Five Pitches for More Toy-Based Movies
Whatever you think of Michael Bay’s Transformers films and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, there’s no denying that toy-based movies have been successful. So what beloved childhood toyline will be made into a movie next, and which auteur’s vision will it be?
I asked several fellow geeks to join me in imagining what would happen if Hollywood convinced some of Hollywood’s most successful directors to make movies based on playthings. (more…)
Vintage Toy Ads > Knight Rider KITT & Care Bear Cousins
One of the niftiest things about Kenner’s KITT toy from the early ’80s was that there was a small dial underneath the car that allowed you change the speed of the voice; this was intended to counteract the tendency of the voice to go too fast when the batteries were new, and slow down when the batteries were dying. A nifty feature–which apparently everyone forgot about during the making of this ad. Those are clearly new batteries in KITT–it sounds like Mr. Feeny doing an Alvin & the Chipmunks impression.
The girl on the bottom right at the end of the Care Bear Cousins ad just doesn’t seem that into it.
Paul’s Peg > The Toy Aisle That Time Forgot!
In the Northwoods of Wisconsin there is a toy aisle hidden in a hardware store that time has forgotten. Most of the toys for sale there date back to the early 1990s and a some are even older than that. This hardware store in question is located in a town neighboring the one where I grew up, the population of which is only about four hundred people. In my youth, the store had more than one toy aisle, but as the stuff sells, they seem to be reordering less. It’s a surreal experience that I just had to share. Now let’s check this stuff out:
It’s a toy oven sporting a Care Bear on it. Yeah, I know. I’m guessing its from the 1980s, since that’s an old school styled Care Bear.
That Colorblaster is also friggen old, judging by the hot pink flamingos on the box that just scream horrid 90s art style. My wife has also informed me that she got one of these for her 11th birthday and she just turned 27 this week. I’ll let you do the math.
5 Good (and 5 Not-So-Good) ’80s Toy-Based Feature Films
With the imminent release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra and the announcement that Tom Hanks may star in a Major Matt Mason movie, big-budget films based on toy lines are big business. The last (and first) time this happened was in the 1980s, when there was a slew of feature films based on the various fad toys of the era.
Here’s a look at some of the best and worst toy-based films of the 1980s. With one exception, all of these movies received a theatrical release. (more…)