The most enduring comic book character of the 1970’s, Parker Brothers’Rom the Spaceknight remains one of the stranger cross-promotional projects from Marvel Comics (next to Dazzler, originally conceived as a deal with Columbia Records).
The mainly stoic and immobile protector of the space-ways arrived with a set of noise making electronic sound producing instruments that would assist him in hos war against his enemies… not included. The story goes that Rom, a Lord of the Solstar Order, was on a life mission to seek out the shape changing wizards from another dimension, the Dire Wraiths. The trick was that the wizards were shape shifters capable of deceiving anyone of their true nature.
Luckily Rom had a device that could sniff them out with a gong sound, alerting him to quickly switch devices and zap the nasty wraith to nothingness.
Seeing as how there were no Dire Wraith action figures, it left Rom as a kind of exterminator sniffing out and hunting down your other toys as the devious shape shifting monsters they really were.
Rom sounds a little crazy, doesn’t he? Not a bad crazy, but… okay, maybe a bad crazy.
Created by Bing McCoy (interviewed here), the toy remains one of the most fascinating electronic action figures ever made. While the final product differs some from McCoy’s initial ideas, the Rom toy is something that I imagine many electronic music gurus had on their shelves at one point or another.
Marvel Comics, in participation with Parker Brothers, launched a long running comic book series that took Rom on deep space adventure. The series by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema remains one of the most commonly complete titles in any comic book fan’s collection. While you may meet a few fans with only a handful of Spider-Man or Batman comics, it usually falls that if a collector has one Rom comic book, he has all 75.
The fallout from Rom has not exactly been much. Marvel Comics assimilated the Dire Wraiths into their comics (they even appeared in Uncanny X-Men!) and attempted a relaunch of ‘the Spaceknights,’ but it didn’t really stick. Jim Krueger included an older distraught Rom in his Earth X trilogy where the one of Rom’s devices was revealed to be an important cosmic power device.
According to a recent interview with Johnny Darrell at Halfsquatch, Bing McCoy is in the process of acquiring the rights to his creation, perhaps for a relaunch. That might be something to see.
In the meantime, we have this video below to marvel at:
Just a gentle reminder… click here and bookmark the link for air times of the only cartoon worth watching on TV, The Batman.
This is the last season, so they say, and you don’t want to miss the creation of the newest version of the Justice League of America. After this, it’ll be down to the Legion of Superheroes to carry the DC Comics animated baton passed down from Batman to Superman to the Justice League… etc.
Superman creator Jerry Siegel continues to fight for the rights to his creation from beyond the grave. The full details can be found on the movieblog, but here’s the skinny…
Is one of the reasons for the slow committal from Warner Bros. to make a Superman Returns sequel due to the fact that Bryan Singer is going to have to go to court over who owns the rights to the Man of Steel? I’m going to throw that idea out there. Here’s why:… in a nutshell the widow and daughter of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel are suing Warner Bros. for 50% of the rights for both Superboy and Superman.
…
The outcome of this trial will have huge ramifications over the future appearances of the character. It could threaten to derail a Superman sequel. It may even have the power to reshape the JLA movie and future seasons of Smallville or any other Superman/Superboy TV and/or movie projects. And this story is not really getting the attention that it deserves.
I’m definitely of a mind that the Siegel family should get the money that Jerry is due.
I have heard arguments to the contrary, but frankly my gut just cannot side with big business. If it means the end of Superman at DC Comics, the worst that can happen is that new ideas could get a chance to be seen in comic books.
Back when toys were made for children, the world was a different place. Toys came in all shapes and sizes, rarely a tie in for the newest blockbuster or flop in the cinema, they had entire worlds of vehicles, playsets and outfits to entertain kids for hours on end as their parents drank highballs and watched the Dean Martin show.
Vintage toy ad compendium- 1 hour long
(featuring Kung Fu GI Joe and the Great Garloo!!)
Toys actually taught kids something and often did things, like this 4 in 1 wood shop.
Mattel 4-in-1 Shop
Ofcourse, there were also the inexplicably strange toys as well.
The Thing Maker (Creepy Crawlers)
Witch Doctor Head Shrinking Kit
Space exploration used to be the ideal dream job for kids… before web designer in the 90’s and marketing or ad executive in the 00’s.
Back in the 60’s and 70’s, space was where it all happened… and little Billy Blastoff had a friend in Major Matt Mason.
Billy Blastoff
Major Matt Mason
In the end, the business went to the franchises, in this case comic books and sci-fi movies such as Planet of the Apes and Star Trek. It was really something to see so many characters that were loved by boydom in the 70’s transformed into one gigantic line of toys. To have Spider-Man and Dr Zaius in the room at the same time… it was magical.
