Global Van Lines was once located near Disneyland

Does anyone remember the Global Van Lines building that was once located at the North East corner of the Disneyland property in Anaheim California? Throughout the 60s and 70s it literally sat on the same property the Team Disneyland building is today. It is the iridescent green building off of the 5 FWY right before you exit onto Harbor Blvd. I remember knowing that we were about to exit Harbor as a youngster, before I could read when I saw the Global Van Lines fountain, a globe with the water pumping through it in front of their unique building (see my rare advertisement posted for your enjoyment). Does anyone have any color photos of that building before it was demolished?

Back to the Future's DeLorean time machine abandoned and neglected by Gary Emerald

It's sad but true; some studios just don't care about their assets. Their short sidedness sometimes is just plain unprofessional. Back to the Future is one of the most important franchises in American film history, and no doubt one of Universal Studios’ best. Back to the Future is a perfect movie, a masterpiece. It is shocking to see that one of the three hero DMC time machines created for use in BTTF part I was left to rot away on Universal’s back lot. Can you imagine the value of this picture vehicle had it been cared for and auctioned off? Instead it was left to rot away…this particular car was used for all the interior shots, and perhaps was the one in the films that gets the most screen time. Clearly no one their has any concept of what they have or had, and for a company who needs stuff to display on their tour, why was this thing not better cared for?

Burt Ward's action figure

One way or the other, this was the closest you could get to having a Burt Ward Robin action figure: Mego's 8" World's Greatest Super Heroes line. The card art is fantastic, don't you agree? These figures were released in the early 70s, and the first issue of Robin featured a removable mask, which did not look as good as the later painted on mask, seen here carded.

Emerald and Hobbit photo pic of the week

Here's an image you don't see everyday: "The many moods of Daffy"

Emerald & Hobbit cool photo pic of the week

Disney and Dinosaurs

Vintage TRON photo from Disneyland's Starcade

Do you remember the 1982 Disney fantastic feature film TRON? Many do…I never saw it in the theater, but I do remember the video arcade game. It was one of the first games to feature four separate games in one. It had beautiful cabinet art and even a clear blue joystick that illuminated with a black light located just underneath the monitor, which illuminated all the florescent line details as well as the joystick. A Disney experience even in you home town’s video arcade.

Disneyland’s Tomorrowland had at least ten of these games in the Starcade, complete with overhead video monitors so everyone near and far in the Starcade could view the game in play. Here is a rarely seen image of the TRON set up in Disneyland’s Starcade.

The most wanted prop or costume list in the "Mirror, Mirror" universe.

Daddy Warbucks' dress from Annie

Fizzgig from Dark Crystal

"Mac" from Mac and Me

Pat Morita's apron and "Al's" neon sign from Happy Days

Ted Knight's drafting table and Cosmic Cow Puppet from "Too Close for Comfort"

Anything Richard "Larry" Kline from "Three's Company"

Anything from Alan Quartermain and the Lost City of Gold

Porkin's X-Wing fighter pilot boots from Empire

The Monkey Man's robe Raiders

Elrond's prosthetic fingernails

Tire from "Tucker" automobile from Coppola/Lucas' film "Tucker"

Remco's energized Spiderman and other Energized heroes

The Remco Energized Superhero line fits in the category of crap-tacular non-pose able 12” figures with great box art. The boxes and commercial TV tie-ins inspired… yet these toys did very, very little. You’d think a battery operated toy could provide hours of adventure…not really. These figures were designed with non-moving limbs, very simplistic and similar in design to toys from the 1960s.

There were several energized figures produced, Spiderman, was the focus of the collection and had the commercial spotlight. Superman, The Hulk, Green Goblin did not get any commercial attention and are the more obscure characters from the series. You don’t see many of them around these days.

With a “C” battery each figure did one thing. Spiderman has a pulley inside, when switched on he would climbs up a piece of fishing line from an arm permanently raised above his head. There was even a helicopter made for Spiderman… he looked dumb in it because he had to stand in the helicopter since he couldn’t bend his legs.

Superman’s eyes light up and when you plug the Kryptonite rock into his side, his eyes dim. His box shows an energized Superman looking nothing like the figure inside.

The Hulk has a pulley inside, same sort of things as Spiderman’s mechanism so the Hulk can and can pull stuff. Yawn…this mysterious toy line is one of my favorites
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Kenner's Star Wars line 1978-1986?

