Ronn's Big Pile of Stuff

Little Golden Book Monday #156

2012-01-30T21:27:00.004-08:00

For today's Little Golden Book Monday, I wanted to post this photo I took of the Little Golden Book spinner Rack I found at the Barnes & Noble book store in Lynnwood, WA. This may be old news to those of you who have a Barnes & Noble in your back yard and see this everyday, but I was thrilled to find this spinner rack filled with Little Golden Books. Here in my area we have Chapters Books stores and in the past year or two, you would be lucky to find more than 2 or 3 Little Golden Books in stock, so finding an actual spinner rack filled with over 300 of them put a pretty big smile on my face.
I picked up The Courageous Captain America book that I had been wanting for a while. I saw a couple others I will probably pick up next time including a really cool DC Comics Super Friends book. I also have to admit that I wanted to go home with the spinner rack. My collection would look so cool displayed in that thing! Now that I think about it, I saw a vintage Little Golden Books spinner rack in a antique shop about 10 years ago while on a trip to Regina, Saskatchewan. It wasn't too expensive, but I had no way to bring it home in my car. I wonder if it would still be there ;-)

January is reeeally creepin' me out!

2012-01-29T22:25:00.001-08:00

The other day when we were out having dinner at a local restaurant, I picked up the newspaper to check out the funnies. Two things stuck out for me. First, I realized that I don't read the newspapers comics much any more, and that about half of the comics in this particular paper I had never seen before. And second, I loved the artwork in the final panel of this Doug Eat Dog cartoon enough that I took that page home with me. And by the way, Doug Eat Dog is one the ones I had never heard of before.

Little Golden Book Monday #155

2012-01-16T22:56:00.002-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is The Secret of NIMH, Mrs. Brisby and the Magic Stone. This book is from 1982, the same year the film, The Secret of NIMH, was released. The film was directed by Don Bluth, who also directed some other movies I enjoyed as a kid including An American Tale and Titan A.E.
Along with the cover, I have scanned the two inside front pages of the book. I love seeing who used to own my books, and I always wonder how many times they, or a parent read it to them? As you can see, this one belonged to Stephanie.

This is a movie that I had kind of forgotten about until I saw this book. I love animation, and I remember seeing this movie in the theatre back in 1982. I'm sure I probably rented it from a video store some time after that, but it is not a film I have in my collection. If this was a year or two ago, I would have visited my local movie rental shop this weekend to rent this one to watch with my son. But, our local video rental shop just closed, and there are no other ones really close by. I guess I could always 'download' it, but that's just not as much fun as a trip to the video shop.

Little Golden Book Monday #154

2012-01-03T22:18:00.001-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Disney's The Lion King, No Worries, The New Story About Simba from 1995. I'm not a fan of the movie Lion King, I only saw it once in the theatre back when it was first released back in 1994. Although the illustrations inside this book by Don Williams and H.R. Russell are actually pretty good, after flipping though this, I still have no interest in seeing the Lion King again. Pretty amazing, when you consider that the Lion King is the highest-grossing hand-drawn film in history, the highest-grossing 2D animated film in the US and the 14th-highest-grossing feature film. I'll stick to the soundtrack though, thank you.

My Elvis' Christmas Album

2011-12-30T00:26:00.004-08:00

This Christmas I decided to find my first two childhood Christmas albums. I knew the first was Elvis' Christmas Album from 1970. I could not remember much about the second one except that it had a red cover and was perhaps mostly instrumental Christmas music. These were the only two Christmas albums I had has a kid, so they got played over and over ever Christmas for years. I found them in my mothers small record collection, which she had not touched in years. I asked if I could have them, and pointed out that my name was even written on the front cover of the Elvis album. She happily handed them over knowing they would get a prized place in my record collection.
On Christmas Eve, I poured a Coca Cola into a Coca Cola Christmas glass, turned on the "fire log" channel on my TV and put the Elvis' Christmas Album on my USB turntable which is hooked up to a grape iMac. I was instantly transported back to my childhood as the first song, "Blue Christmas" began.
Although I am not an Elvis fan, I enjoyed the album greatly, until the very last song on side two which I though didn't seem to fit the Christmas album theme. I then noticed that on the front cover of the album it lists all the songs, and then in a box at the bottom it says By Request "Mama Liked the Roses". I guess they could not come up with a full albums worth of Elvis Christmas songs, and needed one more song? I wonder who requested it?
This album has always been the Christmas soundtrack in my head, and now I can play it every year for the foreseeable future.

Boxing Day Bonanza at Goodwill

2011-12-27T17:01:00.003-08:00

On Boxing Day (December 26th) we took a trip down to Marysville, Washington to partake of the Golden Coral "All You Care to Eat" buffet. It was amazing as always. If you have never been to a Golden Coral, and you have one within driving distance (our closest one is about 1 1/2 hour drive), you have to check it out. After lunch, we driving around checking out various malls and stores. Along the way we found two Goodwill stores where they are having a 50% everything sale, which meant that 99 cent records were now 50 cents, and 10 cent cassette tapes were now 5 cents... Yippee!

I came home with 29 LPs and 1 cassette tape, with the bulk of them being Disney albums, but there were also some other great childrens albums, including:
1) The Muppet Alphabet Album, Staring Jim Henson's Muppets from Sesame Street
2) Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron featuring Peter Pan Pop Band & Singers
3) Alphabet Song, on Tinkerbell Records
4) Danny Kaye tells 6 stories from Faraway Places
5) Songs for Children on Golden Records
6) Musical version of H.H. Rey's Curious George
7) The Unicorn, on Peter Pan Records
8) Frosty the Snowman, on Tinkerbell Records
9) All the Songs from the Walt Disney Movie Pinocchio, on Golden Records

Although a few of them are in rough condition, they all had the original LPs inside and once I put them into shinny new record sleeves, they all looked great, and are ready to be added to my collection. Total cost for all 29 LPs plus one cassette was a grand total of $14.55.

If you would like to check out the other non Disney albums I picked up, check them out over at the Disneyland Records blog.

Little Golden Book Monday #153

2011-11-14T21:01:00.000-08:00

It's been over a month since my last Little Golden Book Monday. Last time I featured "I'm a Truck", and continuing with the vehicle theme, today I present "The Taxi That Hurried".
This copy was reissued on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Little Golden Books in 1992. The book is by Lucy Sprague Mitchell, Irma Simonton Black, and Jessie Stranton, with pictures by Tibor Gergely.
This is another of the books I had on my book shelve as a kid, and I can remember reading it many times over. Pretty surprising to find out all these years later that it took three people to write this one!

Little Golden Book Monday #152

2011-10-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is I'm a Truck by Dennis Shealy and illustrated by Bob Staake. I saw it in a book store back in 2006 when it was released, but did not pick it up, thinking that I would get it later. It just took me 5 years to find another copy sitting on a book store shelve.
The illustrations throughout are fun, and I especially like Ol' Leif the logging truck who looks like a giant toque with wheels. I'm not sure that its safe for Ol' Leif to be driving around with an axe stuck into one of the logs he is hauling. It looks pretty unsafe to me!

Kaden's Alien Artwork

2011-09-15T22:39:00.006-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Kaden was on another big artwork kick. Here is one of the paintings he did, which I especially liked. Kaden is a big fan of the show Ben 10 and all the cool aliens on the show. He said this is one of his own alien creations.

TV Week Fall Preview 2001 - Part 2

2011-09-13T11:47:00.003-07:00

TV Week magazine Fall Preview 2011 Part 2 (Sept 17-23) focuses on the Returning Series. There are a bunch of shows I am looking forward to the return of, including (can't miss shows are in bold): The Big Bang Theory, Community, Chuck, How I Met Your Mother, The Middle, Modern Family, The Office, Raising Hope, Rules of Engagement, Supernatural, Two and a Half Men and my absolute favorite, Psych. Unfortunately Psych never seems to get a regular time slot on any particular channel here in Canada, so this is a show I have to watch online, which is too bad, as it is by far my favorite show over the past 5 seasons.

Both the wife and I have been watching Burn Notice since they started airing it here in Canada last season on Showcase. They have just started airing season 3 last week, and its always circled on our Tuesday night calender.

Then there is The Looney Tunes Show which is an update of all the Looney Tunes characters including Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. I had initially stayed away from this one, as I was expecting it to be dreadfully awful, and after hearing the voice of Bugs Bunny in a preview clip, I was sure there was no way I could sit though an entire episode. But after watching a few episodes with my son, we are now both hooked. I am even getting used to the new voice of Bugs.

My guilty pleasure is Attack of the Show on G4 Tech TV. I have been watching the show since the early days when it was called The Screen Savers and featured Leo Laporte as one of its hots. I used to prefer its 10 pm time slot, as it seemed I would always be looking for something to watch around that time. With its new 4 pm time slot, I am very ofter not even home before its over, and sadly I still don't own a DVR. I am still using my 4 VHS machines to record all my shows.

And lastly, there is a listing for The Comedy Central Roast: Roast of Charlie Sheen on September 19th. I will definitely have to tune it to this train wreck!

Then there is the list of 40+ cancelled shows, most of which I'll be happy to see go. I will miss S#"! My Dad Says and Mad Love, as I enjoyed both. And two more shows which I never actually saw on TV, but checked out online and though were great; CHAOS, and The Paul Reiser Show have also been cancelled. I have to wonder, if these shows had actually been given a chance for an audience to find them, would they have been cancelled, or do I just enjoy watching crap!?

Of the 47 new shows that premired last season, just 9 survived and made it to a second season. Those shows are: Blue Bloods, Bob's Burgers, Body of Proof, Harry's Law, Hawaii Five-O, Mike & Molly, Nikita, Raising Hope, and Secret Millionaire. Raising Hope is the one returning show that I am looking forward to, as it is probably my favorite of last seasons crop of shows.

Little Golden Book Monday #151

2011-09-12T22:55:00.001-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is another 2011 release, and yet another SpongeBob Squarepants book. This one is titled Top of the Class! In this story we see Plankton, owner of the Chum Bucket restaurant, looking to steal the secret Krabby Patty formula from SpongeBob, putting the Krusty Krab out of business - once and for all. Plankton tricks SpongeBob into attending his fry school, where he promises SpongeBob a degree in pattyology! Thankfully Plankton's plans don't go as planned, and the Krabby Patty formula remains a secret!
I still get a kick out of watching SpongeBob Squarepants episodes with my son. The series celebrated its tenth anniversary on July 17, 2009. SpongeBob was renewed for a ninth season on January 3, 2011. So far the series has aired 304 individual episodes and we watched a ton of them back in July during the 7 day, 150 hour, marathon of SpongeBob Square Pants on Nick TV Canada.

TV Week Fall Preview 2001 - Part 1

2011-09-11T22:39:00.008-07:00

It's that time of year when those of us who are addicted to television get excited about all the new TV shows as well as look forward to the return of our old favorites. We also mourn the loss of those shows that didn't make it to the new fall season. I was going to do a list of what I liked from last year and which shows were still on etc, but unfortunately, I didn't do my list last season (I must have been too excited watching all the new shows to sit and write a post).

