Bookmark This Page; the random fighting game posts

I love fighting games of every type. If you want a look at rare titles, unpublished titles, and random fighting game topics then Bookmark This Page.

The best championships in fighting games, part 1

The best championships in fighting games, part 2

Fighting with a disability, part 1...

Fighting with a disability, final part

Coloring the action, how color impacted the development of fighting games

The Frightful Symmetry of Street Fighter

The new wave of Black fighting game protagonists

A quick look at the native origins of Samurai Shodown...

The unlikely origins of some Mad Gear bosses...

The Aliens, Predator, Terminator, and Capcom connection...

Creating a fighting game Frankenstein's monster...

Who will rule The New Urth? A 1UP classic...

Gravity Falls, the show, the games. A 1UP Classic...

Who will be the last fighting master left standing?

Revenge of the wooden men! (Originally posted on my Capcom-Unity blog)

Before Antonov there was Asimov, a take on the King of Fighters XIV host.

Painted faces, where have I seen that sumo before?

Chosun Musa, the 2D Korean Fighting game that almost was.

Korean fantasy fighting game Chosun Musa is not cancelled!

A look at Ken-Ju, an unreleased fighting game from 2005

The sprite-based game that predated the features of Street Fighter 6

Welcome to Death Vegas - A 1UP classic from January 23, 2009

Ultimate Domain, a fighting game that never was.

The return of Sonic... Blast Man?! - A 1UP classic from April 12, 2011

The return of a lost fighter? - A 1UP classic from October 16, 2008

A glimpse at the psychic fighting games

What about touch-based fighting games? - A 1UP Classic from April 7, 2011

Remembering some rare fighting game news in Arcadia

The last great fighting game covers of Arcadia.

The Fallen Angels, and Rage of the Dragons. Two rare fighting games get a second chance in arcades!

A good Double Dragon fighting game? The story of Rage of the Dragons.

The story of Burnov. Or how to make a fat character work in a fighting game.

Celebrating 10 Years of Arcadia / the Return of EGM! - Two Capcom-Unity classics from June 16, 2009

Daigo owns Arcadia Magazine! - A 1UP classic from October 11, 2010

Capoeira Fighter 3, the interview - A 1UP classic from January 4, 2008

The Return of Capoeira Fighter 3: Ultimate World Tournament!

What are your favorite rare, or unfinished fighting games? Tell me 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; Everything about Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and Epic Mickey

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is easily my favorite Disney cartoon character. If you want to learn everything about the character, and his appearances in animated, comics, and games then Bookmark This Page.

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!

Oswald finds a new home, at his old home?

In the previous blog I talked about the cancelled Oswald cartoon series for Disney+. This was from back in 2019. Just as the animation fans had lost all hope there was a surprise announcement from Disney. In March of 2025 the company revealed that actor / director / producer Jon Favreau was working on an Oswald series for Disney+. Aside from Mr. Favreau was the only other thing revealed was that three young leads had also been cast.

The details on the show were very tight. Audiences had no idea if the show was set in 1923 when Walt Disney first arrived in Los Angeles. Or if it was set in the present almost 60 years after his death in 1966? Or did it cover multiple points in between? Mr. Favreau was known for keeping his projects, and most important his team sworn to secrecy. He managed to keep a great portion of the Mandalorian under wraps during its production. The things he could not control however were the public stumbling across his filming locations. He was spotted on multiple occasions shooting at Disneyland. Eagle-eyed visitors also spotted a scale model for Oswald that the actors could play to. We could assume that Oswald was going to be computer generated, and not a puppet like Grogu aka Baby Yoda. Now that I think about it a puppet Oswald would have been amazing. A few lucky fans that visited the park during filming were rewarded with challenge coins from the director himself. The stories of the coin were shared on Reddit.

You could see on one side of the coin that Oswald was playing a guitar. The neck of the guitar had 2025 printed on it, and the music notes actually spelled out “JF” for the director. I begged every Disney friend that I knew to see if they could score a coin for me. Many visited the parks at least once a week, the odds that they might stumble across the shoot were pretty good. As an Oswald super fan I also begged Favreau online yet never got a response. I’m sure he was getting millions of comments for every Marvel, Star Wars, and now cartoon project that he was associated with. Chances were that he would never see my posts. Still I held out hope!

