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Young Guns vintage trading cards are gonna shoot you in the face with AWESOME

Posted in movies, nostalgia, pop culture with tags movies, pop culture, Young Guns on May 12, 2015 by Paxton

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know that I’m a fan of Back to the Future, retro video gaming and the Young Guns movies. I’ve reviewed the movies on this blog for Billy the Kid Week and I’ve done a double episode of Cult Film Club where I talk about my complete thoughts on the Young Guns movies.

My good friend and CFC co-host, Shawn, is also a huge fan of the Young Guns movies. You can hear him talk all about them on that double CFC episode as well. We also take some time to wax regret that Young Guns wasn’t merchandised as well as it should have been. No toys. No movie novelizations. No photo magazines. NOTHING like that exists for this franchise.

So, Shawn has been busy making custom vintage trading cards for his favorite 80s movies (Adventures in Babysitting and Monster Squad) and they are AWESOME. He and I started talking and I talked him into joining me and creating a set of vintage trading cards for the Young Guns movies. BOTH Young Guns movies.

So, let’s start off with the first movie. Shawn and I made around 20 cards for the first series. We collaborated on the “look and feel” of the card as well as what characters should be included. Then we split them up into Odds/Evens and each completed our portion in Photoshop. It was an awesomely collaborative process that is fun to do with Shawn anyway because we are simpatico about many things, but especially about these movies.

To begin with, I’ll show you half of Series 1 here. Then jump on over to Branded to complete the full set.

Let’s ride!

Here are the two variant wax wrappers we made for this first series of Young Guns vintage trading cards.

Now, let’s take a look at the cards themselves. Like I said, I’m showing you the odd numbers of the set. Shawn will show all the even numbers.

Click the images to make them BIGGER! And head over to Branded in the 80s to complete this set of Young Guns trading cards!

Shawn and I also did a second series of this featuring images from Young Guns II. They will be revealed shortly. PLUS, we have a few other surprises in store including some chase and variant cards to this set. So stay tuned.

I’ve had so much fun these last few weeks working with Shawn on this set of cards. I just wanted to thank him for indulging me and letting me join him in bringing these to life. So much fun that I’m sad it’s nearly over. Luckily, I still get to talk to him every month on Cult Film Club.

UPDATE! – 5/18

Want to see more of these? We just released two movie novelization book covers for Young Guns and Young Guns II. Plus, there are some alternate/chase cards on display. Check them out at Cult Film Club.

Nerd Lunch Episode 178: Star Wars A New Hope Drilldown

Posted in movies, podcast, pop culture, Star Wars with tags movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcasts, pop culture, Star Wars on May 11, 2015 by Paxton

This is it. Nearly 180 episodes in, the Nerd Lunch Podcast is finally tackling the Star Wars movies. And we are starting with the very first one.

Joining us again are the guests from the previous “setting the table on Star Wars” episode of Nerd Lunch back in #153; Geek Kay from Fangirl Blog and Michael May from Kill All Mosnters! and the Adventureblog.

We talk about our first time watching the movie, we talk about our favorite characters and scenes, we even discuss things we have issues with. Most of those reside in the Special Edition and other “versions” of the movie. It’s a good discussion that begins the Nerd Lunch Star Wars Drilldown trilogy. Join us.

Download this episode from iTunes, Stitcher or listen to it on Feedburner.

Or listen to it online right here.

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Crashing the Galloping Ghost, The Largest Arcade in the United States

Posted in nostalgia, personal, pop culture, roadtrip, video games with tags arcades, Cavalcade Arcade, Nerd Lunch Podcast, nostalgia, The Atomic Geeks, video games on May 1, 2015 by Paxton

It’s not often I get to profile an actual arcade on Cavalcade Arcade, but that is my pleasure today. While you’ve probably seen and heard that both the Nerd Lunch and Atomic Geeks podcasts united in Chicago for C2E2, a few of us broke away from the convention nuttiness to live out a boyhood dream of playing in a dedicated video arcade. And one just happened to exist in the suburbs of Chicago. And it’s called the Galloping Ghost Arcade, reportedly the largest indoor video game arcade in America.

