^Silly Haw, nobody moved the cheese.

I most certainly remember all those TV intro themes.  A prime time movie was a big deal. TV was only on until midnight, so burning up two or three hours before the news was a more thought out event.  Broadcast time wasn't disposable.

It really was a simpler time.  A handful of stations, with set programing that was easy to watch.  A colorful intro, familiar theme, title of the film, then the film.  It was  particularly nice to watch because you were only seeing the movie.  No branded logo in the corner and no pop-up ads taking up part of the picture - during the film.  I watch very little TV these days.  It's just not enjoyable to me.  Truthfully, it won't be long and the ads will run the entire time.  They're just testing the water.  How much visual distraction will people tolerate before they change the channel?
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bkev said:

I just found out the b is for badass. Gotta love my friends.

Sluggo (what moved xhonzi's cheese) said:

xhonzi said:

Sluggo said:

xhonzi said:

I had two Chewbacca figures.  So I pretended that they were the Chewie brothers and that they were frontmen in a rock and roll band.

They would sing "Chewies!" in perfect harmony.  It was their signature.

It is also my signature.

What?  But... Hey!  I was going to...

Ah, man...

Can he do that?

I moved your cheese and stole your thunder.

 

I updated a previous post with a new pic of another of my old SW shirts.

 

Signature:
Chewies! (in perfect harmony)

You're skating on this ice, bub!

YO Hal!  Chuck e cheeses and aladdins castle back in the 80's, RULED!  I had b-day parties at both.  did ur town have a showbiz pizza place?  Mine did and had parties there as well. It was just like chuck e cheeses.  80's CEC, unlike todays', had tons of video games!

topic

love the b-day cake bkev!  My mom bought a darth vader cake mold for one of my b-day's and an R2D2 for another.  She spent a lot of time frosting them and getting the colors accurate, and the cake would be ready by the time I got out of school!  back in 77' after the movie was released and my SW craze commenced, I received that following Christmas: han,leia,3po,r2d2,luke,kenobi,strmtrooper,chewy and vader figures along with the x-wing, mini tiefighter and the landspeeder.  After that all I talked about was SW and my parents ceased buying me any more toys, LOL!  So if I wanted to buy anymore toys, I had to buy them myself which was a good life lesson.  I absolutely loved saving up enough money for additional figures and ships and relished in anticipation  the car trip or bike ride to Kmart, Walmart, service merchandise or Venture.  One of my fondest purchases was the full size y-wing, admiral ackbar and boush the bounty hunter at Kmart on a saturday night. I saved up lawnmowing money for several months to get them!  Another memory is having friends bring over their SW toys for a sleepover and we would combine our forces for a huge battle till the wee hours!

There was an inerior balcony in my parents house, which was right next to my room.  As an infant, I actually crawled through the bars (which were gapped according to "code") and fell to my death, er... brain damage, er... split lip and lost tooth.

But I didn't learn, apparently.  This is where Luke and Vader had their most frequent duels.  It usually ended with Luke knocking Vader off of the precipice, which was soon followed by a faint *snap* as Vader hit the floor 14 feet below and his head broke off.   

My mom would super glue the head back on (no more swiveling for you, head!) and it would more or less stay on until the next battle.

Now that I think about it, it would have been a great time to re-enact "the failure at the cave".  I guess I was too impatient.

Eventually, the head would riccochet off at such an angle that we never found the head.  New Vader time!

---

In 1984 or 1985- KayBee Toys put a steep discount on all of their remaining Star Wars figures (mostly Hoth Han, or was that 1998?) and they dumped them crudely into a giant bin.  I think they were $1 a piece.  Basically, my dad would often bring one home for me, and he was often able to fill requests!  Due to the aforementioned headless Vader problem... it was usually a Vader.  But, if I was good and didn't break/lose any Vader heads for the week, it might have been a Klaatu, or a Barada, or a Nikto.  Or a Disco Lando (or was that 1996?).  I was most excited when he finally found Nien Nunb.

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I tried to cut the tassel off of Hoth Luke so it would swivel and hang down when the figure was upside down.

This didn't work.

But I was very excited when POTF2 figures came out and had this feature.

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I though Hoth Luke's vest was made of Wrigley's gum.  But it was too hard to chew.

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I peeled the round "hatch" decals off of my Millennium falcon within hours of getting it that Christmas morning.  My mom was quite confused as to why I'd deface my brand new toy, that was my most cherished possession in the world.  I'm sure I don't need to explain it to you: it was so Lando could rescue Luke, of course!

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The little round "wells" in the front of the Falcon- you could squeeze some of the figures legs together and jam their feet in there and then they could "surf" Teen Wolf style on the hull.

---

The only thing that took 'C' batteries in our house were Star Wars toys.  This did not make my parents very happy.

--- 

I never knew of the actual Kenner toy lightsabres.  My parents bought me a glow in the dark sword and told me it was a lightsabre toy.  AND I BELIEVED THEM!  For some reason, I liked to put the sword across the arms of our living room chairs and then sit on the sword.  Which broke the handle off.  Several times.  My mom must have hot-melt glued that thing at least 50 times.

good lord, xhonzi, you were one destructive kid!

And toys r us is overrated.  This is where I shopped for toys as a kid:

Oh, & the first pic on this page is about the most awesome thing ever.

canofhumdingers said:

Oh, & the first pic on this page is about the most awesome thing ever.

It's not my place to disagree with you.

xhonzi said:

I never knew of the actual Kenner toy lightsabres.  My parents bought me a glow in the dark sword and told me it was a lightsabre toy.  AND I BELIEVED THEM!  For some reason, I liked to put the sword across the arms of our living room chairs and then sit on the sword.  Which broke the handle off.  Several times.  My mom must have hot-melt glued that thing at least 50 times.

That reminds me - I still have the remnants of my original SST Lazer Sword, one of the first bootleg lightsaber toys.  When the batteries in the flashlight handle got "cancer", I threw out the flashlight part (didn't realize you could clean off the cancer fairly easily, unlike in the human body) and ended up replacing the flashlight several times over the years.  To this day, I still have the original flange, blade, endcap and detail ring transplanted on a flashlight.

I had one of those knock off flashlight-with-attachment I used for a lightsaber. My parents made me red, blue, and green inserts so I could change colors on the fly.

I still want a ForceFX saber.

I would go back to the 80's too Hal!  what a time to grow up!  I also loved the saturday morning cartoons back then.  I cherished the SW commercials featuring new action figures, playsets and ships, in the midst of watching Thundarr the barbarian, looney tunes, D & D, pacman, johnny quest etc! 

Hey Hal I was also a huge Transformer/GIJOE fan, and still am.  I would race home from school back then in order to catch the cartoons, along with Voltron and HE-MAN!

I didnt have one of those giant yellow/red toy lightsabers, but my friends did and we had some fun duels!  We would end up whacking each others' back and butt and I'd have some bruises the next day!  Great fun!  I do remember them breaking easily too.

I loved it when would snow heavy enough for school to be cancelled.  I loved building mini-snow bases and having my own hoth battles!  My snowspeeder got too much snow  in the battery compartment and stopped working!  My friend would bring over his AT-AT!