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Two new articles! Freddy’s Bubble Gum & the TMNT Fan Club Kit!

I tried out something new today, let's see how it works out. Instead of taking something that can be summed up in three words and stretching it out for sixty pages, I took two things and created two shorter articles. They didn't end up being that much shorter, actually, but they're still much less of a drain to put together. If the feedback's in its favor, maybe I'll start doing this a little more often.

First up, it's Freddy's Bubble Gum! Made by Topps in 1989, Mr. Krueger took his Elm Street franchise to new heights by letting kids chew his unholy Chiclets. I have no idea why I find this stupid gum so interesting, but I can't help myself. I just stare and stare at it, all the time, wondering where the Hell it came from. Going from one side of the universe to the other, the second article deals with the Ninja Turtles...

It's the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fan Club Kit! An exclusive offer advertised on the earliest Ninja Turtles action figures' packaging, kids received everything from a sticker to a bandana, and even a letter from some guy they'd never heard of. The article provides an in-depth look at the packet's contents, and I kinda go overboard when talking about the really cool envelope. But you know me. I love my envelopes. By the way, tomorrow's my birthday. I'm going to be so fucking old.

Posted by Matt on 02/05/2004. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 135 comments

I was never that much into Nightmare on Elm Street, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was in 6th or 7th grade when Ninja Turtles started hitting it big, so my interests were on other things. I thought the concept was cool, however either because of my age, or whatever it was at the time it never sparked my interest enough for me to check out any of the figures. I do remember my little cousin being quite fanatical about the Turtles however, about like I was with Star Wars (still am BTW), He-Man, and Transformers. I’ve seen most of the Elm Street movies but for some reason or another I found them largely forgettable, maybe it’s just me, but I liked Friday the 13th a bit better… but like all horror films I lose interest after they run the things into the ground with sequel after sequel. I do remember vaguely the merchandise line of Freddie.

Chestnuts roasted by Justus Cade @ 02/05/2004 11:07 PM

Happy Birthday Matt!

I remember wearing the orange bandana that came in the TMNT kit with a massive amount of pride.

I had more hubris when I rode around the neighborhood five years earlier on a MOTU bigwheel proclaiming that He-Man could totally whoop Megatron’s ass though.
I was 5, how was I supposed to know that Skeletor was so woefully inept?

Chestnuts roasted by Jett @ 02/05/2004 11:26 PM

happy birthday for tommorow matt!

can you go on another trip and talk about it? i love those articles <3

Chestnuts roasted by Rachel Cakes @ 02/05/2004 11:34 PM

Yeah, I’m down with splitting up the articles like that.

I used to save Pizza Points, Proof of Purchases, etc, etc. I never actually turned them in though… or wait, did I? Now memories are resurfacing of me not wanting to cut squares in the backs of the boxes. I definitely kept the cardboard backing of whatever toy I bought. Maybe I always thought I was gonna save up points for the biggest thing on the prize list, but the only one I ever did was the "design your own Joe" thing. Which was pretty fucking cool, but I basically just ripped of Sewer Rat with my character, because Sewer Rat was that cool.

Chestnuts roasted by Chopstick Sensei @ 02/05/2004 11:40 PM

I was a member of the Turtles club, but I remember the bandana being red.

I had the pizza shooter. I didn’t use it much though.

Chestnuts roasted by JG! @ 02/05/2004 11:55 PM

I wanted to save pizza points as a kid, but my mom argues that saving Kool-Aid points was enough. Oh well, we bought Kool-Aid more often anyway. Plus, I think my brother still has the 750 unexchanged Kool-Aid points stashed away. Hmmm…should we get the pitcher, or the water bottle?

Chestnuts roasted by Nate @ 02/06/2004 12:02 PM

I saved pizza points for the longest time….from the early 90s until they neared the end of the Turtles line and released figures like the dude with a basketball hoop on his neck. Never once did I see an opportunity to use them though. Seemed pointless to me, never anything to use them for.
Though I wasn’t in the Turtles fanclub, I was in the WWF and Power Rangers fan clubs respectively. The Power Rangers one came in a box, and included some awesome stuff like static clings of all the rangers, tattoos, and some other stuff i dont remember. The WWF one had a cassette with wrestlers music on it. That was in the golden days, 1992….it even had an 8×10 of Hulk Hogan in his Suburban Commando outfit. Crazy stuff.

Chestnuts roasted by Martel @ 02/06/2004 12:18 PM

haha the old rubber headed turtles…after about 5 hours of play smooshing their heads in…their eyes would end up with slits in them from the broken rubber…oh the greatness…

Chestnuts roasted by lordsorrowx @ 02/06/2004 12:20 PM

Happy Birthday Matt!
Oh man, today in 711 i found BBQ chip flavoured liquid candy! I was scared or else i would have bought it…I just bought some Juicy fruit instead but seriously BBQ chip flavourd LIQUID candy????
someone hold me Im still scared…

Chestnuts roasted by Allie @ 02/06/2004 12:23 PM

Oh yeah, Happy 25th you old bastard

Chestnuts roasted by Brrent @ 02/06/2004 12:26 PM

Happy Birthday, Matt. One day when I am the world’s most beloved eccentric billionairess I will buy you presents, but now I am a poor college student living with my parents, so you will have to wait a year or two.

I was never a member of the Ninja Turtles Fan Club, but my friends and I had our own unnoficial NKOTB fan club in like grade one, only at the time I didn’t know who the New Kids were, so everyone else told me that my favorite had to be Danny because no one else liked him. Some girl liked Jon, but he was old and creepy so I dunno why.

