Archie at Riverdale High

Archie comics and cartoons ruled when I was a kid and I would have loved to have these groovy figures by Marx toys. However, I just don't remember them so Jughead never got to team up with Batman and Big Jim.

Oh, the adventures they would have had!

New Six Million Dollar Man Shirt in our Redbubble store!

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Get the expanded digital edition of Rack Toys here.

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!"

New Six Million Dollar Man Shirt in our Redbubble store!

Don't forget to join our new facebook group.

Get the expanded digital edition of Rack Toys here.

Mighty Crusaders Rack Toys

I'm excited to have finally tracked down the 1985 Remco/AHI catalog which finally showcases the fine Rack Toys that were offered for the Archie Comics Superhero characters under "The Mighty Crusaders" brand.

My major obsession with these is that they're all re-purposed from mid 1970s AHI Rack Toy merchandise for Batman and Spider-Man. I also was a big fan of these characters, I bought Red Circle comics as a lad.

Let's drool over the impossibly rare to find goodies after the jump:

Mighty Crusaders Remco Parachutist Figure

There is no greater time in a toy collector's journey then when they find that something that they thought existed, actually does.

Well I guess, finding it for a dollar would trump that but no such luck here. After decades of searching I have found my white whale, the very last produced Parachutist figures by Remco/AHI, The Mighty Crusaders.

More after the jump.

Mighty Crusaders Stunt Cycle

It's been a while since I've found a Rack Toy that excites me (that sounds weird) but this week I totally have. These toys come from Remco/AHI and are as I can figure, the last line of these kind of licensed affairs that AHI was so known for in the 70s and 80s. 

Mighty Crusaders are a superhero team owned by Archie Comics, they have a great lineage but an awfully sporadic publishing history since the Golden Age. During the early 80s, they had a pretty decent attempt at a revival which spawned licensed toys from Remco.

While the Remco Mighty Crusaders action figure line is fairly commonly found, these toys must have been produced in much lower numbers.  I'm still not positive what got made and didn't . 

Prior to this discovery, the only Rack Toys for the Mighty Crusaders I could confirm were these helicopters.

The back of the package suggests that Mighty Crusaders got the same treatment that Batman and Planet of the Apes did in the mid seventies with helicopters, Motorcycles and (gasp!) Parachute figures. (If you have one please email me, even if it's not for sale!)

A really nice shot of "The Web" figure, I'm glad that I keep running into one of my favourite characters when I do find this stuff.

If you have any input on this Mighty Crusaders merch, I'd love to hear from you!

Archie at Riverdale High

I would have gone nut for a Jughead as a kid, sadly I never crossed path with these great Marx Archie figures until I was a teenager. Having no Reggie in the line does seem to remove all conflict.

Podstallions 14: Filmation Part One

We've probably mentioned Filmation in every one of our shows (it's our anniversary BTW, what did you get us?) so it's no surprise that Jason and myself are huge fans of the legendary animation company.

Episode one explore our earliest memories of Filmation and tries to relay the Saturday morning experience, look for a longer episode 2 in the coming months.

For now we touch upon the DC comics Superheroes, Archie, the Groovy Goolies, Fat Albert, Shazam!, bubble gum rock, dog toys and my obsession with Winnebagos.  

Download the Show Here

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Show Links:

• The Archies singing God Save the Queen from the minds who brought you Blue Peanuts.
• The Chemtoy Groovie Goolie figurines are gorgeous but also go for big bucks.
• Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation is a must for any fan of their shows. Seriously, it's a terrific book.
• Filmation's Dick Tracy cartoon is largely forgotten which is a shame because it's more faithful than the better known 60's version.
• The live action Groovie Goolies mentioned in the show.
• Replacement Captain Marvel kinda let it all hang out...
• Brian treasures this promotional Mr Mentor autograph

Plenty more content on the PodStallions Facebook page!

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Mattel's The Archies

Click the link to see a larger picture

After Marx introduced a series of Archie Action figures in 1975, Mattel took a kick at it in 1978 with these been bag versions that used the same construction as their then popular 'Honey Hill Bunch" line of toys.

I have to say that the Mattel sculpts are much nicer than the Marx ones which looked a little creepy.

Betty, stalwart of the line was actually dropped in favour of Sabrina the teenaged witch who did have a popular series in the 70s.

Everything's Archie!

I never saw these Marx Archie figures as a kid or else I'd have been all over them, I've always been a big fan. These are prototypes of the actual figures as some of the head sculpts are off and they definitely didn't have articulated bodies like that, the actuall product has that lame Sunshine Family style going on.

Is it me or does that Archie figure look pissed? It looks like he's ready kick somebody's ass off camera....