I Met BigFoot

After a year of accumulating other people's encounters with Spider-Man and Darth Vader, it never dawned upon me that I had anything to add until I found this. This is probably around 1980 and at the Metro Zoo, who used to use 70s super celebrity Bigfoot quite extensively in their marketing (you can still see the painted footprints there) I have no idea who the picture wrecking kid in front is but I do remember wanting to leave the zoo early because it was "Planet of the Apes Week" on City TV. Yes, I was always this way.....

1980 Imperial Puffy Sticker Catalog

What's a more appropriate way to end a week devoted to back to school than by paying tribute to those items that often ended up on our binders, Puffy Stickers! Imperial Toy was one of the biggest producer of these back in the day, even when they didn't have the license they would come awfully close to mimicking it. Imperial did have some really familiar faces such as Web Woman, Buck Rogers, hell they made John Belushi stickers!

Check out the 1980 Imperial Puffy Sticker Catalog

Pooh Coordinates

They most certainly are!

Just how are these inspired by Winnie the Pooh? Christopher Robin mostly wore short pants as I recall....

Desks of Fun

It's hard to make things like pencil sharpeners and desk sets interesting, I mean they are the gift an Uncle you don't know well gives you. Having said that, I love this Bugs Bunny Desk set, it has only one superior IMO:

Yeah I'm pretty smitten with the Batman desk set, this is most likely to me getting a Batman pencil sharpener as a kid and being overly thrilled with it. Arg, I'm off to Ebay to reconnect.....

Nursery School Nightmares

In the 70's, the folks in the jumpsuit industry must have been rolling in it. There is something so weird about that red CB inspired pit crew looking jumpsuit, like the pockets are for Skoal or something .

What I was doing 32 years ago Department: I'm pretty jazzed about the first day of school for my kids and thought I'd share a ritual in my family. My mom would pose us against the wall of school every first day which seems weird now. The shirt I'm wearing appears to act as camoflague. This ends when we become teenagers, thankfully....

DVD Tuesday

Quite a doozy today, the long awaited release of Quark, the 1977 Science Fiction sitcom created by Buck Henry (Get Smart) and starring Richard Benjamin as Adam Quark, captain of a intergalactic Garbage vessel.

It may have only ran 9 episodes during the summer of '77 but Quark seemed to be the kind of show that you didn't forget when you saw it. I was one of those people, I have an episode on tape somewhere and it still holds up. I have to own this set, at $15.00, it's a no brainer.

Also available this week is the classic Peanuts special It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, I plan on going nuts this Halloween so it's another one to add to the basket.

For Doctor Who fans, the 1977 Tom Baker Era story "The Invasion of Time" is now available on DVD. This six parter is about the Doctor fighting off invading hoardes of Sontaran Warriors as they try to gain control of his home planet of Gallifrey. Despite my love for 70's era Who stories, this isn't my favourite. The budget seems to be stretched waifer thin (the cavernous inside of the Tardis looks like an unused recreation center) plus this story is the departure of the wonderful Leela, so maybe I'm just bitter...

Back to School Week

As summer comes to an end, what better time then to take a look at the Fall/Winter fashions our parents decked us out in to make that trip back to the classroom. So basically I'm doing what I always do here, just pretending it's some sort of event. Um........ta-da?

Colouring Book Theatre: The Fantastic Four

I picked up this 1979 Whitman coloring book at one of my "Wishbook haunts" (a smelly room full of used books at a truck stop where the guy also guesses my height and weight) and paid a whole dollah for it.

To be honest, I think I spent too much as this has to be my least favourite book of all time. The art is fine, it even seems to be based on Kirby who did some work on the animated series this was based on.

The problem with this book is that it's just awful, it isn't even at the level of the disappointing animated series that was airing at this time.

What are my main beefs with this? Well let's a take a look inside.

Problem number one: H.E.R.B.I.E the robot annoys the living hell out of me, I know the Torch was licensed to someone else at the time but honestly, this was the best character? I would have added Medusa or Namor over this character. This book is H.E.R.B.I.E centric too, the other, he dominates this book. He's the Jar-Jar Binks of 1979.

