RUBBER LIZARD ATE MY ACTION FIGURES

I have an old childhood friend who is a rubber lizard. This 25" solid rubber toy has lived with me since I was ten years old. He has quite the personality for a rubber lizard and sometimes has a mischievous side. We'll explore that personality trait later, but first I'm curious to learn more about my rubber pal and hopefully someone reading this will recognize him.

Apparently ol' rubber neck had a life before coming to live with me, because he's marked 1958. I'm a child of the 1970s and 80s, so he was was kickin' around a good 20 years before I got him. He was gifted to me by a friend of the family and if I remember correctly, he was found in the basement of an abandoned house.

Here's the mark on his belly. I'm not sure what manufacturing company VCS stands for. (I'm sure it's not Video Computer System.) I've done a few Google searches but have found nothing. At one point he was painted green, but most of his color has worn off through the ages. His skin texture is really detailed and it makes me wonder if they actually made the mold from a real iguana body. 

Close-up of paint color and skin texture.

Remember that mischievous side I mentioned earlier? I've always had to be careful where I put this rubber monstrosity. It sounds kind of like a b-movie, but anything plastic will melt at his touch.

(I just created this image just to give you that b-movie feel. )

I found this out the hard way! After a few weeks in my toy box, I noticed he had a collection of action figures, cereal prizes and various plastic toys stuck all over his body. Each toy had a sticky residue and bad melt marks. Impossible to play with and so they were thrown out. (Later, another monster would destroy most of the contents in my toy box. I blogged about this toy back in '06) The bad rubber lizard was banished from the toy box and lived the rest of my childhood under my bed. Periodically I would check on him and without fail he usually had something stuck to his body. He melted the cover of my 7th grade year book, decimated a couple of Trapper Keepers and eventually disfigured my tape recorder. All this destruction gave my 13 year old brain an idea! I gathered up two action figures, some red paint, the rubber lizard and my Kodak EKTRA 200 and snapped this photo back in 1983.       

  

Oh the humanities! I think I used a whole bottle of Testors red model paint on those poor action figures. It's truly amazing that I saved my plastic eating rubber lizard, but it's more amazing that I saved the bodies of his two victims. I few years ago I found them in a junk box.

Wow, the gang is back together again! 

Here's a close-up of the rubber lizard's two victims. The action figure on the right, the one missing his arm and head is/was a Daredevil Skydiver from the Fisher Price Adventure People line. The half of a figure on the left is/was Snow Job from 3 3/4" G.I. Joe A Real American Hero line.
 

Almost 30 years have passed since I snapped that the original photo. Here's a recreation taken in my basement. Too bad I didn't have any Testors red!

Well, that about does it for this slither down memory lane. Oh wait...the lizard want's to say something.

"Pleaze senD plaStic acTion figs to Me!! Me hungary"

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Ma's out there! Moms are special and I'm blessed to have one that's always been a shining light in my life!

TRADING STAMP SAVER BOOKS

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #69

Remember trading stamp saver books that you could get from the local supermarket? 

I have fond memories of helping my grandma fill out these books. Instead of licking, we had bowls of water and wet sponges to moisten the stamps. I felt like this was such an important responsibility that she trusted me with. I would try and do my best and place the stamps as straight in the book as I could. Once we filled out the books, we would spend hours looking through a catalog deciding what to trade our stamp filled books for. Oh boy, a new coffee pot! Something that sounds archaic now, but it sure was fun Saturday afternoon.

Recently I picked up a bag of stamp books at an antique shop. They're from the 1950s and 60s.  

Besides the fun covers, these books are filled with cool mid-century illustrations. Here's a sampling below. For more illustrations, check out my stamp saver set on flickr.  

FOOD WARS: TO UPLOAD OR NOT TO UPLOAD

Trying to decide if I should upload the content on this embarrassing cassette tape from 30 years ago. It's eight minutes of an unfinished Star Wars audio spoof that a friend and I made when we were twelve years old.

Btw, happy "May the 4th be with you" day! Now I'm off to ponder the fate of this cassette tape.

THE RETURN OF SCREAMING YELLOW ZONKERS!

Ahem...I have an important announcement to make, so please stand back. 

SCREAMING YELLOW ZONKERS!!! SCREAMING YELLOW ZONKERS!!! SCREAMING YELLOW ZONKERS!!!

Sorry for all the screaming, but I just had to let everyone know that Screaming Yellow Zonkers, the classic snack from the 1970s, is making a comeback. That's right, on May 15, 2012, you'll be able to buy boxes and boxes of some yellow goodness. See the box above? Yeah, that's one of the new boxes that you'll see at Walgreens. Old timers will quickly recognize the retro look as this new incarnation has the same zany spirit of the original Screaming Yellow Zonkers. It's almost as fun reading the box as it is eating the SYZs. Apparently there will be four limited edition boxes to choose from. Here are three box designs that you might see on the 15th.  

Yesterday I was fortunate to receive a sample box in the mail. I shared the butter-glazed popcorn with the first lady of Neato Coolville and a friend. Needless to say we went bonkers for these Screaming Yellow Zonkers! Just like the box says, "The taste speaks for itself!"

Does anyone remember this catchy jingle back when SYZ was new? It was a bit before my time, but now I can't stop singing Screaming....Yellow....Zonkers.

Video uploaded to YouTube by televisionarchives.

Besides being a tasty snack, SYZ is well remembered because of the boxes. Back in the late 60s and early 70s, the boxes stood out in the snack aisle. It was a combo of the daring use of a black box with witty copy and fantastic artwork. From Dan Goodsell's collection, here's the very first SYZ box.

Click here and take a trip down Zonkers memory lane with Dan's collection of SYZ boxes. 

Be sure to visit Walgreens for a Screaming Yellow Zonkers fix on May 15. Good chance you'll see me waiting in line with my arms full of black boxes!  Welcome back, Screaming Yellow Zonkers! You've been sorely missed!!

FACEBOOK TIMELINE COVERS: RANDOM MOVIES

CREEPSHOW

Need a cover/banner for your Facebook timeline? Feel free to use one of these random movie covers. (A few are guaranteed to scare away some facebook friends.) Simply click on the image and then save it to your computer. Upload it to facebook and presto, new timeline cover.

AZTEC MUMMY

BATMAN AND ROBIN

ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS

BLADE RUNNER

SUPERMAN

E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTIAL

GUN CRAZY

ROPE

CLEOPATRA JONES

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

THE GOONIES

DAWN OF THE DEAD

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK

ALIEN

ALIEN

METROPOLIS

FORBIDDEN PLANET

LOGAN'S RUN

MOONRAKER

BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

The last two covers come with bonus profile pics! 

THE SHINING

13 GHOSTS

If you need more profile pics, you can find over one hundred at the Neato Coolville facebook page. Click here to view.