Weekend News-A-Rama

Been kind of sidetracked lately and whenever that happens, the world moves on and does neat stuff, so I'll try and play catch up.

1) Outer Space Men 

The very cool Outer Space Men line of toys has a new limited edition set called "Cosmic Creators" that are signed by the legendary Mel Birnkrant, creator of the line.

Mel is one of my favourite people on the internet, a storied toy designer and artist who shares absolutely everything with his fans.

Check them out and pre-order here.

2) Doctor Who 

In celebration of the show's 50th Anniversary Royal Mail is issuing a series of Doctor Who stamps. I'm not a stamp collector as such but I have to admit I want these. It feels like a giant nerd victory.

More info here

3) Alien

For those of us who can't attend Wondercon, Michael has been kind enough to give us not only a look at the Alien catalog that Super 7 is handing out but they're awesome booth display. I can't wait to get these:

Take a gander at Michael's Flickr photo stream here

The Best of Fashion Mockery Part 2

It's clip show time again, that means I'm either drunk or in jail but most likely both. It's been almost five years since the original "Best of Fashion Mockery" was released onto an unsuspecting interwebs, so it seems fitting to go through the treasure trove of fun polyester atrocities we've compiled since then. So much to see and can't be unseen...

To see the best of Fashion Mockery Part 2 click on the man above's groinal area or this link, whatever floats your boat.....

Quick C'mere

Don't mistake your dress alike man pulling you closer as an act of togetherness, he mostly likely just spotted one of his friends and wants some cover...

Poppin' Fresh family

I still have my Poppin' Fresh family which includes grandparents, I'm not sure why. My theory is they were either given to me or a hammy down from my sister. I can't imagine they ever made my Christmas list, although I do have an addiction to wiener wraps.

Holy Bike Safety Batman!

Apologies for the hack title, stuff like this always sucks me in. I don't collect bike reflectors but it's vintage, has an iconic image and usually can be found at Toy shows for $5 to $10. Before you can say "Why did I buy this?" it's already in my car.

Breezy, confident and beautiful

"Hello Monday, gimmee all you got!"

Super 7 issue Alien "Reaction" Catalogs

The good folks at Super 7 shared with me this brilliant catalog they're handing at next weekend's WonderCon out in anticipation of their 3 3/4" "ReAction" figures (great name!). This catalog is loaded with inside vintage toy references and of course, the cover pays tribute to the Kenner game box. 

As a collector of both action figures and vintage catalogs, this sings to me.

I  wish more toy companies would do such things, I also hope this 3 3/4" revolution continues. Happy days!

Pod-Stallions Episode one: Growing up Who

I'm very happy to unveil Pod-Stallions, our new monthly podcast series which will be dedicated to discussing such important matters as Planet of the Apes week or long reminisces about ToyShop magazine.

Joining me each show will be my pal and co chair Jason Lenzi, who people might know from the great "Geek Shall Inherit" show. 

We hope each month to pick a topic and relate how it felt to us in the day, including cringe inducing tales. All that and schoolyard rumors, action figures and more trivia than we should probably know.

That leads us to Episode one: Growing up...Who.

Listen here

Listen or download episode one here

Jason and I are both crazy, obsessive Doctor Who nerds from childhood, but I watched it in Canada while he was in Minnesota, how did the experience differ? What was the catalyst for us to stop watching?  Were we public about our obsession? Did visiting the dirty magazine store make a man out of Jason? All answers revealed in this double sized pilot episode.

Show Guide:

• Snippets of our Intro music were sampled from this kid's show, if you watch the credits, you'll notice a familiar face.
• Brian mentions that early Doctor Who shows in Canada were hosted, first by Dr. Dator a real scientist who discussed the show's themes during the Pertwee years and then later by author Judith Merril, who seemed to dislike the character, so she called herself The UnDoctor.
• Jason admits to having a low level obsession with the Tardis Tuner, an item made popular by this comic strip ad.
• The guys both enjoy the Pinnacle Doctor Who book covers and talk about the colourful Harlan Ellison Intro in each one.
• Jason mentioned how this Doctor Who Easter Egg box seems to feature a pretty excited fifth Doctor.

This is the commercial for the Palitoy talking Dalek, the same one Brian got out of the back of Starlog in 1984.

Space:1999 Wrist Radio

There is something so satisfying about a low tech item being sold as something from the future. I'm sure the denizens of moon base Alpha kept the dial on 1050 for traffic and weather on the ones.

Denim plus Patches equals?

Why does that girl have the Mutual of Omaha logo on her back? Why do I know what the Mutual of Omaha logo looks like? Damn you Marlin Perkins!

Another Super 7 score

Readers of this fine blog and my long suffering friends may know of my life long obsession with Filmation's "Tarzan and the Super 7" TV series and my quest to find any merchandise surrounding it.

I'm elated to post my latest haul, the tool set a completely nonsensical item from Imperial Toy that features team members Merlin and Isis. I won this spectacular piece for a whopping $0.99 and the seller tried to cancel the transaction because I lived in Canada. My swift and perhaps too zealous reaction to this situation tells me that without a doubt,  that seller now thinks I'm insane.

Meet the Crocketts

King and Queen of the wild frontier...