Last weeks issue of TV Week (for the week of Sept 10-16) takes a look at the 50 new shows for this fall season. Here is a list of the ten shows I will be tuning in to and checking out this fall (I'll give each show a rating out of 5 for how much I am looking forward to it - 5 being the ones I am most excited about):

PAN AM (1) - A big ticket drama which follows a quartet of comely stewardesses on the prestigious Pam Am airline during the early 1960's, an era when air travel was still fun and glamorous, and being a stewardess was a passport to international adventure. I am not a big fan of drama, but the subject matter seems interesting, so we'll see if I am able to stick with it after the first episode.

TERRA NOVA (2) - Exec producer Steven Spielberg returns to familiar territory with this much-anticipated series set in 2149. Humanity flees a dying earth entering a "time portal" that sens them millions of year into the past, where they begin colonizing the prehistoric planet. I used to enjoy Land of the Lost as a youngster, and Jurassic Park was lots of fun. But, I fear this will be given the "Lost" treatment and become to tangled in plot instead of just being a fun weekly bit of entertainment.

2 BROKE GIRLS (3) - The show follows a pair of NYC waitresses who work at a dingy diner alongside its new owner, a horny Russian cook and an elderly cashier. If its funny, it could end up being interesting.

LAST MAN STANDING (3) - Tim Allen retreads familiar ground in this half-hour sitcom about manly Mike Baxter, a husband and father of three daughters whose life is dominated by women. When his wife returns to work after years of being a stay-at-home mom, Mike is further emasculated when he actually has to do some parenting. Doesn't sound like there is much new here, but I'll give Tim Allen 30 minutes to convince me to come back the second week.

NEW GIRL (2) - Jessica Day's recent breakup has left her single, despondent and homeless. With nowhere to live, this lovely neurotic young woman becomes the new roommate to a trio of sloppy single guys, who ineffectually attempt to drag her out of her post-breakup misery. This show is getting lots of praise, so I might give it a try, but it is sounding a little to much like a 'chick flick' for my liking.

UP ALL NIGHT (2) - Another show about the father becoming a stay-at-home dad when the wife goes back to work. Been there, done that... but it does star Christina Applegagte, and after watching her for 11 seasons on Married With Children, I am fan enough to check out her now show.

SUBURGATORY (2) - A family moves from Manhattan to a bucolic suburb full of big-haired, silicone-boobed soccer moms. Big hair and soccer moms... could be worth tuning in.

CHARLIE'S ANGELS (1) - A reboot of the jiggly T&A cop show from the 70's. I may tune in, or I may now. I just know I won't enjoy it as much as I did as a 10 year old boy!

HOW TO BE A GENTLEMAN (3) - Pretentious magazine columnist Andrew Calrson, pines for a more-civilized bygone era. When his editor threatens to fire him if he doesn't put a modern, sexy twist on his etiquette column, Andrew hires his one-time bully, Bert to teach him how to be manly. Sounds like it could be one of the sillier shows this season.

HAPPILY DIVORCED (5) - Based on her real-life marriage, former Nanny star Fran Drescher stars as a woman named Fran - again - shows husband confesses he's gay. Since this is a sitcom, they get divorced but tight finances causes them to continue to live together. I have downloaded the first few episodes back in July, and have liked what I have seen so far. Its just a fun and silly show.

Of the ten new shows I am going to check out, there is just one I rated a 5, three 3's, four 2's and two 1's. So, it looks like this could be a pretty lame season for new shows, unless there are some real surprises as the season gets underway. And there isn't much of interest waiting in the wings for the mid season replacement shows either. Thankfully a bunch of my favorites are coming back. I'll have more on that on Tuesday when I look at the Returning Series issue.

Here is a full grid of new shows. Click on it to make full size.

Let me know what you are looking forward to tuning in to this fall, in the comments.

Little Golden Book Monday #150

2011-09-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is I'm A Monster Truck. I had seen this one on Amazon a while back as an upcoming release for 2011, but had never seen it in a store. While grocery shopping the other day, I saw a display of Little Golden Books in the magazine isle, and among the books, were two that were on my wish list, this one, and a Sponge Bob book that I didn't have yet. They are both in my collection now.
This one reminds me of the picture books my son likes to get from the library. There are full page illustrations which seem a little different than the usual Little Golden Book illustrations, and there is very little text. I'm especially fond of the green 'Godzilla' truck on the front cover.

Little Golden Book Monday #149

2011-08-29T23:49:00.002-07:00

Here is something I found on Amazon.ca while looking for something completely unrelated. It is The Courageous Captain America, which I assume is a tie in to the recent movie (which I loved by the way!) I'm not 100% sure that it is a typical Little Golden Book, as it looks more like something that would be released as a soft cover and without the golden spine, but it does say that it is a hard cover and is priced the same as other Little Golden Books on Amazon. I called around to all my local book stores, but none of them even had this in their system. So, it looks like this is yet another item I will have to order from Amazon. I'll be sure to let you know it if is indeed a Little Golden Book, or a LGB wannabe.

Ohh, the '92 Spearmints are out!

2011-08-27T12:32:00.004-07:00

Ohh, the '92 Spearmints are out! I gotta get to a store! This is a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon that I cut out of the newspaper back in '92 and have had up on my wall at work ever since. My wife and I use the expression "Ohh, the '92 Speamints are out!" all the time when somebody is excited about something we think is silly. And I don't know what's so weird about having a subscription to a magazine called Chewing? I had a subscription to Flake magazine, a magazine dedicated to cereal boxes! That's not silly is it?

Little Golden Book Monday #148

2011-08-08T23:00:00.001-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse and Pluto Pup, told by Elizabeth Beecher, pictures by the Walt Disney Studio and adapted by Campbell Grant. Originally from 1953, my copy is the tenth printing from 1972. Here is the synopsis of the book printing inside; Mickey Mouse and his merry Disney gang rollick though another lively adventure, with bright and merry pictures from the Walt Disney Studio.
While I was typing this, I had the book sitting beside my keyboard. The longer I looked at the cover, the more I started to see a face on the old car they were riding in.
Here is my favorite page of the book, which shows Mickey getting breakfast ready for his pal Pluto. Looks like Pluto is getting some canned dog food and Puppo Biskits, that is IF Mickey can fan find Pluto.

Little Golden Book Monday #147

2011-08-01T12:48:00.005-07:00

While trolling Amazon.ca for new Disney books to add to my collection, I found two new Little Golden Books that are scheduled to come out next week (August 9, 2011).
The first is Tractor Trouble, based on Disney / Pixar's Cars. The second is The Pet Problem, based on Disney / Pixar's Toy Story.
The thing that makes these a little unusual, is that neither is based on the current film, but rather on the franchise. This will be the fifth Little Golden Book based on the Cars franchise, and the fourth based on the Toy Story franchise.
Hopefully I will be able to find copies of these at my local book store next week, but I won't be surprised if I am back at Amazon.ca to order my copies.

San Diego Comic Con on G4 TV

2011-07-21T19:34:00.002-07:00

Oh, great... there goes the entire week. As soon as the SpongeBob-a-thon is done, I'll be switching channels over to Tech TV for the San Diego Comic Con live coverage on G4 TV.

7 Day, 150 Hour SpongeBob Marathon!

2011-07-20T16:02:00.002-07:00

What are you doing for the rest of the week. We are now into our 5th hour of SpongeBob marathon madness. Its a 7 day, 150 hour, all 300 episode marathon of SpongeBob Square Pants on Nick TV Canada.

Little Golden Book Monday #146

2011-07-11T23:28:00.000-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Disney Fairies Tinkerbell from 2011. I had seen this book a few months back while on a trip down to Washington State. I didn't bother buying it that day as I figured I would find it at home. I have been searching for it ever since. I have searched all my local book stores in hopes of finding a copy, but no luck. I finally found it in a drug store book isle, stuck behind a bunch of other kids books. It was the only Little Golden Book they had, and luckily for me it was still in perfect condition.

RIP Cereal Mascots (1932-2011)

2011-07-03T22:46:00.004-07:00

Here is a great article from the June 13, 2011 issue of Canadian Business magazine about the death of cereal mascots. On a recent trip to the grocery store, I picked up some great boxes to add to my collection, including Cap N Crunch, Cookie Crisp and Coco Puffs. I have been collecting cereal boxes adorned with cartoon characters for over 20 years now and will surely miss them in my local grocery store cereal isles. [click article to enlarge]

Little Golden Book Monday #145

2011-06-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

A few days ago the family and I were at a local drug store and while I was waiting to leave I decided to check out their magazine and book section. I had found Little Golden Books there before and as it turned out, they did indeed have exactly one Little Golden Book hidden among all the other kids books. It is a book based on the upcoming Cars 2 movie. I haven't opened it up to check it out, as I am looking forward to seeing the movie this coming weekend.
My copy had a sticker on the front proclaiming "Quality Children's Books, 4-8 years". After scanning the cover, I removed the sticker and luckily it didn't leave any sort of mark. I hate it when they add stickers like this to products that can not be removed without leaving a mark. Don't get me started about Value Village stickers on record albums which can NOT be removed without damaging the cover!

Comic Collector for Mac OS X is live!

2011-05-24T12:49:00.002-07:00

Comic Collector for Mac is finally available from Collectorz.com. I have been looking for a good database program for my comic collection for a few years now. There were not many options for Mac, and the one that looked the most promising, was much to expensive. There was Comic Collector from Collectorz, but it was only available for Windows. When Collectorz first announced they were working on a Mac version about a year ago, I was very excited. Finally last week, they released version 1 for Mac. After a few hiccups with build 1 and 2, build 3 has finally got things working and I have started adding my collection into my database. From what I have seen so far, it is well worth the $30 I paid! Once I have added most of my comics to my database, and had some time to play with it more, I will probably be paying the extra for the Pro edition and also getting the iPhone edition so I can take my collection with me.

Little Golden Book Monday #144

2011-04-11T22:37:00.002-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney Productions, Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971 edition). I am always happy to find older Disney themed Little Golden Books such as this one, and I'm even happier when they are is good shape!
I'll admit, that I have never actually watched the movie all the way through, even though I own a copy of the movie on DVD. It was a Christmas present from a relative last year. They know that both my wife and I love Disney and so it makes sense that this would be an acceptable gift. Not sure why they chose this particular movie from the hundreds of Disney DVD titles to choose from though? We started watching it one night, shortly after we got it, but never did end up watching it all the way to the end. Maybe someday.

Little Golden Book Monday #143

2011-04-04T22:36:00.000-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's, Mickey Mouse's Picnic originally printed in 1950. This copy is the fourteenth printing from 1974. I was happy to find this great vintage Disney Little Golden Book in near mint condition. I already have a number of copies of this book, but this is the first copy that does not look like it was chewed by the family dog.
Here is the cover, along with a few of my favorite interior illustrations. The best is the illustration of Minnie Mouse showing Mickey the knife that she has taped to the bottom of the cake pan. Seems to me that Minnie is practicing, just in case Mickey ever ends up in prison, although I always thought you were supposed to put the knife inside the cake, not tape it to the bottom of the pan.

