Mar 16, 2010

Birthday Month

In our family there are quite a few birthdays this month.

Chad's birthday is tomorrow. So happy Birthday Chad.
But lets go back to 1978 and see what my Dad saw then.

Dana, Kurt and David are over for Chad's birthday party.
Brett and I snarfing some pizza and trying to see what presents Chad got.

The first thing I spot is a Luke Skywalker action figure.
Here he is in all his preopened glory.
The coolest thing with this figure was the light saber.
It would slide out of his arm, ready for battle.
It didn't stay straight long though. Battles with Darth Vader or whoever else was nearby saw to that.

I also see the bottom half of some other packaging on the table.
There is another slide that reveals what this toy was so we will wait.



Same paryt but from a different angle.

I see me reaching for the toys. Kurt to my right and Dana to my left.
I don't know who the kid is right next to Chad.

Lets see what I am after.

A model truck with a Hulk decal on the side.
Chad did a great impression of the Hulk back then.
He had some short pants and would run into the room and growl.
He then would bend over, flex his muscles and then tear his shirt off and throw it across the room.
He would flex and growl again and then run off in slow motion.
It was perfect.

Looks like a 45 rpm record of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" is laying on the table under the Hulk truck.

There is an alien next to these toys.
This is what was in the other packaging that we saw in the other slide.
It was a "Creatures From Other Worlds" character.
These were Mego knock offs that were out in the market to capitalize on the "Star Wars" craze.
Here is one still in its packaging. There is an article on them HERE too.


I was trying to read Chad's button, which probably said "Kiss me I am a Leprechaun" or something, when I noticed the Grape Ape wrapping paper.


Here is the intro to the Grape Ape show for those of you who never saw it and for the rest of us to remember it.

More of the "Creatures From Other Worlds" packaging.

I also see that we had some original Pepsi Throwback sitting in the corner.
If you haven't tried Pepsi Throwback you need to, if you can find it now.
I thought the idea was to sell stuff? If something sells out replace it. Stupid limited time release stuff.
It truly was a time machine in a bottle. One taste and it was the seventies again.



I also see Mom's apple head guy on the shelf.

Mentioned before HERE. Same party but a different picture.


I also spotted a stained glass raccoon that was hanging in the window.
This stained glass was based off my Mothers styling of a raccoon that she painted often.
HERE and HERE are examples of her work.
She must have traded something with an artist friend for it.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

great classic photos. We have a ton of bdays in my family this month as well.

Brian B said...

Well happy birthday to your clan too!

Brian Ashmore said...

Oh, man. Great post! Where to begin?

It's so cool to see that Luke figure all packaged up. That must have been just 2 or 3 weeks after the first Star Wars figures starting hitting toy shelves.

Grape Ape!! I was just trying to explain the Great Grape Ape cartoon to my kids... "there was this giant purple ape and he rode on the top of a van like it was a skateboard and there was this dog driving..." They all looked dumfounded. Hey, it makes as much sense as a talking sponge.

That alien figure is cool, too.

Pepsi Throwback... are they out in your area? I seem to have some around here somewhere. Heh, heh.

Happy Birthday to Chad and everyone in the Butler family with birthdays this month!

Me said...

Your mom generously gave me most of her stained glass collection and as you know they are among my MOST prized possessions!

Man, the seventies were just too cool! It was THE BEST time to be a kid.

Nice post. I am sure you had a good time putting it together:-)