Out of the Toybox (76): Something of the Old Ones

 

Geronimo (1967, Marx) is one of those primordial toys that seems to have always been with us, and I can well imagine that we did indeed get it in 1967. It had a whole slew of accessories, most of which were lost over the years, until the only two pieces we had are the Bowie knife and a buffalo headdress.

[The Stuff Which We Do Not Have]

Our Geronimo was even missing one of his hands; they popped on and off quite easily. One day Susan came back from a garage sale with another Geronimo. It had only had one hand as well; oddly enough, the same hand that was missing from ours! Since it was in better shape, we transplanted the old hand onto the ‘new’ Geronimo, and finally we had a complete Geronimo again. This is the one shown.

The Professor from McDonaldland (1976, Remco) was another gift (from Susan again, I believe). We never had any of these at the time, but everybody knows this is the kind of character that would appeal to me. The Professor would show Ronald various of his inventions; from his clothes I imagine he had something to do with brushing after meals, as well. It is rather like a MEGO in construction. These McDonaldland figures were re-issued not too long ago, but this one seems to be original.

In 2007, Diamond Select began another re-issue, this time of the classic Star Trek MEGOs from 1974. While my resources at the time could not fulfill my wishes of getting the lot, I could strain my finances enough to buy the Andorian, an alien we had never had back in the day. Other such alien figures followed, but this is the only one of the lot that I got.

I have loved B-9, the Robot (or Ro-butt, as the young Will Robinson often called him) from Lost in Space since I was a small boy myself. (“You really want a robot for a friend?” “Yeah, ever since I was six.” – Futurama) I always wanted a toy of him, but it had to be an accurate portrayal. So I was delighted when, in 1997, Trendmasters came out with these two different scale replicas. Both had flashing lights and recorded phrases and noises; the big one also raises and lowers its ‘bubble’ and came with a ray gun.

The foot-tall figure of the squid-like Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (2006) is the only one in the batch to which I have no childhood memories attached. It, too, was a present.