Little Golden Book Monday #142

2011-02-28T23:09:00.000-08:00

I just about forgot about Little Golden Book Monday. I went to my bookcase and pulled one at random, and her you go... Animals on the Farm 1963. My copy is the eighth printing from 1977.

Hero Bear and the KiD

2011-02-25T18:42:00.013-08:00

Today at work the librarian passed along a bunch of magazines that she was retiring from circulation, as s she knows that I collect ads. In a copy of Today's Parent, I found an ad for Kraft Dinner that featured some artwork of a turtle and a rabbit. I really liked it so i quickly tore it out to add to my pile ads to keep. When I got home and had a closer look at it I stated to realize that the artwork looked very familiar. It was the artwork of Mike Kunkel, which I recognized from a comic called Hero Bear and the Kid. A few years back I had found a copy of a comic called Hero Bear and the Kid in a back issue bin and picked it up because I liked the artwork on the cover. I ended up enjoying the comic so much that I purchased the Hero Bear and the Kid graphic novel "The Inheritance" from Mike's web site. He even signed it and drew a small sketch inside for me! If you have not seen these comics or the graphic novel, you should check it out. The artwork alone is worth the price. I especially love the way he has done the artwork in black and white except for the drawings of Hero Bear which include red for his cape. It makes for some very visually amazing artwork.

Most recently Mike did the cover to a comic mini series called Scratch 9. I checked it out because of the cover and ended up loving the comic. I just finished reading the 4 issues (over 2 nights) with my son, and he loved it. He couldn't wait for the second night to finish the story.
We have not read Hero Bear and the Kid together yet, so that will have to be our next bedtime reading for this weekend.

If you are looking for some all ages comics to read with your kids, that you will also enjoy, you should check out both of these titles! Visit Mike's website for all his latest projects and to order your copy of The Inheritance. Visit the official Scratch 9 website to order your hard copy or digital copies of the Scratch 9 mini series.

Little Golden Book Monday #141

2011-02-14T23:41:00.007-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Disney's Tangled. I had to special order this at my local book store, as it was sold out before I though to pick one up, and I could not find it at any of my local stores. I wasn't that interested in the book, or the movie it was based on, as it looked to me to be a pretty lame movie geared towards preteen girls. Apparently Disney though so too, as they made a last minute name change, switching from Rapunzel to Tangled, hoping to make it seem more exciting for boys as well. I didn't go to see it on opening night, November 24th. I figured I would wait a week or two and see it at the cheap theater near my home. To my surprise the movie was getting really good reviews and it didn't show up nearly as soon as I had though it would. Finally last week the movie showed up at my local cheap theater, and I took the family to see it. We were all pleasantly surprised, as we ended up loving the movie... so much so, that less than a week later we went to see it again. If you have not seen it, you should definitely check it out, if not at the theater, on DVD March 29th.
I was also very happy to pick up the Rapunzel long playing record and book shortly after picking up the Tangled Little Golden Book. For more Disney vinyl, be sure to check out my Disneyland Records blog.

Little Golden Book Monday #140

2011-02-07T23:01:00.001-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is the Authorized Walt Disney Productions Edition of The Rescuers from 1977. I can remember seeing the film when it was originally in theaters, and enjoying it very much. I really enjoyed the slapstick comedy of Wilbur the flying albatross, and laughed every time he was on screen. Today my favorite characters in the movie are Madame Medusa's two pet crocodiles named Brutus and Nero. There are a few great illustrations of Brutus and Nero in the book, including the one below showing the two guarding Madame Medusa's old riverboat.

The film was one of the last Walt Disney classics to be animated by members of Walt Disney's "nine old men".

Little Golden Book Monday #139

2011-01-31T23:36:00.000-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Good Night, Little Bear 1969 (First printing 1961), with story by Patsy Scarry and pictures by Richard Scarry. Nothing more to say, except that it's late, so good night.

Little Golden Book Monday #138

2011-01-10T23:55:00.001-08:00

This is a book my son gave me on the weekend while he was cleaning up his room. He was going though his two large book cases full of books and boxing up all the ones he no longer reads, so that he can donate them to a local thrift shop. He knows that I like Little Golden Books, so he brought this one to me and asked if I wanted it. Surprisingly I did not already have this one in my collection, so I thanked him for the new addition to my collection, and here we have today's book. Walter Lantz's Woddy Woodpecker at the Circus from 1981 (original printing 1976).
Along with the cover, I have scanned some images from the book, including a two page spread of Woody and his niece and nephew, Knothead and Splinter hanging out in the back yard sipping lemonade and reading the Circus Book.

Next up is a great Lion Tamer illustration. Reminds me of a lamp I used to have as a kid.

And lastly, I scanned the inside front cover. As you can see, this book was a prize at Lynne's 5th birthday party. Thanks Lynne!

Little Golden Book Monday #137

2011-01-03T23:56:00.002-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is The Wonderful School from 1969. Now that Christmas break is over it's back to work for myself and back to school for my son bright and early tomorrow morning after two weeks of staying up late and getting up at noon each day. All I can say is "Ah... do we have to?!"

Merry Pink Christmas

2010-12-25T15:08:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful Christmas morning and now that the waffles have been eaten and the presents have been opened, I have retired to my office to surf the net while the Christmas dinner is prepared for tonight. I found this comic in a pile of comics by my computer earlier, and thought I would share it today. This is the cover to the 1979 Pink Panther comic book, issue #60. This issue features the Pink Panther TV special, Pink Christmas, which I happened to catch on TV this Christmas. Being a big fan of the Pink Panther, I tuned in to watch the special, but unfortunately, it wasn't up to the level of the Charlie Brown Christmas or the Grinch, both of which are on my 'must watch' list each Christmas season.

Bill Peet's Countdown To Christmas

2010-12-23T20:33:00.001-08:00

If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time, you may remember that I am a big Bill Peet fan. I started collecting his books long before there was an internet, and back before Amazon and eBay, you had to go to your local book store to have them look stuff up for you. Once I had access to the internet, I started buying the Bill Peet books I was missing from my collection. I am not sure how I had totally missed this particular title, but I happened to see the cover of this book on line and I realized immediately that it was by Bill Peet, and that I didn't already own it. A quick visit to eBay and I had a copy of Countdown To Christmas in my hands a few weeks later. My copy comes from the Virginia Beach Public Library System, Kempsville Area Library. The book is from 1972 and is written and illustrated by Bill Peet. It was very enjoyable to have a Bill Peet book to read that was completely new to me. I had read all of his other books so many times as a kid, that this one was unexpected treat.

A Snow White Christmas Miracle...

2010-12-21T21:21:00.000-08:00

Ok, so its not a Christmas miracle, but it is a neat Christmas coincidence. Two weeks ago for Little Golden Book Monday #134, I posted the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs book, and mentioned how my father in law had seen Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the theater during its original release back in 1937. Today, I have another Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs post, again coming from my father in law. This time it is a cool Seven Dwarfs Christmas diorama display that had been on display at the Woodwards department store in Abbotsford for many a Christmas. My father in law received it once it was retired from the store 20 or so years ago, and he went to to display in his home each Christmas after that. This Christmas he passed it onto my wife, and it is now on display in our living room complete with blinking lights.

Wranglers to Black Out Midnight Game

2010-12-21T11:43:00.008-08:00

The Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL will host their eighth annual Midnight Holiday Roundup on Monday, December 27th when they face-off against the Utah Grizzlies.
The Wranglers holiday tradition began in the team’s inaugural season and has remained a fan favorite. This year, the Wranglers have planned two special additions: a performance by Mini Kiss and an Orleans Arena Black Out.
“We are thrilled to bring back Mini Kiss,” said Wranglers President Billy Johnson. “They were a big hit when we had them here a few years ago and we can’t wait to have them back in the building this year.”
The Wranglers are also looking to make an impact with their Black Out of the Orleans Arena and $5 t-shirt promotion.
“We’re asking fans to help us by wearing black for the Midnight Game,” said Wranglers Vice President Matt Smith. “Be on the lookout for the $5 promotional t-shirts; they’re going to be a big hit!”
The Midnight Holiday Roundup on Monday, December 27th will begin at 11:59 pm and is sure to be the can’t-miss game of the season! For information on discounted group tickets, contact the Wranglers front office at (702) 471-7825.

I have listened on line to the past 7 midnight madness games and can't wait for the game next week! Nothing like listening to a hockey game at 2 in the morning to make your family and friends think you're nuts!
Check out this great sound clip from the 3rd Annual Midnight Madness game for a chuckle.

Little Golden Book Monday #136

2010-12-20T19:41:00.001-08:00

Today, being the last Monday before Christmas, I thought I would bring you 3 Christmas themed Little Golden Books, Two stories based on Rudolph and another with reindeer on the cover.
First up is The Night Before Christmas from 2001. Next up is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from 1985 (original printing 1958). And lastly we have Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Shines Again from 1982. All three books were purchased today at a thrift shop for 50 cents each.

I also thought it would be fun to show the back covers of all three in random order. You can have fun trying to figure out which back cover goes with each book!

Weihnachten in den Bergen

2010-12-19T21:28:00.007-08:00

I picked up this 1978 children's book last summer and put it aside for closer to Christmas, which is now! The book is not in English, so I had no idea what it was called, but I really loved the cover artwork. A quick Google search and I found out that Weihnachten is the German observance of what is commonly known in English as Christmas Day. I love that the front cover shows six children in a horse drawn sleigh on their way to some really fun Weihnachten type event, and then on the back cover, we see them on their way back home a little while latter. We know that just an hour or so has passed by the movement of the moon across the sky.

Little Golden Book Monday #135

2010-12-13T00:34:00.003-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is The Cat That Climbed The Christmas Tree. The book is from 1992, written by Susane Santoro Whayne and illustrated by Christopher Santoro. The story is about Benny the cat's first Christmas. Benny is fascinated by all the Christmas decorations, especially the angel on the highest branch of the Christmas tree. "Up Benny climbed, past silver flutes and tiny drums. Miniature skaters called to one another, and old-fashioned clothespin ladies gossiped on their boughs..." Now if we all remember back to Little Golden Book Monday #131, we learned all about boughs ;-)

A Family Circle Christmas

2010-12-12T23:51:00.001-08:00

I picked up this great old Family Circle magazine at a recent library book sale for 10 cents. Most of the magazines I picked up that day were recent magazines which I bought specifically to pull adds out of for my collection, but this December 1968 issue of Family Circle has been put into a magazine bag with a backing board and is now part of my Christmas decorations for this year. Its also in the bag to conceal the funky old magazine smell!

Little Golden Book Monday #134

2010-12-07T00:17:00.003-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs. This edition is from 2003. Not to much to say about this one, other than the fact that I was lucky enough to have had the chance to see the film during its theatrical re release in 1993. And although it is not one of my favorite Disney movies, it was very cool getting the chance to see it on the big screen. Whats even more impressive is the fact that my father in law saw the film in a theatre as a kid, during its original release of 1937. That's pretty cool!

