Old Cartoons Nobody is Nostalgic About - Part I- Mummies Alive!

I'm not sure if it's something particular to my generation or what, but it's been hard not to notice the growing power of nostalgia in entertainment media. It seems like everything from my childhood is weedling its way back into mainstream culture in one way or another, whether it's the bizarrely self-aware schmaltz fest that is Fuller House, or the return of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Nickelodeon (and on the big screen, no less), and the general sentiment among audiences seems to be if we remember it, we like it.

There's nothing wrong with that, exactly. I love that Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon have any kind of presence in the modern world, and some times these nostalgic revivals turn out kinda good. Still, sometimes it feels like everyone is always talking about the same handful of things, and in a world where Youtube allows for the archiving of literally all media ever, it seems like everything imaginable has been tapped for its potential money making nostalgic power.

Of course, that isn't true. For every show that has remained in the hearts and minds of an entire generation of sad twenty somethings, there are hundreds that simply fell by the wayside; perhaps it was an unfortunate timeslot that doomed them. Perhaps poor marketing did them in. Maybe they were just god awful garbage. Who can say why a generation of youngsters latched onto Digimon while Flint the Time Detective is left to rot in obscurity. Regardless, the yesterday of animation is full of cartoons that very few remember fondly.

I consider myself something of an expert on this topic, for a few equally insipid reasons. First of all, my family didn't have access to cable television until the early 2000's, which meant the bulk of my childhood was spent desperately trying to find something to watch on tv. I couldn't afford to be terribly choosey, so I frequently got into shows that nobody else was even remotely interested in. I also stayed interested in cartoons much longer than most people, as my growing interest in Japanese cartoons during my teen years also reinvigorated my love of animation in general, so even in high school I was eager to watch new cartoons, as well as revisit old ones. I suppose my desire to make cartoons (I didn't settle into comics as my medium of choice until a little later) also kept me looking at animation a little more intently, but whatever. The point is, I spent ALOT of time watching shows nobody else cared about.

Due to my insatiable urge to resist social media trends at an almost animal level, I find myself drawn to this type of nostalgia wasteland whenever I feel like getting sappy, safe and assured that no modern executive will ever care to revive these shows like so much cannibalistic zombie matter.

With that totally unintended but remarkably appropriate transitional sentence, I finally come around to the first show of this type I'd like to discuss: Mummies Alive! Here's the intro, courtesy of Youtube.

Yeah. The basic premise is covered pretty well there, but for the sake of summary, a young boy is the reincarnation of an ancient Pharoah, whose guardians are brough to life in the modern day to protect him from an evil sorcerer. The premise is similar to Disney's Gargoyles (in fact some of the creative staff was the same if I remember correctly), but Mummies is significantly more toyetic than its high profile competition, which is both good and bad. Sure, there are tons of barely justifiable gadgets and vehicles, but the character designs are absolutely awesome. I remember thinking this show had a decidedly Capcom look to it, as if they had decided to do an entire Darkstalkers spinoff about Anakaris, and for me that really elevated the show to a more enjoyable level aesthetically.

It also had a rather strong anime vibe to it, with lots of slick action and sylized transformation sequences. The whole "transforming into badass armored forms to fight bad guys" trope was one I had loved since seeing Samurai Pizza Cats and Ronin Warriors (both hack jobs of anime series I wouldn't see proper until later), and it would be years before I was exposed to its originator when Cartoon Network aired its disasterous hackjob of Saint Seiya as Knights of the Zodiac, so Mummies Alive! was right up my alley in that regard. I could definitely have imagined a badass 2d brawler or fighting game based on this series, and I bet it would have LOOKED awesome.

There was also something kind of neat about a series steeped in Egyptian mythology, regardless of how garbled by horrible puns it may have been. It was (and somehow still is) pretty rare to see a hero of any kind of color in cartoons, and the entire cast of Mummies Alive! is basically from ancient Africa- although the mummies in modern day have a kind of blue-gray pallor, in flashbacks they're all varying levels of brown. Given my background, it was a rare treat to see characters that were ostenibly representative of me, without them being stuck in the background as a more typical white character took the center stage.

As one would expect, there was a toy line based on this series, and although I never personally owned any of the figures, I have to say they look pretty badass. Here's an ebay auction for the whole set, so you can get an idea of what we're dealing with:

Mummies Alive! Figures!

Pretty freaking sweet. I have to admit that it is absolutely awful that the ONLY female character, the cat themed warrior Nefertina, never got a figure, but considering even today this kind of bullshit happens to some degree (Avenger 2 and Force Awakens, anyone?) I guess it's only too typical. Still, the figures are pretty cool looking, and show off the stylish armor designs of the heroes and villains pretty well. There were also some pretty cool villains that never got figures, mostly big animal people, but I guess the toy line didn't really have a chance to take off.

At the end of the day, Mummies Alive! Kind of came and went without really making much of a mark on the world. There's little to no fan art online, which is almost mind boggling, and the series has never had a proper release, and probably never will. I sincerely doubt anybody will be trying to reboot or leverage this series for any kind of modern entertainment capital (although a Mummies Alive! live action movie invariably starring the whitest actors imaginable would be hilariously typical), so it's probably safe to just appreciate this little time capsule of unsuccessful entertainment for what it was and is: a goofy show about Mummies in magic armor fighting evil.

A few notes before we go: in the event that anyone actually wants to watch the series, I'm pretty sure most of it is available on Youtube, so by all means check it out. Secondly, I can't say I'm actually interested in doing special art for every show I talk about here, but I found the designs from Mummies Alive! so cool that I couldn't help but want to draw them.

Thanks for reading about a cartoon you probably didn't watch!

The Littlest of Battles: LBX Sprukits Analysis

When I was around 13, I developed an intense interest in Japanese mecha cartoons. I don't know of it was the giant robot designs, the action, or the political rhetoric,  but over the course of a few wonderful years I eagerly watched every available show, or at least everything that was on Toonami. I  first got on board with Gundam Wing, but other classics like Evangelion (which I still have somewhat mixed feelings about) and Big O (which I don't) struck chords with me as well. Of course, it wasn't long before I discovered the extensive model kit market at the periphery of this new genre, a sort of build it yourself action figure with an emphasis on customization and collection. At first, I had to order my model kits from Japan via the internet, which involved lots of begging my parents, but eventually they became widely available domestically in stores like Toys R Us. For a couple years, I had a good time building a painting models of various robots from the Mobile Suit Gundam series, since that was the only mech anime that got big commercially, but by the time I was out of high school the mainstream appeal of mechanical war machines had come in to question, and it was back to the internet, except that I had kind of lost interest as well (I did NOT enjoy Gundam Seed). For most of my adult life I did without any kind of model fun.

I suppose I should blame those Ninja Turtle erasers, but I've recently come to have a renewed interest in building figures, and having exhausted the supply of tiny K'nex Pac-Man dudes I've been at a loss for something to scratch that itch. However, I recently discovered Sprukits, a line of fairly new Bandai products that seem to be an attempt to reintroduce consumers to the world of model kit building. Normally I wouldn't have necessarily given much of a damn about this, but there are a few features of the Sprukits line that I find fairly amusing. The first of which is that, rather than focusing on their Gundam franchise, Bandai has opted to make deals with more traditionally western properties this time around. There's something amusing about seeing a Gundam style model kit of Bat-Man and Halo's Master Chief, and I'm sure the actual end results are fairly neat, but I don't really care at all about DC Comics or Halo, so I will probably never purchase one. Far more interesting to me is what I consider to be the secret star of the Sprukits line-up: The Little Battlers Experience.

If the name doesn't sound familiar, don't feel bad. The Little Battlers is a fairly long running series of action RPGs from the wonderful folks at Level 5, which has been sadly but firmly relegated to Japan-only releases, making it virtually unknown in the western world. The concept, which casts kids as the operators of miniature battle magggggggggchines competing in tournament style conflicts, is equal parts Medabots and Gundam, with a strong focus on preserving the feel of real model building sub-culture. Although I'm certainly out of the age demographic for this type of stuff, I really do love the designs of the machines, and while I haven't had a chance to play any of the games, the Level 5 pedigree, which I consider to be a history of excellent releases, is encouraging. Personally, I've been waiting for any sign of localization for this series for years with nothing to show for it, but that seems to have changed this year.

As part of a multimedia promotional thingamajig, several facets of the LBX franchise are making their way on to North American shores this year, with an anime series airing on Nickelodean of all places, and of course, a sub-line of Sprukits. I don't get Nickelodeon, as I have probably said in the past, so I have no idea whether the dub is any good, or if the anime is any good to begin with, but the designs of the mini-mechas themselves is totally awesome, so it's hard for me to not love these things. Over the course of a few weeks I acquired and built the three available figures in the lines smallest scale, partly because I love small toys and partly because I don't want to spend more than 10 dollars on something that is just gonna sit on a desk.

