Bookmark This Page; the abridged history of the brawler

There would be no fighting game genre without the advent of the brawler. If you want to learn about the history of beat ‘em ups then Bookmark This Page.

The Abridged History of the Brawler, a pre-rumble...

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 1

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 2

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 3

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 4

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 5

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 6

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 7

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 8

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 9

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 10

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 11

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 12

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 13

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 14

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 15

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 16

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 17

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 18

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 19

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 20

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 21

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 22

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 23

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 24

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 25

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 26

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 27

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 28

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 29

The Abridged History of the Brawler, Part 30

Were you a fan of the brawler? Did you have a favorite title? Let me know about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Bookmark This Page; the Games Workshop series

I love games of all types, even the tabletop games that existed before video games were created. If you want to learn the history of one of the most influential companies ever then Bookmark This Page.

Building a gaming legacy, the Games Workshop series, part 1...

Building a gaming legacy, the Games Workshop series, part 2…

Building a gaming legacy, the Games Workshop series, part 3…

Building a gaming legacy, the Games Workshop series, part 4…

Building a gaming legacy, the Games Workshop series, part 5…

Building a gaming legacy, the Games Workshop series, part 6…

Building a gaming legacy, the Games Workshop series, part 7…

Building a gaming legacy, the Games Workshop series, part 8…

Building a gaming legacy, the Games Workshop series, part 9…

Building a gaming legacy, the Games Workshop series, part 10…

Building a gaming legacy, the Games Workshop series, part 11...

Building a gaming legacy, the Games Workshop series, final part

The passing of a legend, remembering Wayne England.

Why limited-edition tabletop game items are so cool. A 1UP classic...

Bungie drops something very familiar - A 1UP classic from November 29, 2012 

Freeblade, one of the best mobile games ever made... 

Freeblade, the elements of great game design...

Did you ever play any tabletop games? Let me know about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

How Bigfoot got revenge on Monster Jam

The past few weeks I had talked about how I rebuilt my monster truck library after a series of rainstorms destroyed it. I shared being a lifelong fan of Bigfoot, and some of my favorite toys as a kid. I also reflected on the early days of monster truck competitions in the ‘80s, and how Feld Entertainment pushed Bigfoot out of the spotlight in the ‘90s. By the 2000’s Monster Jam, which was operated by Feld had become a part of mainstream culture. Monster Jam products flooded the aisles of every store. Monster Jam shirts, backpacks, lunch boxes, skateboards, remote control cars, bikes, and toys were everywhere. The big chain retailers like Target, and Walmart carried all things Monster Jam. Even bookstores like Barnes and Noble carried Monster Jam products. In my opinion there hadn’t been any quality 1:64 monster toys since the Super Chargers by Matchbox. This was 15 years before all of these new toys popped up. I wasn’t in a rush to buy anything from the company. I was still upset with how Feld had pushed Bigfoot out of their platform. Worse yet that they made it appear that they were the authority on all things monster truck. As a lifelong fan of off road culture it was hard to find things to collect that didn’t have the Monster Jam branding. The company seemed to crank out more unique monster truck toys in a single season than had ever existed for the entire duration of the Matchbox Super Chargers from 1986-1994.

I would never bash the quality, or selection of the toys themselves. Just as I would never say a bad word about the teams, and drivers for the company. The Monster Jam models were very well made. They were highly detailed. They were also more accurate in scale, and proportion to traditional toy cars, and would be the envy of any toy collector. If I were born in the ‘90s there was no doubt that I would have been bought everything Monster Jam throughout the 2000’s. In addition to the sheer number of available trucks it was their playsets that really caught my eye. At first they were built around the traditional stadium shows, with ramps, cars, and even magnetic sand that you could shape. Later on there were the playsets that had their own original themes. Dinosaurs, zombies, dragons, and more. These were things that appealed to the kid in me. It turned out that there was a reason for these fantastic sets. Mattel produced the Monster Jam toys from 2000-2018 under the Hot Wheels banner. The same creative minds at Hot Wheels were putting their talents into making the best Monster Jam playsets.

Having the Hot Wheels team on board also explained why every season saw a rapid release of new trucks. Mattel released around 50 new, and 130 variant Hot Wheel models every year. Some years they created even more. Coming up with a fraction of those numbers for Monster Jam would be simple by comparison. Kids of all ages could enjoy the vehicles, and sets coming out of Mattel. The quality, and diversity of products had always been held to a high standard. Everything seemed to be great for collectors. For almost three decades Mattel had cornered the toy car market. I want you to remember that in 1997 Mattel purchased perennial rival Matchbox. The company had a stranglehold on the best cars, and tracks around. Suddenly in the summer of 2018 Monster Jam announced that they were ending their run with Hot Wheels, and giving the license to Spin Master toys. The collector forums lit up. This was a multi-million dollar property! What was the reason for the change? Was there a falling out with Mattel, or did Monster Jam buy their own toy manufacturer?

