Pedal Cars

• It didn't require monthly payments, registration, or a license.
  
• No one was offering cash back, trade-in allowances or 0% financing.
  
• Keyless remotes, MP3 players, power windows, GPS tracking or Onstar weren't options
  
• You were lucky if it came in more than one color
  
• They were all convertibles

You didn't care about any of this because it was dependable, it didn't need gas,You could drive it as fast as you could get it to go and most importantly, it was yours.

The pedal car is one of those rare old toys that everyone can relate to. Moms, dads, grandparents and great grandparents may have a pedal car story. They've been sitting under the Christmas tree since the early 1900's.



In the 1920's and 30's they were a rich kids fad. Lord Fauntleroy could pedal around the estate and slam into the heels of the butler in a tiny Pierce Arrow or Rolls Royce. The cars were made with incredible craftsmanship which made sense since many of the companies were already experts in their field.



Peter Gendron had started his Iron Wheel Company in 1880 making wire rimmed wheels for baby buggies and other kid vehicles. Eusbius Garton started his vehicle toy business in 1879 and J.W. Murray had been making automotive fenders and other steel stamped car parts since 1910.



During WW II, when all the country's steel was used for the war effort, the pedal car had to take a few years off, but after the war and into the 50's, things were looking up again.



Just like Detroit, the pedal car industry had it's big three. From 1950 to 1975 Garton, Murray and AMF were the main producers of baby boommobiles.



Every department store catalog was a pedal pusher with 2 or 3 pages of vehicles. Kids could cruise the neighborhood in style in Garton's "Kiddilac" or patrol on Murray's 3 wheel "Radar Patrol". You could drive fire trucks, station wagons and dump trucks [with working dumper], or pilot speed boats, airplanes or even an "Atomic Missile".



Of course, it didn't really matter what you drove. Whether it was a rusted hand me down or a spanking new Mustang, the most important thing was a a free afternoon, a pack of candy smokes and nothin' but open sidewalk.

M-16 Marauder Mattel 60's

A really short history of the real M-16

In 1948, the Army organized an Operations Research Office. An early project of this office was to study 'small arms' effectiveness. Battlefield reports from America's previous wars were studied and the ORO came to a few conclusions.

• Most small arms combat takes place at close range, less than 300 yards.
  
  
• Quantity usually won out over quality. Careful aim didn't seem to matter much. The number one cause for casualties was the number of bullets used.

The Army decided their best solution was to find a new high velocity .22 caliber automatic weapon.

Over the next 10 or 12 years, many weapons were tested but the winner was the AR-15 designed by Eugene Stoner, a former Marine who had been designing guns since his discharge from the service after World War II. Stoners weapon was a departure from most guns tested. He had realigned the barrel with the stock which kept the gun from rising as much when fired automatically and he also used cutting edge materials like aluminum and plastic where he could. The AR-15 was 2 pounds lighter than it's closest competitor and it had a much lighter recoil.

A few thousand guns were sent to Vietnam for testing in battle conditions in 1962 and the initial reports said the new rifle was plenty lethal. While at close range the bullet left an entrance wound and exit wound of approximately the same size, at longer distance the bullet would 'tumble' when it hit a fleshy target. The entrance wound was the same but the bullet left a huge gaping hole on exit.

In 1964 both the Army & Air Force adopted the new weapon now called the M-16 and thousands were sent to Vietnam. Soldiers aren't too thrilled with the new gun with it's plastic stock & aluminum parts. Jokes about the rifle being made by Mattel abound. In fact, the Mattel connection to the real M-16 is an urban myth to this day. Many people swear they saw or have seen M-16's from the Vietnam era with the Mattel logo emblazoned on the plastic stock. [We'll get to the toy in a minute]

In an effort to create enough ammunition for the new M-16, the Army used a different gunpowder than the one designed specifically for the rifle. The new powder is not field tested and the results are disastrous. The new powder increases the guns firing rate, creating greater wear and it leaves deposits in the barrel which allow the gun to jam. To make matter worse, the gun had been marketed to the Army as "nearly maintenance free" and was sent out with no instructions on cleaning. The fiasco was investigated by a Congressional committee which praised the weapon and blamed the problems on Army mismanagement.

