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Post by rom on Apr 25, 2019 17:55:06 GMT -5
Great thread! I really enjoyed the 1980's version of Twilight Zone, much more than the '60's version. This was because they were more modern and I could relate to them more, since I was seeing them as they came out (I was in my early teens when this series was released). I also really enjoyed & appreciated the creepy intro w/the spider and doll's head, and the briefly seen "ghost" of Rod Serling; I agree this is a great opening, and is definitely among my top five favorite TV intros. Notable episodes from this revised series include Shatterday - truly amazing; the episode where the woman could stop time by telling everyone to shut up - chilling ending which played upon the justifiable cold war fears at the time (as reviewed in the above post); Also great was Nightcrawlers, which was about the Vietnam veteran who went into the diner one rainy night & from his mind created enemy soldiers that attacked everyone - very well-done; Paladin of the Lost Hour - great Harlan Ellison written episode, also with a Vietnam war theme; the one where Santa had a bag full of perfect gifts for everyone (re-made from the original TZ series), and many others. I remember seeing much of the 1985-1986 first season when it originally aired. However, the 2nd & 3rd seasons were, IIRC, airing at strange times & very late at night - and I only remember seeing part of 1 of those episodes on it's original broadcast. Back in 2012, I revisited the series on DVD & saw all three seasons in chronological order - seeing most of these episodes for the first time. Again, great series. The 2nd & 3rd seasons weren't quite as iconic as the first, but were still well-done & worth seeing. Earlier this year, I re-watched S01 of this great show. I will have to re-watch S02-03 at some point as well. Also worth noting was the 1981-1989 Twilight Zone magazine, which was being released when the show was on - but wasn't necessarily considered a tie-in (it began publication well before the '85 series first aired). This mag included original short stories, articles, etc. I specifically reading Paladin of the Lost Hour in an issue of the magazine, which was released a couple of weeks?! before the episode itself aired. I also recall reading an extremely creepy Vietnam War story called Delta Sly Honey in the mag. - this involved soldiers coming back from the dead. dangerousminds.net/comments/holy_fifth_dimension_discover_twilight_zone_magazine
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Post by rom on Mar 14, 2019 11:59:53 GMT -5
RIP Jan Michael Vincent. Didn't see much of his work, but am a huge fan of Charles Bronson's The Mechanic (1972) - he co-starred in this film. IMHO this is Bronson's best film, and also one of my top-ten favorite movies from the '70's. The drawn-out opening sequence is especially impressive, starting with Bronson setting up the "hit" & then observing what he had done in order to make sure everything went the way it was supposed to.
And, the storyline involving a lone hit man "training" a younger guy in the same profession is interesting & cleverly done.
The "twist" at the end is something I never saw coming the first time I watched this, but is one I look forward to in each subsequent viewing.
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Post by rom on Mar 2, 2019 22:41:12 GMT -5
Thanks for the link to the Marty interview - interesting. Hopefully Mego/Target will straighten out the distribution issues that plagued the line last Fall; i.e., I hope the new offerings this year are easier to find than the ones last year.
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Post by rom on Feb 19, 2019 14:25:51 GMT -5
mrp, Thanks for the clarification re: the 14" forthcoming ST figures. I wasn't aware these were prototypes. I guess I'll also wait until I see the finished product to decide on whether or not I'm going to get them. At the least, I would definitely be interested in getting a 12" Classic Trek Spock & Kirk characters - if the likeness was at least close to the way the characters looked like on the show. I do remember the Star Trek: The Motion Picture 12" & 3.75" scale figures. I never got any of these, since I felt the "pajama" uniforms (LOL) looked bland, and I wasn't thrilled with the film that much, either. However, I do remember there were some very rare aliens that were in both scales - these looked great, but I only remember seeing the pictures on the back(s) of the cards/boxes. These had extremely limited production, and were quite HTF. I wouldn't mind if they re-made just the aliens from this line in the Mego 8" or 14" scale - even though they were never made in the 8" scale back in the day: www.megomuseum.com/startrek/sttmp12.htmlwww.megomuseum.com/startrek/sttmp.html
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Post by rom on Feb 17, 2019 21:48:15 GMT -5
Thanks very much for the Mego ST Toyfair pics. I am impressed by the forthcoming, new 8" figures, and it's cool to see all of the current & forthcoming re-booted 8" Mego ST figures in one place.
