Little Golden Book Monday #81

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse and the Best-Neighbor Contest from 1977. This edition is the sixth edition from 1979. What really sticks out about this book for me is the artwork. It reminds me of all the 70's Disney books I remember from my childhood, when Disney seemed pretty relaxed when it came to the quality of their artwork in books such as this one. I much prefer the classic Disney art from the 30's through 50's and even enjoy the newer stuff which tends to have a very modernized style. The 70's artwork tends to look very amateurish, especially for Disney's standards.

My Frist Video Game: Wallobee Jack

Growing up in the 80's when home video games were gaining popularity with such titles as Space Invaders and Missile Command, I was resigned to visiting friends who owned such things. I don't really remember feeling left out, and I don't remember ever asking for a video game system, so I guess all was well in my childhood even without a game system in my home. I do however remember in the early 90's when CD-Rom games for computers were becoming popular. I purchased my first (and as it turns out, last) video game for the Macintosh 1n 1993. It was called Wallobee Jack: The Bingi Burra Stone as was billed as an interactive toon show. The drawing on the front of the box looked really cool to me and the idea of an interactive cartoon seemed so cool! What a disappointment! The graphics in the game were pretty limited and the actual game consisted of short animated scenes where you had to move the mouse around looking for a hot spot which would then activate the next scene. Obviously games have come a long way since then, but as my introduction to video games, it served to turn me off gaming ever since. To this day, my gaming experience consists of Snood and checkers, both of which are on my Mac and take up less than an hour of my time per week.

A Visual History of the BC Lions Logo

I am a big fan of team logos, and I love seeing the evolution of a team logo. Here is a a short article about the BC Lions of the CFL accompanied by the 5 Lions logos that span from 1954 to present.

Little Golden Book Monday #80

Today's Little Golden Book is When Bunny Grows Up written by Patsy Scarry and illustrated by Richard Scary. This edition is from 1997 and was originally printed in 1955 with the title The Bunny Book.
Growing up I loved Richard Scarry's Busytown books. I could sit for hours looking at his cross section drawings of buildings, vehicles etc. It was so great to get a simplified idea of how things such as a factory worked. I also loved finding Lowly Worm who was hidden on each page page of the Busytown books.
As an adult, I still really appreciate Richard's whimsical drawings. This Little Golden Book is another example of his great work. Here is one of the pages I liked the most in this book. I wonder if little rabbit got in trouble for painting on the wall, or was congratulated for his work?

Firehouse Magazine cover montage

Today while reading the January 2009 issue of Mac World magazine, I became fixated on a two page spread that showed a cover gallery of every issue of Mac World magazine. It got me thinking how cool it would be to have something like that for my magazine, Firehouse Magazine. It didn't take long before I was sitting at my Mac digging though my Firehouse web site folder looking for scans of my magazine covers. Although I didn't have scans of all the covers, I did have issues #39 though 80 (issue 80 was our last issue, in 2000). Twenty minutes later I had whipped up this montage of the last 10 years of Firehouse Magazine covers. Although many of the cover scans are awful, I was still very pleased with the outcome. Perhaps at a later date I will sit and rescan all 80 covers and make a complete cover montage. Until then, this looks great as my computer desktop!

Little Golden Book Monday #79

Today's book is Bravest Of All. This version is the second printing from 1974 with the first printing being from 1973. Not much to say about this one except of note is the 49 cent price on the cover. And, as you may or may not remember, I like anything to do with firetrucks, etc so this is yet another fireman book in my Little Golden Book collection.

Tell-A-Tale Books Day 3

Here are four more great old Tell-A-Tale books. Woody Woodpecker Shoots the Works from 1955, Walt Disney Productions' Robin Hood and Skippy's Best Birthday from 1973, How To Be A Grouch by Oscar the Grouch from 1976, and Roy Rogers and the Sure 'Nough Cowpoke from 1952.

Tell-A-Tale Books Day 2

Continuing from yesterdays post, here are four more of the Tell-A-Tale books I picked up recently. Today we have; Wally Gator Guess What's Hiding at the Zoo from 1963, Sherlock Hemlock and the Great Twiddlebug Mystery (or the Mystery of the Terrible Mess in My Friend's Front Yard) from 1972, Pinocchio not sure of the date for this one as the first page with the publication info is missing, and Tom and Jerry and the Toy Circus from 1963.

Tell-A-Tale Books Day 1

I recently found a large stash of really cool old Tell-A-Tale books at local thrift shop. I don't see these very often on my thrift shop visits, so to see two full book shelves of them was pretty amazing. And at just 10 cents each, I grabbed a couple handfulls! I will post the covers of some of my favorites over the next few days.
Here are the first four books; Dennis the Menace Takes the Cake from 1987, We're Busy, Charlie Brown from 1988, Richochet Rabbit Showdown at Gopher Gulch Bakery from 1964 and The Road Runner and the Bird Watchers from 1973.

