Ideal Evel Knievel Super Jet Cycle

The Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle was a tremendous success for the Ideal Toy Company in the early 1970s. Eager to continue the line and keep it a success, Ideal produced many different vehicle sets that used the same "rev and go" technology that made the Stunt Cycle such a success with kids and retailers alike.

One of those toys is the Evel Knievel Super Jet Cycle. This set was first produced in 1976, just a few years after the introduction and success of the original Stunt Cycle set.



Originally, when talking about jumping the Grand Canyon (ultimately to become the Snake River Canyon), Evel Knievel promoted the idea by showing off a jet-powered motorcycle that had wings mounted to the bike. Eventually, this design gave way to the, now famous, "Skycycle" rocket that Evel used to attempt his jump across the canyon back in September 1974.

I have a hunch that the design of this toy is loosely based on Evel's original idea for his jet-powered motorcycle.

Evel (left) on a talk show with his Jet Cycle prototype.

The red "jet pods" on the back of this toy actually have a function. When you rev the cycle on the Energizer, a wheel in each of the jet pods spins against a piece of flint and produces sparks (you had to replace the flint from time to time). The red pods fill with sparks and the sparks also shoot out of the holes on the sides of the pods. This was a very cool effect. However, it was dampened by the fact that the spinning wheels in the pods had a dragging effect on the cycle's flywheel motor that kept the Jet cycle from reaching the kinds of speeds that the original Stunt Cycle could attain. All things considered, though, the Jet Cycle was still a great toy.

I received my original Super Jet Cycle for Christmas in 1976. I'll never forget jumping this toy over ramps in the basement over and over again. In Montana, there was always quite a bit of snow outside during Christmas.

The Jet Cycle did have some improvements over the original stunt cycle. It was made out of a softer, studier plastic that was less prone to breaks and cracks. The original Stunt Cycle, although sturdy, was made of a harder more brittle plastic. This, most often, resulted in broken handlebars and foot stirrups. It was much more difficult to break any pieces on the Jet Cycle.


Like the original Stunt Cycle set, the Super Jet Cycle came with the Energizer base, instructions, decals to apply, and a white-suited Evel Knievel figure with helmet (at this point, Ideal had stopped including Evel's famous "Swagger Stick" cane with figures). A pair of extra flints were also scotch-taped to the front of the instruction sheet. It came in a windowless box with a terrific illustration on the front and line-drawing illustrations of other available Evel Knievel toys on the back. I love these kinds of illustrations from this era. No photoshop effects, computer coloring, or filters...just fantastic hand-produced artwork.

I'll bet Ideal Toys had a lot of fun figuring out what other vehicles besides a basic motorcycle Evel Knievel figures could ride across the driveway, basement floor, or roof. They came up with quite a few inventive toys before the line shut down around 1977. The Super Jet Cycle was no exception and is another classic Evel Knievel toy that should never be forgotten.

Lakeside Popeye Bendie

When I was a kid...a very little kid, Popeye was the "Man." I watched Popeye cartoons on tv, played with Popeye toys and games, and even dressed up like Popeye from time to time. I had a real corn cob pipe and sailor hat. Ball point pen provided the anchor tattoos on my scrawny forearms. I even tried eating cold spinach out of can to emulate my hero once...ONCE.

Until recently, I had forgotten about the Lakeside Popeye bendie. I had one as a kid but it was a forgotten memory. After seeing a photo of one online, I had an "Oh, yeah!" moment and memories of having this bendie came flooding back.

This was produced by Lakeside in 1968 and was sold through, at least, the early 1970's. I do remember that he was sold alongside the Smokey the Bear bendie on toy shelves.

This particular bendie has a greenish sailor suit. Mine, as a kid, was bright blue. I'm not sure if this is from a different production run or if time has altered the original color of the rubber (since the green color is the actual color of the rubber used and is not painted). I have seen both colors in various pictures of this toy online.


I remember being very confused about Popeye's face as a tyke. Is that an eye? Where's his chin? Does he have two mouths (one for talkin' and one for smokin')? The sculpt on this bendy did nothing to clear up my confusion. This is truly one of those faces only a mother could love.

...and therein lies the beauty of Popeye..."I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam." Popeye was always comfortable with himself just the way he was and that always made him cool, in his own right.

Yours truly, about to deliver a spinach-fueled beatdown to "The Bomper," an obviously evil, up-to-no-good clown.

(Edit: I just realized that the bop-bag probably doesn't say "The Bomper." I looked up "Romper Room" and, sure enough, it's a licensed Romper Room toy. The clown's still evil, though. Hmmm. All these years, I thought it said "The Bomper.")

