10 DYNAMITE COVERS

The best thing about the Scholastic Book Order was getting your hands on a copy of Dynamite Magazine. Chock full of great articles about the latest pop culture you could find a copy of this magazine in every kids bedroom.
There's so much to say about Dynamite. Cool stickers, samples of trading cards, pullout posters and spoofs, interviews with the coolest stars, and who can forget Bummers?
I'll save more for later but for now I wanted to start by sharing "10 AWESOME DYNAMITE COVERS"!!


#47


#102


#113


#114


#116


#120


#132


#148


#152


#58

I will have to post some of the insides of these magazines later.

RECYCLING BIN FINDS 1/13/10

A while back I posted some stuff I found from a scrapbook in the recycling bin. Well, what do you know, I found another scrapbook a teenage girl put together in the early 80's.



The first part of the scrapbook was filled with typical awards and certificates mostly dealing with cheerleading and beauty pageants. There were awards from the young Miss America Pageant and a full-color booklet showing Miss America contestants from the 80's.

The second part of the scrapbook dealt with school and had the yearbook inserted so I got a look at the girl and her classmates.







After that there was a couple of pages dedicated to Cabbage Patch Kid dolls. The girl had saved not only the birth certificates from the dolls she had, but also the tags and receipt from purchase.





The following chunk of the scrapbook was all about Michael Jackson. There were clippings from newspapers, articles from magazines, and full issues of magazines with Jacko on the cover. It was neat seeing all the articles she had collected from various newspapers documenting M.J.'s recovery from the Pepsi commercial fire accident.













After the Michael section there was a couple pages about Motley Crue coming to my town back in the early 80's and parents trying to keep their kids from being corrupted. Obviously this didn't stop this particular girl from attending because along with the articles there was a ticket stub from the event and personal photos the girl took of the members of Motley Crue being led out of the backdoor of the Unidome to their van.



By this point in the scrapbook I was already thrilled. To find such a neat "treasure trove" of the 80's was excellent. Everything was from 1981-84. Next I came across 2 manilla envelopes. I could only imagine what was inside...



These both happened to be folders fuul of stuff from the Rick Springfield Fan Club. Rick was big in the early 80's best known for his hit "Jessie's Girl".

Inside was a ton of photos of various sizes, official fan club certificates/cards, posters, a letter from Rick and his dog, and a 7" record with a personal message from Rick. It is totally hilarious and totally 80's.







There was some other stuff in the scrapbook I didn't photograph. There was a folder from the Ford Drag Team press information which had tons of photos and car information, more Miss America stuff, and more concert tickets including Pink Floyd (who also played at the Unidome in the 80,s).

All in all a neat recycling bin find.

WHERE A KID CAN BE A KID

It was always a treat as a kid when we would get to go to Showbiz Pizza. I know I wasn't the only one confused or disappointed when It just disappeared one day and was replaced by Chuck E. Cheese.
Every once and and while I find an old Showbiz doll or mug at a garage sale and I usually always buy it to display in my studio because it brings back good memories of being a kid.
The best thing about Showbiz in my opinion was the animatronic show with all the characters and music. It seems like eventually over the years there was less of that and more of the arcade games. It want from a three-stage animatronic show to one stage and then disappeared and became Chuck E. Cheese with just the single mouse animatronic.
Now that I'm a big kid I can go back and figure out what the deal was.



THE SHOWBIZ PIZZA STORY

Showbiz was created in 1980 when I was a mere 3 years old by Holiday Inn franchise owner Robert L. Brock. The Brock Hotel Corporation owned 80% of the company and the other 20% was owned by Creative Engineering Inc. who produced the animatronic show. In 1984 they purchased Chuck E. Cheese after that company filed chapter 11 bankruptcy. They operated both restaurants separately until 1993 or 1994 when they changed the majority of the restaurants to Chuck E. Cheese and converted the stores into what they are today. There are now only around 80 locations where the three-stage show is still in use.



The animatronic band was called "The Rockafire Explosion". I actually have one of thier records. Here's a bunch of neat photos that may bring back some memories of some of the character that were included in the show.


BILLY BOB


MITZI MOZZARELLA


ROLFE DEWOLFE and his handpuppet EARLE SCHMEARLE


SPACEDOG DOOK LARUE (sometimes wore spacesuit/helmet)


FATZ GERONIMO


BEACH BEAR

There were also random characters such as a sun and moon that would sing along, a spider that would drop down, and a bird or bears head that would pop out of a log. During the holidays one of the animatronic characters would be substituted for an animatronic Santa Claus.

Here are some more neat Showbiz related photos:



















There is actually a large group of individuals who are obsessed with the Showbiz phenomenon and have bought up entire sets of the animatronic stage show. There's also a group of people who reprogrammed the original characters to sing modern songs. Here's some youtube clips of that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBhuBrWlmeA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur8AwQHusZw