Enjoy Stuff: A TechnoRetro Podcast

The gifts are all purchased and wrapped, the food is mostly prepared (to be further prepared), the bags are packed for the trip to Gramma’s, and everything is ready for Christmas.  But don’t discount the joy of pre-Christmas hype on Christmas Eve.  Join shazbazzar and JediShua for a final 77 minutes of #TechnoRetro in 2018.

 

We Love Our Cereal…

…and so do our EarBuds.  On Christmas Eve, the kids are already excited and might get up before Mom and Dad are ready to take on the day.  What are parents to do when the kids are up at 5 AM and really hungry?  Direct them to the cereal shelf in the pantry with a bowl, a spoon, and milk, and tell them to make their favorite Christmas Eve combination of cereals and watch cartoons.

 

TechnoRetro Arcade

Remember when you played last year’s Christmas gift (Atari, Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation, Game Cube, etc.) on Christmas Eve to get your mind off what might possibly be under the tree in the morning?  JediShua and shazbazzar take a peek back at several video games with snow themes and snow screens that are perfect for a “Sleigh Ride” with “Jingle Bells”.

 

EarBuds Toy Catalog: Mixed Bag

The results of the fourth bracket of the EarBuds Toy Catalog are in and some of the retro toys challenge the newer products.  From Speak and Spell to Whirly-Wheels, from Bop-Bags to Magic 8-Balls, the toys are as hot as Hot Wheels, bigger than Micro Machines, springier than a Slinky, and less talkative than Teddy Ruxpin.  Remember, even though it’s Christmas Eve, it’s never too late to give hints to loved ones.  Maybe you’ll get your winner tomorrow morning.

Thanks for tuning in to TechnoRetro Dads, EarBuds!  We’ll be back next year, but if you’re looking for more content before then, check out some older episodes on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, or at TechnoRetroDads.libsyn.com.  Don’t forget to rate and review TechnoRetro Dads on iTunes, share us and with us on social media, get TechnoRetro merch at TeePublic, and join discussions on Discord about toys, cereal, games, movies and/or shows from the ‘70s and ‘80s by giving the ‘Dads your feedback via voice mail at (209) 878-7323 or sending us your mp3dback via electronic-M to podcast@TechnoRetroDads.com.

Direct download: TRDads_06.35.mp3
Category:TechnoRetro Dads -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

UnScrooged is what the Doctor would prescribe (if only he knew about it) for relief from holiday anxiety, reversing persistent frowns, rejuvenating old bones and muscles, and reviving memory centers.  This special 99-minute bonus episode is the longest UnScrooged to date, and perhaps the most potent.  You need to take a full dose today -- repeat as necessary during the winter holidays this year and every year.  There is no expiration date.

 

WARNING

A full dose of UnScrooged 2018

will likely cause some, if not all, of these side effects: 

  • rhythmic toe-tapping
  • chortling from chest and larynx
  • obsession with stuffing pockets with quarters and similarly sized coins
  • searching storage areas, attics, closets, and even online for He-Man figures and Castle Grayskull
  • compulsion to go to the nearest video arcade

If these symptoms are present in yourself or a loved one, do not panic -- simply help them find favorite toys, take them to a real video arcade, and encourage them to sing on key.  Who knows?  Maybe your loved one will be featured on a talent-seeking reality show and win a million dollar contract!

 

SuperFriends in UnScrooged 2018

  • Steve Glosson
  • Dennis Keithly
  • Adam O'Brien
  • Scott Ryfun
  • Jay Shepard
  • Tony Soehner
  • Hunter Wahl
  • Michael Witwer
Direct download: TRDads_UnScrooged2018.mp3
Category:TechnoRetro Dads -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

Yule love this week’s show, even if you’re a Humbug!  Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol takes on an eighties upgrade with Bill Murray and Bobcat Goldthwait in Scrooged. Don’t wait for three ghosts to make you regret your choices today — tune in to TechnoRetro Dads early this morning, share, and enjoy all the fun and fandom with family, friends, and EarBuds for 77 minutes. 

