The 64th Gamer

The biggest problem is the fact the album is really restricted on what songs it can use given the Rock-afire’s massive catalogue of copyrighted songs they played, which were also usually their best performances. I think this is the best possible album in the case of working around that, so its good, and the songs are placed well, but sometimes the transitions can be rough due to skirting around skits or other songs in the audio. A really great decision was having Sal’s Birthday at the end followed by It’s Time to Go, that re-contextualizes the album as someone listening to songs at ShowBiz, having their birthday celebration, and having to say goodbye after their party. Its a novelty, nothing new in it, but for what it is the execution was the best they could manage.

I happen to have this item from a Christmas present so might as well review. Its a great time capsule of the era- yet also such a strange merch item with the giant logo and the not very CEC-esque coloring.

Thankfully nothing was cheapened out on for it being an in-store exclusive. The only thing to watch out for nowadays are the usual issues with G1 ponies. There’s the rusted washer holding the tail together, though that can be swapped out, cleaned, and replaced with a zip tie pretty easily. Also mold can leech into the vinyl if it wasn’t stored properly, which can spread to other vinyl figures of the era.

Mine showed up in excellent condition so I’ve had no issues, just watch out for the eBay prices on these things. Mine I think was $60? But a lot of the listings can jump to $100+. This horse is not worth that much so just wait for a good sale. You can get most ponies in entire batches for like $10-20 from this era so even its current price is a bit overkill.

While Country II is already great, this variant cuts down on all the dialogue to hit you with just those outstanding songs, alongside adding three new ones with Shawn Fernandez as a new Klunk voice! It’s also neat having the Ricky Scaggs Medley replace Dook with Klunk in the first segment so you get a nice variant for playlists. IMO one of the best song compilation tapes in the whole tape library. Sad we never got to see more Klunk variant tapes, this rendition of him feels appropriately toned down to match the other characters, which would have been nice to see how they would have interacted in future shows.

While it is a nice gesture to save each stage type in a mostly even spread across the US and Canada, there isn’t much drive to visit these special locations unless you’re a local resident. Saving the animatronics is merely a preservation gesture, but no effort is put into making them an attractive offer to visit what can’t already be shown from a YouTube video. If they were properly offered as an attraction to visit, they should’ve offered to play classic shows- or offer location exclusive performances. An adult wanting to relive the 80’s-00’s experience will be met with the Cocomelon slop and measley production value of the current shows. None of the classic arcades from those eras show up either, keeping the same generic machines you can find at any local arcade. But if these were kept for preservation and not a cohesive retro experience, they would be better off in a museum. Museums offer proper restoration, historical info for patrons to learn, and are as a whole an attraction worth visiting. If you’re at a legacy store just to look at a piece of history, a children’s arcade isn’t the best viewing experience, especially one that gives you no context or help as to their relevancy.

This year has been a trainwreck for the company, lots of embarrassing PR moments and awful use of AI just about nonstop. Even after barely skirting past the 2026 bankruptcy with a new loan, they still don’t have budget for a quality control manager I guess. Hope Jaret Reddick sues them for a billion dollars over this absolute slam dunk case of misuse.

While this show originally seemed pretty good back when it was the only circus tape we knew, the latest reveal of the prior Circus Tape now just makes this a bizarre alternative (and not in a good way like Country Klunk) All the tape does is swap out Tears of a Clown for the prior Beatles White Album segment of the Monkees Medley. Seems to be a random mashup created to pad out the rest of the year until ShowBiz corporate decided to make their own shows by December. Even weirder is this could’ve been a nice revision to the Circus Tape that kept TOAC in, added back the additional missing tracks Aaron has teased, and maybe some other misc older songs. Instead its just as short and with no good reason to.