Bone Age (Toyline)

Manufactured by Kenner

Released in 1987

Via Virtual Toy Chest and Duke Nostalgia

 

Bone Age was a Kenner toyline that should've been more popular. The toyline was simple, cavemen fighting each other using dinosaur bones that transformed, fired weapons, and acted as vehicles. 

Not much info is available for these guys but Virtual Toy Chest writes, "With Bone Age, Kenner really tried to do something different to help turn things around. They combined a building toy with an action figure line. The basic elements of the series were dinosaur bones which you could assemble into all sorts of creatures and vehicles. The toys are quite large. Unfortunately, the packages just do not convey the size and weight of these toys. I am sure that the series would have benefited from in store displays. In fact, the marketing of the series was almost nonexistent. Unlike most toy series from the 80s, Bone Age did not have a cartoon or comic. Due to this and many other circumstances the line did not fare very well. It was cancelled before a second series of dinosaurs were released."

 

Boglins (Toyline)

Distributed by Mattel (US)

Manufactured by Action GT and Ideal (and other unnamed companies)

Released in 1987
Via X-Entertainment

Wikipedia Entry

I loved puppets and as a kid I became very fascinated with Boglins.

Boglins were little latex puppets designed as scary and gross creatures. According to Wikipedia, "Generally, the Boglin puppet was aimed at small children (boys in particular) from eight to eleven, as they were popularly used for frightening others, but have become valuable collectibles in recent years. They were characterized by their unique packaging (a cardboard box with a plastic "cage" entrance) and by movable eyes and mouth."

 

Boglins were a surefire hit. Even Kellogg's cereal got in on the action.

 

In 1991, Mattel introduced Mini Boglins. A tiny version of the larger puppets that were like action figures and were non-poseable.

 

 

The many types of Boglins are as follows (some may have been released in 1990 or later) -

• Boglins (Boglinus humungus): These toys were large and would fit comfortably on the hand. They were sold in boxes resembling crates with a jail-like front. There were three varieties: Drool, Dwork and Vlobb. [On the 1987 UK box, these are Plunk, Dwork, and Flurp]

• Small Boglins (Boglinus minimus):  Slightly smaller than regular Boglins, resulting in reduced freedom of motion and simpler features. The varieties were Splat, Blap, Bonk, Doink, Klang, Squidge, and Squit in the UK and Squidge, Shlump, Shlurp, Sponk, Squawk and Squeel in the USA.

• Soggy Boglins (Boglinus liquidious):  Puppets in the shapes of mutated animals. They were slightly smaller than regular Boglins and there were three varieties: Snish the Fish, which squirted water; Slogg the Frog, which had a sticky tongue; and Slobster the Lobster, which had a snapping claw. Soggy Boglins were also marketed under the name 'Aquatic Boglins'.

• Baby Boglins: Finger-sized Boglins with fixed facial expressions and googly eyes which were sold in egg-shaped boxes.

• Halloween Boglins: These were painted in Halloween forms. There were two varieties: Blobkin which looked like a pumpkin and Bog o' Bones which resembled a skeleton.

• Acrobat Boglins: Made of a flexible, sticky material which allowed them to be thrown at walls and slowly 'crawl' down them, Action Boglins could be stretched and knotted and would return to their original shape. They were roughly the size of baby boglins and were sold in egg-shaped boxes but had no finger hole and very little face detail. Acrobat boglins are difficult for collectors to preserve due to the material from which they were made, which collects dust and particles.

• Bash 'em Boglins: Highly detailed Boglins with cartoon-like features and detachable body parts. There were two varieties: Splat and Swish.

• Action Boglins: Larger than Baby Boglins, but lay on their stomachs with full body length. They performed actions when squeezed, sticking their tongues or eyeballs out or squirting water from their mouths.

• Baby Squirt Boglins: Semi-solid PVC Boglins with detailed facial features which could squirt water when squeezed. There were three varieties modeled on Klang, Squit and Boink.

• Hairy Boglins: Plunk and Flurp Boglins with tufts of hair on their heads. The Plunk Boglin had red hair and the Flurp brown.

• Talking Boglins: Boglins which talked and made noises. They were released shortly after the original three.

• Glow Boglins: Medium Boglins which glowed in the dark. They were naturally white with green tints and were modelled on Klang and Doink.

• Ric Flair Boglins: Two Hairy Plunk and Flurp Boglins with grey rather than colored hair on their heads. (Why they're called "Ric Flair" Boglins is unknown)
  

• Batty Boglins: Mattel planned to release "Nite Creature! Boglins" in 1989, but the winged creatures were never released in the United States. There were three varieties: Drak, Ooky, and Screech.

