Back on January 1, it was announced that a talking Velma bust would be released, alongside a book titled Velma's Mini-Guide to Life. There's been radio silence on this since then, but today, the design of the bust was finally revealed on Barnes & Noble's website. The bust can be seen above. In addition, the previous release date of August 6 has been scrapped, and it has been moved two weeks later to August 20. It's also notable that the bust seems to use the font of the Velma series logo, despite that this doesn't seem to have any connection to that show.
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I've talked before on here about my love of Crystal Cove Online, an Internet game designed by Cartoon Network as a companion to Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. For those unfamiliar with the game and haven't read my past posts on this, essentially the game adapted each Mystery Incorporated episode into a video game level. This included creating "minions" for each of the villains for the player to have to defeat, which weren't in the episodes. This was always one of my favorite parts of playing the level each week, because sometimes the side-enemies would be really creative and interesting. Recently, I was quite excited when a friend and frequent visitor of the blog, Grumpydrawer, sent me the final sprite images of each of the different minions and villains found via the game's files in Flashpoint. In the game, the minions show up briefly and move quickly to attack you, so it's a bit tough to make out certain features of their designs. These images of each of the minions allow you to see their designs in great detail. To my knowledge, these designs have never been shared online before, and this is the first time they're being posted in high-quality. I wanted to share these images with you all, as I think they are really cool, and was amazed by the level of detail put into them. I particularly think the shrunken head looks really frightening and gruesome for something in Scooby-Doo. The minions are listed in order of the episodes. Note that "A Haunting in Crystal Cove" is the only level to have two different types of minions, which are living bear rugs and haunted chairs. "Escape from Mystery Manor" re-uses the rats from "Beware the Beast from Below" as minions. There are also a few minions that don't appear in levels, but are still in the game, which include caterpillars, flies, and wasps. For some reason, the image of the fly that was found only shows it from the back. I also added Thorn's design, since the design for her was found as well. The images for each of the villains were also uncovered. While all of them were also the villains of their respective episodes, I'm including them here as well because some of them have interesting differences in coloring or design. Examples of this would include "Nightfright," where he is colored red instead of purple, and "All Fear the Freak," where The Freak's skin color is more ghoulish rather than just white. I actually like the game's design for The Freak a little better than the actual episode! In addition, because the Fish Freaks were made into minions for its respective level, the boss fight was against one larger Fish Freak, who appears to have some differences in facial features to make him look more monstrous. There are some other very minor differences as well, such as the Headless Horror looking a bit skinnier than in the episode. Other notable differences in the game adaption include that female gator monster was not a boss villain in the game, although she did show up during the unmasking and it's just said Fred, Velma and Daphne caught her off-screen. In addition, the boss fight in the "Secret of the Ghost Rig" level was against a ghost-truck driver, since the challenge of fighting a truck would likely be immense considering Shaggy's only weapon is an umbrella lol. Here are the villain images from the game: I hope you enjoyed this little blast from the past! I had a lot of fun looking through these images, and think it's so cool that these designs were discovered so they could be posted here as an archive. I don't have the page on the side menu, since the game is technically discontinued, but I did make a page on Crystal Cove Online detailing pretty much every piece of info you could ever want to know about the game. With these designs now available, I gave the page a redesign over the past few days, and I think it looks really cool with the villain and side-villain designs added. You can check the page out here.
In 1985, ABC created a Star Wars special to preview their upcoming slate of shows for the fall television season. Among these was The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, and at 13:06 in the video above, C-3PO, R2-D2 and Tony Danza come across a real-life Chest of Demons on an adventure. The clip is about a minute and a half in length.
