Posted By Dan Greenfield on Nov 28, 2025 | 1 comment

TOYHEM 2025 kicks off with the ultimate list for Santa in the ’70s and ’80s…

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Welcome to TOYHEM! For the seventh straight holiday season, we’re bringing you a series of features and columns celebrating the toys of our youth, which often made for the best memories this time of year. Click here to check out the complete index of stories — and have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah and Happy Holidays! — Dan

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BY CHRIS FRANKLIN

For me, the annual arrival of the Sears Christmas Wish Book catalogue was more anticipated than the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or the annual rebroadcast of any Rankin/Bass holiday special. As I seem to recall they usually were released sometime in September and truly announced the arrival of the holiday season. Like Ralphie Parker checking the mailbox for his Little Orphan Annie decoder pin in A Christmas Story, I eagerly awaited that thick tome full of merchandise to come home with my Mom.

Our small Kentucky town didn’t have much in the way of general retail shops. Sure, we had Howard’s Brandiscount and Ben Franklin five and dime, with its wondrous downstairs Toy Land department, but our Sears was only a catalog store, where you could order and pick up catalog items. So, the Wish Book was our internet in many ways, opening up a world of clothes (yuck!), household knick knacks, electronics, and of course… toys! Toys which, with effective and manipulative television commercials, had already imprinted the foremost obsession on my trouble-free kid mind.

Kenner’s great Six Million Dollar Man line deserved a mention! All catalogue images courtesy of christmas.musetechnical.com.

When the fabled tome arrived, I would set about circling everything I’d love to have for birthday and Christmas (my birthday is only 13 days before). Mostly the bigger ticket items, not the usual impulse buys my Mom would pick up, rewarding me for being good while we ran errands, or in later years I bought myself with lawn mowing money. Mom would then tell me to be a bit more selective, putting stars beside the things I REALLY wanted. Of course this was then put into my letter to Santa Claus, or conveyed to him or one of his helpers at an in-store visit/photo op.

I still have my childhood Batman and Robin sleeping bag seen here. Cindy has the yellow version of the Wonder Woman bag. We both want the Super Jrs!

Thanks to the internet, I have been able to revisit many of those pages that sparked my imagination. Folks like my friend Brian Heiler at PlaidStallions.com have scanned and shared those pages with the world. I recently came across a site called Catalogs & Wishbooks at christmas.musetechnical.com, which, as you can imagine, is just that… pretty much every major department store catalog from 1930 to 2017. Looking at those toy-centric pages again gave me insight into the purchases my parents made. It also made me wonder what exactly I had asked for then, and as a collector knowing what I know today, what I would ask for now. Since my interests skew to action figures traditionally aimed at boys, I thought I’d ask my wife and podcasting partner Cindy to share her wants as well, then and now.

Cindy had a hard time picking between merchandise from the Annie movie and Strawberry Shortcake, so why not give her a little love here?

So, get your imaginary pen ready as we travel back to my first 13 years of 1974 to 1987, and spotlight some of the best toys a kid could ever find under their Christmas tree:

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1974

G.I. Joe Adventure Team: Recovery of the Lost Mummy (Hasbro)

Image courtesy of yojoe.com

As I said, I was less than two weeks old when Christmas hit in 1974, but even then, I think this G.I. Joe Adventure Team set would have appealed to me! This Sears exclusive set essentially combines The Secret of the Mummy’s Tomb playset with the Adventure Team Helicopter in one beautifully designed box.

Yes, the mummy is tiny, but maybe it’s a young pharaoh, like King Tut?  You really can’t go wrong with any of the Adventure Team items on this page, but getting two iconic vehicles, PLUS a mummy is a great deal. The original 12-inch Joe was gone by the time I was old enough to play with him, but I’ve always admired him from afar.

Cindy’s Pick, 1974: Barbie Karosel Kitchen

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1975

Star Trek Action Figures and Enterprise Playset (Mego)

Image courtesy of collectingtrek.ca

I know what you’re thinking: “Chris, there’s Mego Batman stuff on the same page!” Don’t worry, we’ll get to that in a couple of years! I was a late bloomer when it came to Star Trek… well if you consider 6 years old late. My dad kept trying to get me to watch it for years. I knew Leonard Nimoy from In Search Of before I knew he was Spock!

