PopCult

The PopCulteer
June 26, 2026

As I told you yesterday, last weekend was the big Marx Toy Show in Wheeling (at The Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum,) we brought you a few photos as a preview, and today we bring you around three dozen more.

You probably notice that there’s no video to go with these pics.  That will have to wait until Sunday. There was just not enough time to get the video edited in time to include it here.

Yesterday I mentioned Matt Burnett, who brought a large herd of 3D-printed animals, perfectly-scaled to Johnny West. He’s in our feature image today, and you’re going to see a lot of photos of his work below. That’s the Grizzly I got from him  right above this text.

The Marx Toy Show is always a great time.  Mel and I get to see friends, there are always cool toys to buy, and even more cool toys that we’d buy if we had enough room for them. It’s one of the most fun toy shows we go to because it’s so specialized and focused, yet so laid back and comfortable.

We’ve gone every year for, I think, the last fifteen years (not counting during COVID, and even then something unofficial might have happened). Next year I may not make it to the Marx show because a once-in-a-lifetime trip will likely take me further West than I’ve ever been and tie us up for a couple of weeks in June, but we will be chomping at the bit to return in 2028.

You may also notice quite  a bit of a difference in the photos, as I used a total of five different cameras, some of which were insanely tiny, and also very cheap. I’m trying them out so I can write about them in this blog later. That’s just a reminder in case you’re wondering why some photos look like they were shot in super high definition, and some look like they were shot on a ten-dollar digital camera.  Because in both cases, they were.

So, let’s see what all the fuss was about…

Picking up where we left off yesterday, this is the photo I was taking with a tiny camera, as seen in the last photo I ran yesterday.

This is the same view, sort of, taken with an even tinier camera, closer up.

When we got in Thursday, there was an impromptu show-and-tell around the fire pit. This UK Fighting Eagle with an unusal arm connector was one of the cool things we got to see.

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Last weekend was the big Marx Toy Show in Wheeling (at The Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum, of course) and your humble blogger took photos and video was shot by the lovely Mrs. PopCulteer and yours truly, and…you will see most of that cool stuff tomorrow.

So today you get a dozen pics from the show, just enough to whet your appetite for a large photo essay and (hopefully) video to hit tomorrow.  It’s possible that the video might be delayed until Sunday. It depends on how many more telemarketers decide to bombard me with calls today.

Today is just a hit-and-run post, but I do want to mention that the hit of the show this year was Matt Burnett, who brought a large herd of 3D-printed animals, perfectly-scaled to Johnny West. That’s Matt with Terry Ryder, in a photo I swiped from Facebook, over to the right.  While Johnny West was famous for having wonderful horses made to scale with him, when it came to other livestock, like cows or deer, he was out of luck.  There was a Buffalo, but it was hilariously tiny, and wasn’t really in scale with him at all. It was more of a Buffalette.

Matt corrected that oversight and printed Buffalo, Cattle, Moose, Hogs, Chickens, deer and other barnyard animal and fauna of the Old West, and his work is amazing. I came home with four of his critters (which you will see tomorrow). At some point Matt intends to open a website to sell his 3D printed livestock, and when he does, I will tell you about it here.

You may also notice a bit of a difference in the photos, as I used a total of five different cameras, some of which were insanely tiny, and also very cheap. I’m trying them out so I can write about them in this blog later.

Today, however, let’s look at a dozen images from The 2026 Marx Toy Show…

Each animal Matt brought was incredible, but seeing them all together was even more impressive.

I forogt to mention the dogs.

We got in Thursday, and there was an informal show-and-tell around the firepit at the hotel. Sadly, I didn’t make it to the official show-and-tell Friday night because the MG meds got the better of me.

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It’s time for our weekly half-assed list of STUFF TO DO, around the Mountain State, and there are tons of things for you to get into because this is the first weekend of summer and your humble blogger requires refrigeration, so it’s unlikely that you’ll see me at any outdoor events.

So let’s see how quickly I can knock this out, shall we? As always, I’m just scratching the surface here. Please don’t think this is all there is to do around these parts.

Our featured event this weekend happens in Beckley…

You should remember that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments.  Also, if you have a show that you’d like to plug in the future, even if your promotional graphic uses cruddy AI slop art, contact me via Social Media at Facebook, BlueSky, Spoutible, Instagram or Twitter.  I dont charge for this, so you might as well send me something if you have an event to promote.

We are very happy to remind you that Cristen Michael has created an interactive calendar that is way more comprehensive than this list of STUFF TO DO, and you can find it HERE. Just click on the day and the event and you’ll be whisked away to a page with more details about loads of area events.