I do hope that the 2018 carded regular uniform (blue) Spock & dress uniform Kirk are re-released this year, since I was never able to get them the first time around (and I'm sure I wasn't the only one).
However, I am not impressed with the 14" scale ST figures. I may have considered getting these....if the likenesses looked better. These really look nothing like the actors on the show, more like caricatures - very disappointing. The Gorn looks fine, obviously because that's an alien. It's ironic that the 8" versions of these character look a lot more like the actors than the 14" versions - even though the facial detail should be easier to capture in the larger scale.
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Post by rom on Feb 16, 2019 14:12:44 GMT -5
This will be old news to most, but I just got the Mego ST Romulan Commander @ Target - this is the one that was released last Fall, though this was the first time I saw this. Surprised I actually found this, since I haven't seen any new Mego ST figures on shelves for months. In any case, incredible figure - the "shimmery" silver uniform looks great, and the gold helmet is cool as well. This is far superior to the original 1970's version (which I never had, but have seen pictures of).
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Post by rom on Feb 6, 2019 11:27:12 GMT -5
Good thread. As a kid, I regret not collecting the Super Powers line whatsoever. Even though I was a DC comics fan at the time, I didn't have a lot of spending $, so couldn't collect anything I wanted. That being said, I do remember liking the figures - especially the Darkseid/Fourth World related characters. Around the time these figures were coming out, I was reading some of Kirby's Fourth World comics - which were being reprinted & available at direct market stores.
I did have some Secret Wars figures (Spider-man; Captain America) - but didn't collect that line to any great extent, either. I actually didn't think the articulation on the Marvel figures was that great.
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Post by rom on Feb 6, 2019 11:07:09 GMT -5
I haven't read any issues of post-Berni Wrightson Swamp Thing, but these scans are great - Redondo's art is incredible - and reminds me slightly of the iconic Alfredo Alcala.
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Post by rom on Feb 6, 2019 11:04:53 GMT -5
Stunning art - as always, thanks for the scans. Seeing these really make me wish (again) that this entire series would somehow get reprinted.
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Post by rom on Dec 30, 2018 1:16:51 GMT -5
I have a totally different take on Lando than you guys it seems! With Han, it was clear he sympathizes with the rebels from the beginning, despite the fact the he claims he doesn't.. he's trying to protect his self-image. The fact that Lando was in charge of Bespin is EXACTLY why I don't think he's a rebel until he has to be. He IS the establishment. I look at it this way, if Vader didn't decided to flex his muscles just because he could, Lando would have been fine with Han in Fett's hands and Leia and Chewey under house arrest, as the original deal was. This. Lando was not at all altruistic in ESB, but a businessman first & foremost - and he wouldn't have turned on Vader if the original agreement had gone as originally planned. These exchanges between Lando & Vader in ESB are very telling: LANDO: Lord Vader, what about Leia and the Wookiee? VADER: They must never again leave this city. LANDO: That was never a condition of our agreement, nor was giving Han to this bounty hunter! VADER: Perhaps you think you're being treated unfairly. LANDO: No. VADER: Good. It would be unfortunate if I had to leave a garrison here.
