Some Great Magazine Ads

Here are a couple of the great ads that were in the 1983 issue of Muppet Magazaine. The first is for Disney videocassettes in collectors packages with video and hat. The second ad is introducing Disney RCA VideoDiscs. "A world of Wald Disney, Mr. Rogers, the Muppets, Charlie Brown, "Annie," Star Trek," great educational shows and more. All on your own TV. What's more, the RCA VideoDisc player is so simple to operate, a child can do it. Basic players start at $299. Discs as low as $14.98. And for your kids, the magic goes on and on."
I remember having one of those VideoDisc players. It was great, as when be bought the player, it came with a one year unlimited VideoDisc rental plan. I was able to take as many movies as I wanted, so I would take out 2 or 3 movies a night. I must have watch hundreds of movies that year... some, over and over again!
Funny enough, our family had VideoDisc and Beta. We didn't get VHS until both Beta and VideoDisc had faded into obscurity. When the VideoDisc systems were being dumped by video stores, we bought a bunch of the movies on Disc for next to nothing. I have some great VideoDisc titles in my collection including: The Pirate Movie, Friday the 13th, The Pink Panther, Pink Panther Strikes Again, Gold Finger and A Night at the Opera.

Muppet Magazine

While digging in the basement looking for something the other night, I found these two issues of Muppet Magazine from 1983 and 1984. I was a huge Muppets fan back in the70's and 80's and I am sure I pretty excited when I found these magazine on the local news stand. I do remember that at the time I thought they were pretty expensive at the high price of $1.50 an issue! Here were have two great covers; first is Battle of the space heroes (aka Star Wars), featuring Kermit, Gonzo and Piggy in Luke, Vader and Leia. The second cover features a young Ricky Schroder of of the TV sitcom Silver Spoons.

Also being a collector of ads, I was thrilled to see how many great full page ads there were in these two magazines. I will post a few of them once I have the time to scan them all.

589-ROAR #2

Here is the second in a series of BC Lions print ads. This one shows a Hamilton Tigercats fan sitting amongst a stadium full of Lions fans. I am going to guess that there will be ads featuring each of the other 7 CFL teams, so hopefully I can find the other 5 ads to display here on my blog!

Little Golden Book Monday #13

Statler: "I like this movie so far"
Waldorf: "It hasn't started yet"
Statler: "That's what I like about it!"

Today's Little Golden Book is Muppet Treasure Island. This wasn't their best movie, but I love the Muppets and was thrilled to find this fun adaptation of the movie. This book came out in 1995 (the movie was released in 1996). If you have not seen the movie yet, it is worth seeing just for the song "Cabin Fever", a song that will get stuck in your head for days!

"Cabin Fever"

I got cabin fever it's burning in my brain
I've got cabin fever it's driving me insane
We got cabin fever, we're flipping our bandanas
Been stuck at sea so long we have simply gone bananas

Ariba!
Chica chica boom
A chica chica boom boom chic
Chica chica boom
A chica chica boom boom chic

We got cabin fever we've lost what sense we had
We got cabin fever, we're all going mad

*** [does not appear in movie, but is on the soundtrack]

My sanity is hanging by a thread
Since we're going nowhere I've gone out of my head
We were sailing sailing over the bounding main
(Lew Zealand:) And now we're not! Ha ha heh!
***

Grab your partner by the ears
Lash him to the wheel
Do-si-do step on his toe
Listen to him squeal
Allemande left, allemande right
It's time to sail or sink
Swing your partner over the side
Drop him in the drink

We got cabin fever
No if's, and's, or but's
We're disoriented
And demented
And a little nuts

Ach du lieber Volswagen car
(Yodel-lay-ee-hoo)
Saur braten viener schnitzel
Und a vunder bar
(Yodel-lay-ee-hoo)

We were sailing, sailing the wind was on our side
And then it died

I've got cabin fever
I think I've lost my grip
I'd like to get my hands on
Whoever wrote this script
Si!

