Saturday, December 24, 2011

A Funky Christmas to one and all

Wishing one and all a joyous holiday season and a happy anad prosperous New Year from the entire PlaidStallions Team.

Thank you for reading and writing in, making me laugh and overall being amazing.

We're taking the whole week off at PS and launching next Friday with the 2011 Retro awards, see you then!

Friday, December 23, 2011

1977 Hasbro Weebles Catalog



Time for another trip to Weeble Town!




1977 saw Hasbro aim for action and adventure with the addition of Tarzan (?) and their own portly crusader Super Weeble!
It seems fitting to do Weebles around Christmas time as they're really kind of the thing a lot of folks got under the tree. Not me though, my folks were died in the wool Fisher Price fans...



Thursday, December 22, 2011

The Garage of Tomorrow


I cannot wait for the future to begin, first thing I'm grabbing is a jet pack.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

What ever happened to Juan Epstein?


This catalog page reveals a sad truth, like many highschool dropouts, Juan was lured into the dark world of catalog underwear modeling. His whereabouts are now unknown.....

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

GI Joe's cheaper wheels


During the 60s and 70s, Irwin Toy made some lower cost blow molded vehicles for lines like G.I. Joe and Action Jackson that were a lot of fun and quite collectible these days.

The cool thing about these is Irwin actually went and licensed the GI Joe name for some of these, they were branded official and that's well....kind of classy.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Lady Dragon and the Sting Sisters

If this were a video game these three would be the boss at the end of the final level.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Cool Collections: Chris's Apes


Chris sent in this way cool pic of his Planet of the Apes collection, the centerpieces being these original screen worn soldier ape outfits. The one with the stripe was used in the TV episode "The Horse Race", guess what that was about.

Thanks Chris for sharing, as always I am filled with a nice combination ofawe and envy.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Steve Austin Goes Toy Shopping


Seeing as it's Christmas time I thought it would be fun to bring up this vintage bit of strangeness. These captures from the fourth season of the Six Million Dollar Man, the episode is "The Bionic Christmas Carol".  You see in 1974 Gerald Ford passed into law the "Dickens Act" which meant every TV show, no matter how ridiculous or nonsensical had to do their own adapatations of "A Christmas Carol". Fred Sanford was a good American, as was Doctor Johnny Fever and of course, Col. Steve Austin.

I won't bother with the specifics but in one key scene Steve follows Bob Crandall (oh brother) to a toy shop and of course, Steve wants to bring presents for the family. There is a lot of fun eye candy in the scene, you can see a nice GI Joe Adventure team set there and the Ideal Jaws game is prominently featured. However what can we see when Steve dramatically checks in on poor Bob with his bionic vision?

The horrible fourth wall breaking money shot! I ask you Plaidstallions readers, what is cheesier here, the shameless obvious Kenner toy plug or that fricking horrible, almost series wrecking porn moustache that Steve is rocking?

Friday, December 16, 2011

Tomland Famous Monsters of Legend Archive Launches

Tomland Famous Monsters

It may seem odd to launch a Monster themed page in December but it's Halloween all year round at my place and it's rare these days that I get this excited, so it simply couldn't wait.

Tomland is probably best known for the Star Raiders, an 8" Mego like line of action figures clearly meant to mimick Star Wars. However, they also produced a very fun line of Monster Action figures and released two sets with what seems like a few year's gap between them.


Tomland Famous Monsters


The first series consisted of four figures, most have seen them as they were readily available across the country in stores such as K-Mart.

Tomland Famous Monsters

However, the second series, produced in 1980 seems to have seen almost no distribution. It consisted of 8 figures, the first four characters from series one (now in "glow in the dark" format) and four new characters which were pretty big names. Namely Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy and the Wolfman.

What makes this even sweeter for me is that Tomland seemed to be directly copying the Lincoln Monsters which most would know are my favourite monster toys ever. Sadly, they are also some of the hardest to find.

Tomland Famous Monsters

So I'm especially proud to be able to, for the first time (to my knowledge), present the entire set of Tomland Famous Monsters of Legends figures in their own archive. Got something I don't have and want to share? Email me!

