Yearly Archives: 2007
Time Warp Toy Box: Week 4
Welcome back to our final installment of Time Warp Toy Box for this Christmas and the last Retrorama of 2007. Hopefully, Santa brought you everything you wanted this year, but if he didn’t, we have some last-minute suggestions from Christmas past. I would be remiss if I let ...
Time Warp Toy Box: Week 3
Welcome back to our third installment of Time Warp Toy Box for Christmas 2007. This week we are showcasing some unusual presents from Christmas past. Every item featured this week came from a Christmas catalog so someone must have thought they would make good Christmas ...
Time Warp Toy Box: Week 2
Welcome back to our second installment of Time Warp Toy Box for Christmas 2007. Here are a few more presents from under the Retrorama Christmas tree. The Mobile Action Command rescue squad was a mid-1970’s toy line from Matchbox (Lesney in Europe) that preceded the small ...
Time Warp Toy Box: Week 1
It’s hard to believe 2007 has almost flown by already and here we are in the holiday season again. I can’t think of a more retrospective time than Christmas so this seems like the perfect opportunity for a month long ...
DVD Review: “HELP!”
Released By: Apple / EMI Release Date: November 6, 2007 Number of Discs: 2 Approximate Running Time: 149 Minutes Special Features: Audio Commentary, Theatrical Trailers, Radio Spots, Interviews With Cast And Crew, Restoration Documentary Suggested Price: $29.98 The Source: In 1965, the Beatles teamed up again with director Richard Lester to produce their ...
Show Review: Renningers Antique & Collector Extravaganza
I’ve lost track over the years of exactly how many of the Renningers Antique & Collector Extravaganzas I have attended but I am sure it is in excess of twenty. The fall show held in November is always the largest ...
DVD Review: “Mothra vs Godzilla”
Released By: Classic Media Release Date: April 3, 2007 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 176 Minutes Special Features: Audio Commentary, Image Galleries, Akira Ifukube Biography Suggested Price: $19.99 The Source: The fourth of Toho Studio’s original Godzilla films, 1964’s Mothra vs. Godzilla, represents a high point for the series. When a giant ...
The Giant Spider Restoration
Once during a phone conversation with Wisconsin film producer / director Bill Rebane, I turned the subject to the whereabouts of the props used in his most recognizable film, 1975’s The Giant Spider Invasion. To my surprise, some thirty years after ...
Retro-Ween
For a child growing up in the '70s, Halloween was a major holiday. It trailed a distant third behind Christmas and your birthday but was still obsessed over for weeks in advance. The approach of October 31 heralded parties at ...
Screamfest 2007
I just barely made it to Screamfest this year. Earlier in the week a cold had grabbed hold of me and refused to let go. As I got to the weekend, I still wasn’t feeling up to an extended road ...
“I Was a Teenage Blood Slave! – The Tricia Anderson Story”
Fate has a funny way of bringing people together. After searching for years for an alternate version of the film Blood of Dracula’s Castle, where one of the characters turns into a werewolf, I sent an E-mail in to the letters ...
FORGOTTEN HORRORS: “Blood of Dracula’s Castle”
By the late 1960’s, the fledging film production company Independent International had already begun to make a name for itself in the exploitation film market. While partners Sam Sherman and Al Adamson only had one feature to their credit at ...
DVD Review: “The Dick Tracy Show, Volume 1”
Released By: Classic Media Release Date: August 7, 2007 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 80 Minutes Special Features: Bonus Crimestopper Tips. Suggested Price: $12.95 The Source: By the early 1960’s, Chester Gould’s yellow-coated detective was already a household name thanks to newspaper and film exposure. United Productions of America’s decision to ...
DVD Review: “Underdog: The Ultimate Collection Volume 1”
Released By: Classic Media Release Date: July 24, 2007 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 120 Minutes Special Features: Interview with Underdog’s co-creator, Overview of the short subject characters. Suggested Price: $12.95 The Source: The Underdog Show was a Saturday morning staple from 1964 until 1969 and thrived in syndication for many ...
Loose In Las Vegas: Ray Steckler Update
When Ray Steckler and I met face to face for the first time in 2001, he was in a phase of downsizing his life that included reducing the chain of collectible video stores he owned to a single location. A ...
Loose in Las Vegas: Ted Mikels Update
For a person at an age when most are already retired, Ted Mikels is busier than most people half his years. When I visited him recently at his Las Vegas studio, it was still covered with props and sets from ...
Loose In Las Vegas 2007
My never ending quest for fanboy knowledge recently lead me back to the city of sin, Las Vegas. Once you get past the obvious attractions of gambling and carousing there is a surprising amount of more subdued entertainment to be ...
DVD Review: “Jason of Star Command: The Complete Series”
Released By: BCI / Eclipse Release Date: May 8, 2007 Number of Discs: 3 Approximate Running Time: 500 Minutes Special Features: Audio Commentary, Documentary, Image Galleries, DVD-ROM Extras, Special Effects Reel. Suggested Price: $29.98 The Source: In the distant future, presumably some time close to 3732 when Space Academy is set, the Universe ...
DVD Review: “Space Academy: The Complete Series”
Released By: BCI / Eclipse Release Date: January 16, 2007 Number of Discs: 4 Approximate Running Time: 400 Minutes Special Features: Audio Commentary, “Back to School” with Space Academy Documentary, Image Galleries, DVD-ROM Extras, Commercial Bumpers. Suggested Price: $29.98 The Source: In the year 3732 a group of young cadets study at the ...
DVD Review: “Godzilla Raids Again”
Released By: Classic Media Release Date: April 3, 2007 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 160 Minutes Special Features: Audio Commentary, Image Galleries, Art of Suit Acting Documentary Suggested Price: $19.99 The Source: Godzilla Raids Again is the first of many sequels to the original Godzilla (1954). Toho rushed the film into ...
Forgotten Horrors: “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”
In the 1970’s, made for TV movies were a big deal, almost unbelievably so by today’s standards of information overload. Back then, a brand new movie premiering on television was the kind of event that galvanized the family around the ...
Welcome to Retrorama – ED Tucker’s online file cabinet for all things related to the rich history of popular culture!
I spend a LOT of time doing research on various projects and am always coming across all types of bits and pieces of different pop culture items. For years I have been filing these trinkets of nostalgia gold inside folders and stashing ...
Munchkin Mall Mayhem!
On Saturday, March 10, the yellow brick road took a slight detour away from its usual destination of the Emerald City and ended up instead at the Orange Park Mall! On this day, the City of Orange Park, Florida held ...
MegaConned ’07
I was still reeling from the wake of the FX show a mere two weeks earlier when the 2007 Megacon stormed in to Orlando the weekend of February 17. With both events held at the Orange County Convention Center and ...
Weird Magic in Sanford, Florida!
The quiet little town of Sanford, Florida wasn’t very quiet on Saturday, February 10. Best known for being one of the largest producers of celery in the nation at one time, the city was celebrating the 50th anniversary of their ...
The Florida Extravaganza and Collectibles Show 2007
They had me at Peter Graves! The 2007 Florida Extravaganza didn't have to promise to be bigger or better than last year and it didn't need to boast the largest or most diverse guest list to date. The minute they ...
GIANT SPIDER INVASION
Long-time PCR readers know how much we staffers look forward to the not-too-common, but always enjoyable "Fanboy Summits" we're able to stage every once in a while. Sure, on a smaller scale locally, these are more plentiful (our Hooters Sunday ...