500 Days till Pluto !

This Friday (Feb 28, 2014) will mark the 500 day mark until NASA's New Horizon's spacecraft will make it's closet encounter with the planet Pluto.

Here is the New Horizon's link.

Here is a link to my own blog post marking the 1000 days until Pluto.

Toys of Christmas Past - Part 27 - Big Thumb

Big Thumb - Mattel - 1969/Early 70's

I never had this game, in fact I had not heard of it (nor remembered it) until I saw the commercial for it on youtube and thought to myself, this is so potentially dangerous, it is great !

Box For Big Thumb Game

Contents of game

It's kind of like "Whack a mole" without the mole.  One player wears the big plastic Thumb, while your opponents have plastic hammers.  Plastic Poker chips are put on the board and the player with the "Big Thumb" attempts to move the poker chips to her/his side of the board while your opponents try to whack the Thumb.

I'm sure after a while, the game just becomes trying to whack the thumb and no poker chips.  Also I'm sure there were a few casualties from playing the game such as smashed hand or wrists !  I'm not quite sure if a game like this would be developed today

Alternate Box for Big Thumb Game

Here is a TV commercial for both "Wizzzer's" and Big Thumb.  Big Thumb starts at about the 30 second mark.

Toys of Christmas Past - Part 26 - Pull The Rug Out

Pull The Rug Out - Schapper - 1968

Pull The Rug Out was a game where the object was to pile a bunch of plastic "junk" on top of a plastic rug and then "pull the rug out" without having any of the pieces fall over.

Box and contents of the game

Various playing pieces, spinner and rolled up rug.

This was a game for 2 or more players, although, it still could be played by one person.  You spin the spinner and if it lands on an item that has not been used, you would put that item (say a ladder) on the plastic slippery rug.  Spin after spin goes on, and the junk is  piled on top of one another.  Then at some point, someone will spin a "pull the rug out" turn.  They then need to pull the rug out without having the playing pieces fall over.

Low Res image of the playing pieces stacked on top of one another.

Here is a video review of the game, showing how the game was played

Toys of Christmas Past - Part 25 - Electroshot Shooting Gallary

Electro Shot Shooting Gallary - Marx - 1968 - 1975

This is one of the greatest toys that I never had.

On second thought It was very expensive (over $50 in the early 70's), and probably a bit lame, and something you would get board with quickly.  But it was cool to look at and think about owning at the time.  I still remember the commercial and the lines

"Squeeze off shot after shot with this electric riffle"

"Press the switch... It's a rapid fire sub machine gun"

"Reloads itself too ! "


Here is the actual commercial from around 1972

Toys of Christmas Past - Part 24 - Wrestle Around

Wrestle Around - Ideal - 1970

Wrestle Around was a simple marble game for 2 to 4 players.  You and your opponents would grab one of the 4 "handles" of the playing arena, and using your wrists and your strength move the arena around.  The idea of the game was for each player to release a marble into the playing arena, and  try to have your opponents marbles drop down the hole in the center while preventing yours from doing so.  Each player had 4 marbles.  If your marble went down the hole then you had to release another marble.  If you ran out of marbles, you lost and had to release the playing arena and sit out the rest of the game.

It took strength and firm wrists to play this game.  I remember my wrists aching after a half hour or so of continuous play.

Here is a commercial showing how the game worked !

Toys of Christmas Past - Part 23 - SSP / Smash Up Derby

SSP / Smash Up Derby - Kenner Toys - 1970's

Today's toy is a racing car series made by Kenner Toys in the 1970 under the name of SSP which stood for "Super Sonic Power"

The key component of the SSP racer was the large gyroscopic wheel that powered the racer.  You would feed a "zip cord" into the teeth of the gyroscope wheel and then quickly pull out the cord.  The sound of the gryroscope would make a "WIZZZ" sound.  The put the car on the ground and it would travel fast and far.  Often times you would race against your friends.

SSP Racer, showing the Zip Cord

Here is a commercial for the SSP from the early 70's

Here are a few more photos showing the various type of racers you could buy, and also an advertisement that might appear in a comic book, or Boys Life magazine.

Add showing 24 Variations of the SSP

Add from "Boys Life" magazine

Smash Up Derby

Kenner too the SSP into a different direction in the mid 70's with the introduction of the Smash Up Derby line of SSP.  This came as a box set, consisting of two cars and ramps.  Kids like to smash things up, anyway, so why not have a toy that allows you to do it as part of the "game".

The concept was that many parts of the car would "break away" when hit.  They could also then be snapped back onto the car for the next use.  In early advertisement of the SSP toy one of the catch lines was "smash'em".  This set took that concept to the next logical level.  The biggest problem with these cars was it was very easy to lose a part of the car when it broke apart (or was even stored).

There were several variations of these sets including a Bicentennial red, white and blue version.

First Version of the Smash Up Derby Set

Around 1975 a patriotic Bicentennial Set came out

Here is a VW Bug smash up derby car

Here is a commercial from 1973

Toys of Christmas Past - Part 22 - Easy Bake Oven

Easy Bake Oven - Kenner/Hasbro - 1963 - present

In 1963 one of Kenner's toy inventor was inspired when he saw street vendors keeping food warm with heat lamps.  From this observation, came the concept for the Easy Bake Oven.

Original Easy Bake Oven in Turquoise

The product was elegant in it's simplicity.  Miniature cake mixes were combined with water and placed in a small tray.  The tray was slid into the oven's heating chamber.  There a 100 Watt Electric Light bulb which produced enough heat to "cook" the mixture into a cake or other desert like food.  The original price for the set was $15.95 which would be around $120 today.

Here is a commercial from the 1963/64 era.

The toy proved very popular selling over one half a million sets in the first year alone.  The popularity inspired Kenner to try and cash in on other "baking" toys such as a pop corn maker, bubble gum maker, etc.  However the Easy Bake Oven was still King (Queen) of the hill as far as popularity.

In 1968 Kenner was acquired by General Mills (owner of Betty Crocker Brand).  The oven was given a slightly different look and included miniature versions of Betty Crocker cake and other products.

In 1968 Kenner kicked off a new advertising campaign for the Easy Bake Oven which featured one of Jim Henson's puppets (pre-muppets).  Here is a picture of Henson on the set for the shoot of the commercial

Here is the actual commercial from 1968 featuring Jim Henson's Kenner Gooney Bird Mascot.

The look of the Oven was redesigned again in 1969 and 1970 with the introduction of the Avocado Green color and then the very 1970's color of Harvest Gold.

In 1973 The oven was again changed and was now officially the Betty Crocker Easy Bake Oven.

Another "high tech" redesign happened in 1978 when the oven became a "microwave"

Easy Bake Ovens are still being sold today, with more than 23 million sold in it's 50 year history