Month: March 2016 (Page 5 of 5)

The PopCult Toybox

In this video, the creator of a delightful new Children’s book/plush toy combo tells PopCult all about her new creation. Amanda Macielinski, who created the character with her co-author, Maria Fey and artist, Jamie Murray, expains the origin and story of Carrot Saves Easter, which could well become a new Easter tradition. It’s the story of a very special bunny helper, Carrot, and his quest to help the Easter Bunny restore the magic of the candy factory that makes the sweets for all the good boys and girls every year!

When the factory is running slow, The Good Deed Meter is low! The Easter Bunny grows sad and worried, but Carrot sets out on an adventure to spread good deeds and save Easter! Follow Carrot on his journey and celebrate with your own Bunny Helper to record all your child’s good deeds to fill the Good Deed Meter before Easter!

With Easter right around the corner, you might want to visit Carrot Saves Easter‘s website, or snag the toy and book from Amazon, to make sure you have it in time to hop on down the bunny trail for Easter.

This week on Word Association with Lee and Rudy on Appalachian Independent Radio the show is devoted to the late Lemmy Kilmister, a rock icon who passed away late in 2015.

It’s a funny and bittersweet show, which you can lsten to right on this player…

For thirty minutes Lee and Rudy discuss Lemmy’s career, his music and influence, and Lee shares his personal encounter with Lemmy that happened back on Lee’s 19th birthday.

Word Association with Lee and Rudy can be heard Friday nights at 8PM, with replays Saturday at 1:30 PM and Sunday at 9 PM.

If you would like to meet one-half of the Lee and Rudy team, Lee Harrah will be appearing tomorrow at the Classic Plastics Toy and Comic Expo in Parkersburg.

This is the third annual toy and comic expo in Parkersburg WV. We went last year and it was a blast. Only our committment to editing all of our Toy Fair video is keeping us away this year. The proceeds from this show go to the The Parkersburg Art Center and local Red Cross Disaster Relief. Glen Brogan will also be at the show, selling prints and art.

There will be more than 80 tables of toys, comics, videogames, anime, pez, sports cards, and more as well as StarWars author Timothy Zahn and Face Off contestant Jordan Patton, who will be there signing autographs and talking about their future projects. Music fans can also check out three acoustic sets by Betrayed by the Bullet, HARRAH, and Alien3000/Matthew Elder.

There will also be a cosplay contest, video game tournament, raffles, and more! This is all happening at The Parkersburg Art Center, 725 Market St, Parkersburg, West Virginia. The show runs from 10 AM to 6 PM, Admission is only five bucks.

The PopCulteer
March 4, 2016

Next week your PopCulteer will be making his fourth trip to Joelanta and The Great Atlanta Toy Convention. This has become a much-anticipated annual Southern trek for your faithful correspondent as he gets to head to Georgia and cavort with like-minded action figure collectors in a fun, family atmosphere.

On March 12 and 13, the Marriott Century Center becomes a wonderland of toyish coolness, filled with happy people and neat stuff. We are Joeheads, in our natural habitat.

Because I am still neck-deep in video editing from last month’s International Toy Fair in New York (look for new videos popping up at an alarming rate all weekend long), today we are going to forego the usual “Stuff To Do” section of our Friday column. However, I would like to mention that there are all kinds of events happening this weekend tied to the Celtic Calling celebration, and you can find a complete list and schedule at this website. Check it out, and if you’re not chained to the editing desk like I am, get out and soak up some of the great music, poetry, and Celtic culture all over Charleston.

Back to the matter at hand, Joelanta and The Great Atlanta Toy Convention is simply the most fun toy convention I’ve ever attended. Every year it’s an almost criminally-fun gathering of GI Joe collectors, and now toy collectors of all types who enjoy the hobby to its fullest extent, collecting, customizing, building models and dioramas, cosplaying and meeting experts and creators like Larry Hama.

Originally dedicated to the 12″ GI Joe, JoeLanta and The Great Atlanta Toy Convention has grown to include everything from GI Joe, Transformers, MOTU, TMNT, Star Wars, Sci Fi toys, Superhero toys, Monster toys, Anime, comics to all things pop culture. It’s also the only major toy collector’s convention that I know of with a house band, Radio Cult, who put on a killer show on Saturday night during the convention weekend.

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Radio Free Charleston International host, Rudy Panucci, is a huge Beatles Freak. That’s no secret. This week on RFCI, get ready for two hours of Beatles tribute music.

You will hear lesser-know cuts from The Fab Four, solo cuts from John, Paul, George and Ringo, and tons of Beatles covers by recording artists both obscure and of superstar status.

Tonight at Midnight (and Friday at 10 PM and Saturday morning at 11 AM, all times Eastern) you can tune in to hear this brand-new episode of Radio Free Charleston International. Part two will air next week at the usual times. You can tune in at Appalachian Independent Radio, or just listen right up there in that handy little virtual transistor radio.