I was floating 'neath a tropic moon
And dreaming of a blue lagoon
Now I'm crazy as a loon

Cabin fever has ravaged all aboard
This once proud vessel has become a floating psycho ward
We were sailing, sailing headed who knows where
And now though we're all here
We're not all there

Cabin fever!

The International Hockey League is back... sort of!?!

I had today marked on my iCal as the day that the UHL would be announcing the changes for the upcoming 2007/08 hockey season. I knew that a bunch of the teams that payed last season would be gone for next season, as two teams are moving to other leagues and a few others are folding. But what I saw when I visited the UHL site tonight was pretty surprising!
The first thing I noticed when I clicked on my UHL bookmark was the the url quickly changed from theuhl.com to ihl-hockey.com. Then as the site showed up in my browser I saw that the UHL had indeed shrunk in teams from 10 last season down to 6 for the upcoming season. But more interestingly, the league had also changed its name from the UHL (United Hockey League) to the IHL International Hockey League).
My immediate reaction was that of excitement, after all, the IHL was my favorite hockey league until its demise in 2001. I was very disappointed when IHL folded.
Happily six of the IHL teams (including my favorites: Manitoba Moose & Grand Rapids Griffins), moved over to the AHL. I have a great T-shirt with those logos and the slogan, "the Original Six", as a homage to the original six of the NHL.
I always wished that IHL had not gone away, or at least that after a season or two they could have come back to play another season.
So here it is 2007, and we once again have the IHL, albeit a very different IHL.
Part of me thinks its wrong to change the name of the UHL to a name that already existed, but, at least 3 of the 6 teams playing in the new IHL were teams that played in the original IHL, so I guess that make this seem just a little 'less wrong', and possibly even OK.
I'll be very anxious to see the new IHL season begin this coming October. Once the season get going, I'll make up my mind if this is the greatest hockey move ever, or the worst move ever. Lets just hope they don't make a mockery of the IHL name.

Little Golden Book Monday #12

Today's Little Golden Book is not actually a Little Golden Book at all. Rather, it is a LGB that I WISH had been released. You see, Atlantis The Lost Empire is my favorite modern Disney animated movie, and I love collecting anything to do with Atlantis. The problem is that when it came out in 2001, there was some sort of falling out between Disney and Little Golden Books. So, at the time when they should have been releasing an Atlantis the Lost Empire Little Golden Book edition, they were instead re releasing titles such as Poky Little Puppy, Shy Little Kitten and Saggy Baggy Elephant. Happily, only a couple of years later Little Golden Books was once again releasing Disney titles. It's my guess that Little Golden Books saw a huge decrease in sales with the absence of Disney titles, and I'm sure Disney missed the easy profits to be made from licensing their properties - not to mention the added benefit of putting their characters on book selves and in toy stores all across North America in front of young impressionable children who would then grown up reading their favorite Disney titles.
That's all well and good, except that Atlantis came out during the time when Little Golden Books was not releasing Disney titles, and once they started releasing Disney titles again, they did go back and release a few tiles such as a book based on the Incredibles, but unfortunately, Atlantis had not preformed well enough at the box office to warrant a book release long after the movies theatrical release. If only they had been doing Disney titles when the movie came out, they would have released an Atlantis book at the time of the movies release, then even though the movie tanked at the box office, it would not matter, as I would already have a copy of the book in my collection.
So, what you see above is what I have created for myself. A digital (cover only) version of the Little Golden Book Atlantis the Lost Empire edition as I've imagined it. Sigh...

Bloops Cereal

To go along with my last post about Kellogg's looking to cut down on their animated cereal pitch men (characters), I thought I would share this really neat creation with you. Its over at the Beehive blog. This guy has created his own cereal character Cap'n Bloop, and even made a mock up of the Bloops cereal box. You can follow along on the web site with the creation and evolution of Cap'n Bloop. If you are an animation/cereal box junkie like I am, you will want to check it out!

