Here are some of the most eagerly-desired holiday gifts of the 1970s.... which ones did you have under the tree?
Saturday, December 1, 2012
The Space: 1970 Holiday Wishbook
Here are some of the most eagerly-desired holiday gifts of the 1970s.... which ones did you have under the tree?
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I loved those toys, but it was the old catalogs that fascinated me as a boy. The best part of my grandparents' house was the stack of old Christmas catalogs they accumulated over the years. I would page through them slowly, committing every detail to memory, imagining what awesome adventures these toys would have...
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Chris. I'd completely forgotten about the Star Wars cantina playset. It's basically a cardboard backdrop, but it still looks cool - and I definitely still want one
ReplyDeleteI totally had the Mego Star Trek dolls and the Enterprise bridge playset (remember the transporter thing where it was like a rotating stage magician's 'oh look, the person disappeared' effect?) :)
ReplyDeleteI remember looking at those catalogs as well. Hey, look Greedo is waving, maybe he's not such a bad guy after all. My son is getting Star Wars figures this Christmas. I think the coolest one he's getting is the re-issue of the Empire Strikes Back Darth Vader. Maybe I should make him some cardboard backdrops for the figures.
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Hey Metal Mark, if you make an extra Cantina playset, I'll pay you for it!
DeleteThose holiday catalogs were filled with things of wonder: toys that never reached the shelves of local stores. Talk about exotic! Growing up in a rural area made these things rare. The scene with the toy display in the store window in A Christmas Story caught the feeling well.
ReplyDeleteMy parents searched low and high for the Death Star playset with no success, so they bought me a large number of the original run Star Wars action figures to make up for it. So I unwrapped what seemed like an endless amount of multiple Jawas, Storm Troopers, Tusken Raiders, and every character from the cantina scene -- except for Greedo! I never did get my hands on him.
I live in the UK so had none of these :-( However, I did have a friend who was from the states and he had both the Enterprise interior playset and the Planet of the Apes figures. Cue plenty of crossover fun :-)
ReplyDeleteNow I think of it, all of the (US) toys he had were much better than those we had in the UK. I also remember friction drive cars that you rubbed on the carpet and let them go and they crashed into each other and bits would fly off all over the place. They were cool too!
I get all wistful when I see these Wishbook pages. Even to this day I know exactly where I would go if I ever get my time machine to work. 100 bucks in Sears and I could have everything I had then lost as a child.
ReplyDeleteI had a lot of the Star Wars Toys (Millenium Falcon, Dewback, Tie Fighter most of the figures). As a matter of fact I still have most of them stored away in boxes in my attic. However, the thing that I wanted most was the Star Wars Cantina set. My poor father drove halfway acroos the state (no joke) looking to find it for me, but he couldn't. It wasn't until MUCH later (1996) that I discovered that Kenner only made around 500 of those things.
ReplyDeleteAhh, that explains why no-one ever had one. I don't think they produced many Dewback's either. Never saw one on the shelves here in the UK.
DeleteOh man the memories............... Bridge set and all the Trek figures check. The page that may have made my brain melt as a kid is that Planet of the Apes montage of toys....OMG, I would have LOVED the trifecta of Fortress, Battering Ram and Catapult & Wagon to go along with all my apes and astronauts but unfortunately I never got those. Was lucky enough to have All the Star Wars 3 3/4 inch figures & the ships, the carrying case to keep them in and at least half of the die cast vehicles. Never got into the 12" tall ones though. I remeber distinctly SEEING the Cantina Set in Sears once but i could not convince mom to go in on that one. The Buck Rogers & Draconian Starfighters and Hanger were big favorites when I had them. Also had those Flash Gordon figures..... 70's Sci-Fi toys were the best!!!!
ReplyDeleteI was a Star Wars (and later, early '80 Hasbro GI JOE) junkie. I had everything pictured, except for the 12" Boba Fett. Note this add shows the Sears exclusive variant Snaggletooth, in blue outfit, and with regular length legs. I had every figure up to RETURN OF THE JEDI (I only got the Ewoks from that set). I had the Droid Factory (and never lost a part!). I had the Death Star. I had the Hoth SNow Base, and the Hoth AT-AT Attack action scene (with the carboard AT-AT backdrop with the elevator built in). I had the cantina. The only stuff I neevr got that I really wanted was the normal TIE Fighter (I had Vader's), Fett's Slave I, and the remote controlled sandcrawler and "troop transport" they used to advertise in all the comics. Ah, them memories. Too bad I sold all of them just before the boom in prices pre-rereleased original trilogy. I still have my original Yoda, though, and all the accessories. He is staring at me from my computer desk as I type. 8)
ReplyDeleteI wanted ALL of it. I particularly wanted the Planet of the Apes toys, for some reason. I love that ad - the part where it says "Side with the Apes or Astronauts" really tickles me.
ReplyDeleteOh man, I had both the Enterprise and Klingon models plus the Romulan Bird of Prey and that weird glow in the dark "Interplanetary UFO" that was never in a Star Trek episode. It said "Star Trek" on the box and that was good enough for me. I also had that very same Space Shuttle model. I loved that thing.
ReplyDeleteTons of Star Wars stuff. I had the dome shaped Death Star playset that was apparently only available in the UK and here in Canada. Apparently it fetches a pretty penny now.
I had a good amount of the Mego figures too like the Star Trek, POTA, Knights and a few of my favourite super heroes. Loved those things man.
Had a smattering of Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica toys too. Although I looooved both of those shows I never got deep into their toy lines.
Not pictured above is my all time favourite toy line from the 70's - Micronauts. Those things cranked my imagination when I was a kid. I was at the perfect age for all those toys when they had their runs. Unfortunately my toy chest was lost in a move just as I was getting to the waning of my toy years. Wish I could just rummage through that chest now.
According to the description at a site selling the Interplanetary UFO reissue kit, it was designed by Matt Jeffries, so that is probably why it was included in the Star Trek line. Unfortunately, the reissue box doesn't say Star Trek on it:
Deletehttp://www.3000toys.com/catalog/item_detail.aspx?itemfind=AMT622
I knew times had changed when I went from Mego heroes to Space:1999. Christmas of '75. Got the pristine new Green Arrow, and the AMT Trek Bridge model. But when I open the Eagle One box, THAT became THE GIFT of the year.
ReplyDeleteSuperheroes..? Yeah, whatever.
My best friend had EVERYTHING for Trek, some 1999, and definitely ALL STAR WARS stuff, so spent a lot of time by his place. I still have his 'Star Wars cantina playset', cardboard kept flat and pristine for 30yrs now. Someday I'll fish it out of my basement, but it's still in dry, perfect condition.
About 20yrs ago, I started collecting vintage SW figures from the first film and some Empire sets, but stopped when I got married. Always loved Kenner's X-Wing and Falcon, but never ended up getting 'em. I like both the UK and Kenner Death Star playsets for different reasons, probably leaning towards the Kenner DS, it just radiates Coolness..
Also, loved the Trek AMT models to no end.. For some reason, my Klingon ship came molded in BLACK, and it was SO STINKIN' COOL.
ReplyDeleteThe decals didn't show up well, but just to have an awesome black Klingon D7 hanging in my room was very cool.
Between the D7 and the Galileo, those were my alltime favorites.
I had that Enterprise at the top of the page. I spent SO much time dragging that thing out of the house into the woods in the back yard so that they could be on "strange new worlds". :)
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