TOYHEM! gives you what you really want for the holidays… — 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! — Over the years, I’ve swooned every time a company dips into the Filmation DC Comics cartoons for inspiration. Figures Toys Company gave us a few Batman figures some years ago, and then, more recently, McFarlane Toys gave us a wave based on the 1977 New Adventures of Batman: Well, the other day, I was scrolling through Facebook and I saw that Super Friends expert Will Rodgers posted this lineup of imaginary McFarlane Filmation DC action figures, with the comment that he didn’t know who created it: The resolution wasn’t great and so I did some digging and found a treasure trove of higher-res images of each set, which were posted to the Toy News International forums in March 2024, by someone known only as “Ben”: “I recently purchased the complete line of McFarlane Toys figures based on the 1977 ‘New Adventures of Batman’ in the style of the Filmation animated series,” Ben wrote. “My only mild disappointment is that I preferred that they would have been based on the original 1968 version, that the hips would also have had sideway joints for better articulation and that the capes would have been plastic instead of cloth. “However, this retro line, based on the vintage DC Filmation cartoons that I grew up with, inspired me to create a set of ‘wish list’ renditions of more DC characters in the same style from the other series, such as the 1966 ‘New Adventures of Superman,’ the 1967 ‘Aquaman’ (with Justice League and Teen Titans), and the 1968 ‘Batman with Robin, the Boy Wonder’ series. I hope folks like them and who knows? If McFarlane Toys sees this, perhaps they’ll make them a reality!” Ben — and if you’re reading us, tell us who you are in the comments — is 100 percent on the money. While the 1977 Filmation Batman series is fine, it’s the 1968 The Adventures of Batman that’s far superior. And, while I know this...
MORRISON MONDAYS meets TOYHEM — again! By BILL MORRISON Well blow me down! December is the birth month of Elzie Crisler Segar, the creator of Popeye the Sailor! Over the decades, Segar’s comic strip, Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye, along with the Fleischer brothers’ (and later, Famous Studios’) cartoons, generated an incalculable number of laughs, and possibly an equally multitudinous amount of toys. I was introduced to the one-eyed sailor through Popeye and His Pals, a local TV show from Windsor, Ontario, that we picked up across the Detroit River in the Motor City. The show was emceed by two sailor-themed kiddie show hosts, Captain Jolly on weekdays, and Poopdeck Paul on the weekends. I was plopped down in front of the TV set pretty much every day to watch that show, and it made me an avid Popeye fan, so naturally, Popeye toys were a part of my childhood. But it was as a young professional artist that I began collecting Popeye toys and other merchandise, due to a more serious interest in the Fleischer cartoons, and to reading the early comic strips in a series of books published by Fantagraphics. My accumulation of Popeye stuff has always competed for attention with my Batman collection, so it’s modest at best. But since December is not only Segar’s birth month (he was born Dec. 8, 1894) but also the annual TOYHEM! celebration here at 13th Dimension, I thought it would be fun to show 13 FAVORITE POPEYE TOYS from my collection! — This rubber jointed Popeye doll was made by Cameo in the 1950s. I’m still on the hunt for the missing pipe! — In the 1960s Soaky bubble bath always made bath time fun. A few decades ago, I had a huge collection of Soaky bottles featuring just about every cartoon character you can imagine, from Huckleberry Hound to Jiminy Cricket. That collection took up a lot of space, so I ended up selling most of it. But of course, along with Batman, Robin, Superman, and the Universal Monsters, I kept this wonderfully off-model Popeye bottle. — Before Spotify and iTunes, and even before Walkmans, kids took their music with them via transistor AM radios. This cool Popeye radio, complete with carry strap and wooden pipe, was made in the swingin’ ’70s by Philgee International in Hong Kong. —...
AN ANNIVERSARY SALUTE: As Marvel is wont to say… What If?
From pencil cases to book covers to lunchboxes, let’s go shopping in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s!
A swingin’ review and spectacular gallery with 13 PHOTOS…
