though I’ve been more or less away from the site for the last few months, I’ve still been mucking about with some geeky nostalgic stuff. In particular. Since I’ve broken down and started picking up some more vintage toys lately (ones that I used to own not mint on card or in box), as well as picking up some modern nostalgic figures here and there, I thought it would be cool to jumble these up and create some goofy Awkward Toy Family photos to document the collection. That’s one of the things that I enjoy about Instagram is that it only takes a few minutes to grab a few toys from the shelf and snap a picture before heading out to work. It’s never going to replace Branded, but when I’ve got a crap ton of real life things eradicating my time to write, it’s a great way to still feel engaged. So, with that in mind, here are some of the photos I’ve shot over the summer This is one of the first I shot, and it was just totally on a whim. I love the idea of Faker giving piggyback rides. My good buddy HooveR had sent me this Captain Power figure and that small act of kindness is pretty much what helped me break through my aversion to procuring loose, used, old toys. I had forgotten how cool the Captain figure was and had a blast pairing him up with my Masters of the Universe figures, so I just said “screw it” and started hitting up eBay. So thanks Hoov!;) Speaking of the Captain, here’s a photo for a failed 80s band that could never reproduce the popularity of their first and only major label record., a swell dude I follow on the social media was kind enough to send me his old Miles Mayhem figure, and I had just recently picked up that sweet Tux Go Bot mint on card at a local antique shop for only $7. I envisioned this photo as three hard working dudes getting together after a tough day of doing whatever jobs requires wearing these cumbersome masks. Emmdubs has also sent me this Matt Tracker figure, and I went ahead and pulled the trigger on two of my favorite childhood action figures from the Star Wars and G.I. Joe lines (the AT-AT Driver and Wet Suit.) Next up is my cadre of feathered heroes including Quicksilver from the Silverhawks (the only Silverhawks figure I owned as a kid), Jason from Battle of the Planets, and Gizmoduck from DuckTales. I had this GD cereal premium as a teen and cherished it so much that I turned it into a lucky necklace and wore it to my high school graduation. Some ridiculous teacher saw it and snatched it away from me and I never found her to get it back. By the by, man is it ever hard to find a decent condition Silverhawks figure. The chrome plating wears off so easily so 97% of the loose figures I’ve seen look terrible. Took forever to find this one Here’s a weird toy robot family photo including my all time favorite Transformer Sideswipe, Cliffjumper, a cool Decoy of Smokescreen, and my favorite Go Bots toy, the Super Go Bot Psycho! Switching gears a bit, here’s a picture of some of my favorite childhood motorcycles (Sly and Piranha & Brad Turner and Condor from M.A.S.K. Along with Afterburner from the Transformers.) Here’s another early one that I’ve posted before featuring a D&D Wardule, Tonto from the Gabriel Lone Ranger line and a demon from Blackstar. For those of you who are longtime readers you’ll know that I love Robo Force and I REALLY love their sweet hugging action feature Remember that time He-Man and Teela ended up in the spirit world and really needed some help getting the new tenants of Castle Greyskull to move out? Beetlejuice was not the greatest option, but they had to try Some of my favorite super hungry and ornery aliens and ghosts! Hands down, my favorite G.I. Joe figure had to be Dial Tone. Such an under appreciated figure and character. He’s posing with a sweet water color portrait by the kickass! I also ran across some of my Micro Machines star wars tiny mini figures, so I did a couple of shoots with them and their larger counterparts. Admiral Ackbar can not repel cuteness of that magnitude! As for the Gamorean Guard and Greedo, I think the guard got the better end of this trade by far And speaking of Greedo, last but not least, Greedo playing Space Invaders (which was what I was fiddling with with the as a guest) So. I try and post regularly and do my best to keep it fun! This entry was posted in,, and tagged,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, on. About a month ago my good friend and the tipped me off to. Not only is it special in that it’s part of the 30th anniversary celebration this year, but the 10″ single would also be issued in a “slimed” edition (aka glow in the dark vinyl.) I’m typically not an avid collector of albums on vinyl since I don’t own a turntable and have pretty much all my favorite music at my fingertips digitally, but the allure of a glow in the dark Ghostbusters album that would look pretty darn rad up on the wall of Branded HQ was a bit too much for me to pass up! Though I was vaguely aware of the annual Record Store Day events, I’ve never turned out for one and as the weekend of the release approached I was getting a little apprehensive. I’d started hearing horror stories about folks waiting in lines and in some places even camping out over night. “Seriously?!?” I wondered aloud to my empty office last night at work while looking up my local participating stores. I mean it seems like vinyl enthusiasts are a niche group as it is, and I just can’t imagine that there are enough (in the per-store ratio sense) to necessitate forgoing showers and the comfort of sleeping in on a Saturday