The Family Circus

I have always loved The Family Circus, and my favorites were the ones that followed Billy around the yard to see all the things he did on his way to take out the trash etc. Here is a parody cartoon I found in Mad Magazine #467 (July 2006) which shows what happened on one of those trips.

The 12 Little Golden Books of Christmas

I missed Little Golden Book Monday by two days... It's now Christmas Eve, so I thought I would make up for it by posting the 12 Little Golden Books of Christmas.

On the First day of Christmas my true love read to me... Frosty the Snowman from 2001


On the Second day of Christmas my true love read to me... Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from 1998


On the Third day of Christmas my true love read to me... Ho-Ho-Ho Baby Fozzie! from 1997



On the Fourth day or Christmas my true love read to me... I Can't Wait Until Christmas from 1989


On the Fifth day of Christmas my true love read to me... Noel from 1991


On the Sixth day of Christmas my true love read to me... Jingle Bells from 1998


On the Seventh day or Christmas my true love read to me... Big Bird Meets Santa Claus from 1997


On the Eight day or Christmas my true love read to me... Tom & Jerry's Merry Christmas from 1954


On the Ninth day or Christmas my true love read to me... Mickey's Christmas Carol from 1997


On the Tenth day or Christmas my true love read to me... Frosty from 1969


On the Eleventh day or Christmas my true love read to me... Donald Duck's Christmas Tree from 1993


And on the Twelfth day or Christmas my true love read to me... Santa's Toy Shop originally from 1950

Birthday card from Foster's Home

My birthday was a while ago and I received this great card from my wife and son. They know how much I love Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, so they got me this great card that plays the theme from the show. I must say that I am a little surprised that Bloo is not on the front of the card, and although Mr Herriman and Frankie are on the inside of the card, Mac, one of the two main characters is nowhere to be seen on the card.
I wonder how many times I can listen to the theme before the battery runs out?

Little Golden Book Monday #72

My copy of Disney Pixar's Presto! finally showed up at my local Chapters bookstore. I have been looking for this book ever since I saw it posted on someone else's blog months ago. Then recently while checking out my local Chapters I noticed they have a new computer search system in store. Instead of the Windows based system that they used to use, which always kinda sucked... when it even worked, was now replaced by new shiny large screen iMacs running touch screen technology. after just few touches of the screen I had found the Little Golden Book of Presto! and was able to print out a receipt that I took to the front counter to order myself a copy. I'm not sure what I was more excited about, ordering my copy of Presto!, or the fact that Chapters now had these great iMac computers sprinkled around the store!
This book is an illustrated version of the short cartoon that preceded the Wall-E movie in theaters. I loved the cartoon, and the illustrations in this book version are a real treat! I'd love to include a bunch of the pages with this post, but I only have one copy and I can't get myself to pry the book open to put it on my scanner - if you are a collector, you know what I am talking about.

Little Golden Book Monday #71

Today's Little Golden Book is Blue Barry Bear Counts From 1 To 20. I picked this one up as I had never seen it before and I liked the artwork of the silly little blue bear on the cover. I also liked the first page illustration of Barry and a cute little rabbit holding some balloons. The little bunny reminded me of a cross between the characters that were on all the Hallmark cards my friends sent me over the past 15 years and one of my favorite Muppet characters, Bean Bunny.
If you check out the small text on the inside front page, this book is copyright 1991, and also has the roman numerals MCMXCII, which I had to look up on Google, and it turns out is 1992, so I guess this book has a copyright of 1991 in North America and 1992 in Rome ;-)

Bolt Sneek Peek Preview

Don't let the promo poster scare you away!

My wife, son and I went to a special advanced screening of Bolt tonight. Without doing a full review, let me say we all enjoyed it thoroughly. My wife who almost never laughs at movies laughed throughout the movie and my 3 year old son found plenty of chuckles throughout the movie, including a bunch of times when he was the only one getting a chuckle - mostly when someone was getting hurt! I myself found it to be a greatly engaging story from start to finish and it looked great visually. It is definitely a film both adults and kids will enjoy.
I was pretty surprised at how few people were at the screening, but then, they didn't promote this special prerelease screening that much. Those who were there all seemed to enjoy themselves. And best of all, we didn't have to stand in the incredibly insane lines that were all over the megaplex full of people there to see the new James Bond flick "Quantum of Solace."

