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December 24, 2025

Dec. 24 – The Nostalgia Spot Christmas Special Countdown #21 – 11

By Joe

Welcome to Christmas Eve 2025! Christmas Eve is the party night while Christmas Day is the more low key, family, experience. For those not wanting to spend the night at the eggnog bowl, we have eleven Christmas specials here that you would do well to kick back with and enjoy. We’re into the Top 20 and these are among the best of the best. In truth, while these are all in an order of how great I think they are the truth of the matter is I consider most of these pretty interchangeable. What likely impacts you most is personal taste in Christmas specials. Do you like your special to be wholesome? Crass? Vulgar? Musical? Nostalgia plays a big role too and certainly some would view these next 11 and say “Of course, a kid who grew up in the 90s would come up with this,” and that’s probably fair. Someone who did most of their growing up in the 70s probably has a very different list. However, I’ll defend my list as being as objective as I can possibly make it. I look for uniqueness in my specials. I like to laugh, for sure, but I also appreciate those Christmas feels. This collection of Christmas specials is pretty robust. Most have those feels in them and if they don’t it’s because they found a way to subvert the Christmas special in a fun way. And we’re taking it to 11 today, so let’s get on with it!

21 – The Tick – The Tick Loves Santa!

Not many folks can say they gave Santa a noogie.

I love The Tick. When it aired on Fox Kids in the early 90s, I didn’t appreciate it enough for what it was so, in a way, there’s very little nostalgic attachment for me here. As a kid, I wanted my superhero cartoons to be serious like Batman and X-Men. The Tick wanted to lampoon such though its target was more Silver Age than modern. As an adult, I appreciate The Tick for what it is and when I did a rewatch a few years back I was surprised at how well the show held up. It’s just very funny and also clever. The Tick is a buffoon, but a likable one. He’s more excitable than anything and that is on display here in “The Tick Loves Santa.” The Tick, being a bit childlike, is the only hero who believes in Santa Claus so when a villain disguised as Santa starts getting up to no good it really messes with his head. The real deal is going to reveal himself and personally enlist The Tick in taking down this Multiple Santa and he’s more than happy to do so. It’s a tremendously fun, off-beat, Christmas special and I especially love The Tick’s interactions with the local police early in the episode. If you dismissed The Tick as that dumb show with the big blue guy all these years then I recommend seeking this out. Especially if you’re a little fatigued with modern superhero media and want to laugh at it instead.

20 – Hey Arnold! – Arnold’s Christmas

That Arnold is such a good kid.

The Christmas episode of Hey Arnold! is such a favorite of 90s kids that I kind of resisted it for a long time. I just didn’t really vibe with Hey Arnold! as a show. I wanted my cartoons to either be action-packed, superhero, dramas or riotous toons not grounded by much of anything. Hey Arnold! was not that. It was most like Doug when compared with other Nicktoons, but even Doug had a certain silliness about it via its character designs and some of the odd lore in the show. Plus, it had Doug’s over-active imagination for when it wanted to break-out of its confines. Arnold really doesn’t have that. It’s a slice of life show with a very optimistic and well-meaning kid as its lead. He’s almost too nice, too perfect, like he’s a kid created by an adult trying to find the ideal child. “Arnold’s Christmas” makes good use of such a character and puts him to work in trying to reunite a father with his long, lost, daughter. It’s a tragic tale about a refugee in America and the struggles that come with being such. It’s probably a Christmas special we need now more than ever as many individuals in a similar situation presently face deportation for the crime of not being white enough. It’s a heart-warming Christmas special that also finds a way to weave the Helga/Arnold dynamic into the plot in a satisfying way as well.

19 – Tom & Jerry – The Night Before Christmas

This one has a nice ending – trust me!

This is a pretty by the numbers Tom & Jerry short from early in the duo’s life. It contains their original designs which were maybe a touch more realistic in terms of shape, especially with Tom, while still retaining that rounded-off, cartoon, aesthetic. What makes it special is it’s the first cartoon where the two warring entities find a way to get along for the sake of Christmas. Mostly though, it’s just freaking gorgeous. MGM and the duo of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera had something to prove. This is very much on par with the best the Disney studios were putting out in terms of technical delight. The Christmas backgrounds are wonderful and inject some lovely coziness to the feeling this one brings. There’s some good gags with Jerry and the toys and even a little bit of a heart pull moment. And I just love the ending with an adorable Jerry discovering a mouse trap placed outside his little hole in the wall is actually a Christmas present. His ending smile is just so infectious and so warming. This is a fantastic Christmas short from a wonderful era of cartoon-making.

18 – Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas

It just wouldn’t be Christmas without these dumbasses.

