Kellogg's Corn Flakes Playmobil Promotion

I found an interesting photo showing a 1977 box of Kellogg's Australia Corn Flakes, with a Kenbrite Pocket People (Playmobil) mail-in offer. It appears that you could send in the coupon (and 50c) to receive a Playmobil figure. 

Does anyone have an example of this box? I know there are some hardcore cereal collectors out there who must have seen it in their travels, I'd love to present a colour picture here on Toltoys.com!

You can get me on email will(at)toltoys(dot)com anytime...

Cheers!

Will  

Missed an important birthday...

Yes I didn't notice that Toltoys.com turned 2 a couple of weeks ago. They grow up so fast *wipes tear* 

But it's not too late to celebrate, so I've called up the lads and they've rocked around with a a few cases of frosty Lowenbraus!

It's not possible for me to hold my little Kenbrite Pocket People mates (Known to the rest of the world as Playmobil) in any higher esteem than I already do, I mean how many toys do you know that came accessorised with cases of beer? After a hard days firefighting a bloke needs a brew, and Playmobil knew it. 

So here's cheers to Playmobil and their visionary design crew, and to all the supporters and contributors of Toltoys.com over the last two years. 

Thanks all!

Will  

Mattel's Big Jim Contest

In 1973 Mattel was having some success with it's new Big Jim action figures, a smaller scale competitor to Hasbro's GI Joe. Launched the previous year, sales in Australia were given a little push with an "Action Drawing Contest", promoted through retailers with large entry forms that had space on the back for little Picassos to scrawl out Big Jim in 'action poses'.

The prizes were one of 50 Big Jim motif Warm Up Suits (Tracksuits or trackies to us Aussies) or one of 200 basic boxed figures. Personally I think wearing a Big Jim tracksuit to school sports day would have caused the owner a sudden and violent death (or least some well deserved teasing), which probably helps explain the rarity today. By rarity I mean I've neither heard nor seen of one in a collection or for sale anywhere. 

Would love to post a pic if anyone out there does in fact own or know of one, you can get me on will(at)toltoys(dot)com.

This is the first of what may unfortunately be quite a few posts featuring vintage toy competition entry forms, I realised I had enough to call it a collection the other day, entirely accidental is my defense!

Cheers!

Will    

Licensed Australian Ice-Creams

Smack bang in the middle of the golden age of Aussie Ice Creams came the double barreled inventively titled Smurfee, courtesy of Peters / Pauls. This is the store display / advertising card from the 18c treat from 1979.  

I've heard that there are no naturally occurring blue foods, and that blue is colour most likely to nauseate, but I've got to tell you that I can remember the taste of these things like it was yesterday, and that taste was good.  

I'll resist from all the standard Smurf jokes regarding Smurfette's position as the only lass in the village, but when you look at the Smurf on the right and read the speech bubbles you just know something unnatural was going on in that forest...

Will

Plaid Stallions turns Two!

It's hard to believe that it has only been two years since Plaid Stallions - the web's greatest repository of 70's toy legends and fashion implosions - first graced the world's monitors.   

To celebrate the milestone Stallion-in-Chief Brian has remodeled his conversation pit in flame-resistant Dupont shag-pile, giving the whole site a lovely new look. 

Go have a giggle at the garish, a laugh at the lapels and a spew over the superbad today.

Cheers!

Will

The Toltoys ESB Vader Large Size Action Figure

 

Thanks to the great detective work of Bill McBride over at the Darth Vader Toy Museum we now have conclusive proof that persistent rumors of ESB boxed characters (other than Boba Fett and IG-88) being released at retail in Australia were true!

Ever since I started collecting I've been aware of stories about people who claim to have purchased ESB boxed examples of Vader, Stormtrooper and R2-D2 at retail in the early 80's, combinations that should not exist since the line was cancelled after the release of the Fett and IG-88 mentioned above. Bill's discovery proves that specific and different boxes were produced for at least Vader in Australia, ruling out suggestions that the examples discovered here were simply unreleased Kenner salesman samples or made up box-flats or similar. 

