Toys from the 1983 Consumers Catalog!
Most of you aren’t ready to go full tilt with the holiday season, but if you wanna get your feet wet, I have just the thing: Awesome toys from a really old Christmas catalog!
Below are nine highlights from the 1983 Consumers Distributing catalog. If you’ve never heard of Consumers, it was like a looser Service Merchandise. (Better yet, learn more in my coverage of the Consumers 1984 catalog, which includes another bunch of amazing toys!)
These items will help you a remember a time when nothing in the world mattered more than four bucks’ worth of plastic… an idealistically simple view that helps to explain why so many of us still collect action figures over 30 years later!
G.I. Joe Three-Packs!
Price: $7.97 each
Because bad guys get the best lines and the coolest clothes, I’m more enamored with the three-pack on the right, featuring the original Cobra Commander, Destro and Major Bludd figures. Bludd’s just kinda tagging along, but the other two are among my generation’s most adored action figures, from any line.
Here’s a kick in the balls: To collect those same three figures in their original packaging now would run you somewhere in the area of a thousand bucks. No exaggeration. I want you to sit there and think about every toy you had as a kid, and how many private islands you’d own today had you not opened any of them. Read More…
The Purple Stuff Podcast: Episode 13!
Welllp, it’s here. HALLOWEEN. May your day be filled with candy and costumes and the last vestiges of that pumpkin spice candle you bought last August.
Thanks so much for being a part of Dino Drac’s 2015 Halloween Countdown! Just one more piece of business left for the season…
Yes, it’s the special Halloween edition of The Purple Stuff Podcast! This week, me and Jay from The Sexy Armpit celebrate by determining the official ABCs of Halloween. (Meaning, we take turns assigning Halloween stuff to each letter of the alphabet. All 26 of them! Yes this show is longer than usual!)
Give us a listen by clicking on the big ass play button down below. You can also access/download the MP3 directly by clicking here. The Purple Stuff Podcast is on Podbean and iTunes and Stitcher, too!
(Click the play button to listen!)
The big question: Will we be continuing the show after Halloween? You’ll have to listen to find out, but since I’m gonna encourage people who like the show to write us a review on iTunes, you can probably guess! Read More…
Madd Matt reviews the Bigfoot Playset.
With mere hours to go before Halloween, Madd Matt managed to eke out one last video…
This time, he’s reviewing Animal Planet’s Bigfoot Playset. You’ve seen it before, yes?
I’m a huge sucker for the entire Animal Planet collection. Some of the toys lean heavily on a sense of realism, but the best of them toss truth out the window to provide playsets where little men battle against house-sized cobras.
The line’s lack of “collectible flair” means that most adult fans pay zero attention to Animal Planet. HUGE mistake, guys! Read More…
Vicious Videocassette Boxes, Volume V!
What, you thought I’d let a whole Halloween Countdown slip by without a new edition of Vicious Videocassette Boxes? NOPE.
Down below: Another five horror videos from my personal collection, which I’ll admit are mostly used for decorative purposes these days. So what? They’re cheaper than paintings, and it’s more fun to decorate shelves than walls.
All five should help you remember a time when trips to video stores felt like trips to theme parks, filled with things you couldn’t wait to ride… and things you would’ve ridden if you weren’t such a fraidy cat.
Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990)
This one performed well enough at the box office, but I’ll never understand how it hasn’t garnered a bigger following in the years since.
If the film came out today with not a single thing changed, it’d be a HUGE deal. The web has allied millions of horror fans who were previously doomed as strangers, and I have little doubt that a movie this beautifully bizarre would spend a solid month as a Twitter talking point.
If you’ve never seen the movie but were a fan of the TV series, the film was — tonally speaking — much different from the show. Actually, it felt much more in league with Tales from the Crypt. (Less cerebral, but loud, gory and in-your-face.)
Presented as an anthology, it’s really four short movies, featuring everything from killer cats to brutal gargoyles. Loaded with cult favorite actors (name another movie with William Hickey, Buster Poindexter and Blondie), the film’s highs spiked way harder than its lows, and I just can’t recommend it enough. If you’re looking for something to round out your Halloween movie marathon, please consider this one! Read More…