Toy OTD: Konami Wacky Races Vehicles, Vols. 1 & 2 (2003)

Doubtless I've written this several times before - the Wacky Races cartoon is a big guilty pleasure of mine. The scripts are beyond thin, and the animation is uninspired at best. The highlights of the show - like much of Hanna-Barbera's output for me - are the voices and the design work. I love those cars!

There hasn't been a lot of WR merchandise over the years, and most of it isn't all that good. Even the best of these - a few model kits and cereal premiums - have somewhat limited appeal, aside from nostalgia value. So it's great to see some super-cool versions of the Racers coming out after all this time!

Konami released some fantastic toys about seven years ago (merchandising seems to be cyclical). The best part is that they made all of the vehicles - usually, manufacturers seem to focus on the Mean Machine, the Compact Pussycat, and the Turbo Terrific. There's a few downsides to this line, but for right now, let's focus on the good news...

These toys are pretty small - smaller than your average discast. But for this scale, they do have great sculpts and detailing. All of the contestants and their sidekicks have been included, too. They're hard to see here, but even the Ant Hill Mob is inside the Bulletproof Bomb! Nice.

The paintwork is also strong considering the scale. The colors might be a little brighter than they were on the show, but in general they're accurate and fun-looking. We're not just talking one or two passes, here, either - all (or almost all) of the colors needed were applied. Most of the drivers have some facial detail, and the printed numbers/logos are sharp.

Okay, now for the drawbacks. The biggest one is that the line was released in two 'volumes' of blind-boxed toys. This type of thing is never cheap, either as individual purchases or as pre-gathered sets on the secondary market. Of course each series had a super-rare 'chase' item too, which can be kind of fun if you're excited by 'the hunt'. Unfortunately, the chase for volume one was Dick Dastardly's Double Zero - arguably the most popular car on the show! Ugh. This piece would have been popular in any case, so to make it a chase just seems cruel.

I believe Vol. 2's chase was a small figurine of Muttley, Dastardly's snickering canine companion. Muttley was so popular, he was also in Dick Dastardly and his Flying Machines, featured in many other H-B shows like Laff-A-Lympics, and starred in a cartoon of his own! Understandably, the Muttley figurine wasn't to scale with the cars.

The other big drawback is that the cars aren't free-wheeling - the wheels are cast or glued in place on their axles. It does allow for the wheels to be accurately sculpted as ovals (right off the model sheets), but I think almost anyone would want their toy car to roll around. A real shame, but I do appreciate the extra mile for accuracy.

The packaging is a little busy-looking, but is otherwise as great as the line itself. Volumes One and Two had similar box designs, but were different enough that shoppers could at least tell which group of cars they were trying to collect! Both are decorated with spiffy model-sheet graphics backed with a fun gear pattern. The box backs feature the cars included in each 'volume', as well as the chase toys.

There's no balance issues with any of the vehicles, but each one was packed with a labeled display base. Without a dust cover, the bases seem a little extraneous to me, but again I appreciate the extra effort!

As I mentioned earlier, blind-boxed toys can be expensive to collect, especially on the secondary market. Buying a set of even one volume (much less both) looks unlikely at this point. There's some individual auctions on eBay right now that range from 99¢ - $70.00 + shipping (for the Double Zero). Some of the cars are for sale at ycosplay.com - they range from $9.95 - $29.95 + shipping. Happy hunting!

Toy OTD: McFarlane Hanna-Barbera Figures Series 2: Yogi Bear (2007)

Hanna-Barbera characters were terrific ideas for a toy line, but the uneven quality made supporting the concept difficult. Ultimately, I'm not sure the demand was there either, which is a shame - there's not a lot of really great Hanna-Barbera toys to be had.

The Yogi Bear set-up is one of the nicer toys in McFarlane's shot at H-B merchandising. The situation depicted is classic - Ranger Smith chasing after Yogi and Boo Boo - and the posing is lively and fun. Most of the piece feels like it's right out of an old-school View-Master reel!

The grouping of the characters, though, feels a bit off - Ranger Smith feels further away than he might need to be. Boo Boo's expression seems somewhat dead-eyed as well. Granted, he's a deadpan sort of personality, but his face still feels static. Other than these minuses, the sculpting is quite strong. The base detail is kept simple, like the show's aesthetic, and it doesn't compete with the figures. The base is so big, balance issues (and branding) are happily nonexistent.

The paint work could be a touch tighter, but overall it's fine - the colors are well chosen and evoke the characters perfectly.

The gimmick of mounting the figures on short springs initially gave me some concern, since things like that tend to backfire over time. I fully expected to discover the trio had slumped over a few months after opening the package, but so far, so good. The springs seem to be strong enough to add a wobbling motion without sacrificing long-term display quality.