Mego 8" Penguin

This is Mego's 8" Penguin from 1974. I believe he was released in tandem with Mego's Joker and Riddler 8" figures.

Penguin was a popular Batman character in the early 1970s. This was due, in part, to Burgess Meredith's fantastic portrayal of the feathered fiend on the Batman television series. In fact, Penguin went on to train a boxer named Rocky to be champion of the world. He trained Rocky under the alias "Mickey" but we Bat-fans knew who he REALLY was.


Mego's Penguin uses a base body that is a bit different than the standard body used on most Mego characters. He's a on a shorter body with a round, fat abdomen. Mego only used this body on a handful of characters (like Dukes of Hazzard's Boss Hogg and Superman's foe, Mr. Mxyzptlk). Since his torso is different, he lacks the usual waist articulation that most 8" Megos enjoy. In fact, he has zero waist articulation. However, all the other usual Mego articulation is there.

Mego's Penguin features a very nice head sculpt that really captures both his sharp wit and maniacal nature. It should also be noted that Penguin's hat is part of the head sculpt and is not a separate accessory.


A complete Mego Penguin should include black shoes, a screen printed nylon body suit (to simulate pants, shirt, and tie), and a nylon coat and tails (which is VERY prone to fraying). His hands should also be molded in white plastic to simulate gloves.

It's really a shame that Mego didn't supply Penguin with some sort of umbrella accessory considering that's a Penguin "trademark." It's really a no-brainer but Mego never was very generous when it came to giving their figures extra doo dads. They got better at supplying accessories by the time figures like Green Arrow were produced but poor Pengy will just have to rely on his wits alone to foil the Caped Crusader.

Kenner The Six Million Dollar Man Critical Assignment Arms

This is Kenner's Six Million Dollar Man Critical Assignment Arms set from 1976. That title's a mouthful...but deservedly so. The SMDM toys were some of the best toys ever created. This set again demonstrates the great playability that Kenner injected into this line.

The set came with three different bionic arms to equip your Bionic Man (sold separately) with new bionic features. Each arm popped on and off easily and had a roll of rubber skin to cover the bionics to keep Steve's bionic-ness covert. It also came with a white short-sleeved t-shirt (complete with SMDM logo on the chest) to provide easy access to Steve's new arms.

The set features a "Laser" arm that lights up when Steve's hand is bent back at the wrist, a Neutralizer Arm with spring-loaded karate chop and neutralizer gun behind a door in the bicep, and the Oxygen Supply arm with oxygen mask.

A more thorough explanation of each arm's features can be seen in the instructions below.

I had this set as a kid but managed to lose every arm over time despite still having my original Steve Austin figure. I love the concept of this set and the opportunity it provided kids to add brand-new play features to a toy they already owned...vs. selling a whole new figure with new arm features (although Kenner did that from time to time, as well).

Am I just getting old or do they not make toys like they used to? I'm probably just not paying as much attention to newer licenses and toys.

Included instructions (front and back)

What My Dad Kept

My Mom and Dad have always been good at saving my brother and I's childhood things. Anything that survived after we were through with it got tucked away in storage to be found as treasure at a later date. I know I'm extremely lucky as I often hear story after story about how someone's toys were either thrown away or sold in a garage sale by parents. Luckily, over the years, I've been able to find the majority of the things I played with as a kid.

This past week, I spent several days helping my folks sort through things in their garage to either be organized or given to a place like Goodwill (furniture, clothing, etc.). To my surprise there were still quite a few childhood things that belonged to my brother and I that I hadn't somehow come across in earlier "toy recovery missions." So, this is kind of a "down and dirty" post to show some of the things I came across this past week in boxes that were in my parent's garage. These are all items from the mid to late 70s with just a couple of exceptions.

Toy Guns - The above shot is a couple of toy guns from the 70s. The Space Astro gun is one of those light and sound jobs that drive parents crazy. The other is a gun that would shoot little plastic colored disks. I believe that this one may have come on a card and been Star Trek branded, despite it's generic appearance. We also had a Star Trek phaser that shot the same disks. I'm not sure what happened to that one.


Spiderman and Hulk Silly Putty Containers - Spiderman had red putty and Hulk had green. The putty is still inside.

Paperback books from the 70s - I had no idea that I had a Welcome Back Kotter book, at some point. I'm sure I got it through one of those Scholastic school book orders. For those of you a bit younger, Welcome Back Kotter was a popular TV sitcom (remember those?) that ushered a very young John Travolta to stardom (he's on the cover at the far left).


Kiss puzzle and book - The Kiss book is another school order book. I don't remember having the puzzle...but there it is.


