The millennium falcon was awesome I've got 5 of them now my most cherished possession. Yes it was a vechicle and a play set all in one love the millennium falcon and also a big fan of the slave one got 5 of them as well.
Please, never stop making and sharing your content. I'm sure you have a lot of subjects you want to cover in future videos/panels but if you ever get the chance, I'd love to hear your views on the downfall of action figures in quality and popularity and how/why that happened. I blame cost of productions and the rise of video games but I'm sure you have other thoughts.
***** Its so true what you said about how there are no play sets any more, infact I have noticed there are not as many action figures or other toy's just in genral I'm 32 and I grew up in a wonderful time where we had computer games awesome toys and we still played out side. now days kids are shown an xbox and that seem's to become there life they don't need anything more.Great vid by the way.
Fisher Price Little People just had amazing play sets Main Street Castle Airport Farm Sesame Street Parking Garage A-frame cabin I had so many hours playing with them and the best part was they rarely broke.
i remember my friend had the Joe base and it was always falling apart when we played in/with it. we spent more time keeping it together than we did acting out missions. still, i wished i had it.
Good point on the Death Star being a pivotal moment in play-sets. It actually shortly predated the Creature Cantina, Land of the Jawas, Droid Factory and Sears Cantina (which is really a figure stand like the Early Bird). Showing up in '78, I remember first seeing it in the first update of the pack-in brochures and then getting it for Christmas. I had large scale vinyl/cardboard play-sets like the Enterprise and GI Joe Adventure Team Command Center, but this was the first all plastic (cardboard wall panels aside) small scale play-set in my toy room. It was pretty pivotal, and provided a place to re-enact most of the scenes that happened in the Death Star. It really set standard that influenced all the sets that came after it.
I'd have to say, in terms of late 70s play sets where the box was an integral part there was 1 success. As part of the Star Wars inspired/ rip off toys, there was an electronic toy called the Star Bird that had a command center where the 12" by 8" box became the base. It also included a cardboard tower assemble by tiny plastic spool pieces and another unfolding flat cardboard piece that when spread out over the box formed the runway. I recently managed to acquire a complete version on eBay from a collector who perhaps didn't know what a great find he had. I bought the Star Bird for $80 with shipping but the electronics still works and the command center for $30. It is beautiful fir something now so old to still be in relative pristine condition. Truly a gem in my childhood toy collection.
Great panel! I used to have that TMNT sewer play set. But my favorite of all time was the Playmates Star Trek TNG bridge play set. Great detail, fun play features and great scale with the action figures. The transporter play set was also really cool for it's transport gimmick.
The Technodrome was actually released in 1990 and the Sewer the year before. Original documentation exists of the initial 1988 sales pitch that included a mock artist's rendering of a Technodrome, but it wouldn't actually see release for two years and according to that sales catalog been very very different. The original idea if Playmates seen this through in 1988, would have been a really cool Technorover tank (seen in the "Hot Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X" episode) with a inflatable beach ball fastened to the chasis for the dome. Thank god what we did get was the awesome vehicle/playset hybrid. The two year wait was worth it.
Felt like I was there, much enjoyed Guys, I think you come over very well to an audience, I am sooooo resisting the urge to start on about play sets, it's been my biggest bug in recent years and struggle that the likes of Hasbro just won't do it anymore. I can't understand why they cant see the multi sell of them, playsets for kids and ready made diorama's for collectors. Sssshhhhh ssshhhh Fuzz. Loved the history you fed in to it, the planet of the apes play set I've never seen in the 'flesh' so to speak and would love to. Brilliant stuff, lots of new vids up all be it the plastic is only a few months old and might not be the biggest pull for you Guys, trust your well. Cheers Fuzz.
My parents who didn't have a pot to piss in got me the aircraft carrier. Still have it to this day along with every other toy they got me. I remember after getting I told no one! The only person that knew I had it was my neighbor and it was lame because you couldn't take it anywhere or move the damn thing without spending 4 hours disassembling it and reassembling it. I took it out of it's box to do a quick inventory of to make everything was still there...that was the first it's seen the outside of it box since the early 90's. Such a waste of a toy.
@@SciFiFan2012 I had the USS Flag, for one day. I got the Flagg for Christmas and my cousin got the Eternia playset. I preferred the Eternia set and my cousin wanted the Flagg, so we traded. I think they were roughly the same price so my dad and my uncle were like "whatever." I still have Eternia, but I don't know what he did with the Flagg.
