Welcome to VIRTUAL-eTOYS!

 

 I hope to create an atmosphere of fun and happy memories of being a kid growing up in the seventies here...This site is dedicated to, but not restricted to that decade, and some of the photos are from my own collection of stuff while some are just pics I've saved of cool collectables and ephemera I've seen along the way...

                                                       "You can't live in the past, but you can definitely collect it"

                                                                             So now...and in no particular order...         

 

                                            My Sis and I circa 1971...fun was the only value added to our toys back then.

 

            Some of my collection today....I started out piecing together some of the cool toys my Sis and I played with, but it snowballed into a real quest for Mint, unused vintage toys from the 1960's, 70's and earlier. The Six Million Dollar Man is my focus, and most of that part of my collectino has yet to be photographed, but it'll be here soon...and that includes the unused, MIB Venus Space Probe...and THE MIB first edition Bionic Man given to the designer of the box logo at Kenner from an initial trial run...it's never seen a store and it's a gem..yup yup...he designed the engine block and the Backpack Radio as well..I've got his MIB sample of that here too...I hate to brag, just hate it...

                                                           

 Remember these?

  This was bar one of my faves..I'd go into the drugstore and this one was near the top on the left hand side of a huge banked rack of candy bars... 

     

 

                                       My 2nd Stretch Armstrong...#1 died a leaky overstretched death in 1977..                                                   

    Under the  Christmas tree, Christmas nite 1972....it still feels like yesterday and that's a great feeling...I remember Dad coming home from work that Christmas Eve and it was snowing out with two feet already on the ground...I had been Krazy Karpeting all day with my friends, all of us just killing time and having so much fun ...now I was on the  couch warming up and watching Bewitched with only the tree lights on, Mom in the kitchen getting the supper ready....talk about a happy kid.....man oh man.....                                                                                                                                                            If I could pick one moment to go back to..

 

       More of my memory chasing collectino....

   Obsession..me? Really?           

                                           

 

       ....none of this stuff has ever been used or abused....

                                                                                     and a couple more....

well maybe one more of Cookie;

 

....and now for some things completely unobtainable...Holy Grails such as they are....superheroes are hard to come by..

These are all SUPER rare pieces in this shape..

 

 

                                                                                                                    

                                                                     

 

                                  .....Here's a real drooler....count the zeroes behind the current market value of these...

                                                

                                

and finally for the seventh inning stretch....

well...I'm gonna publish this page now and hopefully get some more images up soon for you folks...if you have any good images or stories of your collection you would like to send, I'll post them here. You can send them to joadhenry2@gmail.com.  

 

Time for some new posts...add a couple new pics...look back in referee...or something along those lines...

..me at my grandparents, Christmas 1967.....just got my beginners....anyone know who made this ride on car?  ....email me.....

One bit of toy detective work on my part here...actually two: Look behind me under the tree.....I always suspected I had this toy...couldn't remember it though, but in another old shot of us as kids here:

....there is a toy in the background;

This one.....to the back right.....had to be Donald Duck...yes? But what was it...who made it? 

Then after searching ebay.....and Google's cached pages, for Vintage plastic Donald Duck  as keywords I turned this picture up.....bare with me...my toy detective work is only really interesting to me I know ..but here goes;

...it was already sold, it had to be it though...but I could never be sure..the hands were in the right place the legs looked the same....and I had a vague recollection of playing with something like this...

then yesterday I scanned the picture of me on my little plastic car at Xmas..the one up above, and when I did and it was on the screen..lo and behold, what caught my eye:

Could there be

      any more doubt?    Thank you! Thank you! No applause..just throw ...no ...place carefully...vintage toys near me.

      ...and to boot...an old top I forgot I had in the same shot....who made that I asked myself?...to which ebay replied..(after some descriptive searching)...."Ohio Art made your top my son.."

                                                                     I'm a geek...sue me....

....some more pics of fun memories:

                                                                                                                                   The Denim Machine...I drank more coke that  summer trying to win one of those...

 

the top of that great old comic rack I used to loiter around and read from..

 

Canadian seventies TV....weird and wonderful....Bixby and Me

The Friendly Giant...man I loved that show...puppets that played jazz....pre-Muppet Show

Mr Dressup....Casey and Finnegan the DogSpeak up Finn..

                                I wonder if Casey knew Bixby the Cat...who also lived in a tree....

 

       ..some more Mr  Dressup regulars:

                                                                                       Aunt Bird                          Alligator Al                     Wise Old Owl

Uncle Bobby....every day in the summer after swimming lessons I'd catch his crazy show...

...wish I could find a better image...and who can forget this great old duo...?

 Mayor Bob of Funtown and his crony Archie Wood..The world needs Les Litter!!

One more thing before I go today,,ah forget it......