Okay, this is quite a change-up from the prior three entries. If you’ve been following along with my rankings this year then you probably know that when it comes to Christmas specials of a decidedly different flavor I’ve been trying to group those together when it makes sense. Since we’re into the top 20 it no longer makes sense. This is truly my raw opinion and we’re just ranking these by my own personal enjoyment level. And I really enjoy Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas. It’s a subversive take on two well-trod classics: A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life. Ordinarily, I’d rail against such an approach but Beavis and Butt-Head make it work. The duo, of course, learns nothing in their Christmas adventures. Beavis sees a vision of the future where being a loser asshole causes him to go through life without ever being with a woman and his takeaway when he wakes up is that the future is cool because he has a VCR and some porn. Butt-Head gets to see how much better Highland would be if he never existed (the guardian angel is there to encourage Beavis and Butt-Head to commit suicide), but he just concludes that the world sucks, but it would suck even more without them. It’s a rare moment when I agree with either Beavis or Butt-Head, but I have to agree with his conclusion here.

17 – A Pinky and the Brain Christmas

Who knew the Brain could cry?

A Pinky and the Brain Christmas was really rewarding for me to rediscover. It was one of those Christmas specials I saw in the moment, but kind of filed away. I was too old at that point to be paying attention to the broadcast schedules of cartoons. I know I liked it, but I don’t think I really appreciated it in the moment. Coming back to it I found it to be truly delightful. I’m not as well-versed in Pinky and the Brain as others. I experienced the duo mostly via Animaniacs and probably watched very little of their spin-off. For me, this was the first cartoon featuring the two where they nearly achieved Brain’s goal of global domination. His plan worked, but his shame of being such a dick to Pinky causes him to abort his mission and it’s a surprisingly powerful moment. Before we even get there though there’s a fun mission involving the pair traveling to the North Pole, infiltrating Santa’s workshop, and making it back home disguised (poorly) as reindeer. It’s a great Christmas special that makes use of the extended runtime over a standard Pinky and the Brain cartoon that never feels long or overstays its welcome.

16 – American Dad! – For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls

I can see how some would find the portrayal of Santa Claus in this one off-putting.

Merry Wednesday, everyone! This is the first of some truly “out there” Christmas episodes from American Dad! It establishes the lore that the Smith family and Santa are enemies after Steve accidentally murders Santa. He does so because Stan irresponsibly gifts him a machine gun and has him open fire on a snowman not taking into consideration that the bullets would fly through the snowman and come into contact with whatever was beyond the target. Like Santa. Why was he hanging out at the mall? I don’t know, I guess one mall Santa is the real one at any given time because the guy needs to make some extra money to pay for all those toys. Since Santa is a magical being, he can’t be destroyed and does come back to life and opts to spend Christmas Eve seeking revenge against the Smiths. The B plot is Stan absolutely hating his son-in-law, Jeff, and the two coming to an understanding by the end. It all culminates in a bloody, massive, violent, battle between the Smiths and the army of Santa. It’s definitely not for everyone and making Santa a villain (albeit, one who had a right to be pissed at the Smiths) is certainly a choice and one that probably turns some folks off. If you like your Christmas specials on the more subversive end, this is about as good as it gets.

15 – Futurama – Xmas Story

Santa Claus is gunning you dow-own!

In 1999, Futurama showed us how horrible Xmas could be in the future. In this one, we learn that humanity created a robot Santa to essentially make Santa real, only his standards were too high and he decided everyone is naughty. Worse, going on the dreaded Naughty List doesn’t earn one a stocking full of coal. It sure seems like murder is on the table as people are forced to hide in fear for their lives. Fry gets to learn all of this the hard way when he gets caught out late on Xmas Eve out looking for a present for Leela whom he unintentionally slighted with his insensitivity. It’s the first episode that seems to bring the pair together and it will be a long time before that relationship pays off. For now, it’s sweet and not overdone and I love all of the little, funny, moments that exist in this one. And all of the casual nudity is wonderfully utilized. This should be thought of as a pretty dark sort of Xmas special, but it somehow manages to avoid feeling like such and I owe that to how funny it is. Plus, there is a happy ending unlike the follow-up Xmas special.

14 – Rocko’s Modern Christmas

Rocko makes a new friend this Christmas.

We have yet another Nicktoon on our hands and this one stars a character I pretty much loved from the start. Rocko’s Modern Life is a show that holds up remarkably well. Even ignoring the obvious adult jokes they managed to slip into the show (that have subsequently been cut, unfortunately), the humor is surprisingly wide ranging as the show sought to lampoon exactly what the title implies – the modern world. Rocko is a young adult newly on his own just trying to scrape by and he runs into all kinds of challenges along the way. The poor guy gets crapped on, but he’s so good-natured that the show manages to remain funny as opposed to abusive. In his Christmas special, mostly the same is true. Rocko tries to celebrate Christmas with a little get-together with his closest friends, but it blows up on him when Heffer’s family basically invites themselves over as well. Not wanting to let anyone down, Rocko rolls with it and prepares to host a massive party, but when Mr. Big Head starts a vicious rumor about diseased elves attending it blows the whole thing up. Rocko ends up exactly where he didn’t want to be – alone on Christmas. Moving in across the street are actual elves and a little, mute, elf takes a liking to Rocko leading to a pretty wholesome and heart-warming resolution. Along the way though there’s a lot of great gags. My personal favorite is the Christmas tree which behaves like a dog, until its murdered by Heffer when he cuts it down. A touch dark, perhaps, but totally in-line with the humor of Rocko’s Modern Life and the slightly more edgier Nicktoons. It’s yet another Christmas special I really liked as a kid, but kind of forgot about until I started doing this blog. That’s the gift The Christmas Spot has given me in that it’s brought some of these specials back into my life or introduced me to them for the first time.

