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01/28/2003: Dogs, Ads, and Transforming Shoes

Today’s article is a review of Fisher-Price’s Rocket, The Wonder Dog. If you’ll recall, these things were all the rage a few years back. Now that the smoke has cleared, we can weigh their pros and cons with clearer minds. The end results aren’t ultra pretty, as I found that their original retail price was roughly forty times greater than their actual value. If you’ve ever been curious about these mechanized beasts, click here to read about ‘em.

If you missed it, the downloads section has been haphazardly updated with another batch of 80s commercials. I strongly recommend going straight to the Zelda commercial. It’s odd beyond compare, even within the strange realm of video game advertising.

Oh, remember that Nike Transformers contest I kept linking? Well, the winners were finally named. I’m pretty sure e-mails were shipped off to the champs, but if you want to check it out, here’s the list of winners. Dunno how many of them got to the contest through X-E, but we can at least put one feather in our cap:

Mike Sobczak writes: Longtime fan of X-E, first-time emailer. Won’t waste your time listing all of the articles you’ve written that have successfully distracted me from work I should have been doing, just wanted to let you know that apparently I’ve been chosen as one of the winners of the Nike Max Q Transformer contest. I just read the email today so I guess I have a few days to wait before the whole process of shipping it to me gets underway, but I wanted to thank you now for giving me and everyone else the heads-up on the giveaway.

Very cool. I’m jealous. Still not sure what the next article is gonna be about, but there should be something up by late tonight or the morning. Later gators.


Posted by Matt. E-mail me!

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Discussion Thread: 51 comments

I too, am jealous. I did not enter the contest, I am always jealous of others. I have no soul.

Ghosted by wack0 @ 01/28/2003 3:26 PM EST


I am insanely jealous, especially since I entered. Bah. Matt, you never told me if that WAS in fact Jason Hervey at the end of the fruit roll up commercial. Too afraid to face the truth??? ;)

Ghosted by Draven @ 01/28/2003 4:56 PM EST


I will not tarnish my fond memories of REAL Fruit Rollups – the ones that weren’t ’shocking blue’ and didn’t have kitties of spaceships etched onto them – will images of friggin’ WAYNE.

Ghosted by Matt @ 01/28/2003 4:57 PM EST


I think there were actually two periods of robot popularity. The first was in the mid-1980s, with stuff like Teddy Ruxpin and especially the Tomy robots: Omnibot, Dingbot (which Matt forgot in his article about them), and Verbot. (Omnibot 2000 and Chatbot came later, and Flipbot and Hootbot came later still.) Around that time there were also "real" robots, such as HERO and HERO Jr. Then in the late ’90s came a brief resurgence of robot popularity, heralded by the Furby. And then came Aibo, the robot dog from Sony. Every other robot pet since then, including Rocket, has been a cheaper rip-off of Aibo.

I hope we see the "Zelda Rap" commercial, which is as silly as the other is odd.

Ghosted by Action Jacktion @ 01/28/2003 5:37 PM EST


Yes, I remember Topo. It was part of the "real" robot craze in the 1980s. You had BOB, Andy, FRED, RB5X, ComroTot, and others. And I forgot to mention the Petsters, maybe the first kind of robot pet, which in complexity were sort of in-between the Tomy robots and the robots mentioned above.

Ghosted by Action Jacktion @ 01/28/2003 7:34 PM EST


What about the virtual pets!? Those were robotic in the sense that robots made them.

Ghosted by box @ 01/29/2003 12:19 PM EST


My mom got me a robo-baby for christmas as a rather sick joke. I think it may actually be the anti-christ. It is silver plastic with these big black fly-eyes that light up in response to robo-baby’s mood. (x’s for anger hearts for love and thse scary lines for crying.) the worst part is that they light up burning red. robo-baby cries constantly if someone makes the mistake of touching her. to stop the crying one must shove the plastic bottle in her face, change the "cyber diaper," pat her plastic tuft of hair or rock her gently. This is the worst-most nightmare inducing toy ever. Scarier than Cricket and the clown from Poltergeist. I am just glad it cannot climb steps…yet.

