Cod Eye

The only thing about toy advertising I could think of, was from the US. At one point the toy companies had really strict regulations on when/where they could advertise, but is was relaxed in(I want to say) the early 80's? That's when we started to get the Transformers, He-Man and other cartoons of that ilk that were only made to sell the toys(before becoming a big thing in their own rights).

Over here, there was a big cracking down on advertising shit food to kids that's already been mentioned, but that's all I remember. McDonald's were talking about scrapping the toys in Happy Meals around the time they had that huge "health" push when they started with the salads that had more fat in them than the burgers, when their business was reportedly very close to going under. I remember something about the toy component of the meal being worth 49p(or something around there), and you either having the option to not have the toy at all, or being able to buy the toy without the meal for ten bob(this may be something I mis-remembered though). 

14 hours ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

Another victim of the virus. A great voice of TMS gone. 

Sir Geoffrey Boycott leaves Test Match Special after 14 years - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/52944158

Everyone was entitled to Sir Geoffrey's opinion. 

I loved Boycott(it's written into the law that all Yorkhiremen have to love Boycott) as a cricketer, and used to enjoy his to the bone commentary too so this will be a big miss for me. The brilliant wind up by Aggers regarding his 100th hundred was brilliant. TMS at it's best...

6 hours ago, Your Fight Site said:

“The WWE.” The World Wrestling Entertainment? Makes no sense.

I can understand if it was a hangover from “the WWF” (which makes sense: the World Wrestling Federation). But it’s been nearly 20 years now.

I was the same with WCW. Hated it whenever anyone said "The WCW".

To be fair to WWE though, the companies official name is just "WWE" now(not "World Wrestling Entertainment" shortened to WWE), so "the WWE" does work now...

I'd love them to make a new series of The Wire, using modern day technology and surveillance methods...

You can see their point. Why pay huge rents on premises when they can pay a chunk of their staff's internet/electricity bills and have everyone work from home. The staff can claim more of their utility bills back against their tax(I think they can anyway, I do but I'm classes as a contractor, so not sure if it's the same for employed people). 

I just hope the government force the companies invest a decent amount of money into mental health support for their staff, as the isolation and the feeling of being shut in really fucked me up for a long while at first.

Something that always puzzled me from my first years as a fan, was Vince calling every Atomic Trop on Summerslam '92 a "Reverse Piledriver".

I've had both the "Definitive Guides" for ages, and watch the pretty regularly. I've seen me just splaying the trailers over and over in the background while I work. Same with the "Trailer Trauma" Bluray's. I love the nostalgia that the original trailers bring back, from when I was kid and my best mates dad had an independent video store. He used to pay us 10p per tape to rewind them in the back room, and let us watch whatever we wanted while we did it(which was mostly low budget horror shit). I wish I had kept all the VHS tapes he gave me when Blockbuster bought him out now.. 

I've decided I'm going to start working through the old "Video Nasties" again, which will be the first time I've watched the vast majority of them since the 80's when I had all but 5 on xth generation VHS copies. Most have been passed almost virtually uncut now(barring the exclusion of animal cruelty), and released by places like Arrow and Scream Factory on BR. The rest I have VHS and DVD rips. Wish me luck!

Has the actual footage of the accident ever been leaked? In this day and age where there is all sort of sick shit floating about the nether regions of the internet I'm surprised if there wasn't at least some fan footage out there(not that I'd want to watch it, just wondering).

3 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

Courtesy of EAW in Mexico. Looks pretty cool/crazy.

What's the story behind this? 

Just upto the Arn/Jake segment. I thought it was a real treat to watch two masters of the promo bouncing off each other. It's a shame that Jake is an absolute train wreck in real life, as he could have been a huge asset in teaching the trainees how to structure a promo and play off the crowd during a match(and not just taking money off random UKFF's to sit and watch VHS tapes!).

3 minutes ago, dopper said:

In the space one evening this week I heard stories about Owen Hart & Dynamite Kid ribbing people. The contrast between the two is huge.

