Gentleman Sleestak Contest Winners

Before I announce the winners of the Gentleman Sleestak magnets, I want to confess reading this has made me feel really, really normal, we all seemed to share fears growing up.

 Also, I wasn't a brave kid because I shared the fear of about 75% of what was mentioned. Man, I'm fragile.

Here are just some of the  childhood fears that both made me laugh and shudder:

Tina Turner’s quivering lips in the movie Tommy."

The Flying Monkeys in the Wizard of Oz! 

The Zuni Fetish Warrior Doll from Trilogy of Terror (several mentions)

Oompa Loompas, especially the tall one.

Freddie the Flute. F**k that guy

Dean Travers from Three's Company (fear of over acting I guess)

Phil Silvers 

In Search of (Several times, bless you all)

 the Phantom of the Muppet show

And we're all scared of Sharks, Bigfoot and ventriloquist dummies thank you the 1970s for those.

So the random number generator chose the following winners:

Kip Rathke

John Ogg

Dennis Nelson

Matt Taylor

Jason Young

Joe Hanus

Thanks so much for playing, it brought me a lot of joy to read all those responses! I'll be in touch with each winner this week and send magnets their way!

 Look for another contest in February!

The PlaidStallions Sleestak Contest

Let's have our first contest of the Year, shall we?

 A couple of months ago, I made a bunch of these kitchen magnets made featuring some art I did called the Gentleman Sleestak. 

There really wasn't a plan in motion but I knew they'd make a fun contest prize.

So, I'm giving away five of these this weekend to some nice folks who post their reply to the PlaidStallions Facebook page or to the Forum at the MegoMuseum. 

The question is:  What thing scared the hell out of you as a kid that you're now kind of fascinated with as an adult?

I'll pick five names randomly from those answers and send them this plucky magnet and a mittful of PlaidStallions Trading cards.

Thanks for playing, here's to a fun weekend!

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Caption Contest Winner

 OK, let me start by saying, you made this really hard, you're good at this.

  Second, I wanted to originally go with "Rectum? Damn near killed him!" before i turned this into a contest. No less than five of you entered that into the contest. We should form a club and have meetings. 

 Third, I'm going to make this a regular thing because i love it. 

 The winner was chosen by me and my 12 year old daughter, who seemed to get the context of this, I'm a little worried. 

 John Perry wrote "guys, next time I throw a key party...bring your wives!"

Congrats John, you've won a fuzzy Brick Mantooth doll. Use it wisely.

New contest next week!

Caption this

Contest time! I couldn't think of the right caption for this, so i'm opening the floor to you, The winner will receive a pack of goodies and will be announced tomorrow, fire away!

PlaidStallions Turns Nine Contest!

 

It took me by complete surprise this week that it has been nine years to this day that I decided to start this blog. 

Many thanks to my then infant daughter for taking a long nap on April 26, 2006  (she doesn't take so many these days) and giving me the time to begin this journey.

I really have to thank all of you for making this experience a dream, for commenting here and on the facebook page, for writing in, listening to the podcast and for making my book a success.

I am eternally grateful for the friends I've made and experiences I've had through this site.


To show that gratitude I'm having another contest:

Create a Rack Toy Contest!

I've done contests here before but this one was cooked up by my pal and podcast partner Jason Lenzi and it's brilliant.

Concept: Pick the most inane 1970s TV, comic or movie property you can think of and marry it with the most inappropriate rack toy you can think of.

Here's an example I drafted up but you don't have to do anything fancy, just send me the idea:

 

Email your best idea (no design work needed) to kid70s *at*  gmail.com (replace the *at* with an @) I'll pick the winners in Mid May and I'll even try to mock up the three best in photoshop like I have done above.

Prizes:

3rd Place: A copy of my book Rack Toys: Cheap Crazed Playthings

2nd Place: A Brick Mantooth action figure on a limited edition "Woolco" card

1st Prize: An Official Brick Mantooth Sky Diving Parachutist Figure Mint on Card.

Thanks again to everybody for reading, listening, supporting and joining in on the fun, it's made my life better.

I look forward to your entries!

PlaidStallions 8th Birthday Contest!

I say this every year but in addition to being pleased that I remembered the site's birthday a whole two days prior, I'm grateful for the entire experience. A new contest and a whole bunch more of my babble after the jump!

Filmation Favourites

Judging by the tremendous amount of feedback I got on my review of Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation, I can honestly say I am not alone in my adoration of this once great studio. If anything, I'm part of a mob, it feels pretty great.

I'll announce the winner of the contest below but I felt like talking about my personal Filmation favorites, no real reason other than reading the book has reignited my interest and it's my blog, so feast upon my rambling.

