My Childhood Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures Comic Book Collection

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing okay. It's still hot and humid outside and I'm tired of it. Today though I'm gonna talk about a few comic books that I owned when I was a kid. Let's get into it!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures was a comic book series published by Archie Comics for 72 issues from 1989 to 1995. The series was based on the original 1987 Ninja Turtles cartoon series, which was hugely popular when this comic book first started. It started out adapting episodes from the show's second season, but starting with issue 5, they began telling original stories that diverged completely from the lighter tone of the cartoon. The first issue of Adventures I ever got was issue 34, which was the final part of a two part story involving a being known as the Charlie Llama. My mom and I were at the gift shop at the hospital and there weren't any Star Trek comics there I didn't already have, and there weren't any Batman comics or issues of The Batman Adventures. I saw this Ninja Turtles comic and asked Mom if she could buy it for me. Having seen the show, I loved this comic. I got rid of my original copy years ago, but managed to find another copy.

The next issue I got was #44. This was the final part in the "Future Shark Trilogy", where versions of the Turtles from the future come back and help our Turtles fight a legion of villains which include Shredder and Rat King. Yeah, Rat King was in this issue. This was another hospital gift shop buy, but, Mom bought it for me with an issue of The Batman Adventures. I don't remember which issue of The Batman Adventures, or why we were at the hospital that day. Hospital visits for appointments during that time blur together for me because I had so many of them.

The final issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures I got was issue 48. However, when I was a kid, this was actually my brother's comic. In fact, this was the comic he got from the hospital gift shop the day I got Batman #495, which had Poison Ivy in the comic (my introduction to the character, as I hadn't seen her in Batman: The Animated Series yet). We were at the hospital for the opening of the Helipad that was located between CHEO and the Ottawa General Hospital (now known as the Ottawa Hospital, General Campus). An event that was boring for kids who were my age at the time, but an important one nonetheless. So we got comics to look at while Mom and Dad were busy chatting with people.

My connection to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures didn't end with that issue though. During another hospital visit, Mom bought me Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classics Digest #1. Being that Archie Comics published this comic book series, naturally they had a digest paperback compilation series accompanying it. This first digest collected issues 5, 6, and 7 of the main series. I actually held onto it until 2019 when I found all three original issues individually.

The very last Archie Comics published Ninja Turtles comic I ever got was the first issue of April O'Neil: The May East Saga, which was a miniseries that told of April's fight against an ancient being who might just be an ancestor of hers. This was another hospital gift shop buy. 

The last issue of an Archie Comics published Ninja Turtles comic that my family had in our house, was this second issue of a Donatello and Leatherhead crossover trilogy that Archie put out. It was a gift for my brother. I don't remember when he got it or why he got it or anything. I just remember reading it a few times.

That's it for my childhood Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comic book collection. I wanted to do a quick blog post for you today. Nothing super special or fancy. I'll be back on Friday over at The Star Trek Journal for my review of this week's episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, "A Space Adventure Hour". Until then have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care! 

Toys I Played with Growing Up But Didn't Own Part II: More Playsets, More Vehicles, and Some Figures

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing quite well for a Monday. It's a busy week down here in the Geek Cave this week as I have three awesome blog posts for you, and I'll be on The VHS Club Podcast this Thursday evening at 9PM EST to talk about Batman Forever with Katie and Nat. Today though, I'm going to be talking about toys. Back in February I did a post on some toys that I played with growing up, but didn't own, and I talked about a lot of playsets and a vehicle. Today I'm doing part two of that post. Here we've got two more playsets, two more vehicles and some figures. So, let's get into it.

Okay, so the first playset I wanted to talk about is the Ewok Village Playset from the original 1983 toyline for Return of the Jedi. I'll probably talk about this set a bit more over on The Star Wars Journal at some point, but I brought it up today because Perry from The Cassette Phase YouTube channel got this set recently and has set it up in his '80s den office. His video on it actually sparked my memory of playing with it when I was in the hospital one time. The playrooms always had random toys on their shelves and in bins, and I remember being unable to go to the playroom so one of the volunteers brought this set to me in my hospital room. I had no idea what it was since there weren't any Star Wars figures that came with it, but I remember playing with it on the little table that every hospital bed has with it. I probably used random Playmobil figures on it.

Next is the Bridge Playset from Playmates's Star Trek: The Next Generation toyline that got released in 1993, along with the second wave of figures. I played with this at someone's house one time. I don't remember whose house it was or anything. I just remember seeing it and my eyes widening because I'd seen the commercial for it on TV and never thought I'd ever see it in person. My family wasn't able to buy this playset for me when I was a kid, but it's an absolute Holy Grail for my toy collection as an adult. Hopefully I'll find it for a decent price at a convention or something like that.

