Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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| Image by Tumisu from Pixabay |
From all sides, I am assailed by rain.
Truly, I can do nothing but take refuge indoors and look to the internet for entertainment.
But what entertainment will it offer me?
That, I cannot say, as we've hit that fork in the road they who dare speak of it know as Speak Your Brain. It's the fork in which the first person to comment gets to pick the topic of the day.
And who can know what that topic might be?
The Shadow might know.
The Phantom Stranger almost certainly does know.
And, as for Professor X, it's a shoo-in that he knows.
For they are blessed with the power to read the very darkest of men's thoughts.
I, however, am not and must, like any mortal, wait with breath bated to see what transpires.
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22 comments:
As a little kid, what toys did you regret not getting? And did your mate have it, but you didn't, making it worse? In my case( aged 5?), the Cybo-invader spaceship (for Cyborg) fitted both these categories!
Phillip
Here's what it looked like:
https://www.vectis.co.uk/lot/denys-fisher-cyborg-cybo-invader-cybo-interceptor_760854
Phillip
Around the age of 9 I started experiencing “coveting.” No, not my neighbor’s ass, that woild not happen for a few more years. Rather , my neighbor Jay got a brand new Schwinn Banana-seat, 3-speed bike with the front wheel much smaller than the back (the “chopper” look had arrived!)
My other neighbor Bobby got the Marx shooting gallery with the single shot or machine gun option to shoot ball bearing bullets at carnival type targets.
Great Question Phillip!
Charlie - on the news, a few weeks ago, it said the Chopper is coming back! I never had one, either!
https://www.raleigh.co.uk/gb/en/bike-knowledge/meet-the-2023-raleigh-chopper-classic-but-with-a-few-tweaks/
Phillip
Were those ball-bearing shooting galleries the ones promoted by Chuck Connors?
Phillip
I wasn't all that toys-oriented, and I generally liked what I was given.
One year I wanted a Big Trak for Christmas, but it was too expensive. However, I found one in the sales in January [without stickers but fine by me]!
I couldn't have a lot of the Star Wars merch in 1977-1978 though, when friends were given bedding and wallpaper and trading cards and toys, all that stuff. Couldn't afford it in my household.
We didn't have a VCR until I was 17, which was maddening as my friend Jeremy could tape movies from the TV and I couldn't. And I cared a lot more about movies than he did!
One would need to YouTube- google “marx electro shot shooting gallery.” It was quite popular in the late 1960s. I dont recall chuck connors advertising it… but who knowz? Not sure if it was available in the UK even?
One might think British version of the commercial would be on YouTube if it was sold there? Or would they ise the IS commercial?
A kid in our neighborhood had a MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. toy pistol//rifle (came in a toy attaché case) which I thought was pretty amazing.
When Big Wheels were THE hot new toy, I was too old (too large) to ride one. But they sure looked like fun.
b.t.
Phillip, thanks for the topic.
For me, I'd have to agree with Charlie and go for the Raleigh Chopper. I did hear the news about them being brought back but they cost the best part of a grand which seems a little extreme for a bike which was notorious for not being anything like as good as it looked.
I remember Chuck Connors advertising some kind of shooting gallery game when I was a kid. I must confess those adverts were the only reason I'd ever heard of him.
Oh! I remember I really always wanted a die-cast metal toy of the Space 1999 Eagle Transporter. And Thunderbird 2.
Never managed to own those.
Matthew - did the odd Star Wars Weekly fall within your remit? My bro and I only had 2 (as kids), but they were stellar (Warlock & Guardians).
b.t. - The only Big Wheel I've heard of is Stewie Griffin's Big Wheel. (Apart from the younger target audience) Big Wheels are the polar opposite of Choppers, in the sense that the Chopper's front wheel, compared with the back, is very small, whereas with Big Wheels, isn't the opposite true?
Steve - I hadn't read as far as the price. Owch - that's steep! Chuck Connors was also recurring psychopathic villain, Costanos, on Matt Houston. That being said, Houston had a lot of these (e.g. Andre, with his "Chindi" (?) magic.) From the adverts, I presumed Connors was in US Westerns, but I can't recall any.
