Month: June 2017 (Page 3 of 5)

Our extensive photo coverage of WonderFest USA continues, more than a week after the event in Louisville, Kentucky wrapped up! Technical issues here at the blog have forced your PopCulteer to dole these images out in smaller batches than we had become accustomed to in previous years.

Since we’re hosting the images off-site for the time being, I’m going to push the envelope this time and see if I can get away with cramming fifteen photos in this essay.  They’ll be cool images, like the dealer selling the huge busts you see at right.

And this time around we are taking another look at the cool model kits devoted to Monsters.We’ll start in the dealer’s room and then trek on over to the model contest.

Our previous photo essays can be found by scrolling down the main page of PopCult, or searching “WonderFest” over in that little box on your right. Once we’re done, I’ll post a master list with links.

Now, it’s Monster Time!

Another dealer had this fine asortment of monsters and fiends and poets.

We can’t neglect the Kaiju, now can we?

We were sorely tempted by this awesome three-dimensional representation of the classic Jack Davis illustration of Frankenstein’s Monster.

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Your PopCulteer is just a wee bit under the weather, and decided to take a couple of days off from making new radio. However, we still have fine programming on our internet radio station, The AIR. You can listen at the website, or on this embedded radio player…

We do have a brand-new episode of SKA Madness, courtesy of Dexter Checkers, and it debuts in its new timeslot of 2 PM, right before The Swing Shift at 3 PM. Our listeners have been speaking up, and they like our new hour-long programs that we have at 5 PM, but they hate that they come on at 5 PM because many fans of The AIR listen while they’re at work.

So starting this week, all of our 5 PM programming will move to 2 PM, and you’ll still get three hours of great specialty music shows. Monday, Harrah’s Hard & Heavy, Charleston’s only daytime heavy metal radio show, will lead in to Prognosis. Tuesday SKA Madness paves the way for The Swing Shift. Wednesday Beatles Blast will precede Curtain Call. The replay of Radio Free Charleston will open the door to Radio Free Charleston International on Thursday, and on Friday Radio Coolsville with DJ Betty Rock will be the opening act for the legendary Sydney Fileen and Sydney’s Big Electric Cat.

It’s all part of how we show our dedication to our loyal listeners who are growing in number, but not quite enough for us to monetize yet.

Wrapping up our visit to Steve Stovall’s house, we see a few more of the incredible items in his collection, and yet, we don’t come close to seeing it all.  I want to thank Steve once again for his gracious hospitality in welcoming me and my wife to his home to see his incredible toy collection. Please be sure to visit 3D Super Joes to find out more about the little-known chapter of GI Joe’s evolution. Steve wil fill you in on every detail of this cool, but overlooked, part of toy history.

I also want to thank Buddy Finethy for convincing me to start going to WonderFest USA back in 2015 (and also for dragging me down to my first JoeLanta years before). Buddy is the cream of the crop when it comes to toy collectors, and folks like Buddy are a big part of why I’m so happy to belong to this community.

You can see part one of our visit to Steve’s house HERE, and part two HERE.

Our lead image in this batch of photos sees Steve showing off two very rare large GI Joe bagatelles, which I believe complete his collection of these cool plastic pinball toys. To the left you see some rare GI Joe colorforms.

Now that we have our side visit to Steve’s properly documented, tomorrow PopCult will head back to WonderFest USA for more of the cool stuff that we saw in the model contest and on the dealer’s room floor.

And as a side note: Don’t forget to listen to The AIR, our internet radio station. We’re shaking up the schedule once again this week, and today at 5 PM you can hear a new episode of Marking Out, our pro-wrestling talk show with Matt BelVillain and Betty Rock.

Now on to Steve’s house one last time…

This just sort of hits you in the face when you walk into his main “Joe Room.”

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As we mentioned in our last post, Steve Stovall invited us to his house to see is mind-exploding toy collection weekend before last when we went to Louisville for WonderFest USA. Our minds were indeed suitably exploded, but once we put them back together we whipped out our trusty camera and started snapping photos.

One of the most incredible aspects of this was Steve’s collection of Super Joe. Steve’s an expert on the subject, and has a website devoted to this aspect of GI Joe.

For those of you who don’t follow the ins-and-outs of action figure trivia, in 1977 Hasbro discontinued the long-running 12″ GI Joe action figure, and replaced the line with Super Joe, which took some of the look of the larger figures, but added heavy science fiction and super hero elements. They also shrank him down to a little more than eight inches tall. This was an obvious attempt to compete with MEGO’s eight-inch World’s Greatest Superhero line, but for various reasons, the line failed and was discontinued after two years in stores.

One of the problems was that the figures were so darned fragile. Steve has become an expert at restoring Super Joe. Anyone who chooses to collect Super Joe has to become an expert on restoration. The figures broke so easily that it’s nearly impossible to find them intact. Even when found in never-before-opened boxes they often pour out as a cascade of body parts because the joints that hold them together disintergrate. Local customizer Tony DiTrapino came up with a method that replaced the bodies with those of MMA action figures.

Yet these bodies were used around the world for different figures. Steve has examples of many, and showed off quite a few while we were there. Our lead image shows some figures from Japan and I believe some of the American Space Academy figures. Take a look at this unique collection…

Much of Steve’s collection is housed in glass display cabinets, which are much trickier to photograph than your PopCulteer suspected.