I lost hope that I would ever come across the filming of the series. Ticket prices for Disneyland had soared in the past few years. I had been priced out for some time. Then I learned that they were shooting outside of the park as well. @fairy_drawsdb on Twitter posted several pictures of the “set.” It looked like an aged strip mall called “Hyperion Plaza.” Some of the people commenting on the lot said it looked exactly like 2829 Hyperion Ave in Los Angeles. The original Disney Studios were located just down the street at 2719 Hyperion Ave. This was now the location of the Gelsons market. You could read all about the original studio location here.

The strip mall had a big Oswald mural painted on the side where it read “Home of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.” The downside was that the people that posted images of the building never gave away its location. Even the people posting in the comments section asked, but didn’t get a response. Although some people speculated that it was on Hyperion I knew that wasn’t the case. When I did a Google street view of the mall I saw that the rails and elevated platform on one side were missing. I studied the street photos from the set carefully. I saw there was a Culver City bus stop in front of the parking lot. Disney would not be allowed to remove, or rename a bus route. Sure they might digitally get rid of it in post production, but they couldn’t touch the actual stop. I also saw that the building was on Jefferson Blvd. and not on Hyperion. There was also a Chic-Fil-A fast food restaurant in the distance. With these clues I was able to find the actual address on Google Maps.

I put on some of my best Oswald gear, got up early on a Saturday, and convinced my family to join me for a road trip from North Long Beach. Some 20 minutes later we got to 11800 Jefferson Blvd, in Culver City to see if the set was still there. Since Mr. Favreau was working on a television series rather than a film I guessed that the set might be around for months. I was also hopeful that the mural would not have been removed as it was only photographed a few days earlier. It was cool, and overcast when we arrived. Thankfully it wasn’t raining. Sadly the entire lot was fenced off. A number of lights, and generators were stored behind the fence. Along with a security guard that was keeping an eye on us. I could still get close enough to snap a picture of the mural.

I don’t know why but they had the “Home of Oswald” sign covered with butcher paper. Perhaps they were going to change the message during the shoot? Was it possible that Disneyland would become the new home of Oswald by the end of the series? As I did with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra performance in 2015 I wanted to bring along a special guest. My crib toy from the 1930’s would be joining me for the picture. I wanted to show Oswald that he still had fans 98 years after his birth. Not only that but I brought the oldest piece in my collection. I had an Oswald W565 film strip card from 1928.

Film strip cards were collectables in the early 1900’s. They were photo-lithographs printed on cheap card stock, often with black backs. They were similar to early baseball cards in terms of print quality, and simplicity. What made my card unique was that Oswald was the only cartoon character in the 1928 film strip card set. The rest were actors like Charlie Chaplin, and sports stars like heavyweight boxer Young Stribling. The Lucky Rabbit was considered as big a star back then too. Unfortunately his fame would be surpassed by Mickey Mouse later that year. It would be the first, and last time that Oswald got the film strip card treatment. Little did he know that the card would end up with me 80+ years later.

I know for a fact that Oswald’s luck brought him back home. The mural may have been freshly painted, however it was a way for me to reconnect with his past. Every time a new project was announced I made it a personal mission to get a timestamp. I needed a visual record of my oldest Oswald toy to go along with the good news. I did this at the Disney Interactive booth at the LA Convention Center in 2010 for the Epic Mickey premier at the E3. I did it again in 2015 at the Ace Hotel Theater when the LA Chamber Orchestra performed an original piece for the restored Proud Papa short. In 2025 I was still keeping the tradition alive. It may sound silly but I wanted Oswald to know that he would never be forgotten.

I'm glad I went, and I might make the trip again before the end of the year. Do you have a character that you loved as much? I’d like to hear about it. 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!

The many almost returns of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Hello friends, I hope that your fall season is going well. My birthday is this month, and I am very much in a Disney mood. I want to talk about my favorite Disney character, and a project that was cut short. If you had read my older blogs then you would know that Walt Disney had created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in 1927, and produced a number of animated shorts for Universal Pictures. He lost the rights to Oswald, and created Mickey Mouse in 1928 to keep his studio alive. He was incensed that the character, and many of his artists were stolen out from under him. From that point on he was determined to own his own work. He never discussed the character again to the media, or even his own family. Only animation historians were really aware of what had happened. Around 2005 Epic Mickey was pitched at the Disney studios, it was a way to reintroduce Oswald to audiences. Disney CEO Bob Iger loved the idea but was surprised that Oswald didn’t belong to them. He spoke with then NBCUniversal CEO Bob Wright and reacquired the rights to Oswald as a part of the trade for sportscaster Al Michaels.

