I Hate Palmers!

[JohnBolesGal]

You know I had some of those as a kid that I made my mom buy at a garage sale. I didn't know they were these Palmer toys til I saw this post. I had two of them and was fascinated by them - I had Creature and Dracula (maybe the reason for my early fascination with monsters - that and Sir Graves Ghastly helped). Lord knows what ever happened to them though - it was 30 years ago. I had two of those, smurfs, snoopy figures and legos - what an ecclectic combination eh?

I just noticed if you put them in the correct order they almost spell out Y-M-C-A (although the C is missing - well you could probably substitute the "C"reature for the C).

Oh and sorry you got taken on eBay....that sucks...
But thanks for the post - 2nd thing I learned here today.

[chrisnurse]

The Monster Grab bag Palmers were stolen by a company that made ice lolly sticks when I was a kid in the UK, well the Dracula and creature anyway. I doubt they were official in any way. They were moulded in white plastic on plastic sticks.

They are no doubt lurking in my parents attic somewhere as I was very fond of them, despite being peeved that they were so flat.

Next time I visit my parents, I'm going to spend a day in the attic as there are a few treasures I remember from childhood that are probably still hiding up there.

[poseablemonster]

Bring your camera, chrisnurse.  We need pictures!

[Dr.Terror]

Bobby, no one said you were showing off, LOL. 


Green, blue, red, or yellow..Fay or not I don't understand why anyone would pay more than $10 for one of these.   These are only valuable to certain people because they are rare, not because they are cool IMO.   The Marx figs are a dime a dozen but I'd take them any day of the week over these overpriced, overrated  army men.

[Toy Ranch]

Bobby, no one said you were showing off, LOL. 


Green, blue, red, or yellow..Fay or not I don't understand why anyone would pay more than $10 for one of these.   These are only valuable to certain people because they are rare, not because they are cool IMO.   The Marx figs are a dime a dozen but I'd take them any day of the week over these overpriced, overrated  army men.

Doc, I didn't take it that you said I was showing off.  I just don't understand why you said that seller is...

I like both the Marx figures and Palmers, but Palmers are far more special to me.  I had both when I was a kid.  The Marx figures sat in the toy box and looked cool, but I played with Palmers.  They battled with army men, they rode in little cars and trucks.  They got buried in the sand in the yard, and rose in sneak attacks on my little plastic Ft Apache, where Cowboys and Indians joined forces against them.  And when I look over to the shelf where my Palmer collection sits, as I'm doing even as I type this, those memories run through my head and it makes me happy. 

I always wondered why Kong had is hairy paw in the air like that.  I never saw Fay Wray or knew she existed until years later.  I'd love to have a Fay to put in Kong's hand some day, and some day I will. 

The Marx figures are better sculpts, by far, and they were always fun to look at.  I loved the colors of orange and teal together.  But the Palmers have a very special place in my heart.  I had some.  My friends had some too.  We played with them together.  Palmers were one of the few monster toys the other monster kids I knew had in common.  We all had a few monster toys, but all of us had Palmers. 

So their value to me has nothing to do with their rarity.  And as far as "cool" goes, I think they are one of the coolest monster toys ever.

[poseablemonster]

I love Palmers.  They are one of my favorite monster toys.  Certainly not because of their scarcity; in fact, only ceratin color variations could really be called "rare".  I love them because they are crude, cheezy, campy, fun and they epitomize what I like about monster toys in the first place; especially 60's monster toys.  They are one of the first monster toy lines that I started collecting years ago, and they will always be dear to me.  Marx monsters are much better sculpts, but that isn't what I look for personally.  Just a difference in taste, or lack of on my part!

[raycastile]

I like Palmer monsters more than Marx, but I like MPC pop tops most of all. 

As a child, I had none of the above.  I discovered all of them as an adult.

[chrisnurse]

Bring your camera, chrisnurse.  We need pictures!

I will try and hunt them out Andy. I have to do an attic trip to try and find the wolfman mini-monster. It seems to have happened all the time in the UK - sweet/candy companies stealing sculpts. I had a big candy container that had an AHI Kong water gun head also - sure that was an illicit recast.

[Toy Ranch]

I will try and hunt them out Andy. I have to do an attic trip to try and find the wolfman mini-monster. It seems to have happened all the time in the UK - sweet/candy companies stealing sculpts. I had a big candy container that had an AHI Kong water gun head also - sure that was an illicit recast.

You know...  from what I have been told, most "manufacturers" in Hong Kong through the 60's and early 70's were mom and pop type operations, working out of a small room with whatever equipment they needed.  It wasn't big factories for the small stuff.  They frequently made knockoffs from the original molds at night, after running their orders during the day.  Knockoff GI Joe clothes and such were made the same, with the same material, by the same people, but they didn't have the tag in them.  It's entirely conceivable that your AHI water gun head was out of the same mold, and not a recast...   or not.

[chrisnurse]

You know...  from what I have been told, most "manufacturers" in Hong Kong through the 60's and early 70's were mom and pop type operations, working out of a small room with whatever equipment they needed.  It wasn't big factories for the small stuff.  They frequently made knockoffs from the original molds at night, after running their orders during the day.  Knockoff GI Joe clothes and such were made the same, with the same material, by the same people, but they didn't have the tag in them.  It's entirely conceivable that your AHI water gun head was out of the same mold, and not a recast...   or not.

I had never thought of that, it makes utter sense. I have seen loads of vintage stuff that I remember seeing or having as a nipper that I presumed was recast and/or knocked off, yet a lot of it I remember being identical. There was this grocery store that my sister's friend's parents ran ( apparently, if you can say that backwards, you can summon satan) – man, that was a haven for cheap monster toys, stickers, transfers and cards. Didn't I read here that somebody within our ranks had invented a time machine?

[raycastile]

There was this grocery store that my sister's friend's parents ran ( apparently, if you can say that backwards, you can summon satan) – man, that was a haven for cheap monster toys, stickers, transfers and cards. Didn't I read here that somebody within our ranks had invented a time machine?

I had a time machine, but the guy in this video stole it.  Then he sent me the video just to rub my nose in it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfa9xYlkdLE&feature=related

[Gasport]

You definitely hit a nerve there, Ray... Extremely well done! Now ,could you make one for us kids who started at the beginning of the monster boom, re-discovering all the Aurora kits, Monster Nik trolls. Marx, Palmer , MPC, etc. figures?? If you do, i 'll most likely cancel my Cable TV and watch ONLY that...Makes me long for that huge bin of blue and orange Marx monster figures in Grant's variety store. WONDERFUL JOB!!

[raycastile]

Thank you!  I made that in 1995.  It is the final scene of a documentary about toy collecting.  Andy Williams helped on it, as did new UMA member Ronnie Salinas.

[chrisnurse]

Great video Ray, get the time machine back....get the time machine back!

[fmofmpls]

I like Palmer monsters more than Marx, but I like MPC pop tops most of all. 

Not me. I'm sorry Palmer apologists, but I gotta go with the Marx monsters every time. The Palmers were just too crude for my taste. Don't get me wrong, I really like crude (as in the Jaymar puzzle illustrations), but the Palmer monsters didn't have the "right kind of crude" to be endearing in my opinion. They were just poorly sculpted figures and were done so in haste like fashion. Now, I still enjoy having them in my collection, but if somebody were to hold me at gun point demanding plastic monster figures, I'd hand them a fistful of Palmers and think I got the better of the deal.