Year 4: May Update

Brady Bunch Trading Card

It's time for another update and not much has happened since the last one. In Michigan the stay-at-home order has been extended to June 12th so I'll continue to work from home. While I have played the Commodore 64 a bit for the YouTube channel, I've not turned on any modern console in at least a month so my game time has been limited. This has been a busy week for the blog, however, as this is the 4th post in as many days. Yesterday both the TurboGrafx-16 mini released and Pac-Man turned 40 so I finally got to post the TurboGrafx articles I had done months ago. If all goes well there will be a new toy post with video up tomorrow.

Microsoft held a third-party Xbox Series X digital event this month where a bunch of trailers were shown. Many of the games had dark themes and nothing grabbed me. I expect what was shown in the video are likely all games that will appear on the PlayStation 5 as well. There will be plenty more events like this and many game trailers appearing online next month during the time that is typically reserved for E3. At the end of April the next Assassin's Creed was unveiled and more recently Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 was announced which is a remaster compilation coming this September.

Since last month I also learned of the passing of Hector Garrido on April 19th at the age of 92. While I was not familiar with the name until now, it turns out he had quite an impact on my childhood. Mr. Garrido is responsible for much of the artwork found on the early G.I. Joe toy packaging of the '80s, as well as many book covers. I'm not sure if he did the art on all the toys or for how many years he worked on the franchise but he was certainly a significant contributor. If you've followed the blog for a while you probably know that the 1980's GI. Joe toy line is my favorite and I love the box art, it brings back many memories any time I see it.

Both toys above actually cost only $3 which seems like a steal today but was probably close to minimum wage back then. The trading cards below have curved edges but some are cut off due to the placement on the scanner.

That's about all I can think of for now. I'll aim to get another baseball video game covered while we continue to wait for a possible MLB season. I'm also thinking I should play a Carmen Sandiego game soon to add some educational content for all those kids who had their school year cut short. Thanks for visiting!

-Jonathan