Mattel announced that they were producing an entirely new toy line called Hot Wheels Monster Trucks. The vehicles were similar in build, and scale to those of Monster Jam. Kids, and collectors would be able to put the trucks side-by-side, and not see major differences. The Hot Wheels monster tires were a couple millimeters narrower, but also a couple millimeters taller. In this way Mattel could technically market them as having bigger wheels. The most important part to me was that Hot Wheels would feature Bigfoot at the launch. A few months later they announced that they would also be producing an arena tour. In one quick motion Monster Jam was put on the defensive. Feld had to get an entirely new company to produce toys to the same standards set by Mattel. Then they had to figure out how many customers the Hot Wheels Monster Truck Tour would be taking away of the Monster Jam tour. It didn’t take long for collectors to notice how much Spin Master was poaching the ideas from Hot Wheels. 

Mattel had been developing playsets that told stories for decades before they made monster trucks. In the early days their playsets were fairly standard. They might feature a city center, car wash, parking lot, or construction site. Any kid would be happy with those. Then Mattel challenged their designers to make sets more creative, and interactive. They were essentially creating theme parks for their toy cars. It was not uncommon to have a set based on a haunted house, exploding volcano, rampaging robot, or giant shark. This approach worked for their regular car line, as well as for Monster Jam. Spin Master had to keep the over-the-top feel going, or risk losing customers in the process. Only sales figures would say if they managed to keep up. It didn’t seem to be a big problem for a company with deep enough pockets. There was no independent monster truck organization, or team that could compete with the billions that Feld Entertainment was worth. Not even Bigfoot Inc. had that kind of cash, influence, or connections. Mattel on the other hand was a massive corporation. They were worth twice as much as Feld. In fact the Hot Wheels brand alone was worth billions. It had been a household name for generations, so they didn’t have to try hard to introduce themselves to customers.

Mattel had a very smart marketing strategy with this rollout. They wouldn’t be trying to produce a television series, or put on a stadium show on the scale of Monster Jam. So the logistics, marketing, and overhead were not going to be as expensive. Hot Wheels also had a more targeted approach to the community, and the fan base. It was something that the company had learned during their Hot Wheels Legends Tour, where they created a type of mini car show at every town. So they knew how to target their core audience, while also making a unique event for casual fans. Similarly Monster Trucks Live would be performing in local arenas. Every major city had a venue large enough to host them. Since the arenas were indoors then they could have a show regardless of the weather. Mattel didn’t have to rent out a stadium, haul tons of dirt in, or sell a massive amount of tickets in order to recoup the cost. Recently Monster Jam was having difficulty selling out the bigger venues. This was especially true in a sinking economy. Mattel changed up the format of the show, it wouldn’t just be a rehash of Monster Jam with different trucks. They brought in junk cars, and painted them in bright colors for the monsters to smash. This detail went back to the roots of the sport.

It was something more exciting for fans like me to watch rather than the dirt ramps used by Feld. An arena show ensured a more intimate experience. Seats were closer to the action. The sights, and sounds of car crushes was more intense. Plus smaller shows gave Hot Wheels the ability to host two or three events every weekend instead of a single massive show. Making the transition from Monster Jam to their own toy line was relatively simple for Mattel. The speed in which Hot Wheels was ready for their own tour was unprecedented. Team Bigfoot did the majority of the heavy lifting, but they were joined by other trucks including Holman's Beast, Son of Beast, Basher, Heavy Hitter, and more. Contrary to popular belief Bigfoot did not retire once it had been pushed out of Monster Jam. In fact it had been on tour nonstop for 50 years. It appeared on TV, and movies, but also independent monster truck shows, car shows, county fairs, and other sponsored events.

Bob Chandler had been steadily building newer, and better trucks all the while. This allowed him to run three, four, or more versions of Bigfoot trucks simultaneously. The most recent build as of 2025 was Bigfoot #24. They even had an all-electric Bigfoot (#20). The team had a dedicated crew of mechanics, trailers, and drivers. This allowed them to tour coast-to-coast, and even overseas as well. Mattel was able to work with them, and a handful of other indy monster truck teams to decide which toy trucks would get full size counterparts. Best of all those smaller teams would be able to cash a check from Hot Wheels without breaching any contracts they had with Monster Jam. The trucks that normally appeared on tour with Monster Jam would never appear on the Hot Wheels shows as they had a completely different name, and body. Mattel wouldn’t actually be building an entire fleet of trucks, but instead just creating bodies to place over existing trucks. A traditional truck shape would get a vinyl wrap, making it appear like a specific Hot Wheels model. More unique body shapes like robotic rhinos, neon dinosaur skeletons, tiger sharks, and fire trucks would be created as well. 