Toltoys went to the trouble of producing three Toltoys branded figures for the Star Wars line, so couldn't they have at least test-marketed some of the more popular characters in ESB livery? Stranger things have happened down here that's for sure.

Check out Bill's site above for all the details on how to spot the real thing, plus more than you ever thought you needed to know about the big man in the black hat.

The hunt is now on for the rest of the crew!

 

Cheers,

Will

The White Rocket Mazinga



Australia is a big country, with lots of storage space. A big country demands a big toy. A really big toy. In 1979 that demand was meet by the good folks at Mattel when they unleashed 24 inches of the biggest arse-kicking missile-packing robot that the kids of Australia had ever seen- The Shogun Warriors.

Sure they were watered-down versions of the legendary Japanese Jumbo Machinders, but we didn't know that at the time. All we knew was that something had arrived to stomp on our Deetail toy soldiers and Airfix models in accurate mega-robot scale. Oh, and they could shoot their missiles clear across the room. Oh yes.

It's ironic that it has been Mattel in recent times that has been forced to recall toys because of lead paint and other safety issues. When we were kids a toy just wasn't worth having unless it was double dipped in lead paint (or contained other toxic chemicals!) and able to maim from six feet away, as the Shoguns could. These babies took the cake on missile power, Godzilla's power-punch fist is legendary still today, I took one in the solar plexus at a toy fair a couple of years ago, it's not something I like to talk about.

The first type of missiles packed with the Shoguns were of the 'red with white fins' (or vanes) variety. Some keen beans noticed however that pictured on Gaiking's box were mysterious 'white with red fin' rockets. Strangely though when you opened that box you just received the plain old red ones.

So were did those rockets go you ask? It appears that a small number of early release Mazinga's did in fact receive a full compliment of 14 white rockets. They pop up very occasionally in the collector's market today, the example pictured here was bought at retail in Australia (Tasmania to be precise) in '79 or 80.

I'm glad I've started writing about Shoguns, they really are one of my all-time favourite toys and I plan to blog a fair bit about them before my time is done here. I even donated a late release Mazinga (sans rockets) to my kids to take on Barbie, never has such an evil looking toy been so loved.

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

Big Bubbles, Some Troubles.

You've got to wonder what WHAM-O were thinking when they decided to market a toy to children that was designed to be inflated by mouth, yet was not safe enough to come in to contact with painted surfaces or furniture.


(Re-)Introducing SuperElasticBubblePlastic. Basically you squeezed out a blob of this toothpaste-like goop, molded it over the end of a little plastic straw, and blew for all you were worth. When it worked it was something to see, huge multi-coloured balloons that lasted for as long as a few hours, or until your mum binned it. I often had blow-outs to one side or another however, in theory you could pinch the hole together and keep on puffing, but any engineer knows that once you have a weak spot it's all over and you may as well start again.


I still remember the distinctive smell of these balloons, somewhere between burnt drinking straws and vomit as I recall.

I suppose we must give WHAM-O credit though for pioneering the field of flammable and creatively toxic kid's toys. Lead paint was for wimps, you knew you were playing in the 70's when you stuck a cocktail of Polyvinyl Acetate, Acetone, Pigments and Plastic Fortifiers in your little gob. Ahhhh the 70's.

Cheers,
Will

PS - Interesting WHAM-O / Aussie connection: WHAM-O introduced the polyethylene Hula-Hoop in the US in 1958, a year after it was created by the great Australian Alex Tolmer, founder of Toltoys. Tolmer sold 400,000 Hula Hoops in Australia in 1957, WHAM-O sold about a bazillion from 1958, and set off a craze that still comes around the school yard every few years even today. So there you go!*

* Page 142, The Playmakers

There they are, blast 'em!

One of the coolest toys produced for the Star Wars license was Han Solo's blaster, sold as the "Star Wars Laser Pistol" by Kenner in the US and Toltoys here in Australia.


