Bugs Bunny Meets the Superheroes

This has been a recent topic on the Megomuseum forums and I thought it would be perfect to discuss. A lot of people seemed to remember something about this and then enter Craig Crane with this amazing UK version of the program to this very surreal show. Craig also has a blog where he plans to animate Palitoy Action Man dolls, should be fun to watch.

Actually the marriage of the live action batman series with the looney toons characters makes sense if you consider they were afternoon staples in syndication. If you saw this as a kid and have pictures I would love to feature them here.

Have a safe and Happy New Year!

Previous links:

Marvel Superheroes: Live and in Person

Superhero Mall Appearance Gallery

Star Trek : The Comic Strip Chapter 8

Continuing the slow moving syndicated adventures of the Starship Enterprise, I'll be keeping the previous entries on the site in the archive.

Retro Playgrounds Part 1 : Space Themes

Our final catalog of the year is kind of fitting as it's a retro look into the future. This is the first in our series of retro playground equipment, when galvanised pipe and concrete could be made to form rockets, giants bugs or tee pees. Click here to check out Space Themed Play Grounds.

Introducing the Mixables

The Mixables! Three wild and crazy guys who are always up for a good time. I'm going back to bed.....

Start Peddling Boy Wonder!

Another vintage toy industry ad, this time for the Empire Toys Bat Cycle. Think it has enough bats on it?

For more check out the 1979 Empire Toys Catalog.

Christmas Wishlist 1979

This is one of my more cherised items, a Christmas wish list I created in 1979 clipping items out of the Sears catalog. As you can see the Mego collecting bug was strong even then and I still can't spell millenium. As I recall it was a pretty great haul and yes, I got a new Cat Calendar, I obviously liked kitty cats when was nine.

This is from the back, I needed to show my grandmother what green Goblin looked like, believe it or not, she found it!

Have a Happy Holidays everyone, talk to you on boxing day.

Superheroes or Monsters?

Technical issues still prevent Forgotten TV from happening today (It will return next Sunday) so I thought I'd show a page from something I'm working on, the 1980 Ben Cooper halloween costume catalog. While Hulk and Red Skull work as masks, the Batman and Spider-Man are somewhat creepy thanks to the materials used. How old is Batman supposed to be, it looks like an octogenarian under that cowl!

More of this in the very near future.

Star Trek :The Comic Strip Chapter 7

Continuing the slow moving syndicated adventures of the Starship Enterprise, I'll be keeping the previous entries on the site in the archive.

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More Vintage Toy Store Shots

With the holiday season almost here it seemed like an appropriate time to once again look at the toy departments of long ago, Vintage Toy Stores Part Four offers more shots of forgotten retailers and their shelves packed with memories. Look for appearances by Mego Superheroes, the Shogun Warriors, AMT model kits, Fisher Price Little People and much, much more.....

Be sure to visit Part One, Part Two and Part 3 in this series as well.

The Dapper Duo

Dressing alike with a pal seems like a brave choice for 1975....

To Boldly Doodle Where No Marker Has Before

I'm going to start bringing in some more vintage toy industry ads once again and what better way to start than this cool Star Trek poster set. I'm pretty sure I had one of these for Star Wars back in the day. Here is a close up of the art.

Moonbase Alpha Sleepwear

Somebody asked me recently if I'd ever seen these and at that point I hadn't, so I hope he's reading. Space:1999 was a big influence on me as a kid but I can't imagine my kids watching a serious one hour long space drama. I guess that's why you don't see "Stargate SG1" pajama's today.

Links of Interest: Mattel 1976 Space:1999 catalog

It's the JLA!

That's right the Junior Lotharios of America are springing into action! Gentleman, Lock up your daughters.

The top three worst female action figures of the 1970's

Technical difficulties prevent me from doing a forgotten TV segment today, so I bring you some truly useless knowledge and opinion in it's place:

Top three worst Female Action Figures of the 1970's

#3- Ilia (Star Trek the Motion Picture by Mego)

I want to preface by saying I like the Motion Picture and I think this figure is actually a nice sculpt. Ilia makes this list because she got a figure before Uhura, Sulu, Checkov or even Spock in his cool hippie duds at the start of the film.

Also, this figure was the worst seller in the line, I bought two at a major department store in 1987, on the shelf for 8 years, that's gotta be some sort of peg warmer record.

