Author: Rudy Panucci (Page 30 of 581)

The PopCulteer
November 26, 2021

All right, it’s not so much madness as it is rampant consumerism run wild the day after we’re supposed to give thanks for all the stuff we already have.

However…it is the day after a holiday, and PopCult‘s readership is always low on this day, plus I’m still a bit tryptophaned-out from a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner for two at home, which has become the the tradition of late for your cocooning PopCulteer and his lovely wife, so this is going to be a really, really short post.

No way in hell am I going out shopping today. I will leave that to the young and foolish.

This weekend brings a couple of marathons to The AIR.  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 and your Firefox Browser isn’t acting like a jerk.

Starting Friday at 10 AM  we are going to run a marathon of every episode of Mel Larch’s MIRRORBALL, which will wrap up Saturday at midnight. Of course, this is only natural because, as everybody knows, the day after Thanksgiving is officiall the start of Disco Season, as all the kids start singing traditional Disco songs and the networks show specials like “A Charlie Brown Disco” and “Rudolf The Disco-Dancing Reindeer.”

Some folks will even rush to put up their Disco tree.

Anyway, that’s most of Friday and all of Saturday, and then at midnight Saturday Radio Free Charleston takes over for a 24-hour marathon, which isn’t quite as big a deal, since the show is three hours now and that’s only eight episodes.

This is all to give your PopCulteer a little break as he heads into the final entries of The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide, which will wrap up next week. Speaking of said Gift Guide, later on Friday check back for  five more gift suggestions with the theme “Ghost of Christmas Past,” as we dig into the PopCult Archives and recommend five cool gift ideas that we told you about in previous years, which are all still available, and still great gift ideas.

And come back over the weekend for our regular features. Your PopCulteer always offers up fresh content every day, even when it means working Thanksgiving night when he’d rather be napping.

Today is Turkey Day (AKA Thanksgiving), and breaking with our tradition of not really suggesting gift ideas on this day, The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide offers up five horrible gift ideas, which some may consider “turkeys,” and others may call “white elephants,” but for folks with just the right sense of humor, these are great gift ideas that prove that it’s the thought that counts, even if those thoughts are a little dark. Some might call them “gag gifts,” but others might find them to be the greatest gifts of all time.

HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE WELCOME MAT
from Archie McPhee

What says “Happy Holidays” better than a welcome mat emblazoned with one of the most famous near-quotes from famed jolly existential philospher, Jean-Paul Sartre?

You could get a sign that says “No Soliciting,” but this Hell is Other People Doormat does the job better! If you don’t have a moat and drawbridge in front of your house, you need something to let people know how you feel about interruptions. As Jean-Paul Sartre cheerfully said, “Hell is other people.” When we read that, we thought it would make an excellent “welcome” mat! Okay, so maybe it’s more of an unwelcome mat, but those have their uses too. If you know a grump, put this 22-1/4” x 14-1/2” PVC mat outside their door to warn visitors that the person inside would rather be alone.

Currently on sale for under ten bucks, but even at its regular price it’s a steal!

Yodeling the Classics
by Mary Schneider
Available from Amazon

You probably have somebody on your holiday shopping list that deserves this album. Let me tell you about the singer…

The youngest of five musical children, Mary Schneider’s father died when she was one year old. She began playing the ukulele at age four and caught the yodeling bug at six, probably from her German/Bavarian background. All her brothers and sisters would sit around the kitchen table every night and sing wonderful four-part harmonies. Music was important in their household. As a child, she would practice yodeling while sitting up in a mango tree in the backyard of her Queensland Australia home.

Mary began singing professionally at age 11. Her performing career really began when, as the Schneider Sisters, Mary and her sister Rita had an Instrumental/Vocal Variety Act. They first recorded regularly for EMI Regal Zonophone and then had a long and successful career together. They appeared regularly on TV and at Venues and Clubs throughout Australia and Overseas.

Through the years, Mary developed into an accomplished musician and singer, taking operatic training and working on TV and Radio all over Australia and the Far East as a Jazz and Country singer. Her love of jazz developed through her brother who was a jazz guitarist in the style of Django Rheinhardt.