This was a top toy, fun sound effects and great feel in the hand. I still recall my disappointment with the flimsy inflatable light saber as a kid, and subsequent envy of the lucky sods running around the playground with one of these. Han Solo was right, ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side.

It's another example of an early release Star Wars toy completely re-branded by Toltoys for the Australian market. They turn up fairly frequently, although not often in good condition.

Cheers!
Will

PS - It's good to be back posting by the way, I have been busy collecting and working on some other stuff, I have a few nice little items to share that will make their way here over the next few weeks :-)

PPS - I've added labels to all my previous posts for better navigation, as well as attempting to add an RSS subscription feed so that you can be alerted when a new post appears. Not actually sure if it works yet, it's the little orange doohickey on the extreme right in the location bar of your browser. I sound so tech it scares me.

Bionic Blast Ice Creams - Better. Stronger. Faster.


The latest installment in my continuing story of licensed Australian Ice Creams (Part 1, Part 2) features the rebuilt Colonel himself - the Six Million Dollar Man.

SMDM was as big in Australia as anywhere else through the mid-70's, we had the Kenner toys distributed by Toltoys, the board games and model kits too, but who remembers the icy poles?

This time it was Streets getting in on the licensing fun, creating a pineapple infused ice treat known as the Bionic Blast.


Material from this 1977 release is scarce, but I'm delighted to be able to bring you a couple of items, firstly the store display seen above, and secondly a sample of the in-store and in-pack premium stickers, featuring random shots taken from the TV show.


If anyone out there has a box or wrapper I'd love to feature it here, drop me a line at will(at)toltoys(dot)com.

Cheers!
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

Toltoys Special Offer Items


Some of the most sought after pieces in the Kenner US Star Wars line are the “Special Offer” (SO) vehicles. To help move old product and keep large department chains happy Kenner would include one or more free items (usually figures) inside the box, advertising the fact with a flashy sticker applied to the outside. There is a great feature article on the Star Wars Collectors Archive on Special Offers, a must see for all Star Wars collectors!

While the Kenner versions have been well documented, a small number of previously unknown Toltoys examples have come to the attention of Australian collectors in the last few years.

The first to surface was the Toltoys SO Landspeeder. This has so far been the only SO vehicle to be found in a Toltoys logo box.

It is unusual in that it included three figures (Luke, R2D2 and C3PO) as opposed to the US version which had only R2 and 3PO. It is unclear whether the figures were included loose in the box or in baggies, and until a sealed example turns up we can’t be certain.

The second one to surface was the SO Dewback. This was a regular Kenner box with a sticker advertising the Stormtrooper figure inside, an offer also released by Kenner Canada for the Empire Strikes Back (ESB).

Next came two unexpected finds, the first was the Kenner Tantaun ESB box with a SO printed flash proclaiming the inclusion of two figures. The only proof of this offer is the cut box front above, so again we have no way of knowing which two figures were included.

Shortly after the Tauntan find a Kenner Wampa ESB box appeared on Ebay Australia with the same printed SO circle, advising that two bonus figures were included. The item was not sealed unfortunately so again we do not know which figures were included.

The most recent find is the ESB Imperial Attack Base. This box has the same style small round printed offer as the Tauntaun and Wampa , but advertises four figures as being included rather than two.

Not content with the small promotional circle Toltoys added another huge yellow sticker shouting the fact to the world! This box was actually manufactured in Australia, but since Toltoys had been recently acquired by Kenner, it features a Kenner logo.

Again we don’t know for certain which figures came with this offer, but luckily the big gaudy yellow sticker caught the eye of at least one young fan, and I’m delighted to bring you his memories of this item from all those years ago…

“I was around the age of 10 or 11, so many years have passed since this memory but what I can recall is that I went to a Waltons store in the suburb of Fortitude Valley Brisbane. Waltons seemed to be the store that had the harder to get items and special offers unseen at stores like Target and K-Mart, incidentally this was the only store where I ever saw a three pack for sale. I was in the store looking for the one figure out of the collection that had so far eluded me, a Princess Leia in the white outfit. I started collecting at the release of the 41 backs so I had a fair back catalogue to obtain!

