Animated Reflections: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes Cartoon

Ah, Killer Tomatoes. I must admit that it was this cartoon that eventually lead me to seek out the movies. This cartoon was based on the first two movies from what I can see and came out the same year as the third movie (Killer Tomatoes Strike Back), but from what I've seen the third movie has no influence on the cartoon, unlike the first two. Actually, I think the cartoon had some influence on the fourth movie (Killer Tomatoes Eat France) as we see the three tomato characters of Zoltan, Fang and Ketchup being incorporated into it with some minor design alterations and both Fang and Ketchup getting name changes.

So what is this show about? Well, when I said it was based on the first two movies, it really is more a collection of characters and ideas from those movies re-imagined in a cartoon setting. It certainly feels like a different take on the second movie, but with alterations to characters for whatever reason that they decided for these changes. The characters themselves are very much aware that this is a cartoon and will point out things as a result of this. It ran for around two seasons, but never got a storyline finish (but I'll get to that later). It's theme song is also based on the second movies take of the original theme (though still not as good as the second movies theme).

So first off we have the good guys. These consist of Tomato War veteran Wilbur Finletter and the Tomato Taskforce who are an alternate version of the team from originated in the first movie, with Floyd being an alternate take on Greg (both are underwater experts) while Mary Jo is the alternate take on Gretta. Sam still seems to be the same in that he is a 'disguise expert'. This lot are more of a joke team for the most part, with them more likely to get into trouble then to solve it. Wilbur has the most time of the group and runs a pizza shop, always trying to create more outlandish dishes that no one wants to eat.

No, the real heroes are Chad, Tara and F.T. Unlike their movie counterparts, Chad is much younger, but is still Wilbur's nephew. F.T (Fuzzy Tomato) is more active, though more so that it's a cartoon and he's not just a live-action prop, and apart from Chad, Tara and the Villains, most think he's just an ugly dog. He also ends up being forced to taste Wilbur's latest pizza's, much to his disliking. Tara is still one of Gangreen's experiments, but instead of music, it's salt that turns her back into a tomato and pepper that turns her into a human. Tara is also the main reason I remember this show, mostly from her scenes from a season 2 episode that was a sort of Phantom of the Opera parody. Looking through the episodes, I think there may have been more to the character that would have made her memorable to a young boy's mind and it's unclear why in some episodes (I'm looking at you Tomato of the Black Lagoon) there wasn't a gag with the censor lady showing up to protest the more 'mature' style of particular scenes.

Speaking of which, the other characters on the side of good are Whitely White, a television reporter who seems to be everywhere and reports everything. The Censor Lady who is responsible for showing up to censor things as her running gag and finally Tomato Guy. Tomato Guy is more interesting as he is basically that one guy from the first movie who says the word 'Tomato' and causes everyone to flee and while that still is his gimmick for parts of the first season, they do tend to expand on him and give him a much bigger role in some episodes. So credit where credit is due, they took a one gag character and expanded on it, which is a nice change to see. 

Once again, John Astin returns to provide the voice for an animated character he also preformed the live version of. The alteration is that instead of Professor Mortimer Gangreen, he is now Dr Putrid T Gangreen and now has a greenish skin colour to match the look. In season two, he claims to be the first cartoon villain to have conquered the world in a single non-multipart episode and not be defeated. Whether that claim is true I am unable to confirm. One interesting thing to note is that he claims he is not a mad scientist, just an angry one, which got me thinking; Sheep in the Big City also did this gag, but that show was made later on and I have no doubt that this show didn't create that gag, so who first created the 'not mad, angry scientist' gag? Point is, I'm a big John Astin fan and I need to move on.

His minions consist of his Igor, a rather dim surfer dude stereotype who wants to be a T.V personality and it often getting into trouble with the Doctor. Finally we have the tomatoes Zoltan and the gang of five (which strangely, throughout season one only shows four tomatoes). Zoltan and his gang are much of the same joke minions, with Zoltan being the one with any real speaking part. This would change in season two where they are transformed into mutant tomatoes and each one gains it's own unique look and personality. They would successfully take over the world in the second season, though how they manage to keep control of it is a mystery to me. This would ultimately force Gangreen and Igor to team up with the Tomato Task Force (who is now an underground resistance) in an attempt to stop the tomatoes.

Ah yes, the second season. Looking back on my Blazing Dragons reflection, I should never have separated the seasons (mostly cause trying to write the second one up is much harder then I thought), so instead I'll address the issues I have with the second season of Killer Tomatoes here. 

