The folks at Mezco Toys have brought out a line of terrific Popeye action figures — two different ones of Popeye the Sailor Man, one each of his friends and foes — Bluto, Olive Oyl and Wimpy. All are well designed as per the best of the Fleischer cartoons. These are all in the (approx.) 6" size and seem to be most available at Toys R' Us and Tower Video. There's also a larger, 12" Popeye figure that is only obtainable from Amazon.com, where it goes for twenty bucks plus a special $5.00 shipping surcharge. If you click here, you will not only be transported to the page where you can order but POVonline (that's us) will get a tiny cut of the money you spend while you're there.
And, speaking of the Spinach-Eater: My pal Jerry Beck has announced, over on his splendid Cartoon Research website, that Cartoon Network will soon commence a Sunday evening series that will run vintage Popeye shorts, uncut and with their original titles. That's the good news. The bad is that it's on at one o'clock in the morning but, hey, that's why God invented the TiVo. Set yours for the wee hours of Sunday, October 29 (Monday morning, actually) and every week thereafter. If you don't have a TiVo, they sell them at Amazon.com and the 30-hour model is currently down to a new low price, plus we get our little cut if you go there by clicking here. End of commercials.
And let's note: Slowly but surely, Cartoon Network is sneaking more and more uncut cartoons onto their schedule. The Bob Clampett Show, The Tex Avery Show, The Chuck Jones Show, Late Night Black and White and Toon Heads all run unexpurgated films and, since they seem to be garnering no complaints and no sponsor defections, this trend will likely continue. The latter two shows, by the way, have been running some superb, rarely-seen goodies.