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Post by GUYx1 on Dec 17, 2005 12:44:16 GMT -5
Before the month is over, I thought I had better come up with a holiday themed posting.  I initially wanted to do a Post of holiday CYBORG memories, only that pretty much limits the postings to only overseas collectors. Most of my UK friends either couldn't afford Cyborgs at the time, or were complete football fiends who couldn't have cared less about toys in 1976. If you have any good memories of receiving toys as gifts, this could prove to be a fun thread. Brian Heiler (of Canada) started out several postings. He unearthed one of his childhood WISHLISTS.  www.megomuseum.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/topic.cgi?forum=1&topic=6953&start=0He also obtained holiday photos. www.megomuseum.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/topic.cgi?forum=1&topic=7012&replies=12Here are some holiday memories I could dredge out of people. Please add any that you can. - ------------- WHEN I FIRST DISCOVERED THERE WAS NO FATHER CHRISTMAS We lived in a p**s poor area, council house with outside toilet. Being the youngest, I had to share a bed with Mum. My two older brothers had the other bed. SO!!! Christmas morning, bright and early, up I jump to see the pile of pressies at the end of the bed!! Excitedly, I awake Mum, and tell her Father Christmas has been!! Bleary eyed Mum smiles, and says "take a look at your Dad's pressie" I'm thinking "?" She points at the Action Man Deep Sea Diver. (probably second issue, this would be 1970ish) "Oh, the lucky fing!! I WANTED that!!!""" whinges little Barry. "No, it IS for you, from yer Dad" explains Mum "Oh WOW!!!" I scream!! "But....aren't these the things Father Christm........." Then it hit me. Father Christmas was MY DAD!!! - BAZZA -------------------- SO!! In England, there was/is something called the "Provident". A Loan company, basically, whereas you could loan money in the form of a "cheque" (in Liverpool they were referred to as "Provy Checks") So, the poor families would get, say 100.00 quid, and then pay 20pence a week to pay it off. SO, at Christmas times, certain stores held late night "Provident" nights, where only these Provy checks were accepted. At my fave Toy Store (Harris's) I went along with Mum to pick some pressies. This was maybe 1975/76. SO, Action Man Eagle Eyes had just been released. Now, the first issues were the Eagle Eye head on the same old body. SO, there I was, staring at the Action Man aisle (it was floor to ceiling, over 100 feet long!!!!) LONGING for a new Eagle Eye Action Man. Mum is standing beside me, looking at prices, checking boxes n stuff, I guess making sure everything was in there that should be in there.I'm all jittery 'cos she's picking up the new Eagle Eye figure. "Hmm..." says Mum, putting the Action Man back "Lets go and get your sister's toys" she syas, and off we go...... SO, Mum does her shopping, and we leave with plenty o' bags. On the bus (provided by Provident!) on the way home, Mum asks: "Did you see anything you want?" "I'd love the new Eagle Eyes Action Man, Mum" says I. "Really?" Asks Mum. Upon this, she reached into her pocket, and gives me.................................... And Action Man Eagle Eyes.....HEAD!!!!! Clever Mum had noticed that it was only the head that was different, so decided to "liberate" one from an open box!!!! Boy was I excited!!!!!! Of course, we got home, and Mum swapped the head for me. Ahhh.........Happy Days - BAZZA ----------------------------------------------------------------- My parents(Santa) put some presents on our beds(I have an older sister) at every Christomas nights. Usually, presents were as following. 1. Toy 2. Book 3. Many sweets in a fake boots----> In Japan, this is very popular. Candies and Chocolates are in fake boots for sale. In the morning on Dec. 25th, I and my sister showed presents each other in their beds. This is very happy memories. Happy holidays. - MASATO |
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Post by GUYx1 on Dec 19, 2005 8:16:34 GMT -5
 My favorite action Figure Christmas present was a total surprise. It was early 1970-71. My Mom brought out a huge present from behind the Christmas tree. Somehow I had missed it, more likely it had been hidden. My eyes grew in anticipation for I had not asked for anything that big. My heart raced. I wasn't sure what to think. I began to open it, It looked like a plain old Firetruck at first. I thought they were for babies. Then I got more excited it was Big Jim with Karate chop action and the Big Jim Rescue Rig with the fantastic crane basket and talking console. I was in heaven! I was totaly shocked, I barely knew what a Big Jim was. I ran and got my Gijoe Sea Adventurer and now I had a team to play with. I played with that vehicle all through my childhood with Gijoe, Megos, and Big Jim. It was a wonderful Christmas, Ed |
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Post by hypnotator on Dec 19, 2005 15:48:41 GMT -5
Bazza, your mum sounds cool! Hypnotator’s dear mother was similar.
