Action Pants!

Is it just me or does this montage extolling the virtues of double knit polyester look like the greatest detective show ever?

The Lost Playground

PS Reader Murilo sent in these pictures from Ana Lidia Park in Brazil, where 70s playgrounds still stand and in great condition. Let's explore:

This is a pretty deluxe rocket set if I do say so myself.

This is Cinderella's pumpkin carriage (Model 155-422) from this catalog.

And this looks like the old Woman's shoe from the same catalog.

This is like walking back in time, if I ever get to Brazil, I'm heading here before the beach. Thanks Murilo!

For more Playgrounds, check out these fabulous links:

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A bedroom far, far away

Just in case you forgot that Star Wars came out in the 1970s, I present the harvest gold bed and curtain sets. May the funk be with you...

Sears Space Command Center and Sound Studio

This oddity from 1979 was a generous gift from my pal John, it's one of those things that Sears stuck in their catalogs to sell along side other licensed toys. This one tries for all the marbles, trying to get some Star Wars heat and the 12" celebrity doll craze. More pics after the jump!:

HULK SAVE!

I'd be tempted to call this late 70s piece by AHI silly but I'm positive that this scene happened at least once on the old Bill Bixby show....

Rack Toys: Cheap, Crazed Playthings is a limited edition 144 page book from the creator of Plaid Stallions. Order from us and get three free promotional post cards.

Sesame Shirts

I would love to send an adult sized Oscar sweater back to myself in college.

The Amazingly Late Spider-Man

My pal Lynch sent me this absolutely awesome press photo which explains that Spidey rolled into this JC Penney 90 minutes late, not even a robot that throws candy could quell their Spider-Mania .


If you're into all things Spider-Man, check out this neat video put together by Lynch. It shows a kid's Spider-Man costume from the 1950s(!).

Send me your mall appearance photos!

Podstallions 18: The Apocalypse

Episode 18 takes us to those days when the future wasn't looking so bright.

If we didn't blow each other up and get eaten by giant cockroaches, the environment would have us eating each other or even worse,  massacred by diapered men on horseback .

The Apocalypse talks about the years of heady, "gloomy doomy" science fiction movies of the early 1970s and then early 1980s, not only with US productions but it's effect on film in Canada, the UK, Japan and our personal favourite, Italy.

So grab a box of Soylent Green and listen to Pod Stallions Episode 18 here, it's Honky paradise!

Download the Show Here

Listen here

Show Links:

• Sean Connery gave up Bond for this.
• The Mego Forbidden Zone Trap play set as discussed on the show.
• The trailer for No Blade of Grass.
• After the Fall of New York is on Youtube, where else can you see a clown robot give a man a hermaphrodite as a prize?
• The Omega Man trailer
• This an essential book for a fan of the Battle of the Planets.

Plenty more content on the PodStallions Facebook page!



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Forbidden Zone

While taping our upcoming Podcast about Apocalypse movies, I couldn't help but bring up one of the weirder but fonder memories of my childhood.

Behold the Forbidden Zone Trap, my favourite Mego play set of all time. I wanted this so bad as a kid it hurt, which is weird because it's basically a city destroyed by a nuclear war AKA the thing that keeps kids up at night.

It also is pretty much anti-human but having worked retail, I totally understand that one.

First Impressions

The Donnelly boys made a severe miscalculation on their first day of middle school, their therapy sessions continue to this day.....

Eats Me Dusts!

I was recently gifted this, the kind person who found it thought i'd dig it. The gesture alone floored me but so did the toy.  Popeye rack toys could fill football fields but the majority of them are nondescript items with little connection to the character, some of them laughable.

Leave it to Fleetwood to go the extra mile, I'm positive I've seen Popeye in a racecar before and I kind of love the little Popeye in the car.

He just puts the whole thing over the top for me.

Rack Toys: Cheap, Crazed Playthings is a limited edition 144 page book from the creator of Plaid Stallions. Order from us and get three free promotional post cards.

Dad Squad 2: The Daddening!

I was disappointed that the day after my son was born that a box containing white shoes and matching belt did not magically appear on my door step.

I do fully expect them the day I retire.

The Action Figure Hall of Fame

I'm honoured to on the staff (you should see the lunch room!) of this fun new project The Action Figure Hall of Fame.

Visitors are encouraged to vote for their personal favourites from a large list and this year's inductees will announced this October.

It's a really fun project and unlike other Hall of Fames, we'll be able to insure that all inductees attend our awards ceremony, in full make up.

Vote Now for the greatest action figure of all time.

Beyond Tomorrow Again

Ever since I posted this back in 2010, I have been keeping my eyes out for one at Toy Shows. At last weekend's Mego Meet it walked right up to me as somebody I know was selling it and wanted my opinion. I didn't get to buy it but I did take a few better shots of it.


