The Journal of Obscurity

SPACE WESTERN COMICS

2009-03-14T06:35:00.004-04:00

Oh, Golden Age of comic books, why did you ever have to end?

Ganked from here: http://comics.org/covers.lasso?SeriesID=531

Shadow Strikers

2009-03-06T22:54:00.001-05:00

And now, for something no one will remember: Shadow Strikers.

Shadow Strikers was a toyline by Kenner in the same scale as M.A.S.K. Instead of having neat transforming vehicles, it had mostly transparent vehicles that you could see the "internals workings" of, and also the figures became transparent when you dipped them in water (I forget if it was hot or cold). It didn't last beyond one wave of product, and only had one direct-to-video episode (which I didn't even know about until a year or two ago).

The concept is played entirely straight, and has an odd mishmash of 1980s and 1990s styles, clocking in from 1990. It's most noteworthy to me because the lead villain, Dr. Viper, is clearly played by Alan Oppenheimer using his "Skeletor" voice, but with a goofy German accent. (I guess it may be legitimately noteworthy that the series features a heroic Arab in its cast, even though he's evidently a former terrorist and says his dunebuggy "drives like a camel".)

Here's a segment featuring all the non-Dr. Viper villains. I am fascinated by Chameleon Man, who I actually own. If the intro is to be believed, this is kind of a shoddy "kamikaze army".

And here's the special all in one go.

Watch Shadow Strikers - Mission: Surprise Attack | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Legions of Power

2009-03-04T19:06:00.000-05:00

And now, from the depths of the 1980s:

Witness the heroic Commander... Jeffron... and the Star Legion as they battle the forces of the evil Commander... Wartech... and the Tech Dynasty.

Full story here: http://obscuretf.com/legions/

(As you can see, I am sort of dumbstuck by the ridiculousness of the character names in this series. Though, I guess if one of the most popular toylines of the 1980s starred a guy named He-Man, there's only so much of a drop to Rob-bart.)

Introductions

2009-03-02T22:33:00.000-05:00

Hello! I'm Matt. I'm Monzo. I lived on Guam for a bit, but have been in Florida for a while now.

Transformers? ... yeah. See the homepage link. I'm more apt to extoll Skids - or Skid-Z - or Salt-Man Z - than any of the more well-known guys, but that comes with the territory.

As a result of my various TF-related efforts, my screen-name and birthdate are on Transformers Universe Onslaught. That was pretty nice of Hasbro to do!

I hang out at the TFWiki, but my attention there tends to wax and wane. I am also interested in various 1980s toylines and obscure-ish animation, and may post things related to those pursuits in the future.

I mostly signed up to blogspot because Derrick Wyatt doesn't have a LiveJournal. That scamp! I am way too accomodating.