The true writer of the popular boy series was Leslie McFarlane who used the pseudonym of Franklin W. Dixon with other writers. This American sleuth boy series was written not by a true blood American but by a Canadian. The Hardy Boys, a project on which Leslie was the main contributor, wrote 19 of the first 25 books between 1927 and 1946, and 21 overall. Just who was Leslie McFarlane? This seems like a mystery that only the Hardy Boys can solve. Ghost of the Hardy Boys: The Writer Behind the World’s Most Famous Boy Detectives explores the true origins of the writings of the Hardy Boys series.
Sandbox World
The third Sunday in June is Father's Day became a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972. The tie business went through the roof every June after that. Economists estimate that Americans spend more than $1 billion each year on Father’s Day gifts. Did you know? There are more than 70 million fathers in the United States. Author Cian Cruise celebrates fatherhood with, Dad Bod: Portraits of Pop Culture Papas. Let's celebrate dads in pop culture!
La Planète des singes, known in English as Planet of the Apes in the US and Monkey Planet in the UK, is a 1963 science fiction novel by French author Pierre Boulle. The unsuspecting novel unleashed a franchise that still garnishes a fascination for the beloved book. There have been many variations of the main story. 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of the Pierre Boulle book, Marvel Entertainment is getting a head start with the announcement of acquiring the rights to Planet of the Apes.
Nerf, the company known for its blasters that fire soft, foam darts at targets, now has its very own mascot named Murph. Hasbro, Nerf’s parent company, unveiled a new mascot, which is supposed to embody the fun and active play brand.
Werner Herzog’s The Twilight World revisits Hiroo Onoda’s 30-year war and asks whether we all cling to private jungles of belief in life’s twilight.
To bee or not to bee. Rowan Atkinson is at it again. The bees of the world are no longer safe. It's man vs bee. Only one can stand victorious. This new 9-episode series from Netflix is sure to be a smash. Let's hope the bee does not get smashed. The series was created and written by Rowan Atkinson and William Davies, directed by David Kerr and starring Atkinson, Jing Lusi, Claudie Blakley, Tom Basden, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Greg McHugh and India Fowler. Man Vs Bee is scheduled to premiere on Netflix on 24 June 2022.
On Halloween night, this pumpkin-shaped translucent orange LP will rise from sincere vinyl collections the world over and bring audible presents to all the good girls and boys. Previously thought lost to time: this album contains remasters from the original session reels for It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
"Go Beyond" is a pane of 20 stamps arranged in four horizontal rows of five stamps featuring the image of Buzz Lightyear, a Space Ranger marooned on a planet 4.2 million light-years from Earth. Greg Breeding was the art director using illustrations from Pixar Animation Studios.
Weird to Exist is divided into three intrinsic human acts—to exist, to love, to create—and ultimately touches on how weird it is to do all of that. Also included is Zai’s popular long-form comic Bee Real, which follows one little irritable bee’s enlightening mission to extinguish the sun. With sharp levity and emotional complexity, this colorful collection finds the fun in life’s hard truths.
New York Resort kicks off a summer of epic celebrations today for the 90th anniversary of the LEGO Group. Awesome surprises include the arrival of a massive 20-foot-tall LEGO cake and exciting prize giveaways four days per week over the next two months. Families will have the opportunity to get the gift of building memories, with 90 surprise gifts per week ranging from LEGO Minifigures, to food, beverage, and retail discounts, to VIP experiences, to a free, all-inclusive stay at LEGOLAND Hotel!
The Marvel Super Heroes are back! Fans will light up with this second volume of the psychedelic, collectible portfolio featuring 12 frameable black light posters of celebrated Marvel Comics characters, such as Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Captain America, Doctor Strange, and Black Bolt, illustrated by legendary artists including Jack Kirby, John Romita Sr., Gil Kane, and more.
