Giant robots remembered! Animatronic rodent gangs disbanded! New Game Boy games released! All this and more in this week’s jam-packed Retrofied Weekly Rewind!
We’ve done the hard work of keeping track of the shotgun blast of retro news for the past seven days. Want more? Like, comment, and share our work. And if you don’t already, please subscribe!
Roger Corman, king of the B movie and mastermind behind classics such as “Attack of the 50-Foot Cheerleader” and “Death Race 2000”, passed away this week at 98.
What you may have missed from Retrofied
Looking for something truly outrageous? Then you simply must check out Preston Burt’s interview with Christy Marx, the woman that brought us Jem.
Everything Old is New Again
Time to dig out that gummy-colored console! Nike is collaborating with retro developers for an actual new Game Boy Color game.
Want some Game Boy gaming but don’t have the hardware? All you need is a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to play Baseball, Alleyway, and Super Mario Land, the first three original games for the console. Added this week for their 35th anniversary.
The 1990s classic pinball machine, Funhouse, is getting remade with two new editions!
I know what you did last summer…no, not last, last summer, but last summer. Like 2023? Look, just watch this I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot, OK?
American Gladiators is also making an apparent comeback. But where’s Purple Roundy?
Let’s eat Grandma! Don’t I mean “let’s eat, Grandma?” No. No I do not.
Say Goodby to the Classics
Raise your cardboard pizza slices in solidarity as we say goodbye to one of the weirdest OGs. Chuck E. Cheese and the rest of Munch’s Make Believe Band are getting replaced by…Jumbotron screens (sigh). At least we’ll always have the ShowBiz Pizza newsletter.
The Mirage, home to the first Vegas Strip sidewalk attraction, the Volcano (and several dolphins hiding from the mob), is getting replaced by a Hard Rock Casino after 34 years.
Transform Your Wallet Into More Robots
Listen. I know that I’m the resident “Transformers guy” around here. But it wasn’t my original intention to do a whole section on everyone’s favorite giant robots. It’s not my fault Hasbro went full ham this week. With that out of the way…
The original G1 Transformers are back on the big screen this week. But instead of the 1986 Transformers: The Movie (which was actually considered a flop by Hasbro) we’re getting the first four episodes of the original 1984 series, with a new table read of Episode 1 by the original actors. Get tickets for this weekend’s 40th Anniversary event right here!
Oh…and there’s a popcorn bucket, because of course there is. Thankfully they didn’t go the Dune 2 route.
It’s also apparently ‘80s week (isn’t every week?) so Hasbro has gone full out with stop-motion vignettes featuring classic toys doing extremely ‘80s things like Jazzercise. It’s worth a stop by the official Transformers social to check it out.
Do you love Rummikub and Transformers? Well then, this Hasbro/Rummikub. collab has the potential to make you extremely happy.
Oh yeah, and Takara Tomy is still finding ways to make fans buy classic original G1 toys they already own by recreating them and giving them the articulation they never had.
Finally, if surrounding yourself in remastered reissues of classic toys isn’t enough to sate your Transformers fandom, you can listen to the original cartoon soundtrack on newly-pressed, limited-edition vinyl!
Thanks for checking out another edition of our Weekly Rewind. We’ll be back next Friday for more retro fun!