Bronze Age Babies: Discuss Your Favorite Childhood Comics-Related Toy

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Discuss Your Favorite Childhood Comics-Related Toy

Karen: What super-hero toy did you really love as a kid?

18 comments:

Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; August 14, 2014 at 7:09 AM
Anonymous said...: "...I remember growing up, I had a stick, just a straight stick. No curve or fork, just a straight stick. And when I was about 10, for Christmas, my Uncle gave me a piece of string....."

David Letterman.

I know this doesn't count as a toy, but I got it out through the mail and it may have come from a comic book. It was a tool, two arms, one longer than the other. In the middle was a hole for the stand that came with it. On either end, or either end, depending on which part of the world you're in, you would put a pencil in one end and the stylus, the other. When you would trace a picture or a drawing with the stylus, the pencil would draw it at the other end. Depending on how you set the tool up, you could either make a small drawing larger, a large drawing smaller or a straight copy. I would draw and draw and draw. All day, every day.

The Prowler (once made a really cool Xerox of his head but there was a paper jam).

PS: That Bat Man water pistol is just wrong......its just wrong, I tell you.; August 14, 2014 at 7:25 AM
Anonymous said...: Mego Action Figures -- because you could mix/match costume elements and create your own hero!

Also, Maskatron (from the 6 Million Dollar Man line) -- that was the best Machine Man figure *ever*.; August 14, 2014 at 8:04 AM
Anonymous said...: What is going on with that last Batman toy pictured?
-sean; August 14, 2014 at 8:09 AM
Anonymous said...: Oh...just noticed the Prowler's comment; so its a water pistol? I can see that now, but still...
-sean; August 14, 2014 at 8:11 AM
david_b said...: Great topic today, waaaay too many memories to jot down, but can share a few..

I'm one of the acknowledged 'older folk' on this list, so I'd have to go with my Ideal Captain Action line.., especially loved Action Boy and dressing him up as Aqualad (the only costume set I had for him...).

Mego's emerged once I hit 9-10yrs, so I suspect my parents were trying to get me out of the action figure collecting..

('Soooooo, just how did that turn out, Mom..??')

I did have the first Mego Removable Mask Batman and Robin, then a smattering of other figures in the coming years. One thing about growing up, I didn't get a lot of toys, so my GI Joe AT headquarters had to double as my Batcave, later as a Justice League headquarters.. No vehicles were bought, so my hero's either flew or had bus-fare..

I will say once the Mego Spiderman came out, he was TOPS.

Back in '73, I was pretty discouraged my Mom never bought me the Ideal Spiderman playset I saw on a vacation trip in K-Mart for a whopping $3.49...:

http://spidermancollector.net/wordpress/?p=411

Luckily I grabbed a beautiful still-wrapped minty one on eBay a few years back and now it's got it's own shiny acrylic display case on my shelf here at work. Paid a tad more than $3.49, but it's STILL shimmers in it's awesomeness.

And yep, that Batman squirt gun is pretty bad. Back in my day, kids (in my crusty curmudeon voice...), , you didn't think anything of squeezing the crotch of a masked guy wearing spandex and a cape.

"Kids these days just don't know what they're missin'...."; August 14, 2014 at 8:35 AM
Edo Bosnar said...: Given the strategic placement of the trigger and the filling hole and plug on that Batman water pistol, I can't help but think the designer had a big ol' smirk on his face when he handed in the schematics to his higher-ups. Also, I'm betting the workers on the assembly line in Hong Kong (where they were apparently manufactured) were probably laughing hysterically the entire time those were in production...; August 14, 2014 at 9:41 AM
Jeff W. Moore said...: Mighty Men and Monster Maker - It was these tiles that you could use to draw Superheroes and Monsters ... I loved that thing!; August 14, 2014 at 9:57 AM
Dr. Oyola said...: None!

But I created elaborate scenes with LEGO and superheroes of my own creation, by mixing the Castle and Space Lego stuff with the Town Lego stuff. . .

There was Black Knight (unrelated to Marvel's Black Knight, who has always been boring), Red Knight his former squire turned villain, Colonel Quack, a Quackanian alien from the planet Quacka, The Footman! And Vamp, a woman with no powers who drove a supped up car with clawed tentacles who was kind of an anti-hero.

There was also Aqua-Elephant, the hyperintelligent amphibious blue elephant from another dimension.; August 14, 2014 at 10:03 AM
Anonymous said...: Couldn't go wrong with my MEGO 12" Wonder Woman and all of her Diana Prince "fashions". It was also fun to have the MEGO Diana Ross on hand for sharing clothes.; August 14, 2014 at 10:15 AM
Anonymous said...: David,

I HAD that Spiderman playset and just the other day "found" a small box with all of the figures and stands in it. Don't know what became of the case though(?).

Tom; August 14, 2014 at 10:55 AM
William said...: Megos all the way! I loved them. Definitely my favorite toy as a kid.

At one point or another I probably owned just about every one of them. (But never all at the same time).

They were awesome in their day. But if Marvel Legends had been around when I was 9, my head would have exploded!!; August 14, 2014 at 12:58 PM
Anonymous said...: SPIDER-MOBILE!!! I loved the Mego figures, especially Spidey and the Spider-Mobile. I think I had the Batman (and Spidey) utility belts, but everything was made of cheap plastic, so it all got wrecked pretty quickly. I don't recognize that Batman squirt gun, but I had a Spidey one with a flip-up sight that looked like a web.

@Lulu Grandiron: I love your profile pic...nice to see I'm not the only Donna Mills fan around here :) (unless you actually ARE Donna Mills, in which case I've had a crush on you since I was 8 years old!)

Mike W.; August 14, 2014 at 1:23 PM
david_b said...: Tom, coolness. I've only had the one I got still wrapped in original cello, so I'm keeping it that way. It looks GORGEOUS by the way..

Another follow-up question would be 'Which toy line would you have LOVED to have had when you were young..?' and definitely that '80s Super Powers line (pictured) would have been sooooooo kewl to have had as a young kid. That SP Batmobile still looks awesome. Basic articulation, but awesome headsculpts and bright colors, wide variety of heroes and villains as well.; August 14, 2014 at 1:29 PM
J.A. Morris said...: Tough to say, but my favorite Mego doll (and we did call them dolls back then) was the "Fist Fighting" Riddler!:
http://www.megomuseum.com/wgsh/fistfighters/index.html; August 14, 2014 at 4:06 PM
IADW said...: For me it was Kenners Super Powers. Joker had a mallet, Aquaman a trident and Green Lantern an ambient lighting device! Punch, Kick, Chop and move all in the one figure - and you got a mini-comic! It was the gift that kept on giving. Well until Optimus Prime came along then forget about it, but in terms of comics they were the shizz.; August 15, 2014 at 1:02 AM
Redartz said...: Didn't really have any specifically comic related toys. However, I did have Batman, Spider-Man and Superman on View Master reels. With the projector, we had many afternoon Showtime's ( of course, to get the 3-D effect, you had to use the hand viewer).; August 15, 2014 at 5:59 AM
Anonymous said...: I was a 60's kid. I actually had a Batman Utility Belt like the one pictured. I'm not sure why it's shown here though. I thought this was a 70's and 80's site? The Batman Utility Belt picture coincided with the airing of the original Batman series, dated 1966.; December 5, 2014 at 10:11 PM