Nostalgic G

As Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, explains in A CHRISTMAS CAROL, nothing about Christmas can be separate from "the veneration due to its sacred name and origin." This is what gives meaning to Scrooge’s resolution at the end of the story: "I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." If there’s hope for mean old Scrooge, Dickens is saying, there must be hope for each of us. Or, as Tiny Tim would put it, "God bless us, every one!" Merry Christmas to all! Thanks for visiting the Nostalgia Factory!

When we think of classic Christmas movies we tend to remember It's a Wonderful life, White Christmas, A Christmas Story, and the many film adaptations of A Christmas Carol. Those are all beautiful stories brought to the screen in timeless productions that we revisit year after year, but there are so many other lovely Christmas films out there that for one reason or another have been forgotten over the years. A film no one ever really talks about when reminiscing about their favorite Holiday movies is one that I believe should be re-examined and every one who hasn't seen it should really do themselves a favor and check it out this Christmas season. I'm talking about Preston Sturges ' Remember the night. The film is a prefect combination of genres, working both as a touching drama and a heartwarming romantic comedy. The film Features a clever screenplay by the great Preston Sturges , and stars Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in their first film together. The story...

After many years without any new Peanuts specials, Charlie Brown and the gang return in Happiness us a warm blanket -- a new direct to DVD animated film from Warner Premiere. The DVD will be available next spring. For those keeping count this will be the 45 th animated special based on the tales of the peanuts gang by Charles Schultz. Here's the description for the special straight from Warner's press release: "Linus is pushed to his limits when he learns grandma is coming to visit and plans on ridding him of his childish security blanket. As grandma's arrival looms closer the Peanuts gang tries to help Linus learn to cope without his fuzzy crutch. Lucy is particular eager to cure Linus' dependency using her own psychiatric techniques, and while Charlie Brown tries to help he just doesn't have the heart to see Linus suffer. All the while Snoopy is constantly agitating matters because he wants the blanket for himself. In the end, insightful Linus points...

Spin Master's impressive TRON LEGACY toy line continues to expand with a new assortment of characters and vehicles. This second wave includes the character of Quorra , a sort of daughter to Kevin Flynn inside the computer world. Quorra is surprisingly well played by Olivia Wilde -- an actress I'd never heard of before. The action figure is one fans have been hoping to get since the first wave was announced and she'd been left out. She's finally starting to show up on pegs at Target stores in the West Coast. I just picked one up and since I now have the driver to the Light Runner I went ahead and picked up that really cool wave 1 vehicle at Toys 'R Us, where it's on sale for $14.99 at 25% off. The Light Runner is a great vehicle. In the film it's the only land vehicle equipped to handle the dangerous terrains off the TRON CITY Grid. The Spin Master toy is made of really glossy and heavy die cast metal with some plastic pieces. The cockpit opens up to sit t...

TRON LEGACY rocks! The film is everything I hoped it wold be. Not only is it a fast paced, action packed adventure film which utilizes the latest in 3D technology to dazzle audiences but it's also a loyal and worthy successor to our beloved 80s cult classic. We get to revisit old friends and are treated to a story that not only entertains -- but just like the original, contemplates some very powerful and interesting ideas. I just got back from seeing it at Disney's landmark El Capitan theater in Hollywood and already I feel like seeing it again. The folks at Disney sure know hot to put on a show and they've really pulled out all the stops for TRON LEGACY. The theater lobby has a cool display of props from the film including Sam Flynn's lightcycle and the digitizer which scans users into the grid. Just before the movie starts, audiences are treated to an exhilarating laser light show featuring the music of Daft Punk and nearly 360 degrees of laser beams. At one p...

If you're looking to pick up some of the cool toys from Tron Legacy head on over to your local Toys 'R Us where starting tomorrow the entire assortment from Spin Master's TRON LEGACY line will be on sale at 25% off. Happy hunting!

After many months of painfully going through the process of purchasing action figures from the scumbags at Matty Collector an theyir dumb ass website, I've finally completed my collection of Ghostbusters figures from the new Mattel "adult collector" line. I only wanted the 4 'busters in their uniforms from the first flick, none of those stupid ass re-releases with different outfits or accessories for me. The figures look great and have tons of articulation as well as some highly detailed accessories . Mattel did a stupendous job on these but at $31.50 a pop (including shipping and handling charges) I ended up paying over $150. 00 dollars for 5 action figures which in retrospect feels a bit like rape. The greatest thing Mattel did on this line is the opportunity for fans to finally have a highly detailed version of the ghost containment unit. You can get it by purchasing the Walter Peck action figure, which is pretty much a reuse of the sculpt for Mattel's Movie...

Surprisingly, the Toy makers at Hasbro continue to impress me. The new Pursuit of Cobra line has actually been a pleasant surprise to me. When I first heard of this line and saw some of the early prototypes I was rather disappointed , I mean how much better can they make Zartan look the 20 th time or snake eyes the 10 0th time. It just didn't seem that appealing to me to see the same characters again redone over and over, specially after Hasbro had done such a great job at re-imagining them while at the same time staying loyal to the original looks of the characters with their 25 th anniversary line. Turns out Hasbro's toy magicians still had some surprises in their hat, specially when it comes to the new vehicles. Let's take a look at my two favorite vehicles from the new line and the best looking figures from the Pursuit of Cobra assortment which in my humble opinion are Spirit and the wicked cool Jungle Viper. One of the most impressive vehicles in the new assortme...