Knight Rider (Colorforms)

Knight Rider
Colorforms
1982

David Hasselhoff has this mystic way about him of turning anything he touches into gold. He's dabbled in television, film and music across the span of four decades, and these days makes a lot of money just appearing as himself. That's how you know you're big in the industry. People want you to play yourself.

Though he had a successful run from 1975 to 1982 in the daily soap opera, The Young And The Restless, most adults from my era remember the Hoff as the one and only Michael Knight from TV's Knight Rider.

The original Knight Rider series ran for four seasons, a total of 90 episodes, and with it brought hours of entertainment to fans young and old. Michael Knight and Kitt were, in their own right, a dynamic duo.

With the success of the franchise came the inevitable merchandise tie ins. Knight Rider had something for everyone; t-shirts, toys, coloring books and today's topic of choice, Colorforms Rub n' Play Transfers!

These things have become a bit of an addiction for me as of late. I'm having a blast tracking down the vast array of transfers which Colorforms produced. As I said in a prior post on the subject, the company released a ton of sets based on 80's properties. This certainly won't be my last time discussing these things here at The Toy Box.

The "meat" of the collection was the Transfer Set. This featured a massive page of backgrounds in comic book panel style, and of course a fun set of transfers themselves. With the use of a basic number two pencil and your imagination, the story unfolded as you transferred each Rub n' Play onto the page in the spot of your choice.

Colorforms also produced a smaller Adventure Set (above) and the even smaller Transfers Pack. Both featured their own backdrops to incorporate the transfers onto, and would be what I would call more travel friendly for the child of the 80's on a family trip.

Sadly, Colorforms Rub n' Plays were like Underoos. Kids used them, and then they eventually got tossed out because they weren't of any further use. Because of this, some of these sets have become pretty rare and valuable on secondary markets. They're fun to collect, but by no means do I recommend dropping fifty to one hundred dollars on one only to pull it out of the box and play with it. No, instead these pieces are more so relegated to display only these days. It's kind of sad in a way because these things are so much fun.

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(Family Matters) Urkel (Hasbro, Milton Bradley, Tyco and Colorforms)

(Family Matters) Urkel
Hasbro, Milton Bradley, Tyco and Colorforms
1991

It's funny how things that one would never think become popular would do just that. Originally slated as a one time character on the show Family Matters, Steve Urkel quickly became the show's focus each and every week - To the point that other cast members were pushed from the spotlight, and eventually left the series. Jaleel White portrayed the character as such a loveable nerd that audiences couldn't help but be drawn in to root for him.

During the height of the character's popularity, merchandising became a big money making deal. Toys, games, cereal and t-shirts were all produced based on Urkel. It seemed like every product developer out there wanted a piece of the action.

Today, we're going to look at some of our favorite Urkel related items. Mind you, this is just the tip of the iceberg of the vast amount of products that were produced based on the TV persona.

For our money, Hasbro probably released the absolute best Urkel item to date - The Family Matters Urkel "I Speak My Mind!" doll in 1991. With the pull of a string, Urkel says phrases such as;

"No sweat, my pet!"
"Hee, hee, hee, *snort*"
"Got any cheese?"

And of course you couldn't have a talking Urkel doll if it didn't say, "Did I do that?"

These days the doll is fairly common on secondary markets, and one can obtain one for as little as fifteen to twenty dollars mint in the box. Of course you'll run across the occasional seller here and there that thinks someone will drop fifty to a hundred on it - Which they won't.

"If you want to do the Steve Urkel Dance,
All you have to do is hitch up your pants,
Bend your knees, and stick out your pelvis;
(I'm  telling you, baby, it's better than Elvis)"

Those were some of the obnoxious lyrics to what would soon be dubbed the Do the Urkel dance. The dance steps incorporated all as noted above, and oddly enough it took the world by storm. So much to the point that White portrayed the character in a cross-over episode of Full House where he reprises the dance.

In 1991, game makers Milton Bradley wanted folks at home to join in on doing the Urkel with their fun boardgame of the same name. Though the game involved a lot of doing the Urkel, the main concept was to be the first player to obtain eight Bow Tie cards.

Game play was simple enough. Each player chooses a corner of the board to start in, then a chosen starting player rolls the dice in the designated dice tray. The dice will either land on an arrow, or a pair of glasses. If it lands on an arrow, the player takes the corresponding Bow Tie card that it is pointing to. If it lands on the glasses, the player can choose any of the cards.

Players must then act out the instructions on the cards before claiming them which could include singing the lyrics to Do the Urkel, hiking up their pants, snorting, and more. After claiming their card, the player can continue to roll if they choose or pass to the turn to the next player. Should they continue to roll, if the arrow points to another card, they can claim that card as well by performing out the acts, and can then continue rolling. However, should the dice arrow point in the direction of a card that has already been claimed, all cards are forfeit, and the turn moves on to the next player.

