RIP Christine McVie- Say You Love Me

               

MOTW- Robot Model B9

 

Planetary Robot B9 was a late addition to the crew of tje Jupiter 2.  It has a wide variety of capabilities, and tapes that can program it to do even more things.  It has electrical bolts as well as laser beams.  These are both offensive and defensive weapons.  At first, the robot was considered dangerous to the family, since Dr. Smith was controlling it.  He was using the Robot for his own devious ends.  After operating amongst humans for a time the Robot started developing a personality, which led the younger Robinsons to treat "him" as a part of both the crew and the family.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Mr. Heat Miser

              

Snoopy Come Home (1972)

 

Snoopy finds out his first owner, a girl named Lila, is sick and goes to visit her.  He takes off, with Woodstock in tow, and has many adventures while he get to Lilah.  In the meantime, Charlie Brown is heartbroken that his dog left.  

"You got a used dog, Charlie Brown."

The rest of the gang misses Snoopy as well.  He had been acting up, but all that is forgotten now.  Snoopy and Woodstock eventually get to Lila, but have to sneak in since there are "NO DOGS ALLOWED" in the hospital (not a bad, thing, really).  Lila then asks Snoopy to come live with her when she gets out of the hospital.  This leads to all sorts of emotional drama.  Snoopy leaves his home and friends (even Woodstock), but alas, Lila has a cat and her building has that dreaded sign on it...

Frankenstein Conquers the World (1966) - Restored US/German Trailer

               

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022)

 

It sure is a lot better than the other "Holiday Special" that was inflicted upon us in 1978.  Still hard to believe Disney hasn't actually released that thing to make more money.  Anyway, Kraglin tells Mantis and Drax how Yondu ruined Xmas for Quill.  Mantis reveals she is his half-sister to Drax, and then they decide to save the Yule for Peter.  This involves them traveling to Earth and bringing the hero Kevin Bacon back to Quill as a gift.  This does not quite go as planned, and after a lot of misadventures (and lovely destruction in Hollywood) Kevin does make an appearance on Knowhere.  It all works out in the end (as holiday specials are wont to do) and Mantis give Peter the best gift ever.  Also, Kraglin didn't know how the original story ended.

Josie's original spaceship

 

I was surprised to find this pre production drawing of the spaceship from Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space.  It is a more traditional rocket ship design.  It also looks a lot smaller than the designed that was eventually used.  It is never shown in the series where the gang sleeps, though we do see a galley in a few episodes.  Be that as it may, I think the ship they used in the series is better one overall.  The ball on the top gives it a different look.  This ship looks a bit like the Jupiter 2 from the HB version of Lost in Space.  This is a sleep ship, but it looks far too small to work for the series.

The Crawling Eye Trailer

                

Robot MOTW- Mechanikong (1967)

 

This amazing robot is the creation of Dr. Who, the international Judas.  It is one impressive robot.  It does have some bombs to use, but only for the mining operation.

Dr. Who: “He's exactly like the original Kong. With this, the world is ours.”

Madame Piranha: “It's still not the original. You sure you didn't just build a giant toy?”

Dr. Who: “A toy? That's an insult! How can you say that? It is the strongest thing there is in the world today!”

― Dr. Who reveals Mechani-Kong to his benefactor Madame Piranha (King Kong Escapes)

Xenorama #47 on sale soon!

 

This is the 11th new issue published this year!  How about that!  One more and I will have averaged one a month this year, and over thirty years that is about three issues per year.  I'm pretty impressed with my usual gang of geniuses that help me out!  I sure couldn't do it without you all!  This is the second in a series of three issue about Hanna-Barbera superheroes.  I have one more planned, but that may or may not get published until next year.  This one was a lot of fun to do, since the cartoons are some of the most action packed ones out there.  Of course, nearly all of the Saturday morning cartoons were this way.  Many of us of a certain vintage were spoiled by these cartoons, and when the inevitable cycle changed to comedies.  These were far less "violent".  It took a long time to get any kind of action on Saturdays again, and even then the censors could be quite ridiculous.

A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969)

 

MeTV aired this movie this past Sunday night.  It was to honor Charles Schulz' 100th birthday.  That is November 26th, 1922.  It is a little early, but next week they will show Snoopy, Come Home next week, which will also be fun.  The main plot is Charlie Brown enters his class (he is in second grade, so that places the oldest Peanuts about 7-8 years old, Sally and Linus would be younger).  He unexpectedly wins.  He also wins the school wide contest.  This leads him to the National Spelling Bee in New York City, which Lucy expects him to win.  Well, Chuck being Chuck, he does exceedingly well, but misspells the final word and ends up in second place.  In the whole nation.  That is still pretty impressive, but Chuck is despondent.  Good thing both Linus and Lucy, of all people, help him see the light.

