Tweety Ice Cream from Blue Bunny

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Flack

We’re on the cusp of summer; I can tell not by the temperature, but by the sound of the Ice Cream Man’s truck rolling through the neighborhood. As a kid, hearing the sound of the Ice Cream Man’s truck would cause you to instantly drop what you were doing and run home as fast as you could to grab a handful of change and try to catch that moving target of sub-zero goodness before he had moved on. Despite the fact that I’m in my late 30s, the sound of the ice cream man still makes me excited. Last night, he brought me this frozen treat:

“Tweety” is “a frozen confection with gumball eyes,” according to the treat’s label. Tweety is “orange and cherry” flavor. Let’s open it up and get to it!

Now, I wouldn’t go as far as to claim false advertising, but … I’ll be the first to admit that this doesn’t look much like the Tweety Bird of my youth. Right off the bat you can’t help but notice that it’s yellow and orange; if the orange is the orange flavor, does the yellow part taste like cherry? The head is roughly the right shape, but there’s something about the cold stare coming from those two blue gumballs and makes me wonder …

Just as I suspected. Tweety’s a zombie. A cold, sugar-filled, delicious zombie.

Remember Zazoo U?

Posted on May 23, 2012 by ClaymationWerewolf

It’s bizzaro week at the Claymation Werewolf! Today, as a change of pace, I’m going to change things up a bit. Instead of reviewing a cartoon that I’ve never seen but everyone else in the world has; I’m going to tell you about a cartoon that I seem to be one of the only people in the world to remember!

I was a weird kid. It would be fair to say that I never actually outgrew that label. But it definitely all started when I was just a Claymation Werewolf Pup. Besides the fact that I’ve been trying to break into “showbiz” since I was about 10, there were plenty of other signs that should have made my parents worry. For Instance, I used to dress up in costume…when it wasn’t Halloween. I used to watch cartoons and route for the bad guys! And, I went directly from reading Scholastic books to reading Edgar Allen Poe.

Most of all though, I think the best evidence of my sheer weirdness were the things that I have always been drawn to. Madballs, Monster in my Pocket, and Wayside School Books. Then of course, there’s one of my favorite childhood cartoons. Zazoo U.

What is Zazoo U? boy, if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that in my life. Despite the fact that Zazoo U was part of Fox Kid’s Saturday Morning Cartoon’s Lineup (albeit, for only a year) No one seems to remember it! I would have thought that it would have been remembered for it’s sheer absurdity alone!

The whole thing took place at a school with weird, vague animal characters with a plotline that feels more like a Nyquil dream than a cartoon episode and some of the most off-beat characters in television history. An over the top artsy, art teacher poodle named Miss Devine (not actually so over the top if you went to art school) A skuzzy, and rough (but good natured) pig named Griz

and two Eastern European acrobats creatures named Slogo and Logan (that don‘t speak English) On a side note, I am absolutely convinced that Pixar ripped off this idea with Tuck and Roll in “A Bug’s Life”

My favorite character though was Bully Wolly Mammoth a giant, kind hearted clumsy wooly mammoth who played the piano (and normally destroyed the piano) I have distinct memories of playing on my swingset and reciting my favorite catchphrase from the show “I like it!” in Bully’s voice (did I mention he acted and talked like President Richard Millhouse Nixon? Picture me, doing my best Nixon: “Freshhhh Kool-Aid, I lllllike it!” Again, I was a weird kid…

There isn’t a lot to say about Zazoo U…it was great, nonsense themes, a message at the end (somehow made coherent from the chaotic plot) and intercut scenes of screaming school kids running down the halls which would inevitably crush some of the characters on the show. It had wonderfully weird music, a bizarre drawing style and catchphrases (at least I thought they were funny!)

I would suggest that you go online and track down some videos of this great show but, while trying to do research for this article I found nothing! (unless you want to watch a stupid commercial for some foreign condom company) I actually own a dvd of Zazzoo U. It’s two episodes and I think it originally came from England. They were released under the Jetix brand after Disney bought all of Sabaan’s properties.

I’ll be picking up more when I can find them. The dvd rounds off my enormous collection of Zazoo U merchandise (I think I’m the own more Zazoo U memorabilia than anyone else on the planet…three items!!) I also own a lunchbox (with thermos!)

and the crown jewel of my collection, one of the greatest finds I’ve ever made!! (okay, my wife was responsible)

We were at an anime convention and we came across a dealer of animation cells and original animation production art. I found a sketch of another weird cartoon I used to love (Family Dog) and my wife decided to throw caution to the wind about one of my biggest collecting white whales Zazoo U. To our amazement he had not only heard about it he actually had something from the show.

This!

An entire storyboard script for one of the episodes. He didn’t have it with him (apparently he had been trying for years to get rid of the thing but no one had ever heard of the show or had any interest in buying it!) This guy drove back to his house (30-40 minutes away) and brought it back! One of my (wife’s) greatest moments in collecting magic!

So, if by any chance you find yourself with the opportunity to watch some Zazoo U, (for instance, an invite to one of the Zazoo U parties that are currently sweeping the nation) I heartedly recommend it! And even better, If you are one of those collecting types and you come across some Zazoo U merchandise, give me a shoutout!! I’d love to take it off your hands and continue my quest to prove to my peers that it exists! That I’m not crazy! (my mother had me tested!)

Rip Off by Cinematronics

Posted on May 23, 2012 by blinddog

Rip Off was released in 1980 by Cinematronics. Cinematronics is probably not the most well-known game producing company but they did have a few hits. The most popular probably being Dragons Lair or Star Castle and Their Space Wars was the first arcade game to utilize a black and white vector display.

Like most of their early titles Rip Off is a black and white vector game. You can play it solo or as a 2 player co-op game. Co-op is where this game really shines so if you do get the chance to play make sure you bring a friend. The game can by pretty tough playing by yourself and by adding a second player it seems to balance it out a bit more by allow one tank to continue to defend the fuel cells while the other ship is respawning. The controls for this game four buttons and they are rotate left, rotate right, forward and fire.

Your mission is to protect your fuel cells the Space Pirates that are trying to rip them off. The pirate’s tanks are equipped with short range lasers while your tank has a long range cannon. You can either shoot the invading tanks or destroy them by crashing into them. There is no penalty to you for destroying enemy this way except for the brief period of time it takes for your tank to respawn. When playing a two-player game, your shoots do not hurt the other player, although you will both be destroyed if your tanks collide. There are six rounds to each level and you must fight a different type of ship each round. If a ship steals a fuel cell then you must fight the same enemy again but if you destroy all six enemies you go to the next level were they are a little faster but worth more points. You game is over when the last fuel cell has been “ripped off”.

Unfortunately you cannot see the details of the tanks in the video. Considering they could only use line segments they look good and you can even see the tracks spin when the tanks are moving.

Rip off is my favorite game by Cinematronics and luckily there’s a couple different ways to play it if you don’t have access to the actual cabinet. It plays pretty well in MAME so if you have a MAME setup I’d say give it a try. It was also released for the Vectrex and it is a pretty good port with different variations of game play.