Some of the most rare toys you will ever see in one place.

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So we had some technical difficulties this weekend that kept us from bringing you more photos from WonderFest USA. We’re going to play catch-up with two or three of our mini-photo essays this week. To start us off, we’re actually departing WonderFest to show you scenes from our side-trip to noted GI Joe Collector, Steve Stovall’s house. That’s Steve at the right, showing off a very rare GI Joe art toy.

In addition to having an amazing collection of toys and being an all-around nice guy, Steve is the world’s foremost expert on Super Joe, and is the creator of the 3D Super Joe website.

Steve graciously offered us the chance to see his magnificent collection even though it was in a bit of disarray. Our minds were sufficiently blown. In the first of three photo essays, we’re just going to give you a taste of the awesome treasures that Steve has tucked away in his house in Louisville.

It was a fun evening with your PopCulteer doing the driving from our hotel to Steve’s house, without the benefit of GPS and having never driven in Louisville before/ We got there with no problem and hung out for a while basking in Steve’s amazing toy collection while catching up with our JoeLanta buddies, Scott and Charlotte Beckmann, Steve Bugg, Buddy Finethy and of course, Steve Stovall himself.

Here’s the tip of the iceberg of Steve’s toy collection…

Just one display cabinet, filled with MEGO, Gilbert Bond and Man From U.N.C.L.E. figures and an autographed photo of Adam West

Another cabinet filled with rare boxed GI Joe goodies.

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Every year I do a digital painting of the roses that my mother planted back in the 1970s. They bloom every spring and then quickly disappear until the next year. Here is this year’s painting. To see it larger, click HERE.

PopCult is still experiencing some hiccups, but we should start bringing you more posts later today.

We lost another pop culture icon yesterday as the original TV Batman, Adam West, lost a brief battle with leukemia. He was 88 years old, and lived a full and wonderful life. The man was beloved by millions and was the face that took super heroes into the mainstream.

West survived his post-Batman years with grace and humility and bounced back in a big way via voiceover work on animated TV shows, most notably Family Guy, where he provided the voice for mayor Adam West. His sense of the absurd as strong as it ever was.

West didn’t get enough credit for being the embodiment of Batman at the time, and he didn’t get enough credit for being a brilliant actor who had a much better grasp of his material than most acclaimed dramatic actors ever did.

Above you see some highlights from the Batman TV show. Below you see the pilot for Lookwell, an early-90s sitcom that never happened, starring West and written by Conan O’Brien and Robert Smigel. Below that you’ll see West hosting an episode of Hollywood Palace, plus some Batman fight scenes.

This is our meager way of saying thanks, Adam West, for sharing a life well lived with your fans.

From October, 2008, this episode features alternative rock from Ten Carp Lie, a jam-band tune from Corporate Orange, yet another promo clip for the then-new Scarpelli/Kehde musical “Jack The Ripper,” plus the short film, “Charleston Speed Run #1,″ and a sneak peek at the documentary “Weird, Wonderful: The Braxton County Monster,” which made it’s debut at the RFC Halloween Party October 25, 2008, at the La Belle Theater.

We were hitting a pretty solid stride back then, leading into the 2008 Halloween specials. You can read the original production notes HERE.

The PopCulteer
June 9 , 2017

Another week has passed and your PopCulteer is choosing to take the easy way out. I could write a lengthy essay about how misguided the West Virginia State Legislature’s budget proposals are, or I could address the mess we currently have in Washington. I could rail against the demons and inequities facing our world.

Or I could post more pictures of cool stuff that I saw last weekend at WonderFest USA. You know, like Robot B-9 over to the right.

There are enough words being spent on those other topics. Let’s stick with the fun stuff for now.

In previous years, I would have posted two or three huge photo essays that would have covered everything we saw at WonderFest, and been done with it. Now, the blogging software here at PopCult will not allow me to do that. Once I include more than ten images in a post, it goes all screwy, so I’m left posting tons of little photo essays. I’m going to try and get these finished over the weekend so that PopCult does not become too monotonous.

Today I’m going to post random coolness that didn’t fit into any of the previous catagories that I brought you. Then I’ll tell you about our weekend radio stuff at the end.

WonderFest USA Random Coolness

One of the amazing tabletop dioramas on display.

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We are dicing up the photo essays from WonderFest USA into tiny, bite-sized pieces because the new blogging software here at PopCult does not like those huge 100-image essays I used to post.

In this post we take our first look at Superheroes. These mythical comic book creations sprang to life all over the floor of WonderFest, with kits, statues and even some wild scratch-built figures.

To the right, and below, you’ll see “Mad Max Batman,” a diorama built by Scott Beckmann. This gem was photographed by Fine Scale Modeler for inclusion in an upcoming issue. There were mighty feats of super-heroics all over the place at WonderFest.

We’ll be posting a bunch more, so keep checking PopCult for the further photographic adventures of Rudy at WonderFest. Tomorrow we’ll look at random coolness, and then we’ll revisit our previous topics.

A slightly closer look at Scott Beckmann’s incredible Batman

A small sampling of the superhero models on display

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