just to snag some limited edition records. I thought it was weird enough when people were lining up for Episode I all those years ago, let alone copies of the Pink Panther soundtrack on pink vinyl or the Nirvana singles collection. I started wondering if it was even worth trying as the forecast Saturday was calling for rain and temperatures in the 40s. So I called ahead and made sure there was a store near me that actually had this Ghostbusters release in stock, and luckily there was. Except they only had two copies. In fact, I was hearing that the entire release was limited to 1000 copies nationwide. Now my head was filling with images of having to stand out in the cold rain in a tug of war battle with a couple other aging nostalgia nuts fighting over who got to take one of these home. When I arrived at the store (the CD Warehouse in Duluth, GA) 30 minutes before opening there was a small line of record lovers waiting patiently for the place to open. I didn’t see anyone decked out in full Ghostbusters overalls with proton packs, so I started to feel my chances were pretty decent. All my worries dissipated when one of the employees came out and made a list of everyone’s name and one record that they wanted to call dibs on. I was the only one with a wide smile, proudly stating “Put me down for one Ray Parker Jr. Please!” Three minutes later (and $17 poorer) I had my hands on this beautiful new piece for my Ghostbusters collection. I didn’t have to elbow anyone in the face or threaten to shut down a containment unit either. When I got home, being the nerd I am, I immediately help the record up to my overhead kitchen light and charged the vinyl so that I could see it glow in all its spooktacular glory I can’t quite put my finger on why, but there’s something I find amazingly alluring about that pale minty green color of glow in the dark products. I think it might even be giving hot pink a run for its money as my favorite color Though billed as a 10″ single, this album actually features four tracks. Side A has the original hit by Parker Jr. As well as an instrumental version, while side B features a DJ remix of Ghostbusters and an extended 6-minute version as well. So it’s almost like an EP I guess. I actually stumbled upon one of this compilation’s producers,, on instagram yesterday when I posted a picture of the record while announcing my intention to hunt one of them down. I just want to say that he and Jeff James (the other listed producer) did an amazing job on this record. I love the design, especially how the GB logo backing shows through the translucent vinyl, and the simple clean logo center sticker on the album. There’s also a nice version of the original trio from the movie poster on the back of the insert Checking online as I left the store I started feeling pretty lucky that I managed to snag a copy of this album. Seems like a lot of folks who were hunting for a copy were leaving stores empty-handed. Again, pegged the pressing at 1k copies, as did Duquette when I asked. The Record Store Day website though, which seems to point to the fact that it will possibly be released more widely down the road a bit. My copy was also numbered 5103, while a friend in another state had one stamped 2340, so I’m not sure how accurate the 1000 pressings figure is. Maybe there are only 1000 in glow in the dark vinyl? Either way, I hear they’re going for stupidly high amounts on ebay (man I hate scalpers), so if you’re looking to pick one of these up I’d suggest waiting a bit for a wider release. So, there were also some other pretty neat albums re-released in limited runs today including the original Muppet Movie soundtrack. Anyone out there brave the crowds and score some fun vinyl? This entry was posted in and tagged,,,,,,,, on. It may sound weird, but I find myself asking this question a lot. Over the past decade I’ve noticed that a lot of the films I grew up loving have started seeing revival screenings in movie theaters. It actually probably started in the late 90s with the 20th anniversary of Star Wars and the special editions that were re-released on the big screen. Not long after there was a 20-year anniversary screening of Ridley Scott’s Director’s Cut of Alien, and eventually there was the 2002 special edition of E.T. At the time I was in college and hitting the theater multiple times a week as it seemed like I had tons of free time and extra money for catching movies. These days both time and money seem to be vanishing into a black hole and I barely make the room in my budget or schedule for new movies, let alone flicks I’ve seen dozens, sometimes (gulp – I’ll admit) hundreds, of times. I tend to throw on 80s flicks while I’m farting around home, doing chores, cooking, or just for background noise while I’m working on the site. So I feel like I’ve seen so many of these movies to death, and when the opportunity comes for catching one of them on the big screen I always find myself wondering if it’s really worth it. I found myself skipping out on a lot of opportunities to catch these flicks in the theater until this past fall when I snagged some unbeatable deals. There’s a small theater chain in my area called Studio Movie Grill that’s been hosting a series of semi-monthly $2 screenings featuring one-night-only engagements of some pretty cool 80s flicks like Ghostbusters and E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. At two bucks I couldn’t pass up on the chance to see both of these on the big screen again (both of which I saw back in the early 80s, E.T. During