With an unquenchable combination of a powerful voice and vibrant personality, she has been in constant demand for personal appearances and recordings. However, a frantic schedule of stage and media work kept her away from recording for many years until the 80s when she was persuaded to return to the studio to cut some yodeling albums. These featured a mixture of Country, Novelty and European songs which not only established Mary internationally as a yodeler of top quality but also triggered a yodeling revival. Mary has been recording ever since, and at present, is in the midst of a new Album.

A major turning point in Mary’s life began when one night she dreamt she was walking down a marble staircase – not only singing an Operatic Aria but yodeling it as well. “Yodeling The Classics” was born! A WORLD FIRST! “Yodeling The Classics” has been an important step in her career and made her a cult figure throughout the World. Mary’s Albums have earned her gold and platinum status and she has been featured in the prestigious Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music.

This is the album which, depending on your tastes, is an astonishing work of art, or something you could use to clear your house of unwanted guests…or maybe strip paint off the walls.

Just listen to this sample…

Emergency Underpants Dispenser
from Archie McPhee

One pair of Emergency Underpants is great, but what if, um, you like, uh, have another emergency? Don’t fret, you’re partially covered with the Emergency Underpants Dispenser.

These 3-1/2″ boxes look a lot like tissue boxes, but instead of tissues, they dispense polyester underpants! If you want to be extra safe, you should keep one by your bedside, one at work and one in the car. Each box contains five pairs of disposable unisex underwear that will fit most adults.

We all know somebody who could probably use this.

Even if it is giving underwear as a Christmas gift.

Santa Claus Conquers The Martians (DVD)
from Kino Lorber

Okay, some movies are so bad that they’re good, and some movies are just bad. Santa Claus Conquers The Martians probably falls into the latter catagory, but it is a holiday favorite for some ungodly reason, and for sheer “gag gift” yucks it can’t be beat.

Just make sure you leave the party before somebody pops this in to watch.

According to prestige movie reissue label, Kino Lorber…

Renowned as a holiday cult classic, SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS is one of the most amusing films ever made.

Made in 1964, this sci-fi holiday treat entered the cult canon when it was featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It tells the story of the depressed children of Mars, who can only be brought out of their funk through the jolly cheer of Old St. Nick. So the Martian leaders travel to Earth and kidnap two local kids (one played by an 8-year-old Pia Zadora) and Kris Kringle himself. Brought back to the Red Planet, they are forcibly installed in a factory to make toys. But you can’t manufacture happiness, with Santa having to teach his alien overseers the true meaning of Christmas.

Filled with kitschy set design, outrageous costumes and amiable acting, SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS is nonstop fun, and is worthy of its status as a holiday staple.

So they say it’s good, and I say, maybe not. You’ve been warned.

The Ed Wood Collection – A Salute to Incompetence
Available at Amazon

You probably have a film buff on your shopping list who would be downright mortified to receive this as a gift.

Ed Wood is, of course, the celebrated master of making movies so bad that they are hilarious to watch.

This collection includes fan-favorites such as “Plan 9 From Outer Space” and the gender bending “Glen or Glenda”. It also includes “Night of the Ghouls”, “Bride of the Monster,”  “The Violent Years” and “Jail Bait.” The movies run the gamut from hilariously bad to only mildly amusingly bad.

This DVD also includes a bonus feature, with interviews of close friends of Ed Wood Jr., including Johnny Depp (who never actually met Wood, but did play him in Tim Burton’s movie about Wood).  While it’s a brilliant gag gift for an aspiring filmmaker, there is much to be learned by watching Wood’s work…and never, ever trying to do anything the way he did.

There are your bad gift ideas. Just remember, as I said above, you’ve been warned. This might result in your giftee being extremely amused, or they might as cause you to be disinherited.

It’s yet another day with no theme in The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide. As we get close to the end of this year’s guide, you can expect at least one more day of miscellany. Today we have music, reading material, apparel and a plumbing fixture.

