Month: November 2021 (Page 2 of 5)

Today The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide gets small…not in a Steve Martin way, but today all five items we are suggesting as gifts are for miniature things.

These are great gift ideas for kids who love tiny objects, and also for adult hobbyists who need food and toys for their dolls and action figures.

5 Surprise “blind box” toys from Zuru are one of the hottest kids collectibles on the market right now. They have innovative packaging, a small portable size and are priced just right for kids to obsess over. Even the New York Times raved over how cool these toys are (months after yours truly had already sung their virtures here in PopCult). Our first four picks are new entries in Zuru Toys’ 5 Surprise Mini Brands line.

5 Surprise Mini Brands Mini Convenience Store

Build, display and expand your Mini Brands world with the newest playset replica, a 24-hour Convenience Store. The realistic Convenience Store design includes extendable shelving, fridge, drink dispenser, slushie machine, grab-n-go food warmer, as well as one exclusive Mini Brand collectible
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Bringing collectability, role play and storage all together, 5 Surprise Mini Brands Mini Convenience Store is the perfect gift for the kid (or adult) on your shopping list who loves to shop in miniature.

Recommended for ages four and up, Available at  Amazon and Walmart.

5 Surprise Mini Brands Series 3

Hey, you have to be able to stock those store shelves with something.

The third series of the trend-setting 5 Surprise Mini Brands hit shelves in July, bringing 100 new iconic shopping brands to miniature form.

From the shape and color to the ingredients and barcodes, every aspect of favorite shopping brands like Wholly Guacamole, ICEE Cups, TGI Fridays, Bevita and PEZ are replicated perfectly to scale.

5 Surprise Mini Brands user-generated-content has clocked more than three bilion views on TikTok! Collect them all to create or enhance your mini shopping world.

A perfect stocking-stuffer, recommended for ages four and up. Suggested retail price is $6.99, Available at Target, Walmart and Amazon.

ZURU 5 Surprise Toy Mini Brands Series 1, Wave 2

For the meta collectors among us, as well as kids of all ages, we have a second series of ZURU 5 Surprise Toy Mini Brands. If you need toys for your dolls or action figures (and who doesn’t?), these are just what the tiny doctor ordered.

A super tiny Rubik’s Cube is among the nostalgic and contemporary toys now available in ZURU 5 Surprise Toy Mini Brands.

Made exactly to match their full-sized counterparts down to the packaging, the second wave of realistic miniature replicas – including Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dora the Explorer, as well as a JoJo Siwa bow accessory and Nickelodeon Slime – there are now more than 60 5 Surprise Toy Mini Brands available in stores.

Each capsule includes four mini toys and toy shop accessories such as a shopping basket, cart, bag and shelves. The assortment includes rare metallic and glow-in-the-dark minis, and super rare golden Minis too.

Another great stocking stuffer idea, recommended for ages four and up. These have a suggested retail price of $6.99. Available at Walmart, Target, Amazon and other major retailers.

(Update: Toy Mini Brands – Series 1, Wave 2 – is a TOTY 2022 Finalist in the Collectible of the Year Category. Recently the 2022 Toys of the Year (TOTY) Finalists were announced and 5 Surprise Toy Mini Brands are a finalist in the Collectible category)

5 Surprise Toy Mini Brands Mini Toy Store

Sometimes when you collect toys, people visiting your house for the first time will say, “Why don’t you open a toy store?” They don’t realize that selling your toys, or even working in retail, is a horrific nightmare that many people would rather die than face. However, ZURU has come to the rescue with a “toy” Toy Store! So now you can have your toys, and a toy store too!

Build, store and display over 100 Toy Mini Brands with the ultimate toy store playset. The dream toy store includes shelves, accessories and magical extras like hidden compartments as well as a modular base allowing collectors to connect multiple units to build out an extraordinary little shopping world.

Includes 5 exclusive mystery mini toys, only available in the Toy Store (and it looks like some retailers might have different exclusive mini toys). Recommended for ages four and up, with a suggested price of $29.99 Available at Target, Walmart and Amazon.

Jada Nano Hollywood Rides

These are very affordable (usually less than ten bucks) 3-packs of  roughly 1/160 scale vehicles, based on hit movies and TV shows, and they are pretty cool stockign stuffers for the toy car collector or fan of the properties involved on your shopping list.

Their size is a bit odd, too small for HO Scale, but slightly off for N Scale, but they look really cool, and they display well with Micro Machines.