Guy, my daughter loves your Cyborg -headed snowman.
Did you know that Big Jim was called Mark Strong here in the UK? We loved the figures but they didn’t appear for long. They endured longer in France. There is a Jean Luc Godard art film where a boy talks at length about his Beeg Jeem. We got some holidaying there and also in Sicily. I remember the catalogue all in Italian, which was all we ever knew of the Rescue Rig. Sicilian Big Jim had the best tan; Mark Strong was pale.
This isn’t a Christmas memory, but my brother’s birthday and our summer holiday, in 1976 (of course). We were spoiled enough to get presents on each others’ birthdays, and my brother’s was in August and fell in the middle of our holiday. That year we were going to France. Cyborg and Muton hadn’t hit the British shops yet, but they were advertised on the telly, and a friend’s mum had a mail order catalogue with them in. From the tiny little pictures, we knew we wanted them badly. My parents ordered Cyborg and two Subform costumes for my brother and Muton for me. The subforms came before we went to France, but the figures didn’t, so we got dressing a Mego body up as the X_Akron and the Amaluk (with the X-aron’s hands and feet) on our holiday and we got to obsess in an anticipatory way about the figures which were awaiting us on our return to England. My memories of childhood are very detailed, and I remember the sound of crickets chirping in the unkempt grass around the house, playing in the bottom of the drained pond pretending to be the Subform characters, the taste of the fruity chewing gum we couldn’t get at home and peeing my bed with excitement the first night there (I dreamed I was at the toilet). I also had a dream about my Muton – he was totally different, a weird knight in armour character, a bit like Judge Fear from the Judge Dredd strip, which came out later. He was quite cool in the dream, but not as good as the real figure, which didn’t disappoint when I got home.
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Post by Mutonismyfriend on Dec 19, 2005 16:45:26 GMT -5
OK, here's my holiday toy memories: First off, Muton and Cyborg didn't arrive at Christmas. I saved for months to get My Muton and Cyborg. Eventually I later got an Android, but we had so little money at the time, that my dad went mad when he saw it, and made the woman at the toy shop in Blackpool take it back and berated her for letting me buy it - it was 2.20, which was a lot then. Ha ha, later I got one in a local disount store, and later than that they had a huge pile of Androids for one pound each! How I dream of going back in time for those!
Anyway, my holiday toy memory is around 1972, I was seven, and desperate to get Action Men like my friends had. I spent the month before xmas waiting for mum to start watching coronation street, so she would be totally involved, and I would pull up chairs and search high cupboards while she was distracted. I was pretty sure I found some, but luckilly it was still a mystery come xmas day.
Anyway, the day arrived, and I guess I was disappointed...but looking back I shouldn't have been. Mum and dad had bought a huge lot of used, but not worn, late 60's action men with the painted hair and some amazing outfits. My mum hand stiched every outfit to a custom card to make it look like they were carded! Can u believe that! Some of the outfits included stuff that I never saw in stores like Russian soldiers and the like! I loved these guys, but lusted after a fuzzy headed action man, and the new suits in the well worn catalog I perused every day. Eventually I traded some of the best ones for stuff like Jungle Adventure action man. My dad couldn't believe I got rid of the best ones!
Anyway, i still have the action men...all in pieces with no internal elastic - they all fell apart after too many deep seas and scuba diving adventures in the bath tub....ha ha...good times!
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Post by cyborgbushcricket on Dec 20, 2005 18:16:55 GMT -5
I think ive told this story online before but here goes. Pre xmas 1970 something, i see piles of mutons in 'Alpha Toys' in a grim northern English town (its now a pound shop - like a Dollar tree USA) and want one badly. My dear mum bought one and the 3 subforms...................for my cousin!!  It was wrapped under our xmas tree and I managed to sneak down one night and actually unwrapped the thing and carefully extricated the toy (you see I was destined to be a 'remove carefully for resale value' type guy) and played with that purple piece of goodness  . Even then as a small child I realised that the subforms were not going to be opened, damn those blisters!! it wasnt all bad, i did actually get a cyborg instead with a load of accessories. The weird thing is my dear cousin whos a year or so my junior doesnt remember his muton toy, i know I certainly do. I am now a confirmed cyborg addict, yup and like many a drug I started young and in secret!! CBC |
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Post by cybermuton on Dec 20, 2005 19:00:28 GMT -5
I love that GUYx1 wanted a cat calendar...
