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

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

Mr Potato Head Store Display

Check out this great Toltoys Mr Potato Head counter-top retail display! Full of minty boxed Toltoys branded Potato Head friends, these would have graced the counters of toy stores Australia wide in the late 60's. 

Will

Idaho or Tasmania?


The Potato. Or, if you spell like Dan Quayle, Potatoe. Either way you've got to admit that it is one hell of a popular vegie. In fact you could say that they are the shrimps of the vegetable world. You can boil them, dice them, fry them, dip them, chip them and crisp them. They are so versatile in fact that it was almost inevitable that one day someone would decide that they would make a great toy. In went some pins (and other small objects) and out came Mr. Potato Head!

The very properly monikered Potato burst on to the seen more than 50 years ago, and according to Potato Heads has been going strong ever since. If you've learnt nothing else from me about Toltoys yet (and I suspect that may be the case) it's that they knew a winner when they saw it. Not long after the Hassenfeld Brothers' little spud conquered the Land of the Free the very busy Alex Tolmer & Assoc. aka Toltoys had a local version pumping out of South Melbourne to keep all the little spudophiles in Australia as happy as can be. As with many Toltoys licensed items one can only presume that Hasbro sent out some of the original artwork for the box and instructions for our local boys to customise. We added a few roo's and the little buggers sold like cold beers in the outback!

So when the pig in Toy Story cheers on his buddy Mr. Potato Head with "Way to go, Idaho!" all I could think of was how crap that would sound had the Pixar boys originated down under - "Way to go, Tasmania!"

Will