Lone Ranger Ready to Ride Again

One of the things I love most about this vintage article about the launch of the gorgeous line of Lone Ranger action figures by Hubely/Gabriel.

 The point made by the president about how parents would recognize these characters and buy them totally works. One Halloween I was told I was going to be the Lone Ranger by my mother and I think it's because she saw the costume, geeked out and bought it for me....

Check out our comprehensive Lone Ranger Toy Gallery

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The First issue of PlaidStallion's Toy-Ventures Magazine is coming this July, the premier issue will be a salute to Azrak-Hamway international and features articles about Star Trek, Space:1999, World Famous Super Monsters, KISS and of course parachuting Superheroes. Learn more here:

Aurora Prehistoric Scenes: They're Eating Up the Competition

1973 Toy Industry Trade ad for the very iconic Aurora Prehistoric scenes kits.


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If the mission is dangerous...GI Joe is on the way

Happy GI Joe Friday, this spread is from Christmas 1973. Probably the year I got my first Joe, I was never the same....

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Get the expanded digital edition of Rack Toys here.

Prehistoric Aurora

Some day when I have unlimited cash and space, I will own these....

Hasbro 1973 World of Love Catalog

Hasbro described Love dolls as: "She's what's happening. She's today's American teenager and she's part of the World of Love".

This was an interesting to attempt to combine  Fashion dolls with what was left over of the hippie movement in the early 1970s as Hasbro hoped little girls would clamour to enact adventures for Love and her friends Peace, Flower, Music and Soul.

Check out the '73 World of Love Catalog here.

More Fun from the Doll Commune

1973 Hasbro GI Joe Adventure Team Catalog

One of my favourite memories from childhood is tiny me marveling at the GI Joe adventure team boxes in the Woolco toy aisle, that's why I always enjoy when I pick up a Hasbro catalog I don't have.

This time it's the Adventure Team from their true high point in 1973 with such iconic toys as the Mobile Support Vehicle, the Training Center and the classic Adventure Team Headquarters playset.

Click here to see the Hasbro 1973 GI Joe Adventure Team Toy Catalog

Banana Splits Flute Set by Larami

Spied this shopping on the weekend, one thing I've noticed about Larami toys is often the connection to the licensed product was instantly lost when you took the toy of it's card.

Not that a sticker makes it more official but you get what I'm saying.

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.

Quick Curl Barbie, Mod Hair Ken commercial

Good news, I stumbled on some more toy commercial reels and after years of sitting on my desk, I had them converted. First up is a little something for the ladies in the form of this early commercial. Here is a link if you can't see the embed code.

I love how putting side burns on Ken makes him noble but a moustache means bad guy. You'll be hearing from my brothers at the anti-facial hair defamation league Mattel! The AFHD doesn't think kindly of unfair stereotypes!

More good news is that I'll soon be adding all these new commercials to my existing toy commercial DVDs, so they'll just be a bonus so to speak. I'll debut another in the coming weeks, trust me it's a good one.

Kenner's The Tramp

I found this image in an early 70s Kenner catalog, at one point they were trying to market Charlie Chaplin to kids. I was aware of silent movies as a kid (mostly Laurel and Hardy) but this seems a bit of a reach to me, I guess toy buyers felt that way too because I can't find any evidence of Kenner releasing Charlie to the masses (if you've got one let me know).

Honestly, i'd be surprised if this got made.

A couple of years later, Mego licensed the Hal Roach "Our Gang" shorts and made a series of action figures. It didn't take off either, which is strange considering i watched those after school every day for years..

The 1973 Ben Cooper Catalog gets Groovy

The name “Ben Cooper” and “Halloween” are pretty synonymous to children of the 1970s/ The company produced a staggering amount of items devoted to October 31st and chances are if your parents used “store bought” costumes, they were from Ben Cooper.

1973 like every year is a load of fun, lots of popular licenses (including the insanely logical Groovy Goolies) , popular generics and neat-o stuff like Jigglers which were popular year round.

Click Here to Explore the 1973 Ben Cooper Halloween Catalog

More Halloween Costume Goodness:

The Bananna Splits Meet Batman

Mike sent in these little bits of greatness from 1973 (Batman) and 1971 (Splits) , I miss store bought costumes....

 

Still time to enter our Halloween Contest, send your vintage Halloween pics or Monster collections on down to me here and you're in.

Bathtub Sailing

I'd really like to nominate the Fisher Price Boat pictured here as one of the greatest bathtub toys ever created. I realize there is no "bathtub toys hall of fame" but there should be, I'd visit!