Cricket Records Winter Wonderland

2010-12-04T21:16:00.000-08:00

Now that it is December I can start getting into the Christmas spirit. Anytime before December is just too dang early to be listening to Christmas songs or seeing those pesky Christmas television commercials. So to kick thing off, I have dug out a few of the great Christmas records I have picked up over the past few months. First off is the great looking Cricket Records 45 RPM record of Winter Wonderland. I love the cover artwork.
While working in my office tonight I have turned on my Ion TTUSB10 USB Turntable to listen to a bunch of my Christmas vinyl. There is something so comforting in all those clicks and pops while listening to your old favorites. I have to admit though that listening to 45 records with one song per side seems like way too much work now. At least with an LP I can put it on and don't have to reach over to flip it over for 10 to 20 minutes. Three minutes per side just seems crazy now in the age of iPods full of hundreds of hours of continuous music. And yet, here I am reaching over to flip this one over to hear "The Sounds of Christmas" by Warren Vincent & Orchestra with The Cricketones. Silly me.

Little Golden Book Monday #133

2010-11-29T23:21:00.006-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Tweety and Sylvester in Birds of a Feather, from 1992. I didn't expect to like the artwork inside this book, as the generic Warner Brothers cartoon artwork of the 70's and 80's was pretty awful. But this book really surprised me with some very inspired artwork by Joe Messerli. I was also a little put off by the fact that it said Tweety and Sylvester on the cover, as I have come to dislike Tweety over the years. Don't get me wrong, he was a great foil for Sylvester in the old WB cartoons, but make no mistake, Sylvester was always the star of those cartoons.

I always saw Tweety as the character you needed to give Sylvester something to do in his cartoons. But Sylvester didn't 'need' Tweety, as was evident is the awesome 1948 Chuck Jones directed "Scaredy Cat". If you haven't seen it (or haven't seen it in a long time), you need to seek it out. I guarantee it will make you chuckle.

Little Golden Book Monday #132

2010-11-22T18:54:00.005-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is The Koala Brothers; Mitzi's Day Out. I didn't realize that the Koala Brothers was a Disney property until I opened the book and saw the Playhouse Disney logo inside. I had never heard of the Koala Brothers before finding this book, but I liked the cover. The photo of the 3D characters reminded me of the cool 3D View Master reels of my favorite Disney characters, Flintstones, Bugs Bunny and so many others that I enjoyed as a kid... and still do today!

Here is what a Koala Brothers View Mater reel might look like ;-)

Joe Liptak working on one of his sets for the View-Master reel of "Peter Pan."

Heckle and Jeckle Visit the Farm

2010-11-21T19:48:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we visited a few of our local thrift shops and I came home with some really neat stuff including this Wonder Book, Heckle and Jeckle Visit the Farm. The copyright for the book is 1958, but this particular edition is from 1983. I have always been a fan of Heckle and Jeckle and back when I used to still get up early to watch cartoons, I used to get pretty excited when they would toss in a Heckle and Jeckle cartoon in the mix of usual Bugs Bunny, Casper and Popeye cartoons. I can also remember back in the 80's before VCRs became popular, you could actually pay to see cartoons in a little cartoon hut at the mall. Once I got this book, it got me to thinking about those little cartoon huts. I can remember that they had one in the Surrey Place Mall and than when I was working at the A&A Records and Tapes shop, I would use my breaks to run over to the Sears, where they had one such cartoon hut in their stairwell leading out to the parking lot. For just a quarter, you could sit and watch a full length (roughly six minutes) cartoon. I loved it because it only played Terry Toons and your odds of seeing a Heckle and Jeckle cartoon were pretty good.
After a short Google search, I found this guys site where he showed off his very own original Kiddierama Theatre. Be sure to check out his site to see who these things actually worked. Now a days, a quick YouTube search will instantly bring up a whole bunch of Heckle and Jeckle cartoons to view in the comfort of your own home. Pretty amazing to think back and realize how much things have changed in just 30 years.

Little Golden Book Monday #131

2010-11-15T20:58:00.014-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Baby's Mother Goose Pat-A-Cake. This copy is a seventh printing from 1971, with the original copyright being 1948. The quality of this copy is not that great, but I had never seen it before and I liked the 50's style artwork on the cover. Inside the book is a cute illustration of a cat playing a violin with this note about the artist: While this is Aurelius Battaglia's first children's book he has done murals for children's rooms and worked in the Disney Studio. He studied at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., and now lives in New York City.
I thought it was funny that they listed his accomplishments as doing murals on children's room walls and working for Disney. It's pretty hard to decide which should come first on your resume.
Along with the cover, I have scanned a few of my favorite pages from the book, including a two page spread of Little Miss Muffet and the last page of the book, Rock-a-bye baby. I've always thought that so many of the young children's nursery rhymes and songs are kind of morbid and/or depressing. This one is a cheerful story of a little baby in a cradle stuck up in a tree, and eventually falling to the ground, bough, cradle, and all. I did learn something from this though, as I don't think I have ever included the word "bough" in the last line of the song when I have sung it. I'll have to remember to add that next time I have occasion to sing this tune.
[Ed note, here is the fun learnin' part of the blog. Bough -noun, a branch of a tree, esp. one of the larger or main branches.]

Lastly I have scanned the inside back cover and back cover of the book. The inside back cover lists the current titles for 1971 and the back cover is one I don't see very often. I love the 'eyes' in the letters GB. And by the looks of it, I would guess that the Donald Duck at the bottom left of the back cover was done by Aurelius as one of his bedroom wall illustrations.

Retro Cap'n Crunch

2010-11-11T22:26:00.000-08:00

Not sure how I missed this, but apparently The Quaker Oats Company released Retro Cap'n Crunch boxes this past summer. Although I am a huge fan of sugary cereal box art, I don't spend too much time looking in the cereal isle anymore as there really hasn't been many new boxes worth adding to my collection over the past number of years. Here in my area, we only get the regular Cap'n Crunch. I used to have to travel down across the boarder into the US to pickup my Peanut Butter Crunch which was my favorite, along with what ever goofy new concoctions they would come up with such as Vanilla Crunch and Volcano Crunch. I'll be sure to have a look next time I visit the grocery store, but I won't hold my breath, as I am sure us Canadians will get hosed and miss out on there awesome looking retro boxes of sugary cereal.

Ding Dongs Ain't Ding Dongs in Canada

2010-11-06T20:15:00.013-07:00

Sometimes you just gotta know! While surfing the Interweb Tubes tonight I saw a picture of an old Ding Dong package.

That got me to thinking about those tasty little cakes filled with magically delicious filling and covered in a chocolaty coating. Ok, I'll admit its been years since I've had one, but its not entirely the fault of the tasty little treat, but more to do with the fact that here in Canada we don't have Ding Dongs, instead we have the exact same tasty treat, but with a different name... King Don. I'm pretty sure that when I was a kid they were called Ding Dongs here in Canada, and I remember loving them. I was always begging mom to buy a box when we were in the bakery section of the local grocery store. But then as time went on and I got to be a teenager I can remember noticing the box in my local grocery store, and wondering why it said King Don? It looked a lot like a Ding Dong, so what had happened? Somehow a King Don just didn't seem as appealing as a Ding Dong, and I haven't had one since. So tonight when I saw the original package, I had to do a Google search to see just why that tasty treat had changed its name. Here is what I found on Wikipedia:
The Ding Dong is similar to other cream-filled cakes, such as Arcade Vachon's Jos. Louis introduced before 1934 and still in production. Hostess began marketing its Ding Dong in 1967. The name was given to coincide with a television ad campaign featuring a ringing bell. The company marketed the snacks on the East Coast as Big Wheels, to avoid confusion with the Ring Ding, a similar (and pre-existing) treat by Drake's Cakes. The names were consolidated in 1987, when a short-lived merger of Drake's with Hostess' parent company (then Continental Baking Company) briefly resolved the Ring Ding/Ding Dong conflict. When the merged company broke up, however, Hostess was forced to cease, once again, using the Ding Dongs name in areas where Ring Dings were available. The compromise sound-alike name King Dons lasted until Interstate Bakeries Corporation, which had recently merged with Hostess' parent company, bought Drake's in 1998. The Hostess product is now sold under the name Ding Dongs throughout the United States. However, the snack is still sold as the King Don in Canada.
Hostess created the "King Ding Dong" cartoon character to advertise the Ding Dong: an anthropomorphized Ding Dong sporting a crown and sceptre. He was similar to other Hostess characters Twinkie the Kid and Fruit Pie the Magician. Where King Dongs were marketed, the character, like the product, was known as King Dong. In areas that used the "Big Wheel" name, the character was an Indian chief named "Chief Big Wheel".

American Dings Dongs (recent packaging)

Canadian King Dons (not recent packaging)

I'm pretty sure that after this post I am going to have to check out the bakery section of my local Safeway next visit to see if I can find a package of those tasty little treats to bring home with me.

Little Golden Book Monday #130

2010-11-01T23:46:00.001-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's, Donald Duck's Toy Sailboat. Donald Duck has always been my favorite Disney character (followed closely by Pluto) and I find myself picking this book up every time I find it in a thrift shop, hoping to find a mint copy. This is definitely one of the books I seem to see most often, but almost always they are in pretty dog eared shape. This copy from 1990 is in decent shape and even with a bit of scuffing on the cover around the edges its still probably the best copy I have. Without looking, I would guess that I have 4 or 5 of this book in my collection from various years and differing conditions. Although I have not spent the time to catalogue my complete collection of Little Golden Books yet, I do regularly use my iPhone to visit this blog to check out what books I have already posted, which has actually saved me from buying multiple copies of a number of books!
This book, originally from 1954, has great artwork produced under the supervision of the Walt Disney Studio. The story is adapted by Samuel Armstrong from the motion picture Chips Ahoy. I particularly like this illustration of a mischievous Donald pouring water onto the small toy boat as Chip & Dale try desperately to pump out the water before they sink!

Little Golden Book Monday #129

2010-10-18T22:31:00.003-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is a second printing of the officially licensed Woodsy Owl and the Trail Bikers from 1976 (first printing 1974). As soon as I saw this book, I started thinking about a favorite childhood mall hang out, called Willie Woozle. There was one of these hot dog and malt shops at both of my local malls; Surrey Place Mall and Guildford Town Centre. I went looking on the net for some photos of Willie Woozle, but sadly, I could not find even one photo of the place, just some people reminiscing about how much they liked going there when they were kids. I can't be sure since I could not find a photo, but I seem to remember that the Willie Woozle logo featured an owl very similar to Woodsy and I used to think the malt shop was somehow related to Woodsy, which I'm sure is what they were going for.

I assume every one knows what a malt is, but just in case you've never had one, the term malt comes from the malted milk that made the shops famous. The concoction is a mixture of malted barley, wheat flour, and whole milk that is dried to a powder form. The taste found popularity in soda shops, and even greater popularity when mixed with ice cream. If you remember back, Scooby-Doo and the gang were always hanging out at the malt shop. Wendy's burger restaurants still serves malts which they call Frosty's.