Generally, the packaging for this line was pretty sharp, and this blister/card combo is no exception. There's some nice artwork of Yogi with the old-school H-B logo nestled among spiffy retro graphics. The blister displays the figures well for paint scrutiny, and there's also a nice photo of the completed set-up (which I like to have, just in case the instructions don't quite work for me). It's a pretty straightforward approach, but you'd be surprised (or maybe you wouldn't) how often this can be screwed up. There's just enough art to support the toy's appeal without overwhelming it.

This item is only three years old, so it's still readily available, and it hasn't gone up in price all that much. You can get one right now at moviepostersetc.com for $14.97 + shipping. If you miss out, eBay has a couple for sale at about the same price. Keep an eye on the shipping, and have fun!

Toy OTD: Knickerbocker Hanna-Barbera Plush: Yogi Bear (1959)

Most of the time, I'm a fanatic about how similar a toy looks to its original source - the more "on-model", the better! Sometimes, though, "off-model" toys have a certain charm. There's few toys more oddly appealing than Hanna-Barbera merchandise from the late fifties and early sixties.

It's amazing that stuffed Yogi here still looks cute in spite of the fact that the entire head was molded in the muzzle color, making Yogi look as if he'd been shaved. In fact, there's not much fuzziness to be had anywhere - only the paws look fairly cuddly. While Yogi's usually brown, it's fairly safe to say that this toy wasn't, even if you account for fading. As crazy as this doll may look when you set it next to the cartoon character, this is nothing compared to other old H&B toys!

This toy is pretty sun-bleached, and who knows how much fur has worn off in the last fifty years. I'm pretty sure that it's complete, but just because it has all of the clothing that's featured in the drawing doesn't mean that something isn't missing! Toys from this period will be colored in crazy ways or sport clothing, accessories - even fur! - that they never had in the cartoons.

There is something really great about this toy, though, and that's simplicity. The shapes and colors of the plush may be way off, but overall the design's not much more complicated than the original artwork. There's four paint passes on the head - that's it. Grab the closest modern toy within reach, and unless it came from a party store, there's probably a lot more than four paint passes. There's just four fabric colors/types on the body, too.

I really like the use of vinyl heads atop plush bodies. That's pretty rare these days, as it probably doesn't pass muster under modern safety standards. Still, you get the design crispness of vinyl combined with the cuddliness of a plush, which I think is pretty cool.

I know that some Knickerbocker toys were packed in boxes, but I'm not sure if this particular item was - I think some may have simply been sold with a tag. The package designs weren't dazzling, if I remember right... mostly some red/blue text graphics on cardboard-colored boxes, similar to the old Fisher-Price containers from the same period. The tags weren't all that exciting either, but they had a boldness and simplicity to them.

This toy is old enough that you'll need to look at toy shows or on eBay to find one. I think I paid about $65 for mine, so you might have to pay more if you find something in even better shape. Still, a lot of people are cashing out their collections these days, so you may be able to find a deal. There's a great-looking 26" version on eBay right now, in fact! Here's another one starting at $6.00. There's several more for sale, but many are missing the tie, so be careful. Look sharp and happy bidding!

PS - Now that I've pored over some eBay photos, I'm a lot less certain that my Yogi plush was originally yellow.

Photo by Jeff Pidgeon.
Yogi title card art courtesy of Warner Brothers and this blog.

Toy OTD: Musical Banana Splits Plush: Snorky

Here's yet another late '60s Hanna-Barbera show that I don't like all that much, but still feel compelled to collect the merchandise! What can I say? I like Iwao Takamoto's character designs, like many of the other H-B programs.

The show was essentially Laugh-In for kids. The Splits (animal musician costumes created by Sid & Marty Krofft) would 'perform' songs, which were broken up with animated segments (The Three Musketeers), live-action serials (Danger Island) and various non sequitur comedy bits.

There was a fair amount of toys spun off from the series, but Splits figures haven't been made all that often. So when a set of eight-inch 'beanie' plushes surfaced in the UK, I snapped up the best-looking one: the drummer, Snorky!

As you can see, my love for these characters transcends my finicky nature - it's not very accurate to the later Snorky, much less the early version of the design. The trunk, hands and feet are inexplicably dark, and the eyes seem small and poorly mounted. Simply changing the eyes' pupils, lowering their position on the head, or maintaining better alignment would boost this toy's appeal in a big way! The polka dots on the ears seem too large and too close together, and the fur seems to be a bit too dark. The proportions are fine otherwise, and the plastic hat is a great touch.