Hundreds of Classic NES Games in Your Browser

For those of you that don't know, Nintendo8.com has a gargantuan list of NES games playable right in your browser. The site uses the vNES emulator and runs it through Flash to give ya what your heart desires, games from the 80's! So far, the list of games is pretty extensive (including Japanese games), requires no sign up, and they can be played from your keyboard. So long productivity!

Via Retro Thing

BlackStar (Toyline)

Manufactured by Galoob
Released in 1983
Via In The 80s, Action Figure Archive, and Virtual Toy Chest
Wikipedia Entry for cartoon series

BlackStar was a 1981 cartoon series by Filmation (makers of the He-Man and The Masters of the Universe cartoon series) that predated He-Man and followed Thundarr the Barbarian.  Action Figure Archive tells us of the series hero, "John Blackstar was an astronaut who flew through a black hole, crashed and was stranded on the planet Sagar."

The toyline was created by Galoob, however, the toys weren't released until 1983 after the cartoon series was cancelled. Wikipedia says, "The first series was re-released alongside the second and third series of figures with "laser light" stone-sparking action. Evil characters were packaged with demons while good characters were packaged with Trobbits. Trobbits were also packaged individually with Rif, Terra and Gossamer being the tougher ones to find. Warlock the dragon and the Space Ship were each released in two color variations. Also released were Triton, Kadray's flying bull, the Trobbit Wind Machine and Battle Wagon. The Ice Castle was constructed with very thin plastic, making it very fragile."

 

 

 

Watch the BlackStar toy commercial here.

Big Trak (bigtrak) (Vehicle Toyline)

Manufactured by Milton Bradley (under Milton Bradley Electronics)
Released in November 1979
Original Manufacturer Retail Price: $43.00, Dump Trailer $12.00
Via BIGTRAK Homepage, In The 80s, Big Eyed Monster, and Skooldays
Wikipedia Entry

The Big Trak was apparently a feat of modern toy electronics. It was an advanced, programmable robot that happened to be a vehicle.

Wikipedia explains Big Trak as, "...a six-wheeled tank with a front-mounted blue photon beam headlamp, and a keypad on top. The toy could remember up to 16 commands which it then executed in sequence (such as "go forward 5 lengths", "pause", "turn 30 degrees right", "fire phaser" and so on. There was a "repeat" instruction allowing simple loops, but the language was not Turing complete, lacking branching instructions; the Big Trak also lacked any sort of sensor input other than the wheel sensors."

From the catalog: "Let Big Trak's electronic memory treat you to an absolutely spectacular performance. Just punch in your program of commands and watch Big Trak carry them out: moving forward, backward, left and right, up to 99 length units! Order Big Trak to picot into a sharp or wide-angled turn, full circle, or even beyond that. Big Trak can lurk silently before continuing on its course, and can fire either a single shot or a volley from its "photon" cannon. Send Big Trak out of the room, around furniture and other obstacles, and back again! Easy enough for kids to learn, but so much fun, even adults won't be able to resist. One 9 volt transistor and four 1.5 volt "D" size batteries."

Bug Eyed Monster says, "Big Trak's only accessory was the Big Trak Transport, a dump truck like attachment that could be dragged along behind it.

From the catalog: "Fascinating companion unit of Big Trak that automatically hooks up to Big Trak's electronic cicuitry. Watch Big Trak Transport haul loads and suddenly dump them on a pre programmed command. The Transport's sleek design offers great maneuverability and allows the unit to take turns and corners in stride. A great accessory to a great toy!" 

Short Big Trak Demo Video




The Commercial can be seen here.

Hot Wheels Bigfoot Crunch Arena (Playset)

Manufactured by Mattel
Released in 1989 (Commercial Trademark is 1991)
Via In The 80s



Bigfoot was huge in the 80's. "He" was the Hulk Hogan of monster trucks and, of course, had a lot of toy merchandising. This playset is remembered by In The 80s as a, "...set [that] came with Big Foot monster truck (although the truck was really small), cardboard piece with dirt graphics, and slots to install 6 crushable cars. The cars were red, and blue. They were made of some sort of soft plastic that could be remolded after being crushed, with all of the wrinkles still visible. They would tear up after constant crushing and remolding."

Beetlejuice (Kenner and Burger King Toys) (Toyline)

Manufactured by Kenner
Released in 1989
Via In The 80s

Beetlejuice was one of the most unique movies and one of my faves from the 80's. The Kenner line of toys based off the film were very detailed with several different types of characters, playsets, even vehicles. The Neighborhood Nasties line introduced new, cartoonier characters to the toyline.

 

Burger King also carried a cartoony, non-poseable line of the movie toys.  Here's a look at those.

