1950's - 1960's TOY COMMERCIALS

It's a Wham-O Wednesday in The Dungeon, and what I've got for you tonight are some shots from toy commercials from the 1950's and 60's! 

 The Wham-O Company was started in 1948 by Rich Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin, selling slingshots by mail order! They called it Wham-O, because that's the sound the slingshot made! It's hard to believe that the same company that would bring the world the Frisbee, the Hula Hoop, the Slip 'N Slide, the Super Ball, and Silly String would sell in 1982 for a mere 12 million dollars. That's gotta be worth at least 97 gazillion dollars these days!

 Train sets used to be THE big thing! Santa brought me a set one year that looked an awful lot like a set my older cousin used to have. I used to use the tracks for marble races! Model train societies still exist today! You might be surprised, there's probably one in your town!

The Halloween/Christmas crossover produced toys like this!

 Think big kids! From the modest beginnings of things like Creepy Crawlers, the Mattel Company is worth somewhere around 8.5 Billion today!

 On October 1, 1961, New York Yankee Roger Maris becomes the first-ever major-league baseball player to hit more than 60 home runs in a single season, breaking Babe Ruth's record set in 1927!!

Hell Yeah you're gonna wanna play his game!!

 

 Or you could get an authentic Steve Canyon Jet Helmet for $2.98!

This is kind of deceiving, since you'd have to buy 4 Mr. Machines to get this whole effect!

The chemistry sets were never as cool as they seemed like they were gonna be, although I did like making the little crystals from sodium silicate!

And then there were the guns! I'm not pro or anti gun, but I did grow up with gun toys, and I've yet to kill anybody! The war had just gotten over, it was a different time and a different attitude!

The Roy Rogers "Quick Shooter Hat" was right out of a James Bond movie!

The whole concept of a toy gun is pretty bizarre if you stare it right in the face, but what are you gonna do? That's just the way it was!

The fact of the matter is that if kids don't have toy guns, they'll find a stick and use it as a fake gun, and if they can't find a stick, they use their hands and fingers! It's really just up to the parents to keep their kid's heads screwed on straight!

The Skyhawk was a gas-powered model airplane! Pretty cool!

I never thought about it until right now, but it does really seem like these eras of toys were dominated by boy's interests! If it wasn't dolls, girls got lots of clothes, jacks, and fingernail polish!

 Mixed messages no doubt!

 So you could either have three bombshell Barbies, or one spoiled Shirley Temple for the same price! I know which way the boys would go, but unfortunately, that wasn't the marketplace !

Today's kids would not be impressed by this concept!

 

Silly Putty, now that was the kind of toy that both boys and girls could enjoy! That stuff was awesome! I always liked the "press it on a newspaper and pull off the ink image trick" the best!

 Batteries not included?
What kind of a rip-off is that? I'm glad that's an idea that's not as prevalent as it used to be!

7 DAYS Of TABONGA! X-MAS MONSTER CHUCKLES

There are seven days left 'til Christmas, so, here are seven Tabonga! Chuckles for you to have a few laffs slipping and sliding on some banana peels...

Now, I'll just let the monsters do all the yakking from here...

Okay then, there you have it, some monster laffs to count down the days 'til Christmas! Hope you enjoyed them, I like the eggnog joke the best. Tune in Wednesday for more X-Mas Cargo... Oh yeah, and, Happy New Year!

MAGIC CHRISTMAS TREE - "The Enchanting Story Of The True Meaning Of Christmas" (1964)

 Thanx to KD's suggestion, I've got a Super-Duper Saturday X-Mas Special for you tonight, a veritable "Holiday Adventure that dazzles your eyes...fills you with fun!"

 "Magic Christmas Tree" is like the "Manos" of Christmas movies!

It's slow, strange, odd, and weird, sometimes all at the same time!

 I seriously thought something was screwy when "Magic Christmas Tree" started off as a Halloween flick!

 This witch wants the little neighbor boy to climb a tree to save her cat!

 He does it, but falls and hits his head, and when he awakes, it's in living colour!

In gratitude, the witch gives the little boy a magic ring!

 Flash forward to Thanksgiving day and the prefect nuclear family!

 Well, you just have to love this happy couple, the parents of the kid with the magic ring! The husband is Dick Parish, who was also the Director! His wife is darling Darlene Lohnes! These were the only two acting roles these two ever had! Hard to imagine!

 There is a scene of the husband guy trying to start his lawnmower that apparently needs a tuneup that goes on for at least five minutes! Also a large portion of the sound is overdubbed with all kinds of over the top sound effects!

