The Golden Age of Cartooning

From Movie Muse Scraps

Being an unabashed child of the 1980's, I have long held that this decade was the Golden Age of animation. Most of it, in my opinion, can be attributed to the fact that there were so few channels available and each one of them was competing for the demographics. While a good number of cartoons that I watched were, basically, half hour toy commercials, they were all at least entertaining and, more often than not, made you think. Below are a few of my must see series. In other words, those shows that I annoyed my sister with by demanding that we watch them.

A very special thank you to Charlie Niemeyer, who's now defunct show, Charlies Geekcast, put me in this mindset.

Spider-Man, Iceman and Firestar. You just can't go wrong. Well, they did with the dog.

Bruce Banner and the Incredible Reappearing Clothes

Yes, I know that this was from the 70's, but I first saw it on Nickelodeon in the 80's.

Still the best Flash Gordon adaptation out there.

This is probably my favorite version of the show, Wonder Twins and all.

It didn't take me long to realize that the Earth would be destroyed right around when I graduated High School. Still, a fun show.

I actually had some toys from this show. The figures had little wheels that made sparks to light up their chest emblems. Not something you'd see today.

My very first lay-away item was the Thunder Tank.

Great show with an astronomy lesson at the end of each episode.

I had a mess of these figures. And all the stuff was mix and match.

This one's for my Quantum Cast co-host.

Yeah, it's kidified, but I still like it. OK, you can get rid of the mice and I wouldn't complain.

Still my favorite version of the Transformers.

The first time I ever won something it was a He-Man contest at Burger King.

No, they couldn't hit anything they were aiming at, but I still loved this show,

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

This past Sunday was the 35th Anniversary of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, one of my favorite movies of all time and what I consider to be the reason for my geeky nature. To celebrate this historic event, I invited Scott Gardner, one half of the Two True Freaks, to talk with me about the movie and what it means to us.

I would encourage anyone, regardless of what you think about this movie, to listen to our discussion and then rewatch the movie. I think you'll find that it's actually pretty good. And if you do that, please let us know on Facebook what you thought.

Direct Download: http://twotruefreaks.com/media/podcasts/TheHammerPodcasts/mp3/THP-Episode008.mp3

Thoughts on the Teaser

Yes, I watched the teaser for Episode 7 and, even though I didn't make it to the Two True Freaks Round Table, I do have some thoughts on it.

Just in case you haven't seen it (and if you haven't, what rock have you been living under?) here it is:


First of all, let's remember that this is a teaser, meaning it's only here to whet your appetite for more, and I think it certainly accomplishes that, at least for me.

Now, I've heard some stuff about the, what I believe, is the Stormtrooper that pops up in the beginning and the fact that he doesn't look like Jango Fett. Well, by the time of Star Wars, the Empire was recruiting for it's military (remember the Academy that Luke wants to go to?) and the Stormtroopers were just a higher level of foot soldiers. That means that they can look like anyone, really.

Next up, let's talk about the Light-Broadsword. That looks, to me anyway, like an older, less refined version of the traditional lightsaber. I say this because it looks as if the blade isn't completely under control and, if this is an ancient evil awakening, it would make sense that the weapon would also be ancient. I do think that the cross piece is a bit more dangerous than useful, but that's just me.

Yes, the R2 head on the soccer ball looks ... odd. I don't know what's going on there, and I'm not sure I want to. I do hope that the name of P3-L3 that I saw on Scott Ryfun's Facebook page doesn't stick, though. Yeah, it's funny, but it smacks of the Tarzan yell from Jedi, too close to our world to be there.

But, the piece de resistance has to be the ships. X-Wings flying low over the water, TIE Fighters attacking, and the Millennium Falcon back in action! Yeah, I'm excited, but I'm also cautious. JJ Abrams made one Star Trek movie that was alright and one that I haven't seen because I don't want to get ticked off. I really hope he doesn't screw this up.

Happy Thanksgiving

For the first time in about 12 years, my family will all be together to celebrate Thanksgivng ON Thanksgiving. As such, I will leave you with this comic cover, one of the very few Thanksgiving comics out (and recently covered on Back to the Bins).

What I've been up to lately

I've been doing a number of things on the podcasting front recently. At the beginning of November the latest episode of Anime Freaks came out, where Dr. Bill and I are joined by Matt Hunsworth of Star Wars In Character, as well as many other fine podcasts. In this episode, we cover the Star Force near Pluto and Saturn, along with the first firing of the Wave Motion Gun.

That episode can be found here: http://twotruefreaks.com/media/podcasts/animefreaks/mp3/AnimeFreaks-Episode3.mp3

On that same front, we just finished recording the latest episode of the show, but this time with Luke Joconetti from Earth Destruction Directive and the Vault of Startling Monster Horror Tales of Terror. Look for that early in December.

I also, this past Saturday, released the latest The Hammer Podcasts! episode, where The Irredeemable Shag and I tackled the topic of Role Playing Games. In that show you will find out why this blog is called The Hammer Strikes!

You can find that one here: http://twotruefreaks.com/media/podcasts/TheHammerPodcasts/mp3/THP-Episode007.mp3

I'm now hard at work on the next two episodes of THP, the first of which will be out in a little over two weeks.

Big Hero 6

From Disney Insider

My family recently went to see Big Hero 6 in the theater and, I have to say, we all had a blast. This is a fun movie, but it does deal with some heavy issues. I'd say it had just about the perfect mix of drama, comedy, and action. I would have liked if the villain reveal wasn't as underwhelming, but I'm keyed in to looking for clues like that, so it might have been better for others.

I would recommend this movie to pretty much anyone, but especially to those parents of children who love superheroes. Kira had a great time. She liked it so much that it's on the same level as Frozen in her mind.

Keep in mind that this is based off a Marvel property, so make sure you watch until the very end of the credits. I was amazed that we were the only people still left in the theater.

How Spoiled I Was

I have been hearing about the USS Flag a lot with what I've been listening to recently, and while I never had that (and didn't know anyone who did), I did have an absolutely HUGE playset for GI Joe. Sold in 1987, and I believe I got it for Christmas that year, was the GI Joe Defiant Space Vehicle Launch Complex.

Being a fan of GI Joe and Star Trek, this obviously made sense for my parents (or was it my grandfather?) to get me. It was enormous, taking up a good chunk of floor space in my room, but I played the heck out of that. At a retail price of $99.99, that was definitely my big gift that year, and 12 year old me was thrilled!

Add this to the fact that I had the Batcopter (which o one else seems to have had) and I was a very spoiled child.