Bathtubbies

My love for this line knows no bounds.

Gold Brown Blam!

Now, that's  "Key Party" carpet brothers and sisters.....

George Kennedy goes on a rampage

I'm not sure why but Larami Toys really thought that kids would dig George Kennedy and his one and a half season series "The Blue Knight", which was the story of a veteran beat cop. They marketed all kinds of slightly ridiculous "actiony" items around the series including motorcyles with figures (which I assume means George did get an action figure) but my personal favourite is this pistol range.

The three "hardened criminals" shown must be Larami executives because none of them are particularly threatening in the least. This kind of looks like George Kennedy is exacting revenge on his accountant, his manager and his dad.

More Sesame Love

For the trillionth time I'd like to mention any of these in an adult size would be welcome in my house. Get on that anonymous corporation that doesn't read my blog!

This is not fashion mockery, this is fashion victory.

The Muppet Show 1981 Catalog

1981 and the world wide phenom known as the Muppet Show was still going strong buoyed mainly by it's second feature film "The Great Muppet Caper" that summer. Fisher Price, was still popping out the merchandise and made several new editions to line including Piggy in her Pigs in Space Uniform.

Click the pics or this link to see all the Hensony goodness of the 1981 Fisher Price Muppet Show Catalog.

Other Fisher Price Links

Meet Polly Flip!

She's a talker!

PS she kinda looks that aunt your mom doesn't talk to...

Sesame Love

 

C is for awesome, wait, no it isn't....

Land of the Lost Logic

Quite possibly, the most "well, duh" bit of licensed merchandise  ever produced. Doesn't make up for the lack of Sleestak action figures but it's a start.

The travelling salesmen

 

 

"Dude, I am so playing pattycake with that farmers daughter"

Kenner TTP goes Bionic

In 1977 Bionic Man-ia (get it?) was still running so high that kids everywhere were asking Santa for a doll of a middle aged man in a bad sports coat (self included BTW). So the only logical thing to do was expand upon the licenses offerings (I'm writing this sipping out of a Bionic Man travel mug so hey, still works!).

So Kenner took the brand and stapled it to their popular concept of "Turbo Tower of Power", so Steve, Jaime and even Big Foot got some shiny motor cycles and went cruising. Sure, they all were super humans capable of running faster than a car,  the upside is this is the closest we got a 3 3/4" Six Million Dollar Man line and it's pretty darn cool.




Click here to get in all the Bionic Action.

breaker breaker

It's been a while since I went on about my obsession with Mego's short lived "CB Mchaul" toy line, inspired by the country's fleeting obsession with trucker culture.

By the time Ol' CB hit toy shelves, the whole thing was starting to wind down making the line (especially the carded figures) difficult to find. I think it's easier to find carded Iron Man figures than it is certain CB characters.

Fortunately for me, a lot less people give a crap about CB and his lewd gesturing posse, so you never go into massive debt. That being said, if you have CB figures for sale email me, I've got cash, toys and butterfly kisses for you.

Quilty by association

 

 

In the Hambly household, nothing ever goes to waste including the bedding that young Curtis (above) was likely concieved on.

Codematic by Larami

I love this display from Larami in 1976, the company prided itself on it's ability to systematically stock toys using their sales team (they were owned by a bakery). They also really thought the image of George Kennedy would make kids weak in the knees, crap he's on this display more than Martin Landau or Mighty Mouse.

The toy I most like on this thing?

This pistol, I totally had that and remember thinking the dude on the card looked like a bad ass. I stole my sister's leather jacket and became a secret agent, I had no idea what they did but they shot people, that much I knew. Off to Ebay!

 Rack Toys is available right now!

Dusty!

 I don't think I've ever blogged about Kenner's Dusty, which was their attempt to get in some of those pink Barbie dollars. A lot of effort went into the line, and I think Kenner seemed to be intentionally making Dusty look far less glamourous. While Barbie was a model, Dusty looked like your neighbour.

PlaidStallions Weekend News-O-Rama

It's a rainy Sunday morning here, so I thought I'd wrap up a few loose ends and report some goings on around teh interwebs.  Please scroll down and read this in the confidence that I have full on bed head while I type this, it's not pretty here:

Toy Show Alert!  I'm setting up next Sunday at Canadian Toycon / Fantasy  Gaming Expo in Burlington, Ontario. I'll be selling copies of Rack Toys and Megozine (have I even mentioned that here before?) as well as a  dozen tubs of vintage toys that I have no room for. What's cool is that my pal Monster Matt will also be setting up  and he was responsible for this painting that was featured in Rack Toys:




I'll be giving out postcards of the AHI Frankenstein painting, so you can get him to sign it as well. It's a terrific show, well worth the drive from Western NY and by all means bring the kids, plenty for them to do, even a costume contest. If you do come, don't be a stranger, please say hi.

