Catalogs

Mattel MegaForce Toy Catalog from 1982

  MegaForce was poised to be the action blockbuster of 1982. The 20 million dollar Chinese/American co-production had an impressive marketing budget which wisely targeted kids with it’s sci-fi military stunt show of a movie. It also easily found licensors; on paper, this looked like a slam dunk. The only problem was that people eventually […]

Smokey Bear Jeep by Gabriel Toys

Like most people, I thought it was “Smokey THE Bear” but this wonderful shot from the 1978 Gabriel Toys catalogue is loudly disagreeing with me. There is only one logical answer, I’m in the wrong universe. #SmokeyBear More Gabriel toys here!   The Lincoln Monsters are here!       Toy-Ventures is our magazine; we’re […]

Mattel’s A Bad Case of Worms

I had completely forgotten this toy existed! A Bad Case of Worms was yet another “gross out” item from Mattel, who had big hits with “Slime” and the follow up “Slime with Worms.“ This time the concept was a tiny case filled with rubber worms you can huck at people or walls. The fleixble worms […]

Kenner’s “Bionic Pink” wins awards

This article from 1976 is in celebration of Kenner winning packaging awards from two different associations for the Steve Scout and Six Million Dollar Man toy lines, respectively. With the Bionic Toylines, the colour pink was traditionally considered taboo in boy’s toys (as was black), but in doing this, Kenner stood apart in the action […]

Toy-Ventures: Invasion of the Space Knock-Offs

Toy-Ventures: Invasion of the Space Knock-Offs   Space Apes! Star Warriors! Galaxy Maidens! Toy-Ventures returns with a long-overdue look at recent knock-off action figure pickups based on Mego Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, Moon McDare, and numerous space vixens. #Mego #startrek #knockoffs   Click Here for past installments of 5 Awesome Things on eBay […]