Five Incredibly Strange, Incredible Hulk Toys on eBay this week

A special thank you to my nerd blood brother David Lockwood for inspiring this post with his love of the Hulk and ridiculous items. 

Incredible Hulk Lantern- The Hulk appears to be screaming in pain from having his midsection been removed and replaced with a lamp. Also, you know this probably is better at throwing shadows than providing any significant light.

AHI Incredible Hulk Utility Belt- AHI and Remco had this belief that whatever sells for Batman, works for all other Superheroes. That may be true but when you get to the Hulk, it also produces comedy. I remember staring at this when I was 9 and laughing at it right before I chose the Batman Utility belt.

Hulk Hang Glider- This is so wonderfully hilarious and i can't help but think of the time Klinger tried to hang glide out of the 4077...

Hulk and Spider-Man Intercom set- "Mr. Parker your puny 3 o'clock is here"

Ice Pops- Nothing whets the appetite more than pictures of what is essentially a shirtless homeless man who is also radioactive. MMMMMM, where do I lick?

LJN Road Stars

Which one would you go for as a kid? I'd be torn between Captain America and the Eagle from Space:1999.

Also, I wanna meet the kid who saw this display and went "Oh Wow, the Waltons truck!"

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Mr. Action

I had so many Mr. Action outfits for my GI Joes and I had no idea. I  assume that I got most of those sets before I could read.

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Walkie Talkie Wednesday

Starsky and Hutch meet Charlie's Angels is the TV Crossover we deserved but weirdly never got.

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Mr. Action and Karate Joe!

I'm officially changing my name to "Karate Joe" this morning to reap all the rewards I assume are associated with it....

More Explosive goodness.

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Cardboard and Vinyl charm

Can't say I'm a huge fan of either S.W.A.T or Emergency! but those vinyl & cardboard playsets are awesome and I totally want them.

That old timey computer....sigh....

LJN TV Super Stars Catalog

Mr. Action Fighting Men!

LJN's Mr Action was a lower cost GI Joe knock off that judging by all the parts and pieces I find, sold pretty darn well in the early 1970s.

This seems to be an attempt for LJN to knock off Mattel's Heroes in Action trading on Mr Action's name.

I honestly don't know if these ever got made.

Land of the Lost Sound 'N Action Scenes

Here are the Land of the Lost action figures you never got.

Buried in the pages of the 1976 LJN catalog, these "Sound N Action" figures are very similiar to the Mattel Heroes in Action (of which LJN was knocking off that year) in that the figures are attached to a base.

As cool and mindblowing as this is, I'm a bit upset that these never got made.




Oh what might have been, might have been.

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Space:1999 Comlock Communicators

LJN really knocked these out of the park, they looked a lot like the show props and they actually worked.

I bought a set at a Star Trek show in the 1980s and I remember the woman I purchased them made a comment to me that people would never wear computers on their belts. 

1984 LJN Toys Dune Catalog

It's hard to believe that toy makers thought the next merchandising blitz would come from a David Lynch film but that's exactly what happened in 1984. Dune got the full treatment with colouring books, bed sheets and of course a selection of action figures produced by LJN. The movie wasn't particularly kid (or for that matter general public) friendly and as a result the spice warriors of Dune resided in the clearance aisle.



What's perplexing to me is most of this stuff got made, yet the gigantically more kid friendly "Last Starfighter" toy line never saw the light of day. Aggghhh! 

  Check out the 1984 LJN Dune Catalog here. 

 More Cancelled Toy Lines:

Roadstars:1999

Road stars were a fun little series of cheap diecast vehicles that used popular licenses like Spider-Man, Archie, Hogan's Heroes (!) and Space:1999.

There is a lot wrong with this card, in today's world these would all have to be shipped back to the manufacturer or destroyed. First, Space:1999 isn't a Hanna Barbera production, secondly, this isn't a Hawk transporter, it's an Eagle. Hawks were only used in one episode and LJN never made one. They did however make the moon buggy and an alien craft from a memorable episode, more on those later.

Rack Toys: Cheap, Crazed Playthings is a limited edition 144 page book from the creator of Plaid Stallions. We're offering a big bundle at the Mego Museum mall that includes Rack Toys and other items at a terrific price, it makes a great Christmas present!

Fun with Mr Action

LJN's Mr Action went by many names around the world (seriously, this line sold everywhere there were kids it seems) but it's largely forgotten it seems. Most commonly mistake many of the parts for GI Joe these days, which is ironic because lines like this actually were seriously hurting Hasbro's bottom line in the early 1970s.

The Top Ten cancelled toys of the 70s/80s

As much as I enjoyed my childhood, it sometimes pains me to think of the stuff we didn't get, for whatever boring grown up decision. Sure, some of these licensed wouldn't have sold and could have forced the companies into risky financial positions but baby Brian wants his toys dammit!
Here are the top ten cancelled toy lines that I personally weep for at every occasion:
Disclaimer: There may be some figure lines not included, this probably intentional as like all of my lists, it's a little biased. I try to be fair.,

10: V LJN planned to make action figures based on the television series V but somehow it stalled and never totally happened.

Why it Hurts It may just be my teenage crush on Jane Badler and her red spandex talking but "V" is just so seriously under-serviced in merchandise, especially when you consider the impact it had.

9) Galoob The Last Starfighter line In the race to find the next Star Wars Starfighter was probably the closest to the concept (well at least when you look at stuff like Krull or Dune), the movie did good but not great at the box office (which is still a mystery to me) so Galoob chose not to go forward with these beautiful items.


Why it Hurts Not only are the figures nice but Galoob wasn't stingy with the character selection, this movie deserved these toys.


Read the whole list here The Top Ten cancelled toys of the 70s/80s

The other Mantooth action figure

Oddly, even though i named Brick Mantooth after Randy, I'm not the world's biggest fan of Emergency! The show and the toys do have a ravenous following to this day however.

1983 LJN Advanced Dungeons & Dragons catalog

In 1982, LJN toys beat out rival toymake Mego for the rights to produce toys based on the popular TSR role play game "Dungeons and Dragons" and a great underrated series of toys was born. The LJN D&D line was sort of a grown up version of Masters of the Universe with it's Elves, Wizards and Orcs populated a fun middle earth environment. Sadly, the line didn't fare well, most likely due to then strong opposition to the game itself and it's themes.

Despite being kicked out of my sole D&D game when I was 12 (I didn't really "get" role playing and decided to instead be an ass) I really dug these toys and bought much of the first wave of figures. Click on the images below to see larger pages with descriptions:

Click Here for the 1983 LJN Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Catalog

LJN TV Superstars 1983

LJN toys had a long tradition of picking up cool cop shows like SWAT and The Rookies and that tradition carried on in the 1983 catalog where they hoped to continue for toy maker Mego (who ahd just filed for bankruptcy) left off by continuing the CHiPs line.

Also offered this year was Magnum PI using what appears to be a retooled Mego Dukes of Hazzard body. While I've never seen any LJN branded chips figures, the Magnum set is now a sought after collectible. The carded figure has never been seen on the collectors market.

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LJN Toys for 1975

Founded in 1970 by Jack Friedman, LJN was one of the 1970s more successful toy companies, offering a mix of nicely made licensed products and some lower cost "house brand" items.

1975 saw the company in full swing with hot TV licenses such as "The Rookies" and "Emergency!" as well as Petite, their attempt to capture the fashion doll market and "Mr. Action", their version of G.I. Joe.

Click Here for the 1975 LJN Catalog




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