I also need to point out (and I’ve been meaning to add this to the boilerplate for some time) that Mya Ross at Status Quo does a much better job of compiling a list of local events than I do, and you can find the WTSQ guide to events HERE. Toss ’em a donation while you’re over there.

You can find live music in and around town every night of the week. You just have to know where to look.  Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Among the notable music venues in town are The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe, Live at The Shop in Dunbar, Louie’s, at Mardi Gras Casino & Resort, In Huntington, there’s local institution, The Loud (formerly The V Club),  The Wandering Wind Meadery is on Charleston’s West Side, Plus there’s music in Charleston at The Blue Parrot, Sam’s Uptown Cafe and Fife Street Brewing. Plus there are free concerts almost every weekend at Taylor Books.

You might also find cool musical events at Folklore Music Exchange in Charleston.

To hear music in an alcohol-free enviroment, see what’s happening at Pumzi’s, on Charleston’s West Side. Saturday at 7:30 PM they’re hosting a night of great singer/songwriters, Brooke A Brown, Julien Aklei, Annie Wolfe and head Pumzi, Sean Richardson, plus comedian Jacob Hall.

For cutting-edge independent art films, downstairs from Taylor Books you’ll find the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF. Each week they program several amazing movies in their intimate viewing room that you aren’t likely to see anywhere else.

Please remember that viral illnesses are still a going concern and many people who have very good reasons are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out. And if you’re at an outdoor event, please remember that it’s awfully inconsiderate to smoke or vape around people who become ill when exposed to that stuff. If somebody asks you to refrain, please respect their weishes and don’t be a jerk about it.

Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Here we go, roughly in order, it’s graphics for select local events happening over the next several days that I was able to scrounge up online…

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Almost every Tuesday is NEW RFC DAY on The AIR  and today is epic and legendary because once again we bring you a brand-new, three-hour episode of Radio Free Charleston to elevate your mood and quality of life. To listen to The AIR, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page.  

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, with boatloads of replays throughout the week.

Radio Free Charleston brings you a new show with THREE FULL HOURS of newly-assembled free-format radio.  We have a bumper crop of new music by local, independent and cult artists, with some nice material from the archives thrown  in just to spice things up.

We open with a track from a new live album by Corduroy Brown, and this week’s show also features brand-new tunes from Dinosaur Burps, Duck City Music, Sasha Colette & The Magnolias, Stick Men, Devin Townsend, The Alarm, Jeff Ellis, YES and more.

We also revisit a compilation album from fifteen years ago that supported Pick Up America, plus you get some nice Psychedelic/Proggy stuff in our third hour.

This was a tricky show to assemble due to storms in the area and possible power outages, but I managed to pull it all together.

Check out this playlist, with links to the artist’s page where possible…

RFC V5 274

hour one
Corduroy Brown “Getting Older (LIVE)”
Dinosaur Burps “Drifting”
Duck City Music “Beautiful Intro”
Stitch Jones and his Bionic Marines “Flying Space Adventure”
Cricketman “Power”
The Heavy Hitters “Vain”
Sasha Colette & The Magnolias “Kiss And Make Up”
NOIR “Breath and Taxes (Ed’s Car Mix)
Stick Men “Thief of the Dice”
Devin Townsend “The Big Snit”
David Synn Bombs and Scarecrows”
Divinities “Rebirth”
Harmony Bytes “Engines of Fate”
The Alarm “One In A Million”

hour two
Jeff Ellis “Summer’s End”
Option 22 “Pulse of the Universe”
Kathleen Coffee “Transcend”
Douglas Imbrogno “Green, Green Hills”
Lonely Are The Brave “Watershed”
Eclipse Movement “Tomorrow”
Ben Voigt “Pick Up America”
YES “Aurora”
The Settlement “Stars”
The Holler Hounds “Good Ol Frank”

hour three
Tunesmiths “For Your Love”
Mind Garage “Doctor John”
Cream “Sitting On Top Of The World”
Khadavra “Monument”
Custard Flux “The Floating Chamber”
Stratifaction Music, Sirius Blueray and David Synn “Inside The Tarot”
Byzantine “Consequentia/A Place We Cannot Go”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM,  Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight, Sunday at 8 PM and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also hear a different classic episode of RFC every weekday at 5 PM, and we bring you a marathon all night long Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I’m also going to  embed a low-fi, mono version of this show right in this post, right here so you can listen on demand.

After RFC, stick around for encores of last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM get ready for two recent episodes of The Swing Shift.

 You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM, Thursday at 9 AM,  Friday at 10 AM and 8 PM and Saturday afternoon, only on The AIR . You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursdays and Sundays.

