Kenner's Duke

Before becoming a true 70's juggernaut with licensed lines like "Star Wars" and the "Six Million Dollar Man", Kenner was more experimental with their action figure branding, often creating fun generic lines such as Steve Scout and Duke The Dog.

Duke truly was an original concept, never had a toy line such as this been tailor made for a character who didn't even wear pants. The resulting toys were kind of surreal but oddly cool.

Check out the 1974 Kenner Duke Catalog Here

Duke lasted a couple of years actually and would see TV star "Run Joe Run" added to the line as well.

More Goodness from the fine people at Kenner:

Over at Sitcom Diablo I've penned a list (I know) entitled "The worst Sitcom replacement characters ever" Please do check it out.

Gimme a Diablo Sammich and a Doctor Pepper to Go

Occasionally when I'm trolling through my smelly books (Catalogs always smell "Basementy") I find something I've never seen before. Case in point this "Smokey and the Bandit 2" play set by ERTL. I had no idea that such a thing existed and ERTL used such attention to detail that included the (IMO Movie Ruining) Elephant.

Googling also showed me that ERTL made a figure of "The Burt" himself as the Bandit but sadly I could find no evidence of a Dom Deluise figure. Damn you ERTL!!!!!

What time is it?

Why, it's half past hideous! I think the stand out, greatest pieces are those cats, if I could find a case of those I'd give them to every friend and family member I knew, just to see who loved me enough to actually display it.

I'm thinking even my Gramma would pitch this the moment I left the house.

New Blog! New Blog! New Blog!

Because I had nothing better to do, I have created another blog. This time to squeeze some sort of meaning out of the vast amount of time wasted in watching sitcoms throughout my life. I lost a semester of college to "Out of this World" and "Leave it to Beaver" every day, so please check out my semi-literate ravings on Sitcom Diablo.

Toy Deals at Masons

Never heard of this chain but I'd like to fill a cart with Aurora Comic Scenes kits, please.

The Greatest Appliance Ever

"The Baconer" was like a toaster but instead of rotten ol' bread, it cooked something important, Bacon! I think of all my thoughts in a day, about one third are bacon related. I've thought about trying to track one of these bad boys down on the secondary market but my wife has this whole "me living to 40" hangup. Drag.

Cool Collections: Dion Thurman

I've always wanted to do features on people's collections, so when Dion offered shots of his 70's toy collection, there was no better place to start. Above we've got three staples of the seventies, KISS, Jaws and the Six Million Dollar man, sweeeeeet!

I spy and Aurora Creature kit and a Vincent Price Shrunken Head set

Lunch Boxes everywhere for the eye to see! There's another hobby I've avoided but have been tempted at every turn. I can see David Carradine's face plain as day there.

Thanks Dion! Do you have a 70's related collection you'd like me to showcase, send it on down! It doesn't have to be toys, just anything partial to the "Me" decade, the more eclectic, the better.

Colouring Book Theatre will return next week.

Chaz Meets Spidey

Many thanks to Chaz Rose for this killer pic, Chaz tells me he brought a Mego Spiderman and asked him "Is this You?" How awesome is that?

More Mall Appearances

Big Jim for 1972

In the early seventies, Mattel toys had a big hit on their hands with Big Jim, a nine inch muscle bound sports hero/man's man who came packaged in his underpants.

Jim's entire structure was mostly built on non violent, positive activities such as sports and outdoor adventures. This seems to be the result of parental objections to G.I. Joe in the late sixties, early seventies which caused him to retire and become an adventurer.

1972 saw the introduction of Jim's pal Big Jack and the introduction of his Dune Buggy but the biggest thing for me is Big Jim's Camper. I must have spent a bajillion hours with that vinyl paradise. As goofy and safe as some of this stuff looks to me now, I can't deny that I thought it was the bomb in '73.

Check out the 1972 Big Jim Catalog here.

Thirsty for more Big Jim?

Hail to the King

As wonderfully creepy as the new Burger King ad campaign is, it should be remembered that the original characters were creepy (especially the Duke of Doubt) to begin with and that is when they weren't trying.

