More Back in the Day Toy Shots

Another great batch of photos this week, starting with Chris Franklin, a fellow Megomuseum forum pal proudly displaying his Remco Energized Superheroes along with his 12" Mego Spidey.

Here is a killer shot of Betsy opening an Evel Knievel set. According to Betsy her Evel was best friends with Mego Batman, they even picked up girls together! For more of Betsy check out the Megomuseum blog today.

Rounding out today's set is an awesome shot submitted by Tom Beiter watching anxiously as his brother plays with his new Stretch Armstrong. Come on man, give it back!

Got a back in the day shot you want to share? Drop us a line!

Made from the Strangest Stuff on Earth

We're jetting forward to 1984 to take a look at Manglors, a rather unique toy offering from Ideal Toys. Manglors weren't action figures (they had no articulation) but rather a new kind of concept, made of a spongy material that stretched and apparently could be reattached. Every character in the line seemed to be a monster and their playset "Manglor Mountain" appears to be some sort of torture chamber.

I'll admit it, when I saw a Manglord with an open window in Toys R Us back in '85, I reached right in and tore off a limb to see if it worked. Boy, that confession felt good, like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders!

See the 1984 Ideal Manglors Catalog here.

Vintage Toy Ads: KIds Go Bats over Batman

I haven't done a vintage toy ad probably since I burned out during retro toy fair in February. This ad is sort of relevant to me as I recently made friends with a former Corgi sales rep, we were talking about the Batmobile and he said "Do you know how many of those we sold?" and it kind of dawned on me that every kid on my block (which was the whole wide world in 1975) had one, as if they were issued to us.

Anyway, Batman to Corgi was like a license to print money and I was told that if he put 144 units of bat stuff in a K-Mart, he expected it to be gone by his next visit. I'm nostalgic for these stories because it was my childhood, this fellow seemed more nostalgic for those kinds of sales numbers...

Barroom Hilarity and Kitsch

I had an uncle that must been the life of the party back in the day, I remember his basement bar had almost every single thing pictured here including the man in the barrel who pees booze. It's kind of weird that ash trays and liquor dispensors can remind you of childhood but it does...

Starroid Raiders

When it comes to Star Wars rip off figures, there is no more blatant than the wonderful Tomland's Starroid Raiders. These guys usually sold for a buck (far less than a SW figure) and had GREAT names, from left to right we have Zang, Tango, Wahh, Zbu, Aton and Dado. Like a lot of their stuff, these little fellas came on a multitude of different cards sometimes they were "Space Fighters" or "Space Raiders", it all adds to their cheap charm.

Tomlands/Combex did all sorts of fun figures that blatantly skirt licensing and are now highly collectible. The UK based company used others to do their distribution in the states and were actually in the Marx family of companies. According to some UK trades I have, they were doing quite well.

Expect more on this stuff in the near future.

If you're into Starroid Raiders or almost any figure line that is 3 3/4" inches tall then you should really check out the Kevin Lentz's 3 3/4" Archive sometime. He's compiled a ton of child hood favourites from the 70's and 80's into a one fun web site, there are even a few foreign figures that might surprise you.

Plaid Stallions Boy's Clubs

Did you know that children are growing up every day deprived of the confidence of wearing a suit made by Dupont? Or the luxury of wearing a white belt with white loafers?

You can change all that with a (large) donation to the Plaidstallions Boy's Clubs or "Brick's Kids", your donation will go towards educating a new generation on dressing suave, the importance of matching outfits in relationships and most importantly, the comedy genius of Shirley Hemphill.

Your generous, constant support could help a young person get a little funk in their lives*....

(*That is unless something really cool comes up on Ebay or I just decide to drink it all away which is most likely going to happen)

Colouring Book Theatre: Superman in Luthor's Lost Land

Well, I finally found the often promised, never delivered Superman book so I figured I'd push other stuff out of the way and get to it before I lose it again.

This book is marked 1975 but I remember getting it much after the Christopher Reeve movie debuted, I vividly recall colouring in it while watching "A Man Called Sloane"

The book is by Whitman and the art is top notch, the formula is a typical "Page per panel" so the story takes a while. I don't recognize the artist but like I mentioned the style is above average for a colouring book.

Morgan Edge, President of Galaxy Broadcasting, who is smoking BTW, sends Clark Kent to Oklahoma to cover the new oil crisis. On their way to the airport, Clark spots a missile and rides it. Turns out Luthor is behind it and sends superman out into space to die. It doesn't kill Superman but he did miss his flight.