and this later exchange: Vader: Calrissian. Take the princess and the Wookiee to my ship.Lando: You said they'd be left at the city under my supervision!Vader: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.Lando saw that Vader kept changing the original deal, and felt that if Vader was so untrustworthy that he would keep going back on their original agreement - there was no certainty that he would leave Lando & Cloud City alone - as was the original promise. So, I think that's why Lando decided to use Lobot & his Security guards to turn on Vader & the Empire, and try to rescue Han. He realized that Cloud City was probably going to be taken over by the Empire anyway, which would negate the whole reason he was running the Tibanna gas mining operation in the first place - i.e., to make money & try to avoid the Empire's attention. starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cloud_City
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Post by rom on Dec 30, 2018 0:51:31 GMT -5
Dec 7, 2018 10:49:36 GMT -6 tarkintino said:
It does not matter if you thought the film was "capitalizing" on Star Wars. Bond adaptions have always had significant changes from book to screenplay, with few ever being even 50% of the source. That was no shock in the case of Moonraker, either. The point is that unlike the false theory that there was "too much Star Wars" or "Star Wars fatigue" as the excuse for its increasingly poor productions / souring on the public, in the 70s, there were Bond movies every other year (with the aforementioned lone exception between The Man with the Golden Gun and The Spy Who Loved Me), yet there was no fatigue, with the final Bond film of the decade--1979's Moonraker--being the biggest film of the franchise up to that date. Quality was and remains the issue, not quantity, and for Star Wars--unlike the that 1970s Bond example--quality has taken a serious hit, along with all of the other wrongheaded issues plaguing that sequel series and spin-offs.
Disagree with this completely. Moonraker was obviously capitalizing & even trying to copy the success of Star Wars to a great extent. There is no way that a 1979 James Bond film would have been set in space if Star Wars hadn't come out in 1977. Here's a good article on the subject: io9.gizmodo.com/looking-back-at-moonrakers-insane-attempt-to-turn-james-1795486523 There were actually a plethora of sci-fi related movies & TV shows that came out after Star Wars in '77 that were obviously trying to capitalize on & even try to copy that film, the most obvious being Moonraker, the TV shows Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Battlestar Galactica, etc. Dec 7, 2018 10:49:36 GMT -6 tarkintino said:Han did not make "jokes" in the film, otherwise it would be easy to name the exact scenes where he was deliberately doing that.I guess you & the general public (including me) have a different definition of what constitutes a joke; to me, it means an attempt at humor - and there were plenty of examples of humorous Han lines in ROTJ, much more than in the ANH & ESB - for example: When Luke and Han are captured and put in front of Jabba the Hutt for a death sentence, Han asks Luke “How we doing,” to which Luke replies, “Same as always.” Han’s retort is a sarcastic "That bad, huh?” - ha ha When Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewie are flying in a stolen Imperial shuttle, none of them know if the code they stole is going to get them clearance to land on the Endor mooon. When Chewie asks Han what he should do, he tells Chewie to “Fly casual" - LOL “I’m out of it for a little while and everyone gets delusions of grandeur.” (in Jabba's Palace)
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Post by rom on Dec 12, 2018 14:18:37 GMT -5
FYI, I am glad to hear that Marvel will be completing the original Savage She Hulk series with a 2nd MMW, scheduled to come out in Summer 2019: www.collectededitions.com/mar...hulk_mm02.htmlBeen looking forward to this for a while - I hoped that they would finish out the series (started with the first MMW in 2017), but with MMW you never know, since sometimes the line gets stalled. In any case, really looking forward to this volume. Savage is actually my favorite She-hulk series. I don't like the later "breaking of the fourth wall" series by Byrne (even though I'm a huge fan of Byrne's art), and really liked this initial much more "savage" take on the character. I'm not going to pretend that SSH was a masterpiece by any means. The villains & storylines were, in many cases, somewhat cheesy. However, my nostalgia for the early '80's has a lot to do with my love of the series - I remember reading many of these issues as they came out. Also, these comics utilized my favorite She Hulk "outfit" (for lack of a better word). I.e., I felt the torn white shirt/pants was a lot more "organic" than the later uniforms she wore.
