Aurora releases Karate Men

The Fisher Price Adventure People Debut

Toy Fair 1975: One of the most influential toy lines of the 70's emerges in 1975 with the birth of the adventure people

Related Links 1983 Fisher Price Adventure People Catalog

1977 Fisher Price Catalog

Shrunken Head Kit by Milton Bradley

For the aspiring young witch doctor.....

Kung Fu Figures from Diener

Toy Fair 1975 : Enter the generic Dragon, Diener also created some highly collectible Space Alien Figures.

Estes Star Trek Rockets

Toy Fair 1975: I've always loved the concept of making the Enterprise a rocket.

Janex Talking Batman Alarm Clock

1975 Toy Fair: Janex would later go on to make more talking clocks including Superman and Star Wars.

Product People Cereal Character Squeezables

Using characters from commercials like Charlie the Tuna and Count Chocula just goes to show how influential advertising is on us as kids. Man, I need to hunt me down a Boo Berry.

Retro Toy Fair Coverage : 1975 gets all Bionic!

Toyfair 1975 was held from February 16 to the 18th of that year, a pretty signifigant year as many iconic toys from the 70's (some spilling over into the 80's) were born, including the big guy below:

Upon seeing Steve Austin, many of us said "Mike Power Who?" and begged our parents for the amazing Kenner Bionic Man. Below is the toy fair promo reel courtesy of you tube:

Kenner Bionic Man Promo Reel

Mighty Mego Men

Toy Fair 1974 saw the introduction of the Mego Superfoe figures and my obsession with the Riddler was born. For more Mego action figure goodness check out the Mego Museum (whose members have already seen this, it was too good not recycle).

Child Guidance Sesame Street Finger Puppets

ToyFair 1974: There is no limit to the amazing amount of Sesame Street products made in the 1970s, these puppets were some of the more memorable items.

Evel Knievel is #1

Toyfair 1974: Ideal's Evel Knievel was one of the hottest action figures going as this less than subtle ad from Ideal suggests, if you grew up in suburbia chances are you knew at least one kid with this thing.

More Fun: 1975 Evel Knievel Catalog

Imperial Millionaires

Toyfair 1974: You wouldn't think there was lots of money in rubber apes and alligators but I can't think of a kid who didn't have them....

More Fun: Imperial Toys Gallery

Shindana releases Rodney Allen Rippey Doll

Toyfair 1974 :Commercial spokeskid Rodney Allen Rippey got his own doll courtesy of Shindana in 1974. Poor Mason Reese......

Mason Reese endorses Matchbox Fighting Furies

Toyfair 1974: Deviled ham pitchman Mason Reese does a little moonlighting to support the new line of pirate action figures. The Matchbox Fighting Furies were one of the nicest made action figure lines of the 1970's.

Retro Toy Fair :1974

We begin our coverage showcasing some of the news and advertising Toy Fair 1974, which was held from February 17 to the 20th of that year.

First up, the latest addition to the Colorforms Team.

Check back for updates from 1974 all day long

Colouring Book Theatre: The Superfriends

Today's colouring book is one I had as a kid, the Super Friends, yep, the "Wendy & Marvin" version of the show.

This isn't just a cover with stock art of the DC comics heroes, this book is completely faithful to the original series.

It's a non violent, positive message adventure from start to finish.

Whitman did an exceptional job with this one, the art mimicks Alex Toth's designs better than the DC comic adapataion ever did.

It's pretty obvious that Whitman was provided a lot of reference material from Hanna Barberra, I'll explain why down below.

It should be known that I got in a fight with a neighbourhood chum in 1977 when he decided to get liberal with his colour choices. Superman isn't yellow Michael C, where ever you are!

The story starts out rather innocently with the Superfriends working out in the park. You get pages like "walking is healthy" and shots of Marvin working out with dumbells. Then you get this scene of Robin getting grossed out by health food followed up by Wendy and Marvin hiding the health food in a bush (!)

This is a swipe of a classic Neal Adams drawing that made it onto a couple of Mego packages. After they work out, it's Superman's birthday, Supes gets a Fish from Aquaman and a Bat from Batman, I detect a theme....

The party takes a turn for the worse when the world is being invaded by the Sea Weed people, who capture Aquaman. The Sea Weed King is actually a villian from an old Galaxy Trio Cartoon, HB really dug deep for this guy. Eventually Aquaman escapes and the Superfriends find uses for their Sea Weed, which includes making crappy furniture, baskets and Wonder Woman makes a Salad.

I get it, the dynamic duo don't like to eat healthy. I imagine the Batmobile floors are just whopper wrappers and Big Gulp cups. The Seaweed King shows up and is shown all the junk that can be made from his "Weed" that he can now start selling at Flea Markets.

He thanks the "Surface People" (doesn't that piss off Aquaman?) and everything is alright in the end. Hooray!

Got a colouring book you'd like to guest review? Drop me a line!

1975 Lili Ledy Catalog from Mexico

Lili Ledy was Mexico's premiere toy manufacturer and because of trade restrictions, all toys they sold had to be manufactured in Mexico. So many of the popular US lines were licensed and then produced by Lili Ledy resulting in wonderful variations that toy collectors hunt for to this day.

Alot of favourites like the Mego Superheroes, G.I. Joe and Kenner TTP are included along with some interesting Mexican market items. Check out the 1975 Lili Ledy Catalog.

Reminder: Plaidstallions Retro Toyfair begins this Sunday with coverage from 1974. Find out what your favourite toy companies were up to.

Holy Statues Batman!

I've never noticed these cool Batman and Lone Ranger Shaker Maker sets before, I wonder why they chose to make the characters with such gigantic heads?

Aurora Karate Men!

