Toy Lines

1973 Ideal Evel Knievel Catalog

  In 1973, New York-based Ideal Toys created toys based on Butte Montana’s daredevil son, Robert “Evel” Knievel and history was made! Many thanks to Rob Chatlin for the terrific scans. Thanks to Knievel being a household name and the toy’s clever concept, it became a hot seller and one of the most memorable toy […]

1979 Kenner Megabug Gladiators Catalog

  Described by Kenner in 1979 as “Combat vehicles of the future….half insect, half-machine” Megabug Gladiators were perhaps just too ahead of their time. That’s pretty much the only reason I can think of to justify why this cool toy line of insect tanks wasn’t a hit with kids. Had it been spawned in the […]

A Micronauts Christmas

Christmas of 1979 was ALL ABOUT those Micronaut Aliens for me, it remains one of my happiest Christmas gets. Did anything on this page make it under the tree for you? PlaidStallions Toy-Ventures Issue 2 is now available for pre-order. http://www.megomuseum.com/odeon/store/products/   Limited Edition Gift Sets Available Now! Rather than crowdfund the next issue of […]

The Amazing Stretch Monster Mural

I was forward these amazing shots from the offices of Bang Zoom Design who have employed toy artist extraordinary Johnathan Queen to create another fantastic Kenner toy tribute mural (Johnathan painted this one from downtown Cincinnati). Their choice of classic toy tribute, none other than my white whale, Kenner Stretch Monster! Mark my words, when […]

Toy-Ventures: Remco Universal Monsters

    Toy-Ventures concludes “Monster Month” with a look at one of the coolest Monster toy lines of the 1980s, the Remco Monsters! We talk about its origins, both waves and it’s foreign releasing. Check out the Monsterizer Commericial here: Join our Facebook Group “Mego KOHQ” here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Megoknockoff Get issue 1 of Toy-Ventures Magazine here: […]

Amazing Lords of Light Discovery

  In the “amazing surprises in my mailbox” category comes this awesome find from Scott, who recently found this “Sword of Izzur” from the fabled PAC Toys “Lords of Light” toyline,  which was a reimagining of the “Micronauts” toys after Mego went bankrupt. We’ve done a Toy-Ventures episode on this range:   The thing about […]

1975 Rapco Catalog- Universal Monsters Hobby Kits- Famous Monsters

One of the bigger explosions in the seventies was the rise of the homemade craft kit, which no doubt was brought about by the hippie movement of the 60’s.. Children across America were making macrame (guilty!), rug hooking (guilty!) and happily making Christmas tree Candles (My father must have worried about me). One of the […]

1977 Gabriel Lone Ranger Catalog

The Lone Ranger toyline is easily one of the nicest action figure lines of the 1970s if not all time and Gabriel Toys had some real long-running success with it. This 1977 Catalog is the third year for the line and shows that it was still going strong, Gabriel put a lot of effort into […]