| Return of the Spuds?
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| March 5 2001 |
New Devo?
Maybe. Friend of 16bit DJ Lipgloss has pointed out a site that has a new project featuring three of the original members of Devo called The Wipeouters which is described as "Devo goes surfing." Mark Mothersbaugh, Bob Mothersbaugh, Robert Casale, and Josh Mancell (the last Devo drummer was named Josh Freez.)
I honestly don't know how this slipped under the ol' radar... kinda figgered some Devo sites would've mentioned it by now. There's a preview MP3 on their website... it's worth a listen.
[ Oh, They Have A Website, FLASH needed ]
Cartoon Network 2001-2002 Line-Up
A few web sites out there made mention of this new press release which mentions a DC Justice League cartoon, new anime acquisitions, and a marathon of every Bugs Bunny cartoon ever made. Yowza. If you care, check it out.
TransFormers PVCs Act 2
Apparently these guys are coming out March 20. Just FYI. I need these. Just so you know, it goes beyond mere "want." (Dude, it's friggin' Galvatron, Grimlock, AND Hot Rod man!)
--AP
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| DEVO Week Continues... or Two Days of Devo
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| March 6 2001 |
Wipeouters: Better Link
The Wipeouters have a shockwavey flashy multimedia page with an MP3 and a band bio.
Farewell, Brave Probe Handler
Astroman.com, official site of the band Man or Astro-Man? has announced that Blazar the Probe Handler (played bass, samples, and more on Eeviac and A Spectrum Of Infinite Scale) will be playing his final US show, and this week's shows in Alabama-- where the band will record their next live album-- will be his send-off. Check out the website for news on the upcoming concert.
Super Clear Beast Machines
Dusty, a regular to alt.toys.transformers, has posted some marvelous images of recently released Beast Machines toys to his web page Super Clear Cybertron. I'm not just saying that, they're quite impressive. If you like Beast Machines, check it out. (Fans beware: it makes the toys look really good. Now I must get a Beast Changer... and Terranotron looks like a brand-new remake of Swoop... geez these are cool.)
Q: Are We Not Men?
A: We Are Devo! The first image of the figures have finally appeared online. Well, one figure. And it's kinda blurry. But it's there, somewhere, finally, at Figures.com. Vital Toys has yet to post images to their own site. The figure-- and I've had a hard time figuring who it was supposed to be, probably Jerry-- is in shorts and a sleeveless black shirt like in the Whip It video. Here's hoping someone makes the spudmen in their yellow tyvek suits.
The figure is shown posed to play keyboards, and unless I'm mistaken Mark Mothersbaugh and the brothers Casale all played Keyboards at some point... this is definitely not Mark. No glasses.
Q&A
Some people have been asking "hey, why does it take your Tiki so long to answer five lousy questions?"
You've got some nerve, mister.
Besides, there's a good reason-- few have trusted The Tiki with their questions. Darryl is acting as the Tiki's secretary until his email is up, so if you like Q&A and would like more, give us some of that sweet sweet Q.
New Original Content
Despite the recent hiatus on new additions to our archives, we have been working behind-the-scenes on getting more stuff up. While we've been busy lately, we've set up a lot of time next week to add scads of material to the page, and the third addition to the Toy Box is almost a-ready to go... we're slow. Sue us. (If we found the rest of Spider-Man Classics, I assure you they'd be up.)
--AP
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| Civil Rights For The Uncivilized
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| March 9 2001 |
Coming Next Week...
We've been busy. And very lucky.
We found the Spider-Man Classics, so expect a full-blown feature on them on Monday. (Spidey's gotten extensive playtesting already.) We're working on Simpsons Wave 3, so expect those next week. And well, we've got other stuff coming as well. Stick with us, you'll be glad you did.
--AP
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| "Translate 'Valley Girl' Into Spanish, You Said"
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| March 12 2001 |
Spider-Man Is Here!
