Archives

Trading Card #31: Slade

Card #31 is one of my bigger regrets in toy collecting, I used to actually own a Shindana Slade doll and loved it but in the massive purge I did in preparation for my first child, he was cut from the team. It was one of those panicked things first time fathers do I guess.During […]

Shindana Toys for 1976

Shindana (a Swahili word roughly meaning “to compete”) toys was formed in 1968 after “Operation Bootstrap” was created. Their goal was to improve black self image by producing ethnically correct toys. According to their literature, they did this to promote understanding and love. I’ve always wanted to do a feature about Shindana on Plaidstallions as […]

Scenes from Toyfair 1976

If there is a toy company that I would like to have a catalog from, it’d be Shindana, they made some neat-o toys in the mid seventies and their president had the world’s greatest sideburns. A shot of the 1976 Azrak Hamway booth shows the two different sizes of Mr. Spock Bop Bags. It’s funny […]

JJ and OJ

Two celebrity dolls, two very different professions. The guy on the bottom is J.J Armes by Ideal, a real life detective who lost his hands as a child and uses prosthetics. I saw the commercial for this as a kid but for a long time thought I dreamt it. The other doll by Shindana had […]

Kid Dino-Mite!

I need this toy and I need it now, I watched Good Times religiously. This would be just the thing to annoy the hell out of my wife on long car rides.

You Gotta Wash Yer Ass, Kid

I love Redd Foxx but I kind of think it weird that a toy company (my guess would be Shindana) thought that the nightclub comic and TV Superstar would make the perfect Teddy Bear.Maybe his TV Character Fred Sanford but Foxx himself worked pretty blue, bless his heart. One of his sayings, “Wash your face […]