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Cool & Collected – The Magazine for Pop Culture Collectors

Posted on October 8, 2013 by Gooney Bird

As much as I love the speed and convenience of getting my collecting fix over the Internet, there is still nothing like sitting down in a comfy chair with a brand new toy magazine and pouring over all of the glossy images. The folks over at Cool & Collected are betting there are a lot of others out there that feel the same way. They just launched a new Kickstarter campaign to help fund the printing and distribution of their first magazine issue!

Love the layout!

If you want to see more toy news in print, consider supporting Cool & Collected with their kickstarter!

Posted in News | Tagged Cool & Collected, magazine | 2 Comments

BlytheCon 2013 in New York City is the Place to be October 13th!

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Gooney Bird

Calling all Blythe lovers! Fans of Kenner’s Blythe dolls will be meeting up this month in New York City to share their love for the big eyed beauty. The main event will take place on October 13th, with a social gathering the night before in Central Park.

Here is the schedule of events:

Pre-Meet Function – October 12th, 2013

Location: Central Park – The Carousel.
Time: 12:00 PM -5:00 PM
Details: The Carousel is located in the middle of the park on 64th street. This means you can enter the park from either the west or east side of Manhattan. Enter the park on Central Park West and 64th Street (West side) or 5th Avenue and 64th Street (East Side) — Then walk to the middle of the park. There should be signs that point in the direction of particular landmarks. You could also ask anyone in the park to point you towards the carousel. We’ll start at the carousel and can always move around. The Sheep Meadow isn’t far from the carousel so that might be a good place for us to sit for a while!

Main Event Details – October 13th, 2013

Main Event Time Schedule
8:00AM – 10:00AM – Venue Set up, Vendor set up.
10:00AM – Doors Open
12:00PM – 1:00PM – Sewing Demonstration with Momolita
2:00PM – 3:00PM – Rerooting/haircare Demonstration with Chantilly Lace Customs
3:00PM – 4:00PM – Customizing Demonstration with GBaby
4:00PM – 5:00PM – Sewing Demonstration with Momolita
5:00PM – 5:30PM – Featured Doll Group Photo
5:30PM – 7:30PM – Event Door Prize Giveaway
7:30PM – 8:00PM – Closing

Visit BlytheCon2013.com for full details!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Blythe | 1 Comment

Kenner’s Goofus Football Foam Toy

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Gooney Bird

Did you know there was more than one foam toy in Kenner’s Goofus toy line? A visitor to our site saw our post about the Goofus Double Hoop and was nice enough to send us these pictures of the Goofus Football!

The front box text states:

Kenner’s GOOFUS FOOTBALL

GREAT FUN! INDOORS (and OUT)

THE SOFT ONE!

Use the box as a kicking tee!

Working hard to sell a foam football…

SOFT! WON’T HURT… BEARS, CHAIRS, DOLLS, WALLS, BUGS, RUGS, …OR EVEN PEOPLE!

My combined Goofus knowledge now includes the Goofus Double Hoop, the Goofus HO-HO YOYO, and the Goofus Football. Do you know of any others?

Posted in Toys | Tagged Goofus Football | Leave a comment

General Mills Fall 1969 Horizons Shareholder Magazine

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Gooney Bird

This General Mills Horizons mini magazine was provided to shareholders in the Fall of 1969. The magazine provides a financial update, recap of the annual shareholder’s meeting, and other current events happening at the company. It measures 6″ x 9″ and has 24 pages.

Kenner was purchased by General Mills in 1967 and is mentioned a few times in the magazine. The first is this picture of a young boy carrying Rex, the Tyrannosaurus styrofoam toy as part of a “fashion show” that took place at the 41st annual shareholder’s meeting. The meeting was held in the General Mills’ General Office building cafeteria, Minneapolis, MN, on September 16th.

Kenner also gets a mention in the New Products section with the Dune Buggy, which was introduced at the previous Spring Toy Fair.

The Play-Doh Funny Pumper from Rainbow Crafts is also highlighted in the update. A year later in 1970, Rainbow Crafts, and it’s famous Play-Doh line will be merged into Kenner Products.

Posted in Internal Items, Paperwork | Tagged Dune Buggy, Funny Pumper, General Mills, Horizons, Play-Doh, Rainbow Crafts, Rex, shareholders | Leave a comment

The Secret Story of TOYS

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Gooney Bird

Not specifically Kenner related, but this is a great video that takes a look behind the scenes at artists sculpting and using prototyping methods to create the toys we love to collect.

Posted in Toys | Leave a comment

NECA 7″ Predator Series 10 Assort. in Kenner Inspired Packaging

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Gooney Bird

It might be too soon to call this the Golden Age of Kenner collecting, but… no, you know what, it is! This is a great time to be a Kenner collector! With products like Gentle Giant’s 12″ Kenner Star Wars figures, ZICA Toys’ Six Million Dollar Man figures, and Super7’s unproduced Alien action figures, we are up to our armpits in retro Kenner goodness and I love it!