What makes these teensy vehicles so cool is that they depict some of the coolest pop culture vehicles ever. You can choose from Back To The Future, Batman (1966 and 1991), Harry Potter (a two-pack, since one of them is a triple-decker bus), GI Joe, Transformers, Fast & Furious and Jurassic World.

The detail is amazing for such tiny toy cars, and you can’t beat the price.

Recommended for ages three and up, these are small enough to hide on a desk at work, or collect in a very small space.

Available at most major toy retailers.

Tuesday on The AIR  your blogger and radio show host slacks off during this holiday week and delivers a holiday patchwork edition of Radio Free Charleston.  I’ll explain below, but to listen to the warmed-up treats we do have, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay on this page, and  listen to the cool embedded player over at the top of the right column.

At 10 AM and 10 PM you can hear a compliation special that combines the 2019 Radio Free Charleston International Thanksgiving Special, which is 90 minutes of yours truly and his lovely wife, Mel Larch, playing music and joking around…and then the rest of this show contains the 2019 Paul And Spike’s Too Grumpy Critics Thanksgiving Special, which is half an hour of holiday humor, and the final hour of this show is The Relax Radio Show, created and hosted by George Daughtery, the beloved and much-missed, Earl of Elkview.

Check out the playlist for the first 90 minutes of the show…

The Aquabats “Showtime”
The Blues Brothers “Sweet Home Chicago”
Book of Mormon “Making Things Up Again”
The Beatles “Free As A Bird”
Kate Bush “All We Ever Look For”
The Beautiful South “From Under The Covers”
The Bad Shepherds “Making Room For Nigel”
DEVO “Huboon Stomp”
The Aquabats “Playdough (Live)”
Mike Batt/Roger Daltry “The Pig Must Die”
Cherry Poppin’ Daddies “Yankee Pride”
Andy Partridge/Robyn Hitchcock “Planet England”
Andrea True Connection “More More More”
Cats “Invitation To The Jellicle Ball”
YES “Don’t Kill The Whales”
The Tubes “White Punks On Dope”
MST3K “Gamera Song”

This is followed by Paul and Spike’sToo Grumpy Critics Thanksgiving Special and The Relax Radio Show, a one-hour program created by The Earl and his friend, Buddy Griffith.

This special will air in the regular RFC timeslots this week (although we’ll probably have a marathon of some sort starting Friday morning).

You can hear this special episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Thursday at 3 PM,  Saturday at Noon and Midnight, and next  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can hear a different 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 MIRRORBALL at 1 PM, and NOISE BRIGADE at 2 PM. At 3 PM we have two recent episodes of The Swing Shift.

The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide returns later today, with miniatures!

Today in The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide we feature something that looms large in the landscape of pop culture–Dinosaurs!

They may be extinct, but there’s no denying that dinosaurs are really cool, and a lot of folks love and study them, and if you have someone like that on your holiday shopping list, check out today’s gift suggestions.

Jurassic World 5-Movie Collection

We start with a collection of the movies that have certainly inspired a lot of dino-interest for the last generation or three. Just check out the hype blurb…

Celebrate one of the biggest movie franchises of all time with the Jurassic World 5-Movie Collection! From Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park), Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III), Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World), and J. A. Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), dinosaurs once again roam the Earth in an amazing theme park on a remote island. The action-packed adventures find man up against prehistoric predators in the ultimate battle for survival. Featuring visually stunning imagery and groundbreaking filmmaking, these epic films are sheer moviemaking magic which were 65 million years in the making. Welcome to Jurassic World.

These are newly remastered in 4K UHD, and every disc includes bonus features. Best of all, the price for the Blu Ray is less than thirty bucks, and the DVD is less than twenty-five. You can find them anywhere videos are sold, including Amazon.

Perfect for the person who loves the movies, or the kid who hasn’t seen them yet. You can bet your Jurassic that they’ll love ’em!

Funwares Dinosaur Serving Dishes

If you’ve got a kid (or an adult) who loves dinosaurs so much that they never want to be away from them, even at dinnertime, then these cool serving dishes are the perfect gift.

You can choose from the Tacosaurus Rex (A T Rex that holds two tacos), the Nachosaurus (a Stegosauraus that holds nachos, with an accompanying dip bowl), the Tricerataco (a Triceratops that holds one taco) and the Weeniesaurus (a Brontosaurus that holds a hot dog–and without losing control, either!). Follow the links in the names of the dishes above to order.

