Collectible Corner: Sam the Olympic Eagle

I no longer have the plush Sam the Olympic Eagle I had in 1984, but just this summer I found this at an antiques mall and added the mascot to my collection. It's a cool little statue in decent shape, and looking at the guy brings me joy:

Collectible Corner: A wonderful mix of beautiful and generic

I recently acquired this great-looking Battlestar Galactica toy. The toy itself is simple but effective, but, oh, what a card! 

I'd show you the card back, but there is nothing on it! They spent the money on that glorious front. I love the stylized "BattlestaR."

It's funny because back in the day, I cared little about the packaging after I got the toy. I would have torn this up and ditched it, then ran around the house zooming this cruiser through the sky. Now, of course, the cruiser is cool enough, but I got it for the packaging.

I will admit that once again I am tempted to open a vintage toy, if only to try that "free rolling." Don't sell short that "non toxic paint," either. It's good to know I could take this off the card and put it in my mouth with no ill effects!

Brooks on Books: Starsky and Hutch in a Golden Book?

Starsky and Hutch, a poster show for excessive violence in television at one point in the Seventies, does not seem an ideal candidate for merchandising aimed at kids. Or does it? Apparently someone thought the younger set would be enchanted by a fictional world of violence, narcotics, prostitution, and other assorted social ills and general coptastic mayhem. We talked on the podcast about this, but here is one of my favorite examples: Western Publishing's illustrated look at our favorite Seventies buddy cop team.

William Blinn is credited as show creator, with comic book vets George Kashdan and Jack Sparling listed as writer and artist, respectively.

The book contains 3 short stories, each accompanied by a couple of big illustrations. 

I don't think these are adaptations of actual Starsky episodes, but, boy, they could be. Some of the themes explored in this book are: Police corruption, assault, organized crime, blackmail, adultery, assassination, and good old-fashioned murder.

The first story has a reference to "an assortment of nodding addicts and rocking winos." Prostitution, I will say, is the one thing not mentioned in this All-Star Golden Book.

One of my favorite moments comes when Starsk and Hutch confront a closed door and confirm that they need a warrant to search the premises, but if the door should happen to open accidentally...and Hutch kicks it down.

Later, a story begins with Hutch acting as a "big brother" type to a woman having relationship troubles, basically seducing her. When he and Starsky go out on some actual policework, he asks her to wait there a couple hours, then keeps checking the time while on the case because he is thinking about "the chick waiting in my pad."

I am not sure what the target audience was for this in 1977, but I love it in 2023. This is great stuff, and it really does feel like the TV show. There is even a scene with Dobey bemoaning his health food lunch and calling to order a veal parmagiana after a stressful moment,

Western, the publisher of Whitman comics as well as Gold Key and Little Golden Books, did other books in this line, like a Charlie's Angels one that I really want to see now. This is a great collectible for fans of the decade, the TV of the era, and especially those who enjoy Starsky and Hutch.

Collectible Corner: Starsky and Hutch and the Gran Torino!

I got this little number, a 2002 Corgi release, on a recent excursion and loved it as soon as I saw it. Lucky for me, I could get it at a reasonable price.

I will admit, though, in the moment, my standard for "reasonable price" was changed a bit knowing that we were doing a Starsky episode this season! Here is the back:

I like that you get the car but also a little tableau of the lads and Bay City. The little cardboard "standee" of Dave and Ken is a bit cheesy, but it adds to the charm as far as I am concerned. As I have said on the show, I am not a car guy, but this particular cop series is in many ways a car show, and this little vehicle is now one of my favorite podcast-related toys.

Collectibles Corner: The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff

In honor of the recent passing of former World Wrestling Federation Heavyweight champ Iron Sheik, I want to share this picture of two action figures from my collection:

I got the Sheik loose last year, and his tag team partner Nikolai Volkoff (also deceased) is a recent find. Laurie got this one for me. It was packaged and beat up but still less than many similar loose figures go for these days (probably because the box was so dinged). The Shiek and Volkoff were the big heel tag team when I first started watching the WWF, so iconic (and, well, cartoony)  that they earned spots on the Hulk Hogan's Rock and Wrestling cartoon on CBS.

These are both good figures, but the headgear really makes them, huh? Both now reside on my Eighties shelf of decade-related memorabilia and toys.