Power Rangers - Tommy Oliver Tribute

               

RIP Jason David Frank

Jason David Frank passed away on 11-19-2022.  When it was first reported the cause of death was unknown, but now it is being reported as a suicide.  No reasons have been given at this time.  I hope he has found the peace he was looking for.  He is survived by four children.  Frank was best known for playing Dr. Tommy Oliver in the Power Rangers franchise.

Sven- Fiend without a Face

That darn atomic radiation- you mix it with lightning and telekinesis projects and suddenly brain vampires are killing the local people.  The living locals blame the radar installation that the US Army is running, in order to see if those dratted commies are about to let Gammera loose on the world.  Well, unless they have anti-electric wave paint, that is.  That is another story.  So Major  Jeff Cummings investigates, and meets Professor Walgate and his assistant, Barbara.  Walgate is working on increasing brain power, and guess what he has created?  Invisible fiends!  The fiends are smart, and they increase the radiation output so they can grow and feed more.  A fierce battle takes place, with the humans finally triumphing over the now visible Fiends.

Kamen Riders Ichigo and Nigo Return (Let's Go Kamen Riders)

                    

Let's Go Kamen Riders (2011)

 

This movie was released way back when, and I thought I had watched it.  I know I started to, but I don't remember if I ever finished it.  It involves Kamen Rider 000 and Den-O, along with a lot of time travel nonsense.  000 has coins that power him, or something, and loses one in 1971.  The loss of this coin gives Shocker a chance to come to power.  So the two Riders go back in time, and try to save the future.  I am about half way through the movie, and it is pretty entertaining.

Fiend Without a Face trailer (1958)

             

Robot MOTW- Creeper robot

 

Dr. Zorka invents an eight foot slave robot to do his evil bidding.  It roams through 12 chapters of The Phantom Creeps way back in 1939.  It hulks about doing the bad doctor's bidding, until it gets destroyed.  Dr. Zorka also does not fare well, but that is par for the course in serials.

Pussycat concert!

What a fun poster for a faux concert!  This it even mentions the headphones.  I'm just cynical enough to think some corporation might actually do this to their fans, or actually would try the subliminal messages in media.  Not a bit of that would surprise me.  And this movie was in 2001.  This is a movie I really wish I had seen in the theater, but for some reason in April of 2001 I was not even aware of it.  Or if I was, I thought it would be terrible.  I am glad to find out how wrong I was.

Godzilla: King Ghidorah's Counterattack 2

                  

RIP Kevin Conroy

 

Kevin Conroy passed away from a battle with cancer on November 10th, 2022.  A lot has already been written about him, what a kind and wonderful man he was, and I can't add much more to that.  There have been other animated Batman voices, but aside from Olan Soule, none of them were as good as Kevin.  That includes Adam West, since his voice as an animated Batman was just odd.  Kevin also got to don the Batman suit in real life in the Arrowverse shows, which is also quite nice.

Sven- X (1963) (the man with X-Ray eyes)

 Dr. James Xavier develops a serum to make people see beyond the normal spectrum of light.  Naturally, he chooses to use them on himself.  The serum works, and he can see through clothes and even flesh.  He keeps using the eye drops of course, which increase the power of his eyes.  After an accidental killing, he goes on the run.  This leads him to work as a mind reader in a carnival.  A grifter turns him into a "healer" but that goes awry.  A venture to Las Vegas also goes south.  Finally, he ends up at a revival tent, where that grifter tells him that if his eyes offend him to pluck them out...

Megalon and the dam

 

This is a great shot from a great sequence in a, let us be honest, not that great a movie.  I love Godzilla vs. Megalon, but one must not turn a blind eye to the movie.  It suffers from a low budget and a rushed filming schedule.  It is amazing the film is as fun as it is, really.  This is probably the best new scene in the movie, as Megalon destroys a damn.  It is well edited and well lit and filmed perfectly.  The miniatures all look great and the actor inside the Megalon suit (Hideto Date) handles the whole sequence perfectly in that big, bulky suit.