In addition, Scooby's first team-up with Weird Al Yankovic was actually not "Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases." On a similar note, for their 1984 television preview, ABC created a bumper involving Scooby and Scrappy meeting Weird Al at Knott's Berry Farm. During the bumper, Weird Al, Scooby and Scrappy preview the new shows on ABC's 1984 fall schedule. You can watch the video here. A big thanks to Juan for finding these cool bumpers and sharing them with me! Thank you to Hailey for coming up with this week's poll idea! Here are the results for last week's poll:
What is your favorite episode with a singer's ghost as the villain? Dance of the Undead - 29 Legend of the Vampire - 11 Mamba Wamba and the Voodoo Hoodoo - 9 I Put a Hex on You! - 9 Legend of the Gold Microphone! - 4 Screama Donna - 3 The Spirit of Rock 'N' Roll - 2 Now You Sia, Now You Don't! - 1 Despite being two seasons, The Richie Rich / Scooby-Doo Show took less than a year to air both of them, making it the shortest multi-season Scooby-Doo series to date. Season 1 premiered on November 8, 1980, and the season 2 finale aired on October 31, 1981. This is because in 1980, similarly to last year, there was a large SAG-AFTRA strike that delayed the start of the 1980 television season. The strike lasted just over three months, from July 21 through October 23, 1980. Because lines for the season were not finished being recorded yet, The Richie Rich / Scooby-Doo Show was not completed, and thus could not be aired in September when the television season normally began. 67,000 actors went on strike during this time, due to a dispute in which actors felt the residuals they received for home media releases (mainly VHS tapes, at the time) was unfair. Before last year's SAG-AFTRA strike, this 1980 strike was previously the longest actors' strike in history.
For last week's poll, it was a tight race for the winner, but "Hang in There, Scooby-Doo" pulled in the lead last night to take the win!
What is your favorite episode taking place in a cliff dwelling? Hang in There, Scooby-Doo - 15 Decoy for a Dognapper - 14 New Mexico, Old Monster - 11 Hairy Scare of the Devil Bear - 7 A Bum Steer for Scooby - 6 Game of Chicken - 6 The Stoney Glare Stare - 0 On a whim the other day, I decided to watch "Riva Ras Regas" from What's New, Scooby-Doo? and was inspired to listen to Lindsay Pagano's debut album for the first time ever afterwards, since I'd not checked out any of her music outside of the show. As you may also know, I also chatted with Lindsay several years ago, who was super nice, and was kind enough to guest-write the 300th fun fact for the blog. For today's fun fact, I was inspired to do some research into Lindsay's music career before and after her appearance in What's New, since I realized I didn't really know all that much about it.
Lindsay was inspired to pursue music as a career because her parents were in a band, which she mentions in an interview with MTV. She mentions that a pivotal moment for realizing she was interested in becoming a singer was after winning a talent show in fifth grade, where she sung "Hero" by Mariah Carey (who is Lindsay's favorite artist). At her 13th birthday party, Lindsay sang three songs for her friends. A family friend video taped the performance, and sent it to Jude Cole, who loved Pagano's voice, and signed on as her songwriter and producer. Lindsay's career started in 2001 when she was 15, and she was quickly launched into popularity through her song "Everything U R" being used in an AOL commercial, as well as appearing on the soundtrack for the American Pie 2. She became known as the "AOL Girl" due to her song being used in the commercial. She also appeared in a number of ads for Reebok. As previously mentioned in Fun Fact #301, "Everything U R" also became the theme song for the NBC sitcom Maybe It's Me. She released her debut album in 2001, which was titled Love & Faith & Inspiration. The album featured 11 tracks, one of them being an extended reprise of the title track at the end. During the album's development process, Lindsay was introduced to Paul McCartney of The Beatles, who also enjoyed her music. McCartney would later offer to remake his 1983 song "So Bad" for her, and perform it as a duet with Lindsay on the album (you can listen to their song together here). In 2002, as Lindsay shared in the 300th fun fact, she guest-starred in "Riva Ras Regas" after her label approached her with the suggestion to appear in What's New, Scooby-Doo?, as a way to get her name out there. Lindsay was 16 at the time of guest starring in the episode. This was a common strategy that Warner Brothers seemed to be piloting with their artists during the time that What's New, Scooby-Doo? aired, as is evident by other new musical acts appearing in episodes, including Simple Plan in "Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman" and Smash Mouth appearing in "Reef Grief." Also during that year, Lindsay went out on tour with singer Aaron Carter to promote her album. Lindsay mentioned in an interview (the clip is 1:03:30 - 1:04:50) that the songs she sings in "Riva Ras Regas" were not real songs in her discography, and were written by the show's writers. Moreover, full versions of these songs were never made. Lindsay recorded only the parts that appeared in the episode. She released a single in 2004 titled "Bang!" but her label ended up shutting down and changed management. She mentioned in an interview that she felt her and and the label's new management had creative differences, so she decided to part ways with the label. As a result, the song is also no longer available for download anywhere, and became lost media (in my research, I found there are a number of Reddit threads of people trying to find it). In 2009, Lindsay released two singles exclusively to YouTube, including "I Gotta Stop" (which was sent to radio) and "Three Wishes." These were the last official songs she released to date. In 2014, Lindsay would become a contestant the hit TV show The Voice. Shakira chose Lindsay to be on her team, but Lindsay was eliminated after three episodes. Although Lindsay has not officially released any other music, she continues to perform live in small venues. This was a bit of a different style of fun fact than the typical, so I hope you enjoyed it! Also, it's Lindsay's birthday on Saturday, so happy early birthday to her! Thanks to Shadowscooby for suggesting this week's poll idea!