This doll has been the subject of a running joke in my life, for years, no matter what toy show or flea market i would attend, I would see one of these somewhere. It became a game between me and my wife who could be the first to find one.

MY Aunt managed a Burger King for a while, I swear she had 50 Star Wars glasses in her kitchen.

Botany Brothers

The Turtle Neck/Jacket combination is a little something I like to call the "Botany 500" look, named after the men's clothing label that provided wardrobe to many seventies celebs such as Merv Griffen. Just about every thug who chased Cannon (I guess you just had to walk fast) or threw a swing at Barnaby Jones so rocked this look.

Trading Cards Again...

When I started out doing trading card #9, I wanted to do something for the ladies. The Fembot seemed like a great start, sure she's a girl but also a robot whose face comes off, total win/win.

For card #10, I felt the need to do something that wasn't action figure based, the Green Machine is by far the most demanded trading card so it was an easy fit.

As previously shown, Godzilla made it into the mix because he's just so awesome. This toy gave me chills as a kid.

Finally, it was time to give some love to the Atomic Man with the final card of the year. While a lot of Joe collectors don't like this chapter in the character's history, I cherish it. Atomic man was a pretty darn fun toy, sorry for the curse words...

DVD Releases:

Even though I don't own a Blu Ray player, this ultimate edition of the Planet of the Apes series is pretty tempting as I love all things associated with Planet of the Apes. So much so that I've bought the movies on nearly every format produced.

The extras for this set are pretty intense, lots of commentary, behind the scenes features and little fun things like public service announcements from ANSA.

Finally!

Ammended to add "if he refers to you as "mother", is terrified of "Land of the Giants" episodes and still shares a bed with you"

That kid with the perm is going to kick their asses, I know that look...

Colouring Book Theatre: The Bionic Woman

This week's book comes courtesy of Sharry, who tells me the book is filled with several goofy mini stories.

As a kid I never much dug the Bionic Woman, mostly because I was forced to sit through it thanks to an older. bigger sister.


This 1976 opus is by a company called Treasure Books, I like the concerned look Jamie has on the cover, she probably can't remember where she parked.

Anyway, Sharry has chosen a story you make up yourself, which while kind of daffy considering you don't have much choice in it's direction, it is still MILES more interesting than the Six Million Dollar Man Colouring book we featured a while back, mostly because something happens.

A little caboose shot to start off with.

So we're supposed to write your own narrative here, so I guess "Jamie goes out for a jog" I haven't got an ounce of clever in me today, I'm tired and "Fraggle Rock" is blaring behind me, so I'm going to phone this one in.

"colour this page last"

No good can come from this!

"Mashers! Mashers"

"Wa-Bam!"

"Wa-Boosh" I don't remember the Bionic Woman being this violent, I like it!

"Courtesy of your friendly Neihbourhood Bionic Woman"

Thanks Sharry for a colouring book that made sense and was mildly interesting, next week we'll be back to the pain with Benji.

Previous Colouring Book Theatre Entries

Brick Mania

I think this may be my favorite image of all time, not only is it 95% Brick Mantooth based but it's wonderfully absurd. I love how the smaller Bricks seem to be admiring the larger poppa bear sized Mantooth. Also, what's the deal with the other guy?

It's Saturday, I got nothing...

The 1983 Collegeville Halloween Catalog

Lots of new faces (well, in the form of Masks) could be found in the 1983 Collegeville Catalog, while the company was still selling various knock offs such as the Spider (a very healthy run since I wore that same suit in the mid seventies) there was also a staggering amount of licensed goods available.

From dependable favourites such as the "Peanuts" to newbies like "Shirt Tales" and "Joanie Loves Chachi" and eventually hitting rock bottom with down right bizarre items like Atari Games and Rubik's Cube, Collegeville had managed to cover a great deal of bases.

Perhaps the biggest get here is the Universal Monsters line, an array of both childrens costumes and rubber masks which bring back a pile of fond memories for me.