Mego Superheroes
Mego Elastic Toys
(almost all of these great ads can be found on the “70’s toy explosion”DVD from PlaidStallions, my favorite website ever)
It’s strange to think that today toys and collectibles are mostly purchased by grown men, often in their mid to late 30’s, nostalgic for their lost childhood.
I recently bumped into a teenage kid at a Toys R Us, looking through their scant Star Wars display and traded tales of good finds and sad losses. In the end, I wanted to urge him to get a hobby, meet girls or turn to crime. This way lies a large basement full of labeled boxes, I would urge him… but kids don’t understand the siren song of plastic men.
Is this the face of young James Tiberius Kirk in the upcoming Star Trek film? Some say that young Mike Vogel, of Poseidon and Cloverfield, has been cast in the JJ Abrams franchise revival.
This is the 40th Anniversary year for the sci-fi TV empire and not much has been done so far. The remastered episodes (which I originally wrote about here) on iTunes still number only 11, a state they have simmered at for many months now, earning the spite of many ’season pass’ customers wondering where the rest of the season is.
An announcement of a new Kirk could turn things around and generate interest in the space faring
adventurers, but personally I’m hoping for a new box set of ‘remastered’ episodes.
George Lucas recently spoke to TV Guide about his upcoming CGI animated series, Clone Wars. Still deep in production, the creator of the biggest money making franchise is still hopeful for a 2008 premiere.
Here’s an excerpt:
TV Guide: And you’re going to do a hundred episodes?
Lucas: We’re going to do a hundred episodes. I think we’re on [No.] 40 right now. We’ll probably end up with 50 to 60 episodes before we start to put it on the air. We’d like to put it on next fall, in about a year from now, but we’ll see what happens.
TV Guide: Where do you see it living? How do you see this playing? Obviously it doesn’t sound like a Saturday morning cartoon.
Lucas: Right now, we don’t know. It’s out there to people, and people are talking about it, but so far, everybody’s got the same conundrums — “How do we program it? Where does it live? Where can we put something like this?” You know, it has to go after 9 o’clock and it can’t be on a kiddie channel.
TV Guide: So you see it on a more mainstream channel or the Sci Fi Channel or something like that?
Lucas: Well, it’s one of those things. Television is sort of bifurcated up into small niches and unless you fit in one of those niches, no one knows what to do with you. And, of course, I’m always outside the box, so it’s like, “Uh-oh, we don’t have a box for you.” [Laughs] But it’s Star Wars and it’s really good, so I’m sure somehow or another, people will also start thinking outside the box and it will find its home.
TV Guide: What about your Star Wars live-action series for TV?
Lucas: Yes, I’m working on that. We’re just going to start writing it in about a month from now, start doing scripts for it.
TV Guide: And where will that live in the Star Wars continuum relative to Clone Wars and relative to the films?
Lucas: Well, Clone Wars has got all the characters in it — Yoda and Anakin and Obi Wan and the Emperor and all that — so it’s basically the movie. The live-action [series] is not the movie. It’s the Star Wars universe, but it’s characters from the saga who were [previously] minor, and it follows their stories. It’s set between [movie episodes] III and IV, when the Empire has taken over. It’s like Episode IV in that the Emperor and Darth Vader are heard about — people talk about them — but you never see them because it doesn’t take place where they actually are. There are storm troopers and all that, but there are no Jedis. It’s different, but I think it’s very exciting because I get to explore a part of that universe that I haven’t been able to explore. Once you have a saga, it’s got a lot of requirements because it’s about a particular [thing] — in this case, Darth Vader — and so it’s his story from the time he’s 10 to the time he died. You really can’t go off that track because that’s the story. Whereas now, I can make a left turn on 10th Street and go down there and see what’s going on.
… TV Guide: Right. So to talk about TV again for a second, is there any particular TV you enjoy watching?
Lucas: I watch a fair amount of TV, not a huge amount. Mostly the news and stuff, and the History Channel, to be honest with you. I like Law & Order and some shows like that. I love Jon Stewart. [Laughs] TV Guide: Lost or Heroes, those kinds of things people might think of as George Lucas kinda shows?
Lucas: I’ve watched those. The kind of continuing shows, I have a tendency to wait until they’re all over and then watch them on DVD, because those are the kinds of shows where you miss an episode and you’re kind of lost, literally. So it’s just too bothersome for me. But I have loved some things in the past that are kind of like that that sort of have forced me to be there every Sunday night, like Rome and Deadwood. I loved those shows.
From the folks at WETA comes this amazing and very limited line of handcrafted rayguns. I always wished for one of these fellas when I was twelve, but never imagined that a ‘real’ raygun would arrive at my doorstep in a velvet lined box complete with documentation.
Many readers are still sore that there will be a break in the series, so to lift your spirits, here’s the first image from the Doctor Who season four story set in Ancient Rome (previously mentioned here).