 

We Love Our Cereal…

…and the cereal companies like special cereals for Christmas.  From the Cronut creator’s Christmas Morning Cereal to Lucky Charms Chocolatey Winter Cereal to Strawberry Krispies, the seasonal flavors are ready to be enjoyed by the spoonful (#ChillYourBowl).  Perhaps the reason Ebenezar Scrooge was so grumpy is the notable lack of Christmas cereal in his day.  

 

TechnoRetro Arcade

Our super-sized celebration of Superman’s 40th (80th) anniversary last week left out a very important element: video games.  Superman’s video game debut was for the Atari 2600 console in the 1979 super-pixillated classic Superman.  Six years later, Superman: The Game (see what they did there?) was released for home computers.  To provide picky, pestering Scrooges with something worthy of complaint, the NES Superman game only had a vague resemblance to Superman in 1988.  That same year, a full-sized arcade version of the Man of Steel was released by Taito.  Best of all, the ultimate Superman video game has yet to arrive!

 

Scrooged 

Frank Cross (Bill Murray), a television network executive with more dollars than sensitivity, faces a long night of regrets, repentance, and redemption with visits from three time-traveling ghosts.  It’s A Christmas Carol for the ‘80s with a healthy, heaping spoonful of meta as life and fiction intersect on a live broadcast that’s likely to reduce at least one of the ‘Dads to tears — like, Niagara Falls!

 

EarBuds Toy Catalog: Creative Toys

The results of the third bracket of the EarBuds Toy Catalog are in as retrotastic toys that engaged the mind in creative ways went head-to-head in physics, chemistry, and engineering matchups that challenge the brain, hands, and eyes.  Knobby flat screens like Etch A Sketch faced the colorful three-dimensional Tinker Toys.  Artistic minds that need to knead found fun in yellow cans of Play-Doh as the modeling compound squared off against another drawing toy — Magnadoodle.  Tune in to see who won!

 

Thanks for tuning in to TechnoRetro Dads, EarBuds!  While you’re waiting for this year’s UnScrooged, be sure to subscribe on iTunes or Apple Podcasts.  Don’t forget to rate and review TechnoRetro Dads on iTunes, share us and with us on social media, vote in the EarBuds Christmas bracket, get TechnoRetro merch at TeePublic, and join discussions on Discord about toys, cereal, games, movies and/or shows from the ‘70s and ‘80s by giving the ‘Dads your feedback via voice mail at (209) 878-7323 or sending us your mp3dback via electronic-M to podcast@TechnoRetroDads.com.

Share and enjoy.

Direct download: TRDads_06.34.mp3
Category:TechnoRetro Dads -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

Faster than shazbazzar driving through Atlanta.  More powerful than JediShua’s art pen.  Look!  There, up in the sky, it’s a bird!  It’s a plane!  It’s…Superman!  Standing for truth, justice, and the American Way, Superman continues to inspire the best in people — at least the 1978 version of Superman does.

 

Feedback

EarBuds both new and old (experienced?) send in their feedback to podcast@TechnoRetroDads.com with comments and questions about TRON, animated giant robots in Force Five, and a discovery about JediShua’s weekly introduction.  

 

EarBuds Toy Catalog: Action Figures

The results of the second bracket of the EarBuds Toy Catalog are in as four sets of “action figures” of times past go head-to-head against each other (via EarBuds’ voting).  Madballs, Micronauts, Mego Superheroes, and Mattel’s He-Man and She-Ra lines face off for the EarBuds’ favorite.  With many more participants this week, the challenge was more intense.  Find out if the ‘70s or ‘80s take the prize in this episode! 

Sadly, the Mego Superheroes (including Superman) didn’t make it very far in this round, but you can always be a part of the brackets as these rounds continue over the next two weeks.  Keep checking various social media outlets for updates and ways you can vote for your favorite toys in the EarBuds Toy Catalog contest.

 

Superman (the Movie)

Christopher Reeve filled out the blue spandex (“That is one bad outfit!”) in 1978 as Superman is pitted against arch villain Lex Luthor in a real estate scuffle that brings out the best in Clark Kent.  Standing for truth, justice, and the American Way, the orphan from Krypton becomes the altruistic hero we all love as he saves the day for Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and everyone else in California when Otisville nearly becomes a reality. 