I did receive a Mego Spock figure from a neighbor a few Christmases after this, but that was the only Mego Trek figure I owned as a child. I later customized him into a Sub-Mariner figure! By the time I got into Trek, Mego’s supply had finally run out. I own the figures today, and the likeness of William Shatner has never been matched in my opinion. But somehow, I have never gotten an Enterprise playset, despite it being nearly as ubiquitous as the Batcave above it, and the fact that it was recently reproduced by EMCE and Diamond Select Toys. That transporter toy gimmick is still amazingly effective!

Cindy’s Pick, 1975: Walt Disney World Talking Phone

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1976

Pedal-Powered Batmobile and Batcycle (Empire)

Not sure if this is the year I received these, but I owned these sweet rides in my youth. The Batcycle was great, with its molded Bat-face on the front, but the Batmobile? Oh man, such a beautiful toy. The design was unique, although I always thought it looked a bit like the Mike Nasser version from DC Special Series #15, but that came later. That design was also used in a Whitman/Golden coloring book story “Tent Full of Trouble” around this time!

The Batmobile was one of my favorite possessions as a young kid. Sadly, much like the mocking parody of “Jingle Bells,” it lost a wheel, and my dad threw it away. I gave him nothing but grief over that for years, so in the early days of eBay, Cindy tracked one down and my parents helped pay for it! I own it and the Batcycle again today. Neither are mint, but it’s nice to have them again.

Cindy’s Pick, 1976: Super Babies Dolls

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1977

World’s Greatest Super-Heroes (Mego)

My Mego Batcave and all the vintage and modern Mego Bat-collection around it!

THIS is why I waited to cover the Mego Batman toys. I’m pretty sure this is the year I received the Batcave and Batmobile, and quite possibly the Spider-Car as well. I already had the hero figures, and unfortunately never owned any of the 8-inch villains as a kid. It would be impossible to calculate the number of hours I spent sending the Batmobile crashing through the secret entrance of the Batcave door. By the time the vinyl covered cardboard had finally broken down beyond saving, the door was hanging on by a prayer.

I think this page also explains why my overly indulgent Mom never bought me the Wayne Foundation (which I have never owned to this day). It was because I got the Batcave the same year, the only year Sears offered the Wayne Foundation in their Christmas catalog. Just like the Caped Crusader, I can solve mysteries too! The Wayne Foundation remains a holy grail for me, but the price on a complete one would make even Bruce Wayne flinch.

Cindy’s Pick, 1977: Lite Brite

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1978

Star Wars Cantina Adventure Set (Kenner)

Image courtesy of actionfigure411.com

I think I am required by law to pick a Star Wars toy for this year. We all know the story: Kenner had the license, the movie exploded in popularity beyond anyone’s wildest imagination, but they didn’t have product ready for Christmas of 1977. By 1978 they were up and running, and the worlds of action figures and movie merchandising were forever changed.

Image courtesy of vintagetoyemporium.com

Everything on this page is a winner, but with the hindsight of the collector’s market, you’d probably be best advised to pick up the version of the Cantina Adventure Set exclusive to Sears. This was the only way to get the ultra-rare “blue Snaggletooth” figure. Kenner was just going on stills from the film, and had no idea Snaggletooth was a diminutive character, so they initially made him tall, and put him in KISS boots. Later, a more accurate version was released as a regular, carded figure. Short of a Rocket-Firing Boba Fett, it’s one of the holy grails in the Star Wars line.

Cindy’s Pick, 1978: Fashion Plates

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1979

The Sears Wish Book wasn’t just full of toys for kids, but also clothes and household items. And what’s more 70s than the bean bag chair? There’s a lot to love for 13th Dimension readers on this page. The iconic images of Superman by Murphy Anderson and Batman by Anderson and Carmine Infantino. But the one I had, and would LOVE to own again, is the Super Friends model. Not only do you get the core five SF members (Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and Robin, and Aquaman) you get Flash, Green Lantern, AND Green Arrow, who only appeared on the animated series once. But the real kicker? Batgirl! The Dominoed Daredoll NEVER appeared in any incarnation of the long running Hanna-Barbera series, yet here she is. Although it is a bit rude that Aquaman is photobombing the Batman Family grouping there.

Cindy’s Pick,1979: Mego 12-inch Wonder Woman

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1980

The Lone Ranger Rider and Horse Sets (Gabriel)

Image courtesy of PlaidStallions.com

Image courtesy of PlaidStallions.com

Gabriel’s expansive 9.5-inch Lone Ranger line had been featured in nearly every catalog we’ve covered but was winding down by this point. These were the only two sets left in production, with the company waiting for the big-screen arrival of The Legend of the Lone Ranger film the following year. That movie would spawn a very well-done set of 3.75-inch scaled figures. Unfortunately, the movie bombed. That didn’t deter my excitement of getting these larger figures from my grandparents for Christmas in either ’80 or ’81, however!