This week our art is an acrylic painting that started out as a digital abstract. I was beginning to feel like I was in a bit of a rut doing the landscapes in recent weeks, even though I’m quite happy with them. I felt like veering off in a totally different direction this week.

I began with a photo I took at the Embassy Suites hotel in Lexington, which has a great atrium for getting weird photos, and I messed with the image, running it through geometric distortion filters, adding and subtracting colors, changing the contrast and doing other stuff to it.  Then I used that digital image as the basis for an acrylic painting on illustration board.

So, even though the finished painting is all acrylic-on-board, I still consider this a mixed media piece.

It was something that I thought might look cool with minimal effort after I got back from The Marx Toy Show on Sunday afternoon.

The name mildly amused me, so it got stuck with it.

If you want to see this image larger, click HERE.

Meanwhile, over in radioland, Monday beginning at 10 AM on The AIR,  we’re giving you a chance to catch up with Radio Free Charleston as we bring you a twenty-four-hour marathon of the eight most recent episodes of our flagship show, and then when it ends, you get a Brand-New episode, Tuesday at 10 AM. Isn’t that nifty?

This week, in a post that we’ve just restored because the coding was broke and there were no videos it for a dozen years, we are bringing you a creation of Hoserlu,  “Star Trek: The MEGO Picture.”  We posted this as a bit of a tribute to MEGO Meet, and I hear that there may be news of the next MEGO Meet coming soon, but for now, have fun looking at these toys.

These were created after Robot Chicken started airing on Adult Swim, but they have a sightly different comedic sensibility, and try to remain Star Trek-centric.

This is probably not safe for work. Be sure to watch for The Beatles cameo.

Below, check out the sequel! In it, watch for a cameo by Zintar of The Zeroids!

This week we bring you part two of the 2013 Radio Free Charleston Halloween Special, recorded at ShockaCon that year. In this show you will hear music from The Nanker Phelge, Foz Rotten and his Dirty Scoundrels, The Big Bad, The Wayward Girls School of Burlesque and The Renfields.

Plus you will be subjected to my inept interviews with RJ Haddy, Ghostbusters WV, Eliska Hahn, Danny Boyd, Vincent Renfield and a Dalek. There’s plenty of other wild sights and sounds of Shocka-Con presented here, starting with a remix of the internet sensation, the Twerking Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

It’s a bit bittersweet because not only have we lost Danny Boyd just a few months ago, the twerking Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is also no longer with us.

You can see the first part of this show in last week’s RFC Flashback. The original production notes for this episode can be found HERE.

The PopCulteer
June 19, 2026

It’s brutal honesty time, folks.

I’m rushing to put together the blog ahead of time so that your PopCulteer and his lovely wife can head to Wheeling for The Marx Toy Show at Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum.  I told you about it last Sunday.

For more stark honesty…we’re already here in Wheeling. We got here last night.

That means that the words you’re reading were written Wednesday evening, right before we started packing up the cameras and gear for the trip.

The problem is…I’m just about all written out.

However, I am lucky in that I have a house full of cool toys and comics and stuff, and a bit of that has just arrived recently, either through the mail or stuff I got at WonderFest that I took weeks to get around to unpacking.

That means that you lucky folks get to look at stuff I just got recently.  Some of this will be reviewed in depth later. Some, much later, like the model kits, which I will try to document the assembly and painting of as soon as I have all the time in the world.

Basically, this week’s PopCulteer is, “Hey, look what I got!|

Enjoy…

Pvt. John Cuddy is the latest action figure with a NEW body in the style of the classic Marx 12″ action figures. This is the second Great Plains Fighter from Stewart’s Attic, and we’ll be doing an in-depth photo review later. Scott’s not going to make it to the Marx Toy Show this year, so I don’t get to rave about these to his face.

I wrote about how cool Major Toys’ Big Rubber Guys are a few weeks ago. Now they’re diving into the world of ECW. Their first figure from the legendary wrestling fed is Tommy Dreamer, who unfortunately was in the news this week for being fired as head of creative by TNA wrestling.

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The PopCult Bookshelf

JACKsploitation!
The Films of Jack Hill
Edited by Anthony Taylor, Preface by Beverly Washburn Introduction by Jack Hill
Headpress Books
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1915316561
$24.95

JACKsploitation! is a collection of essays devoted to the work of Jack Hill, an unjustly overlooked filmmaker who may be THE auteur of the B-Movie. Saddled with low budgets, but largely free of studio meddling, Hill wrote, directed or produced some of the most influential genre films ever made.

He apprenticed with Roger Corman, and worked alongside a young Francis Ford Coppola, and along the way he worked with film legends like Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson, and discovered and championed  cult movie legends Pam Grier and Sid Haig.

