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A world of Fisher Price Adventure

By ’81 I had moved on from the wholesome (and awesome) Fisher Price Adventure People line but it was such a happy memory that I can honestly remember pouring over the new sets in every wish book. I especially recall being kind of miffed about the submarine complete with octopus “Oh sure, now they come […]

Durham Kung Fu!

The Durham Kung Fu figure seemed to be everywhere in the early 1970s, not based on the David Carradine series it simply captured the culture’s then obsession with martial arts. I really wanted one of these as a kid but they’re pretty cheaply made and I’ve heard no end of stories about how his hands […]

Bendy Buck Rogers and Twiki

This past weekend I was grateful to recieve a surprising package from Jason, my podcast partner. If you had asked me to guess, I’d have never gotten it right but somehow it’s the perfect gift. More after the jump: So, it may be obvious to listeners and readers here that Brain loves hisself some Buck […]

Pod Stallions 58: The Star Wars Holiday Special

We’re back with a look at a much maligned (and let’s face it, it’s not great) chunk of our childhood, the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. Look, we’re not going to take such low hanging fruit, the truth is, it’s not any worse than most of what was called “entertainment” in 1978. In fact, it’s […]

El Squadron Lobo Big Jim Gallery Updated

It’s been ten years since I updated my little tribute page to the Kid Acero line of toys and it was long overdue.  Known to us as Big Jim, Mexican toy maker Cipsa infused the line with a heavy dose of creativity. The result is a Big Jim’s wolfpack with a rich science fiction flavour. […]

Japanese versions of US toys

I thought it may be fun to look at a few (but not all) examples of how some American favourites looked like over in Japan, the land of amazing toys and cartoons. We’ll start with the Mickey Mouse Snowcone machine, a take on the Snoopy Sno-Cone machine. This one confuses me because SNOOPY IS REALLY […]

Big Jim Motorcross Honda

Picked up this oddity at last month’s Kane County toy show. It’s the regular Big Jim Honda bike that was released for a couple of years but for some reason it’s got the Pack logo emblazoned on it. This isn’t a sticker either, it’s printed on the box. The best I can figure this is […]

Palitoy Commander Power; Fearless Defender of the Galaxy

Fortune smiled on me last month in the form of managing to pick up a Commander Power action figure.  Known to us kids as Super Joe, the British toy firm Palitoy made some fun changes to the line such as marketing the characters (Palitoy only selected 3 Super Joe characters) in large boxes and more […]

Canadas Greatest Toy Show and Sale

I had the pleasure of visiting the toy show that started it all for me today. The CTS show was the first I ever attended (probably when it was in it’s 15th year and I in my 16th) and i’m happy to say it’s going strong. The joy of this show is that it’s an old […]