Posted by Dan Greenfield on Dec 15, 2025
Dig These 13 Eye-Poppin’ Classic POPEYE Toys
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. —...
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