With the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie being released soon, I’m reminded of one of my least favorite bits of Internet idiocy. Namely, whenever a discussion of TMNT happens, someone will chime in with “Well I think the Turtles are a joke now and I should know because I had the first issue of the original comic! And not a reprint!”
There were only 3000 copies printed of the original TMNT comic and it debuted at a small comic show in New Hampshire.
This has happened countless times and every time I call bullshit because of the low print run and the fact that most of these people would have been pimply faced teens or younger when the Turtles comic first appeared. Then someone else will appear and say “You don’t know for sure he didn’t have it, so lay off.”
To which I reply “Not bloody likely!”
I also find this phenomenon endlessly amusing when talking about the fall of the Berlin Wall. Nearly every two-bit celebrity swears they were in Europe the night the wall fell and they quickly hopped a train to see history in the making. Just watch I Love the 80s again, I like a good ten people make this claim. Again, “Not bloody likely!”
Or as Spike said in a great episode of Buffy: “If every vampire who claims they were at the Crucifiction was actually there the place would have looked like Woodstock!”
So anybody else got any tales of unlikely claims to fame?
While probably not nearly as rare as your examples, many people claim to have seen the Shuttle Challenger explode live. I did. (see it, not claim to.) Estimates show that upwards of 85% of people who saw the shuttle explode, saw it on tape. Only CNN was showing that portion of the launch live and most people did not have cable or satellite TV at the time. In fact, most of the people that DID see it live were school children as there was an effort to show it in schools. But I did see it and I thought it was kind of a downer. Like, oh…thats it? I didn’t get the tragedy until later.
The original Kenner Boba Fett Star Wars action figure was supposed to have a missile that could be fired off of his back, but due to fears of it being a choking hazard the missile was glued on and couldn’t be removed, let alone fired. (There a few that exist in prototype form, but none were ever released to the public.)
A guy I used to date had claimed that he not only had one, but two of the missile-firing version. I immediately called bullshit and told him to prove it, but naturally he had “misplaced” them. :rolleyes:
(My boyfriend really DOES have a first printing of TMNT…I even got to touch it! :D)
I downloaded an alpha of Duke Nukem Forever leaked from an underground Russian pirating forum and it like, owns. I’m like the only person who was able to compile the code and get it to run because the Russians couldn’t understand it, even though I’ve never compiled anything before and when asked, I won’t know how to explain the process. And the best part is, it was just stolen like, yesterday, so it’s the most recent build. I could take some screenshots and post them, but shortly after I submit this message, I will uninstall it and never return to post the images.
Fact: health food guru J.I. Rodale died while doing an interview on Dick Cavett’s talk show. According to Cavett, Rodale died on the couch just moments after proclaiming that he was in perfect health and would live to be 100.
I’ve met several people who clai mto have seen Rodale’s death on TV.
Problem is, that episode was never aired!
I can only assume that people read about the incident, or heard about it, and later convinced themselves they’d seen it.
While living in Burbank for close to 13 years, I met several people who claim to have been in attendance during the filming of “Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl” I have yet to believe one of them.
I’m not sure whether I saw it live or not. I remember entering my dorm suite during the day and the shuttle launch was on the TV. I thought it was the live broadcast but when I think back on it, it seems unlikely.
It’s only a small story, but I got into an animated discussion on the Internet over a Derren Brown (UK Illusionist) show where Derren took on a bunch of leading chess players.
One obnoxious poster said ‘this happened’ and I denied it.
I said ‘this happened’ and he denied it.
After a while, I revealed I was one of the players! :eek:
Back in my comicbook days we used to order by mail order. One month there was a listing for a new book Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was obviously a satire about all the current comicbook trends. We (4 of us) all ordered it. We received 2 copies in the order, both from the second printing and none from the first. I didn’t get either copy.
I did get a copy of issue #2 which was mistakenly printed with two covers attached. How much is that worth?
I was stationed in Germany when the wall came down. I didn’t get to go to Berlin then but I did go to see Roger Waters perform The Wall in Potsdamer Platz. A lot of the wall was still up and I got a piece. It’s at my mother’s house along with my comicbook collection. Since I’m almost 40 and have been married for quite a while I really shoud think about getting more of my stuff out of there… Screw it, my sister is almost 50 and I think she still has things in the attic.
You know, I recall having the 12" Boba Fett figure as a kid, and I do remember it had a spring-loaded missile (wrist or back, I forget). Two of them, I think - maybe that is what he’s referring to?
I wish I still had it…I remember I had lost it for a while, then found it under a leave pile in the back yard the following Spring after it had snowed and frozen several times. Although it was plastic, it was pretty wrecked - metal joints frozen, cape a mess, etc.
Oh, and more Star Wars…I very clearly recall watching a New Hope on cable as a kid and seeing a Tatooine scene where Luke was looking up with his binoculars and seeing a distant version of the opening space battle (mostly light flashes). That’s not in the movie now, but apparently was a sequence that was shot but later cut (and never released)
Everyone thinks I’m crazy…but I’m sure I saw it.
I did see the Challenger explode - our 5th grade class went out onto the playground to watch it. Having just moved to Florida, it was my first shuttle view, so I had no idea what to expect. We were far away, but I recall seeing a brilliant red dot in the sky when it happened, and the booster trails flying off into opposite directions. It was a very somber day - we watched the footage in class for the rest of the day.
I’m beginnig to wonder if I saw it live or not. I know I was in 3rd grade and everyone in the school was gathered in the cafeteria to watch the TV. I don’t know if it were planned ahead of time so everyone could see the launch, or if they heard about the explosion and gathered everyone in at the last minute to watch the replays.
I’m gonna have to ask one of my grade school teachers next time I see them.