Battleship, Electronic Battleship, and Electronic Talking Battleship

Manufactured by Milton Bradley
Released in 1943 (pen and paper version, original plastic board game release is not listed), 1977 Electronic Battleship, 1989 Electronic Talking Battleship
Wikipedia Entry

I probably don't need to tell you what Battleship is. Although two of its iterations were made before the 80's, Electronic Talking Battleship was released in 1989. Wikipedia explains the pen and paper version of Battleship, "...is played on four square grids, two for each player. The grids are typically square – usually 10 × 10 – and the individual squares in the grid are identified by letter and number. On one grid the player arranges ships and records the shots by the opponent. On the other grid the player records their own shots. Before play begins, each player arranges a number of ships secretly on the grid for that player. Each ship occupies a number of consecutive squares on the grid, arranged either horizontally or vertically. The number of squares for each ship is determined by the type of the ship. The ships cannot overlap (i.e., at most one ship can occupy any given square in the grid)."
That was basically the concept for the original plastic Battleship Board Game. For some reason, the original release of the plastic board game is nowhere to be found online.

Electronic Battleship was released in 1979 (1977 according to Board Game Geek). This used the same rules except that the board game was one piece with electronic lights and sounds.

At the end of the 80's, Milton Bradley released Electronic Talking Battleship. Guess what it did.

Battleship was also released as a  video game on the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum. A popular release was on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Wikipedia Entry for that is here

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More and more versions of this uberpopular classic have survived many versions styles and rip-offs over the years. Definitely an 80's staple.

Battle Beasts [Shadow Warriors] (Toyline)

Manufactured by Hasbro
Released in 1987
Via Flickr Site, Toy Archive, Nijirain.com (Italian), Beastformers.Com, Sylvain Heyser's Beastformers page
Wikipedia Entry

This is gonna be a big one. Hold on to your hats!
Battle Beasts were cool to me. I loved rediscovering a toy when I was a kid and I would by scores of these lil' guys from the dollar store.
Most of this post will be info I found at other sites cuz, weirdly enuff, there's a lot of information covering Battle Beasts.
 

Wikipedia looks to tell us Battle Beasts, " ...is a line of small 2" tall action figure toys, in the form of an anthropomorphised animal with body armor and a unique weapon. Several figures have their left hand replaced by a weapon of some kind. Battle Beasts were created by Takara of Japan in 1987. Tomy Co., Ltd., aka K.K. Takara-Tomy, still owns the worldwide rights to the property. The heyday for the toyline came during the period in which it was licensed to Hasbro for distribution outside of Japan when Hasbro marketed the toys in America and many other parts of the world. Although in the Japanese market Takara branded the toys as a spin-off of Transformers and even named the toys "BeastFormers," their tie-in to the Transformers universe was not part of the Hasbro story or marketing. As part of the Takara strategy, many of the Battle Beasts appeared in the episode "Rebellion on Planet Beast" of the Japanese Transformers cartoon series Transformers: The Headmasters."

 

 

 

Toy Archive says, "Battle Beasts were small 1" tall figures released by Hasbro in 1986. Each Beast had heat sensitive sticker on their chest. When rubbed, it would reveal if the Battle Beast was Fire, Wood or Water. Each Beast also carried their own weapon. Vehicles and playsets were also produced, as well as a large assortment of novelty items. Hasbro released more figures to create a total of 76 different Battle Beasts. Starting with a White Lion (#1) and ending with a Orangatang (#76). Following the Battle Beasts were the "Shadowbeasts" or "Laserbeasts" in Japan. The heat sensitive sticker was replaced by a orb that you can see into that would depict which clan the beast belonged to. The new Laser Beasts carried Guns that resembled the creature who held it. The entire new series of 36 Laser Beasts and new vehicles were mainly released in Japan. The lower numbered Lasers were produced in Europe, along with a few unique sleds. North America only received 10 of the new Lasers packaged in Shadowbeast packages." 

Oh, but there's so more! After the first 3 series, they switched it a bit. Wikipedia explains, "The fourth and final Series released was renamed Shadow Warriors, or Laser Beasts in Japan. The heat sensitive sticker was replaced by an orb that could be seen through, depicting which clan the Beast represented.
The Shadow Warriors had a new slogan on the American package that read Fire! Wood! Water!... Only the crystal shield will reveal their strength!. Shadow Warriors carried guns instead of the hand-to-hand weapons that the Battle Beasts had, and each gun resembled the creature which it belonged to."