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Post by teddyboy on Dec 20, 2005 23:25:24 GMT -5
A good memory I have is making a trip to Preston (a small town in between Liverpool Manchester & Blackpool.....sort of, anyway!) (actually, Henry Rollins once referred to it as a Ghetto!!! Wot a wanker, it's a lovely place!!)round about 1986
ANYWAY!!
My friend and I had heard of an old toy shop that had been around since the 60s was closing down, so we gathered our dole and got the train up there.
The shelves were FULL of cool stuff, Marx Lone Rangers, Action Man, Karaaaaate Men, Aurora kits and more! And of course, CYBORG, ANDROID and MUTON!
So, we PILED up the counter with as much as we could. The young girl got her calculator, added it all up, and told us how much. My friend, honest that he is, asked if it was correct, as it seemed a bit cheap. The girl replied that EVERYTHING was HALF THE MARKED PRICE!!! And some of these prices were ORIGINAL 70's prices.
SO, we went back for round two!!!
Hobbling back to the train with SIX Bin bags (garbage bags) full of swag each, We laughed all the way home.
Then went back NEXT week!!!
Good times indeed!
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Post by GUYx1 on Dec 21, 2005 16:00:30 GMT -5
 Great stories Everyone! Keep 'em coming. Not sure what that was about the cat calendar though... - GUYx1 |
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Post by GUYx1 on Dec 21, 2005 16:15:45 GMT -5
I also posted this question at the Yahoo Group Micropolis_ Embassy: Glad you asked. I meant to post this last holiday season but it crept up on me and I never got to it. But here it is: an actual action shot of a yery young me opening the major big gift of 1978 or so, a minty fresh Mego Battle Cruiser! Oh joy!  Unfortunately mom tossed it out sometime when I was in college but that was before eBay anyway. I think that same year I got a Galactic Warrior and Giant Acroyear.. Somewhere I have a shot from the year before showing all my gifts lined up, including my first ever Micronauts: Baron Karza, Andromeda, Microtron, pink Acroyear, and an orange Time traveler with a blue chest plate. Many happy hours ensued! Happy holidays to all, and I hope SantaTron has something cool for you this year too! -PharoidsTomb groups.yahoo.com/group/Micropolis_Embassy/message/39390 |
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Post by hypnotator on Dec 21, 2005 16:42:49 GMT -5
Mutonis, I have a similar story about my dad putting all my Aurora Prehistoric Scenes in the bin. It was the day we moved house and he was stressed, but I was so angry at the time that I left them in there, and they perished.
Teddyboy, did you keep them all?
Maybe Cybermuton was able to psychically detect that you wanted a cat calendar, Guy?
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Post by GUYx1 on Dec 21, 2005 18:28:04 GMT -5
The year I recieved the M.A.S.K. Boulder Hill playset was a very good year. I peeked out of my bedroom window and saw my mom bringing it in the house on x-mas eve. It had a giant box and i knew what it was immediately. Had a very hard time getting to sleep that night. In the last few years I have pieced together a nice collection of M.A.S.K. toys to relive my childhood. Very cool toys, now and then.
Brian K.
manager
for
Billy Galaxy
vintage toys
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Post by teddyboy on Dec 21, 2005 22:44:56 GMT -5
Yes, Hypnotator, I DID keep em all. STILL have them in fact!!! We didn't know, but on one shelf was a whole bunch of Marx Rolykins Daleks! Not our thing, so we passed on 'em!
Weird how nostlagia makes you more impulsive. There was a pile of "Eagles" (not the Space 1999 ones, the figures) on a shelf. Remembering 'em, I bought a bunch. Think they were about 50p each!!
I do remember one shop in town having the Kenner Aliens for 1.99 each!! I saved my pocket money and bought one. HAH!!!
I was too young to see "Alien" at the cinema, but I could go to the toy shop, three blocks from the cinema, and BUY the Alien!!!
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Post by GUYx1 on Dec 22, 2005 11:56:51 GMT -5
 Happy Holidays everybody. I have been meaning to leave a story of my own for some time. Im trying to come up with something that won’t sound SEPTIC by comparison to all your wonderful posts. Being the child of an AutoMechanic, we were lower middleclass, but I can generally say I was always content with what I received. I have a lot to be thankful for. The moment that turned me into a collector was the christmas my parents told me “You are too old for toys”. The impending Garage Sale some months later would prove to be the end of things. I waved good bye to my Gaiking Shogun Warrior, my Godzilla and the like. Christmas would never be the same. It would be socks, underwear and the inevitable plaid shirt for the rest of my days. These days, I find Joy in searching for the impossible want list toys for my Nieces and Nephews trying to give them a bit of the joy I felt as a child. Clutching a mego action figure, riding in the snow plow with my father as he tried to earn a few extra dollars for the family by plowing the parking lots of local businesses. I want to somehow help the next generation have a wonderful Christmas or two before they lose interest in toys (which at this point seems to be by age eight or nine). - Guy  |
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Post by cyborgbushcricket on Dec 22, 2005 20:02:03 GMT -5
love that plantman, I am as green as he.
