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!

Eh, What's Up Doc?

I have never heard of this Bugs Bunny Playset before, a Spiegel exclusive, I'd love to entertain the fantasy that it's some sort of long lost Mego toy but more likely it's by Dakin or somebody like that. Anybody have this as a kid?

I have whittled away ten thousand hours watching Looney Toons and continue to do so.

Colouring Book Theatre: Tarzan

Today's colouring book is courtesy fo my friend Steve (update your blog!) who sent me two copies, one with a Rand McNally logo and one with Saalfields.

Seeing as the Rand Six Million Dollar Man was kind of dryer than old toast, I'm going to say this was something Saalfield cooked up and Rand starting publishing after.

The art in the book is excellent and the pacing is great for this medium. I'm pretty sure I had this book,as a kid being pretty smitten with the character thanks to the wonderful Filmation series and a pile of Sunday afternoon movies with my Dad ( I still love Mike Henry as Tarzan!)

I thought that this would be the Filmation Tarzan inside but my memory has cheated me, this owes more to early movies.

The Story revolves around Tarzan's family (something he didn't have in the cartoon) as Boy (his name is Korak dammit!) gets trapped in a tiger pit. Cheeta comes to warn Tarzan. Jane is a total fox BTW...

Tarzan deals with it pretty quickly and I might add, is quite smug about it. Then again, if I could do wrestle a tiger, I'd be downright smarmy.

After a bunch of craft segments, the second story involves poachers (not exactly new territory) and Tarzan makes the old timey "Metal Bird" speech. The Tarzan in the novels isn't the dolt Hollywood made him out to be, he spoke several languages and had lengthy travels abroad.

Moustached Poacher yelling "Seize Him!", classic

Tarzan goes Tantor on this guy's butt and all the animal's (including Cheeta) are freed. I find it funny that Tarzan makes a bargain with the guy seeing as he holds all the marbles.

A special bonus, click on this tarzan colour him by numbers, mind you I probably wouldn't use pink for his skin, more like a light brown, he's very tan you know.....

Some Links of Interest:

Previous Colouring Book Theatre Entries Plus The Tarzan Toy gallery.