Well, I haven't focused much on nostalgia and toys here for a while (since before Christmas 2009, and my post on Kenner's Super Powers Line, I believe.)
But, as you may or may not recall, I have been endeavoring to get for my boy, Joel (age 3) the entire Big Jim toy line that I had as a kid. Of course, this occurs as time and budget permits...or whenever the mood strikes and I get a few minutes alone on E-Bay. Don't tell Kathryn! (Kidding, Honey, really...).
I have already acquired for Joel the Big Jim Camper, the Sky Commander playset and the Big Jim Safari House. But just this week, I nabbed one of the most well-known vehicles from the Mattel line: The Big Jim "Rescue Rig" from 1971.
The rig, though made from the same mold as the sports van, is a bit longer than the camper, and originally sold for about $13.00 back in the disco decade. The huge vehicle, described as "a large mobile unit," features an "Adjustable Rescue Boom" cherry picker, plus such accessories as a fire-axe and hook pole. The Rescue Rig came originally with a remote control "communications center" that could "relay six emergency calls" too. Unlike the camper, the Rescue Rig's entire aft section opens up to serve as a kind of first-aid station.
Replete with intensive care unit and rescue basket, the Big Jim "Rescue Rig" is quite the cool 1970s toy actually, and Joel's arrived yesterday afternoon in the mail (in a huge box.)
As of 8:30 am this morning, The Rescue Rig has already done approximately 100 "rescue runs" down our long drive-way...and is no doubt bound for further adventures in the wilds of our back yard.
In keeping with my Super Friends theme from yesterday, today I'm looking back at a famous DC Comics Super Friends toy line from the decade of Regan. The Kenner Super Powers Collection was sold in toy stores from 1984 - 1986 and featured a full range of vehicles, action figures and even a play set.
In terms of action figures, the Super Powers Collection consisted of the 3 3/4 inch size popularized by Kenner's Star Wars line, and included three waves.
The first wave of figures included twelve iconic figures: Superman, Flash, Batman, Robin, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Hawkman and villains such as Brainiac, Luthor, Penguin and Joker. Joker came with a green, overzied Joker mallet, and Penguin was armed -- of course -- with an umbrella. So he could battle Superman, Luthor wore a "power suit."
Second and third wave figures in this Kenner line included Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter, Red Tornado, Dr. Fate, Darkseid, Kalibak, Plastic Man, Shazam, Samurai, Mr. Freeze and more. There was even a mail-away Clark Kent action figure that today is highly prized amongst collectors.
In terms of vehicles, the Super Powers Collection offered several. There was a blue batcopter and blue Batmobile (two-seater) and a rocket-like "Supermobile" (though why Superman would need a vehicle is a question I need answered immediately...). Other vehicles were a bit more unfamiliar.
For instance, Lex Luthor had his very own plane/car combination, the Lex-Soar 7. This purple rocket was described as his "assault ship" and came complete with a Kryptonite Crystal, laser cannons and action figure "gripper claws" so Luthor could "use Kryptonite to weaken Superman!"
Another villain's conveyance was the Kalibak Boulder Bomber Vehicle, the "Cruel Crusher's Massive Machine." It came pimped out with spring-launched maces, grinding teeth (!) and removable spearheads. The box advertised that "No one gets in the way of Kalibak as the teeth of this vicious vehicle grind into action!"
Perhaps the coolest to associated with the Kenner Super Powers Collection was the very large, cast-in-yellow Hall of Justice Play set. Once opened, this huge toy revealed several internal computer rooms, two jail cells for villains, a trap door mechanismon an upper level, and a storage center for Super Friend equipment. Opened up, this great toy featured three over-sized rooms, one in blue.
As you might have guessed from yesterday's posting, I've got a Hall of Jusice, Lex-Soar 7 and Kalibak Cruiser (plus Superman, Green Lantern, Batman, Lex Luthor and Penguin...) waiting for Joel come his Christmas morning. Can't wait to see his face when he opens up the boxes...
Now if only Kenner had produced a Legion of Doom HQ in this series...
To this day, I cherish memories of an early birthday (I must have been four or five years old...) when I received this glorious "Prehistoric Play Set" sold and marketed by Louis Marx & Co., Inc.
