Savvy sites for a Saturday
This past week I was sent links to two sites that promptly took a couple of hours out of my day, any site that does that deserves accolade. It’s cold and raining where I am and maybe it is where you are so let’s showcase them in the hopes of brightening your day. It’s all about toy aliens and cartoon bird people after the jump:
The first is Battleoftheplanets.net, if you ever ran around your backyard with your windbreaker tied around your neck yelling “G Force!” then this is a site for you. Webmaster Jason has created a complete love letter to the series, not only did he end up working for Sandy Frank (The man who brought the show to the US) but he also co authored this amazing book on the subject 
which I own and give a hearty thumbs up. Not only does it do an indepth job on the series itself, there’s a brilliant merchandise gallery:
which I own and give a hearty thumbs up. Not only does it do an indepth job on the series itself, there’s a brilliant merchandise gallery:
Oh the goodies I didn’t know existed. As a twenty year collector of this stuff, I’m proud to say I’ve got a couple of things on Jason but he’s got several dozen I’ve never seen before. Battle of the Planets.net is really worth your time.
Secondly but no less important, we have a new website from iconic Toy Inventor Mel Birnkrant who really is a rare treasure in the collecting world. So often, I’ve stared at vintage toys and thought “why’d they do it this way?” well with any of Mel’s creations you can log into his sites and find out exactly why he did that, glorious.
His latest site is about his teaming up with the Four Horsemen for the return of his classic Outer Space Men characters from the 1960s. In the late seventies I stared at the OSM colourforms set almost burning a hole in it, wondering what these wonderful action figures were and where I could get them, well, I finally know!
Like all of Mel’s sites it’s an exhaustive and beautifully done love letter to the toys that can’t help draw you in. Visit the Return of the Outer Spacemen and enjoy.
It’ll be Sunday before you know it!
Dude, I love your work, but I have to call you on Battle of the Planets. What Sandy Frank and his butchers did to Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (the original Japanese show) to produce Battle of the Planets can only be called assault with violence. They took an amazing show with wit, heart, courage, and thrilling action, gutted it of all that made it special, and then stuck in an R2D2 clone to try to cover the gaping holes. Space does not permit the telling of the whole sordid tale, but if you every like BotP, track down some Gatchaman. It will blow your mind.