These might be a little Kitsch-y, but who said there was anything wrong with that?

These are a little pricey, but cool, and possibly a godsend if you have a dinosaur-obsessed kid who won’t eat their dinner.

Or if you know an adult with the same issue.

Jurassic World Legacy Collecton Large Apatosaurus Figure

This massive toy dinosaur is a Target exclusive, and it’s a whopper!

Big-screen action comes alive with the huge Apatosaurus figure inspired by the whole Jurassic World franchise and one of the largest animals to have ever walked on Earth.

The Apatosurus is a dinosaur-lovers favorite and this figure is primed for playtime with posable legs in a size that will tower over other action figures and help kids and collectors visualize how big dinosaurs actually were.

The figure stands 12.23 inches tall, 6.5 inches wide. With its long neck and whip-like tail, it measures a gigantic 44.5 INCHES LONG.

The features and posability of this herbivore figure will inspire creative storytelling during playtime, but this dinosaur also makes for a massively impressive display.

It’s the perfect gift for kids ages 4 years old and up, especially Jurassic World fans and those who love dinosaurs and action play, and that includes adult collectors, who have been dying for an affordable, almost-to-scale giant beast like this. This is easier to find online that it is in stores.

Dinosaur! (Knowledge Encyclopedias)
by DK and The Smithsonian Institution
DK Children
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1465481764
$24.99

This fully revised edition of Dinosaur! is loaded with fascinating facts: Did you know that Velociraptor had three large “killer claws” on each foot to hunt down prey? Or that the long-necked Diplodocus was as long as three school buses? Would you believe that Carcharodon megalodon was an ocean monster with a fearsome bite at least six times stronger than that of today’s great white shark?

This dinosaur book for kids reveals more than 60 prehistoric creatures, from the age of the dinosaurs to the most recent Ice Age. From the flying Pterodactylus and ferocious Tyrannosaurus to the gigantic snake Titanoboa and magnificent wooly mammoth, this big book takes you up close and personal with these amazing animals. You too can become a dinosaur expert as you pore over pages packed with jaw-dropping 3D images.

With over two hundred pages, jam-packed with dinosaur info and illustrations, this is the perfect gift for any kid who’s just getting into dinosaurs, and it’d also be fun for the grown-up who wants to rekindle their interest.

Available from any bookseller, using the ISBN number.

Caveman (multi-format disc)

Our final pick is a bit of a ringer…or a Ringo-er, as it were.

Caveman, the 1981 prehistoric comedy starring former Beatle, Ringo Starr, along with Barbara Bach, Shelly Long and Dennis Quaid, is not an historically accurate depiction of our ancestors, who did not actually co-exist with dinosaurs.

However, this movie is chock-full-o primo stop-motion animated dinosaurs, courtesy of an uncredited Jim Danforth, and it’s loads of slapstick fun for kids and adults.

It also has a musical sequence that will stick with you for at least forty years (speaking from experience) and the actors do not speak English (except for a couple of lines), instead speaking in a language invented specifically for the movie. They did the same thing in the movie, Quest For Fire, which came out the same year, but nobody remembers that movie because it didn’t have Ringo, animated dinosaurs or fart jokes.

Caveman was directed by Carl Gottlieb, who co-wrote the movie, Jaws, but is probably more famous for his portrayal of Iron Balls McGinty in the movie, The Jerk.

This is the movie where Ringo met Barbara Bach, who would become (and still is) his wife, and it’s a fun gift for Beatles fans, fans of dinosaurs, fans of slapstick comedy, and anyone who doesn’t take prehistory too seriously. Available from Amazon and other video retailers.

This week’s art is a tiny painting of a big thing. I found a small piece of styrene plastic, maybe an inch and a half across, and decided to paint a giant robot using gloppy old Testors enamel paint, with an X-acto knife as my brush.  My fingers are doing quite well this weekend, and with the help of some reading glasses I was able to create a small painting, which will probably wind up on the wall of a new action figure diorama at some point…if it ever dries, that is.

I only had seven colors of paint, and I did use an old index card as a straight-edge in places.

I had to photograph it using the phone and a cheap ring light, with a desklamp as a fill light. If you’re looking at it on a phone, you’re probably seeing it close to actual size. On a computer screen, it’s much bigger.

If you want to see it even bigger, just click on it.

Later today we will be back with Day Sixteen of The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide, and I believe today our theme will be dinosaurs.

