A Little Dress A Like Action

Cause nothing "locks that down" better than a matching outfit from Montgomery Wards..

Star Streak Dragster Bike

You can almost feel the skinned knees...

Great Dresses Happen

There goes my whole "grown on trees" theory...

King Kong Colourforms

As much as I'm a monster geek, I bet the Sesame Street was way more funner.

When Captain America Throws His Mighty Shield...

All those at the Columbus car show must yield!

Another winner from Larry, this time it's Captain America, the perfect hero for the fourth of July weekend. Cap was pretty busy with appearances around this time.

Again I have to say huge props to Larry for these wonderful shots, check out his site for classic comic cover re-creations.

Send me your mall appearance photos!

1977 Azrak Hamway (AHI) Catalog

Another look into the wonderful world of Rack toys and one of it's shining stars Azrak Hamway, who in the 1970s were the kings of fun, inexpensive licensed toys.

1977 was a pretty big year for Azrak Hamway Inc and they had all the hottest licenses including the superheroes from the house of both DC and Marvel, the animated antics and both Micky and Bugs. For the sci fi loving kids, they could choose between the adventures of the Starship Enterprise, Moonbase Alpha or the forever lost Jupiter 2..

Popular sitcoms like M*A*S*H and Welcome Back Kotter also received an usual amount of attention as AHI looked to broaden into school supplies.

Click Here to Check out the 1977 AHI Toy Catalog

More Fun Links:

Welcome to Macrame 101

"I'm Ted your instructor and this is Steve and Bill, they're my assistants, take your shoes off, would you like a warm cup of Chicory while we wait for the others to arrive?"

Video World of Sports

An open message to all children of the 1990s, this is what we had and we liked it dammit! Sure, Super Mario was cool but did his console have a wood grain finish? I didn't think so...

If you should die before you wake...

From the "Attention Kindertrauma" Dept : There is no way you could go to sleep with that staring back at you every night and not grow up just a little bit broken.

Shag Your Toilet

Oh Bathroom Carpet, you never fail to send shivers down my soul..

To the Batmobile Larry!

Larry sent in this cool shot of him and Batman from a Columbus car show circa 1981. It's weird but this is how I kind of picture Batman. I'd also like to know where Larry got that killer Flash T Shirt!

I have more vintage shots of Larry from next week and it should come as no surprise he grew up to love comics, check out his site for classic comic cover re-creations.

Send me your mall appearance photos!

The Adventures of Don, Bill and Jac!

"Don Bill Jac" sounds a bit like an obscure early 70s film you'd catch at 4 am, there's good reason for this as it's the name of a toyline that could only exist in the 1970s. Don, Bill and Jac consisted of the titular heroes and their "each sold seperately" outfits and accessories.

If you've never heard of these toys but find it oddly familiar to you at the same time, it's because Don Bill Jac was only sold in Italy but it is a clever repackaging of a toy line known to North American kids as "Mr Action" (more on him soon).

The results are really quirky and fun, enjoy the 1975 Baravelli "Bill Jac Don" catalog:

Other Foriegn Market Toys

Fun on Wheels

I've talked about the "Swim Mobile" in the past, growing up semi rural I had no idea such thing existed, I was even more surprised to see what other roving entertainment centers were available to those in the inner city.

The teen canteen provided entertainment, hot dogs, soft drinks and a possible place to score pot from a friendly musician!

Aw yeah, it's time for neighbours to let out their frustrations on each other with the roving "Boxing Mobile". They should totally bring this back, I'd go all MMA on my neighbour Doug for his noisy ass mower.

It's a big truck full of Roller Skates and they just hand them out to any kid! Imagine the sadness you'd feel as you see the Skate Mobile pull away while you're tending to your numerous cuts and scraps.

It's a roving playground complete with slides, a functional basketball net and swings. I'd feel weird living in a place where the park drove away at night...

Finally there's the most logical and functional of them all. Not as flashy as the others but my goodness, an idea that will never go out of style..

A celebration of Lanny

This dude whom I've dubbed "Lanny" (no doubt for his resemblance to Lanny McDonald from the Calgary Flames) is one of my favourite catalog models of all time. Not only is his look wonderfully stuck in the era but he just seems to be the king of the awkward catalog pose. I present to you his wonderful history:

This classic spread looks like the poster for some Dinner theatre show that runs 2 nights.

Lanny will however be best known for his incredible debut photo, this shot was taken just minutes before he was beaten and mocked by a pack of third graders.

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..

One to Grow On

Never tell an elderly relative that you like flowers..

Toys I saw at MegoMeet

This past weekend's Mego Meet convention was another wallet draining explosion of 70s toy goodness combined with a comraderie (translation: I got drunk). While devoted solely to toys made by Mego corporation, there were a lot of other gems there that were interesting, dare i say weird, so I decided to share.

The Korg thermos, every child's dream. I can no longer look at Korg merchandise without thinking of Evil Meatball VS Cat.

Assorted dresses for Action Jose, the Kung Fu man. you can't really make stuff like this up.

Wonderful old school Monster Puzzles..

When M*A*S*H was whacky, this doll has "golf club lifting action", why? It's also priced at $2.33 and may be the only thing ever that has been.

My friend Charlie picked up this vintage roll of Spiderman and Hulk Toilet Paper because nothing says "I'm a fan" quite like cleaning your sphincter with your heroes.

It's just page after page of the Hulk saying "Agh! What Hulk ever do to you?"

The King of the Terrons didn't go home with me this year but it was awfully tempting.

Everyone remembers Tim Conway's "Dorf on Safari" right?

The guys at Cast A Way toys gifted me with this flocked beauty, their rendition of Brick Mantooth.

And I was also given this custom Animal Man doll from Scott AKA Random Axe on the museum boards, who knew it was my favourite character. There is no way in hell I'd ever able to make something this professional looking in a million years, I was very humbled by this generous act to say the least.

Tim and Spidey

Tim sent in the great picture of him and Spider-Man at a Boscov's in 1977, he's got more pictures and a wonderful story surrounding that day at his blog . Click here to check out Tim's blog and "The day he met Spider-Man (sort of)"

1982 Kenner Indiana Jones Line

Despite it's parentage of Lucas and Spielberg, Indiana Jones has never been the merchandising success like it's cousins Star Wars and E.T. Although one could blame that on it's historical surrounds or it's lack of wookies, it's really never been established why.

One of the best attempts at merchandising Indy was Kenner's 1982 "Adventures of Indiana Jones" line, released in 1982, a year after the film made it's debut, it was a nicely made if not sparse toy line that ran for two years. What little did come out was actually quite nice and now very collectible.:

Click Here to Visit the 1982 Kenner Indiana Jones Catalog

More Kenner Deliciousness: