The X-Entertainment Blog!

12/01/2006: X-Entertainment's 2006 Christmas Season.

I can't believe it's December already, but it is, and that means…X-EMAS! Christmas is my favorite time of year, and I'm really excited to get another X-E holiday season underway. Look up. The very first entry of the 2006 Advent Calendar is now active, kicking off 25 days of Yuletide terror as Mare, Knacks and Kuse protect the world from evil and save Christmas! Or something.

After giving it much thought, I've decided to not do an Advert Calendar along with the Advent this year. I've lucked into a bit more free time than I'm used to coming up in December, and I don't want to get boggled into "updating the what-must-be-updated" when I can use my powers for a greater good. Like, let's say, a December Megaparty. Yes, new blog posts every day in December — it's the promise I can't keep and the one you'll hate me for breaking! Let's hope for the best. I'm excited you're excited he's excited she's excited and, really, it's fun for folks to share their holiday obsessions on a stage that won't get pelted with tomatoes.

More design tweaks are coming, along with a new and improved Christmas Jukebox with over thirty new songs. Look for the "finished" Christmas design with all the trimmings sometime this weekend.

There was a time when I kind of appreciated the Polly Pocket brand, if for no other reason than being the ultimate sister line to Mighty Max. The idea of a "playset-in-your-pocket," complete with tiny action figures that fit inside, was really original and totally made trips to even the most boring places on the planet palatable. Now Polly's grown up, and she's a big slut with her own theme park who's too tall to fit in any prop compacts.Mattel can't be happy right now, as millions of the newer Polly Pocket toys were recently recalled, because the toys included tiny magnets that kids were eating by the scoop. A problem that broad could be a permanent black eye, and as if making Polly say things like "OFF THE HOOK!!" wasn't going to alienate enough potential customers, surely the fact that kids have magnet fragments attracting in their stomachs will. Maybe she'll trade "OFF THE HOOK!!" for "HI I'M POLLY AND I'M GONNA INUNDATE YOUR STOMACH WITH MAGNETS!!" Fortunately, a new line of Polly Pocket stocking stuffer figures hit shelves before the big bag recall came down.

For those who haven't been introduced to the "new" Polly, now she wears rubber clothes that slip off and on and feel a lot like an inedible Fruit Roll-Up. It's a decent little gimmick, but the clothes don't really fit right, and everything Polly wears looks like Play-Doh.The stocking stuffer sets are around five bucks each. There are a few different figures available (Polly's friends manage to hit every major point of diversity!), each with a different outfit and a cool plastic snowflake-shaped tree ornament.

It's Christmas. All over. AGIN. YAR AGIN.

If not, I have a special gift! Click my name to see "Charlie Brown Christmas"…in its entirety!!

It's not December 1st yet, at least not anywhere in the continental US. Why is the clock for the blog an hour ahead? Are you so anxious to start the Advent Calendar that you pushed it forward?

I don't blame you though. The X-E Advent Calendar is one of the only things I enjoy about this time of year. Working in various FYEs and Sam Goodys during the holidays for almost six years will make just about anyone hate the season.

I'm third!! Closest to first I've ever been. I got up just in time to catch the beginning of Christmas fever on X-E.!!

I used to have awesome Polly Pockets, where I could enjoy hours of playing with teeny little people in useless little playsets. Good times. I think the bigger ones are kind of ugly.

Holy crap! I just read the first day, and all I can say is I can't believe MAtt actually created what he did. Jesus, I was laughing my ass off. When I Kuse's little screen, I thought, "no way…"

Damn Matt, that was unexpected but funnier than a Mime getting kicked in the nuts….

Woo! Snow! Advent Calendar! Christmas music! My heart is gonna explode I'm so freakin' happy!

I actually really enjoyed the Advert Calendar. I love seeing old commercials I used to watch when I was a kid (especially the "fallen star" one from McD's and Little Miss Make-Up). Oh, well. Hooray for the Advent Calendar and December MegaParty!