Ideally, it'd be wonderful if this toy could stand or sit on its own - my biggest issue with plushes is that the majority of them can't - but that doesn't detract from things all that much.

There's also a musical feature - squeeze Snorky's tummy, and he (she?) plays the Banana Splits theme song. Kids will probably enjoy it, but the novelty wears off quickly. It's a nice detail, but personally I'd rather that the effort had gone into the plush itself.

I still can't find these for sale in the U.S, but you can get Snorky right now (not to mention the other band members) on eBay.uk starting at £2.99 + £2.00 shipping. Good luck!

Another Tom & Jerry Movie On The Way

VARIETY: Tom and Jerry head to the bigscreen
Warner Bros. playing cat and mouse game
By MARC GRASER - Posted: Wed., Jan. 21, 2009, 9:00pm PT

Warner Bros. is turning to Tom and Jerry to create its own "Alvin and the Chipmunks"-like family franchise.

Plans are to bring the constantly warring cat and mouse to life as CG characters that run around in live-action settings.

Studio-based Dan Lin, currently producing the upcoming "Sherlock Holmes" and exec producer on "Terminator: Salvation," will adapt the classic Hanna-Barbera property as an origin story that reveals how Tom and Jerry first meet and form their rivalry before getting lost in Chicago and reluctantly working together during an arduous journey home.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Toy OTD: McFarlane Hanna-Barbera Figures, Series 2: The Flintstones - Fred & Dino

The McFarlane Hanna-Barbera action figure line, while in concept is something that I've been eagerly waiting for, in reality turned out to be a pretty uneven affair. The figure choices were repetitive, and the posing ranged from terrific to awkward at best. Still, series two did show marked improvement over series one, so it's a shame that series three never made it to toy shelves.

This figure is one of series two's highlights! It's a great situation from the original show, looking like it was lifted right from a frame grab (I'd like to think that I influenced the choice of this figure - I did submit this idea to McFarlane, but received no answer, so who knows?). The color choices are really nice, though the paint work itself is a little rough (I remember my figure being pretty discolored upon opening it - that matte finish stuff seems to rub off onto other parts mighty easily).

There's almost no articulation at all, aside from Fred's neck (to help align his face to Dino's) and his feet, which kick as you turn a small wheel on the back of the display base. It works, but it's clunky enough that you wonder if it was really worth the rise in price point to do. The base itself is simple - no branding or logos - and themed to the characters. Nice!

The blister packaging is pretty good, allowing a wide, clear view of the toy for those (like me) who like to check paint jobs. I wish the larger art were more retro-looking (like the figure itself), but it's still above average as far as domestic toy packaging goes.

Unfortunately, this line sold rather poorly, so this figure is still very easy to get - it costs $12.94 + shipping at animerpm.com. You might be able to find it for an even lower price on eBay. Good luck!

Toy OTD: Ideal Magilla Gorilla Plush ('60s)

You don't see this construction approach used often anymore, but I like it: a vinyl head or face attached to a plush body. You can play to the strengths of both materials, each to its advantage: the precision of vinyl to get a more on-model face, and the cuddliness of a plush. I'm assuming it's too hard to anchor down a vinyl head to meet today's safety standards - or maybe it's simply a lot more expensive.

For a plush, there's a lot of detail: the tie, pants, suspenders, differently-colored shoes, 'shoelaces', even the little bars on the suspenders! The colors may not be spot-on, but they're close enough to evoke the character properly. The head sculpt is appealing, and the paint work is pretty tight, considering the era that the toys was made. Of course, the 'airbrushed' highlights in the mouth and ears are particularly nice!

If you buy plushes, you're probably going to have balance issues, and sure enough this toy can't stand or sit on its own. It's a shame that the design couldn't commit to one or the other, but the looks is so fun and colorful (not to mention accurate) that it helps to make up for it.

If you want to get a Magilla of your own, you can buy one at gasolinealleyantiques.com for $95.00 + shipping. Have fun!

Toy OTD: 1:18 Scale Johnny Lightning Diecast: The Mystery Machine

It's always great to see a company move outside of its core audience to reach others. While I loved tiny die-cast cars as a kid (mainly Matchboxes), in general I've left that interest behind. Anyone who's trying to keep their Hot Wheels collection complete in the face of the latest enormous wave will know what I mean! Not that I have anything against them, there's just too damn many to collect, unless that's all you collect, and even then you're in for a rough ride.

So I need to narrow my focus when I collect diecast vehicles, and that generally means gathering up only the examples that jab at my animation/nostalgia lobes deeply enough to override my better judgement. I tend to stick with 1/18 scale too, as they gobble up space quickly enough to keep me from getting too carried away.