Here are my thoughts.

First off, these seem to be much more streamlined than the Gundam models I remember, at least as far as construction goes. There are far fewer parts, and it seems almost impossible to screw up, which is nice, as a misunderstood instruction no longer requires annoying and fiddly backtracking and deconstruction. The simplicity leads to shorter build times, which is either a disappointment if you're looking for a real event, but a bonus if you just want to build the thing while watching tv or something. The pieces snap off nice and easy, but I use a pair of clippers to free them because I like to be fancy.

The first LBX model I bought is called Hunter. There is a lot I like about the design of this guy. For one thing, he has a very unorthodox body, appearing to be some kind of mechanical bipedal wolf or something. His legs are all weird backwards jointed, and look awesome. He also seems to be a sniper, as his only accessory is a giant rife. He comes mostly molded in a kind of blueish purple, but a few stickers provide a neat facial scar. I just really love the way Hunter looks, and although his range of motion is a little limited by his unusual anatomy, I was pretty pleased with my first experience with LBX.

On my second trip to Toys R Us, I decided to go for the "main" model, Achilles, the LBX belonging to the show's hero. Visually he looks a bit like a combination of Big O and a Spartan, with a high mohawk adorning his helmet, and even a cape. He's mostly molded in white with some blue trim available via sticker work, and comes with a spear and shield. He's much easier to move around than Hunter because of his simple, solid limb structure, but his shield can be a little cumbersome, as the handle isn't at such an angle as to make realistic positioning possible. Still, he looks awesome, and definitely has a heroic look to him.

The last LBX I bought, and the only other figure available in this particular scale, is called Deqoo. As far as I can tell, Deqoo are the "standard" enemy model, like the Zaku from Mobile Suit Gundam. He's pretty simple looking, but there is a certain charm to his functional and militant appearance. He feels solid, and seems to be the easiest to pose of the three. He comes with a amusingly big pistol and a shield, which presents the same problems as Achilles' but is a little easier to work with because of its shape. I'm not thrilled with his shoulder stickers, but the "red eye" effect turned out pretty good on the helmet.

Sadly, that seems to be it for this small, cheaper line of figures. I think there are a few other models available at the higher price point, but I'm not gonna pay 20 dollars for a slightly bigger robot from a show I don't watch. As it stands, the LBX Sprukits are fun little figures, and while I certainly won't be doing any customization, I could see a kid having fun swapping parts, maybe giving Hunter Deqoo's gun, or having Achilles dual wield sniper rifles, or even painting the figures to more closely resemble their animated counterparts. For me, I just like having these little badasses sitting next to my pencil sharpener, making my desk that much more tempting a spot for my cat to wreak havoc.

Follow-Up Story: TMNT Puzzle Eraser Full-Set Review

Kind of an amalgamation of the various looks for the turtles...

Several months ago, I posted an article here on Doki Doki Arcade regarding a purchase I made at my local target. Although there were many items I discussed, there was one item that stood out from the rest, that elated me beyond all reason for the duration of that month. That item was none other than the Little Debbie Jack-O-Lantern Brownie, but the Donatello Puzzle-Eraser came in close second.

For those that don't remember, a Puzzle-Eraser is a mini-figure made out of eraser, made out of multiple parts that must be assembled, a little like a simple model kit. At the time, I had purchased a figure of Donatello from a series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles erasers, promising to report back when I had acquired the full set.

I never said I'd be punctual about it. I probably collected the full set within the month, but never really got around to doing anything with them until today, when I decided it was about time I let the world know whether the rest of the figures matched the impressive quality of the Donatello. Without further ado, I give you the complete run-down of everything you need to know about these Ninja Turtle Puzzle-Erasers I bought from Target.

So the first thing I should probably get out there is that these toys are based on the most recent animated iteration of the Turtles. No, thankfully not the Michael Bay nightmare (honestly, I didn't see it, so maybe it was good). These are based on the cartoon on Nickelodeon, which I really have very little experience with. My niece and nephew like it a whole lot, and the few episodes I've seen seemed pretty good over all, but for whatever reason it didn't really strike up my interest. Plus I don't get Nick or its affiliate channels. My Ninja Turtles are the ones from the 80's, for better or worse. 

