Dr. Geektarded's Terrifying World of Radio Horror!

Hello... 'Ello... 'Ellooooo?

Not sure if any one's still stopping by. Sorry for the lack of anything resembling an update. Life's a gruff 'ole bastard and the wee blogs must suffer.

But hey! It's Halloween-time!. To roll in some fun, I've added an MP3 player to the blog (look to the right hand side) and loaded up some of my favorite old time radio horror shows. There's some Quiet Please, Lights Out, Suspense and Inner Sanctum. More will be added and as the other holidays come, I'll switch up the themes with Thanksgiving and Christmas.

So, turn down the lights, curl up and prepare to get spooked.
Lights Out! Everybody...

Dr.G

The Ballad of GI Joe

This could be the greatest video ever. It'll make you laugh, warm your heart and make you misty-eyed all at the same time.
From Funny or Die comes "The Ballad of GI Joe"

Rest in Peace Les Lye

Just heard some sad news this afternoon. Canadian comedy great, Les Lye, passed away Tuesday at age 84. Les had a long career, but most of us in the U.S. who grew up in the 80s will remember him for his dozens of roles on "You Can't Do That On Television."

I've been watching "You Can't Do That On Television." episodes the last few weeks, and damn, Les was one funny guy. Ross, Barth, Blip, the drunken dad, El Capitano, Snake Eyes, the teacher, the coach. Such great characters. I still remember me and my kid sister bellowing "D'hiiiiii Heard That!"

So, raise a glass to Les and watch some classic YCDTOT. Thanks for countless hours of childhood entertainment that have stuck with me 25+ years later.

"Mysteries And Crimes"






For more episodes check out:
http://www.youtube.com/user/retrovision7

Keep 'em laughing, Les
-Dr.G

An amazing book...

Picked up a copy of "Mego 8" Super-Heroes: World's Greatest Toys!" by Benjamin Holcomb this week. What an incredible and beautiful book! If you are any kind of Mego fan, DC or Marvel fan or toy collector, this is a must buy. It's a brilliant mixture of reference book, nostalgia, history and art. Seriously, this should be the templet all other toy book authors follow.

I can't say enough good things about this. I hope Halcomb continues to write/create because fans and collector need more books like this. Details and history or Meco Corp., manufacturing, how they stocked the warehouses, how they dealed with DC and Marvel, selling product to retailers like Kresgee. Beautiful photos of mego figures, every imaginable packaging variation. Foregin releases. God it's some cool stuff.

Here's hoping for a follow up book(s) We need a Comic Action Heroes/Pocket Heroes book, plus 12" megos and other Mego superheros. Hell, foreign Mego too. Keep 'em coming.

Toys Toys Toys

The new GI JOE: Rise of Cobra movie toys are out and I snagged 4 at Toys R Us yesterday afternoon. I'm still not sure what my feelings on the movie are. Part of me thinks it nails that "feel' of the old GI Joe cartoons. That mix of military with some James Bond supervilliany and mad science mixed in. The other half just sees those silly-ass accelerator suits (I hope those are a minor set piece and not the backbone of the film).

But regardless of the film's quality, most of the toys look to kick some serious ass. I grabbed Snake Eyes and Destro, along with the 2 Toys R Us exclusive figures, Barbecue and Firefly.


My favorite of the bunch and it not even a movie figure. Barbecue is one of my favorite original Joes ("The Viper is Coming...") and one of the best of the newer 25th Anniversary figures. Movie BBQ is a repaint of the 25th version, done in black, yellow and silver. The yellow seems like an odd choice, but all together, it looks fantastic. BBQ looks good with the movie figure and also fits in nice with the 25th Joes as a repaint. Comes with the original BBQ gear (backpack, foam gun, hose and axe); with a assault rifle and shotgun added.


Another non-movie character. Firefly is equipped to the hilt. Comes with goggles, ammo pouch with clips, machine gun, explosives, and a backpack that holds a knife, flashlight, multi-tool and gas canister. Great details all around. Firefly looks good in the vest armor. I'm not sure if this is a cobbled together figure from other parts, or a straight repaint, but its very cool.


Destro
Pretty cool redesign of the classic character. Figure is nicely detailed and sturdy. The weapons have pegs so they can holster to Destro's hips, but they have trouble staying on thanks to the bottom on the coat.
Warning, the filecard give a spoiler of the mask's origin in the movie.


Snake Eyes
A solid figure. Retains the classic Snake Eyes design. In fact, it looks like another 25th Ann. Joe. Snake looks beefier in the movie trailers, while the figure looks slender in comparison. The visor is a separate piece of dark, glossy plastic glued to the head, which is a nice detail. Snake comes with an Uzi, sword and backpack.

Last weekend I picked up the new TF2 Optimus Prime. I had planned to pass on the big figures this time around, figuring that there was no reason to re-buy characters I had bought when the first movie came out. I was super wrong.



The new leader sized Prime is amazing. I guess I never realized how off model the original toy was until I opened the new version. The new Prime is a beautiful figure with tons of detail and articulation. I haven't had the balls to transform him, though. It looks terrifyingly complicated. That level of puzzle solving is usually reserved for summoning Pinhead.

