Kia: 25 Years After

This post was originally titled Kia: 20 Years After when it was first published on September 11, 2014 on CarLustBlog.com, celebrating 20 years of Kia in the U.S.A. While most of the post remains the same, details of those 5 additional years are now included.

Probably the most truthful automotive slogan I’ve read.

Like Mitsubishi’s 30^th 35^th Anniversary and Scion’s 10^th Anniversary, I was caught off-guard by Kia turning 20 25 in the U.S. market, hadn’t it been for a news snippet on the local classifieds. Truth be told, I wasn’t paying much attention. Kias weren’t my thing. But seeing how much the brand has grown in a slightly shorter period of time than its sister Hyundai, I believe it deserves merit to travel back in time to see where it all began, even if it’s just for the kitschy-ness of it all. So set the VCR to record the series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation as well as the first episodes of Gargoyles, ReBoot and Street Sharks, to name a few; tie up those rollerblades or Air Jordan IX’s, put some fresh batteries on your Gameboy (don’t forget the Donkey Kong cartridge!) and Walkman (with Corona’s Rhythm of the Night), bring a pair of fresh underwear in your JanSport backpack, get the tickets for Forrest Gump, pay your respects to the late Ayrton Senna, forget about the canceled World Series and please keep your opinion on the OJ Simpson murder case to yourself,  because we’re going back… to 1994.

The Mystery Machine

1969 was a very good year because it gave us very good things. Here’s one of ‘em: Scooby-Doo. To celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of when it first aired back in September 13, 1969, I’ve brought back an early post close to my heart. Originally published on December 3, 2015 on CarLustBlog.com, it’s been edited (mostly formatting for better flow), expanded, did some hyperlink replacement, plus added a couple of new pics, but it’s still pretty much the same.

Author’s note: I’m going to focus on the Mystery Machine we all know and love. Even though I’ve watched a lot of Scooby-Doo over the years and because the Scooby universe is quite large, details will be missed. Not even as a kid could I have watched it all. And some of the stuff is just plain unwatchable! Update: I no longer watch Cartoon Network as often as I used to; I’m down to just watching one cartoon from ‘em. I gave up on the so-called home of Scooby-Doo, Boomerang -formerly CN’s vintage cartoons channel- ever since it got reworked for 2015. So I’m not up to par with their releases… if they’re promoted at all.

The Mystery Machine. The oftentimes unsung member of Mystery Inc. Thanks to this, well, machine (and the A-Team van), I believed, without a shadow of a doubt in my mind, that vannin’ was cool. The appeal of traveling around the country, no, the world in your custom van with your friends is just too appealing for a naïve, car-loving kid. Today, the Mystery Machine brings me memories of those days.