Toltoys Kid

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

Reversing the Toltoys diaspora – The Hulk returns!

Thanks to the marvelous network that is the Mego Museum I was recently able to bring this Australian released Mego Hulk back home. He had somehow found himself in the unfamiliar climes of Italy, no doubt taking in the sights, sounds and tastes of Roma.

But like all ex-pat Aussies he eventually decide to return home, taking the natural route (via the Mother Country).

Mego World’s Greatest Super Heroes are actually quite tough to find with the Toltoys distribution sticker, you more often see the Merry Men or even Wizard of Oz line carrying them.

Speaking of the World’s Greatest Super Heroes, if you haven’t picked up a copy of the new book World’s Greatest Toys, what are you waiting for?

This is without doubt the best action figure collecting book I’ve ever seen. Beautiful photos, absorbing and insightful text combined brilliantly with intricately detailed information on each character’s variations and packaging. Click the pic above to checkout some more sample pages of the book.

I’m sure that this hot potato this will sell out sooner rather than later so do yourself a favour and pick one up! You can order it through the link above or directly from Amazon.

Will

Licensed Australian Ice Creams
Part Two – Comic Heroes

Last year I carried on a bit about the wonderful licensed ice-creams and icy poles we had in Australia in the late 70′s and early 80′s. It seemed for a time that any film or television show, character or concept that could be licensed as an ice-treat was, someties regardless of the suitability.

I’ve been pulling together bits of information and obtaining examples of the boxes, wrappers, premiums and advertising for these over the last couple of years, and if all goes to plan (and when doesn’t it?!) I will have a database availble on this site in the near future.

While we’re waiting for that, I’ve whacked together another showcase of some of the more interesting stuff. I’ve cobbled today’s lot together under the broad church that is “Comic Heroes”. Nice tie-in with Spidey 3 ‘s release this week ehh?

First up is my favourite, it’s the Paul’s Ice Cream tie-in to the hugely popular Buck Rogers TV Show from 1979 I’ve always loved that front panel graphic, but the killer for this item is the “Star Stick” promotion on the rear panel.

If you know me or have followed the blog for a while you’ll know I’m a bit of a Mego nut, so when I saw the back panel I knew I was on a winner. Although it isn’t mentioned on the box, the Buck Rogers action figures pictured there are Mego’s three and three-quarter inch line.

The whole gang is there, and as you can see below, if you found a “Star Stick” you could send it in (after you’ve washed it mind you, I think they may have learnt that one from expereience) and you would be sent a Buck figure, plus three other random figures!

Were they sent they carded? Were they baggied? Do any of you Aussie readers remember these? Anyone have a “Star Stick” per chance? Send me an email and make us all happy

If seeing these Mego figures has re-awakened a collecting giant in you, make sure you visit the Mego Museum Forums for help. They’re like a support group, without the billable hours.

If you liked Buck in ’79 chances are you loved Flash in ’80! I challenge anyone to think of the Sam Jones incarnation of Flash and not follow it with “Ah Aaah… He’s a miracle!” This flick was more camp than a row of tents and didn’t we love it all the more for it!

No premiums for this release I’m afraid, just a reasonably lame Snakes & Ladders cut-out game on the back panel. Lucky for me the kid that had this box thought it was lame too!

The end panels are not too shabby though, Peter Wyngarde’s Klytus always freaked me out, and Melody Anderson’s Dale Arden looks great. No Ornella Muti, but great none the less.

Coming in from the Marvel Universe were two guys who seemed destined for icy poles, Spidey and The Hulk. This treat was a relative late comer to the licensed party arriving in 1982, although Spidey had made an appearnace on his own back in’79 as you’ll see below.

It’s a nice piece of art, and I’m sure I’ve seen both of them many times over the years, some of you comic gurus should be able to help me remember where. This release did feature an in pack premium, a glowing super-hero sticker. The example below is actually from my childhood collection, and had to survive neglect, a house fire and 25 years of spring cleaning to be with us today, take a bow my glowing jade friend! (Yes he still glows, I think they printed these things with some kind of radioactive isotope!)

Finally today I bring you one of the coolest premiums from these Aussie ice cream days, Spiderman Stickers!

You’ll recall that last year I posted a pic of the store diplay for the ’79 Spidey ice-cream, see below.

It mentions that “Free Stickers” were to be given away with each in-store purchase of icy-poles.

I’m happy now to be able to bring you some examples of these, check ‘em out below:
Clearly inspired by the wonderful Topps Marvel Superhero stickers from the mid 70′s, these icy pole ones feature sayings so bad they could only have come from the marketing department of of an ice-cream manufacturer! This isn’t the full set, if you know of any more I’d love to add them.

Anyway that’s it for today, more ice cream stuff coming sooooon.

Cheers,
Will

Mego and Toltoys

They did spend some time on setting up elaborate dioramas for the dealer catalougue though, check out the scans below kindly provided by Brian Heiler over at the Foreign Mego Archive.

Recently a Mego Zorro popped up on Aussie Ebay too, is it a Palitoy release or was there a Toltoys one? The great thing about collecting in Australia is that you never know what will turn up next. I’ll be talking about GI Joe and Action Man in future posts, I think we were unique in the world in that both lines were marketed here simultaneously, causing huge headaches for today’s collectors when trying to ID parts all mixed in together when you pick up a big lot.

Toltoys either lost the distribution rights at a certain point or just gave up rebranding Mego items with their own stickers, because the majority of Mego items that turn up boxed here don’t have Toltoys stickers. I’ve seen boxed Super Heroes, Fist Fighters, Merry Men, Pirates, Knights and Wizard of Oz with the sticker. Possibly Toltoys lost the Mego distribution rights to Kenbrite (see my Playmobil entry a few posts back) as the Muhammad Ali figures in Australia came in fully branded Kenbrite Boxes. Perhaps each line was independently offered and therefore available to other distributors if Toltoys passed.

I never had my own Megos as a kid, but well remember the pre-loved Spidey and Kirk my brother passed on to me, the incredible articulation allowing them to fall prey to all manner of beatings by the larger scale Adventure Team GI Joes!

Hopefully I’ll be able to feature some more Aussie Mego items in the near future, as things seem to pop up all the time down here!

Cheers!
Will