Ep. 124 Toxic Avenger Revisited

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WASTELANDS - An Australian B-grade, Punk Rock, Street Trash online radio show hosted by long time partners in slime Adam (085c3n3) Obscene and Mark-O-Mark, pondering punk oddities, b grade movies, and trashy treasures.

Episode 124

Toxic Avenger Revisited

In this episode Adam and Mark revisit Tromaville, the home of New Jersey's greatest hero and location of Troma's greatest contribution to cinema - The Toxic Avenger. Join them as they discuss this genuinely funny poke at superheroes and monster movies, delivered with a healthy dose of cheap gags, splattery special effects, and T&A.

The Toxic Avenger, set in Tromaville, NJ, is about Melvin Ferd, a meek nerd, who works as a janitor at a health club. While he is of no threat to anyone, psychotic health club patrons: Bozo, Slug, Wanda, and Julie bully the kid because he doesn’t look pretty like them, and isn’t as smart as they are.

When the four aren’t tormenting little Melvin, they are busy screwing each other, or running over little boys on bicycles with their bitchen Camero; squishing their little heads. It’s the only way Bozo is able to relieve the stress of his life.

Eventually, the the four manage to humiliate Melvin to the point where he jumps out of a second story window at the health club, and into a barrel of toxic waste conveniently sitting open on a flatbed truck in front of the club. The toxic waste sets Melvin on fire, but also transforms him into a super-sized superhero/vigilante with a delightful voice.

Australian VHS cover

Factoids

  • Look for future Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei as an extra (coming out of a shower)

  • Two less successful sequels, The Toxic Avenger Part II and The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie, were filmed as one. Director Lloyd Kaufman realized that he had shot far too much footage for one film and re-edited it into two.

  • A third independent sequel was also released, titled Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV.

  • An animated children's TV series spin-off, Toxic Crusaders, featured Toxie as the leader of a team of mutated superheroes who fought against evil alien polluters. The cartoon series was short-lived and quickly cancelled. 

  • New Line Cinema had planned a live-action film based on the cartoon, but the project was never produced.[

  • In 2019, it was announced that Legendary Entertainment would be producing a reboot of the film, with original creators Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz of Troma Entertainment serving as producers, and Macon Blair serving as writer and director.

Links

Full movie on Tubi

Trailer on Youtube


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Wastelands Radio Show - Episode 56 - The Toxic Crusaders

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WASTELANDS - An Australian B-grade, Punk Rock, Street Trash online radio show hosted by long time partners in slime Adam (085c3n3) Obscene and Mark-O-Mark, pondering punk oddities, b grade movies and trashy treasures.

Wastelands Radio Show - Episode 56 - The Toxic Crusaders.jpg

Episode 56

The Toxic Crusaders

In this episode Adam and Mark revisit Tromaville and talk about the 1991 animated series and Toys aimed at children, loosely based on The Toxic Avenger films. It features Toxie, the lead character of the films leading a group of misfit superheroes who combat pollution - the Toxic Crusaders.

The Toxic Crusaders followed a trend of environmentally considerate cartoons and comics of the time, including Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Swamp Thing, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures. As this incarnation was aimed at children, Toxic Crusaders is considerably tamer than the edgy films it was based on (although it nevertheless contained many adult-oriented jokes that would go over most children's heads).

Thirteen episodes were produced and aired, with at least a few episodes airing as a "trial run" in Summer 1990 followed by the official debut on January 21, 1991.

Toxic-Avenger---sota-toys - 2002

Toxic-Avenger---sota-toys - 2002

Ultimate Toxie by Super 7

Ultimate Toxie by Super 7

Playmates Toys, the same company responsible for Ninja Turtles action figures, released a line of similarly styled Toxic Crusader figures in 1991. The majority of characters featured bright neon colours and glow-in-the-dark accessories. TV commercials for the figures used the tag line "They're gross, but they still get girls!" A total of nine characters as well as some rather unorthodox vehicles saw toy shelves. Similar to the Ninja Turtles' Retro mutagen Ooze, Playmates also marketed a canister of slime labeled Toxie's Toxic Waste. A toy line principally conceived by Aaronian and the design team at Troma and Pangea Corporation, some of the toys came packed with "Toxic Tips," which instructed kids how to make messes in their homes and otherwise muck up the environment.

In 2020 Super 7 released a 7 inches tall Toxie, modelled on the original Playmates figure from the classic animated series , its features multiple points of articulation, and includes a wide selection of accessories including a glow in the dark blobby.

Toxic avenger movie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgXtR-Tk0ZA

Toxic Crusaders episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT_gn9ETWbo

Toxic crusaders playmates tv commercial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5ctZSbfvH8

sideL_1024x1024.png

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Wastelands Radio Show - Episode 23 - TROMA - Double feature

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WASTELANDS - An Australian B-grade, Punk Rock, Street Trash online radio show Hosted by long time partners in slime Adam (085c3n3) Obscene and Mark-O -Mark, pondering punk oddities, trashy treasures, street levelness, life, culture and stuff.

In this episode Adam and Mark take on two Troma classics where the schools teach readin’, writin' and radiation! and the beaches have become battlefields... the waves are a war zone! Listeners and losteners brace yourselves for Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986) and Surf Nazis Must Die (1987).

Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986) - When Warren and Chrissy notice some strange things happening around their high school, when the pupils start acting and looking strange after buying contaminated drugs from a nuclear plant worker. They begin to suspect that something is going on at the nuclear plant next door. Though the plant officials deny that there are any problems, Crissy gives birth to a bloodthirsty mutant who immediately begins eating everyone in the school. Will Warren and Chrissy be able to stop their killer kid?

