Give-A-Show! ººº Whirlybirds ººº

 Desilu Studios' Whirlybirds had a fairly long run , 111 episodes from 1957 to 1960. It's a wonder it's almost forgotten today.

     The star of the show was the Bell 47 helicopter, and the studio worked closely with the Bell corporation in filming the show. The human stars were Kenneth Tobey and Craig Hill. Robert Altman directed many episodes.

Click HERE  to read a Whirlybirds comicbook story! 

This would have made my life so much better!!

The whole 1st grade would have been sorry, let me tell you!!!!

Barbie-ella

1967 Kenner Brochure

Brochure for trade show use by the Kenner company of Cincinnati.

Hamilton's Invaders

Loved these as a kid!

from the 1965 Sear's catalog

The Invaders:

Horrible Hamilton - large green bug featured leg articulation. 

Yellow Spider - black and yellow spider with red spines

Yellow Beetle - black and yellow with red bumps

The spider and beetle were reissued by Remco with the large "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" playsets

Sold in a number of sets:

Hamilton Helmet with Non-Shattering Goggles (silver and black variations)
Chrome Grenade Pistol with yellow grenades - this pistol was also used in a green variation (with red grenades) for the Remco Monkey Division and Land of the Giants toylines
Pistol - silver and yellow light-projecting pistol, also used in variations for other toylines
12 True Blue Defenders. They were a United Nations type light blue plastic 70mm toy soldiers dressed in late World War II early Korean War U.S. Army uniform. They came in 6 poses of a Master Sergeant firing a pistol, a buck sergeant with M-1928A1 Thompson sub machine gun throwing a pineapple hand grenade, one firing a M-1928A1 Thompson, one firing an M-1 rifle, one charging with an M-1 with fixed Bayonet, and one kneeling firing a Bazooka. The Blue Defenders in this set do not have a slit perforation on the base like the other figures provided with the vehicles have.
Hornet Helicopter and 3 Blue Defenders
Mosquito Jeep and 3 Blue Defenders
Torpedo Tank and 3 Blue Defenders
Spring Motor Beetle and 3 Blue Defenders
Horrible Hamilton with Spring Motor
Horrible Hamilton / Torpedo Tank and Blue Defenders
The Battle of Horrible Hamilton - Horrible Hamilton, Hornet Helicopter and Blue Defenders
The Battle of the Spider - Spider, Mosquito Jeep and Blue Defenders
+Battle of the Monsters Sears Exclusive - (includes both playsets above)

The pistol was used , with some additions, as the laser pistol in the TV show LOST IN SPACE

Kids really DIG Spader-man!

Barbie & Ken Comic 1962

An early cross-promotion for a toy, this series was produced by Dell immediately after the end of their association with Western Printing. There were five issues during 1962  Vince Colletta and John Tartaglione did most of the art.

 

Here are some pages from issue # 3

Boomers didn't have HALO and XBOX.....

but we still had neato war toys!!!!

Slot Car Track

Oh be still my fluttering 10 year old heart!!!!
This giant 1/32 scaled slot car track wouldn't have fit it many kid's bedrooms, so the living room floor would have to be comandeered, causing a rukus with Sis and her doll house..it would have been fun. The cost of this monster was $100 in 1966.... that would be over $660 today. Lucky kid!!

Frontier Fightin' Kids

We who grew up in the mid 1960s , who had to fight commies & space robots in our parks and alleys (See earlier post), owe a huge debt to those who came before; mainly those kids in the 50s with their coon skin caps who defended those same parks from the ravages of the Indians. With the Native American Menace out of the way, we Boomers Mark II were free to blast away at the hideous swarms from commieland and outer space.

from the 1966 Sears catalog

pretty pricey for the times..that'd be over 30 bucks today.

"Toys I wanted but never got, no matter how many tantrums I threw" dept.

I know that they were very popular, but what use are tailfins on a stationary launch pad?

Christmas disappointment at age 7

Since late summer you've been letting the hints out. You want a G I Joe complete with Marine Assault Rifle and Scuba Gear Torpedo. You even talked Mom into badgering Dad over the whole "no son of mine will ever play with dolls" thing. Now it's Christmas morning and you're ripping away at the nicely wrapped boxes. Already you've had some setbacks...scratchy underwear from Aunt Clara in Ashtabula and books, for christsake BOOKS!, from Grandma, but there is a likely box...just the right size for 1/12 scale all-American destruction in cast plastic form. You rip it open and......

WHAT THE F*&# IS THIS?

You'd say that was the gayest thing you've ever seen except that that concept has no meaning to you at this age. If you were born 30 years later you might class it as "lame."

Where are the guns? The bazooka? At least there is a jeep, but holy cow that's no Zodiac landing craft it's towing, it's a canoe.

Knowing how your friends will belittle you tomorrow for receiving such a sissyfied gift, you force a little trouper smile and croak "thanks mom and dad" before turning to the pile of books to see if any are sturdy enough to wack your baby sister with. And maybe with some skill and luck, you can modify this stupid doll to, instead of a snappy oh so sappy salute, flash The Finger when his arm is pulled.

Just In Time For Christmas 1968

Loved this model as a kid. It was rather difficult to get together right. The spider leg headers just didn't fit properly.
Designed by Tom Daniel and re-issued a dozen years ago, it was molded in bright green with chrome bits and included a nifty spider pin.

Death from Below Belt Level

Yeah, kids were tough back then. You know, Scout Camp was really just a code word for Boot Camp. Honest. I personally led the 32nd Woodchuck Division on a pre-naptime snipe hunt.

We didn't get any, but the older kids really appreciated the way we kept those snipes at bay.





They mentioned it quite often!

WOW!! I can see your underwear with these!

Little Timmy Asspratt lived down the street when we were kids. He needed special glasses and had to wear a helmet with a solar collector on it to power the industrial ear-warmers he was forced to wear winter summer alike. Was he picked on? No, not much but most kids shyed away from him because their fillings hurt when he was nearby. He ruined TV reception within a radius of 200 feet, so he wasn't invited over for afterschool gatherings very much. I heard he went into managementwith the TSA.

Blast Vader from the comfort of your tabletop

A neato game from 1980. The drawbacks--- although fashioned to faintly resemble the Commodore PET computers of the day, no doubt this thing was smaller than you'd think. Probably 5 or 6 inches wide, like the handheld games popular at the time. And it looks like a rather primitive game, with a few LEDs and capable of a few beeps and boops. In today's money, it'd cost over $130.