I think you'll like this one - a page-by-page look at the Toys R' Us 'Out of this World' Toy Book, covering He-Man, Centurions, Inhumanoids, She-Ra, Lazer Tag, and a whole lot more.  Enjoy.  Suck my bandwidth.

The latest review is of My Pet Monster's Live-Action Videocassette, a true classic by our standards.  I was most pleased to find this tape after years of searching, and it didn't let me down.  I know it'll be tough for most of you to get yours hands on it, so I went through the extra trouble of creating several video clips - check the bottom of the review for those.  I kinda wish I'd done that for some of the previous reviews, so maybe someday I'll go back and add vids here and there.

I feel like I've been on a timecard with the site these past few weeks.  Got a lot going on, and c'mon, American Idol's in it's final stretch.  That's a big time sucker.  Actually, not to jinx myself, but I appear to be on the cusp of landing the kind of job I've always wanted, and between writing samples and otherwise having it on my mind, it's taking up a lot of my time.  I'll let you know when and if it ever comes through.  If it doesn't, I'll pretend the opportunity never existed and lie about someone else writing this entry.  The point is, I'm sorta annoyed with only having enough time to do my articles and get the Hell outta here, so hopefully that'll change in a few weeks.  X-E is historically unorganized, but one of my main goals a few months back was getting everything back online in the proper spots and adding a lot of new and regularly updated features.  The commercials, for example - LOTS more of those coming.  I'm also debating adding another section simply for scans of old print ads, since I've accumulated a pretty good collection of 'em in the past year.  No, not the usual comic book scans you've seen online for years already - these are from some pretty obscure magazines and catalogs, and while none are deserving of full articles in of themselves, there's no way you won't get a kick out of seeing 'em.

Unfortunately, I'm the type who likes to make 50 plans at once, causing a brain overload that makes me put everything on hold for months on end.  Still, if the new job really is on the horizon, I definitely want the site to be as efficient as possible first.  The coding is a big thing, and I'm glad that'll be over with soon.  As of now, everything you see on the site is just written out in plain html, eating away at five times the time it really needs.  Be patient, though - I think the best is yet to come.

New Article: Remember our old Critters review?  Well, here's one for the sequel.  The video has just been sitting here collecting dust for the past few months, much like myself, and I figured now was as good a time as any to plop it into the VCR and torture myself with visions of killer porcupines and bounty hunters with breast implants.  To be honest, from the standpoint of a person who reviews this crap, I was hoping for a little more.  I don't think I'll run into the same problem with X-E's next review, though.  Trust me, you've never seen anything like what's coming up.  I rarely feel like going through the trouble to create video clips based off of what I'm reviewing, but this one warranted the extra effort.  We're talking Worst Witch level bad, or at least Rainbow Brite at the San Diego Zoo level bad.  Maybe even worse.  Stay tuned, it should be up tomorrow, but I've got some other things to take care of first.  Plus, I seem to be coming down with what's either going to be a fever or SARS.  Hopefully the latter since it'll bring in a little press.  Just keep an eye on the site till it's up - this isn't one you want to miss.

Hey hey hey.  Spent yesterday in the city doing a fun little side project involving taking pictures of street vendors and broken bicycles with a cell phone camera.  Hit some of the usual idiot spots in Times Square, namely the giant Toys R' Us with the ferris wheel and the giant Candy Land section suspiciously filled with things that are neither candy or lands.  Some pics are below.

There's a new article up, about the return of Mattel's 1978 creature of infamy, Suckerman.  Found him at a toy store that also sold several rubber albino alligators.  Also, if you missed it, there's an article from yesterday about Clue's stupid old VCR Mystery Game, which I will never play or look at again in my natural life.  Enjoy, and have a weekend full of drugs and mirth.

The incredible hype for the Incredible Hulk rages on with his latest merchandising tie-in — freakin' fruity freezy-pop FLAVOR-ICE.  I was pretty stunned to see his green face stamped on the box, but not too stunned to run away before buying it.  There's like sixty-thousand pops in there - a pretty good bargain for a mere fiver.  As far as these kinds of crossovers go, the Hulk Pops are pretty lame.  They're just regular Flavor-Ice sticks with the Hulk's logo stamped on top.  Okay, I'm not sure what else they could've actually done, but they're just not very Hulkish once you get 'em out of the box.  They should've at least threatened that some of the pops were radioactive and could cause anyone who ate them to grow big muscles or explode.

The sticks come in their usual flavors - cherry, orange, grape, blah blah blah.  The only flavor remotely tied to the Hulk is lime, since it shares his skin color and illustrates the envy he has for superheroes who don't need to buy new clothes every time they use their powers.  I'm going to have Flavor-Ice in my freezer for all of eternity, though.  I never got into the purple and orange ones, so the 400 of 'em are gonna sit in there next to last year's box of Weaver Chicken Drumettes until I'm dead, if not longer.  Apparently, random boxes include various rare Hulk trading cards.  I wasn't one of the lucky winners, so the Lucite super-case that previously housed my '91 Upper Deck Griffey Jr. is still without a new champ.  Makes me sad.  Think I'll have an ice pop.

X-E reviews A Nightmare on Elm Street Part II: Freddy's Revenge - click here!