Little Golden Book Monday #70

Today's Little Golden Book is Charlie. This copy is the third printing from 1976, with the original printing being 1970.
I found this book in a large pile of Little Golden Books at my local Talize thrift super store. Of the 60 or so books they had on the shelves, this was one of the only few I did not already have, and I was drawn by the illustration of Charlie on the cover. When I flipped it open, I saw the illustration of Charlie standing atop a fire hydrant on the inside front page. As you may or may not know, I produced a KISS fanzine called Firehouse Magazine for 18 years, and in that time I grew a fondness for fire hydrants and firehats. "Carlie" was well worth my 69 cents.
I am a little curious about the small yellow dot on the top right of the front cover. It looks like a good spot for the price, but the dot is pretty small for writing in the price by hand. Anyone know what the dot is for?
The story is about Charlie a cute little city cat who dreams of playing tiger in the grass, but wonders how he can play tiger when he could only find one tuft of grass. Charlie makes his way to a nice spot with trees and grass and flowers, as well as a little pool with moss and ferns around it and a fountain in the middle. Charlie had never seen such a beautiful place. "I could play Tiger there," he said to himself, "Tiger in the tall, cool grass." He then finds Mrs. Twilliger who's hat is blown off her head and high into a tree. Charlie climbs the tree to save Mrs. Twilliger's hat and all the children watching cheer. One of the kids takes the cat home where Charlie is given a nice new cat house and a large yard full of tall grass perfect for playing Tiger in the grass.

Pepsi Unveils New Logo & Bottles

I saw this posted on The Fire Wire Blog and found it kind of interesting. Pepsi is redesigning its globe logo. A ’smile’ will characterize brand Pepsi, while a ‘grin’ is used for Diet Pepsi and a ‘laugh’ is used for Pepsi Max.
The company will spend $1.2 billion over three years to change everything about its brands – “How they look, how they’re packaged, how they will be merchandised on the shelves, and how they connect with consumers” - which will be done by the Arnell Group.
I don't know about you, but these new bottles and logos look pretty generic. They remind me of the generic store brands of Coke and Pepsi that my local grocery store carries. The logos always try to look kind of like the original without being a blatant rip off, but somehow always look very 'generic'.
After seeing this on the Fire Wire blog, I surfed over to the Pepsi web site expecting to see a big splash page announcing the "New Look", but found nothing on the site mentioning anything about a change, which leaves me wondering where the Fire Wire blog got this info. Real, or fake... you decide!

Little Golden Book Monday #69

Today, I have another Sleeping Beauty Little Golden Book. This one is from 2008, and is a reprint of the 1997 version with a new cover, which features the logo from the recently released Sleeping Beauty 50th Anniversary DVD and Blu-Ray release.
Speaking of the new release, I have not picked it up, as I own 3 different versions of the VHS and 2003 2 Disc Special Edition DVD, so I really don't feel the need to pony up the cash for yet another version. BUT, I am very curious about one of the special features on the new DVD, which is a Sleeping Beauty Castle walk-through & featurette.

Here is some info I found on the Castle Walk-though on MickeyNews.com.

When the Sleeping Beauty castle walk-through "reawakens" after a seven-year slumber, Disneyland visitors will find a faithful re-creation of the original 1950s attraction that blends equal parts retro artistry, low-tech wizardry and ageless curiosity.
While all the characters from the original animated movie are represented — the sleeping beauty Aurora, the valiant Prince Phillip and the three kindly fairies, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather — the castle walk-through really belongs to the wicked Maleficent. More than half the scenes inside the castle belong to the villainess. In fact, we never actually see the castle's namesake princess awake.

Disney Imagineer Tony Baxter, who shepherded the walk-through restoration, understands that the best new Disneyland attraction is an old attraction conceived by Walt Disney himself. Resurrecting the past plays into one of the Anaheim theme park's core assets: nostalgia.

"I still have very strong memories of taking a journey through this castle," said Baxter, Disneyland's chief Imagineer.

The castle walk-through closed shortly after 9/11, in the ensuing weeks when terrorism fears gripped the nation. While no reason was given at the time for the shuttering of the largely unsupervised self-guided tour through the iconic symbol of American pop culture, Disney now admits the tired and dated 1970s remodel of the attraction needed a rest — pun intended. In either case, the walk-through remained closed for the better part of this decade — long enough for the casual visitor to forget it ever existed and far too long for the die-hard fan.