Intensive M-16 training was then introduced,the ammunition was changed, and the gun was redesigned to carry a cleaning kit in the stock. Since then, the M-16 has been the armed forces weapon of choice for over 50 years with an estimated 8 million used worldwide.



Mattel's M-16 Marauder was a full sized replica of the real thing. When you cocked the rifle and pulled the trigger the Marauder let loose the sound of machine gun fire. The more you cocked the gun, the longer the burst.



With the rifle under Congressional investigation and the assassinations of Both Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy in 1968, the Marauder probably had a short shelf life. I would guess at most three or four years. I've heard there is a red white & blue version of the box.

Trivia: In John Wayne's pro Vietnam film "The Green Berets", there's a scene where Wayne smashes his M-16 against a tree. It's said he used Mattel's Marauder instead of the real thing.

Girly Toys 60's & 70's

Don't forget clicking on the pics makes them larger and a little easier to read

A. A. Milne January 18, 1882 – January 31, 1956

Let's start with the Winnie:

In August of 1914, less than a month after the beginning of World War I, Lieutenant Henry Colebourn was a Veterinary Officer traveling on a troop train from his home town of Winnipeg to Quebec. From Quebec, Colebourn and the rest of the troops would set sail for Britain awaiting further orders.

On a stopover in White River Ontario Henry gets off the train to take a break. There on the station platform sits a trapper with a female black bear cub tied to the bench beside him. Henry offers the hunter $20 bucks for the cub and the young vet takes his new cub on board the train.

Of course the bear is a big hit on a troop train loaded with adolescents headed for uncertainty. Henry names the new cub Winnie after Winnipeg Canada and the bear is adopted by Henry's 2nd Canadian Brigade and smuggled aboard the ship headed for England.

In Dec, of 1914, The 2nd is called to France and Henry knows the dangers awaiting the Brigade. He visits the London Zoo and asks them to care for his cub. Henry is hoping the arrangement will only be for a few weeks but wars always have their own schedule and Colebourn is not back to London until 1918. By that time, Winnie is a Zoo favorite. The bear who has grown up constantly handled by people is extremely tame and Colebourn officially donates Winnie to the zoo in 1919.

Winnie lives out the rest of her life at the zoo occasionally visited by Colebourn and constantly visited by the kids in London until her passing in 1934.

Now, let's add the Pooh [please keep the infantile tittering at the scatological reference to a minimum, this is an institution of learning after all.]

He started his life as Edward Bear. Well, technically, he just started his life as a stuffed bear with no name at all but as soon as Christopher Robin Milne was old enough to grasp the concept of names, he named his bear Edward. The bear had been a present to Chris on his first birthday.

Sometime around 1924, Christopher began to frequent the London Zoo and like many kids he found Ol' Winnie to be a one of his favorite animals. He also became fascinated with a swan whom he named Pooh. In a logic that only applies to childhood, the young Milne not only renamed his bear after his two favorite animals, he made Pooh a noun.

Now, lets end with the man.

Up to the release of Winnie the Pooh in 1924, Alexander Alan Milne had been known as a poet and a playwright but his young son changed all that. The boy who was obviously on the young authors mind seemed to give his writing a new direction and the first book of Winnie the Pooh stories struck a chord with kids and parents everywhere. Winnie was followed by The House at Pooh Corner in 1926.

Sadly, the the romanticised stories of his only son's youth backfired and a teenage Christopher Milne was mocked with constant recitals from bits of the books. This teasing along with the constant attention of being the character in his father's stories created a gap between father & son that was never fully bridged.

Milne died Jan 31 1957.

A, A Milne bios are here here & here

This poem known as Vespers was one that was used to torture a young Christopher quite often. He learned to hate this poem his father wrote. [isn't childhood a hoot?] It was first published in the New Yorker before the Pooh Stories

A video interview with the son of Henry Colebourn is here, and finally, since I'm sure you can find Disney's Pooh stuff ad naseum, here's a 10 minute Winnie the Pooh Cartoon from Russia with great animation and funny voice choices.

Bupkis, Jigglers & Other Wiggly Things - Russ Barrie 1964

Russ Berrie was a toy buyer who decided to go into business for himself and from the beginning, his idea was to expand the "Impulse gift" trade. His first breakout hit came in 1964 with the Bupkis Family; ten ugly, rubbery oily critters that could sit on your desk or hang from the rearview mirror.