I'll still feature old Christmas commercials this year, don't worry.

They'll just be as regular blog entries — and I'll stick to the better ones.

Matt Just wondering… do you have the whole Rodney Reindeer family or just the one?

Matt it won't be the same unless you keep the Christmas motif up on the site until at least next April. I know that your readers will feel cheated and empty inside if you don't.

I'm not reading the Calendar until in the morning……That way it will REALLY be December!

I was keeping my eye on last year's LEGO advent calendar, hoping the price would go down after Christmas, but I guess I lost my opportunity. At last there's always next after Christmas…
Also, I sure hope there's some of the Venture's Christmas Album from 1965 on the new Jukebox- that's got to be one of the finest records ever crafted. Mixing 'Tequila' with 'Frosty the Snowman'? Now I can't imagine it any other way.

Haha, seeing Knacks' myspace page on his computer screen made me laugh hard enough, but then seeing that he actually has a page made me laugh even harder.

Another year another AC BEGINS.
Sweet. Like last year, I have the Lego calendar so I can sort of follow along. Day 1 is a DOT worker with a shovel. Perhaps he used to work for Initech? Case of the LEGO mondays indeed!

YES! I almost forgot December was here! This makes everyday this month a GOOD day. Awesome!

I've got a niece who is obsessed with Polly Pocket — there's miniature rubber clothing all over the place. I'm super stoked for X-EMAS!

Do you have any idea how long I've linked to my myspace page? Knacks: Add me, damnit!!

Knacks is SO going into my my top friends as soon as he approves my friend request!

I am proud and embarrassed to say that I am looking forward to experiencing my first Advent Calendar in real-time. I didn't discover X-E till last January…so, yeah. Whoo hoo!

Damn you, Knacks, for forcing me to remember my MySpace login! Now if only I knew how to make twinkly gif images.
Finished reviewing the 2005 Calendar just as the new one came up. Have to admit I got a little sentimental seeing that those two crazy kids made it through the year. Newlyweds, am I right?
Also, I'm now nostalgic for King Kong, and his presence on various snack cakes and Glad products. I wonder if the extended version is worth it…
Merry X-EMAS, and God bless us, everyone!

Gee wiz Matt, you made my girlfriend cry from the jukebox and the past christmas posts. I have to say you may be an icon. If it can envoke tears from someone who asked "where was the great pumkin anyways?" I say you have something going.

KUSE: Yeah, well, so do I. Let's hop in the box it came in and screw.
YES, that was hysterical.

I'm in Knacks's Myspace in spirit. I've vowed never to make an account at that insipid place, and I'm still sticking to that vow. But let Knacks know I'm there for him as well.

I'll still feature old Christmas commercials this year, don't worry. They'll just be as regular blog entries — and I'll stick to the better ones.
No more creepy possessed Dearfoams slipper ads? Fine with me.

Knacks is going in my top 12 when the request goes through. If anyone deserves to be there, it's him. What ex-girlfriend?

I've been meaning to get a playmobil advent calendar to follow along for a while now, but I never did. Something about being lazy. And not being able to really rationalize it, not being Christian and all.

Wow, I know it's a cliché to say this, but the holiday season has really been going by quickly for me. Of course, it probably helps that I'm in college now (as opposed to the last two years when I was an unemployed sponge), but unlike when I was a kid, I can't help but wish that it would slow down so that I can appreciate it more. Boy, 10 years ago I never would have thought that I'd actually want Christmas to come slower! Any way, the last few years X-E has really made the season more fun and I can't wait to see where this year's calendar goes.

As an aside, there is currently a raging snowstorm going on where I live (Northern Illinois), which, coupled with this update and the non-vocal rendition of "Christmas time is here" from the Charlie Brown special playing from my speakers, really adds quite a bit of atmosphere.