The original castle walk-through opened in 1957, two years after the theme park debuted and two years before the movie premiered. For 20 cents, visitors walked through a labyrinth of staircases, past a series of dioramas that told the story of "Sleeping Beauty" — essentially a life-size three-dimensional pop-up storybook preview of the animated movie.

Each tableau employed a series of smoke-and-mirror illusions — multi-layer scenery, forced perspective views and ghost effects — to create the impression of the detailed and elaborate hand-painted set coming to life.

"They had to use extreme forced perspectives to make these things feel much bigger than they were," Baxter said. "It meant that they were bending depths and using mirrors to trick your eye into thinking you were looking a great distance."

Walt Disney tapped animation artist Eyvind Earle, who would later work on the "Sleeping Beauty" movie, to design the walk-through scenes. Earle teamed with Imagineer Ken Anderson, who turned the walk-through concepts into architectural drawings.

The A-ticket attraction resulted in what Baxter called "the zenith of our artistry," with much of the future "magic" to be found later in the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean taking embryonic form in the castle walk-through.

"That was the first application in Disneyland of some artistically brilliant and technically stunning special effects," Baxter said. Like any work in progress, the 1957 walk-through featured story concepts that never made the movie and omitted crucial scenes that ultimately made the film's final cut.

The climatic battle between Prince Phillip and Maleficent's dragon was nowhere to be found inside the castle. And the penultimate kiss that awoke beauty was inexplicably missing — not to appear until six weeks after the walk-through's opening (at Walt Disney's insistence). Instead, the castle walk-through story ended with a shadowy silhouette of Maleficent that brought children to tears and traffic to an abrupt halt in the narrow stairwells. So much for happy endings. (The spectral antagonist lasted only a few months before disappearing for good.)

Other gags worked much better — with identical bottleneck-inducing results. A series of medieval dungeon doors offered visitors the enticing opportunity of peeking through a keyhole. The clever illusion took your own eye and superimposed it on the faces of imprisoned goons. The mesmerizing effect stopped stooping visitors in their tracks — further backing up queues in the cramped castle. As a result, the popular scene was boarded up within a year. Another early concept — involving visitors walking outside the castle to peer over the turrets and parapets — never made it past the planning stages.

By 1977, the original castle walk-through had run its course and Imagineers ripped out the guts of Earle and Anderson's work to install a version of the story more faithful to the movie. The ill-advised move replaced the hand-painted cutouts with costumed figurines that looked like Barbie dolls. The inferior substitutes didn't hold up well over time.

"In 2001, we took a long, hard look at it and we said, 'Gee, you know, this doesn't live up to what people remember in the movie,' " Baxter said, being as charitable as possible.

With the 50th anniversary of the movie on the horizon, the decision was made in mid-2007 to re-create the walk-through by mapping the 1950s hand-painted scenes onto turn-of-the-millennium computer-generated cutouts.

But after the closure of the walk-through in 2001, layer upon layer of additions — fireworks displays, faux snow-making machines, elaborate Christmas decorations — had chewed up precious real estate inside the castle.

By the time Imagineers stepped back inside the castle in 2007, they found the walk-through in disarray. Like excavators on an archaeological dig, Baxter and company discovered complete sets from the 1957 version still intact behind untouched 1977 scenes. In other places, air conditioning ducts snaked through long-abandoned scenes. They wondered how some sets — 20 feet tall in places — were ever shoe-horned into the castle's tight confines.

Disney archivists tracked down the original 1957 concept art and blueprints, but deciphering the complicated layouts proved daunting — like trying to figure out a half-century-old multi-layered jigsaw puzzle. Only one photo existed of the original walk-though — a thumbnail-sized slide from an old Viewmaster toy.

Over the ensuing 18 months, Baxter and his team set about deciding what to remove, what to leave intact, what to reinstate and what to improve. And how to strike a delicate and seamless balance between the original concept and the new elements.

"We've definitely got everything and then some of what was there before," Baxter said. "I don't think anybody will be disappointed that it's not what they remembered."

The castle walk-through is scheduled to reopen in mid-December 2008 — just in time for the crush of holiday crowds in the park. And, of course, the Christmas promotion of the re-released 50th anniversary "Sleeping Beauty" DVD. The DVD extras include a virtual castle walk-through with explanations by Baxter of how Disney Imagineers created the special effects.