Chestnuts roasted by Gabbylicious @ 02/06/2004 12:36 PM

The pizza thrower is _the_ coolest ninja turtles toy ever, and in fact, I still have one… but no pizzas for it.

I don’t really remember ever seeing the freddy gum either, but I do remember the simpsons gum that came in toothpaste tubes… I remember it mainly because my aunt told me that if you swallowed it, you could fart bubbles.

Chestnuts roasted by gesis @ 02/06/2004 12:38 PM

Also… [since I forgot] Happy Birthday… as far as gifts… I have some centuries old chocolate flavored gum you can have. Buying a delorean has sapped every dollar I will have for the next eternity.

Chestnuts roasted by gesis @ 02/06/2004 12:42 PM

I never joined the Ninja Turtles club, but I did join the Fox Kids club back in the early 90′s. What the hell was I thinking?

Happy Birthday by the way!

Chestnuts roasted by Jeremiah @ 02/06/2004 12:42 PM

Hey Matt, and happy birthday! I was a member of the TMNT fan club, and in fact… I still am! Not only do I still have the bandanna, but I am, currently, carrying the membership card in my wallet with my name scrawled in a ten-year-old’s messy hand. My member number? 200751. Turtle Power!

Chestnuts roasted by Lady Millicent @ 02/06/2004 1:02 AM

Oh yeah… and my bandanna is Michaelangelo orange. I’m assuming, then, that they came in all four color varieties. What I wouldn’t give for Donatello’s purple… *sigh*

Chestnuts roasted by LadyMillicent @ 02/06/2004 1:23 AM

I was a member of the TMNT fanclub in my native country. Didn’t get a bandana but got a patch which I still have somewhere. I got a badge and letter and maybe some stickers. I vaguely remember a newsletter that came for a few months then stopped. Don’t know who signed our stuff, it was probably one of the turtles.

Also Happy Birthday Matt. You are about 2 months older than me. No wonder most of the stuff here strikes a cord with me.

Chestnuts roasted by Sepp Heckmann @ 02/06/2004 2:07 AM

I’ve been lurking for quite a while now, so I figured it was about time I posted something…
Happy Birthday, Matt! 25 isn’t that old, but what do I know? I’m only 20 and I freaked out about that. The only thing that got me through my little crisis was the realization that 21 was just around the corner. (Like that stops me now!)

Is there some sort of milestone at 25? If there is, I don’t know about it. I think it’s time to make one up, that way you can look forward to being 25.

There is one advantage to turning a year older: You get cake. That’s at least a +1. I really like cake, especially birthday cake.:)

Chestnuts roasted by Andrea @ 02/06/2004 2:11 AM

Happy lappy birthday, Matt! You’re only as old as you feel. I loved the Toitles since episode 1 up to that weirdness in the last few seasons. I never liked gum, but Freddy’s the bomb. So are you, Matt. Biggity bomb.

Chestnuts roasted by Armagideon Time @ 02/06/2004 2:11 AM

I used to like getting mail, now I hate it. I wish they had a Canadian version of that book ‘How to Disappear in America’ so I could go so deep in the figurative underground that no one is even aware I exist.

In Canada, we got patches with our Ninja Turtle Club. They were way cooler than the bandana.

Chestnuts roasted by Cannibalizer @ 02/06/2004 2:32 AM

I was totally in the fan club. I defenitely remember seeing the envelope. The rest of the stuff I’m fuzzy on, cept the bandana. I had two of those, a red one, and a purple one. Oh yeah, I had that pizza launcher, but the one toy that sticks in my mind is the turtles balloon. That was a cool toy for about a month. Then it went flat.

I dig the two articles at once. And having them be a little shorter is no big deal.

Chestnuts roasted by Dustin @ 02/06/2004 2:34 AM

I was totally in the fan club. I defenitely remember seeing the envelope. The rest of the stuff I’m fuzzy on, cept the bandana. I had two of those, a red one, and a purple one. Oh yeah, I had that pizza launcher, but the one toy that sticks in my mind is the turtles balloon. That was a cool toy for about a month. Then it went flat.

I dig the two articles at once. And having them be a little shorter is no big deal.

Chestnuts roasted by Dustin @ 02/06/2004 2:34 AM

Matt, gotta say, I like this, two shorter articles versus one long one is MUCH better. No offence, but sometimes I just dont feel like devoting a half hour to fully understand how much a movie sucks. Besides, sometime youll print an article about something I have no interest whatsoever in *cough*transformers*cough* so its nice to have a choice and not have to wait a few days to see another article.

Chestnuts roasted by The Dude @ 02/06/2004 2:58 AM

man, it’s really taking a long time for these DNS settings to go into effect… anyways, I never joined the Turtle’s fan club. I did, however, join the Burger King Kids Club (which I think I saw on an article or post here on X-E). Anyways, so instead of getting all that cool turtle stuff, I got a giant poster of Scottie Pippen. I felt ripped off, because I was a Bulls fan but they sent me Pippen and not Jordan :(

Chestnuts roasted by Skitzo from stupid5pin.com @ 02/06/2004 4:06 AM

Turtles were heros in the uk, not ninjas and mikey never had nunchuks until this year

cowabunga!

Chestnuts roasted by Gaz @ 02/06/2004 4:30 AM

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2004 at 9:28 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.