At Flashbak: A Gallery of Toy Utility Belts

This week at Flashbak, I remember the toy utility belts of the 1970s, particularly those manufactured by Remco.

Here's a snippet, and the url (http://flashbak.com/gallery-toy-utility-belts-1970s-36441/ ).

"In the disco decade, before video games changed the way kids play, a good make-believe game -- played on the fields, park or trails near your back-yard -- absolutely required a utility belt. 

If you were an officer on the starship Enterprise, an astronaut on Moonbase Alpha, or a superhero defending your city, for example, you absolutely required the right accouterments to get the job done.

Remco was the undisputed king of genre-themed utility belt sets.

That dominance doesn’t suggest that the utility belts made by the company were always high-quality, merely that Remco owned a lot of licenses.  Other companies, including Kenner, also got into the utility belt business while merchandising Star Wars (1977).

The typical Remco utility belt play-set included the actual belt itself: a plastic affair with a large belt-buckle. The buckle would often feature either an engraved or sticker logo of the franchise in question.

Then, depending on the set, a weapon was also included, and also a communicator. The communicator, alas, was not always show-accurate.

For the Remco Star Trek utility belt (which came with a phaser II, tricorder, and a communicator), the communicator was indeed the famous flip-up Starfleet issue from the original series. That same communicator, however, was molded in different colors and also featured as the walkie-talkie in the Hulk utility belt and the Superman variation..."

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