Your boy scooped up some vintage X-Men figures in an online auction recently and couldn’t wait to show them off! Head on over to the YouTube and check out the latest retro unboxing video and be sure to subscribe and leave some feedback in the comments!
Check out this new unboxing video where Joe discusses the 1992 trade of David Cone from the New York Mets to the Toronto Blue Jays while unboxing Kenner Starting Lineup figures!
Welcome back to another week of Halloween cartoon episode recaps! I think last week got the ball rolling with some pretty solid stuff and it’s kept me exciting to keep it going. Today we’re grabbing an early episode of The Powerpuff Girls! In the late 90s, The PPGs got over huge and inspired all sorts of licensing that kind of culminated in a full-length movie that…was not so great. But it did feature a 55 minute game of tag that didn’t end until Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup had completely destroyed their entire town.
Good times.
I wasn’t a diehard PPG fan by any means, but I was definitely entertained when I’d catch it and even saw the movie in theaters. A small group of friends have still not forgiven me for that. I’m telling you: that game of tag was longggggggggg.
Regardless, The Powerpuff Girls was big business and 21 years after debuting on Cartoon Network, they’re still going strong with a reboot series as well as other merch like toys and comics.
As for today, however, we’re just concerned with Episode 5 of their first season. It’s Halloween time in Townsville so let’s see what kind of antics the girls get into. Continue reading
What’s up everyone and welcome to a Friday Halloween cartoon episode recap! Today we’re checking out a special episode of Nickelodeon’s Doug which is a big favorite of our double main man, Gomez.
I was never much of a Doug fan. I didn’t have cable when it was first airing and by the time it ended up moving to ABC I was at the age where I was too cool for cartoons so, while I knew it existed, it was never something I’ve ever spent much time getting to know.
I know a lot of people have some fond memories toward this series, but I’ll be stepping in blind to see how Doug and his pals do Halloween. It’s not always the best formula for recapping, but it does allow for plenty of “WTF” moments. Let’s go. Continue reading
Welcome to another Halloween themed cartoon recap! Today we’re checking out an early episode from Rugrats which was absolutely huge in the 90s. I’m serious. This show was so popular that kids, older kids and adults were all rocking merch from it.
Toys, video games, apparel, you name it, and this show had it. You know you’re over when you even get a tie-in with a fast food chain and…
Boom!
Hell, during senior year, my buddy Armando (who is definitely not a doctor) even had a Burger King Rugrats watch from their promotion with the movie out at that time that actually said phrases!
Trust me: these shits were cool as fuck in 1999. I remember. I was there.
But today we go all the way back to Season 1 of this cartoon classic and cherry pick a Halloween episode. I’m very excited for this. It has to be way better than yesterday’s Garfield atrocity. The bar is set low so let’s fucking go! Continue reading
So October may not start until tomorrow, but we’ll jump into the Halloween season today! For the whole month, I’ll be tracking down Halloween episodes or specials of some of your favorite shows and be recapping them right here because everybody loves themes!
Starting us off for this month-long celebration is an episode from Season 1 of Bobby’s World! Back when Howie Mandel still had hair and was in between being under your bed and opening briefcases he was the creative genius behind Bobby Generic and the world around him.
This show actually ran for seven seasons in the 90s and was hella popular for the depictions of a toddler’s fantasy world.
So why are we starting with this? Honestly: I was pressed for time and this popped up pretty quickly on YouTube. I liked this show as a kid and voila! Here we are. So let’s jump into it! Halloween! Continue reading
It’s been a while, but I figured this was a good time to jump back into cartoon reviews. This weekend we lost Adam West who had many credits to his name, but is – obviously – best known for portraying Bruce Wayne/Batman in the 1960s TV series. For decades, the show has lived on in syndication and generations of people have all been thrilled by the campy fun of West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin.
Personally, I loved the 60s Batman series and when they recently released the animated BATMAN: RETURN OF THE CAPED CRUSADERS movie last year, I was hyped. It was done in the same tone as the original series and featured West, Ward and Julie Newmar (Catwoman) all reprising their famous roles some half-century after the fact.
Twenty-five years ago, however, there was a different Batman tribute to Adam West and it came in an episode of Batman: The Animated Series which was a huge deal on FOX in 1992. The series itself is terrific, still holds up and can be streamed on Amazon Prime if you feel inclined to give it a watch, but the eighteenth episode in particular is notable for a certain guest star: Adam West.
