October 2007 Archives

REMEMBER "The Great Space Coaster"? And Garry Gnu's "Gnus of the Week"? Here's the intro courtesy of senorhand. And here's the clip of the closing theme from oscartripe.

REMEMBER this 1985 movie starring Val Kilmer as Chris Knight? Here's the "Real Genius" trailer courtesy of Crash517.

VOLTES V and the other super robots over at Channel 7 might have been more popular, but Channel 9 also had its own armada of armored heroes. One of these robots was Balatack (or Balatak). Remember him? And do you remember exactly on which days Channel 9's robots appeared? Like on which day did they show Dangard Ace? Here's the Balatack intro from tawess.

WHILE drinking last night, we got to talking about "Heroes," "Star Trek" and the upcoming "Star Trek" movie (Zachary Quinto a.k.a. Sylar will play the young Spock, and original Spock Leonard Nimoy will also be in the film), when INQUIRER.net executive editor Leo Magno brought up this show Nimoy used to host, the TV documentary series "In Search of..." Man, that takes us back. I told him I also used to watch that show all the time, but I'd forgotten about it until he mentioned it heh :) "Oh ayan, may maisusulat na naman si Joey," our reporter Alex Villafania quipped. Here's a clip of the show intro on YouTube from KentuckyBootleg.

HERE'S a thought-provoking article that I stumbled upon -- "Retro hits and myths" from The Courier-Mail. The article talks about "newstalgia." Here's an excerpt:

Gadgets and gizmos from the last decades of the 20th century are also, with a little spin and innovative campaigns, being sold as both history and future to audiences of all ages again and again. Mickey Mouse pyjamas, Bugs Bunny and Mr Men T-shirts, Strawberry Shortcake cartoons, more superheroes, "classic" cars, rock and pop music (on vinyl, CD or live), furniture and clothing. The list of popular Generation X products and brands, their associated characters that are being recycled and the ideologies they represent is almost endless. It's called "newstalgia": that is, making something old original again by reinventing it for the contemporary consumer. Both a movement and a marketing strategy, it's corporate gold. It's not simply the stories and what they symbolise in terms of revisiting the ghosts of childhood past, but the opportunities for some cross-generational bonding that they embody as well that make them so successful. Playing on the sentimentality of those who grew up with specific characters, brands, values and ideas, while attracting a fresh, young audience who listen to the adults in their lives waxing lyrical about them, businesses are turning shared trips down memory lane into lucrative whimsy. Through retro-chic, they're giving us a chance to take a stroll down sentimental street and embrace a form of retro-worship while milking a very profitable cash cow.

THE X-MEN they weren't. "Misfits of Science" featured a motley crew of failed science experiments who drove around in their Fundae Sundae ice cream truck. One of these misfits was played by a young Courteney Cox -- if you want a cool superpower, I guess Fat Monica could have eaten a Fundae Sundae van filled with ice cream heh :) Here's a clip of the show intro from LuiscmckTv. Oh, and one of the show's writers was Tim Kring. Yup, that Tim Kring, the creator of "Heroes."

By Agence France-Presse BUDAPEST--Japan's Yu Nakajima won the Rubik's Cube World Championships on Sunday in Budapest, the birthplace of the cult puzzle. Nakajima averaged 12.46 seconds in arranging the six different colors of the six-sided classic 3x3 cube, which has nine panels on each side to arrange. He beat Andrew Kang of the United States and Mitsuki Gunji, a fellow Japanese national. But Frenchman Thibaut Jacquinot still holds the world record of 9.86 seconds in the classic 3x3 event, which he set last May. Hometown favourite Matyas Kuti, 14, set a world record in the larger 5x5 cube competition with an average time of 1:45:07. Kuti also won in two other categories. Anssi Vanhala of Finland won the feet-only challenge, aligning the colors of the 3x3 cube in 49.33 seconds. Nearly 300 participants from 33 countries tried their hands and feet with the multicolored cube on the 25th anniversary of the first Rubik's World Championships, which was also held in the Hungarian capital in 1982. The Rubik's Cube became one of the cult objects of the 1980s and the toy is experiencing a revival these days with millions of cubes sold annually. More than 300 million cubes have been sold to date and organizers said 12 million will go on the shelves this year alone. The Rubik's Cube, an invention of Hungarian architect Erno Rubik, has been exhibited at New York's Museum of Modern Art and has entered into the Oxford dictionary.

DO you remember "Combat!," starring Vic Morrow and Rick Jason? This was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid -- I used to watch it with my grandfather. Here's the show intro courtesy of ldesilvi. I remember being shocked by the news that Vic Morrow was dead (along with the two children he was holding during this scene) due to that infamous helicopter accident during the shooting of "Twilight Zone: The Movie."

By Pablo Gorondi Associated Press BUDAPEST, Hungary--After 25 years, the cube is coming home. Hundreds of competitors are meeting for the fourth Rubik's Cube world championship Friday in the Hungarian capital, which hosted the first such event in 1982. The mechanical puzzle invented by Hungarian Erno Rubik sparked a global craze in the early 1980s. Some seven million cubes were sold last year. Competitors from 32 countries will take part in the three-day event, with prizes to be awarded in 17 categories, with experts trying to solve the classic 3x3 cube and its variations while blindfolded, with one hand, or with their feet. The current world record for solving the 3x3 cube -- which has six sides of a different color with nine tiles on each side -- is 9.86 seconds by Thibaut Jacquinot of France, set in May at the Spanish Open. Matyas Kuti, 14, is one of the host country's biggest hopes for a top finish. Kuti first picked up a cube he found at home in February 2006 and began competing a few months later. Kuti is considered a master of the blindfolded event, in which he has set 11 world records and has 24 first-place competition finishes. He practices about three hours a day and his favorite cube is souped up with cubes rotating more easily because of filed down rough edges and silicon lubricants applied. Such alterations are legal according to the rules. "The 5x5 cube and doing it blindfold are my favorite events," Kuti, from Budapest, said. "These are the most complicated versions and it's a great feeling to solve them." The United States is expected to have the biggest delegation, with 39 competitors. Prize money totals $28, 000, with the top prize of $7, 000 going to the fastest 3x3 cube solver.

BELIEVE it or not, back in the 60s, "The Flintstones" was sponsored by Winston cigarettes. In fact, as you'll see in this video clip from jayro76, Fred even sings the famous "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should" jingle. Hmm, guess back then they saw nothing wrong with using cartoons to sell cigarettes -- I wonder what the kids thought of this.