But not here. Due to the nature of the past weekend (and the fact it's late and things are not turning out at a quality level we're proud of) we've delayed this feature until (most likely) tomorrow. The reviews are done, the templates are finished, but those pictures aren't doing the figures justice. If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing right. And if it takes a day, we're more than willing to make our three readers wait. (Sorry, Darryl's Mom, Adam's cat, and the crazy checker lady at the Toys "R" Us.)
Fact is, our current lighting conditions during our normal work hours-- i.e., indoors at night-- ain't cuttin' the mustard. (And our camera ain't that great.)
He-Man: Olds
Like news, but old. He-Man.org has posted news on upcoming exclusives for 2001, so check it out. They posted news on a poster coming with a new exclusive... neat, eh?
Fisher Price: Good
On the past few toy runs around Arizona, we've been taking time to look at the little kid toys in addition to Lego, video games, and action figures. And we like what we see. Fisher Price already won us over with its "Rescue Heroes" Comet the Space Monkey and continues to dazzle us with some downright decent stuff. There's a pirate ship-- a big one-- with lots of figures and action features for $25. There's a small pack of figures including a mummy, ghost, and skeleton for $3.99. And there's a line of "Smithsonian Institute" animal toys that feature a motion card, voice chips, and a crapload of gimmicks. (And we bought the elephant from the latter of these to show you in the near future. It's pretty amazing. Push the foot, get random facts about it. Push the head, and it makes elephant noises.)
When Adam was growing up, he had a Fisher Price Adventure People "Alpha Star" toy. (Unfortunately he sold it on a Star Wars fundraising garage sale back when he was working on his vintage set and now spends much of his free time trying to find a cheap new one. But he did find some prototypes for it, cheaply, by accident.) It's pretty amazing what the toddler toy company is cranking out, and if you have a few moments, we'd like to reccomend you take a look at the aisles and see what's there. Space Monkeys... haunted castles... and elephants that make those oh-so-cool elephant sounds.
We Now Feel Old
Devo appeared on Nick-At-Nite last Friday on the sitcom "Square Pegs." The show was pretty 80s, but the spudboys singing "That's Good" on the showcase for old, kitschy sitcoms doesn't do much for feeling young.
Other
We have come to the realization-- basically through reader comments-- that if we don't have something new and spectacular for you every day that we suck. Well, we'd like to say that we suck then. (But you knew that.) That is all.
--AP & DS2
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| So It's late
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| March 14 2001 |
Freebies at the WB Store
A toy run yesterday evening yielded few interesting finds (and zero purchases), the best of which was at the Warner Bros. Studio Store. There was a giant box of comics-- Powerpuff Girls #11-- marked "free." (So we took some copies. Well, one each.) This was at the Scottsdale Fashion Square location, but check your stores just in case there's something like that... uhm... in your area. Maybe they're giving away Dexter comics somewhere...
Dead Rumor
There's a rumor that Batman is no longer with Hasbro-- this is bunk. (I asked.)
Spider-Man Is Here!
After some serious playtesting, photography, and a kitchen brawl between Spidey and an unruly weeble, our new section in Toy Biz' excellent new Spider-Man Classics line is started. Sad, no? Well, the first figure is ready. More to be added, of course, but hey, if a thing's worth doing, it's worth not sucking.
Music Meanderings
Since some of you asked, yes, we are working on it. We might be adding an actual, honest-to-goodness new staffer to contribute too. Stay tuned. We guarantee our decision of what to cover will confound and befuddle. And to those who care, we saw a mag at the book store tonight with a Weezer cover and a CD with an exclusive track. (And we didn't have money to buy it and forgot to jot down the title. But in case you care...)
--AP
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| So It's late
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| March 14 2001 |
Still More Freebies at the WB Store
Apparently, free Cartoon Network DC Comic books are being given away randomly depending on which WB Store you go to. While one mall we went to only had one book another had five. And hundreds of copies of them to boot. If you need your fix of Space Ghost or Scooby Doo comics, and for free, hit your local malls. While there's no real easy-to-identify reason for this happening, we think it's AOL. We hear they're closing the WB stores, and if this is extra product, well, it makes sense. On the other hand, AOL gave out tons of disc to get people to subscribe to their service, and all of these comics offer subscriptions as well.