I spotted the Imperial Attack Base with a huge sticker (couldn’t recall the colour until seeing the pics above) offering free figures inside. I reasoned with my Mother to open the boxes and find out which figures were in there in case they had a Princess Leia. My Mum opened all three boxes, only to find that they had the exact same figures in each box. This is where my memory gets a little hazy unfortunately. I recall seeing the Rebel Commander but can’t say for certain whether Rebel Soldiers or Hoth Stormtroopers accompanied him. I do believe there was a Rebel Soldier at least though. I recall the figures being loose un-bagged but that could be my faded memory. I am positive they were Hoth related figures as after opening the second box I realised it was going to be a huge waste of time to keep going, even though my Mum did. So that is pretty much my memory on that little moment in time.”

Paul N, Brisbane

My own recollections of receiving a SO Landspeeder as a child also fit with Paul's theory of the figures being loose / un-bagged in the box, so until evidence shows us otherwise I’m going with that!

Another tantalising piece of evidence we have is the page below from an Australian catalogue of the time. It shows the SO Dewback with the Stormtrooper, but interestingly it lists the SO Landspeeder as only including Luke and R2D2, the same as the US release. I'm not even going to begin to talk about the $4.99 three packs... wow!

So far these five items have turned up in extremely limited numbers. There are two known SO Landspeeders, three SO Dewbacks, one SO Wampa, one SO Imperial Attack Base and only a box front for the SO Tauntaun. Articles such as this one will I’m sure will bring more to collector’s attention, if you have one or know of one I’d love to hear about it.

Thanks this week to Paul Naylor, Dave MacLeod, Brody Walker and Dax for the images, info and memories!

Cheers,

Will

Will(at)toltoys(dot)com

PS – This will be my last Star Wars post for a while, I have some great non-SW Aussie stuff to showcase next, but never fear Star Wars will return… (Doesn’t it always?)

Star Wars Month

The Death Star playset

Play-value. Great toy-makers have always known it’s the secret of a successful toy.

In my opinion the best example of play value in the vintage Star Wars line is the Death Star playset created by UK company Palitoy, and adapted around the world by Kenner Canada, Meccano France, Toltoys New Zealand and Toltoys Australia.

A brilliant playset of semi-spherical design, this cardboard toy fits together like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, creating a multi-room and multi-level environment.

Wonderful graphics and sections such as a gun turret and canopy, a trash compactor (with shute) and bridge saw kids the world over recreate some of the most memorable scenes from the original film.

All the playsets have subtle differences; the original Palitoy version is a true cardboard item, whereas the Aussie version is made of a tougher chip-board like material.

One thing they all have in common though is the ability to deconstruct and stow away in a box about the size of a regular board game. Simple storage means there are probably many sets still out there stored in cupboards and attics worldwide, unlike the Kenner USA Death Star Playset, which is a behemoth to store.

Somehow I think today’s kids would think this playset is beyond quaint, but I bet if they put down their Wii and PS3 controllers for a moment and staged a shoot–out between Han, Chewy and the Stormtroopers they would get lost in this toy in a flash! Or maybe not. :-)

One interesting aspect of the Toltoys Australia box is the text on the side that talks of the 19 figures that are currently available. I had thought that the "second eight" figures were released as one, with Fett bringing up the total to 21, so I would be interested in people's thoughts on this.

Finally here are the instructions for this toy, note the nod to the original Palitoy release.

Cheers!

Will

Star Wars Week*

Cardbacks Update

*Might actually be a couple of weeks.

I love talking with people who are more knowledgeable than me, and when it comes to Toltoys Star Wars collecting there are a whole bunch!

One such collector is my mate Dax, who happens to have the finest collection of Star Wars cardbacks I have ever seen, probably the best in the known universe. In his extensive collection Dax has an example of 15 of the 16 known characters released on Toltoys logo cards, with only the Death Squad Commander eluding him.