#2 First Version Wonder Woman (Comic Action Heroes by Mego)

Ever wondered what Alan Alda would look like as a hippie? Well now you know. I'm not sure what Mego had in mind with the figure on the right but that's a man, baby!

Somebody at DC must have been ticked because Mego quickly corrected the figure with the much cuter version on the left. Nobody seemed to notice that both figures have removable tops!

#1 Dr Russel (Mattel Space:1999)

The head is nicely sculpted but the combination of a tiny unpainted head, a mannish body with elongated arms make this a figure that creeps my kids out. Best to keep the helmet on folks.

Thanks for reading, I promise to keep the VH1 stuff to a minimum..

Star Trek The Comic Strip: Chapter 6

Continuing the slow moving syndicated adventures of the Starship Enterprise, I'll be keeping the previous entries on the site in the archive.

Judging by the panel of recap in the top corner, I'm missing the Sunday installments of this strip.

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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.....

Why do they call you Patches?

That wrote itself, I'm sorry..

Your New Matching Family!

I think if I was greeted with this, it would be referred to as "The day daddy drank an entire box of wine"

Snap Together Superheroes

These kits by Aurora, Addar and AMT pretty much sum up the early seventies for me, Superheroes, Planet of the Apes and Star Trek. I had a lot of these even though I really couldn't build or paint them worth a damn. The Aurora Superhero kits became impromptu action figures when I didn't have the mego figure.

In fact, my dad sold the Aurora Superhero kits, the picture below is a shot from his showroom circa 1975. Click here to see more.

Comic Books are Higly Illogical Gentlemen

It seems like the Star Fleet cadet doesn't approve of his comic fan companions. I guess "Spock" doesn't recognize how cool that DC stock art is. If I'm not mistaken that's Infantino and Adams.

Past links: More Star Trek Pajamas

Forgotten TV: Monster Squad

Monster Squad was a 1976 NBC saturday morning series that married the classic monsters with the 60's Batman series ( Stanley Ralph Ross who developed Monster Squad wrote 17 episodes of Batman).

In a nutshell, Museum night watchman Walter (a pre Love Boat Fred Grandy) is an aspiring criminologist, his crime computer brings to life the figures of Dracula (Henry Polic 2), Frank N Stein ( Mike Lane) and Bruce W Wolf (Buck Kartalian) who decide to be crime fighters.

Below is an episode in 3 parts, this originally aired on December 4 1976.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Despite it being a very memorable series, Monster Squad only aired for one year. Ideal Toys also cancelled their line of Monster Squad action figures, double whammy....

Star Trek : The Comic Strip Chapter 5

Continuing the slow moving syndicated adventures of the Starship Enterprise, I'll be keeping the previous entries on the site in the archive.

Dr. McCoy goes "night night"

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Fisher Price Adventure People Catalog

One of the most influential Action toy lines of the 1970's, the Fisher Price Adventure people were North America's first 3 3/4" line of action figures and vehicles. These durable toys had great play value and lasted for nearly a decade, here we have a glimpse at the 1983 catalog where the adventure has more of a sci fi slant than ever before.

Men of Action for 1975

G.I. Joe meets the Six Million Dollar Man, that's a cross over that happened more than once in my house. This page comes from Simpsons, a long gone Canadian retailer.

Speaking of cross overs, you can see the other side to this beautiful double page spread (which features Big Jim and Mego) at the Megomuseum. It's not quite a cool a crossover as "JLA/JSA" more of a "Diff'rent Strokes" meets "Hello Larry" kind of thing.

Poolmobiles exist!

I was going through a 70's playground equipment catalog (more on that later) and was amazed to discover this, the "Swim Mobile" a portable pool that you drove into places and events to provide comfort on a hot day. I always thought it was just something imagined by the writers of the Simpsons.

The "Swim Mobile" is much nicer than it's companion piece The "Boxing Mobile" which is a portable pugilism display system.

Holy Bed Head Batman!

After doing a bit about the Superman Talking Alarm click it seemed fitting to discuss this one, probably the most memorable of all Janex talking clocks. I seem to remember TV commercials for this although I could be wrong. I wanted one as a kid but the more I go through old catalogues, the more I realize, I wanted everything as a kid....

Looking for that perfect holiday party dress?

Look no further than the "Holiday Hostess" line, this may come as a shock but number 3 is my favourite....

Forgotten TV: Cliffhangers

I'm going to devote a couple of times a month to obscure stuff in my video collection, mostly forgotten or short lived TV from the 70's/80's. The first show I chose to highlight is Cliffhangers.