Walt Disney Treasures, Song of the South

On November 11th the 8th wave of Walt Disney Treasures DVDs will be released. I have bought just about all of the previous sets, and have found them to be of great value, with lots of rarely seen material!
This upcoming 8th wave includes 3 sets; The Chronological Donald,
Volume Four, Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, and Mickey Mouse Club Presents: Annette. I am excited about the Chronological Donald, as I believe that this will complete the Donald Duck shorts, meaning I will have them all once I own this set! The other two sets, I will pass on, as neither sounds very interesting.
Now, if I had my way, there would be a few other sets to take the place of these two sets. For one, I would love to see a Song of the South Treasures set. Disney has held off on releasing this film because of its racial stereotypes. But the Treasures sets would be a perfect way to release the film, as it would be sold more to collectors than to the average family, and they could have Leonard Maltin do one of his spiels before the film. I already have the film as a Japanese laser disc and love the film. I do not have a laser disc player, but had a friend transfer it to VHS for me years ago. A new high quality DVD copy of the film would be great. And I am sure Disney could find some great extras to go along with the film, including some of the old cartoon shorts which have been shelved for years because of their controversial content.
Just for the fun of it, I have created my own Walt Disney Treasures Song of the South DVD tin cover. I don't know about you, but I'd be at my local DVD store on Tuesday morning to buy this!
Here's hoping Disney finally decides to release this long lost Disney gem!

Little Golden Book Monday #68

Sometimes you find things in unexpected places. That's what happened yesterday while doing my grocery shopping. My local grocery store has a discount book bin which is always filled with all kinds of old overstocked books. My son found a Wall.E book in the bin and picked it up asking if we could buy it? To my amazement, the book under the Wall.E book was the Little Golden Book version of Disney's upcoming film Bolt. I have been looking for this book ever since seeing it on another blog over a month ago. I have made trips to all kinds of book stores, drug stores and other assorted stores hoping to find this one, as well as the Little Golden Book "Presto!". I was so excited to find this book in the discount bin of my local grocery store that I actually said to myself... "Awesome!". Ironic that the next book I found was a Bolt coloring book with the title "Beyond Awesome".
I quickly snapped up the Bolt book, along with the Wall.E book for my son, and a copy of the most recent Little Golden Book version of Sleeping Beauty.
Tonight, just before adding this blog entry, I saw an ad for the Bolt film, and I can't say that I was terribly impressed. I'm sure that since its a Disney animated film, I will go see it - probably on opening night - but it didn't look nearly as good as the recent Pixar films. Other than popping this book open to have a look at the artwork (which looked great), I don't plan to read it yet, as I don't want to read the book before seeing the movie on November 21st.
I also saw David Copperfield yesterday afternoon. Too bad a copy of Pesto! didn't 'appear' in the discount bin as well huh!? Now that would have made for a great blog!

Mad Magazine Fold In

Remember those great Mad Magazine Fold Ins they used to have on the inside back cover of the magazine? I do, and I loved them, which is why I was thrilled to find this ad for Dodge on the back cover of issue #465 (May 2006) of Mad Magazine, which I picked up at a recent library book sale for 10 cents.
Just click on the slick graphic I have whipped up to recreate the all the excitement, without the headache of trying to fold these things just right to get them to work.

Little Golden Book Monday #67

Today, I have another Sleeping Beauty Little Golden Book. This one is from 1997 and features totally different text and artwork from the 1957 and 1970 versions that I posted a few weeks ago. This version is adapted by Michael Teitelbaum and illustrated by Sue DiCicco. I much prefer the 1957 version, both for the cover and interior artwork, but being such a big fan of Sleeping Beauty, I had to add this to my collection, even though the gold foil edge was peeing off a bit. Still all in all, well worth the 25 cents I paid for it!

CARtoons '69 Camaro

The other day while checking out all the great stuff at our favorite used toy store (Toy Traders), I found this Muscle Machines die cast Adult Collectible '69 Camaro, with a collectible CARtoons magazine collectors card (it actually says "Adult Collectible" on the packaging. It is hidden under the collectible card. You can just see the last 'e' of the word collectible under the ES of Muscle MachinES).
I loved the CARtoons magazine as a kid, and still do to this day. I have even been picked up many old issues of the magazine here and there as I scour the local thrift shops. I always thought the jacked up cars with all the flames on them in the magazine were pretty cool.
This was the only one the Toy Traders had, and it was in the discount bin, so I decided to pick it up to add to our cars collection. My son loves playing with Matchbox / Hot Wheels cars, and has a great collection of cars from the Disney/Pixar movie Cars. I decided to buy this car, so I could have a 'cool ride' when playing 'cars' with my son.
It was really hard to actually bust it out of the package, as I usually keep everything 'mint', but once I did, my son couldn't wait to play with it. I broke the rules and let him play with it, even though it clearly stated right on the package that this is an "Adult collectible".