The essays in the book are written by an A-team of film scholars and genre experts, and they focus on the individuality of Hill’s works, celebrating his technique, his relationship with his actors and the remarkable level of craft he was able to maintain with limited budgets.

Each essay takes on a different film, or group of films, in Hill’s canon, and they all bring terrific insight and perspective to their subjects. Taken as a whole, we see that Hill was an artist who did not let the label “exploitation movie” define him or his work.

Standouts in the book include Stephen Bissette’s (yes the comic book artist, who is also an expert on horror movies) who explores the zeitgeist of post-war horror that made Hill’s once-hidden classic, Spider Baby, possible, and how it fits in to where the culture was at the time.

Phoef Sutton dissects Switchblade Sisters, the favorite film of Quenten Tarantino, and shows how a premise, that in lesser hands could have simply been a gender-reversed gang warfare flick, tackles serious socio-political themes with a Shakesperean flair.

Other essays study his pioneering Blaxploitation films, and his work in other genres, and together they fit together for a jigsaw-puzzle look at a truly amazing career.

The book is curated and edited by Anthony Taylor (disclosure: a friend of your humble blogger) and was inspired by a chance meeting that led to Hill making a 2024 appearance at Monsterama, a convention in Atlanta organized by Anthony.

I remember back when that was happening, and it’s no surprise that a book project came from it.

I love reading about moviemaking, but I’ve found that I’m far more intrigued by stores of low-budget films. Books about major Hollywood blockbusters tend to just be catalogs of which agent contacted which producer how they managed to get their schedules to line up.

When you’re reading about the low-budget filmmakers in the 60s and 70s, they had real challenges. They’d have to build worlds with hardly any money for sets or special effects, and their talent pools tended to be made up of actors who were either at the very beginning or the very end of their careers.

When they managed to craft an absolute gem of a film under such grueling conditions, it’s truly a thing of beauty.

Jack Hill managed to do that more often than not.

JACKsploitation! is a wonderful Valentine to the 93-year-old director, who happily has lived long enough to enjoy the acclaim he deserves.

You can purchase JACKsploitation! directly from the publisher, or from Anthony himself if you run into him at a convention. The book should be widely available from booksellers by the end of summer.

It’s time for our weekly half-assed list of STUFF TO DO, around the Mountain State, and there are tons of things for you to get into because this is the weekend of Juneteenth and West Virginia Day and Father’s Day and that bicycle race thing in Charleston, but I’m going to gloss over that and bring you a halfeder-asseder short post this week because I need to get ready to head to Wheeling for the annual Marx Toy Show.

So let’s see how quickly I can knock this out, shall we? As always, I’m just scratching the surface here. Please don’t think this is all there is to do around these parts.

You should remember that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments.  Also, if you have a show that you’d like to plug in the future, even if your promotional graphic uses cruddy AI slop art, contact me via Social Media at Facebook, BlueSky, Spoutible, Instagram or Twitter.  I dont charge for this, so you might as well send me something if you have an event to promote.

We are very happy to remind you that Cristen Michael has created an interactive calendar that is way more comprehensive than this list of STUFF TO DO, and you can find it HERE. Just click on the day and the event and you’ll be whisked away to a page with more details about loads of area events.

I also need to point out (and I’ve been meaning to add this to the boilerplate for some time) that Mya Ross at Status Quo does a much better job of compiling a list of local events than I do, and you can find the WTSQ guide to events HERE. Toss ’em a donation while you’re over there.

You can find live music in and around town every night of the week. You just have to know where to look.  Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Among the notable music venues in town are The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe, Live at The Shop in Dunbar, Louie’s, at Mardi Gras Casino & Resort, In Huntington, there’s local institution, The Loud (formerly The V Club),  The Wandering Wind Meadery is on Charleston’s West Side, Plus there’s music in Charleston at The Blue Parrot, Sam’s Uptown Cafe and Fife Street Brewing. Plus there are free concerts almost every weekend at https://www.facebook.com/TayBooks.

You might also find cool musical events at Folklore Music Exchange in Charleston.

To hear music in an alcohol-free enviroment, see what’s happening at Pumzi’s, on Charleston’s West Side.

For cutting-edge independent art films, downstairs from Taylor Books you’ll find the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF. Each week they program several amazing movies in their intimate viewing room that you aren’t likely to see anywhere else.

Please remember that viral illnesses are still a going concern and many people who have very good reasons are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out. And if you’re at an outdoor event, please remember that it’s awfully inconsiderate to smoke or vape around people who become ill when exposed to that stuff. If somebody asks you to refrain, please respect their weishes and don’t be a jerk about it.

Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Here we go, roughly in order, it’s graphics for select local events happening over the next several days that I was able to scrounge up online…