Thursday, February 23, 2017

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 54

  The other day, I saw that there was a novelty comic book cover in which readers got to decorate it with removable stickers.
The Superman: The Man of Steel Colorform cover
that inspired this article.

    Colorforms!!!

    So for today's Madman Turns 40 article, I thought it would be fun to take a look at the Colorforms sets that say on store shelves in 1977...

  Donnie And Marie

   With this set, kids could dress up the brother and sister pop duo, Donnie & Marie. You could dress Marie up a little bit country and Donnie could be dolled up a little bit rock n' roll!

   Sesame Street

   
    Every year it seemed that Sesame Street came up with a different Colorforms set. This one seems to be based on the colors of the rainbow from the organization of each hue.

     Pete's Dragon

       
      This set was based on the live-action/ animated Disney musical Pete's Dragon. Elliot, the Dragon was cartoon. Pete was played by a human actor. Yet, it worked quite seamlessly.

       Micronauts

        Micronauts was a cult classic toy series made by Mego. Mego Toys had the chance to obtain the Star Wars license but turned it down, thinking the film was going to be a flop. Unfortunately, it was Micronauts that was a dud and Mego closed doors by 1980. A near perfect set of Micronauts is worth a nice chunk of change.

        Ballerina Barbie


        Playing dress-up was a very popular 'activity' with Colorforms. I know that I already posted a dress-up set in this article but I thought this was note-worth because of the girl on the box. It's a then unknown Brooke Shields. Because of this, Ballerina Barbie is a much sought after set among film and Barbie collectors alike.

         Space Warriors
       
     Not every set made by Colorforms was based on a licensed product. The Space Warriors Adventure Set was an attempt by the company to cash in on the Star Wars craze. Kenner refused to allow Colorforms to make a set based on the George Lucas film. So, the toy maker created their own set along with a series of jigsaw puzzles. While the array of characters looks quite impressive, it didn't move off the shelves. Nope, not one little bit.

     Well, that's a look at one of my favorite toys during my favorite year. Come back tomorrow, who knows where I'll show up next...

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