After speaking with him about his cardbacks, I now feel confident in saying that the Toltoys cards were printed from scratch by Toltoys, and are not overprinted Kenner cards.

The first argument for this is the figure height information on the rear of the 12 backs. Australia has a metric measurement system, and so by law all measurements on printed material in this country should be in millimetres, centimetres, metres, kilometres and so on.

The good part of this is that we get to drive at 100 or 110 on our highways with no worries. The bad part is that when you ask someone what their height is they might say 183.5 centimetres. And no we have no idea how tall that is either, go Google it if you must. Anyway the backs of some 12 backs have the printed figure height info in millimetres instead of inches as in the US or UK. The cardbacks in the photo above have the following characteristics:

1. Luke Skywalker 12 bk, round logo, made in Taiwan, measurements in inches
2. Princess Leia Organa 12 bk, round logo, made in Taiwan, measurements in inches
3. Artoo Detoo 12 bk, round logo, made in Taiwan, measurements in millimetres
4. Chewbacca 12 bk, round logo, made in Taiwan, measurements in inches
5. C-3PO 12 bk, bar logo, made in Hong Kong, measurements in millimetres
6. Darth Vader 12 bk, round logo, made in Taiwan, measurements in inches
7. Imperial Stormtrooper 12 bk, bar logo, made in Hong Kong, measurements in inches
8. Ben (Obi Wan) Kenobi 12 bk, bar logo, made in Hong Kong, measurements in inches
9. Han Solo 12 bk, bar logo, made in Hong Kong, measurements in inches
10. Jawa 20 bk, bar logo, made in Hong Kong
11. Tusken Raider 20 bk, bar logo, made in Hong Kong
12. Greedo 20 bk, bar logo, made in Hong Kong
13. Hammerhead 20 bk, bar logo, made in Hong Kong
14. Snaggletooth 20 bk, bar logo, made in Hong Kong
15. Walrusman 20 bk, bar logo, made in Hong Kong

Dax argues further (and I agree) that the Sandpeople cardback is another smoking gun.

"It is actually titled Tusken Raider on both the back of all the 12 back cards (unlike Kenner 12 back cards) and the front of the actual 20 back figure card (again, a change that did not occur till much later with Kenner)."

"On the back of all the Toltoys 20 back cards it is still referred to as Sand People. Now if Toltoys are obviously printing their own cardbacks and fronts it doesn't seem to make sense to over-print an already produced cardback."

Couldn't have said it better myself. I'm declaring case closed on this one and packing it away in a big wooden crate Indiana Jones style. I would add that there are top men working on it right now. Just don't ask me who.

Cheers!
Will

Special thanks to Dax for tonight's info and picture.

Star Wars Week

Part Three: Board Games & Puzzles


Due to their relatively short production turnaround time, board games have always been a great movie tie-in option. Print a new board, design some pieces and a play format and stick it all in a standard size box, voila! I believe that Kenner managed to get it's Escape from the Death Star game out well before the figures were ready, and in Australia we had the Toltoys version just in time for Christmas 1977, also before the figures were released locally.

As a result they sold in huge numbers, and are probably the most common Toltoys branded Star Wars item, turning up on Ebay Australia about once a week.


The second game released by Toltoys is a little harder to find, but still not rare by any means. It is the R2-D2 Adventure game. Both games are virtually identical to the Kenner releases, with only the logos changed and the printing of the paper based parts done here in Melbourne.


Toltoys also produced local versions of the Kenner Star Wars jigsaw puzzles, again only changing the logos. You can find a comprehensive list of puzzles released around the world at the SWCA, you'll be surprised what you can find there :-)

Cheers,
Will

Toltoys Week Part Two: 12 Inch Figures


One of the shortest lived lines of the original Kenner Star Wars release was the series of 12 inch figures. Great sculpts and tailored cloth outfits weren't enough to create the sales that Kenner wanted, and so after barely limping across the line into Empire Strikes Back marketing they were cancelled. You can read about the rise and fall of the 12 inch figures in this great feature article on the Star Wars Collectors Archive.


