1. Wayne’s World VCR Board Game – I’ll admit, I’m a pretty big fan of stupid things. I’m particularly fond of stupid things from the ’90s. Some of the fun is seeing the stuff that as a child you thought was so cool from the other side, the older side, and noticing how ridiculous it is. Wayne’s World is like that, for me. I loved Wayne’s World as a kid; well, I should be more specific. I loved the SNL sketches and the movies. But not this. This is too stupid for both of us – young me and old me alike.
Unsurprisingly, someone somewhere decided to take the heat of the Wayne’s World movie, the momentum (?) of VHS board games, and combine them to make “The Coolest, Most Excellent Game In The Universe!” What appears to have come out of that flash of marketing synergy doesn’t quite live up to the high standards set by the box.
The object of the game is to get to Party Central. If you don’t get to Party Central in 45 minutes, Garth wins. That’s losing, when Garth wins. When did Garth become the bad guy?
Here’s the introduction from the VHS tape. It helps things make slightly more sense, but it doesn’t help explain how anyone thought this was a good idea outside of a generic cash-grab.
They couldn’t hire a better looking mouth?
This game’s got good company at the bottom of the barrel with the SNES Wayne’s World game. Here are some screenshots of that, as well:
Shyeah Right, indeed.
2. The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald – So, between 1998 and 2003, McDonalds commissioned six forty-minute specials featuring Ronald McDonald and his pals. The episodes were largely animated, but all had a live action open to them. A live action open that is nightmare fuel:
People paid money for this! Presumably! I mean, that was the idea, that they were for sale.
Ronald here kind of looks like the old-timey photograph of Pennywise from that scene in IT where Mike Hanlon shows the kids his photo album.
The episodes were created by Klasky-Csupo productions, who also made such series as Rugrats, Wild Thornberrys, and Ahh! Real Monsters. Mark Mothersbaugh, composer for Rugrats and many Wes Anderson films, did the music for these. Can’t win em all, Mark.
3. Horizons – It’s been at LEAST an hour since my last post about Horizons. EPCOT Explorer’s got a great writeup about the construction of Horizons, complete with some fantastic pictures I hadn’t seen before. Here are a couple of my favorites:
I love the corner of Universe of Energy poking out on the left.
4. Brio Catalog – Came across an old post on So Much Pileup – some scans from a 1980 Brio catalog. The Brio train, in particular, kept me entertained during many a shopping outing with my mother. I think they should be a mandatory installation in all department stores. Anyway, the catalog images are soft and warm and really very ’80s. Check them out.
5. The Carpenters – The quality on this video is discouraging, but hang in there! This is a video of the Carpenters’ performance on the “Your All American College Show”. First, pretty funky rendition of Dancing in the Street. Second, Karen kills it on the drums.
Third, Karen kills it on the drums.
Right?
-ds