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06/15/2007: Another new article! And snowcones!

Would you believe me if I told you I published two new articles in less than a week? Miracles happen. Here's a look at five random '80s toys, which is an article I started seventeen years ago, got bored of and left to die. In the spirit of making X-E seem less like a marked grave and more like the party capital of Reno, I've dusted it off.

I would've put a little more into the ending, but I found myself distracted as the silver bells of a Lickedy Split ice cream truck blared through the open windows this afternoon. While such trucks usually have nothing but soft swirl cones, I had a hunch that this was going to be a special day. Hello, snowcone.

The snowcone is nature's perfect food. Ice, colored and flavored by liquid sugar. Visions of fireflies, of wiffle ball and of smashing fireflies into the pavement with a wiffle ball bat, because those were some cool ass looking bug guts.

Nothing can compare to the official ice cream truck snowcone, which arrives in a conical paper wrapper with the ice divided into three colorful flavors. On a good day, you'll get red, yellow and blue. On a better day, these three flavors will join hands to create a holy purple ice just beneath the outer surface — a holy purple ice that pretty much tastes like whatever fruit you tell it to taste like.

Me and the snowcone are heading downstairs to my walk-in freezer. He thinks I'm trying to help him not melt, but I just want to eat him without getting juice on my pants.

Yes! Been waiting months for this! Link on main site links to cruise article, though…

Come back to X-E to find a ton of new posts! It's been a good day. Thanks Matt!!

I wouldn't even look at the article full of boys' toys if Matt didn't promise a nice, long review of Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer.
oKay, I'll read it anyway.

I just totally creamed myself. An article about toys AND snow cones!? Holy crap in a hat this is the best day ever!!! : D

lol, i'm with you, Jessica. Time for a girly article!
Having said that, I sure am glad to see you writing articles again, Matt.

Mmmm snowcones! Those are even better than the ones you can get at the snowcone stand that they have down here. Thanks for the article!

Coming on here to see another new article is like incidentally finding out your favourite bands coming to town. Thanks Matt!

I like that Pepsi Can thing. And for a moment I thought that Legions of Power line was the same one that had this weird, customizable robot/tractor thing my friend used to have. Man, what was that thing?

New X-E posts, Subway Series starts tonight, birthday tomorrow. Very good day Joker, its fuckin' awesome.

Ahh, the Ice Cream Truck. That brings up some odd memories of last summer, hearing them drive by at like 10:00 at night and about every ten minutes after, and once even on Christmas morning. Yeah it's hot at 10:00 in Vegas, but Christmas morning? Oh those wacky Mexicans.

I've been thinking about X-E a lot recently, and it's great to see all these new articles/posts!

As a matter of fact, I just read that this week Pepsi is releasing a new summer flavor called "Pepsi Ice Cucumber" -sadly, only in Japan. Also, BoingBoing has been running a bunch of weirdly malformed cartoon based popsicles lately and I noticed a link to your site there too.

But most of all, I've been seriously considering buying the complete original line of McDonald's changables- and that's exactly what lead me to X-E for the very first time a few years back.

Where in Gods unholy name did u find all those wonderful toys! And the worms(in a briefcase?!) I had that crap when I was a wee lad. Memories…

Man, those toys are craptacular. The only ones I ever heard of was the METERORBS (of which I never had

)

The toy line I was thinking of was Battle Builders.The "Mega Rig" specifically,from about 96…in case anyone cared

Since you seem the purveyor of all things retro and interesting from our collective youths, where would people send you presents to add to your collection (possibly pieces to use for future article fodder)?

Matt, I too would like to see a review of Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer. Bwahaha…

Anyway, that was a highly entertaining article. I thought that Pepsi can dude was kind of awesome.

Man, everyone is happy with the articles (as am I), but the Meteorbs came out as I was approaching the non-toy-buying age of 13. This made them even more bittersweet, because just as the He-Man line was dying out, so was my socially acceptable ability to buy toys. Stupid society!

Never heard of any of them…but the Meteorbs sound awfully familiar. The closest thing that I can relate to those now would be the protoform Optimus & Starcream from the new Movie Figures.

And while I love the pokemon references…I think it's about time to do some research, as there are now 493 pokemon now, no longer the familiar 151. Snorlax, while familiar and relatable, is no longer the biggest of them all. That title is now held by Wailord (the evolved form of Wailmer), and Steelix now comes in 2nd in terms of weight, I think.