You continue this torture until someone has obtained a set of eight cards, and the game ends.

This next item actually has a rather ironic packaging scheme. It's entitled the Family Matters View-Master 3-D. However, Tyco makes the central focus of the package Urkel, with the rest of the cast confined to a small bubble off to the side of the character. Apparently family doesn't matter.

Tyco produced the View-Master 3-D in 1991 along side several others TGIF lineup shows such as Full House and Blossom. Though we don't remember what story was showcased on the packed in reels, the blister pack was based on the episode where Urkel "rescues" an orangutang from a local research facility, and brings it to the Winslow's home. Now not only could you take in the visual story of Family Matters, but you could do it all in glorious 3D!

Last, but certainly not lease in the realm of Urkel "collectibles" is Colorforms 1991 Urkel! The premise was simple - Take a gloss finished background of Steve Urkel, and adhere peel and stick outfit pieces on top of him. When finished, peel of the pieces again, and put them back in the box or mix and match further combinations. Wow, what a blast of a good time....Zzzzzzz.

Sadly there isn't much more to this one that we can say. It's a pretty straight forward concept.

Though we didn't go into great detail on it, you can also check out the cereal box for Urkel-O's from our post on Cereals of the 80's. With that, we wrap up our look at one of the world's most beloved nerd. Now if only we could get all of the above utilizing the character Booger.

Join us next time when we take a look at Army of Two - 40th Day!

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Print Putty (AKA Secret Print Putty) (Colorforms)

Print Putty (AKA Secret Print Putty)
Colorforms
1966

We don't touch on the Colorforms brand as often as we could here at The Toy Box, but one thing is for certain, the toys that they made were a lot of fun - If not simply for the fact that so many were odd and obscure.

Much mystery surrounds who actually invented Silly Putty first, but according to Crayola, the owner of the patent, it was invented in 1943 by James Wright during World War II. Since then, it has been produced numerous times over with Crayola's own patented Silly Putty name, Imperial's Play Putty, Durham's Fun Putty, Colorform's Print Putty, and so many other various iterations. It's a toy that has lasted on shelves for over fifty years, and show no signs of stumbling in popularity any time soon.

But, what is it about this intriguing putty that makes kids young and old so attracted to it? Plain and simply - It's multifunctional. It can be shaped into a ball, and bounced about. It can be stretched out and used to mold various shapes. However, what most kids absolutely loved about it is its ability to transfer ink from comic book pages onto its surface simply by pushing it down on the comic strip, then lifting it back up.

As we said above, numerous companies have released some form of Silly Putty. Today, we're going to be looking at the 1966 era from Coloforms known as Print Putty - AKA Secret Print Putty.

Coloforms released numerous packages onto the market all at once which included; Batman, Superman, Green Hornet, Monster, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Respectively, Green Hornet and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. were released under the banner, "Secret Print Putty", while the others were just called Print Putty.

Each ball of putty came packed on its own unique card, and included a small "Secret Print Book" which contained "Magic Print Paper" - Though in truth, there was nothing magical about the paper at all as one could use the putty to pull the image off of any printed comic book or strip. Each putty ball was also packed into its own unique container, such as the skull for the Monster Print Putty and / or planet Krypton for Superman.

Most of these particular brands of putty can still be found today on secondary markets, but they're going to set you back anywhere from $40.00 to $400.00 - The cheapest being The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (which is fairly common on markets), and the most valuable being the Monster Print Putty (which is rarely found on markets).

Those looking to track these items down should be careful, especially with the Monster Print Putty as reproductions have been known to surface and sell. As of now, we have not heard of anyone trying to pass the reproductions off as original releases, but needless to say, there's always a chance this could happen. Even then, reproductions are still going to set you back about $150.00.

Of course, there's really no sure way to know if you're getting the original putty in an opened version, and as such most buyers looking for these items typically seek out only sealed in package versions. Again though, you need to be careful as a lot of the reproductions being produced are also sealed in the package.

For as simple as (Silly) Putty is, it's amazing how it has managed to stand the test of time while other more complex toy lines come and go - Sometimes in what seems like a blink of an eye. We suppose that it comes down to the tried and true statement - Simple is better.

***Honorable Mention***

Colorforms continued to produce a format of putty after its (Secret) Print Putty line. However, latter releases tweaked the title on the cardback to be more specific to the item inside. A perfect example of this is the Space Putty package to the right.

Unfortunately the package was so simplified in terms of what was inside that it only included a ball of putty in a shaped container. Gone was the fantastic print book with wonderful artwork to transfer to the putty - Though it still had some wonderful illustrations on the package.

Though we tried desperately to find one to include in this post, we simply could not put our hands on the Spooky Putty. This particular package was a Mickey Mouse and Pluto themed release which featured a glow in the dark skull container reminiscent (if not identical) to the original Monster Print Putty container. If we ever come across one, we'll update this post with it.

Join us next time when we take a look at The Phantom!

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