both it’s initial run and when it was brought back into theaters in 1985.) I had a lot of fun reliving the theater experience with these, both of which were filled with families that were exposing their kids to them for the first time (as I gleaned from overhearing parents explaining the various plot points during the movie), but would I still go in the future if I wasn’t getting such an awesome deal on admission? Short answer? Emphatic yes. If you would have asked me before I went into both of these screenings if I thought I’d learn or experience anything new about these movies that I’ve seen so many times I stopped counting, I would have chuckled and said no. I mean between the ability to practically get the theatrical experience at home on a 60-inch screen with surround sound, or slim likely hood that I’d notice anything that hasn’t already been documented a million times on the internet, what new could I really get from seeing these in the theater? Well, I would have been wrong for dismissing the experience because for the first time in a very long time I saw these movies with totally fresh eyes. I’m sure part of this is the communal theater-going vibe, but I noticed so many little details that I never noticed before. For instance, in Ghostbusters I never noticed how many times the Stay Puft brand is peppered throughout the film before we get to see the form of the Destroyer that so innocently just pops into Ray Stanz’s mind. When Dana comes home from shopping she unpacks a bag of Stay Puft marshmallows for one, but there are also mural advertisements on the sides of buildings in some shots! Also, did you know that none other than Ron “The Hedghog” Jeremy has a cameo appearance in the crowd scene right after Walter Peck has the containment unit shutdown? Yup, he’s there in the crowd. I also never noticed the Chinese hat Ray is wearing as a thank you gift in the montage sequence when the Ghostbusters’ business is taking the city by storm (when they apparently helped a restaurant rid themselves of a spook.) As for E.T., I took extra special care to keep an eye out for details in Elliot’s room since I’d been having so much fun analyzing the bedrooms in 80s kid’s flicks recently., but damn if I didn’t find more stuff! First of all, when I originally dissected the room there was a weird dart board cabinet that I couldn’t identify (number 15 in the below picture Well, it was as plain as day on the big screen. #15 is in fact an Artful Dodger dart board cabinet from Oliver Twist! Now that I’ve identified that it doesn’t do much to explain why the Artful Dodger is on a dart board cabinet, but still, mystery solved. In addition to this I also noticed some more toys in Elliot’s room, as well as in their living room! Chutes and Ladders boardgame 2). Magic 8 Ball 3). Lego Universal Building Set 4). Empire Strikes Back Twin-Pod Cloud Car 5). Super Simon Electronic Game Though the Super Simon box is in the screen shot above (in Elliot’s room), the game itself is actually on a shelf in the living room But for the first time I noticed that there are also some other fun things in the living room like 6). An Atari 2600 7). There were also a bunch of other small, fun things I noticed throughout the film. Little details, like how John Williams drops into Yoda’s Theme for a could of beats during the Halloween scene when E.T. Sees a kid dressed up in a Don Post Yoda mask or the fact that Dee Wallace is wearing a really weird handgun pin on her vest in one sequence Sure, these things haven’t radically changed my outlook on the film, but any time I have the opportunity to learn something new about a film I thought I knew everything about, well that’s worth a full-priced movie ticket if you ask me. I’m actually pretty excited as the has announced their 2014 schedule of $2 revival screenings and there are a bunch of flicks I can’t wait to see in the theater (and for some it will be the first time I’ve seen them on the big screen. There are two categories of events, the and the. The former features some more recent fare mixed in, but there are a few flicks I’m looking forward to catching Totally looking forward to catching Alien, Temple of Doom, and Jaws. As for the Family Rewind, there’s way more on that list that I’m going to try and catch I mean, holy crap, I never got a chance to see The Neverending Story, Labyrinth, Goonies, Annie, The Princess Bride, and Gremlins in the big screen as a kid, and I can’t wait to see Back to the Future and Big on the silver screen again. All in all this looks like it’s going to be a fun year at the movies catching up on all my favorites from the 80s! So seriously, if you get a chance to catch a revival screening, or you have a Studio Movie Grill near you, it’s totally worth seeing these flicks in the theater again. You won’t regret it! This entry was posted in and tagged,,,,,, on. So it was announced today that the 7th official Lego Cuusoo project is going to be. I was pretty excited when I saw the news because the work he did on his Ecto-1 is kind of beyond superb Not only is the Ecto-1 really beautiful, but his minifigs of our four heroes managed to really nail the personalities of Egon, Ray, Winston, and Peter. For those unfamiliar, Lego Cuusoo is a community-building based platform to submit ideas to Lego. These projects are put out to the public for support, and if they garner enough attention and votes the project is submitted to a review board for the possibility of becoming a production set. The set that drew my attention to this concept was the submitted