 

Partly in the Owen Hart episode of Dark Side Of The Ring and partly in deleted scenes posted on Twitter; Jim Cornette, D'Lo Brown, Martha & Oje Hart all told stories about Owen ribbing people.

It was usually along the lines of undoing wrestlers & referees laces during matches or making phone-calls to people pretending to be hotel reception asking them to come down in the middle of the night. Light-hearted stuff which the person being ribbed might get mildly annoyed but not too serious.

 

Then I listened to Danny Boy Collins being interviewed on a podcast immediately afterwards and the subject of Dynamite Kids ribs came up.

Stuff like sneaking out of pubs to push stranger's motorbikes in the river and other wrestlers being hospitalized after being duped into taking dangerously high amounts of laxitives came up. Scumbag moves imo.

 

Where people like Curt Hennig and Mr Fuji were probably in the middle of the scale, Dynamite & Owen were definitely at each end.

I seem to remember some of Fuji's being a bit on the mean spirited side. One that springs to mind is similar to the Dynamite one of pushing people's bikes in the river, was when he sneaked out and took someones entire engine out of their car. He certainly wasn't as much a cunt as the likes of Dynamite, but doing something that would cost the guy a shit load of money, and stop them making the next town on time is a shit thing to do.

Perfect sounded more of a good natured ribber on the whole, but I can imagine he crossed the line from time to time. Although the story in Bret's book of Scot Steiner tying him up and threatening to shove his thumb up his arse for about an hour for ribbing hm probably made him think twice about targeting the tougher side of the locker room...

12 hours ago, BomberPat said:

has anyone ever had anything bad to say about Terry Funk?

Only thing I've ever seen about anyone having any thing against Funk, was Vince McMahon after Funk walked out on him without notice. I remember reading something like he simply left a note saying(and I'm paraphrasing), "To Vince, I have to go home as my horse is sick" and Vince didn't like it and refused to work with him for a fair while.

6 minutes ago, King Pitcos said:

Victor Miller hasn’t won the distribution rights for the existing film, presumably? There’s a world of difference between owning a script you wrote and owning footage of a wrestling match that features your likeness and that of at least two other people (the opponent and the ref), music produced by someone else entirely, the creative direction of the performance being at least partly dictated by other people, and was filmed by one or more other people.

Even if we pretend that WWE broadcasts fall out of their ownership after 35 years, why would the WrestleMania 5 Blue Blazer vs Mr Perfect match become the property of Owen Hart’s estate rather than Curt Hennig’s?

He's won the distribution rights to the original film in the US. Cunningham still owns the rights to the rest of the series, and the world wide rights to the original. It's gone to appeal, but it looks like the same result will be reached. It's why there is no more F13th projects being made now(there was talk of a new film and updates for the console game that have been scrapped), as Cunningham would need to sign a licensing deal with Miller to sell them in the US(as he owns IP such as the name and likeness of Jason and Deberah Voorhees, Camp Crystal Lake etc). It a massive mess, and it's looking like Nightmare on Elm Street is going down the same route.

As for the wrestling part, I have no idea how it would work if it was under the same law. Are the wrestlers the one who "write the script" of the match, under the guidance of a  producer(as the judge found to be the case with the Miller/Cunningham lawsuit)? I have no idea, I was just thinking out loud.

Just on the subject of most of his work being owed by the WWE. I've no idea if it would work in the same way with wrestling, but in the US there is a law that means any work that has been produced for a production company/distributor(in the movies and music for sure) can be claimed back by the contents creator after 35 years. Two high profile cases that have been set in motion fairly recently is the rights to the first Friday the 13th film, where writer Victor Miller has won his case to take back the rights to the title and characters, and the family of Wes Craven trying the same with the Elm St franchise. 

Could this apply to wrestlers and their work too(as is, could they get the rights to their matches back after 35)? I know the WWE would claim the matches were on a "work for hire" basis, but as we know they only sign talent as Independent Contractors(the same argument Miller successfully made regarding his work on Friday the 13th). It's not important in the grand scheme of things, but I was thinking on the lines of Martha Hart claiming the rights to sell and market Owens body of work in benefit of the Owen Hart Foundation?

