Madballs are back!

 ** A Geek Daddy received the featured product for free to review **

I remember having a collection of Madballs as a kid in the 1980s.  Decorated to look like monsters with gross and horrendous features they turned a ball you'd normally bounce or throw into a more overarching toy that kids could engage in imaginative play pretend adventures with or have fun collecting.  Of course they were probably popular because of their appearances as admit it kids just are drawn to liking gross things.

I remember based upon my childhood memories of playing with Madballs, looking to pick some up for my kids a few years ago for a Halloween treat and not being able to find them anymore.  So I was excited to recently find out Madballs are making a come back.  American Greetings is launching a new animated television series later this year featuring Madballs and JUST PLAY is releasing a modernized version of the original toy line for a new generation of kids to enjoy that you'll see on store shelves.

Recommended for ages 4 and up, these toys are available either in the toy's original 3-inch size packaged so you can choose which Madballs character you'll be buying or in a 1.5-inch miniature size which are in blind bags so it is a surprise until the package is opened.  The 3-inch Madballs are available in 6 designs based upon original toys first sold in the '80s.  The 1.5-inch versions have an additional 7 characters in their assortment including a really cool looking Glow-in-the-Dark Skull Face which will be ultra rare to find in the blind bags.

Each of the 6-inch Madball has a bio on its package to provide the toy with some personality, and includes a bonus collectible XCAP that lists the character’s likes and dislikes, which have been written to appeal to today's boys and girls.  JUST PLAY sent us a 3-inch OCULUS ORBUS who likes pranks and dislikes losing staring contests along with a few Madball blind bags to play with.

Oculus Orbus

Fun-loving but considerate (of others having fun), Oculus Orbus is all about goofing and making everything laugh.  "Eyes" just want to have fun!

Other characters in the 3-inch collection include SKULL FACE, HORN HEAD, SLOBULUS, DUST BRAIN.  I'm a huge baseball fan and my favorite of the group is SCREAMIN MEEMIE which depicts an angry looking baseball sticking its tongue out at you.  I may just have to go pick up one of those just for myself!

Madballs are sure to gross out your kids and your children will love you for it! Find out more about the toys and the upcoming cartoon at madballs.com

5 Interesting Facts About Strawberry Shortcake

I am a member of the Fox Home Entertainment Insiders blogger program and receive complimentary products for reviews and giveaways.

In recognition of our friends at Fox Home Entertainment releasing a new DVD of Strawberry Shortcake tales, I'm sharing some interesting trivia about the adorable red headed girl and her berry best friends plus a fun coloring page for A Geek Daddy blog readers to enjoy.  Here are five interesting facts that you might not know about Strawberry Shortcake:

1. Strawberry Shortcake and her cat, Custard, were designed by greeting card illustrator Muriel Fahrion in 1977 and were part of  a popular line of greeting cards for American Greetings' Juvenile & Humorous card department featuring the characters. 
2. Strawberry Shortcake toys appeared in 1979 when American Greetings licensed the rights to Kenner Toys who at that time also had the rights to another brand that was growing in popularity called Star Wars.  Kenner produced Strawberry Shortcake dolls that had hair that smelled like each character in the toy line,s fruit themed name until 1985, which also happens to be the same year that the toy manufacturer discontinued production of its line of Star Wars toys.
3. Strawberry Shortcake starred in an animated feature film called The Sweet Dreams Movie that was released on October 7, 2006 and played in select theaters across the United States.  Fox Home Entertainment released the movie on DVD in 2007.
4. From 1980 through 1985, back in the days when there were only a handful of stations you could watch on TV, Strawberry Shortcake and her gang of friends were featured in an annual television special.  Plum Puddin who is one of the main characters in the current run of Strawberry Shortcake animated programming including the newly released DVD Berry Tales was first introduced in the very first TV special as a boy.  The character then wasn't seen again in the television specials, toy line or any other licensed products until "he" was reintroduced as a "she" in 1984 with the introduction of a Plum Puddin  doll by Kenner and inclusion in that year's annual television special.
5. American Greetings sold the ownership rights to Strawberry Shortcake in February of this year to Iconix Brand Group for $105 million dollars.   Iconix purchases ownership of iconic brands then manages their licensing to manufacturers, retailers, and television, movie and video game producers.  Some well known brands also owned by Iconix include Joe Boxer, London Fog, Ocean Pacific, The Sharper Image, Starter, and Umbro.  In 2010, Iconix partnered with the Charles M. Schulz family to acquire all the assets related to the Peanuts comic strip from its longtime owner United Media creating a new company to manage this brand called Peanuts Worldwide which is 80% owned by Iconix and 20% owned by Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates.  A 3D animated Peanuts Movie is being released at theaters across the USA on November 6, 2015.