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Post by rom on Dec 12, 2018 14:08:31 GMT -5
I have fond memories of the excellent Williamson/Goodwin ROTJ adaptation. Excellent art - Williamson is probably my favorite SW comic book artist. Instead of being a by-the-numbers adaptation of the film, I liked how this included some of the "deleted" scenes from the film, i.e. Luke making the lightsaber on Tattoine before going to Jabba's Palace; Luke jumping up & hanging onto the trapdoor in Jabba's palace after falling in the pit, etc. Obviously this was done because Marvel probably got the script (with the deleted scenes) well before the movie went through the final edits.
IIRC, I did get the Marvel Super Special (with the excellent Bill Sienciewicz cover) either right before - or right after - the release of the film in May '83. This contained the entire story, with some great pin-ups in the back.
Towards the end of the summer, I got a bagged set (those old-timers like me will remember these) of all 4 individual floppies. This was interesting in that the four individual covers were not featured in the earlier MSS.
Also worth noting: While the 6-issue (each) ANH & ESB comic adaptations were numbered into the regular Marvel comic series, ROTJ was a separate 4-issue mini-series (and MSS), and these issues were never numbered into the regular Marvel series. Note sure why this was treated differently than the ANH & ESB adaptations.
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Post by rom on Dec 6, 2018 22:48:30 GMT -5
For example, back in the 1970s, James Bond movies were cranked out nearly every other year (with the biggest gap being 3 years between 1974's The Man With the Golden Gun and 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me), but Bond ended the decade with the biggest film yet in the franchise, 1979's Moonraker. The point being that a franchise can remain appealing even whem released almost on top of each other...if its not wrongheaded crap like the new Star Wars movies. Not the greatest example, IMHO. Though I'm a big Bond fan & have liked almost all the films in the franchise - and felt most of the '70's/early '80's Roger Moore movies were the best in the series...I hated Moonraker; the worst Bond film ever. What a piece of steaming crap; it was just capitalizing on the popularity of SW: ANH (which came out just two years before) and the big "fight" scene was just a cheesy space battle between people in Astronaut suits. Garbage. I don't care how much $ it made at the box office. Conversely, Moore's other Bond Films: Diamonds are Forever; Live and Let Die; The Man with the Golden Gun; The Spy Who Loved Me; For Your Eyes Only; and Octopussy were my favorite Bond films - I liked them even better than most of Connery's earlier films. Back OT: I agree that Han Solo was poorly written in ROTJ; he kept making jokes & klutzy mistakes (stepping on a twig, and alerting the Biker Scout, etc.). Though ROTJ was great throughout the Jabba the Hutt/Tattoine sequence & even through the Rebel Briefing with Mon Mothma (when the Rebels are preparing to attack the DS), to me the film went downhill after they got to Endor. I didn't like the way Han was portrayed during this second half of the film, and I also felt the Ewoks were definitely out of place in a SW film. Though ANH & ESB are definitely aimed at kids to a great extent, they are also serious dramas that adults can also enjoy. Conversely, I felt that ROTJ's inclusion of cute teddy bears "kiddie-fied" the film quite a bit, and as such I find myself liking it less & less as years go by; i.e., the older I get the stupider the Ewoks get.... Years ago, I read that Harrison Ford wanted Lucas to kill off Solo at the end of Jedi since he felt the character had served his purpose. But, Lucas wouldn't consider it since he didn't want the film to end on a "downer". I suspect that Han Solo's death in The Force Awakens may have been because Ford requested for this to happen - but this is only speculation on my part. Here's an interesting article: www.inverse.com/article/13136-harrison-ford-iss-happy-han-solo-finally-died-in-the-force-awakens
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Post by rom on Dec 2, 2018 15:54:09 GMT -5
Thanks for the post - didn't know about this promotion. Ironically, I've never even seen carded Mr. Spock (regular blue uniform) or any KISS figures @ my local Target - and those two figures are being used in the ad.
They should have kept the end-cap up at least through the holidays. If anything, more people would have seen this while walking through the store now than those that saw this over the summer, if only because people are going shopping for the holidays in November/December. IMHO, very poorly handled.
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