Halloween is getting close, but even if it weren’t, the above 2 items might have to be purchased. Both are available on Amazon for less than $11 each. These would go perfect with the Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Iron Man, Batman, and Spider-Man role play items that Carter has.
This cartoon is pretty bad, I’ll admit it. However, I remember loving it as a kid because it had the Thing from the Fantastic Four.
In this series, the Thing is Benjamin “Benjy” Grimm and he’s a high school student. No mention of the FF is made and he can control his transformation into the Thing by using his Thing Ring. By touching the two halves of the ring together (one on each hand) he can transform into the Thing. He’s constantly using his Thing powers to rescue his friends from everyday dangers. Rarely does he face off against any super-villain, but there is the occasional bad guy.
This was a hard series to track down. I finally found great copies through a friend. They were new recordings from Boomerang. I took the set and created a nice menu using some artwork from a Marvel Comics hardback book that details the history of their television projects. It originally aired in a 1-hour block with a Flintstones show and was called Fred and Barney Meet the Thing, although the two cartoons never crossed over.
The first segment, a very loose adaptation of Marvel Comics’ character The Thing, consisted of stories following the Thing as a teenager named Benjy Grimm who transforms into the rock-skinned superhero by touching together magic rings and reciting the words “Thing ring, do your thing!”
The stories centered mostly around Benjy at Centerville High School with his friends Betty, her rich boyfriend Ronald, Kelly (Betty’s kid-sister) and teacher Miss Twilly. Kelly was the only person who knew about Benjy’s secret.
Twenty six 11-minute episodes of The Thing were produced; 2 shorts aired per show.
from Wikipedia
I don’t claim that this is a good show, in fact, I know it’s not. What it is though, is good, cheesy, superhero fun.
Based on the Malibu Comics (later purchased by Marvel) series of the same name, Nightman is really saxophonist Johnny Domino. After being struck by lightning, he finds he is telepathically tuned to the frequency of evil (what!?). This gives him an edge in tracking down bad guys. With the help of high-tech suit that gives him the power of flight and a laser eye, Domino begins fighting crime as Nightman.
Produced by Glen A. Larson (look for his character Manimal in Season 2), who also createdAutoman and Knight Rider
Nationally syndicated Chicago WGN channel aired these a few years ago and I managed to get all but two episodes. After quite a bit of searching, I tracked down nice quality versions of the two missing episodes and was able to finish the set. Now I can watch the badness whenever I want thanks to my Nightman DVD set.
I had heard about this cartoon and think I posted the teaser image before, but this is the first footage I’ve seen. Looks like another alternative take on the X-Men. While it’s cool there’s another X-Men cartoon in the works, this one doesn’t look different enough to stand out. Why make another? What’s it going to show that the other two incarnations didn’t. Yes, there’s no Professor X and Wolverine looks to be the focus, but other than that, it looks to visually similar to the X-Men Evolution cartoon.
I’ll still watch it.
The preview is gone, hope you saw it when it was there. Seems like the company got into a little trouble over using some unauthorized Foo Fighters music in the video. Oops.
Just a few interesting notes from the weekend.
A large batch of new photos were posted at the Iron Man movie site. Several great shots in there, including different versions of the armor. The one above is a favorite. Seems to explain the movie all by itself. Still can’t get over how cool this is looking. If you didn’t like the Super Bowl commercial for Iron Man, there is not hope for you.
Next up, Marvel has posted a list of the 10 Greatest X-Men. the whole list seems kind of redundant. One, since it’s from Marvel, what kind of perspective do they have. As I was reading it, There were one or two entries where I thought “oh, look at my, I’ve got a new series coming out.” Most of the list I do agree with and I’d expect any longtime fan to as well.
Finally, my favorite question/article I’ve read in a while… Can a Lightsaber Cut Through Superman? If the lightsaber were made with a piece of green kyptonite as its crystal – of course it could. How big of a geek am I when I read it and I think, “of course, that makes perfect sense.”