Toltoys.com

2010-02-14T02:28:00.004+11:00

Bat Vehicles in the 1977 Waltons Wish Book

Some Bat-goodness from the cover of the '77 Waltons Wish Book. It mentions that the Bat Cycle was a Cyclops (Australia) exclusive for Waltons, there are some passionate Cyclops collectors out there that might be have an example in their collection, I'd love a pic if you'd care to share.

I can recall seeing the pedal car, in fact I vaguely remember my younger brother sitting in one. What a beauty! The pedal car brigade are some of the most serious collectors out there, someone must have preserved one of these, send a pic if you have.

The costume is ultra-goofy but probably sold like hot donuts at the footy, but the Mr Tenuous Link award today goes to the Mic and Amp, for young Batman / Batgirl to "Hail their friends". You can still tell today who got one of these in '77, you pass them everyday in the city as you walk by discount jewellery stores...

Will

2010-02-09T00:05:00.007+11:00

Cheap and Cheerful - Imperial Toy 1973 Catalogue

No 70's childhood is complete without at least one Imperial Toy memory, I bet you all have one, you just may not know it...

Remember those little plastic parachute guys that you hurled skyward or chucked off the Grade 5 balcony, and then stood entranced as his little chute magically popped open and floated the crazy commando safely back to Earth? PoopaTroopers they were, just one of Imperial's little plastic delights. Imperial made many of those wonderful pocket-money plastic and rubber novelty toys that clogged pharmacies and supermarket checkouts from Melbourne to Montreal. "Rack Toys" as they are officially known were often great little earners for the shop keeper and excellent sanity-preservers for Mum.

I couldn't begin to calculate how many Teeny Bouncers disappeared in my schoolyard back then, I wonder where they all went?

In one of the greatest moments of serendipity the toy world has ever known, Imperial where able to pull of a visual slight of hand with the naming of their Hong Kong Gorilla (below), clearly aping the original Kong but wrapping themselves in the legitimacy of the manufacturing state of origin of their rubber gorilla! What a triumph! Beers all round on that day I'm sure.

The visual merchandising of Imperial was a lesson in how it's done. From full colour printed counter display boxes to self-supporting Toy Fun Centers like the example below, the products popped from the displays like a comic-book novelty page come to life. Kids could not resist nagging Mum for one on every visit to the shop.

In Australia Imperial Toy debuted in Safeway Supermarkets with bubbles and blister-carded novelties, thanks to the work of John Hunter of Len Hunter Toys, who secured the Imperial agency on a trip to the New York Toy Fair in the early 1970's.

Good one John, the kids of the 70's owe you a 21 Party Popper salute.

Will

PS - Check out my mate Brian's Imperial Toy page on his uber-blog Plaid Stallions

2009-12-19T01:47:00.006+11:00

Another Classic LEGO Sticker

A while ago I showcased a very cool vintage Lego Classic Space promotional item, a large sticker with a couple of space mini-figs and a great space scene. It seems there was a sister piece to that item, a large Legoland Town sticker promoting the various Lego Collector Packs available at the time, 1978 judging by the Shell Gas Pump and Rally Repair Crew sets featured.

The stickers are all individually cut and are close to actual size, they would no doubt have graced the bunk beds, desks and school bags of thousands of Aussie kids obsessed with the recently launched 'movable' minifigures.

Were these stickers unique to Australia? Hopefully one of our international readers can enlighten me.

While we are on Lego I'd like to give a plug to Brickvention 2010, the national Lego convention and exhibition for adult fans of Lego in Australia, to be held over January 23 and 24 in Melbourne.

I literally stumbled upon Brickvention One back in 2006, it was held in my office building and I just happened to walk into the main display room before I left for the day. I was blown away by the creations I saw, including a diorama of Swanston St that had to be seen to be believed. Nice bunch of people too, serious about their Lego mind you, but possessing the regular number of heads and happy to answer inane questions from less expereinced AFOLs like your author.

Cheers!

Will

2009-11-12T00:20:00.003+11:00

MEGO Toltoys Captain America

A very cool item this week, a MEGO World's Greatest Super Heroes Captain America boxed figure. According to Benjamin Holcomb's World's Greatest Toys the box is a USA issued 1975 5th version Captain America, and the figure is a Type 2.