Bikini Wednesday

Kind of phoning it in today, I'm working some trade show some where and I'm absolutely brain dead. One has to wonder about the swim suit on the left, it looks like left over wardrobe from "Space:1999" and seems to be made of the same fabric as an oven mit or an ironing board cover. Also, did people actually need a belt on their bikinis?

Birthday Bash Winners! Thanks for the amazing response to this contest, I was really touched by all the kind words you folks had for the site and I also think it's cool how many of you love rack toys.

Having said that our DVD winners are:

Erick

Michael Evenson

The next Five Names get card sets:

Robert Lindsay

Joeseph Scott Irving

Chris Cummins

Melissa Tarun

Bob Ignizio

Thanks for playing guys, I'll be in touch over the weekend to get your addresses.

Pick a Couch, Any Couch!

I'm gonna go with the day bed, it reminds me of the dress my date wore to my sister's wedding, we made out a little bit before she threw up in my living room. Oh, I've said far too much...

Barbie-Lution

One of the things that bother me about Barbie is the fact that her hands can't hold anything, not that I'd go on a shopping spree if she did mind you. I was surprised to find out that in 1973, an opposable thumb was actually a selling feature on both her and Ken. I'm surprised it didn't last, it just seems to add a whole new dimension of play.

Then again, maybe not, my daughter seems pretty content changing outfits and getting Barbie married every five minutes.

CONTEST TIME!

Well, as promised, I've put together a contest to win 12 sets of PlaidStallions Trading cards (plus hopefully some other goodness not officially available yet) I'm not going to labour you with trivia questions or anything like that, it's simple.

Just send me your name, address and the answer to the following question: What do you think should be the next PlaidStallions trading card?

Email your answers here

There is no wrong answer, however if someone actually guess one of them right, I'll send them a vintage toy on the house.

Contest closes Sunday, One entry per person please.

What time is it?

Why, it's half past hideous! I think the stand out, greatest pieces are those cats, if I could find a case of those I'd give them to every friend and family member I knew, just to see who loved me enough to actually display it.

I'm thinking even my Gramma would pitch this the moment I left the house.

New Blog! New Blog! New Blog!

Because I had nothing better to do, I have created another blog. This time to squeeze some sort of meaning out of the vast amount of time wasted in watching sitcoms throughout my life. I lost a semester of college to "Out of this World" and "Leave it to Beaver" every day, so please check out my semi-literate ravings on Sitcom Diablo.

Prehistoric RC

My pal George at the Mego Forum turned me onto these cool toys from 1973, these two dinoaurs seem to be exclusive to Sears. What a no brainer, light up remote controlled dinosaurs. Like probably every boy (and likely a bunch of girls), I went through a dinosaur phase in my life and these would have been high on my wishlist had I seen them.

Vintage Halloween:

Russ from Toytraderz.com sent me a pile of coolness that I'll be showcasing all this week, the first is this superbad Bigfoot costume. Much like Gavin MacLoed, Bigfoot attained a certain celebrity status in the 1970's, he was everywhere for a while.

Castle Films Home Movie Catalog

Before the VCR was affordable, the super 8 film craze was sweeping the nation. Here you take wonderful, colour, silent home movies of the family to keep forver.

But seeing as millions of families already had a projector, why not use it to show some highlights of Hollywood's finer and schlockier moments?

Castle Films was one of the best known houses for purchasing these short 16mm reels of Hollywood classics, I myself remember visiting birthday parties where the parents had rented shorts from Star Wars, Abbot and Costello and Universal Monster movies for the kids. This commerce would fade away by the end of the 70's but for a brilliant time, this was it and we loved it.

I was invited to more than one birthday party that the entertainment consisted solely of Castle Films shorts (rented from the Library). I can remember laughing at Abbot and Costello and being in awe of about ten silent minutes from Star Wars. I used to collect these, I regret selling out....

Check out the Castle Films Home Movie Catalog here

And to all my Canadian peeps, Happy Thanksgiving!

Other Monsterous Links:

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If you're into Castle Films, also check out this great site for cool images from the Castle Boxes:

Rainy Day on the Street

True Story, my mother bought me this rain coat, although it was blue. I was eight and the one time I wore it home I kept thinking "My mom is having problems with me getting older". I'm lucky none of my buddies who were busy with grown up things such as KISS records saw me.

This 1973 ad touting Sesame Street as a license to toy makers really amuses me. Ernie used to be cool but now he's just some sort of corporate shill, "If you'll just look at these Projections Bert...."