Why Kids TV Of Old Was Better For You Soul Navigation

Why Kids TV Of Old Was Better For You Soul Navigator

1. Moral Dilema
2. 2nd to None

Towser

Moral Dilema

Moral Dilema

-or-

Why Kids TV Of Old Was Better For You Soul.

Now I don't want to rant here but I am, so get used to it. Now when I was a kid, when kids TV was good, there was a little thing called morals. When you watched any show there was always a message behind it, a moral lesson that you could take away. Television these days does still have the episode lesson but what remains is just a shell of what it was when programs like Transformers and Captain Planet were ruling the airwaves with there messages of energy efficiency and anit-pollution. This injustice inspired me to write the following post all about my favorite TV shows from my childhood.

A Very Brittish Preschool

Growing up I loved trains, I don't know why but I absolutly loved the. I used to have a little train with a carige that you could sit on and ride around the place, I also had the tomy electronic trainset which was absolutly fantastic there were three different enginge and loads of trake so I could build alsorts of rail networks. Thinking about it this probably stemed from my Grampa Max who used to have a model railway that he would show me every time I went round to his house. It is no supprise then that I also loved to watch Thomas The Tank Engine. I had all the toys and me and my friend used to make up routes for the many engines to travel along and then we would reinact our favorite episodes. I Loved Thomas so much that one year for christmas my Mum made a christmas cake with thomas on tom covered in snow like he used to get in the winter episodes.

Another show I loved to watch with a very Brittish feel to it was Postman Pat. Pat used to deliver post to about five people and then go home, very Brittish indeed. He also had a red van and a black and white cat. There was no Pat merchandise so mt Great Aunt knitted me a huge soft toy Pat and a scaled to the Pat version of Jess the black and white cat.

Disney Hour

Possibly the greatest periode for Disney the early Ninties not only were they releasing some of thier gratest films, Beuty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and of course the Lion King, but they wer making some of the greatest kids shows around. My favorite Disney TV show and the one that I have the most fond memories of is Duck Tales. There was something about Scrooge that I just loved as I have already explained. Then there was Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers god damn that was good, I wish they would release these shows on to DVD in the UK. As far as I can remember there was no merchandise that I collected for these shows apart from maybe some soft toys of Chip and Dale and Hewie from Duck Tales. Now these two shows might have been my favorite but I also loved:

• Tale Spin
• Gummi Bars
• The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• Aladdin (TV Show)
• Goof Troop
• The Little Mermaid (TV Show)
• 101 Dalmations (TV Show)
• Gargoyles

Puppet Masters 1: Henson

Sesame Street is one of my all time favorites, every lunch time I would settle down with my peanut butter sandwedge and learn how to count with Count and learn how to read with Elmo. I loved Sesame Street the characters were so god damn cool and all the stuff in between like one section that I remeber fondly is the how they make peanut butter. My favorite charracter was Cookie monster mainly because he loved to eat cookies as did I.

Now once my age had got to a point that Sesame Street was no longer an option (I was at school when it was on) I turned lovingly to the Muppets. The first movie I ever saw at the cinema was, Aladdin ... but the second movie I saw at the cinema was The Muppet Christmas Carol (wow what a year for kids films two classic films). Favorite character has to be Gonzo what a crazy bastard. The only merchandise I own of the muppets was a soft toy Kermit I got when in Center Parks as a kid. Recently however Palisades toys releaced a line of Muppets action figures of which I only have Gonzo.

Another favorite of mine was Dinosaurs the disfuntional family sit-com played out by Dinosaurs. Please bring this out on DVD I need to watch it again.

Puppet Masters 2: Supermarionation

"Sit down and watch this" my mum said, "I think you'll like it." Little did she now that 14 years later I would still be writing about Thunderbirds in a blog. Well 14 years ago if someone had suggested the exsistance of the internet to my mum she would have laughed in thier faces, she may still. Mind you after my mum so kindly introduced me to Sci-Fi and my dad so kindly qued out side of Toys 'R' Us at four in the morning to buy Tracey Island, I think that 14 years of love of Thunderbirds is gratitude enough. Must buy the Takra Thunderbird 2.

Then after Thunderbirds pupetry got a little bit more gritty with Captain Scarlet. This series was probably better written than Thunderbird but hell it didn't have Thunderbird 2 in it and for that reason I didn't like it as much as Thunderbirds. I got the Sky Base and all the figures. Favorite character was for some reason Lieutenant Green.