Meanwhile, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a recent episode of  Psychedelic Shack, followed at 3 PM by a recent edition of Herman Linte’s weekly showcase of the Progressive Rock of the past half-century, Prognosis.  You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player at the top of the right-hand column of this blog.

We gave the Haversham folks another week off because they asked for it and it’s not like we’re paying them or anything. I think the shows from our British correspondents might be roughly bi-weekly for the remainder of the year.

Psychedelic Shack can be heard every Monday at 2 PM, with replays Tuesday at 9 AM, Wednesday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday at 9 AM. Classic episodes can be heard Sunday at 9 AM as part of our Sunday Haversham Recording Institute collection.

You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 10 AM. You can hear two classic episodes of the show Sunday at 2 PM.

At 8 PM, we bring you eleven hours of Radio Free Charleston, just for the heck of it.

Above you see a short documentary about Irwin Allen’s The Time Tunnel, a 1960s science fiction TV show that I loved as a kid, but haven’t tried to watch since. It was only around for thirty episodes, which was one season back then. I hear that it hasn’t aged well.

If this gives you a feeling of Deja Vu, it might be because I’ve gone back in time seven years to recycle a Sunday Evening Video this week.  Between doctor’s appointments and The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide, it was easier to bring back this cool post for an encore than to come up with something new.

The show is most fondly remembered for having Lee Meriwether, the substitute Catwoman from the 1966 Batman movie, among its cast, along with James Darren, who went on to play the holographic crooner, Vic Fontaine in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It also has a pretty killer score and theme by John Williams.

The premise of The Time Tunnel was that government scientists built a portal that you could jump through to travel to different time periods. Keep in mind that this was more than twenty years before Stargate, Quantum Leap or Wayne’s World 2.

Below you see the original intro, and after the jump you’ll find a “lost’ intro (actually a remix with a goofy slide for the last minute) to the show and some strange video rarities and oddities from The Time Tunnel.

If you’re interested in seeing the show, it can be found on a few streaming sites, and on DVD boxed sets. From what I hear, part of the reason it doesn’t age well is because most episodes have pretty much the same plot. I prefer to remember it the way I saw it when I was four, rather than spoil the memory.

Continue reading

This week and next we are jumping out of our chronological presentation of classic episodes of Radio Free Charleston because the next show due up is our 2015 Christmasish episode, and I’m saving that for December.

Instead, ths week we’re going back to March, 2012 for episode 150 of Radio Free Charleston. “Black Shirt” was a celebration of LiveMix Studio, our first production partner without whom Radio Free Charleston would not exist. LiveMix is long gone now, but in this episode, we revisited some of the incredible performances and speak with some of the musicians who helped make our first 150 episodes so special.

This is an extra-long compilation show, and it’s filled with local legends like Raymond Wallace, Whistlepunk 2.0, The Nanker Phelge, The Ghosts of Now, The Feast of Stephen, Sasha Colete and Mrs. PopCulteer, Mel Larch. It’s a good ‘un, and it reminds us how much we miss LiveMix Studio.

Today The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide looks at MORE TOYS! These are great gifts for kids, but also wonderful for adults who need to be reminded that you’re never too old to play.

The Fresh Dolls

I first told you about The Fresh Dolls in The PopCult Gift Guide three years ago, and now the are available from more retailers and even offer a line of Fashion Packs, with their own sense of style.

Created so all children could see their beauty, brilliance, and power reflected back to them, The Fresh Dolls is a one-of-a-kind diverse line of fashion dolls reflecting ethnicities found around the world – African American, Afro-Latina, Latino/Hispanic, Caucasian, and Mixed-Race/Bi-Racial.

They are designed with custom blended skin tones, authentic facial features including beautiful full lips, noses and gorgeous eyes, a variety of hair textures and styles, and uniquely designed bodies more representative with fuller hips and thighs.

Standing approx 11.5 inches tall, Fresh Dolls are bendable and articulated to foster imagination during positive play. They also feature soft washable hair, stunning wardrobe and accessories. Recommended for ages three and up, these are just great fashion dolls for collectors of all ages, and with their added articulation, they also make great additions to 1/6 scale action figure dioramas.

There are six Fresh Dolls available: Mia, Marisol, Lexi, Skylar, Lynette and Ebony. They come dressed in a variety of trendy outfits, and additional outfits are available as Fashion Packs.