54 minutes ago, Ranmoor said:

You are taking the piss aren't you?

It was a condition of the bailout from national government to save TFL, which had seen it's revenues fall dramatically. Something the Tories made him implement and are now using it as a stick to beat him with in the Mayoral race.

I thought this too, until Morgan got him to read out the actual wording on the communication he had(to hand). They told him he had to expand the scope of it, but not by how much and not by how long. He/they chose to expand it to 7 days(for example) and although NHS and care workers were exempt, he didn't chose to exempt teacher, police or fire services(again, on an example, as there could have been more that could claim to be exempt). All this as Johnson has told people they should avoid public transport, so people are forced to either cycle, walk(both of which are not possible for some) or drive in, which now costs them £100 per week for the privalage.

I know he's doing it in a Jim Cornette-esque, get himself over by being the outspoken, controversial voice of the people way, but I really enjoyed Peirs Morgan destroying Sadiq Kahn this morning on God Morning Britain. I still can't believe he's used this shitshow as an excuse to up and extend the congestion charge...

Fuck the football off until the start of next season(if it is indeed safe by then). Give Liverpool the title and he Champions league places on PPG(or if they have all played each other home and away, make the top 6 into a mini-league and the top 3 goes into the CL. No idea if they have played each other or not though) and scrap relegation. Promote Leeds(eugh) and Wes Brom, and have a 1 off, 22 team league next year with no League cup, and 4 going down(and only 2 going up, similar to the 94/95 season).

Keeping on the music theme, I'd have loved to be at Live Aid! It would have ben worth sittin through the crap just to see Freddy Mercury's famous performance and the Simon Le Bon "yodal" etc...

I also wish I could have gone to the cinema in 1973 to watch The Exorcist's first theatrical run to see how different the film felt. The stories of people cracking up during it and the presence of nuns and other members of the clergy picketing the showing would have definatly added to the overall atmosphere and experiance.

I've always been annoyed when wrestlers wear something that would give them a big advantage in kayfabe terms, but they don't take advantage of it. For example, Kanes first mask, which would obviously act as protection from getting punched or kicked in his face, but it wasn't really built into his character or any of his matches from what I remember.. One that annoyes me at the minute, is Roman Reigns SWAT vest/ body armour thing. It's got really pronounced padding in the baack that would cushion any falls he takes a little, but again, it's completely ignored.

I'd use it them the same way Greg Valentine used to use the shin pad thing to meke the figure four a lot more "painful".

Apparently, although I've never seen any proof of this in terms of photo's etc, but Brian Glover was at my Christening. He was quite friendl with my Grandad by all accounts, but couldn't stay for the "doo" after as he had to shoot off for whatever work he had on at that point.

Today I found out that Amoxicillin antibiotics can turn you usually pleasant 6 year old into an evil, bad tempered, naughty spawn of hell.

My youngest daughter has had a urine infection, so was put on the yellow anibiotic liquid, and a few days in, her personality completely changed. She's hitting, breaking things, swearing, making shit up. She's turned into a little bastard! I'm not sure if it's the medicine reacting with the fact she's going through prococious puberty or what, but our GP has been forced to change the antibiotics and has said the reaction is more common than people realise!

Just seen some reports that the captains of the EFL clubs have been told to prepare their players for the news the season will not be concluded. The fall out from this will rumble on for years if true.

How long do Nintendo usually tke to reapin the Switch's Joy-con drift problem? I think one on my young 'un's Switch has started doing it and she's devistated. I'm even contiplating buying a new set of cons to put her on while they are being done.

Also, thinking about it. It's only about 4 months old. Will the retailer take it back as  faulty return, or will they wash their hands of it and point me towards the Japanese plumbers?

I wan't them to chalk fuck on this season purely because it will be hilarious to see both Liverpool fans crying over not winning the title again, and to see Leeds denied promotion to the Premier League. Although I suppose Barnsley being able to stay up rather than have our seasonal swap with Rotherham would be decent too!