Halloween Countdown 2010 Contest

It's almost that time again, when me and many, many other bloggers participate in the annual event known as "Countdown to Halloween".

Click the link to learn more about how you can get involved.

While I have 31 days planned filled with Monsters, costumes and other fightful things I could really use your help, so I'm starting another contest.

Send me pics of your monster stuff!  If you have pics of a Monster or Halloween themed collection I want to see them. I'll feature them on the weekends.

Don't have a monster collection? Send me a vintage Halloween pic! Did you meet Frankenstein at Universal Studios? Awesome, that totally works too.

Send them on down to me here and you're in.

Le Grand Prize:

 

The Grand Prize is a Spectre Toys Barnabas Collins doll by Spectre Toys. Yours will come with a package and you'll have to get your own cool base.

Two Runners up will get a copy of 1978 ReImagined the fantasy Mego catalog published by the Mego Museum plus Plaidstallions trading cards.
 

The drawing will take place on Halloween, enter as often as you like!

A Wonderful Appearance

This MD area ad shows a rare 1977 appearance by Wonder Woman at the Valley Mall. While it makes sense given her TV popularity, she rarely did appearances, most likely because it was easier to shove a thin guy into a Spiedy costume than it was to find somebody to wear the tiara and tights.

Note the copy in the ad says "bring a camera or just enjoy the view", classy. I envision an army of dad's elbowing each other...

Send me your mall appearance photos!

Six Million Dollar Man Fan Club Kit

So let me paint the picture, it's 1976 and my mother comes rushing into my room with this card and tells me if I fill it out, I'll get an autographed picture of Steve Austin and all kinds of other neat stuff for free! I agree it's pretty great and quickly store the card in my desk to be filled out at a later date because I WAS SO BUSY AT SIX YEARS OF AGE.

Flash forward a few months and a school chum shows me the AWESOME Six Million Dollar Man stuff he got. You'd think this would have been a valuable lesson that would have haunted me for a lifetime but no, my bill paying skills still just barely keep the wolves away. It took me 34 years to finally make this kit mine and I'll share more of it with you after the jump:

grrrrrrooooowl!

#6 is a spicy number.

Hulk Splash!

To steal a line from Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka, in 1979 if it was available, it had the Incredible Hulk on it.

More Gin M'Lady?

Herb Tarlak, the early years....

Sip Along Kids

I had these as a kid, although I don't remember using the weird "drink along with you" feature. My biggest memory of these was brining the Pebbles with me to kindergarton, the same day every other kid brought a G.I. Joe, somehow that didn't haunt me until high school...

Astro Blast Power Center Commercial

Uploaded this commercial from the 70s Toy Explosion DVD to our facebook page. So if it doesn't come up head on over here.

I totally remember this commercial, especially the awkward "almost four stories" line from the window washer, it's how I learned what a story was.

Next Sunday, I'll be launching another contest so stay tuned.

Spidey teams up with Brian and Phil?

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Brian (great name!) sent in this fun image of him and his brother Phillip around 1982 at the Willowbrook Mall in Houston,TX. What a killer shot!

Send me your mall appearance photos!

Mattel Starr and her high school friends

Mattel's Starr seemed to be a teenaged version of the Barbie concept, the look and feel of the line seemed to really embody that late 70s/early 80s style.

Starr had a short tenure at Mattel but was very popular, in 1982 they expanded her line to include new friends, more fashions and a familiar automobile.

Check out the 1981 Mattel Starr Catalog here.

Underwear Horrors

"I told you not to pick up hitch hikers!"

More Black Light Goodness

Whenever I see blacklight posters I think of friends who had older brothers that  lived in the basement. They all had moustaches, were named "Chris" and looked 38 despite being in highschool.

Man Beach

In order to gain entrance you must challenge their leader to nude Greco-Roman wrestling.

Black Light Goodness

Are those horses doing it?

Recovery of the Lost Mummy

Were i a wealthy man, I would fill a house with wonderful sets such as this....

Trading Cards Part 2

Card #34- Raydeen

Shogun Warriors were pretty epic toys and I hope to celebrate each one individually, unlike other things I've featured this weekend, I do have a Raydeen. He's beat to hell but I love him anyway.

Mattel Shogun Warriors Catalog

Card #35- Ideal Jaws Game
Honestly I had like ten minutes to decide card #35 so I thought a nice pallet cleanser from action figures would be the Jaws game, something I owned as a kid and used more as something my Mego Superheroes fought more than I ever did as a game..

