Archive for March, 2012



Disney’s The Black Hole: Toys and Models

I’m excessively fond of The Black Hole (1979). No, it wasn’t Star Wars, but it was a clever riff on Verne’s classic Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and the story literally revolves around the most mysterious phenomenon in the universe. The sets and the visuals are amazing, the good guys and robots likable (if corny), and the bad robot awesomely sinister. The merchandise campaign was massive, and I’ll catalog as much of it as I can in multiple posts.

The action figures were well done, but, because this was a Disney movie, guns were included only with the Robot Sentry and S.T.A.R. figures. How did they expect the good guys to win in a firefight?

There were also these creepy 12″ dolls, which I never quite understood.

The models, still much sought after, will cost you more than anything else in the line. What to do if I had to choose between the Cygnus and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea‘s Seaview?

There was also a Fisher-Price Movie Viewer (see it via Toys You Had) and a slew of unreleased toys that you can check out at bugeyedmonster. And let’s not forget the commercials, courtesy of Megomuseum’s brilliant YouTube Channel.

TSR’s Endless Quest Books, 1982 – 1987

Dungeon 1982

Mountain 1982

Pillars 1982

Return 1982

TSR’s Endless Quest series came out in 1982, and was promptly lapped up by D&D-heads everywhere. The “Pick-A-Path to Adventure” tag was a direct rip-off of the hugely successful Choose Your Own Adventure line, which I also loved, but Endless Quest was grittier and had cooler cover art (the covers above are by Larry Elmore).

Thanks to Demian Katz for the book cover images, and for providing a comprehensive database of the series, including a summary and review of each volume. Some ads below.

Endless Quest 1982

Endless Quest 1984

Endless Quest Ad-3

Arcade Zen

Lloyd N Phillips/Flickr

Oh yeah. Can you hear A Flock of Seagulls in the background?

rbglasson/Flickr

Killer line-up of games here. Crystal Castles was psychedelic, man… Oops, that’s not Crystal Castles, that’s a game called Circus Charlie.

conrado4/Flickr

Introducing… the acid wash (a.k.a stone wash) pinch roll. An ’80s classic.

conrado4/Flickr

The pinch roll with high-tops.

conrado4/Flickr

Bermuda shorts and those stupid hats. What were they called?

G. J. Charlet III/Flickr

1983 Chuck E. Cheese’s birthday party outing. Get in the van, kids!


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