My toy hunt list, circa 1991

I was looking through my old Tomart's Action Figure price guide and found my toy collector buying lists that I had written in the front and back pages. This would have been 1991-1993 and list some items I wanted to add to my collection and what stores I had seen them. Lots of GI Joes  and Transformers at places like Children's Palace, Pamida, Gibsons and 1/2 Price Store.

Vintage Toy Ads: Star Wars Episode IV "A Canuck's Hope"

Got some new, vintage toy ads. Hope folks like these as much as I love 'em. They bring back such fond memories of kid-dom, wish books and toy shopping. "Toy Porn", I guess.

This batch is Star Wars themed and from the great white north, so don;t be alarmed by these Canadian prices :)

Our First ad comes from "Consumer Distributing" a long gone catalogue store (similar to Service Merchandise) that went under in 1996. From November 7, 1979. Star Wars 3-Packs. Pretty good offerings, but I'm really surprised to see no Han Solo.

Also, check out the fantastic Energized Spider-Man. I loved that toy as a kid. I had the copter and web traps too. Played with that all the time.

 

Next up, some Star Wars watches from Texas Instruments from an ad that ran December 2, 1978. I don;t think it was for any store. It seemed to be an insert of hot holiday gift for 1978.

Here's a Sears ad from November 1, 1978 showing some early Star Wars offerings. I love the line art of the original nine figures. The Landspeeder art kinda nice too. Is it traced from a movie still? It looks a little more dynamic than the other toy art.

This December 7, 1982 ad from Kmart has a couple of unusual offerings. Die cast Star Wars ships and the Jawa Land Crawler don;t pop-up too often in the old ads that I see. Also got the Dagobah playset from Empire. Even in Canadian dollars, the prices seem crazy-cheap.

The cherry on top is this Sears ad from November 24, 1980. It's full-on Empire Strikes Back toy-orgy. First a Millennium Falcon set with Han and Chewie, killer stuff!

The sets of seven Star Wars figures kills me. set "f" "Includes Lobot", set "g" "includes Tusk the Ugnaught", set "h" "Includes Dengar" Way to sell the sizzle, Sears. Kids are climbing over each other to add the bald-guy in bell bottoms, the pig Umpa Lumpa and Mummy Johnny Cash to their Darth Vader collector case. Come on, set "F" has Boba Fette and IG-88 from Empire and they go with Lobot?

The biggie for me is the Imperial Attack Base. This is the same Christmas I got this toy and I played with it non-stop. I think It might have been on of the first playsets or bases I ever had. Everything before had been making things out of shoe boxes or Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys. But this, boy oh boy, had that laser cannon, the collapsing ice bridge and the bunker. It was used as so many environments, I used to pretend that it was the rebel base from Empire. I used to pretend that under the ice bridge was the cave where Luke got hung upside down by the Wampa. Writing this makes me want to jump on eBay and look for one now!

Other great stuff: The Tauntaun, the Rebel turret and probe, Imperial Troop Transporter, Snowspeeder, Dewback, Ice Planet Hoth (I had this too; loved, loved, loved the radar dish laser cannon), Cloud Car, X-Wing and Vader's Tie Fighter, and the Droid Factory. Also, the 2" tall Yoda is so popular you can order him by himself at $4.49 (seems steep considering Kmart has Dagobah advertised for $3.99 in the ad above)

I think I'm heading to eBay to look at Imperial Attack Bases...

-Matt

aka Dr. G

Tag! Your it! aka "The Old Price Tag Sticker Post"

I was going through a box of old stuff in the basement (kids books, coloring books, etc) and was digging on the old price tag stickers that were still on the items. You don't see too many place using them anymore (Kmart is the only place that comes to mind). As a collector of all sorts of old nonsense, I like it when they're left on. It's the history of the item boiled down to a 1" square space. And, when it's something from your youth, it triggers the memories of when you first bought the item.

It's like "Yeah, here's that GI Joe coloring book from Walgreens that was bought to keep me quite on a visit to an elderly relative in a nursing home 25 years ago."

