You Ever Notice...and What's the Deal...

[Drtooth]

I hate the company Nintendo uses for Toys. They just keep releasing and re-releasing the SAME exact ones over and over. Where's a larger, action figure sized Wario vynal?

In fact, why the heck isn't Wario a product line itself?

 

[minor muppetz]

I hate the company Nintendo uses for Toys. They just keep releasing and re-releasing the SAME exact ones over and over. Where's a larger, action figure sized Wario vynal?

I have some of the Super Mario PVCs. They're available separately and as part of a multi-PVC set. One thing I don't like is that some characters are really hard to find outside of the multi-figure sets. And do they just do one series of those per year? I just recently found a series 4, after seeing the same ones for the last few years.

Have you looked online? I know there are sites where you can find guides to all toys in a franchise (unofficial, usually, but better than nothing).

I though I said in my previous post that I often look online for info but have trouble finding the right sites. I'm mostly interested in seeing toy reviews, but not on sites like Amazon or other places where you can order.

Incidentally just yesterday I started to remember seeing a Mouser wind-up toy in stores a long time ago, and in searching I saw that it was part of a Super Mario Bros. 2 collection of wind-up toys (the packaging was even what I remembered). I also saw that Mario and Luigi were included in that collection, but couldn't find any info on whether there were other characters (I often find it odd when a toy line has an odd number of toys).

And, thinking back to the Super Mario Bros. 3 Happy Meals from McDonalds, why didn't they include Bowser in that line-up?

 

[minor muppetz]

Well, I found some reviews of the Mario PVC figurines, though they were video reviews and I couldn't find any reviews of the recent series 4 figures. I didn't realize that there wasn't a Bowser (actually I saw images of a 3-pack of Mario, Bowser, and Peach which look like they're from the same company, but they must be different toys). It's odd that they released a Lakitu but still no Spinies. And for the current series 4, for the first time there's a two-character release, of a Boo and a Goomba.

It seems like each series of figurines has Mario, and the first two have Luigi, but most of them are "regular" Mario and Luigi, as opposed to variants, though the figurines are in different poses. While series 3 does include fire Mario, it'd be great if there'd be Racoon Mario or Hammer Brother Mario. I'd like to have figurines of Kuribo's Shoe Mario (and Shoe Goomba).

 

[Drtooth]

I'd say, for variety, you're better off with the Knex Mario Lego knockoff figures. Too bad you'd either have to be really lucky with Blind bags or buy a whole, huge set for them.

 

[minor muppetz]

Often, when you ask somebody something, or need to talk to somebody, they'll say "just a second", but then you usually have to wait more than just a second. So in "waiting talk", how long does "just a second" actually last (today somebody told me they'd talk to me in "just a second", I wanted to say that I had three seconds... about half a minute later say that the second of the three seconds was halfway over)?

Same with "just a minute" (Baby Looney Tunes actually had a clever one there, with "a very long minute...".

 

[minor muppetz]

So back in the 1980s, Disney had an official list of animated features to NOT release on home video or television, since the company was still rereleasing those films in theaters, but eventually everything on that list got released on video by the late-1990s (I'm guessing because home video had gotten more popular and Disney's animated films were becoming more successful). By the early 1990s, whenever a classic animated film was rereleased in theaters it came to video within a year... But there's still a number of films released on video in the early 1990s that didn't get a theatrical rerelease a year earlier.

So what made the company decide on whether to rerelease a movie in theaters and then video or to just release them on video without them being in theaters a year earlier? Even some of the late-1980s movies like Oliver and Company and The Great Mouse Detective didn't get video releases until they were rereleased in the 1990s. In the early 1990s, we got theatrical rereleases of The Jungle Book, The Great Mouse Detective, 101 Dalmatians, Pinnochio (which had already been released on video before its 1992 rerelease), Snow White, and Oliver and Company, while Disney also released Fantasia, The Aristocats, The Rescuerers, The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron (no surprise that THAT didn't get a theatrical rerelease), and all of its "package films" (wouldn't be surprised if those were not on the initial "do not release on video" list) on home video. Could there have simply been more demand to get every "Disney animation canon" film on video?

 

[minor muppetz]

Ever notice how when a company or creator or whatever has three main franchises, the third seems to be less popular?

