Another Interesting Side Note

 

I have had Rack Toys: Cheap, Crazed Playthings by Brian Heiler (‘Brick Mantooth’) on my Wish List so long that it went into a Second Edition! But John, who has been following the YouTube videos and podcasts of this pop-cultural aficionado, has actually gone ahead and bought it, and brought it over yesterday for me to peruse in person for myself. And what a blast it is proving to be.

As you probably know, rack toys are those ‘cheap, crazed playthings’ that existed on spinner racks and in cardboard display boxes, very inexpensive and eminently flimsy, meant to amuse and distract children for a little while at most before breaking and being discarded. Some were licensed merchandise (Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, DC Superheroes, etc) and some were merely their own weird knockoff items, but all were fascinating to the child-like mind. Why would Spiderman have a helicopter? Why would Superman need a parachute? It didn’t matter, because the figure itself was detachable and could be played with on its own. The heyday of these products was smack in the middle of our childhood: the Seventies.

As I turned page after page, I greeted old friends with cries of recognition. A Mighty Thor finger puppet (just the head and shoulders), a bendable alien from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, more bendies in the form of the Universal Monsters, a ‘Bakshi Balrog’ from The Sword and the Sorcerer, PVC Groovie  Goolies, and even the higher-end ‘Action Apeman’ (a knockoff of the Planet of the Apes in a near-Mego format). I list the ones we still have, but almost as interesting are the ‘alternate universe’ items we might have had were the timelines different.

But as John pointed out, we are united with Brian Heiler (who is our near-contemporary) not only in our possession and interest in these toys, but also in the very thoughts and comments that arise from them! Time and time again we find in this book ideas that arose all the way back when we were kids and things that have occurred to us as we examine them now. It is even more obvious in his videos. ‘Brick Mantooth’ is not just an author, he is a kindred spirit.

Now the question arises: will I or should I buy my own copy?