Season's Greetings! Early TOS & TAS toys and-

[jayrath]

Whatever your age, for the purpose of this thread you're a kid in the 1960s or 1970s. There is no TMP yet. There are maybe a few accurate prop replicas at the very, very few conventions, but you're too young to even think about attending. Your nickels and dimes instead go to Bazooka Joe or MAD magazine.

So what do you want for holiday gifts? (Or what did you get in reality?) Remember that the selections are few in these early days. The AMT Enterprise model? The ViewMaster packs? The fantastic TRACER GUN? (Surely canon -- we just never happened to see anyone shooting colored plastic discs on-screen; pennies will work just as well if you run out. WARNING: all Tracer disks eventually disappear beneath mom's piano.)

Or the Gold Key comic books? James Blish's latest short story adaptations? Or a Trek coloring book, the Trek Magic Slate (FUTURISTIC!) or the Kenner Easy-Show projector with Trek slides? Or perhaps something from that new upstart, Lincoln Enterprises?

Or far, far better yet, what early Trek toy did you make yourself?

 

[1001001]

The fantastic TRACER GUN? (Surely canon -- we just never happened to see anyone shooting colored plastic discs on-screen; pennies will work just as well if you run out. WARNING: all Tracer disks eventually disappear beneath mom's piano.)

I had one of those!

Never tried pennies, though...

 

[Sir Rhosis]

I had a Star Trekulator. Large calculator with sound effects.

Sir Rhosis

 

[Christopher]

The Star Trek Action Toy Book. I had one as a kid, and then a decade or so later, after I'd lost all the original cardboard-punch-out toys, I bought another one.

I also had the Mego utility belt. And I had the Mego bridge playset and a lot of the action figures, but I tragically lost them when we moved just before my 10th birthday.

 

[T'Bonz]

I wish (now) that I could have a Star Trek Colorforms set.

 

[BillJ]

I wish (now) that I could have a Star Trek Colorforms set.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Whatever your age, for the purpose of this thread you're a kid in the 1960s or 1970s. There is no TMP yet. There are maybe a few accurate prop replicas at the very, very few conventions, but you're too young to even think about attending. Your nickels and dimes instead go to Bazooka Joe or MAD magazine.

So what do you want for holiday gifts? (Or what did you get in reality?) Remember that the selections are few in these early days. The AMT Enterprise model? The ViewMaster packs? The fantastic TRACER GUN? (Surely canon -- we just never happened to see anyone shooting colored plastic discs on-screen; pennies will work just as well if you run out. WARNING: all Tracer disks eventually disappear beneath mom's piano.)

Or the Gold Key comic books? James Blish's latest short story adaptations? Or a Trek coloring book, the Trek Magic Slate (FUTURISTIC!) or the Kenner Easy-Show projector with Trek slides? Or perhaps something from that new upstart, Lincoln Enterprises?

Or far, far better yet, what early Trek toy did you make yourself?

My family was pretty ST happy: we had the Blish novels, Gold Key comics, Mego action figures (and Bridge playset), AMT models, Topps trading cards, View-Master (both titles), Remco Phaser, posters, and the behind the scenes paperbacks.

I really wanted the Remco utility belt (I could not play with the fragile Exploration Set model kit), Estes rocket of the Enterprise and the '76 medallion, but each was beyond the capability of my childhood pleas for the "necessity" of yet another ST item.

 

[Redfern]

This was reality for me. I turned 10 in November 1972 and started watching Trek sometime that Fall. By the mid 70s I had purchased at least two AMT Enterprise kits, the Klingon cruiser, the Spock kit, the shuttlecraft, the bridge diorama, the Romulan ship, the K-7, the Exploration Set, even the "Interplanetray UFO" kit (the Matt Jefferies designed Leif Ericson ship repackaged), really, the entire AMT Trek line.

I bought the Mego Spock doll, first one with the metal rivets and later a second with the plastic joints. (I converted the first one into a WestWorld type android by cutting off his face and stuffing the cavity with a wad of wire.)

I had James Blish's "Spock Must Die!" and the 5th volume of his episode novelizations. When Alan Dean Foster started releasing his adaptations of the animateds, I bought those as well. (I eventually got all of those by 1980.)

As for "reference" material, I bought the deck plans by Franz Joseph and later his Tech Manuel. Trimble's Concordance? Yep, grabbed that. And like any diligent Trekkie of that era, I had Whitfield's "Making of Star Trek" and both of David Gerrold's "behind the scenes" paperbacks, "Making of...Tribbles" and "The World of Star Trek".

What I did NOT get were any of the Mego brand electronic toys like the communicator walkie-talkies or the tricorder tape recorder. I did buy the Remco "electronic" phaser, but I wish I had not. That thing was a "rip". I expected the sounds we now have in the Art Asylum toy/props. Instead, when I pulled the trigger, it chirped like a bird! Boy, was I pissed!