In no particular order:

Shazam! I never saw the Adam West Batman series much as a kid, maybe twice, so this larger than life show was my first introduction into superheroes. A boy never forgets his first man in tights. I went close to madness to find these on bootleg VHS in the 80s, one dealer tried to convince me they were all destroyed. Luckily the Warner archive finally released these on DVD this year with morals intact. 

I have no idea why Filmation's Tarzan isn't on DVD in it's entirety, this series gave me a lifetime love for the character and I'd argue it's one of the best adaptations going. This wasn't the "Me Tarzan, You Jane" dolt, this was a smart calculating, adventurer Tarzan who often found lost worlds. Lou Scheimer's daughter told me once that he was a big Tarzan fan and it showed.

Jason of Star Command grabbed my attention every week and gave me an early crush in Nicole Davidoff. The show also featured 70 exploitation film stars Tamara Dobson and Sid Haig, nothing to sneeze at. I can still pop in the Jason DVDs and be thoroughly entertained.

Speaking of childhood crushes, there was a lot to love about Filmation's New Adventures of Flash Gordon, especially the amazing detail and credence that was paid to the original Alex Raymond strips. As a bonus, their interpretation Princess Aura gave me an appreciation for red heads that often clouded my judgement for the next 10 years.

I absolutely know there is never any hope for all of the Super Seven segments to find their way to DVD but I hold a special place in my heart for them. The Freedom Force, Manta and Moray, Super Stretch and Micro Woman were can't miss shows in my book. Then there's Web Woman, my absolute favorite of the bunch for....well.... obvious reasons (see Princess Aura).

Ark 2 was kind of like if Logan's Run and Space:1999 had a baby. It was another show I had a real tough time tracking down and one of the few post apocalyptic kid's shows. It was a head above a lot of Saturday morning shows and definitely fostered my early love for Sci Fi.

But enough about me, let's get to the drawing.

First off, who are all you people? I had no idea you were reading and I'm excited. There was no solid consensus or wrong answer (unless you chose Sport Billy, which I'm glad to say none of you did) but everything from Archie to She Ra was submitted showing the massive appeal these programs really had. 

Without further adieu the winner of the book as drawn by my daughter is....

Steven M who wrote:

I would have to say Tarzan, but it is a tough call.

Honorable mentions go to Shazam and Fat Albert.

Good choices Steve, enjoy the book. To everyone else, thanks for playing, we'll be doing another contest in the very near future.

Rack Toy Memories Contest

The month of Halloween combined with getting the book to press has really done a number on me creatively. So, instead of a catalog update this Friday,  I’m just going to run a contest and lay down on this love seat for a while. 

It’s a fun one and anybody can join, so check it out after the jump.

PlaidStallions Fifth Birthday Bash!

As if my pants inching up higher and the growing need to get those damn kids off my lawn weren't enough signs I'm getting older, this impulsive idea of mine hits another milestone.

Yes, we're five and I can't believe how far this has gone and that I've stuck to something this long. Seriously, I don't even finish sandwiches sometimes*. Originally I thought the site was a "five year mission" tops but I have so much I still want to do, that I simply have to keep going.

I've got a couple of treats in store today including a contest, an announcement and a way cool feature.

Thanks to all of you for the kind words and support over the years and especially for making me laugh, there are so many times I've logged on and wish I'd thought of the some of the comments you folks write.

Sometimes, with my weird little obsessions you can feel a like you're the only person who gives a crap, it's really nice to know I'm not alone.



(* That was BS, I not only finish sandwiches, I often finish other peoples as well)

Friend Good!

Here are some of the first few fun pics submitted for our 2010 Halloween Countdown Contest (which is still open BTW) these come to us from Jon of  Pop Culture Central and it's him and his brother meeting the Frankenstein Monster at Universal stuidos in the 80s.

I rarely get sent classic Monster Appearances so it's blast to see stuff like this.

As a double whammy,  Jon has also sent a shot of over his Remco Monster collection, he has excellent taste if I do say so myself...

 

Thanks Jon for sharing and stay tuned every weekend for more submissions to the Halloween Countdown Contest!

Halloween Countdown 2010 Contest

It's almost that time again, when me and many, many other bloggers participate in the annual event known as "Countdown to Halloween".

Click the link to learn more about how you can get involved.

While I have 31 days planned filled with Monsters, costumes and other fightful things I could really use your help, so I'm starting another contest.

Send me pics of your monster stuff!  If you have pics of a Monster or Halloween themed collection I want to see them. I'll feature them on the weekends.