Since I could not find a photo of the Willie Woozle malt shop, I decided I would get creative with one of the interior pages from the Woodsy Owl and the Trail Bikers book to at least include my childhood vice!

Little Golden Book Monday #128

2010-10-11T21:29:00.002-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is another faux Golden Book. This one comes from Bob Canada's Blogworld! blog. Here is what Bob had to say on his blog about this great faux Little Golden Book: For this year's custom-made Christmas card I had a novel idea: instead of waiting until the very last minute to begin working on it like I always do, I would actually get a head start on it! No more racing against the clock and mailing it out a day or two before Christmas. What an unorthodox concept.
My original intention was to make a simple card that looked like the cover of a Little Golden Book. But as I was sketching out ideas I started thinking of an actual story for the inside. Before I knew it my little card had evolved into a full blown eight page book.
I had a week long vacation at the beginning of November. I couldn't afford to go anywhere, so I spent almost the entire week in front of my computer working on this card/book. It turned out pretty much the way I pictured it in my mind. It was nice to have it done ahead of time for once.
Here are all the pages in order along with a few of the sketches he did for the project.

Little Golden Book Monday #127

2010-09-13T23:04:00.010-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Bert's Hall of Great Inventions featuring Bert and Ernie and other Jim Henson Muppets including Franklin and Prairie Dawn. The book is originally from 1972 (this is an eleventh printing edition from 1981). I certainly remember this book from you childhood. I was always a big fan of Sesame Street and the Muppets, so I am sure I owned my own copy of this one at some point. I have scanned two of the pages from the book that I particularly like. The first is a great drawing of Bert and Ernie hanging out in the dark with their firefly friends. The second is a silly drawing of Bert whacking Ernie on the head with a fly swatter. I like that the fly is saying "Ha ha."

KISS Super Big Gup Cups

2010-09-05T13:17:00.003-07:00

Just saw this today. I have not been collecting KISS merchandise for years now, but this looks cool! New KISS Big Gulp cups from 7-11. I guess its partly that they look cool, and partly that I have a nostalgia for the old 7-11 Slurpee cups that I used to collect as a kid. I'll have to stop by my local 7-11 this weekend to see if we have these in Canada so I can pick up my set. The last Gig Gulp cup I purchased was the really cool 3D Iron Man cups promoting the first Iron Man movie.

Hanging out with The Famous SD Chicken

2010-08-25T09:14:00.001-07:00

Back in 2008 the family and I got the chance to hang out with the Famous SD Chicken (aka the San Diego Chicken). He attended the February 9, 2008 Delta Ice Hawks hockey game in Ladner, BC vs the Delta Devils of the PIJHL. Being a huge fan of the SD Chicken, my wife requested that we purchase tickets for the game as soon as she found out he would be attending. Being as the Ice Hawks generally draw about 150-250 fans per game, we knew we would have a great chance to meet the chicken. Kaden spent a good part of the game sitting front row, side by side with the chicken, even helping him out with some of his props! I'm not sure Kaden really knew what to make of some guy dressed in a chicken costume making such a ruckus against the glass all during the game!

As well as a ton of photos that I took, both Sara and Kaden got autographed photos for their collections.

Terry David Mulligan's Good Rockin' Tonite

2010-08-24T15:26:00.011-07:00

Back in 1984 there were a ton of rock videos, and if you wanted to see them, you had to turn on the TV and wait for one of a plethora of video shows to show them to you. Unlike today when you can just go to Youtube and watch any video you want, any time you want. But back in 1984 you watched video shows such as the grand daddy of them all, Friday Night Videos, or Canada's version called Good Rockin' Tonite. GRT was a 90 minute weekly video show hosted by Terry David Mulligan. I can remember watching this show regularly for years, always hoping to see videos by my favorite bands such as; KISS, Motley Crue, Helix, Def Leppard, Lee Aaron etc. They were also always having contests, usually for signed albums and posters. On one occasion when I entered, I didn't win anything, but I did receive this really snazzy postcard, which wasn't even hand signed - the signature was printed on the card. On a separate occasion, I entered a Motley Crue contest, and won a signed Gary Moore album (go figure)! I was never a fan of Gary Moore (I actually had no idea who he was at the time) so wasn't all that thrilled with my win. But years later I traded it to a friend for a copy of the ultra rare Wendy O Williams (Plasmatics) album titled Deffest and Baddest. Being a huge Plasmatics fan, I was pretty excited to acquire this Wendy O Williams album I had never even heard of. A quick Google search today finds this description of the album: Originally, the album was to be credited to the fictional rap group "Ultrafly and the Hometown Girls," with Wendy's name left off it, but the distributor wouldn't back it without Wendy's name. On this disc, Wendy slams hair bands, creates interesting sexual scenarios between Jerry Falwell and Jessica Hahn, and oh yeah, becomes the first person to fuse rap and speed metal. Thanks Good Rockin' Tonite... that Gary Moore album turned out to be a pretty awesome prize!

Little Golden Book Monday #126

2010-08-23T22:25:00.001-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Susan in the Driver's Seat. I had never seen this book before, so was happy to add it to my collection for a hefty 20 cents at a local thrift shop. The book is from 1973 and was written by Kathi Gibeault with illustrations by Jane Ike. I always like to see who my new books used to belong to. Apparently this one belonged to a child who is now in the witness protection program.

The Wonderful World of Pixar

2010-08-22T12:26:00.003-07:00

I picked up this copy of the June 2004 WIRED magazine with a great Pixar cover story for 20 cents at a local thrift shop. I am a big fan of the Incedibles movie, so it is always great to find something to add to my collection. Inside the magazine is a great 8 page article with the title "Welcome to Planet Pixar, How the pixel-packing upstart became an animation superpower and left Disney in the dust.

Little Golden Book Monday #125

2010-08-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book Monday book is another one that I am not sure if it is actually a Little Golden Book. It looks a lot like an American Little Golden Book, but does not say Little Golden Book anywhere in it. It does have a very worn golden spine resembling a LGB. When I did some online translating, the cover translated to "Little Book" and the title translated to "Suffers the infernal rabbit." I'm not sure how good that translation is, but it is kind of funny. I also scanned in the inside two pages. You will notice that much like the American LGB is has a full page pattern on the left page which is very reminiscent of the American LGB. And if you didn't notice from the front the cover artwork, the story and artwork is by Richard Scarry. One last translation tells us that this book is an "edition of two cocks gold".

American Express Print Ad

2010-08-09T19:50:00.003-07:00

Here is another of the ads I pulled out of all the magazines I got last week. I don't usually collect American Express ads, but this one made me chuckle while I was flipping though the piles of magazines.

Give Old Magazines A New Life

2010-08-06T14:13:00.012-07:00

While we were out the other day we visited a few thrift shops I had never been to. One of them had piles and piles of old magazines. It took a while to go though them all (OK, not all of them, but lots of them!) and I found a ton of great full page ads for my collection. There were great ads for Apple, Saturn, Disney, Coca Cola etc. Once I was home, I had a ton of fun sitting on the couch listening to music while flipping though them all and pulling out the ads I wanted to keep. Any of the magazines that still have covers and are only missing a few pages will end up back at another thrift shop, and the rest that are to mangled to pass on will be send to the recycling bin.
One of the ads I kept was a two page ad that was promoting the idea that magazines are still relevant in an internet age. The text in the ad reads: "We surf the Internet. We swim in magazines.
The Internet is exhilarating. Magazines are enveloping.The Internet grabs you. Magazines embrace you. The Internet is impulsive. Magazines are immersive. And both
media are growing.
Barely noticed amidst the thunderous Internet clamor is the simple fact that magazine readership has risen over the past five years. Even in the age of the Internet, even among the groups one would assume are most singularly hooked on digital media, the appeal of magazines is growing.
Think of it this way: during the 12-year life of Google, magazine readership actually increased 11 percent.
What it proves, once again, is that a new medium doesn't necessarily displace an existing one. Just as movies didn't kill radio. Just as TV didn't kill movies. An established medium can continue to flourish so long as it continues to offer a
unique experience. And, as reader loyalty and growth demonstrate, magazines do.
Which is why people aren't giving up swimming, just because they also enjoy surfing."
The next ad is a recycling ad from the Publishers of America, which reads: "Give old magazines a new life. We all love our magazines, but when it's time to let go, it just takes a little extra effort to recycle. After all, helping the environment is everyone's responsibility. For more information on how to recycle your magazines, go to www.Earth911.com. Make it a habit. Recycle"
The third ad is for the Apple iPad. The ad shows a person sitting at home reading The New York Times on their iPad.
The last ad is for Movies on Demand.
Why do I include these four ads in this post? Because I think it really does show that we are in an age where physical things such as magazines, movies, CDs, and DVDs are becoming less relevant to many people, which means they could slowly (or perhaps quickly) become a relic of the past along with VHS tapes and 8-Track cassettes. Does this make me happy... hell no!
As a collector, the idea that physical things such as magazines, DVDs, CDs, even concert/sports ticket stubs could disappear is a very depressing thought. I bought tickets recently for a concert (a band I love called Skillet) and was disappointed to see that instead of traditional paper tickets they had wrist bands. The young person selling me the tickets actually made the comment that these were so much cooler than old fashioned tickets. I didn't bother getting into it with her, as she would probably just laugh at the old guy blathering on about the past. But I have been collecting tickets for as long as I can remember. I even purchased some ticket books from www.ticketalbums.com to keep all my concert tickets nicely organized. A piece of paper printed on my ink jet printer just isn't worth keeping as a souvenir of the event. As for my magazine ad collecting. a digital ad collection just isn't the same as the binders I have filled with page protectors full of ads. I have books for Apple ads, Coca Cola ads, Disney ads etc. Again, I have been collecting ads for as long as I can remember and my binder collections of ads are quite impressive. The ads I have collected on my iMac (and use as a screen saver) just aren't as cool. And then there is music. I am a self professed Apple fan boy, and I do love using iTunes to listen to my music - I have not had any other stereo for playing music since I started using iTunes. But I prefer to buy the physical CD and rip it into my iTunes collection. Paying to download the music online may be convenient, but if you don't get something physical for my cash, it just seems wrong. Collecting music CDs in my iTunes collection just isn't as cool as having a shelf full of my favorite records and CDs. But then I guess that's the point for so many people. They would rather have a hard drive full of music and movies as apposed to a taking up a bunch of space on their shelves with stuff that is just going to collect dust. So to those people... I can help you recycle your stuff. just send it to me!

Little Golden Book Monday #124

2010-08-02T23:33:00.001-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. I have never been a big fan of Winnie the Pooh, and ever since he forcefully removed the Country Bears from their home at Disneyland I have had even less love for the the chubby little bear. That said, I was impressed with the artwork by Russell Hicks in this book enough to pick it up for my collection. At just 69 cents this book was well worth adding to my collection. I hope you enjoy the two interior illustrations I have scanned to go along with this post. I have to saw that the honey that is covering Pooh looks a lot more like chocolate than honey - and its not just my scans - it looks like that in the actual book!

