Toy-Ventures: Remco Star Trek CSF

Today we talk about my recent visit to a toy show and the items I picked up including this iconic piece of Star Trek merchandise from 1976. PlaidStallions FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/Plaidstallionsdotcom/ The original commercial for this can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlJE_8RTIzE

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Sweathogs Classroom

I wish more records were included with playsets, I think it adds a neat quality. 

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Groovy Stuff for Sweat Hogs

"The official "Welcome Back Kotter" leather accessories kit bag will make you the most popular girl in school Eileen" whispered the Vinny Barbarino in her head...

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Welcome Back Kotter T-Shirt Painting Kits

Finally! My love of crafts and Gabe Kaplan have been fused together for a magical Sunday Afternoon's worth of delight!

1977 Fleetwood Toys Catalog

Fleetwood toys was one of the biggest and most prolific manufacturers of Rack Toys during the 1970s and 80s.

In 1977, they were truly on top of their game as evidenced by the massive amount of licenses they had this year including the Marvel Comics Superheroes, Welcome Back Kotter, Starsky and Hutch, The Rookies, SWAT, Tarzan, the Space Sentinels even Ba-Ba Blacksheep!

It's so jam packed with cool rack toys, there is no way you can't find something you like.

Click Here to visit the 1977 Fleetwood toys catalog

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Sweathogs Action Bank

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"OK, so instead of a skeleton grabbing the coins and dragging it back to it's coffin, we have a creepy two headed Juan Epstein dragging it back to a box? Brilliant! Get those into production!"- A very drunk toy executive in 1975.

More Fun from Fleewood

Our new book Rack Toys: Cheap, Crazed Playthings covers Fleetwood and much more.

Sweathog Balls

Made you look! Oh the carefree days of smacking Gabe Kaplan's face against a wall or playing handlawrencehiltonjacobs with friends.

Rack Toys: Cheap, Crazed Playthings is a limited edition 144 page book from the creator of Plaid Stallions. Order from us and get three free promotional post cards.

Guitars of the Stars

The good people at Hakes Americana have a new auction running and this time there is a weath of licensed guitars, some very logical like this ShaNaNa model above and some that are a little more absurd but fun. More photos after the jump:

Welcome Back?

I'm always amused/horrified at some of the leaps that manufacturers took to capitilize on "Sweathog mania" in the mid seventies. Much of this stuff was on clearance until the early 1990s until it became collectible and washed up at toyshows all of a sudden.

Take into consideration this desk set created by Azrak Hamway (AHI) one of my favourite Rack Toy manufacturers, I'm not sure if the smiling faces of 27 year old high school students is adequate incentive to study hard.

I am however in love with this weird-o Sweathogs typewriter, mostly because it looks more like a piece of pop art than it does a functional typing device. I wonder how much typing one can do with a tiny Gabe Kaplan staring at you, telling you to start small fires..

Pulsar, Sweathogs, Space:1999 and Shogun Warriors

The feature this friday is the boys action figure lines in the 1977 Mattel Catalog. It would be a great year for the toy giant, with the release of homegrown organic Superhero Pulsar and the imported Shogun Warriors line. Mattel also continued with TV licensing including the Sweathogs of Welcome Back Kotter and a second season of Space:1999 toys.

As a bonus, we've got exclusive shots of the original Mattel prototypes for the Space:1999 line including a never before seen 12" commander Koenig. Check out the 1977 Mattel Catalog Here (Expect a Girl's Version to follow in the coming months)

Some time this morning, World's Greatest Toys Blog is asking you, where did you buy your toys? A blog about Vintage Toy Stores, you can't be surprised I'd be interested in that.

Mattel Welcomes Kotter

Toy Fair 1977 : Mattel put a lot of time into developing a Welcome Back Kotter line of action figures in 1977 but they had bigger success with the Shogun Warriors also making a debut in 1977. The Space:1999 Zython figure mentioned here never saw release in North America but is occasionally available through German Ebay.

More Welcoming Back for Mr Kotter

Seeing as Gabe Kaplan is making news as an author these days it seems cool to revisit the Mattel Welcome Back Kotter dolls. The classroom playset had a record so you could reenact your favourite moments, the Sweathogs motorcycle was a clever recycling of Big Jim's motor cross bike. Mattel never throws anything out!

Sit on Fonzie's face

I'm loving this selection of Bean Bag chairs from '76, my personal fave being the Star Trek one although Fat Albert is tempting.

Again with the Welcome Back Kotter and how often do you see licensed merchandise from Convoy ?