thepoparena

[thepoparena]

Despite the success of Double Dare, Nickelodeon seemed to struggle to make game shows for kids part of their brand, their other efforts through the 1980s coming up short. In 1991, with a brand new studio to fill, the channel gave it another shot and produced Get the Picture, the picture guessing game hosted by newcomer Mike O'Malley. While perhaps not one of the channel's all-timers, Get the Picture would set the course of Nickelodeon game shows for the next decade.

[thepoparena]

Well, they were weeks late, and they didn't inform me that it happened via e-mail like they said it would, BUT the Pop Arena Patreon has now switched from a per-video format to a per-month format. Patreon has automatically adjusted your payments, so be sure to go through everything and make sure you're spending what you want to spend.

My apologies for any confusion, this has all been very much out of my hands. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

[thepoparena]

Hello, Mr. Poparena! Like you, I’ve never been a fan of Goosebumps since the covers of the books intimidated me when I was younger (though I did read the graphic novel) but I have had an interest in Animorphs especially after watching your reviews of them. I just had to ask: Since you reviewed both book series and since both of them are Scholastic properties, what would you think of a crossover book between Animorphs and Goosebumps? How do you think that would unfold?

I think it would be a terrible idea, but I also think it's something that Scholastic in the 90s would have been shallow enough to do. I imagine it would just be a short non-canon book of the Animorphs dealing with Goosebumps threats, Monster Blood, Slappy, the Mummy, that sort of thing. To say anything beyond that would be to write fan fiction.

[thepoparena]

To celebrate Thomas & Friend's 70th anniversary in 2015, an hour-long theatrically-released special saw the little blue engine hunting for pirate treasure! Is it a worthy tribute to the Railway Series? Or is it just something to distract the kids?

[thepoparena]

TRANSCRIPT

Hey everybody, Gregiffer here, with some major updates that’ll affect the channel and everyone watching, but will especially affect those who have been generously subscribing to my Patreon and have been supporting the channel financially. Recently, Patreon has announced changes to acquiesce to the Apple App Store’s policies, meaning that a) if you subscribe to Patreon through the Apple App Store, you’ll be subject to a 30% store fee, so maybe think about subscribing through your PC instead, and b) Patreon will no longer be supporting the per-creation billing model, which is what I’ve been using from the very beginning.

This has been incredibly frustrating, and counter to my philosophy as a video creator. I average about three videos a month, but if something comes up and I only make two videos that month, you pay less for less work. That’s been very pertinent this year, which has seen a great decline in videos because of my living situation. Now I simply have no choice, and if everything goes as it should, my Patreon will switch to per-month billing sometime in the first week of November, sometime between the 4th and the 8th.

Unfortunately, I can’t give you an exact day, because the process of making the change is needlessly complicated on the side of Patreon. You can’t just flip a switch, you have to get in contact with a Patreon employee through email, who may or may not be a robot, and they schedule the switch months away. I tried to get this going on September 2nd, and it took them more than a month to tell me that the switch will happen vaguely within the first week of November. Thanks a bunch, guys.

So what will this mean for you? First off, you will all want to consider how much you’ve been giving. If you subscribed at $1 per video, with the expectation of three videos a month, you may want to consider updating your subscription to $3 a month once the switch over has happened. Obviously, how much you subscribe for is entirely up to what, whatever you’re happy and comfortable with. Second thing to consider is time of billing. It is my understanding that for Patreon’s per-month billing model, you are billed the day you subscribed, instead of the end-of-the-month system the per-creation model uses. So for example, if you subscribed for a Patreon on the 15th of a given month, you’ll be billed every 15th.

So if you have certain times of the month where being billed would be inconvenient, like before a paycheck, you may want to consider unsubscribing, waiting until a more appropriate date, and then resubscribing.

Now let’s talk about subscriber reward tiers. They’re going to have to be readjusted. Once the switchover happens, it’ll shake out like this: $1 a month will still get your name in the credits, just as before. Getting the little advertising spots at the end of most of videos, where you can promote your channel, podcast, book, etc, that will now set at $3 a month, and I’ll be needing those who wish to continue with that reward to send me fresh links and information, or at the very least a “keep things the same” message so that I can get all of that sorted.

For early access and extra content, yes I know I need to do better at the extra content stuff, that tier will be bumped up to $10 a month, which is actually theoretically cheaper than when it was $5 a video and I was making three videos a month.

So, there’s a lot to think about, and further adjustments may need to be made as this switch develops. Keep an eye out for further updates on my social medias, I'll try to answer all the questions I can, and I’m sorry these changes are being forced on us. However this ends up shaking out, thank you so much for supporting me and this channel of mine, being able to support myself making silly little videos has been a privilege that I don’t take lightly. Here’s to the future.

[thepoparena]

The Goosebumps Halloween Annual is back, and so is Slappy! Can R.L. Stine improve the face of Goosebumps with this new series, or will he be the same repetitive bore? Also, squirting and child brides. Look, I didn't write the book.

[thepoparena]

just got fired from my government job… apparently they can control the weather with space lasers now so they don’t need me to stand on a dark tower and chant in a big bellowing voice to summon clouds and winds of fear and frost

[thepoparena]

Beetlejuice is back! And in his original, pervy Michael Keaton form! In sharp contrast, we take a quick look at the Beetlejuice cartoon, how it contrasts with the rest of the franchise, and see how well the ghost with the most slips into the role of Robin Hood.

[thepoparena]

Compared to the rest of the channel, Nick Jr. had a pretty quaint 1991, swapping out Today's Special with Saban Entertainment's newest anime dub, The Littl' Bits! The story of a forest community of little pixie-sized people, we explore it's simple but impactful story, and it's place among other pint-sized cartoons like David the Gnome and the Smurfs!

[thepoparena]

I love when you finish a book and it has a bunch of reading recommendations at the end. Like ooh you liked this book didn't you, you little book slut? Betcha want to jump right into another book and read even more, don't you~

[thepoparena]

So, you don't think kids shows used to have politics, huh? Well, here's an old episode of Rugrats about baby's first labor union and how boys should be allowed to wear dressies if they want to. We've been talking about this stuff for a while now.

[thepoparena]

So why is the Pop Clips episode of Nick Knacks now gone?

You ask that like you don't know. It's copyright strikes. It's always copyright strikes. There isn't a single other reason why any of my videos get taken down. In any case, I muted some audio, and now the PopClips episode should be available again.

[thepoparena]

[thepoparena]

Are you still making doctor who videos?

I'd like to. It's just hard to fit it in among other projects right now.

[thepoparena]

We take a look at Snoopy: The Musical, the sequel to a Broadway musical turned into an animated special. We discuss its history, Cam Clarke as the voice of Snoopy, and a song that I always knew, but had no idea it was from this!

[thepoparena]

"when i was your age, netflix came to our house in the mail" never gets old. they don't believe you, because they can't, because they cannot conceive the apparatus by which this would be true. but it is true. they mailed me season 1 of the sopranos with stamps. with fucking stamps man

[thepoparena]

We take our first look at Winx Club, a show I know nothing about, so naturally it's a really important episode with a bunch of character deaths! I promise, I'm gonna try and do it justice.