Bupkis was so popular, Berrie introduced at least two more oily lines called the Untouchables and Loveabulls. If there was a common theme to any of these lines, I don't know what it is. It seems to be a football player mixed with a buzzard a spider in aberet and maybe a monkey. [just between you and me, if you're looking for a bff, send me the monkey.



The characters were well designed and stood somewhere between cute and creepy. Kids loved the way they felt. Other companies also offered up jiggly figures and while the other guys weren't as oily as Russ Berrie figs, the rubbery, blubbery fad was on.



Now the generic term for the figures is 'Jigglers' and if you decide to collect them, be sure to bring the checkbook. If Ebay and the outdoor antique shows I frequent are an indicator, they do seem to be difficult to find. I've seen near mint Bupkis figures with their tags still intact start at 100 smackeroos and up. I saw the spider in a beret go for $400. Yikes!

Carl Karcher Jan 16, 1917

Millions of people loved his hamburgers, some hated his politics. He was a devout Christian attending mass every morning before work. He was a staunch Republican showing his support for ultra Conservatives. His restaurant career started with a hot dog cart and almost ended when he was bounced as chairman of the company he founded. [He was back in less than a year.]

Carl Karcher was born in Sandusky Ohio January 16, 1917. During the depression he was invited by his uncle to move to Anaheim California and work at his feed store for $18 dollars a week. Carl eventually moved on to a job delivering bread for a Los Angeles bakery.

On his bread route Carl saw that hot dog carts were springing up all over Los Angeles. Sensing a great business opportunity, he borrowed 300 bucks and created "The Blimp" a hot dog cart across from a Goodyear plant in L.A.. Soon the cart turned into three and in 1945 the carts spawned Carls Drive-In Barbecue in Anaheim. [Since Carl opened the restaurant on his birthday, today would have been the Barbeque's 63rd anniversary as well]

The thriving drive-in business in southern Ca. was a sort of loose fraternity and when the McDonald Brothers quit the biz to start a new kind of restaurant, news got around fast. After visiting McDonald's new restaurant, Carl started a smaller version of his own joint in 1956 & called it Carl's Jr., now a worldwide chain with over 3,000 stores.

Sadly, five days ago Carl Karcher passed away from pneumonia, just a few days shy of his 91st birthday. It is the end of an era.

Karcher was the last of the great fast food entrepreneurs. A group of guys who recognized the mobile culture growing in post war America. These pioneers remodeled the restaurant business with new kitchen techniques and franchised the ideas creating thousands of business opportunities and entry level jobs. You may disagree with the fast food menu but you can't argue with the fast food concept. The original ideas of good food and prompt service at fair prices will always be with us because of a few guys like Karcher who were hungry to succeed.

Carl's Jr. official site

Carl's Jr. Articcle at Wikipedia

Carl Karcher article at Wikipedia

Carl's related video just for giggles

Imposters Aurora 1973

The VW Bug. The Pinto. The Willy's Gasser.

That's it.

That's the whole line.

I'm sure there were plans for more cars because Aurora went to the trouble of making commercials and the ad you see above [without certain embellishments] was in dozens of comics. The early 70's were a tough time for Aurora and they were eventually bought out. Maybe the Imposters were just a victim of the times.

If there is a fault with the idea, it's the size of the cars. I don't know of too many cars in that size at the time and scale seems to matter to a lot of kids. If they had been able to get the technology to work with a 1/64th size car [Hot Wheels, Matchbox, etc.] the Imposters may have worked a little better.

If you'd like to see the cars transform, there's a commercial at YouTube.

The Fat Cat by Remco 1960's

I can't find any real information about this truck but here's what I can tell you. The 'CAT' stands for "Climb Action Traction". This was Remco's buzz phrase for a motor they devised which climbed over just about anything at a snails pace. The same gear ratio was miniaturized and used in their Mighty Mike Jeep & Truck series.

Fat Cat is a big hunk of plastic I would guess about 2 feet long. If you add the big orange plastic winch in the front, it's longer than 3 feet. Finding a Fat Cat with the orange extension in the front and a working winch is no easy task, but when it's all there, it sure is an impressive looking piece of plastic machinery.