This is one of the first toy cars I bought, and it's a pip. It sports a great paint job - one that's nicely on-model, from the original awkwardly-drawn logo right down to the 'flower power' hubcaps. This toy is clearly made for younger children, as it doesn't have steerable wheels or opening doors. Minuses to be sure, but the thing that bothers me the most is that there's no characters riding inside at all.

I'm assuming that this is a taste thing with the majority of diecast car collectors - they want the car, dammit, and they don't want things ruined with the presence of some figurines symbolizing much of what they didn't like about the show anyway. I'm not one of those folks, but if the manufacturers aren't sufficiently motivated, I do prefer no passengers to badly-cast or -painted ones, so I'll give it a pass.

I picked this up some time ago, but it's still easy to get on eBay. The price seems to range between roughly twenty-five and fifty dollars. Good luck!

In Other Hanna-Barbera News

My CalArts buddy Mark Christiansen just finished a book of his Sid Sirloin character, and you can buy it right now on eBay for $5.00 + shipping (sales tax too, if you're a CA resident)!

Mark is a super-hard-core Hanna-Barbera fan, and his work reflects the best qualities of the H-B style. Pick up a heaping teaspoon of piping hot nostalgia for yourself, or for your little one(s)! You'll be glad you did. Well, I know Mark will. Me, too.

Yogi Bear Returns to The Big Screen

YAHOO! NEWS: Yogi, Boo-Boo ready for their close-ups
By Steven Zeitchik - Thu Oct 2, 8:46 AM ET

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Warner Bros. is taking a trip to Jellystone Park.

The studio is developing a feature version of "Yogi Bear," the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon. "Surf's Up" co-helmer/co-writer Ash Brannon will direct the film.

To read more, click here.

Cool View-Master Scans

Bob Logan has figured out how to scan old View-Master reels, and he's generously put many of my favorite images on his blog. Take a look!

I love these old 3-D set-ups - they're so charming! I hope someone at McFarlane Toys uses them as reference for their Hanna-Barbera figure line. Here's hoping...

Toy OTD: Applause Jetsons Doll: Elroy (1990)

This is an older toy that I've had since my days at Tiny Toons (we're talking early nineties). Warner Brothers TV Animation was in the Imperial Bank building, right next to the Sherman Oaks Galleria. Naturally, we'd pop down there at lunchtime to shop and play video games. One of the neastest stores in the mall was part of a chain called Cartoon Junction.

Animated features and television shows were getting better again after a big dry period in the late sixties through to the mid-eighties. They also started to make money, and a new generation of cartoon geeks were growing up and began earning disposable income. The means to manufacture toys had improved drastically since the last peak in the late fifties/early sixties. The success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? inspired many studios to re-examine their classic licenses. The time was right for a new wave of animation-based merchandise, so chains like The Disney Store and Cartoon Junction began to emerge.

Anyway, this is one of the toys I bought at Cartoon Junction when merchandising began to pick up. Applause released a line of vinyl/plush Jetsons toys, and though the line was pretty uneven in terms of quality, I snapped up George and Elroy!

It's an appealing combination of materials, the vinyl allowing for a far more accurate facial sculpt. The plush body makes it a bit cuddlier, plus it gives the feeling of a cloth costume, since the extremities are vinyl, too. In the minus column, it's not all that posable, plus it doesn't balance very well. The plush collar is very thick, so it might have been better to cast it with the vinyl head, and then segue to the cloth body. Otherwise, it's a cute, affordable toy.

This figure isn't in big demand, so it shouldn't cost you a lot of money to buy. There's an auction for one on eBay right now starting at $9.95 + shipping, complete with its original tags. Good luck!

Toy OTD: Funko Wacky Wobbler SDCC Exclusive: Scooby-Dum (2007)

I can feel your respect for me as a collector slipping away, and I'm not sure that I blame you. Scooby-Doo wasn't exactly Hanna-Barbera's creative zenith, and the show was wearing pretty thin by the time that Scooby-Dum came along. So why did I buy this?

I'm a big-time sucker for merchandise of obscure cartoon characters, and I do like how this was made. It's not perfect - the eye paint is a little weak, and it does have a(n arguably more necessary) label on it. But I like the fact that the pose is well-balanced, and that the base has been kept to a minimum (making it monochromatric - with the name sculpted on it, and not painted - might've been nice. Placing the nodder pivot at the collar is a good call, too.