I'm not particularly surprised that the box is a single colour line art affair seeing as it was mainly a Sears catalog piece. 
I really wanted to put the whole thing together and take some detailed photos but it's more complicated than I realized and would have taken me a long time, so i settled for a few random shots.


Here is the thing most interesting to me, the small bootleg Star Trek crew this set came with, it's pretty brash copyright infringement, even by 1975 standards. I really want these little guys.



The rest of this set are the generic astronauts that are in everybody's junk drawer, I bought a set with these guys in the 1980s and I'm pretty sure I still see them from time to time.

T Shirt Bliss

One of our better windows into our pop culture past is the T Shirt selection, this assortment just punches you in the face with it's "1979ness".

The Amazing Walking-Man

I couldn't afford to buy everything I saw at this past weekend's Mego Meet festivities but I could photograph them.

Above is a real beauty from Durham Industries, a company I need to talk about more. Even though a Spider-Man that gently strolls in a Barnaby Jones like manner is something no kid needs, who could resist that card art?

Rain of the Supermen

I love stuff like licensed rain coats mostly because few people thought to save them, especially fond of the Star Trek one. I have nothing against Holly Hobby but sometimes it's hard to scan a catalog without destroying it in the process...

Brick Mania @ Mego Meet

The underlying theme of this year's Mego Meet customs auction was Brick Mantooth, I donated Brick heads to any customizer that wanted to provide their own take at our spokes model.

The results are as I'd hoped, a fun fusion of mad skills and imagination. Above is Brikk Mannigan and yes, he goes commando.

Meet Brick's wrestling alter ego "Brick Schlithouse"

Stormtoother and Squeeze Leia are a take on an obscure science fiction film whose name escapes me.

Doctor Thrust is an adult film star who gained super powers.

Brick as Captain Avenger, his resemblance to John Ritter is amazing.

What if Brick was an Italian Superhero? meet Super Faviloso.

Toy Hawk is going to swoop in and take money from my wallet.

Vantooth is the sweet ride Brick drives around in and solves mysteries, I love this more than air.

What a fun experiment and one I hope to repeat next year. 

There are plenty more amazing custom Mego items up in this year's auction and you don't have to attend Mego Meet to bid on them, check out this site for more information.

Those Other World's Greatest Superheroes

 

 There was a time in my younger days where I was absolutely obsessed with these guys. Made by Japanese toy maker Popy, these 8" figures were meant to fit in with Mego Superheroes (which Popy also supplied in Japan). That 8" Mark from "Battle of the Planets" is the toy we deserved as kids.

Speaking of Mego, tomorrow kicks off Mego Meet 10 in Wheeling, WV, I'll be there selling many different goodies. Please say hi if you make it.

Leather Looks

For the man whose look is 'half transformed Werewolf" this jacket creates a mood of "incredible richness"...

Super Goodies from Down Under

This fun spread of toys comes from a company called Croner who distributed toys in Australia, they carried Azrak Hamway toys in Australia and APC puzzles. It's hard not to smile when you see stuff like this, especially considering they have Batman and Spider-Man's launchers reversed.

Rack Toys: Cheap, Crazed Playthings is a limited edition 144 page book from the creator of Plaid Stallions. Order from us and get three free promotional post cards.

Vintage Toys I saw this weekend

This past Sunday I set up at Burlington Toy Show, mostly to hang out with friends and eat food that's not good for me but also to hopefully earn some money for next week's Mego Meet toy show.

It was hard being good but I took photos instead of buying, above is easily the rarest toy at the show, a boxed Battlestar Galactica Land Ram. Way, way out of my price league but so nice to see.

Here are a few more highlights.

This bootleg Avengers set wins most "awesome" toy I saw all weekend, in addition to being just weird, there is also a random shot of a woman cos playing as Ms Marvel on the card. Glorious.

There was vintage Mego all around me, which is of course, bad for a guy trying to save money to go to a Mego Convention! Agghhhh!

And of course, I was RIGHT next to door to this, the Shogun Warriors utility belt and it's very easy to work with vendor. I'm happy to say I do some will power.

I'm not the world's biggest Captain Action fan but I have to admit seeing a photo boxed Dr Evil was surprisingly tempting.

Plenty more photos and  coverage of this event at the Plaid Stallions Facebook page.

Also, don't forget that the tenth annual Mego Meet toy show is this weekend, it has a customs contest, exclusive figures and toys, door prizes, a customs auction (featuring original creations spun off from Brick Mantooth) and the most Mego centric dealers room available. For more information visit the official Mego Meet facebook page.