In particular, I have very distinct memories of opening up the huge playset box in our living room at Clinton Road, seeing the contents, and playing madly with the dinosaurs (and cave-men) inside for hours, even as my granny visited. I seem to remember that my granny gave me the set, but my memory could be confused in that regard. As a child, I was absolutely obsessed with dinosaurs, so this was the perfect gift.
This huge prehistoric Marx playset (tagged as Style 3398 on the box -- whatever that means...) comes "complete with Cavemen * Animals * Mountains * Ferns * Trees."
There are probably about thirty-six dinosaurs or prehistoric creatures included in the set, plus a cave-person dwelling (reachable by ladder...) and plastic mountains (complete with a ridge and a small lake...). Populating the set are ten or so plastic cave-men molded in various action-oriented poses (some poised to throw rocks at the nearby dinosaurs, no doubt...)
Among the dinosaurs included (molded in green, grey and brown...) are the Allosaurus, the armored Ankylosaurus and Stegosaurus, a Dimetrodon, an Iguanadon, the duck-billed Trachodon, the horned Triceratops, a Brontosaurus, and a Styracasaurus. There was a T-Rex, a Woolly Mammoth, and even a sabre-toothed tiger too. Now, you may realize that these creatures didn't actually all exist in the same time period (and certainly not concurrently with cave-men...or Jesus), but as a kid I didn't care much about the scientific accuracy of the toys. Simply put, this was Skull Island, the Lost World, the Land of the Lost, Monster Island, and the Valley of the Dinosaurs all rolled into one great toy, and I spent many a day sending in "modern" plastic tanks and soldiers to battle these small plastic behemoths.
Somehow, I had managed to hold on to one squatting plastic caveman (!) from this set for over thirty five years, but I recently acquired a complete playset on E-Bay.
Don't tell him yet, but this is going to be one of Joel's birthday presents this October. I figure Age 3 is the perfect time to introduce my little boy to Marx's "Prehistoric Play Set."
Back in the late 1970s, Kenner created a hugely diverse and impressive line of toys based on the original Star Wars (1977). A young fan could play not just with cool action figures by the dozen, but large-scale mock-ups too, such as the Millennium Falcon, the Death Star Space Station, the Creature Cantina, and more.
Under the category of "more" came this most unusual and interactive of the Kenner Star Wars play sets, 1979's The Droid Factory. This industrial droid production center was unique because it was not a reproduction of a set or ship, or even a landscape (like the Land of the Jawas Playset...). Instead, it was an original and very cool setting not seen in the film, one in which you could build your own version of R2-D2. As a child (and even before The Empire Strikes Back), I appreciated this -- it was good for the burgeoning imagination -- because an original toy like the droid factory indicated that there was a larger world "around" Star Wars than the one we saw in the movie.
The Star Wars Droid Factory came in a large box complete with a beige "factory base with swivel crane" plus "38 robots parts." Essentially, you could "build up to 5 different robots at the same time," "make hundreds of different combinations," and just have a hell of a lot of fun with the "interchangeable robot parts." These factory-constructed robots were the same scale as the other figures, so kids could experience the immediate gratification of landing their newly-built droids into the action with Han Solo, Hammerhead, Jaws, Greedo, Blue Snaggletooth or anyone else.
The Kenner Droid Factory also came with a neat "Droid Maker Blueprints" set which offered instructions for building "the 5 basic droids." These were: the Mechano Droid, R2-D2, Tracto-Droid, Quad-Pod Droid, and Rollarc Droid. The last page of the booklet offered details on how to build a goliath "Monster Droid." Clean-up after play was easy too, as the booklet thoughtfully informed parents: "Each part has its own place in the Base. When you are finished playing with your DROID FACTORY, put all the parts back just like you see it here."
The only drawback to this great vintage toy (which I'm now sharing with Joel...since he's become obsessed with R2-D2 and C3PO): there was no way to build Threepio. Yep, Anakin could do it on Tatooine, but you can't do it with your Droid Factory! Clearly, that's a huge oversight in an otherwise very cool toy. Below, you can see the original TV commercial for the Kenner Star Wars Droid Factory.
