Saturday, March 8, 2014

Adding to the Trash Pile: Super Savers Saturday Edition


There's a couple big posts coming down the pipe-line in the very near future, but I wanted to break up the rhythm here a little while we're waiting. Sprinkle some small posts in between the weekly Bogdanovich Challenges, so it doesn't seem like I'm just half-assed reviewing classic cinema these days. Thankfully, a quick visit to my favorite thrift shop this morning proved to be fruitful. A regular fruitful station, minus Michael B. Jordan or regular Michael Jordan or any of the other guys from ProStars.


Generic He-Man and the Masters of the Universe action figures..!

That's probably the first thing you thought of when you saw the two fellas up above, and really, you're not too far off. These two Adonises, muscles sculpted from plastic-marble, are, in actuality, "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair and Rick "The Model" Martel. Part of Remco's AWA [that's the American Wrestling Association] toy-line from 1985. I never owned either of these as a kid, despite being a huge fan of professional wrestling, because my heart and soul belonged to the House-that-Hulk-Hogan-built, The WWF.

Flair, I remember fondly and best as the ultimate heel; tormenting poor Miss Elizabeth and trying to tear apart her romance with "The Macho Man" Randy Savage, who was [and still is] one of my all-time favorite wrestlers. Flair betraying his former advisor, Mr. Perfect, and losing to him in a "Loser Leaves Town" match on one of the premiere episodes of Monday Night Raw. Flair leading the Four Horsemen, and epic battles with Sting and Lex Luger over in WCW.

I feel less strongly [weakly?] about Rick Martel. First off, his toy is absolutely the most plain-looking action figure I've ever seen. Before I locked down his true identity thanks to various websites, I toyed with the idea that he might be Ricky Steamboat or Tito Santana or Larry Zbysko or or or...

You get the idea.

So, besides having difficulties in identifying a mid-card talent like Martel, he also earns some red-marks for being, well, a mid-card talent. Now, don't get me wrong, I loved guys who weren't in the main-event; guys feuding for the Intercontinental Title or forming random tag-teams, because why not? But Rick Martel was best known [to me, at least] as the narcissistic heel who brought an over-sized bottle of his own "perfume" to the ring, and spraying his opponents in the eyes and blinding them.

The best thing to spring from that was him being forced to compete in a "Blindfold Match" against Jake "The Snake" Roberts at Wrestlemania VII.

I sorta' miss when I used to feel passionately about grown men wearing speedos and tights battling one another in the squared circle, but then I don't at all.



Actually, here's another two from the same AWA wrestling line. I'd never heard of "The Fabulous Ones", a tag-team consisting of Stan Lane and Steve Keirn, before today. Wikipedia informs me that they were credited with being the first team with the "Pretty Boy" gimmick, made famous by later tag-teams like The Rock 'n Roll Express and The Rockers.

God, now I wanna watch Shawn Michaels super-kick his former partner, Marty Jannetty, and then throw him through the window of "The Barbershop".

Wrestling is dumb.




I'll tell you what isn't dumb, though, and it is totally VHS.

Fred Ward portraying The Destroyer in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985) is perfection. I haven't watched the film in years, but plan on rectifying that as soon as possible. Maybe once I'm finished showing off this ridiculous junk. Don't be surprised if I can barely muster the energy or enthusiasm to say more than a few words about Disney's Darkwing Duck: His Favorite Adventures.

Actually, I guess the correct title is "Darkly Dawns the Duck", and it's an origin tale for the most beloved caped-and-cowled fowl. That ties it into the Remo Williams film better than I could have planned it to, which is equal parts awesome and really, really stupid.

I take back what I said before about VHS not being dumb. Sometimes it can be, especially if it features Launchpad McQuack.




Also, here's some comic books that I bought. They came from the dollar-bins at my local comic shop, and I didn't need to buy them at all, since I already own thousands and thousands of floppies. Unfortunately, I'm a sucker for Mike Allred's Madman riding an atomic bomb, Mark Waid-written issues of The Flash, and random, awful titles from the '90s, like Malibu Comics' Rune.

There's also a single Spider-Man book, because I definitely needed more of those.

My name now is Bo, and Bo knows nothing about saving a dollar.

14 comments:

  1. If they EVER relaunch Darkwing Duck I hope they dump Launchpad completely. What a lame sidekick he was. They should just make Goslyn a little older and given her Sidekick cred. They should still totally pull Gizmo Duck into the mix... and it seems like I'm stuck on one tiny detail of this post.

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    1. Derek, call me crazy, but I think they relaunched Darkwing Duck as a comic series a few years ago.I seem to remember stumbling across a copy in Barnes and Noble at some point too.

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    2. Yup.

      Boom! Studios did release a new Darkwing Duck series a few years back. I picked up the first issue, but that was it. The annual had, probably, the best homage cover I've ever seen, though...

      http://thecomixverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/DarkwingDuck_ANNUAL_01_CVR_A.jpg

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    3. How was it? I thought I read the stories were a bit darker than the cartoon series.

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    4. Oh yeah, there was def. a comic series, but I haven't read it. I mostly meant if they ever rebooted/redid DD as a new TV series or a movie or something.

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  2. The Fabs! Totally know these guys from there time Memphis(I grew up in Kentucky and would watch wrestling every Saturday at noon). Stan Lane would go on to join the Midnight Express with Bobby Eaton and later came a host for for Speed Boating on ESPN if i am remembering right. Steve Keirn went on to become Skinner in the WWF and was one of the replacement Doinks after Matt Borne was fired/left the company. Keirn heads up the WWE NXT development/training league in Florida now. Too cool you scored those and if you ever decided to let them go let me know i would mine having these guys double teaming Clawful over my way lol. Congrats on all the wonderful scores and Remo Williams! It's been years having not see that movie.

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    1. Holy shit, John. That is a ridiculous [and awesome!] encyclopedic knowledge of professional wrestling you've got there. I remember Skinner [and Doink, of course], but never knew who it was that portrayed him. Since you obviously know so much about them, I'd be glad to share the Fabulous Ones with you. Let me put together some other goodies for you, and I'll get 'em to you soon-ish.

      And thanks for all the info..!

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    2. Super cool and awesome! Thanks Brian and yeah i used to love Pro Wrestling so i know a little bit about the early stuff from the 80s but sadly it's changed so much i don't care much for it anymore.

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  3. There is no such thing as too many comics.

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    1. I wish that were actually true, but the dwindling free space I have would definitely disagree. Oh, and I was totally inspired to hit up the dollar-bins after your latest post. I was jealous of all the great books you picked up.

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    2. Oh gosh, me too... but my LCS is run by a complete douche-canoe and I can't go in there lest I have to deal with him. I've given up on ever perusing a quarter bin ever again. :(

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  4. Wrestling is dumb? Say it isn't so!

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    1. There's a part of me that will always love professional wrestling, but it's not something I feel comfortable fully embracing like I did as a kid/teen. I enjoy feeling nostalgic over it, though, especially the more bizarre aspects.

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  5. I need to read some of that Madman some day...! Love Allred's work- his recent run on FF was great, and his new take on the Silver Surfer looks promising after the 1st issue...

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