CLASSIC 'Bat-stuff' from JAPAN! (The COOL, the ODD-BALL, and the JUST PLAIN WEIRD!)

Oh the CRAZY stuff one can find, if one cruises the 'ol 'info-super-highway' long enough! Especially if you're a 'Caped-Crusader-JUNKIE', like the Loydster----and you're ALWAYS on the look-out for not ONLY cool Batman-related stuff, but even the out-right GOOF-BALL, 'laugh-out-loud'-funny-type of 'Bat-oddities', that are floating around out there! Particularly if you focus on stuff produced in the 60s, over in Japan!

That's why this here post has been put up, my friends! I've managed to find enough material, over the past couple of months, to practically FILL-up a 'coffee-table-sized' book! (Wait, The GREAT book, by Chip Kidd-- 'Batman Collected'--- has already done that!---- and YES, I do INDEED own a copy!--LOTS of 'Japanese-Bat-GOOFY-NESS' to be seen there!) Just a 'Google-search' for 'Japanese Batman toys from the 60s' will take you on a photographic journey you'll NEVER forget! 

This collection of pics I'm sharing, are just a couple-dozen of the BEST.... of the not ONLY neat-o-nifty-cool, but the silly, the truly ODD.... and the truly just plain WEIRD!  

I haven't done any kind of research on these items, and I certainly DO NOT read or speak any Japanese! So, I'll just share the collection with you in no particular chronological order! (More or less the way I stumbled across them!) I'll also just throw in my thoughts and occasional nit-pics / mental-brick-a-bracks, as we go along! AWAY we GO!!!----

Here's a few pretty COOL items first! Package art, for toy Batmobiles! Of COURSE--- The artwork BARELY resembles the ACTUAL products! As we'll see down just a few pics below! But, hey---- the artwork STILL ROCKS!--

The Batmobile in the artwork below IS pretty slick! (Dig those CRAZY wire-wheels & white-wall tires!) Bats and Robin, though... appear a little.... 'off'! The 'Caped Crusader's costume seems to fit a bit strange, and the 'Boy Wonder' almost looks middle-aged! (Check-out the receding hair-line!)---And--- here's the ACTUAL toy, out of one those SNAZZY boxes above!--- a bit of a let-down, to say the least!--- Cool, in it's own quirky-kind-of-way though!---Another 'Bat-ride,' out of it's box! Why is it.... gold??? With HUGE, light-up pistons, sticking out of it's trunk???----

The 'Bat-Boat'! Another let-down from the nifty box-art! The Bats and Robin figures are also 'reversed' from how they're shown on the box! Not to mention they look a little.... deformed!---I'll just let these following items 'speak for themselves'! Definitely items that were QUICKLY hustled out into a market that was HUNGRY for 'Bat-toy-product'!--- 'Bat-mania' INDEED!---

Now, for the 'so GOOFY it's still-kind-of-cool' section! The likenesses of both Adam West and Burt Ward are 'spot-on'! But why are they so.... happy???---No 'exact likenesses' happening with the package art below, that's for SURE! Batman, in fact... looks a bit... oriental!---If you can't come up with an original piece of artwork for packaging, you can ALWAYS swipe some original comic book-cover-art, (by Carmine Infantino, no less!) to sell your product! AND hey.... why NOT slip a RED Batmobile (with YELLOW highlights!---the 2nd one seen here, if you're keeping count!) into the background??!!??----Well.... I'll say this for the artwork below: it SURE is... 'original'! Check out Batman's 'Superman-pose', and... GREEN & RED costume!  Not to mention the (VERY cartoony!) depiction of yet ANOTHER RED Batmobile! (3rd in this series of packages!)--- Here we have a couple of items that are BOTH: quite GOOFY, and just a bit.... creepy! (more on THAT in a bit!)--- Wind-up Batman 'robots'!---

So..... WHY am I saying the 'Bat-Robots' are a 'bit...creepy'? Take a CLOSE look at their WEIRD, over-sized, 'baby-doll' heads!-----

TRY, just TRY to tell me those weird, 'black-pupiled'-eyes wouldn't follow you around a room, when ALL the lights were OUT in your house!!! (I can practically hear the main theme from the movie: 'Psycho' here!)