From 2006 on Disney slowly reintroduced the rabbit to audiences. They did this with shirts, pins, collectables, and eventually in the parks with a walk around character. Epic Mickey from he Nintendo Wii was a major effort to get him back into public consciousness. There were countless ways in which they supported their original star. This included releasing a DVD with the early cartoons that were restored, and going on a global search for the missing films. One of the previously assumed lost movies “Poor Papa” turned up at auction. Disney got the film, restored it, and worked with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra to have its first public showing in 80 years. The 2015 concert was a monumental event for animation fans. I secured a ticket, and went with my wife on a rainy night in June. To make the event something special I brought my Oswald crib toy. I wanted something that existed from the era of Walt to be there when the short was screened for LA audiences.

I had long hoped that Oswald might become as big a star as his younger brother Mickey Mouse was, but Disney didn’t seem to know what to do with him after Epic Mickey 2 was released in 2012. The concert was one of the last public events featuring the character. A few years later, and Oswald would be back on our radar. Disney Television Animation veteran Matt Danner was well known for his body of work. As an animator, and storyboard artist he had a hand in Warner Bros. projects like Shaolin Showdown, ¡Mucha Lucha!, and the Looney Toons Show. For Disney he had worked on Gravity Falls, Wander over Yonder, and Legend of the Three Caballeros. In addition to his art, he also provided a number of voices for cartoons including Kermit the Frog in Muppet Babies. It was obvious that his heart was in cartooning, and was going to be great on anything he worked on. Mr. Danner, and his team started development circa 2013 and around 2018 Disney formally announced that there was an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon for the streaming service Disney+. A year later it would be cancelled.

The show was named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Adventures in Coneyopolis. I suppose the city the cartoon was set in was a play on Coney Island and Metropolis. It had been 90 years since Oswald had a series under production from the Disney studios. For the majority of the time Universal Studios, and Walter Lantz held onto the rights. As a lifelong fan of the character you could imagine how excited I was to see him back on the air. The project was unfortunately cancelled while still in pre-production. Many of the artists, and animators that were working on it went on to different projects, or different studios altogether. Fans of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit were absolutely crushed. I was hurt even more than when I found out Disney would no longer pursue any other sequels in the Epic Mickey series. Game designer Warren Spector should have been the boss, and creative director for Disney Interactive, similar to how Shigeru Miyamoto was for Nintendo. The powers at be were too shortsighted to see the potential for that. A fully supported Mr. Spector, and gaming wing of Disney could have been revolutionary. But I digress…

A few seconds of test footage from the cartoon were leaked from the studio, as were a number of concept art pieces. The majority of the concept art was posted by WilliamOswald1 on Twitter @William40378514. The show was a call back to classic animation, and the early era of Hollywood when Oswald was a star. The concept art revealed that a lot of influences were pulled from both the early Disney, and Universal cartoons, but also from comics, and the theme parks as well. There would also be a chance to create new heroes, villains, and settings that would make Walt proud. It hurt knowing that the project was cancelled when there was so much potential left on the drawing board.

Mr. Danner hoped that public interest might get the studio to revisit the concept. There was no doubt that a number of animators would return, and try to elevate the cartoon to new heights. That sounded like an impossible feat. There was a huge public backlash against the Disney company at the end of September 2025. They took a $4 billion hit following the cancellation of the Jimmy Kimmel. The late night show host would get reinstated, but the public perception of the company was tarnished. It would take something exceptional to get fans to forgive, and forget. It seemed all but impossible for Oswald to return under these conditions. Yet luck was something that he was known for. I’ll talk about an Oswald revival more in the next blog. Did you have a favorite Oswald cartoon, or game appearance? I’d like to hear about it. 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!

When was the blue Oswald the Lucky Rabbit created?

Hello friends, I hope that you are doing well. Today I want to talk about a question I didn’t have an answer for. As you may know I’m a huge fan of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. I’ve done plenty of blogs about the character. No doubt I will write about him more in the future. What I didn’t know was when the character officially turned blue. I know that he was presented in an old rubber hose design, with blue fur, and yellow shorts when Universal Studios Osaka had his merchandise in their park. That was from around 2001-2004, just before the Disney company reacquired the rights. But was that really the first time the character was reimagined for audiences? I’ve been wondering if this new look was spearheaded by Japan, or the US.

