Sunday, May 15, 2016

Sundays From The Toybox



 
Nothing was more fun than taking your box of Joes to the sandbox in the backyard and setting up this very training scene. I had all kinds of characters and vehicles and equipment and could spend hours coming up with adventure scenarios.





 
Not only were they great toys but they also had the best box art of all time. I just wanted to be in on all the action depicted. Plus the little accessories you got were so cool. I love the little Egyptian sarcophagus with the Secret of the Mummy's Tomb.

 
Nothing better than Mexican knockoffs, especially ones of robots with extra disguises.


 
Still one of the great toy guns of all time. Those discs could be fired with quite a fast speed, enough to certainly knock over a card tower. I knew a kid who had speedloaders for these very guns that allowed him to switch up on the fly and have hundreds of discs to shoot. The basement floor would be covered with these.
 
 
This is a Ghostbusters Monster High Frankie Stein but as a convention exclusive, I will never see her in my collection unless she goes to mass retail...as she should.

 
One of the great Holy Grail pieces that I would love to find with a nice box. The art on it is so terrific as is every piece from the Super Powers line. I lament the days I left any of these on the store shelves.

 
 
The Mego Green Arrow car is almost impossible to find as is the Mego Green Arrow figure himself. I jus the look of this vehicle. It harkens back to the best of Golden Age design. There was also a car for Captain America and Spider-Man as well.
 

 
 
Great look to these 12 inch Thundercats figures.




 
Old school plastic toys from the post war era are still highly collectible despite the fact that they cost only pennies to produce at the time so they are hardly rare. It's just really tough finding them in any kind of decent complete condition with their boxes included, especially the larger play sets.



 
I love games that you can play with all ages and these three are classics. Trouble is just like Sorry and both allow you to mess with your opponents and send them back to the start of the game. There is something cathartic about that kind of game play. Battling Tops was also a lot of fun. I had my own secret way of winding my string that insured my victories. Ker-plunk was one that you could play with anyone and not have to talk to them while doing it - like sisters or cousins.

 
I loved playing Barrel of Monkeys in the car on a long ride. The movement of the car created a new element of difficulty to the task at hand and it was impossible to get all the monkeys to hold together in one long chain.

I have fond memories of my cousin and I smashing our cars into each other over the slick linoleum kitchen flooring. We tried to break these cars but we couldn't do it.

 
The perfect toys for the kid who wanted to draw but didn't have the skills. The play value here was extremely high and like Spirograph you could play with these Men and Monster plates all afternoon long.
 

1 comment:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Haven't thought of Ker-Plunk in years!