I recently came into the possession (via my thrift store-hopping brother) of a Fisher Price Adventure People helicopter with a mismatched fireman figure at the controls. Putting aside for a moment the nostalgic suckerpunch that comes from handling a forgotten childhood toy, I was amazed at how sturdy the orange and yellow monstrosity was constructed. It was clear from the nicks and paint scrapes that it had been well played with, but it still managed to survive the passing of three decades with all its components intact and, in the case of the trigger-operated prop blades, fully functional.
I shouldn’t have been too surprised, though. While Kenner’s Star Wars line was the gold standard for playground envy and overall coolness for kids of my generation, Fisher Price’s foray into the early action figure era was marked by a chunky durability that far surpassed the daintier offerings of its competitors. Rare was the Darth Vader who retained his head after a Christmas morning in the grubby mitts of a five year old (and rarer still was the Micronaut capable of surviving five minutes outside its blister card), but FP’s non-violent, big-chinned macho 1970s Adventure People could take a direct strike from a lawnmower and emerge none the worse for the wear.
The first action figure I remember owning was the Adventure Person parachutist (who looked like Karl Malden in a crash helmet) on the far right of the above ad photo. He was eventually joined by a polyglot cast of a dozen 3 3/4″ heroes assembled from various toy lines. Together they would pile into the FP exploration boat that served as their spaceship and embark on adventures inspired by whatever cartoon, comic book, or Creature Double Feature offerings the Brothers Weiss had recently experienced.
One of our favorite scenarios (cribbed from Journey to the Seventh Planet and 12 to the Moon) involved a harrowing visit to a massive space station situated in either our bunkbeds or one of the living room bookcases. There the hapless heroes would meet up with grisly, Roger Cormanesque demises in order of their popularity. The mustard-clad Commodore Decker from Star Trek: The Motion Picture was always the first to fall before the gauntlet of acid baths, spinning blades, and man-eating blanket blobs.
Some dudes just can’t catch a break, either in Trek canon or the cruel imaginations of grade school boys.
Recommended listening: Fred Weinberg – A Child’s Life (from Electronic Toys Vol. 2
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You know what else played a huge part in the 1970s childhood experience? Moog music, which never sounded so unsettlingly sterile as when it was applied to the cause of jovial whimsy.
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December 2nd, 2009 - 5:22 pm
Old school Fisher-Price toys are shockingly durable, as evidenced by the fact that just about everything I ever had still exists in almost-complete form somewhere. Pretty sure there are still a few Adventure People in my parents’ attic, and my 4 year old inherited all my old Little People toys and that marching band kit that came in the drum. Most impressively, the Little People barn still moos when you open the door. Which my son did. Frequently.
Don’t know if their modern gear will hold up as well. The new Little People stuff looks cheesy, and as awesome as the Imaginext stuff is (what I wouldn’t have given for that Batcave set as a kid), I see a bunch of ways it can fall apart. But time will tell, I guess.
December 2nd, 2009 - 5:35 pm
My kids still play with the helicopter, parachutist and some of the other toys in that picture over at my parents’ house. Other than some paint worn off the action figures, they’re just the same as when I was whipping them around my parents’ house.
December 2nd, 2009 - 7:14 pm
I doff my B-movie-lover’s cap to you, sir. You may be the first person ever to acknowledge playing “Journey to the Seventh Planet” as a child. Did you also reenact the bridge scene from “Reptilicus?”
December 2nd, 2009 - 9:05 pm
My old ones are still at my parents’ house, and my great-niece plays with them. I had the safari set, the white ambulance thing, the parachute guy, the TV van, one of the Formula 1 cars, and the motorcycle guys. And maybe the two worker guys with the yellow ladder thingy.
The animals in the safari set were particularly well-made.
December 2nd, 2009 - 9:14 pm
Bill D: The mooing Fisher Price barn is what gave me the largish boomerang-shaped scar on left side of my head.
December 2nd, 2009 - 10:10 pm
JESUS CHRIST. That Fred Weinberg is scarier than anything in your Halloween countdown.