I’ve also wondered how exactly this redesign came to be. After all, in the mid ‘90s Oswald was still brown in color, and looked like a traditional cartoon rabbit character. He had more or less stayed the same since his old comic book run from around 1937 until the mid 1990’s. There was a time stamp that showed one of his last media appearances from that era. In Brazil Woody Woodpecker was known as Pika Pau. “Coehlo Osvaldo” was brown in the game Férias Frustradas do Pica-Pau aka Woody Woodpeckers Frustrating Vacation. The title came out in October 1995 by Tectoy for the Sega Master System, and Sega Mega Drive. In it Oswald gave Woody a magic paintbrush. Mind you this was 15 years before the magic brush in Epic Mickey!

The next time Oswald appeared in an officially licensed game was in Woody Woodpecker Escape from Buzz Buzzard Park for the GameBoy Color. It was developed by Planet Interactive Development, and published by DreamCatcher Interactive (North America) on August 14, 2001. Oswald appears in Level 2 in his blue form. This time he wasn’t friendly with Woody, and would actually attack you with a drop kick.

A few years later Oswald got a cameo in a Japanese pachinko machine called CR Woody Woodpecker. Developed by Maruhon, and released in December 2004. In the game the blue Oswald made a short cameo on the game screen. In 2006 the sequel CR Woody Woodpecker 2 was released. Again the blue Oswald got a cameo on the video screen. What was interesting about this appearance was that it was the same year that Disney had gotten the rights back from Walter Lantz / Universal. This could possibly be the last piece of media featuring that version making it a rare collectors item. The blue Oswald was indeed in circulation between 2001-2004 just as I thought. The pieces were falling into place, however the pachinko machine made me realize the updated look lasted longer than I first suspected. 

It turns out that the blue version had actually been proposed much earlier. Universal was looking at relaunching the Walter Lantz IP with a new Woody Woodpecker show in the mid 1990’s. This meant that the characters would be receiving a minor stylistic update, to make their look a little bit more contemporary. You can read the details on the New Woody Woodpecker show on the Walter Lantz Fandom page. Not only were Lantz’ biggest stars like Woody Woodpecker, and Chilly WIlly getting a refresh, but rare characters like Space Mouse, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit were also getting a makeover. The show started development around 1997, with a few revisions made before production began. The new designs were posted by Daily Woody Woodpecker on Twitter. As these new versions were being finalized the comics, and games featuring the updated begun licensing. 

Sadly we wouldn’t actually see Oswald, or a few other rare characters make it into the new cartoons. They would appear in Latin American comics, and the aforementioned games, and pachinko cabinets. As for Oswald’s earliest blue design, the oldest officially licensed item that I could find with him was a rectangular dish / tray from 1998. He was very loosely drawn, and didn’t have the standardized look used in the Universal Osaka merchandise. Altogether the blue Oswald lasted for about eight years. I began wondering if I could track down any US merchandise from this era, but I’ll probably stick to the Japanese items. Were there any rare cartoon characters that you want to see return? Perhaps in game form? 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!

Oswald & Homer, two rare cartoon characters reunited!

Hello friends, I hope that you are doing well. As you can tell there have been a lot of Disney posts this month. So I’m going to keep it up, and post a rare character illustration. As you may know I’m a huge fan of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This was the character that Walt Disney created, and unfortunately lost the rights to. It took more than 70 years for the Disney company to get the rights back. I was wondering what it would happen if the studio got the rights to Oswald side characters. One of them was a little rascal named Homer.

The tiny cat first appeared in the cartoon Homeless Homer. It was a 1929 film by animators Friz Freleng, and Rudolf Ising for Winkler / Universal. A few years later Freeing, and Ising would become some of the best animators for Warner Bros. In the cartoon Oswald tried to take in the tiny orphan, but ended up fighting with the brat instead. The character would turn up in the comics a few more times, and become retconned as the little brother of Ortensia, Oswald’s girlfriend. In each appearance he was a thorn in the side of the rabbit.