13 – A Charlie Brown Christmas

I bet you’ve never heard of this one!

One special I definitely did not need this blog to reintroduce me to is A Charlie Brown Christmas. I’ve seen this one way more times than I could possibly count. I’ve been watching it (along with several others) over and over every December since 1987. It’s the first ever Peanuts special and it’s a great introduction to Charlie Brown as a character who, despite being a good kid, seems to be disliked by his peers and has wretched self-esteem. He’s a punching bag, and Christmas just makes him depressed which is certainly a relatable feeling for a lot of people. He’s given a lifeline by Lucy to direct a Christmas pageant, only no one seems interested in taking it seriously. When he produces a laughably bad Christmas tree for the pageant, everyone basically dismisses him by first tearing him down and then laughing their asses off at him. Linus then reminds him of the true meaning of Christmas and old Charlie Brown finds renewed purpose and the other kids basically come around and realize they’ve all behaved like jerks. It’s a Christmas special that captures that awkward stage of adolescence where it feels like all of one’s actions are heavily scrutinized by their peers. Linus injects a secular element as well which helps endear it to another audience since the vast majority of these specials ignore that aspect of Christmas. Due to its repeated airings, A Charlie Brown Christmas is obviously a classic and there’s no way I couldn’t put it somewhere in the top 20. Leaving it outside the top 10 is probably sacrilegious for some, but I’m content with this placement. I enjoy this one, I will watch it multiple times a year, but I definitely enjoy the 12 specials ahead of it more. And maybe even some of the ones grouped just behind it, but let’s not scrutinize the placement any further or else I’ll go back to tinkering and never finish this thing.

12 – It’s a SpongeBob Christmas

This thing is gorgeous.

This Christmas special from SpongeBob Squarepants is brilliant. Many specials that came before it have found a way to reference the classic Christmas specials, but few embraced them like this one. A SpongeBob Christmas was a network-aired, prime time, Christmas special constructed in stop-motion animation like the classic works of Rankin/Bass. Genius! And it manages to exceed the gimmick by just being a really good, fun, Christmas special. Plankton, the resident villain of Bikini Bottom, concocts a plan to turn everyone into jerks with tainted fruit cake. By doing so, he’ll seem like a saint by comparison and make it onto Santa’s Nice List to finally receive the secret formula to the Krabby Patty recipe. The only problem is that the fruit cake doesn’t work on SpongeBob, he’s just too wholesome and pure, but Plankton gets over that hurdle by unleashing a SpongeBob robot on the town that basically wrecks everything it encounters. SpongeBob has to save the day and does it through song. Corny? Of course, but “Don’t Be a Jerk – It’s Christmas” is one of the best, modern, Christmas songs around. It’s so unbelievably catchy and fun that I remain surprised it never really broke free from this special to enter regular rotation with other Christmas songs. And despite my love of Christmas specials, I’m actually not that big on Christmas music so me praising a Christmas song is actually pretty high praise. A SpongeBob Christmas is just the rare Christmas special that when I watched it for the first time I left convinced I had just witnessed a new classic and it deserves this ranking.

11 – South Park – Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo

This one could have kept it clean, up until now that is.

We round out today’s entry with one more subversive and downright disgusting Christmas special, but it’s one that mostly plays things straight. That’s the beauty of the first South Park Christmas episode. It’s actually a pretty wholesome Christmas special about a Jewish kid who feels left out at Christmas. I’m not Jewish, but I have to believe that’s not an uncommon sentiment among Jews around Christmas time. It’s basically the genesis for the Adam Sandler Hannukah song. This is South Park though, so in order for Kyle to bridge the gap with his Christmas-loving peers he needs to turn to a literal magic piece of crap. Mr. Hankey is shockingly hilarious the first time he shows up. A talking poop in a Santa hat? He carries himself in an oblivious manner as if he doesn’t understand how gross he is. Others certainly notice though and they basically just see Kyle manhandling a piece of his own excrement and rightly have him committed. The show does take some liberties with Mr. Hankey in going out of its way to play up the gross factor. He didn’t need to end up in Mr. Mackey’s coffee, and we certainly didn’t need that fake commercial where live-action actors select their best Mr. Hankey to play with, but it wouldn’t be South Park if it didn’t push the boundaries of good taste. Still, there’s a strangely heart-warming resolution to this episode and I find Kyle’s song about being a lonely Jew on Christmas legitimately sad. The combination of all of those elements basically make this the perfect subversive Christmas special. It hits all of the Christmas special bullet points, but gets there in a very non-traditional and downright disgusting way. That’s why I still think it’s the best Christmas special from South Park. And if I have one regret with my body of work it’s that I didn’t cover what is probably the second best, “A Very Crappy Christmas,” but we can’t do them all can we?

