Toys
Toys of the 80′s
1978 Mighty Mo Toy Truck
Published June 20, 2011 | 
The Mighty Mo was brought to us by the Ideal Toy Company which was founded as Ideal Novelty and Toy Company in New York in 1907 by Morris and Rose Michtom after they had invented the Teddy bear in 1903. The company changed its name to Ideal Toy Company in 1938. In 1982, the company was sold to CBS Toy Company, which in turn sold Ideal to Viewmaster International in 1987, which renamed itself to View-Master Ideal in the process. View-Master Ideal was later bought by Tyco Toys, Inc. of Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, upon its purchase of View-Master Ideal. The Ideal line remained part of Tyco until Tyco’s merger with Mattel, Inc., in 1997.
Certain brands and toys that originated with Ideal continued to be manufactured by Mattel, most notably the Magic 8-ball and Rubik’s Cube.
Info gleaned from Wikipedia
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magic 8 ball, mattel, mattel inc, mighty mo, mighty mo toy, mt laurel, rubik s cube, toy company, toy truck, tyco, tyco toys inc, youtube | 
Leave a comment1978 Aurora Racing Sets
Published April 14, 2011 | 
1978 commercial from the UK and Ireland for Aurora Racing Sets
Aurora Plastics Corporation was founded in March, 1950 by engineer Joseph E. Giammarino (1916–1992) and businessman Abe Shikes (1908–1997) in Brooklyn, New York (moving to West Hempstead, Long Island in 1954), as a contract manufacturer of injection molded plastics.
With the hiring in 1952 of salesman John Cuomo (1901–1971), the company began the manufacture of its own line of plastic model kits. These kits were marketed to young hobbyists, as were the kits of rivals Monogram and Revell. Aurora profitably targeted to a younger demographic than their competitors, creating smaller-sized, less detailed models at a lower price point.
Although their first offerings were aircraft kits in a “Famous Fighters” line,[2] it is with their figure kits that Aurora is most associated and had their biggest success. Following a series of “knights in armor” and historical figures, Aurora acquired a license from Universal Studios to create a line of kits based on Universal monsters, which became the company’s most popular offerings. Aurora’s kit of Frankenstein appeared in 1961, and was followed by twelve other monster figures that were issued and reissued in various versions through the early 1970s. Together with their other licensed models based on characters from movies, TV shows and comic books, Aurora’s figure kits continue to be highly valued by collectors.[3] Aurora used artist James Bama for some of their box art.
Info gleaned from Wikipedia
Posted in Toys | 1980s, 80's, aircraft kits, boys toys, Christmas, hobbyists, injection molded plastics, plastic model kits, racing sets, revell, Scalextric, Toys, universal monsters | Leave a commentActionMan
Published April 7, 2011 | 
History
Palitoy (from 1968 to 1980, a British subsidiary of General Mills) was the UK licensee for Hasbro Industries. Palitoy grew out of a plastics firm established by Alfred Edward Pallett in 1909 and went on to become one of Britain’s leading toy manufacturers until its ultimate closure in 1984.[3]
In the early years Action Man competed with the entirely British Tommy Gunn by Pedigree Toys who were the producers of the Sindy doll. The Tommy Gunn figure copied aspects of Hasbro’s G.I. Joe, released two years earlier in the United States. Regardless, Tommy Gunn was generally regarded as a higher quality in terms of equipment and accuracy of accessories, especially since the Action Man of the 1960s was little more than a re-packaged G.I. Joe. However, he was ultimately unable to compete with Action Man and was discontinued in 1968. In the late 1960s and early 1970s many other companies produced competition for Action Man, but all were of the cheap blow-moulded variety, which produces thin-walled components lacking the articulation and sturdiness of the Palitoy components, which utilised more costly Injection and Rotational moulding processes. Continue reading
Actionman SharpShooter 1980s
Published April 5, 2011 | Actionman SharpShooter 1980s
Action Man is an action figure boys’ toy launched in Britain in 1966 by Palitoy as a licensed copy of Hasbro’s American “moveable fighting man”: G.I. Joe.
Action Man was originally produced and sold in the United Kingdom and Australia by Palitoy Ltd of Coalville, Leicestershire from 1966 until 1984 (Palitoy also offered sub-licenses to various toy manufacturers in various markets).
The figure and accessories were originally based on the Hasbro (US) 1964 G.I. Joe figure (for 1966–1969 production). Hasbro’s GI Joe figure was patented in 1966[1] Even the specific method of attaching the appendages was patented as a “Connection For Use In Toy Figures” [2] The first Action Man figures were Action Soldier, Action Sailor and Action Pilot. All were available in the four original hair colours: Blonde, Auburn, Brown and Black. They were accompanied by outfits depicting the participants of the Second World War.
Action Man was subsequently reintroduced in 1993, based on the GI Joe Hall of Fame figure of that time.
Info gleaned from Wikipedia
Trivial Persuit 80s
Published October 19, 2010 | 
Trivial Pursuit is a board game in which progress is determined by a player’s ability to answer general knowledge and popular culture questions. The game was created in 1979 in the southern Spanish city of Nerja by Canadian Scott Abbott, a sports editor for The Canadian Press, and Chris Haney, a photo editor for Montreal’s The Gazette. After finding pieces of their Scrabble game missing, they decided to create their own game. With the help of John Haney and Ed Werner, they completed development of the game, which was released in 1982.
In North America, the game’s popularity peaked in 1984, a year in which over 20 million games were sold. The rights to the game were licensed to Parker Brothers (now part of Hasbro) in 1988, after initially being turned down by the Virgin Group; in 2008, Hasbro bought out the rights in full, for US$80 million.[3] As of 2004[update], nearly 88 million games had been sold in 26 countries and 17 languages. Northern Plastics of Elroy, Wisconsin produced 30,000,000 games between 1983 and 1985. An online version of Trivial Pursuit was launched in September, 2003.
Dozens of question sets have been released for the game. The question cards are organized into themes; for instance, in the standard Genus question set, questions in green deal with science and nature. Some question sets have been designed for younger players, and others for a specific time period or as promotional tie-ins (such as Star Wars, Saturday Night Live, and The Lord of the Rings movies).
Info gleaned from Wikipedia
Posted in Christmas, Household, Toys | board game, chris haney, culture questions, elroy wisconsin, general knowledge, Hasbro, lord of the rings movies, million games, parker brothers, question cards, question sets, saturday night live, scott abbott, scrabble game, southern spanish city, trivial pursuit | Leave a commentJoin ONE & Fight Against Poverty
