Hot Wheels 'Chute Out!

 Today, in a world where children's playthings are all digital and on screens, it's good to remember a time when toys were much more inventive and clever. The toys that I grew up with relied on simple mechanics to achieve their wonder, and they worked quite well. In this post I'm going to feature a Hot Wheels accesory that was mind numbingly simple, but it etched into the racing memory of almost all Boomer kids! I give to you, the Hot Wheels drag chute!

Here it is featured in a Hot Wheels catalog from 1971. I found this pic on the old interwebs.

Below is the first boxed set that it came in. As a kid I had this set, and I remember racing my cars around that loop, over that jump and popping that chute out time after time! Again, this image came from the net...

And now for what I currently own! This is a parachute still in it's original package! 

Next, we have a 1968 Deora snagging the parachute! I actually rolled this car down the track and worked the mechanism. No faking it for my blog!

And now my 1968 Beatnic Bandit does it as well! I'm not gonna lie. It was actually fun!

Now, let's look at how this works! Remember I said it was extremely simple. Now I happen to have two 'chute boxes (and a total of three 'chutes) so just look at the bottom one. See that hook? Yep, that's about all there is to it!

Opening up the box, we can see that the parachute is hiding inside! The car simply goes down the track, snags the hook, and pulls the 'chute out of the box. Very simple, but very effective. And it works every single time, with no batteries or electronics at all. Toy engineers were brilliant!

And just for completeness, we have a picture of the inside of the empty box.

So there you have it! Simple and fun!

Now, to be clear, these didn't come from those original stunt sets, they came from another set that was released a year or so later. I guess I can do a post on the whole set at a later date, but I thought these were a good example to make my point, which is simple is better in pretty much every aspect of life.

Of course, without electronics we wouldn't have this post, so I guess they do have their place...

Until next time keep searching for treasure!

Afterthought Train Buy

 I will admit that sometimes I get items that I don't really collect just because I think they're pretty cool. Case in point is this week's item.

At the estate sale where I found the Z scale engine that I posted a few weeks ago, I saw a non-descript brown box sitting on a shelf with no price on it. Here it is....

I picked it up and saw this on the end...

A-ha! A train car kit! Now I really don't collect these, but after finding out they only wanted five bucks for it, I went ahead and grabbed it. Let's look closer!

Upon opening the box, we are met with a whole lot of itty-bitty pieces of wood!

Laid out, we can make out some of the parts. You have the top and bottom and sides, and doors, and...uh...stuff.

Note that there are no wheels or couplers. These kits don't come with them. 

Here are the instructions...

The written instructions point out that this isn't an easy kit. No kidding! Still, the parts do seem to be very well made and the more you look at them, the more they make sense. 

The instructions are quite yellowed on the part that was facing up in the box, which made me wonder how old this kit is. So, I did a bit-o-reseach!

Le Belle Woodworking Company is still in business, and, in fact, is apparently the oldest model train kit company still around. This kit is still produced. You can buy a new one for 39.99 right now. So is this kit newish?

I'm pretty sure this kit is far from new. How do we know? The hint is in the address. Now the address isn't the same as it is today, but the real tell is the lack of zip code. Zip codes came into use in 1963, so this kit is pre-'63. You couple that with the fact that this company existed many years before that, even, then we can see that this kit has sat around, unbuilt, for over 60 years. 

Now, the question always pops up in my mind, "Should I build it?" I honestly don't know. I mean, I have a ton of other projects to work on first, but there's a chance I will. It seems pretty cool. After all, that coolness is why I bought it!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

When Shrink Wrap Collides

 Greetings Attic readers!

Today I have a slightly different post brought about by necessity. You see, about ten years ago Laurie (Mrs. Stu) and I went to a really good garage sale that had quite a few space and science fiction related items...which we, of course, snatched up! 

One of those items was this...

It's the Pegasus Models Space Ark from the great George Pal film "When Worlds Collide!" You may remember me mentioning Mr. Pal here...

Pal Link!

Anyway, the model was still in it's shrink wrap, and that's the way I left it all these years. Unfortunately shrink wrap can continue to shrink for quite some time, and this shrink wrap had begun to crush the box. No bueno, my friends. So, I was faced with the reality that after all of these years, I had to open it.

So, here we go!

First, let's take a look at that original price tag and the garage sale tag. 22.99 off? Not a bad deal... By the way, I looked these up to see what they go for now, and they seem to be between 30 and 40 bucks. I didn't want to rip open something really valuable, and you never know how much something may have appreciated!

And now for the Big Rip!!!

With the wrap off, here is one side of the box with a nice color picture...