I did not even know captain powers base got released. Awesome. No coverage for the Transformers playsets seems a bit of a oversight. Fortress Maximus and Omega Supreme were very big and Imaginative environments.
***** They're not robots first, at least they were not to Hasbro back then. We've made them into icons as the years went by because of our fond memories of the cartoon and comic giving the toys personalities. Hasbro marketed these toys as either a robot toy, a vehicle, role play gun or accessory, or as a simple or complicated puzzle. Omega Supreme could have been just a rocket base to some kids that were not fond of the iconology or Marvel canon.
love your show, i find myself getting your theme song stuck in my head ;p Hope you make it out here to San Diego for Comic Con, ill come out and meet ya's.....i'm still hunting through my garage for my AT-AT to restore
This is a really great video. It was very well put together. Fantastic job to you both. However, have you both ever heard of Golden Girl??? I'm not talking about the tv show Golden Girls. Golden Girl was a toy line that did not last long at all. It was competition for She-Ra. When you get a chance, take a little time to check look into the toy line. They made a cool play set called the Palace of Gems. This was a cool 80's toy line!
You've mentioned Captain Power a few times so far in the videos I've watched (I haven't watched them all, yet), but you have yet to mention the TV show that accompanied it. I assume you're aware of it, it ran for one season. If you aren't aware of it, well, find it and buckle up, kids! ;-)
Loved watching this video. Thanks for posting. Looking back on my favorite playsets from the 70s and 80s: Creature Cantina, Dagobah, Jabba's Palace, Ewok Village, Castle GraySkull, Snake Mountain, Slime Pit, etc. They really weren't THAT great but I loved them. Also, why did the castle include the plastic weapons rack AND the cardboard cutout weapons rack? Would have also been nice of them to at least include a cardboard backdrop behind Jabba's throne. Anyway, I still love all of these and own them all. Interesting point about Snake Mountain being meant for a different line originaly. Perhaps this was the original Fortress of Fangs? There is an extra hole down by the cave with nothing to plug into it. Wonder what it was intended for.
Why do you feel that play sets have fallen off in todays toy generation?..80s stuff has made a huge comeback in our current culture...so why no playsets? (Star Wars, Transformers, GI Joe)
Hey Mike and the Melinda really liked the presentation nice job! Great subject u could go on for hours with Q&a or discussion on that one. I like how u promote the channel with these con presentations kind of a new different way if getting the word out and actually meeting the ppl that sub the channel. Question will u be doing anything at any Cons in NJ,Pa or NY this year. I know NJ has a couple different cons going this year. Again great job it seems ppl r catching on to what u 2 r doing with toys so that's very cool. Even storm shadow and destro couldn't resist the lure of interest toward nostalgic toys and got a retroblasting!
I would love you hear your thoughts on the current imaginext line which is IMO a playset driven line. I have a hard time understanding how imaginext makes so many playsets at basically 50 dollars or less. yet hasbro and mattel cant make a playset for any of there brands? I dont get it. many claim the plastic is too much but how does fisher price do it?
so no 60-70s reviews. like mego dolls, planet of the apes and Hanna-Barbera stuff. I use to love Jana of the Jungle for 78 it use to run along side Godzilla. it is not released on dvd. Wish it was. But love Planet of the Apes madness, and the 70s was crazy with POA. They had a t.v show. A bunch of movies, figures, lunch box, Play set
i see you gave a brief history of ehat lead up to 80s playsets with Marx and Mego; great job. i was just curious if Retroblasting was into pop culture anything that predates the 80s and after i watched the presentation it looks like you are. great job and sorry for the confusion
I had the Death Star play set once upon a time I had a friend I use to trade toys with. I traded him some model planes I built for it dang he got ripped off big time.
It's hard to believe, but all these years later, I realize that I was playing with Star Wars toys as late as 1984, just as the Kenner toy line was starting to die out. Return of the Jedi had already hit theaters a year prior, and so the popularity of Star Wars had just about peaked. The trilogy had ended, and so there was simply nowhere left for the franchise to go...unless you count a couple of forgettable made for TV Ewoks movies, and a short lived Saturday morning cartoon. My point is that I showed up a little too late for Star Wars...But just in time for Transformers!
