Happy Holidays to all! Have fun and be safe. I’ll be back on January 5th.
(Ad is from a 1964 Chicago Tribune TV Guide, via Rick Goldschmidt)
Archive for December, 2014
Christmas Morning, Circa 1981: Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set
Published December 24, 2014 Christmas , Christmas Morning , D&D 2 Comments
Dr. Glaze wins Christmas!
Christmas Morning, 1978: S.T.A.R. Team’s Knight of Darkness
Published December 23, 2014 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , Christmas , Christmas Morning , Ideal Toys , Micronauts , S.T.A.R. Team 4 Comments
Rick Shithouse sent in this shot of him in Torquay, Victoria, Australia on what he believes is Christmas, 1978.
I remember being highly excited as this was my first Star Wars Christmas, and I’m pretty sure I got some action figures and the remote control R2D2. Kind of hard to pick out what else I got that year however, because my birthday’s in early December, so those early years kind of blur between both gift receiving days.
I’m holding an Ideal Knight Of Darkness, which my parents thought was Darth Vader. My disappointment about this when I corrected them is still clearly in my expression…
The Micronauts Aquatron is on the table next to him, and I see Bert and Ernie dolls as well. Pictures of the major prizes, via the Star Wars Collectors Archive and all-things-Micronauts collector Chuck, are below.
Christmas Morning, 1979: Micronauts and Starcruiser 1
Published December 22, 2014 Christmas , Christmas Morning , Make Mine Marvel , Micronauts , Model Kits 3 Comments
Joseph Dickerson has good taste. Everyone knows by now how much I love the Micronauts line (Ken Kelly box art on the Hornetroid), and that’s The Hulk Rage Cage (Fun Stuff, 1978) in the background of the first shot.
Starcruiser was a series proposed in the late 1970s by Gerry Anderson about “an ultra-modern house where a mother, father, and two kids lived. At the touch of a button the house would literally fold into a spaceship. The family would travel around the universe from planet to planet… ” (See here for source and more background.) The series never made it to the air, obviously, but a comic strip of the same name appeared in UK’s Look-In magazine from 1977 to 1979. The writer and author of the strip was David Jefferis, who was working on Usborne’s World of the Unknown and World of the Future series at the same time. (My interview with Mr. Jefferis will run next month.) Airfix’s gorgeous model (1979) was based on the strip.
Side one of Timothy Smith‘s mom-transcribed list. I think he pretty much nails it. The Fisher-Price Sea Shark and Land Speed Racer are classic Adventure People sets.
I assume that “Hoth military vehicles – on[e] that looks like it flys” is the Snowspeeder.
I wonder if he got his machine gun.
Christmas Morning, 1962: Marx’s Operation Moon Base
Published December 19, 2014 '60s Decor/Design/Fashion , Christmas , Christmas Morning , Marx Toys/Playsets , Space Race , Space Toys/Playsets Leave a Comment
Found photos of a very influential Marx set I talked about in a different Christmas morning shot. There were space exploration-themed playsets before Operation Moon Base, but this is the one that stuck. Molds from Moon Base would be re-used in different Marx sets (including 1979’s Galaxy Command) for nearly 20 years.
The playset format perfected by Marx dominated until Kenner met Star Wars.
A Holiday Shopping Guide: `The Best Video Games of 1981′
Published December 18, 2014 Christmas , TV Guide , Video Games Closed
Last year I posted TV Guide’s “Best Video Games of 1982,” by Len Albin. Thanks to Tom at Garage Sale Finds, we now have the 1981 edition by the same author. Lots of handhelds listed here, including Galaxian 2, a great game from Entex that allows one person or head-to-head play, with one of the players controlling the dive-bombing aliens.
Also check out the hilarious 1974 Avon Catalog Tom found, from which you can order a Thirteen Original Colonies Pillow ($8.99), or Loop-A-Moose Game and Soap ($2.99).
Christmas Morning, 1982: G.I. Joe and Tron
Published December 18, 2014 Christmas , Christmas Morning , G.I. Joe , Pac-Man , Raiders of the Lost Ark , Tomy Toys , Tron 1 Comment
Compulsive Collector (see lots more Christmas toy cheer at the link) patrols the living room on his G.I. Joe Laser Defense Patrol Power Cycle. Coleco released a number of Joe trikes and ride-on vehicles starting in 1982, some of which you can see here.
There’s an empty Tron Light Cycle box on the ground to his right. The Light Cycle (orange) is on his left. In the second photo, he’s holding the Tron action figure and the Raiders of the Lost Ark Read-Along record. You can also see The Pac-Man Album (1980), a two-sided picture disc, playing on a Smurfs record player.
As toy and game vintages go, 1982 was extraordinary.
A Cabbage Patch Christmas (Parker Brothers Music, 1984)
Published December 17, 2014 Cabbage Patch Kids , Christmas , Records (LPs) and Cassettes Leave a Comment
Cabbage Patch Kid #1: That was great, Colonel Casey, can we do it again?
Cabbage Patch Kid #2: Yeah, take us on another ride!
Cabbage Patch Kid #3: Yeah!
Colonel Casey: Sure, we’ll do it again.
So creepy. Yeah, I listened to most of it. So what?
There was also a TV movie called The Cabbage Patch Kids First Christmas that premiered in December of ’84. Lucky for all of us, it’s not available on the internets.
Christmas Morning, 1983: Cabbage Patch Kids, Return of the Jedi, and Inter-Changeables
Published December 17, 2014 '80s Decor/Design/Fashion , Board Games/Tabletop Games , Christmas , Christmas Morning , Garfield , Micronauts , Star Wars (Original Trilogy) 2 Comments
The happy kid has diverse tastes, and a sleeping bag (Cabbage Patch Kids for summer, Return of the Jedi for winter?) for every occasion. I think she’s wearing a Care Bears sweater.
Between ROTJ and the Garfield trash can is the Centipede (1983) board game. In a fascinating, sometimes clever, yet ultimately desperate attempt to compete with the new gaming paradigm, Milton Bradley released a number of board games based on popular (and not so popular) video games well into the ’90s, including Berserk and Zaxxon.
I don’t know what the C.A.R.P. box is. There’s a bird feeder kit in the trash can.
UPDATE: Thank you, Bradley Conrad, who figured out that C.A.R.P. is a Biotron clone (Cosmic Android Robot Probe) from the Inter-Changeables line. The Inter-Changeables were post-Mego and not technically Micronauts, although many of the molds are identical. Innerspace Online has the line being released around 1985, but I’m almost positive the photo above is from 1983. (Box images below are via Hake’s.) The title of this post has been updated to reflect Bradley’s great find.
(First image via eBay)
2 Warps to Neptune 