I wondered out loud what it might look like if Homer was pulled into the Disney family. It shouldn’t be very difficult as he is now a public domain character. It would be great to see him start causing trouble again. So I drew up this poster. Are there any classic cartoon character that you want to see come back in animation, or even game form? Tell me 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!

Sonic Superstars and beyond. Sega makes up for lost time, part 5...

In the previous blogs I looked at Sonic Superstars, and the things that the developers at Sonic Team, and Arzest did great. I also talked about the technical and design choices that I think really hurt the game. While I played through it I was reminded of all the wonderful things that I enjoyed in the franchise. It very much felt like a continuation of the elements that made Sonic Mania work so well. The art direction, level, and enemy design fit in the classic 2D style, even though the models were in 3D. The introduction of a new character named Trip, plus using individual Chaos Emeralds to change the game play was inspired. When I struggled with some boss encounters it showed that there were cracks on the facade. Trying some encounters over and over lent me to discover what type of gamer I was. In the end I had a favorable opinion of the game that gave me a lot of insight into myself. It allowed me to realize that the Sonic series was one of the rare titles that was globally appealing for a number of reasons. The first thing that drew me to the franchise was the character himself.

I stated previously that I loved the art, and design behind the hero, and his friends. I never cared much for Knuckles though, but that was besides the point. I was a huge fan of the mascot style of character art. The cartoon star that created the movement was Pat Sullivan, and Otto Mesmer’s Felix the Cat. He debuted in 1919, almost a decade before Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and Mickey Mouse. The large head, big expressive eyes, and animal features set a template that would be copied for the next century. The early US cartoon stars like Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny, or Flip the Frog wouldn’t have made it big without Felix. Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails the Fox, Knuckles the Echidna, Mighty the Armadillo, and Ray the Flying Squirrel all followed in the footsteps of Felix the Cat. They were descended from one of the greatest cartoon traditions the world had ever seen.

Although they were created by a Japanese team the Sonic art reflected my favorite form of American cartooning. The “rubber hose style of animation was the oldest form used in the US. The name was because the arms, and legs of these characters weren’t hinged as if they had bones. Instead they flexed like rubber hoses. Additionally the bodies on these characters were fluid. They could be pulled, stretched, and twisted like a rubber balloon. There was a sense of freedom in these cartoons that was liberating for artists. Although to be fair I was never good at drawing in a rubber hose format because my style was very rigid. It didn’t matter because I thought those early cartoon stars were so amazing. They could do the impossible, while still making their actions plausible. That tradition was rarely seen in modern cartoons, rare in video games, but not as rare in comic books.

The Mickey Mouse comics illustrated by Floyd Gottfredson in the 1930’s set a standard for adventure storytelling featuring cartoon mascots. His comics kept the animated icon alive outside of the movie theater. Mickey would hang out with his friends in some stories, having fun with the other Disney stars. Then he travel the globe on an international mystery for longer arcs. A decade later Carl Barks raised the bar in the Donald Duck, and more important, the Scrooge McDuck comics. Comic books were the perfect format for expanding on the animated shorts. We could get to see the characters develop a personality. The writers, and artists presented a universe that was much deeper than could ever be shown in a cartoon. For the longest time I assumed that these stories were for children until I actually sat down and started reading the collected volumes. I was not only amazed by the art, but by the storytelling. It worked on multiple levels There was action for the kids, great character development for teens, and mystery for the adults. They truly were books for all-ages.

Comic books in the USA were mainly superhero titles. Often mature in tone, and not really created for all-ages. However overseas the Disney comics were still popular with families, and even adults. They were an institution in Italy, where the Mickey comics (Topolino) had been in publication for over 90 years. I believe that they were the greatest run of all-ages comics ever published. Multiple generations were raised on stories that were every bit as good as those created in the USA. I would argue that the elite Disney cartoonists cut their teeth drawing on the pages of Topolino. The best of these stories were serialized and translated to multiple languages. I did a deep-dive on the Italian comics many years ago. The reason that I brought them up was because they were critical to keeping the characters popular. More than that they were important to spread the cartooning art form. You could only do so much in an animated short but the comics allowed the characters to live, and grow. They did more for audiences than the parent company did in the parks, television, or movie screens.