In Australia only three figures were released in Toltoys livery boxes (Luke, Leia and Boba Fett) before changing over to regular Kenner US boxes for the rest of line. The evidence points to those three being re released down here in Kenner boxes as well, because they are certainly much more plentiful in Australia than the Toltoys variety.


An interesting side note of the 12 inch figure release in Australia is that a number of examples of both Darth Vader and Stormtrooper in Empire Strikes Back boxes have surfaced. There is anecdotal evidence that they were more than salesman samples, actually making it to retail in limited areas, most likely in the state of Queensland. Photos and evidence to back this up will be gladly accepted at this blog, send it if ya' got it!






Cheers!
Will

Star Wars Week on Toltoys.com!

One of the "must do's" when I started this blog was to eventually showcase a pic of every Toltoys logo Star Wars carded figure. So far I have been spectacularly unsuccessful with that, chalking up a grand total of none at all.


Well hold on to your potatoes kids, 'cause here comes some old school Toltoys logo vintage goodness! This week I will posting lots of shots of the much loved and highly sought after Toltoys variations in Kenner's vintage Star Wars line. Figures, playsets, creatures and more from 1978 to 1985 will make an appearance so check back often.



Today with thanks to a special Toltoys Star Wars collector who clearly has:

A. Better contacts than me
or
B. Deeper pockets
or
C. A deal with the devil
or
D. All of the above

I can bring to you the first batch of photos, lovely Toltoys 12 and 20 back carded figures.


The first 16 Star Wars figures were available on Toltoys logo cards. The original 12 were available on both 12 and 20 back cards, the four cantina aliens were available on 20 backs. The Death Squad Commander / Star Destroyer Commander was definitely released, I hope to be able to bring you a first ever pic soon! :-)


You can usually tell if a card is a 12 back from the type of black background behind the Toltoys logo. Cards with a black panel behind the logo covering the entire lower front section of the card could be either a 12 or 20 Back. Cards with a small oblong black background have so far only been found on 12 back cards. See the Leia's above and below? That right there is what I'm going on about, definitely a 12 Back above, either a 12 or 20 Back below. Check out the Myer sticker on the Leia below too! A Melbourne (now national) shopping institution, and the source of many great childhood toy memories.... ahhhhh...



....Anyway, back to the script. There is disagreement on the question of whether the Toltoys logos are overprinted on Kenner cards or whether the cards were printed entirely by Toltoys. Hopefully I'll be able to answer that in a future post!


All these cards were sold at retail in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and probably other countries in the Asia-Pacific in the late 70's and early 80's.

More coming over the next week, stay tuned!

Will


Special thanks to Brody Walker for today's photos and Dax for the cardback variation info.

Licensed Australian Ice-Creams



It all seemed so natural. You went to see the latest summer blockbuster. You became obsessed overnight. You had to buy the toys, the posters and the swap-cards. You cut out articles about the movie from magazines and newspapers and kept them in a folder. You bought the cereal and tried to collect all the little bits and pieces you could find. But something was missing.

It's a long hot summer and you need to keep cool. You walk past your local milk-bar, they have a colourful sign in the window - "Return of the Jedi - 30c"! The sneaky marketeers have married you needs and desires, you can now eat your favourite movie, you are sold, sold, sold!

One advantage of being the driest vegetated continent on the planet is that you often have an excuse to eat ice cream. Or icy poles, ice blocks or any other type of child's ice treat. When I was a kid we had an embarrasment of riches on the ice cream front, for whatever movie, TV show or other fad came along there was a licensed ice cream.

The golden age of ice cream was 1975-85. I remember ice creams promoting Kiss, Star Trek, Star Wars, Spiderman, Masters of the Universe and a dozen others. Often the ice creams featured competitions and premiums, like the Star Trek stickers, or Toltoys action figures. Anyway I'm sure you've all stopped reading by now and have skipped down to the pics, so I'll finish up.