I have talked about these figures before here on 13th Dimension, so I won’t brush their mane too much here. Needless to say, they were some of the best made action-figures of their era, with an attention to detail unmatched. With the Clayton Moore TV series still airing, and the Filmation cartoon also in production, it was a great time to be a Lone Ranger fan!

Cindy’s Pick, 1980: Barbie Dream House

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1981

Mini-Monsters Playcase (Remco)

Image courtesy of k.mandarake.co.jp

This entire page is full of win. There’s the Empire Strikes Back figures, continuing Star Wars’ reign as the dominant action figure line of the time. There were the nicely done Clash of the Titans figures by Mattel, based on the Ray Harryhausen film. Gabriel’s Legend of the Lone Ranger line I mentioned earlier, and Mego’s Dukes of Hazzard gift set, complete with the real star of the show, the gravity-defying General Lee.

But for me the star is the Remco Mini-Monsters line, and in particular, that wonderful haunted house/laboratory playset, with all its spooky features. As mentioned here, I didn’t own these a kid, but my friend up the street did, and we had a lot of fun with them. Since everything was going to 3.75-inch scale, you could have Dracula terrorize the Boars’ Nest in Hazzard County, or Frankenstein battle your Mego Pocket Superman!

Cindy’s Pick, 1981: Baby Crawl Around

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1982

Masters of the Universe Castle Grayskull (Mattel)

Image courtesy of battleramblog.com

In a previous TOYHEM article, I went into detail about how Christmas of 1982 was the year I discovered Masters of the Universe, which dominated my kid brain for the next three or so years. With the superheroes out of sight for a bit, He-Man and his cast of characters became my primary toy focus from ages 8 to 10 at least.

I still have the very same He-Man and Battle Cat (from the gift set mentioned here), Skeletor and Castle Grayskull I received all those Christmases ago. For my money, Grayskull is one of the greatest toy playsets of all time, and certainly one of the most iconic. Finding them under the tree that morning (in that intimidating, scary packaging) is a pretty clear memory, and a very happy one I cherish.

Cindy’s Pick, 1982: Strawberry Shortcake (“All of it!”)

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1983

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Skystriker XP-14F (Hasbro)

Image courtesy of 3djoes.com

The year prior, Hasbro reintroduced G.I. Joe as a daring, highly-trained special missions force… and at the now-standard 3.75-inch size. The blitz for this line was real with a huge rollout of merchandise, a Marvel Comics tie-in, and commercials to promote both the toys and the comics on TV! I was never much of an “army guy” so I just watched from afar these first few years. Next year the first television mini-series produced by Sunbow Productions and Marvel Productions would finally hook me, and I’d be all in. I even saved up the money the following summer to buy the Skystriker jet seen on this page. G.I. Joe was a community effort between me and my friends. We’d all ask for or purchase things the others didn’t have and then get together and have massive battles and ongoing storylines of our own.

One thing NONE of us ever got was offered two years later: The legendary U.S.S. Flagg aircraft carrier play set. It was 7 ½ feet long! As big as a kid’s bed! Only in the decade of excess could such a huge toy be marketed squarely at kids like this. In 1986, the Flagg was marked down at our local Walmart to $40. I had that amount in hand from mowing lawns. I almost had it in our cart, when my Mom uncharacteristically talked me out of it. “Where would you put it?” she said. One of my biggest toy regrets of all time! When I see it at toy shows today, going for thousands of dollars, I can’t help but think what could have been…

Cindy’s Pick, 1983: Cabbage Patch Kids

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1984

Super Powers Collection Hall of Justice (Kenner)

For my money, the greatest superhero toy line of all time (sorry Mego, I still love you), the Super Powers Collection from Kenner was everything my 9-10-year-old self ever wanted. I have waxed nostalgic about it here on 13th Dimension several times, but it bears repeating. I had received the best-of-all-time Batmobile randomly as a gift in the fall, AFTER the Wishbook had arrived. My hopes were high that either my parents or Santa would come through with my next big want — the Hall of Justice. I never knew Mego had made one, and years of watching the Super Friends, and living near its real-life inspiration, Cincinnati’s Union Terminal building, made this a must have.

