Toltoys Kid

September 21, 200870's, LEGO, Premiums, Promotional, Stickers

LEGO Classic Space promotional sticker

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

September 8, 200870's, Big Jim, Mattel

Great Australian Big Jim Collection

A great Australian Big Jim collection

Check out this fantastic collection of Mattel Big Jim figures, vehicles and outfits from Aussie collector Willem Bos.

Willem started out with just his two remaining childhood figures five years ago, and has now built an enviable collection of over 60 figures, vehicles, outfits and ephemera.

There are so many highlights in these pictures it’s hard to single anything out, but the western range and the P.A.C.K. figures and vehicles are a couple of favourites of mine.

The stand-out highlight for me though is the set of rare 1976 Australian Olympic Outfit Big Jims. The figures have unique green and gold molded trunks as seen in this catalogue shot, and three outfits as seen in the picture below. There are tough find even here in Australia, and I’ve yet to see a packaged example.

Thanks so much to Willem for sharing his collection with Toltoys.com!

Cheers,

Will

August 22, 200860's, Kenner, Mr Potato Head, Toltoys

Mr Potato Head Store Display

Check out this great Toltoys Mr Potato Head counter-top retail display! Full of minty boxed Toltoys branded Potato Head friends, these would have graced the counters of toy stores Australia wide in the late 60’s.

Will

August 18, 200870's, Cereal, Kelloggs, Kenbrite, Playmobil, Pocket People, Premiums, Promotional

Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Playmobil Promotion

I found an interesting photo showing a 1977 box of Kellogg’s Australia Corn Flakes, with a Kenbrite Pocket People (Playmobil) mail-in offer. It appears that you could send in the coupon (and 50c) to receive a Playmobil figure.

Does anyone have an example of this box? I know there are some hardcore cereal collectors out there who must have seen it in their travels, I’d love to present a colour picture here on Toltoys.com!

You can get me on email will(at)toltoys(dot)com anytime…

Cheers!

Will

August 4, 200870's, Kenbrite, Playmobil, Pocket People

Kenbrite Pocket People

Missed an important birthday…

Yes I didn’t notice that Toltoys.com turned 2 a couple of weeks ago. They grow up so fast *wipes tear*

But it’s not too late to celebrate, so I’ve called up the lads and they’ve rocked around with a a few cases of frosty Lowenbraus!

It’s not possible for me to hold my little Kenbrite Pocket People mates (Known to the rest of the world as Playmobil) in any higher esteem than I already do, I mean how many toys do you know that came accessorised with cases of beer? After a hard days firefighting a bloke needs a brew, and Playmobil knew it.

So here’s cheers to Playmobil and their visionary design crew, and to all the supporters and contributors of Toltoys.com over the last two years.

Thanks all!

Will

July 12, 200880's, Cereal, Indiana Jones, Kelloggs, Premiums

Indiana Jones Kelloggs Premiums

Indy Coco-Pops Premiums

A few weeks ago I featured the Indiana Jones Coco Pops box from the Temple of Doom tie-in.

Inside each box was a card premium which broke apart to reveal two picture cards from the movie, one photo and one sketch jigsaw piece.

The same design was used for the Kellogs Ewok Adventure cards which I’ll feature in a future post.

Will

July 7, 200870's, Big Jim, Entry forms, Mattel

Mattel Australia Big Jim Action Drawing Contest 1973

Mattel’s Big Jim Contest

In 1973 Mattel was having some success with it’s new Big Jim action figures, a smaller scale competitor to Hasbro’s GI Joe. Launched the previous year, sales in Australia were given a little push with an “Action Drawing Contest”, promoted through retailers with large entry forms that had space on the back for little Picassos to scrawl out Big Jim in ‘action poses’.

The prizes were one of 50 Big Jim motif Warm Up Suits (Tracksuits or trackies to us Aussies) or one of 200 basic boxed figures. Personally I think wearing a Big Jim tracksuit to school sports day would have caused the owner a sudden and violent death (or least some well deserved teasing), which probably helps explain the rarity today. By rarity I mean I’ve neither heard nor seen of one in a collection or for sale anywhere.

Would love to post a pic if anyone out there does in fact own or know of one, you can get me on will(at)toltoys(dot)com.

This is the first of what may unfortunately be quite a few posts featuring vintage toy competition entry forms, I realised I had enough to call it a collection the other day, entirely accidental is my defense!

Cheers!

Will

July 5, 200870's, Ice Cream, Icy Poles, Licensed, Smurfs

Peters Smurfee Ice Creams

Licensed Australian Ice-Creams

Smack bang in the middle of the golden age of Aussie Ice Creams came the double barreled inventively titled Smurfee, courtesy of Peters / Pauls. This is the store display / advertising card from the 18c treat from 1979.

I’ve heard that there are no naturally occurring blue foods, and that blue is colour most likely to nauseate, but I’ve got to tell you that I can remember the taste of these things like it was yesterday, and that taste was good.

I’ll resist from all the standard Smurf jokes regarding Smurfette’s position as the only lass in the village, but when you look at the Smurf on the right and read the speech bubbles you just know something unnatural was going on in that forest…

Will

June 28, 200880's, Indiana Jones, Kenner, Toltoys

Toltoys Kenner Cairo Swordsman

And here’s the Swordsman

A few weeks ago I posted three of the four Aussie Indiana Jones variant figures, and now thanks to regular contributor and Toltoys afficianado Brody Walker, here is the last of the quartet; the Cairo Swordsman.

Cheers!

Will

May 23, 200880's, Indiana Jones, Kenner

Kenner Indiana Jones Figures

More Kenner Indy Goodness

Here we go with another four of the Indy Kenner line of figures from 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark.

First up is Indy’s digging buddy Sallah, played on screen by Middle Earth’s tallest Dwarf, John Rhys-Davies. This is the hardest to find of the the figures shown here, and tough to get with a nice clear bubble.

Next we have the German Mechanic as played by Pat Roach. Roach actually played a series of villains in the first three Indy movies. The tiny wrench accessory from this figures is easily lost.

French archeologist Rene Belloq is up next, the little paper map accessory that came with this figure is often missing from loose figures. Indy trivia lore states that actor Paul Freeman did in fact swallow the fly that crawled into his mouth during the scene where Indy threatens to blow up the Ark.

Lastly today is the Cairo Swordsman, along with the Toht figure the most common in the Indy Kenner line.

Aussie Indy Trivia Time

# 1 Indy’s bullwhip is made of Kangaroo hide.

#2 Indy’s hat was listed as an “Australian model” when purchased new in London by the costume department.

#3 The mountaineers challenging Marion to the drinking competition in her Nepalese bar are supposed to be Aussies.

Keen on more Indy toy info? Check out Raiders of the Lost Toys.

Will