I think that about covers it. Shoot, looking back, I was a bit of a collecting fool!

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Sector 7]

My paper route paid for all the AMT models. Mom knew I wanted Star Trek stuff for Christmas and found all the TOS photonovels at a second-hand store. Evidently, they were either a rarity (hardly anyone here remembers them) or a marketing failure.

I went through a few Exploration Sets because I PLAYED with mine. Much of our farm land and creeks was explored with those sets.

As for homemade items: I had found a shirt cut like McCoy's short-sleeve, shiny one. I made an insignia & put it over a black long-sleeve t-shirt with black jeans.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Mom knew I wanted Star Trek stuff for Christmas and found all the TOS photonovels at a second-hand store. Evidently, they were either a rarity (hardly anyone here remembers them) or a marketing failure.
.

I remember them well. They were hot sellers, and did not last long on bookstore shelves after every shipment, so it was another ST item that I found difficult to collect. Another sign of their popularity: the local middle school had a few in its library, at a time when TV entertainment books were generally no-man's land in public school.

 

[Sector 7]

Mom knew I wanted Star Trek stuff for Christmas and found all the TOS photonovels at a second-hand store. Evidently, they were either a rarity (hardly anyone here remembers them) or a marketing failure.
.

I remember them well. They were hot sellers, and did not last long on bookstore shelves after every shipment, so it was another ST item that I found difficult to collect. Another sign of their popularity: the local middle school had a few in its library, at a time when TV entertainment books were generally no-man's land in public school.

Awesome! I have no idea why they were sitting in a second-hand shop, but we were poor farmers and I was thrilled with them. When we moved Mom sold my comic book collection [some are now worth a fortune!] and the photonovels.

 

[T'Bonz]

I had perhaps 3 of the photonovels until I was 22. We were in Jacksonville, visiting an uncle. My husband and I took a walk, and along the way we saw a sci-fi/comic store. I *had* to go in.

They had the ENTIRE SET of photonovels! I felt like I had entered Ali Baba's cave. I wheedled a loan out of my husband and bought them.

Man, that was great in the days before even VHS.

My brother and I had the Big E plastic models in the early 1970s. I had all 3 of the Making Of type books, the earliest novels (minus the Concordance which I couldn't afford at the time) and film clips from Lincoln Enterprises, which I still own.

I sure loved Trek back then. And my brother and a handful of buddies were the only fellow Trekkies I knew.

 

[Warped9]

In 1970 I desperately wanted a toy or model of the Enterprise. On Christmas Eve of that year I got my first AMT model kit of the Enterprise as well as an AMT kit of the Klingon Battle Cruiser. I was over the freakin' moon that Christmas Eve.

Later on I got a Star Trek tracer gun.

 

[sunburn800]

I was lucky enough to have received just about every toy that came out in the early 70's From the toy bridge to the dinky Enterprise if they made it my mom bought for me.

 

[Timewalker]

My Uhura doll (action figure) is standing on my bookshelf at this very moment.

I remember one Christmas when I got a bunch of other Star Trek action figures, Star Trek Intragalactic Puzzle Manual, a plastic spaceship, globe, and the Cosmos hardcover... I was one happy Trekker/space cadet/Carl Sagan fan!

Throughout the '70s (from 1975 on), I collected Blish books, Alan Dean Foster books, photonovels (got 'em all), and my dad gave me the TMP novelization for Christmas.

Now, 35+ years later... Santa, I would really like the Star Trek "Mr Potato Head" toys, and more fanzines. MOAR fanzines!!!

(anybody know where I can get Masiform-D # 18? Saurian Brandy Digest # 32, 34, 35?)

 

[1001001]

Not a toy, but I did get the Enterprise watch for Christmas one year. Still have it in the box.

 

[Therin of Andor]

The Star Trek Action Toy Book. I had one as a kid, and then a decade or so later, after I'd lost all the original cardboard-punch-out toys, I bought another one.

I bought this in 1980 and used the phaser for my first Andorian photo shoot.


Therin as a redshirt by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

I wish (now) that I could have a Star Trek Colorforms set.

A friend sold me hers in about 1986!


Colorforms Star Trek set by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

When I rediscovered TAS in about 1982, I suddenly remembered having seen a cartoon version of Trek as View-Master reels: "Yesteryear", as "Mr. Spock's Time Trek". Took me a few days to check every toy store I knew, to remember where I'd seen it. The thrill of the hunt!


Yesteryear by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

 

[Sir Rhosis]

(anybody know where I can get Masiform-D # 18? Saurian Brandy Digest # 32, 34, 35?)

Check with the poster on this board known as Potemkin_Prod. He is a longtime fanzine publisher/collector. At the very least he may know where to get them.

Sir Rhosis