HAHAHA!!
The Advent Calendar is off to a great start! Mare is back! The Christmas season can officially begin!

Awesome, AWEsome, AWESOME! More later- gotta get to work!! Thanks for a great way to start the day, Matt!

Awesome. I can't wait to get home so I can add Knacks as a friend! And the mere sight of Legotron cracks me up, I love that guy.

That… was amazing. I wish Knacks would open the presents though! I wanna see them! I added him to my friends list. That is totally the funniest shit ever.

Awesome start, Matt. And I hate myspace, but I will make the sacrifice and go there just to read Knack's entries….great new dynamic you added to the calendar!

EMO Knscks is the best…cant wait to have him on my friends list. Has anyone checked out the Twisted Sister Xmas album? Its nothing short of genius!

Well that was the last straw, after years of refusing to I finally caved to peer pressure and started a Myspace account… Damn you Knacks, why must you do these things to me?!? *sob* Anywho, Merry Start of the Christmas Season, everybody!

I am having a snow day (SE Wi) and totally forgot it was Dec. 1. I missed most of Halloween, so I'm glad I'm getting in on the ground floor of Christmas.

I always look forward to this time of year on your site. In hindsight, I'm at work and really shouldn't have had my speakers cranked when I clicked on his myspace page.
Emo comments are always funny.

This week's New Yorker has an article on the Bratz phenomenon (and since my only sister is 22, I don't know much about girl toys) and apparently the owner of the company thinks they look ugly. I laughed at that and figured I'd pass it along.

I even forgot it was the first, but something in the back of my mind was like "Go check XE right now."

I'm so excited. Reuniting with Kuse, Knacks, Mare and even Waiterbot, it's like reuniting with old friends.

From one emo kid to another……I just cancelled my myspace account again. Crud. Still an awesome angle Matt. Even better than a love triangle. Now he just has to meet some whackjob on there and actually try to start a relationship. Then the good times roll. Well for US anyway

Damn. Knacks has 121 friends already. Looks like I'll have to create a MySpace account again, just so I can be his friend.

Oh, and whoever Maria is, the fact that you have "The Touch" as your page song, is mind numbingly awesome!

and im soooooooooooo stoked about the x-emas being started, i was so excited i made my own mini callender to count down to the countdown.

and do my eyes decieve me, A DECEMBER MEGA-PARTY??! matt, i love you, you make xmas junkies like, well, all of us here on the blog damndamn happy.

hey. hoping 0ne of you fine folks could help me out, especially norbert, im looking for xmas specials but i cant find them, all the classics, santa clause is comin to town, rudolph, the muppets, et all, PLEASE HELP MY DEAR X-E BLOG FAMILY!!!
El-Josh-O

On DVD? Youtube? File sharing?
Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, Rudolph, Muppets - all at Best Buy, at least I saw them the other day. Those are pretty easy to find.

The sun is out, the snow is blinding entire families, and the X-E Advent is under way! Smells like December to me.

I'm still debating about getting a MySpace account, and the Knacker's little hissy fit is a point on the "get it" side. Maybe he ought to hook up with Polly Pocket, especially after her cheesecake pose in the second photo.

In answer to a question from last thread: The snow was a little over ankle deep here, but it's extremely drift-prone. The warm sun ought to put a good crust on most of it.

However I just tried clicking box #1 and nothing's coming up - is it just me or is there an error on the link?

This is so great! I went away on vaction and I come back to so much x-e goodness!

I got to see some macys thanksgiving parade action, and now I get to have a new friend on myspace!

jessica marie: i live in newfoundland canada, so best buy isnt an option, damn damn damn, but if anyone knows of any specials on youtube besides the grinch charlie brown or frosty please tell me, also if anyone can send me a special (can you send files that big through hotmail?) it'd be greatly apprectiated, my email is maptosleepwalking@hotmail.com
thanks all!

I don't think Hotmail'll let you have files that big. But I'm foggy, since I haven't had an account there in, like, a decade?