The first vehicle I wanted to talk about is the Batmobile from Batman: The Animated Series. This was a toy that my best friend, whose name was also Josh, brought to school one day when I was in either Senior Kindergarten or grade one. We played with it together on the floor during recess. I actually have this toy in my collection today. It's sitting on my shelf along with the smaller Hot Wheels Batmobiles that I have as well.

Next up is the Crash Cab from the Incredible Crash Dummies toyline. I had the game for the original Nintendo Game Boy, but I never had any of the toys at home. This was one I played with at the hospital. One of my many roommates, Justin, had this toy and his parents had brought it to the hospital for him during one of the times that he and I shared a hospital room together. It was fun to crash the car into stuff to smash it up so that we could put it back to its original configuration and then smash it up again. What else could we do when we weren't being poked and prodded and there wasn't anything good on TV?

The first figure I wanted to talk about was Aero Strike Batman from the Batman Returns toyline. Like I mentioned when I talked about Batman Returns last year, the movie and merchandise from the movie were everywhere in 1992. I think Justin had this figure and it's the one I played with with the Batcave Command Center playset. I also remember playing with it on its own in one of the playrooms at the hospital. I think another kid I knew had it as well, but I definitely played with it at the hospital in 1992 or 1993. He didn't have any of the accessories that you can see in the image of the packaging for the figure though.

These next three figures were ones I played with with Josh at school. I loved this figure because you could change him between Bruce Wayne and Batman fairly easily. I think Josh also had the Bruce Wayne figure that came with the regular Bruce Wayne car that Kenner released as part of the Batman Returns toyline, but I also remember playing with that particular figure in the Batcave Command Center playset that Justin had. That Bruce Wayne figure had a purple shirt.

Next was Combat Belt Batman from the Batman: The Animated Series toyline. This was the only Batman figure from that toyline whose Batsuit actually looked like the one that Batman wears in the show. Which is why I remember it so well. It also sticks out to me because Josh and I played with it in the Batmobile toy I talked about earlier. It even came with the standard cloth cape that every superhero figure came with in the '80s and '90s. This is another holy grail for me, because I have the Batmobile already and I'd really like a Batman figure to go with it.

The third Batman related figure that Josh and I played with together at school was the Robin figure that also came out as part of the Batman: The Animated Series toyline. Josh didn't bring the turbo glider accessory to school with him, but we played with the figure on its own. I think the cape was the same one that the Robin figure from the Batman Returns toyline that I had. From the pictures I'm seeing on the Figure Realm toy database website, it looks almost exactly alike. Which is cool. 

The last toy I wanted to talk about today is the Genie toy that came with its own lamp from Aladdin. You could even place the figure into the lamp and then rub it to pretend you were summoning the Genie for a wish. I either played with this toy at the hospital or at school at OCTC. It may even have been one of Josh's toys that he brought to school, but it also could've been someone else's toy that I played with at school. I don't remember for sure. I just remember thinking that the lamp was really cool and that being able to actually place the Genie inside it was great.

That's it for me for today. I've got six more toys to talk about in part 3. But for now, I'm going to cap it off here. If you were born in the mid to late '80s and are a '90s kid, I hope this blog post sparked a memory for you, as Perry's video for the Ewok Village playset on The Cassette Phase did for me. I'll be back on Wednesday for this week's post over on The Star Wars Journal. Until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care!

Batman Forever (1995) Movie Discussion

 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Geek Cave! I hope you're all having a good week so far. Personally it's hot, humid, and quite frankly, disgusting outside this week. But, we're not here to talk about crappy weather. Today we're going back to the summer of 1995 to discuss Batman Forever. Actually, we're gonna go back to the fall of 1994 first because I started seeing the small pop culture effect the movie had both before and after the movie came out when I began school at Greely Elementary School during the 1994-1995 school year. So, let's get into it!

After the fiasco created by Batman Returns in 1992, Warner Bros. decided to make a more kid friendly and toyetic Batman movie for the third movie in the franchise they had started in 1989. Which meant that Tim Burton was out as director and Joel Schumacher was in, though Burton would stay on as a producer on the movie.

