Trek Toys (re-post)

Back during one of the past Christmas seasons I ran a series of posts describing several of the toys that I received as a child at Christmas time. Seeing as how I am posting a series of Star Trek posts, I thought I would re-post the entry about the Star Trek toys of the 70s. Here it is:


Before Star Wars, there was of course, Star Trek. Don't get me wrong, Star Wars still rocks and the toys that they put out for Star Wars were and still are awesome. But the toys for Star Trek were a little more, I don't know, adult feeling. Take for instance the Star Trek Communicators.

These babies were real. Heavy plastic with real working walkie talkie parts! They came in a package of two and you could use these anywhere! What was really cool was when you hit the little red button on the side it made a high pitched squeal that if hit at the same time as the talk button, could be broadcast to the other communicator! How cool is that?!?!? I still have one of these communicators and it still works! I also had the super cool phaser gun that shot discs! This rocked as well. You loaded up the phaser with the discs (mine were multi-colored, not like the ones in the picture) and just pulled the trigger. Toys like this would never be approved today but back then, they were the best!!!! I'm sure my poor sister took many a plastic disc to the body and face from this plastic weapon.


The action figures for Star Trek were more like the old super hero action figures. They were tall and wore real uniforms complete with utility belts, tricorders and small phasers. Again, these small pieces would never pass inspection today. I had Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and a Klingon. These came with the Enterprise Playset!

This was an amazing toy! On the outside was a drawing of space with the Enterprise soaring through it. The inside was the bridge of the Enterprise, complete with Captain's Chair, Command Center and a screen that could be changed with various scenes of planets and aliens and such. The coolest feature was, without a doubt, the transporter. You would put an action figure in the transporter and spin the dial on the top. There were two buttons to stop the spinning. The red one put the action figure facing the outside while the green one put them facing the inside. Super cool!!!!!! This toy was designed really well because when you were done playing with it, you just folded it up with everything inside and stored it on the shelf (or on top of the toy chest in our house!)

The last Star Trek item I want to show you is the Telescreen Console. This was pretty cool. You could sit Captain Kirk (or any other character for that matter) in the Captain's Chair and then play a pseudo-video game where you would have to hit various asteroids and planets and such. It was pretty cool and from what I can tell, very rare. I haven't seen too many of these around, even on e-bay. They're hard to come by! Anyway, it provided me with lots of good times! A special thanks to Plastic Stallions and The Mego Museum for the pictures.

The 25 Posts of Christmas: More Wishbook Memories

One year my grandfather decided to get all of the cousins a tape recorder for Christmas. They were the classic ones pictured here that had the top loading feature and the microphone right next to the buttons. In addition, we each got a cassette tape to play on it as well as blank tapes to make our own recordings. My tape was a Christmas compilation called, "I Like Christmas" that featured classics from Skeeter Davis, Spike Jones and a few others. The blank tapes got quite a lot of use as well. I used to record all of my favorite TV shows by placing the tape recorder right next to the speaker of the TV. This was way before the idea of VCRs even existed so that was the best way to record your shows! I used to make fake variety shows and tape them with me doing my best impressions of the hit stars of the day. The one I remember the most was Paul Lynde. I wish I could find some of those tapes. We also used them to record the birthday parade on the mornings of our birthdays. The local radio station would have this feature every morning and my mother would send in our names for our birthdays. They would play a Sousa march and the DJ would announce the names of the kids celebrating their birthdays. One year, I took a tape of my sister's birthday parade announcement from that particular year and recorded over it with my impression of Ralph Malph from Happy Days. My sister freaked out and I got into some serious trouble for that. I still have no idea how she found out. I mean, who listened to the birthday parade announcements? Obviously she did.

The 25 Posts of Christmas: Wishbook Memories

As a child, gearing up for Christmas meant breaking out the latest Sears Wishbook and writing out a 3+ page list of all of the goodies inside that I wanted for Christmas. I then gave it to my Mom who of course sent it to Santa who we all knew used the Sears Wishbook for all of his shopping! Those of you who have been following the blog for a few years know that every Christmas I share some of those great items that made the list and eventually made it under the tree. Today we have the Fisher Price Adventure People! Over the years I received several different playsets with the FPAP. I had the Rescue Truck with the super cool extending ladder for saving people from burning buildings and such. It also came with a cool fold out side that you could load the patients into after having them carried by the EMTs on a stretcher. The best part was the siren button that you could push down over and over and really annoy anyone within earshot with! The Super-Speed Racer was also great. In fact, many a day I would incorporate both the Racer and the Rescue Truck together in one viciously gruesome car crash and rescue scenario. The coolest playset from FPAP was the Sea Explorer Set. It came with a boat, wave rider with water ski tow and water skis and, the best part, a dolphin that squeaked and squirted water! These toys actually floated on water so bath time soon became sea exploration time! The figures floated on water if you bent them a certain way to make them look like they were swimming. It was pretty ingenious if you think about it. I have yet to see a toy come close to that in a while! All of this talk makes me want to go on e-bay and find a sea explorer set for my son!