Jeez, Lois is pretty darn stupid if she honestly buys that.

Hired Goons kidnap Lois and Clark, who get punched out and whisked away while Lois faints. The bad guys wake up in jail, can the police just hold people because Superman told them to?

On their copter ride, the crew encounters dinosaurs and Superman acts like he's never seen one, in the comics, he seems to run into them every afternoon.

A strange city appears and the dinosaurs attack the copter forcing everyone to bail out, Clark applies a little "Hai-Keeba" to the situation.

Turns out Luthor is behind all of this, he needs the oil to raise this acient city and it's monsters. He can rule the world with this stuff he says. Luthor also orders his gunsels to kill Lois, Superman goes mental but Luthor has a monster even stronger than him.

Superman beats it in one panel.

Superman destroys the city (was that neccesary?) And the day is saved, nobody seems to question that Clark Kent is missing, not even Luthor.

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

Previous Colouring Book Theatre Entries can be found here.

More Back in the Day Shots

Tom Bligh proudly shows off his Maskatron figure, man, that was one fun toy.

A young Rob Kelly admires his Uncle Fred's can collection. I used to make a punch with Tahitian Treat and Rum back in college that tasted just like budget cough syrup. Rob's T shirt suggests a Batman fan but now he's known for his fandom of this hero.

Got some back in the day shots? Email Me and I'll send you some Plaidstallions Trading Cards.

Azrak Hamway Toy Explosion

Not one but two new sections added to PlaidStallions.com today, both devoted to that king of Rack Toys, Azrak Hamway International or as they're often known AHI. First we have the 1976 AHI catalog, featuring an unbelievable amount of licensed toys from Star Trek Waterpistols to Parachuting Shazam, even Dr. Zaius on a chopper, AHI had all bases covered. Lots of rare items and a few that I'm not sure ever made it to market.

check out all the goodies here

But wait, there's more! Also up today is a new gallery devoted to the Official World Famous Super Monster figures produced by AHI. These cool little Mego-Esque figures were officially licensed by Universal Studios and went through a staggering amount of variations over the years. Always welcoming submissions for things not featured, so if you have something snap a pic!

Check out the AHI Supermonsters Page Here.

Frank and Drac go out dancing on Friday nights, good for them.

It's Curtains For You!

Who needs the sun when you can shut yourself off from the world with these fabulously brilliant styles?

P.A.C.K Attack

Big Jim's P.A.C.K has always been a grand obsession of mine although space issues forced me to part with much of my collection years ago. The carded outfits (like the SWAT set pictured here) are especially large and hard to display.

The Swamp Boat pictured here is difficult to find especially boxed, there is also a P.A.C.K version of the dune buggy that is extremely uncommon boxed.

For years I used to think of Double Trouble Jim and Zorak as kind of silly but now they're just about my favourites, funny how that works. The face changing effect is strange for Jim because the angry face looks like he's having a heart attack.

This illustration for Torpedo Fist's arm is a little weird, love that airbrushed elbow. The P.A.C.K carrying case has a little locker inside, where no doubt the boys discuss weekend plans before punching out for the day.

Links of Interest: 1976 Big Jim PACK Catalog

Big Jim Pack marvel Comic

Mexican Big Jim Figures

Flare-Leg Pants!

Davey Jones had a yard sale and I wasn't notified? Now, I'm pissed. You know, they're nice but I bet they could higher on the waist if you tried.

Planet of the Apes: From Logical to Nonsense

Logical Toy: Planet of the Apes Remote Control Horse, apes all rode horses and this makes perfect sense.

Nonsense Toy: Planet of the Apes Zoom Cycle, the Ape civilization never had anything motorized and this looks an awful lot like a repackaged Batman toy. Please don't send me comments about the Animated show having cars, that doesn't count and you know it.

Oddly enough, I totally would have wanted the zoom cycle more as a kid....

Coluring Book Theatre: Battle of the Planets

Still looking for Superman, I found another colouring book, this time in my wife's stuff.

Battle of the Planets was an americanization of a the Japanese series "Gatchaman" removing a lot of the violence and adding an R2-D2 clone to give the show a Star Wars feel. The original series didn't involve space travel at all, so it's funny how many space references they make.