Mattel would create the illusion of having a fleet of monster trucks, enough to rival Monster Jam. Each season they could introduce entirely “new” trucks, which were actually just new bodies. They could ensure that the most popular trucks would always be available for a venue, even if they had to swap chassis. It was great for marketing. A relatively low cost for them to undercut Monster Jam, while reaping all of the rewards. Gen-Xers like me grew up with Bigfoot, there were millions of kids that had never seen the truck up close. It made me happy knowing that that the tour would create an entirely new generation of fans. Not only that but kids would be encouraged to find a favorite truck to cheer on. It was a genius move to use the Bigfoot, and other independent fleet of trucks with custom Hot Wheels bodies. At the same time Mattel was looking at the long run. The company heads knew that Bigfoot would always be owned by the Chandler family. So they needed to create their own co-star. In this way if Mattel ever decided to retire the tour then they would still own their new stars. They just needed to figure out who was going to headline alongside the king. The company had thousands, and thousands of Hot Wheels bodies that they could have used. The first one they settled on was a genius choice.

The Bone Shaker was one of the baddest-looking trucks of the past 20 years. It was part rat rod, part street pirate, and all attitude. I’m glad that Hot Wheels didn’t try to create another truck clone. There were dozens of active monsters, with traditional body shapes. Most of them were touring in independent monster shows all across the country. There were some nice ones, but in all honesty the majority were forgettable. Mattel needed something with a unique look, and a solid name. Something that would be remembered long after the tours ended. Most important they needed a ride that would be easy to identify on the toy shelves. Of the thousands of Hot Wheels models they could have selected Mattel definitely chose the best one. They didn’t just build an adequate co-star for Bigfoot. They built their response to the Grave Digger. They sent a shot across the bow of Feld Entertainment. The origins of the Bone Shaker went back decades. It was a descendant from the very roots of hot rod culture itself. A period where nothing was impossible, no build was too outlandish, no motor was too big or too loud. A time when alien-shaped show rods, and Rat Finks were warping young minds, and building a new automotive culture.

Larry Wood was an icon in the toy industry. He first worked at Ford designing cars, but thought he could do something more with his talents. So he left Detroit, and moved to Los Angeles. He ended up at Mattel designing Hot Wheels from 1969 to 2019. He created hundreds of models, and tracks during his career. My brothers, and I had owned many of them. As we got older we would gift them to our cousins, nieces, and nephews in the US, and Mexico. They in turn passed many of those surviving toys onto their children. I don’t think Mr. Wood realized that his influence was not only generational, but also multicultural. The cars he created had been in my family, or extended family for 50 years! What was astounding about the designs of Mr. Wood was that he managed to capture the spirit of the era. His cars in each decade worked for the period, but still looked cool to this day. I dare you to find a toy from the ’70s that would still resonate with kids today. This body of work was something that very few designers in any field had managed to achieve. I would argue that he reached perfection in the 2000’s by harkening back to the cars that influenced him.

The Bone Shaker was first introduced in 2006. It became an instant hit. Kids, adults, and even casual toy fans were drawn to it. It had the perfect mix of real world performance-meets-fantasy that defined the Hot Wheels brand. Over the next decade it was reproduced, recolored, and repackaged again, and again by Mattel. I think the success of the car was because it was a callback to the hot rods that Mr. Wood had grown up with. The Ford Model-T was not known for its performance, but because it was the first mass produced American car. After the 1920’s there were plenty of surplus Model-T bodies collecting dust in garages, and junkyards. They would become the platforms for automotive mad scientists. Modified Model-T’s aka T-Buckets were among the first hot rods. They had their hoods, and fenders removed to shave weight. They also had an exposed souped-up engine. The same things were also done with Ford Model-A, and Model-B bodies from the 1930’s.

The Bone Shaker was styled closer to the Model-A rods. Mr. Wood was growing up when young Americans were creating an entirely new automotive movement. Hot Wheels had made many types of rods over the years, but the Bone Shaker was different. It wasn’t a rat rod either, whose bodies covered in rust, and patina added to their character. The Bone Shaker told a unique story. One that was more of a vibe, rather than a specific time. Mr. Wood used his Hot Wheels magic to make his idea come to life. He chopped it, gave it an intimidating stance, painted it a solid color, with a pirate motif, and added a gigantic chrome skull at the front. These elements were all in varying proportions, and it took somebody with a lifetime of experience to find the right balance.

The Bone Shaker was so revolutionary that it became one of the very few models produced by Mattel that could be transferred to different platforms. First they went with a Baja race truck, then they went to a monster truck. They even produced an “Experimotor” version aka a ‘toon version called the Skull Shaker. In every case the Bone Shaker looked amazing. It was around this time that Mr. Wood decided he was ready to step away from Mattel. The Bone Shaker monster truck toy debuted in 2018. The real life monster truck came out in 2019, the same year that Mr. Wood retired. It was a legacy that he should be proud of. It was important to me as well. Hot Wheels left Monster Jam behind, and put Bigfoot back in the spotlight. I could start collecting again. I’ll highlight the trucks I picked up on a future blog. Were there any companies that you didn't care for that got some karmic justice? Tell me in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Bookmark This Page; The best games from IGS and their PGM arcade machine

I sometimes wrote about indy developers, or indy publishers that made fun but rare games. In this series I talked about a Taiwanese company that made arcade games to rival the best from Capcom, and SNK. If you’ve never heard of IGS then Bookmark This Page.