This is a terrific line of fashion dolls, and I will be telling you more about them, and the company that makes them, EPI Brands, early next month.

The Fresh Dolls are available at Target, Walmart, Amazon and other retailers.

Itty Bitty Pretty Angel High

This is another innovative “blind box” concept from ZURU Toys, and it’s a pretty cool collectible for the person with limited space, be they a child or adult.

Itty Bitty Pretty Angel High features six fabulous trendy pint-size dolls with stylish and swappable fashion accessories.

Packaged in a clear capsule with a peek-a-boo window that transforms into a display, each Angel High includes ten surprises: wings, jewelry, eyewear, hair accessories, Angel Cloud stretch compound, and more.

Fans can collect all seven dolls and customize them with interchangeable fashion decor to match any personality. Recommended for ages three and up, these are priced to be great stocking stuffers.

Available at Target and other major retailers!

5 Surprise Unicorn Newborn Squad Series 4

Also priced right to fill a stocking, this is the fourth series of baby unicorns designed to delights kids and collectors everywhere.

Meet the baby squad! Eight adorable Unicorn babies wo have joined the 5 Surprise squad, each featuring distinctive, adorable hairstyles, and accessories!

Each capsule turns into a rocking crib and reveals a blanket, bottle, binky, and a rattle.

Recommended for ages four and up, these would make great gifts for kids and adults who love unicorns and rainbows and still eat Froot Loops without feeling weird about it.

Available at Amazon, Target, and Walmart.

Colorforms Retro-The Original Set

This is a throwback of major proportions. Folks of a certain age may remember Colorforms as a toy that used licensed characters and let kids stick vinyl cut outs on an illustrated backing board, and re-position them over and over again.

The toy’s heyday was in the 1960s and 70s when they produced sets based on Disney, Batman, Casper and tons of other hit properties. The company is still around making licensed sets that are more detailed than ever, but are a little harder to find.

However, when they first started, Colorforms was just a set of shapes, and kids could use their own imaginations to make whatever they wanted in a the included spiral-bound notebook.

Now you can go back to the 1951 birth of Colorforms wih a reproduction of the classic 1951 set that was sold exclusively at FAO Schwarz. You can find out why Colorforms are the wonderful, re-stickable storytelling toy, beloved for 70 years and counting.

Let’s go to the manufacturer’s PR…

COLORFORMS STICK LIKE MAGIC! No cutting, no glue, no mess. Peel & stick pieces let you play over and over again, a new adventure every time!

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION – This high-quality set is a reproduction of the original Colorforms set that started it all! The reusable colored pieces stick to any glossy surface—and each other—over and over again, for countless creative combinations. Everything fits neatly in the sleek oversized box, featuring the original logo and Colorforms story on the back.

SET INCLUDES – Sturdy 5-page spiral-bound booklet, 350 colored pieces, detailed design guide, 12” x 14” play board, and heavy-duty storage box.

Recommended for ages three and up, and available from Amazon. These have also been sigted at Tractor Supply, of all places.

Rainbocorns Puppycorn Surprise

Last year we told you about Rainbocorns, and we even made an unboxing video.

This year we have a new iteration, the Rainbocorns Puppy Surprise.

Packaged in a bright teal reusable egg sporting puppy ears, the puppy-focused unboxing experience reveals all-new Puppycorn plush characters, Scratch’ N’ Reveal Hearts, Scratch’ N’ Sniff Stickers, Boo-Boocorn Puppies & collectible eggs, Puppycorn Poop and Collectors Guide.

There are seven Puppycorn plush to collect, including a Dachshund, Pug, Dalmatian, Poodle, Labrador, Husky and rare ‘best in show’ Show Bulldog.

Recommended for Ages three and up, and dog lovers of all ages, Rainbocorns Puppycorn Surprise is priced right to be a stocking stuffer, and can be found at WalmartTarget and Amazon.

The PopCulteer
November 19, 2021

Friday brings a brand-new episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat to The AIR. Sort of. It’s a long story.  The AIR is PopCult’s sister radio station. You can hear these shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player at the top right column of this blog if you’re reading on a desktop.

At 3 PM, Sydney Fileen graces us with a very special mixtape episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat that salutes one of my favorite bands in the world, DEVO. If that seems familiar to you, you might be remembering that there was a special mixtape episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat featuring DEVO that just debuted in January. I was ecstatic to have a two-hour mixtape of one of my all-time favorite bands.