Then there's the story, the FF are in one of their stereotypical fights which without Johnny seems kind of hollow. Then Sue and Reed (Who should get their blood pressure checked) suggest renting a farm for a vacation. I was expecting the next twenty pages of them feeding pigs.

Hoo Boy, maybe I'm too sensitive but the FF was such a cool comic when I was a kid, could this get worse?

Oh but it can! Enter the villain of the piece, the Pink Fink. I'm not going to bother.

So the Pink Fink uses all kinds of embarrassing things like a pink ray and pink vision goggles to stop the FF, he captures them pretty easily I might add. It seems the FF rented the farm he was holing up in, who knows why. This of course, makes it important for H.E.R.B.I.E to save the day with his eye rays, which means the heroes and their powers are useless but a gadget can save the day.

I give up too......

Previous Colouring Book Theatre Entries

Wanted: Vintage Halloween Pictures

As the title suggests, I want your vintage Halloween pictures for an upcoming feature this October. Send me your smock and masks people, I want all the Darth Vaders, Pink Panthers and (hopefully) Jaws costumes you can send me. For every submission, I'll gratefully fork over some plaidstallions trading cards and stickers. It's all part of the 2008 Halloween Countdown challenge that I've joined, a whole month of Halloween from a while bunch of different bloggers.

So send me your vintage costume pics!

S.T.A.R Team Promotional Comic

In 1978, Ideal Toys hobbled together a series of space toys using old molds and a generous helping of inspiration from George Lucas..

S.T.A.R Team actually beat the Kenner Star Wars product to the stores (Kenner was forced to sell empty boxes promising action figures but you probably knew that) and the lawsuits flew!

In an effort to create a back story kids might enjoy Ideal contacted the Marvel comics bullpen (as they had done for their Evel Knievel line) to create a promotional piece outlining the adventures of Zem 21 and his nemesis, the extremely talky Knight of Darkness.

It's a gripping tale written most likely in a gin soaked afternoon..

Read the Ideal Toys Star Team Comic

Other related links

Ideal Scare Cycles

Future Kids

The kids on the outside kind of look like a young Rusty Venture and a junior version of Ed Straker from UFO. They'll be rocking the McDonalds Birthday party in space age style.

The kid in the middle is wearing what my mom would purchase from the three, meaning it's the dorkiest "Marks and Spencer" looking outfit of the bunch.

More Lincoln Monsters

I'm real jazzed to have some additions to the Lincoln Monsters section of the site, mostly because I never thought I would get more stuff from this tough to collect 8" line. Above is the Frankensten box, that's right, Frankensten, it seems Lincoln took their proofing as seriously as I do.

The Mummy box also has the same sort of fun design but thankfully with no typo, it'd be hard to take a "Mommy" doll seriously. Speaking of the Mummy, I've also finally gotten off my butt and had the sticker printed.

I already gave some away at the forum but I'll be giving a bunch more away in the very near future, look for an announcement on the weekend.

Lite Writers

These Lite Writers by Larami are a neat example of how Rack Toys work, when you have a license, just create a unique item you can stick a character on.

It's fun seeing Flash Gordon in the mix, Larami also added a Cylon a year later (this is 1979) but as I recall it was rather off model.

DVD Tuesday

Just in time (actually it's way early) for Halloween we have the Fat Albert's Halloween Special.

There was no cooler thing to see than that rotating "Special Presentation Logo" that CBS used to play, you just knew you were getting some Rudolph or Charlie Brown. That music still gives me a tingle.

I remember watching this special several times but I can't for the life of me recount a single detail, I blame college for this.

Also on tap this week is the underrated Detective Series Banacek starring a pre A-Team George Peppard. I was never disappointed when Banacek was on instead of Columbo on A&E , can't say the same for the last season of MacMillan and Wife. Anyway, this DVD is a perfect thing for somebody not into the box set, just 4 classic shows for $8.00

Fighting Furies ad from 1975

I really dig this UK ad for the highly underrated Matchbox Fighting Furies figures, mostly because it gives you a drool worthy shot of the display box. In the US, for some reason the spokesperson for this line was Mason Reese (no fooling, check it out here) Matchbox also released a killer playset for this line that I really should own.