When I was a little kid waaaay back in the 1970s, I loved to go visit my Granny and Grandpa's house in Verona, New Jersey. In part this was so because when I was visiting I always got to play games with my beloved uncle Larry, and, well, he had some of the coolest toys you've ever seen.
One vintage toy from that era, in particular, leaps immediately to mind: Mattel's A Strange Change Toy Featuring The Lost World.
This incredible "electrical toy" from 1967 is actually just a small oven -- or heating chamber of sorts -- though the box art colorfully describes the mechanism as a "mysterious strange change machine" that "changes time capsules" and offers you -- a mad scientist -- the opportunity to create "16 hidden wonders of the lost world" as they "appear and disappear into capsules over and over again."
What this comes down to, essentially, is that with a pair of blue plastic tongs (included), you would insert small red, yellow and green "capsules" into the heating chamber, and as they heated up, the cubes would unfold (in glorious slow-motion...) into the ships of plastic monsters, dinosaurs and bugs.
The box also reads: "Discovered to date: Membrane Men, Fragments of Space Creatures... Crawlers... fliers... Skeletons of Human Types.... Mummies... Robots." So as you can probably imagine, A Strange Change Toy was an awesome genre-style product, even if it was a little too easy to burn yourself on the strange change machine.
This great Mattel invention also came complete with a "compressor" on the red heating unit so you could crush the 16 hidden wonders back into their original cube forms and start all over again. The box implored kids to: CREATE 'EM! CRUSH 'EM! and CREATE 'EM! AGAIN AND AGAIN In the STRANGE CHANGE MACHINE! And boy did we ever! This thing kept us occupied for hours, visit after visit.
Mattel's "A Strange Change" Toy also came equipped with a 3-D Base for your plastic lost world creatures to inhabit, and a landscape map of the lost world that you could hang as background to the base. The instructions read: "The Green 3-D base is the lost world home for all the creatures. For more lost world strange change fun, play with your creatures on the colorful map of the lost world on the other side of this sheet!"
So, this is truly one of the weirdest and wildest toys of the late 1960s and I don't think A Strange Change Toy could even be successfully marketed to kids today without consumer groups getting up in arms. I mean, don't you just wonder how many electrical fires The Strange Change Toy must have started back in the disco decade?
Now if you'll excuse me, I have some fantastic time capsule creepy-crawlies to create (and CRUSH!). While I'm away, go ahead and check out this vintage commercial for Mattel's A Strange Change Toy (Featuring The Lost World...).
Beginning in 1992, Batman: The Animated Series aired on the Fox Network's Saturday morning line-up. This stellar superhero program ran for several seasons and was nominated for two Emmy Awards (it won once: for Outstanding Animated Program in 1993). In some markets, the popular series even aired in prime time.
I was an aficionado of this incarnation of Batman for many reasons. First and foremost, I enjoyed the fact that it was crafted in the distinctive visual style of the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons of the 1940s. You know: square jaws, big cars, noir fashions...and big, clunky (but gorgeous...) retro-tech.
I also was impressed with the fact that Batman: The Animated series seemed to provide viewers with, well...the perfectly balanced portrayal of Batman. Our hero was neither oppressively, dogmatically dark just for the hell of it, nor ridiculously, mockingly light.
One episode of the series that I enjoyed especially seemed to meditate on this idea of different Batman incarnations. It was Robert Goodman's "Legends of the Dark Knight, a tale in which three children -- while walking the crime-ridden streets of Gotham -- discussed various rumors about the mysterious Batman and his gadgets. Their perceptions of Batman formed the lead-in to several briefer stories of varying styles. There was an "Old Chum," camp version of Batman (genuflecting to the 1960s pop-sensation, replete with over-sized props like a giant metronome), and there was a Frank Miller/Dark Knight style, post-apocalyptic interpretation too. I appreciated how the episode artfully attempted to integrate all variations of the caped crusader mythos before introducing its series star, "the real Batman" of the series: a grim opponent of criminals, but one who existed somewhere between the extreme poles of hard-bitten vigilante and jokey buffoon.
At a yard sale, sometime in the early 1990s, I came across some merchandise from Batman: The Animated Series and one item caught my eye. The Batman: The Animated Series 3-D Board Game seems -- in some fashion -- to be the spiritual heir of the much sought-after 1970s Amsco Cardboard Playsets (Planet of the Apes, Space:1999, The Waltons, The Marvel Universe). So it's right up my nostalgic alley.