A look at IGS, Demon Front - A 1UP classic from December 27, 2011

A look at IGS, the Gladiator; Road of Sword. A 1UP classic...

A look at IGS, the Martial Masters. A 1UP classic... 

Did you ever hear about IGS or their Poly Games Master arcade rig? Let me know about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Bookmark This Page; The origins of the Middle Eastern fighter

Fighting games had a mixed take on Middle Eastern characters over the past 40+ years. If you want to see the good, and bad origins of those characters then Bookmark This Page.

The Middle Eastern fighter, building a legacy, part 1...

The Middle Eastern fighter, building a legacy, part 2…

The Middle Eastern fighter, building a legacy, part 3…

The Middle Eastern fighter, building a legacy, final part… 

Did you have a favorite middle eastern character? Let me know about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The Monster Wars that turned the public away from Bigfoot

In a previous blog I talked about rebuilding my monster truck book, and magazine library. It was something that I had originally built up through the 1980’s, but was destroyed by a freak series of rain storms in the mid 1990’s. It left me disheartened, and unwilling to have anything to do with monster trucks for more than a decade. Thankfully street basketball, and the urban vinyl movement created new interests for me to follow entering the new milennium. I ended the entry by talking about how I rebuilt the library over the past few years. I also started collecting classic monster truck toys to display on my work desk. I went back to the Matchbox Super Charger trucks from 1985-1986. These were some of the most memorable toys to me as a kid. They set the standard in my book. If you were born in the ‘90s or early 2000’s then you always had monster trucks on television, and monster truck toys on the toy shelves. To you they had always existed, and always were a part of motorsports culture. I’m here to tell you this wasn’t always the case.

As member of Generation-X I was a kid when monster trucks first made the news. I first saw them in magazines, and couldn’t believe that there were trucks so massive that they could crush cars. It was the ultimate power trip! My brain melted when my brothers, and I saw the first televised monster truck race between Bigfoot, and USA-1 on That’s Incredible in 1983. I remember finding out about it thanks to TV Guide (ask your grandparents). I spent all week hyping my classmates up in elementary school. I told them that there was going to be a monster truck race on TV. They didn’t grasp the concept, and didn’t seem to be remotely interested in what was about to happen. From that point on I would check the listings to see if there were any other monster truck related events. Sadly there would be nothing else for a couple of years. Then in 1985 I found out that there was going to be a TV special on the weekend. It was called Battle of the Monster Trucks. It would feature a bunch of monster trucks going against each other across multiple events. To say that this was the most important televised event of my childhood would be an understatement. It would become the first entry in the most important trilogy of my childhood.

The next year we saw the Return of the Monster Trucks, and it was rounded out by the War of the Monster Trucks. The success of these specials lead to the creation of different racing leagues, and different touring shows. The majority were organized by the United States Hot Rod Association (USHRA). Sponsors realized that they could capture the public by featuring the best monsters in live competition. This early period for organized monster truck events had the same kind of energy as the birth of NASCAR some 40-years earlier. Just like NASCAR it was beer, and tobacco companies that saw the motorsport as a way to build a customer base. One of the biggest contests around was the Mud & Monsters series presented by Camel cigarettes. All of a sudden local television, and cable channels were fighting over broadcast rights. This started to put a rift in between the various trucks, teams, track operators, and owners. There was no doubt that backroom deals, and exclusive contracts to feature the biggest names were being created at this time.

It was the late ‘80s, and early ‘90s when the regular televised events started growing in popularity. I was entering my teen years, and super excited to see that monster trucks had become a part of mainstream culture. The one thing that I began to notice was how some of the contests were pushing certain trucks more than others. In particular the black, and green Chevy panel van known as Grave Digger was getting a massive push from the commentators. I pointed it out to my brothers, and after a few weeks they also noticed that the Grave Digger was getting the majority of air time over the older, and more established trucks. I said if I didn’t know better it looked like they were trying to push Bigfoot out of the spotlight. That was not to say that Bigfoot was unstoppable. USA-1 won the series champion in 1988, and Equalizer in 1989. Bigfoot didn’t capture a championship until 1990. The Grave Digger didn’t win the championship until 1999, after Bigfoot had already won it seven times. If you look at the list of monster truck racing champions from 1988-2005 you can clearly see how dominant Bigfoot was in competition. Yet that didn’t seem to be the narrative according to television.