That concludes this installment of the Christmas special countdown. Tomorrow, we do the top 10 and the all-time best Christmas specials. There probably aren’t too many surprises ahead, but as I look at the top 10 I do like that it feels like “me.” We’ll talk more about that tomorrow, but for now, Merry Christmas Eve and enjoy all of the merriment, drive safe if you’re traveling, and don’t forget to leave out milk and cookies for the big guy tonight!

Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:

Dec. 24 – Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas

When Pixar released Toy Story in 1995 it proved to the world that audiences would accept films created entirely within a computer. Prior to that, 3D animation was thought of as a gimmick, something for commercials and video games, but not something that could carry an entire feature length film. It’s similar to the prejudices…

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by Joe

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July 28, 2025

San Diego Comic Con 2025 is in the books!

By Joe

San Diego Comic Con is always an exciting time of year for toy collectors. Even for someone like me who has never considered actually going to the event, I get up for it because I know the coverage is going to be coming fast and furious. Some years are bigger than others, but for me I think I can say that the 2025 edition has been the most surprising. I went into it with certain expectations some of which were met, but some were not and that’s not unusual. What was unusual for me is that some of the things I basically considered a “lock” did not come to pass and I left the event being perhaps most excited about a company and a product line I definitely didn’t see coming. Let’s start with the familiar though and my bread and butter franchise: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

TMNT

NECA is heading down the 2012 TMNT rabbit hole this fall.

As has been the case most years, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had no shortage of coverage this year at the convention. There was even a dedicated brand panel that covered releases from several companies. We still have Playmates for vintage re-releases and some modern takes, NECA is hitting on the toon, Archie, and Mirage, Super7 has the 2003 edition of the show, and now we have Mondo doing sixth scale stuff. Mondo’s line is their own take on a post 1990 film franchise and it looks interesting, but isn’t really on my radar for the time being. I don’t have the space or funds for another Mondo sixth scale franchise. Super7 also reaffirmed its commitment to 2k3 by unveiling silhouettes for the next wave which will include Hun, April, and a motorcycle Raphael and Shell Cycle. This would seem to be the nail in the coffin for the vintage inspired figures Super7 started off with which is really frustrating considering the figures missing (topped by Heavy Metal Raph). I’m done with the 2k3 series after Shredder, and possibly done with Super7 after that as well.

NECA has been the company at the forefront for TMNT the past several years, but their showing was surprisingly light. They did announce a line of turtles based on their appearance in the game Fortnite, but that might have been the most noteworthy. There was a leak the week before SDCC of one of their reveals for the toon line, granny Bebop and baby Rocksteady, though that release wasn’t going to blow anyone away (even if it is entertaining). The only new figure shown for the toon line otherwise was a beach Slash. There was also no big display with dioramas and such, just figures in a case. It’s pretty clear that NECA wasn’t going all out for SDCC. Is that a shift in strategy? It certainly costs money to put these big displays up and staff a booth plus rental space isn’t cheap. Are they going to pivot more to social media for reveals? Is New York Comic Con considered their flagship event? Or did the reappearance of Toy Fair earlier this year just mean all of the stuff that would have been revealed at SDCC was instead shown there?

NECA didn’t have a lot of surprised in their booth, but this certainly was the most standout one.

I don’t know the answer to any of those questions, but I was very surprised at the lack of Tempestra. She has become the biggest missing piece for the toon line, even if she is very much a B-tier character in her own right. I’m not sure why they’re slow-walking that one. They mocked up an arcade cabinet accessory for a still unreleased movie April variant more than two years ago that most assumed was really made for a Tempestra. What I did like, even though none of the figures shown were new reveals, was how the 2012 TMNT line is shaping up. The sculpts look fantastic and they’re all dated for this year and will be sold as single releases so no four or two packs. I don’t think it’s been confirmed where we’ll be able to buy them, but they’re among my most anticipated releases for the second half of 2025. The only other showing that excited me was Garfello, i.e. Garfied cos-playing as a ninja turtle, which was unexpected. It looks great and comes with Odie and is the sort of silly release I’m very likely to get.

As for the rest, there wasn’t much to be excited by. Playmates is re-releasing its remastered turtles minus the bumpy texture a lot of people didn’t like. We actually knew about that going into SDCC, but that was basically the official launch. Mezco also showed off 1990 movie turtles for its One:12 line. They look worse than the NECA releases (which are coincidentally being re-released in single packs this year), but will probably cost more than twice as much.

Mondo

No one does animated X-Men better than Mondo.

We’ll pivot from an IP to a company here as Mondo had a lot to show off. Perhaps more than any other company, though I confess I’m not interested in everything they do (like Masters of the Universe and ThunderCats). What gets my attention first and foremost when it comes to Mondo are their plans for their X-Men animated line of sixth scale figures. It’s a line that is becoming much harder to collect because of the tariff situation in the country, but I’m in too deep to dump it. Heading into the event, we knew the next figure to be solicited was likely to be Mr. Sinister who had already been shown. There was also the reveal of an event exclusive Savage Land Rogue which went up for preorder before the show. They were both at the event along with the next figure: Storm. She looks awesome and was my guess for next up. It didn’t end there though as we also got to see concept art for the next figure and it’s Beast! I’m glad he’s a little ways off since he might be an expensive one. Perhaps things can improve economically before going up for order, though there’s always the chance things get worse. Little is likely to change before Sinister goes up though which is happening in August. I love the look of the figure and he’s an A-list villain from the show, but I do not look forward to the sticker with that one.

