The Island of Misfit Toys – Azeem from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

This week on The Island of Misfit Toys, we find Azeem from Kenner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves toy line. Released in the summer of 1991, Prince of Thieves was a pretty laughable summer blockbuster starring Kevin Costner doing a weird faux-English accent as Robin Hood. I’ve never been a big fan of the film, but I will admit Prince of Thieves has some nice moments. Most of them are provided by Alan Rickman (doing a twisted take on the Sheriff of Nottingham) and Morgan Freeman’s wise, stoic Moor.

The Prince of Thieves toy line harkens back to a simpler time when toy companies could get away with more to save money. The entire line of Robin Hood toys is a Frankenstein creation whereby Kenner Toys took existing parts and pieces of previously successful toy lines and retrofitted them awkwardly into a new brand. It seems the majority of pieces for these toys and vehicles were pieced together from Kenner’s Super Powers and Star Wars lines.

Island of Misfit Toys: Skeleton Warriors – Baron Dark

This week on the Island of Misfit Toys, we’re looking at Baron Dark from Playmates Toys’ Skeleton Warriors line of action figures.

Skeleton Warriors was a property that filtered quietly through pop culture in the mid-1990′s. They were featured in a 13 episode animated series and some ancillary merchandise (comic books, trading cards, and so on). The concept seems pretty unremarkable, a retread of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe featuring more skeletons this time around. The concept seems like something that was brainstormed in committee rather than any real artistic intent but I guess that’s how it is with most children’s toys.

I was interested to see Playmates Toys’ name attached to these figures. Playmates became a BIG toy company in the 1990′s. They had the stewardship of two of the biggest properties going in toy aisles at the time – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Star Trek. While TMNT were toys primarily for the kiddies, Star Trek was one of the first modern lines I remember to become INSTANTLY collectable amongst adult collectors. Trekkies all over the world were looking to complete their Enterprise Away Crew or whatever. While Skeleton Warriors is firmly aimed at children, there are some aspects of Playmates’ approach to the concept that lead me to believe they were also hoping to hook in older toy enthusiasts as well.

a sort of eulogy for my elementary school

The elementary school in my home town is being closed at the end of the year in some sort of bid to close a financial gap the district is having. According to this article, the closing will save the district $730 grand a year. In the grand scheme of educating young people for today and in the future, that amount seems like chump change to me. It seems especially so since the school district is operating with an $8 million dollar deficit. $730 thousand dollars seems like a drop in the bucket when you consider that number. However, I will concede: in these knee-jerk political times we live, I’m sure any meager savings will look good on some pencil-pusher’s ledger.

Where are the new comics?

Sorry folks, I’ve been a bit swamped as we move into the last part of the school year! I’m going to start working on some new strips in the next week or so.

I know it’s the equivalent of recommending reruns to people who already watched something in first-run, but I’ve been reposting some of my older strips on my Tumblr blog, for those interested. I’ve been really pleasantly surprised with the reception my work has gotten over there and I’ve been featured on Tumblr’s Education tag numerous times in the past few months.

Thrift Store Finds: Superman – Miracle Monday

This week’s Thrift Store Find is Superman: Miracle Monday, written by Elliot S. Maggin and published by Warner Books in 1981.

Cover price was $2.50, I got it for a quarter.

This is the second in a series of paperback novels Warner Books published, presumably in conjunction with their Superman franchise of movies starring Christopher Reeve. Superman II was released in theaters in 1980; presumably this book was in bookstores to capitalize on that film.

Teacher Comics: Wishin’ days away

I’m sort of paraphrasing The Thief of Always by Clive Barker here and it’s true. Sometimes constantly waiting for some soon-to-come thing will blind you to what could happen in the now.

This is a follow-up to yesterday’s comic.

Teacher Comics: Countin’ down

Of course, I know teachers who twist and contort the calendar to make it sound like we have less days. One colleague of mine recently told me that we technically have even less days than the students are saying because we teachers have a few professional development days coming up… and those days aren’t really teaching days, so they shouldn’t count toward the overall total.

I am not making that up.