Check out these photos of the fun that ensued...

Little Golden Book Monday #66

I picked up a bunch of interesting old Little Golden Books this weekend at the local thrift shop. Today, I thought I would share "The Tawny Scrawny Lion and the Clever Monkey" from 1974. This copy is the second printing from 1976.
Not much to say about this one, I just love the illustrations, including this great cover illustration by Mary Carey (great name!). And... I love anything with a monkey in it!

Little Golden Book Monday #65

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's Donald Duck in Disneyland, from 1955, the year Disneyland opened its doors for the first time.
Being that this book came out at the same time as the park was first opened, its fun to see the things that they feature in the book, along with the names they give things such as The World of Tomorrow, aka Tomorrowland.
From the inside of the book: "This is a brand-new book, illustrated especially for Golden books. The Little Golden Books are produced under the supervision of Mary Reed, PH.D. Formerly of Teachers College, Columbia University."
"In this Little Golden Book adventure from the Walt Disney studio, Donald and his nephews started out on what was planned to be a quiet visit to Disneyland. But Dewey, Louie and Huey had their own ideas of fun. we think the story will be for you, too."
Here is the complete text from the story, along with the drawing from the inside front cover."
Here is the complete text from the story, along with the drawing from the inside front cover.
Hurry up, boys. Keep together. And stay right with me," said Donald Duck anxiously as he and his nephews moved along with the crowd toward the gates of Disneyland.
Soon they found themselves in the rialroad station entrance to Disneyland. Beyond the open doorway stretched Main Street, U.S.A. And beyond that, as the boys well knew, spread a magic wonder world.
"Come on!" cried Huey, tugging at Donald. "Let's go to Fantasyland!" cried Dewey. "No, the World of Tomorrow!" said Louie. "Rocket to the Moon!" Huey broke in.
"Wait!" said Donald, holding up his hand. "First we must take the train ride around Disneyland for the splendid over-all view." So he bought four tickets. But when he turned around, not a single nephew was in sight.
"Huey! Louie! Dewey!" Donald called. "This is no time for a joke. Come on now, the train won't wait." Down the track the locomotive chuffed impatiently. But not a boy appeared.
"Now where could those boys have gone?" Donald fretted. "Train rides a fine way to spot lost boys," the conductor suggested. "From up here you can see the whole of Disneyland. Hop aboard and keep your eyes open. You'll soon spot your boys."
So Donald hopped aboard and found himself a seat. The train started up and soon was streaming past the tropical jungles of True-Life Adventure Land.
As Donald watched, dazzled by the bright flowers and brilliant birds in the trees, a river boat chugged into view. And there at the rail lounged Huey Duck.
But Huey could not see an alligator which was waiting just around the bend, with wide and grinning jaws.
"Watch out, Huey!" Donald cried, but the train chugged out of sight before the boat reached the bend. "Stop the train!" cried Donald. "I have to get out!" But the train went chugging on.
Ahead a whistle hooted. Donald looked around. The scenery had changed. Here a paddle-wheel excursion boat was steaming down A River of America, and on the far bank sprawled a quaint old river town.
Donald scanned the steamer's decks. Just then the steam whistle screeched toot-a-toot toot! And there, hanging on the whistle cord, was grinning Dewey Duck!
Z-z-z! Crack! A rifle shot echoed in the air. Uncle Donald jumped. Around a curve in a desert road, a stage coach came lurching at full speed.
Just behind it raced wild Indians, crouched low in their saddles, waving their bows and tomahawks, and shrieking war cries that curdled the blood.
At the window of the stagecoach two faces appeared-surely Huey and Louie Duck!
"Down, boys!" shrieked Donald, as the train raced past. "Get out of their range!" Drop down!"
Poor Donald! He was trembling as the Disneyland train left the Painted Desert far behind. Had his warning come in time? He could only hope it had.Toot toot! Down below ran another train, the Casey, Jr., on a dizzy ride. And in the cab of the engineer, whom should Donald spy but Dewey Duck, waving to Unca Donald.
"Keep your eyes on the track!" shouted Uncle Donald. "Watch where you're taking the train!"
As Donald sank trembling into his seat, down the aisle the jolly conductor came.
"No sing of your nephews yet?" he smiled. "Well, don't you worry. They'll turn up safe and sound." With a pat on Donald's shoulder, he went on his way.
"Turn u!' Donald gasped. "Safe and sound!" he shuddered. For a few moments then the train chugged past a green and shady grove. Donald stretched and took a deep, happy breath./ Everything looked to peaceful here.
"Whee! Look at me, Unca Donald!" cried a familiar voice. Donald spun around. A pirate ship was sailing toward the clouds on its way to Peter Pan's Neverland.
From the deck Louie Duck waved both hands at uncle Don. But far ahead Donald could see Captain Hook with a drawn sword, waiting for the shop to come near.
"Get you head down and hang on tight!" called Donald. But Louie had not heard. As he disappeared, he was waving still.
"Some fun, Unca Donald. Look at me!" Down a streamlined highway small cars were running - an intent young driver at each wheel. In one car was Huey Duck, steering with both hands.
"Huey! You don't know how to drive!" called Donald, not knowing that Huey had just passed his Disneyland Driving Test. Then the train took Donald out of sight; and to his relief he saw the station ahead.
Donald was the first one off the train. But his shaking knees would not take him far. He had to stop and lean against a post, one hand over his eyes. Where, he wondered, was the hospital? He supposed he should look there first.
"Unca Doanld!" "Hurry up!" "The train's about to leave!" Huey, Dewey, and Louie were dancing around him.
"We've had a wonderful time!" they said."Now we're ready to go with you for a quiet trip on the train."
"Quiet!" squeaked Donald. "You boys go ahead. I can't stand that excitement again."
So while the boys hopped onto the train, Donald tottered off to take a peaceful rocket trip to the moon.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Today (Sept 19th) be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so avast there mattie and swabs me poop deck while I missin this mast... or something like that! Here is a great cartoon from PVP from last year poking fun at one of my all time favorite movies, the Pirate Movie from 1982. I saw the movie 10 times when it was in the theater back in '82 (I broke that record with 12 when Disney's Atlantis came to theaters in 2001). I own the laser disc of the movie, the 2 LP soundtrack, the official and unofficial DVD releases and am looking to add a promo poster to my collection.