A similar thing could be argued for comics based on video games. Comic books could take a relatively short game, and give readers a cinematic experience. Udon was known for the Capcom books they published. Street Fighter, Mega Man, and Vampire / Darkstalkers were just some of the titles they released. Audiences got to follow the main, and side characters across a variety of story arcs. They allowed audiences to learn the dynamics between the stars, and any new faces introduced. As a fan of the mascot titles I was happy to see Sonic in publication. Granted not every editor, writer, or artist understood the games. This was especially true for many of the oldest issues. It seemed that the creators liked to make up stuff as they went along. The quality of the first comics didn’t matter to fans because they made the blue blur relevant. Whether in manga from Japan, or comics from the UK, and USA, Sonic had developed an international following. The most recent US comics from IDW were by far the best Sonic had ever appeared in print. The writing was amazing, and the stories stayed true to the games. Best of all the various artists captured the spirit of cartooning. They made young fans understand why the character appealed to older audiences, just as much as the Topolino comics helped kids understand why Mickey Mouse was beloved by their parents.

The creators at IDW were also able to expand the Sonic comic books to include new faces that were interesting in their own right. For example Lanolin the Sheep, Whisper the Wolf, Tangle the Lemur, and Jewel the Beetle were citizens-turned-freedom fighters. Their story arcs, and contributions in the comics made them very memorable. They were adventurers, sometimes with a tragic past, all rising to meet the challenge. They complimented all of the established heroes, and added their own unique dynamic to the stories. For long-time fans like myself I thought that these were characters that would be amazing to follow in a game. More than anything the Sonic comic books managed to remind audiences that the universe covered in the game series was far more expansive, and serious than we sometimes thought. Sonic Team managed to create a world that seemed straightforward, and easy to digest. Sonic was the good guy, and Eggman was the bad guy. He kidnapped animals to power his robots. It was up to Sonic to set them free. The formula hadn’t changed much in over 30 years, yet the stakes had always been incredibly high. Without Sonic, and his friends, then there was nothing preventing Eggman from conquering the world.

The threat that Dr. Eggman presented was epic in scope. He didn’t just raise an army of minions, he created an entire armada of war machines. He had a fleet of flying warships, giant robots, autonomous factories, laser satellites, and space stations with enough power to take over a planet. The fight had to be taken to Eggman to prevent him from ruling the world. There was nothing easy about the threats that Sonic, and his friends faced in every encounter. At the same time the designers at Sonic Team didn’t want to make the game feel heavy-handed. Yes the characters were fighting against impossible odds, but at this world was also a cozy place to live. The studio made sure to show audiences what Sonic was trying to protect. Sega wanted to remind us that this world was a beautiful place filled with loving characters. There were friends that wanted to enjoy a picnic with our hero, or perhaps do some fishing with him. These gentle characters were set against a backdrop that was quite serious. Being the protector of the innocent was the heart of several IDW story arcs.

Sonic Team created different types of innocent creatures that Sonic, and his allies had to protect. In most games the animals trapped within the robots were the obvious ones. As the games evolved we were introduced to the Chao in Sonic Adventure, then the Wisps in Sonic Colors, and most recently the Koco in Sonic Frontiers. Those minor characters were adorable beyond description. However when you placed them within the context of the stories they were also tragic figures. Each of the characters had survived catastrophic trauma. An entire planet of Wisps were enslaved by Dr. Eggman for his cruel experiments. The Koco were the memories of the ancient aliens that brought the Chaos Emeralds to the planet. Sonic had to complete their memories, and reunite their ghosts so that they could have some closure. The Chao were the de-evolved descendants of those alien refugees. They were also nearly wiped out in a raid by the Echidnas a millennia ago. Even the cutest characters in the franchise were important to the story.

Felix the Cat started the tradition of cartoon mascots more than 100 years ago. Sonic the Hedgehog helped bring the art form to a new generation through video games. The creators at Sega, Sonic Team, and at IDW helped it evolve across multiple formats. Whether it was an animated short for social media, a live-action movie, or an award-winning comic book run. There was no doubt that cartoons were alive and well. The lore of the game series was already robust, and the comic books went much deeper than casual fans could have ever known. The characters they introduced in the past decade could still look cute, and universally appealing, but they had now grown to include shapeshifting assassins, psychic madmen, and even sentient AI. Heroes, and villains in the Sonic canon were colorful, memorable, and awe-inspiring. The games they were featured in evolved in unique ways. I’ll trace it out in the next blog. Until then I’d like to know if you have a favorite mascot character. Or if you even like cartoons at all. Tell me 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!