Christmas In The World of Wonder: A Long TIme Ago, In A Wishbook Far, Far Away

Since the last wishbook post was all about Star Trek toys, I figured that it was only fair that this one be about Star Wars toys. Let's face it, the original Star Wars toys were the coolest toys ever. The best figures, the best playsets . . . just really cool toys! I still have my figures and have them prominently displayed in our "movie themed" room downstairs. Still have the super cool carrying case that's in this picture as well. I wish I still had the Millenium Falcon. I had the original release that came with a little tiny remote for Luke's lightsaber training. It wasn't long after that they stopped including that due to the fact that it was so small! Again, I wish I still had this. Unfortunately, my mom sold it at a tag sale. I think she made a clear profit of 50 cents on the deal. What a crime!

Sears had a weird deal with the Star Wars franchise where they would release cardboard playsets that featured a set of figures that came with it. Mine was the Mos Eisley Spaceport playset. It was basically just a piece of cardboard that stood as a backdrop for the figures to play in front of. I think it lasted about a week before it started to tear. The cool thing about this particular play set is that it featured a figure of Snaggletooth that was twice the size of the regular carded snaggletooth. At the time I felt like I was screwed out of the "real" Snaggletooth figure. Now, I realize that I had the cooler one.

Christmas in The World of Wonder: Boldly Going Where No Wishbook Has Gone Before

Before Star Wars, there was of course, Star Trek. Don't get me wrong, Star Wars still rocks and the toys that they put out for Star Wars were and still are awesome. But the toys for Star Trek were a little more, I don't know, adult feeling. Take for instance the Star Trek Communicators.

These babies were real. Heavy plastic with real working walkie talkie parts! They came in a package of two and you could use these anywhere! What was really cool was when you hit the little red button on the side it made a high pitched squeal that if hit at the same time as the talk button, could be broadcast to the other communicator! How cool is that?!?!? I still have one of these communicators and it still works! I also had the super cool phaser gun that shot discs! This rocked as well. You loaded up the phaser with the discs (mine were multi-colored, not like the ones in the picture) and just pulled the trigger. Toys like this would never be approved today but back then, they were the best!!!! I'm sure my poor sister took many a plastic disc to the body and face from this plastic weapon.


The action figures for Star Trek were more like the old super hero action figures. They were tall and wore real uniforms complete with utility belts, tricorders and small phasers. Again, these small pieces would never pass inspection today. I had Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and a Klingon. These came with the Enterprise Playset!

This was an amazing toy! On the outside was a drawing of space with the Enterprise soaring through it. The inside was the bridge of the Enterprise, complete with Captain's Chair, Command Center and a screen that could be changed with various scenes of planets and aliens and such. The coolest feature was, without a doubt, the transporter. You would put an action figure in the transporter and spin the dial on the top. There were two buttons to stop the spinning. The red one put the action figure facing the outside while the green one put them facing the inside. Super cool!!!!!! This toy was designed really well because when you were done playing with it, you just folded it up with everything inside and stored it on the shelf (or on top of the toy chest in our house!)

The last Star Trek item I want to show you is the Telescreen Console. This was pretty cool. You could sit Captain Kirk (or any other character for that matter) in the Captain's Chair and then play a pseudo-video game where you would have to hit various asteroids and planets and such. It was pretty cool and from what I can tell, very rare. I haven't seen too many of these around, even on e-bay. They're hard to come by! Anyway, it provided me with lots of good times! A special thanks to Plastic Stallions and The Mego Museum for the pictures. I know not all of the pictures are from the Wishbook, but I assure you that they were in there!!!!

Christmas in The World of Wonder: Wishbook Memories

Here's a continuation of a tradition that I started two years ago at the holiday season. It's items from the Sears Wishbook from when I was a kid. Back then, gearing up for Christmas meant breaking out the latest Sears Wishbook and writing out a 3+ page list of all of the goodies inside that I wanted for Christmas. I then gave it to my Mom who of course sent it to Santa who we all knew used the Sears Wishbook for all of his shopping! As in the past, I thought that I would share some of those great items that made the list and eventually made it under the tree. Today we have the golden age of talking alarm clocks. I owned several as a kid. The first one I owned was a Bugs Bunny Alarm Clock complete with the voice of Mel Blanc. It was pretty cool! It said something to the effect of "It's time to wake up Doc". I wasn't able to dig up a wishbook ad for that one so as you can see I just posted a picture of the clock.
I was able to find the Wishbook ad for the clock my sister had.When I received the Bugs Bunny clock, she got the Raggedy Ann and Andy clock (above). I don't remember what that one said at all. I do remember what my second talking alarm clock said. It was a Star Wars clock and it rocked. It had C-3PO and R2-D2 waking you up and yes, it was the voice of Anthoney Daniels! I recently picked up this clock on E-Bay only to find that it didn't work. I sadly returned it and got my money back. But I'm still looking for a replacement (I just don't want to spend a fortune getting it!)