What I didn’t know at the time was that Sydney had produced and recorded and assembled her DEVO mixtape episode when a power surge in London took out her computer, and the show and its playlist were lost. Being the solid pro that she is, Sydney quickly went to a backup computer and assembled a replacment show from memory, and that became episode 66 of BEC.

Just last week, the fine IT people at Haversham Recording Institute managed to resurrect the drive from that once-thought-deceased computer, and they retrieved the “lost” DEVO mixtape episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat. Sydney offered it to me, and being a huge fan of DEVO, I jumped at the chance.

And that explains why there are two different DEVO mixtape episodes of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat, with quite a bit of overlap, and no references to each other.

Yet…it still sounds great, and besides, we’re all DEVO, Dad.

Just check out the playlist to see how spectacularly DEVO this show is…

BEC 081

“Jocko Homo (Hardcore Version)”
“Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy”
“Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin’)”
“Come Back Jonee”
“Uncontrollable Urge”
“Clockout”
“Timing X”
“Strange Pursuit”
“Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA”
“Blockhead”
“S.I.B.”
“Secret Agent Man”
“Satisfaction”
“Girl U Want”
“Freedom of Choice”
“Gates Of Steel”
“Snowball”
“Be Stiff”
“Whip It”
“Don’t You Know”
“Going Under”
“Beautiful World”
“Pity You”
“Jerkin’ Back and Forth”
“Working In A Coal Mine”
“Peek A Boo”
“Shout”
“That’s Good”
“I Desire”
“Big Mess”
“Here To Go”
“Are You Experienced”
“Puppet Boy”
“Please Please”
“Turn Around”
“Freedom of Choice Theme (Live)”
“General Boy Visits Apocalypse Now”
“Jocko Homo”

At some point, we’ll play these episodes back-to-back, just to mess with you.

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat is produced at Haversham Recording Institute in London, and can be heard every Friday at 3 PM, with replays  Saturday afternoon, Monday at 7 AM, Tuesday at 8 PM, Wednesday at Noon and Thursday at 10 AM, exclusively on The AIR.

That’s what’s on The AIR Friday, and that is this week’s PopCulteer.   The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide will return with toys later on Friday. Check this blog for fresh content every single freakin’ day. I’m cool like that.

Today in The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide, we don’t have a theme. You know, we can’t have one every day.  Today we have toys for adults, toys for kids, music for everybody, art for the discerning and a little black book for the batchelor on your shopping list.  Here are five random cool gift ideas, based on stuff I told you about earlier this year here in PopCult.

Stevo’s Horses
$32.50 to $50 at Stevo’s Toys

I told you about these last September, and you can still get your hands on some of these high-quality reproductions of the Marx Thunderbolt Horse, in new colors, with, or without, the cool riding gear.

These are terrific 1/6 scale horses, perfect for any 12″ action figure (or fashion doll). You can order them HERE, and be sure to check out the rest of his site for other cool Western accesories for your 1/6 scale cowboys.

These would also make great gifts for the horse lover on your shopping list who wants a little equestrian reminder of their favorite animal to keep on their mantlepiece or display shelf. The horses are available in gray or dark brown, with custom, hand-painted details. The saddle and tack is available in white, red and brown.

To make these, Stevo uses the actual 50-plus-year-old molds for the original Marx Thunderbolt horse, the faithful steed of Johnny West. As folks of a certain age are well aware, this horse is compatible with GI Joe, Captain Action, Barbie and any 12″ action figure with the proper leg articulation. These are terrific 1/6 scale horses, perfect for any 12″ action figure (or fashion doll). You can order them HERE, and be sure to check out the rest of his site for other cool Western accesories for your 1/6 scale cowboys.

RAW 10 Series Two
Exclusive to Walmart and Walmart.com

McFarlane Toys has announced a second series of RAW 10 action figures, exclusive to Walmart. In July of 2020 I told you about the first series HERE, and they also made last year’s PopCult Gift Guide.

The new entires are Hoof and Terror-Don.  Clicking on their names will take you right to the page where you can order them.

I don’t know if these have shown up locally, so I’d suggest getting them from the website.

The RAW10 are truly a force to be reckoned with and nw we have these two new cool entries in this nifty original-equity toy line.

Recommended for kids and adult collectors, this line of action figures takes the concept of wild animals and combines with robotics to create some really cool-looking new monster figures.

Toy and Comics impressario, Todd McFarlane continues with this cool line of action figures based on ideas he introduced in his Spawn comics.