This particular example however is an Australian issue with the "Toltoys Pty Ltd, South Melbourne, Australia" sticker applied. It's only the second Toltoys sticker WGSH example I've owned, the other being Hulk. He's missing the white star from his chest, anyone have a spare original?

Hopefully I'll be able to add more of these Toltoys stickered items to the blog in the future.

Will

2009-10-24T23:52:00.003+11:00

Kenbrite Playmobil / Pocket People Update

I've been remiss in not posting about the wonderful new third edition of Axel Hennel's Playmobil Collector book. This great book is an extraordinarily comprehensive reference guide to Playmobil worldwide, containing 4500 images over 650 pages. This edition has an expanded Australian Kenbrite section, as well as increased coverage of promotional items and catalogs from all eras and locations. There is even a nifty limited edition available with an exclusive Klicky (single figure)!

Indispensible to any Playmobil collector, order one today!

I posted a scan some time ago of a 1977 promotional tie-in between Kellogg's and Kenbrite, the Australian distributor of Pocket People / Playmobil. At the time I speculated whether it had actually occurred, since an example of the box or other supporting material had not surfaced.

I'm delighted to report the recent appearance of the back and side panel of this box, finally proving that the promotion did indeed go ahead. By sending away a 50c money-order (!) and nominating your choice of theme (Cowboy, Knight, Workman or Nurse) you could receive one Klicky (with accessories) from Kenbrite. I was more of a Coco Pops kid so I guess that's why this one passed me by! The expiry date on the order form is December 31, 1977.

It's pretty cool to know that stuff like this is still popping up more than 30 years after the fact! I presume the figures were sent bagged, I'd love to hear from anyone who might have sent away for this offer.

Cheers!

Will

2009-10-24T23:13:00.003+11:00

Star Wars Update

We recently featured a rare example of the Toltoys Free 4-LOM promotion on a Yoda card, and now we have been spoilt again with this 41 Back Jawa above featuring the same front and back sticker combination.

Thanks to Martin Lacy and Jason West for bring this example to Toltoys.com

Local contributor Aussie James has also come through with the goods, providing us with a great image of the super tough New Zealand issue Toltoys Death Star playset.

The most obvious point of difference to the Australian version is the box, which has a two piece 'board-game' style lift off lid, as opposed to the one piece Australian issue which opens at the ends. The paperwork is also marked Toltoys New Zealand.

Will

2009-10-10T01:56:00.004+11:00

Treasures from the 1967 Lincoln International Toy Catalogue

The New Zealand toy company Lincoln International were responsible for some of the coolest licensed (and unlicensed) toys of the 60's and 70's. Best known for their 1966 licensed Batman range of ray guns, water pistols, friction toys and battery operated plastic vehicles, or perhaps for their goofy but highly desirable 1970's range of Mego-Like 8" Monster action figures, Lincoln went in hard with Gerry Anderson licences in 1967.

Captain Scarlet promised great things for those toy companies hoping to match the success of Dinky and their Thunderbird die-cast vehicles, unfortunately whilst popular the Captain never had the impact of his Anderson stable-mates.

Lincoln released three friction vehicles for Scarlet; The Angel Interceptor, Spectrum Patrol Car and Maximum Security Vehicle. Each was blister carded to a colourful but fairly flimsy card along with a plastic Spectrum Badge. The vehicles were packed flat on the cards, and the blisters were attached to the cards with staples. They are a tough find today loose or carded, I've never seen an Angel Interceptor in person but thanks to the diligent work of the Australian Powerhouse Museum there is at least one example stored away in perpetuity.

Much more common to find today are examples of Lincoln's Thunderbirds motorized kits. These must have been big sellers since they turn up quite regularly on eBay and at auction houses such as Vectis. The vehicles are OK, but it is the box art that steals the show on these, nicely rendered images with the designated number on the right front of the box.

There would be many Anderson Thunderbird collectors out there who would dream of finding a full counter display pack like the one above, to my knowledge though none have ever surfaced.

Cheers!

