While the Marx Naverone set is cool and you can never go wrong with some plastic dinosaurs (especially in combination with the army men!) I think the big star for me here is the Martian landing playset.
Astronauts, vehicles and that Big wheel space station? That's all i need. I'm pretty sure you can still find these same astronauts in dollar stores.
The theme of this book centers around the Jungle Truck toy that had Jim rescue a lost baby rhino. I never had it but like all Big Jim pieces, I would circle them in the Eaton's catalog in hopes of receiving every Big Jim toy ever made at Christmas.
Seeing as this (exciting) panel focuses on Big Josh, let's address him shall we. First, it needs to be said that Josh is just a Big Jim with a beard. Are they brothers? It never gets addressed. Let's also say that the denim "short-shorts" and denim vest combination hasn't kept the mystique that it once did.
Here's talking Big Jim, it's amazing how far technology has come in my life time. Jim got severe back problems so he could say five things. These things are built to last however, I still have mine and he still speaks loud and clear.
The lost baby rhino, I occasionally see this guy at flea markets, it's a nice figure.
Let's just assume that all went well with the Rhino and move on to this gripping scene. Josh and Jeff clean the swamp boat! You have to wonder if the people at Whitman were somewhat amused when including images such as this. That Swampboat was a big disappointment for me, I raced and put it in the pool, only to have it sink to the bottom!
Big Jim and Josh have one of those toy dogs that celebrities love to tote around, Mattel really missed the boat when it came to this merchandising bonanza.Ahh, more innocent times......
I'm always happy when I have enough of these images to fill another page. In our sixth installment we visit several toy stores on Halloween (kind of fitting). See a store visit by a giant MonChichi in 1983 and check out the many images from the video game explosion of the early eighties chockfull of Atari and INtellivision consoles and enough electronic games that your head will explode. 
I wouldn't be a good seventies orientated blogger if I didn't address Underoos every so often. I think I saw my first commercial for these probably during the Superfriends and like a lot of kids, demanded them on the next shopping trip. Of course, they were no where to be found in my area. At least my kids have them now.
While I never had the figures (which are made by LJN and not Mego), I have fond memories of running around my neighbours backyard, M16 in hand, going "Duna-na-nuh-na-nuh-na-nuh-Duna-na-nuh-nuh" for what seemed like hours. Now I have the theme song stuck in my brain again, great.
They say fashion is cyclical, how come I still can't own a fine jacket such as these without it smelling like Value Village?
DVD Day: In terms of 70's stuff, there isn't a heck of a lot to mention this week but if you were a teen in the eighties then the High School Flashback Collection which consists of three of John Hughes classics Sixteen Candles, Weird Science and The Breakfast Club is up your alley. I am most fond of Weird Science and can still act it out from memory. I am available for birthday parties and barmitzvahs, thank you.
I'm working this weekend (Boooo!) so I can't do CBT, what I can do is show this cool article from the toy industry for Saalfield who had some killer licenses in 1975. I've already reviewed the Speed Buggy book here. For some reason, I'd love to get my hands on the Korg and Valley of the Dinosaurs books, I watched those shows pretty religiously back in the day.
Wrapping up Sesame Street week the only way I know how, with another catalog.
True Story, my mother bought me this rain coat, although it was blue. I was eight and the one time I wore it home I kept thinking "My mom is having problems with me getting older". I'm lucky none of my buddies who were busy with grown up things such as KISS records saw me.
This 1973 ad touting Sesame Street as a license to toy makers really amuses me. Ernie used to be cool but now he's just some sort of corporate shill, "If you'll just look at these Projections Bert...."
I still my own talking Ernie (he's not as minty as the one featured here) but I've never seen a talking count before, he must be tough as nails to find.
Today's sole DVD release that I feel like blabbing about is this Rodan/War of the Gargantuas double feature. Both of these movies were part of "Monster Week" growing up and are somewhat responsible for my slide into geekery.
I've been meaning to get to this for a long time now but the discovery of this photo of my fifth birthday cake (which was coconut died blue BTW) provided me some motivation. Like many of us, I was Sesame street obsessed as a kid, even my dog's name was Grover.