Like with Seth MacFarlane's shows, Family Guy and American Dad have both on on the air the longest and remain on the air, while The Cleveland Show only had a few seasons and is no longer in production? Though this might be a lesser example, as that's a spin-off from Family Guy and it seems that one's more well-liked than American Dad (even though Cleveland no longer has new episodes and AD is still... Oh, never mind).

And with George of the Jungle, there's three main segments. George of the Jungle is the title segment, and the only one to have been made into movies. And then there's Super Chicken, which I think also has a similar fan following. And then there's Tom Slick, which seems to be the least-interesting and most-forgotten of the three segments. The Moose That Roared mentions a pitch tape for a new Rocky and Bullwinkle show, which would have included new George of the Jungle and Super Chicken segments, but I don't think it said anything about Tom Slick being intended for that show. And while I'm at it, what's the deal with George of the Jungle being the title segment? Each half-hour only has three shorts, with George not bookening the show. They should have either made it a four-shorts show (and I think the VHS releases did include four shorts per volume, with an extra George of the Jungle short at the end of each video), or had Super Chicken and Tom Slick alternate as the middle segment.

And there's the three games that came with the NES (okay, there's a few others that were included at different points, like Mario 3 being included in 1993, and I think a ROB the Robot game was originally packaged with the NES). Super Mario Bros. is the most famous of them, with Duck Hunt still being famous but not as famous (why weren't there any sequels to Duck Hunt?). And then in the late-1980s World Class Track Meet was also included along with the other two games, and that seems to be less popular (of course, you could also say that the "clay shooting" portion of Duck Hunt is less popular).

And there's the main three Jim Henson Franchises. Muppets seems to define the company (at least before 2004, though the company hasn't done anything to match the Muppets popularity since), and Sesame Street is almost equally famous, maybe a little more than the Muppets (since Sesame Street has consistently been on the air for so long). But then Fraggle Rock seems to be limited in popularity. It could be because it was originally broadcast on HBO. But also, unlike Sesame Street and Muppets, Fraggle Rock mostly took place in its own world, so it'd be difficult to include the characters (besides Traveling Matt and Sprocket) in TV guest appearances. There were never really any Fraggle Rock movies or specials (maybe one day that movie will finally be made). Fraggle Rock always gets the least amount of focus in Henson biographies and retrospectives (to be fair, the Muppets and Sesame Street do have a lot more to talk about).

In the late-1990s, it seems like Bear in the Big Blue House replaced Fraggle Rock as that "third franchise". And it seems like Bear had slightly more going for it than Fraggle Rock did in its heyday. Maybe it helps that by the time of Bear, more households had cable (and The Disney Channel switched from premium to basic when Bear in the Big Blue House premiered), but now it seems to have been forgotten about, while every episode of Fraggle Rock is on DVD and the Fraggle characters have recently been brought back. Another thing that may or may not be a factor is that Jim Henson didn't live to be involved with Bear in the Big Blue House, and none of the classic Henson performers worked on Bear (unlike Fraggle Rock).

Then there's the original three Nicktoons. I used to think the order was Doug, Rugrats, and Ren and Stimpy, but then I read that Ren and Stimpy premiered first and Doug last. And Doug seems to be the least-popular, even though Doug was the first of the three series to be revived after the original series ended (even if Nickelodeon didn't do the new series). But it seems Ren and Stimpy was most popular at first. During the early 1990s, that show had the most merchandise as well as the most VHS releases (I know, VHS releases are merchandise, but for some Nick shows at the time, VHS releases were the only merchandise they got, and Ren and Stimpy still got more video releases than others at the time). And then Rugrats took over as the most-marketed Nick show for most of the late-1990s.

And you could say this about Lucille Ball's three most-successful shows. I Love Lucy is the most iconic of Lucille Ball's shows, while The Lucy Show seems to have been fairly popular in reruns, but I've rarely seen Here's Lucy in reruns (the only time I remember seeing that show was in a Lucille Ball marathon that aired on Nick at Nite in 1994, and I'm pretty sure Here's Lucy was never on the regular Nick at Nite or TV Land schedule). Of course there's also The Lucy Desi Comedy Hour (which was a continuation of I Love Lucy, has very few episodes, and was only broadcast on an occasional schedule) and the very unsuccessful Life with Lucy (I've read that episodes were included on the Lucille Ball marathon I just mentioned, but I have no memory of seeing that).

