This 1976 NBC series about a pair of crusading loan officers helping people consolidate their debt load, relied too much on accounting jargon and featured little to no action sequences, save for when Stanley and Lamar would run for coffee. The show was decimated by ABC's "Starsky and Hutch", which held the same timeslot and was quickly cancelled.
Kong Jeans by Eric Feasterville
"Right after DeLaurentis' King Kong came out, a nefarious playground liar informed me that he had the latest in chic fashion: King Kong jeans! Yep, Dino had apparently cut off all the fur from the giant robot Kong used in the film and attached a snatch of it on the back pocket of these authentic Kong Jeans. I kept asking this liar to wear them into school, but of course he "wasn't allowed."
Charlie's Angel Card by Laura Moncur
Laura's entry is a tad long, so it's best read on her blog. Even though she is the spreader of the BS rumour, she uses it to get revenge on a bully, so it's ok. This story has everything and I'm a sucker for pictures of Jaclyn Smith.
Bigfoot by Mike
Mike submitted a pile but something about this made me laugh:
"On Six Million Dollar Man's Secret of Bigfoot ... Bigfoot was actually a real robot made by the studio.None of us ever heard of Andre the Giant back then ... and the name does sound like it's not a real person."
Weird name, must be a robot, completely rational line of thinking there Holmes...
Bonus Winner: Reverse BS
Ian Marchant sent in this schoolyard rumour he cried BS on which turned out to be true. It's so good, I decided it had to be a bonus winner. To be honest, I'd have done the same thing:
<>him a turnip etc then to prove him wrong we marched him to the lobby to discover Tom Baker handing out free copies of issue one of Dr Who Weekly. We were rightly humbled and I still have that dog eared copy.>>
Marx is the rolls royce of playsets, having gone from their hey day in the 1950s and 1960s, they still had a little fight left in them by the mid seventies. While miles away from their former glory, they were cranking out a toy that delivered hours of play in a little box.
Related Links:
Steve F sent in this killer scan from a Duncan Catalog that featured something I've never seen before, a toy car based on the Sid and Marty Krofft series Wonderbug! Wonderbug was a segment on the Krofft Supershow and I doubt I missed an episode.
I have no idea if these hit stores, I've never seen one on the secondary market but that is by no means conclusive evidence, what I don't know could fill a warehouse.
Did anyone have this? Drop a line! This is the only other Wonderbug toy that I've seen, I know it was made:
Pippi Longstocking movies were a staple in my house as a kid, mostly because they were weird and I found them awfully hypnotic. This ad is from a German catalog (where Pippi still enjoys popuarity) , I have never seen too much Pippi merchandise in North America.
It's contest time again and instead of trivia, I thought it'd be more fun to share personal stories, namely "What's the worst BS rumour you heard on the playground as a kid?" I'll share a couple:
In fifth grade, I sat next to a kid named Geoff, one of the cooler kids in school who told me he had seen an episode of "Battle of the Planets" that revealed Zoltar's identity to be none other than "a scientist at Center Neptune". It was a shocking series ender that other deskmate Dean confirmed as seeing. Must be a rare, lost episode....
Tell me yours, either in the comments section here or at the Museum Forum, Myspace or Facebook pages, I'll check them all and send the top three Fabulous Prizes! The winners will be poster here next Friday.
"On a doom laden day 2250 the Trembling Earth came face to face with the holocaust! The pernicious plan of direful destruction launched by the MUTON- an alien master- from the death black reachs of space!"
In the mid seventies, UK Toy Maker (and the inventor of Spiro-Graph) Denys Fisher took a Japanese Toy called Henshin Cyborg (which was an off shoot of Captain Action and the father of the Micronauts) and transformed it into a compelling series of 9" figures.
The infusion of a western story line into Japanese toy creativity resulted in only thing, toy magic. The Denys Fisher Cyborg line may be the best toy that you've never heard of before. One word of caution, it may cause ebay searchs...
Thanks to Bill Frost, I also have a gallery of awesome boxed and carded Cyborg goodies to coincide with this.
Click Here to view the catalog and toy gallery
More Cyborgs and see through heroes
Buy, Sell or look for vintage Henshin Cyborg Toys at our trading post
While Big Jim was a memory in North America by 1978, European kids were getting cool new figures with kung fu grip hands. These pirates were mostly recycled P.A.C.K characters but they're so cleverly done (especially the Zorak character) that it deserves praise.
After the great catostrophe of 1996, a group of bionically enhanced woman are on the run from their cruel overlords, watch them encounter a new civilization each week Friday nights at 9 on ABC... It's amazing how this very Mod little doll was virtually unknown until 25 years after she was cancelled when it became a pop culture phenom thanks to the photography of Gina Garan. This is the Kenner catalog from 1972 and Blythe only gets a single page (click on it for a larger view) now she's a full blown icon.
Google the Blythe story one of these days, it's a good read.
Believe it or not, DVD reviews were originally a part of this site, I just stopped doing them mostly because of laziness (here is one I did almost three years ago) but I just needed to bring it back for the release of the Monster Squad TV series.
Monster Squad was one of those shows I was convinced I'd never see again, it had a huge impact on me as a wee one, I'd take my Lincoln Monster dolls and shove them in the G.I. Joe Capture Copter and pretend they were on patrol. I think my love of monsters stems from this and Hilarious House of Frightenstein. Then it got cancelled and well, I spent the majority of the eighties and nineties looking for tapes and discovering that people had largely forgotten the show.
So when this DVD got announced, it gave me joy and a kind of sick feeling, like a lot of things you like as a kid, what if it turns out to be total crap when you're an adult?
I'm happy to say after watching all 312 minutes, that I was pleasantly surprised at how good this show was. I'm not saying it's for all tastes but if you're a 70s kid who likes the Krofft shows, this is actually a cut above from say things like, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl.
The show has some witty writing and pokes a lot of fun at itself, especially the scenes with the monsters trying to "act casual" (it always fails), there are other moments that are downright surreal and look like "Mr Show" sketches. The entire series in done on film, so the cheap sets look almost on purpose. Some of the fight scenes suffer from early 70s non violence rules, especially the scene where the Skull (Geoffry Lewis) tries to kill Bruce with a silver bullet, no gun, he just throws the bullet at him!
The bottom line is, everybody looks like they're having a lot of fun and it's kind of infectious. Let's talk about the DVD Fabulous Films has put out:
Film Quality: After years of watching 15th generation VHS, it's a joy to see the Squad so clean again, the film transfers are better than I expected.
Extras: I wasn't expecting anything and that was a good thing, I got a stills gallery and graphics on the menu that were scanned from the board game!
Value: I can't tell you how many bootlegs I've spent $20 on, this is a bargain. Amazon has this for $21.
Bottom Line: Not into Saturday Morning Cheese? Stay away in droves. However, if you're a Monster Kid or you dug the old Shazam! series then this is a lot of fun to be had. my kids really dug it as well.