Kellogg's sends Tony the Tiger Packing

As reported in the Globe and Mail: Facing threats of lawsuits and dire warnings about childhood obesity, Kellogg Co. has decided to put itself on a diet.
The Company, maker of Pop Tarts and Fruit Loops, said yesterday it's getting out of the business of marketing these and other foods of dubious health value to children.
It also plans to cut the amount of fat, sugar and salt in many of its snacks and cereals.
The decision could mark the beginning of the end of a Saturday morning tradition - cartoon-like ads pitching sugar-laced treats to kids.
Kellogg, along with its Canadian subsidiary, said that by the end of next year all of its products will be reformulated to meet new, tougher health standards or they won't be advertised to children under the age of 12.
The company also vowed to stop ;using cartoon characters, such as Shrek or Tony the Tiger, for products that fall short of the new standard.
Last year, 10 major food and beverage companies promised that at least half their advertising aimed at children under the age of 12 would promote healthier foods and exercise. The companies, including McDonald's and General Mills, also pledged to stop advertising in elementary schools and to cut back on the use of cartoon characters to pitch products. Yesterday's announcement comes in the wake of negotiations with two groups that had threatened to sue Kellogg over its advertising to children.

Little Golden Book Monday #11

Todays Little Golden Book is Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille (rat.a.too.ee). Being a big fan of Disney and Pixar, I was really hoping to find a Ratatouille Little Golden Book, and was thrilled when I found it at our local Zellers last night amongst a large assortment of Ratatouille picture books, coloring books, novelizations, sticker books etc, all in a large Ratatouille display. Its always a little strange to see Little Golden Books such as this one illustrated with watercolor style drawings when the movie is actually a CGI animated film.

589-ROAR #1

I saw this ad in the local newspaper at work this past week and had to yank it out and bring it home for my collection. The CFL football league started pre season this past week and our local BC Lions have started their new promotional campaign. This ad shows a Saskatchewan Roughriders fan sitting amongst a hoard of Lions fans... and he looks a little scared! Funny stuff.

Little Golden Book Monday #10

This weekend I went to my local Talize (a super sized thrift store) because they were having a special 50% off everything sale! It took me over an hour to go though all the bookshelves full of kids book and by then I was ready to go, as was my 2 year old son, so we didn't even get a chance to look at anything else in the store! I ended up spending $12.23 for 46 book including a hard cover Bill Peet book, some Disneyland Records song books, a bunch of Little Golden Books and many other assorted treasures. Todays book is one of those books. Its called "Welcome to Little Golden Book Land" and is from 1989. It is not a Little Golden Book, but rather a "Big Golden Book", as it is a larger size (8 1/2" x 11") and does not have the traditional gold stripe down the left hand side that the Little Golden Books have. I especially liked this one as its front cover shows a picture of Tootle the Train on the front cover with the familiar characters riding in the train cars trailing behind him, much like the drawing on the back of many of the Little Golden Books.
The back of the book explains, "Little Golden Book characters have been children's favorites for generation. Now join Poky Little Puppy, Shy Little Kitten, tootle, Scruffy, Tawny Scrawny Lion, Saggy Baggy Elephant, and others as they come together to share excitement, adventures, and dreams in their wondrous new home - Little Golden Book Land!"

1953-54 Ft Wayne Komets Spinning Schedule

I have been collecting pocket schedules for over 10 years now and have seen many different size schedules, team schedules with multiple (different) covers, odd shaped schedules, schedules on bookmarks & coasters, etc. But today I found a team schedule unlike any I have ever seen before. Its a home schedule for the 1953-54 Fort Wayne Komets of the International Hockey League. This unique schedule has a spinning front ring that allows you to chose the team or the month, and then it displays the game dates for the team or month you have chosen. As well as teams and months, it also has the category "Special"... not sure that that is for?
As a big fan of hockey radio broadcasts and a some time listener of Koemts games over the internet, I found it interesting that one of the sponsors on this schedule is Wowo radio. Pretty amazing that more than 50 years later they are still broadcasting Komets games on the same radio station in Ft. Wayne!