Ran across this pic this fine Christmas Eve and it gave me the giggles.
DR.G
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Silent Night, Deadly Night, "Ira's Toys", world's sketchiest toy store
Keeping with the Christmas spirit, I decided this would be a good time to post some screencaps of Ira's Toys from Silent Night, Deadly Night.
I have no clue if this was an actual toy store, or if it was a merely set dressing. It's hard to find any behind the scenes info on the movie and the credits are like snuff movie credits. Nothing saying where it was shot. No "special thanks to", etc.
Anyway, Ira's Toys is a creepy, 3 aisle, understocked hole in the wall. It looks like a closeout toy outlet store run by meth addicts. But it has some cool, now-vintage toys from the early to mid 80s.
I have no clue if this was an actual toy store, or if it was a merely set dressing. It's hard to find any behind the scenes info on the movie and the credits are like snuff movie credits. Nothing saying where it was shot. No "special thanks to", etc.
Anyway, Ira's Toys is a creepy, 3 aisle, understocked hole in the wall. It looks like a closeout toy outlet store run by meth addicts. But it has some cool, now-vintage toys from the early to mid 80s.
Ira's Toy
Check out the cool Halloween costumes
Star Wars Dewback and a pile of Jabba the Hut toys
Poochie! The Rockin' Dog!
Matchbox Super Garage, Stomper, Mr. Potato Head
Wider shot of the Sat Wars toys. Below them you can see a couple of Manglors hanging on the shelf and the KRULL board game. Sweet.
Close-up of Star Wars toys. See the Luke figure card peaking out?
Another aisle with some various Smurf items and dolls.
Look behind the manager on the top shelf: A Masters of the Universe standee and Castle Greyskull. Also a couple of He-Man kites below them.
That's it. A Wide shot of the store to close us out.
There was some GI Joe stuff, but nothing I could get a decent grab of.
-Dr.G
More Montgomery Ward scans: 1981 and 1982
Here's some more scans. I combined '81 and '82, since '81 was a pretty lackluster catalog.
1981
Those helmets kick serious ass, especially the yellow one.
Empire Strike Back
1982
A Smurfy Christmas Cover
Here's that "Total Immersion" thing I was talking about in the previous post. Here's what life would be if you ate, breathed and poohed Pac-man (Which I think I tried to do from ages 7 to 8)
Those Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man puppets are the most terrifying things I've seen in a while. Good, 'ole fashioned, armless-nightmare fuel.
The debut of GI JOE
Empire Strike Back
An excellent Atari spread from the fold out back cover of the catalog.
This blew my mind. A WKRP DJ booth control center record player. I'm a huge WKRP fan, but had no idea they did any merchandise. Santa, please bring me one of these, mint in the box. "Boooooogerrrrrr!!!"
Table top video games
1981
Those helmets kick serious ass, especially the yellow one.
Empire Strike Back
1982
A Smurfy Christmas Cover
Here's that "Total Immersion" thing I was talking about in the previous post. Here's what life would be if you ate, breathed and poohed Pac-man (Which I think I tried to do from ages 7 to 8)
Those Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man puppets are the most terrifying things I've seen in a while. Good, 'ole fashioned, armless-nightmare fuel.
The debut of GI JOE
Empire Strike Back
An excellent Atari spread from the fold out back cover of the catalog.
This blew my mind. A WKRP DJ booth control center record player. I'm a huge WKRP fan, but had no idea they did any merchandise. Santa, please bring me one of these, mint in the box. "Boooooogerrrrrr!!!"
Table top video games
It's Christmas, or so I've heard...
Dude, Christmas is next week! How the hell did this happen? I haven't even had a chance to put my tree up...
Well, here's something that always puts me in the spirit. Christmas Catalogs! During those childhood years these were the text books for Holiday Education 101. My mom used to get them all. Sears, JC Penny, Service Merchandise and my favorite... Montgomery Ward (or "MONKEY WARTS"! when I was too dumb to know better). And from November until January, these would be stacked on the coffee table in the living room. Constantly read and re-read. Favorite toys dog-eared for quick reference.
All the wish books were great, but I always gravitated to Montgomery Ward. I think one of the big reasons was they would do multi-paged themed layouts. It would be total immersion; a lifestyle. You could see what life would be if you lived in Transformers or Smurf-themed world. If you room, clothes, toys and decorations were all that particular character. It was mind blowing.
To get things rolling, here's some of my favorite pages from the 1979 Montgomery Ward Christmas Values catalog:
Well, here's something that always puts me in the spirit. Christmas Catalogs! During those childhood years these were the text books for Holiday Education 101. My mom used to get them all. Sears, JC Penny, Service Merchandise and my favorite... Montgomery Ward (or "MONKEY WARTS"! when I was too dumb to know better). And from November until January, these would be stacked on the coffee table in the living room. Constantly read and re-read. Favorite toys dog-eared for quick reference.
All the wish books were great, but I always gravitated to Montgomery Ward. I think one of the big reasons was they would do multi-paged themed layouts. It would be total immersion; a lifestyle. You could see what life would be if you lived in Transformers or Smurf-themed world. If you room, clothes, toys and decorations were all that particular character. It was mind blowing.
To get things rolling, here's some of my favorite pages from the 1979 Montgomery Ward Christmas Values catalog:
MICRONAUTS
STAR WARS
SUPER HEROES
Used to love those Super Heroes "Fiddlesticks" construction sets. I remeber, like most merchandise in the 70s, that they had both DC and Marvel.
MORE SUPER HEROES
Mmmm...MEGOS
GAMES.
I loved those aqua games like Basketball. So much fun.
TODDLER TOYS.
I remember playing with both those Disney toys in the middle alot.
VIEW-MASTER
STRETCH ARMSTRONG, ROM and ALIEN
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
THE CHANNEL F VIDEO GAME CONSOLE
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