Rocket Tubes Blueprints

Been meaning to repost this for quite a while. Over on Micronauts Home World, there is a great article about Mego’s original plans for their Rocket Tubes toy. I won’t spoil it for you, but suffice it to say, if you’re a Micro junkie, it is a great read. I had a set of Rocket Tubes and LOVED them. The idea of a vacuum powered racing set…Just too cool for words.

So skip on over and take a look.

Saturday was San Jose Toy Show day. Time Tunnel Toys puts it on three times a year and a pretty good number of toy vendors, comic book people and other pop culture merchants show up. There’s always something interesting and this one was no exception.

The event was held in a different part of the San Jose fairgrounds this year. I’m not sure if it was just change of venue, but it seemed like there were a lot more vendors there this time.

So many toys...

A view down the length of the hall

As nice as hall full of toy vendors is, the real draw is the toys…

Moon City circa 1970

There is always one toy that just blows my mind at the toy show. This Moon City was it. I love the tin litho graphics on the two towers. And the color palette just screams “space age!” I damn near bought it. It was in perfect condition. Everything worked. But it was $80 bucks and really big.

Vincent Price plays Hangman

I loved Hangman as a kid. But if I’d known Vincent Price was waiting in the wings, ready to open the trap door on the gallows…Well, I might have played a bit more cautiously.

James Bond 007 Set

This is one toy set I had never seen before. I love vintage Bond. As a kid, I would have killed for this. It is a full briefcase with pistol, silencer, scope, collapsing shoulder stock, code book and code breaker. I am assuming the case explodes if you don’t open it juuuust right. Show price? $750.

Rat Patrol toys?

The Rat Patrol, if you are unfamiliar with it, is this really great late 60′s tv show about an American jeep squad that patrols the African desert during WWII, fighting Nazis, taking risks, but always pulling the fat out of the fire at the last second. I’d never seen a toy from the show before, but here we have a cabled remote control plane. I seriously considered picking this up as well, but I have a 1 in, 1 out rule. Not sure what this would replace in the current collection.

Hot Wheels!

More Hot Wheels!

There are always lots of Hot Wheels cars at the show, but for some reason this show had booth after booth with track sets, launchers and other die cast car accessories.

Then there was Doctor Who. So much Doctor Who. There were at least five booths that all had toys from the late 80s version of the classic BBC show. I’d never actually seen these before. I love the Doctor…

The Fourth Doctor

Exterminate!

Never saw this episode...

Card Back

Not sure if these are the same toy line...

The other card back

ComicCon 2011 was another great show. As always, there were TONS of toys for fans of pretty much, well, anything. There were a few though that really caught my eye. My hands down favorite was the re-release/re-creation of The Outer Space Men. You’ll note the red one, Orbitron, who is the unofficial mascot of the site. I don’t generally by repros of old toys, but with these I may just make an exception.

The Outer Space Men

There's my boy! Sniffle.

But wait! There is a runner up. Hasbro, which maintains a store on the show floor if you can believe it, did have one toy set I liked. Not a remake, or vintage-ish, but based on one of my all time favorite movies. For the low low price of $80, you could pick up a six figure set of Indiana Jones figures. I love Indiana Jones…Be sure to check out the close up on Toht. I’m meeeeeelting! I’m meeeeelting!

Indiana Jones Collector's Set

Toht, he melts, he heils!

Went to the San Jose Super ToyShow today. I went partly to entertain my daughter and partly to browse for toys. The last few shows have been short on interesting finds so I didn’t have a lot of hope for this one.

Just as we were leaving, though, I looked in a $1 bin and saw this Tente mini-set. I couldn’t believe I found such a cool toy AND that it was a buck.

I have come across a number of Tente sets over the years, but have never seen a mini-set like this. Can’t decide whether to open and build it or keep it sealed.

Wow. I suck. But to be fair, I got a full time job in August, and there was all those holidays and I got a year older (reaching a depressing milestone, I might add.)

In the intervening months I have developed a renewed fascination with all things ray gun. Especially 70′s ray guns with lights and sounds. Unfortunately, I have neither the cash nor the space for an extensive ray gun collection, so this fascination has expressed itself mainly in ebay browsing. I have seen some REALLY cool items go through the stream. I’ve asked the listing ebayers permission to use their images here, and will be putting together a Ray Gun Gallery with those images soon. For now, check out the Shoot Out In Space page.

Shoot Out In Space

Do you remember Evil? I sure do. Loved his name. Had his stunt cycle too. But just ran across this item the other day at a toy show. Nice fellow selling it let me snap a picture. Quality is right up there with Action Jackson accessories, if not better.

Evil Knievel Artic Explorer Set

Check out the latest update.

Star Wars Electronic Laser Battle

Jay J. Arms and his Goodies

Okay, I said I’d soon put up Jay J. Arms, aka JJ Arms pages. It only took me FIVE WHOLE MONTHS!

I work on glacial speed settings. But hey, I was trying to finish my novel, write some comics, and do a bunch of other crap to avoid actually doing things I’m supposed to do. Any way, here you go. JJ. Enjoy.

Eventually I’ll get around to posting the stuff I have on his super cool 70′s van!

I promise.

Real soon now…

Click here for all the Arms goodness!

Just posted a few items on ebay. A MISB Zoids, two JJ Arms figures (a page on him coming soon) some Mego-like War Heroes figures, and a bunch of the TH3 Project toys.

You can see all of them here.

I had lunch with a very cool guy last week who was in town interviewing. We were chatting and it came up that I run this site. Which he was hugely surprised to learn, especially since he was a big fan of the site.

We talked some more and he (rightfully) chastised me about not updating the site a bit more, especially since I am unemployed at the moment and have a lot of time on my hands.

TH3 Project Black Genius

So, in honor of the guy who bought me lunch because I forgot my wallet (seriously, how pathetic is that?) I am updating the site with a toy line most of you are probably unfamiliar with, the Italian Sci Fi series from Edison Giocattoli, TH3 Project. If you like 70′s Sci Fi, you’ll love these toys…

Up now is the overview page. This week I will add a page dedicated to two of the characters, Tharos and Thitan, two of the playsets, Video Control and Black Genius, and a page with some random, but cool, scans and pictures.

UPDATE: Added a Black Genius page.

SPECIAL NOTE: The toys on this site aren’t usually for sale, but given the above mentioned employment status and a general need to get rid of stuff, all of my TH3 stuff (Tharos, Thitan, Video Control and Black Genius, all MIB) will be going up on eBay.