 

Vinyl Scratchback: Superman Soundtrack

The score for Superman helped make this movie iconic, branding Superman with the John Williams theme that can be recognized almost anywhere — even when sung a bit off-key!  In an era when disco was driving everyone wild, another orchestral score turned out to be a hit among movie goers.  

 

Thanks for tuning in to TechnoRetro Dads, EarBuds!  While you’re watching Superman, be sure to subscribe on iTunes or Apple Podcasts.  Don’t forget to rate and review TechnoRetro Dads on iTunes, share us and with us on social media, vote in the EarBuds Christmas bracket, get TechnoRetro merch at TeePublic, and join discussions on Discord about toys, cereal, games, movies and/or shows from the ‘70s and ‘80s by giving the ‘Dads your feedback via voice mail at (209) 878-7323 or sending us your mp3dback via electronic-M to podcast@TechnoRetroDads.com.

 

Share and enjoy.

Direct download: TRDads_06.33.mp3
Category:TechnoRetro Dads -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

It’s been over a week since Thanksgiving, and we’ve just awakened from the full-belly naps we’ve enjoyed over the holidays.  As college football season closes and anticipation arises for upcoming bowl games (Outback Bowl in Tampa, anyone?), the season’s greetings turn towards trees, snowmen, reindeer, and Santa Claus!  Don’t worry, we’re sure that Ernest Saves Christmas just in time (like he has for the past three decades).

In the NEWS

Looks like there’s something strange in the neighborhood for the third time according to Dan Aykroyd.  Ghostbusters 3 is confirmed to be a sequel to the original Ghostbusters movies from the ‘80s.  Great news!  Sadly, however, Bikini Bottom mourns the loss of SpongeBob Squarepants creator Stephen Hillenburg who ended his fight with ALS.  He was 57. 

 

EarBuds Toy Catalog: Games

The results of the first category of the EarBuds Toy Catalog brackets are in as four games of times past go head-to-head against each other (via EarBuds’ voting).  Hungry Hungry Hippos, Trivial Pursuit, Battleship, and the Nintendo Entertainment System face off for the EarBuds’ favorite.  Perhaps the ultimate winner isn’t all that unexpected.

But you can always be a part of the brackets as these rounds continue over the next two weeks.  Keep checking various social media outlets for updates and ways you can vote for your favorite toys in the EarBuds Toy Catalog contest.

 

SuperFriend Hunter Wahl

Laika’s newest addition to their amazing stop-motion features is coming this April, and SuperFriend Hunter Wahl joins us to tell us about the movie and gives us insight into behind-the-scenes activities that go into making a stop-motion feature in the 21st Century.  Missing Link will premier on April 12th of next year and we’re excited to see this movie.

 

Ernest Saves Christmas

Hunter (who was, at least in part, raised by a TechnoRetro Dad) sticks around for some fun chatter about Ernest Saves Christmas as Ernest P. Worrell helps Santa fulfill his mission to pass the torch (or magic sack) to the next Santa to carry on the tradition and ensure that Christmas continues.  Ernest Saves Christmas turns 30 this year as the iconic ‘80s character invented and portrayed by Jim Varney appears in what some consider his best movie role.

 

Thanks for tuning in to TechnoRetro Dads, EarBuds!  While you’re watching Ernest Saves Christmas, be sure to subscribe on iTunes or Apple Podcasts.  Don’t forget to rate and review TechnoRetro Dads on iTunes, share us and with us on social media, vote in the EarBuds Christmas bracket, get TechnoRetro merch at TeePublic, and join discussions on Discord about toys, cereal, games, movies and/or shows from the ‘70s and ‘80s by giving the ‘Dads your feedback via voice mail at (209) 878-7323 or sending us your mp3dback via electronic-M to podcast@TechnoRetroDads.com.

 

Share and enjoy.

Direct download: TRDads_06.32.mp3
Category:TechnoRetro Dads -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

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