Toltoys Kid

Recently dug up this cool double sided Toltoys promotional flyer featuring three 1970’s MEGO Action Jackson accessories.

All three items are scarce today, particularly when boxed. The Action Jackson Formula Racer had an Aussie cousin, a yet to be formally documented promotional release in BP livery, if you have one I’m buying!

The Action Jackson Campmobile is a great VW Combi playset, Toltoys changed the “Discover America” sticker on the door to “Discover Australia” for the local release, but only managed to scratch out the “America” for the promo flyer shown above.

The Toltoys “Discover Australia” door sticker.

The reverse of the flyer shows the large Action Jackson “Jungle House”. This great playset is better known by its later release as the MEGO Planet of the Apes Treehouse.

For all things MEGO be sure to visit the MEGO MUSEUM

PLEASE NOTE: This store closed down 20 years ago! There are currently no official Lego Stores in Australia.

Since Australia began its love affair with LEGO in 1962 we have been collectively obsessed with the stuff. It should come as no surprise then that the world’s first dedicated LEGO store was opened not in Denmark, but in Sydney. Opening around 1984 and closing in the early 90’s (Please drop me a line if you know the exact dates), the Birkenhead Point LEGO Centre was for its short life the first and only LEGO dedicated store experience in the world.

Featuring iconic Australian models such as the FJ Holden above, and offering keyrings and minifigures such as these, the Birkenhead Point LEGO Centre looked to be a magical place. Many of you obvioulsy agree, there is even a Bring Back the Birkenhead Point Lego Centre page on facebook!

Check out this 1987 TV Spot for the centre that some kind soul loaded on to YouTube:

LEGO Centre Birkenhead Point TV Spot

Special thanks to Paul Naylor for the scans of the brochure and sticker for this post.

For a while there in the late 70’s it was every boy’s dream to cruise the streets and highways in a tricked-out Beford Van or Sandman Shaggin’ Wagon. The Hardy Boys, Hot Wheels and even Star Wars joined the rush to cash in on the craze, but the most memorable for me was the Radio 3xy / Coca Cola summer promotion that featured a customised Bedford van as the main prize, known variously as the Freedom Machine or Easy Roller.

The promotional stickers were ominipresent in Milk Bars and Service Stations, and I must have stuck down a hundred as a kid, so it was pretty cool to be able to score a couple of unused originals recently.

A quick Google turned up the original Freedom Machine as it is today, awaiting a restoration in the back-lot of a car-yard. Would love to see the final result gents!

There was a third vehicle called the Denim Machine, it was a panel van, but I don’t have that sticker yet…

Cheers!

Classic LEGO Space promotional sticker

I stuck my fair share of these stickers on school books in 1979, so finding a mint unused one on ebay recently was a real joy. I have foggy memories of stacks of these sitting on the counter at Griselda’s toy store in Brighton, or at the annual LEGO display at MYER Melbourne’s Bourke St store. They are quite large, around A4 size, and are a wonderful item from LEGO’s golden years.

Check out that cheesy explosion graphic!

Will

Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Playmobil Promotion

Ewok Adventure Kelloggs Tie-In

Hot on the heels of the TV spot for the Kelloggs Return of the Jedi competition I posted last week comes another lost Aussie Star Wars TV spot; an ad for the Kelloggs promotional tie-in with the Ewok Adventure movie in the mid 80’s.

Enjoy!
Will

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

LEGO Keychains Part 2

Some of you long time readers who have been following this site since the olden days back in ’06 will remember my excitement at finding an Aussie 80’s LEGO Fabuland mini-figure keychain in a random lot of LEGO.

Well Toltoys.com reader Craig had fond memories of these little guys too, and kindly supplied me with some images of his own keychain.

There is something ethereal in the face of the classic Legoland mini-figure, a manufactured Mona Lisa wrought in plastic. They are smiling, but not too much, full of mischief, but also happy to chill. They would make a great drinking partner or co-driver on a road-trip.

I need to showcase more of these Birkenhead Point keychains, if you have one send me a pic!

Cheers!
Will

Special thanks to Craig for today’s contribution.

The Keys to Successful Collecting

Promotional items are amongst the most sought after and valuable pieces in any line of toy collectables. From store displays such as Kenner’s Star Wars to salesman samples and awards such as Mattel’s Hot Wheels we all love having items in our collections that are outside the standard production stuff that was available to everyone.

As you may recall from my last post I’m a bit of a LEGO nut, so imagine my delight to find this promotional keyring in a lot of 80’s LEGO items I bought the other day.

Not only is it a promo item, it’s an Australian exclusive – and you know how I feel about those! I love finding stuff like this, it’s often a challenge to track down info about them. In this case I knew I had the vast resources of the web’s extraordinarily comprehensive LEGO collector’s sites such as Peeron, Lugnet and BrickLink. It was the latter who came to my aid with pics of a few of the little Elephant’s buddies from the long gone Birkenhead Point LEGO Centre in Sydney.

After a bit more digging I discovered that the Sydney LEGO Centre was apparently the only one outside Denmark, and that it closed down in the mid 1990’s. The keyring is probably from 1985, but I don’t know if they were giveaways or could be purchased as souvenirs or the like.
If you grew up in Sydney and remember the centre let me know, I’d love to share some memories of it.

Cheers All!
Will