Welcome to the Wednesday edition of the Daily Cartoon on Car JoeMez! We’ve got something…something for you today so let’s get the other stuff out of the way quickly.
The podcast! Listen to it! A new episode every week talking about shit you like. It’s legit. Find it on iTunes, Soundcloud or wherever you download your podcasts. Make sure to subscribe, leave a review and tell your friends to do the same.
In 1992, Disney released a movie called THE MIGHTY DUCKS that featured a ragtag group of Pee-Wee hockey playing underdog kids from Minnesota overcoming the odds and defeating the much more talented and wealthy team from a neighboring district all under the guidance of Emilio Estevez who was sporting some great fucking hair.
Welcome to the Thursday edition of the Daily Cartoon on Car JoeMez! Before we get started, here’s your daily reminder to check out the weekly shoe, The Car JoeMez Podcast, on iTunes, Soundcloud or wherever you get your podcasts. This week’s episode features Gomez and I discussing the music of our adolescence as well as completely shitting on the list of top fast food items put out by The Ringer. It’s probably one of my favorite episodes that we’ve done so, please, go give it a listen, leave a review, subscribe and share it with friends. Everything is better with friends.
Today’s show is Toxic Crusaders! I remember having seen this as a kid, but don’t remember it sticking around all that long. I kind of remember enjoying it, but it wasn’t even close to something I was all about. I’d remember it a lot better if I did. Apparently, it did reach some level of popularity as they were a bunch of licensed items from comic books, a board game, a toy line and even a video game for NES, GameBoy and Genesis. I don’t ever remember this being THAT popular to necessitate all of that.
Looking at the toys, there’s a lot to similarities to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line. Which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise as both lines were made by Playmates around the same time. 
I’m going to go out on a limb and assume the game is awful. I’m going to go out on an even further limb and say I’ll probably try hunting it down on eBay over the weekend.
The reason all this merchandising surprises me is that the series only produced 13 episodes and I genuinely don’t remember it being a big thing in the school yards as a kid seeing as how I was only 9-10 years old when this was aired. Maybe people just expected it to take off like another TMNT or something. I don’t know. Either way, I’m kind of excited to check this out and see if anything jogs my memory.
Quick little background on this: the main focus is Toxie, the ugly green sludge monster we see on the video games and in the center of anything promoting this who has superpowers and is a really nice guy under his horribly disfigured appearance. Toxie and friends do battle with the evil villains from the planet Smogula who want to do irreparable harm to the environment. Hmmm…maybe we should get Toxie to have a talk with that new president guy.
OK, so horribly disfigured mutants. Villains from the planet Smogula. Save the environment. Got it.
Let’s watch a cartoon.
Toxic Crusaders E.9: “Invasion of the Biddy Snatchers”
Originally Aired: April 27, 1991
Plot:
We open with the Toxic Crusaders playing football in what appears to be the dump when Toxie’s Tromatons start tingling. Tromatons are basically this dude’s Spidey-Sense so that means evil must be near. At this point, a small sack drops onto his head where a small insect is nestled on the inside.
Cut to the planet of Smogula, where Czar Zosta, the head bad guy is demoting Dr. Killemoff (think Krang/Shredder type of relationship here) because of his inability to rid them of the Toxic Crusaders. In his place will be General GarBage who is this termite-looking motherfucker who grows to be a giant bug wearing traditional military garb. In the smaller state, he also looks exactly like the bug that just fell on Toxie’s head.
General GarBage explains his master plan to Dr. Killemoff and it…is…a…doozy. He’s going to drop a shit ton of tiny bugs all over the town of Tromaville, New Jersey (home to the Toxic Avengers) where they will bite little old ladies and become perfect clones of them, albeit with four arms. He thinks that nobody will suspect his old lady clones and he’ll easily be able to infiltrate the town and take it over for good.
As far as evil plans go for some of the shows we’ve been watching lately, this one is actually pretty solid.
The clones lock up all the original old biddies somewhere nobody would ever think to look: Tromaville City Hall while they start driving the residents out-of-town due to their nonstop nagging and complaining. This makes the town ripe for a Smogula invasion. Toxie, meanwhile, gets a super-duper Tromaton alert when someone mentions his Mom and he heads out to figure out what could be wrong.