So Mare and Kuse are married now? So does she know what he looks like without his helmet?

JLAJRC, Dec. 20th, 2005. If not earlier. He's got the skateboard helmet on and his face is clearly visible.

Now it's finally the Christmas season! It can't start without the Advent Calendar. I've been at my job since December 2002 and I've read every calendar as it was published. Now I feel like putting up my office decorations. Thanks, Matt!

great start to the calander matt, I'm intrested where the whole myspace thing is going. knacks totally in my top friends list lolomgroflmaowtf.

Wow! The first of December, the adven calender is up, and there's snow on the ground here in TEXAS!!!

i shouldnt find legos who curse that funny but i do. and i sent the poor fella a friend request.

i still have all my Mighty Maxes in a box in my closet. I drag them out every now and then much to the dismay of my dad because I set them ALL up and leave them on the floor for days. Ill take pictures next time.

kingklash, I to was anti-getting a myspace forever (I still don't like myspace, it's still evil), but you know whose myspace finally convinced me to get one?

Weird Al's. Yep. He was the only famous person in the world that didn't have one yet, and when he got one…I got convinced and I got one about 2 weeks after that. Now he's in the #2 position.

Well, it's truly Christmasy now! Advent Calendar day 1, my advent calendar's started here at the duplex of doom, the lights are on the tree AND I found CHRISTMAS CRUNCH! Two boxes, woo! Now I have enough to last the rest of the holidays.

Thanks for the help all! (Oh, and I'm watching Miracle on 34th Street, extra Christmassy!)

I know you were trying to save yourself trouble by not having a Advert Calendar to update…but now you've tied yourself to Knacks' myspace page. Goodluck!

Since the holiday season is upon us, has anyone seen the most awesomest christmas commercial ever yet this year?

It is the Folger's commercial where the son comes back from college. The little sister wakes up and sees him first. Together they make Folgers coffee to wake up mom and dad. It has to be at least 20 years old and I remember seeing it last year.

First of all, let me tell you snow-bound midwesterners how much I envy you. Southern New Jersey's been having this amazingly humid, 70-degree weather for at least a week. We're in the middle of massive rainstorms as I type this. It's supposed to get cooler this weekend; I hope they're right.

I'm still feeling Christmassy, though, and I'm thrilled to see the return of the good ol' Advent Calender. I'm not sorry to see the Advert Calender go, either. It was fun, but I imagine the December MegaParty should more than make up for it.

Congradulations to Kuse and Mare for their summer nupials. I'm not on MySpace, but tell Knacks he's probably the world's most loved stormtrooper, whether he has a Mare of his own or not!

Oh, and I got my Christmas tree at least partially up tonight (the tree, lights, star, and garland are up, but I didn't have a chance to put the ornaments on). I made a great Christmas-related find at the thrift shop where I volunteer, too. I dug up all three of the Christmas McDonald's Muppet Babies from 1986- Fozzie, Miss Piggy, and Kermit - in mostly mint condition (dirty but with everything attatched, even their tags). They're now under my tree, along with a Christmas bear I found at the thrift shop in September.

I rememebr the day those muppet babies came out! everyone was waiting in line for the Miss Piggy one. I beleive it was sorta rare.. i cant rememebr though…I know i flaunted that pig all around sea view square mall that day!

I hope this years X-Mas jukebox is better than last years. I found myself listening to RUN-DMC and Wham! more than any man should.

I'm happy for Christmas and the new Advent Calendar and all, but it's outweighed by the fact that I miss "Mighty Max".

Aw, poor Knacks. He just got some friends on MySpace and someone's already hacked his page.

Umm, Matt, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Knack's myspace got hacked. The layout is all wrong, the stuff under Interests is gone, and all of the navigation buttons go to a phising site.

Also, I demo'd Zelda on a Wii earlier…Wow, awesome. But that stuff is troublesome who doesnt stand still like I do!