 

*

 

 Updated Jan. 13, 2008

 

A few photos of what I have displayed right now....still have the other stuff...just no room in our new house....hopefully someday :)

                 

My Pride and joy....an original piece of unused Six Million Dollar Man box logo artwork by David Winslow, the designer at Kenner who designed the box logo they used as well as the engine block that came with Steve in the first issue of the toy line...below this photo is the original mounted reduction print of the painting he did ...he used this mounted print to present to the bigwigs at Kenner, in order  for them to decide whether they would run it on the boxes or not...this unused logo below was his back up logo that he also took with him in case they wanted another example of something to put on the box or any of the toy line they were designing....the reduction print that David Winslow presented to Kenner for the Bionic Man toy line....this is the actual print they looked at in order to decide on the box logo. Mr. Winslow also designed the Bionic Backpack Crystal Radio and the inflatable dome headquarters in the SMDM line. In the first photo of my collection above you can see his MIB Bionic Man early production sample he took for inspection off the line, as well as his MIB early production sample of the Backpack in the lower right of the picture...all these he sent to me with handwritten COA's stating his various postions and designs at Kenner in the 1970's and 80's, and giving a brief history of each piece. It doesn't get much better than this.....yup yup. Also note the NRFB Venus Space Probe....this is a MINT unused item from this line and extremely rare in this condtion....box is a C9...toy is C10!!!

 

I also have this sweet gem, which I believe to be even rarer than the space probe...

                                                                  

....I bought this from the grandaughter of someone who also used to work for Kenner in production....it's sealed, never used....box is C10...I can't find a peep about this anywhere....it was either made in extremely low numbers near the end of the toy line or is a prototype that never saw the light of day.....it's a beautiful thing, that's all I know. She also sold his NRFB OSI playset, his SMDM Bionic Tower TTP playset and his Bionic Video Center to me...all taken right off the Kenner assembly line and never been in a store....no price tags OR tape on the boxes.....once I get the room set up for the rest of my SMDM collection I'll post some shots of them as well....bye 4 now!

 

Jan 27 2008

Here are a few new shots of most of my collection..there are a few boxes of vintage kids books and some other toys that just don't fit the size of the room I have to use as a "display" right now...my Kenner SMDM collection is my centerpiece...I have most of the major items but I still need Bigoot and a few other pieces that are pretty easy to come by, with a little patience.

                                                                  some Sesame Street stuff from Topper and Child Guidance   .. all the toys in this room with the exception of two or three things are unplayed with and either unopened or opened for display....

My Stretch Armstrong...complete with Band Aids and neck tag, instructions and mat....he's in excellent shape, not perfect but really good. At his feet is a ceramic mandrel from the Kenner factory for making the latex body for Stretch...the red streaks are remains of the agent they used to make it easier for stripping the finished latex body off the mold....behind and to the left is some Weebles prototype stuff from a Hasbro employee.

                                        

Here's my real obsession....the Kenner Six Million Dollar Man line....I will own each and every piece of this set mint and unplayed with. Everything here is in that shape...unused with sticker sheets not applied..etc... 

 

 

Above is stuff I bought from david Winslow..the Kenner employee who designed the SMDM box logo, engine block and Crystal Radio backpack set....the last picture is a pre-production test shot of the Backpack and a decal sheet of stickers for the pack that never made it to production as the design was changed,,,so these stickers are EXTREMELY rare...I know of three other sheets of these he had that another ebayer won...I missed the auction or I would have had them too...d'oh!! Below here are two pics of the Early Production Samples of the SMDM and Backpack he had taken from the line for inspection. They are, needless to say...mint!

 

 

That's the Winslow Piece above .... I can't believe I was lucky enough to win this...he sent COA's for all of these.

 

and here's his early production sample of the backpack....not a great shot but here it is...

"I'm a star with Pianosaurus..."

...all unplayed with...

 

...all unplayed with...unused..

 

unused Karate Men....Microvision still shrinkwrapped.

 

Hey Kids!! Comics...

 

 Above is some original artwork by legendary children's artist Mel Crawford for Little Golden Book's Golden Calenders.

The two pictures standing up are the covers for two seperate years of Little Golden Calenders...the left was Nursery Rhyme themed for 1972 and the right was Aesop's Fables for 1973 .....Beautiful work!!!!

Super Slider Sno Skates...Mood Shirt....Sealed Lite Brite....Wobble Walkers full display....Mickey Mouse Bank still wrapped...etc..

Two absolutely mint versions of Big Jim...first and second runs,  with an unused Gold Medal Big Jim...I'll get that tag off eventually...also a bag of prototype production samples of Big Jim stuff...an unpainted head and a sports outfit...from an ex Mattel employee....

Kenner Sip Alongs unopened...Sesame Street FP Gift set

 

unplayed with...unused...

Eaton's and Sears Christmas Catalogs from 67 to 79..

...all old store stock Joe stuff...Tim-Mee ray gun Archer walkie talkies'''etc...

                                                                                           I love old toys..what can I say?

 

    Some more shots of some amazing toys :

 

    

 

Now THERE'S about six grand of sidekick for you...

 

 

 

 

Above Super hero set by Multiple Toymakers...rare rare rare...and another below:

soooooo rare...I weep with the rarity....

 

I may be getting addicted to this toyline...which is more costly...but more fun...than crack.....

 

I was perusing and old Sears catalog last nite and realized something...the unused sticker sheet from Kenner here:

 

WERE actually used for initial Kenner shots for the first run of photos in the 1975 Christmas catalogs...check it out:

 Tough to make out I know but it is definitely the round insignia on his jacket...not the one we are all familiar with...and check out the good doctor Kromedome waiting for Steve to fall asleep in his T+R Station so he can...what.....imbue him with a bad fashion sense I guess....