Girder & Panel Building Set

When I was young, I remember going to a neighbours house and being enthralled with a building set that allowed me to build sky scrappers and other buildings just like a real builder - so the box said. I have been looking for this building set for years and other than seeing it on eBay, I had never seen one for sale in a thrift shop or collectors store. Finally last week I found one at a local thrift shop, and it was pretty much complete in box. I told my son how much fun I had building with it when I was a kid and he couldn't wait to get home and bust it open.
When we got home, we opened it and began to build our sky scrapper. I was enjoying the experience of building my tower up from the ground up, but my son found it frustrating that the parts were hard to snap together, and he got bored rather quickly and then just sat there watching me build. Once I got a good sized tower built, he disappeared and reappeared a few minutes later with a handful of Godzilla action figures. He then sat and waited patiently for me to finish my work. Once I was done, he moved in to begin attacking the building with his army of giant monsters. Once he was done, it seemed like a good time to do some comic book reading, and he found the perfect comic book to read after the giant battle.

CARtoons '69 Camaro

The other day while checking out all the great stuff at our favorite used toy store (Toy Traders), I found this Muscle Machines die cast Adult Collectible '69 Camaro, with a collectible CARtoons magazine collectors card (it actually says "Adult Collectible" on the packaging. It is hidden under the collectible card. You can just see the last 'e' of the word collectible under the ES of Muscle MachinES).
I loved the CARtoons magazine as a kid, and still do to this day. I have even been picked up many old issues of the magazine here and there as I scour the local thrift shops. I always thought the jacked up cars with all the flames on them in the magazine were pretty cool.
This was the only one the Toy Traders had, and it was in the discount bin, so I decided to pick it up to add to our cars collection. My son loves playing with Matchbox / Hot Wheels cars, and has a great collection of cars from the Disney/Pixar movie Cars. I decided to buy this car, so I could have a 'cool ride' when playing 'cars' with my son.
It was really hard to actually bust it out of the package, as I usually keep everything 'mint', but once I did, my son couldn't wait to play with it. I broke the rules and let him play with it, even though it clearly stated right on the package that this is an "Adult collectible".

Check out these photos of the fun that ensued...

Sgt. Rock from REMCO

While reading some old comic books, I came across this ad for the Remco Sgt. Rock action figures and vehicles. As a child of the 70's, I was overly excited to play with war themed toys, tanks being the coolest of them all! I remember having the A.T.C. Amphibious Armored Troop-Carrier "with working action gatling gun" as shown in this ad. How cool was a vehicle that could drive on land and cruise on water, AND had a BA (Big Ass) Gun to blow stuff up! I also had one G.I. Joe figure, but because it was the larger size figure, it was only good for being the attacking giant that all my other action figures would battle. My G.I. Joe was also pretty rough looking, as I remember trying to burn off his beard!
Sgt. Rock first appeared in G.I. Combat #68 (Jan. 1959). His rank is not given in this story; instead, he is merely called "The Rock." The Rock returned as a sergeant in Our Army at War #81 (April 1959) with his unit, Easy Company (the precise US Army infantry regiment to which Easy belonged was never identified during the history of the character). Sgt. Rock steadily gained popularity, until, in 1977, the name of the comic was changed to Sgt. Rock. The comic ran until Sgt. Rock #422 (July 1988). In addition to the semi-regular comic, several "digests" were sold, under the DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest banner, reprinting stories from Our Army at War or Sgt. Rock. Some were subtitled as OAAW or Sgt. Rock, some as Sgt. Rock's Prize Battle Tales.
A line of 3-3/4" action figures bearing the SGT. ROCK name was released in the 1980s.

Kinda Related to Last Post...

Today while out checking out my favorite thrift shops, I came across this book called TJ Bearytales: My Bear-riffic Safari Adventure. After Monday's post all about the Knott's Beary Tales attraction, I decided to pick this up.
It turns out this is part of a Playskool musical toy. On the first page it says "Slide the play camera into T.J.'s left paw and during the story, he'll snap pretend pictures!" On the back page it says "Slide switch at top of the backpack to 'on'. Push to start or pause the story. Push 'music note' for activities & songs." So, apparently this is part of a toy that comes with a spoken story & music, stuffed bear (with camera and backpack), and the book which I picked up.