Did I mention there are vehicles and bases? While I could never find any (nor the Shadow Warriors rebranded toys), I did recently see some Chariots for sale at a local flea market. Too bad I didn't have any Battle Beasts to stick in 'em. Wikipedia says, "A decent amount of vehicles were released throughout the line. For the Battle Beast line, three chariots and three bases were released that looked like animals, each came with one figure that was not unique to the vehicle. The chariots were able to hold up to three figures comfortably and each had its own name: Tearin' Tiger, which looked like a tiger, Big Horn which looked like a ram and Deer Stalker which looked like a deer. All the chariots had a pull-back motion that would spring the vehicle forward when it was released. The three bases were the Blazing Eagle, Shocking Shark and Wood Beetle. Each base had a unique symbol theme that matched the "Fire, Wood, Water" concept that the line was based on. Each base could hold several figures and had a jail-cell with which to hold captured Beasts."

 

Toy Checklist -

Series 1

1. Pirate Lion
2. Deer Stalker
3. Ferocious Tiger
4. Colonel Bird
5. Killer Carp
6. Triple Threat Snake
7. Horny Toad
8. Sledgehammer Elephant
9. Rocky Rhino
10. Roamin' Buffalo
11. Grizzly Bear
12. Blitzkrieg Bat
13. Gargantuan Gorilla
14. Swiny Boar
15. Grusome Gator
16. Sly Fox
17. Hardtop Tortoise
18. Rubberneck Giraffe
19. Prickly Porcupine
20. Sawtooth Shark
21. Danger Dog
22. Hare-Razing Rabbit
23. Sir Sire Horse
24. War Weasel
25. Bloodthirsty Bison
26. Bighorn Sheep
27. Webslinger Spider
28. Crusty Crab

Series 2
29. Icky Iguana
30. Armored Armadillo
31. Jaded Jaguar
32. Humungus Hippo
33. Major Moose
34. Delta Chameleon
35. Kickback Kangaroo
36. Octillian Octopus
37. Wolfgang Walrus
38. Powerhouse Mouse
39. Dragoon Raccoon
40. Antic Anteater
41. Run Amuck Duck
42. Miner Mole
43. Cutthroat Cuttlefish
44. Eager Beaver
45. Slasher Seahorse
46. Knight Owl
47. Hunchback Camel
48. Pillager Polar Bear
49. Squire Squirrel
50. Saber Sword Tiger
51. Bludgeoning Bulldog
52. Pew-trid Skunk

Series 3
53. Panzer Panda
54. Leapin' Lizard
55. Killer Koala
56. Tarsier Tyrany
57. Black Panther
58. Torrential Tapir
59. King Cobra
60. Manic Mandrill
61. Pixelated Pointer
62. Pillager Pig
63. Rowdy Rooster
64. Musky Ox
65. Tangolin' Pangolin
66. Slowpoke Sloth
67. Ardent Aardvark
68. Bodacious Bovine
69. Zealot Zebra
70. Harrier Hawk
71. Diving Duckbill
72. Crooked Crow
73. Frenzied Flamingo
74. Fleet-Footed Antelope
75. Pugnacious Penguin
76. Ossified Orangutan

Series 4 - Shadow Warriors

77. Blue Eagle

78. Spark Shark
79. Sailon
80. Anarchy
81. Tigerburn
82. Condorassin
83. Grand Wolf
84. Fly Sailor
85. Zariganian
86. Rainbow Sam
87. Shool
88. Brain Mouse
89. Brown Lion
90. Grencats
91. Fight Horn
92. Hustlebear
93. Battle Fennec
94. Killer Hound
95. Dragon Seahorn
96. Strong Hurricane
97. Sea Panic
98. Puzzlecolor
99. Mantfrenzy
100. Scoup Cougar
101. Skullgrotess
102. King Buster
103. Slag King
104. Jeerer Monkey
105. Hornhead
106. Monkey Fighter
107. Flying Dragon
108. Kickback
109. Skybat
110. Grin Reefer
111. Salmomanther
112. DinoGator

Chariots
Tearin' Tiger
Deer Stalker
Battling Big Horn

Transports
Shocking Shark
Wood Beetle
Blazing Eagle

Battle Chargers
Battle Eagle
Battle Buzzsaw
Battle Savanna

Barrel Of Monkeys

Manufactured by Lakeside Toys, later Milton Bradley
Released in 1965
Wikipedia Entry

Not much to this game. Wikipedia explains Barrel of Monkeys as, "The barrel contains 12 monkeys, their color usually corresponding to the barrel's color. The instructions on the bottom of the barrel state "Dump monkeys onto table. Pick up one monkey by an arm. Hook other arm through a second monkey's arm. Continue making a chain. Your turn is over when a monkey is dropped." In addition to these basic instructions, the barrel also contains instructions for playing alone or with two or more players."

A riot!