Lastly I picked up the last 3 Masters of the Universe figures on eBay, from various sellers. After the god-awful experiences with Mattel's Matty Collector site in trying to order these guys, I had decided to drop the line. I figure Mattel owes me about 3 hours of my life back trying to buy their wares on their cluster-fucky website. And while I hate backing eBay scalpers, I kept my patience and managed to buy each figure at cost after the fact. I guess that's the key, wait a few weeks, let the scalpers turn a quick buck and then once eBay's flooded with a character, find a seller trying to dump their figures. Zodak, Merman and Hordak, like the previous releases are beautiful figures. I have no regret about the $28 price tag on these, just the nightmare of dealing with Mattel. So, if you had given up on the line, I do recommend searching these out, but stand fast on pricing. Get them at cost.

Revenge of the...Kick-ass!

Caught the 12:01 showing of Transformers 2 last night/this morning. I'd hoped to get a quick post in when I got home, but I was beat.

Anyway, this was pretty freakin' awsome. I'd say if you enjoyed the first film, you'll enjoy this one too. If you're a Transformers fan, you might even enjoy it more than the first. There's a lot of mythology introduced (Matrix, Space Bridge, Pretenders, Triple-Changers, Combiners, Energon). The effects were insanely good. Lots more robot onscreen-time. Nice interactions between Megatron and Starscream. Autobots and humans working together. It's really starting to feel like a fully realized Transformers world. A place where a guy can pat a truck on the hood and say "How's it going, Ironhide?" with a straight face. Thats pretty damn cool.

The movie is not without it's flaws. It's a little too long, mainly due to some military build-up/deployment scenes. They feel like padding for a movie that really needs none. But other than that, I had no real gripes. Once things get rolling (and beleive me, they waste no time), it a balls-to-the-wall couple of hours. I'm sure it'll have its haters and I'm sure Bay will get bashed, but I really loved it. It's what I was hoping for and expecting, while also exceeded my expectations. It made the "8 year old me" jump for joy.

Dr. G

Back in the saddle...Dr. G returns

Hey! It's been a while.

A lot has happened since I last posted:
-Winter has turned to a lovely Spring and Spring into a hellish, 98 degree, humid donkey-hole.
-Late Night's got a new host.
-A new crew boldly went where no man had gone before, again.
-Geektarded turned 2 years old in May (missed my own damn birthday!).
-The blog broke 50,000 hits (I never figured I'd break 100).
-And there's a new dog here in Geektarded Base-1...



Lady-B (Miss Brandy, if yo' nasty). A big 'ole pile of Beagle lovin' who'd been sitting patiently at the animal shelter for 6 weeks, until I ran across her.

As far as the reason for the absence... well, it involved a time traveling rain barrel and a plan to thwart the assassination of Martin Sheen, who had been mistaken for a time traveling JFK.

That combined with the new-American standard 50-hour work week, a wicked-lower back injury from moving some stupid-ass sleeper sofas, helping a loved one recover from surgery and the general ass-kickery of life, caused me to play the role of dead-beat blogger.

But, I'm back at HQ, I'm dusting off the Joke-A-Tron 5000 and loading her up with some new cartridges and we'll have some fun...


Well, if you own a TV or done any shopping, then you probably know "Transformers 2: Transform Harder" comes out next week. I'm pretty frickin' excited for the new movie and have been eyeing the new toys for the last couple of weeks. My will broken, I finally bought 2 figures this afternoon (Toys R Us is having a BYGO1/2 OFF sale; basically 2 for $18)

I went purely by what looked cool and snagged "Breakaway" (Autobot jet who love to fly fast and bomb the shit outta the bads) and "Sideways" (Decepticon-sports car-courier-pussy who rather hide behind the stronger 'Cons).




I'll say this, the new toys look great. I have no clue who's in the movie and who's a "toy only" character. I'm assuming Sideways is in the flick because he has the 14 billion parts-look of the movie designs. Breakaway has the movie style, but has cleaner lines and boxier forms.



Breakaway has a nice, solid, human-like form (does that make sense? In other words he looks like a robot and not a spider shitting a tire) He's got a cool gattling gun wrist cannon that you can spin. Really a nice figure. My only complaint is the package photo has some nice silver metallic paint which has been replaced by a cheaper looking blueish plastic on the actual toy. Aside from that, a great toy. I can see this mold getting repainted a couple times.



Sideways, the cowardly sport car. I'm really digging the design. One of the most surprising things is that he can stand on the spindly legs with the tiny feet. He look really good in the silver/black/red color scheme and has a nice bot mode. Toss in the saw blade wheel and you got a winner.



One thing that surprised me on both figures: no stupid missile launching nonsense. Hate those things. All in all, both are winners. So go buy some. Hasbro and Michael Bay's got bills to pay.

I leave you tonight with a sneak peak at some footage from the new Live Action Star Wars TV series. Looks like Lucas has got another winner on his hands...