In essence, this board game is a 3-D heavy-cardboard recreation of Batman's lair, the Batcave. Or as the back of the box describes the setting:
"Batman has been working night and day to rid Gotham City of crime, and he's fallen asleep at the console of his crime-stopping computer, deep inside the 3-dimensional Batcave. While he sleeps, Batman dreams that the cave has been invaded by the worst criminal riff-raff...bad guys like The Penguin and the Joker...Catwoman and Poison Ivy...The Mad Hatter and Mr. Freeze. His partner Robin has been trying to fight them, but he's in great danger.
You and your friends must help Batman capture the villains and save Robin!
Now just go ahead and discard the cheesy Batman-asleep at his Bat Computer "dream" scenario and what you actually have here is a cool diorama of a very-Fleischer-like Batcave, plus plethora of stylized cardboard characters from Batman's universe. There's Scarecrow, The Riddler and Harley Quinn, among others. There's even a cardboard cut-out of the 1940s-looking Batmobile, big front grill and all.
If you're a Batman fan and remember this animated chapter of the legend fondly, the 3-D Board Game is a pretty cool collectible of early nineties vintage. I've had it kept away in storage for a bit, but I took it out to show Joel this morning. He was mesmerized by the toy, and wanted to drop several of the figures into what he called "the bat dungeon."Joel already knows Batman, Robin and The Joker by name, and today learned about Mr. Freeze. Unfortunately, he took one look at Catwoman and said "Wonder Woman!"
Who is Big Jim? Well, he's not a porn star, I assure you that. If, uh, that's what you were thinking.
Instead, Big Jim is a globe-hopping adventurer and boy toy icon of my favorite decade: the dazzling 1970s. Big Jim was Mattel's alternative to Hasbro's popular G.I. Joe, a less overtly military, war-oriented action-figure line that endured for much of the decade.
Instead of being a soldier in the Army, Big Jim was what in you might call an "all rounder" -- an athlete, a secret agent, an astronaut, a scientist and even an outdoors man...a true renaissance man, I guess. His buddies included Big Jack, Big Josh, Big Jeff, Dr Steel and Chief Tankua. Many of these figures featured karate chop arms: you'd press a square in their backs and they'd deliver a karate chop to an enemy...like your brother or sister.
For the avid toy collector, there was a whole universe of Big Jim toys to collect back in the day. Big Jim had a very cool brown camper/van, for instance, one perfect for jungle expeditions. Big Jim also had a dune buggy, a rescue rig, a Corvette and even a Safari House, a green camping tent and his own Kung Fu Studio. He was also known to tangle -- occasionally -- with gorillas and sharks.
However, my favorite toy from the Big Jim line (after the ubiquitous camper...) was his aerial HQ...the Big Jim Sky Commander (1973). This massive toy is four-and-a-half feet in length with when fully opened. It could also be folded up into the form of a compact carrying case, which makes it perfect for quick transportation in the event of an afternoon at granny's house.
The Sky Commander features four compartments overall. There's the cockpit (with chair and steering wheel...), the situation room (replete with maps, Morse Code device, navigation table, and tools), the bunk room (with bed, sink, food supplies, a storage unit on the floor and a rest room), and finally, the tail section.
The tail section is decorated with a cool Big Jim logo (a soaring eagle...) and you can make out the details of the engine technology too.
This "around-the-globe jet headquarters" transports Jim from one secret assignment (or vacation, I guess...) to another. To help with ultra-high-speed pick-ups, the Sky Commander also comes with a working winch and rescue basket/litter. So you can actually reel action figures up into the plane...
The Big Jim Sky Commander (according to the legend on the back of the box) was perfect for "air search and rescue," "ecology," "trouble-shooting" and even "science" as Big Jim "jets around the world."
I had one of these toys when I was a kid. I was at a garage sale with my parents when I was about five, I guess. For sale was an array of Mego Batman figures (good grief!) and also the Sky Commander plane...alongside a similarly-designed Barbie plane. My sister got Barbie, I got the Sky Commander (and Batman) and we were both happy for days.
