And here's the Swordsman

A few weeks ago I posted three of the four Aussie Indiana Jones variant figures, and now thanks to regular contributor and Toltoys afficianado Brody Walker,  here is the last of the quartet; the Cairo Swordsman.

Cheers!

Will

  

Kenner / Toltoys Indiana Jones Figures

Nothing screams "Buy Me!" more than a sticker telling you about a fabulous free toy you can't get. While those lucky little sods stateside were sending off three POPs (Proof of Purchase) by the truck-load for their "Free Belloq", little Aussie kids were only allowed to dream about ever owning the famed French archeologist the German's called Bellosh.  

Kenner's Indy line was famous for completely stuffing up the case ratios in the release of the first four figures, heaps of Tohts and Cairo Swordsmen and bugger-all Indys and Marions. 

I have a mate who recalls standing in Adelaide's largest toy store searching through an entire wall of Tohts and Swordsman for either of the other toy and coming up empty. The figures were not re-ordered by the retailers in the quantities hoped, and the line died a slow death after a second release of five new characters.  

The sluggish sales were likely the reason Toltoys opted out of printing their own cards, so we received the US versions with a corrective sticker attached telling us not to send of POPs to the US, although I wonder how many Aussie kids did? Tears before bedtime if they did! 

So here we are all these years later and Indy is back on the big screen, and the first four Kenner Indy figures with the Australian sticker attached are now among of the rarest and most sought-after variations in the Indy collecting world.       

The Marion Ravenwood shown here is the only completely sealed version found to date I believe. The Cairo Swordsman isn't pictured, hopefully one of the Toltoys Mafia will send me a pic after reading this :-)

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

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.

Kellogg's Decoder Disks


How cool is this? Thanks to the keen eyes of Nick Macarty over at Rebelscum.com I'm able to bring you the Kellogg's TV spot from the 1980's promotional tie-in with the Return of the Jedi.



Wonderful!

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?)

...And still more Star Wars!

This week: The Toltoys ROTJ 65 Back

The difficulty and frustration in tracking down Toltoys logo 12 and 20 back carded figures in my opinion has led to an appreciation of the other Aussie issued cardbacks, primarily the Return of the Jedi 65 Back card with the “Nien Nunb” free figure offer.

While the Toltoys link is more tenuous than on the earlier cards, these cardbacks are unique to Australia and included the mailing address of Toltoys for the competition.

While still a real struggle to track down, they are probably one rung down the ladder from the Star Wars Toltoys cards in terms of rarity, instead of “impossible” to find they are just “near impossible”.

A handful of collectors both here and overseas have been chasing them for years, and even with years of active searching I don’t believe a full set of 65 examples has yet been achieved. Indeed I don’t believe an example of each cardback has even been found! The set above is the most complete set of cardbacks as far as I'm aware.

So what did you get if you took the effort to send in your POPs? There he is above, the final result. I still vividly recall heading to the mailbox and seeing that box (well not that exact box) with my name and address on it. Toy memories are made of this!

The actual offer artwork had a running production change, creating a subset of variations. The first version featured text proclaiming Nunb as being from the "Revenge of the Jedi".

As with Star Wars items across the world this was changed to "Return" when Uncle George decided that Jedi's don't seek revenge.

Toltoys applied a semi-circle sticker over the offending text as a quick fix (above) and then updated the text on the actual cardback (below).

In the US the Nunb figure offer was available on 48 Back cards, but for some reason there was a delay in bringing the offer to Australia (and Canada) resulting in the highly amusing Nien Nunb with Nien Nunb offer card.

As yet a perfectly sealed example has not been found, but a few cardbacks have turned up as well as the almost MOC specimen above. You've got to wonder what (if anything) they were thinking as they carded these guys up!

The Nunb offer 65 Backs offer a great collecting focus, some easy ones to get started, some harder to find ones to keep the interest going, and some ridiculously hard to find ones. What more could a collector want?

Generally speaking these figures are hard to find with clear undamaged blisters, and it's probably also fair to say that the earlier release characters (such as the first 12) are more difficult to locate than the later waves.


Thanks to Brody and Dax for many of today's great pics, as far as I'm aware this is the largest group of this particular offer presented in one place, scroll down to check them out. If you have a MOC example we don't or a cardback featuring a character not shown here I'd love to add it, you can email me will(at)toltoys(dot)com.