 

[Drtooth]

Like with Seth MacFarlane's shows, Family Guy and American Dad have both on on the air the longest and remain on the air, while The Cleveland Show only had a few seasons and is no longer in production? Though this might be a lesser example, as that's a spin-off from Family Guy and it seems that one's more well-liked than American Dad (even though Cleveland no longer has new episodes and AD is still... Oh, never mind).

The Cleveland Show was something Seth took blame for, when he was barely involved. The network just about made them make a spinoff because Family Guy was popular. Essentially the show had no love because this was when everyone decided Seth MacFarline had too much overexposure (even though the show was really Mike Henry's), and because it never really got the auduience it did, the third season was just...completely lazy all over. Like they knew they were going to get cancelled and just didn't care. So it didn't even manage to break it in the last season. AD is going to be moved to cable, but it still managed to be on 10 years. That got even less appreciation from the network somehow, but manages to get renewed. And it is, by all sense a better written show.

Then again, Clevelan was better than Family Guy was when it was running. FG gets so much attention that it's uncancellable now, but the writing suffers from not having to amount to much.

 

[minor muppetz]

Okay, here's a round of "ever notice...?" (and some that might be more appropriate for the questions thread)

The poster and video cover for The Breakfast Club says that they only met once, while the film makes it ambiguous whether they remained friends after that one saturday, but at the end, it seems both of the girls get in a relationship with one of the male characters (right? them giving each other something of theirs wasn't just to remember them?). But considering they all went to the same school, it seems like it would be sad if they never interacted again (though I think it was their last semester in high school, so they'd really only talk if they came across each other in the hallway).

I think some of them could have been friends afterwards. I don't think it'd be too much of a stretch for "the athlete" to be friends with "the criminal" or "the princess" (or "the brain", considering that the movie doesn't portray him as the usual jerk jock stereotype, though it's mentioned that he does normally act that way, outside of that day in detention where he's not around other athletes), or "the brain" and "the basketcase" to be friends. And yes, I do know their names off-hand (Andy is the athlete, Bender is the criminal, Brian is the brain... Okay, so I suddenly forget the names of the girls).

And it seems like during my time in high school (1998-2002), cliques didn't seem to be exclusive. Maybe it's an era/generation thing, or depends on the state/school, or maybe it's just movie/TV stereotypes, or maybe I was just too plain oblivious to notice. There were some people who seemed to primarily interact with similar people, but not that much. But it seems a lot of us got along well regardless of "clique" (though I barely ever hung out with anybody outside of school). I can't even determine what clique or stereotype I belong in, during lunch periods I would go around from groups of people to other groups of people to interact with.

On The Wonder Years, when Kevin entered senior high school, I can see why the junior high school staff would have been dropped (though it would have been great if one of the teachers would have been transferred, or if one showed up for a guest appearance the next year), but what's the deal with most of Kevin's classmates being dropped after graduating junior high? Aside from main characters Winnie and Paul, the only friends of Kevin's who continued to appear during the senior high years was Randy Mitchell. Kevin had a small group of friends before who could have continued as regulars, and they also could have had Becky Slater continue as a recurring character, but apparently they thought Kevin needed a new circle of friends (though I prefer some of them over the earlier friends).

And during Kevin's junior high years, he had quite a few teachers who were recurring, but in senior high, none of the teachers were recurring. They all appeared once. I don't think the senior high principal even appeared in multiple episode.

And for the last season, what's the deal with Giovanni Ribisi getting a special "guest starring" credit at the beginning of each episode he was in? I checked wikipedia, and it looked to me like he wasn't a particularly big star when he joined the show.

And finally, on a non-high school-related note, in The Simpsons episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns (Part 2)", when Lisa sees a clue (where Mr. Burns' hands were pointing on the sundial), does she believe that Homer did it? She reacts with "the DNA was right... it must have been... Oh, Dad!", as if she believed it, but she was also quick to stop them from harming Homer, as if to defend him.

 

[minor muppetz]

In It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, why does Linus put his letter to the Great Pumpkin in the public mailbox (is there a term for that kind of mailbox?) that he can't reach without using his blanket? They do that scene with Lucy thinking Linus can't reach it and then he uses his blanket, but even if he couldn't reach the handle, couldn't Linus just use his own home mailbox (people had their own mailboxes back then, right?) or taken it to the post office (if this wasn't Peanuts I'd guess that the parents wouldn't want their kids going to the post office on their own)? Did they do that just to fill time or to show off what Linus could do with his blanket?