Check out the 1983 Collegeville Costume Catalog

As an added bonus, I've compiled all the retro Halloween shots I got into one big gallery on the site, check it out here or click the image.

Oh and have a very Happy Halloween, I want to say kudos to all my blogging brethen (and sistren) for completing the Halloween Countdown. A month of monsters has worn me right out and i think I'm going to blog about kittens for a long while. But for now, I have to go explain the "Daddy Tax" laws about candy to my kids....

The Top Coolest Monster Toys of the 1970's

With October 31st a day away, it's prime time to launch another Top Ten List, this time it's (in my humble opinion of course) the top ten coolest Monster Toys of the 1970s.

Being undead seems to be a big boon in the toy world.

Even though the seventies were a far cry from the Monster merchandising boom of the mid sixties (which really was a golden age except for the lack of action figures), it wasn't exactly a drought either.

Classic monsters such as Frankenstein and Godzilla were still flourishing on late night TV and on Saturday morning with shows like "The Monster Squad", "Hilarious House of Frightenstein" and "The Groovie Ghoulies", it was still a great time to be a monster kid. Here are ten of the best reasons to be a monster kid in the 1970's:

Click Here to read the Article

Did I miss your favorite? Rest assured that one was #11. [/lie]

When I grow up I want to be....

Although before my time, I kind of dig these early seventies play suits which I'm sure doubled as Halloween costumes. I love how boys can be Batman, Superman and the Lone Ranger but the girl's choices are more grounded in reality.

Dig the ears on the bat suit, looks like the 40's movie serial version.

This flash forward to 1978 shows that girls can be superheroes too. Nobody in the 70s seems to have gotten even a semi accurate Batman costume. They always seem to have to oversell the name, like without it you'd think it was an insurance salesmen costume.

Proof this site is bad for me department: I've never had any ambitions to collect vintage Halloween Costumes but this Sunday found me at a toyshow with $20 in my pocket and the neat-o graphics on this Ben Cooper Frankenstein outfit were overpowering. Is it just me or this another example of swiping from the Aurora artwork?

A Goulish Gallery of Values

It's refreshing to see this many monster toys on a Christmas catalog page, usually they get kind of dismissed or marginalized as being "seasonal". The only thing missing is some slime. While I've blogged about Gre-Gory being the one that got away for me as a kid and my obsession with the Remco Monsters is well documented, my favourite piece in this spread would have to be the Tomy Mighty Men and Monster Maker.

I got this set for my tenth birthday and it was one of those things that was just as fun as it was on the commercials.

I knew a couple of girls that asked for it for Christmas after seeing mine but they all got fashion plates instead. My own wife got Fashion Plates but said it was fun because she mixed the monster plates from her brother's set making weird-o she creatures.

DVD Day:

Plenty of classic 70s goodness this week, mostly of the television kind, kicking it off with the complete series set of Good Times.

This is one of those shows that starts off strong but eventually kind of falters as it goes along. I watched this show every afternoon for years on the black and white TV in my room. I haven't seen it in years and am unsure how it holds up

Also released today is the complete series set of Sanford and Son. Now this is a show I know that holds up because I watch it every chance I get and it still makes me laugh.


This 17 disc set has 136 episodes of the classic series, I had no idea the series lasted that long to be honest.

Finally and this is where my money is going this week is the 20th Anniversary set of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 . I can't say enough good things about MST 3k, I love it more than a grown man should.

Not only does this set have my favorite MST3K of all time (the 1978 opus Laserblast, coincidently the first movie I ever rented) but it has a freaking figurine of Crow T. Robot, I'm in nerd heaven....

Christmas in the 70's Update : Santa Terror!

I know it's Halloween week and all but I wanted to mention that there is a new entry on the Christmas in the '70s Book Blog. This week Betsy shares a very memorable encounter with a mall Santa.

Please read "The Flood" here.

If you'd like to share a memorable photo -- and a story -- of you in your Christmas-morn best (or worst), please email Joal and Myself at: xmasinthe70s [at] yahoo.com.