Matt may be content to limit himself to the original generation of Pokemon. Sometimes we have reasons for no longer following a particular series/franchise.

I'm still looking for someone to provide me with the correct declension(??)/conjugation for OLD in latin to plug into Fabula Nova Crystalis in place of Nova.

Because in 5 years I'll still be making references to Squall and Locke, fuck this Lightning idiot.

While a girl-related article would be nice (coming from another lady here), hell, I played with boys' toys too, and two articles in less than a week from Matt is nothing short of a miracle. (And two of the funniest he's written in a while, to boot.)

I don't remember ever hearing of any of the toys mentioned here. Most obscure toy lines never really found their way to Southern New Jersey. I may have seen the Metororbs around, and the Pepsi can rings minor bells (and is a way cool vehicle), but by 1987, I was more into She-Ra than her brother…and by 1989, I was more into Turtles (and not really into most toys anymore).

I thought all these would be unfamiliar to me. Then I got to the Bad Case of Worms. I way like, "hey I remember those" Then I kept reading and I only remembered it from the xe blog.

I want that Pepsi Can toy.

Jessica, Cerianna and Denise:You should check out our own Mystie's Crowncombo.com for girly articles. She compliments what Matt should not write about. Plus she is funny as Hell. Should I capitalize Hell?

I think this is the sign of the apocolypse. Two articles in a week and a day before SNT? Matt, you should really stretch before you do that.

I feel like I acquired the "Hero Mechanic Specialist" from a doctors office waiting room as a kid.

I second Crowncombo. She has an article on Sweet Secrets (which I adored, and that's right I'm male) and a bitchin' repaint of Optimus Prime. Purple and pink, Prime never looked so good.

"The snowcone is nature's perfect food. Ice, colored and flavored by liquid sugar. Visions of fireflies, of wiffle ball and of smashing fireflies into the pavement with a wiffle ball bat, because those were some cool ass looking bug guts."

This is a damn nice surprise after a shitty shift at work- I love getting home late and having XE cheer me up! Thanks, Matt.

That Gridd dude looks a whole lot like Hondo MacLean that came with Hurricane from M.A.S.K. Seriously…like way too much. I'm looking at him right now while he stands next to Hurricane on my desk…along with dozens of other M.A.S.K. things, Centurion things, M.U.S.C.L.E dudes, MOTU things, etc. Hooray geekdom!

Wait…what? You have a walk-in freezer in your basement?! That's the greatest thing I've ever heard. Now I want one, but I need a basement first.

Two in one week! Those of us that read X-E more diligently than other people who read X-E are getting spoiled.
It's funny, the toys that made great fake pets were never the most fancy or expensive ones, for me anyway. It was usually some little glow in the dark cheapo Chuck E. Cheese prize.
Happy Friday everybody!

Wow.. I definetly had one of those little green cases of Worms. Not sure what happened to 'em, but the case stuck around my toy chest for the long haul.

Did Matt's impulse purchase of the re-animator get a urge to watch the movie again? Click on my name for an urge release. I recemmend the downloading option because that site crashes sometimes if it streams. But it's my new favorite site now. Oh la la.

Speaking of my Opty repaint, I'm working on a buddy for him right now, and I'm fucking cross-eyed from paint fumes. I opened up my windows and turned the fan on, but there's no screens in my windows right now cuz the wind blew them half-off and we're in the process of replacing them. Needless to say, bugs are quite happily inviting themselves in. I'm going to have to stuff my orifices with mothballs before I go to sleep.

I got a Reactor for my birthday once. I was pretty jazzed, because at that age I fully supported anything that involved glowing power rods.

Anyhoo, I got the thing, and when I inserted the power rod, it only went backwards. No forwards movement, just reverse. After ten minuted of this, not only had I realized this toy would suck if worked the way it was supposed to, but it sucked even more because it couldn't even do the one thing it was supposed to do correctly.

Haven't read the article, but had to go back to Jessica Marie's fabulous, impending Orlando trip for a sec. February isn't that rainy here, but it can get cold (depending on how Mother Nature is feeling that year, of course; this year it was fucking hot). Anywho, if you like marine life, Sea World isn't so bad. Just don't expect it to last the whole day. If you LOVE marine life, you might want to visit the super expensive, must-make-reservations-in-advance sister park, Discovery Cove. For a ridiculous amount of money, you can actually swim with dolphins. For less money, you can swim with…other animals, not dolphins (but why would you??). Have never been myself, but prolly worth looking into.