Phillip
Philip -
I did get one copy of Star Wars weekly for sure [possibly one or two more, but I was only really allowed one comic regularly and that was - of course - 2000AD. I wasn't even allowed Starlord [the IPC one].
But what a strange coincidence - I was recently thinking about a story I read in a Marvel UK comic in the 1970s called 'The UFO Connection' by Kraft and Trimpe / Janson. It properly traumatised me as a child, and I tracked down the US original about 20 years ago.
But I was recently curious to find out how I'd come across it originally, and it turns out it was in Star Wars Weekly. So I ordered that copy on eBay and it should be arriving this week.
Which is how I know I had at least that one issue.
Sounds interesting, Matthew. Maybe a brief review (a few lines), if ever you get the time, might be good! If you'd written 'Giffen', not 'Trimpe' (along with Kraft & Janson), we'd have been in Zodiac-Defenders territory! I suppose Star-Lord's high production values made it that bit more expensive than the rest of the Weekly pack. Apart from the first two issues, my bro had most of our Star-Lords!
Phillip
I wasn't really into toys that much, preferring comics and books or playing with Lego and Meccano but I remember watching a TV ad for the Lone Ranger action figure and I was very impressed with his horse which had articulated legs (unlike my sister's Sindy horse which was completely stiff). I was equally impressed with some of the Action Man costumes and accessories but I never actually owned an Action Man or Lone Ranger figure.
I was always happy with what i got but I did want a Jonny Seven gun when i was about 7 years old . Later on I wanted a magnetic football ( soccer) game but got Subutteo as it was sold out, that turned out to be a good move as magnetic football was awkward to operate and Subutteo was brilliant . Like most kids I wanted a Chopper bike but that was out of my mum and dad's price range.
Steve, I looked up the new Chopper, as surely you were exaggerating with that 'best part of a grand' comment. But #@√π me, you were right - they're £950! And - somewhat astonishingly at that price - out of stock at Raleigh.
Mind you, the website did describe it as a 'limited edition', so presumably it was primarily aimed more at nostalgic oldster collector scum with more money than sense - to hang on a wall and display somewhere probably - than kids who just want a bike.
Capitalism, eh?
-sean
Hey Steve-o, Charlie recommends you try riding the chopper bicycle first. IIRC, from like 1969 or so, a sharp turn causes that small fromt wheel to get really squirrely and you can roll the bike. IIRC…
Charlz
Any regrets, Sean? Or, like with Frank Sinatra, were they too few to mention? "Speak your Brain - hardest game in the world, that is. I've done it myself, 30 years, man and boy!"
Phillip
The main thing I wanted but never got was all the new comics you'd see mentioned in DC and Marvel house ads, checklists, Bullpen Bulletins and whatnot that you knew you'd never be able to find here, Phillip. At least not before the direct market era.
Especially first issues! (Except inevitably Black Goliath #1)
-sean
Actually, I did manage to find Eternals #1 too.
-sean
Sean - With me, it was Marvel Treasury Editions. The ads for them looked terrific, but they weren't in the newsagents. Although decades later I got some Treasury Editions, aged 8-10 I would have enjoyed them more, had they been available.
Phillip
For me, it was Marvel’s b/w Monster Mags. All of their other mags popped up for sale at my regular haunts at one time or another —DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU, PLANET OF THE APES, SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN, UNKNOWN WORLDS, DOC SAVAGE — but TALES OF THE ZOMBIE, MONSTERS UNLEASHED, DRACULA LIVES, VAMPIRE TALES and HAUNT OF HORROR, never did I see them for sale at any newsstand, not once. Like Phillip and the Treasuries, I’d see ads for them (in the color floppies as well as the other b/w Marvel mags) which totally made me covet them something terrible.
It was such a definitive thing, I got to thinking maybe some busybody at the distributor was boycotting those particular mags for puritanical or religious reasons. But I’d find all three of Warren’s horror titles for sale at different outlets fairly regularly, and also those extremely vile Myron Fass mags too, so I guess it was just a coincidence. A frustrating, maddening coincidence.
b.t.
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