Will

PS - This catalogue is actually undated, I have surmised the 1967 date from the the lack of Batman items combined with the inclusion of Capt Scarlet and the Thunderbird kits, so it could be 1968. I'd love to hear about any other Lincoln material that may be out there, I'll post some of the toys mentioned above in a future post here at Toltoys.com

2009-09-27T01:01:00.003+10:00

Licensed Australian Ice Creams Update

These two are at the later end of my collecting calendar, both emerging well into the 80's, but still old enough to be cool additions to the pantheon of Aussie Ice Cream greatness.

ALF (Alien Life Form) was one of those ubiquitous 80's TV shows that you simply could not avoid if you owned a box at the time. A laconic, wise-cracking puppet whose primary endearing feature was that he apparently liked to eat cats. He stuck around long enough and had a strong enough impact on Aussie kids for Pauls to immortalise him in ice-cream, toffee and vanilla!

Speaking of wise-cracking muppets, Australia's own Cartoon Connection host Agro was similarly honoured by Pauls with the so 80's "Mega Munch" compete with bubble-gum nose, ala Bubble O' Bill. Agro was damn funny when let loose, but some of his best work never quite made it to air judging by this out-take reel!

An eclectic mix of updates coming, stay tuned!

Will

2009-08-23T00:53:00.005+10:00

More Ice-Creams!

Long time readers of this blog will know that licenced ice-cream items, and Star Wars in particular, are my favourite vintage items. So imagine the smile when the images below came down the line from Queensland, a few guerilla "on-the-run" snap-shots of a collection of original art-work and related items that remains for the time being anonymous...

The translite above shows a great set-up of the four Star Wars Popsicle wrapper flavours. Han does not look pleased about being Raspberry....

The next image is another translite of the original art used on the front of the Peters / Pauls infamous Jedi Jelly ice-creams.

Followed by a hurried :-) shot of another major element of the box art, the actual ice-cream!

And a translite of the completed product and wrapper!

The final translite above is one I knew I'd seen many times, and after a quick search I found its final resting place (flipped) on the side panel of the Star Wars Popsicle box, see below...

The last two items are a real treat, a very tough poster and the complete sticker set of New Zealand Tip-Top Star Wars R2-D2 Space Ices...

And the complete run of 16 sticker premiums...

I'm indebted to a very special Toltoys.com contributor from Queensland (who knows who he is!) for all of these great images, thanks mate!

Cheers,

Will

2009-07-18T22:06:00.006+10:00

Star Wars Toltoys Update

Our latest Toltoys Star Wars update features the unassuming little green guy above. A regular ESB Yoda you say? Computer says No. What appears to be a regular Kenner USA release is in fact a rare Toltoys release Survival Kit Offer card, see the reverse shot below. Or at least that's what it was, until Toltoys updated the offer with the ultra-rare 4 Lom Offer stickers. Yes that's right, a double Toltoys offer card. Not since the Anakin POTF / Aussie Coin Offer Sticker combo has a Toltoys double act come along, and aren't we glad it did!

Part two of this update features the mysterious "Toltoys NZ upside-down blister" attached to the 9/10th scale card. If I were a northern hemispherian I wouldn't be able to resist some kind of "Down Under" pun here, but I'm not so I will.

These crazy blisters appear to have been affixed to their cards by Ugnaughts, it's the only possible explanation. The cards themselves are also slightly smaller than their Kenner counterparts (see the pic below for comparison); again resist the urge for size jokes please. This Hammerhead is only the third carded example I've seen, although there are a couple of cardbacks out there too. The supposition of New Zealand origin comes largely from anecdotal evidence, plus anyone whose ever seen an episode of Flight of the Conchords understands it's no stretch for weird yet strangely entertaining stuff to come out of the Land of the Long White Sheep. Anyone have any of these weird blisters out there?

Finally this update we have a Droids 3-pack set. It appears to be a standard Kenner USA release but check the back and you'll notice all the height measurements have been blacked out. Why? Well for the same reason the Royale with Cheese exists - the metric system. The card was printed with US imperial measurements, not the proper (!) legally approved Australian metrics. While they appear to have been done by hand that seems unlikely, so unless Toltoys employed a thousand 15 year-old work-experience kids for the worst week of their lives I'd suspect (as does the discoverer and owner of this item) that they were created with a template or hastily constructed overprint. It will only take one more example to prove the theory, anyone got one?

Huge thanks to Dax for these three incredible items this week, what will his eagle eyes turn up next?