'Light-up' Bat-target-practice, anyone?----Another product, that I'll just let 'speak for itself'! ODD-BALL is an understatement here!---  

Finally, just so none of you would think that the 60s were the ONLY era of the ODD-BALL and STRANGE, when it came to Japanese-produced 'Bat-goodies'! FIRST---we have the 'wind-up-Robot'-version of the '89 Batman!----AND--- no kid's Christmas morning was complete, unless THIS unique item was standing proudly next to the 'ol Christmas tree!!!---

Back to the cool-Japanese-Bat-stuff, to wrap-up this post!--- Just as we kicked it off, we'll give it a 'send-off', with some GENUINELY super-neat-o-nifty versions of the Caped Crusader's logo! In the lingo of the 'land of the rising sun' of COURSE!-----

See you NEXT time, gang! Same 'Bat-time', same 'Bat-channel'!-----

Let the 'AUDIO-INSANITY' begin! 'Loydster's Ramblings'--- Episode ONE!

 

Just as promised / threatened a couple of posts back! The kick-off of an ALL-NEW feature, here on the 'ol blog-a-wog-a-rang-a-thang! This first installment--- the first of THREE, actually--- is a real 'hodge-podge' / 'scatter-shot' / 'sampler'! 

I utilized a number of old recordings, previously sent to my old buddy Jeff Arnold, (he and I have been sending 'audio-messages' back & forth to each other, for AGES!) editing around 8 or 9 separate recordings (my experience with digital editing software, like I learned to use WAY back in Broadcasting School, came in MIGHTY handy!) down to 3 'segments'--- or episodes. 

Chopping-out all the 'personal' material between he and I, I figured I STILL had a pretty good CHUNK of crunchy-goofy-geeky-goodness, that a 'general (but STILL kinda GEEKY!) listening public' just MIGHT be interested in listening to!

Hopefully, around March or so, (after the LAST 'scatter-shot' / 'sampler' episode's been posted!) things will be settled-down around here at 'Ferrell Central'! (Sh-yeah, RIIIIIGHT!) Then, I can start posting 'fresh' / 'new-content' episodes--- one EVERY month! That's the plan, anyway!----

 

As stated above, these little 'chunks of audio-insanity', are really kind of 'all over the place'! Here's what's on the menu this month!---

1.    Thoughts & comments about Factory / industrial accidents and mishaps, I'd either witnessed or heard about--- during my WAY-TOO-MANY years, as a 'manufacturing GRUNT'! (Don't worry. I don't blab about anything GRUESOME / graphic!)

2.     The ultimate fate of one of my early 'man-caves', at one of our previous abodes-- in Bristow-town! (kind of a BUMMER!)

3.     Thoughts / comments about the media and (a good number of!) the producers of Hollywood 'entertainment'! How 'agenda-driven' / Super-lefty-WHACK-O, a LOT of the stuff is out there! This is a WAY-chopped-down RANT, that was just a LONG-winded way, of me saying: 'I CHOOSE what I WANT to watch'! This was also before I'd really discovered the GEEKY-JOY, (SO much of  it's 'family-friendly', too!) that is YouTube! I watch even LESS 'regular TV' now!

4.      Thoughts on 'The Mandalorian'! (VERY COOL series!)

5.       Comments / thoughts about the Daniel Craig 'James Bond' flicks!

6.       Comments / thoughts about 'investing time' into TV shows and movie-franchises. (another RANT, edited WAY-down!)

7.       Thoughts and comments about the 1990 'Flash' TV series, and the current CW show. This particular recording, was done around 3 years ago--- when my wife and I were STILL following the CW show. 

Like a NUMBER of the other CW (superhero) shows---SADLY-- it too, (around the wind-down of it's 6th season) became WAY too 'agenda-driven'! We finally gave up ALL and ANY interest in it, after an episode that involved a couple of MALE super-villains---turning out to be a GAY COUPLE! No thank you, Holly-WEIRD!

8.     Thoughts and comments about the book, 'The Boy Who Loved Batman', by michael Uslan. (VERY good book!---Mike is a REAL down-to-earth, relatable 'uber-geek'!)

