Author Posts

Aquaman’s Death Defying Stunt

Jonathan sent these awesome photos of his family’s trip to sea world in, explaining that we’ve never mentioned Aquaman’s dive from a tower into a ring of fire before. He’s right, I hadn’t heard of that stunt but it seems totally appropriate for the King of the Sea to handle it over that spotlight hogging […]

1979 Parker Brothers ROM: SpaceKnight Press Kit

One of the biggest splashes in the toy industry is when game (and nerf) giant Parker Brothers decided to make an action figure. Not just any action figure but an electronic space hero with bells and whistles not seen before. Rom was truly a toy ahead of his time and while he didn’t prove to […]

That pointy eared kid sure plays a mean pinball

While I never really enjoyed “bagatelle” games as a kid, I must admit to being slightly addicted as an adult. Mostly to the crazy graphics on these things, AHI utilized this format for a number of licenses including Star Trek and Space:1999. Trek was deemed so popular that it came in two flavours, Spock (seen […]

Neighbourhood spies

Secret agents? Space capsules? These kids live in a far more exciting neighbourhood than me. The highlight of my walkie talkie spying career was catching my buddy’s sister in some guys van in ’79, it’s something I simply cannot unsee, I’m sure he felt 10,000 times worse.

1979 Kingsford Star Force Catalog

Following the blitz of Star Wars, a lot of previously unknown companies began cashing in on what the toy industry called the “Sci Fi craze” of the late 70s. These toys were often lower priced generic toys that likely offered better margin for the toy retailer. Kingsford’s line of Star Force toys is one of […]

The Shadow Knows?

I love a toy mystery but these rack toys based on pulp character The Shadow were driving me crazy, first, they looked almost exactly like Secondly, why The Shadow? It wasn’t like the character had a big presence in the mid seventies, even his DC title had been cancelled by this point. Fortunately, I met a kindly soul who […]

In a Minute Cake Maker?

The Ideal “In a Minute’ cake maker concept confuses me, mostly because there’s no baking involved in the baking. So many questions.  So why do you need an oven at all, why wasn’t this set simply a bowl, a cake pan and an egg timer? What the heck was the “cake” made of? Was it […]