Unfortunately for Toxie, he’s met by his imposter Mom on the way to her house where she informs him that him and the rest of the Toxic Crusaders are being deported to Siberia because they’re too ugly to live in Tromaville. Normally, I’d say we shouldn’t discriminate against those less good-looking, but, real talk: Tromaville is in New Jersey so c’mon, there’s really not a lot to work with there and people REALLY have no right to judge. Toxie heads to the dump to inform the rest of the Crusaders.
Dr. Killemoff, in lieu of being excited about the plan working, is up and arms. He’s desperate for General GarBage to fail so he can get his top spot back. Fuck, the politics that exist even when being a bad guy from Smogula aren’t much different from that of being an American senator.
The Crusaders board a ship bound for Siberia, but are surprised when it’s only a 10 minute trip. When they debark, they’re met by Dr. Killemoff who informs these idiots that they’re in Island City and not Siberia, but that he’ll also make a deal: defeat General GarBage’s clones and they can return to Tromaville. The Crusaders, obviously, are thrilled. In the immortal words of Bon Jovi, who says you can’t go home?
When the Crusaders return to Tromaville, they’re ambushed by the clone biddies. They refuse to fight back because – even though they’re imposters – they still don’t feel comfortable hitting old women. This is rectified by the real old biddies showing up en masse after a group jailbreak and laying out the fakers. They hit their finishing move of hitting them in the face with hair spray which transforms the clones back into the insects they began as.
General GarBage launches an attack with a bunch of Smogulan troops who are handled with ease by the Toxic Crusaders. Toxie even grabs a can of hairspray and hits General GarBage with a big spritz which shrinks him down to a tiny general. The bad guys retreat and Tromaville is once again saved by its lovable group of mutant superheroes.
Final Thoughts:
This show is terrific! It’s completely in on the joke with how ridiculous the premise is and makes no secret of hiding it. It’s fun, it’s witty, it’s an all-around good time.
Seriously, go out of your way and track this down to give it a watch. It’s streaming on Amazon Prime right now which is how I watched, but there’s also a DVD collection out there. With only 13 episodes, it’s not even a real commitment so it’s perfect to knock out over a slow weekend.
Seriously had a good time with this show and glad I saw it sitting there on Amazon. Go watch and get back at me with your thoughts.
See you tomorrow.
❤ Joe
After a much-needed weekend respite, welcome back to the Daily Cartoon on Car JoeMez! Remember to check out the latest episode of the show, The Car JoeMez Podcast on iTunes, Soundcloud or wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure to subscribe, like, rate, leave a review and share it with your friends.
I wanted to start the week off with something light and I remembered that Animaniacs was on Netflix and voila! I can’t admit to being a big fan of this show when I was a kid. I liked it, thought it was OK, but it was nothing I was ever too into. Also, by the time of its premiere (September 13, 1993 – which also happened to be my 12th birthday) I was already into the too-old for cartoons stage of life so only kept a passing interest in this.
I’ve since watched some episodes here and there since it was added to the streaming services and I have enjoyed the ones I’ve watched. There’s a lot of adult humor in there that I’m 100% positive I didn’t get or understand as a kid, but makes me do the “how the fuck did they sneak that one in there?!”
In addition, this show also introduced us to Pinky & The Brain who eventually got their own spinoff that – dare I say – was even better than the home base they emerged from. As a whole, Animaniacs lasted 99 episodes total combined from its runs on Fox and then, eventually, Kids WB and was pretty popular for its time. Not that it had a toy line that I can remember, but I know for a fact that it had a video game on Genesis and Super Nintendo. I even have the Genesis version!
See? I wasn’t lying. Hell, I’ve even got the Warners in Funko form too!
So, yeah, I suppose I’ve grown to appreciate this show much more as I’ve gotten older and re-watched it here and there. One thing I did absolutely love as a kid, however was this:
I would say that’s enough background on this show. Let’s watch a cartoon.
Animaniacs: S.1, E.24: “Opportunity Knox/Wings Take Heart”
Originally Aired: October 18, 1993
We open with a quick infomercial where the Warner brothers and their sister, Dot, want to shave you bald for just $19.95. They demonstrate on that poor security guard that they’re always terrorizing around the Warner movie lot. Cute and quick and sends us into the opening theme which will get in your head like nobody’s business.
From there, we go into a Pinky and the Brain bit. Pinky wonders what Brain wants to do tonight and, of course, Brain informs him that they’ll try to do the same thing they do every night: try to take over the world.