I think a week is good, assuming you only do one park per day: MGM, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom (my least fave), Epcot, Sea World/Discovery Cove, and both Universal parks. You'll drop a lot of money but jesus, will you have a good time!

Why is it that all MOtU material was written in passable if florid English except the character blurbs, which all appear to have been written by the crazy old man at the shady Chinese restaurant next to the transmission shop? Or am I the only one who reads "Heroic mammoth busts force-fields with tusks!" in an early Jackie Chan accent?

Oh, and happy birthday, Tutsoro. Remember, if the restaurant sits you down before you order and you get real silverware, they owe you free cake. Don't take any guff from these swine.

I distinctly remember watching cartoons with Ripper Snapper. As a child I never owned a complete combiner team, but that did nothing to hinder the love I had for him. Same goes for Street Wise and Nosecone. Story of my life. Always the apendages, never the torso.

Sno-Cones you say? Then does anyone remember the Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine? Snoopy's dog house that magically churned out a sno-cone with Snoopy and Woodstock sitting on top. Come on and sing along the commercial: "You put an ice cube in, pull a sno-cone out, yum-yum fun is what it's all about (Kids in commercial: 'Thanks Snoopy') It's the Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine!"

Indeed, Mr. Ednoff. In fact, Matt has already written an article on that particular subject.

Mystie, reading Matt's article brought a tear to my eye. Thank you for bringing this pilgrim to Mecca!

Actually,Invader Norbert, I don't think Snorlax ever was the biggest Pokémon… I believe that honour went to Onix during the first generation. Then, when GSC came around, it was Steelix and now Wailord…

Yeah, I didn't stick with Pokemon once it went past the "original collection." Bought a couple of the games, but, well, I guess I wasn't into it for a long enough time to accept that I had to now get acquainted with double the number of Pokemon. And then it became triple, and quadruple, and by the time everything was said and done, I felt pretty stupid for permanently grafting an image of Bulbasaur onto my leg.

Actually got into Pokemon by accident. When I bought my first computer (not the first computer I ever had — the first computer I ever bought), it came with a DVD player. That would be my first DVD player, and I was itchy to get my first DVDs. Unfortunately, I chose to do this at a really rundown Circuit City that had a terrible DVD assortment. Without much to choose from, I went with Run Lola Run and Pokemon: The First Movie. Once I saw Bulbasaur sing Togepi the "Bulbabye," I knew I was in for life.

purplegirl - I didn't know Discovery Cove was a seperate venture. We might skip Universal or MGM, depending on H's vacation schedule, but we'll see.
Anyone know the policies about bringing food to the resort/park and how far in advance I can book a vacation? The rates for 2008 aren't even up yet, but I don't want to miss it when they do.

The running joke among my friends, if someone says something stupid or indiscernible, is to say "Yeah…I'm not really into Pokemon." That's all I have to contribute on the subject of Pokemon.

Does anyone else think the box from the first toy is a carbon copy of any Nintendo product box of that era?
Thanks again Matt! As always, well worth the wait.

Speaking of Pokemon, does anyone know of good but inexpensive router I could buy? I'm switching broadband providers and they're taking back my free one.

I'm sure others will have something to say, but I got a Linksys router from Wal-Mart for a decent price (that I can't recall off the top of my head; sorry) that works great with both the DS and Wii…works throughout my entire house….be sure to check the Nintendo site to make sure you get one that they recommend; a friend recently bought one without checking and it's one of the few that aren't compatible at all….

As always, you have triggered flashbacks to friends birthday parties in the 4th grade, down in their dingy basements, playing with all of these random toys scattered throughout…I especially remember legions of power..

Matt, how would I go about sending you something? I have a copy of Mr. T's Commandments…the preachy "don't do drugs or talk to strangers" rap album that he released in the late 80's….figured you would appreciate it..

Oops…when I said "Biggest," I meant "Heaviest." I was fully aware that Onix was the Biggest in size at the time, but Snorlax was the heaviest, and the only one that came remotely close was Golem.