There was a massive change between the first and second seasons of the show, with the most obvious being the animation. It became computer animated and it really does show. Personally, it wasn't for me and looked more like it should have been cutscenes for an early 90's video game instead of a show.

Then there was the intro song. While it remains the same for the most part, they added kids to it both visually and to sing along to it. I'm wondering if it was meant to tone down some of the 'scariness' factor of killer tomatoes, but to me it just feels like a toy ad every time and it's really off putting. The story structure also changed, instead of one off episodes it was now it was a continuous story. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. Some of the humour took a hit and wasn't as good as the first season. Also, Tara also got an outfit change and is now active in tomato form and I believe everyone knows about Tara and F.T being tomatoes, which is very weird.

Seriously? This is the guy who conquered Australia? How?

Ultimately, the show was cancelled before resolving the tomato world dominating plot, which was a bit of a shame. My guess is season two wasn't as popular as beyond the first four episodes, finding any other ones after that is near impossible. I was at least able to find most of season one online and after re-watching most of the show again, I can say I did enjoy it. It is very much your generic Saturday morning cartoon and its main theme of killer tomatoes isn't going to be for everyone, so I can see why most would have given it a pass. Given how critical people are these days, I think most will prefer this over the movies. I certainly found some of the gags of the first season funny and the show was entertaining enough for me to watch for the most part. If you can, check out a few of season ones episodes if your curios.

September 2020 Projects Part 2

 So a quick update on things:

Puppets:

Been put on hold temporary while I figure out what to do space wise. See, the thing is, I did get a lot of the fleece for the head done, but I didn't have the inner mouth. I also didn't have the proper space so I learned that just towards the final part of the mouth stitching, I had too much material. Unfortunately, I obviously panicked and tried to fix it, which made it worse and the more I tried fixing, the worse it got. It hit me fairly badly emotionally and so have had to halt working further on it. Due to space issues (I'm a lodger and so have nearly no personal space to work on such things), I'm having to spend some time trying to plan around it. Since all the stuff to work on props is packed in boxes, it mean the project is now on hold until a solution can be found. This is distressing and frustrating for me, but there really isn't much I can do at the moment.

Miniatures:

While I'm still working on the same models from my previous part, I'm also adding two Hucksters into the mix to finish rounding out The Wild Ones crew. Am also waiting for the next White Dwarf for their Warcry rules for Cities of Sigmar. Going to see if I can look at the possibility of making a Warband for that.

September Thoughts 25/09/2020

Cartoon Era Point of Views?

One thing I've learnt recently is to not delve into videos that talk about 'weird' cartoon series from a particular era. I recently watched one talking about shows from the 80's, yet apart from a couple, I wouldn't call most of them weird compared to other shows from that time. Heck, they even ignored Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, yet put Denver the Last Dinosaur on the list. Then it sort of occurred to me why. See, these people making the list clearly were younger then me and were more familiar with shows from the 2000's then anything else. By this time TNMT was considered a normal, popular franchise and that influence may have lead to the feeling of the show not being considered weird. As someone more familiar with 80's cartoons, I certainly would have placed TNMT on the list as compared to Denver, there are a number of the Turtles' episodes that were more weird then the Denver show itself.

I didn't comment on such videos as I find that it is difficult to have a discussion on such matters, mostly cause I don't know how people will react and if a civilized discussion about animation and cartoons can even be a thing in the current state of the community. I just felt like making a note here so I may one day expand on this thought in a more informed article.

Cross-overs:

Just a quick one here. A few years back I tweeted wondering why we never had a cross over between The Tick and Freakazoid and thinking about it recently, I wondered what other characters I'd love to see a cross over with. While there are plenty, a recent post I'm working on gave me another two I'd like to see together in a cross over: Dr Drakken from Kim Possible and Dr Doofenshmirtz from Phineas & Ferb. Both a the evil scientist stereotype and both are comedic in what they do. That said, I would have them start off trying to out do each other before they are put into a position where they are forced to team up against a greater evil to save the world. Seems like it could work as a one off piece anyway, just a thought.  

Scooby-Doo and the Curse of the 13th Ghost:

As someone who saw the 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, this was one of the few Scooby related material that I did want to check out and having now watched it, I thought it was good. I liked it at least. It tried to remain faithful to the original while still going for the modern style that always seems the way they go with the franchise.

