2011 Hess Toy Truck and Race Car Review

  Yesterday at out annual Day After Christmas Party/dinner, I got the 2011 Hess Truck from my Aunt. This years truck is one of the best ones ever. I really mean it. It really is. Let's start out with the truck shall we. The truck is in the colors green and white and the truck is a rollback. The truck makes different sounds than the previous trucks in the past. It has a different sounding horn, engine start up noise, realistic backup warning, and the coolest feature, the sound of the loading ramp when you pull it down to load the race car and push the ramp back into the truck. The light features are the same. You have your all lights on position, flashers position and your lights off setting all on one switch. Now the one part of the truck that is interesting is the shocks and springs on the wheel wells on the truck so you can give the truck a realistic bounce while playing with it.
  Now on to the race car. The race car that comes with the truck is a stock car. Like the truck the race car is colored in green and white. For the first time ever on a Hess truck is Hess Express on the trunk of the race car.  Also the race car has an unusual design on the windshield and side windows, windshield wipers and two nets so the driver can get into the car. Actual stock cars don't have two nets or windshield wipers. This isn't a criticism in anyway, I'm pointing out something funny. Onto the lights and sound. Underneath the race car is a switch that turns on the lights including the headlights which ironically real stock cars do not have. To activate the sounds on the race car, there is a green button located where the gas cap is and you press it and it makes engine revving noises and the lights flash. The race car has a pullback friction motor.
  Overall I think that the truck is more fun than the race car. I highly recommend this toy. 2 C batteries are included.

Mattel Basic Series 13 Vickie Guererro Review

  On Thursday I got paid, so I decided to buy myself a Christmas present. I decided on a Mattel Basic Series 13 Vickie Guerrero figure on Amazon.com for $29.99. Her expected delivery date was December 27th. To my surprise she came today on Christmas Eve. On to the review. Vickie Guerrero is a an occasional WWE Diva, but she is mainly a manager for Dolph Ziggler. So by my book she is technically a Diva figure. As with all Mattel WWE Diva figures, they are elite bodied. Unlike previous diva figures, Vickie has high heels on which may be difficult to have her stand up. If you do have trouble standing her up her feet do have holes for display stand support which is a blessing. She also has a necklace that says Cougar on it. I also would like to mention that she is the first diva figure to have a necklace. It is non removable unless you remove the head, which I don't recommend at all. Her packaging is the new WWE packaging that Mattel has given the figures for 2012 which replaces the hourglass shaped blisters on the carding. Also 2012 marks the beginning for the figures in the series to be numbered as in 1 of 6 in the set. On the rarity side, she is packed one in every 2 cases meaning that she is shortpacked and will be extremely hard to find.

Top Five Movies That Defined My Childhood

  I've been thinking of what my next blog post should be for a couple of days now. I have finally come to the conclusion of what the topic will be. The top 5 movies that defined my childhood.

1. The Brave Little Toaster. Anyone who has grown up in the late 1980s to the early 1990s has heard or seen this 1987 film. I wont go into detail about the film, but I'll give you a brief synopsis. The movie is about 5 appliances that are left behind in a cabin in the woods, who go out into the world to find their master. They also talk and come alive when no human is around. 
2. A Goofy Movie. Now I remember my mom taking me and my nephew to see this movie in the theater when it came out. Ever since that, I love this movie. Not to mention that this movie introduced me to what would be my favorite car, the AMC Pacer, the car that Goofy drives in the movie. This movie has memorable songs, and is a fun road trip movie about a father and son bonding together.
3. Far From Home The Adventures of Yellow Dog. I love survival movies. They are one of my favorite genre of movies. Anyway this movie also caused a fascination of mine, the CH-113 Labrador and the CC-115 Buffalo, which are Canadian Forces search and rescue aircraft. Anyway the movie is about a boy and his you guessed it, a labrador retriever survive a sea storm and get stranded in the Canadian wilderness and have to survive until they are found.
4. Baby's Day Out. Ok there is one Plinkett review that I totally disagree on and it is his Baby's Day Out review. This movie is like Home Alone with a baby with the Three Stooges which makes the movie hilarious. Many people hate this movie for some reason, but I however love this movie.
5. Fire & Rescue. Ok this isn't really a movie per say. It is a straight to video release about being a firefighter set to music. It features fire departments from Trenton NJ to others in Conneticut and some other New England states. I still watch it several times a year just for fun. I've seen it so many times that I can recite the dialogue by heart.

