Saturday, December 23, 2017

HE-MAN AND SHE-RA: A CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (1985)

That's it for me and X-Mas 2017! I'm sure you were probably expecting something like "Silent Night, Bloody Night," but for this last Saturday Night Special, I decided to go all out instead......

......With something from 1985, and the weirdest thing I could find, the "He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special!!"

  There were 130 episodes of  "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" on TV from 1983 to 1985!

"She-Ra: Princess of Power" ran for 93 episodes from 1985 to 1987!
Watch this amazing transformation unfold!

She-Ra and He-Man were a mighty powerful combination punch!

Skeletor and Horde Prime are on hand to try and spoil the party! This two-headed fellow not only cracks me up, he cracks up themselves too!

Those are some REALLY big evil robots!

So am I a big He-Man fan? No, not really, but these next four background scenes are pretty cool, you've got to admit!

I really like this one!

You don't normally think gorgeous when watching 1980's cartoons, but I don't know any better way to describe this scene!

This is just awesome! I could see this as a 10 ft by 12 ft painting on the wall of a museum somewhere!

"It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas" in La-La Land!

As Snagglepuss would always say, "Exit, stage left!"

I had to include Peekablue!

Here's something you don't see every day! Skeletor smiling!

Another good shot of the party crashers!

Merry Christmas!
 Put that in your big elephant head and smoke it!

Friday, December 22, 2017

SOME X-MAS HORROR FLICKS 1972-89

We're headed toward the end of the year, so, here's some X-Mas Horror Flicks to check out, I'm concentrating on the years from 1972 to 1989. The more modern stuff is just way too glossy to appreciate at this time, here, at The Dungeon!

We start with SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT from 1972. In this one, a man inherits a mansion, which once was a home for the mentally ill. He makes a visit to the place and begins to investigate some crimes that happened years earlier and upsets the locals. It Stars Patrick O'Neal, Mary Woronov and John Carradine!

Then we have BLACK CHRISTMAS which came out in 1974, it's all about a group of sorority girls that are stalked by a stranger during their Christmas break. Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder and John Saxon star in this one!

Troma brings out CHRISTMAS EVIL in 1980. A toy factory worker, mentally scarred as a child upon learning Santa Claus is not real, suffers a nervous breakdown after being belittled at work. So, he embarks on a Yuletide killing spree! This one has lots of second string actors...

Next up is SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT from 1984. After his parents are murdered in this story, a tormented teenager goes on a murderous rampage dressed up as Santa, due to his stay at an orphanage where he was abused by the Mother Superior! More B-Team actors here.

Then we gots DON'T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS, also from 1984... Someone with no Christmas spirit is killing anyone in a Santa suit during a London holiday season, Scotland Yard must stop him before he makes his exploits an annual tradition! There are more little know actors in this flick.

Possibly the strangest X-Mas flick in this batch is ELVES that came out in 1989. In this story,
a young woman discovers that she is the focus of an evil Nazi experiment involving selective breeding and summoned elves, an attempt to create a race of supermen. She and two of her friends are trapped in a department store with an elf, and only Dan Haggerty, as the renegade loose-cannon Santa Claus, can save them!

As a bonus early present, I've included a shot where girlie's showing off her goods for us... Merry Christmas from the Dungeon Gang!!

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

1950's - 1960's TOY COMMERCIALS

It's a Wham-O Wednesday in The Dungeon, and what I've got for you tonight are some shots from toy commercials from the 1950's and 60's! 
 The Wham-O Company was started in 1948 by Rich Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin, selling slingshots by mail order! They called it Wham-O, because that's the sound the slingshot made! It's hard to believe that the same company that would bring the world the Frisbee, the Hula Hoop, the Slip 'N Slide, the Super Ball, and Silly String would sell in 1982 for a mere 12 million dollars. That's gotta be worth at least 97 gazillion dollars these days!

 Train sets used to be THE big thing! Santa brought me a set one year that looked an awful lot like a set my older cousin used to have. I used to use the tracks for marble races! Model train societies still exist today! You might be surprised, there's probably one in your town!

The Halloween/Christmas crossover produced toys like this!

 Think big kids! From the modest beginnings of things like Creepy Crawlers, the Mattel Company is worth somewhere around 8.5 Billion today!

 On October 1, 1961, New York Yankee Roger Maris becomes the first-ever major-league baseball player to hit more than 60 home runs in a single season, breaking Babe Ruth's record set in 1927!!
Hell Yeah you're gonna wanna play his game!!
 
 Or you could get an authentic Steve Canyon Jet Helmet for $2.98!

This is kind of deceiving, since you'd have to buy 4 Mr. Machines to get this whole effect!

The chemistry sets were never as cool as they seemed like they were gonna be, although I did like making the little crystals from sodium silicate!

And then there were the guns! I'm not pro or anti gun, but I did grow up with gun toys, and I've yet to kill anybody! The war had just gotten over, it was a different time and a different attitude!

The Roy Rogers "Quick Shooter Hat" was right out of a James Bond movie!

The whole concept of a toy gun is pretty bizarre if you stare it right in the face, but what are you gonna do? That's just the way it was!

The fact of the matter is that if kids don't have toy guns, they'll find a stick and use it as a fake gun, and if they can't find a stick, they use their hands and fingers! It's really just up to the parents to keep their kid's heads screwed on straight!

The Skyhawk was a gas-powered model airplane! Pretty cool!

I never thought about it until right now, but it does really seem like these eras of toys were dominated by boy's interests! If it wasn't dolls, girls got lots of clothes, jacks, and fingernail polish!

 Mixed messages no doubt!

 So you could either have three bombshell Barbies, or one spoiled Shirley Temple for the same price! I know which way the boys would go, but unfortunately, that wasn't the marketplace !

Today's kids would not be impressed by this concept!

 
Silly Putty, now that was the kind of toy that both boys and girls could enjoy! That stuff was awesome! I always liked the "press it on a newspaper and pull off the ink image trick" the best!

 Batteries not included?
What kind of a rip-off is that? I'm glad that's an idea that's not as prevalent as it used to be!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??