I loved this toy as a kid, when I wasn't playing the game I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get the figures off the stand. They were like really muscular G.I. Joes complete with flocked hair.

Hey, you guys wanna party?

Please, it's so obvious they're cops......

By Your Command

I like classic Battlestar Galactica more as an adult than I ever did as a kid, making me wonder why I ever had to have these figures so bad.

I would have loved to have found Baltar, Lucifer and Gold Cyclon as a wee one but they're still evading me into adulthood. In the early ninties, I spent some weekends working with John Colicos (Baltar) and during a car ride mentioned his action figure, even he didn't have one.

More Fun: 1979 Mattel Battlestar Galactica Catalog

Coming Attractions: Retro Toyfair

We'll leave the new Toyfair news to other sites (like AFI) and focus on news coverage of Toyfairs past, staring with 1974 next Sunday and ending with 1977 on the 20th.

Be there for regular updates on the first appearances of classic toys, toy industry ads and a whole lot more. Our first annual Retro Toy Fair is going to be a lot of fun, well at least I hope it will be!

Colouring Book Theatre : Action Jackson

Today's colouring book is a personal favourite of mine, Mego Action Jackson.

For those not in the know, Action Jackson was Mego's attempt to muscle into the boy's market dominated by G.I. Joe with a new character and plenty of TV advertising.

Action Jackson was a sportsman/adventurer/military man who kids just had to think of what they wanted to be and call on him.

AJ sold brightly but not for a long time, Mego went on the superheroes and the rest is history.

My Dad's company bought a lot of Action Jackson overstock back in the mid seventies, so I was bringing AJ's to birthday parties up until the late 70's.

First off, I love the art in this Saalfield publication, it suits the character perfectly.

The story itself is all over the map, Saalfield tried hard to incorporate all of AJ's outfits and accessories into this so AJ parachutes in, then goes surfing, takes a dangerous mission, crashes his plain in the jungle. Above he gets stuck in quicksand but is quickly rescued by the Action Jackson helicopter.

After being rescued, AJ goes on a sporting tear, playing football, hockey, baseball (his favourite sport!) and then Karate. When does he sleep? AJ then hops in another plane, which crashes again and he's rescued by a boat. Which brings me to my favourite page......

Yep, AJ takes a little coffee break and indulges his sweet tooth. Think this page is weird?

What if I told you it was a double page spread! Judging by the extra cups of coffee, I get how AJ gets things done. I guess Saalfield had to stretch a bit. The remainder of the book, AJ has anunderwater adventure, gets stranded in the jungle again, finds mayan treasure, gets trapped and then he straps on his helicopter backpack (something I still want to be able to own for myself) and sails off into the sunset.

Hopefully he goes for a nap.

Got a colouring book you'd like to guest review? Drop me a line!

Barbie for 1973

I don't do enough girl's related things here, so I thought it be fun to highlight some of the things that were new for Barbie in Spring of 1973. Barbie got curlier, Ken started looking like Ron Burgundy and everybody got a just a little bit mod.

The Ork Look

Seriously, in 1978 JC Penney was encouraging young woman to dress like Mork, it's right in the ad copy! Attempts to revive this concept in 1990 with the "Get all Urkeled up!" campaign failed miserably thankfully.......

The Bed Spins

The one on the left gives me motion sickness....

A double shot of generic Star Wars goodness

I can't get enough Star Wars rip offs and the page above has one of the best, Starroid Raiders action figures by Tomland. The Space Case is another cool "Me too" type product.

Star Raiders were a Mego type varaiation on the theme, also by Tomlands, many of the characters had vaguely familiar looking faces. For more info on them, check out this site.

Quick Everyone, back to the Spacepod!

Family fashion or the latest Irwin Allen pilot? You decide!

Colouring Book Theatre : Big JIm and the P.A.C.K

When I can on Saturdays, I am going to provide an overview of what's inside of some of the cooler colouring books from the 1970's.

I decided to open with Big Jim and the P.A.C.K seeing as it's based on one of my favourite toy lines of that era.

Whitman had released a Big Jim All Star colouring book a few years earlier as well.

The art in this opus looks to be the work of Tony Tollarico, who was famous for the Dell "Monster Superhero" comics such as Dracula and Frankenstein. If you're into dopey comics check those out.

The action in this story begins in a small town, where all the animals have begun to attack the locals this apparently enough to interest the Professional Agents/Crime Killers and they speed off to investigate.

Big Jim and Warpath look a little cramped in the Lazervette but they immediately know who's behind the attacks.....

Yep it's Zorak, evil lord of the Underworld. Zorak has a plan to rule the world using all of our pets as slaves, he gives them a treat, they obey him. Actually, I used this same practice on my college roommate's dog.

So Zorak sends a dog to take care of Big Jim, did I mention he also has an army of Robots that look like Knights? I think I'd have sent those first or at least a bear.

Jim quickly shoots the dog with his gun (which puts people to sleep, this is 1976) and faces the army of Robot knights giving this brave speech while apparently wearing lip gloss.....

THEN HE FRIGGING RUNS AND HIDES! Leaving the P.A.C.K team to clean up the mess, I guess he meant to finish that brave statement with "By P.A.C.K, I meant those guys"

Jim of course, chases down Zorak and gives him a look at what his team did, probably taking credit too. All is won and the P.A.C.K ride off into the sunset.

Got a colouring book you'd like to guest review? Drop me a line!

1977 Berwick Toys Catalog

Most North Americans have probably never heard of UK based Berwick toys before but that should change because they created a lot of fun and inspired licensed items for the English market.

Berwick's main items seem to be role play such as their line of play suits and games, while all the American standards are there such as Mr Spock and the Hulk, UK specific characters such as Captain Britain and Doctor Who are present as well.

Check out the 1977 Berwick Toys Catalog