Ghosted by t-rah @ 01/29/2003 9:14 AM EST


Hey whatever happened to the alleged The Garbage Pail Kids article that was claimed many moons ago? Did it fall through?

Ghosted by Dr Taber @ 01/29/2003 12:46 PM EST


The seller tried to charge me 9 dollars for shipping. Considering that the tape itself was over 25, I felt it was way inflated. Hopefully I can find it elsewhere.

Ghosted by Matt @ 01/29/2003 12:47 PM EST


YEAH! Please do an article on the GPK movie! The part with Valerie Vomit barfing all over those goons was the best!

Ghosted by wack0 @ 01/29/2003 1:10 PM EST


Since this is way off topic, and nobody cares in the first place, yesterday was my birthday. So what did I get, besides blind, stinking drunk? Not much. My girlfriend’s mom bought me a Donatello action figure. Is anybody else kinda frightened by the prospect of a new TMNT cartoon? I know I am, considering that "they" royally fucked up both He-Man and Transformers when they updated them. I cringe at the thought of Michaelangelo saying "true dat" instead of "cowabunga". Actually, that might not be so bad….

Ghosted by Jeremy @ 01/29/2003 1:49 PM EST


The biggest drawback to the new TMNT cartoon: No Krang.

The original comic folks are involved, I think, and they’re making it truer to its origins. I’m all for authenticity, but I’m not sure if it’s worth having no Krang.

On a different note: What’s a good hardware/software combination if I want to do decent video captures? I’m thinking of buying a new computer, and I might like to contribute to the cause of filling the Intarweb with nostalgia.

Ghosted by Ubu Rex @ 01/29/2003 1:55 PM EST


Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that I went to see Jerry Springer yesterday too. Plenty of disgusting debauchery ensued. There’s just something about seeing a 350-pound half naked woman in person rather than on television that cannot properly be conveyed into words that any rational human being could possibly understand.

Ghosted by Jeremy @ 01/29/2003 2:01 PM EST


No Bebop or Rocksteady either. They better freakin have Casey Jones, that’s all I’m saying.

Ghosted by Casey Jones @ 01/29/2003 2:02 PM EST


NO KRANG?!?! What’s the point, then?

Ghosted by Jeremy @ 01/29/2003 2:03 PM EST


Well, Casey’s in the comic, so I assume he’ll show up…

Ghosted by Ubu Rex @ 01/29/2003 2:38 PM EST


Okay, here’s the scoop. The new show will be part of the FOX Box Saturday morning lineup:
http://www.foxbox.tv/tmnt_l.html

This news, of course, comes from the official site:
http://www.ninjaturtles.com

The turtles will be generally the same except:

Don – Very shy Mikey – No more surfer-talk (so I’ve heard)
April – College age, works for Baxter Stockman until fired and opens antique store
Shredder – Very dangerous
Foot Soldier – Non-robot

And there’s a new crimelord type who "works with" Shredder.

That’s what I know. It looks pretty cool.

–Ferris Wiel

Ghosted by Ferris Wiel @ 01/29/2003 3:01 PM EST


I’ll be very happy to see Good Ol’ C.J. if he’s on the cartoon, since he was the only defense I ever had hearing "Casey is a GIRLS NAME" growing up.

They better not change things too much, like He-Man did. I thought the show was fine until Teela showed up and became such a miserable ho-bag.

Ghosted by Casey Jones @ 01/29/2003 9:55 PM EST


Casey Jones is in it. At least, he’s listed on the official TMNT site as being in it.