That's it for now, I'll probably do more new cards before the year end but I'm all caught up.

More Trading Cards Part 1

It's been a while since I've talked about this but I printed some designs in the summer and have been happily sending them out with DVD orders and ebay auctions, figured this weekend would be a good time to showcase them.

Card #32- Stretch Armstrong

This was long overdue, seeing as he's an iconic toy born in the 1970s. It's one of the few vintage toys I had as a kid but will likely never rebuy as a collector. Those things can be timebombs and I learned my lesson years ago, so did an unfortunate mouse.

1978 Stretch Armstrong Catalog

Card #33- The Ghost of Captain Kidd
Ah, this is one of the coolest action figures of the 1970s IMO, this image was too good not to make into a trading card. I don't collect these either but wow do I think they're neat.

Matchbox Fighting Furies Gallery


Cards 34 and 35 tomorrow!

HG Toys for 1980

HG Toys was a company known for applying licenses to their staple of role playing items, puzzles and playsets. In 1980, they rocked the 25th century with Buck Rogers, explored the seedy streets of Vega$ and smashed a few cities with Godzilla. Shoot they even made Fantasy Island merchandise, what's not to love?

Check out the 1980 HG Toys Catalog Here

Other HG Toys Links

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Browbeat VonSlappedinface

I consider kids like this unsung heroes, for their presence made me invisible to bullying of any kind, the only thing that could break his spell would be to show up to school in my sister's clothes.

One Strange Marvel Team Up

 

My good pal at Heroes West Coast suprised me last week with some pictures of a truly rare item that I could not afford to own. This display of Marvel Comics "Action Figures" (most of us would call these Jigglers) is both wonderful and well, odd. The assortment on the front kind of proves that, these characters have little to do with one another and it's a merchandising first for two of them.

Superheroic School Supplies

One of my sideline obsessions (because I need more) are these mid seventies to early eighties superhero school supplies by Alco. I proudly had the Batman from this set on my desk as a kid and I remember our local stationary store (remember those?) had a display of these in the window.

This Shazam is the sole carded entry into the series, I remember seeing it as a kid wondering why he was holding a lighting bolt like that.

This Wonder Woman is a later run by Alco,  Wonder Woman is usually the first one you find of most vintage toy lines.

Stumbled on these at a local toy show of all places. As you can see my collection isn't huge, it probably wasn't wise to turn on others to this, see you on ebay!

Back to School Shopping Part 2

You're all ready for second grade big guy!

Colouring Book Theatre: The Dukes of Hazzard

‘Dukes of Hazzard" by Modern Publications
I'm going to preface today's CBT with the confession that I have little to no nostalgia for Dukes of Hazzard. I don't hate it or think people who like it are dumb, I just don't really dig it.

My fondest memory of the show is it became the subject of my first "dick move" as a child. When it first aired, my friend Neil and I began discussing it with another kid on the block who could be best described as "uptight". We went on about how cool it was, how he was missing out blah blah blah.

About a month later he came running up to us saying he'd seen the Dukes and  loved it. I simply said "That shows for babies" and went on about KISS records or something. If you're reading this Michael, I apologize, trust me when I say I got paid back in spades for that one.

Anyway, you might have noticed the price on this sucker, $7.95 is pretty steap for a colouring book now, let alone 1980 but I want to preface this thing is thicker than my local phone book.  Let's take a look at the surprising insides after the jump.

Friendly Neighbourhood Spider Swag

The Spider merchandising empire circa 1979, the thought of this keeps Gene Simmons up at night in a jealous rage.

Send me your mall appearance photos!

1976 Horsman Police Woman Catalog

It may seem commonplace now but the mid seventies TV series "Police Woman" was groundbreaking televison.

Angie Dickinson played "Pepper" Anderson, a no nonsense lady cop and she became the first female lead of an action series (thankfully not the last, bit of a "Xena: Warrior Princess" fan ).

Horsman dolls sought to captilize on this powerful new role model with an action figure (not a doll) and a series of cool outfits. Interestingly enough this line was also marketed by Model Toys in the UK as "HAVOC"  and centered around a group of female spies, I'm not sure which line came first.

 Click on the images below for a better look:

Police Woman 1976 Catalog

More Action Figures:

Friendly Neighbourhood Spider Trike

If Spidey was a real human being, he would been accused of being a complete and total sell out in the 1970s....

Back to School Shopping

"Ooooh don't Gramma's angels look perfect!"