Hugh Lofting Jan 14, 1886

Near Christmas of 1967, 20th Century Fox released "Dr. Dolittle" to theaters. Kids of the 60's set sail with Jip, Pollyanna, Chim Chim & the good doctor in search of the legendary Pink Sea Snail. The musical starring Rex Harrison, Samantha Eggar & Anthony Newley won a few technical Oscars and one for "Best Song". Rex Harrison who had made a career of performing in musicals without singing, only spoke the lyrics to "Talk with the Animals", but Sammy Davis Jr. (and later Bobby Darrin) hit the charts with a cover version. Dolittle had as much merchandise as a Disney animated film with puzzles, art sets & plush pushmi-pullyu's a plenty.



Dr Dolittle began as a series of letters. Hugh Lofting was an infantryman during the 1st World War and like thousands of others, spent his free time writing letters home. Hugh wanted to add something for his young son and the simple country Doctor who gave up his human practice to tend to animals was the result.

Lofting's wife saved the letters and "The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts" was published in 1920. Hugh Lofting wrote 11 sequels before his death in 1947.

If you'd like to read the first of Dr. Dolittle's adventures, you can download the book here

Amazon has the theatrical trailer for the 1967 musical here

Easy Bake Oven Kenner 1964

1964 must have been a bad year for insurance companies. Mattel released the Thingmaker & Kenner released the Easy Bake oven. Both if left unattended could cook a house as easy as it could make an ugly bug or a cake. I used to drop water on my Thingmaker stove to watch the water dance like it was on a griddle.



Ol' easy was a little less dangerous because you were cooking with a light bulb. It also meant baking a cake took a lonnnnnnnng time. You could read War & Peace before a cake was done, so it was pretty easy to lose interest, leave it for just a little while to watch TV and an hour or so later wonder why that funny smell was coming from your room. On the lucky days it was just a burned cake.

In spite of the potential hazard, the easy bake is still made today. The last oven had a recall. Kids were catching their hand inside the oven and getting burned. I'm sure there are thousands of boomers who could share old war wounds with the new kids.

Like all appliances, Kenner's oven has been through a few changes. In the 60's the colors were yellow, aqua & green and In the 70's Kenner teamed with Betty Crocker. Kids got a redesigned oven in avocado & orange. Now the ovens are a single purple & pink combo making sure no self respecting young man gets any chef time. For boys there's still ants and a magnifying glass but that's more searing than actual cooking.



Kenner also made a few more 'easy' products. There was the Easy Bake popcorn popper, and The Easy Bake Potato Chip Maker. Extending the domesticity of the 'Easy' brand, Kenner also introduced the Easy Wash Dishwasher and the Easy Curl hair setting kit. I'm probably missing a few other easy sets, but since I'm in kind of a hurry as i write this, I'll leave the easy humor to you



How will the Easy Kake Oven do in the next decade ? What will Kenner use for a heating element when standard light bulbs become a thing of the past? I don't know but I'm going to go make a batch of square pancakes with my old Thingmaker while I think about it.



This is an early Easy Bake Oven commercial. You just have to watch a Jiffy Pop ad first.


I don't know what scares me more about this commercial. The vacant little Stepford kid or the announcer on Qualudes. You make the call.

I can't figure out whether these guys are pulling my leg or this thing really works. It sounds cool but it's going to take a fifth of something expensive to get your IT guy to install one at the office.

Kenner's Daddy Saddle 1965

I love this. It's so goofy and still brilliant. Make a foam saddle, wrap it in vinyl and strap it to dad. Yehaa! I wonder what the box art looked like? It conjures up the scene in Adulthood where Steve Martin is in the kiddie cowboy hat & chaps galloping around the yard.

If it had done well, would there have been accessory sets? A foam horse head & spurs? [ouch!] Dressage maybe? The Daddy Round-up Set with lasso & electric branding iron (batteries not included). The Buffalo Bill Set comes with with rifle & buffalo head for mom or your siblings. Maybe a rodeo set with a cinch & a glove. "C'mon Timmy, dad's sucking wind. Hang on for four more seconds and you've got a new record!"

Sorry. Couldn't resist horsin' around.