CBC.
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Post by teddyboy on Dec 24, 2005 22:35:31 GMT -5
The best thing about being "old", is that we can do what we want with our money. When I was a kid, I'd think "If I had all the money in the world, I'd spend it all on Action Man". NOW, I have a good income, and compared to my childhood it IS all the money in the world, so, being true to my younger self, I DO spend it all on Action Man.......much to my wifes annoyance!!! But hey!!! I buy her $400.00 Betsy Johnson dresses, so I can have a boxed second issue sailor, right?  |
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Post by GUYx1 on Dec 28, 2005 10:50:51 GMT -5
You'll probably think me a big girls blouse over this, but it really depresses me that collectors have to BUY OURSELVES gifts to rekindle the magic we once felt for the holiday. I'd be happy with just ONE of my childhood gifts. ANY ONE.
I wish I had been able to truly appreciate just how clever these toys were at the time.
Today I'd be happy with any off the rack microman from the comic shop. However I know that it isn't likely to ever happen. For a year or two the companies actually marketed to our demographic. That time has past.
I wouldn't even know what to tell people to look for.
While I did not receive a MOGGY CALENDAR as predicted, it wasn't far off. Giving gifts is the only thing that makes the holiday worthwhile (though the next couple months look to be quite painful as a result). Christmas always tends to favor the young. Thankfully we hit the marks on all counts and had a gleeful lot of nieces & nephews on our hands, keeping their parents awake with hours of toy assembly and careful sticker placement.
I even heard a neat childhood tale about visiting the LILI LEDY toy factory from one of my Mexican Relatives. But then that's another story...
Cheers,
Guy
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Post by hypnotator on Dec 29, 2005 17:07:19 GMT -5
 Sorry Guy I couldn't resist it! |
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Post by GUYx1 on Jan 2, 2006 14:10:04 GMT -5
WOW! Thanks Hypnotator! I love the Cybo Moggy!
Quite clever!
Cheers,
Guy
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Post by johnnyhaggis on Jan 2, 2006 16:10:02 GMT -5
What a great thread!! And several others that I have yet to read as well! I've been super super busy and swamped so I haven't ever read it until just now. Normally I'm checking hte site every day, and ain't nuthin' happenin! Although I never knew anything about Big Jim, if he's in a Goddard movie, it must be worth looking at! And that Plant Man CHristmas Tree is wonderfully sacreligious and pagan! True idolatry! Much like my permanent Hannukah Cyborg/Microman display, which we finally got to use again this year. Guy, your wife must be the best wife in the world, especially for a collector maniac! And ma, so great to hear that childhood dreams come true - how rare are the children who grow up and actually do spend all their money on toys! And very good move to buy your wife those dresses! OK, so do I have a story? Hmm - well here's a toy story, but npt holidays. Actually it's kind of about being selfish brat! First a story about my daughter. Like any kid she knows that the dollies move and speak and play when no one is looking. One day we found evidence! I bought a bunch of Oreo cookies to share with her (these days I’d never feed her that crap, but this was before I did research into sugar for my movie) that I’d surprise her with when I picked her up from daycare. Well, by the time I had to go get her I had eaten the whole bag except for two. So I took her *favourite* dollies, Pipi and Pupu, and put some oreo crumbs on their faces, and put the bag of oreos and the dollies in my schoolbag, and went to get her. Outside the daycare I said “Sadie, I have a surprise!...” and oh boy was she excited, so I enthusiastically opened my bag and pulled out the (empty) bag of Oreos. She squaled with delight and eagerly opened the twist flaps that I had carefully repositioned as if it was a new bag. “Dada, there’s just two cookies in here!” She was kind of disappointed and perplexed. And then she saw them – those guilty crumb faced, sneaky little brats Pipi and Pupu!! “DADA, DOLLIES DO MOVIE, IT WAS THEM, THEY ATE THE COOKIES, THERE’S CRUMBS, IT’S TRUE!!!!” She was thrilled and three years later she still talks about it as incontrovertible evidence that dollies in fact do move. Her mom told me that Sadie was supposed to clean her room, since it was a disaster area after playing with some friends. But much later on, Mama saw that Sadie’s room was still a total mess. When attention was brought to this fact, Sadie said “I did clean it I promise, it must be the dollies, they made a mess when I wasn’t there!” When Mama, wasn’t impressed, Sadie started crying and swearing it was true. She really honestly believed it! She had just cleaned her room the day before and got the times confused, and she thought she was being unjustly persecuted! The funny thing is that she knows Santa isn’t real, and she even devised a test to see if the Tooth Fairy is real – she said “Dada, next time I lose my tooth, I’m *not* going to tell mama, and then I’ll put the tooth under my pillow. I I don’t get any money I know that the Tooth Fairy is just mama, like Santa.”  