I felt like I was watching a biased show. It was never that the Carolina Crusher, Taurus, Bear Foot, or the Equalizer had better season than the Grave Digger, but rather that the Grave Digger just had a bad run. I started to feel a little jaded with the entire format, and way that TNT Motorsports was presenting the contests. My suspicions were slowly growing into a full blown conspiracy. To me the smoking gun was when Bigfoot owner Bob Chandler went back to the drawing board. He built a better Bigfoot after narrowly losing the championship two years in a row. Team Bigfoot had once again raised the bar. Bigfoot VIII was so dominant that it was banned from competition. This lead to a lawsuit against TNT. They argued that Chandler’s “third-generation” monster truck was too far advanced for the competition. What Chandler had done was improve on the building techniques of himself, and his contemporaries. Bigfoot VIII featured a tube chassis designed on a computer. It had a lightweight body, and was closer to a Baja racing truck than an old school monster truck. This was a template that would be modified even more through Bigfoot XI aka Wildfoot in 1993. It set the standard which would be copied by the rest of the industry for more than a decade.

The Bigfoot Team was losing points during the season while they were appealing the ban in court. Rather than sit out the season Chandler decided to run an older truck, and stay in contention. Despite a number of engine issues Rich Hooser did the impossible. He ran Bigfoot IV against newer monster trucks, and won. Andy Brass also drove the truck to several victories as well. Watching the truck which was originally built in 1984 hang with newer machines made me an even bigger fan. I thought that Bigfoot was fighting the good fight, and showing the country why it was called the King of the Monster Trucks. It seemed that TNT always downplayed these scrappy victories. They would make excuses for the other trucks in the series, and never give Bigfoot the credit it deserved.

I began questioning why it was okay that other teams were allowed to make improvements to their rides during the off season, but Chandler was punished for doing the same thing. I remember how radically different Awesome Kong looked after a crash in 1988. The red Ford with the aircraft engine was easily one of the greatest builds I had ever seen. Then one day after a crash repair it returned to competition with a squished frame over a tube chassis, and a new engine. Builder / driver Jeff Dane said it was to help improve visibility, and make it in time to enter the season of competition. To me it looked like a way to shave weight off of the truck, and have just a hair of an advantage over the other trucks with heavier metal bodies. As much as I respected Mr. Dane, I was skeptical that he was allowed to compete with his radically different truck, at the same time that Bigfoot VIII had to sit out. TNT commentators always seemed to play favorites on the air. Similar things could be said of the other televised contests. It didn’t make sense to me at the time why there seemed to be a bias against the most popular truck in the world. Then I got older, and looked at the big picture.

I mentioned previously how Feld Entertainment bought out the United States Hot Rod Association, and became the De facto organizing body for monster truck competitions. They bought out entire teams, or signed them to exclusive contracts so that they could only appear on Monster Jam tours, and Monster Jam television programming. You can read the history of the different companies that came together to form Monster Jam in this Wiki article. Only as an adult did it make sense why the TV shows were pushing the Grave Digger so hard. Feld would have more control over the marketing, licensing, and merchandise rights of certain trucks. The Grave Digger team run by Dennis Anderson didn’t have the bargaining power that Chandler did. Eventually Anderson would sell the rights to Feld as well. I respected Anderson, in fact I gave him his flowers when I talked about the Grave Digger earning its reputation, and Anderson being an important contributor to the mega truck movement. I was upset watching the artificial rise of the Grave Digger while Bigfoot was getting pushed out of the spotlight. Feld standardized the builds of each truck, poaching the technology that Bigfoot was built on. They pre-packaged trucks with corporate sponsor names. If there was a cartoon, movie, or comic book that they could license then you were guaranteed to see it at the next stadium show. Scooby-Doo, Wonder Woman, Iron Man, and Spongebob Squarepants were just some of the many branded trucks.

Feld pulled off a quiet coup that the public would never know about. You could watch this well researched video to see why Bigfoot and Grave Digger won’t compete against each other again. It was something that I don’t think modern monster truck fans realized. Bob Chandler had been iced out of the sport that he helped create. Team Bigfoot was still able to perform around the world, but to smaller venues, and no dedicated television appearances. This greatly limited the earning potential of Bob Chandler. It didn’t matter that he helped form the Monster Truck Racing Association for the safety of drivers, and audiences. It didn’t matter that his quest to improve on every version of Bigfoot was copied by this contemporaries. Monster truck television shows, and stadium tours had reached a point where they could operate successfully without Bigfoot ever appearing. The important thing to me was how Feld pushed another truck to be the flag bearer for the sport. The years of publicity worked on the masses. By 2019 Motor Trend said that the Grave Digger was the OG monster truck. It was a slap in the face to Bigfoot, USA-1, King Kong, and every other truck that contributed to the culture well before Grave Digger.

Feld also changed the look, and feel of monster truck competition. The original monster truck contests were rough, and tumble affairs. They felt organic. They grew out of the actual off road community. Like a rodeo put together by locals. By comparison Monster Jam was a highly polished event. It was assembled by a corporate boardroom. Ready-made for TV, like dressage for expensive show ponies. Actual measurable events like the hill climb, mud bog, sled pull, and car crush were previously used to determine which was the best truck around. The entire racing element had taken a back seat to the freestyle competitions. That format was much more subjective. Since Feld controlled the biggest shows, and the biggest teams, then they were able to define what monster trucks were all about. Then there was a darker undercurrent about big business corrupting the sport.