Factoids

  • The Monster is never seen in a full shot as the entire costume was never finished. They only had bits and pieces that were used as a puppet (hands, face, legs etc.)

  • When Dewey lands on the pavement in the opening scene, the first man to walk up to him is a shocked, bearded man, played by Troma co-founder and producer Michael Herz in his only on-screen performance ever.

  •  When Chrissy goes to the hospital, you can hear over the loudspeaker "Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard". These are the names Moe, Larry, and Curly take in certain episodes of the Three Stooges. - From the short Men in Black; which was released September 28th, in 1934.

  •   Spike (Bob Prichett) has mop strings hanging from his left shoulder. Certainly a reference to Toxie.

Links - Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNkkf2KHcZA

Surf Nazis Must Die (1987) - When the son of a gun-wielding woman is murdered by neo-Nazi surf punks in the post-apocalyptic future, his Mama hunts them down for some bloodthirsty revenge. Possibly the best title ever... An earthquake leaves the California coastline in ruins and reduces the beaches to a state of chaos.

Surf Nazis Must Die Australian VHS cover

A group of neo-Nazis led by Adolf (Brenner), the self-proclaimed "Führer of the new beach", takes advantage of the resulting chaos by fighting off several rival surfer gangs to seize control of the beaches. Meanwhile, an oil well worker named Leroy (Harden) is killed by the surf Nazis while jogging on the beach. Leroy's mother, "Mama" Washington (Neely), devastated by the loss of her son, vows revenge.  After arming herself with a handgun and grenades, she breaks out of her retirement home and exacts vengeance on the Surf Nazis. For, amongst other things, the excellent synth soundtrack by Jon McCallum, for having a character called "smeg",for the hilariously obvious shock shots of the sky, surf and the bunker area, and for the immortal line "taste some of mommas home cooking Adolf", this films deserves 10 out of 10.

Factoids

Surf Nazis Must Die was criticised by reviewers as boring and hard to follow, and its acting, dialogue, and camerawork were widely panned. Janet Maslin wrote "Not even the actors' relatives will find this interesting." Roger Ebert stated that he walked out of the film after 30 minutes.

Links

Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg5IsQKBE4g&t=6s - Soundtrack - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLYxlS8enk4

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Episodes new and old can be found on Stitcher Radio, TuneIn, Mixcloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts. Just search Wastelands Radio Show.

Wastelands Radio Show - Episode 22 - Troma - The Toxic Avenger

in , , ,

WASTELANDS - An Australian B-grade, Punk Rock, Street Trash online radio show Hosted by long time partners in slime Adam (085c3n3) Obscene and Mark-O -Mark, pondering punk oddities, trashy treasures, street levelness, life, culture and stuff.

Wastelands Radio Show - Episode 22 - Troma - The Toxic Avenger

Episode 22

Troma - The Toxic Avenger

In this episode Adam and Mark take a short stroll through Tromaville, the home of New Jersey's greatest hero and location of Troma's greatest contribution to cinema - The Toxic Avenger. Join them as they discuss this genuinely funny poke at superheroes and monster movies, delivered with a healthy dose of cheap gags, splattery special effects, and T&A.

The Toxic Avenger, set in Tromaville, NJ, is about Melvin Ferd, a meek nerd, who works as a janitor at a health club. While he is of no threat to anyone, psychotic health club patrons: Bozo, Slug, Wanda, and Julie bully the kid because he doesn’t look pretty like them, and isn’t as smart as they are.

When the four aren’t tormenting little Melvin, they are busy screwing each other, or running over little boys on bicycles with their bitchen Camero; squishing their little heads. It’s the only way Bozo is able to relieve the stress of his life.

Eventually, the the four manage to humiliate Melvin to the point where he jumps out of a second story window at the health club, and into a barrel of toxic waste conveniently sitting open on a flatbed truck in front of the club. The toxic waste sets Melvin on fire, but also transforms him into a super-sized superhero/vigilante with a delightful voice.

Australian VHS cover

Australian VHS cover

Factoids

Toxic crusaders

Toxic crusaders

  • Look for future Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei as an extra (coming out of a shower)

  • Two less successful sequels, The Toxic Avenger Part II and The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie, were filmed as one. Director Lloyd Kaufman realized that he had shot far too much footage for one film and re-edited it into two.

  • A third independent sequel was also released, titled Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV.

  • An animated children's TV series spin-off, Toxic Crusaders, featured Toxie as the leader of a team of mutated superheroes who fought against evil alien polluters. The cartoon series was short-lived and quickly cancelled. 

  • New Line Cinema had planned a live-action film based on the cartoon, but the project was never produced.[

  • In 2019, it was announced that Legendary Entertainment would be producing a reboot of the film, with original creators Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz of Troma Entertainment serving as producers, and Macon Blair serving as writer and director.

Links

Full movie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQTHQAw0Ybg

Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27E4Qfj7iEY

10 Amazing Facts About Toxie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO8kNG4yr80

Opennng title

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Social handles -
Instagram - @wastelandsradioshow
Facebook- @wastelandsradioshow
Web- www.wastelands.com.au
Email- wastlandsradioshow@gmail.com

Episodes new and old can be found on Stitcher Radio, TuneIn, Mixcloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts. Just search Wastelands Radio Show.