Care Bears 1984 Catalog

I rarely post about toys that were marketed more toward girls than boys, mostly because I don't have many. My sister had a few Care Bears toys though and I've got a couple of the booklets that were packaged with them so I scanned one. The Care Bears, which are colored bears with a unique image on their stomachs and a small heart on their bums, began life as greeting card art before becoming a line of plush and plastic toys from Kenner. There was also a cartoon series that ran from 1985-88 and animated movies based on the American Greetings property. It looks like the franchise has been revived numerous times, most recently in 2019 by Cloudco Entertainment.

Yu Suzuki Interview (Next Generation - November 1995)

Happy birthday to Yu Suzuki who turns 65 today! Last year I posted a variety of Shigeru Miyamoto interviews on his 70th birthday but I could only find this one for Suzuki-san from Next Generation magazine's November 1995 issue. However, you can find numerous articles about Sega on the blog already, including one all about Shenmue which is one of my favorites from Yu Suzuki. This interview predates Shenmue and as the cover indicates, Virtua Fighter 3 was his newest game at that time. In addition to Virtua Fighter and Shenmue, he is, of course, best known for his work on many of Sega's arcade classics, such as Hang-On, Space Harrier, Out Run, and After Burner. 

The first scan below is from the front of the issue and not part of the interview but it does provide some highlights of Mr. Suzuki's career.

The Little Mermaid: Capcom & Sega Games

There is a live-action version of Disney's The Little Mermaid in theaters today so I scanned a few magazine articles from 1991-93 relating to some of the games based on the animated film. I couldn't find as much coverage as I would have liked though there are gaps in my magazine libraries. Perhaps magazines also didn't want to dedicate too much space to four different games based on the same movie. For Capcom's games, I've got reviews from Video Games & Computer Entertainment (April 1991) and GamePro (August 1991) of the Nintendo Entertainment System title, plus a Game Boy game preview from Video Games & Computer Entertainment (January 1993). The only coverage of Sega's Genesis and Game Gear games comes from the February/March and April/May 1991 issues of Sega Visions which is Sega's own magazine. Sega was, of course, promoting its games and the "reviews" don't voice too much opinion other than to say that you should play them. I've not played any of these myself but based on the reviews I get the impression that most are decent, if not too easy for experienced players. The first review fell onto a second page that I edited onto the end of the first page and the page with the Game Boy preview features a preview of Viewpoint for the Neo Geo as well. 

[YouTube] Kenner's Ewok Village Playset & Accessories (1983)

https://youtu.be/pANWmEf65tw

It's May 4th and the final Star Wars post this week is for Kenner's Ewok Village Playset. While it didn't include any action figures, it's a nice playset and one of the larger ones for Kenner's original Star Wars line, perhaps only outdone by the towering Death Star. The village could have used a bit more standing room as Kenner squeezed a lot in here. There are three trees holding the main platform that features railings, a campfire with spit, and drum. One tree has a hut inside of it and another has a chute that action figures can drop down. Around the exterior are an elevator and swinging boulder, along with a net trap underneath. Shown in the video are two additional Ewok accessories: the Assault Catapult and Combat Glider. Kenner made an Ewok Battle Wagon for its "Power of the Force" series but I do not own that one. Although I didn't include the Rebel Commando action figure in the video, he can be seen in an outdoor photo below and I scanned his packaging along with many of the other Return of the Jedi characters. I put together an Ewok cheat sheet to help with the names too, though I'm missing Paploo's card so I made a name tag for him.

Ewok Village Playset

Assault Catapult & Combat Glider

Action Figures

Outdoor Photos

May the Force (4th) Be With You