(Above) Rear of the Jedi Jelly box showing the Toltoys competition prizes (Amazingly the actual speeder-bike mock-up shown in the photographs was recently found here in Melbourne, that's a story in itself believe me!)Empire Strikes Back wrapper front (Above), and rear (Below)

A Jedi-Jelly wrapper (Above) , and Star Wars wrapper (Below). These two are the corresponding wrappers for the boxes shown above.


The Toltoys competition details on the rear of the Star Wars wrapper (below).



Finally the best stuff (in my opinion anyway!) the store displays! All are around 40cm x 25cm and made of cardboard. First of all the Jedi Jelly display (below)



(Below) Star Trek and Spiderman displays, both from 1979.

Finally as the golden era came to an end, a Masters of the Universe display from 1985. (Below)

I'm on the trail of more ice-cream items, so stay tuned for future updates!

Will

Mego and Toltoys

The US based Mego Corp had a wonderful knack of making successful action figure lines in the 70's, either by gambling on the popularity of old properties like the Wizard of Oz, or trusting in semi-current ones like Planet of the Apes or Star Trek. Australia received these wonderful toys thanks once again to the good folks at Toltoys, who imported them as soon as they were released, only slowing the delivery slightly to haphazardly apply a Toltoys sticker to each box.

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.

Australia has proved to be a bit of a goldmine for Mego oddities, from the Wonder Woman carded variation to the mysterious Action Jackson 'BP' Formula Racer Car, and even rumours of a Marion and other extra Robin Hood characters released nowhere else. (That one seems increasing unlikely as the years go by without any sightings.)

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

Kenbrite Pocket People

As a kid who loved Lego in the 70's I recall being a little sceptical when my brother bought home a Playmobil set one day. The figure (a fireman) was kind of clunky, his articulation was pretty limited and he was an odd scale - somewhere between my little Lego dudes and the bad boys of Kenner's Star Wars. On the plus side he did have a maniacal grin on his face, and he was accessorised to the hilt with stuff like ladders, hoses and even a fire hydrant.

A few weeks later he brought home a bigger set, it had a bunch of fireman with red hats, a chief with a shiny gold hat, and best of all one of those handheld trampoline things that fireman hold out (rather optimistically I think!) at multi-story building fires. I was hooked!

My childhood figures went the way of the dinosaurs sometime during the last couple of decades, but when I began accumulating 70's toys around 15 years ago I was delighted to add the set below to my collection.

I hadn't thought much of it until I unearthed it again recently and went searching on the web for information on Playmobil. There are a bunch of great sites out there today, notably Collectibil , PlaymoBoard and the Playmo Database. I learnt a lot about Playmobil, but most importantly I found out that Playmobil was distributed in Australia in the 70's (Probably 1974-78) by Kenbrite, who like Toltoys acted as a local distributer of successful international toybrands.

Through the sole Playmobil collector's guide available Playmobil Collector I was able to see some great shots of the very first Kenbrite sets and figures, many of which were produced to Kenbrite's specifications and include unique blister card sets (as opposed to the rest of the world's boxed sets). What the guide didn't mention (at least in the first edition) was that the Kenbrite Corporation at some point decided that "Playmobil" as a name just would not do for Aussie kids. Never mind that the first few years of product had used "Playmobil" on all the packaging and probably advertising (email me if you have any!), the brains trust sat up all night and came up with "Pocket People". It's not a bad name, but judging by the fact that I was a consumer of their toys in the late 70's and had never heard of it I would say that it was either quickly abandoned or just spectacularly unsuccessful.

I haven't been able to find out much about The Kenbrite Corporation, but by comparing the little "Pocket People" sticker on the Fort Union set (1976) box with the uniquely designed earlier sets I would say that sales of Playmobil in Australia didn't live up to their expectations.

Kenbrite did have other lines to spend their time and money on, namely TYCO Trainsets and Hasbro's G.I. Joe, but unless someone can dig up some company info for me :) we may never know the full story of the mysterious "Pocket People".

Cheers!
Will