Anyone who knows me, knows that I love a good catalogue. Particularly a toy catalogue and especially a Christmas toy catalogue. I’ve got possibly the biggest online collection, and one of the biggest physical collections, of Argos catalogues. I just love them. I think old toy catalogues are such a nostalgic time machine back to our childhood. Well, step up the awesome Aaron from the RGDS podcast who sent me these amazing scans of a 1984 Toymaster Christmas catalogue. Some of the stuff inside is seriously cool.
First of all let’s just take a minute to really take in the awesomeness of this cover above. What a great name for a toy shop in the 80s. Gaytime of Hitchin. And look at those goodies in the background, such as boxed Star Wars AT-AT, carded Action Force figures and several He-Man figures at the front. And last but definitely not least, the shiny, crinkly helmeted, slightly scary ‘mascot’ that is making the young lad protect his sister. This cover is everything you want from an 80s toy catalogue.
My eyes are immediately drawn to the page on right. I was a big fan of Rough Riders and Stompers, so this Stompers set was always one that I spotted in catalogues and would have loved to have owned. And then there is Crossbows & Catapults. I loved this game as a kid and I’ve been trying to get a boxed version for the last few years. The artwork on the box is incredible. And what I like about this magazine’s photoshoot is that they actually set the game up, rather than just showing a picture of the box. And as if that wasn’t enough, there is also the Knight Rider Super Stunt Set and Matchbox Streak Racing. Amazing K.I.T.T. artwork on the box, and glow in the dark Matchbox tracks. Incredible stuff.
The two things that catch my eye here are the Action Force toys on the left and the Knight Rider and A-Team Rough Riders on the right. I never had any Action Force vehicles back in the day, but I certainly had several figures. But I was all about the Rough Riders and I have several carded Rough Riders on my retrocave wall right now. They are such cool toys.
Great having a whole page dedicated to the A-Team. I love those carded figures. And that 3 feet high Command Center looks huge! On the right hand page, I know ‘Britains’ is a toy company but it just sounds strange for that toy to be called ‘Britains Space Station’. And obviously some very cool Knight Rider and A-Team vehicles at the bottom right.
Above, we have the Bandai DX Robo Machines. I never knew back in the day whether or not these were Gobots. I certainly never liked how they looked. I always thought they looked a bit rubbish as robots. I absolutely loved the bigger Zoids, but these early Zoids here aren’t that great. And on the bottom left we have the whole initial range of the Tomytronic 3D games. Normally catalogues only show the white and red ones, so it’s good to see the whole range. Great to see the boxes too. I have a boxed Thundering Turbo and I love it. And that right hand page is amazing. BMX Burner, Mini Munchman, Game & Watches, Puck Monster and a robot that looks surprisingly like that robot from The Black Hole.
Some classic toy genres here above. RC cars, sketchograph, etch-a-sketch, spirograph, chemistry sets. Classics. And to add some coolness to the mix there are some A-Team walkie-talkies in the middle too.
Toys for younger ages above. Some iconic Fisher Price toys on the left including the Music Box Record Player, Activity Centre and Chatter Telephone. On the right, the Play Family Garage was a particularly popular pre-school toy.
The Black Knight’s Castle Lego set was a hugely popular one, but I was always about the Space Lego (on the left hand page) as a kid myself. And I absolutely loved my Major Morgan back in the day. I still remember playing “On Top Of Old Smokie” on that! I still have one today but unfortunately don’t have the music cards any more.
Some cool looking younger toys here but none that I really know well. I have to say thought that I’m intrigued by that Talking Computer. “Greetings Professor Falken”.
Another amazing double page spread here above. In the top Tomy section, I absolutely loved the Tuneyville Choo-Choo when I was a kid. It is very cool and the bear train driver always looked like a super cool dude to me, with his arm leaning out the window. I would love to get hold of one of them again. Also the A La Carte Kitchen and Big Yellow Teapot are pretty iconic pre-school toys too. At the bottom of the left page there is the superbly named ‘Backseat driver’. I never knew this existed back in the day. I would have loved it. The first time I ever saw something like this was Maggie’s one in the intro of The Simpsons! Turning to the page on the right now, Postman Pat fans will be in heaven. That van looks really cool to be honest. And then, on the bottom right we have the Asterix section. I was a huge Asterix back in the day. I still am. I loved the books, particularly the artwork, but I also collected the toys. For some reason I preferred the Romans out of the toys, rather than the Gauls. But this is a great selection here above.
Pretty standard Star Wars toy diorama here that Argos would have had too, but they seem to have some of the lesser known smaller vehicles here too which is cool. I had that Armoured Sentinel Transport one, and I never knew which way up it was meant to go. Now I know!
And I love that they chose to end on Masters of the Universe. A toy line extremely close to my heart. A great selection of figures and toys here. I absolutely love that Attak Trak and Wind Raider. And I really like that they also show a carded figure in the bottom right corner. The MOTU packaging artwork is such a big part of the brand that it’s great to see this card. And nice that it’s one of the ones with the glow-in-the-dark ring.
To sum up, this is one truly awesome toy catalogue. I would love to get my hands on a physical copy one day. Well done ToyMaster on making a great catalogue for the kids in the 1980s and the adults in the 2020s! And thanks again Aaron for sending me the scans!