Mark Waid writes the Incredibles!

There are some very interesting looking new comics coming out next month from Boom Studios based on some famous characters including the Incredibles, Cars, and the Muppets. I have added all three titles to my comics pull list, but its the Incredibles comic that has me most excited! The Incredibles movie was amazing, and the idea of using that world of characters to create a comic series seems like a natural. And having Mark Waid write the series doesn't hurt. My only concerns are 1) that the art work on many of these famous properties to comics ventures are horrible! 2) Many of these famous properties to comics never get enough buzz to get anyone but comic book fan boys buying them, which usually leads to a mighty short run. Slave Labor Graphics already tried to bring 4 Disney properties to comics; the Haunted Mansion, Gargoyles, Alice in Wonderland, and Tron. None of them made it past issue #7. Hopefully Boom Studios has a better run than SLG did.

Kellogg's Eet and Ern

I noticed this ad in a copy of Disney Adventures magazine from 2000. I am a big cereal box collector and watch tons of kids TV, and therefore see a lot of ads for kids cereals, and I only vaguely remember this advertising campaign. I tried logging into their web site www.eetandern.com, but apparently Kellogg's didn't bother to keep the domain name, as the url is now just some lame link farm. As I said, I really don't remember this campaign, but I do like the two characters Eet and Ern.

Little Golden Book Monday #78

Today's Little Golden Book is "The Little Golden Mother Goose" from 1957. This version is the fourteenth printing from 1977. Not much to say about this one except, 75 favorite rhymes... wow, that's a lot of rhymes!
Oh, and is it just me, or does the kid in this drawing look like he is about to grab that little girls cat and toss it down the well!?

New Aluminium Coca-Cola Bottles

Here are a couple of great new Coca-Cola bottles my wife picked up for me at the T & T Asian Market. They are silver aluminium cans with a shiny red outside coating and white Coca-Cola logo. These are 250 ml bottles. As usual, the cost is about double that of a regular bottle or can of Coke, but somehow they always seem to taste better when not from a plastic bottle or regular can. I have not seen these for sale anywhere else so far, but if I do, I will be sure to buy enough to fill the fridge!

Little Golden Book Monday #77

Today's little Golden Book is yet another of my thrift shop purchases from two weekends ago. It's a copy of Disney's The Little Mermaid based on 1989's Disney movie of the same name. which was the twenty-eighth Disney animated feature.
I chose this one as today's selection for 3 reasons;
1) It is a Disney related book, which I always love adding to my collection. It fits into two of my collections; Little Golden Books & Disney merchandise... And it has a mermaid on the cover!
2) In the last edition of Little Golden Book Monday I showed the back cover of the Powerpuff Girls book, which I said was one I had not seen very often before. Here again we have pretty much the same back cover, but with a slight variation to the goldenbooks.com logo in the bottom right hand corner. I am guessing that this back cover was a usual sight on books from the late 80's and/or early 90's, and I just hadn't noticed it until recently.
3) And speaking of dates, this book is one of many that doesn't seem to display a printing date - at least not one that is easily found. I have gone online before looking for info on printing dates for Little Golden Books and have seen all kinds of info, none of which ever seems to help. Here is the inside front cover of this book, where the date should be, but as you can see there is not date to been seen. If anyone can enlighten me as to how to figure out when a book without a date was printed, I would be most appreciative!

Walt Disney World Pop Up Book

Here is the 1972 Walt Disney World with Mickey Mouse Hallmark Pop Up Book. This most recent copy of the book brings my collection of these to three. This one cost just 20 cents and is in very good condition with all of the pop up pieces still in tack and in working order.
Here is the text on the back cover: Mickey Mouse will take you through the pages of this pop-up edition. Along the way you will twirl in a magic teacup ride and visit a haunted mansion. You will submerge in the Submarine Nautilus and view the clouds from Cinderella's Castle. Colorful illustrations and a happy text make a Fun-Filled Visit To Walt Disney World the next best thing to being there.
Hallmark Children's Editions are created in consultation with Dr. Edith M. Dowley, Director of the Bing Nursery School, Stanford University. Every title has been tested to make certain of its interest. You can be sure that a Hallmark children's book will be a happy and healthy experience for young people.
Along with the cover, here are a few scans and photos including, the inside front cover with a pop up of the paddle wheeler that takes you to the entrance of WDW. There is a scan of the Monorial page which has a door you can "life" open to slide Mickey inside the Monorail. There is a scan of the Mad Tea Party where you can "pull" the tab to spin Mickey in his tea cup. And lastly a photo of the Jungle Cruise page which features a great 3D pop up of a Jungle Cruise boat being skippered by Mickey.

