The Terrycloth Jumpsuit: Designed by Satan

Men don't need excuses to dress poorly. To this day, I have friends who wear their pajama bottoms out in public, I feel uncomfortable for them.

That's why this snazzy outfit bugs me so much, it's made of terry cloth so essentially it's towel pants!

Tell me this happy extra from Space:1999 didn't think twice about wandering off to his kid's little league game in his bathtub suit. Blech, you just know he's naked under there, let's not even get into the powder blue number.....

What exactly were Pulsar's powers?

When i first saw the commercial for Mattel's Pulsar, I admit I wanted one but even then, I wondered what exactly was the advantage to having a see through chest.

Was it a good for fighting crime, did bank robbers drop their guns in order to vomit?

Pulsar's enemy was named Hypnos and is pictured above, he had the same issues as Pulsar but he's not as gross. There is a back story here that the world needs to know, how come we have erotic stories for Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers but not a decent Pulsar origin story?

Shogun Warriors Commercial

Ah memories, who didn't want that Godzilla?

Toy Flops of the 1970's Part Two: CB Mchaul

The CB craze was something that taught more than one toy company a valuable lesson, no matter how fast you can turn out a product, sometimes it's just not fast enough to jump on a fad.

CB Mchaul was the Mego attempt to cash in, a series of nine figures, three vehicles (although a fourth was planned) and one playset. The figures and packaging was based on the Mego Comic Action Heroes line.

So everyone was squatting and had that rude gestured hand.

By the time these figures hit the shelves in mid 1977, the song "Convoy" was so last year. So despite having a nice set of vehicles and some beautifully rendered Hal Shull packaging, buyers ordered lightly and old CB was in the clearance aisle by 1978.

Today, there are very few CB McHaul collectors but the insane rarity of certain pieces (such as carded figures) keep their values some what moderate. CB figures are often found broken in package and the vehicles are rarely complete.

I collect CB McHaul and need a few key pieces, if you've got something give me a yell!

Toy Flops of the 1970's Part One: Superjoe

By the mid 1970's, GI Joe, the pioneer of action figures was in a tight spot. Kids were turning their attention to bionic men and Superheroes. Despite trying to emulate this trend (Bulletman anyone?), GI Joe's sales were slipping and Hasbro needed to revamp the concept.

Enter SuperJoe, the 8" Mego like figure with the "1-2 Punch", this new Joe was some sort of outer space explorer/hero/ranger type (Hasbro was always vague with things like this) and he had a series of cool friends and enemies.

Despite a cool light up gizmo and some nice package design, Superjoe was a dud.

Looking back as a kid, I remember the line was kind of "sexless", I got the Shield as a "shut up" toy in a department store and once his flashlight battery burned out, so did i.

As an adult I discovered that Superjoe ain't much fun to collect. His body much like the GI Joe muscle body, breaks apart meaning MOC figures often are just in pieces, so intact figures demand high prices and some of the human figures are uber rare.

What's interesting is that Hasbro pimped this body out using other company names (Like Aviva with their Space Academy figures) and for foreign lines like Ceji.

Super Joe fizzled by 1978, even the popularity of Star Wars (and the lack of product) couldn't make this line fly but as we know, it wasn't the end of Joe.

On a mego note, there is an update to the World's Greatest Toys blog It's not great news however.....

Cool Superhero Toys from 1978

The late night screening of Superman Returns had me go back to 1978 and see what kind of Super Merchandise they offered. A far cry from the the 1976 explosion, it still has some old staples still around today (they're just not as fun) I tried to keep this DC specific.



Viewmasters- Take that DVD's, we had the good guys pack and it ruled. I never had it but a kid in my class did, I was haunted when Black Adam turned to dust.

Oddly enough a friend of mine dropped by my office eight years ago and accidently left the Marvel version of this on my desk, it's still here! Mark come get this crap!



Utility belts- Remco cranked these out for years, whether it was perfectly logical (Batman) or downright Bizarre (the Hulk only had a rope belt people!).



Batmobile - Still faintly resembling the George Barris TV version, sweet!