This was an exclusive at the Funko booth last summer at San Diego Comic-Con. It's still for sale at toywiz.com for $69.99 + shipping (!!), a far cry from the under-$20 price that I paid. Surprisingly, eBay is the far saner option, selling there for $11.50 + $8.00 shipping. Phew! That's much better - Scooby-Dum's not that interesting a curio!

Ruff And Reddy Episodes Viewable Online!

Check 'em out over at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive! They're protean H-B, to be sure, but it's neat to see. This series isn't available on DVD yet, so take a look and expand your Hanna-Barbera nerditry!

Toy OTD: Belae Scooby-Doo Soap Bottle (1999)

This isn't a Soaky soap bottle - (I think) those were made from the late fifties into the early seventies, so this is far too modern. Still, it's a terrific sculpt - better than a lot of the older bottle toys. It's great how the designer hid any trace of the cap under the head (it separates below the collar).

They get big points, too, for picking a character that you can sculpt in a pose that can form a bottle shape nicely, without resorting to props or small backgrounds. The colors of the head and body plastic are two clearly different browns (not as obvious in the picture), but it's a minor quibble considering how on-model and in character it is!

I bought this new at a Walgreens (or Target, or something like that) for less than ten dollars. I can't find one for sale online right now, so pop in a favorite search on eBay and keep your fingers crossed!

Toy OTD: Japanese Muttley Bank

I imagine I've mentioned before that Wacky Races merchandise is still fairly common in Japan. Aside from the cars themselves, Muttley is a very popular character in any WR toy line, maybe because he was a cartoon survivor, going from Wacky Races to Dastardly and Muttley In Their Flying Machines and other Hanna-Barbera shows later on. Plus, he's a cute cuddly dog - it's not super-tough marketing math!

I picked up this vinyl bank about eight or nine years ago from eBay, when that was the easiest way to get Japanese toys. It's still one of my favorite H-B/WR pieces. It's a great sculpt, capturing the iconic pose really well. It's not marked up with any unnecessary branding or logos, and the coin slot is handily out of sight when viewed from the front. The paint work is limited and simple, but well-executed. The colors may not be perfectly on-model, but they're bright and appealing. I'm not sure who the manufacturer is - there doesn't seem to be any markings on it anywhere.

Even though I bought this quite a while ago, two eBay auctions popped right up on the first try. You can buy one for $22.00 + $7.61 shipping (or best offer) right now from SHE_WOLF DOG TOYS - enjoy!

Toy OTD: "Top Cat" Figurines: Choo Choo & Spook (1990)

I think I found these obscure Hanna-Barbera figurines on eBay while looking for a Top Cat bowling set. Most character merchandise hadn't really kicked into high gear yet, so these sculpts - while fairly on model - are somewhat soft. The paint work is pretty loose too, but they remind me of the Tinykin figures that I grew up with in the seventies, so they work for me!

I think the biggest minus is choosing to sculpt Choo Choo with a Walkman-style radio and monster headphones, which firmly dates it to its era. Still, these character designs are so appealing to me that I'll overlook a lot of production weaknesses - at least they're not dressed like rappers or bikers, which became very popular a little later on.

I have no idea if there are figurines of all the characters or not - I've never been able to find a full set from the same manufacturer (whoever they are - there's nothing written on the figures except a copyright notice). I do have another character (Fancy Fancy), but I haven't photographed him yet.

I don't recall these being expensive - I think they cost about twenty or thirty dollars each. You'll have to cast a pretty wide net on eBay to run across any of them (try plugging in simply 'top cat' for best, if voluminous, results). Whatacharacter.com may also have some of them, if you do some digging. Good luck!

Toy OTD: Ahi/Azrak-Hamway Int'l Flintmobile (1974)

I love me some Flintmobile! It's one of the neatest looking cartoon vehicles, and it beat the Wacky Races cars by roughly ten years. I love the design, I love the sound effect it makes when it drives away, and I love that's it's the only car where driving it's about a million times harder than walking! You can't even turn it around without picking the whole damn thing up into the air. Fred may be overweight, but he's no weakling. One 'wheel' alone probably weighs as much as he does!

Anyway, here's a motorized version from the early seventies. This one's broken, so I have no idea how mobile it would be. This design preserves almost everything I like about the car - nice, simple shapes and appealing colors. The toy's proportions are also really nice - ofttimes the car gets too wide in order to accommodate all of the characters. That being said, it's too bad that Wilma and Betty got bumped, but you see Fred and Barney carpooling on the show a lot, so it makes sense (though if you follow that line of reasoning, Dino shouldn't be there). I wish Dino was poking through the soft top like he does in the opening sequence, but the designer's solution is still pretty appealing.