That was a hoot!

That’s the only sixth scale line I’m in, but Mondo did reveal more Marvel and DC figures (Superman, Two-Face, Dr. Doom, Lizard) in their other lines which all seemed solid. What really caught my eye though were their Mondo Squads which are more statuesque figures with swappable parts and sold in bundles of characters. Previously, they had done a set of characters from the Nicktoon Aaahh!!! Real Monsters and now they’re moving onto Rocko’s Modern Life. I love Rocko and this set of the titular character plus his mates Heffer and Filbert is pretty much an automatic buy from me. We don’t have a lot of Rocko merch out there so the scarcity will help. Also shown is a squad of Beavis and Butt-Head with their couch and the four fellows from King of the Hill (Hank, Bill, Dale, Boomhauer). Similar to Rocko, I may have to get King of the Hill since there’s so little out there for the franchise that I have really grown to love in recent years after previously dropping off around Season 5. Mondo also teased future squads based on Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show.

The last of the real Ghostbusters makes his debut in Ray.

Mondo is also heavily invested in The Real Ghostbusters, which was probably the biggest reveal of the 2024 show. We’re still waiting on the first release to drop (once again, thank you tariffs), but we have now seen all four of the busters and their companion ghosts. And, to no one’s surprise, everything looks great. I still have reservations about the price, but it is what it is and we’ll talk more about that when Peter finally arrives (hopefully sometime in August). Mondo also revealed that Janine will follow the boys and she’ll be in her more traditional secretary attire. To sweeten the package, she’ll come with her desk and an alternate lower half for a clean cross-legged sitting position. I’m guessing all of this extra stuff means she’s going to retail for $202 like the Ghostbuster + Ghost package we’ve seen up until now, but maybe that won’t be the case. That will be a tall ask and is probably something I won’t be interested in.

Marvel Legends

It’s all X-Men ’97!

I knew Hasbro would have some X-Men ’97 stuff for us, but I wasn’t prepared for just how much and how much I’d like it. We learned what wave three will be and those figures were all on-hand for folks to gawk at: Morph, Jubilee (final suit), Sunspot (final suit), Emma Frost, Cable (first outfit), Wolverine (classic civilian clothes). All of them looked pretty damn good. I’m mostly looking to supplement my ’92 display with these so Cable and Wolverine were locks. My dissatisfaction with the ’92 Jubilee puts the ’97 one on my radar, though I’m disappointed she’s in her black jumpsuit. Maybe I’ll swap heads with the ’92 one? Maybe even arms and coat? Emma just looks great though a classic take on the White Queen was enough to get me to put in a preorder and I love Morph so I’m in for the ’97 version. The only one I didn’t preorder was Sunspot. Nothing against the figure, I just don’t really care about Sunspot.

Gambit, what did they do to you?!

That wasn’t all though as we got a nice look at the made-to-order Sentinel which went up last year and there were some two-packs announced. We can look forward to a finale Cyclops and Jean (Marvel Girl), finale Wolverine and Storm, and a pairing of Rogue and Gambit from their basketball scene in the first episode. None are essentials for me and I don’t think I’ll be getting any, but I love to see how all-in Hasbro is with X-Men ’97. The one set that I would have had the most interest in is the basketball two-pack, but it is unfortunately the worst looking set of the two. That’s because it looks like Hasbro repurposed its Starting Lineup body of NBA players for its shirtless Gambit. That sculpt has a very unpleasant looking ab crunch in the middle of it. It worked okay for Starting Lineup because all of those figures had a jersey. Gambit doesn’t have that luxury and it looks terrible. It’s honestly one of those “How did this get approved?” moments that comes along once in awhile.

Aside from that, I had little to be critical of with Hasbro’s panel. They also revealed their next made-to-order figure: Mephisto. Mephisto was previously released many moons ago by Diamond in their Diamond Select line. Marvel Legends has not touched him though because he’s basically Marvel Satan and not afraid to show it. There was going to be one attached to the Engine of Vengeance HasLab if it hit a certain number of orders, but that product didn’t even fund. The Legends team had previously stated Mephisto could not be released any other way, but there was almost certainly some gamesmanship in those statements. Something obviously changed and now Mephisto is on the way, though he won’t be showing up at Walmart or Target. He is coming with his own throne and this thing sure looks familiar.

Hey! I know that skull!

Crystar fans can probably spot where this thing is from and the Legends team was not shy about stating it’s based on the cover of issue 8 by artist Michael Golden. We’ve covered that issue here and that’s because it’s also the cover musician Glenn Danzig stole from to come up with a logo for his band Samhain which then became the logo for the band Danzig. The Legends team, once again, was not at all shy about pointing that out and might even be hoping for some cross-sale appeal with that fanbase. As for Danzig, no comment has been made. The item was shared in the official Danzig fan group on Facebook and has since been removed so either he’s not happy or the moderators for that group think he would not be happy to see it. Fans have frequently traded and sold issues of Crystar there so it’s not like the group hides from the connection, but maybe he’s salty that he won’t get a cut? He probably thinks he made the image famous, and he probably did, but he has also made a lot of money off of art he never owned so I think we can call it square on this one, Mr. Danzig. Especially if Marvel never came looking for a cut of those t-shirts. Either way, the throne looks awesome and yes, I’m buying it. I don’t even care about Mephisto, but this thing looks too good to pass up. It’s an open preorder that closes August 26th and will set you back $80 when it ships next year.