For last week's dragon poll, the results were pretty close! "Large Dragon at Large" takes first place with 22 votes. We had a tie for second place between "Block Long Hong Kong Terror" and "Sword and the Scoob," each of them getting 15 votes. Third place was another tie between "Heart of Evil" and "Rickshaw Scooby" for 5 votes each. In last place, "The Demon of the Dugout" only received 4 votes. What is your favorite episode with a dragon as the villain? Large Dragon at Large - 22 Block Long Hong Kong Terror - 15 Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob - 15 Rickshaw Scooby - 5 Heart of Evil - 5 The Demon of the Dugout - 4 Thanks to GamesRadar+, we have our comic solicitations for September 2024. It looks like they've got quite a bit of special things planned for Scooby's anniversary month! (Image credit: DC) Written by MATTHEW CODY Art and cover by DARIO BRIZUELA $2.99 US | 32 pages ON SALE 9/4/24 Copyright © 2024 DC Comics and Hanna-Barbera. Shaggy and Scooby-Doo are scared of pretty much everything, especially ghosts and flying. So when Kite Man rebrands as the Flying Phantom of Wayne Tower, his most inept plot yet is terrifying to our scaredy-cats when they all literally get blown away from Gotham’s tallest building. Will they land safely, or have they had their final Scooby Snacks? SCOOBY-DOO GREATEST ADVENTURES (2024) Written by DEREK FRIDOLFS, SHOLLY FISCH, and SCOTT NEELY Art by SCOTT JERALDS and others Cover by DARIO BRIZUELA $14.99 US | 424 pages | 6 5/8" x 10 3/16" | Softcover | ISBN: 978-1-77952-790-5 ON SALE 10/29/24 Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Inc. gang celebrate 50 years of spooks, scares, and silliness in this all-ages collection of stories from the pages of Scooby-Doo #1, #10, #35, #68, #72; Scooby-Doo Team-Up #2, #5, #7-9, #12, #18, #37, #40; and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? #48, #51, #54, #71, #78-79, #83, and #85! Includes appearances by Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Swamp Thing, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, and a whole menagerie of super-pets! MULTIVERSUS #1
Written by BRYAN Q. MILLER Art by JON SOMMARIVA Cover by DAN MORA Variant covers by MIKEL JANÍN and RILEY ROSSMO 1:25 variant cover by JON SOMMARIVA 1:50 variant cover by TK $4.99 US | 32 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock) ON SALE 9/18/24 Bruce Wayne, Diana Prince, and Clark Kent each wake in a cold sweat, troubled by strange dreams they’ve had about “the rabbit,” “the star child,” and “the witch.” Their investigation into these enigmatic visions brings them to unexpected locales and unusual characters, but none more unusual than the mysterious “rabbit” from their dreams as they find themselves face-to-face with the one and only Bugs Bunny. What the heck is going on here? And who in the name of the Multiverse are “the star child” and “the witch”? The hit video game spills from your screen and into the DCU, and it’s bringing a whole lot of friends from some of your favorite universes with it! A large set of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated storyboards have been posted on eBay following animator Craig Kemplin's death. All storyboards are part of his estate, and at the time of this post, they are posted on eBay for $399.99. The listing mentions that the number of storyboards in this collection are in the hundreds. Notably, the listing has a couple of storyboards that provide new details about a couple of different characters. One storyboard is a character model of Hot Dog Water, which mentions in the notes that she was originally designed to look like an evil version of Velma. Another storyboard confirms a fascinating reference to Gremlins, which is especially timely considering the recent announcement about a script being written for a Gremlins and Scooby-Doo crossover film. Ray's pet, who looks like a Mowgai, is confirmed to actually be Mowgai by the storyboard. Thank you so much to Jinkies for finding this listing!
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