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Barbie-Lution

One of the things that bother me about Barbie is the fact that her hands can’t hold anything, not that I’d go on a shopping spree if she did mind you. I was surprised to find out that in 1973, an opposable thumb was actually a selling feature on both her and Ken. I’m surprised […]

SLIME: No Redeeming Social Merit But it Sells

August 5 1977– Slime is not a B film playing second bill to “Sheba, the Slug Queen” at the local drive-in. It is, rather, a moist, sticky, six-ounce gob of gelatinous goo. It looks like something extremely rude.The novelty item also sticks to drapes, carpets, furniture and hair. And it sells. “We can’t keep it […]

Big Jim for 1972

In the early seventies, Mattel toys had a big hit on their hands with Big Jim, a nine inch muscle bound sports hero/man’s man who came packaged in his underpants. Jim’s entire structure was mostly built on non violent, positive activities such as sports and outdoor adventures. This seems to be the result of parental […]

A Goulish Gallery of Values

It’s refreshing to see this many monster toys on a Christmas catalog page, usually they get kind of dismissed or marginalized as being “seasonal”. The only thing missing is some slime. While I’ve blogged about Gre-Gory being the one that got away for me as a kid and my obsession with the Remco Monsters is […]

Copter Envy

Although I never had Vertibird or any of the licensed Remco CSF Copters, I lived vicariously through the kids who did. Does anybody remember a version of this you could play in an arcade? It was in a big dome and you had to hunt a UFO, this was pre Space Invaders obviously. I sometimes […]

Colouring Book Theatre: Big Jim

Sharry brought me this welcome site this week, another wonderful piece of toy tie in merchandising from the era before toy based cartoons. Big Jim was Mattel’s response to parental outrage to war toys in the late sixties (which also made G.I. Joe an adventurer) here was a good natured sportsman who enjoyed things like […]

More Trading Cards

I’m unveiling two more PlaidStallions Trading Cards today at Megomeet so I thought I’d share, I opened the series with bad guys, both by Kenner, that was totally unintentional. So I decided the next two would be good guys and by coincidence, they’re both Mattel Toys. Pulsar seemed like a natural, this image is mind […]

Barbie Envy

While not born a girl and being fortunate enough that my parents didn’t try to raise me as one regardless, I find it odd how nostalgic this page makes me. I think as a kid I was envious that Barbie got that cool boat and Big Jim didn’t. Barbie and Jim shared campers, planes, cars […]

P.A.C.K Attack

Big Jim’s P.A.C.K has always been a grand obsession of mine although space issues forced me to part with much of my collection years ago. The carded outfits (like the SWAT set pictured here) are especially large and hard to display. The Swamp Boat pictured here is difficult to find especially boxed, there is also […]

Pulsar, Sweathogs, Space:1999 and Shogun Warriors

The feature this friday is the boys action figure lines in the 1977 Mattel Catalog. It would be a great year for the toy giant, with the release of homegrown organic Superhero Pulsar and the imported Shogun Warriors line. Mattel also continued with TV licensing including the Sweathogs of Welcome Back Kotter and a second […]