Toltoys Kid

Star Wars Update

We recently featured a rare example of the Toltoys Free 4-LOM promotion on a Yoda card, and now we have been spoilt again with this 41 Back Jawa above featuring the same front and back sticker combination.

Thanks to Martin Lacy and Jason West for bring this example to Toltoys.com

Local contributor Aussie James has also come through with the goods, providing us with a great image of the super tough New Zealand issue Toltoys Death Star playset.

The most obvious point of difference to the Australian version is the box, which has a two piece ‘board-game’ style lift off lid, as opposed to the one piece Australian issue which opens at the ends. The paperwork is also marked Toltoys New Zealand.

Will

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

Licensed Australian Ice Creams Update

These two are at the later end of my collecting calendar, both emerging well into the 80′s, but still old enough to be cool additions to the pantheon of Aussie Ice Cream greatness.

ALF (Alien Life Form) was one of those ubiquitous 80′s TV shows that you simply could not avoid if you owned a box at the time. A laconic, wise-cracking puppet whose primary endearing feature was that he apparently liked to eat cats. He stuck around long enough and had a strong enough impact on Aussie kids for Pauls to immortalise him in ice-cream, toffee and vanilla!

Speaking of wise-cracking muppets, Australia’s own Cartoon Connection host Agro was similarly honoured by Pauls with the so 80′s “Mega Munch” compete with bubble-gum nose, ala Bubble O’ Bill. Agro was damn funny when let loose, but some of his best work never quite made it to air judging by this out-take reel!

An eclectic mix of updates coming, stay tuned!

Will

More Ice-Creams!

Long time readers of this blog will know that licenced ice-cream items, and Star Wars in particular, are my favourite vintage items. So imagine the smile when the images below came down the line from Queensland, a few guerilla “on-the-run” snap-shots of a collection of original art-work and related items that remains for the time being anonymous…

The translite above shows a great set-up of the four Star Wars Popsicle wrapper flavours. Han does not look pleased about being Raspberry….

The next image is another translite of the original art used on the front of the Peters / Pauls infamous Jedi Jelly ice-creams.

Followed by a hurried shot of another major element of the box art, the actual ice-cream!

And a translite of the completed product and wrapper!

The final translite above is one I knew I’d seen many times, and after a quick search I found its final resting place (flipped) on the side panel of the Star Wars Popsicle box, see below…

The last two items are a real treat, a very tough poster and the complete sticker set of New Zealand Tip-Top Star Wars R2-D2 Space Ices…

And the complete run of 16 sticker premiums…

I’m indebted to a very special Toltoys.com contributor from Queensland (who knows who he is!) for all of these great images, thanks mate!

Cheers,

Will

Star Wars Toltoys Update

Our latest Toltoys Star Wars update features the unassuming little green guy above. A regular ESB Yoda you say? Computer says No. What appears to be a regular Kenner USA release is in fact a rare Toltoys release Survival Kit Offer card, see the reverse shot below. Or at least that’s what it was, until Toltoys updated the offer with the ultra-rare 4 Lom Offer stickers. Yes that’s right, a double Toltoys offer card. Not since the Anakin POTF / Aussie Coin Offer Sticker combo has a Toltoys double act come along, and aren’t we glad it did!

Part two of this update features the mysterious “Toltoys NZ upside-down blister” attached to the 9/10th scale card. If I were a northern hemispherian I wouldn’t be able to resist some kind of “Down Under” pun here, but I’m not so I will.

These crazy blisters appear to have been affixed to their cards by Ugnaughts, it’s the only possible explanation. The cards themselves are also slightly smaller than their Kenner counterparts (see the pic below for comparison); again resist the urge for size jokes please. This Hammerhead is only the third carded example I’ve seen, although there are a couple of cardbacks out there too. The supposition of New Zealand origin comes largely from anecdotal evidence, plus anyone whose ever seen an episode of Flight of the Conchords understands it’s no stretch for weird yet strangely entertaining stuff to come out of the Land of the Long White Sheep. Anyone have any of these weird blisters out there?