I was eight years old when this movie came out and I didn't see it until it came out on VHS in October of 1995. In fact, I got it on VHS for my ninth birthday from my godfather. I love the movie. Don't get me wrong, I like Batman and Batman Returns, but Batman Forever is my favourite of the four Batman movies from the late '80s and the '90s. It feels like a cross between the 1966 Batman TV series and Batman: The Animated Series. Which makes sense since Batman: The Animated Series was ending as this movie came out, and Joel Schumacher was the right age to have seen the 1966 TV series as it was airing. 

Thanks to the controversial nature of the previous film, Batman Forever had fewer companies making merchandise for it. There was a novelization, a comic book, a soundtrack album, and some toys. I had some of the stuff that came out for the movie. 

When I started going to Greely Elementary School in September, 1994, my parents got me this Batman Forever backpack. Instead of using it for my school supplies though, I used it to carry my feeding pump in. It went on the back of my wheelchair and on my back when I would walk with my crutches, which I had at the time. At least one other kid in my class had the same backpack, and I think one other kid in the school had it too. Because I was at a new school with kids I'd never met before, seeing other kids with the same backpack as me helped me to acclimate to my new school the best I could.

I also had the storybook for the movie. I got this at the Scholastic Book Fair when I was either in grade two or grade three. I don't remember for sure. I'm pretty sure it was when I was still in grade two. Most likely in early 1995, closer to when the movie was going to come out.

I also had the Guardians of Gotham City action figure set of Batman and Robin. Grandma and Grandpa got this for me for either my ninth birthday or for Christmas in 1995. Either way, I picked it out along with a storybook for The Lion King and the 5.5" Red Ranger figure from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, which also came out in the summer of 1995. In fact, we went to Toys 'R' Us to get my birthday/Christmas presents that year. 

My dad also bought me the comic book adaptation of the movie from the CHEO gift shop one night when I was in the Emergency Room for whatever reason. It wasn't a long stay, but it was one of those evening visits because of a fever I had at the time or something like that. I ended up getting rid of the comic ten years ago as the cover had been torn off at some point and the pages were a bit worn. However, last year at Ottawa Comiccon I was able to get a new copy of the same edition of the comic that I'd had when I was a kid. 

Also last year I ended up finding the soundtrack album on CD for a decent price, so I picked that up. I remember hearing "Kiss From a Rose" by Seal on the radio a lot in 1995. There was an ad for the soundtrack album at the beginning of the VHS release, so I remember that clearly as well. Though throughout my teenage years, and early adulthood I had never come across the soundtrack on CD or cassette, so when I finally did find it, I wasn't going to pass up on it.

The movie was everywhere in 1995. The movie's poster was on the back of a lot of the comic books that I had when I was a kid. Specifically a lot of the comics published by DC. There were also ads for the trading cards in the comics as well. I always thought it was interesting that the merchandise and marketing all had Batman in the prototype Batsuit with the sonar modifications Bruce invented but hadn't tested it yet. Except for the commercial that McDonald's had for its superhero burger promotional tie-in for the movie. This was before I'd seen the movie so naturally, when Alfred says, "Can I persuade you to take a sandwich with you sir?" and Batman replies, "I'll get drive-thru." I thought that was filmed specially for the commercial. Nope it's literally the first two lines of dialogue in the movie, AND it's in the comic book adaptation as well. 

I can't believe it's been thirty years since Batman Forever came out. I love the movie, even still to this day. I'll just put the movie on, either on VHS or on Blu-ray, whenever I feel like watching it. Because, compared to superhero and comic book based movies today, it's a simple movie. I can sit down and enjoy it in one sitting and just have fun. That's all I wanted to say about the movie today. However join me on the VHS Club Podcast on Thursday, July 24th, 2025 where I'll be talking about the movie and everything related to it with hosts, Katie and Nat.

That's it for me for today. I'll be back over on The Star Wars Journal to talk about another fun Star Wars topic, and then join me back on The Star Trek Journal on Saturday where I'll have my review of the first two episodes of season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. So, until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Childhood Summertime Memories

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today we're going to be talking about some of my childhood summertime memories. So nothing too elaborate or anything like that. Let's get into it.

So summers for me were actually pretty quiet for the most part. Because my friends lived far enough away that they couldn't get on their bikes and come over whenever they wanted for the most part, I spent a lot more time with my siblings. We'd play outside, watch TV, play video games and play with our toys together.

I remember our summer routine in 1996 specifically. We'd play in the backyard, and then after lunch we'd play Batman: The Video Game on the NES until it was time for reruns of The Woody Woodpecker Show and episodes of Sailor Moon, which we watched on YTV. 

Later on, after 1997, we had small inflatable pools that we'd go in during the summer, as well as our waterguns that we'd get each other with. We'd also run through the sprinkler as well. 