Brain has invented a new strain of pollen that causes a temporary allergic fit in all humans and plans to use it to rob Fort Knox. How do they plan on even getting to Fort Knox? They’ll use one of the labs technological resources: the minivan.
Of course, just miles away from Fort Knox, the duo get pulled over, but are able to get out of it by telling the officer that once they control all of the world’s gold, their budget will result in substantial spending increases for law enforcement.
They arrive at Fort Knox, hit the security team with Brain’s allergy pollen and then go about lifting all the gold. There’s just one problem: gold bars are heavy AF and Pinky and the Brain are lab mice who are unable to move them. They end up dropping the first bar they lift on top of themselves and the next we see of them, are back in their cage at Acme Labs sporting slings and bandages where Brain promises a better plan for tomorrow night. Pinky asks what they’ll be doing then and Brain answers, “the same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world!”
We then segue into a quick “Good Idea, Bad Idea” segment that was used to buffer between stories. Good idea: stopping to smell the roses. Bad idea: stopping to feel the roses and puncturing yourself on thorns on the stem of said roses.
It’s on to our second story of the day, “Wings Take Heart”. A nondescript insect is taking a nap when he spots a beautiful butterfly girl and becomes immediately smitten. She spots him gawking at her in her mirror while she’s brushing her hair. They make eye contact and start flying all over town together.
OK, let me hit pause for a second. Folks, I can tell you from tons of experience that creepily staring at chicks from across the way never ends up with you flying all over town with them. Never. Sometimes they make and uggo face at you. Sometimes they turn around. Sometimes they flip you the bird or send their really big boyfriend over to you so he can ask what your problem is. At no point does it work out like this show has thus far. Just something to keep in mind next time you’re feeling like a creep at the bar.
Our unnamed insect is about to kiss his dream butterfly when he’s suddenly smashed by a passing tractor-trailer. And I’m not talking about former basketball great Robert “Tractor” Traylor either.
Our bug protagonist gets shuttled around from a number of different trucks that end up smashing him and taking him further and further away from where he needs to be when finally his little bug body has had all it can stand. He’s done. Laid out. A mama vulture picks him up to feed to her kids, but there’s a forest fire bearing down, so she packs up her hatchlings and takes off. Our beaten bug tries escaping, but he’s no match for the quick-moving fire.
Just when it looks as if all hope is lost, a helicopter does a massive water drop on the fire which washes it out and flows our little guy to temporary safety. He’s floating on a leaf and about to fall into a sewer drain when he sees his pretty butterfly girlfriend sitting under a rose crying. He calls to her, she perks up, he flies up and finally gets his kiss.
Now, I think it’s important to state that this is also ridiculous. Everybody knows that these hoes ain’t loyal. The second he was taken away, you know that butterfly chick was gonna be on Bug-Tinder or back in the bars getting a new thirsty-ass dude to give her some attention. She certainly ain’t going to be sitting under a rose waiting for this dude to just appear out of nowhere like an RKO again. This is just reality. This is how the world works. Plenty of other bugs all over.
Now with both of our stories for the day concluded, the Warners pull out the Wheel of Morality to tell us today’s learned lesson: “If you can’t say something nice, you’re probably at the Ice Capades”. Hahahahaahahahahahahhaahahahahahahhaha. Poor Ice Capades. I actually went once when I was a kid and the big thing was Super Mario Bros. I remember having a good time. But, for now, sick burn, Yakko.
Final Thoughts:
This show is great. There was a couple of swipes at Disney in there which, for the time, were probably scandalous, but they’re done tongue-in-cheek and are pretty funny. The show as a whole is a good time.
I don’t really get the whole bug story, but it just was what it was and the music overlayed did a really good job of conveying danger and emotions in the vein of the classic Looney Tunes cartoons.
The more of these shows that I watch, I become convinced that they’re just not meant to be binge-watched. An episode here or there, fine, but if I tried running three, four episodes in a row, I may hate myself.
But for one episode and 20 minutes today, this was fun and is probably something I could just put on with my sleep timer as I’m going to bed some nights.
I know for a fact there are DVD sets of this show available, but you can find all 99 episodes on Netflix as well if you’re looking to check it out which I think you should. Especially if it’s something you haven’t watched in a while. I think you’ll be able to appreciate a lot of the jokes and humor a lot better as a learned adult. Thumbs up.
See you tomorrow.
❤ Joe
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