Canadian Men's Hockey Wins Olympic Gold!

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

2010 Olympic Coke Bottles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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.

Little Golden Book Monday #106

Today's Little Golden Book is Who Comes To Your House? by Margaret Hillert and illustrated by Tom O'Sullivan. This copy is the third printing from 1976, with the original being printed in 1973.
In this book we are introduced to all the people we can expect to show up at our homes. There is The Delivery Man, The Milk Man, Letter Carrier, The Carpenter, The Window Washer, The TV Repairman, Florist Delivery, The Moving Man, The Ice-Cream Truck, The Meter Reader, The Baby-Sitter, The Visiting Nurse, The Paper Boy, The Rubbish Collector, The Bookmobile, The Pet Helper, The Plumber and the Painter.
I gotta go, it looks like its gonna be busy around here tomorrow!

Little Golden Book Monday #105

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's Scamp's Adventures from 1958. By Annie North Bedford, with pictures by the Walt Disney Studio. Adapted by Joe Rinaldi and Neil Boyle.
From the inside front cover: This is a brand-new book, written and illustrated especially for Golden Books. This Little Golden Book was produced under the supervision of The Walt Disney Studio. Scamp, the puppy, is one of Walt Disney's most endearing characters. Lady is his mother, Tramp is his father. This is Scamp's second appearance in a Little Golden Book.

7-11 Presents FOX-O-RAMA

A while back I posted some photos of the 3D glasses and Smell-O-Vision cards from the 1994 Fox television Fox-O-Rama, and that post has received the most email of any of my posts. For those fans of Fox-O-Rama, I present two of the ads from the Sunday, May 8th, 1994 TV Guide that promoted the event. First is the ad for the horror! The shock! The Bundy's in 3D (3D glasses not required for viewing pleasure). The second ad is for The George Carlin Show presented in Grumble-Vision. What was Grumble-Vision? Nothing... really. It was a regular episode in which George did some extra grumbling, thus making it Grumble-Vision. I am sure there were those who turned in expecting something extra ordinary. What they got was a mediocre half hour comedy with a great tag line. Pretty lame really, but genius advertising!

Little Golden Book Monday #104

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney Productions Robin Hood and the Daring Mouse from 1974. It's been a while since I have watched the Robin Hood film, and I am little woozy from the flue today, but I do not remember a mouse named Oliver in the film, and a quick look though the book Disney A to Z didn't provide any info, so I am going to guess that this book which came out a year after the original Robin Hood film, was cashing in on the name Robin Hood with a new story. If anyone has more info on this book/story, let me know.
And check out that price sticker on the front of the book... just 46 cents, 2 cents less than the price printed on the book... what a deal!

Little Golden Book Monday #103

Today's Little Golden Book is The Wizard of Oz, retold by Mary Carey, and illustrated by Don Turner / Jason Studios, 1975.
I was never a fan of the wizard of Oz, and I can remember being, like so many other kids, scared by the flying monkeys. Its kinda funny that as an adult, I used the phrase "flying monkeys" a heck of a lot for a guy who was afraid of them as a kid!
I got the chance to see the film at my local movie theater with my girlfriend (now wife) way back in the late 80's or early 90's. She wanted to see it on the big screen and it seemed like it might be fun. I fell asleep somewhere after the film turned to color.
I'm not sure why, but for some reason, I am now interested in seeing the new musical Wicked. I would hope though, with the ticket prices of the show I would not fall asleep during this one!

Saturn Shirt Inspectors

With GM casting off Saturn, their website www.SaturnCollection.com is having a big 50-80% off sale on all merchandise, so I ordered a pile of shirts for just $5 each including one with the Rethink logo which I talked about a few posts back. I wore it the other day and while I was out, I started to feel something itching my back. I found something stuck to the inside of the shirt, and when I pulled it out, I found it was an "inspected by" sticker. When I got home and took the shirt off, I found it had 3 more of them stuck inside all with different names. So, turns out this shirt was inspected by not one, not two, not three, but four different shirt inspectors. Wow, this ought to be one problem free shirt!

Best PC Upgrades

Photo of a grocery store magazine rack back in 2006. That's both funny, and true!

Hide-A-Pod

OK, here is something I saw a while ago and made me giggle. I own an iPod, and I love it and take it everywhere, and with a $10 cord, I can now crank my tunes in my new Saturn Vue as well! The idea of owning a Microsoft Zune makes me laugh. The idea of someone paying money to make their iPod look like a Zune, makes me question their sanity. But that is exactly what the people at hide-a-pod want you to do. For just $29.95 you can disguise your cool looking iPod to look just like one of those awful looking Zunes. I guess their strategy is a good one though... nobody is gonna try to seal your iPod when they think its a Zune!

Little Golden Book Monday #102

I found a surprise at the drug store today while looking though the magazines and books. I was looking for the upcoming "Princess and the Frog" Little Golden Book, but what I found instead was a new Toy Story book that I didn't even know about. I guess it makes sense with all the hype around Toy Story right now. I didn't manage to get out to the theater to see Toy Story and toy Story 2 in 3D recently, mostly because I didn't think my 4 year old could sit though 2 movies back to back without going totally squirrely.
I have to say that I have noticed that the quality of the newer books seems to be getting pretty poor. This one that I picked up today, the front cover panel is shorter than the back panel, and all of the pages are longer than both and stick out. And many of the recent books I have purchased, I find that within a few months, the gold foil on the spine starts to peel up by itself.
That being said, this is still a fun addition to my Disney - Little Golden Books collection.

Little Golden Book Monday #101

Just a quick one today. Here is the cover artwork to the Princess and the Frog Little Golden Book which will be released on October 13th.

Little Golden Book Monday #100

Today's Little Golden Book is the 100th LGB I have posted here since I started Little Golden Book Mondays. I wanted something special for the 100th book post, so I dug though my collection and found this one, The Happy Little Whale from 1973 (originally printed in 1960). What's so special about this book is that I believe that it is my first Little Golden Book as a child back in the early 70's. When I found it, I quickly opened the front cover hoping to find my young signature scrawled on the inside front page in the "This little Golden Book belong to" box, but alas, it was blank. Which doesn't really surprise me as even as a child I would have been thinking about how writing in the book would destroy its 'mintness'!
After 30 years or so, I had pretty much forgotten about this book, and the story of a little whale that gets separated from his pod and ends up at an aquarium where he makes friends with a dolphin and a female whale, but as soon as I opened it and started flipping though the pages the story quickly came back to me as if I had just read it yesterday!