I bought this on eBay - since it wasn't working and not very old, I don't think it was all that expensive. On the other hand, it doesn't seem all that common, either - I can't find another one online anywhere. I think an eBay Favorite Search is in order, if you want this car!

UPDATE (08/05/09): Here's some added info from bfentworld@verizon.net:
"The car was meant for a table - when it got to an edge, a rod dropped down to trigger a turn/rotate in another direction, towards another edge of the table."

Warm, Fuzzy Nostalgia Or Ungodly Crap? You Decide

As you may have seen on my Flickr page, I just found a treasure trove/trash pile of old Hanna-Barbera kiddie LPs (both sleeve scans and uploadable mp3s) at the Children's Records and More blog.

None of them are all that good, but I only had two of these records as a kid, and I was always curious to hear to the others. The neat thing about them is that they use real H-B voice talent (except Alan Reed and Mel Blanc), music and sound effects! Plus the sleeve art is pretty cool. Check 'em out!

Thanks to Men-oo-she-a for the tip-off!

Another New Flickr Group!

I noticed that there wasn't a Hanna-Barbera photo group on the Flickr site, which seemed odd. You'd think it's a general enough topic that someone would've set one up before today. Maybe it's too general, and most folks pick a specific show to feature. Who knows?

Anyhow, as you can see by the link above, I started one! Feel free to join and post lots of images of anything H-B!

Toy OTD: '60s Ideal Peter Potamus Doll

This is a really nice vintage doll I found on eBay a while back. It's unusual that a plush can stand on its own, so it gets big points just for that (I think there's a bendable frame within the stuffing)! It's still cuddly, and quite well made - the designers made the head out of plastic so that material could do the heavy design lifting. Nice colors and simple details - the leg wrinkles even work for the character! Good proportions, too.

I think this toy cost around $60.00 or so. There's one for sale at gasolinealleyantiques.com for $79.50 + shipping, but it's not in very good shape. I see the phrases rare! and hard to find! thrown about by dealers so often, I never really know when to believe it.

Toy OTD: Funko Wacky Wobbler: Velma

Funko just keeps delivering plenty of kidvid love - this time in the form of everyone's favorite bespectacled teen detective, Velma! As usual, the sculpt is nice, and the paint apps, while varying to a degree, are also good.

Rather than give the character a grotesquely oversized head, the designer wisely chose to bobble Velma at the waist, like a hula nodder. It's a nice touch that best preserves the integrity of the source design. There's the usual awkward and unecessary labeling of the base, but all things considered, it's a minor quibble.

You can get a Velma Wobbler for $8.49 + shipping at givemetoys.com.

About Fucking Time Dept.

VARIETY: WB sends 'Jonny Quest' to bigscreen
Mazeau to adapt Hanna-Barbera series
By MARC GRASER - Posted: Tue., Aug. 7, 2007, 7:30pm PT

Adrian Askarieh and Daniel Alter, who have the vidgame-based "Hitman" bowing in October from Fox, will produce the live-action adaptation of the popular 1960s animated TV series from Hanna-Barbera, with Dan Mazeau penning the script.

Series revolved around a young boy who travels the world with his scientist father, adopted brother from India, Bandit the bulldog, and a government agent assigned to protect them as they go on their adventures investigating scientific mysteries.

The show, which is owned by Warner Bros. Animation, aired during primetime on ABC in 1964, lasting only one season. It was updated in the late '80s and '90s as "The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest" on the Cartoon Network. Property's also been spun off as a comic book from DC.

Askarieh, a longtime fan of the series, is hoping to turn the property into a family-friendly adventure franchise -- something the studio is clearly looking for now that "Harry Potter" is winding down.

Mazeau recently sold his fantasy adventure spec "Land of Lost Things" to Paramount Pictures' Nickelodeon Films, with Arnold and Anne Kopelson producing.

Warner Bros. execs Dan Lin and Matt Reilly will oversee "Jonny Quest" at the studio, which is lensing another film version of an iconic '60s TV series, "Speed Racer."

*************************************************************************************

Oh, who am I kidding? Even though I've been waiting for this forever, there's no way such an anachronistic show could be updated without losing the horribly inappropriate flavor that I ashamedly love.

I think they should just expand the "Turu the Terrible" episode to feature length. It has everything - an ex-nazi in a wheelchair excavating a secret jungle diamond mine with his pet pterodactyl! Plus jet packs and bazookas! I mean, C'MON!!

Cool H-B Record Sleeve Art

A co-worker of mine hipped me to this web page that sells obscure LPs converted into cheap mp3 files. I was excited to see that they have a couple of the old Hanna-Barbera records there, too! If you get an album from the site, they throw in a scan of the album sleeve. Neat!