I realize that in 2009 this toy probably looks pretty darn primitive (most of the cool equipment is merely drawn on the vinyl), but I had hours, probably months of fun imagining stories for Big Jim and this thing. The Sky Commander was a passport to great adventure for a young mind.
I found one of 'em recently on E-Bay , and bought a Sky Commander for my two-year old, Joel's Christmas. He's already running around the house shouting "Big Jim!"
In the Christmas of our Bicentennial year 1976 -- the last Christmas before Star Wars (1977) arrived -- Kenner's "bionic" toys dominated the market...not to mention the imagination of children like me.
These were the prized toys that every kid in the neighborhood wanted and hoped that Santa Claus would bring. An avid fan of The Six Million Dollar Man (1973-1978) or The Bionic Woman (1976-1978) could choose from any number of really fine toys in this line, including large-scale action figures (Steve Austin, Jaime Sommers, Oscar Goldman, Maskatron...), huge vehicles (like Jaime's sports car, or Austin's space vehicle...), and cool play sets galore.
The Bionic Woman had a salon/repair center, for instance. Oscar had his Washington D.C. OSI office (not to mention an exploding briefcase...), and Steve himself had a space capsule/repair station. However, one of the most exciting and sought after play sets in Kenner's stable was The Six Million Dollar Man "Mission Control Center," the very place, according to the box legend, "where all the bionic adventures begin!"
This huge, impressive toy included a "giant inflatable dome, 17.5" high and 26" wide."
Since the dome was inflatable by air valve (9 for strength and durability...), the toy even came with a repair kit.
In case, I guess, Big Foot (Ted Cassidy) happened by hoping to puncture it with a pin or something.
And inside (or rather beneath...) that huge dome was the HQ for OSI agents Colonel Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers. It was protected, according to the dome specifications, by a "laser force field."
Another exterior section of the dome was a computer, a "retrieval storage unit."
The Six Million Dollar Man Mission Control Center also contains (from the bulleted points on the box): "radar scanner," "TV Monitor," "radio headphones" "bionic check-out panels and cables," "command chair and command console" and "mission control vinyl floor."
At the "Bionic Check-Out Panel" you could "plug cables into your Six Million Dollar Man's modules" and "pretend you check out his bionics for special missions."
At the communications console, you could "change pictures in the T.V. monitor to communicate with Oscar, Jaime Sommers, Maskatron and outer space."
And there was even a "secret escape hatch" designed "for those times when the Six-Million Dollar Man must get out of the Mission Control Center in a hurry without being seen."
Designed for kids ages five and up (and I would have just turned seven that year...), this Kenner Bionic Headquarters was never featured on either TV series that I can recall.
But it's such a truly awesome toy that it certainly should have been.
Now, if I could just get my bionic action figures out of remote storage...
Way back in 2005, the first year I began writing this blog, I displayed some of my prized colorform sets (including Flash Gordon, Star Trek and Space:1999). I've been going through various closets, attic and crawlspace storages lately and weeding through old (and forgotten...) collectibles, and I discovered this: my Batman Cartoon Kit/"colorforms toy" from the year 1966.
Produced in Norwood N.J. and licensed by National Periodicals Publications, Inc., this Batman colorform set allows you to put the Dynamic Duo through their paces while battling the Joker and the Penguin (with a backdrop of Gotham City and the batmobile by moonlit night).
"Now! Your favorite hero in colorforms plastic!" reads the box. "Colorforms plastic pieces stick like magic. Easily lifted to put away, ready to play over and over again. No scissors, no paste, no muss."
Waaaay back In the late 1970s, Diener Ind. and McDonalds teamed up for the occasion of the newly released Happy Meal feature at the restaurant.
In particular, in 1979-1980, Diener produced a variety of two-inch figures that would be sold in the cardboard H.M. boxes along with the burgers and fries.
A variety of figurine sets from Deiner were produced. There were McDonalds figures (like Mayor McCheese and Ronald McDonald...), Space Creatures (which included a Ymir, an Outer Limits alien and the alien from I Married a MonsterFrom Outer Space [1958]...), not to mention sets of both jungle and undersea animals.
But as a kid, I collected the "Space Raiders" line obsessively.