And the other side with some exciting copy about the movie...

And herr is the newly freed box! Note that the upper right hand corner is crushed. Yeah, the wrap did that...

Inside, we have a lot of heavy duty, very well molded plastic parts! I like the name plate...

Here they all are! The model is really very simple. The base is very lightweight vaccuformed plastic.

This is the tiniest model part I've ever seen. The packaging on this little sliver of plastic probably cost more than the part!

The ship is a decent size, and could probably be converted to fly fairly easily. A standard 18mm model rocket motor would probably fit (although I didn't measure it).

Here is the instruction sheet...

Side one is all about assembling. Not many parts there, as you can see.

Side two is about painting and finishing, which seems to me to be the most challenging part. Not the ship, mind you (it's all silver), but the base!

And everything neatly back in the box. I cut out and saved the price tags.

So there you have it! 

Now, will I build it? 

And if I build it, will I convert it to fly?

And if I convert it to fly, will it work?

I dunno. 

But at least now it's free of the clutches of that evil shrink wrap!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

One More Thing Before Halloween...

 Today I'm going to share a little item I picked up off of eBay a few years ago that fits the season rather well. The Addams Family Thing Bank!

Well, it's not technically the Thing Bank. For an explanation, we must delve into the murky dark history of this novelty item. But first, here it is!

Ok, so it's not much to look at. It's just a plastic box, about 3 inches by 4 inches with a coin slot in the top. Now, let's get to that history, shall we?

In 1959 Poynter Products (From Ohio) came out with an item called simply "The Little Black Box." It was not a bank, and, in fact, had no real function at all. There was a toggle switch where the coin slot would later be. When the switch was flipped, the box would move up and down, and a hand would come out of the top and push the switch to the "off" position before snapping back into the box. 

Ah, but here were all the makings of a great bank! In 1964, when the Addams Family television show came out, one of the characters was "Thing." Thing was simply a hand that somehow travelled around by popping out of tabletop boxes around the house and generally being helpful. The tie-in was obvious.

That was when Poynter came out with the bank version of The Little Black Box. Called, aptly, The Addams Family Thing Bank. The toggle switch was replaced with a slot to hold a coin (witch completed the circuit to activate the Thing) and the hand would slowly come out to snatch it away into the box! Now, I really don't think the Addams' Thing would have acted quite like that, in that he always seemed much more polite, but it made for a good bank!

Now, mine isn't that bank, although as far as I can tell it's the same in every way...except on the bottom it's stamped "1972." That was the re-release date. At that point it was simply called "The Little Black Box" again. 

Would you like to see it work? Well, you're in for a treat!

So there you have it! This Halloween keep a close eye on your treats and  spare change!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

A Munster of a Koach!

EDIT: VIDEO ADDED AT BOTTOM!

Hello Atticites! (I just made that word up). This week we are visiting the coolest spooky custom car ever; The Munster Koach!

Wikipedia says:

The Munster Koach is the family car that was used in the television series, The Munsters. The show's producers contracted George Barris to provide the Koach. Barris paid show car designer Tom Daniel $200 to design the car, and had it built at Barris Kustoms, first by Tex Smith, but finished by Dick Dean, his shop foreman at the time. The Munster Koach appeared in over twenty episodes throughout the series' two-year run, and was also seen in Munster, Go Home!, using different wheels. Tom Daniel's original drawing of the Munster Koach had it supercharged with a hood scoop and thin, round disc lights. Barris chose the ten-carburetor setup with the ten air horns and lantern lights.

Only one Koach was made for the television series and feature film. It was made from three Ford Model T bodies and is 18 feet long. The 133-inch frame was made by hand, as were the brass radiator and fenders. It has a blood red interior and black pearl paint. It took 500 hours to hand-form the ornate rolled steel scrollwork. The front end had a dropped axle, split radius rods and T springs. Its design featured a custom hearse body.

Wow! I'm worn out from all that research!

Anyway, I have two versions at 1313 Stu Lane (not my real address). First, several years ago I built the AMT plastic model version. Here it is!

This was a fun car to build, with a lot of parts and cool details! My build is far from a pro job, but it was fun, so that's all that matters! Here is the bottom...

Notice the blue engine block. That's a Ford thing. 

Next we have the Johnny Lightning version. Here they are together...

...and it by itself!

It has one really cool detail that the larger model doesn't; namely the gold pinstripes. They look so cool! But had I tried them on my model, they would have looked so terrible! My hand just isn't that steady. Oh well...