As for other odds and ends, I continue to be impressed with the offerings from Jada Toys, even if the IPs they traffic in have little or no appeal to me. Except for Frosty the Snowman, I will get that. Big Bad Workshop had a variant of its upcoming action figure of The Tick on display and he might already be my most anticipated for next year. I love The Tick and it’s been at the top of my most wanted for a few years now and I hope the line is a success. We also know who will be the next character: Chairface Chippendale. The Naughty or Nice collection is also continuing and we’re finally getting a Mrs. Claus. I assume she will go up for preorder around Christmas time and hopefully will fund. She’s not the design I would have gone with, but I’ll be happy to have a Mrs. Claus join Santa on my shelf some day.

And that’s a wrap! Thanks to all of the people who cover this event every year and whose videos I snipped screen grabs from: Pixel Dan, Toy Anxiety, Robo Don’t Know. Toyark.com also has some great coverage if you prefer still shots. All of the folks involved help people like me who can’t make it to the con enjoy from my home or wherever I happen to be.

If you liked reading this here’s some related content you may enjoy:

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Mondo has been absolutely killing it with its sixth scale line of action figures based on the now classic animated series X-Men. The company also really ramped up production in 2023 on the line by soliciting five new figures during the year. At over 200 bucks a pop, it was quite the hit to the…

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Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling

After taking a trip to the past with Rocko’s Modern Life during the spring, it seems only fitting that I also take a look at the Rocko’s Modern Life movie from 2019: Static Cling. To be fair, the term “movie” is definitely used loosely when applied to this piece of media. Static Cling was originally…

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The Saga of Crystar – Crystal Warrior #8

There’s been a hole in my Danzig collection for quite some time. It was a hole that was easy to fill and actually quite cheap considering most Danzig records fetch well over $100 these days, but an important piece was missing. And that piece is not what one would necessarily expect, but I would assume…

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December 2, 2017

Dec. 2 – The Tick Loves Santa!

By Joe

1.Tick on Santas lap

The Tick Loves Santa! (1995)

The Tick arrived on the Fox Network’s Saturday morning programming block in 1994 after a wave of successful super hero cartoons. With the success of Batman, X-Men, and Spider-Man it meant the timing was right for a parody hero like The Tick to get a shot at finding an audience. Often the last cartoon aired on Saturday, The Tick was like a fun palette cleanser following some of the more drama-laden shows and put a nice a bow on the whole thing. Reuniting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles voice actors Townsend Coleman and Rob Paulson as the duo of The Tick and Arthur, the show flourished with its impeccable voice cast, bright animation, and outlandish stories. The Tick was the hero we all needed at 11:30 AM on a Saturday.

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The Tick and Arthur out doing some holiday shopping.

“The Tick Loves Santa!” is the show’s Christmas episode and it arrived in season 2 first airing on November 25th, 1995. The episode opens during the holiday season where a sickly looking Santa Claus is ringing a bell looking for some spare change. Meanwhile, the local police are chasing a robber who happens upon this Santa-clad individual and steals his outfit hoping to thwart justice. His ruse doesn’t work and the police continue their chase. Meanwhile, The Tick and Arthur are walking down main street with their arms full of Christmas gifts trying to deduce what a sugar plum is. The Tick is happily counting down the hours, minutes, and seconds remaining until Christmas while Arthur worries about getting their apartment ready to host a Christmas party. The imposter Santa soon appears and runs right into the mighty chest of The Tick, nearly knocking himself unconscious. The Tick is beside himself with giddiness upon seeing Santa, while Arthur tries to tell him that’s not Santa. The crook comes to, snaps at the pair, and takes off with his sack of cash as the police show up.

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The criminal who will soon become Multiple Santa.

The Tick is horrified to see the boys in blue are pursuing Santa. Assuming there must be some mistake, The Tick jumps into action to help Santa. They end up on the rooftops where a police helicopter tracks fake Santa who’s growing increasingly frustrated. The Tick intervenes and a cop shouts down to tell him it’s not what he thinks in an almost bored tone as if the police anticipated that The Tick would cause problems for them given they’re chasing a guy dressed as Santa. The robber Santa tries to make a desperate leap and crashes into a neon department store sign and is electrocuted. He falls to his demise as the sack of cash goes up in flames. The cops, seeing that the money is no good, are done while The Tick falls to his knees in sadness at the apparent death of Santa Claus.