Collectibles Corner: 8-Track Mac

This is a recent gift from my wonderful wife Laurie:

Yes, it's an original 8-Track cassette tape of BOTNS favorite (recently featured in our Bob Hope episode) Mac Davis!

Collectible Corner: NBC--You don't have to "be there", but check us out!

Today I have another pin that isn't as spectacular as the Let's All Be There one but still pretty cool and a nice collectible of my network of choice (mostly) in the 1980s:

Gotta love the color in that one and of course the NBC attitude! Don't you feel "Proud as a Peacock" gazing at this pin? Does it make you want to go out and greenlight a "Supertrain" or a "Pink Lady and Jeff"?

Collectibles Corner: Adama looking good in Funko form

My wonderful wife and Friend of the Show Laurie surprised me a few weeks ago with this awesome Funko Pop: A delightful rendition of Lorne Greene as Commander Adama from the original Battlestar Galactica.

Look at the world-weariness in Adama's eyes. It's obvious that this man has spent YAHRENS leading multitudes in a high-stakes, high-stress environment.

And, no, despite Mike asking, it does not come with detachable hair. It does have a cool cape!

Laurie told me that Adama and Apollo were the ones easier to find at decent prices, whereas Starbuck and Cylon were much pricier. That's the thing with these Funkos--if you don't get 'em while they are out initially, you might not get 'em at all unless you want to pay outrageous prices.

It just so happens that Adama is the single BSG Funko I would pick if I had to pick just one--and it seems like maybe I did! Thanks, Laurie!

Collectible Corner: BE THERE!

In the debut Collectible Corner post, here's a memento I recently acquired, one that had me singing as soon as I saw it:

Let's do this!

B-O-T-N-S, let's all be there!

Nah, doesn't work.

Mike and Rick, let's all be there!

Better but not quite.

Rick and Mike, let's all be there.

Hmm...I like that one...

Battle of the Network Shows, let's all--no, that does not work at all.

Hey, Mike, I think we need to change the show title!

Another cool toy car: THE MOD SQUAD

I haven't been a big Mod Squad watcher, and in fact I don't remember it even being on much when I was growing up. TV Land showed it for a while, and I saw some of it when Aspire ran it a few years back, but the series has a relatively low profile these days. 

This is a cool-looking package, though:

In fact, this collectible is about 75% packaging! I still like it, though. Who can resist that iconic 1970 Plymouth GTX?

OK, I admit, as neither a Mod Squad guy nor a car guy, I can't tell you much about the Plymouth GTX, but it's up on my wall and makes a nice affordable TV display item.

The series has been available complete on DVD for some time, but it hasn't hit a major streaming site. Actually, I did try to watch an episode on YouTube several months ago, bookmarked it, and then found it was yanked.

TV-related toy cars (or do I really need to collect something else?): Part 1: Taxi

One of my recent discoveries is small-scale toy cars based on (or associated with in cool-looking packaging) TV shows of the BOTNS era. The Greenlight Hollywood line has my eye right now. There are several good things about these: They look good in the packaging (in fact, I think it's better to leave these in the packaging given their size), they are often overlooked in the oft-barren toy shelves of today's big box retailers, and they are affordable collectibles to toss into the cart along with essentials like Urkel-O's and Swanson's Hungry Man dinners.

Some of these are a little sketchy, but one of my favorites is this beauty. I mean, a show called Taxi is a natural for this series:

We may not have Alex and Louie Funkos yet (Actually, Reverend Jim and Latka would be cool, too, but I'd get any of them), but we have this, and we can use our imagination. If only Corgi would have made Taxi vehicles back in the day to go along with my Supermobile and Spider-Copter!

Battlestar Galactica: The LP!

Check out this recent addition to the Battle of the Network Shows collection, a glorious original soundtrack album to the Battlestar Galactica series:

Owning this doesn't just make me want to fire up my Viper and go buy a hi-fi, it makes me want to BE Stu Phillips leading the L.A. Philharmonic in this glorious music. 

I mean, looking at this album, you have to think the show is awesome and "a big deal," right?

Does the ragtag fleet have an "arts ship"? They have a prison barge, I think a trash barge, and they have concerts, but do they have one dedicated ship for the fine arts?