Mego Superheroes- The finest toys known to man, if that man is me. A lot of figures have come out that are much more articulated and authentic but they have none of that nostalgia. Like I needed another reason to harp on about Mego stuff.

Bert and Ernie Deathcar!

I remember this toy in Dominion Play World as a kid, as big as a Bert and Ernie fan that i was (My talking Ernie is in my office as we speak) I could not fathom why they would need a car.

I honestly thought they weren't old enough to drive and why is their car made of garbage? That seems like more of an Oscar the Grouch thing. I guess if Spiderman can have a car anything is possible......

Farrah: The Nightgown

This one kind of confuses me, was Farrah such an idol that teenaged girls wanted to wear clothing that bore her name?

Were teenaged girls in the seventies so dim that they thought this adult equivilant of a Ben Cooper Halloween costume made them look like Farrah? Perhaps I am thinking too hard.

Man Doll News: The Megomuseum has placed a short video up of the Mego Convention that went on last week, be sure to check it out at the Mego Blog.

Challenge of the Super PJ's

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Yet another page in the book of Super Hero sleep wear. Here we find the DC trinity and lookie, the boys get capes! Sorry Wonder Woman, For some reason the producers of this outfit decided to be comics accurate for a change.

Toys I love: Fisher Price Adventure People

I took my kids to see my parents yesterday, my son made a beeline towards the toy box, a strange mixture of my old toys and some from my nephew.

One of the toys my son started playing with was the sea explorer from this set, still 100% intact despite having three different owners and being thirty years old.

I must have had a thousand hours of play from this line and most of it was likely non violent adventure, the whole thing kind of eroded when my mom bought me the TV Action Team , by that time I was busy with Superheroes.

One of these days I'll go after FP Adventure People hard core but for now I'll just keep my originals. After all, I wouldn't want to deplete my Mego money.

The Adventures of L'il Larry Flynt

And his sidekick Bobby Guccione!

I remember going through catalogs with my Mom once and noticed she'd frown at leisure suits, when pressed she said "I hated those things and never let you or your father wear them!"

I didn't think it was possible but I like my mom more.

Other Cool Catalog stuff: The Megomuseum just posted another cool scan from the 1981 JC Penney Catalog featuring Dukes of Hazzard and CHiPs, check it out at their forum.

Nothing says I love you like a squat thrust

Note to the guy in green: SWITCH GYMS!

Supertots Attack!

This is the third page of Super Hero related Pajama's you can find in the 1976 Sears Catalog. Unbelievable.

I really like the Batgirl and WonderWoman versions, they remind me of the Mego Supergals, although the masks bewilder me.

I have only contempt for "Frightens the Clown" and "Freaky Bunny" however, they look like kidnappers from a particulalry disturbing Hawaii Five O I saw at 4 Am once.

Treasury Comics Obsession!

For a while Rob from the Megomuseum board has been threatening to start a website devoted to treasury edition comics and when he finally did it, he truly exceeded all expectations.

Treasury comics.com is one of those sites that grabs you and never let's go, a person can truly browse around for hours marveling at this tribute.

For those not in the know, Treasury comics are oversized comics that were produced by all of the majors during the 1970s which petered out during the early 1980's. They are a mix of reprints and original material (such as the amazing Superman vs Shazam!)and I will be honest, they are the sole reason I love comic books.

Since Rob started the site, I've probably purchased 10-15 new treasury editions.

A great tribute to the treasury comics appears on the megomuseum with the announcement of the latest trading card, it's a reenactment on the most famous treasury cover ever.

The Superman Family of Pajama's

Yes, it's the whole Super clan, Superman, Superboy and Superwoman? Just another example of the highly creative pajama field, they're dynamos!

Supergirl wasn't forgotten, she made for a bunch of cool night shirts. That's the same artwork on the Mego Supergirl box.

The Most Over Confident Men in the World

Wes Mantooth and Randy Terio Ride again!

It's very rare that you come across a pic this incredible. Not only are these two studs dressed in incredible leisure suits but their expressions are laughable.