Great panel guys. Yea, the 80s (w/ SW & TMNT on either ends) are the definitely Golden Age of toys and I'd argue cartoons too. But my geeky duty is to annoyingly correct Melinda and say Mechaneck-extended could shimey along the Snake Mountain bridge ;-pp
Hey guys I just started watching this and I had to stop while this was fresh in my mind. Mike said how the playsets really began w/ the Death Star. I gotta disagree with you guys because the Death Star came out in 1978, in 75-76 Mego put out some really cool playsets for their 12" Superheroes, Star Trek, & Planet of the Apes lines. I had the Star Trek bridge of the Enterprise, and the Batcave, and yeah compared to a number of sets that came out in the 80s were alot bigger, flasher, better because these ones were essentially vinyl cases but considering what they were we loved them. I'm glad you guys touched on them, but the feeling I got was that you're viewing them like a bastard at a family reunion. I've the feeling if it wasnt for these Ideal & Mego sets kids wouldnt have gotten other bigger sets like Castle Greyskull, Snake Mountain (as lame as that was), and even the GI Joe playsets. For ex: as Mike mentioned in the GI Joe hq video you had a landing pad for the Dragonfly and two areas for a tank and armed jeep. Now the Batcave had the launch area for the Batmobile, space for the Bat Cycle, and on the top a pad for the Batcopter. To me that made great sense. Then there was the orignal Hall of Justice in 76, The gimmick with the HOJ is the Translocation Chamber and Dial-a-Disater Console. You put your hero in the chamber, . You slide the door closed, and when you reopen it the hero has disappeared. He (or she) reappears behind the disaster screen that Batman is pointing to below. By sliding the levers along the console you can change the "scene of the disaster", which is essentially a thin piece of plexiglas with disaster graphics affixed to it. The hole in the middle of the graphic reveals the Hero in a classic newsman head shot. Another from Mego was the rare Wayne Foundation Batcave. It was a 2nd hq for Batman & co to mirror Batman 's move in the comics, and this looks amazing It's similar to a Barbie condo w/ working elevator. It was 4 levels and again with room for multiple vehicles and figures. If you go to the Mego Meuseum . com you can these amazing playsets.
Just got the end and WOW! LOL You guyys really hit every major point. I think it was what Melinda mentioned with the bullet points, I think the nostalga is a major factor here. I mean I'm a bit older than you two and I had those sets, then I got the Death Star which I loved, but fell out of the whole Star Wars thing around the time Empire came out. I think cause all the markets were saturated with Empire crap, (tees, ball caps, posters, give away glasses ontop of the toys). Also I agree I think the Mil Falcon can be both a vehicle & playset, but a truer example is the Lego version. But if you're really interested in an amazing playset reomend the Lego Death Star! Round like a globe, 4 levels, working elevator, trash compactor that crushes, rotating cannons, 24 minifigures, Vaders Tie fighter w/ garage,swinging feature, Emperors chamber - M&M this has it all! My nephew got it for Christmas and it took me my brother & sis in law a week to get this bad boy together. I seriously believe that Leo has become the leader when it comes to playsets these days, especially for established licensed franchises like SW. In my place I've got a set for my nehew when he visits, its Lego SW Emperor's Arrest. Where Skwalker kills Mace. this has a vehicle, sliding doors, floors that flip figures, hidden weapon holds for Emperor,and a window that bursts out. If you guys have the room you might want consider these as options. Oh and btw thanks for the 411 I never knew about the A-Team playset. I'm a HUGE A-Team fan and had the 12" figures, my brother had the smaller ones, GI Joes sized, he got in a special set with BAs van, Faces Vette, and a campground matt you'd lay on the floor. But the figures were blah. I mean each had weapons and gear, but each one was in a single colored uniform, not their normal clothes like the bigger figures were. And Mike I did think of one thing their set parallelled. In S2 the A-Team was training at their own place with obstacle course, zip lines, razor wire, and that fun stuff. So I'm wondering if this came out in repsponse to this episode.
You should also look at the newer playsets like the TMNT's. Also lego are doing many big sets like the playsets of old. May be saying something about the future. Are the playsets making a come back?
I love your panels and this is great but one thing annoys me. Why do these people bring babies to panel conventions or groups or meetings like this? Get a babysitter so the rest of the crowd doesn't have to hear the baby cry and talk and scream and moan the entire time. Or don't go. It's that simple. You chose to have the kid.
How many points do you get for knocking a small child unconscious? I'm watching this video quite some time after the event is done and that small child is really starting to annoy me. I hate to think what it must be like to actually been in the room with the whining little brat.