Colouring Book Theatre: The Partridge Family

Today's colouring book is courtesy of Sharry, who has an enviable collection!

Unlike probably most 70's kids, I'm not all that well versed with the Partridge Family, we didn't get UHF channels until much later and when we did I only really saw the characters in cartoon form (Through "Goober and the Ghost Chasers" and "Partridge Family 2200 AD")

It's rare to see a book with a photo cover, also what the heck is Tracy's problem? She doesn't look too happy to be there.

The art inside is pretty nice and looks to be the series pilot combined with the typical copying from promotional stills which is pretty much the standard in this medium.

The three heavy hitters of the series.

Aaaaand the Rest! It's freaky to see Danny Bonaduce as a kid, he creeps me out as an adult.

My friend growing up had the hots for Shirley Jones, I still tease him about and am doing so right now. Gonna print this out Brian and put it in your scrapbook?

The infamous Partridge Family Bus would challenge and break even the largest variety box of crayons.

"Let's all just sit here and dream children" The book itself is somewhat dry, but then again the show wasn't exactly action packed now was it?

Those shadowed heads will always remind me of MST 3K

I'm outraged there is not one shot of Canadian super talent Dave Madden aka Reuben Kincaid here. What an injustice!

Thanks Sharry! Tune in Next Week for more Coloring Book Theatre.

Previous Colouring Book Theatre Entries

Paul Meets Spider-Man

Paul Rigsby sent in this picture of him at Spider-Man at the Gateway mall in Jacksonville Florida in 1979. Paul wanted to point out his red plaid outfit is not on purpose, he had no idea Spidey was going to be there, he was, as he puts it "A poster boy for bad 70s fashion". Check out more at the Superhero Mall Appearance Gallery.

Got a Vintage Mall Appearance Shot you want to share? Whether it's from the seventies to the mid eighties. We want to see it! Drop me an email! If I use them I'll send you some plaidstallions trading cards.

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Team Up With Little Big Man!

In the 1970's, toy maker extraordinaire Pailtoy brought the popular Spanish toy "MadelMan" to the UK renaming him "Little Big Man" in an effort to offer a lower price point alternative to their popular Action Man line of toys.

Thought small in stature, this six inch character had a tall amount of adventures to choose from, including a couple G.I. Joe didn't have.

What's great about this gallery is not only do we have the original 1975 Palitoy Catalog and some vintage toy industry articles but we also have some fantastic packaged LBM toy photos from the collection of Bill Frost. According to Bill, LBM collecting is a chore in itself, as the pieces are hard to find.

Check out the 1975 Palitoy Little Big Man section here.

Overalls

Just in time for back to school (Also available in Hee Haw)

Toilet Decisions Part Two

While I admit this powder blue number is the bomb and would go with the rug I plan to put in my bathroom, bachelor number two offers something no other toilet can.

The ability to never have to do a decent job of cleaning it.

The Super 7!

I was looking through this cool puffy stickers catalog (which I am going to get to in the fall) and my I found this killer box for the Filmation Super 7 Stickers. It's very rare to find any merchandise for these characters. I remember a kid in my class having these and me being very jealous of that fact. It's a damned shame that this series may never see the light of day on DVD, so far only the Freedom Force shorts are available.

Oh Web Woman, when will we be reunited?

Speaking of DVD's, it's Tuesday: Gosh, it's slim pickings today, the only thing new that may be of interest is the Fletch Collection, which is a box set of Fletch and Fletch Lives. The first one is Chevy Chase at his peak, even if it isn't really faithful to the (very good) series of novels. The sequel is one of those things I'll watch on a hung over afternoon, so like every time it's on.

Seeing as the rest of the week's releases is mostly stuff I'm not into, I'll give a mini review. I managed to finally pick up a copy of the Legacy collection of the Mummy and really recommend it, some of the extras are the same on all the Legacy sets but the little piece on Jack Pierce was quite nice.

If you're a fan of the Universal Monsters, I would give it a giant undead thumbs up. I'm sure a Wolfman DVD is in the works what with the remake coming up, can't wait!