I didn’t have to wait long. I actually received the Hall of Justice as the big present for my 10th birthday. As mentioned in that previous article, I still have vivid memories of assembling it while watching a TV rerun of my personal favorite Christmas movie, 1951’s A Christmas Carol starring Alistair Sim. By the time Christmas was over, I had the entire first wave of Super Powers, which was essentially the pillars of the DC Universe in plastic form. 1984 was also the year my family got a microwave, cable TV, and our first VCR. Probably the most magical year of my childhood.

Cindy’s Pick, 1984: Care Bears

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1985

Transformers Optimus Prime (Hasbro)

Hasbro’s Transformers had hit big in 1984, and I was in from the beginning. I was one of those rare kids who also bought plenty of the competitor brand, Go-Bots by Tonka. Both featured robots who transformed mainly into vehicles, and both were based on toys released in Japan by companies like Takara (Transformers) and Popy/Bandai (Go-Bots).

Transformers had the better media tie-ins, though. Like G.I. Joe before them, they had a Marvel Comic, and a Marvel/Sunbow animated series. The leader of the heroic Autobots was named Optimus Prime by no less than comic legend Denny O’Neil. Prime was perhaps the most noble character ever depicted on a kid’s cartoon, both wise man and reluctant warrior, voiced perfectly on the animated series by Peter Cullen. I actually received Prime as another random gift, this time no doubt bought from our local Ben Franklin store. The toy was somewhat limited in articulation, but the play value was still there with the trailer and all the features inside, and it looked close enough to the cartoon for me to let my imagination pick up the slack.

I was also one of those kids traumatized at the death of Optimus Prime in the theatrically released Transformers: The Movie in 1986. Hasbro, using the film to refresh the toy line by killing off out-of-production toys, underestimated how much Prime and the other Autobots murdered on screen had come to mean to my generation. The backlash required a hasty re-edit of the forthcoming G.I. Joe: The Movie, to save field leader Duke from a similar fate.

Cindy’s Pick, 1985: My Buddy

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1986

M.A.S.K. Rhino (Kenner)

Image courtesy of maskforce.com

M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) was the last toy line I really invested in before I gave up “playing” with toys. Essentially combining elements of G.I. Joe’s special mission team with changing vehicles like the Transformers, M.A.S.K. benefitted from a DC Comics tie-in series, and a well-done animated show by DIC, with a REALLY catchy theme song.

At only 2.75 inches, the figures were smaller than the standard of the day, but this allowed the vehicles to be the real star of the line. I got all of Series 1   in 1985, including the Thunderhawk Camaro for my birthday, and Rhino rig for Christmas. In 1986 I added most of Series 2. I do remember specifically getting the motorized Volcano van for Christmas that year, with its automatic transformations, and packed with another variation of the heroic leader, Matt Trakker. After this, the animated series and toy line shifted to a racing theme, and suddenly the evil V.E.N.O.M. agents were just rival drivers. They completely lost me there, but I was being told I was aging out of toys anyway.

Cindy’s Pick, 1986: She-Ra, Princess of Power

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1987

Nintendo Entertainment System (Nintendo)

If a boy is told he’s too old for action figures, what’s he to do? Move over to video games! My family got an Atari 2600 in 1980 or ’81, but I don’t think it came from Sears, which was busy pushing their “me too” Sears Arcade, which was an Atari knock-off. The Nintendo as we called it, or NES, was a whole new level of technological sophistication, let me tell you! 8-bit graphics! As quaint as it seems now, the visual quality and gameplay were a huge leap forward from the simple Atari system we had before.

I received the console and Zapper gun, along with Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. games. From this page I also owned Excitebike (a favorite of mine at our local pizzeria), Metroid (one of the first games I ever beat, revealing the hero to be >GASP!< a girl!) and The Legend of Zelda, my favorite NES game, but also the most frustrating. There must have been something wrong with my cartridge, because my progress kept getting lost, despite the hours I would spend trying to save the titular princess! Nintendo games would be my primary gift of choice for the next two years, until a movie about a certain Dark Knight came along in 1989, and I entered the realm of toy collector!

Cindy’s Pick, 1987: Popples

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MORE

— The Complete TOYHEM INDEX of Stories and Features. Click here.

— The Far Out LINCOLN MONSTERS Campaign Is in the Final Stretch — How to Get Yours. Click here.

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13th Dimension contributor CHRIS FRANKLIN is a graphic designer, illustrator, writer, and podcaster, who co-hosts and produces several shows on the Fire and Water Podcast Network, including Superman Movie Minute. Check out his illustrative and design work at chrisfranklincreative.com.