Ghosted by Ubu Rex @ 01/29/2003 10:58 PM EST


i used to love turtles, and he man etc. In england the showd were edited for violence :( .

so ws the movie apparently, a whole big scrap between shredder and splinter was cut. anyone from the states wanna tell me how splinter beat shredder? ive been in turmoil since the movie came out back in 88. help

Ghosted by teenage mutant ninja tin man @ 01/30/2003 6:46 AM EST


Splinter grabbed the nunchucks that Mikey tossed over the side of the roof(and instead of falling to the ground got stuck on the ladder on the way up to the roof). Shredder charged at him with a sword, Splinter wrapped the chain of the nunchucks around the blade of the sword, and flipped Shredder off of the roof, into a garbage truck, where Casey Jones turned on the trash compactor, and we see Shredder’s helmet being crushed in the compactor’s jaws.

Ghosted by Casey Jones @ 01/30/2003 9:54 AM EST


Do you guys remember a movie called "The Stuff"? It was great.

http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1800123283&cf=info&intl=us

Ghosted by wack0 @ 01/30/2003 1:59 PM EST


New Line is currently remaking the classic rat movie, Willard, with Crispin Glover.

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=14313

Ghosted by George McFly @ 01/30/2003 3:42 PM EST


Rocket reminds me of how popular Ticle-Me-Elmo was a few years ago. I remember hearing about people paying over $500 just for an Elmo. I remember looking at it in the store before it was so popular and thinking to myself that it would be popular. I remember alot. :(

And Jeremy, Jerry Springer’s show is retarded. They can’t even hire decent actors. >:[

Ghosted by Vomit @ 01/30/2003 8:02 PM EST


I think that this random, wildly off-topic thread is proof that we need to see the return of the X-E Forums.

I sure miss those.

Ghosted by Ubu Rex @ 01/30/2003 9:45 PM EST


cool man, thanks casey jones. in the uk all we aw was shredder runnin at splinter and a blur befoe shredder fell.

but where is the "death comes to us all but for you its without honour line" from the comics?

Ghosted by 'tin man kaptin karmo: the king of alla balla @ 01/31/2003 9:31 AM EST


Willard trailer
http://www.willardmovie.com/

Ghosted by George McFly @ 01/31/2003 11:14 PM EST


i think this works fine without the forums

Ghosted by tin man @ 02/01/2003 5:35 AM EST


he wacko, that movie looks like pure x-e review trash

Ghosted by tin man, @ 02/01/2003 5:58 AM EST


Isn’t Matt’s birthday coming up soon?

Ghosted by Jeremy @ 02/01/2003 4:26 PM EST


They have ninja turtle book covers at my work (which is at a school). I’m not sure if they are still there, but they were in the teachers lounge and under them there was taped a note to use them as scrap paper, and not give them as book covers. I took two, one I hung on my wall, and the other is on one of my books.
On the right side, it has the turtles in their group pose, and above it it says "The Shell-abration Begins February 8th".
On the left, they each have their own picture with a pose. Raphael under his picture it says Raphael, then "(aka RAPH)", then under that says "opinionated, impulsive, hothead".
Leonardo (aka LEO) dedicated, disciplined, selfless
Donatello (aka DON) braniac, engineer
Michelangelo (aka MIKEY) practical joker, class clown.

And you can’t say you DIDn’t want to hear all of that.

Ghosted by Shad @ 02/01/2003 8:17 PM EST


Garbage Pail Kids: The Movie is one of Tarantino’s guilty pleasures

Ghosted by Mackenzie Blastin' @ 02/01/2003 9:56 PM EST


i once saw a site which was a GBK archive site that had the movie in real media format. but that was before i got a cable modem, so i couldnt watch it. tell, you what ill have a badgers to see if i can find ita agian. keep rockin

Ghosted by 'tin man @ 02/02/2003 6:39 AM EST


found it :)
http://www.100percentgpk.com/welcome.htm

Ghosted by 'tin man @ 02/02/2003 6:42 AM EST


willard page looks like pop trash

Ghosted by 'tin man @ 02/02/2003 7:37 AM EST


I Challenge Matt to a 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon contest.

ALF
Dilbert
Richard Dean Anderson

The Prize- Lifesize poster of Bea Arthur.

Do you have the courage to Accept?

