Vintage Toy Ads: Fred Meyer Stores

Fred Meyer stores is a retail chain in the Northeast US and Alaska that is still in business today. I've heard of them; never been to one. They sound a lot like WalMart with the grocery store/discount store, one-stop shopping.

Anyway, I found a few cool, old ads to add to the site:

Here's a trio of Ads from November 27, 1986:

1) Our first ad has some features the Playskool "Alphie II" robot, The "Dreadnok Swampfire" The GI Joe "Recon Sled", Transformers "Sky Lynx", "Omega Supreme" and the GI Joe "Tomahawk" helicopter!

2) We got a nice two-page spread of "Freddy's Toy World". Man, I want those $2.97 "Starriors" and "Marvel's Secret Wars" figures! Other cool stuff: A "Bigfoot" Ride-on Monster truck, "Astronaut Barbie", "Swiftwind" and some figures from She-Ra Princess of Power, Popples, Care Bears, Fluppy Dog, Pound Puppies, Centurions.

The Mind-blower: "Over the Top" action figures and "Over the Top" Arm Wrestling Table!.Now you can "arm wrestle just like the stars of the "Over the Top" movie"!

I'm a big OTT fan (as we call it at the annual TopCon conventions) and get a big smile seeing these actually promoted. Good on you, Fred Meyer stores. I remember these figures languishing forever on the shelves of the local Shopko store. I always wanted them, but never got any when they were originally out. Maybe it was the lack of a Robert Loggia figure...

3) The third ad shows some M.A.S.K. love. Stinger, Hurricane, Outlaw and Boulder Hill (the ad calls it "Bunker Hill") get some play. Also, some Rambo and the Force of Freedom figures. Looks like Troutman, Warhawk and Rambo.

This next ad jumps back a couple of years to Dec 21984. Alvina and the Chipmunk dolls (I had a Simon), Get Along Gang Clubhouse Caboose play set, The GI Joe APC and mini battle-field play sets and a personal favorite the He-Man Battle Set. I loved these as a kid. I remember the He-Man set, but played all the time with the Skeletor set I got in the Christmas of '84. These a disturbing Christmas morning Polaroid of me in my Underoos with yellow skull mask and goat head staff lording over a pile of presents. The reason for the season, I guess

And lastly, some video games also from Dec 2, 1984.Atari 2600 and 5200 aplenty. "Kangaroo", "Jungle Hunt", The Colecovision Conversion Module, "Dig Dug", "Qix", "Mario Brothers", "Centipede", "Galaxian", "Ms. Pac-Man", "Pole Position", "Star Raiders", "Asteroids", the infamous "E.T." game, "Missile Command", and the "Point Master" and "The Boss" Joysticks. Good stuff.

That's it for today. If you've got any vintage Fed Meyer store stuff you'd like to share on the blog, email me at matt@grindhousecomics.net

Or post your memories in the comments section.

Later, kids

-Matt

aka Dr. G