YesterToys :: Eater of worlds; eaters of breakfast.

This is me, my daughter and Transformers Armada Unicron from my birthday in 2003. You can even see Unicron's mini-con Dead-End at front left next to the juice box. I'm guessing I got Unicron from my parents for my birthday, since I am in their kitchen and about to eat my favorite meal, biscuits and gravy.

Oh, and for clarification, it is not my birthday today. I just like this picture :)

YesterToys :: Kitty Edition

These pics are awesome not only because they include kittens but because of those awesome Tonka toys rusting away in the weeds. That Bronco in the background had removable wheels and other sweet features. The fire truck had a retractable ladder and probably tons of tetanus microbes all over it. Yet somehow we survived childhood.

Who didn't have Tonka trucks rusting away in their backyard in the eighties? Commies, that's who!

YesterToys :: 2002

Here's a look at part of my toy collection sometime around late 2001 or early 2002. Not all of this stuff remains in my collection to this day; for instance, I no longer collect Pez and have cut my Hotwheels collection drastically in recent months.

That Bullwinkle soakie cost me a quarter at a yard sale. It was pretty sweet, but I've since sold it, for more than a quarter.

I eventually opened all those Johnny Lightnings on the wall in the back, and still have most of them. That Popeye is pretty sweet too, I still have all my Mezco Popeye stuff. I never did get that size Popeye in his white sailor outfit though. Sad :(

LOEB :: Cowboys

The League of Extraordinary Bloggers theme this week is a vague one, so my response is equally vague.

The assignment: Cowboys.

My response:

Do you see it? No, not those Space: 1999 or Buck Rogers (EDIT: The green one is a Flash Gordon starship made by Tootsie Toys - thanks Brian! And the silver one is Thunderbird-1 from The Thunderbirds, but manufacturer is still unknown - thanks CB!) or whatever vehicles on the left, not my sister waiting impatiently for a piece of cake or my pals Wayne and his brother Justin who's subconsciously mimicking my epic candle blow-out skills.

It's not even that sweet-ass Tweety Bird cake I'm talkin' about.

I'm talkin' bout this:

At first I thought that was Tonto's horse Scout hiding behind that massive '5' shaped cactus. But this picture was taken in 1979, and those Gabriel toys didn't come out until 80 or 81. I remember owning Tonto from that series but don't recall ever owning a horse. Further research led me to a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid toyline from Kenner that was around in 1979. Could this be a horse from that line? Who has the markings of Scout?!?! I have no memories of this horse!

Maybe some mysterious masked man can ride in and solve this mystery for us!

UPDATE: I think I solved it myself: Legends of the West by Empire.

In the meantime mosey on over to these fine LOEB member's pages, pardner:
Cool and Collected collected a horseshit-load of Lone Ranger stuff
Branded in the 80s hops in the saddle with the Tonto I had (and others) from the Gabriel toyline
And Tupa's Treasures draws an actual 'cow boy,' baby (no word yet on if his top is let down and if the sunshine's shinin')

YesterToys: Toys I didn't have Edition

Thunder Thunder Thunder - Thundercats...HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

(Sadly, those are not mine.)

It may shock and amaze Toyriffic readers to learn that during it's initial run, I had absolutely zero Thundercats toys and no interest in getting any either.

Now don't get me wrong. I watched the cartoon every afternoon. And I appreciated the toys for what they were, giving them their due respect at my friend's house who was mad for them and had them all. But by the time the cartoon and toyline were hitting their stride, the appeal of scantily clad steroid abusers was over for me, having thoroughly ridden the wave of MOTU from day one.

I was moving past that sort of thing, into robots that turned into vehicles and household appliances dammit - I was no longer a boy, I was a man!

I really liked the cartoon, and I loved the the execution of the concept, maybe even moreso now that I am going through my second (third? fourth? did the first one ever end?) childhood. I do have a Panthro now, my favorite character of all (although I couldn't find the box he's hiding in before this post) that I found at a yard sale a couple years back (which prompted me to do some sketches,) and I do see some of the third-tier characters pop up at the swap meet from time to time. But I haven't really taken that plunge into the kitty-pool quite yet.

There is one thing that would get me diving in head first, however:


Meow.

YesterToys: Haters gonna hate edition

A lot of people like to bash the GoBots but I'm here to say they were, are, and will always be AWESOME!

What's not to love? They were equal opportunity employers, they fit right in with Hotwheels (making them true robots in disguise,) they made a ton of cool vehicles like motorcycles and P-38s and Japanese Zeros and Submarines, every figure was made with die-cast and plastic parts, they were inexpensive, the good guy leader (Leader-1) was an F-15 not a mamby-pamby semi truck that couldn't break 55mph unless it lost it's brakes going down a steep grade and the bad guy leader (Cy-Kill) not only had "Kill" in his name, but he was a motorcycle, not a low caliber gun who had to ask his fellow villains to hold him and tickle his nether-regions before actually being any kind of threat (guns don't kill people...)

And I say all this as one who loves Transformers. Let's face it, most GoBot haters are just prejudiced and have not actually come to their hatred through actual contact with GoBots.

Sure a few were lame, but so were, and are, more than a few Transformers.

Anyways, let's call a truce. Transforming robots are damn cool no matter what.

I'm not sure the exact year of the picture here, but I'm posing with quite the transforming robot birthday haul. You can see I was no Toyline Nazi as a kid either; I integrated everyone together in peace and harmony.

Largest of all is the GoBot Command Center, an epic AT-AT like playset with lights and sound and even an elevator! Mixed in the scene are some smaller Transformers like Huffy, looks like 2 Cliffjumpers, Windcharger, and Brawn. From the GoBot camp are Fly Trap, Small Foot, Block Head, Spoons, and I think Crane Brain. There is also what looks like 2 watch-transformers who are most likely generic, a Convertor brand transforming car, a "generic" Astro Magnum version of "Shockwave," and finally Zod, the battery operated evil GoBot dinosaur tricycle monster thingy. You turned him on and had to stab him in the gut with a joust-like stick to shut him down. That dude was epic and I so need one now. I really wish I had held on to all my GoBot stuff!