Round Robin Challenge: Eccentric Action Figures

This week 2 Minute Toy Break has challenged us to take a look at our nearest and weirdest and post a pic or multiple pics of the most eccentric action figure in our collection. This would be a museum worthy action figure. One that would draw a lot of ooohs and aaaahs from an art show crowd. Here's what I decided to feature....

A 2009 vacuum metalized limited edition Fugitoid action figure by Playmates Toys. This is not just any Fugitoid action figure though. This figure hung on the Christmas tree of TMNT co-creator Peter Laird! Here's the story.

In 2009 Mr. Laird's daughter Emily decided it would be fun to decorate the family tree with a bunch of these shiny, metallic Fugitoid figures. Peter Laird had a case of 100 of these figures and he himself opened 50 of the figures and attached an ornament hook to each figure.

On December 21st the tree was decorated by the Laird family and the 2009 mighty "Fugitree" was born.

After the 2009 holiday season, the Fugitoids were boxed back up and sold through the Mirage Studios website for $25. There were only 50 of these items available, and I got one!

This guy holds a prominent spot on my shelf of fame in the basement. Each Fugitoid came in a custom box made by Peter Laird with the story of the Fugitree printed  on a sticker on the front of the box.

The coolest thing was that the boxes were personally signed by Peter Laird. I am so glad to own this piece of TMNT history. It is a rare item that was used in the home of one of my comic book heroes. I feel this piece would fit into any museum of pop culture and would make any Ninja Turtles fan oooh and ahhh at it's appearance. And yes, my Fugitoid still has the ornament hanger on him that Peter Laird twisted around his neck for future tree hanging experiences.

If you would like to read more about the Fugitree, the history of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or the thoughts of Peter Laird, please visit his TMNT blog by clicking HERE! The Laird family photos in the above post were from his website.

Check out Toy Break's post. He has a pretty interesting mash-up to show off!

Top Cartoon All-Star Cameos

A few months back I uncovered a copy of Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue at a local thrift shop. This was a video put out in 1990 by Buena Vista Home Video that taught kids about the negative effects of drugs. It featured almost all of the top cartoon stars at the time including Pooh Bear, The Smurfs, The Chipmunks, Alf and many more.

For $0.25, I could not pass this up. I remember watching this video in school during our D.A.R.E program with the local police. It was always great to be able to watch TV in school, but this was amazing! All of these cartoon characters together in one video! That sound you just heard was my 9 year old mind being blown! Like I said the video included so many classic characters, here are my top 5 favorites from Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue!

1. Michelangelo

Just like Slimer, Mikey doesn't have a huge part in this video, but when he shows up on screen the excitement ramps up big time! Just the fact that the Ninja Turtles were in this movie for 2 minutes was enough to lure me in as a kid. Anything with the Turtles in it was worth watching, educational or not!

Those are my top 5 characters from Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. Who was your favorite? I would like to see them do a remake of this video with characters from the most popular cartoons of 2017. Maybe the would include Sponge Bob, Finn & Jake, Batman, Skylanders and a return of the Ninja Turtles! I would watch that with my kids! You can watch the original in all it's anti-drug glory at the link below. ENJOY!!!!

Random Trading Cards: Vol. 3

Today I'll be taking you back to the days of cardboard cards, stale chunks of pink chewing gum and wax wrappers...again. We will be taking a look at 5 old trading cards! I loved collecting cards as a kid. Baseball, Ninja Turtles, Superheroes it didn't matter. I just loved opening a pack and smelling the gum and seeing if you had opened a pack with new cards or more doubles! The stickers were always the premium pieces, but having a few extras to trade never hurt. Let's open this pack of awesomeness and take a look at 5 random cards from the 80s & 90s:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 (Topps, 1992)

The most despised of all the Ninja Turtles movies, until Michael Bay came along. Ninja Turtles 3 suffered from a lot of problems. Poor story, bad costumes and rushed production. It was still Turtles, so I bought into it and tried really hard to like this movie, but I just can't. After the greatness of the first 2 Turtles flicks this was a huge disappointment. I have a few of these cards in my collection and really do like these art cards, but it's not enough to redeem TMNT 3 from how bad it was.