Monthly Archives: July 2021

Weekend Reading 07/18/21

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It’s another Sunday morning and time for another Weekend Edition. Before I get into the links for this week I just wanted to say that from looking at the stats here on the blog, it appears that quite many of you click on a lot of the links I feature each week. That’s very cool, as it shows that a lot of us like a whole lot of the same stuff. So since that’s the case, let’s go ahead and get to this week’s batch of cool stuff I’ve found recently.

One of my favorite wrestlers of the ’80s, “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff passed away much too soon this week. A couple of months ago I wrote a feature for The Retro Network detailing one of my favorite memories of him called Saturday Night Suspense: The Night Hulk Hogan Fought Paul Orndorff in the Cage! Go check it out and relive some of what made Mr. Wonderful so damn great.

In more sad news, legendary rapper Biz Markie also passed away this week. Probably his most iconic work was his music video for the song ‘Just a Friend’. Take a second and watch the video in memory of a great.

The new Black Widow movie has been all the rage around the theaters in the last week, but here’s 10 Made-for-TV Superhero Movies Everyone Wants to Forget.

For more comic book nostalgia, check out 10 Facts About DC Comic’s Swamp Thing.

You’ve probably heard that there’s a Wonder Years reboot in the works, but fans of the original version may sometimes ask themselves, Whatever Happened to Jason Hervey?

McFarlane Toys has consistently made some of my favorite action figures over the last 20 years, and now they may have topped themselves with the news they will be releasing 1966 Batman figures!

And as usual, here is the weekly link to Plaid Stallion’s 5 Awesome Things on eBay This Week.

I had a very busy week and didn’t have very much time to surf the web this week and as a result, I didn’t get to dig up as much cool stuff for you as usual. But what I did have time to do this week was post every day here on Retro Ramblings. So in case you didn’t get a chance to come around much, here’s what you’ve missed…

Video of the Week

For this week’s video, I’m giving you a fun movie to watch that most of you have probably never heard of called Comrades of Summer. It came out in 1992 as an HBO film, that features Joe Mantegna as disgraced manager of the Seattle Mariners baseball team, who finds work in Russia running their Olympic team after the fall of the Soviet Union. While dealing with culture shock and the harsh reality that the team is far from being a great one, he somehow manages to get the players into fighting shape — while also settling into his new life abroad. It’s a good summer flick that I saw when it first hit the air back in the day. I think you’ll find it entertaining.

Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s Coverage of Super Cards ’87

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Growing up in the mid-late ’80s, one of my greatest joys would come when I would go to the grocery store with my Mom and be able to pick up a new wrestling magazine.  It never mattered to me which one I got as long as I got one.  If you know anything at all about the glory days of the Apter magazines, you know that the Cadillac of wrestling magazines was Pro Wrestling Illustrated.  One reason it was considered the best was because of its full-color coverage of various events.  One of the things I really looked forward to each year was their coverage of the spring super cards like Wrestlemania. 

Well, I recently picked up some old wrestling magazines from eBay, and one of them was the Pro Wrestling Illustrated with coverage of the super cards of 1987!  After salivating over the 19 pages of greatness multiple times, I thought I would share them with the world so others who used to enjoy this stuff could relive how great it was.  So what follows is all 19 pages of PWI’s coverage of Wrestlemania 3, Crockett Cup ’87, Parade of Champions ’87, and UWF Super Blast.  Enjoy! 

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Masters of the Universe Model Kits (1984)

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I was flipping through some old comics books the other day, and came across some random title from 1984.  As I was flipping through it, I came across a bevy of kick-ass old advertisements.  These are too cool not to share, so here is the first one. 

We’re starting things off with my favorite one of the batch.  Up until I saw this, I never had any idea that Monogram made model kits of the MOTU vehicles.  I was big into model kits back in the day, and He-Man was my hero, so how this escaped me for all this time is mind-boggling.  This Talon FIghter and Attak Trak just look bad-ass, and I wonder if any of these kits could still be found on eBay? 

Yep.  A quick search pulled up an Attack Trak kit still sealed in its box for $225. 

Digging a little deeper, I also find a Roton still in its box for $92!  That seems like a steal.  The box looks a little beat up, but I’d personally be looking to pick one up to put together, not leave in the box. 

And with even more digging, I just found the Talon Fighter!  It says it’s complete and the only thing I see missing is the plastic wrap from around the box is missing.  It’s currently listed for $95.  You can click on any of the links I added to go right to the auction listings for each. 

So what say you?  Do you even remember these things?  The prices sound reasonable in today’s market?  I’m going to have to think on this for a bit. 

Excitebike for Nintendo

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ExciteBike was one of the Nintendo console’s most beloved games, and a favorite of mine too. I killed many hours with this bad boy, and for good reason….it was full of great features!  Racing on a motorcycle! Design your own tracks! Put 100 jumps in a row! This was one awesome game for those three reasons, and why it’s so fondly remembered. That and the fact that you could wreck others by coming down the track with your rear wheel in their front wheel and watch them tumble over and over down the track. With the possibility of using any combination of 19 different obstacles to design your track with, it had great replay value just in designing new courses to race. 

I was introduced to this game at my cousin’s house shortly after I got my Nintendo. I was instantly hooked and we spent several hours that night playing it.  I never actually owned the game, but several of my friends did, and a copy of it was at my house more often than not through the magic of swapping games with a friend for a period of time. This game still holds its own in the “fun factor” today against such newer and more complicated games. 

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A Line in the Sand Board Game

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A Line in the Sand is a game I drooled over every time I saw it in old comic book ads in the early ’90s. My problem was, that living in a rural area I had no stores around that carried niche items like this, so I’ve never actually played the game. But I’ve studied it quite a bit since the internet became a thing, and here’s what I’ve learned about it.

A Line in the Sand is a game detailing the Persian Gulf War fought in the early 1990s. Many of the mechanics are similar to that of other TSR wargames like Red Storm Rising, so players of their games should easily be able to jump in and play this one.

Two versions of this game are played. With less than 5 players, the game is pretty basic, where military might is what wins the game. Players take sides, usually a combination of Middle Eastern nations plus the US. In the two-player version, for instance, it’s the US & Allies vs. Iraq; in the three-player game “Holy War”, it’s Israel vs. Iraq (and Yemen and Jordan) vs. Saudi Arabia (and Syria, Libya, and Lebanon), and so on.

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