Special thanks to Miguel, honorary procurement chief of BRBTV, for securing this simple but fine piece, an official "Charlie's Angels" fan club card. With a shot of the three original Angels -- Jaclyn Smith, Farrah Fawcett and Kate Jackson -- and in the name of the Charles Townsend Detective Agency, it's all official-like, ya know?
We're knocking out a backlog of non-TV-related collectibles here at the BRBTV headquarters for the Terrific non-TV Toys series, and after focusing on vintage Archie earlier this month, we now turn to modern stuff for several episodes. This Batgirl PVC vinyl statue is part of an "Artists Alley" set by DC Collectibles, featuring various color schemes for the ladies of the DCU we know so well. This one is dark and iridescent, glimmering in a rainbow of colors along her lean, curvy lines.
It was a great time once again on the Pop Ninja podcast, and this time around, this author got to chat about classic cop TV shows, more specifically "Adam-12" and the eternally lovable "Columbo." In the first part of this episode, part of the podcast's third season, Lisa and Patrick discuss some of the great cop movies of the '70s and '80s, then Patrick and I switch it over to the TV "channel." Be sure to listen for the secret code word and PM it to the FB page and you could win your favorite cop movie on DVD! Here's the link to the podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1265612/10952366-pop-ninja-podcast-season-3-episode-5
You might recognize this wonderful piece of machinery as a replica of the Caddy that Boss Hogg drove on "The Dukes of Hazzard." Well, hello to our friend Jim of Jim's Creations, an artist whose talent has been profiled on this blog and in the BRBTV books. He's driving this car today at the Swap Meet and Car Show in Chatham, Ontario. Wish we could drop by!
Since there's a backlog of non-TV-related collectibles here at the BRBTV headquarters, we're going to knock out several episodes of the Terrific non-TV Toys series before we get back to some Terrific TV Toys stuff. So this month, for the first of two episode of the non-TV variety, we return to Riverdale. Specifically, we've got some vintage items from the 1980s celebrating the Archie Comics lore. This bendy figure by Jesco was purchased recently but dates to 1989. And this little geeky kid once joined the Archies Fan Club and has most items from that still around.
See the other episodes in the Terrific non-TV Toys series.
And this geeky girl hasn't just written letters to Archie Comics over the years -- read about the interview and friendship with longtime Archie artist Dan DeCarlo.
Our friend Brian and his friend Bruce have dropped another episode of the "Just Beneath the Surface" web series, this time discussing the classic "Twilight Zone" episode "The Howling Man," which this author has always loved. If you want creepy, this TZ episode is creepy. And I actually got to talk to the star H.M. Wynant at the Motor City Comic Con a few years back. Bruce and Brian disagree on the merits of this episode, and you'll find out why as you listen in ...
Special thanks to Mary Kay Johnson, granddaughter of Green Hornet creator George W. Trendle, for sending along these photos of items exhibiting at the San Diego Fair (formerly the Del Mar Fair) at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in California. The theme of this year's fair is "Heroes Reunite!", and how appropriate it is to include the Lone Ranger and his nephew, the Green Hornet. The fair is going on now through this weekend.
The Green Hornet was
also made into serials for movie theaters in the 1930’s. The Green Hornet’s car
– The Black Beauty – was the first super car with radar, a drone, and rockets.
Ned Jordan Secret Agent (1939)
was an undercover FBI agent.
Bob Barclay - American Agent (1950)
was a CIA agent in Europe with the cover of a newspaper reporter. But the U.S.
government asked that the program be discontinued when newspaper staff in Europe
were arrested by governments who thought all the stories were true and all newspaper
correspondents were spies!
In 1949 The Lone Ranger became a TV
series, followed by Sgt Preston in 1955, and The Green Hornet in
1966.
The message in all of these is “one person
can make a difference.” At a time in history when only Caucasians were
portrayed in stories, these scripts had major characters that were of other
ethnicities: Native American, Asian, , Eskimo, Irish, and Black.
Photos courtesy of April Johnston and Mary Kay Johnson; please do not copy without permission.
Anticipation was pretty high for the first live-action Scooby-Doo movie, released in 2002 and featuring Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne, Freddie Prinze Jr. as Fred, and Linda Cardellini as Velma. Mattel did a series of dolls as part of the merchandising effort for that big-screen release, and the latest episode of the Terrific non-TV Toys series highlights one of those dolls. It's Barbie as the beautiful Daphne, clad in fuchsia satin and accompanied by our favorite Great Dane. This is an out-of-the-box experience, so you can check out each and every accessory -- even the ones that fly across the room. LOL on that ...
