Recently,
I tried explaining to my youg son, Joel, the idea of ordering items
from a catalog.
I
explained that it’s like ordering something from Amazon.com, only your choices
are more limited, you can’t buy the items online, and you have to wait longer
to receive your toy.
He
didn’t see the appeal.
But
when I was growing up, it was tremendously exciting to order from a catalog, or
I should say from one catalog in particular.
Every
year, Sears sent out a mammoth Christmas catalog or “Wish Book,” a hugely fat inventory of everything it sold, from
appliances and clothes to toys galore.
One
of the Wish Books that I’m remembering today -- from the year 1979 -- was
illustrated with the tag-line “Where
America Shops For Value.”
Forget
value, I just wanted space toys.
The
1979 Sears Wishbook Catalog had ‘em too.
From
Page 613 thru 620 in that catalog, there was everything a 1970s space-kid could
possibly desire: toys from Mego’s Micronauts, Buck Rogers in the 25th
Century, Star Wars, and Star Trek too. There were models, play-sets, toy action figures…the
works.
And
the great thing about Sears was that it not only offered toys you could find
elsewhere, it also offered exclusive toys, like the Star Wars knock-off
playset called “The Star Fortress” (seen on page 617). I’ve covered this toy before on the blog, but
the giant fold-out space base has a position of honor in my home office to this
day.
Another
Sears exclusive from the same era (although it may have been first sold in 1978…)
was the Star Wars “The Cantina Adventure Set” (not to be confused with
the Creature Cantina). The legend in the
catalog read “If you stop at this
cantina, watch out for strangers.”
This
diorama of the exterior of the Mos Eisely drinking hole came with four new Kenner
action figures that were unavailable elsewhere: Greedo, Hammerhead, Walrus Man,
and Blue Snaggletooth. The Blue
Snaggletooth has become a highly-prized collectible.
Without
me knowing, my Mom ordered me the Cantina Adventure Set, and I loved it.
I kept it intact until about two years ago
when the diorama base finally ripped. But it’s the item I remember most from the catalog.
After I received the toy in the mail, I would
play adventures with Sheriff Snaggletooth and Deputy Hammerhead. They’d drive the land speeder around Mos
Eisely, catching the gangsters Greedo and Walrus Man.
Back
in the 1970s I loved coming home from school and finding in the mail either the
next week’s issue of TV Guide (so I could see if Star
Trek or Space:1999 was playing…), but it was a day of absolute delight and toy nirvana when the
Wish Book arrived.
I
still remember the feel and scent of the Wish Book catalog's pages. I remember poring over those toy pages too, imagining adventures with Buck Rogers, the Micronauts, the Cantina, and that Space Fortress...
Most of my toys growing up came from either the Sears or Wards catalogs. One drawback to that was the toys were often shipped in generic brown cardboard boxes rather than their original packaging. I always found in a bit disappointing to rip off the wrapping on Christmas day to find a cardboard box with "Planet of the Apes Cornelius" stamped on the front in plain black lettering. Of course, now these boxes have become collectibles because of their rarity.
ReplyDeleteNice pull from the memory bank Joel. I loved that catalog and fondly remember it from the late 70’s. It was definitely the dream maker. Loved the toy section it fueled my Star Wars desires. I had that Cantina set as well but remember it came in a plain brown box not the cool box shown in the catalog. The cantina crew action figures are long gone now but it was one of the coolest toy sets from the Star Wars universe I owned.
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