And there lies they problem, it 'tried', but still fell somewhat flat. Sure they brought back Flim-Flam, but they didn't bring back Scrappy, Weerd and Bogel. I know Scrappy has a bit of a reputation, but I feel the main problem with that character is that no one knows how to redeem or make him likable and this was a failed opportunity (also, they brought back this plotline yet have Fred and Velma not know who Scrappy is? Are they just picking and choosing what they want to acknowledge in this franchise at this point). Then we have the two ghosts of Weerd and Bogel, who were the catalyst for the events of the show and were always trying to get the heroes. The fact that they never appear in this feels like they were trying to make it more serious, yet a lot of the humour in this movie was still reminiscent of the original Scooby cartoons, so this one makes no sense to me. Also, the Chest backstory is also confusing. Like there are two running parts with Vince and Mortifer finding the Chest for the first time in Egypt, yet the second is that the 13th Ghost is actually Vincent's ancestor? Even the ancestor is dressed similar to Vincent in the flashback, so how did he end up in the Chest and sealed away in an Ancient Egypt vault? Confusing.

As I said, I liked it (Van Ghoul in particular, voiced by the great Maurice LaMarche), but this was another attempt to use something from the past for classic fans and then missing important points for some strange reason. Check it out if you're a Scooby fan or if you're just general interested to see what it's like.

September 2020 Projects Part 1

So I'm going to the same update style with this month as I did with last month and see how it goes.

So first things first, the Burning Sigil of Tzeentch. Said I was going to get this done and surprise of all surprises, I did.

 

While not the most original of paint schemes, am overall happy with the results (could be a lot worse). But that's not all, for we have a few Warcry Warbands to throw into this mix. First up, we have the Iron Golems.

 

I have to admit, the Iron Golem's is one of those groups that I really have no intention of playing, but they did come with the starter box, so figured that given they are mostly armoured it shouldn't be too difficult to paint up. Thing is, from all that I've worked on over the recent years, it's becoming apparent that I'm just not good at painting skin and cloth and as much as I'd like to improve my skills in this area, Covid has sadly stopped stores from letting staff teach painting skills, so another thing on the back burner. I decided to go with the standard paint scheme for these guys, figuring that the more red colour would show favour towards the Blood God (figured the warriors of Khorne would be their best customers and so what better way to drum up business then to go with the theme). So if I wasn't going to play them, then they are meant to be a rival group for someone. But who?

Enter the Spire Tyrants. Yeah, not my best work by a long shot and I have to admit that I just couldn't get both the colour scheme or the skin textures right. Still, this is one of those warbands that I did want to play and the look and feel of the group is what ultimately drew me to them. I figured that they were more gladiator slaves who were united by their leader (Mr pale ghost skin there) and that the group values loyalty and trust over most other things, as they are the skills that saw them overthrow their masters and escape. Strangely, I also imagine that the Duardin of both warbands have a massive grudge against each other and would try to hunt each other down on the battlefield to fight in their endless personal conflict.

So with that done and dusted, what's next?

Miniatures:

I don't have much GW I want to focus on this month. Oh I have lots to do, just don't have the mindset to work on it. If I do anything, it will be work on a Mangle Squigs model. I recently saw some drybrushing tutorials on a Youtube channel called Artis Opus and I really want to give them a try using the large Squigs. The idea is to paint one in that gloomy green like colour scheme while the other will be ranged from orange/pink/purple/midnight blue as a sort of dusk them. whether or not it will actually work or look any good is another thing, but it requires lots of patience and focus, which I lack at the moment. Should I feel there is a right time, then I'll try and give it a shot.

If anything, this month will probably be Malifaux focused. I had planned to finish my brothers Misaki crew, but some confusion on his half has put that on hold (I mean, it's been what, close to two years now since he played a game and it's changed somewhat in 3rd edition, so I'd be very confused too). Until that gets sorted out, I am working on a few different models, with a focus on completing my Euripides crew, which currently set up as:

• Euripides (Crew Leader) (6 Soulstones in pool)
  
• Primordial Magic (Totem)
• Thoon
• 1x Cyclops
• 2x Geryon
• 2x Gigant

I can always swap a Geryon for a Cyclops if needed, but out of the three Gigants I have, sadly one need a bit more repair work as a bunch hit the floor and got cracked legs, but this ones leg fully broke and I'm having trouble repairing it, but that's ok. Working on getting a colour scheme that I'm happy with, but from what I've got working on so far I'm liking so far.

I do feel that some are missing something. The Geryon's may need something like perhaps blood splatter around the large arms/hands and mouth might work, but I don't want to add it just yet until I'm absolutely sure cause if I don't like it, I really don't wanna try painting the skin parts again.

