Star Wars Lunchbox!!

Oh how I loved my Star Wars lunch box! I think I was always more excited about looking at the artwork than eating whatever my mom packed inside. This was back before movies could be watched on a whim- no VHS tapes, no DVD's of course, no on-demand cable, and no Youtube. You had to actually go to the movies back then, or wait 5 years for it to come on TV (but with no way to record it). The best way to "watch" a movie was in your mind's eye, and through this lunch box I was able to relive some of the movie's scenes. I remember it came with a red thermos too, though I have no idea where that could be. The inside has what looks like a mixture of old food and rust. It says "Soto" in pencil which is pretty cool. I wonder if I wrote it? The paintings are really spectacular, especially the Dewback patrol on the bottom.







I just had a flash back of room-temperature bologna and mayonnaise sandwiches... and liverwurst...

Update!- Pink Astronaut Guy!

After doing some extensive searching, I found one other mention of this toy and discovered images of the whole set! I got this image from Kirk Demarais's toy and pop culture blog- Secret Fun Blog. He's doing a similar blog, showing stuff from his childhood. Be sure to check it out..

Here is more about the Space guys set...

http://secretfunspot.blogspot.com/2006/06/space-soldiers.html

Pink astronaut dude!!

This toy is from the late 70's I believe. He's a little taller than Star Wars guys, about the height of He-Man. Pretty solid. Look like one of us chewed on the hand a little. No markings whatsoever, this thing (I think) came in a pack of small spacemen sorta like army guys, and they had one large figure in the bag also. I'm also starting to remember that they were pink, white, black and lime green. Being unable to move probably kept this guy safe from being heavily played with but I do remember being fascinated by it because it represented a realistic view of space travel. I remember in 2nd grade they were talking about how in our lifetime, we'd have colonies on the moon and flying cars. What a croc.



Of interest is it's contemporary counterpart, Astronaut Jesus. I wonder if the creators were inspired by the 70's original?

Fisher Price 'stache dude!

This is a dump truck driver from a Fisher Price set. Has a "Fisher Price ©1977" stamped on the inside of it's leg. I couldn't find any information or even an image of this toy online. I do remember playing with him, and I think there was another guy that came with him without a moustache. I like his big hands but the stache is the best. Looks like he could be straight out of a Tom of Finland drawing.

Princess Leia!!

Princess Leia, where have you been? She looks like she had a really rough night. This is how I found her, buck naked with major bedhead, but shoes still on. No pubes, and this was the 70's before they pruned. Princess Leia must've been anti-Bush (sorry). This was our least favorite of our big Star Wars dolls, she usually just got tortured by Darth Vader, Boba Fett and sometimes the Jawa. I think we usually had her naked for some reason. She usually got to stay with C-3PO to guard the base. In the movies she's a badass and can handle a gun pretty well, but the doll version came with 1) Rollers, 2) A comb, 3) A booklet showing how to style her hair.




Back in her gown. I found the belt too.


She came with these brown rollers to get her hair into the "bun" shape, but I'm pretty sure that didn't last long. I remember her hair always looking crazy. And it kinda looks like real hair, I wonder...


Looks like there should have been more hair plugs, I don't see any holes where they'd be though...


When I turned the doll around this Stormtrooper hand was glued to the back of her hair. How this happened, I have no idea. But that shit was hardened into her hair and I didn't want to cut it out.


These are her shoes. Looks like we colored one of them orange with a marker.

Yeah I know, Star Wars and Transformers. Let me look and find some obscure stuff...

Jumpstarters!!

I know, I know... more Transformers. I can't help it, we loved these toys. These guys were called the Jumpstarters. That's "Topspin". Looks like he's got his loks on.

The whole idea behind these guys were they folded into a weird vehicle and popped out into robots. They had spring loaded wheels and you had to pull them back then let them zoom off, then after a few feet they would spring into robot mode. Sometimes they'd land on their feet but often they'd fall over. They were pretty lame. There wasn't much to transform on these guys. Neither of these will roll and transform anymore.