Six Million Dollar Man record and books - I had always wondered what happened to these over the years. I used to love to listen to the adventures on this record. It's great to have the books back again, as well.



Superman pop-up book - This is a pop-up book from 1979. It has some pretty cool actions that the pages do when you slide a lever or turn a door.


Star Trek children's books - I love the illustrations in these and they are illustrated throughout. Good stuff.


Fisher Price Adventure people - I don't know a whole lot about these guys. They belonged to my brother. I'm sure there are quite a few pieces missing.


The Lone Ranger and Silver - The Lone Ranger still had a bit of residual clout in the 70s and early 80s from previous decades. This is a 3 3/4 scale set from the 1981 movie, The Legend of Lone Ranger. So, not quite a 70s toy but close.


Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica - This is a 3 3/4 inch figure from Mattel. They created these in the wake of the tremendous popularity of Kenner's Star Wars figures. I always hated the fact that they didn't bother to paint the eyes on any of the characters.


Clash of the Titans - These are a couple of 3 3/4 scale figures from the movie. Nice likeness of Harry Hamlin as Perseus...especially at this scale.


Micronaut - This was a very cool 3 3/4 scale (noticing a trend?) line of figures from Mego. I believe the concept was licensed from Takara's Microman line from Japan. Love these guys!! Although, I have no idea who this character is. He comes with an Egyptian style tomb to store him in.


Mego Pocket Heroes - Mego made a complete line of 3 3/4 size heroes and villains. This is what's left of my brother's collection.


Tron - These are figures from the 1982 Tron movie (close but not quite 70s, again). They are also in 3 3/4 scale. They are made of a semi-translucent plastic. Cool.


Star Wars Han Solo pistol - This, to me, is the coolest thing I found. My Dad made this for me out of a couple of other toy guns in 1977 before Star Wars toys started hitting toy shelves. He chopped pieces off, used part of a scope from another gun, glued things together, and painted everything black. Sure, it's not 100% accurate but it was close enough for me. I still think he did a great job, all things considered. This was at the bottom of a box that was headed to Goodwill. I almost didn't even look through the box...and I've been looking for this thing for years. Close call.

I hope you've enjoyed this smattering of stuff I found in my folk's garage... a little something for everyone, I hope. There are still a couple of other things I found that I will probably do a more in-depth look at in the future.

What a fun week I've had!

The Six Million Dollar Man: Maskatron

Wow! Look, a new post! ....sorry about the hiatus.

Onward.

What's more dangerous than a super-powered robot that can disguise itself as your neighbor or your boss? Not much.

This is Kenner's Maskatron from 1976. Maskatron was introduced as Steve Austin's first enemy in the Six Million Dollar Man toy line. I remember getting this guy for Christmas, one year. My younger brother got one, too, even though he didn't have any of the other SMDM figures. He had a blast with this toy, anyway.

The three faces of Maskatron. Left to Right: Steve Austin, Maskatron's own human face, and Oscar Goldman.

Maskatron is based on a very similar character from the Bionic Man TV show that was played by actor John Saxon. I don't remember the character being called Maskatron in the show but it's a perfect moniker for this chameleon-like "robot of doom." If you think about it, Maskatron is a very similar concept to the disguised robots from the Terminator films. Yet, he predates them by a good 9 or 10 years.  In fact, we need a Maskatron vs. Terminator comic book.  Someone, get on that.


Maskatron was a very "feature rich" toy. He came with the 3 masks that would allow him to disguise himself as Steve Austin, Oscar Goldman, or his own separate identity. It was liking having 3 characters in one! Sort of like a robotic Captain Action, of sorts.

He also was able to shoot off his appendages at the elbows, knees, and neck due to spring-loaded limbs. Each limb has a button for shooting off an appendage or his head and also a sliding "lock" to keep limbs from flying off at unexpected moments.


A black lobster claw-like arm and a suction cup arm were also included and could replace Maskatron's normal limbs whenever you liked. The claw opens when the claw's wrist section is pulled back and snaps shut when the wrist is released. It should also be noted that the three large "computer chips" in his chest were also removable. To top things off, Maskatron also has a door on his back for storage of unused masks in his torso.

This toy had tremendous play value and even seemed cool to kids who weren't all that "into" the Six Million Dollar Man TV show. On a side note, it's a bit tough to find a complete Maskatron, today, due to the enormous amount of accessories that were included with the figure. More accessories means more opportunities for things to get lost or broken.

Still dangerous...

A complete Maskatron should include a beige shirt, black pants, two black shoes, 3 computer chips in the chest, 2 normal arms, 2 normal legs, a suction cup arm (although the rubber used is prone to deterioration after all this time), a claw arm, and 3 different masks.