In un-borking the site I decided to add a few toys to the site. New with this update are:
Buck Rogers – Star Searcher (a clone of the Micronauts Star Defender) and the Galactic Playset
Timanic – Time Machine 3
All posts by Rick "The BEM"
Frak! Site borked.
Sorry, we had a template meltdown. The site is sort of back up…sort of. I’ll get it sorted out eventually. Sorry for any inconvenience.
UPDATE: Site less borked. But still not back to good old BEM.
UPDATE 2: Okay, the site is a WHOLE LOT less borked. My old template is experiencing a confidence shattering FAIL, so I’ve had to put a new skin on the old girl. Gone is the page specific graphic for each toy. I miss that. But the template is a lot easier to maintain now, which might result in more updates. I did keep my Orbitron in the front page welcome message. The search for Orbitron was the one that started the site and he’s been featured on it one way or another since 1998. I welcome your thoughts. How’s it look?
Not so happy Micro News
AcroRay, one of the more obsessive and informed Micronaut fans, found a really unsettling and well written story about Bill Mantlo, a comics writer from the 70’s and 80’s who was responsible for the Micronauts comic and ROM The Space Knight comic, among many, many others.
I was a huge fan of Bill’s as a kid and probably read more comics with his name on them than any other writer. It never occurred to me what might have happened to him. Comic writers come and go. So it was illuminating to find out about Bill and his odyssey through a health care system that really isn’t designed to help people who need long term rehabilitation.
I’ve always felt that you can take the measure of a people by the way it treats its neediest. I frequently think America fails to live up to its potential in this regard. This story only reinforces that belief for me – and makes me want to do more to try to address it. Enough sermonizing. Links below. If you ever read a Micronauts or Rom comic, you owe it to yourself to read about Bill.
Micronauts Rocket Tubes Blueprints
Been meaning to repost this for quite a while. Over on Micronauts Home World, there is a great article about Mego’s original plans for their Rocket Tubes toy. I won’t spoil it for you, but suffice it to say, if you’re a Micro junkie, it is a great read. I had a set of Rocket Tubes and LOVED them. The idea of a vacuum powered racing set…Just too cool for words.
So skip on over and take a look.
San Jose Toy Show
Saturday was San Jose Toy Show day. Time Tunnel Toys puts it on three times a year and a pretty good number of toy vendors, comic book people and other pop culture merchants show up. There’s always something interesting and this one was no exception.
The event was held in a different part of the San Jose fairgrounds this year. I’m not sure if it was just change of venue, but it seemed like there were a lot more vendors there this time.
As nice as hall full of toy vendors is, the real draw is the toys…
There is always one toy that just blows my mind at the toy show. This Moon City was it. I love the tin litho graphics on the two towers. And the color palette just screams “space age!” I damn near bought it. It was in perfect condition. Everything worked. But it was $80 bucks and really big.
I loved Hangman as a kid. But if I’d known Vincent Price was waiting in the wings, ready to open the trap door on the gallows…Well, I might have played a bit more cautiously.
This is one toy set I had never seen before. I love vintage Bond. As a kid, I would have killed for this. It is a full briefcase with pistol, silencer, scope, collapsing shoulder stock, code book and code breaker. I am assuming the case explodes if you don’t open it juuuust right. Show price? $750.
The Rat Patrol, if you are unfamiliar with it, is this really great late 60’s tv show about an American jeep squad that patrols the African desert during WWII, fighting Nazis, taking risks, but always pulling the fat out of the fire at the last second. I’d never seen a toy from the show before, but here we have a cabled remote control plane. I seriously considered picking this up as well, but I have a 1 in, 1 out rule. Not sure what this would replace in the current collection.
There are always lots of Hot Wheels cars at the show, but for some reason this show had booth after booth with track sets, launchers and other die cast car accessories.
Then there was Doctor Who. So much Doctor Who. There were at least five booths that all had toys from the late 80s version of the classic BBC show. I’d never actually seen these before. I love the Doctor…
Me at San Diego ComicCon 2011
Totally off topic for BEM, but if you’re curious about my trip to SDCC, head on over to Conform And Obey.
I do a quick recap of my trip with some good pictures for the nerds and geeks out there (that includes me btw.)
There is a picture of a TOTALLY hot Tinker Bell if you need a reason to look…