I has going through some old boxes and I came across these little books that were about based on different characters that were called Mr. Men. I actually believe I got these from an Arby's kids meal back in the eighties. Does anyone remember these?

On a random note…since all of us here pretty much love 80's nostalgia, I found out from y husband today, that he once met the guy who played the pedophile bike shop guy from diffrent strokes…at a christian youth group concert no less! Turns out he is a youth pastor or som ething. he was on Wkrp in cincinatti too right?

I'm so happy for the advent calendar this year, Matt. It always brings a smile to my face

Plus, since there's a megaparty I'm doubly excited!

I had Polly Pockets back in the day when she was super small… The 'pocket' part doesn't seem like it could be so true now.

Yes- I love starting my day with a bew advent calendar update. Thanks for the smiles, Matt.

I have been debating for a long time now about whether or not I should get a MySpace page…and now even KNACKS has a page before I got one! Jeez- I might have to cave and get one now- only Knacks, Matt and the magic of the XE calendar could convince me to do such a thing.

Bill, I remember them too! There also female versions called Little Miss. I didn't have all of them, but I had a lot of em. I got em at a garage sale well over 12 or so years ago, and I think I still have them.

Fun fact: There were also cartoon adaptations of many of the books, including Mr. Greedy (the fat purple guy), the Mister Man who was shaped like a Triangle, Mr. Muddle, and Little Miss Scatterbrain ("Looks like snow!")

I've mentioned on here before, I had lots of the Mighty Max figures, including the cobra, the skull, the McDonald's ones, and the Skull Island playset.

Yes, this is great! NOW the holidays can begin! While I loved the advert calendar, nothing beats the Advent calendar!

Invader Norbert: It seems that these books are begging to be spoofed but slipped by unnoticed. I love the origen of how he came to write these books. Apparently his son asked what a tickle looked like and he was stumped and it inspired the character Mr. Tickle. I guess that's better than mr. Molester from Creepytown.

I loved, loved, loved those books when I was a kid. I can't remember which ones I had, but I had a bunch of them. I also remember the cartoons. They were no Sweet Pickles as far as I'm concerned, but I loved them.

Mr. Men and Little Miss briefly came back in 1997 on a syndicated program; the last thing 4Kids made before they translated Pokemon and became millionaires. They mixed MM&LM cartoons together with strange scattered sketches with live-action people acting hyperactive. I have a clip of this somewhere.

Nice call on Knack's Myspace, and working it into the story. It makes me feel like I'm part of the action or something.

Off to a rousing start already, Matt. I'd be lying if I said I don't really really look forward to the Advent Calendar every week.

It's official… I am the world's saddest girl… I went to eight–count 'em!–EIGHT different stores today looking for an Advent Calendar of my very own. Nada. Where is everyone else getting theirs?

Luckily I was still able to enter your site, even after such a provocitive pic of Polly Pocket appeared above.

Im a little bit worried, all i want to do is talk about christmas, in broad terms il be boring and say christmas 1918 until 2011 (the autobots are so last year) to narrow things down a bit il say xmas 1993 (which would make me 8 at the time im boasting about) its at this time that my obsession with 6' articulated G.I JOE action figures reached its height, and when i say height i literally mean 6'MAX. Picture the scene, 8 year old boy scared of my local toy shop's "virtual reality" station, but (looking back) strangely drawn to transparent micro machines (still got an articulated 911) its around here that i really should mention that im a first time poster from the north of England and i have several action figure (hereby referred to as actfigs… yeah actfigs) related anecdotes, to begin with i have to say im just too young to have ever gotten he-man actfigs as a legitimate packaged gift for xmas, but imagine the dilema i faced when coming downstairs on xmas morning 1993 to discover… 1;- a SEGA GAMEGEAR, comically wrapped by my sister (21 at the time), the GG was brand new and boxed, but to throw my surprisingly astute, sleuth-like xmas deduction skills off (i always knew when i was getting headphones) the GG was enveloped in a purple "HI-TEC" shell-suit, then wrapped again in an even vaster supermarket "mccain oven chips" box (for 6 seconds in '93 i thought i had a giant purple shellsuit for xmas, zero actfigs in sight, booooooo!)