Back at their apartment, The Tick and Arthur host their friends for a Christmas gathering:  American Maid, Sewer Urchin, Die Fledermaus, Feral Boy, and Four Legged Man. Tick is miserable and despondent over the death of Santa while the other party-goers try and cheer him up. Arthur apparently decides enough is enough and tries to tell Tick that Santa isn’t real, which only makes Tick mad. Meanwhile, the crooked Santa thief wakes up in the alley he plunged into while duplicates of himself start popping out of the snow. It seems that the electric sign gave him duplicates and the villainous Multiple Santa is born! Naturally, he uses his duplicates (which are all incapable of speech except to say “Ho”) to go on a crime spree knocking off department stores and whatever else he wishes.

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The Tick trying to keep the peace. 

The Tick and his buddies decide to go do some caroling, but it does little to brighten Tick’s mood. Soon they encounter the gang of Santas and a fight breaks out. The Tick though is unable to fight back, for he can’t punch the face of Santa, even if it’s not the real Santa (who could take such a risk?) and is practically paralyzed with fear. The rest of the team is managing okay, until American Maid sends Multiple Santa into an electric box which only serves to create more Santas! They get trounced and everyone complains to The Tick later at the local diner about his inability to pitch-in. Sewer Urchin, in a voice that’s borrowed from Dustin Hoffman’s Rain Man, lets Tick know he did a lot of ball-dropping. Definitely.

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That ain’t right.

Multiple Santa, now realizing the role electricity plays in creating more Santas, decides at his hide-out that he needs to head for the city dam for more power, and more duplicates. Meanwhile, The Tick and Arthur arrive back at their apartment to find it overrun with elves! And not just any elves, Santa’s Secret Service, who are sweeping the place to make sure it’s safe for the big man himself to enter. He soon does and The Tick is happy to meet his idol while Arthur can scarcely believe it (which doesn’t make much sense considering all of the other weird stuff they encounter every day), but soon becomes a kid in front of Santa. Santa tells The Tick he needs his help to stop Multiple Santa and takes a stern tone with him. Tick sits on Santa’s lap until Santa can’t take it anymore, and naturally agrees to do everything in his power to help Santa out.

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The Tick features some of the tallest elves I can recall.

The two strike out and Santa calls to tell them to go to the dam, since he sees everything. As Tick and Arthur approach they’re greeted by a tidal wave of Santas (a “Yuletide” as Tick puts it) and are forced to battle upstream, like a mighty blue salmon, with Tick narrating the whole way. See, Multiple Santa had arrived at the dam first and cut loose on the power there thus creating countless Santas to flood the whole city. When Tick and Arthur finally reach him, Tick still finds he can’t bring himself to punch Santa. Instead he opts for a noogie, and wouldn’t you know, the static electricity created by Tick’s knuckles causes the duplicate Santas to vanish. Striking down Multiple Santa himself, by tossing one of his clones at him, causes a chain reaction that makes all of the copies vanish thus saving the city and saving Christmas. The Tick puts a bow on everything, in the only way he can, and soon sugar plums are dancing around Tick’s head and Arthur’s too, since he’s now a believer.

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Just a little rub on the head will do.

“The Tick Loves Santa!” is a great episode of The Tick and a great Christmas special as well. It’s funny, charming, is well animated and well acted and it’s pretty unique for a Christmas special. The Tick’s constant struggle to find a way to fight a villain that looks like Santa was a constant source of humor for me and I enjoyed how dismissive Multiple Santa was of Tick, especially early on in the episode. The supporting cast got a chance to get some lines in as well, though the episode largely focused on Tick and Arthur, which it should have since it was a very Tick-centric plot. I enjoy how jaded and cynical basically everyone in the show is except for The Tick and Arthur, and the cops not really giving a shit that a person was electrocuted and fried was pretty dark for a kid’s show, even if the character would be shown to have survived a few minutes later. Working the real Santa into the episode in such an obvious way felt a little forced. Maybe the network wouldn’t go for a cartoon that says Santa isn’t real, but including a real Santa also feels like the right move anyway since Tick’s childlike exuberance needs to be justified. Maybe they could have incorporated Santa in a more subtle way, but subtlety isn’t really something this show tries. It’s got the charms though and enough Christmas spirit to justify its inclusion in this year’s Christmas celebration.

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May 29, 2015

The Best in Televised Animation – Introduction

By Joe

ARCHIVAL PHOTOProbably 90% of the posts here could be separated into two broad categories:  video games and animation. Thus it would come as no surprise to anyone who has spent even a small sum of time browsing this blog that I love animation, especially the classic hand-drawn kind. I’ve never given much thought as to why I enjoy animation so much. I would guess it’s because animation can do anything, even things live-action cannot. It can imitate real life or do the exact opposite. It’s often a haven for comedy and a natural destination for characters who began life as a comic book.

Animation has spent considerable time on the big screen and on television. As film, animation often takes the form of a general audience picture running around ninety minutes. It of course began life as a short subject often pre-empting a more traditional picture, then Walt Disney came along and decided animation could go feature-length. On television, animation often occupies children’s programming, but select shows have broken through as animated sitcoms and adults-only comedy acts. Trying to narrow down the best animated films and television shows is quite a tall task, which is why this feature is going to concern itself with television for now. This I envision will be a long-running feature. I’ve settled on what I consider to be the ten best animated programs, but there’s always the possibility I could continue to add to it even after I do a write-up on my ten favorites. It’s also possible I never finish. The possibilities are endless!