These are detailed enough to be great gifts for adult collectors, and sturdy enough to be cool playthings for the imaginative kids on your shopping list.

You can visit the RAW10Toys website to experience the RAW10 World and be on the lookout for more upcoming online RAW10 comics series coming soon.

Dark Matters
by The Stranglers
Available as Vinyl LP, CD or Download

I did not expect to be reviewing a new album by The Stranglers in 2021. I’ve been a fan of the band for over 40 years, and was very sad last year when their keyboardist, Dave Greenfield, died from Covid early in the pandemic. I was not aware that they’d been working on a new batch of songs since 2018, and it was a pleasant surprise when I got a pre-release notice from them earlier in the summer.

Dark Matters is the first Stranglers album since the retirement of their founding drummer, Jet Black, and it includes eight tracks with keyboards recorded by Greenfield before his death. Its actually their first full album since 2012.

The Stranglers are survivors of the original 1970s UK punk scene, and they survived by evolving. They always had prog-rock leanings due to the keyboard artistry of Greenfield, and and as the 80s progressed, they grew musically to the point where, at times, they sounded more like Pink Floyd than Pink Floyd did.

Musically, the album ranges from pure, classic Stranglers on the songs “Water,” “This Song,” If Something’s Gonna KIll Me (It Might As Well Be Love),” and “No Man’s Land.” That style melds smart lyrics with thumping basslines and catchy elements of pop music with a harder edge.

There is no “bum track” on the album, as every song is remarkable in its own way. “White Stallion” sounds like pure, vintage New Wave, with a bizarre auto-tuned vocal break that could almost be a contribution from the blue Diva in “The Fifth Element.”

LP and CD copies of Dark Matters include a bonus CD tribute to Greenfield, with 8 live recordings from the last seven years, including two songs from this album, recorded in 2019. The Download version has four bonus cuts, which are acoustive versions of songs from the album.

Dark Matters is an excellent album, a  great gift for any Stranglers fan, and well worth listening for anybody who wants to hear sophisticated and powerful music with roots in punk and prog-rock.

Queen of the Ring: Wrestling Drawings by Jaime Hernandez 1980-2020
by Jaime Hernandez
edited by Katie Skelly
Fantagraphics
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1683964452
$24.99

I have been a fan of Jaime Hernandez (and his brother, Gilbert) for well over 40 years. I first saw his spot illustrations in The Comics Journal, and I’ve been reading Love and Rockets since its first issue in 1982.

Queen of the Ring is a very different book, but it is spectacular in its own right.

Queen of the Ring is a collection of drawings of Women Wrestlers of the 1960s and 70s that Hernandez has done over the course of forty years. These drawings were done for his own amusement, and were not intended for publication. He drew them on copy paper, with cheap markers and colored pencil, and are a body of work that is more personal and more intimate than his comic book work.

Interspersed throughout this collection of drawings are Hernandez’s own words, taken from an interview (with the book’s editor, Katie Skelly), and these quotes, set alongside the drawings, give a real insight into the creative process of Jaime Hernandez.

Hernandez has always been a master of drawing the female form in a realistic and appealing manner, and he he does this throughout this book, showing the beauty, rage, glory, dispair and power of women who look like truck stop waitresses who could kick your ass.

Queen of the Ring is a gem of a book, a must-have for any fan of Love and Rockets, but also a great gift for art lovers and also fans of professional wrestling. You should be able to order it from any bookseller, using the ISBN code, or find it discounted at Amazon.

Bachelor Pad’s Little Black Book

We have plugged Bachelor Pad Magazine in the past. This digest-sized compendium of Burlesque, Tiki, Lounge and Cool Culture is still delivering four regular issues a year, along with numerous special editions, and now there’s a print-exclusve “Little Black Book.”

As their publisher, Java, explains…

We now have a collection of some of our favorite Bachelor Pad Gals and all their vital information! It’s the Bachelor Pad Magazine Little Black Book!

When we say “little” we aren’t kidding! This booklet is a whopping 4 inches wide, 5 inches tall and checks in at a pocket-straining 160 pages! Within those pages, we profile 75 Bachelor Pad Magazine pin-ups! We are featuring classic photo sets (both from our regular and Nightcap Editions) as well as tons of previously unpublished photos. Some models even took photos especially for this project! This is a must for any fan of Bachelor Pad Magazine!

