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Post by Cei-U! on Jul 3, 2014 9:36:45 GMT -5
You aren't imagining things, not this time anyway. The Frightmaker set, which you may remember advertised on the back of DC comics, was exactly like the Creepy Crawler set but with different molds. There was a third set available, too, that made those ugly little trolls all the girls had back in the day. And I vaguely remember the dinosaur thing too. Vacu-forms, maybe?
Cei-U! Man, nostalgia can be WORK!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2014 9:54:46 GMT -5
Yes, indeed. These look so cool they almost bring tears to my eyes -- The fact that I was denied possession of such wondrous things is making me suspect I was an abused child.
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Post by Cei-U! on Jul 3, 2014 10:18:21 GMT -5
Fright Factory, right, and all three sets fell under the general Thingmaker label. Geez, I haven't thought about this stuff in years.
Cei-U! I summon the simple joys of prepubesence!
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Post by impulse on Jul 3, 2014 10:26:00 GMT -5
Unless my parents have liquidated my childhood toy collection, I have massive bins full of Transformers (G1), GoBots (does anyone else remember GoBots?), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc. at their house ins storage. Ironically, any of these unopened would fetch hundreds of dollars, but being a kid in the 80s I actually played with my toys. Imagine that? I have the original Optimus Prime, all banged up, paint chipped, missing his hands...but I have him! I also have a bucket of Marvel/X-Men action figures, but I bought those are worth much, if anything. I'd rather keep them, though. We're about to have our own kids so I will have a socially acceptable reason to start playing with toys again.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2014 10:48:38 GMT -5
It is well known that the greatest toy of all time was, & will forever remain, Man, even recast sets from a few years ago appear to go for nearly $400. *sigh*
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Post by MDG on Jul 3, 2014 10:50:33 GMT -5
Yes, indeed. These look so cool they almost bring tears to my eyes -- The fact that I was denied possession of such wondrous things is making me suspect I was an abused child. I begged for--and got--the creeple people kit and loved it. Amazed that the toy was essentially a hot plate.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2014 10:52:43 GMT -5
As a young 'un I had the larger 12 inch G.I. Joe's and remember when kung fu grip was introduced to change them. I had the Six Million Dollar Man action figure in that size too, as well as Maskatron. I had a bunch of the MEgo super-heroes figures as well. In the later seventies, action figures got smaller-I had the Star Wars and Micronauts figures as well as a bunch form Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers int he 25th century. But the earliest "action figures" I had were the little people and animals in the Fisher Price toys.
Never had an erector set, but did my grandmother had a pail of Lincoln Logs I could play with while I was there, as well as a Spectograph and an etch-a-sketch. Never had a light bright, but friends of the family did and I would play with it when we visited and I was playing with their kids. I had some Legos, they were multi-color but still not that cool, but the ads ont he backs of comics at the time were starting to show where they would go.
One of my favorite toys at the time though was Mighty Man and Monster Maker. Basically a way to make super-hero and monster sketches using plates you would mix and match and then do a pencil rubbing of. WE would then use tracing paper o create a new copy of it we would then use colored pencils or magic markers to color in.
In the late 70's, my mom got a job at the Milton Bradly factory a few towns away, just as they were getting into electronic toys, so I got an influx of those that Christmas since she got a huge employee discount-and I got Simon when it was new on the market, and the Starbird electronic spaceship, while my friend, whose mom worked with my mom at the factory got the Big Trax armored exploration vehicle.
At that point, we moved to Maine, and became dirt poor and a lot of my toys were sold off (along with a lot of furniture) to help make ends meet, so by the time I was toys were usually something other kids had, not me.
-M
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 3, 2014 11:01:03 GMT -5
It is well known that the greatest toy of all time was, & will forever remain, Man, even recast sets from a few years ago appear to go for nearly $400. *sigh* Except that the correct answer, of course, was this.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2014 11:19:33 GMT -5
If I'd seen this set devoted to The War to Repel Northern Invaders Who Don't Fix Cornbread or Tea Correctly & Talk Funny Besides, I'd have had a really tough time choosing between it & the WWII set -- I wasn't then & am not now quite as big on Western scenarios (which isn't to say that I didn't love my Johnny West & Zeb Zachary figures, not to mention my Marvel Westerns), but yeah, I wouldn't kick that Fort Apache set out of my bedroom, either.
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Post by hondobrode on Jul 3, 2014 11:28:34 GMT -5
My brother had the Monster Maker. I'd completely forgotten about that !
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Post by Pharozonk on Jul 3, 2014 11:30:42 GMT -5
On the way back from my trip to Nashville. I'm so excited to eat food that isn't grossly overpriced again.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2014 11:41:00 GMT -5
Plaid Stallions is a perfect site for some of my childhood, but I was more of an 80s kid. Thanks for that link. Not only did I find some incredible toys...but I discovered a toy that had somehow been lost within the deep recesses of my mind. I had completely forgotten about it. And it was awesome. It was Manglor Mountain! Thinking back about it, I have no idea how I convinced my Mom to buy this for me, but I definitely had one, as well as a few Manglor egg monsters. I'll never forget the smell of these toys, they had such a weird smell to them. Not a particularly great toy though, they were billed as having "re-attachable limbs" but once you pulled them off they never really stayed on right. And the Manglor Mountain was basically a torture chamber, where you put the poor Manglord inside an Iron Maiden and then watched as he goes down into the lava pit...only to rise again with lava goo all over the place. Strange toy, but the nostalgia from remembering this is great.
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Post by berkley on Jul 3, 2014 11:41:44 GMT -5
If I'd seen this set devoted to The War to Repel Northern Invaders Who Don't Fix Cornbread or Tea Correctly & Talk Funny Besides, I'd have had a really tough time choosing between it & the WWII set -- I wasn't then & am not now quite as big on Western scenarios (which isn't to say that I didn't love my Johnny West & Zeb Zachary figures, not to mention my Marvel Westerns), but yeah, I wouldn't kick that Fort Apache set out of my bedroom, either. Created by Marx! While taking a break from writing Das Kapital, no doubt. Trivia note: I just found out a little while ago that (Karl) Marx always referred to the American Civil War as "the Pro-Slavery Rebellion".
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2014 11:50:09 GMT -5
Bringing to mind Mine came from the clearance table at the U. of Arizona bookstore back in the summer of '83, when I was interning at the university press.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2014 11:51:40 GMT -5
Trivia note: I just found out a little while ago that (Karl) Marx always referred to the American Civil War as "the Pro-Slavery Rebellion". "The Late Unpleasantness" still seems to be preferred down here.
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