MANTLE

It's official. The mantle has been passed... I am the new Santa Claus of Elim Church. Beyond that, I'll be doing Father Christmas gigs on request.

This is me at a recent grotto. Awesome setup.

WORKSHOP

A little gem of a cartoon featuring the antics of Santa and co getting ready for Christmas Eve.

Good old-fashioned festive fun.

TAT

Been blogging regularly on Figured Out with reports on various items of Christmas tat.


The first 3 are:

Playmobil Santa & Pals
Jolly St Nick is here in Playmobil form, but he's appeared to have shed a few pounds! An imposter maybe? A rubbery-nosed Snowman and other pals have also joined in the venture.

Charlie Brown and Snoopy Blocks
Its the 60th anniversary of Peanuts with Charlie Brown and buds on display in Christmas clobber. 

Hero Turtles Christmas Tree Ornaments
At one stage the Ninja Turtles received some censoring before hitting the UK shores. This article covers an amazing find of some Turtles merchandise from that era. Marvel the awesome foursome as they are dumbed down to look as cute and cuddly as possible for the holiday season.

PACLAND

Some more Christmas Special coverage today…

This time round I will wind the clock 26 years behind to 1982. In 1982 Christmas is introduced to the chomp capital of the world known as Pacland in the Hanna Barbera TV special Christmas Comes to PacLand.

This 22 minute festive episode of the Pac-Man cartoon series sees Santa Claus and his reindeer stranded in snow covered Pacland after a fatal sleigh crash. Rudolph and co are out for the count and Santa’s sleigh looks like it could be written off. Santa himself did not fare the crash too easily and he could with some power pellet cocoa.

“We may not have any power pellets, but we got plenty of Snowballs!”

The situation is bad and Santa could miss his first Christmas and all the good children around the world could be sans-toys unless a miracle happens. Of course, the toys are missing and Pac-Man with his dog Chomp-Chomp both are on the case to find them whilst avoiding Ghost Monsters on the way.

Whilst Pac-Man is out, his family have taken Santa and the reindeer in and they all learn about Christmas. Pac-friends Officer O Pac and Lars also lend a hand and fix the sleigh.

Of course there is something obscure that can save Christmas for all the good children and that’s Reindeer on power pellets.

To cut a story short, things are happy in the end and even the Ghost Monsters get a touch of the holiday spirit and humble themselves for the time being. Everything is saved, Pacland celebrates its first Christmas and Rudolph’s nose is shining brighter than usual thanks to the chowing down of power pellets.

This is quite an amusing special. I found it funny that even though Pacland had no concept of Christmas the Ghost Monsters still sang their own rendition of Jingle Bells.

“Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells.
Jingle All The Way-ay!
Oh What Fun it is to Chomp.
On Pac-Man Everday-ay!”

If you dig the goofy 80’s Hanna Barbera vibe this is well worth a viewing, and retro gamers will probably like this almost as much too. This is probably the one episode of the Pac Man cartoon that is the most watchable and the absence of antagonist Mesmiro isn’t a big loss either. What matters is that this is about as good as Pac-Man Christmas Special can probably get with a snowy backdrop, the Santa Claus guest star and the villains turning good for a while. Sit back with some power pellet and see this episode for yourself.

“Merry Christmas and to all a good Chomp!”

Here’s the full episode in three parts.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ikLi1r68RXQ