This special edition has nudie-cutie images and is meant for sophisticated readers. Please allow three weeks for shipping. This issue is available ONLY IN PRINT.

You can order Bachelor Pad’s Little Black Book HERE, and you can also get the latest issue of Bachelor Pad Magazine HERE.

This is a great gift idea for fans of pinups and burlesque, and also for folks who love old-school “For Men Only” type semi-raunchy publications. It’s not for everyone, but chances are you may know somebody who’d get a real kick out of this Little Black Book.

Today in The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide we are going to offer up a selection of cool graphic tees for the person on your shopping list who likes to wear cool graphic tees. Of today’s selections, three come from Threadless, an artist-friendly print-on-demand site that makes very, very comfortable shirts (I own more than a few).  Some of the designs you’ll see below are available on items other than shirts (but not the first two) and they all come in a variety of sizes,  while the Threadless shirts also offer some different shirt color options, as well.

This is one of those days where the designs will speak more effectively than my words, so I’ll do my best to describe these puppies, but you can use your own eyes to decide if they make a good gift idea. Also, the last design is available in two styles, just for the heck of it.

The name of the shirt will also be the live link to order.

Kirby Galactic Black Shirt
from The Jack Kirby Museum

You’ll have to scroll down the page a bit to get to this beauty.  It’s Jack Kirby’s Galactic Head design, which I have on a framed poster, and it’s just a cool-looking painting by Jack Kirby, the architect of The Marvel Universe and the creator of The New Gods and Darkseid for DC Comics.

This cool design is available in sizes from small to 3XL and it’s a little pricey, but all proceeds go to the non-profit Jack Kirby Museum, so not only do you get to wear a really cool black T-shirt,  and show your support for The King of Comics, you also get to help out a good cause.

Perfect for any self-respecing comics fan who knows who really came up with the ideas for their favorite comics.

WKRP Turkey Drop Short-Sleeve Unisex T-Shirt
from Retropolis Tees

One of dozens of great retro pop culture tees at Retropolis, this shirt commemorates the memorable episode of the classic sitcom, WKRP In Cinncinnati where the hapless station manager has a great idea for a Thanksgiving Day promotion.

He hires a helicopter and drops live turkeys out of it to a waiting crowd below.

Chaos ensues, and the punchline is the classic quote from the defeated radio man…“As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”

This is a great idea for a shirt, and you can buy it in sizes ranging from extra-small to 3 XL.  And while you’re there, poke around the site for all kinds of other great designs.

Any fan of WKRP would love to get this as a gift.

THE GREAT WAVE OFF SOUND
Design by quilimo

I just sort of found this design on Threadless, but I couldn’t resist plugging this cool mash-up of The Great Wave off Kanagawa by the nineteenth-century Japanese artist, Katsushika Hokusai and a modern, audiophile vinyl turntable.

The shirt is available in a variety of colors in sizes ranging from small to 2XL, and, well…just look at it.

Is that cool, or what?

Perfect for the woodblock print-loving audiophile on your holiday shopping list.

TIKI & MOON No. 16
by Robert Jimenez

If you have a Tiki fan on your holiday shopping list, they’ll want this shirt.

Jimenez is a very talented artist who works in a cool lowbrow art/pop culture area, and when he’s not designing trading cards or painting pop culture parodies or fez-wearing monkeys, he’s an in-demand Tiki illustrator.

And this cool design should show you why.

The design is available on a very wide range of shirt colors, and in sizes ranging from small to 3XL.

While you’re looking at it, poke around his site for lots of other cool designs.

GI FAN
by Thomas Wheeler

This design by myfriend Thomas Wheeler celebrates a fandom near and dear to my heart, and is the perfect gift for any GI Joe collector.

And by any Joe Collector, I mean any. As a bonus pick today, just in case the person on your shopping list prefers the classic, 12″ GI Joes to the little Real American Hero guys, Thomas has come up with a variation, aimed at those of use who like our adventures a little bigger.

This is a great shirt to wear at toy conventions just to let people know what you’re looking for, so they don’t bother trying to sell you My Little Pony.

Both designs are available on shirts in a wide selection of colors, and in sizes ranging from small to 3 XL.

Some people wear their hobbies on their sleeves, but here’s a way for someone to wear their hobby on their chest.

Adults are allowed to play with toys now. Show it off and be proud.

Thomas has lots of other designs up at his new Threadless store, and I’ll probably drop another one or two here in The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide.