man from atlantis Archives - PS

Original Man from Atlantis art for sale

Mantooth — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 19:15:00 +0000

This weekend a man reached out to me because he’s the owner of the original artwork/painting schematic that was used by the model makers during production/pre-production for the Man From Atlantis “Cetacean Sub”.

“Man from Atlantis” was short lived but it left a mark on a lot of us Gen-X kids and possibly one of the more memorable things (other than many of us attempting to swim like Mark and nearly drowning) was the sub itself, what an iconic vehicle. The proposed Kenner Cetacean still haunts me.

Well, the reason this fellow reached out to me was, this is for sale. If you are a Man From Atlantis fan and wish to make an offer on this truly interesting piece of TV history, you can email me and I will pass it along.

If this looks at all familiar, it’s because it was featured in Starlog more than once. I knew I had seen it before.

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The Top Ten cancelled toys of the 70s/80s

Mantooth — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 05:00:00 +0000

As much as I enjoyed my childhood, it sometimes pains me to think of the stuff we didn’t get, for whatever boring grown up decision. Sure, some of these licensed wouldn’t have sold and could have forced the companies into risky financial positions but baby Brian wants his toys dammit!

Here are the top ten cancelled toy lines that I personally weep for at every occasion:

Disclaimer: There may be some figure lines not included, this probably intentional as like all of my lists, it’s a little biased. I try to be fair.,

10: V

LJN planned to make action figures based on the television series V but somehow it stalled and never totally happened.

Why it Hurts It may just be my teenage crush on Jane Badler and her red spandex talking but “V” is just so seriously under-serviced in merchandise, especially when you consider the impact it had.

9) Galoob The Last Starfighter line

In the race to find the next Star Wars Starfighter was probably the closest to the concept (well at least when you look at stuff like Krull or Dune), the movie did good but not great at the box office (which is still a mystery to me) so Galoob chose not to go forward with these beautiful items.

Why it Hurts Not only are the figures nice but Galoob wasn’t stingy with the character selection, this movie deserved these toys.

Read the whole list here The Top Ten cancelled toys of the 70s/80s

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The 2011 Plaidstallions Retro Awards

Mantooth — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:01:00 +0000

It’s time once again for my fake awards show dedicated to what I feel is retro goodness of the past year. All in all, 2011 was a tremendous year for this kind of commerce, so there was lots to choose from.

I’ve also got some news on the book projects and changes to the site for 2012.

More After Jump

Best Films:

I went in with really low expectations but Rise of the Planet of the Apes surprised the heck out of me, mostly because it revitalized the concept so well. I saw it with an audience of 20 years olds and they were enthralled. It’s handling of the subject matter was rarely camp and Andy Serkis was phenomenal as Caesar. It made me crack out my box set once again.

Superhero movies were kind of hit or miss for me this year, I enjoyed Thor despite never having read a Thor comic. I found Green Lantern terribly misguided and passed on the latest X Men movie because of the past two sequels (something I later discovered was a mistake).

The one that made it for me was Captain America: The First Avenger. Comic fans can argue back and forth about costume design changes but the soul of any comic movie is embodiment of the character and I can’t remember when a movie got it so right (oh yeah, Iron Man).

It was also such a relief to take my son to this film and know that Cap wasn’t going to swear (take notes Hal Jordan) or have “Superman 3” type moments of nightmare fuel (Seriously Hector Hammond?). I loved this movie and view it with the same regard I do the first Superman.

Best Books and Magazines

I went back to school this year to study design in anticipation of the books I’m writing. So, most of the books I read were published by Adobe and really have nothing to do with this blog directly.

Some notable exceptions were:

Doctor Who Classics Omnibus I was gifted two of these by lovely wife and it reminded me of how much I loved Doctor Who comics growing up. I find it ironic that I’m wishy-washy on the Davison era and I abhor Colin Baker but their stories are actually my favourite in comic form.

I cannot recommend Shock Cinema magazine enough. A self described “essential guide for any fan of bizarre films and videos, and each issue is crammed with movie reviews, in-depth interviews and original poster art. Shock Cinema covers everything a self-respecting film-junkie could possibly desire — from Cult Movies and Arthouse Oddities, to old fashioned Grindhouse Swill and Underground Obscurities.”

This magazine is easily the best $5 I spend at any given time, it gives me hours of interesting reading and I wish it came out monthly. Seriously where else are you going to read about a movie which starred Mr. Brady as a pervert crank caller?

While i don’t read comics these days, I oddly can’t get enough comics history and that’s where Twomorrow’s “Back Issue!” comes in handy. Each month I get in depth interviews, articles in a beautifully laid out format.

Twomorrows publishing has a great catalog of books that would be right for any 70s kid as well, worth a visit.