In particular, I remember collecting these figurines during a family cross-country van trip from New Jersey to California (and back...) when I was nine years old.
Back in those days, a visit to McDonalds was a big (and rare...) treat, and my older sister and I would beg my parents to let us stop there so we could get Happy Meals...and collect these figures. More often than not, our parents indulged us.
These little toys were of paramount importance to me as a youngster that summer, because I had very few toys with me on the cross-country trip. As I said, we were traveling by van, and space was at a premium. Which meant -- for me -- very few action figures and almost no spaceships. These Space Raiders toys offered a whole new world of adventure, and they were small and compact.
The 2-inch Space Raiders figurines came in orange, pink, yellow, blue, green and brown. There was a whole array of characters and ships in the set. They were all made of a very soft but relatively durable rubber (and they could double as erasers, actually, should you get mad at them).
The characters in the line were ZAMA (a robot who resembles a cross between the Lost In Space B9 robot and R2-D2), BRAK (a creature who looks like the Metalunan Mutant from This Island Earth), DARD (a Darth Vader knock-off), and the angry-appearing HORTA.
Going back to my childhood, we had all of these characters, but I played with a blue ZAMA and my sister adopted a pink HORTA. Our brown DARD was sort of the universal bad guy, and I can't remember how BRAK fit in the mix. Of the ships, there was a Forbidden Planet-style flying saucer called LYRA-4. We had a green one, I recall, and at some point, needed a replacement for it because the first one developed a fracture. But there were other spaceships too, including the rocketship ALTAIR.
Not pictured here -- though I recall that we had them -- were the KRYGO-5 (a sort of space shuttle design) and another ship...which I don't remember at all except it was shaped like a cigar and featured a dorsal booster.
As a kid in the seventies, I got a lot of mileage out of these figurines. Today I wonder how many other Generation X'ers remember looking forward to new Space Raiders inside McDonalds Happy Meals.
For more information on the Diener Ind.'s 1970s Space Raiders collection, check out Light Years to Yesteryear.
It was Christmas morning in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. The year: 1978. The big present of the season (and, perhaps, my of my young life...) was the Atari VCS that my wonderful parents had purchased for my sister and me.
But also lodged under the Christmas tree with care were two small boxes with my name on them. I opened them and was perplexed (but happily so...) at what I found.
The toys were Japanese. So I couldn't read the labels. But that's okay, I could see through the "bubble" and was enticed by what I saw.
One toy was a little white metal robot named "Qonto" (known as Tonto in some circles.) In the other box was his silver-and-gray metal "space saucer" which could fire missiles. Both were made by Bandai.
I didn't know it at the time, but these two unique toys came from a Japanese Star Wars rip-off movie entitled Message from Space.
Now, even at the time, I knew of the title. I had seen commercials for the movie on television and become sotra obsessed with it. For one thing, it looked like there was a space pirate ship in it (replete with solar sails...) I had desperately wanted to see the movie for my ninth birthday (December 3rd, 1978), but I remember that when we arrived at the theater (the only bloomin' theater in New Jersey showing the Japanese import...), the movie had already mysteriously left the premises. It seemed I was destined never to see it...
Still, I had Qonto and his space saucer to play with. I never knew how they fit into the film's plot, yet the toys were cool enough on their own. Qonto had removable hands, for instance, and you could "plug" in various attachments, such as laser weaponry. And you could open up the robot's skull and there was a cooling fan ensconced there, over a circuitry decal. Which again, I thought was neat.
I haven't thought much about Qonto and his space saucer in years, but last week, I ventured up into my attic -- I'm attempting to weed through my collection.
And what should I find?
A very worse-for-wear Bandai Qonto and his space saucer. These days, Qonto is missing one arm and all his attachments, but boy did these toys bring back some serious memories.
Anyway, below is a youtube video of a variaton on the Qonto I owned. Below that is the Message from Space trailer, and if I'm not mistaken, you can catch a glimpse of old Qonto there too.
Finally, I have to add that Joel -- who has shown more interest in cars, trucks, tools and sugar harvester combines (!) -- than in my toys, has become absolutely consumed with Qonto too. He can say "Qonto" and "saucer" and keeps asking me to see "robots."