On August 11, 2015, Fox Home Entertainment released on DVD some brand new animated adventures that provide a strawberry twist to some berry well know fairy tales.  Strawberry Shortcake: Berry Tales features some of my daughter's favorite bed time stories and if you have a little princess at home this is sure to delight her.  I'm sure little boys at home would enjoy it too.  This 71 minute long DVD is rated G and features three stories.featuring Strawberry Shortcake and her cast of friends. Please download and print out this fun Strawberry Shortcake coloring page from the DVD to enjoy:


In Strawberry Shortcake: Berry Tales, Plum Puddin learns to believe in herself when putting on a small and simple play for a young audience during the tale of "Snowberry and the Seven Berrykins".  The next tale is "Berryella and Prince Berry Charming" which focuses on guy friend Huck agreeing to act in a production of this berry tale then quickly realizing that he'd be happier working behind the scenes.  Finally in "The Littlest Berrykin" Strawberry, Lemon, and Raspberry star as three princesses on a quest to rule a kingdom that realize during their adventure that they can never succeed without kindness and generosity.

Care Bears Roar Onto The Comic Scene

After a 25 year lapse, the Care Bears are returning to the pages of a comic book series.  Roar Comics, the young readers imprint of St. Louis-based publisher Lion Forge Comics, has announced it will be bringing the popular characters from the '80s back to life in their own comic book that will be debuting in a digital format this year and in print next year.  Readers will be able to download an app that will feature the new Care Bears series as digital single issues along with interactive educational content.  That will be followed up by a print collection of the digital issues that is scheduled to be available in May 2016.

The Care Bears series is being written by Georgia Ball (My Little Pony, Scooby Doo) with illustrations by Melanie Gillman (As the Crow Flies).  The publisher is promising that this new series will have the same emotion-driven cheerful adventure stories that first made the Care Bears franchise a global phenomenon in the 1980s.  Care Bears started as a line of greeting cards in 1981 and quickly became a smash hit children's entertainment franchise with a series of animated films and television cartoons along with a blockbuster-selling toy line.  The new comics will launch ahead of a new animated series, Care Bears & Cousins, set to debut on Netflix in 2016.

"The best thing about writing Care Bears is that each of the core characters has a distinct personality and a role to play that take them on exciting adventures to new places," writer Georgia Ball relayed to A Geek Daddy blog via email.  "I've worked with American Greetings on comic books before and loved every minute of it; I'm thrilled to be writing with them again on a property that was such a major part of my childhood.  Melanie Gillman's art is just terrific -- cheery and bright, just like Care-A-Lot itself. Kids are going to love it."

Roar Comics plans to provide more information on the new series plus release artwork samples  during the big Comic Con convention in San Diego.  The publisher also announced during the American Library Association's recent annual conference that the company's full catalog of e-book releases will be available via Follett's digital lending platform for access by library patrons across the country.  If you have a library card, you may want to check out what e-books and digital comics you may have access to.  I know that's a service our family doesn't take as much benefit from as we probably could.

"Getting comics into the hands of kids everywhere is crucial to Lion Forge's mission of making comics for everyone," Lion Forge CEO Dave Steward noted before attendees at the American Library Association's Annual Conference.  "We want our books - especially great new series like Care Bears - available to librarians and their patrons on any platform and medium they choose."

Those are words I like to hear!   Keep an eye out for more information about the Care Bears comic books as their app becomes available on digital platforms, the printed books hit retail shelves next year, and hopefully the digital and print versions will be available soon at your local public library.  I'm pretty sure a lot of children (and their parents who were kids in the 80s) are going to be excited by this new comic book series.