That said, the designs, for the turtles at least, are pretty cool, and these are evocative of the basic, familiar turtle look, so it's okay. I'd probably personally prefer figures specifically based on Turtles in Time for Super Nintendo, but those would probably cost $45 each and be actually marketed to me and fellow nostalgia targets, which means I wouldn't dare buy them. These toys are definitely marketed towards kids, and that's just the way I like it.

Okay! On to the figures themselves. In terms of construction, the figures in general work really well. I haven't had any problems with the material breaking or tearing, as you might expect from eraser rubber, and all of the pieces fit together nicely. The only difficulty came in getting their bandannas on their little heads, but even that was relatively easy. For comparison's sake, there are also My Little Pony puzzle-erasers, and putting on their manes and tails is an awful experience. More on those later. Maybe.

Anyway. The sculpting is surprisingly detailed on all of the figures, and the resemblance to the cartoon characters is mostly really good. The faces are a little too small to be too accurate, but the various differences in size and body type are well captured. Donatello is a little lanky, Raphael is bulky and muscular, Leonardo is pretty average, and Michelangelo is on the small side. These little physical differences are one of the features of the new designs that I actually really like, so it's cool to see them represented here so well.

Unfortunately, the quality level of the figures is definitely not even, so I thought I would break it down by figure. Let's start with a quick recap of Don, who I think is probably the best of the bunch.

The classic Don-Chan.

First of all, Don's sculpt is probably the most accurate. Aside from his dead fish eyes, his head looks good, and his pose feels like he is ready for action. His bo stays in his hand pretty easily as well. He also stands very firmly, which I didn't realize was going to be such a big deal, but sadly its a major issue with some of the others. All said and done, Donatello is a solid little figure, and I'm glad he was the first one I bought.

I really thought I got a sharper picture of this... oops.

Next up is Raphael. I convinced a friend who I had bought dinner to repay my by getting this guy for me, so this guy came hot on the heels of the first purchase, since I didn't have to bother rationalizing spending my own money. Again, his sculpt is generally pretty good, but his face seems less right than Don's for some reason. His pose is also kinda lame, as it's hard to get him to do anything remotely interesting with his sai. His stance also makes it a little hard to get him to stand up consistently. Maybe the legs on mine were bent funny or something, but it really does take a firm hand to get him to stand. It's worth noting that he's the biggest of the figures and does have a satisfying heft to him. Not bad, but a little bit of a let down seeing as Don didn't have any of these problems.

It looks a little like he is crying, but that's just a small blemish.

I took a little break before getting Michelangelo, partially because I was a little let down by Raph, and partially because I was worried about my own mental state. When I did eventually pick him up, though, I was pleasantly surprised. His head sculpt is a fair bit better than Raph's, and captures the look of the cartoon character really well. He's got a nice firm stance, and you can even move his arms into some convincing actiony nunchuk poses. I sadly lost his other nunchaku, which only seems appropriate given as I don't think I still have ANY accessory from my classic TMNT figures. A good save with this one, and it managed to rekindle my interest.

I like to pretend that is a cool ninja pose, like he is reaching for his other sword... ugh...

That interest proved to be sadly misplaced, however, when I ended up getting Leonardo. I never really had a true Leonardo figure growing up, so I was looking forward to this guy a little more than I'd like to let on, but man was I ever let down. First of all, his face is about as weird as Raph's, with almost googly eyes, and no real resemblance to the cartoon character. His arms are frozen in really awkard poses, with one way to bent and the other way too straight, and for the life of me I cannot get him to stand in any remotely cool looking pose. His weight distribution is just all off, and he falls flat on his face if he is even a little off balance. I tried EVERYTHING to get him to stand, and the bizarre pose you see above is the only way he stands with any consistency. Considering his role as leader of the turtles, its a shame that this figure can't go front and center with the others. Easily the weakest of the bunch.

That said, I still found this to be a really cool line of figures. I love having little doodads around my desk, and these guys just look awesome, especially all together. They're also super cheap, which is nice considering how insanely expensive toys are, particularly collectibles. I can't afford to drop upwards of ten dollars on something I'm just gonna put on my desk, so being able to have the whole gang together, without any weird clashing themes like Astronaut Raph or Farmer Leo, and for a pretty low price tag, is really cool.

Unfortunately, these seem to be it as far as this line goes. I was really hoping for a series 2 with Shredder, Splinter, April, and maybe Casey Jones or something, but so far I haven't seen anything. In fact, the realm of puzzle-erasers seems woefully devoid of activity considering how cool these are. There are some My Little Pony erasers, and some Skylanders ones, but I was hoping to see more of these that would be up my alley, like Dragon Ball Z or Regular Show. Oh well, I suppose only time will tell.

