Super People 78

When Star Wars figures came out, all my favourites from previous Christmases got sent to the Black and White pages often discounted. 

I didn't mind at the time but now it kind of makes me a little sad, save for the awesome team up of Steve Austin and Spider-Man, that just rules.

Dolls: Big Figures from Fantasy!

I recently came across this wonderful article about action figures circa 1977, it mentions Micronauts, Pulsar, Metal Man, Electroman, Stretch Monster, Shogun Warriors and their impact on the toy market place. It features interviews with not only toy buyers but toy makers from Hasbro, Mego, Zee Toys and Mattel.

Seeing as these are things that haunt my dreams 40 years later, I thought it might be of interest to all of you, read on after the jump!

The Six Greatest Bionic Man Knock Off Toys

I gave up writing a weekly list for Topless Robot, in order to finish writing Rack Toys. I will admit to missing it from time to time, so I’m going to keep fresh by churning out the odd one for PlaidStallions.

The Kenner Six Million Dollar Man toy line is one of the most memorable and successful toy lines of the 1970s.

With the bright light of big sales, you attract a few bugs. A lot of competitors come and try to "cut your grass" as a former boss of mine would say, as the list goes on we'll see it gets more and more blatant.

6: PULSAR (MATTEL) 

 When faced with the overwhelming popularity of Steve Austin, Mattel decided not to play in the Cyborg sandbox at all but went sideways and made an all organic superhero. 

 That's pretty clever, combating steak with a vegan alternative, as a bonus, Pulsar was super gross to look at which is a bonus for young boys. 

Mattel sold the character for two years and didn't pay anybody a dime in licensing.



Come see the Greatest Bionic Man Rip Offs here

More Top Ten Fun

New PS Trading Cards!

It's been a long while since i printed up some new PS trading cards, mostly because of spending my time with Rack Toys (still available!) but this month I resolved to make some new entries. 

The first is card #40, the Whip from the Big Jim's Wolfpack line of toys. I had been doing the members of this team since the start and recently we started a Big Jim collector forum at the MegoMuseum, so it was fresh in mind and a fun image.



I wasn't even planning to do Pulsar's enemy Hypnos as a card but when I came across this image, it just felt right. Although I'm sorry I didn't have time to correct the boo-boo in the corner, it adds to the charm of card #41. Pulsar was card #3 of this series, so you can make them fight i guess.
So it's a double shot from Mattel!
These just arrived so they'll start going out with orders,  given away at toy shows and as prizes here.

1978 Mattel Pulsar Catalog

1978 saw the return of Mattel's Pulsar the Ultimate Man of Adventure returned to I guess, fight crime with his non descript powers. This year he would be joined by his new foe Hypnos. While Pulsar sold well for a toy with no publicity other than his TV commercials, things were starting to fall flat for his look alike Steve Austin and Pulsar's adventures would sadly end in 1978.

Mattel 1978 Pulsar Catalog

Previous Pulsar:

1977 Pulsar Catalog

Enter Hypnos

When creating a follow up to their hit Pulsar doll, Mattel went alien (a popular choice) with Hypnos whose powers involved a good old fashioned hypnotic wheel and a complete lack of pants. Evil and passive aggresive, now that's an arch enemy.

More Trading Cards

I'm unveiling two more PlaidStallions Trading Cards today at Megomeet so I thought I'd share, I opened the series with bad guys, both by Kenner, that was totally unintentional. So I decided the next two would be good guys and by coincidence, they're both Mattel Toys.

Pulsar seemed like a natural, this image is mind blowing. If you're wondering about the off cut, yeah it's intentional. When we were working on this my printer noticed a lot of vintage cards were off cut like that. If you asked me it worked too good.

Second card (or card # 4 I guess) is Big Jim VS Zorak, this is the Double Trouble Jim from the P.A.C.K. I don't know how many of these cards I'm going to do so Jim got rushed to the front of the line so to speak. If I do more cards past the planned 12, I'll probably get back to Big Jim.

This card is Star Wars blue, pretty much ending the use of this template. My initial plan was to keep switching the template every 2 cards but I got rushed for time, when cards 5 and 6 surface, they'll be totally different but vaguely familiar.

Anyway, if you're planning on going to MegoMeet come get a mitt full of these, otherwise I'll probably be giving them out through here for the next twenty years.

Pulsar, Sweathogs, Space:1999 and Shogun Warriors

The feature this friday is the boys action figure lines in the 1977 Mattel Catalog. It would be a great year for the toy giant, with the release of homegrown organic Superhero Pulsar and the imported Shogun Warriors line. Mattel also continued with TV licensing including the Sweathogs of Welcome Back Kotter and a second season of Space:1999 toys.

As a bonus, we've got exclusive shots of the original Mattel prototypes for the Space:1999 line including a never before seen 12" commander Koenig. Check out the 1977 Mattel Catalog Here (Expect a Girl's Version to follow in the coming months)

Some time this morning, World's Greatest Toys Blog is asking you, where did you buy your toys? A blog about Vintage Toy Stores, you can't be surprised I'd be interested in that.

Mattel 1976 Superstar Christmas Fun Book

These great little colour digests were likely distributed in newspapers and at retail locations, hoping to load children's Christmas wishlists with Mattel products. It's a great smattering of hot toys of the day from the classic Barbie and Hot Wheels to 70's phenoms Pulsar and the Sweathogs, this booklet is a nice cruise down memory lane. Click here to see inside.

I still want a Pulsar for Christmas.....

The Ultimate 70's Action Figure Tribute

ACTION FIGURES, CLASSIC 70'S by ~dusty-abell on deviantART

I got sent a link to this amazing piece by Dusty Abell last night and just had to showcase it today. This is pretty much how things looked in my six year old mind, I'm truly floored and need to get a copy of this somehow for my toyroom.

Pulsar's Crib

I've already mentioned on several occasions how i think Pulsar is the grossest superhero this side of Slim Goodbody but I'm even more perplexed at his headquarters.

While it sounds truly exciting to monitor his life signs, why the hell does he need an X Ray? What can't you already see?