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Vintage Toy Store Pictures Volume 18

For this year’s last Friday feature, I bring you my favourite of all sections of PlaidStallions another volume of vintage toy store pictures! Celebrating the time when we had unique independent retailers dotting our landscape and came up with colourful and and interesting ways of selling us toys. Volume 18 is our biggest yet and loaded with […]

1977 Gabriel Toys 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 […]

1977 Gabriel Toys Hal Needham: Stuntman Catalog

1977 saw Gabriel Toys try an interesting experiment in action figures. Instead of licensing a hollywood movie, they sought to captilize on the making of a movie by creating a set based on then legendary stuntman Hal Needham.  The unique concept had a child filming a stunt sequence in a movie and was actually one […]

1975 Lone Ranger UK Catalog

The brilliant Gabriel Toys Lone Ranger action figure line was a big hit in North America but it was also a smash in the UK, where is was sold by Marx Toys. Today, we’ve got the 1975 catalog for the British Lone Ranger series which includes some sweet photos of store displays like this: Visit […]

The Old West by Gabriel

In 2013, we got a pretty disappointing Lone Ranger movie, just like we did in 1981. In 1981, we got a killer action figure line for that Lone Ranger movie that was so good, most kids loved them anyway. Advantage 1981…. Gabriel Legend of the Lone Ranger Catalog.

1974 Kusan Halloween Catalog

Kusan may not be as well known as Ben Cooper or Collegeville for Halloween  and they certainly didn’t get the “A” licenses but they sure knew how to create some innovative and highly creative costumes. From ideas like combining a kazoo into a Halloween mask to Licensing teen heartthrobs like David Cassidy,  this is not just a […]

Vintage Toy Store Photos Volume 15

  Seeing as it’s the site’s birthday, it’s no better time to drop a new installment in what is one of my favorites, vintage toy store photos. A journey back to the days of oddly named department stores and independent mall toy stores and chains that are fondly remembered but sadly mostly gone.  Vintage Toy […]

Christmas Cowboys

Although they were far past prime, Western action figures were still very much a viable commodity in the 1970s. I’d even be willing to argue that Gabriel’s seminal Lone Ranger line may be one of the top ten action figure lines of the 1970s. Check em all out here:

1974 APC Puzzle Catalog

Who didn’t love Puzzles in a can? American Publishing Corporation sure knew what kids liked in 1974, their collection included the DC comics Superheroes, Universal Monsters, Dinosaurs even the Lone Ranger himself! Check out the cool Puzzle displays here This one’s a little light this week, I’ve been battling the flu lately but next week […]

1977 Marx Ready Gang Catalog

In 1977, Marx Toys launched the Ready Gang a beautiful line of 9″ action figures from the old west with little to no back story (seriously are these guys outlaws for good guys?) and it quietly flopped in the market place. It’s a shame as the figures are not only attractive but well made, nowadays I […]