Systems Control Headquarters

I cannot get over the charm of generic playsets like this, lots of computer buttons to press, laboratory work to be done and of course, a lookout. This would have had my imagination going for hours.

New Six Million Dollar Man Shirt in our Redbubble store!

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Get the expanded digital edition of Rack Toys here.

Big Jim, Big Playsets

The smell of that vinyl is forever ingrained into my brain as happiness. Also, I did grow up thinking I'd have my own personal "Kung Fu Studio"

New Six Million Dollar Man Shirt in our Redbubble store!

Don't forget to join our new facebook group.

Get the expanded digital edition of Rack Toys here.

Action Stimulating Sets!

I honestly don't know why I don't collect sets like these, as a kid these would happily eat afternoons.....

Space Wars!

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

The forbidden zone was once a paradise!

Tell me, though. Does man, that marvel of the universe, that glorious paradox who sent me to the stars, still have it his way? Did he find Herb?

I'll stop now.

Remco Monsterizer Video

One of my favourite monster toys of all time is the Remco Monsterizer, even though it doesn't a have ton of play value, it's just such a nice and thoughtful prop.

I was happy to discover that mine actually worked the other day and it inspired me to make this little video short all about it. Special thanks to my ever patient assistant, my daughter for her hand modelling. Hope you enjoy it!

More Remco Monsters!

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Beyond Tomorrow Again

Ever since I posted this back in 2010, I have been keeping my eyes out for one at Toy Shows. At last weekend's Mego Meet it walked right up to me as somebody I know was selling it and wanted my opinion. I didn't get to buy it but I did take a few better shots of it.


I'm not particularly surprised that the box is a single colour line art affair seeing as it was mainly a Sears catalog piece. 
I really wanted to put the whole thing together and take some detailed photos but it's more complicated than I realized and would have taken me a long time, so i settled for a few random shots.


Here is the thing most interesting to me, the small bootleg Star Trek crew this set came with, it's pretty brash copyright infringement, even by 1975 standards. I really want these little guys.



The rest of this set are the generic astronauts that are in everybody's junk drawer, I bought a set with these guys in the 1980s and I'm pretty sure I still see them from time to time.

Galactic Attack Dome

The post Star Wars era was a gold mine for space toys, take this set by Multiple (now going by Miner) in 1980. I kind of want to play with this now....

Mattel Ringling Brothers Circus

As a child, I won ticked to the Ringling Brother circus, it was a strange mix of awe and fear for me. Mostly due to me being leery of clowns, still carry that to this day.

This toy from Mattel kind of surprises me, mostly because it seems like the kind of thing Marx would do. 

1976 Marx Playset Catalog

Marx was always known for their playsets and action figures but in 1976 they were poised to be one of the early entries into the world of 3 3/4" action figures with a series of generic environments.

Sadly it looks like buyers were indifferent to the concept, so we never got a 3 3/4" Johnny West figure to my knowledge. .

See more at the 1976 Marx Playset Catalog