I keep finding myself going down these eBay rabbit holes, and every time I do, I come across so much cool old stuff that I used to have or wanted to have. Here’s some of the best stuff (in my mind) that I’ve ran across in the last few days. It’s a random edition of eBay Archaeology for this Retro Ramblings.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Pencil Toppers
I’m not sure what years these are from, but I definitely remember having them myself. Not all of them, but I did have the He-Man and Skeletor ones. Back when I was huge into all things MOTU, my Mom would not only feed my habit with the action figures, but she would also allow me to get a lot of the various licensed products as well. These things had a hole in their butts that you would jam your pencil up into causing the heroes and villains what was sure to be a horrible case of hemorrhoids. The actual application of these things was to erase pencil marks, but they sucked at that. Their real value was the fact that they made all of your friends at school insanely jealous when they saw you rocking He-Man on top of your pencil while you filled in all of those little bubbles on the math test. And as an added bonus, if you got bored, you could just take them off the pencil and have an impromptu battle of good vs. evil break out right there on your desk. At least until the teacher saw you and took them away. Damn you Mrs. White.
Find this on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/184279171166?hash=item2ae7e5005e:g:eJIAAOSwD75esHNJ
Adventures of Lone Wolf Role-Play Books
Back in the day, Dungeons and Dragons was certainly a thing. Not as big of a thing as it is now, but it was a thing. A thing with a stigma at the time as a lot of parents felt that it was associated with the occult for some reason. No really, I’m serious. And my Mom was one of those parents. Everything D&D was off-limits. But when I was in fourth grade, we had a new kid move to town and join our school class. Sorry, but I can’t remember his name at the moment. It doesn’t really matter for the sake of this story anyhow. But one afternoon on the bus ride home, I saw him flipping back and forth in this paperback book with a pencil in his hand scribbling down stuff. It piqued my interest so I asked him about it. He then proceeded to introduce me to Lone Wolf…a book that played out kind of like a game of D&D, but you could play it by yourself. I was instantly hooked!
The next day he brought me one of the books to take home and read. I thought it was so cool that you got to halfway design your character at the start of it by choosing the weapons you would start the game with and what special abilities you would have, as well as how much food and money you’d begin the adventure with. From there it read like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, but you had battles with monsters and such and had to keep stats. When I finished that book, he kept bringing me more, and I’ve been a fan ever since.
Find this on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/384021883500?hash=item59697cea6c:g:XhcAAOSwajtgTXh~
Crash Test Dummies Toys
I think these toys came out in the late ’80s or early ’90s, and I wanted to get my hands on some of them but I never did. They were born from a series of PSA commercials that showed crash test dummies being thrown from vehicles after horrifying crashes that destroyed the cars they were in. Somehow, somebody somewhere thought that using that serious message would somehow relate to fun kids’ toys. No matter if that sounds like sound logic or not, they turned out to be right as these things were a big hit.
There were all kinds of vehicles you could get that would fly to pieces when you ran it into a wall or whatever other hard object you could find. The action figures that came with them would fly out and spring apart as well. I believe all of this may have even spawned a cartoon, but I’m not sure if my memory is correct on that point. Regardless, you can chalk these up as another toy I always wanted but never had.
Find this on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/114826272275?hash=item1abc2dde13:g:DesAAOSwioNgAgtE
The Fall Guy Stunt Action Truck
Back in the early-mid ’80s, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more fun show on TV than The Fall Guy. It was always filled with car chases, fistfights, and usually some kind of death-defying stunt. Naturally, any show like that should spawn some fun toys. This stunt action truck was a cheap toy by the standards of the time, but it was packed with fun. A friend of mine got this for me for my birthday one year, and I can clearly remember playing with it for days on end.
You would put the Fall Guy in the back of the truck standing up. It was a fixed figure with its arms stretched out over its head. The truck was the pull-back kind that would take off when you released it. It also came with an overhead signpost. You’d get it set up, put The Fall Guy in the truck, pull it back, and let it go. If you did everything correctly, the truck would speed to the signpost where the figure would grab onto as the truck raced on past and crashed into whatever you wanted to, leaving The Fall Guy safely hanging onto the signpost. I don’t know why, but it was addictive to do this over and over again.
Find this on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/293490623840?hash=item4455678560:g:mMcAAOSwScxeSnFJ
Dink the Little Dinosaur VHS
Sometime just before, or maybe even at the same time as the Land Before Time movies, Dink the Little Dinosaur was a Saturday morning cartoon that I used to enjoy. It never reached the mainstream success that The Land Before Time did, but I discovered Dink first, so that was my dinosaur cartoon of choice. If I remember correctly, it aired early on Saturday mornings. I’m thinking like in the 7 or 8 am timeslot…not the “prime time” slots that the really popular cartoons got. But it was a fun little cartoon anyway, and the old VHS tapes I found made me sit and think back on the show for a few minutes
Find this on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/384192374568?hash=item5973a66728:g:SMIAAOSwZNdgsXLO
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