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Remembering the Saturday Morning Cartoons of 1985

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Saturday mornings in 2019 are a far cry from the Saturday mornings of 1985.  Hell, it’s been that way since the late 1990’s when the networks started phasing out their cartoon lineups in favor of other programming on Saturdays.  I’m not sure what caused the change unless it was the fact that cable television was a staple in most homes by that time.  But one thing I do know, is Saturday mornings in the ’80s and early ’90s were the bomb for kids.  All three of the big networks stuffed their Saturday morning lineups with some of the best cartoons ever produced, and we ate them up!

We all had our favorites, and we all had the ones we weren’t fond of.   Channel hopping was commonplace for us kids on Saturday mornings as our favorites were usually spread across all three networks.  And back then, that took a little effort.  I had to keep getting up to change the channel between shows because I don’t remember having a television with a remote control until the late ’80s.  Not that it really mattered though because it was worth the effort to get to the cartoon I really wanted to watch.

Let’s take a look at the Saturday morning cartoon lineups from 1985 and talk about what our favorite offerings were!

NBC unleashed a pretty swank lineup in 1985 with a lot of cartoons that are still enjoyed to this day.  It may not have been evident at the time, but The Smurfs would go on to become a powerhouse for the next 37 years, and will probably continue to be one for still a long time to come.  Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears debuted in 1985 and was one of the slickest-looking shows on any of the networks.  Alvin and the Chipmunks went on to be another powerhouse in the pop culture world, and Mr. T was near his zenith, so his Mister T cartoon was flying high at this point as well.  Its Punky Brewster was piggybacking off the success of the live-action prime-time show on NBC, and The Snorks was a Smurfs clone that went on to moderate success of its own.  Kidd Video and One to Grow On were minor hits in their own right, and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends helped to capture the young comic books fans to round out the block.

CBS countered with a decent lineup of their own.  They were banking on the mega-popularity of the World Wrestling Federation and Hulk Hogan in 1985 and made Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling the cornerstone of their 1985 lineup.  Much like NBC and the Smurfs, CBS had a powerhouse in their midst with Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies cartoon, and the Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show featured iconic characters that had been bankable for years.  The Berenstain Bears were well known to kids everywhere since most kids had read, or at least heard, a lot of their stories from the popular books, so this looked like it could have been a big hit for them.  Dungeons and Dragons was on the tongue of most kids in this time frame due to the popularity/taboo of the game.  The Wuzzles, CBS Story Break, and The Young Astronauts rounded out the lineup.

ABC rolled out a lineup in 1985 that was full of bankable properties.  Star Wars was still a mega-hit in all walks of pop culture, so ABC had a pair of Star Wars-themed cartoons in their lineup with Star Wars: Droids, and Ewoks.  They had all the stars of the always popular Looney Tunes with their Bugs Bunny Show and doubled down on the Scooby-Doo franchise with The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo and Scooby’s Mystery Funhouse.  While NBC featured Marvel’s Spider-Man, ABC rolled out DC’s Super Friends in Super Powers Team:  Galactic Guardians.  The Super Friends had already proven to be popular through years past, so milking them a little more was a smart move.  The fun but short-lived The Littles, ABC Weekend Special, and American Bandstand rounded out their lineup.

So that’s everything that the three networks were offering us kids back in 1985.  But the problem with 1985, is that we didn’t yet have Tivo or any other time-shifting technologies that would allow us to watch multiple cartoons from the same time slot.  So we kids were forced to pick and choose what we watched.  I’m going to run through what I watched and the channel surfing I had to do.  Here is how everything lined up on Saturday mornings in 1985.

Several of the best shows ended up being on opposite of each other which really sucked.  Some of the cartoons that I ended up loving, I never got to see in their original run.  I had to catch them later in syndication or part of something like USA’s Cartoon Express.  But here’s how MY Saturday mornings in 1985 shook out…

The network’s programming schedule didn’t start until 8 AM, but at 6 AM I was already settled into the recliner in the living room (that’s where the big TV was) with a bowl of cereal in my lap and ready to start the day.  But my Saturday mornings didn’t start with cartoons.  Nope, it started with classic television.  My local CBS affiliate would run re-runs of The Honeymooners at 6, and I Love Lucy at 6:30.  This is the era when I fell in love with those shows, and I watched them every Saturday morning.

After that, at 7:00 am, they ran old episodes of Tennessee Tuxedo and His Pals, followed by The Dudley Do-Right Show at 7:30.  Tennessee Tuxedo was my favorite cartoon of that anthology genre, so I never missed an episode when it was airing in those years.  Along with the Tennessee Tuxedo shorts, there was also Commander McBragg, Aesop & Son, and Peabody’s Improbable History.  While I’d love to say I loved them all equally, Commander McBragg was the best of the group back then.

Well enough with the pre-show stuff, let’s get down to the actual network schedules that got off to a roaring start at 8:00 am.  While I loved Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes in general, I remember watching the Berenstain Bears and The Snorks in the early mornings on Saturdays.  I’m not quite sure which one I was watching during this season because I seem to recall the whole of both series.  In another season, one of them may have been at another time slot.  I know I watched Bugs Bunny at one point around 10 or 11 am on Saturdays, so maybe it moved in another season as well.

At 8:30, I was all in Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears!  I must have seen some hype commercials for it at some point because I was super stoked to see it.  It never disappointed me either.  I love the fantasy/medieval themes in stuff like that, and the colors were so rich that I was hooked instantly.  My favorite episodes were the ones featuring Cubby as The Crimson Avenger, and the one where Tummy and Gruffy went and found Gusto on his island.  I don’t believe I’ve ever watched an episode of The Wuzzles, and have no plans to watch any of it here in later life either.

I wasn’t in on Star Wars yet, so Droids and Ewoks escaped me at that time.  At 9 am it was all about The Smurfs at my house.  I’ve always loved them and introduced my kids to the classic episodes when they were younger.  That helped carry on a tradition too as way back when my Mom would take a break from doing housework and watch some of the Smurfs with me.  It was a cartoon that she kind of enjoyed too.

I would watch the Smurfs for the first hour, but I had to cut and run before the last half hour because at 10 am it was time for Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling!  Pro Wrestling was my biggest hobby and attraction back in those days, so there was no way I was going to miss it each and every week.  The show had Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Tito Santana, Hillbilly Jim Junkyard Dog, Jimmy Snuka, Captain Lou Albano, and Wendi Richter on the good guy side of things, and featured Roddy Piper, Iron Shiek, Nikolai Volkoff, Mr. Fuji, and The Fabulous Moolah rounding out the bad guys side.  And let’s not forget “Mean” Gene Okerlund was in there as well.  Along with the cartoon shorts, it had live-action sequences which were a lot of fun for a wrestling fan.  And who can forget the legendary music video shown on the show multiple times featuring all of the WWF stars performing Land of 1000 Dances.  It’s still epic today.

Watching “Mr. Woderful” Paul Orndorff kiss his biceps never gets old.

So that was on for an hour, and then it was time for Alvin and the Chipmunks at 11 am.  I believe I watched each and every season of Alvin, and in 1985 it didn’t have any competition that would hold my attention.  Well, Scooby might have, but I was never as big of a fan of many of the subsequent versions of Scooby after the Where Are You run. But I did end up with a soft spot for the 13 Ghosts series though because it was like a continuous series instead of stand alone episodes. You can watch the whole series for free on Tubi.

For my tastes, the 11:30 am slot is the weakest.  I never watched Kidd Video, and only occasionally watched Dungeons & Dragons.  Which is a shame now, because these days my kids are big into D&D and I’ve had to fill the role of their dungeon master from time to time.  If I had known how life was going to turn out, I probably would have watched it back then.  But I dug The Littles when they were on, and it was a passable series, even if it was on the short-lived side.

It’s funny, but my mind always seems to remember cartoons ending at 12.  But looking at these lineups, that didn’t appear to be the case in 1985.  I was a huge fan of The A-Team, and Mister T was another hit in my mind.  He was in one of my favorite prime-time shows and had been an integral part of the WWF scene all year, so I was on board for his cartoon.  Like Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling, it had live-action features mixed in with the animation that I really liked. 

Side story:  Once during this era, we had Saturday school.  I gave my Mom a list of the shows I wanted to be recorded, along with detailing the times and channels.  Mister T was one of those episodes.  I would play that homemade VHS so many times through the years that it finally fell apart.  Can you imagine how cool it would be today to still have that?  A tape full of Saturday morning cartoons and commercials from 1985?  What a gem that would be.

And then wrapping up my cartoon viewing was Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.  I absolutely adored Spidey, Firestar, and Iceman, and tuned in every week.  I just wish the show could have run longer than it did, but I still watch an occasional episode now and then on Disney+.

Even though there were still a couple of cartoons left in the day, at 1:00 my cartoon viewing ended because it was time for NWA Mid- Atlantic Wrestling on my local NBC affiliate, followed by WWF wrestling at 2.  Once wrestling was off the air, it was time to play with my He-Man and G.I. Joe toys before getting dressed to head out to eat at the family.  Which was usually somewhere like Pizza Hut.  You know, Back in the Glory Days of Pizza Hut.

So what about you?  I want to hear your tale of what YOU watched on Saturday mornings in 1985.  I’m always fascinated by others’ cartoon viewing habits.  Drop me a line in the comments below and share and we’ll go back and forth arguing over what 1985 cartoons were better.

In the meantime, if you want to relive my 1985 Saturday mornings with me, pour yourself a big bowl of Morning Funnies cereal or make a bowl of Oatmeal Swirlers oatmeal, settle in, and dial up some of these old cartoons on YouTube or Tubi.

McDonald’s McPasta

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McDonald’s has tried a lot of off-the-wall menu items in their time. Some are fondly remembered like the McD.L.T., and others are still scorned to this day (I’m looking at you here Arch Deluxe). But a few products have come along that most of the population totally missed out on, and McPasta was one of them.

In 1990, McDonald’s decided they would try to add some entrees to their menu that weren’t hamburgers or Chicken McNuggets in hopes of bringing in more dinner time business. They dreamed up this concept of McPasta dishes and roasted chicken and felt sure it would be a big hit. Before they released it to the masses though, they went the test market route.

A small area in New York was selected, some stores in Ohio, and a chain of franchise stores in Northeast Tennessee for this new line of McPasta products. Fortunately, I lived in a part of southern Virginia where that Tennessee-based franchisee had two locations, and they put the product in those two stores as well.

What they offered was a selection of Spaghetti, Spaghetti with Meatballs, Lasagna, and Fettuccine Alfredo. Each dish came with a garlic breadstick as well. They also decided to offer tender roasted chicken as a side item, as well as mashed potatoes. How those last two items fit into the McPasta lineup I’ve yet to figure out. I guess it didn’t have to fit the “pasta” side of things, as it fell into the overall “dinner” category they were going for.

To be honest, the only one I ever tried was the Fettuccine…..and I thought it was awesome! For the six-month period they were testing the line in my area, it’s what I ordered on every trip to the golden arches. My Mom loved it too, and since my Dad was out-of-town a lot, she felt it was easier to just run to McDonald’s and pick up a couple of Fettuccine platters for the two of us instead of cooking, so I got to have the pasta goodness a lot.

Imagine my sadness one day when I went to order my favorite McPasta dish only to be told it was no longer available. I listened in horror as the lady at the counter relayed the info to my Mom and me that it had been a test product, and she had no way of knowing if it would be added back to the menu or not.

As the weeks and months passed by, I would continue to inquire about it on every trip to Happy Meal land. And every time I was disappointed. After a while, I came to the sad conclusion that McPasta wasn’t coming back at all.

For years I reminisced about it, only to find it strange when other people had no idea what the heck I was talking about. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out why no one had even heard of McDonald’s McPasta. Then one day it popped into my brain and I searched it out on the internet. It was there that I discovered that it had been a test product with just a very limited release, and that’s why everyone thought I was crazy when I would bring it up.

Here is a transcript of an article from the Aug. 04, 1992 edition of the Chicago Tribune detailing the end of the test. And if you read it all the way through, you’ll see mention of their pizza being tested at the time as well:

McDonald`s has decided to give test-marketing of pasta and tender-basted chicken a breather.

Those dinner-menu items have been yanked from test markets in New York and Tennessee, where 70 of the fast-service firm`s 8,700 domestic stores were involved in gauging consumer response.

McDonald`s stock on the New York Stock Exchange took it on the chin Monday, dropping $1.12 to close at $42.75 on news of the pullout.

Wall Street analysts were unimpressed with McDonald`s decision to return the pasta, including lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs, and fettucine alfredo; and chicken, including chicken breast, to test kitchens at its Oak Brook headquarters. However, McDonald`s didn`t think this pullback was any big deal, considering the small scope of the test.

Still in an expanded ”test market” program is McDonald`s pizza, now available in 500 units around the country.

A McDonald`s spokesman Monday said that there was ”good consumer acceptance” for the chicken and pasta, but that other considerations were involved, such as source of supply and equipment, which the firm still is evaluating.

There may be some substance to this rationale because the pizza was taken out of test markets several times before the current test.

McDonald`s does have a presence in chicken, including a McChicken sandwich, chicken McNuggets and a chunky chicken salad, but all are priced substantially less than the chicken that was tested.

Like other fast-service firms, McDonald`s has been scrambling to expand the menu, especially at dinner time, which is a longer period than lunch, to build traffic.

Though hamburger champ McDonald`s didn`t say so, the pasta and tender-basted chicken might have been too pricey for consumers. In any event, chicken and pasta have been put on the back burner for ”tinkering” for possible re-entry no earlier than next year.

To this day I miss that McPasta Fettuccine. But now I look back and realize that the stars were aligned perfectly for me to even have gotten to experience it in the first place. Some say it’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. But for those people who say that to them, I say they never loved McDonald’s Fettuccine Alfredo.

Five of My Favorite Old Hot Wheels Cars

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Friday Five is a quick list of five things with a common theme, and instead of doing a big write-up, I’m doing it in pictures (or videos) with just a couple of sentences to give context to the picks. You can play along by adding some of your own in the comments.

I spent a lot of time when I was younger playing with Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. Just like with any other toy line, you always have a favorite few that you gravitate to. I was no different when it came to Hot Wheels. I had a ton of them, but there were a few that I would call my favorites. So for this Friday FIve, I’m sharing five of my favorites with you.

Fire Eater Fire Truck

My Dad was a fireman and the Fire Eater looked identical to one of the trucks at the local station where he served. Even though I had most of the Code Red fire trucks produced by Matchbox (which I covered here), the Fire Eater was still my go-to for imaginary fire fighting. That’s a big statement for me since I was such a big fan of the TV show. I had almost every fire truck that was available on store shelves back then, but this one was always the lead truck in the garage. It’s a beautiful representation of a fire truck, except for the blue light. But to be honest, the blue light and the blue accents in the back of the truck are part of what makes it such a great-looking Hot Wheel.

Dixie Challenger

You know by now that The Dukes of Hazzard was my favorite TV show when I was young. I had a lot of merchandise based on the show, but for a while, I lacked a 1:64 scale General Lee to play with. That’s where the Dixie Challenger came in. Up until the point I got my first true General Lee to play with, this filled the role pretty well. It kinda looked like the General Lee, and had a fast enough look that there were never any problems imagining it could outrun whatever police cars were in my collection. Once I got my General Lee, the Dixie Challenger was relegated to being the car driven by Bo & Luke’s cousins, Coy & Vance. I still can’t believe I subjected such a beautiful car to that kind of fate.

Cat Bulldozer

When I wasn’t fighting imaginary fires or running from Roscoe and Enos, I was playing in the dirt with construction vehicles. Well, not dirt. Coal dust actually. Which is a really fine black powder that gets into every possible crevice and can create a huge mess. But it was also the best substance on earth for playing with toys like these. I had a whole fleet of construction-type cars. I had regular dozers, cement mixers, scrapers, front-end loaders, and more. But this Cat Bulldozer seemed special because it had actual treads, and those two extra wheels to extend the tread just seemed so cool. It moved a lot of coal dust in its day for sure.

Rambling Wrecker

One of the earlier Hot Wheels cars I can remember being fascinated by was this Rambling Wrecker..or as I used to call it…Larry’s tow truck. I mean it’s emblazoned right there on the side of the thing. As a kid, what else would you call it? This was a must-have for someone like me who “wrecked” a lot of cars. I took the whole “wrecked car” thing farther than a lot of kids did though, as I would take some of the older cars I had gotten as hand-me-downs from my brother that I didn’t like very much and beat the snot out of them with hammers. That gave them that realistic feel. Of course, this was before Hot Wheels came out with their “Crack-Ups” line (which I covered here) and did the job for me in a much better manner than I ever could. And I would be failing you all if I did not include the fact that this Rambling Wrecker made a great stand-in for Cooter’s tow truck when playing with the Dixie Challenger as the General Lee.

Fun Fact: The original version of this tow truck had a phone number printed on the side of it. One of the folks at Mattel used their own phone number and ended up getting so many calls at their home they had to change their number.

Masters of the Universe Snake Mountain Challenge Car

So this beautiful work of art came included in the Masters of the Universe Snake Mountain Challenge playset that came out in ’85 or ’86. It was the car with which you attempted to run the course and escape Snake Mountain. I got the playset for Christmas in 1986, and as I’ve detailed before, my brother, my dad, and I spent a significant portion of the afternoon attempting the challenge. Beyond those fond memories though, they couldn’t have done a better job making this car seem like it came from Eternia…if Eternia actually had cars. But the look of it with its color scheme and all, makes it seem like it would have a home among the many various vehicles that inhabited Eternia. Maybe if it had treads instead of tires.

More toy nostalgia…

Holiday Inn Holidomes

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As you may remember, for most of my life, my dad traveled for his business. In the summer when I was out of school, there was nothing I liked more than to go with him on his trips every week. While I really enjoyed the road trip itself, most of the time it was the hotels and motels that I got the most enjoyment from.

We didn’t have cable at home, so staying somewhere that did was awesome. Being able to watch AWA Wrestling on ESPN, or catch an episode of The Brady Bunch on TBS which was a TV show that I never knew existed until I saw it on cable in a hotel room. Then there was the fact that dinner most nights while traveling was pizza ordered from Dominos, which we also didn’t have in our area. We stayed in every hotel imaginable. From Best Westerns to Motel 6’s, to mom-and-pop roadside dives, my favorite place to stay was Holiday Inns which had a Holidome.

The Holidomes were like mini amusement parks within the hotel. They all varied somewhat from each other, but some of the common features they had were things like swimming pools, hot tubs, putting greens, air hockey tables, and arcade games. A kid like me could find plenty to do in a Holidome.

The Holidome kind of came in existance in the late 60s’ or early 70’s as some of the Holiday Inn chain owners in the north searched for a solution to their swimming pool problem. That problem being that were were pretty useless nine months out of the year in colder climates. At one Holiday Inn location in North Dakota, the owner built a dome over his pool so it could be enjoyed year round. It didn’t take long for other owners to do the same, and from there it wasn’t long before those owners started adding other little attractions inside the dome to go along with the pool.

Holiday Inn itself took notice and branded these add-ons as Holidomes, and started building them big enough to not only house pools and games, but large spaces that could be rented out for buisness conferences, reunions, and whatever else required a space big enough for a large gathering of people.

After becoming a success in the north, the idea was adopted in other parts of the country too, and became quite poplular in Florida. I guess families going on vacation to Florida could book a stay at a Holidome, and if the weather outside was crap, they could still turn the kids loose in the Holidome for all kinds of fun instead.

I can remember staying at several Holidomes around the country when I was traveling with dad, but one sticks out in particular. I can’t remember the city or town we were in, but I do remember that it was in Pennsylvania. After a dinner that was most likely Domino’s pizza, I headed to the main area of the Holidome for some play time. I can’t recall everything this particular one had to offer, but I certainly remember the pool.

I didn’t know how to swim, so whenever I got into a pool I made sure to stay at the shallow end. There were no diving boards and the like for me. Nope, I pretty much just waded around in waist deep water for the most part. I don’t know how it happened, but somehow I fell into the pool on this night. I can remember falling in and flailing away, and then I remember waking up with my brother crouched over me by the side of the pool and he was dripping wet. I had taken water into my lungs I guess and blacked out. He had pulled me out of the pool and pumped the water from my chest just like you see on TV shows and movies.

That event pretty scarred me for life when it comes to water, and I still haven’t learned to swim. From that point on, I never had the desire to go underwater. Hell, I’m pretty sure I didn’t have the desire to go under on that night either. But I don’t hold any of this against the Holidome. I loved those places too much to hold a grudge.

Holidomes started going out of style in the late ’80s, and by the early ’90s almost all of them had seen their better days. So when I started traveling for a living in the 2000’s, even though there are still a few scattered around, there were none to be found on my travels. But if there had been, I would have surely stayed at them. ANd it would have been a great time too. Eating DOminos pizza for dinner, and then hitting the Holidome for air hockey, video games, and putting greens.

