Random Retro Issue 5

Mogwai, Krang, and the TurboExpress

In this issue:

Gremlin Adventures Story 1, Krang's Android Body, and the TurboExpress

Gremlin Adventures Story 1: The Gift of the Mogwai

Gremlins was a very fun film released in 1984. The main protagonist was a furry little guy named Gizmo who could easily latch onto children's buying purchases. Hardee's was well aware of Gizmo's selling power and offered storybooks with records that retold the entire story of the movie.

There were a total of 5 of the books released and each came with a record that played the story word for word along with the book. The record also played music and sound effects, adding to the overall experience.

The pictures in the book are illustrated, not photos from the movie. The art is not overly cartoony though. It edges just across the line showing a hint of realism in the images as well.

The story follows closely with the movie. This first book focuses on Gizmo being brought to the Peltzer household and his first meeting with Billy.

This book and record set also introduces everyone to the rules of a Mogwai such as never get them wet and they cannot eat after midnight. Rules that we all know will be broken.

Records are somehow still not extinct. You can occasionally find a new album still coming out on vinyl as well as on CD. Records like these though have long gone the way of the Dodo and if you have access to a working record player they can be well worth a play through.

Krang's Android Body (the large version)

The Shredder may have been the main evildoer in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toyline but everybody knew that Krang was really the brains behind the Foot Clan's operation.

The plastic Krang was originally released in 1989 in a mechanical walker that sort of resembled a shrunken AT-ST that had been modified to be driven by a giant brain. That version of Krang was cool but ultimately what every kid wanted was the Android Body that Krang used in the cartoon.

Finally, in 1991, we got the huge robotic carrier for the Dimension-X brain and it was awesome. It's more of a vehicle than an action figure, though it was articulated about as much as any other classic TMNT figure.

You can really see how much bigger Krang's Android Body is by seeing it next to a standard figure from the line. Mikey is dwarfed by Krang's huge body which stands at almost three times as tall as the turtles themselves. Later on Playmates also released a smaller version of this toy, which was about the same size as other TMNT figures. The smaller version was still cool but nothing beats this guy just because he's so big and cool looking.

This was an awesome toy and I'm betting that even today's kids would enjoy playing with this robotic behemoth. Mine has clearly been put through a lot of play and has some definite wear and tear but I love him no less.

The TurboExpress

In 1989 Nintendo released their Game Boy which went on to become the king of handheld video games. In 1990 NEC released the TurboExpress, a system far superior in many ways to Nintendo's green screened baby. The TurboExpress played the exact same games as NEC's big boy console, the TurboGrafx-16.

The TurboExpress has a nice color screen that shows the TurboGrafx-16 games off beautifully. The drawback to the system playing it's bigger brother's games was in the text. The games were really designed to be played on the home console and shown on a television. The text proved that and made some games annoying to play because of the unreadable text on the small screen. Games such as Bonk's Adventure were still fun to play though as there was no need to read any dialogue during the game.

The TurboVision TV Tuner was another cool feature of the handheld. You could purchase the tuner separately and use it to watch tv on your portable screen. It's not the most effective way in the world to watch your favorite shows but if you were lucky you could pick up something decent on the TurboVision's rather large pullout antenna.

The TurboExpress was a nice piece of technology but it came with a great hunger for batteries. Six AA batteries could only keep the thing alive for a few hours and that was a huge drawback to this and the other color portables of the time. Pretty soon you'd be stealing batteries from everything else in the house until eventually there was not a working remote left.

There may have been some problems with the system but overall it does not deserve to be ignored. The Gameboy was the winner in the handheld war but the TurboExpress is still loads of fun (as long as you have the money to keep it powered up).

Random Retro Advertisement

[align=center]

Rock Lords were a spin off from Tonka's GoBots which basically just equals a bunch of unloved toys. I don't know why but I liked them and still do. I thought Stonedar and Rokkon from Masters of the Universe were cool and these toys were just a step up from that for me. Maybe I just have bad taste but I think everything about this ad is awesome too, I'm going to have to go find some transforming rocks now.

[/b]

Comments

I totally had that Krang body. In fact, I remember buying it at Target for 50 cents because someone had I guess returned it so it was missing it's accessories & the plastic hatch to protect Krang from the outside. Otherwise, it was really awesome.

I remember those Gremlin books, I had a few of them myself. And do I ever miss Hardee's.

Krang's Android Body is a toy I wanted, but never got. It took what felt like forever for it to come out after the original figure, and by that point, my parents were out of buying me toys, but I was still too young for a job. By the time I could work, I'd all but stopped collecting toys, instead focusing on comics and video games until I said "screw it" and leapt back in.

At the time, however, I didn't like how it looked. Like much of the toyline, I felt it diverged too much from what was on the television screen. That he was so big meant he wasn't fitting in any Technodrome, either... not that I had one.

TurboExpress was neat... or at least, it always looked neat. My parents were against me having a portable gaming machine, for fear of it wrecking my eyes. This had an appeal, since it looked sort of like a Game Boy (although in black), played the console games, had a TV tuner, and perhaps most importantly, it wasn't from SEGA (I'm well past that now).

ah yes, i remember getting those gremlin 'record books' at hardees back then. in retrospect, we always think of mcdonald's and happy meal toys but some of the other grease chains had good stuff too. i remember getting star wars and muppets glasses from somewhere (real glass drinking glasses), the plastic batman and olympic dream team cups ala taco bell, the hardees matchbox racecars, etc. astrosniks from mickey d's are still my fav though.

first post, but longtime reader...great post. I can remember having great battles with my turtles again mega krang. but what got me going was the rock lords advertisement. I'm a child of the 80's and I used to love that show. I remember watching the cartoon at my aunts house in Connecticut. But I have the two toys on the advertisement in the basement, the main bad guy and good guy.

Yet again a stellar blast from the past. I pride myself on being a TMNT freak and I can't believe I didn't own that Krang figure. My first job out of college I actually worked for the graphics shop where Kevin Eastman worked in his early 20's. He drew the original B&W TMNT in their basement and the brothers who own the place each have a signed copy still. Viva Random Retro!

I actually had 4 of those Gremlin Book & Record sets while my cousin had all 5. I still miss some of those.

A comic shop near me still has all of the Star Wars Book & Records for sale.

the krang figure is epic.

second exodus - Glad you like the issues and you are right about the text not being hard to read on most games. I have played a TG16 game though on my Turbo Express where I was squinting my eyes to read but for the most part the games were ok. I assume there may be more than ones I've played that could be bad with the text though.

Hoju Koolander - I always appreciate hearing from you on these articles. I'm glad to see you like Rock Lords too, they get dissed quite a bit.

vkimo - I hadn't thought about that digital conversion, I bet that's why I couldn't pick anything up on it the day I took those pictures. I forgot all about the switch over.

sonic123 - The TurboExpress really is an awesome portable. I wouldn't really say it's rare but it was less popular than the other color portables, especially the Game Gear. You should check out the Sega Nomad if you want a really great portable system though. That sucker plays Genesis carts and is just freaking awesome. I'll take some pics and put it in a later issue of Random Retro.

OH MAN I wan't that Turbo Express so bad! I can't believe I have never seen one of those before! Rare?

It had a back light and everything, although it probably ate up batteries like no other.

I doubt it beats the game gear though. (: 'SE-GA!'

Continuing the greatness. Much love to the Rock Lords, especially Nugget. He always seems like the Bumblebee of the group to me. I remember a friend of mine in 6th grade had all the Turbo Grafix 16 hardware and games. I always wondered what he did with them after the system became defunct. Who knows, maybe he's playing "Splatterhouse" as we speak.

Pretty nice article

I find it weird how you say the words from a console game are too small for a handheld. I had the GP2X and played TG16 games a lot, never had a problem with reading the text. Console games on a handheld isn't that big of a problem, it's computer games that you run into problems. On a console you sit 7 or 8 feet away at least, so the words are jumbo sized, computer games your head is like a little over 2 feet away so the words are tiny, hard to read on a handheld screen.

I liked the article though, I always like your Random Retro Issues, thumbs up.