So, without further ado, here is a journal of my adventures with Jeeg and Christian traveling to outer Chicago to find the mythical Galloping Ghost Arcade.

The day started off with breakfast at McDonald’s, then Jeeg, Christian and I had to hightail it to Union Station to catch a train to Brookfield. We were cutting it close, but we made it. Here’s Jeeg running for the train.

Jeeg, Christian and me. Train buddies. Traveling to a mythical nirvana of pixels, CRT monitors and nostalgia.

Right off the train stop in Brookfield, there was this awesome little ice cream shop called Cock Robin. I was afraid to walk over to it because I didn’t want to ruin the illusion of a time warp to a 50s diner in perfect hibernation.

And after planes, trains and automobiles, we finally arrive. The Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, IL. HALL-LE-LU-JAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!

Walking through the door for the first time, you literally have to stand back for 5 minutes to even process everything that you’re looking at.

Then expect another 10-15 minutes just walking around open mouthed looking at the games. You’ll literally say over and over again in your head, “They have THAT?!” or “I haven’t seen that in YEARS!”

So you shamble over to the counter, pay a $15 cover and begin your own personal spirit walk. Everything is set to free play. No quarters. No tokens. Just bliss.

After taking stock of the situation, it was really hard to decide which game would come first. What should start off this massive orgy of electrical consumption? The arcade made that decision for us. Or at least, for Jeeg and me.

We had literally just done our Krull episode for Nerd Lunch and I discussed how 100% of my knowledge of that movie comes from this game. We had to play it. And play it we did.

That game was a fun blast from the past. And with that, the seal had been broken. Before we split up after playing this game, Jeeg and I stated that our goal before we left the arcade was to play each other in Karate Champ, a very favorite of both of us growing up. Making that pact, we split up and explored the wonders that lay within The Galloping Ghost.

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A plethora of podcasting!

Posted in comic books, movies, podcast, pop culture, TV shows with tags comic books, conventions, movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, Nerdy Roadtrip, podcasts, The Atomic Geeks, TV shows on April 28, 2015 by Paxton

Lots of podcasting goodness to get you through this week.

First off, check out the latest episode of Nerd Lunch with returning guests Shawn Robare and Reilly from ReillyGeek who makes her celebrated return to the show after a two year absence. This episode we are doing the Summer Preview episode in which we all reveal things we are looking forward to doing over the summer. We discuss movies, TV and even food items. Check it out.

Download this episode from iTunes, Stitcher or listen to it on Feedburner or online right here.

Also, the nerds and I make TWO appearances on the Atomic Geeks this week. Check out CT, Jeeg and I on episode 30 of The Atomic Geeks which was recorded LIVE in Chicago during C2E2! The group of us take on a giant episode of Versus in which we pit pop culture things together in a giant battle royal. Check out Swamp Thing vs Groot, Angry Whopper vs Big Mac and The Duke Boys vs Miami Vice. It’s an action packed episode that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

While in Chicago with the Geeks, we all recorded an extra special Supplementary episode. Check it out on The Atomic Geek’s feed. It’s all of us talking about C2E2, the stuff we saw, toys, celebrities and cosplay. Lots and lots of fun discussions.

All of this is waiting for you to drop in your ears.

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Nerd Lunch Episode 175: Talkin’ ’bout Krull

Posted in movies, nostalgia, podcast with tags movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, nostalgia, podcasts on April 22, 2015 by Paxton

This week we are joined by Rondal from Strange Kids Club. Rondal talks to us about the newest Strange Kids Club Magazine and then leads us into a discussion about the 80s fantasy movie, Krull.

krull126

We talk about our history with this movie, what we liked and what we didn’t like. We talk a bit about the Gottlieb arcade game based on this movie and we heaped lots of praise on the Glaive. It’s a fun fantasy discussion and most of us are watching Krull for the very first time.

Download this episode from iTunes, Stitcher or listen to it on Feedburner.

Or, listen to it online right here.

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