Mar 25, 1942 – Aug 16, 2018
Word came out yesterday that the Queen Of Soul, Aretha Franklin, passed away at 76 years old due to pancreatic cancer. Our prayers and well wishes go to her family and friends.
I didn’t get to do the Finally Watched…again…because I was finishing the BW Panelling. I did however watch a biography on Andre The Giant I picked up from HBO during a recent preview weekend. It was quite fascinating but not really worth of a Finally Watched article. So…next week? Hopefully?
During the height of popularity of Transformers and GoBots in the 1980s other companies have sought to cash in. And fast food restaurants are no exception if they offered any kind of kids meal. For example Wendy’s offered their own GoBots, which were later also available by mailaway offer if you collected enough Kool-Aid points. Kool-Aid doesn’t do that anymore. Kids are getting ripped off because parents think their kids are dumb. McDonald’s is no stranger to this either. During the Beast Wars line they partnered with Hasbro to release a set of figures from the regular and Transmetal periods of the Beast Wars toyline as well as Beast Machines and a few other lines since.
Before then, however, McDonald’s released their own transforming toys for their Happy Meals. The more famous one is the robots that turned into the various Happy Meal offerings–shakes, fries, and hamburger transforming robots were actually made. Not as well-known according to what I’ve seen on the internet were the Commandrons, a line of toys with an interesting backstory. They were created by Tomy but only his stores in Canada as far as North America is concerned, under the name Super Alternators. They also got the Happy Meal release but the US got something Canada didn’t: minicomics!
“No, guys, you can’t keep it as a pet!”
Commandrons #1?
DC Comics/McDonalds (1985)
“Airborne!”
Oddly there are no credits for the creative team. I guess this is one they didn’t want to be known for. And I couldn’t find any information on the sites I thought to look on. Minicomics aren’t as well documented unless they’re part of a big fanbase like Masters Of The Universe so if anyone knows who worked on these, please let us know. I also don’t know for sure that this is the first issue but I’ll just pretend it is.
Four in all were produced but thus far the only one I’ve found a scan of online is the article I found out about it from, Battlegrip.com. Oddly the comic also included an ad and mailaway offer for another Tomy line, Robo Strux, which was a rebrand of the Zoids. The minicomics were made by DC Comics, who are showing off more often in this series than I expected. Super Powers Collection, MASK, Masters Of The Universe, Atari Force, Commandrons–what mini-comic will the DC logo appear on next? So click that first link in this paragraph and read along as we follow the adventure of four heroic robots and their pre-teen human pilots. Wait, what?
Tell others about the Spotlight:
The cover’s just like the movie! I can’t tell what’s going on here either.
Transformers: Movie Prequel #2
IDW Publishing (March, 2007)
WRITERS: Simon Furman & Chris Ryall
ARTIST: Don Figueroa
COLORIST: Josh Burcham (assisted by Mark Bristow)
LETTERER: Robbie Robbins
EDITOR: Dan Taylor
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com
Last night I questioned the severity of Variety‘s opposition to the admittedly silly “Best Popular Picture” category idea the Oscars are testing the waters for. However, it did lead to a fun little article about potential other categories they could come up with. Try it yourself; make a game out of it.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com
So apparently the Academy Awards decided they want to add a new category to the Oscars in the hopes of drumming up views by average people. The solution is not to give movies most of us watch an honest assessment among the “smart” and “artsy” and “serious” films but to create a category just for movies enjoyed outside of the snooty critic, actors, producers, and other members of the Hollywood elite. Referred to as a “best popular film” category (whether or not this the final name they go with is currently unclear), it’s a chance for movies the actual moviegoing public go to see, the so-called “popcorn flicks” that allegedly have no substance to it, a chance to win something. The hope is that it will bring their ratings up on ABC every year.
I’m honestly a bit mixed here. On the one hand it’s a bone thrown to the average moviegoer. It doesn’t mean anything to the Hollywood elite, which if we’re honest are more like “elitists” at times. On the other hand it hopefully acknowledges there are other movies who deserve credit beyond the special effects category and maybe a movie score or some other minor category. I would need to see it in action to really develop an opinion, but I don’t work for Variety, one of the many entertainment news and gossip sources out there. They did three articles…three!…decrying this new category as the worst thing the Academy could do. It seems a bit harsh for a category they are only considering! They have nothing definite here and I’m not sure it’s had a chance to earn the bashing they’ve given it. Not that they don’t have some good points mind you.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Sharon hates when the guy in front of her chickens out on the high dive right at the top.
Doctor Who #2
Marvel Comics (November, 1984)
COVER ART: Dave Gibbons, Dave Cockrum, & Frank Giacola
COVER COLORIST: George Roussos
ART DIRECTOR: John Romita
US COLORIST: Andy Yanchus
US EDITOR: Jim Salicrup
“Doctor Who & The Star Beast” part 2
{originally appeared in Doctor Who Magazine #s 19-26)
WRITERS; Pat Mills & John Wagner
ARTIST: Dave Gibbons
UK EDITOR: Paul Neary
“Throwback: The Soul Of A Cybermen” part 1
(originally appeared in Doctor Who Magazine #s 5-7)
WRITER: Steve Moore
ARTIST: Steve Dillon
EDITOR: Dez Skinn
Tell others about the Spotlight:
This never gets old.
Spock is making his return to the Star Trek Multiverse by visiting the Discovery timeline (and I don’t think anybody buys it’s the original timeline). Obviously he can’t be portrayed by Leonard Nimoy anymore but they also won’t be using Zachary Quinto, the movie Spock who is so into his role he took on one of Spock’s other roles as host of In Search Of, the new version on History. (It’s actually a good show. I saw an episode on AI recently.) Nope, we have yet another actor playing Spock, who is the adoptive brother of Michael, the orphan Sarek took in and now works on the Discovery because for some reason she had to be tied to Spock. Don’t they know giving Spock siblings never ends well in Trek?