The 25 Posts of Christmas: Day 20

Fisher Price was probably one of the biggest companies to make kids toys. They came up with the coolest items for every age group. I was the proud owner of the Little Tykes Basket Ball set. It rocked! The best part was every time you scored a basket, a bell would ring! And you could keep score by rotating the number wheel on the right and left sides of the basket! I also had the Little Red School House. It was even more of a novelty for me as we had a Little Red Schoolhouse in the town where I grew up! This was not just a school house playset - it was a chalkboard and a magnet board as well! In fact, my mother still finds those letters around the house, some 30 odd years later! The garage playset was awesome. That ramp was the coolest! But nothing beat out the barn! When the doors opened up, you heard the loudest "MOO" ever heard. And of course, we all remember the Little People! How many people had the dog only to have it end up with one ear which would be twisted upside down?!

The 25 Posts of Christmas: Day 14

Another Great item from the Sears Wishbook:
This item was a very special and bizarre part of my childhood. I went through a phase where I wanted nothing more than to have a brother. Unfortunately, I had one sister and after me, my mom was not able to have any more children. Then I heard about this television show called SOAP where a character on the show had a dummy that he referred to as a brother. Being the impressionable child that I was, I asked for this dummy that was advertised in the Sears Catalogue. It was called Willie Talk. A play on words that never hit me until I was well past this stage of my life and kept the dummy in a box in a closet. Anyway, I received him for Christmas and took him with me everywhere, always referring to him as my brother Willie. This worked rather well until I dropped him and his mouth caved into his head. I was able to pull out the mouth and put it back in place, but since the fall had broken one of the points that kept his mouth in place, if I pulled the cord on the back too hard, the mouth would go back into the head again. Eventually, as I stated above, Willie Talk found his way into a box in my closet where he stayed until years later when I tossed him.

The 25 Posts of Christmas: Day 9

More Wishbook Items!


For some odd reason, my family liked to give me lots of Dallas Cowboys related items. I don't know why. I was never a fan of football. I didn't play football. I only liked the Cowboys because in the 70s, you were either a Cowboys fan or a Steelers fan. I chose the Cowboys because of their colors (I picked the Dodgers as my fav baseball team for the same reason!). Anyway, with my parents trying desperately for me to be like other "normal boys" I guess they thought that NFL paraphenalia would help make a man out of me. Hence the pajamas, sweatshirts, duffle bags, bedspreads, etc . . .

Interesting side note to this story: My mother was extremely over-protective of me as a child. Even if I did want to play football she would not have allowed it. In fact, she even found a way to not let me play flag football in gym class. Which makes these gifts even more confusing.

The 25 Posts of Christmas: Day 4

Continuing with my 25 posts of Christmas, I bring you some items from the Sears Wishbook. As I stated last year, when I was young, gearing up for Christmas meant breaking out the latest Sears Wishbook and writing out a 3+ page list of all of the goodies inside that I wanted for Christmas. I then gave it to my Mom who of course sent it to Santa who we all knew used the Sears Wishbook for all of his shopping! As I did last year, I thought that I would share some of those great items that made the list and eventually made it under the tree.

For this post I bring you the "controversial" Ernie puppet. This was a hand puppet that was given to me one Christmas when I was very young. Since I came from a big Italian family, we would exchange gifts between the family on Christmas Eve (after the 5 hour dinner spectacular!). On that fateful Christmas Eve, I received the Ernie puppet from my Aunt and Uncle. At first I thought it was great. Then my father picked it up and tried to entertain me by biting me on the nose with it. Of course, this terrified me and started me crying which then led to the puppet being locked away in a drawer, never to be played with again. Good times!

Wishbook PJs from Outer Space!

Pajamas were allways a big deal during my childhood. I have no idea why but they were something special. Especially these pajamas. The Star Trek ones were super cool because you could pretend you were actually an officer on the deck of the Eneterprise. They were an exact replica of the uniform. (I also had a regular shirt that had the emblem on it that I wore everywhere) The Mork pajamas were made of this really weird foam like material that is no longer in use. Probably because it was toxic or something. I also had Dallas Coyboy Pajamas made from the same material.