I saw a bunch of these when I was a kid (on the back of the Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm LP), and always loved the 'realistic' lighting applied to 'cartoony' characters. I still think they look awesome - even the font choices are cool! Does anyone know who painted these?

Real-Life Wacky Races Cars

Apparently, there's a racing event in Britain called the Goodwood Festival of Speed. There's a show within the event called the Junior Festival Of Speed where working mock-ups of the Wacky Racers amuse the crowd! Eight out of the eleven cars on the show are now represented in the flesh. Cool!

Iwao Takamoto, 1926 - 2007

LA TIMES: Scooby-Doo creator Iwao Takamoto dies
From Associated Press 8:05 AM PST, January 9, 2007

In a career that spanned more than six decades, Iwao Takamoto assisted in the designs of some of the biggest animated features and television shows, including "Cinderella," "Peter Pan," "Lady and the Tramp" and "The Flintstones."

But it was Takamoto's creation of Scooby-Doo, the cowardly dog with an adventurous heart, that captivated audiences and endured for generations.

Takamoto died Monday of heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Warner Bros. spokesman Gary Miereanu said. He was 81.

Born in Los Angeles to parents who had emigrated from Japan, Takamoto graduated high school when World War II began. He and his family were sent to the Manzanar internment camp in the California desert, where he learned the art of illustration from fellow internees.

Despite a lack of formal training, he landed an interview with Walt Disney Studios when he returned to Los Angeles and was hired as an apprentice.

Takamoto worked under the tutelage of Disney's "nine old men," the studio's team of legendary animators responsible for its biggest full-length films before moving to Hanna-Barbera Studios in 1961. There he worked on cartoons for television, including "Josie and the Pussy Cats," "The Great Grape Ape Show," "Harlem Globe Trotters" and "The Secret Squirrel Show."

Takamoto said he created Scooby-Doo after talking with a Great Dane breeder, and named him after Frank Sinatra's final phrase in "Strangers in the Night."

The breeder "showed me some pictures and talked about the important points of a Great Dane, like a straight back, straight legs, small chin and such," Takamoto said in a recent talk at Cartoon Network Studios.

"I decided to go the opposite and gave him a hump back, bowed legs, big chin and such. Even his color is wrong."

Takamoto also created other famous cartoon dogs such as Astro from "The Jetsons" and Muttley, the mixed-breed that appeared in several Hanna-Barbera animations. He also directed the 1973 feature "Charlotte's Web."

Takamoto was survived by his wife, Barbara, son Michael and stepdaughter Leslie.

Funeral arrangements were pending.

Another Joe Barbera Obituary

NY TIMES: Joseph Barbera, Half of Cartoon Duo, Dies at 95
By DAVE ITZKOFF Published: December 19, 2006

Joseph Barbera, an innovator of animation who teamed with William Hanna to give generations of young television viewers a pantheon of beloved characters, including Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound and the Flintstones, died yesterday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 95.

A spokesman for Warner Brothers said he died of natural causes, The Associated Press reported.

Mr. Barbera and the studio he founded with Mr. Hanna, Hanna-Barbera Productions, became synonymous with television animation, yielding more than 100 cartoon series over four decades, including “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?,” “Jonny Quest” and “The Smurfs.”

On signature televisions shows like “The Flintstones” and “The Jetsons,” the two men developed a cartoon style that combined colorful, simply drawn characters (often based on other recognizable pop-culture personalities) with the narrative structures and joke-telling techniques of traditional live-action sitcoms. They were television’s first animated comedy programs.

Before that, Mr. Barbera and Mr. Hanna had worked together on more than 120 hand-drawn cartoon shorts for MGM, dozens of which starred the archetypal cat-and-mouse team Tom and Jerry. The Hanna-Barbera collaboration lasted more than 60 years. The critic Leonard Maltin, in his book “Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons,” wrote that Mr. Barbera’s strength was more in his drawing and gag writing while Mr. Hanna had a good sense of comic timing and giving characters warmth.

“I was never a good artist,” said Mr. Hanna, who died in 2001. But Mr. Barbera, he said, “has the ability to capture mood and expression in a quick sketch better than anyone I’ve ever known.”

Born Joseph Roland Barbera on March 24, 1911, in the Little Italy section of Manhattan and raised in Flatbush, Brooklyn, Mr. Barbera tried his hand at banking, playwriting and amateur boxing before the successful sale of a sketch to Collier’s magazine encouraged him to pursue a career as a cartoon artist. He wrote a letter to Walt Disney, then a rising star of California’s animation industry, in search of employment; Mr. Disney apparently promised to look Mr. Barbera up on a subsequent visit to New York, but the proposed meeting never took place.

