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The Pax & Jeeg Show Episode 33: Kung Fu Fightiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing….Movies

Posted in movies, nostalgia, podcast, pop culture with tags movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, nostalgia, podcast, podcasts, pop culture on April 17, 2012 by Paxton

Episode 33 has gone LIVE! This week, CT is nowhere to be found and we inaugurate The Pax & Jeeg Show. Expect complete and total CHAOS. And AWESOME-ness. And Jackie Chan-ness.

Dragon Pax

On this, the first episode of The Pax & Jeeg Show, we are again joined by Jeremy from GeekChunks.com to discuss modern martial arts movies. We discuss stuff like Enter the Dragon, Drunken Master, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Wire Fu, subtitles and Ong Bak. It’s an info packed episode so Crane Kick this awesome episode into your iPhone or web browser.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner. And yes, we are still on the Zune Marketplace.

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Pepsi’s 1999 Star Wars Episode I collector cans

Posted in movies, nostalgia, Pepsi, pop culture, soda, Star Wars with tags movies, nostalgia, Pepsi, pop culture, soda, sodapalooza, Star Wars on February 14, 2012 by Paxton

This week, I’m looking at many of the Episode I promotions. Yesterday I looked at some of the current promotions for the 3D release of Star Wars Episode I. Today, I’m going to go back in time to 1999 and look at the original Pepsi Star Wars collector can promotion during the original release of Episode I. Being a soda enthusiast as well as a Star Wars enthusiast any cross promotion between the two is a huge deal for me. So this giant Episode I promotion is one of my favorites.

Pepsi’s 24 collector character cans were the huge promotion everyone probably remembers even to this day. There were 24 character cans in the entire set. There were 8 Pepsi and Mt Dew cans and 4 Diet Pepsi and Pepsi One cans. Pepsi One was newly released in 1999.

I actually bought cases of Pepsi, Mtn Dew, Pepsi One and Diet Pepsi to get all the cans. Cans were released in waves (see the list here) every 2-3 weeks and each 12 and 24 pack of cans only contained one character. So, obviously, like everyone else, I wound up with a ton of extras. I remember the very last character can I needed to complete the set was the Diet Pepsi with the Battle Droid. It took months to find it but I finally did and had to buy a 24 pack of cans to get it. The pic above is, I believe, a salesman’s sample of the complete 24 can set. There are no tops on those cans. I acquired this a few years after Episode I. It came together in a lot with a bunch of Pepsi promo material, the cool black Pepsi can holder you see holding the cans in the pic and the cool Pepsi Destiny can (which I’ll discuss in a minute).

Inserted randomly into cases of these character cans was a chase Gold Yoda can. If you found one, you could send it in to receive $20.

Each soda flavor had it’s own Gold Yoda can, so in actuality there is a set of four Gold Yodas, one each for Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mtn Dew and Pepsi One. Pepsi One being the most rare.

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Current promotions for Star Wars Episode I in 3D

Posted in movies, nostalgia, Pepsi, pop culture, soda, Star Wars with tags movies, nostalgia, Pepsi, soda, Star Wars on February 13, 2012 by Paxton

Star Wars Episode I in 3D started on Friday. I plan on seeing it this weekend, so I’m very excited. It reminds me of the innocent times in early 1999 when I was awaiting the initial release of the movie. That pre-Episode I buildup was so much fun. This week, I’m going to take a look at some of the promotional stuff companies like Pepsi and Hasbro did for the first Star Wars movie since 1983.

Today, let’s start with the most recent stuff being used to promote Episode I in 3D.

There have been several posters released for Episode I in 3D. You can see the wide quad poster above. There’s a more traditional vertical version of that quad. There are also some cool looking character posters that have been released. Here are three of them (click image to see BIGGER).

As you will see, Darth Maul seems to be the character they are focusing on for most for these promotions. See several more posters at Geeks of Doom.

Pepsi is really being understated about their Episode I in 3D promotion. Currently, they have bottles of Lipton Raspberry Tea with Darth Maul’s face and a blurb about the movie. Other flavors just have the movie blurb. Check them out.

Darth Maul is also on the large cans of Raspberry Brisk. These are a lot harder to find. I’ve only seen the actual cans of Brisk once, but they didn’t have the Maul can. It looks awesome, though.

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5 Reasons why the 1987 John Byrne Superman kicked ass

Posted in 80s, comic books, nostalgia, pop culture, Superman with tags Cavalcade Comics, comic books, DC Comics, nostalgia, pop culture, Superman on January 11, 2012 by Paxton

Last year I talked about the 25th anniversary of the John Byrne mini-series Man of Steel. That 1986 mini-series was a post-Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot of Superman which updated his origin and character and served to make him a little less powerful and thus, more interesting.

The reboot led to a revamp of Action Comics, a renaming of the old Superman book to The Adventures of Superman as well as the launch of a brand new Superman book. The new Superman book as well as Action Comics would be written and drawn by John Byrne. The Adventures of Superman would be written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Jerry Ordway. And this month, the post Crisis Superman reboot celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Here is a DC in-house ad advertising the launch of the new Superman titles.

The three issues that started the reboot and featured in this ad are Superman #1, The Adventures of Superman #424 (previously titled Superman) and Action Comics #584. This reboot was a pretty big event and DC advertised it to the hilt.

For the most part, I wasn’t a fan of the Marv Wolfman Adventure issues, but I was a HUGE fan of the Byrne Superman and Action Comics titles. His art and action packed writing style made Superman fun to read. I still have many of the original issues.

Anyway, in celebration of the 25th anniversary, here are 5 reasons why the John Byrne Superman titles kicked so much ass.

Superman vs Legion

Superman got into fights with EVERYONE – Under John Byrne, Action Comics essentially became a free-for-all. It turned into a team up book starring Superman and another character (a la Brave & the Bold for Batman). Within the majority of those issues, Superman wound up getting into a fight with his co-stars, usually over some misunderstanding. But Byrne drew the fights with awesome jaw cracking detail. The regular Superman title was the same way with Supes fighting the Legion, Metallo, Supergirl and a giant mutant ape.

Superman fights 1 Superman fights 2 Superman fights 8

Superman fights 6 Superman fights 7 Superman fights 5

Superman fights 9

Superman didn’t always win his fights (Bizarro, Metallo, Superboy, Rampage, Supergirl) – So, as I said, Superman fought a lot. And surprisingly, he actually got his ass kicked…a lot. At least every other issue featured a panel of Superman getting either smacked in the face or being hit so hard he flies through the air. Check out the myriad of comic panels above showing the Man of Steel on the receiving end of a Bronx haymaker.

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