In the meantime, these little guys will be happily stationed on my desk.

Ninja Turtles Erasers and Halloween Treats

There's something intensely satisfying about acquiring pleasant little doodads, and I was recently treated to a few awesome discoveries at my local Target. It's been quite a while since my K'nex Pac-Man and Mario obsession, and with nothing but Halo and Call of Duty in the Mega Bloks blind bag bins (a somewhat alarming sign of the times, I think), I have largely been without trinkets to waste my money on. This all changed a few days ago, when I accompanied my wife for a stroll around our local Target monolith. Her intention was to purchase some command strips to hang up Zelda posters we framed and then shoved in a corner three months ago, but, as always, I was patrolling the isles for something to scratch my itch, and by the time we were at the check out, I had found three things that tickled my fancy.

The first, and perhaps most satisfying, was a box of Halloween themed Little Debbie brownies. LD brownies were the highlight of my lunch experience between grades 1 and probably 9, so I have a soft spot for the greazy little things. The Halloween theme, however, is what made these truly impossible to pass up. Each brownie is cut into a crude pumpkin shape, sort of an oblong hexagon, with orange frosting, flavored a bit like candy corn, and a spooooooky jack-o-lantern face. The fact that they were on sale for around a dollar or so was nice as well.

Armed with my box of tasty treats, I continued to troll the store for further satisfaction. I stumbled upon a sale on eShop cards, which basically amounts to free money, and was for several minutes engaged in a tumultuous inner conflict. Buy one, get a second 25% off... not exactly irresistible... Even with a 50 dollar card, you're only getting around 12.50 free, and dropping 87.50 on a casual trip to Target, exclusively set aside for future digital purchases, seemed unseemly. I eventually settled on two ten dollar cards, but only because they also came with AR cards for the 3ds application Photos with Mario. I love AR cards (I have as many of the Kid Icarus cards as I could get my hands on), so getting a couple bucks was a nice incentive. I got a Goomba, and Princess Peach. That was all they had.

Now, I had planned for this to be the extent of my purchase, but felt compelled to check out the impulse purchase wall by the registers, where they usually keep trading cards, whether they be Yugioh, Pokemon, Magic, or My Little Pony, baseball cards, and other little collectible junk. My eyes fell upon a blind bag looking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles package, a tie in to the decent Nick cartoon and not the Michael Bay monstrosity, and had my curiosity sparked. On closer inspection, the product claimed to be a puzzle eraser, a term I had never heard before and didn't really know what to make of. Still, the package contents felt substantial, and it was cheap enough that I was comfortable taking a risk, around a buck or so. I wasn't sure what I was getting, exactly, but I was optimistic.

I want to take a moment to just say that I have vastly under appreciated the development of eraser design and construction, as what I ended up with was surprisingly bad ass. It's basically a miniature figure that you assemble from a few pieces, constructed of rubbery eraser stuff, and the final product is pretty impressive. The figure is made up of a lower body (hips and legs), two pieces (front and back) that meet with the lower body to form the shell, two arms that plug in fairly sturdily, a weird little nub of a head, and a bandanna that is almost impossible to get on to the head piece, and that has hilariously dead googly eyes painted on.Once finished, the figure stands maybe 3-3.5 inches tall, and comes with a little weapon made of hard plastic. I had purchased Donatello, or Don-chan as we affectionately call him in my household, partially because I liked him as a kid and partially because his was the front most bag on the rack. I later coerced a friend into getting me Raphael, who, although less cooperative in the standing process, is pretty decent as well.

I really like these figures, for a few reasons. The sculpt and construction is surprisingly good, and considering these things are supposed to be erasers, they actually work pretty well as straight up toys, whether you mean to play with them or just stand them around your desk (I do a little of both). They are also super cheap, which is another major factor in their appeal. As a grown man, I find it pretty hard to justify toy purchases, which is why I tend to gravitate towards figures of the small and cheap variety. I would never drop the cash to have a full set of Turtles figures for desk display, as they're simply to expensive. These little guys are great, though, as I can cheaply get a satisfying set of the whole gang for less than the cost of a single, full fledged Turtle figure, without sacrificing too much in terms of detail or sheer coolness, as these are several billion steps ahead of the also small and cheap Lego Turtle figures in that department.

I don't know how well they work as erasers though.