Cliffhangers was produced by Kenneth Johnson (V, The Incredible Hulk) and it's concept was throwback to the movie serials of the 30's and 40's, each show would contain 3 separate adventures, each week it they would end with a "cliffhanger" (hence the title).

Cliffhangers opening

The three segments were:

1) The Curse of Dracula: which depicted the count as a handsome University professor in modern day San Francisco.

2) The Secret Empire: A homage to the Gene Autrey Serial "The Phantom Empire" this story featured a US Marshal who uncovers an underground society of technologically advanced aliens run by the evil Mark (Star Trek) Lenard

3) Stop Susan Williams: international adventure starring Susan Anton as a jet setting reporter who manages to get herself into some deadly situations.

As a child, the Secret Empire was my favourite, so I leave you with an episode.

Part One

Part Two

Star Trek : The Comic Strip Chapter 4

Continuing the slow moving syndicated adventures of the Starship Enterprise, I'll be keeping the previous entries on the site in the archive.

I like Dr McCoy's inner monologue here.

Evel Knievel RIP

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) -- Evel Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil whose exploits made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.

Knievel’s death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.

Knievel had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills.

RIP Evel.

1975 Evel Knievel Catalog

Ideal's Evel Knievel was one of the most popular toy lines of the early 1970's, by 1975 Ideal hoped to expand the line by adding adventure to it and of course bringing the girls in with Derry Daring. Click here to see the catalog.

Da-Dun Da-Dun Da-Dun

I got the Ideal Jaws game one year for Christmas, the movie itself made me to timid swim in the ocean, lakes and even pools. I never said I was a bright kid.

It was a pretty inventive game but I really only remember playing it once or twice before Jaws became a supervillain for my Mego Superheroes to fight. Great game but an even better action figure.

The Dacron Gang

Only a fool stands between them and what they want.

Do you want to be Gage or Desoto?

With all the nonsensical toys running about like Hulk Utility belts, it's nice to see logical roll play items like this Emergency set. Although I doubt the guys from Rampart wore pictures of themselves on their helmets. That's a weird thing that would always bother me as a kid.....

Plaidstallions at Detour Magazine

Detour Magazine (which is an awesome read BTW) published a cool little piece on yours truly today, as an added bonus they didn't use the picture of me I regretted sending in the first place. Life is good! Check out the piece here.

Under What?

Not even your knickers were safe from 70's funk.

Star Trek : The Comic Strip Chapter 3

Continuing the slow moving syndicated adventures of the Starship Enterprise, I'll be keeping the previous entries on the site in a new archive.

Kenner 1978 Spring Catalog

Spring Supplement Catalogs usually include things that didn't make it into the February Toyfair in a bid to make it out in time for the Christmas season. The 1978 Kenner Catalog is a prime example featuring some classic goodies and a few that just didn't make it under anybody's tree that year.

Bionic Woman, Play Doh, Star Wars, Finger Pops and much more.

Pick Up Joint : The Playset

This disco playset probably looked a whole heck of a lot more innocent back in the day, now the guy figure looks a lot like Eric Roberts in "Star 80". I cut it off but you can see his "Mid life crisis mobile" which was sold separately.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends.

Greens!

This isn't just green, it's GREEN! The kind that holds you down and beats you until you magically become Irish. The checked number in the middle is so bad, it's kind of cool.

Source: Sears 1977

Superman Talking Alarm Clock

Janex is probably best known for their Batman and Robin talking alarm clock which was a big hit. Their Superman clock is lesser known and no wonder, while Batman and Robin started your day with their snappy " Hey Chum and Holy This!" banter, Superman seemed to just nag you. I mean "Better get up or you'll be late"? This is the man of steel!

This paints Superman as the sort of guy who buys kids "slacks" for Christmas.

Still, I kind of want one of these....

Heading off into the sunset....

Dressing alike continues to boggle my mind, one stumbled upon reviewer claims it had to do with the rise of the liberated woman and that men would be forced to do such things in order to get with a girl.

It's not a stretch for me to believe, heck i could see a young version of myself going for that but I still think dressing up like a clock you'd find at a flea market hurts both of you.

Star Trek : The Comic Strip Chapter 2

Continuing the syndicated adventures of the Starship Enterprise, I'll be keeping the previous entries on the site in a new archive.