BRBTV knows her as the beautiful blond alien-seeming creature clad in shimmering gold on the classic “Green Hornet” two-part episode “Invasion from Outer Space,” but since she’s been doing her podcast, we feel like we know her a whole better. With her gentle voice, Linda Gaye Scott invites you into the “Bumpy Road” of her world as she talks about her various roles over the years, her childhood in Hollywood, her parents, her school embarrassments, her bonding with Bruce Lee, the family’s chance roadside run-in with Frank Sinatra … all kinds of different stuff. If you are a fan of classic Hollywood, then similar to the autobiography of Yvonne Craig (which we also recommend), you will dig these fireside chats. There are lots of places to tune in:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lindas-bumpy-ride-on-bumpy-road/id1591376249
https://www.lindagayescott/podcast
https://rss.com/podcasts/lindagayescott/
https://www.audible.com/pd/Podcast/B08JJP3FYR#episode-list-preview
Linda Gaye Scott as Vama on “The Green Hornet,” 1967.
Kenner had a great run through the 1990s with action figures from the "Batman: The Animated Series" and "The New Batman Adventures" shows, and you've seen a few of them already on the T3 series. Now we turn our attention to the Riddler and Creeper figures by Kenner. The Riddler is part of a "Mission Masters" subseries Kenner released at the time, and he is officially the "Rumble Ready Riddler." The Creeper evidently had some kind of "Dynamic Decoder" / "Crime Solver" component that this author was unable to locate in the gizmos box downstairs, plus his microphone is missing. But hey, besides that these two are intact!
See what else is on the Terrific TV Toys playlist.
On Monday, we stepped inside Southfork Ranch, courtesy of our friend Patrick Shawn Bennett of the Pop Ninja podcast. There were a lot of great photos there, but here are a few more ...
Look for a new Kindle edition of the BRBTV book "Destination: Dallas" that will include a bunch of Patrick's photos and other updates!
Photos courtesy of Patrick Shawn Bennett; please do not copy without permission.
Well, I have to admit when I first saw the first photo below I had to wonder if it was a postcard picked up at the Southfork Ranch giftshop and not an original photo taken by my friend Patrick Shawn Bennett of the Pop Ninja podcast. The shot is so iconic -- so "picture-perfect"! But hey, that's just Patrick's talent for capturing the moment, because indeed, these are all Patrick's own photos, and he kindly offers them for this blog. He got a chance to tour Southfork a week or so ago.
"I liked that they used the interior of it on the reboot series," he says. "That patio table is the original from the ‘70s where they would eat breakfast and argue." Yeah, and there's the famous pool that Ken ("Cliff Barnes") Kercheval was all too familiar with, along with Mary ("Kristen") Crosby. Super-cool. Thanks, Patrick!
There's so much good stuff here we've got to run this in two parts -- part 2 coming Wednesday!
Photos courtesy of Patrick Shawn Bennett; please do not copy without permission.
Here's quite the vintage piece, dating back to 1971, one of a set of three by Schmid featuring our beloved Peanuts characters. This ceramic musical stein is a bright orange and depicts that crazy beagle as the World War II flying ace. So does it play its song ("Fly Me to the Moon") after all these years? Well, it did, when this author first got it. Watch the latest episode of the Terrific non-TV Toys series to see how this mug is holding up ...
Well, that evil Dr. Sworski has the upper hand no longer, as the action moves along in the apocalyptic zombie series "Reanimated." In previous episodes, we saw that the doctor had escaped a certain death at the hand of his former partner (turned "undead") and had insinuated himself into the company of a local farmer and his young associate. Blanche Lancaster, played by this author, was rescued from a helicopter crash only to find wake up inside her worst nightmare -- the evil doctor is not only alive, but must be the one to save her life. So now, in episode 6, the group is gelling together, reuniting with others who had gotten separated. They try to decide what to do with the doctor, now that all has been revealed, but danger closes in, as always ...
Happening right this moment: If you're anywhere near Metro Detroit, hop on down to the Motor City Comic Con and visit the Mystery Machine and a whole bunch of Scoobies ... In fact, if you are a viewer of the Terrific TV Toys series, then these Scoobies will look familiar to you. They've been featured in episodes of the show over the years. See the playlist that focuses on Scooby-Doo! These BRBTV-provided plush Scoobs are part of the display of Motor City Reel Rides at this weekend's con in Novi, Michigan.
Photos courtesy of Motor City Reel Rides; please do not copy without permission.