Cheers,

Will

2009-06-20T01:36:00.008+10:00

"I found my thrills..."

When Happy Days burst on to Australian TV screens in 1975 nobody could resist the lovable geekiness of Richie, the wisecracking mouth of Ralph or pure dumb nerdiness of Potsie. Everything 50's was cool again; the cars, the clothes and of course the tunes.

Standing above all though was one Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, AKA The Fonz, AKA Fonzie. This James Dean / Marlon Brando 'Rebel above the Garage' superstar of the show could clear a stall with a look, start a tune with a fist, and defeat aliens with a single thumb and an "Aaaayyyyyyy".

Fonzie rode a motorbike and had a way with the ladies, a jacket that meant business and hair that had its own management. Little Aussie kids couldn't get enough of the show and the Fonz in particular, so of course he was afforded the greatest honour this country could bestow upon foreigners in the 70's, an eponymous snack food. As if that wasn't enough, the show itself was canonised antipodean style with it's own ice cream.

I remember Fonzies as a cheesy snack similar to Cheetos, complete with all that great yellow snack-dust that clings to jumpers, fingers and mum's back seat. The Streets Happy Days Ice Cream I can't specifically recall, so one of you guys will have to help me out with memories of that. The sticker above was a Milk Bar premium, I'm not sure if Happy Days were ever sold in multi-packs. The Fonzies stickers were most likely given away the same way, there are a number of others out there, I'll add a third example soon.

Henry Winkler (who played the Fonz) continues to appear in film and television to this day, while Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham) never really kicked on as far as I know...

Cheers!

Will

2009-06-08T02:44:00.003+10:00

Have Fun with Scanlens Gum!

So went the slogan of this much loved Aussie confectionary maker, active from the 1930's to 80's. But how do you make bubble gum fun? How about producing animal-dropping sized pellets and packing them in calico bags with a Gold Rush theme?

Kids were apparently more than able to look past the droppings angle and concentrate on the Western-themed goodness and a highly portable container, one that I'm sure would have gone beautifully at the bottom of the school bag for a couple of months or more, waiting until high summer before assimilating itself with every text book and rotten apple within oozing distance. Gold indeed!

The gold nuggets had the cowboys covered, so the next logical step was to go after the protagonist market with the American Indian themed Totem Poles. I'm dubious that much historical or anthropological research was undertaken by the creators of these, but nevertheless the result is still slightly less culturally insensitive than Redskin Split ice creams :-)

I believe these were peach flavoured, which sounds awful to me, if anyone can remember the taste and enlighten me, feel free!

More Scanlens ahead on Toltoys.com...

Cheers!

Will

2009-05-18T22:05:00.003+10:00

The MYER LEGO National Building Competition 1984

By 1984 LEGO had already cemented it's place in the psyche of kids all over the world with fantastic products, lead by the now-classic Space series.

The time was right for the company to move in for the kill by staging building competitions in major department stores. I remember well the excitement and hype surrounding the MYER Melbourne competition, without the fun of actually having the opportunity to participate myself.

No such problems for Toltoys.com regular contributor (and former child) Paul Naylor.

Paul's construction abilities were on display for all to see in the Queensland state competition in 1984.

Paul wowed all and sundry with his very impressive spire work, just checkout the serious tower-envy from the kid on the right!

The envelope please.....

How hyper would you have been as a kid to see that turn up in your letter box?

Ahhhh! Close but no cigar. Still, who need's Denmark when you can have Space LEGO?! And where are you Nigel Newton of Leongatha? Bring forth this Portable Cassette Player of which we have heard so much.

My email is on the top right of this blog :-)

Thanks so much to Paul for these wonderful photos and scans.

Cheers,

Will

2009-04-11T01:21:00.006+10:00

Superman at Safeway

The Aussie Safeway catalogue from Christmas 1978 (I think!) features all the usual specials one would expect from a large grocery store; nappies, bananas and ...

...the Man of Steel and his big green mate The Hulk. Yes sitting there among the no-name brand trikes, bikes and ray-guns were the beautifully crafted 12-inch MEGO World's Greatest Super Heroes.

Interestingly the Superman is the harder to find "Comic Head" version, previously thought to have only seen release in Canada, the UK, France and Italy according to the authoritative Mego Museum. Hulk appears to be a regular US version. Dig that lab coat!

