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It’s Saturday morning in the mid-1970s, and you’re already in front of the TV set, gobbling down your second bowl of Frosted Flakes and waiting for a 30-minute journey to Living Island, Dead Man’s Point, Altrusia, Tranquility Forest or any number of puppet-populated places created by producers-puppeteers Sid and Marty Krofft. Those imaginary destinations remain vividly locked in the memories of many.

“That’s the rewarding part for us,” said Marty Krofft in an exclusive interview with Toy Collector Magazine. “What we did in the 1970s is very much still alive now.”

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WHAM-O Celebrates 60 Years of Creative, Crazy Play

Sixty years ago, two wild and crazy college boys in Southern California launched a slingshot… and, quite by accident, launched a business. Arthur “Spud” Melin and Richard Knerr may not have realized then that a homemade slingshot would be the genesis of one of the most enduring toy companies of all time—the WHAM-O Manufacturing Company.

Their success is notable; their toys—such as Frisbee, Hula Hoop and Super Ball—are iconic. Few toy companies have as long or rich a history, but one thing remains certain—“There’s a lot of nostalgia over their toys,” said Tim Walsh, author of WHAM-O Super Book: Celebrating 60 Years Inside the Fun Factory (Chronicle Books, 2008).

That nostalgia—including his own childhood fondness for WHAM-O toys—prompted Walsh, a game inventor and toy historian, to track down the dynamic duo and dig into company archives for his new book. “I really enjoy giving inventors their due,” Walsh added.

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Dynamic duo puts the Captain back in Action

Joe Ahearn first became aware of Ideal Toys’ Captain Action in 1967 when he was 5 years old while visiting an older cousin. Ed Catto simply credits Santa Claus for his introduction to the character the same year. Little did either of them know that some 40 years later that they would find themselves in charge of Captain Action’s destiny.

The character debuted in 1966 into a climate that in hindsight seems almost made for it. G.I. Joe was the top action figure for boys. The Batman TV show was just igniting Batmania and the wave of superheroes that followed him from the printed page to the worlds of cartoons, movies and merchandising.

Popco continues the 007 toy tradition after Corgi

The world’s greatest secret agent has been on difficult missions for Queen and country in the last five decades, but now he may be facing his most incredible challenge yet. No, it has nothing to do with Quantum, SPECTRE or SMERSH. Commander James Bond is about to infiltrate the international toy market, a high-stakes game in which the well-designed and sought-after collectibles succeed and the rest are left to languish in bargain bins. But Bond has an edge with a phenomenal fan base and a long history of entertaining generations with his exciting brand of espionage.

For collectors, one element of the new merchandise line set to debut with the release of the latest Bond film, Quantum of Solace, may be instantly noticeable – the absence of the Corgi name. For years the company has been associated with Bond toys, and technically they still will be, but the story is – perhaps appropriately – a bit more labyrinthine than that. The Corgi brand was recently sold to Hornby, but that sale did not include properties including James Bond, which will now appear in the USA via Master Replicas and throughout the rest of the world under the brand Popco Entertainment.

Click here to read the complete story in the October 2008 issue of Toy Collector Magazine.