The POP-EXPOSE 

THE POP EXPOSE ‘Star Wars Ewok Village’ By Mitchell Smith!

Hello gang, it’s time for our last pop-expose for the month of June. Star Wars has put out a ton of great vehicles and playsets over the years. I had very few as a kid and still own very few vintage vehicles and play sets. One that I did have as a kid was the Ewok Village. This mold was used later for the Robin Hood Sherwood forest and had some added treetops on it, but as a kid this was an awesome play set. I did not have many Star Wars…

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The POP-EXPOSE 

THE POP EXPOSE ‘Sir Ian Holm’ by Mitchell Smith!

Sir Ian Holm was born in 1931 in Essex, England and passed away Friday the 19th at age 88. Ian is best known for his role in the Lord of the Rings trilogy playing Bilbo Baggins. Ian also had parts in some other popular films such as Aliens, Chariots of Fire, and The Aviator. He also did some voice acting such as Skinner in Ratatouille, and had some TV spots in shows such as Napoleon and Love where he played Napoleon as well as many live performances on stage. When Lord…

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THE POP EXPOSE ‘Tom Petty’ By Mitchell Smith!

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers was formed in 1976 and they performed right up to Tom’s death in 2017. Petty was a huge influence on the music world and this was the first and last band I saw in concert. I went to see him in 1992 right after his Into the Great Wide Open album was released. This was such a great album and it was right at the end of my childhood Joes. The Great Wide Open was one of the first albums I bought with my own money…

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The POP-EXPOSE 

THE POP EXPOSE ‘D-Day’ By Mitchell Smith!

Saturday June 6th marked the 76th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy. I had a few discussions about various tanks this week and mainly for my Grandfather who landed in Normandy on the 6th with the 5th Armored division and marched into Germany. I think this a good time to reflect on those men who marched together to stop an evil. Men from all walks of life stood together and back home men and women worked making military vehicles and supplies. People rationed what they had to send food and supplies to our…

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THE POP EXPOSE ‘Missing Baseball’ by Mitchell Smith!

Hello everybody, say goodbye to May and hello to June. I’m not sure how many but I assume a lot of us are missing professional sports. So I thought it would be fun to put together my fantasy team to play a game or 2 of baseball. There are many great catchers and names like Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, and Pudge Rodriguez come to mind but I’m going with the all time great and legend Yogi Berra. Berra had 10 World Series with the Yankees and his name is one…

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The POP-EXPOSE 

‘MEMORIAL DAY’ By Mitchell Smith!

Happy Memorial Day everyone. Today will be strange for many of us I normally go watch the local parade and get together with friends for a backyard barbecue. No parades this year but I’m going to get together a few G.I.Joe’s for some backyard fun. Barbecue, Gung Ho, and Roadblock will be cooking today. Some steak, chicken, and pork shish kabobs, salt potatoes, and a nice Italian pasta salad. We also have an arrangement of Hoffman snappy grillers & coneys, Glazier red hot dogs, and Basilio hot Italian sausage with…

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The POP-EXPOSE 

THE POP EXPOSE ‘Remembering Kenneth Osmond’ By Mitchell Smith!

Kenneth Osmond best known for playing Eddie Haskell on “Leave it to Beaver” passed away Monday May 18th. Born in 1943 in Glendale, CA. He started taking acting classes at 4 years old and was soon doing commercials. In 1957 Osmond tried out for a roll playing Wally Cleaver’s best friend. Eddie was meant to be a 1 time character but Osmond did such a good job playing the character that they added him to the show as a full time character. Eddie was such a good character. The 1957 show was a…

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The POP-EXPOSE 

THE POP EXPOSE ‘Boxcar Willie’ by Mitchell Smith!

