Toys in the Attic Part 1

When you’re a kid, the best thing in the world are toys. If it’s an action figure, toy truck, or even a board game, you cherish it. Growing up I had tons of cool toys from the 70’s and 80’s. When I was back home visiting family last summer, I explored the attic where all my old toys are stored. Going through lots of memories as I came across toys I haven’t seen in many years. I had so many items to write about and show you all, that this will be a two-parter. This month, I’ll talk about super-hero toys and famous action figures. It will be a little bit different from other articles I have written, where it will be a very light read and very photo heavy and I’ll let the pictures tell the story. In my first Growing Up Fanboy, The Star Wars Years, I wrote about Star Wars and featured some of my action figures from that series. Now, I’ll show you other figures I collected through out the years.

First off, a lot of my toy purchasing was done at Woolworth’s, K & B Toys and Bradlees (which was a Target like department store). Probably most of the toys I’m about to talk about were bought from those stores. Below, are some pictures of DC and Marvel super-hero toys. Most of these were made by Mego, which made a variety of these toys from dolls, vehicles, and action figures. Here we have Mego’s action figure series which features Batman, Robin, Aquaman, Captain Marvel, Spider-man, and The Penguin. Actually, the Batman I have is different from the others shown, it is a pocket figure where the legs are straight kind of like the Star Wars and other action figures were designed like. Then I have a few rubber mini-busts of Marvel super-heroes, Spider-man, Captain America, Hulk, and Thor. Next are the Mego super-hero dolls, which I have a bunch of. Here’s the case and some of the dolls (Batman, Captain America, Spider-man, Green Arrow, and The Human Torch) and the Batmobile. Other than super-heroes, I also had a Dr. McCoy, and Buck Rogers dolls. Now from the Superman group, I have die-cast Superman figure and a bend and flex figure Mr Mxyzptlk.

AHI made a variety of parachutist and launcher toys, which included many super-heroes. Below, we have some heroes and villains from the Marvel and DC world like, Hulk, Spider-man, Batman, Superman, The Joker and The Penguin. I remember having tons of these and use to lose a lot of them because when I launched them, the wind would get a hold of them and they would go over the fence and into the woods. Here’s a mix of a different types of toys, the small Spider-man head is part of a kit I had that made spider webs. That piece is where the liquid was stored and it also came with very tiny figures you can stick on the web. Use to work well on branches in my backyard. Here are a few army men type hard plastic figures of Marvel super-heroes. The solid color ones (Captain America, Iron Man, and Daredevil) are larger than the painted ones (Daredevil, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and Hulk). I think I got these in a pack with a bunch of cowboy and Indian guys.

Now on to toys from movies and television series, starting off with toys from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Kenner put these out which include a play set of the Well of the Souls and many action figures from the film. Here are a few characters like, Toht, Indiana Jones, German Mechanic, and Bellloq. I also had a doll of Indy, which you see here. The Dukes of Hazzard was a popular TV show at the time and there were plenty of items out for kids. Ideal put out a board game, which was one of my favorite board games of all when I was a kid. I also had Bo and Luke Duke figures along with The General Lee, which was made by Mego.

Below, is a who’s who of action figures from movies and TV from the 70’s and 80’s. Starting with a few action figures from Mego, we have figures from the 1970’s TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Here we have Buck himself, his robot Twiki, and Killer Kane. Also from Mego, we have figures from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Here you see Spock, Decker, Scotty, and McCoy. On to a few toys from Mattel, we have a few figures from some hit TV shows. Action figures from Battlestar Galactica, which include, Starbuck, Adama, Daggit, and Imperious Leader and a figure of Mork from Mork and Mindy. (The figure included an Egg). A few figures from Flash Gordon, the cartoon not the film from the 80’s. Two of the most famous characters from the series, Flash and Ming. Action figures from the movie, Clash of the Titans, Calibos Lord of the Marsh, Perseus, and my favorite figure, Charon Devil’s Boatman. Others you see below include a Galoob action figure of Mr. T himself, as B.A. Baracus from the A-Team. These next two are from The Plant of the Apes, first is another parachutist and launcher toy from AHI of Dr. Zaius and Mego’s bend and flex of a Soldier Ape. Last we have Tomy’s figure of Tron and a three figures from the 1978 animated feature The Lord of the Rings.

Here some action figures with their origins starting off as just a toy line and then spawned out to comics and cartoons. Below, we start with Hasbro’s G.I. Joe. These were the Real American Hero series from the 1980’s, which was a revival of the 60’s and 70’s 12” figures. (I had two of those and a tank as well, not pictured, sorry.) I remember collecting tons of G.I. Joe toys, almost as much as I did Star Wars. I had mostly every figure and some of the vehicles. The figures you see below are, famous wrestler, Sgt. Slaughter, Storm Shadow, Grunt, Gung Ho, Zartan, and Snake-Eyes. After the line of toys came out soon did a comic and a cartoon series from Marvel. Also from Hasbro came the Transformers. They also followed in G.I. Joe’s footsteps with a Marvel comic and cartoon. Below, is a picture of Megatron who transformed into a gun. I still even have the box that it came in. Now on to a few Mattel toys, starting with Masters of the Universe. Here we have the main two characters Skeletor and He-Man. Each figure came with a mini-comic book about the character. The toy line soon came out with a cartoon series as well. Mattel’s Shogun Warriors, that came out in the late 70’s were based on Japanese giant robot anime shows. Here are two die-cast figures of Mazinga and Dragun. The Warriors also had a comic from Marvel based on them and Mattel also had jumbo-sized 24” figures, which I have one of those. (More on that in part two of this article.)

Fisher-Price has been around forever and has put out a number of different toys. They also had a bunch of action figure and vehicles in their Adventure People line. Below, you can see some of the figures, a Deep-sea Diver, Clawtron the robot, and X-Ray Man, along with the Sea Explorer boat. Since were on Fisher-Price, I have an old Little People Sesame Street set which is a house that opens up and includes a series of mini-figures that are the typical Fisher-Price ones with no arms and legs and just the head and round body. Now on to a few more plastic figures like the super-hero ones, here are a few cowboys that I got in a pack many years ago. Also, since Star Wars came out there were many space age toys going around. Here are some that I have that include a crab like alien, an astronaut, a robot that looks like R2-D2 and a figure that looks like Darth Vader but all in green.

I hope you enjoyed part one of this two-part article. Next month, I’ll have more toys in the attic.