Regardless, we just scored $10 worth of free comics each. (I read three. And I don't feel ripped off at all either).
More Spider-Man Is Here!
Venom from Spider-Man Classics is up. And we still have yet to see these in a normal retail store. Tomorrow: Spider-Man (Black Costume).
GameBoy Advance
Would you believe 16bit.com was founded in 1998 to be a video game site?
Japan's getting the latest GameBoy soon, and man, are we stoked. If you haven't heard the skinny, visit NCS, Nintendo's GameBoy Advance Page, or pretty much any gamer news site. Upcoming goodies include a port of Super Mario Kart, a new (or at least reworked) CastleVania title, Breath of Fire, and if you believe the interview on Nintendo's page, some form of Metroidish goodness and a Super Mario 3 port. The new handheld hits Japan before the end of the month, and apparently the USA this summer. We'll be doing some coverage of the new mini-console soon. (Sooner if someone springs some dough for an import system. Or rather, if some rich person reads this site and would like to finance our future features. This site would be awesome if we had some money coming in. I mean, if we were paid to do this full time, rather than the hour or two a nite we have to work on it, yowza.)
--DS2
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| Saturday, Monday, Whatever
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| March 19 2001 |
Eh
We were gonna update Saturday morning/Friday night, but well, it was late, and nobody updates anything on the weekends anyway. There was a lot of driving around... lots of burgers... some cookies... uh... yeah. You missed a great time, man. But hey, here's the olds.
More Toy Archive Additions
Our latest Toy Box update is ready (after all, it's the 19th): Ironbuster Rockman 8.
Spider-Man and other developments will resume tomorrow.
Sony & Emulators: Actual Developments
The Register is reporting that Sony is buying software developer Connectix. You might remember Connectix as the developer of one of the first (if not the first) commercially available PlayStation emulator, and it was a Mac product to boot. Read the article, feel free to draw your own conclusions.
In other surprising PSX emulation news, nothing happened with Bleem! today.
Tribute Albums
Darryl & I have yet to determine what we think of this, other than it's about ten years too soon. What is it? It's The Weezer Tribute Album.
Skunk Ape Records is issuing a tribute album for Weezer. For the uninitiated, Weezer is a band who is very much like The Beatles, except they're American, have only two albums, haven't gotten much recent radio play, and appeal to a smaller audience. (OK, they're nothing like The Beatles, but we still love them.)
We like the Weezer and we like the idea of tribute albums. (Where else can you hear Supernova AND The Aquabats on one CD but on one of... oh, seven or so Devo tributes?) I know I was genuinely surprised to see a tribute album come out of Japan for The Plastics*, and just about every classic punk band has had at least one tribute disc come their way. But isn't there like some sort of pop culture barometer for a tribute disc? Doesn't there need to be some long, illustrious career... or a cult following of an obscure act? Eh. Next...
Random
Friend of 16bit Pete loaned me a stack of CDs. The new Pizzicato Five? Good. Very good. Friend of 16bit.com Michael sent in some Squirrel Nut Zippers brand candy... the stuff the band took their name from. (Dem's tasty.) Oh... and if there's any chance of someone stumbling on this site randomly (not bloody likely) you might be interested in knowing I'm doing a Q&A Megathon on Rebelscum this... well, month at least.
--AP
*- The Plastics, while a great band, haven't released a new studio album in nearly 20 years, and the tribute was pretty recent. Obscure? Sure. But that's how we like it. (And I'm still looking for an original CD copy of "Welcome Plastics" if anybody knows where to get one.)
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PS2s A-Sittin'
A recent toy run has indicated that a variety of retaillers are starting to stock the much ballyhooed game playing DVD machine known as the PS2 once again. Amongst the stores we spotted units at: Kay-Bee Toys, Target, Software Etc., Electronics Boutique. If you want one, grab the yellow pages and dial around, you might find just what you want.
Clearances
Electronics Boutique (EB), a popuar mall video game store chain, has marked down numerous toys in some locations. Power of the Jedi Star Wars as low as $2, tons of Pokemon products under a dollar, Diablo II toys for $0.87, and lots of other goodies. If you've got a few bucks, the trip is well worth it. I spent four bucks and scored three nice toys. (Oh, and yet another WB store was checked and did in fact stock another freebie Cartoon Network comic.)
--AP
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New Simpsons
A few reports came in, and apparently there's gonna be a Radioactive Man and Fallout Boy set, with Milhouse as the legendary boy wonder. EB World has the pair for sale on their site, and to date no word on how exclusive they will or won't be has gotten out.
Check it out!
New TransFormers PVCs
Act 3 pics are apparently up and running on The TF2005.com Web Board, with this being a direct link to the picture. Go on, check it out. You know you wanna...
The series includes Soundwave (now I'm happy) along with Bumblebee and Spike, Fortress Maximus, Raiden (the infamous trainbot combiner), Ironhide & Chromedome, and Sixshot.
Chase figures? Megatron being reformatted is one, with a kinda pinkish hue. The other is Optimus Prime with a chunk of his torso blown away. We, for one, are glad these are getting less cool so now we have no desire to pick them up.
This wave is, sadly, not nearly as cool as many may have hoped. While it's great to see two of my favorite TransFormers in plastic, I'd be lying if I said I knew all of the Japanese characters particularly well.
Be sure to check out the picture-- it has a toy show display with all three acts. Looks pretty slick.
--AP
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Tucson Music Stores: Who Needs Napster?
Holy Hell.
This weekend, like any other, involved me getting bored and venturing out into the wide world of commercial Tucson, with the main intent to hunt for toys. My good friend Pete was in town, so we decided to check out the various music stores. If you're in town, or like good stories, keep reading.
Our first stop was at a place called CD City, a nice little place with a giant two for $5 CD section as well as a lot of discounted stuff. There were many a bargain to be had, from Fred Schneider solo stuff to They Might Be Giants preview discs to Devo's "EZ Listening Disc" for a paltry $6. Oh-- and about fifty sundry Spin Doctors discs. Now you know where those are...
Later, we hit a place called Zip's on Speedway. Lots of stuff, new and used, as well as a huge $2 CD section. Lots of good compilations, and we each found a brand spankin' new copy of Rocket From The Crypt's "Scream, Dracula, Scream." Good stuff, especially for the price.
But the real jackpot was still to come at the brand-new Zia on Speedway. It's a big store with a lot of new product, it's clean, it's got a stage, and it's got a 10 CDs for $1 section. You read right-- $0.10 CDs, not bootlegs, being blown out. We each spent around a buck and found some goodies including some Japanese imports I have never heard of before, some Pulsars discs, and a crapload of stuff that I've heard alluded to in the past somewhere.
The moral of the story: you can, in fact, get a dozen decent CDs in Tucson for just under twelve bucks. We HIGHLY reccomend checking out your local, smaller indie record shops for similar deals. While some of the stuff we've never heard of before, well... I have to say that I've only listened to one of the CDs I got for a dime so far, and it's great. A $0.10 CD is a heck of a good deal... and you might scare up something good, too.
Oh, and Darryl's been sick. So he didn't score any $0.10 CDs. Awww...
--AP
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Progress
Well, as always, it's been one of those weeks, and a backlog of stuff needs to be cleaned up and uploaded for your bemusement. So come on back Monday to see the goods.
As you may guess by the title... I just got my most favoritest childhood toy back. (Or rather, found a mint-in-crap-box one on eBay.) Expect a feature real soon.
--AP
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Click Here For News From February!
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