No telling if there were other Heroes available on the Safeway shelves "ready to continue the fight against the baddies" back then, but we can only hope so.

Did you buy your super heroes in Australia at Safeway?

Tell me about it - will(at)toltoys(dot)com

Cheers!

Will

2009-04-05T22:34:00.003+10:00

Willy Water Bug

If you look closely underneath the "1982" text on the Walton's Wishbook cover below you'll see a strange little yellow creature. He's the one sitting innocuously next to the cool Tomy / Toltoys Air-Jammer motorcycle.

Who or what is this thing you ask? Meet Willy Water Bug, one of Wham-O's contributions to the summer-toy craze of the 70's. This was to be no Slip'n'Slide however, since the result of attaching the prescribed garden hose to the rear of Willy produced viciously whipping tentacles of terror reaching out for small bare legs in all directions. Fun for all the family!

I can't say I recall Willy from my childhood, but finding the example above complete with Toltoys liveried box was manna from heaven for this blogger let me tell you. What was it with Wham-O? Not content to poison us with Super Elastic Bubble Plastic they went on to unleash this water-laden lacerator on frolicking children. Even the kid on the box is recoiling in fear.

Being a William in real life, I'm not a massive fan of the nickname "Willy" either, so lets' just consign this one to the circular file shall we?

Cheers!

Will

2009-03-31T23:34:00.003+11:00

An unusual Star Wars Toltoys find!

To most Star Wars collectors that item above appears to be your run-of-the-mill Kenner Star Wars C3PO 12 Back figure. The keen eyed collectors will note that the blister has been reattached to the card-back for use as a display item, but that is not of consequence here.

Flipping the card over reveals a metric conversion sticker of a type used by Toltoys Australia. These stickers were applied to foreign card-backs to comply with local sales laws requiring the use of metric measurements over imperial. These stickers have been previously found on Toltoys printed cards, but to my knowledge they have never been found on a Kenner card-back.

These are tough enough to find on Toltoys card-backs, but this discovery opens up a whole new variation for collectors to search for! Speculating on where these figures fit into the chronological release of Star Wars figures in Australia is tough to do, were they late release items dumped here at the change-over to Empire Strikes Back figures? Or were they in fact the very first Star Wars figures sold in Australia, before Toltoys managed to print their own card-backs. All suggestions and ideas are welcome!

Special thanks for this discovery goes to Toltoys collector Pat O'Brien, who also provided the photos.

Cheers,

Will

2009-03-22T01:03:00.003+11:00

More Star Wars from the 1982 Waltons Wishbook

$60 was a lot for a toy in 1982, hell it's a lot for a toy today. Just as well then that you received one of the all-time great play-sets for your cash back in '82, the Kenner Millennium Falcon.

Walton's caption writers went off the deep end in this one, declaring the Falcon to be 'faithful', as opposed to all those other lousy cheating spacecraft one presumes. Dig the "Simulate Space Chess" - is the simulate really necessary? I mean even slow Darren from down the road gets that we're not actually playing real space chess here.

The keen-eyed among you will have already noticed the uber-cool Empire Strikes Back Electric Toothbrush labeled as a Star Wars one, a tough item to locate for collectors today. They were one of the earliest Star Wars toys so it's good to see them still around in 1982.

The last little reveals of this particular page are the fantastic AT-AT, still sold in the modern Hasbro line today, and the short lived but much admired Micro Collection, represented here by the Bespin environments. Comparing the prices of the Micro stuff with the creature / figure combos to their right gives some insight I think into why the line did not last. What would you have preferred as a kid? Micro Rob don't answer that :-)

Finally we have the whole page on show, and what a treasure trove it has proved to be, solving the mysteries of the not one but three Toltoys Special Offer items, and throwing in rare ads for 3-Packs and ESB Toothbrushes just for fun.

I'll be continuing the Wishbook posts soon, but stay tuned for some other vintage toy coolness this week.

Cheers!

Will

2009-02-27T00:31:00.004+11:00

Kenbrite GI Joe Adventure Team Commercial

Check out this super cool GI Joe Australian TV spot from the early 1970's, before colour TV was common in Australia!