Previously I had compared the way Feld operated their business to WWE. The McMahon family owned a majority of the names, and likenesses of the wrestling characters. They treated the talent as independent contractors rather than employees. So they didn’t have to provide them with medical, insurance, or retirement plans. Yes the performers were paid well, but they made a tiny fraction of what the McMahons did. The Feld family owned a number of teams, but also contracted work to smaller groups. The Feld family was worth billions, whereas the superstars like Dennis Anderson were worth a few million, and the lesser known independent teams worth less. Knowing that the owners of the WWE leaned very heavy to the right politically made me wonder about Feld as well. According to OpenSecrets.org Feld Entertainment made a majority of political contributions to the Republican Party through the years.

As a minority living in the USA it pained me to see the sport was being controlled by people that didn’t always consider me a part of this great nation. This distressed me greatly. I was a lifelong fan of the monster truck community I wanted to buy some toys, but I didn’t want to support Feld (or the WWE) in any way. I had to figure out something to collect, but what? I’ll talk about it in a future blog. Were you a fan of a sport, team, or star performer only to find out something that made you lose respect in them? Tell me in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Bookmark this page; A look at Rising Thunder and the robot based fighting games

I love fighting games of all types. Did you ever play the ones featuring robots? If not then Bookmark This Page.

The road to Rising Thunder, part 1...

The road to Rising Thunder, part 2…

The road to Rising Thunder, part 3…

The road to Rising Thunder, final part 

Did you have a favorite robot fighting game? Let me know about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Bookmark This Page; Capcom fumbles the designs in Street Fighter V.

I’m probably best known for my deep dives on fighting character designs. There was something about the work that went into Street Fighter IV, and V that seemed out of place. If you want to see how Capcom missed the mark with some character designs then Bookmark This Page.

Representation Matters! Or, what happened to Birdie, part 1...

Representation Matters! Or, what happened to Birdie, part 2…

Representation Matters! Or, what happened to Birdie, part 3…

Representation Matters! Or, what happened to Birdie, part 4…

Representation Matters! Or, what happened to Birdie, part 5…

Representation Matters! Or, what happened to Birdie, part 6…

Representation Matters! Or, what happened to Birdie, part 7…

Representation Matters! Or, what happened to Birdie, part 8…

Representation Matters! Or, what happened to Birdie, final part…

What is going on with the Street Fighter V character designs? Part 1, who is F.A.N.G?

What is going on with the Street Fighter V character designs? Part 2, where did F.A.N.G come from?

The Ken reaction, part 1...

The Ken reaction, part 2… 

Did you like or loathe the character designs in Street Fighter V. Let me know about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Losing a monster collection, and getting it back

If you were a regular visitor to this blog then you probably knew that I collected various things. These included foreign, and domestic comic books, comic book toys (especially Hulk figures), Japanese video game magazines, sneaker books, vinyl basketball figures, Wonder Eggs ephemera, and of course Oswald the Lucky Rabbit merchandise. One of the things that I used to collect were monster truck magazines. In fact I used to have a massive library of 4x4 magazines, skateboard magazines, and US video game magazines.

Unfortunately almost 20 years ago Southern California experienced a series of freak rainstorms that lasted for weeks on end. Some of my collection was in my bedroom, but a good portion was also stored in my parent’s garage. I didn’t realize at the time that there was a leak in the garage roof, directly over where I kept most of my magazines. It not only dripped directly onto my magazines, but it also pooled on the garage floor, where most of my books were sorted in cardboard boxes. By the time I learned what had happened I had lost decades of issues, including the first hundred or so copies of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Game Pro, and Gamefan.

By a miracle the rarer Japanese issues that I owned managed to stay dry. After the storms passed my family rented a dumpster. My brothers, and I helped empty out the garage, throwing away piles of disintegrating paper. My mom would have the garage torn down, and rebuilt. I began sorting, and organizing the things that survived. I put them in a storage unit where they remained for years and years. I was genuinely heartbroken over what I had lost. I didn’t bother trying to build the monster magazine collection again. In fact I didn’t want to look or think about anything monster truck related for years after. I mentioned how I broke out of that cycle in 2019 when a monster truck jumped over a flying plane. Some people outgrew the things they loved as kids. Not me, from the moment I saw my first monster truck I was hooked. My friends, and family learned to live with my obsession. Remember the story about how I was more excited to play a monster truck arcade game than go on any rides at a local theme park? When I say I was a fan I meant it.