Homer and the Circus Train

2010-08-01T15:17:00.002-07:00

I Just got a copy of Homer and the Circus Train by Hardie Gramatky. My wife was visiting her nephew, and in the lobby of the building was a bookcase with magazines and children's books. She noticed this one and instantly knew I would love it. She took a photo with her iPhone and sent it to me. As she guessed, I loved it. On her next trip to visit her nephew, I went along with a pile of books from my collection (all extras) and asked if I could trade my pile of books for the copy of Homer and the Circus Train. The woman made some jokes about how the book was probably worth lots of money etc, but was convinced to let me trade when she saw that one of the books I had brought was a brand new copy of Green Eggs and Ham which she said was her favorite. I went home with my new treasure. The book is from 1957 and was part of the Greater Victoria Public Library collection before becoming a discard. The book was written by Hardie Gramatky who also wrote Little Toot, another favorite of mine. The list in the back of the book also lists other books by Hardie Gramatky: Little Toot, Hercules, Loopy, Sparky, Bolivar, Nikos and the Sea God, Little Toot on the Thames, Little Toot on the Grand Canal, and Happy's Christmas.
This book features Homer a little circus train who looks a little bit like a few other cabooses I have featured on my blog previously. I absolutely love the artwork throughout the book and this one has made me want to search for more of Hardie's books, especially Sparky, which is about a little trolley car that looks very similar to Homer, except that he is yellow instead of red.

Happy 4th Birthday Big Pile of Stuff!

2010-07-30T11:10:00.006-07:00

Today marks the 4rd birthday of Ronn's Big Pile of Stuff! The blog was started as a joke when I started to see how many blogs there were out there. I figured at some point there would be more blogs than people, so why not jump in and start my own. My first idea was to do it for one year, and post something every single day during that year. My experiment lasted 75 days, before I forgot to post something one day. I abandoned the idea of posting every day, but continued to post anytime I had something I wanted to share which turns out to be a couple of posts a week. It is great knowing that when I get something new that I am really excited about, I have somewhere I can share it with others who 'may' actually be as excited about it as me!
I have received a few emails over the 4 years from readers telling me how much they enjoy my posts, but I would love to hear from more of you. Use the comment link at the bottom of any post and share your thoughts.
Thanks again for visiting my little corner of the internet. If you enjoy this blog, why not visit a few of my other sites. Find the links to the right under "My Other Stuff". And be sure to check out all of my "Favorite Blogs" also listed to the right. There is am amazing amount of cool stuff out there to be oogled!
- Ronn Roxx Aka the Unfocused Collector

Coca Cola's Vending Machine of Friendship

2010-07-29T21:36:00.009-07:00

This large Size Coca Cola vending machine is an advertisement created by Ogilvy Argentina Agency to celebrate Argentinian friendship day. I translated the text from the ad using the Google translator and this is what it said: The Machine of Friendship. On the day of the friend we invite friends to celebrate with a 2x1 Coca Cola. To do this we placed a Coca Cola vending machine with a higher than common coin slot, so that the only way to reach the button is with the help of a friend.
Turns out, that if you and your friend(s) can figure out how to get up high enough to place your coins into the machine, you will be rewarded with an extra bottle for free... for your friend of course!

Little Golden Book Monday #123

2010-07-26T17:31:00.007-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Rabbit and his Friends with story and pictures by Richard Scarry. Originally printed in 1953, this copy is the Third Printing from 1974. I picked this one up because I liked the cute animal artwork on the cover. It wasn't until I got home and had a look though it that I realized I recognized the artwork. A quick flip to the front inside cover revealed that it was none other than Richard Scarry who had done the artwork, along with writing the story.
The story is about Rabbit who finds an egg who he believes belongs to Mrs. Hen, but when the egg hatched, there stood the strangest animal that ever was!
"He doesn't look like any animal I have ever seen before", said Rabbit. "He has a big beak and little webbed feet just like Duck."
"He has a tail and a fur coat just like Beaver," said Mrs. Hen. "And he is very shy, like Squirrel." "What are you, my dear?" asked Mrs. Hen.
But the roly-poly animal said, "I don't know." Then splash, kersplash! that roly-poly animal jumped into the river and swam right down to the bottom.
The strange little animal turns out to be a platypus, the rarest and most interesting animal in the whole world.

CAPTAIN CANUCK 35th ANNIVERSARY Art Contest

2010-07-22T00:15:00.005-07:00

Check out the cool Captain Canuck 35th Anniversary Art Contest going on over at deviantART.com. As well as info on the contest, be sure to read the complete blog entry when you get there, as there is some cool info about a possible new, kid-friendly "Captain Canuck Jr." project.
And be sure to click on the 'current entires' link to see all the great submissions of Captain Canuck artwork.
Along with the post, I have added a few of my favorite submissions from those posted so far.

The Sheldon Comic Strip Makes Fun of Me!

2010-07-15T23:59:00.007-07:00

I was going though some stuff I had dropped into a folder on my iMac and came across this cartoon I snagged from the Sheldon Comic Strip Daily Webcomic by Dave Kellett. This simple cartoon made me chuckle at myself as I realized how many times I have sat and watched something on TV (with commercials) that I own on DVD, but was too lazy to get of the shelf and load into my DVD player! And, I don't know if I am the only one who thinks this, but I find some sort of satisfaction in watching something that I know others are watching at the same time... even if they aren't watching it on the same TV as me!

Pancho The Parrot 45 rpm Record

2010-07-05T16:13:00.004-07:00

While checking out a local thrift shop the other day I found this Pancho the Parrot picture sleeve 45 record. I remember seeing this parrot back in 1979 when I visited the San Diego Zoo with my mother on my second trip to California. I also remember seeing him on TV on a few occasions on shows such as That's Incredible.
If you would like to check out an mp3 version of Pancho singing "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" you can over at abMP3.com.

Bob Kane signed Batman comic book

2010-06-19T23:44:00.008-07:00

What a find! I visited one of my favorite out the way comic shops today and spent an hour digging though the back issue bins. I ended up coming home with some great old Batman, Detective, Daredevil and Amazing Spider-man issues, including one very special Batman issue. I picked up Batman issue #254 from February 1974 for just $8. Imagine my surprise when I opened it up to read it tonight and found that right there on the first page, it was signed "Bob Kane". And later on in the issue it was again signed with a note "to my friend." How lucky is that!? You don't think it could be a fake do you?

Little Golden Book Monday #122

2010-06-14T20:46:00.008-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Casper and Friends, BOO-O-S On First from 1992. I have been wanting to pick up a copy of this book for a while, but never seem to find a decent copy. This one was in fair shape and at just 69 cents I could not pass it up. I happen to be a fan of Casper the Ghost, and I love the title of the book (gotta love Abbott & Costello). It also gives me an excuse to do a post about the Casper Ghosts minor league baseball team and their awesome logo... I do love logos you know!
I first heard of this team (and their logo on The Clink Room web site.
The Casper Ghosts are a Minor League Baseball team in the Pioneer League based in Casper, Wyoming, where they play at Mike Lansing Field. They are the Rookie-level affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, established in 1978.
Unveiled in 2007, the Casper Ghosts are the only team in Minor League Baseball to wear glow-in-the-dark caps. The Ghosts official colors are orange and black.
In addition, they use as an alternate logo the image of Casper the Friendly Ghost with permission from the Harvey Entertainment division of Classic Media.
And hey, notice this book, features Casper playing baseball!

Little Golden Book Monday #121

2010-06-08T00:28:00.006-07:00

With the upcoming release of Toy Story 3 later this month, I went hunting for a new Little Golden Book based on the film. I managed to find it listed on Amazon, but when I visited my local book seller, they did not have any copies of this book. They did however have a large display of other Toy Story 3 story books, coloring books, sticker books etc. Looks like I will have to order this one via Amazon if I want a copy. Back in 2008, I had to order the Little Golden Book version of Presto which I never found at my local book sellers. Seems that many stores no longer carry the Little Golden Books and the ones that do, seem to carry a rather strange selection of Little Golden Book titles.

[UPDATE July 7, 2010 - I found a copy at a local Walmart today and on the front cover was a sticker that read "Only at Walmart", so it would seem to explain why I could not find this book at any of my usual book sellers.]

iCade - iPad Arcade Cabinet

2010-06-06T18:56:00.007-07:00

Didn't think you needed an iPad? Think again! When the iPad was announced, we all crammed into a conference room to watch live and drool over every shiny corner and reflecty icon. After the glow of the initial announcement wore off, many of us came to the conclusion that the iPad was actually pretty useless. "It's a giant iPhone!" some said. Others exclaimed, "WTF, no Flash!?". Still, we knew that most Apple fanbots (us included) would have to have one anyway.
Knowing that many of our loyal geeky customers would eventually get their retractable claws on an iPad at some point, we knew we needed to take it to the next level. What cool things could we do with the iPad that you, our lovely geek customers, would squee over? A few brainstorming sessions later, the idea of a MAME cabinet came up and we knew we'd struck gold. How cool would it be to slide your iPad into a desktop-sized arcade cabinet and rock it old school with some Pac-Man or Space Invaders?
Enter the iCade iPad Arcade Cabinet! To use the iCade, gently slide the iPad into the docking cradle. The docking cradle uses a standard 30 pin connector to link the iPad to the professional-grade arcade controls. Once the iPad is in place, launch the iCade App (available free in the App Store April 3rd) and it's game on! We didn't want to take any chances you'd run out of juice during your favorite game, so we included a 10w USB power adapter so you can charge the iPad through any electrical outlet. Now you're all set to make an uninterrupted run on the Dig Dug World Record!
This article was on Think Geek back when the Apple iPad was released and I am sure many a video game geek ran to their local electronics store looking to pick one up. Problem is this item does not actually exist - it was just a tongue in cheek hoax, which is too bad because I really, really want one!

Little Golden Book Monday #120

2010-05-03T22:17:00.005-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's Cinderella. This is a nice reprint, originally published in a slightly different form by Simon and Schuster in 1950. Once again, this is a LGB that doesn't seem to have an actual print date listed, but my best guess is that it is from the past 4 or 5 years.
From the the back cover: Dear Reader, Each of us remembers our own favorite Little Golden Book. I've searched our archives for the best Little Golden Books ever published to bring back as keepsake editions. You've just selected one! I'm sure this cherished classic will delight parents and grand parents as well as today's fun-loving kids. After all, lively, satisfying stories never go out of style. Look for your favorite Little Golden Book Classic! Sincerely, Diane Muldrow, Editor.
I have been meaning to pick this up for a while and finally found this copy at a local thrift shop in perfect condition, earlier today.

Little Golden Book Monday #119

2010-04-26T21:34:00.003-07:00

Ok, so I have managed to escape from the zombies and am back for another Little Golden Book Monday. Today's book is We Help Mommy, originally from 1959, but I have no idea what year this edition is from. It has a UPC code on the front, so it is obviously not 1959, but as so many other Little Golden Books, this one doesn't seem to have a a date of printing. I have done a little Googeling to see if I could find a simple way to figure out what year a LGB was printed, but there doesn't seem to be a simple way to figure it out every time. If anyone knows of a simple way to date this and other Little Golden Books, let me know!
I particularly liked this illustration of Bobby and Martha at the grocery store. Apparently little Bobby is a fan of Little Golden Books... OR kittens... OR Little Golden Books about kittens.