… around 30 assorted He-Man actfigs (which as it turns out were bought from an adin the local paper for £25 "for a quick sale") guess what my fave was?

Thats right the 'keeper gloves, erm i mean the actfigs

there were a lot of doubles in the group but they became my "gang" whom helped me to destroy my arch enemy "safe-combination-backpack -he-man" as this bugger was preowned he was unopenable but i made it my actfigs and myselfs mission to crack him assunder, we tried this by means of me dropping various things on "S.C.B.P.H.M" 's backpack (which i later found out you could put CAPS in! Alas, my luitenant (the eye poppin' Egon actfig from Ghostbusters) and i were frankly gutted, recruitment was in order so i harassed my sister into taking me back to the afore mentioned toy shop to get reinforcements (im starting to think this happened over several years rather than months as i previously thought) now a wonderful thing happened, i feigned paralitic fear (still due to the same virtual reality station) until made my sister bought me several "street fighter 2" 6' GI JOE actfigs, my cousin had RYU and KEN so i thought fuck it and got M.BISON and SAGAT so i could tiger uppercut his tits off, which is possibly my first nod to satan… ever.

I aslo cried ’til i got transport (some kind of missile firing, half-track, COBRA decal replaced cash-in vehicle) this evil-spewing extravaganza plainly wasnt enough to satisfy my troop replacement urges so i continued to sift through the GI.JOE wall (thats right, wall) until i came across an australian gent with a huge moustache/sideburn combo and a bandolier of hand grenades, standard GI JOE'NESS i hear you say, but what made him stand out was the massive "IM FREE IF YOU SPEND MORE THAN £15 ON GI.JOE PRODUCTS" sticker, he looked rubbish but free is free and the renamed half-track was apparently £400 on its own. The toy shop manager told us (sagat, m.bison, my sister and me) that the particular offer mentioned on "murphys" packaging was no longer running, but as you're 8 and look like your gonna whine all day and your sister is 22 and female, that "on this occasion i can let you have the actfig* for free) i grinned, my sister grinned, we all went home. It turns out i'd picked the rubbish M.BISON in the turquoise outfit so he was demoted to "GRUNT WITH HAT" immediately, and SAGAT (although he has gnarly scars and an eye patch) was also to demoted because he was wearing shorts and had no shoes, even though i knew his name he became known simply as "MAAAAAAAAAATE" and was only ever refered to by name if he was dead/dying/falling off something/getting beat down by my cousins ken or driving the M.A.S.K motorbike into a wall.
Murphy became the boss of all my actfigs after a brief head to head with the "JEAN LUC-PICARD actfig i got the following summer, (i put them both in my VISIONARIES X-RAY-Y-WING THING and murphy came out on top, (i think it was the grenades that did it)

Between us, murphy and me eventually got C.B.P.H.M's B.P open, of course there was nothing in it, murphy and i have since had "creative differences" and i used an industrial staple gun to nail him to my subbuteo board, it made his wrists snap,i was 14, i really, really wish i hadn't, but ive now based my sideburns/moustache combo on his in honour of a fallen comrade…i sold out to puberty angst and you paid the price murphy, you will always be the boss of my men!

(if anyone knows the actfig i speak and would like to send me an ebay page please do so as i now have a son of my own and i think it would be kinda cool if i whipped murphy's son out on my kids 8th xmas and forced him to accept his leadership over his puny "super atriculated spider-man" don't get me wrong, he's alright,its just that murphys better.

Add A New Comment!

This entry was posted on Friday, December 1st, 2006 at 12:45 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.