Don't have a monster collection? Send me a vintage Halloween pic! Did you meet Frankenstein at Universal Studios? Awesome, that totally works too.

Send them on down to me here and you're in.

Le Grand Prize:

 

The Grand Prize is a Spectre Toys Barnabas Collins doll by Spectre Toys. Yours will come with a package and you'll have to get your own cool base.

Two Runners up will get a copy of 1978 ReImagined the fantasy Mego catalog published by the Mego Museum plus Plaidstallions trading cards.
 

The drawing will take place on Halloween, enter as often as you like!

Star Trek Contest Results

Got lots of fun responses to my question last week of Do you think you could take Captain Kirk in a fight?

Here are a few of my favourites:

"No way. He would Cheat."

"I think the safe answer is no. If it's Kirk late in a season, once he doesn't remove his shirt because he's out of shape, I might stand a better chance, but, alas, no."

"Being a woman, probably not. However I will say that I don't know that I would have fought any romantic advances in the Captain's early days on the  original series. I might have played hard to get, but not impossible to catch! "

But the winner we drew for  copy of the new book "Star Trek 365" is Mikel Lopategui who wrote: "Hell no! I saw the way he took care of the Gorn."!

Thanks to everybody who participated, it was really fun, look for more contests in the near future.

4th Birthday Contest Winners

So, I'm only a week late, which is a lot better than my batting average delivering Topless Robot articles (Rob Bricken is a patient, tolerant man) but it's still nothing to be super proud of either. Anyway, here are the four winners (one for every year) of our forth birthday promotion, chosen at random by mein fraulein:

Wings/Joe writes "Either the Sesame Street playset or the Weeble Tree House." and I couldn't agree more on the FP Sesame sets, I played with those until I was an age that I probably shouldn't have been (27).

John Hilliard was troubled to find just one toy but finally decided " But, finally, after much thought, I chose my Shogun Warriors' Godzilla!!! Simply
the best toy ever! HANDS DOWN!" While I did not have this toy growing up, I have no doubt you are correct John.

Hugh had no problem deciding: " No question, the toyset I loved the most from the 1970s would have to be the Gabriel
Lone Ranger and Silver. My silver suffered a broken angel and LR's mask broke, and I
still loved playing with it."

Finally Erick writes " I still have a lot of my 70s toys, but the one I wish I still had is kind of strange. I used to have most of those little Fat Albert & the Cosby Kids PVC
figures. They don't have any kind of playability, they just stand there. But they
were cool. I think we sold them in a garage sale a long time ago."

I'll be sending PS prize packs to all our winners (if you're reading send me your addresses!) which includes DVDs, trading cards and a copy of the Mego Megomuseum 1978 ReImagined Fantasy Catalog. Thanks to everyone for playing and for visiting!

PS Contest: Schoolyard BS winners

Well, you guys made it hard to decide but I've finally picked my three favourites out of the great submissions I received. I can't believe how many of you heard that "Gene Simmons had a cow's toungue surgericly implanted" thing, I used to believe that but not the "KISS went to Mars" my deskmate Andrew tried to pull on me.

Here are a few that didn't win but deserve mention:

I, Warren wrote: "{A kid in neighbourhood] claimed he saw an episode of Wonder Woman (of course it was the night before & I missed it) guest-starring Batman & Superman. Wonder Woman died in a truly horrible way - something about a wood chipper - so Superman & Batman prayed (?!?) and brought her back to life." (One to block on facebook...)

JF Stan related about a super gory version of Halloween some kids claimed to have seen, I love the answer when confronted:

"When I confronted the guys who played it up, they basically said that the theatrical version was too violent, even for HBO, and the version shown was dumbed down as not to drive viewers insane." Yes, HBO is very concerned about your sanity, that explains Arli$...

Beth wrote about being star struck: "in the 7th grade a boy told me that George Carlin was his uncle and would be at his house that weekend and if I went to 2nd base with him (the boy, not Carlin) that I could meet Uncle George and even have dinner with him!! Yep, I was a slut, and George Carlin was not his uncle. Damn, I'm still sore about that one."

In the seventh grade, I'd have gone to second base if there was a chance of meeting Carlin.

THE WINNERS: Here in no specific order are the winners (please don't mock my meager attempt to photo shop, I'm fragile and talentless):

Kong Jeans by Eric Feasterville

"Right after DeLaurentis' King Kong came out, a nefarious playground liar informed me that he had the latest in chic fashion: King Kong jeans! Yep, Dino had apparently cut off all the fur from the giant robot Kong used in the film and attached a snatch of it on the back pocket of these authentic Kong Jeans. I kept asking this liar to wear them into school, but of course he "wasn't allowed."