If the daddy saddle sounds like fun, there are modern day alternatives like:

The Daddle (Remember, I don't name 'em, I just have fun with 'em)

The Daddy-O Rodeo T Shirt & finally

The Po-knee - Created by a stay at home dad, I heard this one won Oprah's 1st Million Dollar Idea Challenge.

Tarzan Comic Strip debuts jan 7 1929

1929 was quite a strange year for kids. On the down side, the Great Depression was in it's first few months and would run for close to ten years. Families would have little extra money for simple things. Cheap entertainment like movies for a nickel or dime and the Sunday funnies would become a Depression kid's best escape from family struggle. Fortunately, both newspapers & movies knew their importance. Money may have been in short supply but imagination wasn't. Mickey Mouse was a only few months old and comic strips of both Buck Rogers & Tarzan started on the same January day.

Tarzan was the brainchild of writer Edgar J. Burroughs. Like Buck Rogers, he had started his literary life as a story in a pulp magazine. The character was introduced in 1912 and became instantly popular. He was an early subject of cinema with his first film in 1918.

Today when properties are simultaneously released as video games, collectible card games, trading cards, action figures, phone icons, Internet avatars & movies, it's hard to imagine it took Tarzan more than 15 years to appear in the popular medium of comic strips. With artwork by illustrator Hal Foster (Foster would go on to create Prince Valiant), I'm sure kids thought it was worth the wait.

Buck Rogers Comic Strip Debuts Jan 7 1929

When the Buck Rogers comic strip premiered in January of 1929, it was the first science fiction comic strip ...ever.

Buck had started his fictional life as coal miner Anthony Rogers who awakens from a mine cave-in 500 years in the futue. The story was written by Philip Nowlan and premiered in Amazing Stories Magazine in the August 1928 issue. Syndicate newspaper executive John F. Dille read the story and hired Nowlan & illustrator Frank R. Paul to adapt the story to comic strip form. Since cowboys were the big stars of the time, Dille asked that Anthony's name be changed to Buck.

Three years after the strip, Buck Rogers became a popular 15 minute radio show with an avalanche of send away radio premiums. Eventually, Buck got his own theatrical adventure serial with Buster Crabbe as Buck. Crabbe had previously played Flash Gordon in movies, another sci-fi guy of the times who had been developed after the success of Buck. In just a few years, Gordon would surpass Rogers in popularity, but for now, Buck Rogers was the world's greatest science fiction hero and the first taste of science fiction for millions of kids.

Charles Addams

He was one of a popular group of cartoonists that submitted to the New Yorker. His one panel cartoons were often silent & off the wall. Over time, some of his characters took on a life of their own and became a strange troupe with a love of the macabre. While less than a hundred of his gags included this 'Family', they became the core of his most popular gags and eventually became The Addams Family we all know and love.

The 60's TV show spawned a wealth of boomer toys including the Addams Family game, hand puppets, a model kit of their house and what 60's kid didn't want the Uncle Fester's Mystery Light Bulb or Thing bank?

Learn more about Chas Addams at his preservation site.

The awesome illustrations of Gomez & Morticia are from artist Aly Fell. Go see more of her work.

Campus Cuties

Starting in 1963, Marx toys brought out a line of plastic army men in a 6 in. size. The figures were released individually and originally sold for less than a dime. Like all soft plastic soldiers of the time, they had no articulation but the attention to detail set them apart. Faces showed emotion and you could see things like individual feathers in an Indian headdress. These new big figs towered over other plastic soldiers but they were to cool to pass up & kids began collecting these giants in plastic.

To get the girls as interested as the boys, Marx introduced "Campus Cuties" a series of "mod" female figures in fashion outfits and poses. The cuties were the same 6 in. size and sold individually like the soldiers, but the marketing behind the figures was a little different.

With Marx soldiers, you were lucky if they came with the Marx name or logo on the bottom but each of the cuties had the the name of the figures pose stamped in. In a time when toy companies were branding every doll with some cute individual name, it's interesting that Marx decided to ignore names and define the figures by their poses.

There were two only waves of cuties ever released and both were in 1964. There were eight figures in each wave with the names below.

