Rebel Command Center

Two thoughts: One, Darth Vader and the Bounty Hunters look like they're going "Hooray!" which is probably what they did at the end of "Empire".

 Two, the Rebel Command center looks like minutes of play.

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Annie-Pocalypse

There are NINE PAGES of Annie merchandise in the 1983 Sears catalog. More than any of the other themes like Smurfs or Strawberry Shortcake and exactly nine pages more than "Wrath of Khan" which was more successful at the box office.

Not being a young girl at the time (or any time for that matter) I have no idea if "Annie-Mania" swept through households the way Sears was hoping. Anybody have a bedroom like this?

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Star Wars....exclusively at Sears

While I personally don't remember the Rebel Command Center (which surprises me) I do recall the weird loyalty you had to have to Sears in order to "collect" Star Wars figures as a kid.

Sears wasn't close to our house, so I'd have to tag along with my mum to get groceries or other mundane tasks in order to get my hands on the all important Ugnaught (which was exclusive and came on a weird card in Canada).

They also closed for inventory at 6pm every Thursday, that shouldn't be a fact a ten year old knows but dammit, it was a hard lesson!

Origin of the Creature Cantina

This past June, I spent a little time with the former toy buyer for Sears. He was a wealth of interesting info but my favourite takeaway of that conversation was this anecdote.

I am paraphrasing:

Basically, the buyer asked Kenner to make "The bar with all the aliens" as a play set for the Sears catalog.

The Kenner rep was initially reluctant feeling it wasn't good to market taverns to children.

His reply?

"It's not a bar, it's a cantina, call it that"

And thus, the Creature Cantina was born.

Star Wars....Only at Sears

Another Christmas page that made me crazy, those "exclusive" figures came on these weird shrunk wrapped cards and it drove me crazy tracking them down as a kid.

Now, I wish I'd kept them as they're worth a bundle.

Kenner Star Wars, Perhaps you've heard of it....

I had something really cool planned today but a computer update took 110% of my free time last night and made me sad, so I drank two "Blue Moons" and fell asleep instead. 

Here is a page of Star Wars treats I found in a hurry this morning, Blue Snaggletooth and 12" Boba Fett, it doesn't get much better than this....

Star Trek 1978

Even though Star Wars was all the rage, the Mego Star Trek figures miraculously re-appeared in the 1978 Sears Catalog. The figures came on cards with blank backers, it's largely believed it was a tactic by Mego to retain the Star Trek license for the upcoming move. 



Always nice to see the Space Command Center that we featured earlier.

Sears Cantina Adventure Playset

The Sears Cantina playset with it's well known snaggle tooth variant was something I was blissfully unaware of as a child

As an adult, I work hard to fight the "Star Wars Urge" stuff like this makes it difficult.

Sears Video Arcade

As a kid, I was pretty brand loyal to Atari, even getting into fisticuffs with an Intellivision fan once, which is pretty embarrassing to admit now.

I bought my 2600 with my own money (from menial labour gigs no less) and even though this Sears knock off was a better deal, there was some stigma attached to it that my 11 year old self couldn't shake. 

Sears Space Command Center and Sound Studio

This oddity from 1979 was a generous gift from my pal John, it's one of those things that Sears stuck in their catalogs to sell along side other licensed toys. This one tries for all the marbles, trying to get some Star Wars heat and the 12" celebrity doll craze. More pics after the jump!:

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.

Cryotron

Click for a larger view.

Cryotron is a spacey action figure case offered by Sears Canada in their epic 1980 catalog. I'm not sure who made it and I never had one but I remember it mostly because I stared at the page it was on for a LONG time as a kid.

It's one of those oddball items snuck onto catalog pages that is meant to catch the heat of Star Wars without ever passing Lucas's desk, I love stuff like it.

I was surprised to find out it's fairly hard to get but doesn't command a terribly high price either, funny how that works sometimes.

After literally 30 years of toy shows, I saw my first one this past December with a child's name scrawled across it in magic marker. I'm surprised I didn't go home with it.

Sears Puts it All Together

The Evidence, she does not lie

Be Seeing You!

"Run! The Bass player from the Hives is a giant!"

These Sears kind of look like uniforms from a 70's reluanch of the Prisoner televions series.

Source: Sears 1977

Voyage to the Style Aisle

Sadly, my Sears has no "Style Aisle" as this 1977 Catalog advertises. Which is a shame because that yellow shirt is just about the greatest thing ever.

The Plaid is Back!

It's been too long without some fashion mockery and while these gents score high for truly being "Plaidstallions", they lose points for not having their belts match their shoes.

Source: 1975 Sears Catalog

BTW, I wanted to confirm that this is indeed Gayle Sayers, Bob Griese and Tom Seaver modelling these fine outfits. I was born without a sports gene so I have no clue