1981 Lone Ranger Catalog by Gabriel Toys

http://plaidstallions.com/gabriel/81.html

The Lone Ranger was riding high in 1981 thanks to a popular Saturday morning Cartoon series (by my favourite company Filmation) and the promise of a big budget film (that didn't work out so good).

So, Gabriel Toys blasted the toy shelves with two distinct toy lines, a relaunch of their popular 1970s 9" Toy line and a 3 3/4" line so you could have Tonto get a sasparilla in the Creature Cantina!

Visit THE 1981 Gabriel Toys Lone Ranger Catalog here!

Open your door to a masked man with a gun

While popular on our home turf, the Lone Ranger seemed to enjoy "rock star" status in Europe.

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The Lone Ranger Rides Again

As much as the gorgeous Gabriel Lone Ranger action figure line was popular here, it was a massive success in Europe, where cowboy lore held a special fascination.

Never had a single figure as a kid and still don't own any but man, do i love looking at these.

(Thanks to Eddy for this scan!)

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Pajamas: 1981

Oh Legend of the Lone Ranger, you had such big ambition, you even knocked Batman out of the selection this year.

Frontier Fun

I never got any Best of the West or Gabriel Lone Ranger but I certainly remember their presence in the early 1970s wish books and i miss seeing them.

Vintage Toy Store Pictures Volume 18

For this year's last Friday feature, I bring you my favourite of all sections of PlaidStallions another volume of vintage toy store pictures!

Celebrating the time when we had unique independent retailers dotting our landscape and came up with colourful and and interesting ways of selling us toys.

Volume 18 is our biggest yet and loaded with shots across the USA dating from the 1970s to the 1990s. Maybe even your favourite childhood toy haunt is included in this mix!

Notable sites include Kenner Six Million Dollar Man, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Mego 2 XL, Muppets, Fisher Price Little People, Electronic Games, Atari Consoles,  Kenner Star Wars, Gabriel Lone Ranger and much, much more.

"Take my advice kids, keep one of these in the box!"

Vintage Toy Store Photos Volume 18

Don't forget to visit our archive of Vintage Toy Store Photos, it's a timewarp!

1977 Gabriel Toys Lone Ranger Catalog

The Lone Ranger toyline is easily one of the nicest action figure lines of the 1970s if not all time and Gabriel Toys had some real long running success with it.

This 1977 Catalog is the third year for the line and shows that it was still going strong, Gabriel put a lot of effort into this catalog and it truly showcases how nice this line really was.

Visit the 1977 Gabriel Lone Ranger Catalog here.

And once you're finished, we've got the most Gabriel Lone Ranger content on teh interwebs!

Lone Ranger Figure Archive

 

1977 Gabriel Toys Hal Needham: Stuntman Catalog

1977 saw Gabriel Toys try an interesting experiment in action figures.

Instead of licensing a hollywood movie, they sought to captilize on the making of a movie by creating a set based on then legendary stuntman Hal Needham. 



The unique concept had a child filming a stunt sequence in a movie and was actually one of the more inspired (and sadly forgotten)  toy concepts of the 1970s.

Check out all the action of the Hal Needham Stunt Set here.

More Gabriel Toys on PlaidStallions

   

1975 Lone Ranger UK Catalog

The brilliant Gabriel Toys Lone Ranger action figure line was a big hit in North America but it was also a smash in the UK, where is was sold by Marx Toys.

Today, we've got the 1975 catalog for the British Lone Ranger series which includes some sweet photos of store displays like this:

Visit the 1975 Marx Lone Ranger Catalog here.

And once you're finished, we've got the most Gabriel Lone Ranger content on teh interwebs!

Lone Ranger Figure Archive

The Old West by Gabriel

In 2013, we got a pretty disappointing Lone Ranger movie, just like we did in 1981.

In 1981, we got a killer action figure line for that Lone Ranger movie that was so good, most kids loved them anyway.

Advantage 1981....

Gabriel Legend of the Lone Ranger Catalog.

1974 Kusan Halloween Catalog

Kusan may not be as well known as Ben Cooper or Collegeville for Halloween  and they certainly didn't get the "A" licenses but they sure knew how to create some innovative and highly creative costumes.

From ideas like combining a kazoo into a Halloween mask to

Licensing teen heartthrobs like David Cassidy,  this is not just a fun trip but it's also one of the prettiest and well designed toy catalogs I've ever seen.

Check out the 1974 Kusan Halloween Costume here.


More Costume Goodies

   

Vintage Toy Store Photos Volume 15

 

Seeing as it's the site's birthday, it's no better time to drop a new installment in what is one of my favorites, vintage toy store photos. A journey back to the days of oddly named department stores and independent mall toy stores and chains that are fondly remembered but sadly mostly gone. 

Vintage Toy Store Photos Volume 15 gets all Bionic up in here with some smashing shots of Kenner Six Million Dollar man and Bionic Woman displays, joining them will be Godzilla, The Sunshine Family, Barbie and the Lone Ranger. All in the late 1970s/early 1980s glory.

Check out Vintage Toy Stores Volume 15 here

And if you haven't already, Volumes 1-14 are a pile of happiness, click the image for the full gallery.

Christmas Cowboys

Although they were far past prime, Western action figures were still very much a viable commodity in the 1970s. I'd even be willing to argue that Gabriel's seminal Lone Ranger line may be one of the top ten action figure lines of the 1970s.

Check em all out here:

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.