Cheers!
Will

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 Month

The Australian POTF Coin Offer

The transition from Return of Jedi carded figures to the Power of The Force (POTF) line in 1985 produced an interesting variation here in Australia. The POTF figures included a collector coin blister packed above the figure, a new idea to help revive sales of the long running Star Wars line. This however left retailers with large numbers of unsold Return of the Jedi carded figures that did not have the coins, not an easy sell to premium savvy kids.

At least one Australian retailer had a simple solution, add a yellow sticker to the existing stock of Jedi cards offering a free coin with the purchase of any figure.

According to an old article on the SWCA the coins and stickers were sent from the US to Australia in Trivial Pursuit question card boxes, and were applied at retail. That piece of info about the boxes is so bizarre and precise that it must be true, I mean, how could you make that up?

The keenly observant among you may have noticed that the card-back in the SWCA article has a Wonderland price sticker on it, which is probably why the theory that this offer was a Wonderland store exclusive exists. The only problem for me was that I’d never heard of Wonderland toys.

I talked about this with fellow Aussie collector (and Toltoys.com contributor) Dax, and he revealed that Wonderland of Toys had been a toy store chain in Perth, Western Australia. He also had a feeling they may have been connected in some way to the large Toyworld chain of toy stores in the eastern states, still in existence today.

Toyworld was Australia’s version of Toys’R’Us through the 70’s and 80’s, until the arrival of the local Toys’R’Us around 1990. It makes sense that if anyone had the leverage to ask for and receive a concession to help move old Jedi stock it would be Toyworld.

It was only when the picture below came through for this article that this theory was confirmed, as stuck on the Lumat cardback sat the instantly recognizable colour and logo of a Toyworld price sticker. So it seems the coin offer sticker was available Australia-wide, in Wonderland of Toys stores in the west, and the Toyworld chain in the east. That is a lot of stores, giving collectors hope that a number of cards are still out there waiting to be found.

The stickers seem to mostly turn up on 79 back cards, which makes sense since they were the last of the Jedi release. However they have shown up on other card backs, including 77 and 65 backs, and most strangely of all a POTF Anakin.

This card was sold on Ebay a couple of years ago, if you are the current owner I’d love to update and upgrade the photo, contact me at the email address in the top right of this page. I suppose if the promotion was successful and the store sold all it’s old Jedi cards it makes sense that they would want to use up the rest of the stickers and coins they had, so why not an Anakin? An uber-cool variation. Actually it does appear that the blister area on the Anakin is lifting, so potentially the store just clerk used the sticker to keep the blister in place! One mystery that we will never know.

Special thanks to today’s contributors Dax & Dave Trimboli for their photos and information.

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

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

The Little Aussie Battlers!


It's a pity when a great toy line goes out with a whimper and not a bang, but more often than not that's exactly what happens. Kenner's Star Wars line of 1977-85 was no different. After re-writing toy sale records and re-inventing action figures and film-licensed products the mighty Star Wars line sputtered out over the summer of 1985-86. After a rumoured 250 million figures were sold, the last few releases were dumped in Australia. Why did we get them? Well we're not called the lucky country for nothing mate :-)

Lets go back to Australia in the late seventies and eighties. We didn't get the latest blockbuster Hollywood movies until months after the US, which of course caused a time lag in the wave of popularity for any given feature film. This was great for Star Wars in '77, because by the time it opened in Australia (27 October 1977 - five months after the USA) the popularity was a 'known quantity'. The toy stores were bursting with Star Wars items of all kinds (well not the figures yet, but all the other stuff!) , no empty boxes for Aussie kids! True as it was at the start of the Star Wars craze it was again so at the end. Aussie kids were still six months behind their US counterparts. When little Chuck and Randy grew tired of playing with their tiny space-movie men and moved on to wonderful transforming robots, little Darren and Shane still had a last spot left in their heart for just one (or two) more Star Wars figures.

Which brings me to the image above. Here we have a couple of Niktos on the "Power of The Force" card back. The under-performing sales of the "Power of the Force" line of figures lead to their inevitable demise in the US. But what to do with the left overs? Those last few figures and cardbacks sitting in the warehouse in Taiwan or Hong Kong or China, who will take them? Why Toltoys in Australia of course! Just pop them on a card back and give them a coin (Left over 'Warok' the Ewok coins in the case of the Nikto and At-At Driver) and send them down under, we hear they still love that stuff down there! Problem solved. Fast forward 30 years and you have the hardest to find figures in the entire Kenner star wars line. Power of the Force versions of Nikto, AT-AT Driver and Gammorean Guard. Let's hear it for the tail-enders, the little Aussie battlers!

Will

Have any Aussie toy memories? Post a comment or email me!