Boxcar Willie. Lecil Travis Martin Was born September 1st, 1931. He is best know as his stage name Boxcar Willie. He also was famous for his train whistle sounds and Johnny Cash impressions. Willie was born in Texas and joined the United States Air Force in 1949. There he was a Flight engineer and part of the 136th Air Refueling Wing. He did this up till his retirement in 1976. Willie had wrote a song called Boxcar Willie in the 1950’s and years later he tried out for Chuck Barris’ The…

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The POP-EXPOSE 

THE POP EXPOSE ‘Remembering Jerry Stiller’ By Mitchell Smith!

Jerry Stiller passed away from natural causes at the age of 92. Jerry was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1927. After his return home from WWII he attended and graduated from Syracuse University with a diploma in Speech and Drama. Stiller was married to Anne Meara for over 60 years up to when she passed away in 2015. The 2 had a show back in the 60s and 70s together and Jerry played many rolls over the years both on TV and in the movies. He was a huge part…

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The POP-EXPOSE 

THE POP EXPOSE ‘RIP Little Richard’ By Mitchell Smith!

Richard Wayne Penniman best known as Little Richard passed away on May 9th. Little Richard was born in 1932 in Georgia. He was the 3rd of 12 children. He got the name Lil’ Richard as a child because he was skinny and had a small frame. Richard struggled in school but got involved in music at a young age. He started performing and was given the name Little Richard while playing with Buster Brown’s Orchestra. In 1986 he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Richard was a huge…

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The POP-EXPOSE 

THE POP EXPOSE ‘Mint on Card vs Loose’ Toy Collecting By Mitchell Smith!

Do you open your figures? Opening figures or leaving them in the package can define a person as much as putting the roll of toilet paper over or under, LOL. I know many people leave their figures in the package, or if they can take them out then put them back in the package, or they will buy 2 one to open and one to keep mint. I myself am a package opener. I get keeping stuff in the package to a certain degree. Maybe it’s to preserve the prime…

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The POP-EXPOSE 

THE POP EXPOSE ‘RIP Hector Garrido’ by Mitchell Smith!

Hector Garrido passed away last week peacefully at the age of 92. Hector was responsible for most of the 1980’s G.I. Joe card back artwork. Although Hector had his hand in other things such as Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and even Time Magazine, I will always be grateful for his contribution to G.I Joe. The figures were awesome in the 1980’s and going to the store was tough for any Joe fan to choose just one character if it was your lucky day to get one as a little gift. One of…

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The POP-EXPOSE 

THE POP EXPOSE ‘Mötley Crüe’ By Mitchell Smith!

Mötley Crüe is an American Heavy Metal band that formed in 1981. The group was founded by bassist Nikki Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee, lead guitarist Mick Mars, and lead singer Vince Neil. The band has stayed pretty much together the whole time with a couple slight breaks do mostly to drug abuse. Although they have had some rough patches, they remain one of the most popular bands. There is a 2019 movie on Netflix about their story called “The Dirt”. The movie is pretty wild and goes into how the band formed and…

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The POP-EXPOSE 

THE POP EXPOSE Netflix’s ‘Apache Warrior’ By Mitchell Smith!

Apache Warrior is a 2017 Netflix documentary about the 2003 Apache mission into Baghdad. This was a wild show going into the Apache helicopter and following them on their mission. To start out the Apache is one badass helicopter. This show talks to the men and women who trained to be pilots and follows their mission into Baghdad to give air support to a team on the ground. I guess I never realized how intense the helicopter missions are. I always thought the jets did all the air strikes, but this gave me…

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The POP-EXPOSE 

THE POP EXPOSE – ‘The 2020 NCAA TOURNEY That Wasn’t’ By Mitchell Smith!

This Monday would have been the NCAA basketball championship. Normally we would be coming off a month of wild games with last second shots, crazy upsets, and 2 teams left playing for the championship. As we all know that came to a screeching halt 3 weeks ago. So I thought it would be fun to take the last bracket projection and take my picks to the finals. So first round I predict would have been one of the craziest first rounds we have seen in a while, but all 4 number 1…

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