Little Golden Book Monday #76

Today's Little Golden Book is Cartoon Network's Powerpuff Girls: Big Terrible Trouble? The book is from 1999 and based on the popular Cartoon Network characters the Powerpuff Girls created by Craig McCraken, who is the creator of a bunch of cartoon characters including two of my favorites; 2 Stupid Dogs and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, both of which are hilariously funny and worth checking out if you have not already. This book is a "Special collector's edition!", or at least that is what is says on the front cover. I don't really see anything that makes this a collectors issue, unless they mean the special shape of the book!? What do I mean, well, when scanned the cover and saved it, I was a bit surprised that it seemed that I had not put it on the scanner straight, and I had to crop it a bit in Photoshop to get it looking square. When I opened the front cover to have a look at the date of the book, I realized that it was cut a bit strange. When I placed it against last weeks book "Bugs Bunny", I could easily see that the bottom of the book was cut on an angle, meaning that the book is not square. Does that make it a collector's item? I also wanted to point out the back cover of this book, as I'm not sure if I have seen this one before. It has Little Lulu and Underdog, two characters I have not seen in Little Golden Books before. I wonder if there are any Little Golden Books that actually feature these two characters? I'm not big fan of either of these two characters, but it would be fun to find them to add to the collection.

I've Been Working on the Railroad...

Here are two great train related records I picked up this weekend at the local thrift shop.
The first is "The Little Engine that Could" from RCA Victor on two 78 Long Play records and in a nice record jacket with artwork and words inside. The Little Engine that Could was one of the first books I gave to my son. I found a great old vintage copy of the book at a thrift shop and read it to him. He liked it so much that we bought him his own copy reproduction copy of the book for his bookshelf. I'm sure we'll have fun listening to this new version together as well.
I could not find a date anywhere on the jacket or albums, but my guess would be that it is from the 1940's. If you would like to take a listen to this one, you can surf over to Kiddie Records Weekly where they posted a great mp3 file of this recording as well as many more vintage kids records.
The second record is "Railroad Sounds - The Sounds of a Vanishing Era" from 1957. What we get here is literally 20+ minutes of clickety clack, clickety clack, whistle whistle, chug chug. I am going to guess that this wasn't a huge seller. Hard to imagine someone pulling this off the shelve and putting it on the turn table, turning up the volume and sitting back to listen to the sounds of trains.

Little Golden Book Monday #75

My son and I have been on a real Warner Brothers cartoon kick lately. It's really cool that my 3 year old would rather watch Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck over Diego, the Wiggles and Franklin when given the choice. He has moved on from Treehouse TV to TeleToon Retro, which is great as I love watching the old Warner Brothers cartoons with him!
In honor of our current Warner Brothers mania, today's Little Golden book is Bugs Bunny. I'm not sure of the print date of this edition, but the copyright is 1949. As is often the case, there doesn't seem to be a print date anywhere obvious in this book, but being as there is a UPC code on the front cover, its obvious that is is not an original 1949 edition.
Here is the text from the inside front page of the book: "This Little Golden Book tells of the pranks of Bugs Bunny, the gay Warner Bros. (Who knew?) mischief-maker who has so ofter delighted movie audiences. Bugs has appeared in four other Little Golden Books, Bugs Bunny's Birthday, Bugs Bunny and the Indians, Bugs Bunny at the Fair, and Bugs Bunny Gets a Job."
Pictured below is one of the two page spreads showing the interior artwork.

Little Golden Book Monday #74

Today's Little Golden Book, I choose simply because it was kind of old and interesting looking, and I had never seen the back cover before. "This Little Piggy and other counting rhymes" is filled with 41 pages of children's rhymes such as Buckle My Shoe, Billy loves Tea, Hickety Pickety, Ten Little Injuns, Thirty Days Hath September and the ever popular This Little Piggy.
The Book is "A commemorative facsimile edition published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Little Golden Books and printed in 1992, originally printed in 1942.
I have to admit that when I found it at the local thrift shop I thought that it was actually from 1942, and it was not until I got home and had a closer look that I realized that it was a commemorative reprint from 1992. I wonder how many people pick these up at thrift shops etc thinking they have found some valuable treasure?

Little Golden Book Monday #73

Today's Little Golden Book is Veggie Tales: Larry Boy and the Fib From Outer Space! I found this one at the local drug store the other day and had to have it. The cover reminded me of a Batman cover with Larry dressed in his super hero costume and the Cucumberman Signal in the sky above him! And I will admit to going to the theater to see the movie Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie and liking it, and being a big fan of the song 'The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything"! If you have never heard the song, check out the version done by punk/pop band Relient K, it's great fun!
It's always fun finding new Little Golden Books, and this one looks like it will be fun to share with my 3 year old son.

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