We got these two from a mail in offer. I remember waiting for months for these to arrive and then when we opened them up, they were kinda boring.


This one is called "Twin Twist". He had two drills that stuck out in vehicle mode. I couldn't get him to transform, a little latch was snapped off. It also looks like a gun or sword has snapped off in his hand.



Stay tuned for more...

Han Solo!!

In the late 70's my grandparents ended up getting us all the original 12" Star Wars dolls as birthday and Christmas presents. We had them all except R2D2 and the elusive IG-88 doll. I have them all still, some are missing limbs, all are missing accessories. I think my favorite doll was always Han Solo. He came with a cool blaster, a medal, and looks surprisingly like Harrison Ford. We had a lot of adventures. I remember making him get naked with Princess Leah, and sometimes Luke and Obi Wan Kenobi. Except Obi Wan had painted-on dark blue underwear, which I remember thinking was gross.



I found Han just like this- naked from the waist down but wearing his belt. His pants are gone. I found his other boot but couldn't get it on. I think we always asked mom to put the boots on these guys (I think she used baby powder). He seems to have gotten into some Grey Poupon or something on his thigh-yies. He's sure got some shiny buns!



The End.

Construx guys!!

Anyone remember these things? They were building toys, kind of a cross between Legos and Erector sets. I liked them just as much as Legos, We had a few sets but most of the pieces were lost over time. Now I have a pretty big collection of Construx, but most have been bought off of eBay. They're still a lot of fun to build with and I'm hoping someday Shannon and I can build some towers or airplanes or whatever.

Here are a few from the Soto boys toy box. These toys were pretty durable, they still look pretty new. One of the fun things you could do was put rockets or giant arms on them, or even put different heads on them. I'll take more photos of my Construx collection later...

Insecticons!!!

Here's a couple of gems I just dug out. Bombshell and Kickback, two of the original Insecticons. I think we also had the third one, Shrapnel, but there was no sign of him in the box. We played with these guys a lot (as you can see) but I still had to look up their names on Wikipedia. I decided to scan them in robot mode because the bugs they change into look pretty bad. Keep in mind you can click on the photos to see them in greater detail...

Bombshell- This guy kinda changes into a beetle but looks pretty lame. I did a lot of custom coloring on our toys when I was 9 or so. I had silver and gold paint markers, and I liked to add in details like bolts and vents. Looks like I painted the back silver and made his gloves gold.



Kickback- He's supposed to transform into a grasshopper, but once again robot mode looks cooler. This guy is just beat up. Lost an arm somewhere along the way and has a yellow penis(???) on his head. I remember these would come in somewhat large boxes and then you'd get the toy out and it'd be like 3" tall.



Alright, I'll try to post more...

Empire Strikes Back Patches

Here's two patches I found in the box. I believe they were from the Star Wars Fan Club, early 80's (anyone remember Bantha Tracks?). Luckily I never had my mom iron them onto anything.



Hmmm, first two posts are Star Wars. Gotta change it up next time...

I like old toys

I was born in 1975 so I was of prime age to enjoy Star Wars toys as a youngster. After that it was G.I. Joe, Robotech and Transformers, with some odd balls thrown in- Sectaurs, He-Man, Stompers, Inhumanoids, and then of course building sets like Legos, Construx and Robotix. Our parents didn't have much but our grandparents always seem to know exactly what we wanted for Christmas. There are four of us brothers so these toys got played with for a long time.

Somehow I managed to save a few of these toys and just yesterday found a lost box filled to the brim with the Soto brother's old toys. I thought it'd be fun to post some of them in here for fellow fans of 80's toys. Maybe it's just nostalgia but the older toys seem to have more "soul" than the stuff I see on the shelves at Target these days. maybe it's because kids don't play as much with toys? Video games are huge.

So first up is Admiral Ackbar. This was probably a stocking stuffer from my parents. He's actually in alright condition- no limbs missing, we didn't repaint anything on him. He is sort of boring I guess, not really a main character but he did have one of the best lines in RotJ, "It's a trap!" You can click on the pictures if you want to see some details.


I will try to post every couple of days....