The vintage 12 Inch GI Joes were distributed in Australia by Kenbrite, later famed for the Australian release of Playmobil, known here as Pocket People. Interestingly the old store stock Joes I've been lucky enough to uncover over the years were more likely to be of Canadian origin than USA, us Commonwealth nations have to stick together you see.

Meanwhile Toltoys were distributing Action Man alongside Joe on the toy shops of the 70's, confusing the hell out of collectors today trying to sort though vintage part lots containing both!

Cheers,

Will

2009-02-25T23:21:00.005+11:00

Two more Special Offer mysteries solved...

A couple of years ago on Toltoys.com we presented a feature on all the known Star Wars Special Offer boxed toys that had surfaced in Australia during the 1978 - 85 period. In the post below we were able to confirm that the Attack Base was a Waltons Department Store special offer and also list the contents.

This week I'm happy to reveal the origins and contents of two more mysterious special offer items, the Empire Strikes Back Wampa and Tauntaun. There is only one known example of the Wampa box, and only a cut front of the Tauntaun box.

Neither were found with contents intact, leaving it open to speculation as to which figures were included.

Now thanks to the discovery of the 1982 Waltons Wish Book we can confirm that these two were also Waltons Special Offers, and narrow down the identity of the figures included.

This is the ad for both items, and while we can confirm the price and the three figures included, I'm not sure we can say which figures came with which! The photo suggests that Han Hoth came with the Wampa and the other two with the Tauntan, but it could just as easily have been the Snowtrooper with the Wampa (Bad guys together?) and the other two with Tauntaun.

Until we find a sealed example let the speculation continue!

More reveals coming soon...

Cheers,

Will

2009-02-05T00:32:00.003+11:00

Toltoys Star Wars Special Offer origins revealed!

A couple of years ago I was lucky enough (thanks to the eagle eyes of fellow Toltoys collector Dax) to pick up a very cool Imperial Attack Base featuring a huge "Special Offer" sticker across the front, indicating that four figures were included. As featured in a previous post on Toltoys.com the origin of this piece was at first a mystery, until a Queensland collector named Paul chipped in with his recollections of seeing it at the Waltons chain of stores.

His recollection was remarkably accurate, as thanks to the recently discovered 1982 Waltons Wishbook above we can confirm that the item was indeed a Walton's Toltoys exclusive, and that the four figures included were Rebel Commander, Hoth Rebel Soldier and two regular Stormtroopers.

Another part of Paul's recollection was proved correct with the catalogue appearance of the rare Star Wars Three-Packs, priced at $6.99. What's very interesting is that the three-packs were being sold new at retail, still in Star Wars livery, just a year before the single cards changed to Jedi packaging. Were they overstock from overseas? It's hard to believe that they weren't a popular item wherever they were sold.

The final toy items featured today are Luke's blaster , presumably in ESB packaging, and the hapless mini-rigs apparently used by the 'Empire Spy Force'. Not quite the most bone-chilling secret police name I've ever heard. And at $2 more than a three-pack, what are you going to buy? Ahhh... yeah.

More Toltoys Star Wars mysteries will be revealed this week...

2009-02-01T00:39:00.005+11:00

Action Man, Masters of the Universe and Hot Wheels 1982

The next page from the 1982 Waltons Wishbook sees some of the final incarnations of Toltoys Action Man. This late version figure came with eagle eyes and the ability to pose in a sniper position, popular with all budding assassins. That chopper was bloody expensive at $39.99, especially when compared with the Castle Greyskull below at the same price.

The appearance of Masters of the Universe (MOTU) heralded the dawn of a new era in action figure scale, the 5 inch, later to become the standard. I heard somewhere that MOTU was a direct result of the Reagan administration's overturning of a law that prevented children's cartoons from being essentially extended toy advertisements. I can imagine that being correct as the toy companies quickly churned out MOTU, Transformers, Thundercats and a bunch more to cash in while the political breeze blew their way.

More 80's TV classics the Duke's of Hazzard and CHiPs were represented in toy form too, I believe that Duke's Barn Buster set is pretty sought after today.

Finally we have Mattel's 1982 Hot Wheels offerings, including the short lived Scorchers (Pull backs, as opposed to the 'frictionless' other cars lol ) and the Redline-era concept 'Loop and Chute' set. The Service Centre was another winner for Mattel, that mold was re-liveried time and again and gave great service to the company, bad pun intended.