Ain’t technology grand?

Check out the playlist and enjoy. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

The Beatles  “You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)”

John Lennon  “Serve Yourself”
Paul McCartney  “Return To Pepperland”
George Harrison  “When We Was Fab”
Ringo Starr  “I Don’t Believe You”

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The PopCult Bookshelf

I know we’ve been carpet-bombing you with our coverage of Toy Fair 2016 here in PopCult (and to be honest, we’re not even halfway done yet), but today I wanted to point out few book projects that we encountered during our trip to New York. When you make a trip this big, you milk it as long as you can.

Children’s books and toys go hand-in-hand, but there was more than just kid’s books on display at Toy Fair. We’re just going to bring you some photos of the cool publishing endeavors we learned about. Some of them we’ve already posted video about, and some we will in the next few days. Some of them we just have the photos.

Over the next few days your PopCulteer plans to go nuts with the Toy Fair posts, with videos and photos coming your way like crazy. There may be as many as thirty Toy Fair posts over the next four days, so get ready for that. I’d like to get most of our Toy Fair video posted before the PopCult crew leaves for JoeLanta next week. You’ll read more about that tomorrow morning. For now, look at these bookish photos…

Carrot Saves Easter is a new plush toy/book combo, and you will see our video with Carrot’s creator this weekend. Learn more about Carrot HERE.

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The PopCult Toybox

Officially going on sale today at Target, Mattel’s new line of toys based on the DC Comics animated webseries is comprised of highly-articulated Action Dolls, Action Figures, playsets, role-play and flying action figure. DC Superhero Girls looks to be a huge hit.

This new line of Action Dolls empowers girls to explore the same play patterns as boys, with cool superhero figures like Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Harley Quinn and more.DC Superhero Girls tells the adventures of Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Supergirl and others as teens at an academy to learn how to use their super powers.

The webseries has been running since last year and this is a line that will not only appeal to girls, but also to crossover superhero action figure collectors and young women who appreciate the positive message.

These are supposed to be on sale now, but have not turned up locally yet. I wold expect them to hit Target’s shelves no later than this weekend.

Check out the video above and the photos below…

Let’s go in for some close ups, shall we?

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This week On The Road With Mel is part one of a two-part show where your host, Mel Larch, talks all about traveling to other cities to take in the theatre.  You can here it Wednesday at 1 PM(EST) on Appalachian Independent Radio.

In part one, Mel talks about Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off Broadway in New York City, then turns her attention to our nation’s capitol with details about the Washington, DC theatre scene.  In the last segment of the show, Mel starts to tell you about Chicago, the Windy City, and the many theatre companies that call it home.

You can listen to On The Road With Mel at Appalachian Independent Radio right on this handy little virtual radio player…

You can hear On The Road With Mel every Wednesday at 1 PM on Appalachian Independent Radio and if you miss it, you can tune in for replays Saturday afternoon at 1 PM and Sunday evening at 9:30 PM.

The PopCult Toybox

For PopCult, Mel Larch gets the lowdown on what Mattel has in store for Monster High, which is due for a major redesign later this year, as well as a partnership with Lady Gaga.

This is a pivotal year for Mattel’s horror-based fashion doll line. After exploding on the scene a few years ago, Monster High has seen a sales decline over the last couple of years, causing Mattel to reposition the line with an emphasis on “Monster Cute,” and an effort to target younger girls with more friendly facial sculpts.

If this works, then Mattel will be able to maintain Monster High as a billion-dollar brand. If not, then it will likely fade from store shelves over the next few years after a very healthy run. This year’s redesign is Mattel’s last-ditch effort to turn Monster High into an evergreen property that can last decades.

The popularity is certainly there. At its peak, Monster High managed to defy industry trends, attracting fans well into their teens, as opposed to most kids these days, who seem to give up on toys by the time they hit ten years old. The new face sculpts were not available at Toy Fair, but Mel does ferret out quite a bit of inside information, and also good descriptions of everything you’ll see in the photos below.

It’ll be interesting to watch what happens with Monster High.

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RFCv4005

Tune in to Appalachian Independent Radio, or listen right in this here little radio player..

…for this week’s radio version of Radio Free Charleston. It’s chock full o’ brand-new local music, mixed with cool stuff from deep in the RFC archives. We kick it off with Ona, then plow through with the best local music from the last quarter-century, all in one tight, two-hour package.

Listen at 10 AM and 10 PM Tuesdays, with replays on the weekend.

This week’s playlist:

Ona  “Rocks In The Basement”

The Smoky Room  “Finish Me”
Jack Griffith  “Child of Light”
The Company Stores  “Unwelcomed Guest”
J Marinelli  “Kendrick’s Ghost”
Miniature Giant  “Too Soon”

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