Here is a home video taken in 1991 of a Holidome in Sharonville OH

The Board Games of My Youth

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Board games have long occupied space in closets and on bookshelves, and have entertained families of all types and sizes for decades. While growing up, my brother and I spent many days and hours playing games, just like my daughters do today.

I admit, when the original Nintendo came along, I spent far less time with the conventional board game and shifted most of my focus to video games. Even so, I have so many fond memories attached to board games, so I thought it would be a good idea to share a few of my favorites with you.

Monopoly

When I hear “board game”, Monopoly is the first thing that comes to mind. I would consider it the “Boardwalk” of board games, while all the others are “Vermont Ave” or “St. James Place”.

The currently recognized version was first published in 1935 by Parker Brothers. It underwent a major redesign in 2008 that saw Mediterranean and Baltic Avenues colors from purple to brown and GO from red to black. It also changed the Income Tax to a flat $200 and upped Luxury Tax from the original $75 to $100.

When I was a kid, my family would play, but in the beginning, I was too young to be in on the game. When my time finally came, I instantly fell in love with it. I thought I was a big deal when I could barter my way to a “Get Out of Jail Free” card or buy Oriental Ave. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand back then how the game worked and would usually be quickly put out of the game due to faulty business decisions.

As I grew older, I graduated from playing with family to playing with friends, where the playing field was a little more level. As an adult, my friends and I came up with a set of additional rules that we called “Survival Monopoly”. It threw in things like “everyone moves one chair to the left”, meaning that you now owned all of your neighbor’s property, and left yours behind to be taken over by someone else.

From the simple color schemes to the simple rules, playing this board game these days always takes me back to another place in time. A place when I was sitting in front of the fireplace, with my brother and my folks enjoying the evening together. It’s one of the things that brings back some of the strongest feelings of nostalgia within me and makes me ache to go back. But at the same time, the game helps me stay anchored in the present, as I love to play the game with my daughters. I see in their faces the same joys of playing the game that I have always experienced and know that I am helping to create in them something that one day they will look back on with similar nostalgic feelings.

Battleship

While Battleship may have started around World War I as a pen and paper game, I didn’t stumble upon its existence until the early-mid ’80s as my brother and I played it quite often. In 1967, Milton Bradley introduced a version with the now-familiar plastic boards and pegs, and in 1977 they introduced Electronic Battleship.

We only had the standard version. My brother and I would play downstairs in the family room in front of the fireplace where we tended to play a lot of our board games. We both stretch out lying down on our stomachs with the boards back to back with each other and kill several hours playing several rounds of Battleship.

Being eight years older than me, he was aware of this thing called “strategy” and would call out his shots in a specific manner, while I, on the other hand, would randomly just pick whatever coordinate that appealed to me at the moment. Needless to say, he won way more games than he lost when he played against me.

Although Milton Bradley released Talking Electronic Battleship in 1989, we never picked up that version of the game, nor have I ever had a chance to play it. Even to this day. One of my younger cousins had it, but somehow I managed to never get the joy and excitement that it may have brought to the game. These days, my daughters play Battleship quite often, although it usually seems to result in more name-calling and accusations of cheating than it does joy.

Operation

Ahh…the board game of the steady hand that featured Cavity Sam getting operated on endlessly by children everywhere. The game was simple in strategy, as all you really could do was hope to draw a card featuring an easy removal, then try to stay steady as everyone else hovered over the board eyeing your every move while you hope your sweating hands didn’t lead you astray and touch one of the metal sides of the cavity signaling you just screwed up.

This simple concept was designed and engineered by a fellow named John Spinello while he was an Industrial Design student at the University of Illinois in 1964. He sold the game to Milton Bradley for $500 and the promise of a job after graduation. Not a bad deal on either side at the time, although I would venture to guess that Mr. Spinello wished he had negotiated some royalties as part of the deal since the game went on to worldwide fame.

For me, this was a board game that I could whip out and play with my Mom. No matter what age I was, it was simple to grasp the rules, and I could be competitive because it just came down to who had the steadier hand. Unless you were going after that blasted Writer’s Cramp pencil. That thing was so thin that its cavity was very narrow. It was near impossible to get that thing without setting off the buzzer. A lot of the other pieces like Bread Basket or Broken Heart were much easier, and as a kid, those were the ones I hoped I would draw the card for.

Many an evening my Mom and I would play this game for a little bit while dinner was cooking. I would get it all set up on the kitchen table, and in between stirring whatever was on the stove, she would come over and take her turn. Sometimes, I think she purposely screwed up so I could get more pieces and win the game. But it didn’t really matter, just being able to play a board game with my Mom on a regular basis was a win for me.

Connect Four

Here we are with another game from Milton Bradley, this time from the magical year of 1974. I’ll have to let someone else tell you why it was magical because I wasn’t born until 1978. But the fact it came out after my brother was born, and before I was born, meaning that this was just another game my brother had several years to practice the strategy on before I got around to playing. I find it hard to recollect ever beating him at this game.

The concept was a simpler one, where you dropped colored checkers in a standing grid board and tried to be the first to connect four of your checkers in a straight line. He would always seem to beat me by setting up a diagonal line for the win….much as I do against my daughters now.

Don’t Break the Ice

Don’t Break the Ice came out in 1968 from Schaper Toys, and you can still find it on store shelves today still right beside all the other board games. Usually, you can find it on a bottom shelf along with Ants in the Pants, and Don’t Spill the Beans. I picked it up for my daughters several years ago, and even though it’s not one they get out very often, they still play it on occasion.

When I was playing it, it was with my brother (surprise, surprise), and for whatever reason, we seemed to mostly play it on snowy days while out of school. Maybe it was the theme of the game that lined up with the weather outside, but we played the heck out of it on those days.

The version we had was from the late ’70s or early ’80s and featured the little man sitting in a chair as the piece that you didn’t want falling in. These days, I believe the game features an ice-skating bear as that character.

We’d get the game set up, and take our slow and easy time pecking away at the blocks trying not to be the one to send the whole thing crashing down. Unlike other games he and I played together, there wasn’t much strategy he could have learned to use against me, and it really came down to just who could pick the best block to knock out, and do it in such a fashion as not to loosen all the other blocks as well. But, once we did, we quickly set it up again and start a fresh game. It was a good way to spend a snowy day and left some great memories of those times with me.

Risk

The game of global domination….and kitchen table supremacy. The game has been around since the late ’50s, but my first experience with it came at the birthday party of my friend Lance.

Lance had invited about 6 of his best friends to his house for a sleepover birthday party. This would have been 1986 most likely. I was one of the first to arrive, and his Mom had rented Raiders of the Lost Ark and Return of the Jedi for us to watch, and the pizza was on the way.

But as cool as that was, what ended up being the main attraction for me was my first time playing the game Risk. I had never seen or heard of the game before, and as Lance set it up, the excitement kept building as I looked at all the cool pieces and the oversized game board. It took me a little while to grasp the rules, but I quickly became engrossed by it all.

There were six of us playing, and the game stretched well into the night, and we had to continue it the following morning. Unfortunately, my Mom showed up to get me before the game was over, but from that moment on, I was hooked.