The LEGO Story is the definitive story behind one of the most beloved brands on the planet, shown through the deeply personal lens of one singular family. Excellently written with ease and verve, it’s also a riveting cultural history of changing generations’ views of childhood and the importance of play. Richly illustrated with never-before-seen photos from the family’s private archive, this is the ultimate book for fans of LEGO, revealing everything you ever wanted to know about the brand.
If you ever used a glue gun, you know it can get aggravating with that electrical cord. Most of the time the glue gun cannot stand up. It can be frustrating if you use glue guns. The Kickstarter campaign for the cordless glue gun ATuMan EG1 is getting the attention of arts and craft enthusiasts.
Umbrella Entertainment has a triple feature of invisibility movies. They are collecting together The Invisible Man Returns (1940), The Invisible Woman (1940), and Invisible Agent (1942). I have it in good authority that if you do not get a copy that they will disappear quite fast.
New York Times best-selling author Nick Hornby of High Fidelity fame has a new book Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius that explores the duality of Prince and Dickens in their individual centuries. So far apart but yet so much alike.
Here is a game oddity that is long overdue. David Bowie finally has his own Monopoly game based on his various musical personalities. Not only did Ziggy play guitar but he also played Monopoly. According to Amazon sales, the best-selling Monopoly game after the original game is Monopoly Unicorns vs. Llamas. This game decides once-and-for-all who is the cutest and the best: Unicorns or Llamas.
Innovations for Learning (IFL) Canada, a global non-profit that works to level the playing field for emerging readers in high-need communities, and Symcor, a leading Canadian organization that enables secure data exchanges, expand their partnership with the development of a new original storybook series. Ice Fishing with Nimkii tells the true story of Nimkii Lavell, the land-based Learning Lead with the Wiikwemkoong Board of Education, who ties education to traditional Anishinaabek outdoor activities.
The story begins in Berlin, 1944. The Nazis are flanked on all fronts by the combined Allied forces, and defeat seems inevitable. In a last-ditch effort to turn the tide of the war, Hitler and his team of evil scientists create a serum that resurrects their dead soldiers, creating an army of the dead even stronger than they were in life.
GCI Film has announced that its animated family feature, Ozi: Voice of the Forest, will be debuting its first scenes at the Annecy Animation Festival on June 15th in France, with a panel conversation featuring Executive Producer Rodrigo Blaas, the film's Director, Tim Harper, and the award-winning Animation team from Mikros Animation.
Remember when long-haired British rock ’n’ rollers made teenage girls swoon ― and their parents go crazy? Britmania plunges into the period when suddenly, America went wild for All Things British. This profusely illustrated full-color hardback, subtitled “The British Invasion of the Sixties in Pop Culture,” explores the movies (A Hard Day’s Night, Having a Wild Weekend), TV (The Ed Sullivan Show, Magical Mystery Tour), collectibles (toys, games, trading cards, lunch boxes), comics (real-life Brits in the DC and Marvel Universes) and, of course, the music!
Take the thrill of insane stunts and the excitement of rock ’n’ roll, fuse them together and you get Stunt Rock! The madness starts when real-life Australian stuntman Grant Page (Mad Max) goes to L.A. and meets up with a theatrical rock band called Sorcery, and Page impresses the rockers so much with his daredevil antics that they hire him for their act.
Level up your desk organization with this Arcade Cabinet Desk Caddy. Features all your favorite Stranger Things characters and references to video games of the 80s! The Stranger Things arcade desk caddy was designed by Genuine Fred with an official license from Netflix. See the entire Stranger Things collection in Genuine Fred's brand store.
Debbie Harry was photographed by Lynn Goldsmith in 1978, complete with a sailor hat, Popeye T-shirt, and thigh boots.
The all-new original film, Eraser: Reborn, a reboot of the 1996 blockbuster, follows US Marshal Mason Pollard, a specialist in engineering the fake deaths of witnesses that need to leave no trace of their existence. In this clip from the action-packed film, Mason Pollard (played by Dominic Sherwood) fakes the death of Rina Kimura (played by Jacky Lai), a crime boss’ wife who’s decided to turn states evidence.