Hey Look... I'm in a Groo Comic book!

2010-03-23T23:04:00.011-07:00

I've been reading comics for over 30 years now and one of my all time favorites is Sergio Aragones GROO the Wanderer which had been going on and off all most as long. My mother is not a big comic reader, but over the years of my collecting there have been a few comics they she always looked forward to each month, two of those being Kevin Smith's Bone and Groo. For years when I would come home from the comic shop, she would ask, any comics for me??
Dark Horse just published a 4 issue mini series of Groo titled Groo the Hogs of Horder. I read issues #1 and 2 and passed both along to my mom, but I had not read issue 3 yet. When I came home with issue 4 I realized that I had never passed issue 3 along to my mom, so I gave her both 3 and 4 before I had a chance to read them. A day or two later when I picked them up, she said, "Wow, you have a letter in there!" which was news to me! I quickly snagged the comic from her and flipped to the back to have a look at the letters page, and right there on the first page was a letter from Ronn Roxburgh... wowee! There was even a response from Mark Evanier and a silly little drawing to go along with it! This is so cool as I am a big fan of both Sergio and Mark. Have been reading the Groo comics since the first appearance in Destroyer Duck and I visit Mark's blog every day!
I was thrilled to get my letter in a Groo comic book, and I didn't even have to mention the word 'mulch'.

Little Golden Book Monday #118

2010-03-22T23:22:00.003-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is NOT a Little Golden Book, but rather a LGB knock off called A Happy Day Book. Its the identical size of a LGB and has a shiny spine - silver instead of gold. These books were published by Standard Publishing of Cincinnati, Ohio and featured religious stories such as Jesus Makes Me Happy, Bible Stories Make My Happy, and Buzzy Bee Says "Be Happy".
This one is called Buzzy Bee Story Book and is from 1980.
When I first saw this book, it took a few seconds before I realized it was not a LGB, and I thought the bee on the cover was the Romper Room bee. Boy, did they fool me!

Little Golden Book Monday #117

2010-03-15T23:18:00.000-07:00

Today's Little Golden Book is The Wait-for-Me Kitten by Patricia Scarry with pictures by Lillian Obligado. This is the Fourth printing from 1977, with the original being printed in 1962. Patricia happens to be the wife of one of my favorite children's story writers, second only to my all time favorite writer/artist Bill Peet.
This story follows three mischievous little kittens and their tag along pal Wait-For-Me as they go searching for some fun. Along the way they get into trouble with a big rooster, Ms. Fox, Farmer Pig and Mrs. Dog. When the other little kittens cause trouble and run away, Wait-For-Me sticks around to help Mrs. Dog re hand her laundry, which prompts Mrs. Dog to say "A good little kitten must have a reward," and she gives Wait-For-Me a big tuna fish pie to eat, yum, yum, all by himself!
But the three little kittens came tumbling over the hill. "Wait for me! Wait for me!" begged the three little kittens.
Did the littlest kitten wait for those three, hungry little kittens?
Oh yes he did! And ever since then, those three little kittens have always waited for him.

Plants Vs Zombies

2010-03-14T21:17:00.004-07:00

Where have I been the past 2 weeks? Fighting off the frackin zombies that's where! I heard about this game called Plants Vs Zombies while listening to the podcast This Week In Tech (TWiT) and it sounded like fun. Little did I know that once I started defending my home from the zombies, I wouldn't have time for anything else! I managed to go through a full week of spring break without doing much of anything other than playing Plants Vs Zombies. Even my 4 year old is now addicted to shooting zombies with frozen pee shooters and blowing them up with potato bombs! So, if you have stuff to do, DO NOT check this out. If you, on the other hand have a few empty weeks to fill, then visit Pop Cap games. But don't say I didn't warn you!

Little Golden Book Monday #116

2010-03-01T22:11:00.004-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Another Monster at the End of This Book from 1996. I didn't actually clue into this until I was writing this, but this is actually the sequel to the original Monster at the End of This Book from 1971 which I remember reading when I was younger. You can actually read the entire original book online here.
The really cool thing about my copy of Another Monster at the End of This Book is that is seems to have been owned by one of Grover and Elmo's Sesame Street pals Zoe.

Canadian Men's Hockey Wins Olympic Gold!

2010-02-28T15:41:00.002-08:00

I was in front of my TV... where were you?

2010 Olympic Coke Bottles

2010-02-21T17:26:00.009-08:00

I went to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and all I got were these Coke bottles. That's OK though, as that was pretty much the reason we went in the first place.
The 2010 Winter Olympics are happening here in Vancouver, BC, CANADA and one of the big sponsors is Coke. LiveCity is an area they have set up with sponsor pavilions, live music etc. Coca Cola has a pavilion there titled "Open Happiness". My wife had seen that they were giving out free light up, color changing Coke bottles so we decided to make the trip downtown and battle the crowds to visit the Coke Pavilion and get our own light up, color changing Coke bottles. After about a 1 1/2 hour wait to get into LiveCity and another 45 minutes in line for the Coke Pavilion, we finally got inside and got to see the exhibit that they had put on - full of vintage Coke bottles and cans, lots of advertising, a short movie and some interactive games etc. After the short movie, they handed everyone an ice cold Coke, and then, if you did any of the interactive events, you got a sticker on the bottom of your Coke bottle which could then be traded in for one of the light up, color changing Coke bottles. You were supposed to trade in your empty bottle for the light up one, but we asked if we could keep the empties and they let us keep them.
We didn't get a chance to do any of the other stuff in LiveCity as we didn't get in until around 10 pm and things closed around 11 pm. We did get to watch the Sam Roberts concert while we waited in line - too bad it wasn't actually somebody I actually knew or liked.
Pictured here are 3 different Olympic Coke Bottles. The first one (far left) was purchased at my local SafeWay grocery store. The Second (middle) was given out in the Coke Pavilion, filled with ice cold Coke. The third bottle (right) is the light up, color changing bottle. It has a button the the bottom to turn it on and off. Pictured at the far right is the back of the light up bottle. It is a limited edition. This one is 28,714 of 50,000.

Kaden's Comic Book Spinner Rack

2010-02-07T19:50:00.009-08:00

A few months ago I picked up a comic book spinner rack from our favorite toy & collectible shop called Toy Traders in Langley. They didn't need it any longer and so we arranged to purchase it. I already had one that I purchased years ago from an old drug store that was going out of business. That one is set up in my basement and is filled with some of my favorite comics. This new one has been sitting in our foyer in pieces ever since I purchased it this past summer. I finally decided to set it up, and my son asked if he could have it in his room to display his comic books. After I set it up, he spent the next hour or so arranging all of his comics just the way he liked. He was so proud of his collection he could not wait to ask mom and grandma into his room to see what he had done!
How many other four year olds have their own comic book spinner rack? For that matter, how many four year olds have enough comics to fill a comic book spinner rack?

Little Golden Book Monday #115

2010-02-01T23:31:00.004-08:00

Today I have a couple of Little Golden Books that both feature someone sewing with a needle and thread on the cover.
First is The Brave Little Taylor from 1953. This copy is a third printing from 1975.
The second is The Elves and the Shoemaker from 1993, originally printed in 1983.

Little Golden Book Monday #114

2010-01-25T23:35:00.006-08:00

Here is perhaps one of the most famous inside covers to a book ever. I have seen this so many times that I don't really even notice it anymore. It wasn't until I was scanning in some book covers and I was noticing all the various children's names written inside on the "This little Golden Book belongs to" spot that I decided to scan in the inside cover for today's Little Golden Book Monday.
Its kind of funny that although I had many Little Golden Books as a child, I don't recall ever writing my name in any of them. Even at a young age, I think it was the collector in me that wouldn't let me deface my books by writing in them - even it it was just my name, in a spot specially made for me to personalize my book.
Now Im really curious if I ever did write my name in one of my books. I am going now, to dig through my collection to see if I can find any of my original Little Golden Books with my young signature inside!

Little Golden Book Monday #113

2010-01-18T22:42:00.002-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Disney's 101 Dalmatians, Rainbow Puppies from 1998, and based on the 101 Dalmatians animated series. As I was scanning the cover I started to recall the cartoon being on TV. I went looking but didn't find a ton of info on the cartoon. I did find out it came after the live action 101 Dalmatians movie and ran for two seasons from 1997 to 1998.

Little Golden Book Monday #112

2010-01-11T20:34:00.003-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, The Kitten-Sitters from 1976. This book features a few of my favorite Disney characters; Pluto and Figaro the kitten. It also features two of my least favorite Disney characters; Mickey's nephews, Morty and Ferdie. To be fair, I also dislike Donald Duck's nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. There is just something unsettling about introducing 'cute' little characters alongside my favorite characters that has always urked me - need we go any farther than Scrappy-Doo!?
This book features typical '70's Disney illustrations, not really up to Disney's usual standards from previous decades. Here is one of the illustrations that happens to feature Pluto & Figaro.

Captain Canuck 1979 Reintroduction Letter

2010-01-10T13:28:00.012-08:00

Back in 1980 when I was just learning of the enjoyment to be found in the pages of superhero comic books, I had a neighbour who showed me his modest comic book collection. In it he had 3 or 4 Superman comics and one Captain Canuck comic book. Something about that Captain Canuck comic seemed really cool and I asked him if I could have it, to which he asked, "Do you have anything to trade?" I don't remember what I ended up trading him for it, but the end result was I got to go home with my new copy of Captain Canuck, issue #6. I read it 3 or 4 times, and just couldn't get enough. On my next visit to the Bookaneer book store (which sold comic books), I asked is he had any Captain Canuck comic books and he pointed me to the rack on the wall behind the cash register. On it was all the newest comic books, and there in amongst all the other super hero comics was issue #7 of Captain Canuck!
I was so captivated by my first two Captain Canuck issues that I asked if I could subscribe to the comic. My mother who was always trying to find things I would read, was more than happy to pay the $3.90 for a years subscription.
Ever since I wrote my post about my first two comic books I have been wanting to find my copy of Captain Canuck #6 so that I can display it along with my Rom and Silver Surfer comics as my very first comic books. Today I decided to hunt though my comic boxes for the issue. After spending a while hunting though boxes, I was not able to find that particular issue - I did find a few copies of #6, all were in much to good condition to be that first issue I traded for. What I did find was a copy of issue #4 that I bought at a thrift shop years ago. What made this issue interesting was that inside it was a letter from CKR Productions, LTD that was addressed to "Original subscribers of Captain Canuck".
I think its pretty cool that a Captain Canuck fan (myself) just happened to purchase an old issue in a thrift shop that still had this letter inside. I would guess that there were not that many subscribers to the comic during the first 3 issues, so this letter would seem pretty scarce, and finding one still tucked inside the comic book years latter, priceless!
PS: I'll have to keep hunting for my first copy of Captain Canuck #6.