The Wish Book Item That Started It All

Although technically I received this as a birthday present, it still came from the Wish Book so I thought that I would post it in this continuing series of posts. This was one of my first record players. Actually, I'm not sure if this was my first one or not. I did have a really cool record player that folded up into a suitcase that had detachable speakers but I can't recall if I had that one before this one. Anyway, this Winnie The Pooh record player served me well and every once in a while I check e-bay to see if anyone has it for sale. One time I found it but the price skyrocketed to the point where I wasn't prepared to pay that much. I loved that I could play records in any room. I would just fold down the cover and carry it to wherever I wanted. If you think about it, it was the equivalent of a seventies i-pod! I remember getting two 45s with this as well: the Happy Days theme and Welcome Back by John Sebastion. I still have the John Sebastion record. My sister broke the Happy Days theme. Oh well.

"BOP!" " BAG!" " WISH!" " BOOK!"

When we were kids, I used to trick my sister into telling me what she was giving me for Christmas every year. It was really easy. Every year I would tell her that I was giving her an ironing board. I don't know why she believed me every year but she did. Anyway, the only gift that I remember that she told me about was this: a Batman Bop Bag. I loved this bag and it took quite the beating from me. I still wish I had this today. In fact, whenever I see bop bags in a store, it takes me a while to walk past without picking one up and buying it.

Holy Bendables, Batman! More Wishbook stuff!

I got this great Batman Bendy as a stocking stuffer and for the longest time carried everywhere I went. It seemed to always be around right up until my Junior High years when my parents got rid of our toy chest. The weird thing that I remember about this was that there were two small holes in Batman's right arm. I still have no idea what they were or where they came from. Anyway, I know I loved this toy!


Speaking of superhero items from the wishbook, this was also a favorite of mine. The Spiderman Camera! It was a real camera that took amazing pictures. I used this camera for most of my pre-teen years and would still be using it today if technology hadn't destroyed the wonderful years of the Kodak legacy! No matter where I went people always thought it was a toy. That used to make me upset but it also made sure that people didn't realise that I was taking their picture!

Hi-o Wish Book, Away!

Here's another Wish Book ad featuring one of my many Christmas presents from childhood. This time out it's the Lone Ranger riding on Silver. This was one of the many toys that wound up on my dresser in the exact same position as in this ad. I hardly ever played with it. It served more as a statue than a toy. I had a high level of respect for this toy. I felt very cultured having it on my dresser. It was quite the gift!

More items from the Wishbook!

In the 70s the coolest character on television was of course, the 6 Million Dollar Man. I had the action figure with the bionic parts that you could take out (they would never have that today - the parts were very small thus they would be a major choking hazard!) and it also had a "Bionic Eye" that you could look through from the back of Steve Austin's plastic head. But the fun did not stop there - I also had the Bionic Emergency Center. This was the coolest! It starts off as a rocket ship that holds the Steve Austin figure. Then of course you make it crash. Then, it turns into a medical table complete with wires and life support machines where you can "add" the Bionic Parts to the Bionic Man! And if that wasn't enough, I also had Mask-A-Tron, the face changing robot who was Steve Austin's arch rival. The figure came with several different faces that you could put on - Steve Austin, Oscar Goldman and Mask-A-Tron's own face. And when the fun with the action figures stopped, you could always rely on the board game from the show to keep you entertained! But if you wanted to watch the show on any other day than Sunday night, you could only watch it with the hand held movie cassette reels that featured scenes from the show! I recently won an unopened Bionic Recsue Center on E-Bay and thought that it would be cool to have again. I sold it on E-Bay when I realised that it just wasn't the same. However, I would love to have Mask-A-Tron again!

Wishbook Pages of Christmas Past

As a child, gearing up for Christmas meant breaking out the latest Sears Wishbook and writing out a 3+ page list of all of the goodies inside that I wanted for Christmas. I then gave it to my Mom who of course sent it to Santa who we all knew used the Sears Wishbook for all of his shopping! As Christmas 2006 gets nearer and nearer, I thought that I would share some of those great items that made the list and eventually made it under the tree. Here's number 1:



This was the Golden Ticket for Viewmaster fans - The Viewmaster Projector! Bsically it was just a projector that made it possible for more than one person to enjoy a Viewmaster Reel. Nothing spectacular but this was during the days when there were no VCRs or DVD players. The only person "qualified" to run the home movie projecter was Dad so this was a kids way of showing and watching big screen characters that they found enjoyable. I still have this projector today. As soon as I find a replacement bulb I can share it with my niece and nephew!