Mego Steve commented to me that it reminded him of the movie "Anchorman", that's better than anything I could come up with. I find this picture too hypnotic to come up with clever statements.

Catalog stuff elsewhere: The Mego Museum just posted some amazing scans of the 1973 Monty Wards Mego Dinah Mite page. Well worth a look.

Hello you Fine American Foxes!

I can't get over this one, dressing your kids like the Festrunk Brothers from Saturday Night Live has got to be considered a form of abuse in certain states.

Not to mention this outfit seems to be made of scraps from The Pants that should have never been Yeeesh!

Toy Stuff: There are quite a few Scary Ebay scams running for rare toys such as Mego and G.I. Joe, be on the alert, here is a link to a thread talking about it.

Kids today get robbed when it comes to Superhero Pajamas

I was flipping through the 2006 Sears Catalog and found their selection of Superhero Pajamas, you have a choice of Superman or Batman. I was curious, so I went back thirty years to see the selection in the 1976 Sears Wishbook.

Holy Night Night Batman! I never even knew there was such a thing as Green Arrow Pajamas or Aquaman for that Matter. Top those items off with the World's Greatest Housecoat and it's a good case for kids having it better in the 70's, at least in the "pajama selection" thing.

What's the kid in the Batman PJ's doing? A Tarzan yell?

What am I doing to my son?

I saw this site posted on the MegoMuseum, it's all about a confrontation Ed McMahon has with Solomon Grundy from the Seventies TV Specials, Legends of the Superheroes.

It brings me to a funny story, I'm a former video dealer, so my house is littered with crummy VHS bootlegs of things that are mostly now available on DVD.

My 3 year old son, whose head i have been filling mostly with superfriends DVD's (because it's going to make him popular on the play ground when he's the only Aquaman fan) asked for some new cartoons.

I could have turned on treehouse and let him watch Carebears reruns, i guess.

But nooooooo, I dug through and found my copy of Legends of the Superfriends and he loved it! Every moment of it, although he admitted Solomon Grundy scares him, he also admitted to not liking "Egg McMuffin" whoever that is.

So Now I am forced to watch it almost every day, while I'm pleased he picked Black Canary as his favorite, should I really let my son go though life thinking the Legion of Doom are borscht belt comedians?

The trouble worsened when my mother babysat one day and my son asked her to put it on. "isn't that Charlie Callas?" sent shivers down my spine as i headed out the door.

At least it could be worse, I could be showing him the Star Wars holiday special.

The World's Greatest Housecoat

I've never seen this housecoat before but the superhero pattern is so cool. If I found this today, I would wear it and trust me, that is a really disturbing mental image.

One of the things I love about this is the presence of Shazam! on a lot of seventies merch, he doesn't get that respect today.

Next week I have even more Superhero goodness plus the best catalog pics I have ever seen, they're so good I want to post them now.

For more 70's nonsense check out the Megomuseum Blog, where today's feature is a rare Superman toy.

Words Fail me

Man, where do i begin? The mind races with too many jokes. I know this guy thinks he's "Da Bomb" but those pants! Are they from the "Ted Knight Collection" for young men?

This guy reminds me of one of those villians from an "Animal House" rip off, "Charles Van Landingham from Preppie House"

Ugh, I'm sure as I hot post I'll think of something funnier........

The MegoMuseum has some pretty big mego news today, worth a look.

Punch Clowns confuse me

Punch clowns have never made sense to me, I take that back, I comletely understand why somebody would want to beat up a clown, they're creepy. It's stuff like Snoopy and Batman that I don't get, you obviously love the characters, why would you want to pummel them?

These kind of Punch Clowns always remind me of a new years eve party my parents went to in the seventies. The people having the party had a son my age and they shoved us both in the basement. The kid was extremely hyperactive and actually scared me a little, I watched him beat a punch clown about a thousand times as he laughed maniacally.

His next game of "Let my Guinea Pig free, turn off the lights and run around" was something I decided to miss and I actually left the basement, snuck into the TV room and watched "A Man called Sloan" episodes. Happy New Year!

