Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to Episode 579 of the podcast that celebrates adversity!
This week, Eric Fell joins Ian and David for a journey into the past! You can eavesdrop while they discuss: recent ancient history; school mandated reading times; roofies; pet teacher; Canadian sex; easy tech and hard work; comedownance; the Ianiverse; pretend jerk; avatar blindness; it’s all about who you vaguely know; bumblers; born storytellers; teacher’s pedantry; I.P. men; rockin’ Robin; tracks of your Musketeers; trove of embarrassment; cheap dentist; time travel time; lazy development; driving Mr. Banks; Seascum; subparurbia; no right answers; marriage class; post-breakdown breakdown; mean girl; Jack Dylan; Batmess; Pee Wee love; hello Mabel; unconscious vanity; pledge break; and, finally, show closer.
Question of the Week: What is one toy from your childhood that you would bring back to the present?
Thanks for listening.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
A toy I enjoyed as a kid was the Magic Rainbow Drawing Board. It had mysterious black goo trapped two layers of thick plastic and you used a stylus to draw lines on it. The goo would be displaced to reveal colours below. It worked on the same principle as a scratch board, only you could erase your drawing by sweeping the stylus over the board and redistributing the goo. I did a search and found a similar product called Marvin’s Magic Drawing Board is still available now.
I liked any product that let you produce ephemeral art, but it was more versatile and colourful than an Etch A Sketch. (Those are fun too. They show you that bunch of short straight lines can be used to make a curve!) I also liked those cheap slates that had a plastic layer over a black board. You’d just lift the layer to get rid of your drawing. I remember the board game Billionaire had mini versions of those. I think you used them to make bids for stuff.
That last episode was fantastic! What a slice of life outside of the studio, I could almost envision it in my head. I’m glad you guys went to the reunion, I’d be up for one myself if I knew when it was.
You both mentioned two toys already that I had, Baron Karza and Maskatron, so I’ll follow up with some more. I was a MEGO collector. Marvel Superheroes, Planet of the Apes and The Wizard of OZ, I had plenty of them…even the play sets like the treehouse for the Apes and The Emerald City. I kept my MEGO figures in terrific shape and I still have most of them but if I could just get back Iron Man, Thor and Conan I’d be much happier. Out of desperation I sold those three to a collector at a con so I could buy a custom lightsaber! The lightsaber was $65 if I remember correctly, so I sold those three MEGOs to collect the cash for the lightsaber. The guy selling the sabers was walking around the con with them on his belt and that caught my eye, this was a few years before any sort of officially licensed props were being sold so I had to have one of these! I sold the figures, bought the saber and by the time I got home some regret started to consume me. Those three MEGOs were three of the most sought after and I could have sold them for more…a lot more. I took a card from the lightsaber guy who was actually the brother-in-law of the guy who made them, he was just selling them at the con for him. I contacted the guy who made the saber, his name was Jeff Parks and he’s one of the first collectors to actually make quality lightsaber props. He told me to bring the saber to his shop sometime later and he upgraded it for me. Eventually he gifted me with an authentic 1947 Graflex flash gun which was what Lucasfilm used for the props in the films back in 1977, it’s customized to look like Luke’s lightsaber and I’m looking at it right now as it hangs in a display box next to my desk. Jeff and I became close friends and I still keep in touch with him to this day, in fact I’m working on something for him right now. He now makes a living making all sorts of props, quite a step forward from 1996.
Going back to my childhood, I think I’d just want a few toys back so that I could play with them once again. All my Hot Wheels and tracks with those foam wheel accelerators. Sizzler cars which were much like Hot Wheels but were “gassed up” by plugging a jack into them that looked like it came a huge gas pump. They ran for awhile by themselves until you had to charge them or “gas them up” again. And lastly, the Vertibird Helicopter that was a little flying helicopter on a wire you could control on a tabletop and pick up cargo and stuff.
And one more thing… I didn’t own one DC Comics MEGO figure, I was a Marvel brat back then. For Christmas my folks gave me a Batman Mobile Bat Lab that was actually a big van with a cage that came down to catch the villains. Using my imagination, I drew myself some Spider-Man icons, cut them out and taped them over the Batman icons so I then had a Spider-Van! Instant Marvel Mobile Spider Lab! I could put the Fantastic Four in the van too as they drove around looking to catch the Lizard and Green Goblin…who also had a cardboard bat I made for him to fly around on.
Great times and fun imagination, I think I scored well in the play activity department.
Oh! And The Dark Tower Game too! I need to shut up.
Thanks for a fun and lively episode, glad you guys got out and had some fun with Eric, he was a great guest!
Everyone have a good weekend and week!
If anyone out there is looking to sell a MEGO Iron Man, Thor and Conan…I might be interested.
Re: Toys – I really loved Silly Putty when I was young but it didn’t stay in the house for long as there was that great difficulty (not for me!) of getting it out of carpets, off of furniture upholstery and the like. Apparently Silly Putty still exists, but I read that what is different now is newsprint – most is soy based now so Silly Putty is unable to pick up the images off of newsprint, which I loved to do – and then stretch and distort them.
I, too, enjoyed riding along on your trip down memory lane. I liked that Ian was impressed with the range of graphic novels in the library. He might also be interested in the various offerings now available for students taking English class. Now as of Grade 10 and up, students have greater options – your standard Composition class (essay writing) is still there, as is Lit. Studies. Back in Jr. High I took Creative Writing so that’s not new either. But for the last few years, they have also had a class called Spoken Language and another class called New Media which delves into many forms of oral, visual, print and digital media such as gaming, podcasts, blogging, film studies, graphic novel studies, as well as songs and poetry.
I had Silly Putty as a kid. Once. I put it in my pants pocket, NOT in the plastic egg container it came in and forgot about it. My Mom washed all our clothes along with some of my Grandfather’s clothes and when they were in the dryer the Silly Putty melted and ruined everything. No more Silly Putty for me.