Little Golden Book Monday #111

2010-01-04T23:24:00.004-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's Dumbo. This edition was originally published in 1941 in slightly different form by Simon and Schuster, Inc. This is the first Random House Edition from 2004 and features the original artwork from the 1941 edition and it is absolutly wonderful. Along with the cover I have scanned two images from the inside. One is a great full page illustration of Dumbo being pushed out a window of a burning house at the circus. The other is an illustration of the crows from the story. The crows have always been some of my favorite Disney characters and I love their song in the film "When I See an Elephant Fly".

Scratch N' Sniff Colgate Toothpase Packaging

2010-01-02T01:09:00.001-08:00

I bought this a year or so ago and kept the box with plans to post it on my blog. Sometimes getting a good photo of something can be a real pain, and the results can be less than desired - just check out the Delgo poster in my last post.
I found this box under a pile of stuff in my office while I was rearranging stuff and thought it was time to take a crack at photographing this toothpaste box. Of the 10 photos I took this is the one that turned out the best. Kinda artsy actually!
Anyway, the reason I bought this toothpaste in the first place was the box. On the front of the box, as you can see from the photo, it has a Scratch N' Sniff spot for you to check out the vanilla mint smell. Like most scratch n' sniff, I didn't really smell much more than cardboard, but then I guess it really didn't matter, as they sold me the tooth paste anyway... cha-ching!

One of Worst Openings in the History of Cinema

2010-01-01T15:06:00.004-08:00

Recently while at our local cheap theatre my son asked for the poster from Aliens Vs Monsters. Since we go to the theater so much the owner is more than happy to help us out with our poster requests. On this particular day he brought out two posters, the one my son had asked for, and another animated film poster that he thought my son may like. When I opened it to have a look I found it was for the film Delgo. I remembered reading about the film on Cartoon Brew. Check out what they had to say about the film:

The CG animated feature Delgo opened last weekend and nobody went to see it. According to Box Office Mojo, Delgo had the worst opening ever for a film that opened in more than 2,000 theaters earning just $511,290 or $237 per theater. Moments like this really make one pause and reflect. What is the world coming to when an animated film with the voices of Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, Chris Kattan, Anne Bancroft, Eric Idle, Val Kilmer, Lou Gossett Jr, Malcolm McDowell, Michael Clarke Duncan, Burt Reynolds and Kelly Ripa isn’t a box office blockbuster? A story that makes sense and visuals that don’t make you want to heave are quaint touches, but the filmmakers behind Delgo understood where it really counted: celebrity voice actors. They hired every B- and C-list actor this side of Dancing With the Stars and somehow still failed. You know the recession is affecting Americans deeply when they no longer want to see Chris Kattan and Kelly Ripa voicing their CG characters.

The theater owner who game us the poster said that it was the ONLY kids movie that he had ever played for just ONE week before removing it for another film. So not only did it do poorly on opening weekend, but it did just as poorly when it moved over to the cheap theaters.

I was going to toss out this poster as neither my son or myself really want to put it up on our walls, but I thought, with the film being so poorly received, that someone might actually want it. If anyone reading this wants it, just email me and if you are willing to pay for postage, its yours!

Reason for the Season

2009-12-24T21:30:00.006-08:00

Here is the cover of Stryper's "Reason for the Season" EP from Enigma Records, 1984. On it you will find the long and short version of the title track along with what is perhaps my favorite Christmas song ever, Stryper's rockin' version of "Winter Wonderland"!

You can check it out with the youtube video below.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Peter Pan Records - Frosty the Snowman

2009-12-23T19:34:00.006-08:00

Here is a 45 RPM Extended Play record I found last month. Today I was going to listen to it and I found that the record inside the sleeve was not the correct one. It was instead, a Disneyland Record of Frosty the Snowman, so although it is not the actual correct record, it is at least the correct song. Too bad though, as I was really looking forward to listening to Morris, the Moose.

Coca Cola 2009 Christmas Bottles

2009-12-22T19:04:00.007-08:00

I found these cool Coca Cola Christmas bottles at my local Walmart recently. There are two different (plastic) bottles which both look like round Christmas tree ornaments. One has Santa drinking a Coke and the other has a mother and baby polar bear also drinking a Coke. They look pretty small, but are actually 400 ml, making them slightly bigger than a traditional Coca Cola can. People were snapping these up like crazy, and I heard a few of them talking about giving them to family members etc as stocking stuffers. They have certainly made a great addition to my Coke collection.

Little Golden Book Monday #110

2009-12-21T12:55:00.009-08:00

I forgot to post last Monday, so I missed the perfect chance to do the 12 Little Golden Books of Christmas on Monday when there was exactly 12 days till Christmas. So instead, since there are 5 days till Christmas, I present to you, The 5 Golden Books of Christmas!

On the Eighth day of Christmas my true love read to me... Santa's Surprise Book from 1966
On the Ninth day of Christmas my true love read to me... Frosty the Snowman from 1950
On the Tenth day of Christmas my true love read to me... Big Bird's Ticklish Christmas from 1997
On the Eleventh day of Christmas my true love read to me... Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: Oh, Nose! from 2001
On the Twelfth day of Christmas my true love read to me... The Night Before Christmas from 1949

Roy E. Disney Passes Away

2009-12-16T22:43:00.006-08:00

Here is a letter written by Bob Iger, Ceo of Disney today (December 16, 2009):

It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing of our friend and colleague Roy E. Disney. After a courageous year-long fight with stomach cancer, he passed away peacefully this morning at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, surrounded by his loving family.... See More

Roy played an important role in our lives here at Disney, and in the success of our Company over many years. Along the way, he touched many of us in a personal way. During his 56-year association with the Company, his true passion and focus was preserving and building upon the amazing legacy of Disney animation that was started by his father and uncle. His commitment to the art of animation was unparalleled and will always remain his personal legacy and one of the greatest contributions to Disney's past, present and future.

Roy not only helped to keep the legacy alive, but he also embraced new technologies, and gave the filmmakers the tools they needed to tell their stories in new and exciting ways. He encouraged talent, and loved working with the creative community. And they loved working with him.

Roy was a Disney Legend in every sense of the word, and his contributions to this great company have been profound and will always be remembered. For the next week we will be flying the Disney flag at half mast here at the Studio and at our parks, and I know you join me in sending thoughts and prayers to Roy's wife, Leslie, his four children, and his 16 grandchildren. For those who wish to pay their respects, the family has requested that donations be made in Roy's name to the California International Sailing Association (CISA) to benefit youth sailing.

Shown here is a bumper sticker I received from Roy Disney back in 2005 promoting his Save Disney campaign. The slogan refers to Michael Eisner who at the time was the head of the Disney Company, and Roy E. Disney who had been removed from the Disney company by Eisner's regime (he was asked to come back to Disney after Eisner was removed as head of the company). This sticker has been stuck just above my iMac screen where I can see it every day every since I received it back in 2005. Now it will be just a little more special.

Little Golden Book Monday #109

2009-12-14T23:50:00.003-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is The Velveteen Rabbit, adapted from the story by Margery Williams and illustrated by Judith Sutton and published in 1992.
I have never read the story of the Velveteen Rabbit, but could not resist picking it up when I found it at a local thrift shop for just 25 cents. When I flipped though it, this one page stuck out to me. Is it just me or does this scene look like something out of a horror flick?! A couple of clowns, an evil looking flying lion, and one of those mechanical drummer monkeys. The rabbit looks absolutely frozen in fear... or is it just me?

Little Golden Book Monday #108

2009-12-07T19:20:00.009-08:00

Today's Little Golden Book is a faux Golden Book titled "Take the Banana". It was created by Cale Atkinson for the August 2009 Toronto Fan Expo. Cale created a limited run Sketchbook filled with 28 color pages of Art. He still has some copies leftover from the Con so if any of you are interested feel free to shoot him an email :) The books are $15 (+ Shipping).
I love going on Google and looking for Little Golden Book covers, and I am aways especially interested in faux covers that others have created (to see my faux Little Golden Book cover check out my previous post). Cale decided to put a little of his love for Little Golden Books into his sketch book cover, and I think it turned out awesome!

Along with the actual cover to his book, Cale was nice enough to send along two of the rough sketches he did while designing the cover.Check out his blog Cale's Museum of Delights

Little Golden Book Monday #107

2009-11-30T23:26:00.002-08:00

Today we headed out to our favorite thrift store Talize for 30% off seniors night. Simply bringing my mom along saves us 30% off already cheap cheap prices! The store is big! It used to be a Safeway grocery store, and once the Safeway left, Talize moved in. There are no other locations in my area, but from what I understand they have other stores across Canada.
I scored a pile of Little Golden Books, records and other assorted other goodies. Tonight in response to the amazing amount of rain we have been getting here lately, I present Noah's Ark, something we may need very soon!
This book is by Barbara Shook Hazen and Diane Muldrow with illustrations by Mircea Catusanu. This is the first edition from 2003.

Pepsi Twist Ad Campaign Pisses In Your Drink

2009-11-29T13:56:00.004-08:00

This is a Pepsi Twist print ad that I pulled from an advertising blog a year or two ago. Unfortunately the blog is gone, so I was not able to see what they had to say about the ad, but a Google search did produce this ad along with a bunch of others in the same ad campaign. Check out this page which has this ad along with a bunch of others that also feature the deviant little lime.
I kind of like the ad, but I'm not sure everyone is going to want to drink a Pepsi Twist after seeing this ad.

Catch the TMNT Turtles Forever this Saturday!

2009-11-27T01:26:00.005-08:00

The world premier of the "Turtles Forever" movie took place on SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21 at 10 a.m. on The CW4Kids TV, and although it was being billed as airing on TV ONE TIME ONLY!, that is only partinaly true - it WILL air in its entirety only one time. But starting on Saturday November 28th, you can catch the first 22 minutes of the movie, with the other two parts scheduled for the following two Saturdays. So if you missed it the first time like I did, either get up early like I plan to, or set your DVR's, VCRs etc.

TMNT: Turtles Forever is a made-for-tv animated movie that was produced by 4Kids Entertainment. Produced in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, the movie teams up different incarnations of the titular heroes—chiefly the light-hearted, child-friendly characters from the 1987 animated series and the darker cast of the 4Kids' own 2003 animated series—in an adventure that spans multiple parallel universes.
A rough, nearly finished version of the film premiered at the San Diego Comic Con in July 2009. The movie was to be released in theaters for one night on October 29, 2009 but due to disputes between 4Kids Entertainment and Fathom the event was canceled according to National CineMedia. The movie aired on TV on The CW4Kids station on November 21, after the 25th anniversary Top 10 Countdown.[2] An encore showing will air from Nov 28 to Dec 12, split into three 22-minute episodes. A release date for the movie on DVD has yet to be announced. It has also been announced that the uncut version of film will appear on the CW4kids's website sometime in December that includes 12 minutes of footage cut from the version that aired on TV.