Starfield Creations

It’s once again time to delve into the box of goodies known as “that pile of crap still left in the shed” and see what else I got. There are still a ton of toys, so here’s what I brought back this week.

It's either the Thriller, or the Time Warp.

So yeah, I guess what mostly caught my eye was all these different toys with the whole “Switcheroo” style of play. I made up that word just now to describe what you’re going to see the most of in this group.

Nerfuls, I LOVED these toys as a kid. Made by Parker Brothers, these were basically characters that involved a ball with a face on it between a hat and a body. And they were always the most customize-able thing to me growing up. They even had things like vehicles, some very small playsets, and even a launcher that you could stick their heads in and blast them off at something. I had all of them!

"We're the Nerfuls!... la la la... theme song... la la"

Of course, that is to say I USED to have all of them… By the time I found them, many had missing parts and, pardon the term “lost their heads” but the majority is still there. But I’m still debating on selling them. They are memorable toys, and I’m still shocked that this is one of the very few toy franchises that did NOT have a cartoon series. (That I know of.)

"Oh God... Why children?.. help!.. I can't feel mah legs!"

I am strongly thinking about keeping them and looking for the missing ones, as they are a cherished childhood memory unlike… well… let me make you guess why…

"C'mawn naw... Ah'm such a filthy nerget..."

Yeah… I only have four of these… but… they are probably the FREAKIEST things I have ever gotten… And it’s not the fact they’re basically personifications of a giant food corporations meat product. If that’s the way I thought I would have become a vegan WAY way early in my life. Hell, my motto is if it has a face, I’ll eat it. But these things… These things freak me the hell out.

Don't play with your food?... HAH! McDonalds laughs at your parenting advice.

The Chicken McNugget buddies are so bizarre… I almost feel like kids got confused and started dressing up their McNuggets instead of playing with these things. It’s McDonalds strange direction at the time to personify every piece of food of theirs into some mascot-like device to get kids to eat there. But these things were such a hit that they were a toy several times during the Kids Meal thing.

"A lifeless toy or a child's snack... My life is over either way!"

I can honestly see the appeal though, the whole “switcheroo” angle of changing costumes and etc is a great concept for kids. But for me?… the whole “collect them all” angel was a bit missed. Much like their more obscure franchise of the Fry Kids

"Arr-Aye-Gee-Gee Ehm-Oh-Pee-Pee! RAG MOP!"

I guess I found more appeal in these things… Maybe it’s their very close resemblance to The Muppets, or just the fact they look a lot more adorable than the creepy faced smiles of the Chicken McNugget Buddies. These are obviously a call back to the psychedelic era of the 70′s generation of long hair and groovy tunes, and probably the LEAST related to an actual food product (aside from that bird that was supposed to represent shakes?… Or was that Grimmace? I forget, this world is awkward) I mean, I’m surprised they didn’t have any ideas for the Burger People of the McDonalds world… You could customize their condiments or something. But maybe that’s a bit too late. Let’s move on, shall we?

The whole "derby" thing wasn't 'hip' enough for the time.

Yeah, you know this guy. I mean come on, he’s in Toy Story for crying out loud. Mr. Potato Head became more than a product of bored children jamming the lost parents’ keys into a real potato, he became an icon of childhood playtime in general. Not only that, you could stick all of his facial features straight up his… “hole”.

...In the butt

How else could this toy be exploited? We can’t go back to sticking random body parts on other vegetables. What was popular around the time of the 80′s? Hmmm… Smurf’s was really popular around the time. How about Cabbage Patch Kids? And Pound Puppies, with those soulful eyes just destroying your conscience. Something that can be customized and go everywhere while still being kid-like and generate a LOT of collective-OH GOD!!!!

Customization is implied... The pirate is still pretty limited to being a pirate...

Yeah… these things… Why do I have these things? I have no idea. These are basically the children that nightmares are made of. Not to mention one is missing (that is obviously a girl) one could only hope that me or whoever the kid was that left these at my place ate it by mistaking it for a real potato, or knew what it was and ate it anyway for the sake of the world. THIS one had a cartoon… and I’ve seen it. It’s horrible… That’s all that needs to be said and I stared deeply into the eyes of a McNugget…

"I'm a fireman........ but I burn things..."

"...I burn things a lot..."

"Do 'you' burn?..."

…Well enough of that nonsense. I think it’s time to delve into something I’m sure everyone is curious about, GHOSTBUSTERS TOYS! Now now, I can hear you now “Oh man, he had Ghostbusters toys? I loved those ones! They were so retro and awesome and I want them, SELL THEM TO ME” uhm… well calm down first of all, second… This is not the kind of Ghostbusters collection you THINK I might have. It’s actually a very small collection… and… here it is.

"Louis... you touched the streams... Go sit in the corner..."

I’m gonna start off by saying that I REALLY wish I had more of the Real Ghostbusters toys than I did as a kid (known as the RGB era of toys) I always loved the cartoon and like TMNT, they were some of the funnest looking characters despite my lack of knowledge of the movie when I was younger. But… I guess it was kind of limited. You had the four main cast, Peter, Egon, Winston and Ray… then later Louis and Janine… Who else you gonna call?… Well… that’s it.

Above is basically one of the only two series of action figures I had actually collected,  The “Slimed Heroes” sadly with SOME bent streams and missing Louis’ mask (seriously though, Louis has a bent stream AND missing his goggles… No one likes him!)

Then again, how can you store these things WITHOUT them getting bent?...

They also had the gimmick that if you squirt hot (or cold?) water on them, with the use of the squirting ghosts provided, slime magically appears on them. The closer I looked at their bodies, the more I could notice the “slimed” parts, and I don’t think they can change anymore… I had to wash these in water. It was really cold, so it’s either supposed to be hot water or… yeah. But moving on, these were in the other set I have:

It's a Totally RAD 80's Ghostbusters reunion!

I researched these, they’re called… Well, they all had individual names based on the “Power Packs” they were given. Which were all special gimmicks with specifically designed ghosts to catch for them. Sadly, yeah, they’re missing parts.

Some assembly required

But I do happen to have the ghosts. Oddly enough, this is probably the MOST complete series I have on the Ghostbusters, considering I only have two. But think about it, all four Ghostbusters INCLUDING Janine and Louis. I mean, that’s a good thing, right? Well, either way, this just proves I got into the toyline VERY late in the game. And even though I like these, I’m sure someone out there would appreciate them more than I would.

"Oh I'm sorry, are we here too?... Yeah... We get that a lot"

Oddly enough (and I think a friend gave this one to me) I have Winston’s “Super Fright Features” figure where he goes from a neon green space traveler…

"I'm out to hunt a ghost.... in space... a SPACE GHOST if you will"

To this horrifying stomach-face creature… I don’t get it… So are they supposed to be ghosts themselves? Or is something SO FRIGHTENING that their features would be warped to all hell?

"I LEFT THE OVEN ON AT HOME!"

Hilarious as that is… it’s still frightening. But… Still not as scary as the McNuggets… *shivers*

"Where's my Peanut butter Jelly Sandwich?"

With that, I leave you with these childhood memories of a little place called Eureka’s Castle, probably the only great rival to Sesame Street at the time on a little spot called Nick Jr. These “hand puppets” were designed as promotional toys for Pizza Hut of all places. Man… I kind of miss that show(?) anyhow, next week, I’ll try and bring some more stuff back and show it off. Hope you enjoyed another week of toy nostalgia!

"Yeah... In the butt"