Ghosted by Snarf @ 02/02/2003 4:02 PM EST


Hey, I found this page a few weeks ago….one of the best sites I’ve ever been to ever. I love this place.

Ghosted by Kevin @ 02/02/2003 6:46 PM EST


It has been mentioned before but there are episodes of an animated Garbage Pail Kids shows that was deemed too gross for Saturday mornings on CBS. They have never been seen, so bug Topp Cards to release the cartoon and movie on DVD!

Ghosted by Mackenzie Blastin' @ 02/02/2003 7:37 PM EST


i would love to see gbk cartoons, but i bet they might be a bit crap. i always find it weird that gbk never made a comeback, especially considering some of the weird stuff kids are into these days.

Ghosted by 'tin man @ 02/03/2003 6:00 AM EST


not to beat a dead horse…but, what’s with the Advent Calendar cliff hanger…here it is, February and still no more progress past December 21…it’s like a crack addiction!!! I must know what fate belies the Mare Winninghams

Ghosted by Stuck @ 02/03/2003 8:06 AM EST


Matt, you should link your television and movie realated artciles to IMDB.com.

Ghosted by Reggie @ 02/03/2003 7:04 PM EST


It’s funny, yet sad. I have to do volunteer work at the school’s day care. This one kid had the new Leonardo figure, and of course, he had no idea what it was. If I told my younger-self that one day, I would meet a kid who knew nothing about TMNT, I wouldn’t have believed it, then somehow fit in a quote from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?".
Y’know, I got a few recorded VHS’s FILLED with late 80’s-early 90’s programming (most of it’s Star Trek: TNG, cuz my mom figured her show was more important than all of my cartoons…). But anyway, I have lots of great commercials! Including: Zelda Rap, Underroos (where the kids put on the underwear, and become the character their undergarments represent. Most notable is the kid who says: "More than meets the eye! *walks out of bathroom as Optimus Prime* I am the Transformer!"), Giggles cookies, My friend Zack the Legomaniac, Teddy Ruxipin (the one where everyone hates the retarded kid until they find out his Teddy Bear can talk), stuffed animals that forever look like they are crying, two Honey Comb Hideout commercials, and a ton more. As far as shows, I got: Foofur, the ONE episode of He-man I was able to successfully download off this site (Disapearing Act), what must be every damn episode of Super-Ted, two episodes of the animated Punky Brooster (or Punkie Brewster, I dunno… that show was long gone before I could read.), several episodes of The Little Wizards, and tons more that slip my mind. I’d love to make copies and mail ‘em to you Matt, but if I do, it wouldn’t be ’till after I move into my new house.
(BTW, not that it matters but I used to post replies in the Blog as "Jeremy F.", but now I’ll just go by my FARK ID to avoid confusion between me, and the other Jeremy)

Ghosted by Rewolf J @ 02/03/2003 11:15 PM EST


is it me or have things been quiet…perhaps too quiet.

Ghosted by tin man @ 02/04/2003 6:48 AM EST


i hope matt is okay… maybe he ate some he-man slime..

Ghosted by wack0 @ 02/04/2003 10:03 AM EST


maybe matt is taking a well deserved nap after the massive amount of great articles he’s pumped out in the past 2 weeks, or maybe he’s preparing something big…we must wait and wonder.

Ghosted by t-rah @ 02/04/2003 12:45 PM EST


I hope it’s the last 3 days of the advent calendar.

Ghosted by a @ 02/04/2003 3:34 PM EST


Thanks for the new article Matt, we were worried about you.

Ghosted by The Toxic Avenger @ 02/04/2003 7:35 PM EST


Matt, I think I’m in LOVE with you!

Ghosted by Jess @ 02/05/2003 3:17 AM EST


Back when I was a kid, my brothers rabbit ate some he-man slime whlile me and my brother were out with our parents and when we came back home, the rabbit had actully exploded, pretty nasty and my brother cried, ahhhh fond memories.

Ghosted by Ravinstorm @ 02/09/2003 3:43 AM EST


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