Show details here (note this is a new venue)

Someone has started a kickstarter campaign to make a deck of playing cards based on the characters from "Freakies" cereal. I know of people who fondly remember this breakfast treat, however growing up in Canada I didn't hear about the stuff until the 1990s, so I'm kind of immune to the nostalgia. I am however, always an easy mark for a fun project, so go for it cereal fans!



Message from Space, possibly my favourite of all Star Wars knock offs  is coming to DVD this April. This Japanese film stars my martial arts hero Sonny Chiba and a slightly tired looking Vic Morrow in a race to save earth from some silver faced invaders. This crazy film was a channel 29 staple and one very close to my heart.

In other DVD news, sometime last year Warner Archive released Korg 70,000 BC with little fanfare. That needs to be corrected because it's one of those lost Saturday morning shows I'm sure some people are looking for and hopefully more will come of this.

The adventures of a prehistoric tribe, Korg was a little too educational for this five year old (I was all about Dinosaurs being mixed in with my cave people) but I remember it being very well made. This show never left my memory because my local variety store had the board game on display until the late 1980s when either someone bought it or they threw it out because it was so sun faded.

Anyway, that's my Sunday wrap up, I'm off to put on pants and see some Flea Market Gold, you should too...

Star Raiders Updates

It's been over a year since I launched the Tomland Star Raiders gallery on the site and I've had some good luck with regards to new images and information thanks to some lovely people who like to share.

For those not in the know, the Star Raiders were a brazen and rather kooky attempt to cash in on Star Wars without paying for it. These crude 8" figures are just so full of joy and a childish amount of creativity (that's a compliment)

So, many galleries have been updated with new photographs and information, although there is still a lot of gaps, so if you are a collector and would like to help, please drop me a line.

Visit the revised Star Raiders Gallery here.

More 8" Mayhem:

AM Radio Joy

 

 

Sadly the "Disguise the AM Radio as other things" is mostly a forgotten art. Also vanishing is the "Give kids things with the budwesier logo on them" agenda. Judging by how much Bud I drank in my teens, mission accomplished.

The Agency

 

 

Should I ever turn this site into a brick and mortar business you're looking at my secretary pool, it should go without saying that each of these ladies will be skilled in the deadly oriental arts.

Lightning Bug

 

 

Most people would hear the word Mego and associate it with the eight inch action figure craze they created in the 1970s that still has enduring fandom. However, the company started out as a producer of low cost "Hush Up Toys" which we now call "Rack Toys". The majority of the companies output is largely uncataloged, it's something I hope to do in the coming months.

 

 Rack Toys is available!

Mickey Mouse power ranch

 

 

This toy from Remco gives me the same uneasy feeling when I first saw a muscular Joe Piscopo. Buff Mickey makes me uncomfortable.

A FAB Christmas

The passing of Gerry Anderson last month prompted my pal Corey to dig up this fantastic photo he did in the 1990s of a happy Christmas populated by nothing but Anderson creations. Click on it for a larger view, a lot of old friends in there...

Rack Toys full circle

One of the things I really wanted to do to promote the book was to recreate a vintage rack toy aisle, complete with the original orange peg board so common in my area. While that wasn't a realistic goal, it's amazing what is right under your nose.

Above is M and S Mini Mart, which I've jokingly called "S'nM" since before I really I even knew what that meant. I first set foot in this store in 1979 looking for Whacky Packages, since then I've likely been there 3,000 times looking for everything from wood glue to cigarettes. It really hasn't changed since 1979, there is stuff in there that I remember from high school.

However, it wasn't until my son showed desire to own some green plastic army men that I realized that M&S still had the original orange pegboard! I've walked by it so many times that I didn't even see it anymore.

It was fortunate for me that the owners are very sweet people and that my potato chip purchases likely put their children through college and graduate school with enough to make a nice house down payment (get it? I like junk food), as they had no problem letting me do an impromptu photo shoot.

The book is actually hard to see in this display.

I can only imagine the collectibles that went through these slots. I vividly remember looking at the Street Hawk and A Team stuff back in the day. In '84 when Transformers were all the rage, this wall was littered with weird knock offs that are now likely highly sought after. I'm so glad that there are still Meccas like this to inspire future toy geeks and it just felt right doing this.

 Rack Toys is available!