Too Much Awesome

As a life long wrestling fan, it came as very sad news to hear about the passing of Macho Man Randy Savage. Macho Man was a childhood hero of mine and helped pro wrestling become one of the most popular forms of entertainment on the planet. I used to watch WWF on Saturday mornings religiously, [...]

It has been a long time since I’ve had a GI Joe action figure in my hands. I managed to hang on to a few of the figures from my childhood, but overall they’ve all been lost to the ages. Recently I’ve seen the new GI Joe figures on the shelves and wrote them off [...]

We’ve talked about Mr. Potato Head before on the site, but let’s dig a bit deeper today and get at the root of what has made the ol’ tater such an enduring toy for generations. When you stop and think about it, the truth is that Mr. Potato Head is actually a dress-up doll, one [...]

One of the most popular children’s toys of the 20th century, Lego formed both the literal and figurative building blocks of many a childhood, including my own. But these simple plastic bricks brought hours of fun to me and my friends as they have almost every child that’s come into contact with them in their [...]

We’ve hit our Friday of the week, and at the moment, Kyle and I are rather busy with some big things (we’re recording a separate, legit podcast with a very special guest). That means I’m going to keep today light and nostalgic, which lends itself to a Forget-Me-Nots, the segment Kyle came up with but [...]

He’s a staple of many childhoods. He’s a supporting character in a successful blockbuster series. He’s a family man. And he’s a snappy dresser, too. Mr. Potato Head has had a long history, and is one of the most famous and instantly recognizable toys in the world. How did this mustachioed vegetable rise to super [...]

Today we have the fifth episode of the Too Much Awesome podcast with the return of Kyle Martinak. In this episode, Chris and Kyle discuss the general topic of childhood trends, including what Kyle calls “Schoolyard Currency,” Pogs, Super Soakers, Nerf, Mr. Potato Head, Toy Story 3, and video games. Plus, Chris makes a point [...]

In 1946, a small Minnesota company sought to manufacture gardening tools under the name Mound Metalcraft. This business model quickly evolved however, when their side project of crafting metal toys became a much more viable market. Business and life (and toys) can be unpredictable, and sometimes our crazy side projects take on a life of [...]

I wrote an article last week about Hot Wheels cars, but upon posting it something started gnawing at me. While talking about Hot Wheels, I had completely neglected to mention Matchbox, the opposing brand. What makes this worse is that as a kid, I couldn’t distinguish between the two as both brands made little toy [...]

Little known fact about me: I grew up as a little boy. What this generally meant is that Barbies weren’t typically in my play-cycle and Hot Wheels dominated most of my free time in between Ninja Turtles. I’m happy to say that even though I’ve taken a long hiatus from the small die-cast cars of [...]