And his wife is yakking on the phone to her girlfriend the whole time with the loud lawnmower in the background!

 Out of nowhere, a Christmas tree has sprung up in their back yard! (Blame the kid!)

 There are a gazillion images you could find, but this freakin' looks like my childhood Christmas!

Mom and Dad go out, and the kid has some quiet time with the tree, which can now talk! 

The boy was played by Chris Kroesen in his solo acting venture! Thus far, I would have sworn this movie was made in Texas, but it was actually filmed in La Verne, California!

The tree is magic and transports itself into the living room, and then decorates itself, and I think that the tree at this point is looking like a festive version of "The Beast From Haunted Cave!"

Good ole T-Bird gas, probably about twenty cents a gallon!

"The Magic Christmas Tree" gives the boy three wishes, one of which is to have magic powers for an hour! At that point, the movie turns into the Keystone Kops, and about ten minutes of the kid making vehicles run off with no driver!  It would be hilarious if it was funny, but it's not!

Bummer time! The kid uses his second wish to have Santa Claus all to himself! And that's the story of how one little bastard in 1964 tried to ruin Christmas for  the whole entire stinking world! 

Santa is stuck in the chair, and can't believe what has happened to him!

Robert 'Big Buck' Maffei is only one of two actors in this film with any other credits! The other one being stuntman Willard W. Willingham! Here Robert is a guy named Greed, who lets the kid know what's up! At 7'1" Robert also had roles in "Star Trek," and "Lost In Space" as a creature and a cyclops! His last role was in Cheech and Chong's "Nice Dreams!" Big guys go down hard sometimes! Robert passed away at 52 in 1982!

Spoiler Alert: The kid uses his last wish to make the other two wishes not happen, and wakes up, and it was all only a dream!!! Or.......Was it??

"Magic Christmas Tree" is one big gigantic mess, but I'm sure it's just as good as "The Christmas Story," a movie that, to this day, I've never been able to sit through, and if you don't believe me, then go ahead and waste an hour or your life, because you can watch it for FREE, right

HERE!!!

And while you're there, do the right thing in the holiday spirit, and make a donation, even if it's only a couple of bucks, because a lot of what I've been able to bring to you here wouldn't have been possible without them!

SOME SANTO MEXICAN LOBBY CARD STOCKING STUFFERS

Well, I was trying to make some Tabonga Chuckles, but, Photoshop was totally screwing with me and I don't have time to try and figure out what's wrong, so, here's my Plan 9 for today's post!.. That's right, Santo and some of the many villains he clobbered throughout the years!

In SANTO CONTRA EL ESTRANGULADOR, our hero battles an insane strangler that's after his friends. What's up with those musical notes on the poster? Well, watch the flick and find out!

SANTO CONTRA LAS MUJERES VAMPIRO has a professor recruiting Santo to protect his daughter from vampires intent on kidnapping her and marrying her to the devil!

In SANTO Y BLUE DEMON CONTRA DRACULA Y EL HOMBRE LOBO, our heroes tangle with good old Dracula and his wolfman backup, lots of insane fun here!

SANTO CONTRA LA HIJA DE FRANKESTEIN is another wild movie, a mad female scientist needs Santo's blood for a youth serum, and she has Frankenstein's reliable monster to help her get it!

In SANTO Y BLUE DEMON CONTRA LOS MONSTRUOS, our wrestling buddies battle a mad doctor and his army of reanimated monsters, in order to save the world from the madman's insane invasion... I love it, my best monster pal, OOK!, is there on the right side of the poster!

Our hero is back in SANTO EN LA VENGANZA DE LAS MUJERES VAMPIRO for another 12 rounds of brutal action as he once again kicks ass and takes no vampire names!

It's even more vampires in SANTO EN EL TESORO DRACULA. This time, Santo invents a time machine (what the Hell!) and uses it to find the hidden location of Drácula's treasure, and must hunt down the bloody vampire and stomp him a goodern!

Love this poster for SANTO EN EL HOTEL DE LA MUERTE!.. Of course, there's mystery, murder and suspense in the creepy old Hotel Of Death! Oh, and hot chicks in their see-thru nighties!

Wolf (NEUTRON) Ruvinskis also stars as the head Martian in SANTO EN LA INVASION DE LOS MARCIANOS. You got it, the Martians come to Earth to try and take it over, Santo foils them!

Our last card is for SANTO CONTRA LOS ZOMBIES. This time, Santo battles an evil scientist who has created a race of zombies to take over Mexico! Tune in again tomorrow for more wild 'n' weird Dungeon X-Mas Cargo!