Little Golden Book Monday #64

Today's Little Golden Book, is a pair of books. The original 1957 Sleeping Beauty book along with a 1970 reprint of the book. The 1957 book has "A Little Golden Book" across the top, while the 1970 version has a Golden Book logo at the bottom right.
As I may or may not have said before, I am a huge fan of the Sleeping Beauty film. I think the artwork and look of the film are amazing, and Malicifant is one of my favorite Disney characters. As far as Disney princesses go, Aurora is my favorite, and the soundtrack to the film has some great music.
As a child, my favorite books were by Bill Peet, and years after I had decided that Sleeping Beauty was my favorite Disney film, I found out that Bill Peet had worked on Sleeping Beauty, and now when I look a the film, I can really see his creative style and input.
So, being as Sleeping Beauty is my favorite 'classic' Disney film (my favorite newer Disney film is Atlantis), I love adding anything Sleeping Beauty to my collection. I actually found these two books at the same antique mall, and funny enough the 1970 reissue was $5, while the original 1957 version was only $3.
Other than the covers, the only other real difference is the back cover which has the 1957 version offing Golden Stamp Books, while the 1970 version simply tells us that "More than one billion Golden Books have gone into the homes of children of all nations", and "They are far and away the best-known series of books for young people every published."

Fall Preview 2003 Disney Store Catalog

While hunting though my room the other day, I found this great looking Disney Store catalog from 2003. I can remember how excited I would get when we would make it to a Disney Story and I was able to pick up a catalog, although it seems that more times than not they were out of them when I would ask. That was back when there were very few Disney Stores, and we didn't have any here in Canada yet. As they added more stores, and moved into Canada, it seems the stores become less of a 'must visit' destination and more an extension of WalMart. What had made the stores so much fun to visit, was all but disappearing from the stores. Now, on the rare occasion that I visit my local Disney Store, I am in and out in a matter of 4 or 5 minutes and since I don't meed any plush characters or any Disney Princess items, I never end up buying anything. Flipping though this old 2003 Disney Store catalog reminded me of how much cool merchandise the used to have for us Adults / Disney collectors.