1974 APC Puzzle Catalog

Who didn't love Puzzles in a can? American Publishing Corporation sure knew what kids liked in 1974, their collection included the DC comics Superheroes, Universal Monsters, Dinosaurs even the Lone Ranger himself!

Check out the cool Puzzle displays here

This one's a little light this week, I've been battling the flu lately but next week I have a cool surprise with the first episode of our shiny new podcast.

Big Jim speaks!

How I loved my talking Big Jim when I was four and if I can find it kicking around here, I remember that back pack still worked at the last pull. A lot of stuff gets said about Jim these days but he rocked my world as a kid.

Nightgown Advertising

Mine would say "farts inside (I blame you)"

The hungry mouse in the cheese house

This is just one of those weird generic things that the Imperial Toy Corporation was good at in the 1970s. Rubber mice and a fake bit o'cheese, not sure what the  point is but I bet kids wanted it. Not so much with collectors, I nabbed two of these for $0.99 just in time to include it in the book.

 Rack Toys is available right now!

Creepy Uncle brand sweaters

Only the very best for the middle aged man who still lives with your grandparents and always tries to give your cousins wine.

Colouring Book Theatre: Space:1999

Space: 1999 cut and colour book Saalfield 1975

I can't believe that I've never done a Space:1999 colouring book theater before now.

My nostalgia for this series in the mid eighties is the thing that lead me into toy collecting in the first place, so you can say that the foundation of the site is Moonbase Alpha, actually don't say that, it sounds weird.

What I find humorous about 1999 is that you'd never see such a merchandising blitz for a science fiction show these days (Doctor Who excepted).

This book is by Saalfield and may be the only colouring book in the history of time  that has Christopher Lee on the cover. Obviously the artists at Saalfied had a great deal of promotional material to look at as the aliens on the cover come from three separate episodes.

The moon breaks out of Earth orbit after the jump...

Mera shreds it

I remarked last week about how impressed I was that Sea World included Aquaman's bride  into their show. Here is a great shot of her showing off her water skiing skills, which makes total sense.

Speaking of appearances: I'll be setting up next weekend at Canadian Toycon in Burlington. Special guests include Casper Van Dien ("Starship Troopers"), Caitlin and Spike from Degrassi and my pal Monstermatt Patterson. Come by and pick up a copy of Rack Toys or try some of my delicious preserves.

Check out our gallery:

Send me your mall appearance photos!

Bionic Bikes

I was thumbing through the Kenner catalogs a while back (I know how to spend a Saturday night) and I came across these, very odd tie ins that I hadn't included when I built the Bionic galleries. It's Steve Austin for the preschool set, a bike (cause a Bionic man needs one) that makes the same clicking sound the doll does and it has a TV screen.

Ladies, don't feel left out:

Cause it comes in Jaime too! When I'm old and relying on a scooter, I'm totally doing it up with the Bionic people logos...

More Bionic Joy:

Fisher Price appreciation day

I hereby decree this day Fisher Price appreciation day, have you called your little people and thanked them yet?

Quilt, I'd like you to meet Jeans

You're in luck chubby girls, they make it in your size!

The 70s, attacking a young girl's self esteem with a big ol' sack of doorknobs.....

Little Lulu stocks up

When your best friend's name is "Tubby" you'd better make with the groceries! Thanks to the Simpsons, Little Lulu will always remind me of Alan Moore.

 Rack Toys is available right now!

The greatest thing you will see today

I don't know what universe has the BeeGees, Superheroes and Sean Cassidy team up with Battlestar Galactica but I would dub it awesometown....

Oh and if your initials happened to be "VF", you're welcome.

Colouring Book Theatre: Doctor Who (part 3)

I loves me some classic Who merchandise, so I was pretty thrilled to find this colouring book from World.

Unlike the Pertwee one I looked at a while back, this one suffers from that kind of earth tone ruddiness that a lot of Tom Baker merchandise has, it's kind of morose and reminds me of some the annuals I had as a kid.

Like every Who colouring book it lacks any of the trademark aliens, no Daleks, no Cyberman, heck the Tardis only makes a single appearance in this thing! Much of this is based on the Key to Time series as it features Romana 1 and K-9.

It seems that whomever illustrated this was given 4 or 5 stills and really nothing more. It's also obvious that the illustrator wasn't a fan or all that experienced with colouring books. More after the jump:

Meanwhile....at Sea World

It's been a while since I've had a Mall Appearance submission (l'il help?) so I was happy to find this image of the Justice League of Sea World in my stacks. I never got to see this for myself, so I love getting images like this. I'll never get over the inclusion of Mera into this show, somebody cared.

For more on this check out our gallery:

Send me your mall appearance photos!

1979 Kenner Butch and Sundance Catalog

In 1979, Kenner toys launched just a dandy line of action figures on a Western, "Butch and Sundance the early days" was a prequel to 1969's mega hit "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"  but without Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Instead we were left with Tom Berenger and William Katt (who would be a very sought after action figure a few years later)


The movie flopped at the box office but the Kenner toys were so nicely made that I'm sure many kids dug them. Kenner even tried to expand the line without the Butch and Sundance branding in 1980.

Check out the 1979 Kenner Butch and Sundance catalog.