The Munsters Koach is a cool car, but completely impractical. Cruising down a crowded street or, worse yet, trying to park an 18 foot long monster would be no fun at all. Still, it looks cool

What happened to the original? Well according to my exclusive sources ( Wiki):

Barris auctioned the original Munster Koach in 1983 with oversized gas lights and different tires and wheels. In 1984, Barris wanted a Munster Koach for the Hollywood Christmas Parade. He had Dick Dean build a second authorized Munster Koach. Dick Dean's son, Keith Dean, helped build it. This Koach was restored in the summer of 2011 with new black pearl paint, pie crust cheater slicks, new brass lantern lights, torque thrust mag wheels, smaller skull radiator cap, and had the dummy crank lever removed and sealed. They did not have Bobby Barr Headers, and there is a wide opening where those headers were located on the original.

There were five walnut blocks between the spokes of the mag wheels in rear. The rear slicks were Firestone eleven-inch pie crust slicks. The Astro mag wheels were painted blood red just on the outside of the five spokes. There was no skull radiator cap on the original Munster Koach in the 1960s. Only later did the Munster Koach get a skull cap. Both reproduction cars have been restored, but the original has not.

Series star Fred Gwynne never sat in the seat to drive the Munster Koach. Instead, he sat on the floor on the ermine-fur rugs.

So there you have it! More than you ever wanted to know about the Munster Koach!

Added value! Check out this video!

Munsters Coach Vid!

Squared Away!

 This week I'm sharing a very recent find from an estate sale in Dallas. There really wasn't a lot of stuff I was interested in, but I did find this:

Yes, good old Hollywood Squares (the home version, of course). This is the 1974 version, and it's in great shape! Want to know how to play? Well, here you go!

Here the game is set up in a "simulated game." The plastic "Xs" and "Os" hang on the board. The questions are on cards that you see through a special viewer.

Here are our "celebrities!" Now don't get too excited, you probably haven't heard of any of them. But that's ok, fame can be fleeting in Hollywood!

Let's get a closer look at that viewer. You start by selecting your question.

"Gene" then reads the question (or you do if he won't).

Then, your selected celebrity gives an answer.

Now, you have to agree or disagree. I think I will......Agree!

And look here! I was right! Yay!!!

And that's pretty much how the game goes. It's fun to answer the questions, but one way it falls short of the television version is that you don't get the jokes from the celebrities. To me, that's the best part of the show! So, while they did as good a job as they could with game play, it's just not as fun as the show. Oh well, you can't beat the original, I guess!

That's about it for this week! Until next week, keep searching for treasure!

Jack's Ghost in a Box

 Hello attic fans!

This week we have a little item that you might have seen on here before...except you really haven't! In October of 2021 I wrote this...

When I was in third grade, I had just moved from Denison, Tx to Garland, Tx. In my new town they had a Jack in the Box fast food place. It was actually in the shape of a big box, and yes, you talked into a clown to order.

It was near Halloween (1971) and they were giving away a picture of a haunted house printed on heavy card stock. It had strips that fed through the sides that would make ghost, ghouls, (and, strangely, fast food). move past the windows. I really wanted one for some reason, and one night when we were going through the drive-thru, by golly I got one! It looks like this:

At this point in that post, I explained that while I had never been able to find a real one, I found one online that I was able to print out on some light cardstock. And for years that has been good enough. However, the picture I just shared isn't the one I printed out. You see, a while back a REAL one showed up on eBay! Apparently it was part of an art director's estate who was working with Jack in the Box restaurants at the time! I bid the minimum (which I thought was pretty cheap) and won! I guess I'm the only one who remembers this little item! Here are some more pictures of the "real deal!"

This is the back of the card, which shows the die cut windows and such... The whole card measures 9.75" x 7.75". 

I'm not sure you want to suggest your food is haunted, but it seems to work for Halloween!

If I ever wanted to put it together, I have the instructions...although I could probably figure it out on my own.

A few common sense suggestions for trick or treating are a good idea.

Here are the strips with the "haunts" on them! Onion rings and fries included!

Finally, we have a closer up view of the house! Spooooooooky!

Anyway, I remember taking my Jack in the Box Haunted House to school and being the coolest kid there! (Or so I thought). I'm sure, being thin cardboard, that it didn't last long. I'm going to take better care of this one, though! I plan on framing it and giving it a nice spot on my office wall! Another childhood trophy won!

So there you have it! Nice memories of Halloweens gone by! Oh, and by the way, that Jack in the Box is still there, 53 years later! It's not box shaped any more, but it's the same basic building and it still serves Jumbo Jacks, fried tacos, and fries! But you won't find this little item! 

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!