Down the Rabbit Hole
by The Dollyrots
Order from their website, with a variety of bundles available

You may have heard music by The Dollyrots in movies, TV shows or commercials, or even on Radio Free Charleston. Now the band has a new compilation of rarities and this punk band with more than twenty years under their belts has tons of other cool items that tie into it, which you can find at their website.

Down The Rabbit Hole is a 24-track collection of rare B-sides and cover songs with a Dollyrots twist. The package includes a deluxe 2CD digipack with fold out poster, designed by SBAM.

The album will be available Worldwide at retail outlets and streaming platforms via Wicked Cool Records on January 7, 2022. But you can get it directly from them with Christmas delivery

The CD comes with a digital download, and the band will even autograph it for an extra five bucks.

To make sure you get it in time for Christmas in the US, you want to order before December 17. International orders are a bit of a gamble, but if you get your order to them by December 6, they’ll do their best.

Down The Rabbit Hole track listing:
DISC 1
Too Fun for My Health
Cloud Ten
Just Like All the Rest
Vibration
Little Miss Impossible
Get Radical (Dark Version)
Be My Leia (Electric)
Rebel Angel
Super Mega Ultraviolet
Valentine’s Day
Penny (Alt Version)
Nobody Else (Alt Version)

DISC 2
Breed
Stay
Ruby Soho
High School Never Ends
Walking on Sunshine
Da Doo Ron Ron / I Wanna Be Sedated
Punk Rock Girls
American Girl
Earth Angel
Dancing With Myself
Teenage Kicks
Do You Love Me

Wash ‘N’ Roar Shower Head

Okay, so this one is left over from dinosaur day. I’m doing my best to limit each post to five items, so this one got bumped, but it’s so delightfully goofy that I figured I’d drop it in here.

It is a shower head in the shape of a T-Rex skull. This might be a gift that goes a long way to promote good hygiene among the dino-obsessed kid (or adult) on your holiday shopping list.

After a hard day exploring, you’ll dig getting clean with Wash ‘n Roar Shower Head. Modeled after a real T-Rex skull, and made of durable, sturdy plastic, this carnivorous cleaner is made to fit any standard shower. Be a part of prehistory and always come out clean.

You can order it from FunWares.

Nympho Lodge
A Tokey Wedge Swinger
by Jack Lynn
published by Grizzly Pulp
$9.95

This is a good gift idea for your crusty old uncle who prefers whiskey and cigars to hot chocolate and mistletoe. It’s a hard-boiled, over-the-top, slightly naughty detective story, and it’s the first in a series.

Grizzly Pulp has resurrected one of the stars of the sleazy adventure pulps, Tokey Wedge. I have to be honest with you, I’d never heard of the character before I got this book, and it took quite a bit of research to convince myself that this was not a very cleverly-concocted modern day hoax/parody.

But it’s real. Tokey Wedge was the star of about 20 cheap pulp novels that were originally published back in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Cranked out by proflic “Men’s Adventure” writer Max van derVeer under his “Jack Lynn” psuedonym, these were originally put out by Novel Books of Chicago, reportedly a mob-connected publisher of sleazy pulp fiction who distributed them not through traditional bookstores and newsstands, but through an underground network of bars and establishments that kept them behind the counter.

Essentially, these books were “grindhouse” for folks with no access to a grindhouse theater.

The first book in the series, the subtly-titled Nympho Lodge, is loaded with gunplay, detective-novel tropes and lots of hilariously non-explicit sex. I have to give you a warning here: These books are politically incorrect, to say the least. The Tokey Wedge adventures are more than a little rapey, and they’re jokey about it. They do not treat women as much more than sex objects. There is also plenty of racism and homophobia on display. In the spirit of the stories, I would say that Tokey could star in a book called “My Trigger Is Huge.” The overwhelming amount of mysogyny, coupled with no small amount of racism and a boat-load of double-entendre made me have to do a double-Google to make sure I wasn’t reading a parody. However, this might make it the perfect gift for the hard-boiled detective fan on your shopping list.