X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES (1963) Official Trailer

                   

Moby Dick coloring book

 

This coloring book was published in 1968.  I still have my copy, though it is not in good shape.  I found a new one several years ago, and it is in very good shape, and complete.  There are three "stories" here, one where Moby takes on a giant octopus, then saves the boys from mermen and carnivorous plants, and finally, a sea serpent is looking for a snack and the battle is on.  The first part of the book is introducing Tim, Tubb, the original Scooby and Moby.  There are a lot of pictures to color of sea life as well.  It is pretty close to the cartoon, all things considered.  It is pretty violent- Moby knocks a merman into one of the flesh eating plants, which presumably ate the poor critter alive.  He buries the octopus and, according to the writing, "destroys the serpent".  Then it is a happy ending.

Robot MOTW- The Automaton

 

This giant robot protects a powerful cartel.  It uses a deadly gas weapon called The Madagascar Madness.  Harry Houdini breaks the cartel up and exposes this robot as a human in disguise.  This is an early serial, and most of it has been lost to the ashes of time, but a few chapters are left for your viewing pleasure.  The robot doesn't look very threatening at all, but I am sure over a hundred years ago it was something to behold at the time,  Too bad it was just a dude in disguise.  The cartel would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for that darn Houdini!

Split Enz Dirty Creature Countdown 1982

           

ThingMaker- Eeeks!

Did anyone else have this ThingMaker toy?  I loved it when I got it, about first grade.  It had Goop that you poured into molds, then heated up with the hot and sometime painful stove thing.  This is probably part of the reason the toys got canceled, since hot plastic/rubber and metal trays could be dangerous, and everyone I knew that had this toy got burned at some point.  Nothing bad, mind you, but still OUCH.  The Goop came in many colors.  There were several body styles, and then different legs and wings that could be attached to the bodies.  I think there were different heads as well.   So you could mix and match to make endless Eeeks.

Go Go Kikaider (1972) - English Subs

              

Josie is on TV!

Since I did not gravitate towards "funny" comic books, I missed seeing this ad.  One thing the internet is really good for is saving all these historical documents so I can use them in Xenorama!  It is very thoughtful of those scanners.  I don't know now if I watched the original run of Josie and the Pussycats, or the second run a year later.  At this point it doesn't matter, does it?  It is too bad HB didn't do a couple more seasons of both shows.  I especially wanted to see more of the outer space adventures.  I will always wish HB ended some of their shows, instead of leaving them open ended like many of them.  We viewers wanted some closure!  How did the gang get back to Earth?  I am sure Space Ghost brought them back, what a story that would make!  Perhaps my powers can get DC to publish that story in a six issue mini-series.  I would buy that in a minute. 

cool lobby card

 

I love these old school lobby cards.  So many of them showed scenes that sort of occurred in the movie, but sometimes didn't occur at all.  Good ol' airbrushing.  Back then, fans didn't know if the scene would show up or not, of if there was even another movie with the same monsters in it.  There are lobby cards from Yog, Monster From Space and King Kong Escapes that have nothing to do with the movie at all, but sure look great.  They made a person want to go see that movie, I'll tell you what.

WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story Trailer (2022)

                    

Xenorama #42- on sale soon!

 

Finally, the long awaited 30th anniversary issue has arrived!  It is in review on Amazon and should be approved soon enough.  The reason for the delay was that I was (and still am) awaiting an interview of the publisher (he said modestly) but it has yet to arrive.  The deadline was 10-31, which has obviously passed.  The beautiful part about publishing on Amazon is that if the interview does arrive, I can add it no problemo.  Thus making this first version a collectable!  We will see if that happens.  However, this is a great issue, and I wish I could have had everyone who contributed to the zine over the years in it.  However, even in the age of internet searches, it wasn't easy. 

"Weird Al" Yankovic - I Lost On Jeopardy (Official Video)

                    

Robot MOTW- Gort

 

Robots really aren't monsters, though they can certainly cause damage.  Gort has a lot of power, including disintegrating beams.  These are used against artillery and the army.  Gort is one of the first robots that looks futuristic.  The mechanical men of the serials, while being cool, didn't always look great.  They were clunky, and definitely of the time they were created in.  Gort looks great today, with a sleek and powerful build.  It doesn't hurt that they filmed him being at least eight feet tall. 

The Golden Age of Movie Monsters

                    

Bionic Reconstruction (2007)

 

I have been watching the first season of The Six Million Dollar Man,  and have one other season set, plus the complete Bionic Woman.  She had to cost more than Steve did, right, inflation and all?  Anyway, there are a lot of guest stars in that first season of Six Mill and I wanted to know more about both shows.  Sure, there is wikipedia, but books are just so much easier to use and read. I looked about and discovered this book here.  It is almost 400 pages of bio-electronic goodness.  It is written by Herbie J. Pilato, who has written many other books about televisions shows.