Tag Archives: Hanukkah

Pool Pool! The Christmas Toy That Should Have Been (Christmas 2013)

25 Dec

December 25, 2013

Did any of you find Pool Pool under your Christmas tree this morning? Alas, no one did. I was poised to make a lot of money off that toy until a certain mohawked celebrity got in my way.

August 21, 2012

Anyone who blogs (you know who you are, don’t deny it) knows that there is precious little money in blogging. See those ads on the side and top of my blog? Haven’t seen a check yet. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t need to make money. Sure, people think of blogging as a glamorous and ritzy occupation but in reality we need real jobs. Now while I work at the unnamed for security reasons Company which I Am Employed by, I still need to supplement my income.

A few years back I dove into the world of toys and invented a product which I promoted heavily here on bmj2k.com. From 2008, here are three Classic Reposts. Plus, as a bonus, I’ll update you on the success of my new venture as well.

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Now Ready for Beta-Testing

from July 31, 2008

Hi all. I haven’t had time to blog much lately because I’ve been spending all my time in the research labs perfecting a new game I’ve developed. I hope it will become as big as Monopoly or Hungry Hungry Hippos. It is currently ready for beta-testing.

I call it POOL POOL. It is an inflatable billiards game you play in the swimming pool. I nearly have all the bugs worked out. The only flaw is that the chalk keeps clogging the pool filter but I am working on it.

The work is going smoothly. I decided to continue my efforts in the field of swimming pool games despite the mistake I made, the tragic mistake, in my understanding of the rules of water polo. I have settled most of the lawsuits, but I still have PETA and NYRA on my back.

I hope to have POOL POOL in stores in time for the big Christmas swimming pool season. It will make a great stocking stuffer.

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POOL POOL update!

from August 8, 2008

Work on POOL POOL is moving ahead nicely. It is projected to be the most demanded toy of the 2008 Christmas pool season!

In recent weeks I have made advances to improve the playability. In addition to solving the clogged filter issue, I am pleased to announce a celebrity endorsement which will further enhance the POOL POOL experience.

I am thrilled to announce the pending launch of:

Mr. T’s “I Pity the Fool POOL POOL”™

 New features include a set of water-proof markers. Players can write the names of “fools” on the billiard balls. The cue ball has been renamed “The Pityer” ® and is used to shoot the “fools” into the “I Pity the Fool Splash Zone”®

Mr. T’s “I Pity the Fool POOL POOL”™ can be played in any outdoor or indoor swimming pool.

Don’t have a pool? You can play Mr. T’s “I Pity the Fool POOL POOL”™ in your bathtub!

Don’t have a bathtub? Play Mr. T’s “I Pity the Fool POOL POOL”™ online on our soon-to-be launched Mr. T’s “I Pity the Fool POOL POOL ONLINE SPLASH ZONE!”©

I proudly expect further exciting news in the weeks to come!

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NOW IN STOCK!

from November 23, 2008

NOW AVAILABLE!

MR. T’S “I PITY THE FOOL POOL POOL” ™

IN STORES NOW!

Yes, just in time for the big Christmas/Hanukkah pool toy rush, my new hit gift MR. T’S “I PITY THE FOOL POOL POOL”™ is now in stock at all fine toy retailers and pool supply warehouses.

FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY, fans can get a GENUINE LIMITED EDITION SIGNED AND NUMBERED LITHOGRAPH with your purchase!

The first 950,000 sets of MR. T’S “I PITY THE FOOL POOL POOL”™ come with an exclusive lithograph of Mr. T himself knocking an opponent into the I PITY THE FOOL SPLASH ZONE with his own MR. T PITYER, sold separately. The lithograph was designed by the craftsmen at Zebenco Industries, who previously made the limited edition Ron Popeil Pocket Fisherman lithograph.

MR. T’S “I PITY THE FOOL POOL POOL”™is the ONLY swimming pool billiards game on the market. Buy yours NOW before they sell out!™

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NEW UPDATE!

August 21, 2012

I’m sorry to say that not only did Pool Pool not make me rich, I was later sued by Mr. T, who ended up owning the rights to both Pool Pool and my follow-up invention, Water Wars. My only consolation is that in 2009 I was able to get a court order to Stop Mr. T from blogging under the site name Mr. T’s T-Pid Ride.

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The Saturday Comics: Happy Hanukkah Ben Grimm!

15 Dec

December 15, 2012

cropped-sat-com-logo.jpg

They truly are the First Family of Marvel Comics:
Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic!
Susan Storm Richards, The Invisible Woman!
Johnny Storm, The Human Torch!
Ben Grimm, the Thing!

I am a big fan of The Fantastic Four and of them, I am first and foremost a fan of The Thing. He is easily in my top five, possibly top three comic book characters. And speaking of the First Family of Marvel Comics, Ben Grimm was created by two men who surely were the First Family, albeit a feuding family, of Marvel Comics, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

thinggreatest1

And while many of the legends of the comic industry, like Superman creators Joe Siegel and Jerry Shuster, Will Eisner, Stan Lee and Jack “King” Kirby were Jewish, it doesn’t necessarily follow that their famous creations are Jewish. Superman is not Jewish, The Spirit is not Jewish.

But Benjamin Jacob Grimm is.

From wikipedia, oy vey!:

In keeping with an early taboo in the comic superhero world against revealing a character’s religion, the fact that Grimm was Jewish was not explicitly revealed until four decades after his creation, in the story, “Remembrance of Things Past” (in Fantastic Four, vol. 3, #56, August 2002). In this story, Grimm returns to his old neighborhood to find Mr. Sheckerberg, a pawn shop owner he had known as a child. Flashbacks during this story reveal Grimm’s Jewish heritage, and he even recites the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer often recited over the dead and dying, over the dying Sheckerberg, who eventually recovers. In a later story, Grimm even agrees to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah, since it has been 13 years (the age a Jewish boy celebrates his Bar Mitzvah) since he began his “second life” as the Thing. To celebrate the ceremony, Grimm organizes a poker tournament for every available superhero in the Marvel Universe.

The story of the Thing was unusual for another religious reason, as well: the fact that the Thing was actually brought back to life in one story not by science, magic, or alien power or technology, but by the hand of God.

It is a fact that The Thing is in many ways just Jack Kirby writing himself on the page. while The Spirit may be what Will Eisner wished to be, in many was The Thing is what Jack Kirby was.

jack-kirby-self-portrait

Some personality traits of the cantankerously lovable, occasionally cigar-smoking, Jewish native of the Lower East Side are popularly recognized as having been inspired by those of co-creator Jack Kirby, who in interviews has said he intended Grimm to be an alter ego of himself.

So on this final night of Teh Festival of Light, it is only appropriate for Saturday Comics to wish both Ben Grimm and Jack Kirby a very

hanukkah_happy

thing

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