The only problem with the game was the fact that it took so long to play, that it was hard to even find anyone who wanted to play. My family wasn’t interested in it at all. So for years, I had to make do with just thinking about the game until a computer version came out, and then I played it constantly. Once married, my wife and some friends would play on a regular basis, but that’s been several years ago. This is one I need to teach my daughters to play.

Construx Were One of My Favorite Toys of the ’80s

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Back in the day, I loved building toys. LEGO was certainly a favorite of mine, but there was another building toy that I probably got a lot more play out of…Construx.

In 1983, Fisher-Price rolled out its newest toy creation.  It was called Construx and was possibly the most versatile building/construction toy since the Erector Set.  It featured plastic beams in various lengths, multi-directional connectors, plates, axles, wheels, pulleys, and much more.  What you could make with Construx was really only limited to your imagination.

Besides Lego, Construx was the greatest building toy that I ever laid hands-on, and in some ways, it surpassed Lego. The size of the pieces and the way they were designed allowed for larger projects than Lego could handle, which allowed for such projects as bridges, buildings, and any other thing you could dream up. These were awesome if you had a fertile imagination…which my brother and I did, and we used our Construx to build gooseneck trailers for our Tonka trucks to pull along, forklifts to load those trailers, and a host of other equipment to be used with them.

The first set that I had was the Bridges and Tower set that came out in 1983. I remember it not being exactly easy to follow the directions and complete the build, but not so hard that I had to have help with them either. I just had to take a little longer than my older brother did to complete it. But when it was done, oh my was it ever a fun thing to play with. He and I ended up using those Construx bridges to enhance the fun in our G.I. Joe adventures. As a matter of fact, just about everything we built with the Construx was to play with some other toy line we had. Rarely did we build anything just for the sake of playing with the Construx. I would put together swords and ninja stars when I would watch a martial arts movie and then let my imagination run wild. I would use them to construct obstacle courses and run my G.I. Joe men through their paces trying to re-enact the latest episode of American Gladiators. We used them to build tunnels and other things to go along with our Hotwheels fun.

My cousin and I would have frequent sleepovers, and Construx was usually at the center of our play.  We’d make armor and weapons and battle it out, usually as He-Man vs. Skeletor.  We’d use them to make swords, daggers, and ninja stars and stalk each other through the dark house late at night.  We’d each spend time making a rolling vehicle of some kind loaded with “weapons”, and then battle it out.

But my fondest memory of them would be the time I used them to build a scaffold. It was 1986, and The Road Warriors and The Midnight Express had just wrestled in a scaffold match at Starrcade 86, and I just had to re-create that. Years earlier, my father made me a wrestling ring, and I spent hours pitting my G.I. Joe men against one another in combat, pro-wrestling style. I even gave them cool wrestling names and all. So I used the Construx to build a scaffold over my toy ring and used it from then on to settle the most intense feuds to ever take place in my room. In the photo below is a scale model of the scaffold I used to build. I put this one together just for this article. It’s not as long, nor as tall as the one I used to build. But I don’t have enough pieces these days to make an exact replica.

In later years, the  Construx line produced some Space themed sets with glow-in-the-dark pieces. We had those as well but mainly used them for what they were intended in the Space theme. But it was cool to take some of the glow-in-the-dark pieces and use them to make flashlights to use on sleepovers. Construx were so versatile a toy, I think they could hit the market today and be a hit all over again. Of course, Mattel took over the line in 1997 and tried to re-establish the line without much success.  I think they were fairly popular in their own right during their original run, but Lego had the market cornered, and Construx just didn’t make it. Sad. It was one fine construction-based toy line, and I’m grateful I had the opportunity to enjoy it. It was a role-player.  A solid backup. It enhanced the play of so many other toys in my collection, I would put Construx in the Toy Hall of Fame just for that.

My Origin Story: Comic Books

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Ever since I was young, I’ve enjoyed comic books.  Although I’ve never been a hardcore comics buyer or reader, I have dabbled in them from time to time, and my collection has expanded and retracted a lot through the years.

In the beginning, my older brother had a large collection of comic books that were kept under a table on our carport in the house I grew up in.  During the summer months, I would pull out random issues and read through them.  In his large pile of comics, there were superhero comics like Justice League America, Superfriends, Unknown Soldier, Sgt. Rock, Fantastic Four, Batman, and Incredible Hulk. There were the more kid-friendly books too like Richie Rich and Uncle Scrooge comics. And then there was also a nice little selection of Cracked and Mad Magazines to enjoy as well.

Rainy days were whiled away kicked back on a sofa we had on the carport, watching and listening to it rain and reading issue after issue.  Since they were kept in the carport, they ended up drawing moisture, and thus any monetary value they had vanished.  But that didn’t matter to me.  What mattered was the content inside.

We eventually let my Uncle come and take them all away when we were moving to a new house.  I never saw any of those old issues again, and when we arrived at the new house, I no longer had any comic books to read.

Eventually, I was turned on to the joys of reading Archie Comics.  During the summers, the family would travel with my old man on his business trips, and on one trip somewhere, my mom picked up an Archie Comics digest to kill time while riding.  Once she was done with it, she passed it back and I settled into the back seat and blew through the whole thing and loved it.

The characters of Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, and Reggie populated a fun world that was filled with great supporting characters like Moose, Midge, Dilton, Josie, Big Ethel, and others.  I soon found myself spending allowance money on new issues of the Digests and Double Digests of the Archie world, but it wasn’t long before a superhero comic once again caught my eye.

While at the local Piggly Wiggly grocery store on a weekly shopping trip with Mom, an issue of Green Lantern caught my eye.  Now there was nothing really grabbing about this book, but the local grocery store was never known for its variety of comic books on the rack. In most cases, there were usually only 4 or 5 titles to choose from each week. I had been a fan of Green Lantern since the Superfriends cartoons, so I picked up this issue of Emerald Dawn #5.  Unfortunately, I had no point of reference to the story since I picked up the 5th issue from a 6-issue mini-series.

Even though I had no clue what was going on in the story, I went back and picked up the 6th issue the following month.  To this day, I’m a fan of Green Lantern and have picked up a lot of GL comics through the years when I’ve been back on the collecting wagon or was intrigued by different storylines. But again, nothing about this particular story or issue begged me to buy it. It was just there among the few other titles available, and it was the best pick of the bunch I guess.

I didn’t really pick up many more comics from that point on for a while. FOr a long time, I had spent my weekly allowance on wrestling magazines, and I went back to ready those. That is unntil the hype surrounding the Death of Superman storyline came out.

The Death of Superman was one of the biggest storyline events in the history of comic books.  The hype surrounding it was unreal, and thus, the first print copies of Superman #75 sold out in record time.  My brother had an interest in picking up the issue as a collector’s issue, and I had an interest in reading it.

Wax Pack Flashback | Watch me open an old pack of Doomsday: Death of Superman trading cards!

He took me to a local comic book and card store to pick up a copy, but they were already sold out.  The dealer told us he would be getting more copies in and we should keep checking back.  We went back every few days to see if he had gotten any in.  My brother kept getting disappointed, but I just kept seeing more and more cool comics to pick up that I hadn’t seen before.