Right down near the bottom left is a sad remnant of the once great Corgi diecast model company, who admittedly have done well just to make it to 1982 after jumping the shark sometime around 1974.

More pages coming soon...

Cheers,

Will

2009-01-06T23:50:00.004+11:00

Treasures from the Waltons Wishbook

Not to be confused with the American Waltons of Walmart fame, Waltons Department store in Australia was a retail institution during the 70's and early 80's, especially at Christmas time. Over many years they offered a Christmas "Wishbook", an idea most likely borrowed from Sears in the USA, with whom they had a pre-existing relationship.

Toltoys.com has managed to obtain a handful of these catalogues and will be presenting highlights from them over the next few months.

Kicking us off above is the cover of the 1982 Wishbook, which was included as an insert in the September 19th, 1982 edition of Sydney's Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

That's a lot of vintage toys. I can see Toltoys Action Man, Care Bears and Star Wars amongst the loot, so you'll get a fair Idea of what might be coming in the next few posts.

For our first page, how about some vintage Aussie BMX goodness, a selection of Walton's own "Free Spirit" range of BMX bikes. Many a young Aussie kid had there first BMX spills on one of these, I never knew where they were from before seeing them again in this catalogue.

Whether you hit the dirt on the Free-Spirit Junior, Deluxe or Maxi you were out amongst it, almost as cool as those lucky little buggers on their Redline, Mongoose or PK Ripper. Admittedly they probably never had to deal with a mean kid who told them that their bike's name sounded like an incontinence pad.

If you'd like to check out more Aussie BMX culture than you can poke a stick at, head over to vintagebmx.com. The Australia thread in the International section is up to 18,000 posts, I kid you not.

More treasures soon...

Will

2008-12-17T00:21:00.003+11:00

The Toltoys Stretch Armstrong

If you don't remember this guy from the 70's then you're either not trying or your parents owe you an apology. His heavy-as-hell corn-syrup filled body could stretch several feet before slowly reverting to his original form upon release. A fun toy and lethal weapon when swung in contained spaces.

Stretch was a huge hit for Kenner in the USA and Palitoy in the UK, so naturally Aussie kids were looked after by the good folks at Toltoys.

The box design is virtually identical to the US edition, save for the bright blue Toltoys logos on the side, top and bottom panels.

It's interesting to see from the bottom of this box that the Toltoys Australian Stretch Armstrong body was manufactured in the UK, the head and pants in Hong Kong before insertion into boxes printed in Melbourne. A true citizen of the world.

For more Stretch Armstrong info than you ever thought possible check out Stretch Armstrong World, and then the Mego Museum's Super Elastic Heroes section for more rare stretchy pics and info.

Some of Stretch's very hard to find buddies were also sold by Toltoys in Australia, including the Stretch Serpent, more details in a future post...

Thanks for today's model must go to the semi-willing Pete E. Marvel, The talented Mr. TV and the CRU Crew.

Cheers,

Will

2008-09-21T22:57:00.002+10:00

Classic LEGO Space promotional sticker

I stuck my fair share of these stickers on school books in 1979, so finding a mint unused one on ebay recently was a real joy. I have foggy memories of stacks of these sitting on the counter at Griselda's toy store in Brighton, or at the annual LEGO display at MYER Melbourne's Bourke St store. They are quite large, around A4 size, and are a wonderful item from LEGO's golden years.

Check out that cheesy explosion graphic!

Will

2008-09-08T23:40:00.004+10:00

A great Australian Big Jim collection

Check out this fantastic collection of Mattel Big Jim figures, vehicles and outfits from Aussie collector Willem Bos.

Willem started out with just his two remaining childhood figures five years ago, and has now built an enviable collection of over 60 figures, vehicles, outfits and ephemera.

There are so many highlights in these pictures it's hard to single anything out, but the western range and the P.A.C.K. figures and vehicles are a couple of favourites of mine.

The stand-out highlight for me though is the set of rare 1976 Australian Olympic Outfit Big Jims. The figures have unique green and gold molded trunks as seen in this catalogue shot, and three outfits as seen in the picture below. There are tough find even here in Australia, and I've yet to see a packaged example.

Thanks so much to Willem for sharing his collection with Toltoys.com!

Cheers,

Will