Superhero Rain Coats!

Some more things I never see at toyshows, vintage raincoats. I like how Batman and Robin look like their emulating a Golden Age comic pose while the Superman is your standard old silver age artwork that's older than the kid wearing it.

I also enjoy like the bionic man slicker, this is from Sears 1976 BTW, it looks like Steve Austin is coming out of the time tunnel....

The Mego Meet Wrap up continues at the Mego Museum Blog. If you missed going this is the best way to recap events.

Really Cool Superhero T Shirts

I am really captivated by these shirts, it's something you just wouldn't see in these days full of uniform looking style guides.

Overall I'd say my favourite of the bunch is this one for Tarzan.

I would wear this shirt today if i could.....

On the Mego side of town I am posting a log of the events of this past week's mego convention, please come check it out.

Couples shouldn't dress alike part trois

AIIHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Can you imagine opening a box that contained his and her night dresses? Especially ones that made you look for the footprint when William Shatner drop kicked them?

What's hilarious about this for me is the guy's expression, he's a little too pleased to be in this get up.

Couples shouldn't dress alike Part Deux

It's very rare to see the woman get the short end of the stick in this combination but here it is! I wish I had better example than a 60/40 but I can't, usually the outfit is too femmy for the man .Anyway you slice it "Dress alikes" are bad, if you're still not convinced wait until tomorrow's chamber of horrors!

Couples shouldn't dress alike part 1

Someone always gets hurt when couples dress alike, mostly the man but as we will see soon, not always.

Two days until Megomeet, please check the Mego blog for more info.

Cool Pajamas for a Change

OK, maybe cool is a strong word, I mean parading around in these star trek pajamas might actually get you beaten up in some circles (the smug kid in this pic looks like he's about to receive one if he doesn't stop talking into that tricorder) but if i had seen these at 6 years of age, the first thing out of my mouth would have been "cool"

Isn't odd that the outfits from the first movie looked like pajamas? no? oh, never mind then.

Bonus Toy Feature, the guys at the Megomuseum forums are discussing this weird 70's toy I know little about, the Hal Needham famous stuntman stunt set.

The League of Ugly Shirted Gentlemen

Or The League of obvious bachelours

Or The Society of foreign Exchange students

I think their skin tight nature makes em worse.

Four days until the big event of toy geekdom, Mego Meet. If you're in Ohio or PA, this is a really cool day trip.

Pants that should have never been

The 1976 Sears Christmas catalog has what I expect is a fad that I hope never caught on, corduroy patchwork jeans. From the Herb Tarlek casual wear collection, be sure to top them off with the biggest, whitest belt you can find!

That brown pair should have been destroyed on sight and whoever designed them run out of town by angry villagers.

If you're not getting my drift, I think they're an eyesore.

Sesame Street Slippers!

Found these and had to post them,just for their sheer coolness. I particularly love that Bert and Ernie constitute a pair. I don't remember these but for some odd reason I do remember wanting slippers just like these that had the McDonalds characters, God only knows why.....

Next week more toys, more pajamas and some nifty ladies fashions, oh my!

Weird Pajama Photos Part 2

Maybe it's just me but I find this picture creepy.

It's almost as if this is a snapshot from a film where these two have just killed an old friend in a heated argument or the guy in white has finally realized he's on a hunting trip with a total nutjob.

Perhaps it's just me, either way, I wouldn't be caught dead in this and certainly wouldn't be romping around with another dude while wearing it.

On a much lighter side.......

The Megomuseum has listed yet another cool Mego Trading card, this time it's the Penguin. Scott managed to make even dorky figures look cool.

Weird Pajama Photos Part 1

There is something about this photo that just made me laugh and I had to post it. These kids look PISSED and I gotta wonder if this is the best take or if it was an extremely long day.

Unlike most Catalog models, I didn't see much of these two in other pages either. Weirdness but I have worse than this coming up. I swear I'll use another catalog next week.