Polaris Nuclear Sub, just $6.98

Here is a great 70's ad from inside a comic book. It's for the Polaris Nuclear Sub... for only $6.98. It's over 7 feet long, seats 2 kids, has controls that work, rockets that fire, real periscope, firing torpedoes, and an electrically lit instrument panel. This sub does everything but get wet!
This is one of those items that I remember seeing all the time in comics and wishing I could buy. Now as an adult, I wish I could buy one for two reasons; 1) it would be really cool to have this item in my collection - I'm sure the packaging is very retro cool looking. 2) I would love to see what it actually looked like. As a kid, I thought it was an actual sub that you could go into the ocean with and shoot rockets and torpedoes etc. I'm sure I never read the ad closely enough to actually read the fact that it was made of fiberboard - hardly something that was going to be seaworthy! Like so many of the items from comic ads, I would absolutely love to see the actual items today, just to confirm all of the thoughts I had as I got older, about how hokey these items really were, and to see how accurate the ad text of these ads really were!
Here is what the small print on the ad had to say about the Polaris Nuclear Sub. How proud you will be as commander of your own Polaris Sub - the most powerful weapon in the world! What hours of imaginative play and fun as you and your friends dive, surface, maneuver, watch the enemy though the periscope and fire your nuclear missiles and torpedoes! What thrills as you play at hunting sunken treasures in pirate waters and exploring the strange and mysterious bottom of the deep ocean floor!
Hours and hours of adventure. Sturdily constructed of 200 lb. test fiberboard. Comes complete with easy assembly instructions. Costs only $6.98 for this giant of fun, adventure and science. (Because of the Polaris Sub's giant size we must ask for 75 cents shipping charges.)
Money back guarantee. Order today and we will rush your Polaris Nuclear Sub to you. use it for 10 full days. If you don't think it is the greatest ever - the best toy you ever had - just send it back for full purchase price refund.
Luckily this item came with a 10 day free trail, so it had to be good, right!?

[since posting this, I found this great post over at the Secret Fun Blog. It includes a photo and description of the actual sub!]

Lakeside's Demolition Derby

This weekend I found a few new thrift stores and I ended up finding some great stuff! Among my finds were 10 Whitman "Tell-A-Tale Books", 12 Little Golden books, another 15 assorted books including a Walt Disney "Black Hole" novel, 7 Disney records, and a very cool Demolition Derby game from Lakeside games.
From the box: "You do the steering - smash the pop-up cars - race the closing gate"
"On your make! Get set! Open the gate! 12 pop up cars are on the field! Demolition Demon is moving out! He pops one in the air! CRASH! The Demon bounces off the wall! He fishtales across the field! BAM SMASH! Two more pop out, they're flying high! 10 seconds to go. The pit stop is closing up! Get back! Hurry up! 3 more gone! As he slides home safe! What a champ!"
The plastic gameboard, which is about 13" square, has a series of two-dimensional colored plastic target cars set on it which are triggered by rubber bands located beneath the board. A small area of the board is sectioned off (the Pits) behind a gate which serves as the timing mechanism for each person's turn. A small car (the 'Demon') that relies on a ball bearing for mobility is placed behind the gate which is released by an opponent when all the targets are in position.
The instructions describe several variations of the game but all basically involve bumping into as many of the target cars with the Demon as possible and returning to the Pits before the timing gate closes.
As soon as I saw this on the shelve I knew I had to have it! The great artwork on the box first drew my attention, and when I saw it was a demolition derby game, I snapped it up! As soon as I got home I had to try it out and luckily almost everything was still in the box. It is missing two of the plastic target cars and the two handles for moving the board are missing - but it is easy enough to more without the handles. I popped in the target cars and proceeded to move the board up and down to direct the Demon car to fly around the board bumping into the other cars, sending them flying into the air!
Ahh, what fun to be had for a buck!

Pizza Hut Pete

On June 15, 1958, brothers Frank and Dan Carney took advantage of the "pizza craze" sweeping the country by opening the first Pizza Hut in Wichita. A year later the first Pizza Hut franchise opened in Topeka, and the move to become a national chain was on.
One of the first symbols of the company was "Pizza Hut Pete," shown here in the form of a plastic sign that was part of Pizza Hut oven toy for children. I found this one at a local thrift shop. Too bad they didn't have the toy oven to go with it. I'm sure my son would have loved it, as we love going to Pizza Hut every Friday afternoon for the "All You Can Eat" pizza buffet. Pizza Hut was one of the first things Kaden learned to say!
"Pete" was used by the company into the mid-1970s, when the familiar red roof logo began to appear. "Pete" might simply have outlived his usefulness, or perhaps he was seen as too much of an Italian stereotype to be an effective image for the company.

Board Game Mania

Recently I picked up a book called Celebrating Board Games by Nina Chertoff and Susan Kahn. It was only a couple of buck and had some great photos of some nifty Disney board games I hadn't seen before. The same week, I also picked up an old Trouble board game from my local thrift store. I didn't think much about it, until later that same week I happened to see a short time filler on the Space Network. They have a show called "It Came From the Basement" which they show off peoples collections. It usually comes on after a movie etc to fill space before the next show. On this particular episode they went to a guys home that collected board games. He had a few shelves in his living room with some pretty neat looking old board games. I was surprised when the show host asked him questions about a few games, and he said he had no idea what those games were? Then when asked how many games he had in total, he said, "I must have almost 100 games." First off, I could not believe that someone who collected board games would have some in their collection that they had never opened and looked at - he had no idea what the object of some of them was! And second, I thought, "gee, 100... I don't really consider myself a board game collector, and I have almost 100 of them!". Some of my favorites in my collection are: Tank Battle, I Vant to Bite Your Finger, Battling Tops, Park and Shop, Abominable Snowman, Mad Magazine game, Walt Disney's Tomorrowland, Haunted Mansion game, Inner Circle and Clue. And, just for the record... I have played them all!

