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

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

One green, one red. Indy might need to seek medical advice.

There wasn't a lot of merchandise available for Temple of Doom, a small run of LJN action figures, some food tie-ins, soundtracks and such, but Lucasfilm were really scraping the bottom of the barrel with the licensed Blaster Balls shown above. 

I have vague recollections of playing with this type of toy as a kid, you held one in one hand and threw the other at it creating a loud 'crack' as they hit.  A few hundred  'cracks' later and you were left with two really bad marbles. 

Kids today don't get to play with explosives as much as they would like, so lets all enjoy a glimpse of a more innocent time, when the joy of handheld detonations could be had at your nearest toy store...

Will