Remember those Summer afternoons spent out in the dirt, making ramps for your General Lee to jump over? How about those epic battles pitting the heroic Rebel Alliance against the evil Empire that played out in a miniature opera on the carpet of your bedroom floor? Or do you smile as you look back on those days spent smashing the muscle-bound heroes of Eternia against the equally ripped and weapon-bristling henchman of Skeleor?
Well, author Mark Bellomo certainly does, and he skillfully shows it in his lovingly crafted book, Totally Tubular ‘80s Toys, a 254 page, coffee-table-style tome preserving for history 10 years’ worth of the greatest toys of the “Me Decade”.
Toy collectors are often driven by nostalgia. In fact, it’s probably a safe assumption that the vast majority of toy collectors are collecting vintage figures either from their youth, or at least modern day versions of figures that remind them of the toys of their youth.
With a wistful eye towards the past, many collectors find themselves hungry for more and more information about the pop cultural collectibles of days gone by, whether to increase their knowledge or to simply float in the warm embrace of how things once were. The most obvious way of doing this is through the actual collecting itself, but the next best thing is curling up on the couch on a rainy weekend afternoon and slowly poring Bellomo’s book, drinking in all of the fantastic photographs, devouring the little tidbits of information about each toy.
In Totally Tubular ‘80s Toys, Bellomo has built a year-by-year run down of the hottest toys to hit the shelves, from 1980 (with the onslaught of Kenner’s Empire Strikes Back line) through 1989 (with the Toy Biz Marvel Comic reboot).
The true beauty of this book, besides the slew of full color photographs, each one a jolt to the memory cells of your brain, is the overall sense one gets while reading that the author is writing from the heart, the same kind heart that holds tight to the playthings of our past, much like the hearts of collectors like you and me. One can almost imagine themselves sitting with Bellomo (also the author of The Ultimate Guide to G.I. Joe as well as articles for Toyfare Magazine) in his garage, rooting through boxes, pulling out a forgotten treasure and launching off into another bout of “Oh, man! I totally remember this!”
There were a few odd notes (A Chia Pet? In a toy book?), and I admit to skimming, if not completely skipping, some of the “girly” sections (like the Cabbage Patch Kids and Barbie). And it must be noted that this is not a book exclusively about action figures, including sections on games (Trivial Pursuit and Jenga) and other ‘80s fun stuff (Atari and Rubik’s Cube), but our adventurous plastic friends clearly dominate the book.
In short, non action figure fans will still have plenty to dive into in this book, while readers of this website, devoted to action figures, will still be greatly satisfied.
Some of the action figures found in the book include all of the big-namers such as Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Masters of the Universe. But Bellomo made sure he gave a respectful tip of the hat to such lesser-known, yet equally great, toy lines like Sectaurs, Silverhawks, Clash of the Titans, Tron, Indiana Jones and the A-Team, to name just a few. On a personal note, I found myself delighted to see one of my all-time favorite action figure lines, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (LJN, 1983) given a whole 3 pages alone!
I read this book from cover to cover once, then went back and perused through all of the pictures two more times after that, and probably will again on a regular basis, anytime one of my friends says something along the lines of, “Hey, do you remember those action figures that had holograms for faces? What were they called?”
I can’t recommend this book enough to all levels of collector, whether you’re a casual buyer of the occasional vintage figure, or the collector who is building the ultimate vintage toy room. Even those who don’t collect at all, and would just enjoy a stroll down memory lane, peopled with Smurfs, M.U.S.C.L.E. men and Mork from Ork, would find this book an absolute treat.
Bellomo has created 254 page love letter to the toys we all grew up with, and what a totally tubular love letter it is.