I Hate Fragrance Commercials

  It's that time of year again when our TVs get bombarded with fragrance commercials. Why do I hate them, well to be honest even though they are seasonal, they show more fragrance ads in a commercial block than they do show ads for Sleepy's, Progressive, Geico, and any other car insurance company. I don't get the silence that the actors and actresses have in fragrance ads. Why are they silent for 98% of the commercial until at the very end say the name of the fragrance? To be honest, I can't actually give you the answer on that one. If I knew it I would give it to you in a heartbeat. Why do fragrance companies think that perfumes and colognes will make good holiday gifts? It's probably to give your boyfriend/girlfriend a last minute gift when you were either too busy working or too lazy to go shopping for their holiday gift.
  These commercials are so stupid to the point of ad nauseum that you want to get a gun and shoot your plasma TV. I mean I could get a nosebleed from seeing all of these pesky fragrance commercials. You see so many of these darn ads to the point that you want to hide in the fetal position in a corner somewhere in your house and suck your thumb until the holiday rush is over. Seeing fragrance commercials left and right during the holiday season is just one of the many pains of the holiday season.
  However there are some positive commercials that you only get to see around the holiday season, ads for the Clapper, Chia Pet, and the CLR log. We all look forward to seeing that old lady at the end of the Clapper commercial because it is so funny. I don't know why people are attracted to the old lady in the Clapper commercial, I can tell you that I am one of her fans.

I Finally Got Them

  It's been a hectic past few weeks since I last blogged, due to work and my Biology and Business Law 2 final exams. As a WWE action figure collector, I am a WFigs.proboards.com member and had just completed a trade with one of my YouTube subscribers and fellow WFigs member. I traded him a Walmart exclusive Wrestlemania Heritage Melina figure for a Jakks Lita figure. You're probably thinking why would a collector of Mattel WWE figures, trade a Mattel figure for an old Jakks figure when the Jakks figure is not in scale whatsoever? Well here's why. I am a huge fan of Gene Snitsky, who is from Nesquehoning Pennsylvania, which is 14.4 miles from where I live in Hazleton. Since I gave a former coworker a Maryse figure, he gave me his old Jakks Gene Snitsky figure. I wanted to create the first storyline he was involved in, the death of Kane and Lita's Baby. Even though it wasn't his fault.

It Wasn't My Fault!!! Any Other Questions?

   Now onto another epic pickup. This time it's something that Mattel collectors want to find. I was in Kohl's today and was doing my usual check of the action figure isle, and was looking at a rack by the girls clothing section. (Since it's the Holiday season, toys are scattered in different locations in or near the children's clothing dept.) I looked at these figures on December 8th and didn't see a 1/1000th figure. Today I look there and what do I find? Can you guess what it is? I'll give you 3 choices. Is it... A) Basic 13 Vickie Guerrero, B) 1/1000 Survivor Series figure, Or C) Best of 2010 Hornswoggle. Correct answer is B and it's Sheamus to be exact. 

Jackpot!!!!!

Stork Parking

Storks Don't Drive.

  Did you ever go to the store looking for a place to park and you see a parking space with a sign similar to a handicapped sign? You go to pull in to the available parking space and then realize the sign says Stork Parking or Parking for Expectant Mothers etc. Come to think of it Storks don't drive, they fly. Why is there a parking space for pregnant women? To be quite honest nobody really knows why. Believe me when I am saying this, stork parking signs are one of the stupidest things ever invented. I heard about stork parking permits, where pregnant women can get a permit to park in a stork parking space, like a handicapped placard. All others who park there will be towed at their own expense.
  Stork parking is so stupid that 99% of the people don't take them seriously and park there anyway. My mom refuses to park at a stork parking space because of the fact that it is reserved for pregnant women. I tell her that nobody cares about the sign. She doesn't listen to me. It's not like she could get a parking ticket in PA for it.
  Why in the Hell does Stork Parking exist? I believe it is to help Lazy pregnant women who don't want to walk 5 miles to get to the store. Jeez its not the 1910s anymore where pregnant women were bed rest all day. Pregnant women are able to do more things and get out of the house at the same time. So in reality this sign is unnecessary in today's world. To be honest this sign is a complete joke if you ask me.
  If there is a stork parking sign, there should be a sign for invisible friend parking, or morbidly obese people parking. In Arizona there are golf cart parking spaces in parking lots. So there are so many stupid signs out there that don't make sense in the least bit. Common Sense has Left the Building and is Not Coming Back Anytime Soon.

The Faith Tones

  In the music industry there are bound to be bad album covers. No not the album cover for Michael Jackson's Bad. I mean really bad album covers. One's that are so bad that they're good if you know what I mean. The other day I stumbled across a website that featured bad album covers. That is where I discovered Jesus Use Me by The Faith Tones. This album art is a 1960s nightmare. It looks like there are 3 men in drag on the album art. With the Beehive hairdos and the horrible glasses this is a real treat to see. The one on the right looks like Jay Leno.
   Believe it or not this is NOT a hoax like some people believe. One sold on eBay for $17. Overall not much info on The Faith Tones exist. I'm 100% positive that this is their only Album.