Toys

Besides releasing my own action figure, a lot of cool toys made me weak in the knees this year, the two biggest for me however were these.

Bifbangpow Doctor Who

Talk about peanut butter and chocolate, my love for Doctor Who combined with my love for Mego action figures. I know most people want Star Wars or Marvel comics mego figures again but this was my number one want and I can’t wait to buy every single figure BBP knocks out. The Doctor and Styre were toys I HAD to rip off the card immediately and that is just fantastic.

The same thing can be said for EMCE Toys/Diamond Select’s wave two of the Universal Monsters. These figures are a joy, the Mummy is an amazing detailed likeness of Karloff while the Dracula is generic. Given that I’ve played with generic Dracula figures all my life (Lugosi’s likeness isn’t part of the Universal Monsters license) it seems wonderfully fitting. Well worth the $30, I assure you.

DVD

I didn’t get the time for DVDs like I normally do this year but two were unavoidable for me:

Shout Factory has done a spectacular job of releasing Mystery Science Theatre but the Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXII last box set with Sandy Frank “classics” like “Time of the Apes” and “Mighty Jack” really made my 2011 brighter.

Warner Archive is probably going to be on every Retro Awards show I do from now on. This year I adored the Man From Atlantis: Complete TV Movies Collection.

Man from Atlantis was one of the better done TV SF attempts in the 1970s, it starts out with great promise (although the television series gets progressively weirder until it looks like they just run out of juice) the TV movies however are inspired and fun, worthy of a look.

Some big changes this year on Plaidstallions.

I’m going to need more time to develop my book products, I haven’t found a publisher for “Rack Toys” or “Galaxy of Mego” but that only means I’m going to probably start my own publishing company in the coming months.

That means i can only do site updates every other week for the next few months, the blog will remain daily and I’ll still do Fashion Mockery, Toy Love and Rack Toy Tuesday posts but new gallery pages need to be bi weekly for me to retain my sanity.

And that’s it for another year, I’m looking forward to what 2012 brings us, as always thanks for reading!

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TV Comix: Man From Atlantis

Mantooth — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 15:16:00 +0000

As I try to scramble to get more colouring books to review, I thought I’d go through the various comic books I have based on TV shows from the seventies. It’s a little side obsession of mine that I didn’t even realize that I had.

I’ve decided to open with one of the shorter lived but memorable series from that era, the Man from Atlantis. Not the US Marvel version of the comic (although I will get to that later) but the comics done in the UK under the “Look In” banner.

For those not in the know, “Look In” was a weekly british comic that featured two page strips of popular TV shows and celebrities. During it’s run it would explore homegrown series such as “Benny Hill”, “The Tomorrow People” and “Space:1999”. US properties would include “Logan’s Run”, “Battlestar Galactica” and “Buck Rogers”

One thing I love about the UK is that even though the series would die in the US, the UK audiences seemed to embrace it more. This wonderfully drawn strip features the Victor Buono lead villian Mr. Schubert which seemed to the Lex Luthor to Mark Harris.
Look In had a talented stable of artists and this Man from Atlantis strip looks superior to the Marvel book produced at the same time. I’ve got a lot more to share from this book.

For more on Man From Atlantis check out the
Toy gallery on the main site.For more on Look In, check out these two fantastic and exhaustive sites The Look In Picture Strip Archive and John’s Look Out both give you a glimpse of some very cool British 70’s pop culture.

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Man From Atlantis : The Lost Toys

Mantooth — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:19:00 +0000

An amazing update to the Kenner Man from Atlantis Page thanks to some steller contributions by Chris Georgoulias including prototype actions figures, test shots and internal paperwork from Kenner. MFA was as close as we were going to get to a live action Aquaman series as kids and this is an insiders look at the cool toys we missed out on.

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Kenner 1978 Spring Catalog

Mantooth — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 14:47:00 +0000

Spring Supplement Catalogs usually include things that didn’t make it into the February Toyfair in a bid to make it out in time for the Christmas season. The 1978 Kenner Catalog is a prime example featuring some classic goodies and a few that just didn’t make it under anybody’s tree that year.Bionic Woman, Play Doh, Star Wars, Finger Pops and much more.

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What Ever Happened to the Man From Atlantis Toys?

Mantooth — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 13:32:00 +0000

It’s not often I get to play toy detective (which is a shame because I have the hat and everything) so it was gratifying to make this discovery this week. Ever since I posted the Kenner Toy Proposals for the Man From Atlantis Line, I’ve wondered what the line would have actually looked like. Then I found a curious couple of pages in the far back of the 1978 Kenner Catalog that answered my question.

I am pleased to present Scuba Squad , Kenner’s attempt to rebrand the toys they were making from the then cancelled series, which gives a glimpse of what might have been. Click the link to see the evidence yourself.

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