My parents always supported our interests. While they bought my brothers toys, I begged them for a subscription to Four Wheeler Magazine. They were happy that I was a voracious reader, more important they appreciated how well we took care of the things they bought. My brothers, and I were aware how hard they both worked. They gave us the advantages they didn’t have growing up. We saw them go without just to make ends meet. So we took good care of every present we got. In fact we still had some of the toys, and comics we grew up with. At the end of the year we would give some of the toys we had outgrown to cousins, nieces, and nephews in the US, and Mexico. In my case I gave up entire Hot Wheel track sets, and dozens of cars that I had held onto for years. For my little brother he gave up folders of Pokemon cards, which in hindsight could have been a downpayment to a house. The gifts also included our BMX bikes as we entered our teen years. We knew that things were sometimes tough for our extended family. We were fortunate enough to help.

Quality monster truck toys were hard to come by when I was growing up. For the longest time all we had were Hot Wheel trucks, which were good, but not real monsters. Then one day the gods smiled on us. The Super Chargers by Matchbox set the bar that wouldn’t be topped for years. They were roughly the same scale as Hot Wheels, about 1:64. They had the trademark oversized Goodyear tires, and axels with a little give so you could roll over your toy cars. They debuted in 1985-1986 and featured a who’s-who of the monster pioneers. These included Bigfoot, USA-1, Awesome Kong II, Fly-N-Hi, Mad Dog II, Rollin’ Thunder, and Taurus. Over the following years Matchbox would add more trucks, and even pulling sleds to the lineup. These other monsters were completely made up. I’m sure an accountant at Matchbox said they could save money on licensing costs by creating their own lineup. These included cars, trucks, and jeeps with names like Bog Buster, Hawk, Toad, Doc, and So High. My parents were willing to get me one of these cars each time we visited Toys R Us. Again, I was grateful for their generosity. I’m sure they were happy that we were content with Hot Wheels, and never asked about the U.S.S. Flagg for our G.I. Joes.

As the ‘80s went on more, and more monster truck toys started popping up, and even monster-adjacent trucks started appearing. For example my older brother was an avid collector of Legos. He’d been a fan since the late 1970’s. In my lifetime I only collected a few sets. Some of which were the first lifted trucks produced by the company. I remember my brother’s excitement when he found them. He pulled me to the toy aisle to show me. A little red, white, and blue truck called the 4-Wheelin’ Truck from 1987. Then in 1988 he found the black Road and Trail 4x4 which was even larger, and clearly the first monster produced by the company. Just out of curiosity I jumped on eBay to see what the trucks were going for today. The white one was around $20 including the box. I was shocked to see that the Road and Trail boxed set ran for around $260. This made me more grateful that I took good care of my toys, even if most of them were still in the garage. Looking back on the ones I collected it frustrated me was that the Bigfoot Matchbox toy was never on the shelves. I searched at every toy store for years, but I could never find the iconic blue Ford. That was the one that I always wanted. I had to settle for some of the generic monsters, and a couple of the named ones. I still respected the vehicles in my collection because they were groundbreakers.

Taurus was a popular truck. It became a legend for crushing busses. By the mid ‘80s people knew that monster trucks could easily crush cars. In order to stand out the drivers had to get more creative. Jack Wilman the builder / driver of Taurus decided to run his crimson painted monster over two school busses tucked side-by-side. It was super dangerous considering that in order to reach that height the truck first had to roll over some cars, and then crawl up to the roofs of the busses. You might know that bus roofs were not reinforced. So the almost six-ton monster truck would flatten the roofs, and create a shaky platform. Mr. Wilman would then have to get off the other end without falling off sideways. He could have easily injured himself, and wrecked his truck in the process. It was a spectacular stunt that was rarely performed by any other monster. Then there was the first monster van Rollin’ Thunder. This bright orange van was actually a local legend. The owner / builder / driver was Jim Oldaker. He was out of Redondo Beach. I would often see the van parked at a shop in Wilmington California. I never got a picture with the van because I assumed it would always be there. These two Matchbox monsters went everywhere with me. They were especially fun to play with in the playground, and beach. The big wheels rolled right over the sand whereas all my Hot Wheels would sink right in. I was super-happy with the Matchbox toys, then one Christmas I got the greatest present a kid could ask for. My very own Bigfoot from Playskool toys.

The rest of the toy industry was learning that monster trucks were not a fad. They had captured the imagination of the entire nation. They appeared in movies, and on television. There were news reports, and magazine articles on the movement. Kids were especially drawn to them. We couldn’t get enough of the awesome machines. Toy companies were scrambling to create new 4x4 products. Then they had to figure out how to market these trucks to the masses. It was an easy sell to me, however some people needed to understand what these giant trucks were all about. Playskool, or rather their parent company Hasbro learned that they could feature Bigfoot in a cartoon show. These shows were wildly successful ads for their other toy lines including Jem and the Holograms, Inhumanoids, Transformers, and G.I. Joe. In the cartoon series the fictional Yank Justice was the driver of Bigfoot. He was the star of a traveling crew called the Muscle Machines. This team had sled pulling cars, and trucks like the Orange Blossom Special, War Lord, and Black Gold. They were putting on shows all over the country when they got involved in a mystery adventure.