The book is by Whitman and the art looks exactly like the Gold Key comic released around the same time. The show had a wonderful anime style and Gold Key didn't really do a good job of translating it, it's often more simplified but not terrible.

The story seems to be a rendition of the pilot episode, "Attack of the Space Terrapin"

T

Ahh, meet the G Force Team, Eagle Ken Owashi became Mark, the leader of the team with Cerabonic Powers. Mark adorned all the merchandise but we all loved Jason better, he was the dreamy hot head....

T

G Force's main nemesis was She Male bad guy Zoltar from the planet Spectra. His origin is a little strange, as I recall the imperious leader took a small girl and tranformed her into Zoltar. This was all in Japan of course, all we got in the US was a glimpse of Zoltar's long blonde hair.

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Spectra had no end of giant Mecha to attack earth, enter the Space Terrapin. I should mention that on the series, the Terrapin was pretty sleek looking, here it looks more like a disgruntled parade float.

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G Force enters and encounters the Specta Goons, which are disturbingly off model. Normally these guys all had mullets and bad teenage moustaches.

G Force has a lot great move of spinning around causing a whirl wind, in the colouring book they call it rotor force, I don't think it was on the series.

T

The Terrapin then lamely crashes into the ocean without the requisite explosion, which would have been fun to colour. Zoltar gets written up by his boss and we're treated to more shots of the Phoenix, the teams cool space ship.

If you like Battle of the Planets, check out our toy gallery here.

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

Previous Colouring Book Theatre Entries can be found here.

Coming Next Week: Not Superman

Back in the day shots

Recently I ran a contest/open invitation for Plaidstallions Trading Cards and asked folks for vintage photos. I am overwhelmed by the amount of feedback I got so I'll be showcasing these for the next couple of weekends. Above is an entry from Nate, where he is playing with his getting his corn syrup on with both Stretch Armstrong and Stretch Monster. I'm jealous of a 30 year old picture, that's probably not healthy.

My pal T.J.sent me this awesome shot of he and his brother rocking some dress a like plaid leisure wear, it should be noted that TJ appears is crying in this shot. No doubt tears of joy to be wearing matching outfits with your brother.

Chad sent in this shot of him playing with his Kenner Death Star Playset, check out that rug, that would have so doubled as lava.

Chadagain, now with some Marx Johnny West goodness, I can't believe I haven't featured Johnny on the site yet.

More Vintage shots next week, submissions always welcome!

Butch and Sundance : The Action Figure Years

In the late seventies, Kenner released a line of action figures based on the Western film "Butch and Sundance : The early Years" which was a commercial failure. Kenner had done such a nice job on the toys that they attempted to repackage the line as "The Real West" in 1980.

The Real West would have included Butch and Sundance and added new Western Legends such as Geronimo and Jessie James, sadly the Real West line never saw release.

I say this far too much but this well made line is highly underrated and you might recognize a few of the pieces from it as they made it into other series such as "Indiana Jones" and "Star Wars"

Check out the 1980 Kenner Real West Line Here.

Star Aliens Meet Superman

More Rack Toys today, I'm really digging these die cast Star Aliens figures by Larami. They seem to be rocking that whole Shogun Warriors/Micronauts vibe.

My pal MegoSteve sent me a picture of his wicked cool AHI Parachuting Superman figure and a Knock Off (which probably also produced by AHI)

Big Fun: Jon has created a really cool slideshow of Big Jim stuff that I can't get enough of.

Selling Stuff: I'm selling the contents of a rather large find I had this week, seeing as I spent more than I should have, please check it out. It's all lovely 70's stuff, Osmonds, Barbie, MOC Star Wars, Flash Gordon and a lot more.

Denim Maaaaaaannnn!

Dammit, I love this guy a whole bunch. Does anybody else think the ensemble isn't complete without the vest?

Jeez, you leave town for a couple days and all this coolness springs up. Ben at World's Greatest Toys is obsessing over K-Mart and Kresges. Rob at the Aquaman Shrine is celebrating Dick Giordano week and finally, my piece on the top five worst/best viewmasters is up at Topless Robot.

More Bean Bag Righteousness

That is so cool that Robin is on the other side of the Batman chair, they're the Bert and Ernie of the Cape set.

Media Exposure Time: Tekzilla named PlaidStallions this week's Websites they can't get enough of. They did a really long piece on the site which you can see about 28 minutes into the show, thanks Tekzilla!

Blue Monday

All apologies to New Order fans.