early last year The DeLorean wasn’t the first “branded” Cuusoo project, but it’s the first older property that I’m sure fans have been making builds of for years to finally see an official release. I haven’t picked it up yet, but it sure is tempting. Is slightly different than the above, a little blockier and a bit less sleek, but it’s still pretty fantastic Coming hot on the heels of M. Togami’s Back to the Future DeLorean, this new Ghostbusters project got me thinking about what other possible 80s era projects builders have in the works. I mean with two major 80s properties now available you know folks have to be scrambling to showcase their skills on other franchises. It reminded me of I saw up on the site recently designed by a builder that goes by the handle Lyonsblood These Goonies sets manage to capture the adventure and aesthetic of the film in a very condensed format. Take the organ of bones play set he calls Skeleton Scare. The slide, the pit of spikes and the overall design of the cave are very rad and easily evoke the flick. He’s also designed a set for One-Eyed Willie’s pirate ship But what really sold me on the Goonies designs were the minifig sets of both the Goonies gang, as well as Mama Fratelli and her boys. As neat as these were I figured they’d probably never see the light of day, but after seeing there might be some hope just yet! So, what other fun 80s-centric projects are floating around on Lego Cuusoo? How about this rad large format build of by artist Kenta974! I love how he rendered the rebel flag on the roof, though it’s a design element that is the nail int eh coffin of this project never coming to fruition. I’d have a hard time seeing Lego seek branding approval for such a controversial symbol as that iconic flag. Even so, the build is awesome. While we’re on the subject of rad cars, how about this super cool rendition of He really managed to nail K.I.T.T.’s sleek curves and I think any Knightrider fan would love to have this on their shelf How could we have the Ecto-1, BTTF Time Machine, the General Lee and K.I.T.T. Without the A-Team and B.A.’s super cool van?!? Thanks to Isreal Lemus, we can take a look as well as Hannibal, Murdock, B.A. And Faceman Are we likely to see these other projects coming to full Cuusoo fruition? Probably not. I’d have to hazard a guess that the A-Team is too violent a property, the Dukes of Hazzard too controversial, and Knightrider not quite popular enough on the pop culture spectrum to garner enough potential buyers, but I think that the Goonies set has an honest to goodness shot if it can manage to get enough votes to put it in front of the review board. The only build that’s absent from this list that really surprises me is Airwolf. I must have spent two solid years trying to perfect my own “Lady” out of my rag tag mix of Space and Town sets as a kid. I’m really kind of flabbergasted that no one has submitted a build for one on Cuusoo yet. I couldn;t close out this post without one though, This entry was posted in, and tagged,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, on. It’s been awhile since I’ve talked about my love for tiny pop culture vehicles here at Branded so I decided to gather up all of my little die-cast beauties and go outside for a little photo-shoot this past weekend. I can’t even begin to say how happy I am that companies like Hot Wheels and Johnny Lightning are putting out so many 1:64 scale toys to feed my obsession with 80s era cars, trucks, and other rad modes of transportation from all the films and TV that I loved as a kid I don’t have everything that I’d like to have in the collection, but it’s getting to the point where the tiny valets are having a hard time finding a place to park these babies! On the site a while back, like the Back to the Future DeLorean and Tron: Legacy Lightcycle in the picture above. Since then I’ve managed to track down a bunch of new releases, as well as a couple of older pieces that I’m really excited about. For instance, right behind the DeLorean you can spot Cooter’s Mustang from the Dukes of Hazzard. Speaking of the DoH, I finally managed to track down an ERTL General Lee! That’s been a huge hole in my collection for years, but now I can start jumping over all sorts of 1:64 scale lakes and ravines. Of course, what fun is having Bo & Luke’s sweet ride without Roscoe’s Sheriff Cruiser to chase it? I didn’t have that many little toy cars as a kid (though I distinctly remember playing with the yellow Incredible Hulk Hot Wheels Scene Machine), but I always wanted these Dukes of Hazzard cars. I had a friend named Timmy who had a bunch of them as well as a that had all of Hazzard county on it that he received for his birthday. I have some vivid memories of laying down near that mat tracing the various roads with my finger while munching on some novelty slices that Timmy also got for his birthday One of the rad aspects of 80s era TV was all of the shows that either featured some cool cars or were dedicated to an awesome vehicle like Street Hawk, Riptide, Magnum P.I., Airwolf or the ridiculously awesome Knightrider! Thanks to the recent Hot Wheels releases I now have K.I.T.T. And even K.A.R.R.! I was just reading that, so I’m curious whether we’ll be getting one of the two cool Semis, either the Knight Foundations mobile command 16-wheeler or the evil Goliath! Of course any collection of neat TV vehicles wouldn’t be complete without B.A.
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March 2018
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