Archives

Shogun Warrior Memories

Although I never had them as a kid, the Shogun Warriors played a big part in my current dementia. My neighbor and then best pal Willie had Mazinga and I played with it every time I visited. Flash forward to 1983 when Willie was having a yard sale, I cruised by on my bmx and […]

Mattel Welcomes Kotter

Toy Fair 1977 : Mattel put a lot of time into developing a Welcome Back Kotter line of action figures in 1977 but they had bigger success with the Shogun Warriors also making a debut in 1977. The Space:1999 Zython figure mentioned here never saw release in North America but is occasionally available through German […]

Barbie for 1973

I don’t do enough girl’s related things here, so I thought it be fun to highlight some of the things that were new for Barbie in Spring of 1973. Barbie got curlier, Ken started looking like Ron Burgundy and everybody got a just a little bit mod.

Me Big JIm, No Wait Me Tarzan!

Even though this Mattel Tarzan set is made completely of recycled Big Jim pieces, (That’s Big Jeff as Lord Greystoke) it’s got to be one of my favourite action figures ever. For more Tarzan stuff check out our Tarzan Toys Gallery.

The top three worst female action figures of the 1970’s

Technical difficulties prevent me from doing a forgotten TV segment today, so I bring you some truly useless knowledge and opinion in it’s place:Top three worst Female Action Figures of the 1970’s#3- Ilia (Star Trek the Motion Picture by Mego)I want to preface by saying I like the Motion Picture and I think this figure […]

Mattel 1976 Superstar Christmas Fun Book

These great little colour digests were likely distributed in newspapers and at retail locations, hoping to load children’s Christmas wishlists with Mattel products. It’s a great smattering of hot toys of the day from the classic Barbie and Hot Wheels to 70’s phenoms Pulsar and the Sweathogs, this booklet is a nice cruise down memory […]

A 33 year old mystery solved

In kindergarten (which was 1974), I played with a type of weird toy where the figures all connected, for hours at a time. I’ve been trying to figure out what they were ever since with no luck, so I just figured they were education toys produced by some anonymous company. Nope, they were produced by […]

More Welcoming Back for Mr Kotter

Seeing as Gabe Kaplan is making news as an author these days it seems cool to revisit the Mattel Welcome Back Kotter dolls. The classroom playset had a record so you could reenact your favourite moments, the Sweathogs motorcycle was a clever recycling of Big Jim’s motor cross bike. Mattel never throws anything out!

He Man Envy

Masters of the Universe was another toy line that caught my eye during this time. It’s bright colors and simple themes reminded me of a simplier time (pretty amazing considering I was 12 at the time). Castle Greyskull is also one of the best done playsets I have ever seen. Although I closet watched the […]