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1980's Toys
So, the 1980's was the best time and the worst ever for toys. I think that it safe to say that the majority of toys had a television show to go with it. Now, say what you will about the quality of the shows, but some of these toys were really creative and damn fun. What are some of the toys you remember having or wanting?
Does anyone remember Starcom? It did have a cartoon, but I do not remember much about it except that as a 5 year old I thought it was totally boss. The toys were pretty interesting. The action figures were were about 2 inches tall or so and the coolest thing about them was that they all had magnets in their feet. This was used with their play sets and vehicles. At different spots on the various vehicles/play sets there were magnet stickers and the figures would stick to them. The vehicle/play sets also had moving parts. If you pushed a button or flipped a switch the bay of a ship would slide open and allow you to place figures in. Or the elevator would move up and down. I remember playing with these toys in the kitchen and having them have vertical fights by sticking them on my refrigerator. Currently I still own a few of these vehicle. I take them out every once in awhile and have fond child memories. Here is a picture (mind you this is not my actual ship but a photo of the same one I own that I found on the net)
If you flipped that grey switch the back of the ship would slowly slide out. Inside of it was a small removable seating area for about 4-6 figures.
I was also a fan of Dino Riders who's dinosaurs were soo extremely accurate (well minus the mounted weapons) that when the show and the toy line were canceled the Smithsonian picked up the dinosaurs and sold them as replicas in their various shops! The whole idea behind Dino Riders is cool as fuck to a 6 year old. Hell I am 28 and I still think it is pretty cool. The people in Dino Riders came from the future, or space. Or space future. Anyway somehow there is some kind of crazy accident and this whole shit ton of people get transported to prehistoric earth. And of course their enemies get transported too! OH NOOS! So the enemies are dinosaurs that evolved into humanoids or they are lizard people or monsters, well something like that. The good guys have the macguffin and the bad guys need it sooo hard core like. To try and get it they make these mind control helmets that they put on all the cool dinos. Like T-Rex, Triceratops (should i now say a teenage Torosaurus?) and even a fucking pterodactyl. Then they put saddles on them and lazers and shit and go to fight the good guys. Now the good guys some how become friends with all the peaceful dinosaurs. The only one I can think of is a brontosaurus. They do the same thing to their dinos minus the mind control helmet. And they basically defend their macguffin. The human figures and lizard/dino/whatever men are not anything to write home about. But who ever thought of taking dinosaurs and putting laser guns on them deserves some kind of Noble prize. Also like I said before, these dinos were very well sculpted and just really cool all around. If I remember right some of the later toys in the line had self moving parts. Like some walked and swung their heads and tails. Umm what else can I say about Dino Riders... Oh it also had a shitty cartoon that I loved as a kid.
The last toy line I want to talk about I do not remember its exact name. It was called Sky Riders or something like that... It had a cartoon too. I vaguely remember that it is the future and we find some sort of crazy mineral or something in the sky above the clouds. And we mine it. That's right. We mine the sky. Now to get around these guys wore a crazy big back pack that shot a laser which they then put a hook on the laser and rode the laser. The action figures were basically G.I. Joes. But they came with their big ass back pack and hook. They also came with a ton of string. What you did was tie the string to various things in your house and then place the guy in his hooked back pack on the string and the guy would move along the string because it had tiny little rollers in back pack and it would just go across the room. As a little kid I just thought that was the bees knees. Can anyone help me out with any other details of this show? I really can not remember much else..
What did everyone else play with. Can anyone expand on what I have said or correct me if I said anything wrong?
Does anyone remember Starcom? It did have a cartoon, but I do not remember much about it except that as a 5 year old I thought it was totally boss. The toys were pretty interesting. The action figures were were about 2 inches tall or so and the coolest thing about them was that they all had magnets in their feet. This was used with their play sets and vehicles. At different spots on the various vehicles/play sets there were magnet stickers and the figures would stick to them. The vehicle/play sets also had moving parts. If you pushed a button or flipped a switch the bay of a ship would slide open and allow you to place figures in. Or the elevator would move up and down. I remember playing with these toys in the kitchen and having them have vertical fights by sticking them on my refrigerator. Currently I still own a few of these vehicle. I take them out every once in awhile and have fond child memories. Here is a picture (mind you this is not my actual ship but a photo of the same one I own that I found on the net)
If you flipped that grey switch the back of the ship would slowly slide out. Inside of it was a small removable seating area for about 4-6 figures.
I was also a fan of Dino Riders who's dinosaurs were soo extremely accurate (well minus the mounted weapons) that when the show and the toy line were canceled the Smithsonian picked up the dinosaurs and sold them as replicas in their various shops! The whole idea behind Dino Riders is cool as fuck to a 6 year old. Hell I am 28 and I still think it is pretty cool. The people in Dino Riders came from the future, or space. Or space future. Anyway somehow there is some kind of crazy accident and this whole shit ton of people get transported to prehistoric earth. And of course their enemies get transported too! OH NOOS! So the enemies are dinosaurs that evolved into humanoids or they are lizard people or monsters, well something like that. The good guys have the macguffin and the bad guys need it sooo hard core like. To try and get it they make these mind control helmets that they put on all the cool dinos. Like T-Rex, Triceratops (should i now say a teenage Torosaurus?) and even a fucking pterodactyl. Then they put saddles on them and lazers and shit and go to fight the good guys. Now the good guys some how become friends with all the peaceful dinosaurs. The only one I can think of is a brontosaurus. They do the same thing to their dinos minus the mind control helmet. And they basically defend their macguffin. The human figures and lizard/dino/whatever men are not anything to write home about. But who ever thought of taking dinosaurs and putting laser guns on them deserves some kind of Noble prize. Also like I said before, these dinos were very well sculpted and just really cool all around. If I remember right some of the later toys in the line had self moving parts. Like some walked and swung their heads and tails. Umm what else can I say about Dino Riders... Oh it also had a shitty cartoon that I loved as a kid.
The last toy line I want to talk about I do not remember its exact name. It was called Sky Riders or something like that... It had a cartoon too. I vaguely remember that it is the future and we find some sort of crazy mineral or something in the sky above the clouds. And we mine it. That's right. We mine the sky. Now to get around these guys wore a crazy big back pack that shot a laser which they then put a hook on the laser and rode the laser. The action figures were basically G.I. Joes. But they came with their big ass back pack and hook. They also came with a ton of string. What you did was tie the string to various things in your house and then place the guy in his hooked back pack on the string and the guy would move along the string because it had tiny little rollers in back pack and it would just go across the room. As a little kid I just thought that was the bees knees. Can anyone help me out with any other details of this show? I really can not remember much else..
What did everyone else play with. Can anyone expand on what I have said or correct me if I said anything wrong?