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.

The Greed Of Christmases Past: Wishbookweb.com

If you don't already take enough trips down memory lane, here's a site that's archived a bunch of the old Wish Books. If you're under thirty years old, your parents may not have ordered all (or any of) your presents from JC Penny or Sears!

I loved the ritual of the Christmas Wish Book arriving each year - poring through the toy section for weeks, carefully circling and meticulously listing the stuff I wanted.

At one point, I had everything on this page but the plush (before Star Wars, Peanuts was the thing for me)! It's wild to look through these catalogs now - just like today, some of the toys are great, and others are really awful. Check 'em out!

Retro Gamer Builds 'Super Stick'; Freud Rubs Eyes In Disbelief From Heaven

GAMERTELL.COM: A super sized Atari 2600 joystick
Posted September 16, 2007 at 06:43 PM by PJ Hruschak

In the latest issue of Make magazine, there is a page (18, if interested) devoted to a project that would make any retro gamer drool.

Titled “Super Stick,” the brief article describes an oversized Atari 2600 joystick made for the I Am 8-Bit museum exhibit at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles, CA. The joystick, created by Jason Torchinsky, measure 5 feet tall, approximately 15 times larger than an original joystick. It’s made of fiberglass, coiled hose and meal plates and took a month to build.

And yes, it works.

Attendees to the gallery opening were able to jump on the joystick and give it a go, stomping on the red button and enjoying the four direction goodness, playing an unnamed game projected onto a wall.

If you’ve not heard of or read Make, it’s a DIY magazine for gadget geeks featuring things like customizing your bike, LED sweaters and mobile movie theaters. It retails for $14.99 US, but worth the hefty price for all the fun projects it offers. It comes out four times a year.

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!

This July 24th... The Wolfman's Got 'Nards

A 20th anniversary, two-disc set of The Monster Squad's being released - I'm assuming this is its debut on DVD. I remember liking it at the time, but who knows how it'll seem to me now? I'll probably rent it for a nostalgia wallow.