Tomland Famous Monsters of Legend Archive


Other Action Figure Galleries on PlaidStallions
Lincoln Monsters Lincoln Monsters 
Lone Ranger toys AHI Monsters 
MAtchbox Fighting Furies MAtchbox Fighting Furies
 

Thursday, December 15, 2011

My First Car


This is probably the only Jaguar I'll own in my life, given to me by grandfather. it was an item I treasured.

That was until I was about ten or so when my best friend Neil and I rode it to oblivion on the giant hill we lived on. RIP Jaguar, I miss you...

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Overall Suit


Popular in areas without indoor plumbing, the overall suit (worn by model "A") failed to catch on in larger urban areas.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Eagle One Gun


Here we have the rather odd AHI Eagle one water pistol, it looks kind of  ill advised but you have to remember that AHI probably sold a boatload of these so they just applied the Star Trek  template to Space:1999 when it came to all merch.

What I really enjoy about 1999 merchandising is the amount of face time actor Barry Morse gets on most of the packaging. Mostly because my grandfather could have been his stunt double, it's kind of eery. Even as a kid I'd think "why is my grandfather on the box?" My love for Space:1999 is also what drew me into toy collecting some 25 years ago, so it's sort of responsible for what I'm doing right now.

BTW, not slagging Barry Morse at all here. I was lucky enough to bump into him on the streets of Toronto many years ago and he was a very kind gentleman, possibly my favourite celebrity encounter.

Friday, December 09, 2011

Child World Toy Sale from 30 years ago



Seeing that it's close to Christmas, let's take a trip back 30 years and see what toys were on special with the 1981 Child World Flyer, celebrating the best playthings that 1981 had to offer.


 You'll find a lot of familiar faces in this one including Star Wars figures, Mego Superheroes, Intellivision, Jordache dolls, Fisher price and oodles more.


Other Toy Flyers and Circulars from the 70s
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Thursday, December 08, 2011

Mobile Suport Unit


As much as I adore all thing Mego, I have to admit that the GI Joe Mobile Support unit may indeed be the finest toy vehicle ever made. It honestly looks as if it's from some Gerry Anderson TV show that never made it to air.

I've owned this piece more than once, the hard reality of it's size (IT BIG!) has forced me to sell on both occasions. I am also not deluded enough to say there won't be a third time....

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Ultra-Men and Monster Maker


Leave it to the Japanese to make a fun toy more "funner" (it's a word), here we see what I can only imagine is the original version of we here in North America know as "The Mighty Men and Monster Maker" easily one of the coolest toys from my youth.

In Japan however, their version was licensed and it allowed you to create scenes from Ultra-Man and some animated series I'm not familiar with (Is that Captain Future? Help me out anime guys).

I shouldn't be jealous but I slightly am...

Monday, December 05, 2011

What i wish to be buried in...


I think it's pretty self explanatory....

Also I'm aware that i will have to buried face down for this to be effective, i'm in a good place about that.

Saturday, December 03, 2011

Speaking of home made Star Wars


After declaring my love for home made Star Wars appearances last week, Kip sent in this awesome mural from his eighth grade graduation where the theme was "May the force be with you always".

While it's not a mall appearance, it is just a special bit of magic isn't it? This is Franklin public school in Markham, Ontario BTW. I grew up not too far from there, so does that make me cool by association? Probably not.

plaid Stallions mall appearance gallery

Friday, December 02, 2011

Popular Kenner Toys as seen on TV


I got an early Christmas present in my mailbox the other day in the form of these Kenner store display photos, which were likely meant as internal documents showcasing their hottest toys for 1978.
As we all know that was a year of Bionic Men and Women, Stretch Armstrong and massive block buster known as Star Wars. These photos make me weak in the knees.

More Kenner Fun

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Say, Jim! Whooooo!!!


Any Lanny sighting is a good one but this particular one may be my favourite, it's going into my scrapbook...

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Marx Wrist Watches



That Neal Adams shot of Superman on the card art is some of my favourite pieces of the man of steel, that's how I picture him.

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