What a classic tale, the liar kid always had an excuse as to why he couldn't bring this faantabulous item to the school yard. I remember one kid said he left his amazing Flash Mego doll "at the cottage".

Charlie's Angel Card by Laura Moncur

Laura's entry is a tad long, so it's best read on her blog. Even though she is the spreader of the BS rumour, she uses it to get revenge on a bully, so it's ok. This story has everything and I'm a sucker for pictures of Jaclyn Smith.

Bigfoot by Mike

Mike submitted a pile but something about this made me laugh:

"On Six Million Dollar Man's Secret of Bigfoot ... Bigfoot was actually a real robot made by the studio.None of us ever heard of Andre the Giant back then ... and the name does sound like it's not a real person."

Weird name, must be a robot, completely rational line of thinking there Holmes...

Bonus Winner: Reverse BS

Ian Marchant sent in this schoolyard rumour he cried BS on which turned out to be true. It's so good, I decided it had to be a bonus winner. To be honest, I'd have done the same thing:

<>him a turnip etc then to prove him wrong we marched him to the lobby to discover Tom Baker handing out free copies of issue one of Dr Who Weekly. We were rightly humbled and I still have that dog eared copy.>>

And that's it. Thanks for all the amazing entries, winners I'll be in touch, or you can beat me to it.

Random scenes from a 70's department store

I recently got a copy of a catalog from a Dolgin's department store (I've never heard of them either) and I loved the little images on the cover. People in a mustard yellow store buying mustard yellow things and even though these are likely staged shots, there is some nostalgia to be had.

Ah the toy department shot, bet it had the giant letters spelling out "TOYS" on the wall. That dad looks cooler than I will ever be in my whole life.

The guy on the right is wearing Department store camoflague. I can't help but think that stores should start splashing around a little orange and yellow again....

Results from last week's trading card contest:

While I'm sorry to announce that nobody guessed either one of the next two cards correctly, I'm happy to announce that everybody who played won a set of PS trading cards plus another goody.

I was pretty over whelmed by the positive response, the amount of good ideas and I just didn't feel like telling anybody they weren't a winner, so everybody goes home with something.

What was the number one guess? Without a doubt, Shogun Warriors by Mattel, it's something that just has to happen it seems.

What was the strangest one? Milky, the milking cow (sorry Mike, probably ain't gonna happen!)

Anyway, thanks to all for playing, you'll be getting a packet in the mail shortly.

Exterminate!

Going across the ocean today and back 31 years to look at the marvelous talking toys produced by Palitoy Bradgate. While we're all spoiled by voice chips now, a talking toy was a complicated thing back in the day, involving a tiny record. Palitoy made a variety of these items including the Daleks, Batmobile, heck even Kojak!

These things have special meaning to me as the red Palitoy Talking Dalek was the first vintage toy I ever bought via mail order, right from the classifieds in Starlog magazine back in 1984. I sold it in college lamentably.....

As an extra bonus, I dug up the original commercial!

Check out the 1977 Palitoy Talking Toys Catalog Here

And speaking of Palitoy, let's have a contest.

I'm giving away a pair of Space:1999 action figures mint on card which are reproductions of the original Palitoy Bradgate series. These are Alan Carter and Paul Morrow and they're in the mego style.

All you have to do is answer this skill testing question:

Who created Space:1999?

Email me your answer and I'll draw a winner next week. 3 runners up will recieve a set of PS cards.

Duhnuhnuhhnuh Batman Blue Ray Winners

The results are in from our first DVD contest, my kids picked the winners this morning, because I had to be fair, there are now four prize lots. First the answers:

1) Who was the better Riddler, Frank Gorshin or John Astin? There was no wrong answer in this although I was curious if anybody preferred Astin in the role. Hey, I cried when they stopped making new coke, so it's not impossible. For the record, nobody picked Astin, who is a wonderful actor, just not the Riddler.


2) What does Batman have toruble getting rid of in the film? Well it's a bomb but I also would have accepted a shark, seeing as it's technically true.

And now Ze Winners:

1st Prize: (Batman Blue Ray and set of PS cards) Phillip Lozano

2nd Prize: (the Same as 1st) Bill McFarland

3rd Prize: (a Copy of 70's Toy Explosion and some PS cards) Chris Flagg

4th Prize: (a copy of 70's Toy Explosion and PS cards) Dave Bellmont

Congrats to all the winners, I'll be in touch this evening to gather your address info. Hopefully I'll have more fun giveaways soon

Be sure to check out this fun little Batman Boxing Game based on the Movie as well.