9. Brief thoughts / comments, about technology and cell phones!

Anyhoo-rooky-doo, that's what you can expect in this months installment! Enough rattling-on and LENGTHY-introduction! Just click on the link, under the 'vintage broadcast-mic-image', and you can either listen to the episode in a window right here, OR (you GLUTTON for PUNISHMENT!) you can download it!----

                                                                          The 1st 'Scatter-Shot Episode'!

See you ALL here, NEXT month gang!

Hoping for a GREAT Holiday season for us ALL!!!

 

Another year nearly past, and yet another Holiday season is already upon us! And-- what a BUMPY-ride, these past 12-months have been! Not ONLY for us here at 'Ferrell-Central', but I'm sure for a LOT of you as well!!! I sure hope everyone's had their seat-belts on tight, and their CRASH-HELMETS on snug!

Here's hoping, and MORE importantly--PRAYING-- that this NEXT chapter in ALL of our lives, will be at least a LITTLE less bumpy than the past (nearly) 52-weeks have been!

Meanwhile!--- here's some 'Caped Crusader'-related Seasonal FUN images-- to help us ring-in the big 'C-day' and the New Year,the RIGHT WAY! (And--of COURSE-- the 'Loydster way'!)---

 Here's to a HAPPY, SAFE, JOY-FILLED Holiday-season! Christmas-smiles-grins-and-giggles, for EVERYBODY!

Just when you thought it was SAFE!---- The RETURN of the Loydster!

 

Once again, after a nice CHUNK of time (this time a tad over 3 months!)!--- I'm back to putting up posts, FILLED to the brim--- with my at-least-a-couple-of-times-a-month brand of  CRUNCHY-GEEKY-GOOFY-GOODNESS!

Of course, even though I set aside that time to be all 'responsible, boring, and grown-up'..... life hasn't gotten any more simple, OR-- any LESS complicated! The world keeps turning, and life keeps throwing us 'curve-balls'! We either catch'em, dodge-em, or just get HIT by one every once in a while!

Don't worry.... as I was saying in the last posting--- I haven't been (nor has anybody in my little brood,thank the good Lord!) hit by any kind of major illness, tragedy, or other disasters-- these past 3 months! Just busy. You know, like I said.... with being all 'boring & grown-up'! Oh, there HAVE been some bumps in life's road, these past several weeks, that's for SURE! But... me and mine... we're pretty scrappy, and we're survivors! So we're gonna be just fine!

But---  in those months since my last post, there has INDEED been some 'blog-related' activity! As is ALWAYS the case with 'ol Loydster--- those 'creaky-squeeky-noisy' creative gears in the 'Ferrell-noggin' are always moving! A very-near-future post, which will hopefully be popping up here, near the end of this month--- will be ABSOLUTE proof of that!

Without giving too much away, I'm pretty excited about a NEW feature, that I'll be posting (again--hopefully!) EVERY month, here on my little teensy-weensy corner of the 'world-wide-web'! Let's just say--- it'll be AUDIBLE proof of my complete and utter---with NO SHAME WHAT-SO-EVER-- geek-a-zoid nature! As well as some 'Loydster-history' and completely RANDOM thoughts thrown in, FREE of charge!

And--- it just would NOT be the 'Loyd Stuff' blog, if  I didn't finish-up this 'return-to-blogging-post', with a couple of  CLASSIC-Batman-related 'video-goodies'! The first item, is something I should've posted AGES ago here! I didn't actually see this movie, 'til I was around 8 or 9 (EXACTLY the right age, AND-- when I was SERIOUSLY hooked into the series that it's based on!), on the Saturday afternoon 'Action Theater' program, on channel 30 out of Fresno California. Just watching the trailer.... I'm that 8 or 9-year-old 'little Loydster', ALL OVER AGAIN!----

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To finish things up---Here's something that I had NO IDEA even existed! (Thanks AGAIN, YouTube!) The 'Caped Crusader', encouraging the kids of America to buy savings bonds! If I'd seen this, as a 9-year-old--- I would've been pestering my parents to take me to the bank, to load-up on bonds / stamps, RIGHT AWAY!---- 

Take care, and have a SAFE & BLESSED Holiday season everybody!