Random Retro: Holy Grails

A look at some of the items that are my Holy Grails.

Every average nerd probably has a few items of geek culture that they have always wanted but for some reason have never owned. There are many reasons why an item may never be added to a collection. Sometimes a wanted piece may be almost completely unheard of by the rest of the nerd population. Other times the price or even the size of something may keep it out of reach. Whatever the reason, I am sure many geeks can relate and have their own list of personal favorites that they have yet to be able to get.

Dino Riders T-Rex

This is something I have wanted since the late 80's and sadly I don't have a good reason for not owning one. I have several of the other dinosaurs in the line but I have always let this one escape me. It is expensive but it's not as pricey as some of the other things I want and do actually buy. This is just something I need to crack down and get the next time I run across one.

This is a beautiful toy. It has everything that a kid could desire. It's a huge, ferocious dinosaur covered in armor and weapons and it's being mind controlled by an ugly little dude. The toy came with 3 figures, including the leader of the bad guys and his second in command.

The T-Rex and several other Dino Riders toys actually walked which definitely added to their already highly ranking cool factor. This is the top of the line in radical late 80's boys toys.

Masters of the Universe Eternia Playset

Masters of the Universe had some really great playsets from the larger Castle Grayskull and Snake Mountain to the slightly smaller Fright Zone and even the Slime Pit. These were all awesome and more than alot of toylines could have ever dreamed of having as part of their assortment. Masters of the Universe wasn't happy settling with only those though, it needed one playset that could bring all the others together and that playset was Eternia.

Eternia had a tower to go along with Castle Grayskull, a tower to match up with Snake Mountain, and finally a huge center tower which I suppose represented the royal castle for King Randor. There was also a monorail track that went around the entire playset.

You could even argue that the center tower with its huge lion head could help unofficially bridge the gap between Masters of the Universe and the Thundercats. I'm sure that if I had been able to play with this as a child I would have put Lion-O right there alongside He-Man in Eternia. Sadly, for me at least, I have never seen a complete Eternia playset. I have managed to see a few pieces here and there in the wild and I know somebody who claims to have once owned this awesome playset but I myself have to settle for pictures online for the experience.

Crystal Pepsi

Not everything I want can be toy related. I also have a strong desire to own some Crystal Pepsi. The drink itself may have few fans but I count myself among the small cult of its followers. It isn't extremely hard to come across online but I haven't physically seen a can or bottle in almost twenty years.

Crystal Pepsi was a clear soda that was unlike it's transparent brethren such as Sprite and 7-Up. This was not a citrus soda but was actually a cola like it's big brother Pepsi.

I would happily take a can of Crystal Pepsi and display it proudly on a shelf that I'm sure nobody would ever look at but what I really want is a glass bottle so I can always look inside and see that it's marketing slogan was right, "You've never seen a taste like this."

Delorean DMC-12

Perhaps the ultimate thing that I may never have is a Delorean. It's one of the cars that is instantly recognizable as retro and nerdy but also flashes cool. Even if it were never featured in the awesome Back to the Future movies it would still be an awesome car.

These cars aren't impossible to own even 30 years after they were released but my fears of keeping one in top running shape have always kept me from diving right in and buying one. I can always imagine though and in my imagination I am cruising around in my DMC-12 with some Huey Lewis and the News pumping in the tape deck.

The Delorean is an icon amongst nerds, right up there with the Ecto-1 and the Batmobile. It looks like it's from the future even though it first came on the market three decades ago. This is one real life time machine even without a functioning flux capacitor.

Comments

I too was in the small percentage of people that liked Crystal Clear Pepsi. I have seen many people mention that it was supposed to tase like regular pepsi but i drank it when it was around and though it was 20+ years ago i always remember it having a different taste than the regular Pepsi. Anyways nice article, cool concept, thumbs up and this should have a higher score.

I don't think"Crystal Pepsi"was that bad,wish they still made it.The Deloreon was awesome,that and 1977"Bandit Trans Am" are 2 cars,I'd love to own.

I liked Crystal Pepsi and it really doesn't deserve the bad rap it has gotten years later. But New Coke is a different story.

I wasn't allowed to drink caffeinated sodas growing up, but when Crystal Pepsi came out it was such a phenomenon that I was able to convince my Mom to get me a can. Of course, it turned out that it was Caffeine Free, so the excitement of drinking a taboo soda was instantly dashed.

this may not be exactly retro, but i have seen a delorean in real life. an old girlfriend took me to a photo shoot where they had one. so not only did i see a delorean, i saw 2 half naked women embracing on it. one of the best days of my life.

I sit here looking at one (1) can of Crystal Pepsi in the Red White and Blue colors. It's a 12 F. oz. It has never been opened. I brought it back with me from Denver, Co. back in the late 80's. It was introduced to the population at that time and I was visiting my sister.

There is a rough formulation for recreating Crystal Pepsi. I have tried it and it works but you need to fiddle with it to make it work. Use distilled water and a couple teaspoons of baking soda (no I'm not kidding) and add either fruit pixie stix or the Kool Aid fizz packets (mixed fruit). No two glasses are the same proportion but if you fiddle enough it does work. Took me all the way back.

I never drank Crystal Pepsi ( I remember it ) because there was a big scare surrounding it. Something about a needle found in one of the cans or something...IDK, but my mom wouldn't let me drink it and when I convinced her it was already off the shelves.

I so remember"Crystal Pepsi".I had a friend,who saved a full can as a collector's item."Crystal Pepsi"wasn't bad,especially when compared to "New Coke";yuck!

I thought Crystal Pepsi was the exact same thing as Pepsi but without the dye? I was only 10 or so when it was out but I swear it tasted the exact same.

It would be cool to have one of the smaller bottles, back then they were glass rather than plastic. Cans and 2 liter bottles haven't changed much but they don't use glass for their smaller bottles anymore.

I never liked Crystal Pepsi, now if I could get a hold of some 7-Up Gold...

I thought crystal pepsi tasted just like regular pepsi. It was supposed to be the same formulation minus the coloring additive. I'm surprised how many people older than me dont even remember it.

Nice article. Its funny how you mention bridging the gap between MOTU and Thundercats. While I owned both MOTU and TC toys as a kid and my friends and I were known for staging crossovers with our various toy lines, oddly we never did a Thundercats/MOTU crossover. I'm not sure why, given the similar themes (Mideval social structure with futuristic technology, magic and technology coexisting, and sacred sword) and comparable sizes of the toys it would have made a lot more since than some of the crossovers that we did do. I think it mostly that to do with the fact that these two toylines were separated in time. With MOTU being early 80s and TC late 80s I think MOTU had gone out of vogue in my social circle by the time TC come about.

I wouldn't mind owing a bottle of Crystal Pepsi myself. While it was a horrible soda, it was a neat concept. Not to mention that odd phenomonon of nostalgia that sometimes causes me to love something I hated in the past just because I have fond memories of hating it.

I envy all the people who got to try Crystal Pepsi, even if it apparently had a nasty taste.

Also known as "Pepsi Clear" if I remember correctly.