While he nor I was able to get a copy of Superman #75, I did get a chance to read a copy at school. I was hooked. Then I started actively seeking out the follow-up issues that DC Comics labeled collectively as “Funeral For a Friend”, and the follow-up to that, “Reign of the Supermen”. I wasn’t picking those issues up from a collector’s perspective, but rather I was really into the story. I eventually continued on with the Superman family of books beyond the whole saga for quite a while and really enjoyed being immersed in the world of all things Metropolis through the various titles.

Before the whole Death of Superman saga was complete, it was Batman’s turn to be put through the wringer, as the Knighfall storyline was starting up. You remember the story right? When Batman got his back broken, someone else had to take over, and when Bruce Wayne was eventually healthy enough again he returned and had to reclaim the mantle of Batman. It was another huge storyline, and another one I was all in on. Between this and the Superman storyline, I was a comic book fiend.

Another contributing factor to my fandom at the time was a title I saw while visiting that little comic and card shop trying to get a copy of Superman #75. That title was Wizard Magazine.

The issue that was out at that time was #17.  There was really nothing special about the issue, but I was hooked on the contents of this magazine from the beginning.  I could see all of the comics that were currently on the market and the ones set to come out. I could read details on various comic events, and also learn the histories of various characters and stories through the years. It was also where I first learned about Valiant Comics and Image comics. Neither of which I ever picked up issues from, but it was fun to keep up with the goings-on in the offerings from those companies. From then on, I picked up every new issue and would read it from cover to cover within a week of getting it.

I was turned on to several characters and storylines that I liked, and my friend Geoffrey and I would get on the phone and discuss the cool-looking issues that were coming out, and just talk about comic books in general that we were learning about from reading Wizard every month.

This seems like a good time for a little sidebar in here. If you were a fan of Wizard magazine back in the day, or just comic books in the ’90s in general, you owe it to yourself to check out the podcast, Wizards: The Podcast Guide to Comics. It’s hosted by my good friend Adam and is part of The Retro Network’s universe of nostalgia-themed podcasts. In each episode, Adam and his co-hosts go through an issue of Wizard magazine and talk about everything between its covers. There’s tons of great discussion on comic books of that era, the regular features found each month in the magazine. In addition to that, Adam also does special issues where he interviews various writers and editors that worked on the magazine through the years. You can even hear me on a special episode discussing the Death of Superman storyline!

Now back to the story…that little old comic book shop went out of business at the tail end of the speculator market, but I had the opportunity to pick up a good many books there, some of which I still have in my collection.  I’ve never stopped reading comics since picking them up all those years ago.  I still read the occasional Superman title, but Batman took over the spot as my favorite years ago.  Today, I like to go back to that era and read these issues over again, and also finally check out books I missed back then through the DC Universe Infinite and Marvel Universe apps.

So that’s how fell into comic books, and why now I’m a huge fan of superheroes in all mediums.  But what about you?  Do you enjoy comics?  If so, how did you get into them?  What was the first comic you read?  Tell me about it in the comments section below and we’ll reminisce together.

The Things I Miss About Wendy’s

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You know how I am when it comes to old junk food…it’s something I’m always willing to talk about! I may miss more old foods than most of you, but I can’t help it. I grew up eating some of the worst stuff you can put into your body, and I loved every bit of it. Today, I’m going to spend a little time talking about a place that was near and dear to my heart in the late ’80s and early ’90s, Wendys…and some of the things I miss most about it.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, when my old man would come home each weekend from working out of town, he would always take the family out to eat on Friday or Saturday night.  Places like Western Steer and Bonanza were frequent favorites, Pizza Hut was a stop we’d make on occasion, and when we weren’t going to one of those places, the destination was Wendy’s.  My Dad liked Wendy’s hamburgers more than other fast food places, and when they introduced the Super Bar, Wendy’s shot up his list even more. So it’s fair to say that I visited Wendy’s a lot in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and feel like I have a pretty good grasp on the major differences between now and then.

I Miss Dave Thomas Doing the Commercials

So first up, let’s take a look at what brings an establishment to people’s attention, and makes them want to visit in the first place…the television commercials advertising the place or products.  For years, Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas was a fixture in commercials for his chain.  He looked like he could be your own grandpa, and put forth a welcoming personality that didn’t feel like he was starring in an over-produced commercial, but rather inviting you to dinner at his place.

Whether Dave had any hand in the new products that were created, he certainly made each and every one of them he pitched in a commercial feel like it was his own creation. The conviction with which he talked about the new product certainly made it seem like everything unfolded just like the commercial showed…with Dave in a kitchen somewhere whipping up something new and delicious.

Wendy’s commercials over the last 10-20 years have been lacking that “personal” touch that Dave just seemed able to bring. I can tell you that as a kid when a Wendy’s commercial came on with Dave pitching a new product, I was paying attention. And more times than not, I would give them a try.

Most of the time, we get someone trying to come across as hip and modern, but the commercials focus more on trying to be funny (and failing), than getting the vibe across to the viewer what the core values of the restaurant are.  That core value back in Dave Thomas’ day was his philosophy of making good, old-fashioned hamburgers and chicken sandwiches. We just need more of that in this world.

I Miss Their Old Tables

 One of the coolest features in the old school Wendy’s locations were the tables that featured printed pages from old Sear’s catalogs from the early 1900s.  While dining there as a kid, I would marvel at the antique products featured on the table while I chowed down on my burger and fries.  I guess you could say I was into retro and nostalgia long before I was old enough to even understand the concept.

These days, they’ve joined the rest of the fast-food profiteers by using plain-looking, boring tables.  The next time you’re in a Wendy’s, try to look at the table for more than five seconds without looking away. You can’t. Of course these days, everyone is so busy staring at their phone screens, that even if they still had those old tables, I doubt anyone would even notice. But back in the days before cell phones, those tables gave you something to enjoy while waiting on your parents to bring the food to the table, and while enjoying their many fine offerings.

I Miss Their Old French Fries

This one saddens me a great deal.  I was a huge fan of their original french fries for years.  They were thicker than the fries at McDonald’s or Burger King, a little less crispy, but fluffier in the middle, and so good.  They tasted like french fries we used to make at home.  Being that they tasted homemade, they fit perfectly alongside their old-fashioned hamburgers and chicken sandwiches.

Sometime in the early 2000s, they switched to Natural-Cut Fries with Sea Salt.  They made the change around the time that sea salt was the new hot thing, and never reverted back.  Their fries of today always taste a little burnt to me.  They are thinner, the ends are crisper, and they just aren’t a great-tasting french fry in my opinion.  The loss of the thicker french fry meant less surface area for the Frosty to stick to when dipping.

I Miss The Biggie Size

Now I’m all for health-conscious eating, but if you’re going to Wendy’s, you know what you’re in for.  So why take away the iconic “Biggie” size?  Those who don’t want it, don’t have to order it.  But for those of us who do, it’s no longer available.  Their Biggie Sweet Tea was awesome, and being able to upgrade your large fries to Biggie size should be protected under the “Freedom of Choice” provision in the United States Constitution.

