Like most geeks I lived vicariously through the toy bloggers snapping photos of figures and sets unveiled at the recent Toy Fair 2014 in New York. Seeing all the new stuff is the next best thing to having them in your dirty mitts. At the same time, there is a price to be paid for this early access to new toy images.

It’s a phenomenon I like to call Toy Spoilers. Because of the toy industry’s necessary lead time for Toy Fair and the crucial holiday season, we see toy versions of movies still months away from hitting the big screen. While a LEGO Ghostbusters set or ReAction Back to the Future figs now won’t take anything away from these classic franchises, seeing all of Grimlock (or God forbid, an all-new character) ahead of his debut in the next Transformers film very well can.

A toy spoiler doesn’t even have to be a spoiler in the traditional sense. The toy con just turn you off the eventual film. Allow me to better explain with a personal anecdote. Growing up I was an enormous G.I. Joe fan. I loved the figures, the vehicles, the comics—even the humorously non-violent cartoon series. I was all geared up for the live-action adaptation back in 2009. I was the movie’s key demographic that the studio was counting on. I was excited until I saw the toy version of Cobra Commander. As you probably know, he was a radical departure from the iconic bad guy we all knew. It was so shocking for me that I soured on the film completely. In fact I still haven’t watched the movie or its sequel.
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My favorite thing about doing these Missing Links posts is how random the topics are. I never thought I’d write about Godzilla, Vanilla Ice, and Scrooge McDuck in the same post.

Falcon Finally Gets a Character Poster for Captain America: The Winter Solider
The sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger looks great, but I wish they would show Falcon more in the marketing. His lack of posters and significant screen time in trailers is making me worry that he will barely be in the movie. At least he’s finally gotten a character poster. Fun experiment: Imagine it’s the late 90s and you saw this picture of Falcon. You’d be like…is this from a direct-to-video superhero movie? But now, in context with all the superhero movies we’ve seen, it doesn’t seem that strange. Here’s hoping he gets red and white instead of tactical gear in his next outing on the screen. Side note: Check out the first (and only so far) Marvel Phase 2 Character Guide I wrote for Falcon last year. I need to start this series back up.

Ninja Turtles + Vanilla Ice + Mac & Cheese = Mandatory Post on this Blog
At first I thought this was a new reality show about Vanilla Ice’s new career as a stock boy at a grocery store, but instead it’s an awesome commercial for Mac and Cheese.

Epic Godzilla ‘Empire Magazine’ Cover
I’m so excited about this movie, and I even liked the 1998 version. Shh, don’t tell anyone. Also, someone on Reddit (why yes, I do read the /r/Godzilla subreddit constantly) made a version with no text that can now be found as my phone wallpaper.

There’s a ‘Scrooge McDuck’ Inspired Concept Album with Cover Art by Don Rosa
Wait, what? Via Disney Weirdness

I’ve loved putting together the Vintage Valentine Giveaway this year, and I really think it’s going to be an annual thing on Top Hat Sasquatch. One of the best parts is just getting to see all these retro Valentines again. Some I actually remembered having as a kid.

But some, like these awesome Ducktales Valentines from 1986, were a little before my elementary school days so I never had them. Being obsessed with retro stuff, especially retro stuff based on my favorite cartoons, I love seeing the designs on these Valentines. Part of my original idea for doing the Valentine giveaway was that I could take my favorites and scan them before I sent them out to people so I could archive them in blog posts here. That way everyone can see all the Valentines!

Below is a gallery of all the Valentines that came in this Ducktales box. Click each one to embiggen, and feel free to download and share these!
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I haven’t seen the Smurfs or Chipmunk movies because they look like horrible abominations and I feel like I have to sit through a trailer for one every other time I go to the movies. But, they seem to make a shitton of money and it looks like Disney wants to get a piece of that pie by using one of the most beloved cartoons from my childhood, Chip n Dale’s Rescue Rangers. I feel conflicted.

Pros

• Rescue Rangers getting popular again means it’s more likely for shows like Ducktales and Gummi Bears to make comebacks
• It could be really fun if done by people who loved the show
• The theme song is bitchin

Cons

• It will probably suck
• The director is very inexperienced
• It’s live action/cg hybrid
• The theme song will probably be covered by some horrible band

Seriously, why live action/CG? Rescue Rangers would look awesome as a straight CG movie. The Rescue Rangers didn’t get involved with humans much anyway, it was mostly other animals. Oh well, maybe it won’t be the worst thing ever.

Via Cartoon Brew and SlashFilm

Threadless continues to kill it with their special design challenges based on licensed stuff. I grabbed a couple of their Simpsons shirts over the holidays, and today they announced something awesome for a kid from the 90s: Lion King shirts.

The Lion King is probably in my top ten movies of all time, and they’ve got a few great designs. Future King and Hakuna Matata are my favorites, but the others are pretty good too.

Now, can we get some Aladdin tees?