Instead, Mr. Barbera began his animation career on the East Coast. After a four-day stint with the animator Max Fleischer, he began writing gags and drawing cartoon cels for the Van Beuren Studios in 1932. When the studio shut down in 1936, he found work at the Terrytoon Studios in New Rochelle, N.Y., but one year later was lured away to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s animation unit in Culver City, Calif.

It was at MGM that Mr. Barbera was first paired with Mr. Hanna, a veteran cartoon writer and musical composer and lyricist. After toiling on a short-lived series of animated shorts based on the Katzenjammer Kids comic strips, the two men formed a plan to produce their own material.

As Mr. Barbera recalled in an interview in Michael Mallory’s book “Hanna-Barbera Cartoons,” “In desperation one time, we were sitting in a room waiting for the place to fold, and I said to Bill: ‘Why don’t we try a cartoon of our own?’ ”

Their first such project for MGM, a 1940 theatrical short called “Puss Gets the Boot,” introduced audiences to a relentless cat named Jasper, perpetually frustrated in his pursuit of a crafty mouse called Jinx. It was nominated for an Academy Award. Over the next 17 years, the occasionally sadistic antics that Mr. Barbera and Mr. Hanna devised for their anthropomorphic rivals — rechristened Tom and Jerry — would earn MGM another 13 Oscar nominations and seven statuettes.

Though MGM put Mr. Barbera and Mr. Hanna in charge of its animation division in 1955, the studio closed the unit two years later. So the two turned to their side company, H-B Enterprises, which they had established to produce animated television commercials, and began working full time on television programs.

Their first series, “The Ruff & Ready Show,” had its debut on NBC in December 1957. That was followed in 1958 by “The Huckleberry Hound Show,” about a powder-blue pooch who spoke and sung (badly) with a Southern drawl. That series later won an Emmy and yielded a spinoff show for one of its supporting characters, an Ed Norton-like forest denizen named Yogi Bear.

Mr. Barbera and Mr. Hanna revisited the template of “The Honeymooners” in 1960 to create their most popular series, “The Flintstones,” a half-hour animated sitcom about two families living in the Stone Age suburb of Bedrock. It appeared in prime time on ABC and was a top-20 show in its first year.

Despite its fanciful setting, “The Flintstones” hewed to sitcom conventions, using sight gags and one-liners that centered on the domestic squabbles of the prehistoric couple Fred and Wilma Flintstone. Propelled by a catchy, brassy theme song, “Meet the Flintstones” (introduced in the show’s third season), and Fred’s thunderous yell, “Yabba-dabba-doo!” “The Flintstones” ran for 166 episodes over six seasons.

In the succeeding years, Hanna-Barbera produced numerous prime-time, syndicated and Saturday-morning cartoon shows, from 1962’s futuristic family comedy “The Jetsons” to the 1973 adventure series “Super Friends” to such 1980s-era toy tie-ins as “Shirt Tales” and “Challenge of the GoBots.” The studio also produced eclectic projects like the 1978 television special starring the heavy-metal rock band KISS and a 1973 film adaptation of E. B. White’s novel “Charlotte’s Web.”

In 1990, Hanna-Barbera was acquired by Turner Broadcasting (now part of Time Warner), where it continued to produce animated programming for syndication and for the Cartoon Network cable channel, including “Dexter’s Laboratory” and “The Powerpuff Girls.” In 1998, Hanna-Barbera’s studios were moved to a Warner Brothers office building, and by 2001, the company had been absorbed by Warner Brothers’ animation division.

Mr. Barbera remained active in animation. He worked as an executive producer on such recent television series as “What’s New, Scooby-Doo?” He was also a writer, director and storyboard artist on the 2005 cartoon “The KarateGuard,” his first theatrical Tom and Jerry short in more than 45 years.

His survivors include his wife, Sheila, and three children from a previous marriage: Jayne, Lynne and Neal.

Mr. Barbera’s influence can be found today in prime-time animated series like “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy” and in cartoons that satirize the Hanna-Barbera style, including “The Venture Brothers” and “Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.” His own work continues to be seen on the cable channel Boomerang, which broadcasts vintage Hanna-Barbera programming 24 hours a day.

Though he was often asked to explain the enduring popularity of his cartoons, Mr. Barbera was reluctant to subject his life’s work to close analysis. “To me it makes little sense to talk about the cartoons we did,” he wrote in a 1994 autobiography, “My Life in ‘Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Under a Century.” “The way to appreciate them is to see them.”

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Wow! They mentioned "KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park". Somebody sure did their homework.