1941, Sure to be the biggest hit of the year.

For the record, 1941 wasn't the biggest hit of 1979 (it was 24th), that title went to "Kramer Vs Kramer" but had much more disappointing merchandise.

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More French Shogun Warriors!

"Invincible defenseur de la Planete Terre" is going on my next business card.

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The Adventures of Steve!

I have a real soft spot for generic knock-off action figures and I find this page from France kind of mind-blowing as I've never seen many of these "Steve the Adventurer" toys.

The Mego like Steve was known as "Demo Man" in other parts of the world and his head is a really blatant copy of Big Jim but unlike a lot of KO figures, there's a higher than normal amount of care in this guy.

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Bendy Buck Rogers and Twiki

This past weekend I was grateful to recieve a surprising package from Jason, my podcast partner. If you had asked me to guess, I'd have never gotten it right but somehow it's the perfect gift. More after the jump:

Buck Rogers Flying Model Rockets

I have never known the pleasure of flying model rockets but these Sci-Fi related kits really tempted me as a kid...

Black Hole Kites

I was amused to find these ads for Black Hole branded kites from Hi-Flier tucked in a trade magazine from 1979. The toy industry really thought the robots from Disney's space epic were going to be the next big thing.

And for me and my friends, they totally were! I had every Black Hole item I could find, the Mego action figures, Gold Key Comics, it was even my lunch box in 1979 (which would end being my last lunch box) and it was a wonderful distraction until Star Wars returned.

Not sure I'd have bit on the kites but dang, that Maximillion one is all kinds of awesome....

Rascal Robots

Rascal Robots by Tomy were such a "right place/right time" creation. Awesome wind up robots that fit in with your Star Wars "guys"? Who wouldn't want that?

Personally I liked to pretend mine was IQ9 from "Star Blazers".

The Top Ten Coolest 1970s Wonder Woman Merchandise

The Top Ten Coolest 1970s Wonder Woman Merchandise

The 1970s were a good time for female heroes, between Jaime Sommers, The Angels, Police Woman and Diana Prince, sisters were kicking butt like never before.

Wonder Woman was not only on prime time but a Saturday morning fixture with "The Super Friends", this combined with her comic title made her very popular with licensors in the 1970s.

Here are ten of our favorite pieces of Wonder Woman merchandise.

More PlaidStallions top tens:

Digger the dog

I think I knew more kids who had this guy than who didn't.

 I'm in the "didn't" pile.

Palitoy Talking R2 D2

I love it when I get a new catalog and discover something I'd never heard of. Take this Talking R2 D2 by Palitoy of the UK (Same folks who made this) . I automatically assumed it never got made but was happy to find this on Ebay.

It's kind of rare to find mint boxed but I did notice this kind soul put up a youtube video of how he sounds. What a neat toy!

1979 Palitoy Star Wars Catalog

1979 Palitoy Commander Power Catalog (Super Joe)

In 1976, Hasbro Toys had abandoned the G.I. Joe action figure , the following year Joe returned 4 inches shorter and now in the future as "Super Joe" which lasted two brief years.

Hasbro's UK distributor Palitoy (Who was still busy selling 12" Joes as Action Man) decided to release Super Joe into the United Kingdom. Like a lot of their product lines, Palitoy did a massive rebranding of the concept. Joe became Commander Power and he was only joined by two other characters at the time, Gor King of the Terrons and the Shield. Judging by how hard it is to find the toys from this line, it's fair to summize that it wasn't terribly successful. However, it is quite nice to look at:

Check out the Palitoy Commander Power Catalog here.

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For more about Super Joe check out our comprehensive Super Joe Gallery



1977 Super Joe Hasbro Catalog


1978 Super Joe Hasbro Catalog

A double Shot of 70s Barbie

I always seem to fixate on boy's toys over the Christmas season and that's kind of a shame because I always glossed the Barbie section in envy over all the cool stuff she had.

Here's a double shot from the Simpson's Sears 1979 Catalog, click on it to embiggen it.

Battle of the Planets by Jecsan

Ever since I found this guy sitting at the cash register of Suspect Video on Queen and talked the manager out of it (good thing too because the store sadly burned down not long after) I've been wondering what the heck he was. I by and large just assumed a knock off figure sold in dime stores but happily I was wrong. 

Turns out they're by a company called Jecsan of Spain, more figures and packaging after the jump.

Star Wars at Osco

Man, this image is simple but packs a powerful memory punch to Christmas time 1979, that second wave of SW figures was pretty exciting.  I may get it put on a T Shirt. 

Mattel Battlestar Galactica Viper Launcher Commercial

For some reason I've never uploaded this commercial to YouTube, yet I transferred it ages ago. A cleverly repurposing of their "Flying Aces" toys, the Viper Launch station was a really cool way to play Battlestar Galactica.

Battlestar Galactica: The Big One for 79/80?

This is an article from a UK toy industry magazine, I love stuff like this, nobody wanted to get caught with their pants down like they all did with Star Wars. As a result,  Battlestar Galactica was taken very seriously by retailers, at least for a little while.

Captain Harlock Action Figure

In France, they released this amazing Captain Harlock doll using a 12" GI Joe body. These were also sold in Quebec, I had one of these in 1987, paid a whopping ten bucks for it.

One of my toy collecting mentors/friends really wanted it, he was a great guy so I traded it to him thinking "I'll find another one", yeah I'm still waiting.....

Space Wars!

Knock off space play sets were definitely a "pro" in the list of things brought during the late seventies Star Wars craze.

La Maison des Muppets

I found this in a toy catalog from France, Statler and Waldorf didn't make their way onto a lot of merchandise so it's nice to see them get so much real estate....

Le Micronauts

This ad is from France where then distributor  "Pin Pin Toys" had good fortune with the Micronauts line, it truly was an international affair with the line enjoying good sales in Canada,  the UK, German, Greece and especially Italy.

This Friday our new podcast is all about the Interchangeable world of the Micronauts.