I always wanted to see a Thunderbird / Stingray cross over for some reason I just thought they would fit together. Stingray is by far the coolest underwater Sci-Fi ever. I never got the stingray base but I always wanted it. And who can forget childhood sweetheart Maria.

Karate Kids

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers my introduction to giant robots, and badly dubbed Japanese women with spikey brests. My favorite thing about the Power Rangers was the Zords they looked so god damn cool and the whole morphing thing brilliant just brilliant. The toys were great I still have them and they look exactly like the Zords on the show, due mainly to the poor production value of the show. I have such fond memories of Power Rangers that I pain stakingly drew the above picture of the Megazord (Oh by the way I have a lot more where he came from so keep an eye out).

Another couple of shows that fit this catagory areBig Bad Beetle Borgs and VR Troopers both were very Power Rangers esque but they were still good quality shows that would beat the crap out of the poor shows kids watch these days.

Humanoid Animals

My all time favorite show from my childhood is by far the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. My favorite animals have always turtles and so a show about mutated turtles was right up my alley. As I have already highlighted my favorite character is Donnatello. It may seem like a strange concept for a show but believe me when I say that, mutated turtles trained in the martial art of ninja by a mutated rat who names them after his favorite rennisuaunce artists is actually the best TV show of my childhood.

The Biker Mice From Mars and Bucky O'Hare are other shows with humanoid animals they were both very entertaining and I still have a fondness for both of these shows. Bucky OHare were my favorite action figures and I only wish they had continued thempast their first series. There was something pretty damn cool about Biker Mice From Mars probably the fact that they lived in a basket ball stadium and rode futuristic bikes.

Robots In Disguise

How could I write a post about childhood with out mentioning Transformers. The show that actually introduced me to Giant Robots (sorry Power Rangers fans). Just you tell me what isn't cool about cars that turn into robots. Another perfect fit for a toy lisance, oh wait a miniute it was made by Hasbro of course. Well luckily for me one of the most exploititve shows of the 1980's was also one of the best.

Go and watch the above shows if you know whats good for you.

Towser

The Characters of Towser's Past 2: A Five Day Spectacular

Between the 1st and the 5th of April I will be hosting my second Characters of Towser's Past. I have already given two hints as to the identity of two of the characters that will be featured. Here is the third hint:



Towser

Mr T Says

Mr T Says:

I remember one time I tried to pity this fool. He told me his name was Jeff. He was married. He pulled out his wallet and showed me three pictures of his kids; Kelly, Robert, Brittany. Real cute kids. Don't get too close man. It's hard to pity a fool if you get too close.

Eh?

A very confused Towser

The Battle Struggles Forward

I have noticed that recently I have started to deminish my posting. I have no intention of giving up my posting but I have recently been up to my eyes in work; namely an economics dissertation. So I feel that I should you the reader a little sneak peak at what is coming up.

• The Scooby Gang Vol 3
• The Chronicals of Archer
• The Many Characters of Towser's Past 2 - A Five Day Spectacular
• Un-named stop motion project
• An insite into my creative side

Right well on with the show.

I love comic books, I read lots of books every month, I buy monthly books, I buy trade paperbacks, the lot I love comic books. Yet my whol comic book nerdom has untill this point been a farse. The majority of the books I have read have been that of the Super Hero genre. Nothing wrong with that I hear you shout and indeed this is not a damning od that particular genre. No comic books are like movies they are a form of art that has many different styles Super Heros are just one style of comic books. One may enjoy the cinema if all he watched were action films but this would lead to an ignorance on the veiwers part in that he does not enjoy the other aspects of a very broad base of genres.

I have of coarse read the likes of Watchmen, The Leauge of Extaodinary Gentlemen and Sin City but hasn't everyone. No I am ignorent to the likes of Fables, 100 Bullets, Y the Last Man and possibly worst of all Sandman. The only Vertigo book that I have read is WE3 purely because it was written by Grant Morrison (Who by the way is doing a fantastic job on All Star Superman and is just about to take on the Batman. Oh god, Morrison on both Batman and Superman at the same time this is my personal heaven.) WE3 was a fantastic book I loved the art and I loved the writing. The only thing about it is that it has something slightly creepy about the whole pet assasin thing it has going.

I vow to right my wrongs I shall be buying the first volumes of Fables, 100 Bullets Sandman and The Losers this weekend if I get the cash.

