Over the holidays I was talking to fellow AFi staffer Cantina Dan about the “olden days” of collecting and I mentioned my time in the mid 90′s out east and hitting “Hills” department stores as part of my regular run. I never had Hills in the mid-west and they seemed to be a treasure trove of old and new toys I was looking for (and some that I was not looking for). They were great for finding new 5″ Toy Biz Marvel figures, Kenner’s Aliens (and Predator) line and Playmates Star Trek figures as well as full runs of clearance Swamp Thing, Pee Wee’s Playhouse and Nightmare Before Christmas.
I WISH they were still stocked with the vintage toys in these old commercials! I would have very much liked to have walked in and found endcaps of Shogun Warriors, Micronauts and Generation 1 Transformers! I stumbled across these the other day on YouTube and they were just too weird and wonderful not to share.
All the Hills discount stores are gone now. But their memory and their commercials live on!
Just got this in the mail from the good folks at Round 2 and Captain Action.
Full feature coming soon…
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Posted by Julius Marx
About Me:
Julius Marx was know the world over for 10 years as the title character in the long running TV cop-on-the-edge show “Hockuly!” Now he writes about and takes pictures of toys and attempts to put all his weird knowledge to work for him. He has been collecting toys his entire life.
