Posts Tagged ‘60’s’

I can’t imagine anything cooler than custom Monkees action figures. Check out  Mickey, Peter, Davy and Mike! I think they captured Michael Nesmith’s side burns perfectly. They always said the Monkees were made of plastic!

The only thing is, they were never made, they were custom made, in the classic Mego style.  The Mego company made rockin action figures in the early 70’s, but the company has been out of business for years.  Don’t fear, loyal fans are keeping the dream alive by re-manufacturing them! See the Mego Museum and check out the kind of toys Daddy played with as a kid.

You can read about Mego in this Wikipedia article:

In 1972, The Mego made a landmark deal and secured the licenses to create toys for both National Periodical Publications (later DC Comics) and Marvel Comics. During this time period, Mego released the very first ever comprehensive line of DC and Marvel character action figures and coined the term World’s Greatest Super Heroes! To start the line, Mego introduced Batman, Robin, Aquaman and Superman. But others soon followed.  read more.

If we could just get those Mego guys to make some rock themed action figures. Hmm. . .custom Mego/Beatle action figures! While I wait for my birthday you should check out some of our action figures here

We are hooked on the Bugaloos and how can you not be? Please listen and enjoy.

Here is some info from our friends over at the Bugaloos official site, Tranquility Forest:

The Bugaloos originally hit the airwaves back in 1970, and came from the highly creative minds of Sid and Marty Krofft. The Krofft brothers are well known for providing high quality children’s television in the 1970s. The Bugaloos was the second show in their wide and varied library.

The Bugaloos was a show about four musically-adept, teenaged kids, living in Tranquility Forest, along with their friend, Sparky the Firefly. Tranquility Forest was located about 10 miles outside of Rock City, where Peter Platter spun records at Kook Radio. Rock City was located in Rock Land, which was also the home of Benita Bizarre (nemesis to the Bugaloos), who lived in a huge jukebox, and was forever trying to find a way to get her records played on Kook Radio.

Here is the link to the Bugaloos website.

According to the website selling the guitar:

It was “one of seven models produced by Selcol. The ‘New Beat‘ guitar is made from red and burgundy plastic, and measures approximately 32 inches in length, with a full color group sticker and facsimile autographs on the body. The New Beat logo is picked out in silver to the left of the sound hole. It came with an original coffin-shaped cardboard box with a 9″ diameter full colour sticker on the lid. The package also contained an original fold-out instruction sheet, with lyrics and chords to five songs. Copyright issues prevented any of these from being Lennon-McCartney compositions.”

Read more and find one here.

There is nothing like being a Rock and Roller by night and a Super Hero by day:

The Impossibles was a series of animated cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera in 1966 and aired on American television by CBS. The series of shorts appeared as part of Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles.” - Wikipedia

Read the rest of the Wikipedia article here.

The Archies cartoon started in 1968 and they are considered one of the first animated Bubble Gum Rock band to jam during their show. The actual music for the band was sung by Ron Dante and was released as singles and records. The song Sugar, Sugar was a huge hit and a number 1 single for 4 weeks in 1969. The song was supposedly offered by the producer, Ron Kushner to the Monkees who refused to record it.

You can read more about it here.

Another of those Beatles knock offs, the Mosquitoes, made their way on to Gilligan’s Island. This is one of our favorite non-bands.

Notice how this band is clearly not playing their instruments! Come on guys just move your fingers around a little bit. This is strange because three of the Mosquitoes (Bango, Bongo, and Irving) were played by the three singers known as the Wellingtons, the group that sang the Gilligan’s Island theme song in the first season!

We found some information on the Wellingtons here!

The Archies, they’re not. They are, however, four hillbilly cats who love to rock. Yeah, yeah, we know how some of you feel about animated Bubblegum Rock bands. Are you forgetting that this is a site for kids after all?

One of Hanna-Barbera’s least known shows, the Cattanooga Cats, never had the popularity of the very similar, Banana Splits. Lead singer/guitarist Country was voiced by Bill Callaway, who also was the voice of Aquaman on the Superfriends. The drummer Groove was voiced by none other than Casey Kasem, who was also on the Superfriends, as the voice of Robin.

The show’s catchy tunes were penned and performed by music legend Mike Curb, who also produced for the likes of Roy Orbison and Sammy Davis Jr.  Curb is also known to be responsible for signing the group WAR to a contract as well as becoming Lieutenant Governor of California from 1979-1983.