Also, will also go back to adding more to my old The Wild Ones crew. With the releasing of the Rough Rider rules, now is an excellent time to go back and replace all the Guild stuff the crew once used. See, when 3rd edition came around, Lucas McCabe (the crew whom the nightmare crew is based on) was no longer part of the Guild, the two count-as Mounted Guard models were no longer usable. Now that they have got rules to re-use them, I have looked at crew and models and I think I have the crew worked out. Currently, I am working on a second Miss Anne Thrope model (as they count as Ruffians and you can have up to three) and will finish it off by adding two Hucksters, who actually seem to match the visual theme a bit.

As for anything else, we'll see what happens.

Puppets:

I'm hoping to finally start stitching the fleece together for the test puppet this month. Not going to say much else as everytime I try to talk about this in updates, nothing ever seems to happen so don't want to jinx this further.

Animated Reflections:

So a bit of an explanation for this one. I've been wanting to do more of these, but when I've started writing I've gotten about a paragraph or two in and have not been happy with how it was going. I've tried it for about three different shows, but I just haven't figured out how I want it to be read. I'm not a professional critic or reviewer and really the purpose of it was to let people know these animated shows/movies existed and my own personal thoughts on them. I'm going to try again this month with a show that isn't too much for me and see how it goes.

Speaking of catchy songs

 So just off that last post, this is another movie song I've been hearing recently that I also find quite catchy:

Also, hint of future things I'll be looking at...

September Thoughts 13/09/20

So I'd thought I could try doing these thought posts where I just talk about things I've come across as I find trying to do posts on individual thoughts just never get done. Just going to give it a shot and I'll see how well it works for me over the next few months before I determine if I like it or not. Project updates will be kept as separate posts as will more focused article like posts, though expect some of those to show up over the next week or so.

Comical vs Serious in Warhammer Factions:

So I was reading the Worlds of Warhammer article in White Dwarf issue 455 and it was the part about the not wanting to fall into the trap of turning a more humorous races into a joke. While I get what they were going for, I do feel that they could of expanded more on what they meant. Using the Clanrats as an example was a poor choice in my opinion, as they rarely contribute in any form of story long enough for any meaningful character development. Doesn't matter how many there are, they are just throw away mobs in any monster swarm story, with the real horror coming from their leaders. 

I also think sticking Skaven and Gloomspite Gitz in the same category of humorous race is also a bit misleading, mostly due to how the two factions are written. It's clear they have moved the Gitz further away from the more humorous aspects of the old Goblins and focused more on the sadistic nature of the old Night Goblins, where as Skaven still haven't changed much from their 'Thanquol' days despite removing a some of the random chance problems from their rules. For me, I don't see any real humor (even dark humour) in the Gloomspite where as the Skaven still have that Gremlins 2 movie feel in some sense.

That said, the more comical nature of 40K Orks is something that did draw me to them compared to most other races (mostly cause the other races lack anything that truly grabs me as exciting or interesting). Their simplistic yet brutal nature is easy to understand. They like to fight and it's what drives them, simple violence. Beyond that, they really lack most of the horror tropes to make them scary. It's the more amusing/funny nature that makes them more interesting. After all, this is a race who build stuff that they believe works and does when by all means shouldn't. It's why the pilot story in the Medusa V campaign was so great (to sum it up, Tau shot an Ork plain down and took the pilot prisoner. They studied the shot down plane and figured it should have never flown, let alone now after it'd been shot down. Pilot escaped, jumped in his plane and flew off, the Tau scratching their heads). Also, some of the dialog scenes in Dawn of War Winter Assault and Dawn of War 2 Retribution really show off how the Orks can be a threat, while still having very funny moments.

So is there a real problem in balancing a race being both threatening and humourous or is it perhaps I just find most other factions lack anything to bring in my interests and trying to talk about that is a lot more complicated then I thought.

Crash 4: Tawna Clip:

How do I talk about this one without pissing people off? Let's just say that I don't like the design and by that I mean sure I understand what they were going for, but for me the look is a little confusing. Is she an adventurer? Punk? Rogue? Pirate? I can't pinpoint the design and it somewhat irritates that design part of my brain.

I also don't get her reaction to Crash and Coco. People say that in her reality the two are dead and her reaction proves it and yeah, I somewhat see it, but if that was the case then I would have expected her to show a bit more emotion. I guess some could argue that she has removed herself from emotion to be a lone wolf hero, but then why act that way with the two if you wanted to keep yourself distant from emotion? Perhaps there is a cutscene of two that will better clarify that, so I'll just wait till the games out before looking into character personality traits (I am aware she is an alternate reality version, it's just the look and reactions of the character don't fully match given the information I have at hand is all I'm saying). As for Crash in the clip? he seems curious of her look, but ultimately just feels like he's just part of the cutscene for a gag and reaction.

