Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

BBQ Benefit, OSCAR Party, Super Joe Unlimited At Wintefest And More!

The PopCulteer
February 3, 2023

There’s lots of miscellaneous stuff to tell you about this week, so let’s dive in…

First up, I was out of town last weekend when several folks came together to hold benefit shows for the people displaced by the Regal Apartment fire. However, there is one benefit happening Friday at the Beni Kedem parking lot, and if, unlike me, you like BBQ, pork and cole slaw, you might want to swing by. Details are here…

If you want to make a non-monetary donation such as clothing, phone charges, toiletry items, or other supplies, drop them off at Mountain Mission located at 1620 Seventh Avenue in Charleston.

Monetary donations should be made to United Way of Central WV or by CLICKING HERE. Officials say when making the donation write Regal Apartment fire in the donor notes.

OSCAR Party

Another fun thing that your PopCulteer doesn’t really indulge in is OSCAR fever. My distaste for awards shows and bogus artistic competitions is well-known, but I don’t begrudge my fellow film buffs if they want to have some fun with it. So…you might just be interested as the West Virginia International Film Festival sponsors a live viewing of the 95th Academy Awards at their annual Oscar Party, You can enjoy food, live music and more.

This year they’ll host this night of Hollywood self-horn-tootery at Taylor Books, located above the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF.  At 7 PM they will open the doors and welcome you to walk the red carpet. You can view a stream the 2023 Oscars’ Red Carpet, followed by a large screen viewing of the 95th Academy Awards ceremony (presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) kicking off at 8 PM.

Party-goers can enjoy door prizes, a cash bar, popcorn, delicious food from Coco’s Kitchen & Cafe, and more. Live music will be provided by Jeremiah Hatfield + Eric Robbins of Parachute Brigade,

Tickets are on sale now. and can be purchased HERE. You can get the $35 Early-bird (until Feb. 28th), or for you laggards, get the $45 General (starting March 1st).

If you are a WVIFF Producer Level Member, you get FREE entry for two. WVIFF Director’s Circle & Double Members get FREE entry for one There will also be contests to predict the winners and all sorts of other OSCAR-related revelry.

Super Joe Unlimited At Winterfest

I’ve been telling you about Super Joe Unlimited for a couple of weeks now, but he had his big toy show coming out party last weekend at Winterfest in Louisville. Your truly picked up a few more of the first wave of figures, and I also got a few scoops.

First, Cotswold Collectibles, as I mentioned earlier, will have exclusive boxed figures. Their first two, the Super Joe Unlimited Commander with Black hair and their alien arch-enemy, Darkon, are available for pre-order now.

Second, later this year we can expect more figures, such as a slimmed-down Gor: King of the Terrons and maybe some new enemies or allies for the SJU Crew.

Lastly, the big news is that Power Comics, the folks who do The Masters comic book, which I’ve told you about here in PopCult, are going to publish a Super Joe Unlimited comic book. Steve Stovall was super-excited about all the developments with SJU and the tremendous response so far, but alas, he couldn’t let me see the preview cover or tell me who drew it. Knowing what I know about Austin Hough at Power Comics, I’d say we’re in for some nifty Bronze-Age style coolness.

Here’s a few more photos of Super Joe Unlimited at GI Joe Winterfest. We’ll have more photos from the rest of the show Saturday.

There’s something cool about seeing brand-new Super Joe Unlimted figures bagged up and ready to go in front of vintage Super Joe adventure sets and accessories.

You may notice a few new alien faces and cool new uniforms lined up there.

The box design for the Cotswold Collectibles exclusive Commander

GI Joe Day?

I have to admit to being a little puzzled this week. Several of my friends posted on social media that February 1 was “GI Joe Day,” meaning that the original action figure made his debut on February 1, 1964.

I may be mistaken, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t. I think GI Joe made his debut during The International Toy Fair in New York. In 1964 Toy Fair started on March 9. I double-checked that date with contemporaneous reports. If anybody can prove otherwise, please let me know in the comments.

I hope this doesn’t turn into another “May The Fourth” situation, where a bad joke making fun of a fan with a lisp has blossomed into “Star Wars Day” because too many people now think that Star Wars opened on May 4. Star Wars really opened on May 25, 1977. And it didn’t make it to Charleston until after mid-June.

I know. I was there.

The RFC Flashback

Tomorrow, PopCult’s RFC Flashback brings you our tenth episode, and it’s one of the few editions of Radio Free Charleston for which I made a trailer…

Come back Saturday to see the full episode.

And that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back every day for fresh content, and more stuff from Winterfest over the weekend.

Oh and that drawing at the top of the post…”missile plus anus” it equals miscellaneous.

Har har.

 

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