Its been talked about ad nauseaum, just look at the colors and enjoy...nuff said!

William "Shatastic" Shatner collectibles by Rob Klein

Everyone collects something. No matter if they are square with that or not. Concerning toy collecting it’s not really about the toy, it’s about the object. The toy plays a small part to me, it's all about the packaging. Toys can represent much, providing a deep understanding about the TV show or film it is based off of on so many levels.

Take for example this item from William Shatner’s first successful TV series since Star Trek (1966-1967): T.J. Hooker. This artifact asks the question: Did the public need toys from TJ Hooker? Perhaps the toy licensors couldn’t decide either since for this 5 season Aaron Spelling produced Shatastic Saturday night cop show only spawned a handful of products and they were all hard to find. I looked for anything I could find all and only remember locating a few items such the dart guns and a die-cast police car that was so inaccurate from the actual black and white police car Hooker drove, I didn’t even want it. Luckily a model kit was produced that was perfectly detailed, and remains to be a great example of T.J. Hooker merchandise, not to mentioned a great example of a 80s model police car, complete with the blue and red gumball sirens on top.

This T.J. hooker racer was not on my radar in the 80s, I never saw it or knew of its existance, and thanks to ebay I now know of it. Who cares about the toy itself, the mere fact another item with William Shatner that was once available for purchase in a store makes the world a little brighter.

Top 10 best movie or television weapons

Winky spear The Wizard of OZ
Deckard’s gun Blade Runner
Han Solo’s blaster Star Wars trilogy
Flame pistol Logan’s Run
Visitor laser pistol V
Colonial Marine Pulse Rifle Aliens
Colonial laser pistol Battlestar Galactica
Phaser 1 Star Trek
Luke Skywalkers Lightsaber The Empire Strikes Back
Phaser II Star Trek

Top 10 Television costumes-

Cylon Centurion Battlestar Galactica
Sleestak- Land of the Lost
Endora’s (Agnas Moorehead) witch robes- Bewitched
Batman (Adam West) “Batman”
Davy Crocket coonskin hat (Fess Parker) Disneyland - Davy Crockett episodes
Dr. McCoy (Deforest Kelley) Star Trek (1966-1969)
Captain Kirk (William Shatner) Star Trek (1966-1969)
Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) Star Trek (1966-1969)
Superman (George Reeves) The Adventures of Superman
Walt Disney suit from the opening of Disneyland (Anthology television series)

Super Powers Collection by Kenner: The best super hero toys ever produced?

Kenner's Super Powers collection

Many Super hero authorities consider Kenner’s Super Powers line to be the best toy line ever produced for the DC Universe. Perhaps even coming in first over the only other worthy collection: Mego's World's Greatest Super Heroes, produced in the 70s.

The Super Powers collection offered highly detailed figures, yet produced with simplistic charm. A style which has been ignored too often by current toy makers of the day. The primary colors of the plastic and superb packaging makes the Super Powers collection a pleasure to behold, total eye candy.

The figures were derived from Hanna Barbera’s “Super Friends” Saturday Morning TV series, and other super shows that followed such as: “The Challenge of the Super Fiends,” and eventually, “Super Powers” which tied directly into the toy line. Batman's and Robin’s designs were still closely related to the “Batman” 60s television series, though Batman started to stray away from Adam West’s look. The Super Powers Batman still had the classic blue and gray color scheme. This was the last toy line that offered Batman looking his best in blue and gray before he would forever be changed to the boring “dark motif” brought forth by Tim Burton’s Batman film in 1989.

Here is an example of Robin MOC card from the Super Powers line, still very Burt Ward-ish even 20 years after the show went off the air. Another robin feather in the cap of Burt Jervis.

Super accessories: Justice Jogger

What’s the deal with this Super Powers vehicle? Offered in the scarce third wave of the series. The Justice Jogger is an “overland villain chaser” with power stepping action. Perhaps Kenner’s design team was out of ideas by the time they began designing the third line of the Super Powers collection. The Justice Jogger is basically a wind-up two legged walking chair, which will carry a Super Powers action figure. The box depicts Superman piloting the chair. Lucky this vehicle is available to the man of steel just in case he gets tired. The only other character I could think of that would have been as bad of a choice to use as Superman was would have been the Flash. Though I guess Superman probably sells more toys regardless of the logic behind the idea.