Virtual Kaden Action Figure

I am a big fan of Disney's 2001 animated feature, Atlantis, and I recently found a few Atlantis action figures on the discount table of a local department store. The summer that Atlantis came out, they had just opened a cheap theater across the street from my house, and that summer I went to see the movie at least 10 times. A few of those times I went, just to beat the heat, and enjoy the soundtrack. I enjoyed the movie so much, that I started collecting Atlantis stuff, and now have a large glass case full of Atlantis memorabilia.

I needed one of the action figures for my display, so I bough it, along with a few others, and brought them home. When it came time to pop one of the "Milo" action figures open to add to my display case, my son Kaden came to see what I was doing. Once I had opened the package, Kaden asked for the packaging to play with. When he held the package up to his face and looked though it, I thought it looked pretty funny, so I grabbed my camera and took a few photos. Then with a little work in Photoshop, we added his name to the packaging, and voila I had a virtual Kaden action figure.

My Race Set Mania

Recently I found a great old photo from December 25th, 1967. It's a photo of my father and myself with a super neato racing set! I was just two months old at the time. I wonder if the race set was for me, or for dad?
Then, if you go back to yesterdays blog and click to enlarge the photo of me with my train set you can see on the left is a smaller table with a racing set on it. So that was race set number two, some time in early to mid 70's.

Then in 1979, I got my third and final racing set, the Ideal TCR Total Control Racing, Lighted Blazers Jam Car Special. This set came with two cars that two players could control, and a third card, a slotless jam car that would drive around by itself and get in your way. The race track did not have slots like the average set, so you could flip a switch on the controller to change lanes to pass your competition. And to make things even more exciting, the cars had working headlights and glowed in the dark! It didn't get much better than that for a 12 year old!

Much like the train set, I am sure that at some point, Kaden and I will drag this out of the basement and set it up for some "Slotless track-real passing" racing action!

Train Scale HO

One of the coolest Christmas presents I ever remember receiving was my first train set. I don't remember the exact year, but I would guess it was some time in the mid 70's. It had a green engine, about 3 box cars, a flat bed with 3 removable tractors, an oil tanker, a caboose, and enough track to make an oval, and of course an electic power pack to make the thing run. I remember going out to a lumber yard somewhere to buy a large piece of plywood to nail the track to and setting it up on a table in my room (see photo below).

I remember a Christmas or two later, I received a second train set. This one was the ultra cool "US Army" edition which was all camo green and came with a flatbed with a removable tank on it, a car with a large cannon, a box car with doors that flipped down to revel two swiveling guns, etc. In 1980 we moved into a townhouse which had a basement, and I decided to set up my train in a large way. By this time I have collected all sorts of engines, cars, lots of track, buildings etc. My friend Lew and I started working on building the layout, including sculpted mountains and a complete town (see the accompanying colour photos of the layout as it was being dismantled). When we moved 3 years ago, I had to tear down my train diorama, as there was no way to move it. I took a few photos of the set up before I began dismantling it. I thought a few of the photos looked kinda cool in black and white.




The entire train set now sits in boxes in the basement of our new house, waiting the day my son Kaden asks about it and we can dig it out once again.

The Green Machine

Continuing with a transportation theme, today I present the Green Machine. As a young kid in the '70s I had a Big Wheel, but I really wanted the Green Machine. I only knew one kid in my neighborhood that had a Green Machine, and I would hang out with him as much as possible - just hoping he might say, "Wanna try it out?" Well after almost 20 years, the Green Machine is back.

THE GREEN MACHINE! It's not easy being green, and that is just the way we like it. Only Huffy Could create a machine that will define a whole new generation of cool. The NEW 2006 Green Machine Tri-Wheel by Huffy Bikes has a sleek and stable low profile design with strong steel construction. This next-generation tri-wheel will capture the imagination of a slightly older, more experienced rider for the ultimate in spin-out action. The all new Huffy Green Machine is designed and engineered for today's kids. The new version of this old favorite Green Machine is high tech, durable and cool with features such as: Sleek and stable low-profile design for maximum control and fun. The Huffy Green Machine's adjustable seat fits a wide variety of kids. Super wide rear slick tires spin-out through turns. Strong steel construction keeps it all together. Low riding spin-out tricycle - Defines low riding pedal spin-out excitement!
Below is the original 1976 Marx Toys Green Machine.

Smash Up Derby

"You can hoot and holler, cause you ain't seen nothing yet!" I remember the commercials I would see during my favorite after school cartoons for the SSP (Super Sonic Power) Smash Up Derby set. They made these things look so amazing, as they would jump the ramps and smash into each other, causing car parts to fly everywhere. What kid wouldn't want to own one of these things? Luckily for me I found one of these in the original box about 10 years ago in a junk store, and finally I was able to live the dream of being a smash up derby driver, just like in those commercials from the 70's. I love dragging these out of the closet for parties. Those old enough to remember them, can't wait to get one of those T-handle power sticks in their hands to drive their car off the ramp and into an oncoming car to enjoy the carnage the ensues. Then put it back together, to do it all over again, and again, and again!