Snorlax (1041.1 lbs)
Metagross (1212.5 lbs)
Dialga (1505.7 lbs)
Giratina (1653.5 lbs)
and Groudon (2094.4 lbs)

Golem (662 lbs) doesn't even come close anymore, beaten by 10 more pokemon between it and Snorlax. and Wailord only weighs 877.4 lbs, but is still the longest at 47 feet, followed by Steelix, and then Onix.

I said to myself JUST last week, "WTF has Matt been doing…the front page still says Christmas! Christmas in July!!….june…summer months. Whatever."

The "Sno-Cone Man" lives just a block down from me. He has a rickety white van with a window that doesn't close and he has a cooler full of shaved ice and a ton of jars full of kool-aid with 3x the legal dose of sugar in a rack in the back of the truck. Come to think of it, I'm not sure how they stay in place when he drives. Meh. But they're $1 each which is super rad and he even has a gumball machine bolted down next to the window! So that if you're 20 years old, you're tall enough to insert a quarter and get your own gumball, while the rest of the 6 year olds you fought for the front of the line have to ask for one.

The Colonel's computer is fried, if anyone was curious. He'll be back as soon as he fixes it…somehow.

I have a copy of the Computer Warriors program. Bought the tape at a second-hand store. Not only does it have the piolot, but a behind the scenes program. Carl Macek is the man behind this Tron/AutoMan cartoon adventure. But what I really learned is that little white boys and the actors playing their dads shouldn't try to rap. If you have the tape, you know what I mean.

Yay for two new articles! Always happy to see that, thank you. (The last time I bookmarked X-E, I made sure to do it on the day it said "X-Entertainment updated twice this week, you know," so even when there aren't any updates, I'm still happy.)

I know that some of my toys became "pets," but I'm having trouble remembering which ones right now. That description totally hits the nail on the head, though.

Holy shit! I thought I was the odd man out for the Snow Cone! Every kid would get a Ninja Turtle ice cream or the infamous Buffalo Bill ice cream, with the teeth shattering gum ball nose!
And yes, the lovely purple, damn near black, liquid of all the colors combined was my favorite part of the snow cone eating experience.
My crowning achievement was eating a Ninja Turtle pudding pie from the time it took my mom to drive me to the local Welsh Farms (drive-thru convenience store) then to my bus stop, which was literally two blocks away.
Good green times.

What a great article! I always love Matt's toy articles but this one went above and beyond. As a huge transformers fan, even as a youngun, I always dug the comett/egg animals.
And then there's Computer Warriors. I'm so glad other people remember this toy line. An American counterpart to Japan's Microman Microchange line. I just wish I had the toys. Even the tape, no matter how much it sucks.

I just want everyone to know it is raining hard here in san antonio, tx. I don't want any one to worry I am taking precautions. I am safe thank you for asking. But most importantly my NINTENDO WII is safe.

Kinda fitting that there's an article on 80s toys, since I had a lot of stuff happening involving 80s toys today. I sold Transformers, bought M.U.S.C.L.E s of both the flesh-colored and re-colored variety,and read collections of comic strips from the 80s. Ah, the 80s.

Anyone know how to get rid of bats? My finace's farmhouse is swarming with them lately, and we're pretty sure we're all going to get rabies and die.

doho I am curious now, what do you have to say?
I moved today. Just above a cafe. FREE WIFI!!!!! I am so happy. I also got a job today. Today is a great day.

Of all the nights I cannot sleep this is the worst. and xe's kinda dead too. ugh.

Our friendly neighborhood ice cream trucks are progressively weirder in the place we moved to. The regular truck features, in addition to the cute tinkly music, a voice over loudspeaker that shouts HELLO! repeatedly.

The other ice cream truck…is an ice cream minivan really. Seriously. This minivan with the ice cream pictures plastered all over it. It also shouts Hello and has recently come back with music but for a while there, all it did was beep like a car alarm repeatedly.

Interesting times as I sit in here playing with my Victor Von Doom action figure. …Anyone else see Fantastic Four yet? I wasn't a fan of the comics so nothing in my past has been needlessly raped either time and I vaguely liked Silver Surfer better than the first one.

I haven't heard the ice cream man come by at all this season. Especially weird since last summer we had two competing ice cream trucks — Mr. Softee and Angel's. I also haven't seen any lightening bugs yet. It's about time for lightening bugs, right?