When the fries were as good as they used to be back in their glory days, a large order of them sometimes just wasn’t enough. Especially if you were dipping them in a Frosty. Which, if you never tried that, you’ve not been living your best life. Of all the things on this list, being able to order a Biggie size order of fries and dip every single one of them into a chocolate frosty ranks with all of them.

I Miss the Original Taco Salad

On the weekends when my Dad wasn’t able to come home, my Mom and I would go out on Saturday afternoon and eat at either McDonald’s or Wendy’s.  When it was Wendy’s, that meant it was Taco Salad for lunch.  It’s what she liked, so it’s what I got as well so we could enjoy the same thing.

The Taco Salad was unique but quite simple.  You got a platter of lettuce with some diced tomatoes, a cup of their chili to pour over that, some shredded cheddar cheese and some taco sauce for topping, and a small bag of taco chips to enjoy with it.  We would mix them up and talk as we ate, and I have a lot of fond memories attached to the classic Taco Salad.

About 15 years ago, they decided to change it.  No longer were there taco chips…they were replaced with tortilla strips.  The pack of taco sauce was replaced with salsa.  The diced tomatoes went away.  Their sales of the Taco Salad also went away.  Once again, they tried to “modernize” one of their menu offerings and appeal to a small segment of the market with what they considered a “fancier” version.  There was never anything wrong with the original version, but they gave it the ax anyway.

Just a couple of years ago, they reversed course and redesigned the Taco Salad once again. It’s closer to what it was back in the old days, but still not quite there. The taco chips are back, but you still get salsa instead of taco sauce. And the main dish is smaller. That’s probably more a result of modern finance than anything, but to me, it still keeps it from being like it was.

I Miss The SuperBar

Of all the things Wendy’s tried through the years, the Superbar was the idea that I liked the most.  It was a set of three food bars that expanded their dine-in options several times over and was a big hit.  One bar was a salad bar, with normal salad bar options, as well as some jello and pudding for dessert.  The next bar was the Mexican Fiesta bar, which had all the things you needed to make tacos and burritos like chili, seasoned beef, shredded cheese, melted nacho cheese, taco shells, and soft tortillas.  The third bar was the Pasta Bar which featured spaghetti noodles, fettuccine noodles, spaghetti sauce, alfredo sauce, and garlic bread that was made by flattening and grilling their hamburger buns with garlic salt and butter.  It was delicious.

While the SuperBar as it was presented was just fine like it was, there was a little something else that could be done with it. My dad would order a baked potato, and when you ordered a potato, you could take it to the SuperBar to top it. I’m not sure if that was an extra cost or not though. But my dad would go to the Mexican Fiesta bar and load his potato with the chili and melted nacho cheese. I saw him do this a couple of times and decided to try it myself. After I had topped my potato, I sat down and started to devour it just like my old man…and it was delicious! But he stopped me after a couple of bites and told me that I was doing it wrong. I was perplexed at the age of 11 years old and he could see that, so he enlightened me. He explained that to get the most out of the experience, you first consumed just the chili and cheese from the potato, and then you go back and refill the potato with more chili and cheese. Then you consume the whole thing as I was previously doing.

The SuperBar was our go-to order while they had it in their stores.  A lot of Friday or Saturday nights were spent eating from it while talking and laughing as a family before we would hit the department stores in town where Mom would do her shopping for the week.  To me, the Superbar is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Wendy’s, and it’s a shame they had to get rid of it. As I’ve read in the years since, the bar was a loss leader for the stores, and it provided so much extra work for the staff to keep it neat and clean. I understand why it died off as a concept, but that doesn’t stop me from sorely missing it.

So there you have several things I miss about Wendy’s from “the old days”. While I do miss the things above, I know it’s more the nostalgia of it all…enjoying the times with my family, and how those Friday and Saturday nights were just so much fun for me at that age. It’s a period of time that can’t be recaptured, much the same as everything else I reminisce about here on the blog.

If you’ve got fond memories of any of this old Wendy’s stuff, or are nostalgic for other things I didn’t bring up, I’d love to hear your memories and stories in the comments. Hit me up and we’ll grieve together.

I Miss Fat Pro Wrestlers

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The other day, I was reading through the great book, Wrestling at the Chase:  The Inside Story of Sam Muchnick and the Legends of Professional Wrestling, and I realized something.  I realized I miss the gold old days of pro wrestling. I miss when guys like Dusty Rhodes were at the top of the sport. The bygone era when guys who didn’t look like your typical star could still get a chance to shine. Guys like Terry Gordy, Big Bubba Rogers, “Playboy” Buddy Rose, and numerous others were on top because they were the best at what they did. Days when having a great muscled-up physique didn’t automatically make you a star. In short, I miss fat pro wrestlers.

Back in the days when wrestlers earned their checks by how many tickets they sold, the emphasis wasn’t so much on looks. It was a combination of their actual skill in the ring, along with their charisma out of it. If they could use their words to rile the fans up to the point that they would buy a ticket to see him get his butt kicked, that was enough. If he was good enough in the ring to make the fans believe what they were seeing, that was enough. Looks were just a bonus. Some of my favorite wrestlers would never be offered a cover spot on a men’s magazine, but they sure could make you believe they would whip the ass of whoever DID appear on the cover.

I use the term “fat wrestlers” loosely here. I’m not just talking about fat guys, I’m talking about guys who just don’t fit the “fitness” profile that you see with most guys in the ring today. Guys like Arn Anderson may not have gotten a chance in today’s wrestling world because he was not muscled up, and didn’t have six-pack abs, but he could talk, he could express emotion, and he knew how to tie guys up in a pretzel to get his point across.

You turn on WWE programming today, and you’re sure to find plenty of guys that are ripped and look like they’ve stepped straight off the pages of Muscle and Fitness. What you won’t find, however, are guys wrestling who looks like your dad, or the tough guy down the street who works on cars.

The loss of the average looking, but the tough son of a gun, in favor of hiring muscle-bound freaks who sometimes have trouble with the basic concepts of wrestling, has hurt the suspension of disbelief of wrestling to a degree. I want to see a guy who looks like my uncle fighting a guy who looks like your uncle.

A lot of the best wrestlers to ever come along were great examples of what I’m talking about. Mick Foley never looked too imposing physically, but because he knew how to connect with the fans through his interview style, and his brutal style in the ring, you always knew he was a threat. He didn’t have to rely on being muscled up with baby oil dripping off of him to become a star.

Take Phil Hickerson as an example. Phil spent a lot of his career wrestling in the Memphis area. While he certainly didn’t look like a star by today’s standards, he was one tough son of a gun and you had no problem believing what he did was real. Above is a video to help get my point across, and if you’ve never seen many of these guys I’ve mentioned, I urge you to search out footage of them and see just how some of these less than stellar looking athletes were some of the better workers in the business.  And as a special bonus in that video, the two muscled-up chumps Phil was beating on here grew up to be Sting and The Ultimate Warrior.

Five of My Favorite Matchbox Toys

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Growing up in the ’80s and early ’90s, Hot Wheels, and Matchbox cars were a big part of my playtime.  Both lines produced a lot of really fun cars and playsets, and in this edition of Retro Ramblings, I’m sharing a few of my favorite toys from the Matchbox side of things through the years.  