Christmas 1975 provided me with the one of the best playsets of all time, I not only still have it but I'm within five feet of it now.
Which leads us to today's cool Sesame Street entry, I saw this far too often but I'd wear this now....
This book loses immediate points for the exclusion of Pearl, the third and IMO greatest of Drummond housekeepers. Please don't even try to debate the superiority of Adelaide with me, I've entered into hundreds of flame wars on the many Diff'rent Strokes message boards. 
I'm going to sidestep any commentary on Dana Plato falling down the stairs.
Kimbery goes to ice her butt while Arnold and Willis appear to be laughing at her. Which is what your brothers would do in, trust me I'm a little brother myself.
After Kimberly's diamond bracelet goes missing, Arnold goes into detective mode complete with Sherlock Holmes hat and a handy pipe he found under his brother's bed ! (geez, I'm sorry about that) It's interesting that Coleman himself would later get into law enforcement in real life. Ok, mall security isn't law enforcement, nor should have i put that fact under the umbrella of "interesting".
The Drummond compound is clearly a death trap.
So the thief is a plant? I don't follow.
Hooray! Little rich girl gets her diamonds back, I was so worried. The bodies look really weird and out of proportion here, try not to stare at it too long.
Bless you for this, Sharry.
Previous Colouring Book Theatre Entries 
After a year of accumulating other people's encounters with Spider-Man and Darth Vader, it never dawned upon me that I had anything to add until I found this. This is probably around 1980 and at the Metro Zoo, who used to use 70s super celebrity Bigfoot quite extensively in their marketing (you can still see the painted footprints there) I have no idea who the picture wrecking kid in front is but I do remember wanting to leave the zoo early because it was "Planet of the Apes Week" on City TV. Yes, I was always this way..... 
What's a more appropriate way to end a week devoted to back to school than by paying tribute to those items that often ended up on our binders, Puffy Stickers! Imperial Toy was one of the biggest producer of these back in the day, even when they didn't have the license they would come awfully close to mimicking it. Imperial did have some really familiar faces such as Web Woman, Buck Rogers, hell they made John Belushi stickers!
Check out the 1980 Imperial Puffy Sticker Catalog
They most certainly are!
Just how are these inspired by Winnie the Pooh? Christopher Robin mostly wore short pants as I recall....
It's hard to make things like pencil sharpeners and desk sets interesting, I mean they are the gift an Uncle you don't know well gives you. Having said that, I love this Bugs Bunny Desk set, it has only one superior IMO:
Yeah I'm pretty smitten with the Batman desk set, this is most likely to me getting a Batman pencil sharpener as a kid and being overly thrilled with it. Arg, I'm off to Ebay to reconnect.....
In the 70's, the folks in the jumpsuit industry must have been rolling in it. There is something so weird about that red CB inspired pit crew looking jumpsuit, like the pockets are for Skoal or something .
DVD Tuesday
It may have only ran 9 episodes during the summer of '77 but Quark seemed to be the kind of show that you didn't forget when you saw it. I was one of those people, I have an episode on tape somewhere and it still holds up. I have to own this set, at $15.00, it's a no brainer.
Also available this week is the classic Peanuts special It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, I plan on going nuts this Halloween so it's another one to add to the basket.
For Doctor Who fans, the 1977 Tom Baker Era story "The Invasion of Time" is now available on DVD. This six parter is about the Doctor fighting off invading hoardes of Sontaran Warriors as they try to gain control of his home planet of Gallifrey. Despite my love for 70's era Who stories, this isn't my favourite. The budget seems to be stretched waifer thin (the cavernous inside of the Tardis looks like an unused recreation center) plus this story is the departure of the wonderful Leela, so maybe I'm just bitter...
As summer comes to an end, what better time then to take a look at the Fall/Winter fashions our parents decked us out in to make that trip back to the classroom. So basically I'm doing what I always do here, just pretending it's some sort of event. Um........ta-da?