As far as bats, I recommend chasing them around in a zany and hilarious frenzy ala The Great Outdoors.

holy shit you did a review on the computer warriors. i totally had the computer base playset. thats fucking sweet. my mom must have gotten them at a garage sale or something cuz i was like two in 89. unbelievable though i had completly forgotten how awesome those things were.

You think you got the crap Reactor? I had the "Generator" (bottom right on the back of the box). All it did was "charge" the glowing rods. No motor. No movement. It had wheels, but they were molded into the base of the thing, and didn't rotate. I recall blu-tacking the stupid power rods to my ceiling as part of my glow-in-the-dark galaxy of tiny adhesive stars. I think it became the Stop Buying Me Shitty Christmas Presents nebula.

I SAW JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS TONIGHT!!! This makes me extremely happy. I spent many an hour debating with my baby-sitter about who was cooler, Joan Jett or Pat Benatar. I always voted for Joan. She rocked sooo hard. (and still does!)

There's a good chance I won't be around here for like 2 months after tomorrow. Not that it matters really, except for I know I'll be missing and craving my X-E fix. See ya'll then. I'm off to watch The Pirate Movie.

Everything you wanted to know about Disney World TV's Stacey, but were afraid to ask:

I never heard of any of those toys, but that Pepsi toy reminded me of the dancing Pepsi Can that was huge (among other dancing things like flowers) that was popular in the early 90s. You could usually find them at places like Spencers Gifts.

I never really cared for Snow Cones. I'd rather just drink the syrup they used for those things. That was what made it good.

The best snowcone I ever had was one called a Salty Frog: real lime juice with a dash of salt. Sounds disgusting, I know, but I loved it. Then again, I'm one of those weirdos who used to eat that lemon-lime beer salt stuff as a kid, so…

Luap, what's even funnier is that her name is Stacey Aswad. When I saw that, I couldn't stop laughing like Beavis and Butthead.

I'm new to this here commenting thing, but i've been reading this site for ages. Excellent job in talking about the transforming Pepsi Can. I had one, and often times in the last few years i have found myself wondering if i simply imagined it.

I actually, to this day, own some promotional half-hour long cartoon for the series. My sister and I got it and the soccer ball playset from a garage sale, and were never really sure what was going on with it until years and years later when I found some pictures of the toyline on the Internet.

I just found the Computer Warriors pilot on YouTube. I haven't watched it all yet, but I love how solemnly it begins, like it was going to be a deadly serious sci-fi adventure like something by James Cameron.

I totally remember Computer Warriors — I was given the original promo tape once when I had an ear infection in Kindergarten or first grade. My parents must have picked it up on the cheap at the drug store. I remember that Pepsi can one as being the coolest thing on there, but all I ever had was the tape.

Anyone else watch the Robot Chicken Star Wars special on Sunday? (it would be hard to miss it considering they repeated it like 4 or 5 times last night) I thought overall it was good even though they threw some old skits in the mix most likely to fill in some time. The skit that made me laugh the hardest was the Admiral Ackbar Cereal just because of how he exclaimed "ITS A TRAP!" and bitch slapped the kids' oatmeal off the table…i dunno i'm just weird like that.

The Robot Chicken Star Wars special was great. I loved the Panda Barba skit, "I like your hair". And the emperor taking Darth Vader's phone call after the Death Star blew up made me roll. I loved every minute of it.

my brother had that computer warriors computer-base playset thing. it was awesome, though a little flimsy. we had to be careful while playing with it, cause it was easy to break while folding it out. also, i really liked the figures the sets came with, the dudes who had normal space-man fronts, had computer part on their backs, like they were walking computer chips.

I didn't know any of those toys, mostly being I was only 7 by the end of the 80's. But then I got to the Computer Warriors. I just sat there like wholy crap, I so had those, all of it, with the big computer screen and what not. Nice to have a line of toy from the 80's that sold out to Pepsi lol.

Legions of Power deserves more credit… well maybe it doesn't. But I certainly had fond memories of them. They were even smaller than my oh so small LEGO Super Mario Brothers (of my own creation) and I had the biggest set availible (a rarity for a family as poor as mine) featuring a motorized thingy. They were great because their cockpits and monitors could easily be turned into couches and TVs. My toys did alot of mundane things.

review some spy tech stuff. those sunglasses you could see behind yourself with. or the reeces peanut butter cups spy camera.

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