NECA is now getting in on the action with Kenner inspired packaging and figure sculpts for the 10th series of their 7″ Predator action figure line. A sample blister card is shown above and is a tip of the hat to Kenner’s package design.

From NECA’s website:

“One of the most talked about debuts at Toy Fair 2013 was the milestone Series 10 Predators collection, an homage to the Kenner Predator collection from the early 90s.

Taking inspiration from the original Kenner Expanded Universe designs, our team has applied modern sculpting, detail and articulation to upgrade these vintage Predators for the new millennium.”

Here is a shot of the package insert:

Enjoy this flood of new Kenner related products while you can fellow collectors!

Thanks to Jad Bean for sharing the news.

Posted in Toys | Tagged NECA, Predator | Leave a comment

Starting Lineup Collecting Community Still Going Strong

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Gooney Bird

The Cincinnati Enquirer has an article up featuring local Starting Lineup collector Hank Reed and his continued love for the Kenner toy line. The article is a great read, and has some stories that will take collectors back to those crazy days when Starting Lineup collecting was a full contact sport!

Corey Ryan, from Cincinnati, looks at new Starting Lineup action figures during a convention where thousands of fans and collectors attended at the Cincinnati Convention Center May 24, 1997. Starting Lineup was created by former Bengals punter Pat McInally. Between 1988 and 1997, more than 44 million figures were sold. / AP Photo/David Kohl

If you are in the Cincinnati area and a fan of Starting Lineup’s, meet up with some fellow collectors this Saturday, July 20th to share your love of the hobby. Here are the details from the article:

There will be an informal gathering of Starting Lineup collectors starting at 9 a.m. Saturday at Traders World in Lebanon. Original members of the popular Starting Lineup message board SLU.net, will be there. Collectors will seek to buy, sell and trade the SLU figures.

Collectors will meet up under the outdoor stalls at Trader’s World. Just look for the gathering and introduce yourself! Maybe you will be able to pick up one of these, or some of these!

If you like to socialize using Facebook, check out the Starting Lineup collecting group here.

Posted in Toys | Tagged Starting Lineup | 2 Comments

Ectocontainment.com Looking for Kenner The Real Ghostbusters Instructions

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Gooney Bird

If you are a Kenner Ghostbusters fan, you need to head on over to Ectocontainment.com and see what they are up to. Richard Roy (aka Spengs) is working on gathering all of the instruction sheets that were included in the Ghostbusters toys. If you have any instruction sheets that he is missing, help out Richard and the entire Kenner community with some scans.

Here are the specific posts related to the instruction requests:

http://ectocontainment.com/index_files/looking-for-kenner-instructions.html

http://ectocontainment.com/index_files/looking-for-kenner-instructions-too.html

Image from ectocontainment.com

Posted in Instructions | Tagged Instructions, The Real Ghostbusters | 1 Comment

io9’s List of the 14 Greatest Action Figure Playsets of All Time

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Gooney Bird

i09 has posted a list of their top 14 action figure playsets of all time. Kenner makes a strong showing with three spots on their list. The Star Wars Death Star Space Station, Star Wars Ewok Village, and the MASK Boulder Hill playsets all make the cut. I don’t think you’ll be surprised when you see which playset took their #1 spot.

The Death Star Space Station playset pages from the 1979 Kenner Toy Fair catalog are show above.

The Ewok Village playset page from the 1984 Kenner Toy Fair catalog:

The Boulder Hill playset pages from the 1986 Kenner Toy Fair catalog:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged io9, MASK, Star Wars | 1 Comment

Kenner’s Goofus Double Hoop Foam Ring Toy

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Gooney Bird

Every now and then a Kenner toy comes along that makes you think “wow, marketing earned their pay on that one.” The Goofus Double Hoop is one of those toys. The toy is nothing more that two foam rings with some silk screened graphics.

The larger outer ring measures 9″ across, and the smaller ring that fits inside measures 5″ across.

The front box text states:

Kenner’s GOOFUS DOUBLE HOOP

SOFT! WON’T HURT… BEARS, CHAIRS, DOLLS, WALLS, BUGS, RUGS, ..OR EVEN PEOPLE!

The large ring has Kenner’s cursive logo and GOOFUS.

The back box text:

Kenner’s GOOFUS DOUBLE HOOP
GREAT FUN! INDOORS (and OUT)!

PITCH ‘EM CATCH ‘EM
SAIL ‘EM
TWIRL IT!
PITCH HOOP SHOES
BOUNCE OFF THE WALL OR FLOOR!
SPIN ‘EM THEY’LL COME BACK
SET LIKE THIS EXTRA FUNNY WHEN THEY SEPARATE IN MID AIR!

Box side text: