GALAXY LASER TEAM

This is a figure from the set called "GALAXY LASER TEAM with space monsters". The set was made in the late 70's/early 80's by Tim-Mee Toys, a division of Processed Plastic Co (PPCo). The set was likely created to cash in on the popularity of Star Wars, released in 1977.

This spaceman reminds me of Buck Rogers, slightly less of Flash Gordon. As you can see he's wielding a ray gun, wears a finned helmet with a stubby antenna, and sports a practical jumpsuit, complete with leather gauntlets and cuffed boots. He's clearly a throwback to the golden age of pulp Sci-Fi, quite different from the more realistic space men in NASA-like spacesuits that started to be made in the 1960's.

I don't know how common these figures were, but I recall at least two of my friends having some. The set would come in a bag of 25 or 35 assorted figures in four colors: black, white, lime green, and magenta. Some of the other figures were a helmeted warrior (think Darth Vader) with thigh-high boots and a raised sword , a miniskirted woman standing next to a console, an armless rectangular bipedal robot, an antennae-sporting alien with a turtle shell and upraised lobster claws, and a tall wookiee- or gorilla-like alien (with antennae) holding a laser rifle and wearing shorts. A couple of incongruous astronauts from the 60's rounded out the set. Some sets also included a not-to-scale vehicle that looked like a cross between a fighter jet and an x-wing.

You can see more pictures at the following blog: GALAXY LASER TEAM.

EDIT: In November I managed to snag a bagfull off of eBay!

EDIT: Here's another write-up at The Log Book: GALAXY LASER TEAM

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. gone gold!

In June 2004 I posted about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and how I was looking forward to it. Today I learned that it has finally gone gold as of 3/2/2007 and will be available for purchase 3/21/2007. Will it be worth the wait?

http://www.stalker-game.com/en/

Idioms revisited

After searching anew, it looks like I've found what I was looking for, though it's not quite what I remembered. The Tex Avery cartoon A Symphony of Slang has most of the elements that I was looking for, and it's probably the one I saw. See it for yourself here: http://www.bolt.com/video/flv_player_branded.swf?contentId=2327389

I guess the only thing really missing from this is the "staring daggers" line, which I could have sworn was in there. But everything else is in there, so unless there's another version of this toon out there, I've found my target.

So why am I so dissatisfied?

EDIT: Youtube Lnk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTlZZ0LgaxM

Idioms

I'm trying to track down an animated short which I saw on TV one saturday morning in the 80's. The entire short was filled with idioms, including "It was raining cats and dogs," "She was staring daggers at me," and "I died laughing". The main character, a hard-boiled detective type, speaks the previous in voiceover, and the idioms are illustrated literally as he does so. So when he says "It was raining cats and dogs," cats and dogs are falling from the sky, etc. The style was thin black outlines on a white background, probably colored in with something like watercolor. It was a funny toon, and I remember it though I only saw it once. I wish I could find it somewhere.

Word of the day

Regolith

Shamelessly stolen from That Mike Guy

Mike calls this a 'meme'. I'm not sure what that is, so I'm calling it a questionnaire.

When was your senior year?
1991-1992

What were your three favorite bands or musical artists?
The Beatles, The Doors, The Monkees

What was your favorite outfit?
Archie McPhee t-shirt and Levi's 501 jeans, Vans low tops.

What was up with your hair?
Rockin' the mullet, and a killer goatee.

Who were your best friends?
Aaron Harding, Phil Grove, Brad Becerra

Where did you work?
Didn't work during the school year, worked full time in Summer at my uncle's fruit-packing shed.

What did you do after school?
Watched TV, played computer games, read books, goofed off.

Did you take the bus?
Nope, school was within walking distance.

Who did you have a crush on?
Tracy Hovnanian, Cindy Taylor

Did you fight with your parents?
Some, mostly about doing homework and chores.

Who did you have a CELEBRITY crush on?
Don't think I had one.

Did you smoke cigarettes?
Nope.

Did you have a 'clique'?
Yeah, I guess. If you count nerds/geeks/dorks as a clique.

Admit it, were you popular?
Far from it.

Who did you want to be just like?
The guys at Sierra On-Line who made computer games.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
A computer programmer.

Where did you think you'd be at the age you are now?
I didn't think that far ahead.

Update

I doubt this is news to anyone who'll be reading this, but my web page is back up, now at www.paloutzian.com/rob/

What's goin' on. (what's goin' on)

I occurred to me that I should mention that I AM aware that paloutzian.com is down. Brent is working on getting things up and running again. Bad news: everything on the server is gone. Good news: I had it all backed up. Bad news: I get to FTP all of it once the server's back online. :)

You can't trick the great Mo-Jaal. The Mo-Jaal's untrickable.

tsia