And thanks to retaining important memories like that, now when I go to Wal-Mart to buy trash bags, I end up walking out with Night Court season 1, egg rolls and a "Tiger Force" Flint GI Joe figure instead...

Anyway, I think they're fun little reminders of yesterday; from stores long gone or still going strong.

.

CHILD WORLD / CHILDREN'S PALACE toy stores

Kmart

SHOPKO

TARGET

WALGREENS

1/2 PRICE STORE

Comic Ad-O-Rama Vol 1

One of my favorite things about older comics are the ads. If you were a devoted reader, some ads became as familiar as the comic characters themselves. And in those go-go pre-Internet days of the 70s, 80s and 90s, they were one of the few connections to the world at large about cartoons, comics, toys and all the other products.

I'll be posting these in a few parts, since sitting around and scanning is one of my most hated of activities. If they make a "Hostel III" and ask me to star in it, the movie would be 90 minutes of seedy European businessmen paying large sums of cash to force me to scan comics for hours on end. So, without further blah-blah-blah, Comic Ad-o-rama Vol. 1

M.A.S.K. toy ad

One of the greatest of the 80s toy/cartoon series. I still remember the exact moment that I saw this advertisement. I was skimming over the comic rack at the local Shopko while my mom looked at magazine. The mock air battle, the showcase of series 1 vehicles and figures, the idea of normal cars turning into jets. It was all perfect. I quickly made my way to the toy section and worked my best possible "toy begging face" to procure a shiny, green plastic wonder by the name of "Condor". It was the perfect toy. Cheaply priced, small enough to smuggle along on car rides, it came with a figure and a helmet that gave M.A.S.K. agent "Brad Turner" super powers. The rest is history.
GoBots model kits

I built and later used as fireworks fodder a great many of these kits.

Nestle Quick GoBots contest Ad

Voltron action figures ad

Loved these toys. A very American take on a Japanese series.

Warlord, K Mart exclusive line

Remco's answer to Masters of the Universe, a DC comic character no kid had heard of.

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Bonkers Candy Ads

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Saturday morning cartoon premier ads/New Cartoon series Ads.

These are some of my all time favorite types of ads. Childhood time capsules that charted many Saturday mornings. They also expanded my cartoon knowledge at a young age. I would would buy old comics at flea markets and garage sales and run across Saturday premier ads that would predate me. I'd see artwork for cartoons no longer airing; shows I had never even heard of at the time. I think that's how I discovered Johnny Quest, Space Ghost and some other classic cartoons.

CBS 1985
A more traditional cartoon ad that lists the shows. Luckily there's a big, shirtless Hogan to confuse boys and girls alike.

GoBots. By the way, "They're Awesome!"

Jetson and Galtar Ad

for the Sunday morning staple, The Funtastic World of Hanna Barbera

NBC 1985

A classic. I love the idea that all these characters are hanging out at the NBC studios, like they're co-workers or something.

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FHE Transformers and GI Joe VHS video ads

Say what you will about DVD boxet prices, they're a steal compared to the early days of VHS. I remember the ungodly amount of begging that had to be done in order to talk my parents into buying a $24.95 copy of "Ultimate Doom", the 3-part Transformers mini-series.

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The ad that set Captain America back at least a decade or two. Dancing around with a top hat and cane. What an asshole!

Cool Marvel merchandise, including Secret Wars

Secret Wars puffy stickers and Dorman's cheese.

Two things not on shelves anymore.

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Starriors comic book ad.

Loved these toys and bought the comic.

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Early 80s video games ads

TRON

Advance Dungeons & Dragons

Frogger

GI Joe

Man, this double page ad was a personal favorite. Never had the game, but I sure did want it.

Mario Bros for Atari 2600 and 5200

Star Wars

I have no clue how long this ad ran or how often, but this guy is forever etched into my brain. It's like a Pavlovian reaction. I see the photo and I see myself walking out of Kwick Shop with a cherry Slush Puppie, some Mr. Melon candy and a copy of GI Joe #25