This is a cheesy, soft-core adventure porn story filled with fast-paced action and characters who aren’t exactly as emotionally well-developed as the heaving breasts of the women are. There are a lot of descriptions of women in various stages of uncladenness, but in terms of explicitness, these books are like the “adult” movies of the era, where nobody takes off their underwear and the sex is all implied or happens “off-screen.”

Warnings aside, Nympho Lodge is a brisk, intentionally and unintentionally funny book that can be enjoyed as it was intended, or as a pretty bizarre and amusing artifact of its time.

Grizzly Pulp has done an amazing job here, recreating the look and feel of a cheap pulp novel, with thin cover stock and grayish pulp paper. The book is in the traditional cheap “pocket book” size around 4″ by 7″.

Nympho Lodge is not without its charms. It’s crass and crude, without being explicit, and that gives it an air of sleazy innocence, if that makes any sense. There’s a reason Tokey Wedge has a cult following. This one lands squarely in the “guilty pleasure” pile. If that sounds like a good gift for someone on your shopping list, I believe that Grizzly Pulp is currently running a special half-off sale, if you act fast and use the code SALTYSEAMEN)

Toy Ventures Magazine Bundle

If you act really fast, you can snag a bundle of the first five issues of Toy Ventures Magazine for the rabid toy collector on your holiday shopping list. You need to act fast because the first issue is almost sold out, and they have to be shipping from Canada, which can add a few days to the package’s trip. You can order the bundle HERE.

Toy Ventures is the grand revival of the toy magazine, something which had disappeared from the face of the Earth for a few years.

I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I’m old. In fact, I am old enough to have begun my toy-collecting life as an adult in the time before there was such a thing as “The Internet.”

Back in those days, toy collectors got their news from magazines. There were several on the stands back in the early 90s: Jim Main’s Collectible Toys & Values, Lee’s Action Figure News and Toy Review, Tomart’s Action Figure Digest, Kalmbach’s Classic Toys, Toy Trader. I’m probably leaving out a few, but those were the leaders in the field.

Some of these magazines offered detailed, in-depth articles, printed on cheap newsprint, while others presented high-quality photographs of rare toys on expensive slick paper. They all filled a reference niche that the book market hadn’t quite caught up with yet. This was how you learned the history of the various toy companies and kept up with the hobby.

Then the internet happened and eventually they all went out of business.

Those classic toy magazines peddled nostalgia, and now those of us who were old enough to read them have nostalgia for them.

Happily, the nostalgia-merchants at Plaid Stallions.com (which is really Brian Heiler of MEGO Museum fame) have created a new toy magazine, Toy-Ventures, and I’m happy to declare that it’s an absolute treat.

Among the five issues you’ll find article on MEGO figures, The Lincoln International Monsters, The Outer Space Men, Rack Toys, toys based on Planet of the Apes, Space: 1999, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” The Munsters, Star Trek, KISS, Godzilla, Doctor Who, and tons of other cool toys from years past.

Most issues have cool premiums included for the folks who order quick, and premiums included in this bundle are the Mr. Rock balsa wood Flyer, Mad Monsters Pennant and Monster Squad Trading Cards.

There’s hours of great reading material that’ll be perfect for the toy-lover on your shopping list.

Beam Me Up Shirt

We have another cool shirt design from Thomas Wheeler here. Available in black or white on a variety of shirt colors, “Beam Me Up” is the perfect gift for a hard-core Trekker who might find themself someplace they’d rather not be.

They can show off their fandom and make a snarky comment about every at the same time. It’s the perfect shirt to wear to political rallies they don’t agree with, or if they really want to be anti-social, it can be worn to family gatherings, high-school reunions, or weddings and funerals.

Available sizes are small to 3 XL, and the shirts are currently on sale for a really low price (act fast). You can go with the white design on a dark shirt, or the black design on a light shirt.

Tomorrow The 2021 PopCult Gift Guide will offer up five ideas for “Turkey” gifts, in honor of Turkey Day. As for what that means, you’ll just have to wait to find out.

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
.
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.