Little Golden Book Monday #63

Today's Little Golden Book is another of the Disney / Pixar films, Finding Nemo. It's kind of interesting to see the art in done in a simple 2d drawing style, as compared to the crisp cgi animation of the film.
I picked this one up in 2003 when it was released, and I must say, that after only 5 years, it is already showing signs of wear, even though it only sits on my shelve in my collection. One can only guess what it would look like it if was actually being read by a child! I have found that many of the more recent LGB's (from the past 5 to 10 years), have extremely poor binding, and the gold spine is a very cheep sticker that seems to start peeling within days of getting these things home! Kind of a sign of the times that my LGB's from the 50's though 70's are all still in great shape, but the books I bought in the last year, are already falling apart!

Little Golden Book Monday #62

Today's Little Golden Book is Disney's Tale Spin: Ghost Ship, from 1991. I borrowed this book from my sons collection, as I liked the ghost ship on the cover.
I don't really know the characters from Tale Spin, as I was a little too old by the time The Disney Afternoon came along with shows such as Tale Spin, Dark Wing Duck, the Adventures of the Gummi Bears, and Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers. There are a few shows from this period however that I did watch, and still enjoy to this day including; Goof Troop, Raw Toonage, Bonkers and Gargoyles. I have tons of episodes of these four shows on video tape which I taped off of TV back while the shows were still in first run. I used to get up early on Saturday mornings to tape my favorites and set my VCRs to tape the shows in the afternoons when I was still at school / work. I thought it was going to be so cool years from now when these shows were no longer on TV. I would be the only person with all this stuff in my collection to watch any time I wanted. Little did I know that years later these shows would be available on DVD in pristine condition, in season order.
In any event, I am now having fun sharing my hard work of preserving these animated gems with my son who is becoming a huge cartoon (animation) fan!

Some Mad Summer Reading

Here are a few Mad paperbacks I picked up recently. I have shelves full of these things. They are always a fun read, and I just about always love the covers.
The four I found this time include: Clods' Letters to Mad, illustrated by Al Jafee from 1981, The Rip Off Mad from 1978 (first printing 1973), Mad Horses Around 1981, and Pumping Mad from 1981.

Happy 2nd Birthday to Ronn's BPoS!

Today marks the second Birthday of Ronn's Big Pile of Stuff. I started this blog on July 30, 2006 as a goof, and just keep going. I remember back in 2006, I was starting to find and visit a lot of blogs and I remember thinking to myself, there are so many of these blogs, that sooner or later there would be more blogs than people looking at them. I wanted in on the ground floor (or close to it) and started this blog, which now I am thrilled to say gets up to 100 visits a day. That may be small numbers compared to many of the blogs I visit, but I am still amazed that anyone is visiting, let along 100 people a day! So to those of you visiting... thanks! I'd love to hear from you all, so please take a moment to post a comment on the blog to let me know what you are enjoying or not enjoying in my posts.
And if you enjoy this blog, you can now check out two new blogs I have started the Disneyland Records Blog and Ronn's Minor League Hockey Mania Blog.
Before you go, be sure to enjoy a piece of our virtual birthday cake.

Touche Turtle and the Fire Dog

Ever since 1983 when I started Firehouse Magazine (1983-2000), I have always liked collecting things with a firefighter theme. Here is a great Whitman book from 1963. It is Hanna-Barbera's Touche Turtle and the Fire Dog by Jean Lewis and illustrated by Mel Crawford. Check out this great artwork on the front and back covers. This cover alone was worth the $4 price tag I paid for this at the local used book shop.

Little Golden Book Monday #61

Today's Little Golden Book is Cars. We are almost at the halfway point of the summer vacation, summer vacation usually means lots of car trips to fun and exotic new places. But with the gas prices what they are this summer, I am thinking our family will be taking a lot less car trips, and spending a lot more time around the home.
So, in honor of those fun car trips of yore, I present this great book from 1973, which celebrates the automobile and all the fun you can have just driving around.
There are lots of great illustrations inside this book, including this great drawing of the ABE Motors. I love that retro looking showroom in the background.

Then there is this great drawing of a suburban home. I just love the architecture of the 50's and 60's. The cars in these drawings, lack a little pizazz though.