Before getting to my top 10, I wanted to make an introductory post on the feature and use it as an opportunity to highlight the shows that just missed the cut. My list does not exclude the animation aimed at children and my top ten is almost half kid’s shows and half adult programs. I tried to approach all of them with the same basic questions:  Is the show entertaining? Is the medium used well? Is the artwork pleasing to the eye while suiting the show’s needs? Naturally, the list will be influenced by the era I grew up in, the 80’s and 90’s, so the shows that came before that time are unfairly penalized (though in my opinion, most of the cartoons from that era are garbage). I also didn’t include the package shows like Looney Tunes. I loved those cartoons growing up, but they’re theatrical shorts

With that out of the way, it’s time to hit on the ones that just missed my list. One of the first cartoons I can remember watching daily as a kid is DuckTales. DuckTales was extremely pleasing to the eyes, like just about all of the Disney cartoons from that era, and featured a fun, engaging plot with likable characters and a catchy soundtrack. It holds up pretty well today, but is obviously aimed at children. The show could get redundant as well as the premise for most episodes was Scrooge having to thwart the Beagle Boys, but as far as children’s entertainment goes, it’s hard to beat DuckTales.

Spider-Man has made numerous appearances on television, but the oddest looking is probably the best.

Spider-Man has made numerous appearances on television, but the oddest looking is probably the best.

DuckTales was an adventure program, and another adventure program that’s still fun to this day is Dragon Ball. Hailing from Japan, Dragon Ball tells the tale of Goku who travels the world in search of the seven magic dragon balls. The plot gets more complicated than that as the show moves along, but it’s packed with equal parts action and humor. Since it arrived in the states after its sequel series, Dragon Ball Z, anime dubbing was able to improve and english speaking audiences were treated to a wonderful dub, something that was rare during the 90’s. Dragon Ball Z is the more popular show, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the quality of Dragon Ball.

Superheroes have seen a great many takes on their comics in the world of televised animation. One such character has received numerous adaptations: Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man. Two adaptations stand-out for the wall crawler, the simply titled Spider-Man from the 1990’s and the more recent Spectacular Spider-Man. The 90’s Spider-Man was a great introduction for kids unfamiliar with the character. It hit on lots of Spidey’s most famous stories from the comics, and even though it was for children, it took itself very seriously. Sometimes too seriously. Spectacular Spider-Man distinguished itself with a unique look. It’s style was a bit off-putting at first, but the animation was crisp and the show packed a ton of energy. Sadly, it was a casualty of the Marvel purchase by Disney and an inferior Spider-Man program took its place.

Superhero shows were quite popular in the 90’s, but one stood out amongst the crowd for its satirical take on the genre. I am, of course, talking about The Tick. The Tick closed out the mega-popular Fox Saturday Morning block of programming and was a particularly zany take on the superhero genre. It was probably too weird and too out there for a lot of kids, but it’s definitely a show that works better on older audiences. So obvious was this fact that Fox attempted a live-action sitcom starring the dim-witted blue hero starring Patrick Warburton. It was not a success.

The Tick was a breath of fresh air coming on the heels of numerous melodramatic superhero cartoons.

The Tick was a breath of fresh air coming on the heels of numerous melodramatic superhero cartoons.

In the world of adult cartoons, Family Guy is pretty popular these days. It was roughly animated when it first showed up, but the increased ratings lead to better production and the show looks much better these days. Unfortunately, like another very famous adult cartoon that I’ll get to much later, its current output is far less creative than the first couple of seasons. Family Guy really only had 2 and a half seasons of good content before the formula became too obvious and the characters unlikable. An even more vulgar program for older audiences, Beavis and Butt-head dominated a small chunk of the 90’s. It was impossible to find a teen that didn’t know who those two were. The show was a lot sharper than most gave it credit for, though the animation was as crude as it comes. It would make a Hell of a nice time capsule kind of show.

When it comes to cartoons not aimed primarily at children though, all present cartoons owe a great deal to The Flintstones. The Flintstones were basically a stone-aged take on The Honeymooners and the first primetime cartoon. It’s premise is clever, and the setting is a good example of one that works far better in animation that it ever could have as live-action (just watch The Flintstones movie if you’re not convinced of that). It’s also a show hurt by the age of your humble writer. I grew up watching The Flintstones in syndication when it aired as just another cartoon among many others. I enjoy it for what it is, but it doesn’t engage me enough to make my top ten. It very nearly did though just on its laurels, but I wanted to go with the programs that I personally enjoy the most, because after all, it is my list.

All of those shows I just mentioned were good at one point or another, though truthfully, other than The Flintstones, it wasn’t hard for me to leave any of them off my list. The ten I have picked as the best really are ten shows I enjoy quite a lot and I look forward to doing write-ups on them as I find time. And now, a few others I considered for this post:  Rugrats, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012, 2003), Rocko’s Modern Life, Sealab 2021, Batman Beyond, and Bob’s Burgers.

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