Archie at Riverdale High

Archie comics and cartoons ruled when I was a kid and I would have loved to have these groovy figures by Marx toys. However, I just don't remember them so Jughead never got to team up with Batman and Big Jim.

Oh, the adventures they would have had!

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World of Adventures

Ah, this photo will be my happy place today. That orange scuba set was well played with in my house.

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1976 Child World Toy Flyer :Space:1999: Mego Superheroes

Man, do we have something wonderful this Friday, an original Child World Toy Flyer straight from November 1976.

If you're a fan of this site, this is going to be a real treat as it features all the hits, Mego Star Trek, Mattel Space:1999, Kenner Stretch Armstrong, Mego Cher, LJN SWAT, Hasbro Weebles, Ideal Evel Knievel, Remco Earthquake Tower, the list, she is ended.

Special props to Robert Bruce for being so unbelievably awesome and generous with this piece, I am humbled by his generosity.

CHECK OUT THE 1976 CHILD WORLD TOY FLYER HERE!

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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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Muppet Big Wheels

Shouldn't Kermit's ride be an "It's not easy being Green" Machine?

Oh, it was too early for that, I'm going to lay down now....

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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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Toyco Alien Attack

Today's update is the answer to one of those riddles that plagued for years. The play set you see above has been something I've been trying to track down for well over 20 years and it's a wealth of toy history (and re-used molds) inside, more after the jump.

Play Set Madness

Combining all these play sets into one would make for the greatest afternoon ever.

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.

The Amazing Spider-Brush

 I'm totally fascinated with little bits of weird super hero merchandise like this. 

Here we have the marriage of hair care and our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, whose mantra of putting his name on everything would put Garfield to shame. This is all the handiwork of the standard Pyroxoioid Corp. (sexy name!)

 

This set solves a big mystery to me, that's a repainted Marx Spider-Man figure (which was also sold by Fleetwood Toys a year earlier) and that carry case is often mistaken for a Mego item.



This is a pretty well thought out attempt to get boys excited about grooming, it probably didn't work but I gotta give props for the effort...

Space Wars!

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

Marx Green Machine

This has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, the green machine ruled. That is all.....

Archie at Riverdale High

I would have gone nut for a Jughead as a kid, sadly I never crossed path with these great Marx Archie figures until I was a teenager. Having no Reggie in the line does seem to remove all conflict.

Monster Mania by Marx

Monsters seemed to have enjoyed a lot of popularity in the board game market, every year it seemed at least one company would put out a horror themed game of some kind.

I can't say I remember Monster Mania by Marx but i do dig it's copyright infringing Frankenstein with rare neckbolts (most knock off Frankys go for forehead bolts)

The 1980 Marx UK Black Hole Toy Catalog

The 1979 Disney sci fi spectacular "The Black Hole" didn't quite become the next Star Wars but the film did make an impression on a lot of us until the Empire Strikes back made us forget all about it.

 The merchandising bonanza lead by Mego was particularly memorable. In the UK, the brand was handled by Louis Marx and they added some interesting items that sadly I don't think made it to market.

This one will always make me weep.

Check out the other never made toys I want in the 1980 Marx Black Hole Catalog.

Ready Ranger Love

I never had the Aurora Ready Ranger as a kid, so when I first blogged about it here I assumed many of it's features were largely disappointing.

Over the years I've had comments and emails from 70s kids who have passionately told me about how fun and entertaining an item this was. So I guess I stand corrected, it's hard not to like a toy with a periscope. I wish I had one now...

Mighty Marvel Superheroes

This one ends a mystery for me, in 1976 Fleetwood toys released the Marx Marvel Superheroes figures in a slightly smaller size but the big difference is they were fully painted. That box brings me joy.

I've got one of these (Spider-Man) but I might as well put this out there interwebs, I'm buying. 

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1975 German Toy Catalog

I found this wonderful catalog from a German company called Spielzug, I remember my grandmother bringing me back some of these and how enthralled I was.

It's a really great slice of what lucky kids in Germany got, their own versions of GI Joe and Big Jim, as well as Barbie, Sindy, Lego, Playmobil and Steiff.

Check out the 1975 German Toy Catalog here.

More Vintage Toy Store Catalogs

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The Black Hole Gun

As promised to Jason in our upcoming episode of Pod Stallions, I've finally scanned this and put it on the blog for the world to see.

While Disney had a ban on guns in the US (Mego couldn't give their Black Hole characters weapons) it didn't stop UK distributor Marx from attempting to produce a child friendly replica of the awesome hand gun from the movie.

One can only assume that Mego was responsible for this but it doesn't appear to have ever been released. Another chapter in my book "toys not released in the 1970s that make me sad".

Look for episode 7 of Pod Stallions this Friday, our episode is titled "Battle beyond the Star Wars" and is about movies like Black Hole, Message from Space and Star Trek the motion picture.

The 1978 Marx Ready Gang Catalog

 

I'm still learning things. When I last posted about the wonderful Marx "Ready Gang" series of action figures, I pontificated that these old west figures had bombed in their initial year of 1977.

Now I discover that the line not only didn't bomb, it continued into a second year and even added new items to the line.

Yep, Ringo, the Sundown Kid, Black Hawk and Trooper Gibson were all back in 1978 and now they had a covered wagon as well.

As I've posted before, the Ready Gang is easily one of the 1970s most forgotten toy lines and that's a shame as it's also one of it's nicest.

Visit the 1978 Marx Ready Gang Catalog here.

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