Monster of the Day #661

He’s in charge of the mop up operations.

  • Gamera977

    No idea what film but it looks like he was left in the oven too long…

  • Flangepart

    Toxie always have problems when it got above 80.

  • bgbear_rogerh

    You mean it could be the Pillsbury Doughboy? The horror, the horror.

  • Gamera977

    Ahhhh, never seen any of Avenger movies… not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.

  • Ditto.

  • Ken, you know what would make a really cool MOTD? That Civil War Pteranadon photo. Not the obvious fake one, but the one with the soldiers standing over the full-size mock-up. Really cool pic.

  • Is that the same photo that John “Mothman” Keel used to argue for the existence of thunderbirds in the Old West?

  • sandra

    Toxic Avenger ?

  • Flangepart

    Wait, what?
    How did I miss that?

  • Flangepart

    Me either, but I sure heard about them. Troma flicks are kinda had to miss.

  • Possibly, but I don’t know of his work. I know the origins of the photo were traced back to the 70’s, when a number of Civil War era photos were transferred to paper stock. My gut tells me it’s a fake, but it sure is a neat pic!

  • A quick image search reveals several fake photos in the same theme. The good one doesn’t come in any good sizes, though.

  • I think Rock is referring to an image that was produced as a viral marketing tool for the short-lived TV series Freakylinks. However, said image was based on the legend of the “Thunderbird photograph” that Keel was so fond of. If you’d like to read a great article about the origin of the infamous photograph, Google “metafilter thunderbird photograph.”

  • The image I meant has been posted in the forum. There are several, I discovered, but this one looks the best.

  • The Rev.

    The first one is of a piece with the original Class of Nuke ‘Em High: some humor, mostly dark; kind of a mean streak; some good gore. I can’t really defend my fondness for them, but there you go.

    The second one is more light-hearted, more overtly comedic, but still violent (albeit minimal gore). I’d put its tone along the lines of Sgt. Kabukiman, N.Y.P.D. My experience is that most people pick this as their favorite. I prefer the original (probably due to the gore and the original actress playing his girlfriend; the one in the 2nd and 3rd movies was grating and not as pretty, in my opinion), but this is pretty fun, too. My favorite part is Toxie entering Japan “Godzilla style,” mostly because I did that a few times at the beach as well.

    The third was, as I recall, pretty much slapstick comedy, much like the 2nd CoNEH. I thought both sucked, although at least the 2nd CoNEH had a kaiju-sized mutant squirrel running around. They should’ve done a whole movie with that thing fighting, I dunno, a giant Toxie or something. Could’ve been gold.

    I haven’t seen the 4th one, although I saw it was on Netflix. I assume that, like just about everything Troma’s done since the mid-’90s, it’s seriously terrible, but I could be wrong.

    I’m guessing most people here would enjoy the 2nd one the most. The original’s definitely an acquired taste. Don’t bother with the 3rd one.

  • Gamera977

    Thanks for the reviews Rev, I’ve never seen a Troma movie. From the reviews I’d seen I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted to see one or not!

  • MONSTER IN THE CLOSET is pretty good. One of the earlier spoofs of 50’s monster movies (and it even manages a genuine jump or two). THE DARK FORTRESS wasn’t bad, although Troma re-worked it into A NYMPHOID BARBARIAN IN DINOSAUR HELL and completely undercut some of the film’s better points. If you can even find the original version of the film, I’d say give that one a shot. That’s the limit of my own experience with the studio.

  • The Rev.

    Yeah, I liked MitC. Probably the only Troma movie you could watch with kids, as it’s easily a PG. I don’t recall any scares, but it’s been a while. There were some good bits, a neat monster costume, and the finale was pretty damn funny.

    I didn’t know ANBiDH was a rework of something else. I remember liking the stop-motion beasties and that was about it. I’m curious about this original film, though. Thanks for the info!

  • Yeah, the re-working of the film was mostly the addition of that prolog which explained everything in the first two minutes, completely undercutting the eventual discoveries made by the characters. I think they did it mostly to give the film a stronger connection to the Troma universe, as it was a film they acquired rather than one they actually produced.

  • The Rev.

    Oh, yeah….I remember that prologue now. The main character claims she’s the daughter of one of the survivors of Troma’s War, right? I don’t remember that conflicting with the rest of the movie, but then again I was watching it on USA Up All Night so I was probably only really awake when the critters showed up.