Pupu (male left) and Pipi (female right) with Beavis and Butthead and Quimby Chicken. *** When I was a kid it was all about G.I.Joe. He-Man was also prominent, but there was some awareness even then that he came from a race of semi-retarded musclebound mental-midgets... Anyways, as a kid I loved to play with my friends and my brother. I especially loved to play my brother by pretending I was dead while we were playing so that he'd cry, and fun stuff like that. However, I never ever liked to play with my toys with my friends or brother. O learned this very young, must have been about 5 or six, when I was still with the arthritic Kenner Star Wars figures. I was playing with some kid from school, whose face and name has been erased from my conscious memory (probably from burning my brain out looking at the computer). I learned that other kids actually liked to kill off their toys!! The Horror! How are you supposed to play with them again if they're dead!! Obviously this guy was an amateur at this game, and so after this expereince repeated itself I learned that action figures is a solo dramatic solution expereince. The point of all this is to say that because of this my brother and I used to share all our toys, but *not* out action figures. We'd have doubles of several fiures. One day when I was 9, I had a friend who was only marginally retarded - actually I remember his name and everything, Michael Bogelmoney - no he wasn't retarded at all (don't sue me Michael!) - what I meant was he could play action figures. And so As part of our game, I took all my best G.I. Joes and we stuck them in one of my winter boots that was in storage in the garage as it was summer, because they were being kept there as prisoners. So naturally, the next day I *completely* forgot about them. I didn't forget about the joes, but about the boot. And so I searched High and low, up and down, in and out. Tearing up the house for my beloved joes! Obviously they were in great danger! Naturally they would play and move and have battles and parties while everyone in the house was asleep, but they *always* came back the next day at dawn exactly as they had been left. But not this time. It must have been cobra commander! But seriously, I was really upset. But nothing to do they were gone. INcidentally, my brother over time slowly began losing his own joes. Now this wasn't my evil doing or anything, he was 5 and he would just lose stuff like any five year old. So one day while we were playing some weird game, (we used to make up all kinds of crazy games that made no sense, and were often geared at torturing by bro) we started taking apart my brother’s bed. It didn’t have legs, it was held up but planks of wood, so it was like a big box. And lo and behold when we took the mattress out, there were several G.I. Joes trapped underneath (along with some rubber balls, coins and LOTS of dust). Any good detective would know, that since my brother would go to sleep playing G.I.Joe, it was only logical that these had fallen in there at night when he was asleep and grinding his teeth because of all the mental stress I caused him. So of course I immediately realized that these were *MY* lost Joes! Oh, how happy I was! At last, finally after months of having to play only with my brother’s He-Mans! My bro was happy for me too! Of course there was some kind of cognitive dissonant voice in my head telling me that in all likelihood these were my brother’s since there were several among them which I had never had – but that was just nonsense. It was obvious that the ones I’d enver had were his, and the rest were mine… And then one day, months later, when winter cam around, and I put on my boot – there were my joes!!! Oops.  THe Keepers of the Light ANd by the way, I just came into a little money, so it looks like I can finally get a decent camera and not have to borrow one all the time, so many photos to come! |
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Post by hypnotator on Jan 3, 2006 14:46:05 GMT -5
Johnny, you're a stinker! I hope your teeth fall out from eating those cookies, and the tooth fairy doesn't give you any money for them.
I was a similarly gullible little brother. When I was about three, my great aunt gave me a hollow plastic dayglo statuette of a knight with babylike proportions and sticker eyes. The eyes contrasted noticably with the rest of the figure, and my brother christened the thing Goggle Knight and convinced me, probably all too easily, that it wasn't worth having. He graciously offered to take it off my hands, which I accepted, and then he peeled the eyes off and gloated that the thing was now his AND worth having. Then began the cycle of me crying to Mum, him being told to give it back to me, then him bullying me into letting him have it again.
Pupu and Pipi are trippy!
Looking forward to lots of pictures.
Guy, I've realised where the cat calendar remark originally came from. It's on Brian Heiler's wish list that you posted.
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