For your next camping trip, or perhaps when you just need an extra blanket around the house, it's this delightful vintage piece, a sleeping bag celebrating "The Dukes of Hazzard." This 1980 item, produced right when a slew of "Dukes" stuff was hitting store shelves to capitalize on the show's success on CBS, features Bo, Luke, Daisy and the gang and is the focus of the latest episode of the T3 series ...
See what else is on the Terrific TV Toys playlist.
... and we'll call them dolls, OK? They are Barbies or patterned after Barbies, after all! Special thanks to Martin, who is kind enough to share with us his collection of customized Wonder Women. And how lovely they are.
First up here is his custom of the 13-inch Tonner Wonder Woman doll. Then we have customs of the 2004 Wonder Woman Barbie, followed by customs of the 1999 Wonder Woman Barbie (which you can also see in her original form in this episode of the Terrific TV Toys series).
"Wonder Woman is my favorite comic character," Martin says, "but I'm also into DC Heroes in general. I started doing Wonder Woman custom dolls probably about 10 years ago. I started doing them because nobody was doing Wonder Woman the way I wanted to see her presented. The Barbies are beautiful but their bodies didn't look muscular enough for an Amazon warrior."
Indeed, in these customs you see a more realistic look. "The action figure companies like DC Direct, Sideshow and Hot Toys made Wonder Woman look strong," Martin says, "but the action figures lacked beauty. The faces looked harsh and unattractive in my opinion. I kept thinking - why is it so hard to make a large, somewhat muscular female figure with a drop-dead gorgeous face and hair? So, I took the Barbie world and the action figure world and merged them together to make my idea of what a Wonder Woman doll or figure SHOULD look like. Strong and beautiful at the same time."
"I also do other characters, and I'm in the process now of doing several of the really popular DC figures, both male and female," he continues. "I mostly like the classic versions."
Martin also shares photos of his Power Girl, Zatanna, and Black Canary. "I'm really good at styling the hair (tooting my own horn, lol). All doll collectors have seen promotional photos of dolls where the hair looks so beautiful but then after you get the doll, the hair looks nothing like that. It gets all tangled and flat from being in the box. I would love to work with actual toy companies with styling doll hair."
Photos courtesy of Martin; please do not copy.
Why, of course she plays "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" -- what else would a porcelain musical figure of Marilyn Monroe play, especially when draped in this divine white gown? She's lovely, though a little worse for wear. A bit loose in parts. She is from the '80s after all. She's an item once belonging to this author's mom, and we take a close look at her in the latest episode of the Terrific non-TV Toys series.
If you're a fan of the original "Twilight Zone" series of the late '50s to early '60s, then you'll enjoy the discussion of the show on the web series "Just Beneath the Surface." Episodes 7 and 8 of the series are now up, and they explore the hourlong episodes of Season 4, along with the single episode "The Hunt." BRBTV's bud Brian co-hosts.
We've profiled our friend Bobby on this blog before; he's a big-time fan of "Gilligan's Island," particularly of the Skipper, as played by Alan Hale Jr.. (Check out the February 5, 2020 and April 30, 2021 posts.) Bobby has really dug into the details of the variations of captain's hats worn by the Skipper throughout the series and movies, and he has been collecting screen-accurate (and maybe not-quite-so-screen-accurate) replicas of these hats for years. Now, though, Bobby has branched out into other pieces of Skipper's iconic classic TV look.
"This is the hat from the Fun World 'Gilligan's Island' Skipper Halloween costume," Bobby explains. "It is a four-piece set. 1. Shirt 2. Pants 3. Hat 4. Stuffable Belly. I got the costume in 2010 from my local Spirit Halloween store. It was minus the hat. Someone opened it, stole the Skipper hat, and resealed the package, and left it looking untouched. I ended up with only a three-piece set of shirt, pants, stuffable belly."
"I have wanted the Fun World hat for 12 years since it was missing in 2010," Bobby says. "The Skipper and Promoter William Duff of the Illinois division of the 'Gilligan's Island' Fan Club and ventriloquist for Gilligan, www.gilligansisle.com, had the costume and sent it to me. My brother bought me my original set in 2010 that was missing the Captain/Skipper hat part of it. William gave me the complete set all four pieces."
Bobby now has what he needs to re-enact the Skipper's classic television poses and mannerisms! Bobby, you're the most devoted fan of "Gilligan's Island" we've ever met! You can check out his tribute page for Alan Hale to see more of his devotion.
Photos courtesy of Rob "Skipper" Broadhurst; please do not copy without permission.