Finally this update we have a Droids 3-pack set. It appears to be a standard Kenner USA release but check the back and you’ll notice all the height measurements have been blacked out. Why? Well for the same reason the Royale with Cheese exists – the metric system. The card was printed with US imperial measurements, not the proper (!) legally approved Australian metrics. While they appear to have been done by hand that seems unlikely, so unless Toltoys employed a thousand 15 year-old work-experience kids for the worst week of their lives I’d suspect (as does the discoverer and owner of this item) that they were created with a template or hastily constructed overprint. It will only take one more example to prove the theory, anyone got one?

When Happy Days burst on to Australian TV screens in 1975 nobody could resist the lovable geekiness of Richie, the wisecracking mouth of Ralph or pure dumb nerdiness of Potsie. Everything 50′s was cool again; the cars, the clothes and of course the tunes.

Standing above all though was one Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, AKA The Fonz, AKA Fonzie. This James Dean / Marlon Brando ‘Rebel above the Garage’ superstar of the show could clear a stall with a look, start a tune with a fist, and defeat aliens with a single thumb and an “Aaaayyyyyyy”.

Fonzie rode a motorbike and had a way with the ladies, a jacket that meant business and hair that had its own management. Little Aussie kids couldn’t get enough of the show and the Fonz in particular, so of course he was afforded the greatest honour this country could bestow upon foreigners in the 70′s, an eponymous snack food. As if that wasn’t enough, the show itself was canonised antipodean style with it’s own ice cream.

I remember Fonzies as a cheesy snack similar to Cheetos, complete with all that great yellow snack-dust that clings to jumpers, fingers and mum’s back seat. The Streets Happy Days Ice Cream I can’t specifically recall, so one of you guys will have to help me out with memories of that. The sticker above was a Milk Bar premium, I’m not sure if Happy Days were ever sold in multi-packs. The Fonzies stickers were most likely given away the same way, there are a number of others out there, I’ll add a third example soon.

Henry Winkler (who played the Fonz) continues to appear in film and television to this day, while Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham) never really kicked on as far as I know…

Will

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…

Will

The MYER LEGO National Building Competition 1984

By 1984 LEGO had already cemented it’s place in the psyche of kids all over the world with fantastic products, lead by the now-classic Space series.

The time was right for the company to move in for the kill by staging building competitions in major department stores. I remember well the excitement and hype surrounding  the MYER Melbourne competition, without the fun of actually having the opportunity to participate myself.

No such problems for Toltoys.com regular contributor (and former child) Paul Naylor.

Paul’s construction abilities were on display for all to see in the Queensland state competition in 1984.

Paul wowed all and sundry with his very impressive spire work, just checkout the serious tower-envy from the kid on the right!

The envelope please…..

How hyper would you have been as a kid to see that turn up in your letter box?

Ahhhh! Close but no cigar. Still, who need’s Denmark when you can have Space LEGO?! And where are you Nigel Newton of Leongatha? Bring forth this Portable Cassette Player of which we have heard so much.

My email is on the top right of this blog

Thanks so much to Paul for these wonderful photos and scans.

Superman at Safeway

The Aussie Safeway catalogue from Christmas 1978 (I think!) features all the usual specials one would expect from a large grocery store; nappies, bananas and …

…the Man of Steel and his big green mate The Hulk.  Yes sitting there among the no-name brand trikes, bikes and ray-guns were the beautifully crafted 12-inch MEGO World’s Greatest Super Heroes.

Interestingly the Superman is the harder to find “Comic Head” version, previously thought to have only seen release in Canada, the UK, France and Italy according to the authoritative Mego Museum.  Hulk appears to be a regular US version. Dig that lab coat!

No telling if there were other Heroes available on the Safeway shelves “ready to continue the fight against the baddies” back then, but we can only hope so.

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?

Will