I leave you with a little cartoon that you will only understand if you have read WE3.

Thank You and Good Night

Towser

99 Luftballons

Songs sound so much better when in German ...



Oh Kraftwerk ...



And you gotta love ...



Towser

Mr T Says

I recently read an entry into a blog of a friend of mine (RuAr) in whitch he had a very funny picture of Mr T and so starts another of my little projects. Each week I shall post a quote from Mr T helping to spread the wisdom.

MR T Says:

I believe in the Golden Rule — The Man with the Gold . . . Rules

Towser

Mr T Says Navigation

Mr T Says Navigator

1. Mr T Says no. 1
2. Mr T Says no. 2
3. Mr T Says no. 3
4. Mr T Says no. 4

Towser

The Ultimate Universe

As you may gather from previous posts I am more of a DC fan boy than that of a Marvel fan. This has over the last few years certainly been the case. The reason for this is not because of the characters, no infact as a child my favorite super heros were some of Marvels biggest ie The X-Men and Spider-Man. No the reason for my interest in the DC universe is purly due to timing when I was starting to read comic books seriously DC just seemed to have better stories and Marvel frankly seemed inexcesable.

This all changed when I picked up Ultimate Spider-Man Vol 1 HC. The writing is fantastic and the artwork is stunning. I love the fact that it has its own continuity which is not complicated like the main Marvel continuity is. I also lovedthe fact that it returned to the good old feeling of the Spider-Man I loved as a kid.

My main books will still be the DC ones but I will certainly picking up an Ultimate title from time to time but still no main Marvel.

Towser

Note To Self

My blog has been running for a number of weeks now and so it is time to reavaluate what this blog is about.

In my first post (Third Times A Charm) I suggested that "I still have not decided what to write about though expect a number of topics from films to rants about life and from comics to the outright bizarre" Well I was right about one thing comics have been a fairly big influance on this blog.

I have not however ranted about life or the outright bizarre. This blog has infact seen a lot more about 'My Nerdy Life' which will be the new tag line of my blog.

I would like to also point out that this blog will never enter into the relms of teen-angst. A topic which my friends have also sworn againt, both in their first posts (Hippopotaman - How Terribly Faustian and RuAr - Point of Entry) and which up untill now I have not done. Well it is done now.

Towser

The Chronicles of Archer

Another trip down memory lane today for myself and any one who reads this blog, unless you don't know me personally. A few years ago a group of my friends and I had vision of the ultimate action hero. Out of the god like video games playing of a friend of mine Archer was born. In this section I am hoping to retell some of the classic stories and also expand the universe in to new areas. I hope to get some help from Hippopotaman (Forgive me I have yet to ask for your assistance) and the others who came up with the characters. May I also point out none of the material here may be used with out the permission of myself (email - finlay.niven@gmail.com) The ledged goes as follows:

Back in BF1942:DC a player of ultimate skill was seen, or more accurately not seen, to be firing stinger missiles so fast that it indeed looked like he was an:

ARCHER

Little was known about Archer at that time no one had ever experienced him before that point. Who was he? Was he human? Was he machine? Was he real? We have uncovered some of the truth but we have still only scraped the surface of the untold legends of Archer.

These legends will be told here in

A Very Excited Towser

The Scooby Gang Volume Two

Toys - The Diamond In The Rough

Over the last few months I have aquired a couple of items that are absolutly fantastic for any Buffy fan. Action figures are always a joy to have when they are well made. Unfortunatly up untill now Buffy and Angel action figures have not been all that great. Virtually unposeable and not very good likneses were the trade marks of buffy figures.

This all stops now, Diamond Select Toys (Website) have been improving their Buffy action figures for the past few years and the range has been very impressive so far and looks like it will continue to be impressive. The two items that I bought however are not from the usual Buffy line of action figures I have just bought two figures from the new Delux Series featuring Buffy and Faith with episode specific varients. Now these figures are not the pinical of the action figure world, they are not as detailed to the characters looks as say the brilliant sculps from the now out of bussness Palisades Toys or the likes of the current and up coming releases from DC Direct, but these figures will have any Buffy fan shelling out the rather extortionate price tag.

Speaking of Palisades toys I would like to also share with you some of there products. The brilliant Buffy Palz lineonly got to its secound series but is certainly worth a look from any Buffy fan.

Towser