Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jan 11, 2011 in Videogames
It was perhaps the most popular iPhone game of 2010. Even I have to admit that I as hooked after finally deciding to give it a chance, and now it looks like Angry Birds will be moving beyond the digital realm in the form of a table-top game. I would have used the term boardgame, but there’s no board — only blocks, pigs, the birds and the sling you use to launch them. So how could that possibly work? Well, for those of you who are having a difficult time imagining it, check out the video above. Read more…
I was blown away to see that MTV 80s icons Blondie, Joan Jett and Cyndi Lauper have all been turned into Barbie dolls! Of course back in the 80s the animated TV series Jem gave Barbie a run for her money — while Barbie struck back with Barbie and the Rockers it was never quite cool as Jem. Too bad the licensing folks Mattel didn’t approach these 80s rock legends a bit sooner! Here’s Debbie Harry as Blondie doll which comes out in December: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 28, 2009 in Videogames
For your entertainment I’ve stitched together three commercials from the early 80s for Intellivision Major League Baseball. The first spot features none other than sports writer George Plimpton giving a comparison between Intellivision and Atari. What then follows is a spot which show rabid fans in the bleachers who feel the same way, and that’s followed by a French translation! Read more…
Snout Spout: His knock out nose knocks evil out! You can tell the design department of Mattel was bored to death of Masters of the Universe by 1986 when this commercial came out. I can just see some poor child at Christmas yelping “Mommy why did you get me an elephant? I wanted He-Man!” Don’t get me wrong as a toy it looks very clever but our pachyderm friend seems somewhat out of place with the other members of the Masters of the Universe. In fact the character wasn’t even shown in the series until after the toy came out (you can tell that merchandising was more important than story telling). Read more…
This video shows two things: The first is how a show like Jem can come out of nowhere and give a well established brand like a Barbie a run for the money — and the second thing is just how much cultural mindspace MTV owned back in the 80s when it was new. Inspired by MTVJem and the Holograms went on the air in 1985 and suddenly Barbie who had been around since 1959 seemed slightly old fashioned. Read more…
I for one didn’t mind the original Battlestar Galactica series, there was s little sci fi on television (and so few choices in retrospect) that a fanboy had to be grateful for what he got. In fact looking back at it there was a high level of craftsmanship given that Galactica was a TV show and not a film. The Cylons are a good example of this: They’re clearly lifted from the Star Wars stormtroopers, but there’s been enough added to make it different. Even the red light swaying back and forth is a nice little touch, they could have just have easily skipped that given the budget. Read more…