Series 1

Dinner for Two
Lazy Afternoon
Lodge Party
Nitey Night
On The Beach
On The Town
Shopping Anyone?
Stormy Weather

Series 2

A Touch of Mink
Belle of the Ball
Bermuda Holiday
Day at the Races
Night at the Opera
Our Girl Friday
Saturday Afternoon
Twist Party

While the alliteration in the name is kinda clever, it is fun to point out that there is very little school activity going on. Not one of the figures is carrying a book, teaching, or learning in any way. They aren't playing a sport, cheer leading, or even pledging. If Marx had waited a few years, they could have had cuties with names like "Sit-in", "Bra Burning" or "Woodstock". Maybe someone could revive the series with "Campus Cuties Gone Wild". Sorry, that was the caffeine talking.

If you're interested in collecting cuties, you should know the first series is much easier to find than the second. There are also color variations. All the original figures were a sort of silly putty pink. In the 70's, Marx was sold to a faceless clueless multinational conglomerate who moved many of the molds to Mexico. Since then, the cuties have appeared in a light yellow and a cream color. The only reason any of this matters is economic. If you're paying more than 6-8 bucks each and they
aren't pink, keep looking.

Yes the cuties do have a web presence and thank you for asking. Matt Hinrichs has a Campus Cuties webpage here. with pix of all the cuties & other cutie stuff.

B-52 Ball Turret Gun Remco 1961

There's a scene in Star Wars A new Hope where the Millenium Falcon is being pursued and Luke and Han man giant cannons mounted in glass bubbles. With a bit of beginners luck [and the force], Luke manages to shoot down a Tie fighter.

In his excitement, Luke turns to Han Solo and says:

"Got 'im, I got 'im!

And Han in his kind and nuturing way says:

"Great kid, Don't get cocky!

The Millenium Falcon's, cannons were based on actual gun turrets from WW II. Unlike the big padded chairs they had in Star Wars, the real turrets were tiny & cramped. Some were so small, there wasn't enough space for the gunner to wear a parachute. If you're strapped in a fishbowl and engaged in a dogfight, I'm guessing a parachute is the least of your problems.

Remco introduced it's B-52 Ball Turret Gun in 1961. The B-52 bomber was a huge workhorse during the second World War. It also had the distinction of being the plane that dropped America's nukes on Japan. Looking back this seems like a very strange choice for a toy but the kids of my generation thought nothing of it and obviously neither did Remco.

Action Jackson

If you were to judge a products popularity by it's TV commercials, you would think Mego's Action Jackson had sold like Beanie Babies. The commercials were crammed with testosterone and produced with character animation & a manly theme song ("Think of what you want to be and count on meeeeee."). Watching the commercials today makes me want to start an instant Ebay collection, but in his time, Jackson wasn't a runaway hit.

Action Jackson was Mego's entrance into the action figure market in the US. Like GI Joe, Action Jackson was a fully articulated figure with outfits, accessories, cool vehicles and a strong TV campaign. Also like GI Joe, Mego's man of action had spent some time abroad in some undisclosed quasi-military capacity. Now semi-retired, he split his time between thrill seeking, treasure hunting and his volunteer work as park ranger & fire fighter.




The biggest difference between Jackson and all the other figures of the time was his size. Action Jackson was the first 8 in figure (Big Jim was released by Mattel in 1972) making him about 3/4 the size of GI Joe. The new size was cost effective for Mego and it also made AJ cheaper. In the world of kids on a small allowance, cheaper meant more bang for your buck and that gave the new figure enough traction to stay on the pegs for three or four years.

While Action Jackson was never a huge hit, he got Mego into the action figure market. An American hero to the end, Jackson's last act was to donate his body to "The World's Greatest Super Hero" series of action figures which helped make Mego one of the largest toy companies of the mid 70's & 80's. It's rumored AJ's original scary head without a beard is in a cryogenic freeze waiting for butt ugly sculpting to make a comeback.



Looking for Action Jackson info? Try the Mego Museum or the 3 aMego's

want to see a few commercials? Try these at YouTube:

Jeep & parachute ad

6 of AJ's outfits (I especially like the ever so macho voice whispering "Action Jackson" in the background)

AJ's motor scooter, fire rescue copter and what may be the funniest 'vehicle' any figure ever had, the "bucking bronco".

The jungle house [not to be confused with the Elvis jungle room at Graceland]

Jeep & personal helicopter