In the episode filmed in Cinecitta Studios, The Doctor and Donna arrive in Pompeii in 79 AD, just before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. They are then faced with a dilemma of whether to warn the locals and risk altering history or just let them fend for themselves… but how can they just stand by and watch an entire civilization get wiped out?
A story that has been waiting to be told since the New Series Season One, this should be an interesting historical adventure much in the vein of classic stories such as The Aztecs.
In a public statement, actor David Tennant of Doctor Who told the press that he is a big fan of the revived Batman film franchise. In fact, he’d like to play the Riddler or some other ‘freakish’ villain.
“I’d love to play the Riddler and be bad to Batman. It was so much fun to watch. I thought the Riddler was one of the most freakish of the villains, especially with that wild laugh,” the actor said.
How do you think that would work? He’s certainly got the mad energy of a young Frank Gorshin.
The life of a Doctor Who fan is not an easy one. The longest running science fiction series ever on television, it is not without it’s flaws. One of those flaws is the fact that 108 episodes are missing due to the BBC’s destruction of the film back in the 1970’s.
It doesn’t help that the majority of the missing episodes are from Patrick Troughton’s era, regarded by many purists as a high point in the program’s history. An era that featured mainly alien invasions and scary monsters, 1966-1969 was the turnover year which introduced viewers to the concept of regeneration for the first time. The protective grandfather character of William Hartnell’s Doctor was gone, replaced by Patrick Troughton’s strange an impish fool. As time wore on, it became clear that this apparently childish behavior was an act concocted to take his enemies by surprise.
Ironically, as the series entered it’s stride in popularity and expansion into America television, the gap of these missing episodes became more evident. A major loss was recognized by the now growing Doctor Who fanbase. However, little by little, discoveries have been made.
In 1988, three parts to The Ice Warriors were found and later, in 1992, The Tomb of the Cybermen was discovered intact, immediately released on video by the BBC. The biggest surprise was when episode three of the 12 part story The Dalek Master Plan was found. This resulted in a special DVD release, Doctor Who – Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes which compiled all of the missing footage to incomplete stories found thus far.
First reported earlier this month, it appears that the legend continues. The story is still wavering very uncomfortable between rumor and prank, but everyone involved obviously is hoping for the story to finally be recovered. The Web of Fear, the second story featuring the monsters known as the Yeti, also was the first appearance of the character who became known as ‘the Brigadier.’
One of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who in general to watch is Web of Fear part one (the only one on the archives). Full of atmosphere and tension, the story opens with London under attack while the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria are stuck in space in a strange spider’s web. When the web clears, the trio find themselves in a hauntingly deserted London.
Unable to escape the subway tunnels where the TARDIS landed, they split up. Jamie and Victoria awkwardly encounter a platoon of soldiers who are trying to contain the problem by blowing up the tunnels… where the Doctor happens to be. Assigned to take over the operation is the shifty and cranky Colonel Lethbridge Stewart.
As yet, the rumor has not been confirmed.
In the meantime, here is a collection of short clips found recovered in 2002 by a New Zealand fan. The clips only exist because the local TV station censors deemed these moments to be far too violent and disturbing.
The most enduring comic book character of the 1970’s, Parker Brothers’ Rom the Spaceknight remains one of the stranger cross-promotional projects from Marvel Comics (next to Dazzler, originally conceived as a deal with Columbia Records).
Is one of the reasons for the slow committal from Warner Bros. to make a Superman Returns sequel due to the fact that Bryan Singer is going to have to go to court over who owns the rights to the Man of Steel? I’m going to throw that idea out there. Here’s why:… in a nutshell the widow and daughter of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel are suing Warner Bros. for 50% of the rights for both Superboy and Superman.
Is this the face of young James Tiberius Kirk in the upcoming Star Trek film? Some say that young Mike Vogel, of Poseidon and Cloverfield, has been cast in the JJ Abrams franchise revival.
George Lucas recently spoke to 
It doesn’t help that the majority of the missing episodes are from Patrick Troughton’s era, regarded by many purists as a high point in the program’s history. An era that featured mainly alien invasions and scary monsters, 1966-1969 was the turnover year which introduced viewers to the concept of regeneration for the first time. The protective grandfather character of William Hartnell’s Doctor was gone, replaced by Patrick Troughton’s strange an impish fool. As time wore on, it became clear that this apparently childish behavior was an act concocted to take his enemies by surprise.
which compiled all of the missing footage to incomplete stories found thus far.
First reported earlier this month, it appears that the legend continues. The story is still wavering very uncomfortable between rumor and prank, but everyone involved obviously is hoping for the story to finally be recovered. The Web of Fear, the second story featuring the monsters known as the Yeti, also was the first appearance of the character who became known as ‘the Brigadier.’