The series was animated by the same studios that worked on G.I. Joe, and voiced by the same cast. It was a cheesy series that managed to make sure that each character got a chance to shine. I think this was the part that studios didn’t really understand about the culture. The trucks were the draw at the sled pulling events, mud bog, and hill climbs at stadium shows, and county fairs. Each vehicle had its own personality. They all had unique bodies, suspensions, tires, and power plants. No two performed the same. More important each truck built their own fan base. It was apparent in the Knight Rider TV series that the robot car K.I.T.T. was more than the co-star of the show. The episodes that revolved around vehicle opponents like K.A.R.R., the Juggernaut, and Goliath were the most memorable ones. In a similar fashion the best parts of the Bigfoot cartoon was watching the truck go up against combine harvesters, steam rollers, and the fictional monster trucks Grave Roller, and Barbarian. I had a feeling that if the series had been more encounters like that, and less mystery adventure like a G.I. Joe then it would have been picked up for another season.

When our parents moved us out of our tiny apartment in Downtown Long Beach into a house in North Long Beach our toys, comics, and magazines came along. When I didn’t have anything to read I would walk to the local 7-11 to buy issues of Off-Road, and also 4Wheel & Off-Road magazine. This was through the mid ‘80s, and early ‘90s. You could now imagine how many issues of that era were lost. Monster trucks meant a lot to me all through my childhood, through my formative years, and into adulthood. While I gave up a lot of toys to my nieces, and nephews, I never stopped loving monster trucks That was why I was devastated when my collection was wiped out. I learned to accept the loss, and be grateful with what was preserved. Years later I got married, went through various moves. Including a period where we didn’t have a permanent residence. Eventually we were able to get some stable housing. By the grace of God I was able to bring the collection out of storage, and move it into a new garage (with a better roof). My family noticed that my mental health improved when I brought my Japanese game magazines into the house. My wife, and kid encouraged me to start collecting again. The library felt incomplete because it lacked the extensive 4x4 library that I once owned. So I decided that would become my focus.

I started rebuilding the library in earnest. It took almost 15 years by the time I wrote this blog to talk about it. I would pick up back issues on eBay. Sometimes I would get an entire lot of 10 or 20 off road issues at a time for very little. I’d toss the ones that didn’t have monster features in the recycle bin, or pull out single pages for my scrapbook wherever there was a short article. Sometimes I would go months without seeing anything worth collecting. Then there were greedy sellers asking too much for single issues. I kept to my budget, and waited them out. Every now, and then someone would sell the same rare issues for a few bucks, and that’s when I would move. By my estimation I managed to get back about 95% of the titles that I originally owned. I was missing scores of posters. Again greedy sellers were gutting poster books, and trying to sell individual posters for absurd prices. So I passed on all of those. The biggest surprise was that I managed to land books, and magazines that I never owned as a kid. I had an entire chronology of the birth of the monster truck movement in the early ‘80s, all the way to the creation of the Monster Jam tour in the ‘90s, and even the rise of the mega truck generation in the 2000’s. As an illustrator I had a resource library that I could go to for every era, and type of truck, engine, suspension, and angle that you could imagine. I was very proud of what my family helped me rebuild. As with everything I owned it was a slow, and steady process.

Speaking of rebuilding. When I couldn’t find any back issues then I would hunt for physical toys. Since our apartment was tiny I wanted something small that wouldn’t take up much space. Preferably something that would fit on my desk. It would be nice to have something that I could look at every day while I was working from home. I already had a number of items on my desk to remind me of my passions. Things like skate tools, fantasy coins, a Big the Cat figurine, a Laboon gashapon, a Neo Geo Pocket Color, and a Michael Lau figure. These were things that I could pick up, study, and play with while I was on break. The only thing missing were some vehicles. At first I thought about picking up some of the recent model quality trucks. GreenLight Collectibles launched the Kings of Crunch series in April 2020. These were first generation, and some second generation monsters in the traditional 1:64 scale. They were absurdly detailed, with realistic interiors (including cupholders!), and undercarriages. The quality of each build was well above the standard Hot Wheels toy. No disrespect to Mattel, but these were gorgeous models that you could proudly display. Although I was tempted to invest heavily in the line I decided to only get a couple of trucks. Those being Bigfoot V, and Bigfoot VII, the ones that had the 10-foot tires.

In addition to the Greenlight models there were tons of monsters in the toy aisles, however there was only one line that I really wanted to return to. I jumped on eBay, and searched for the original Super Chargers. You could already guess which was the first one that I picked up. After 40 years I finally had my own Matchbox Bigfoot! Then I worked backwards to pick up the other real world trucks. USA-1, Awesome Kong II, Fly-N-Hi, Mad Dog II, and Rollin’ Thunder. My original Taurus truck was somewhere in the garage, so I would eventually add it to the desk as well. It turned out that a lot of monster truck toys came, and went after I lost my original magazine collection. I’ll talk about picking those up in a future blog. Did you have something you loved, and lost? Were you able to get it back? Tell me in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!