Some Cool News: The Mego Museum is having a raffle to promote their amazing trading cards, the prizes are actual rare MOC Mego Dolls, pretty amazing. Tickets are $5 each.

Cool Remco Spider-Man Commercial

Forgot to add this brilliant ad from youtube, seeing as I'm on a Spidey kick today.



I seemed to be obsessed with the 1980 JC Penney, I swear I have more catalogs than this one, it's just on my desk.

Photo stolen from the Mego Museum but it's my scan so I can get away with it......

Spider-Man Winter Wear

Here is something that I wish I had seen as a kid, the Spiderman Ski Mask. The kid wearing the Hulk one got gypped, that's a real stretch, shouldn't it have a tuft of black hair on the top?

Speaking of Superheroes, my buddy Ben has updated his blog on his website World's Greatest Toys, which is the new book coming out about Mego Superheroes, check out the insanely groovy postcard he's sending out.

Ben will be at the Mego Meet convention next week, showing samples of the upcoming book and handing out postcards, if you can make it, you should.

How come these things didn't make a comeback?

From 1980, these are official Mork and Mindy Rainbow Suspenders.

For the little hack in your household, Jay Thomas not included......

Gre-Gory thge Vampire bat of childhood disapointment!

Fooling around through the 1980 JC Penney Catalog I came upon the Tri-fecta of evil, the three toys I wanted more than anything but never recieved.

They are, in order, Mattel's Godzilla from the Shogun Warriors line, Rodan also from said line and the third and possibly worst of them all Gre-Gory.

There is probably nothing I wouldn't have done to get these three, there would have been blood on the playground people.....
Godzilla was the only one of them I ever saw at retail, my friend had one so there are some fond memories, it's Gre-Gory and in particular the ad below that I remember best.

One day while perusing a comic (probably Marvel's Star Wars) I saw this ad and went directly to Woolco armed with Grandma, they didn't have it. Mattel Canada never carried the thing.. After 20 years of toy collecting, I've never even seen one of these things up close.

Gre-Gory, you represent torment.

Today I own that Godzilla and Rodan but it's sort of hollow, my main childhood memory is wanting them, not playing with them. I let my son fool around with my Shogun Warriors now because he has a lot of fun with them.

On an unrelated note, I found this incredible early eighties toy store commercial on you tube, I had heard of this store from collectors before, looks like it was awesome, they probably carried Gre-Gory.........

What's the Word? Thunderbird!

For about 14 years I have collected bottles of Thunderbird wine, friends and loved ones never quite understood why, especially after the rare opportunity to sample it. It was a joke that I seemed to share alone.

Goofing around on the net, I found the website Bumwine which seems to be a kindred spirit.

Bumwine gives an interesting history on T-Bird (it's by Gallo!) as well as Night Train and "Mad Dog" 20/20.

The site also ranks taste (T Bird ranks as the worst), warmth and it's ability to eff your s*it up (T Bird came in second).

The only thing the site is missing is the Canadian Equivilant, Baby Duck, which tastes like grape soda and Alcool.

They still make Hai Karate!

I'm shocked that you can still buy Hai Karate in the UK. I've always wanted a vintage bottle but find it a little pricey.

Great advertising campaign eh? Somehow I don't think beating the crap out of amorous women would fly so well these days.......

For years I thought D&D figures were made by Mego

When I was about 13, I remember seeing these Dungeons and Dragons figures in stores, because they had Grand Toys logos on them, I assumed they were by Mego.

Most of the cool Mego figures were distributed by Grand in the late seventies, including Pocket heroes and Micronauts.

It wasn't until years later i discovered that LJN had made the figures (and tried to buy Grand actually) and Mego had gone belly up.

If you like Mego, then there is a new book coming out on the Superheroes that looks amazing.

Amazing Wishbook Auction!

It's amazing what's being offered in this auction. Six Sears Wishbooks, all from the seventies, ugh!

As a catalog collector I'm in love, as a mego historian (boy that sounds dorky) it makes me wonder what I'm missing out on in those pages.

Maybe I shouldn't be advertising this auction......

mine! all mine!