Because some of our houses didn't have airconditioning, we also spent a lot of time at my grandparents's place, which was five minutes away from our house when we lived in the log house, two minutes when we lived on Parkway Road and in the house we lived in from 1997 to 2016, because they had airconditioning. So we'd watch TV on those days because it was too hot for me to be outside because of my asthma and heart condition. Like I remember watching the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode, "Clean-Up Club" on YTV one afternoon when we were at Nana's and Grandpa's. Grandpa also had a garden in their backyard, complete with a small pond, so we'd spend so much time out there, eating popsicles and ice cream, even though I was tubefed and a bag on my neck to collect anything I swallowed as I had no esophagus, and running around, even though I had a wheelchair and crutches at the time. 

My mom would also take us to the Canadian Museum of Nature and the Science & Tech Museum from time to time as well. We never went to the Museum of Civilization as that was across the bridge in Gatineau (then known as Hull) and Mom never enjoyed driving downtown very often, if she could help it. But the other two museums were close enough that she didn't mind taking us there every once in a while.

However, the one place that I loved going to just about every summer from the age of 2 or 3 until I was 28, going on 29. That was my grandparents's cottage up in the Laurentian Mountains in Quebec. I had friends up there, my cousins (when they were born in the late '90s and early 2000s) were there with their family, and obviously my grandparents were there. We swam in the lake, I walked around the area, visiting friends of the family as well as various other folks who lived up there that my grandparents knew. We had movie nights at the local clubhouse, listening to music on audiocassette, and all sorts of other things. The cottage was like a third home to me (CHEO was my second home). 

Alright my friends, I think that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back on Friday with a post about the Star Wars: Power of the Force toyline as I was reminded today that it's the 30th anniversary of that toyline, and I've had a few of the figures and ships from it over the years. Until then have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

Three Websites I Visited in the Late 90s and Early 2000s

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I had a nice, lowkey, Canada Day yesterday and now, it's super hot outside today. Today I'm gonna be talking about three websites that I visited all the time in the late '90s and early 2000s. Let's get into it.

The first website that I loved visiting in the late '90s and early 2000s was the Official Star Wars Website. I'm going to be doing a larger look at this website over on The Star Wars Journal at some point, but I wanted to include it here because it was such a huge part of my pre-teen and early teen years. I didn't have internet at home at this point in my life, and Star Wars Insider magazine wasn't a huge constant in my life yet. However, I remember sitting in my grandfather's office at the lake, reading character bios, movie synopses, and some behind the scenes info on the Star Wars movies that were out at this point. Episode I had come out, and Lucasfilm and ILM were preparing to make Episode II, which didn't have a title yet at this point.

The next website I visited all the time during this period of my life was Scholastic's official website for Animorphs. As I talked about in my last post here at Josh's Geek Cave, I watched the Animorphs TV series all the time when I was a kid. I also read the books. The website was pretty cool because not only could you find out information on the latest book in the series that had just come out or was about to come out, but you could also find out about behind the scenes stuff about the show's main cast. Fun stuff though, since this website was meant for kids. Specifically the kids who were fans of Animorphs. There was even a section called According to K.A. Applegate, which was an ongoing FAQ section with Katherine Applegate, one of the authors of the books.

My favourite website though was the Official Star Trek Website. Part of it is because the website's design was based on the LCARS computer system seen in TNG, DS9, and Voyager. Like with the database on the Official Star Wars Website, this site had a library section which included information on ships, planets, technology, alien species, and characters. For each of the main characters of the shows and movies, the bios are set up like the crew's service records that we got a glimpse of in the season 5 TNG episode, "Conundrum", which is really cool. Even when we got internet at home, I spent so many hours exploring this website. Even moreso than the other two that I talked about in this blog post.

So, because we didn't have internet until the early 2000s, the only place I could look at these websites was at the cottage, when I was visiting my grandparents. One of those times, I actually printed off a bunch of pages from all three websites to store in a binder so I could read them anytime I wanted. My grandparents had a printer that was just black and white ink so the pictures on the pages were in black and white. But, that's what you did back then because colour ink was expensive. But, these three websites were the internet to me in the late '90s and early 2000s. IMDB was a thing, but I didn't know about it, Wikipedia wouldn't become a thing until 2001, and sites like Wookieepedia, Memory Alpha, and Seerowpedia (the Animorphs Wiki) wouldn't launch until sometime between 2002 and 2004 and YTV's website was just starting up. So for the interests that I had personally in the late '90s and early 2000s, these three websites were it for me.

That's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more great posts. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.