That said, loved Coco's reactions in the clip. It's clear Tawna meant something to her, as the more she talked, the more she was getting connected and then the disappointment and sadness over Tawna's decision felt like it really hit her. I get the feeling that for Coco, Tawna may have been that big sister type to her early on and that sort of connection is something Coco is obviously wanting again. Perhaps that encounter brought up that sort of emotion for her again and made her realise that she was missing something in her life. As for what happened to their Tawna, they simply mentioned drifting apart, so for all we know is that Tawna and the Nitro Squad have opened up a tourist and shopping village on one of the Wampa Islands and that distance meant lack of communication. Who knows? But I would love to see some sort of resolution to this, just so we can see their Tawna get back into the main series again.

Maybe be like Coco was in the original Crash 3 game being in vehicle/animal levels, perhaps her and the Nitro Squad could go Super Sentai style and form their vehicles into a giant robot and go toe-to-toe with N Gin in a giant robot battle boss fight. Maybe then have Coco have her own levels as she builds her own rivalry with Nina Cortex in their own side story. After all, why should Crash and Dr Cortex have all the fun.

The Tale of the Bunny Picnic:

Nothing I really wanted to say here. Just joyful I found something from my childhood online and thought to share it here (damn that first song is catchy).

Upon reviewing this post, I realise that I am not good with putting thoughts into words (seriously, I don't think the first two ones even had a point). Maybe after a few more posts I'll start getting the hang of it, but open to any tips to help improve this whole 'thoughts into words' posts.

August 2020 Projects Update Part 2

 Ugh, these photos are worse then the last. Oh well.

Anyway, got more of my Tzeentch crew done. This batch includes the two heroes, ten Chaos Warriors and two Chaos Spawn.

So the heroes include the main General, Mevrix the Everlasting Change. Originally Mevrix was based on the morphing arm Marauder from the game Warhammer: Age or Reckoning, but now acts as a Curseling rule wise. I couldn't find all the parts from the original model (I had used some of them for other conversions, while others I think I have now lost), so this conversion isn't exactly what I had in mind.

The Herald is just my old Beast Herald conversion, now re-based and with a familiar to carry his staff and book (so he matches the look of the rules more).

The spawns are also two different types. The first is an old metal model that was once converted to be a Slaanesh spawn, but was re-based and re-painted quickly back when AoS started and now acts as a human turned spawn creation. The second one is more recent, as it was one of two spawns I built for beasts in Warcry (the second being Khorne themed). As such, this one is meant to feel more like a Tzaangor spawn variant. This shot does them no justice.

Ah, my old Chaos Warriors. Once Slaanesh theme (back when the Cult of Slaanesh rules existed in old Fantasy Battle), they now serve the God of Change. They were my more recent experiment, with the paint mixed with a sort of turquoise pearl pigment powder and lightly added around the shield and armour. I wanted to give them a more shine/magic effect more suited to servants of the Lord of Magic. The banner itself is dedicated to the armies view of their God, dedicated to the mutations of the flesh and to their ideal of the Great Spawn, a cross between Daemon Prince and Chaos Spawn, to which all those who follow seek to become (so basically it is a Deamon Prince, who's body is constantly changing and can form into whatever it wants or needs).

The army itself has two focuses, magic and mutation and currently looks like this:

Curseling (Hero - General):

• Command Trait: Boundless Mutation
• Spell: Arcane Suggestion
  

Changecaster (Hero):

• Daemonic Power: Aura of Mutability
• Spell: Unchecked Mutation
  

Horrors (10 Pink) - Battleline

Chaos Warriors (10) -Battleline

• Mark of Tzeentch
  

Flamers of Tzeentch (3)

Screamers of Tzeentch (3)

Chaos Spawn of Tzeentch (2) or 1 Spawn and endless spell: Burning Sigil of Tzeentch

This brings it to 990pts (as of the time of writing) with the last part giving me an option of either 2 spawns or a spawn and spell to mess around with.

As for further expansion, I already have 3 Enlightened Tzaangors on Discs, but I also want to add things like more Daemons, some Kairic Acolytes, maybe more Tzaangors/Slaves to Darkness mortals, but really want to add in a Mutalith Vortex Beast as it would really add to the theme. Maybe the Mindstealer Sphiranx would also be nice.

Next to get done for this army is the Burning Sigil of Tzeentch, which I'll get done along side a few other models currently on the desk.