Matchbox Super Spin Car Wash

After a long day of play in the dirt and mud of the hills around our house, a good car wash was just what the cars and trucks needed.  This car wash was kind of automatic…as in you had to get the car in the wash and then turn a crank and it would go all the way through.  It featured real water jets, a foam roller “scrub” brush, and a spin dry feature.  The perfect play set for getting all of your cars clean before packing them away for another day.

Watch the commercial for the Matchbox Super Spin Car Wash HERE

Days of Thunder Cars from Hardees

In 1990, Jerry Bruckheimer’s Days of Thunder movie starring Tom Cruise hit theaters to a great reaction, and merchandise based on the movie started to flow.  One of the better pieces of merchandise to come along were the replica cars from Hardees based on the stock cars from the movie.  The five main cars featured in the movie were in the set, which allowed us younger viewers of the film to recreate all the action at home.

Matchbox Cars Based on the Code Red Television Show

In 1981, CBS debuted the little-remembered Code Red TV Show.  It featured Lorne Green as the Father of a firefighting family in Los Angeles and the Chief of one of the many stations in the city.  The show only lasted one season, but Matchbox produced a series of cars featuring the iconic vehicles from the show.  There were two fire trucks, the Chief’s car, motorcycle, fireboat, helicopter, ambulance, and police car.  As a kid whose Dad was a fireman, this set was one of my absolute favorite toys to play with in the ’80s.

Matchbox Connectables

One of the cooler concepts that came along in the 80’s toy landscape were these Connectables cars from Matchbox.  Each car was in at least two pieces and connected in the middle.  This allowed you to interchange parts of different vehicles to create all new cars and trucks to play with.  There were also packs of other car parts available so you could even extend the new cars into total monstrosities if you wanted to!  You could make a big rig limo or a drag car with tank treads!  With these cars, you could take your imagination and play to a whole other level.

Check out the commercial for Matchbox Connectables here.

Matchbox Trains

Matchbox released a series of train cars in the early ’80s to go along with all of their already awesome car collection. There were various engines in different colors, along with box cars, passenger cars, flat cars, and cabooses.  The really fun aspect of this series was you could hook any of the cars to any of the other cars, meaning you could make many different configurations with varying train cars.  They weren’t exactly in scale with the rest of the line, as they were each about the size of one of their normal cars.  I used to love these things!  My brother and I would hook all of ours together and make an imaginary track all through the house.  We could get hours and hours of fun out of these trains.

So what about you?  Did you have any of these awesome Matchbox toys?  Did I leave out your favorite Matchbox toy?  Tell me in the comments!

How I Remember Christmas

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Like I’m sure it was for most kids, December 25th has always been one of those benchmark dates on the calendar. Alongside my birthday, and the last day of school, it has always been a measuring point for the year. And for good reason, as I’m sure I’m not alone in enjoying the gift-giving, gift-getting, food, and fellowship that the magical holiday brings. So in this special edition of Retro Ramblings, I want to share some of the things I think of when I think about Christmas.

For me, the highlight has always been about the time I get to spend with family. Especially my Dad. All through my years of growing up, my Dad traveled. He would be gone for roughly 300 out of the 365 days of a year. But his work always slowed down in December and he had a lot of time at home that lined up so well with our Christmas break from school. And while he himself never got overly excited about Christmas, he did so many little things to make it special for me. Things that most would not think are overly special but so special to me, that I’ve tried to do the exact same things for my daughters every year now.

There is so much nostalgia built into the holiday season for me. So many different things about the holiday that trigger vibrant memories of some of the happiest times of my life. So here in this article, I want to share with you a lot of the little things that I enjoy during the Christmas season, their origins in the past, and some of the strong memories associated with them.

(In no particular order)

MY COUSIN TIM COMING OVER ON CHRISTMAS MORNING TO SEE WHAT I HAD GOTTEN

Every year around mid-morning, my cousin and his parents would stop by to see what Santa had brought, and to show off some new toy he had gotten as well. He and I would play with whatever new things we had while the parents sat and talked, drank coffee, and just enjoyed each other’s company. The fireplace would have a nice crackling fire in it while some low Christmas music played in the background. It was just a wonderful setting for enjoying the mid part of the day.

In recent years, my daughters had the pleasure of being visited every Christmas morning by their great grandparents, who would come see what they had gotten for Christmas and join us for a simple breakfast of orange cinnamon rolls and ham…..just like we always enjoyed on those Christmas mornings so long ago.

THE TOWN CHRISTMAS PARADE

One of my favorite days of the year…seeing the vehicles decorated for Christmas, seeing Santa Claus riding into town high atop a town fire truck, and then following him to the local grocery store to get a treat bag. That bag usually consisted of an apple, an orange, a few pieces of strawberry candy, and a full-size candy bar. The whole town would usually show up for the parade and treats, even though that number was roughly only about 600 people. It was a day that I can think back on and not really remember anyone being anything but happy.

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Five of My Favorite Halloween Treats

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The Halloween season is upon us, and I thought it would be fun to go back in time to the days of trick-or-treating and look at just what were some of my absolute favorite things to find in my treat bag at the end of the night.  Now, don’t get me wrong, it was hard for any treat to be classified as “bad”, but we all had the favorites that we hoped to get a sack full of by the end of the night.  Here in this Retro Ramblings, are five of my favorites!

Nerds Candy

When I was young back in the ’80s, there wasn’t much more revered candy amongst my friends than Nerds.  We all loved these things.  We’d carry the normal-sized boxes of them to school with us and compare flavors.  So when the snack-sized boxes came along, we were all stoked.  It was a big deal for a few years though to get these on Halloween night.  We’d all bring in our Nerds haul to school and see who really hit the jackpot. 

Candy Cigarettes

I know these things aren’t exactly politically correct these days, but back then, people didn’t see anything wrong with them.  A lot of Dads smoked then, and one of the coolest things you could do was to imitate your Dad.  I’d “puff” on these things for a while trying to look cool, but it didn’t take long for that chalky flavor to overcome me and I’d have to gobble them down.  Not only that but in school, we treated candy cigarettes like prisoners do real cigarettes.  You could trade these things for all kinds of stuff between classes. 

Gift Certificates

Now I’m not talking about things like a $10 Starbucks card.  No, I’m talking about the ones for free cones or fries at McDonald’s.  While you couldn’t necessarily enjoy these the night you got them, it was like having money in the bank, and you anxiously waited for the day you got to go cash them in.

Packs of Baseball Cards

At that time, collecting and trading baseball cards was a rite of passage.  All my friends were into it, and so was I, so anytime you could get a pack of cards was great.  On the street where I did all of my trick-or-treating, there was an older fellow who was really into cards, and to pass along the joys of the hobby to the next generation, he gave out wax packs of baseball cards as Halloween treats.  This world needs more folks like that man. 

Treat Bags

While getting all the individual items mentioned above was great, it was always more exciting to get a full little treat bag that held untold treasures inside of it.  Historically for me, these things usually had a mini candy bar in it, with some Tootsie Rolls thrown in, and usually another item like a spider ring.  These treat bags were the epitome of the phrase, “more bang for the buck”, and still would be my favorite thing to find in my treat bag.