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bornin62
SS novice field agent
USA
527 Posts |
 Posted - 05/28/2020 : 07:26:43
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Don't know if this was ever discussed (probably was), but I am wondering what items were marketed during the series original run?
I know about the lunch box. I know about the board game (where the picture on the box trumps the game inside). I know there was a model of James West, but I believe that was something produced years later. Were there ever bubble gum cards? I know Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea had cards. Were there ever toys guns produced, back when toy guns were common? Just curious. |
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ccb
SS Quizmaster Emeritus
3854 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2020 : 00:30:54
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… what items were marketed during the series original run?
Astonishingly little. Here's the only merch I can remember.
1. A Signet paperback book (the old kind, which you could find stacked and racked in revolving metal display cases inside grocery and drug stores): "The Wild Wild West," by Richard Wormser. It's a bad novelization of "The Night of the Double-Edged Knife," with no credit given to scriptwriter Stephen Kandel. Given how poor the product turned out, he may have been pleased by that.
2. A company, whose name now escapes me, issued two writing tablets of pulpy, ruled, 8 and 1/2 x 11 paper, with an adhesive top. The two covers, which were glossy, featured publicity stills from early in the show's first season: Conrad, leaning on the billiard table inside the varnish car, holding a cue, dressed in all but his bolero jacket; Martin, posing with a smile in front of a fake frontier backdrop, in his first-season dress suit, tipping his hat and clutching a pair of riding gloves never worn in the series. Sue Kessler's book has facsimiles of these covers, plus an alternate take of Martin with his hat to his chest.
I paid fifteen cents for each of these from a an F. W. Woolworth's in the small town where I grew up. (Anyone out there remember Woolworth's 5 & 10?) I gave both tablets to a girl I was sweet on, who loved the show as much as I did. That was a generous expression of puppy love but a bad mistake. If you could find one now on eBay in mint condition, it would probably set you back $50 – $100.
3. Five Gold Key comic books, which still turn up on eBay occasionally. Most of the stories are lame; the cartoonists hardly tried to render facsimiles of RC and RM. The appeal of these 15-cent comics were the covers: color and/or black-and-white stills. The first three books feature publicity stills from Season One; the last two, from "The Night of the Hangman" (1967).
4. The Aladdin lunchbox, with thermos, which you mentioned. It was merchandised during the show's last year. I remember picking it up in a store in 1968, turning it around in my hands, thinking the art was poor. By that time I was too old to be taking lunch to school in a tin box. I put it back on the shelf. I wish now I had purchased it for nostalgia's sake.
During the show's run some cheap toy company merchandized a plastic derringer on a spring contraption that a kid could wear on the forearm—but it makes no reference to the series. It, too, is pictured in Sue's Bible.
There may be others I'm forgetting, but I can think of one toy that moved in the opposite direction: from real life into the series. In 1963 Marx Toys issued "The Big Parade": a set of five plastic toy soldiers in a row, with a big bass drum on a wheel in the center. It was battery-operated, but West's prop guys stuck a wind-up stem in the back, and voila: Dr. Loveless's "whirring death" (even though nobody in that episode dies from its explosion). I don't know how long the following link will be active, but at this writing the toy and the box it came in is available in mint condition on eBay for $300, plus $200 for shipping:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-1963-LOUIS-MARX-THE-BIG-PARADE-MARCHING-TOY-ORIGINAL-BOX-/264514329576
CBS and Garrison Productions could have made a bundle spinning toys and gimcracks off the show. Just think: cowboy boots with hollow heels for a variety of gadgets. Artemus make-up kits. Lionel train sets with West's varnish car, or Tyco metal replicas of only the car. View-Master discs from one of the episodes: in 3-D!
If only … |
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California gal
SS senior field agent
USA
8541 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2020 : 08:58:47
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| Great list, ccb. I remember seeing a couple of those items. And I certainly remember Woolworth's. Ours had a great lunch counter. I know they had a particular sandwich I liked but now I can't recall just what it was. I do know I was very disappointed when they shut down. Of course, nothing can be bought for 5 or 10 cents these days! |
James: Thanks, Artie.
Artemus: "Thanks Artie"! Is that all you can say to me? I've just come back from the grave, risen like Lazarus, and that's what you say? "Thanks, Artie"?
James: Thanks, Artie.
Artemus: It's a pleasure.
- TNOT Pistoleros |
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bornin62
SS novice field agent
USA
527 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2020 : 07:18:31
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Thanks ccb. That was very informative.
Any idea when the model kit was produced?
West was in peril from about half a dozen items you would glue (dynamite, tarantula, etc.) |
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ccb
SS Quizmaster Emeritus
3854 Posts |
Posted - 06/07/2020 : 23:12:06
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Any idea when the model kit was produced?
I beg your pardon. To which model kit are you referring? |
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bornin62
SS novice field agent
USA
527 Posts |
Posted - 06/08/2020 : 07:07:57
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It was a plastic model of James West that you would paint and glue together.
He was standing next to a barrel on a typical wooden western sidewalk and his life was in peril from, I believe, a tarantula, a stick of dynamite, a hand with a knife, and I don't know what else, but think there were more.
By your reaction, this must be a more recently produced item.
I know I saw it somewhere... |
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bornin62
SS novice field agent
USA
527 Posts |
Posted - 06/09/2020 : 08:01:15
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| I see it on ebay. Typed in James West Model. Apparently 'monsters in motion' makes them to order. Obviously a Very Current item! |
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SordoTheBandit
SS novice field agent
530 Posts |
Posted - 06/09/2020 : 09:46:18
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How about that brass cannon that sat on the mantle in the train? Or even that little silver knight in armor with the sword that tapped on the bell.
I always wanted those. |
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orrin cobb
SS novice field agent
USA
963 Posts |
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bornin62
SS novice field agent
USA
527 Posts |
Posted - 06/15/2020 : 07:13:24
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| The train set would have been a phenomenal tie-in. It was money just sitting on the table waiting to be picked up. Would have produced one heck of a collectible all those years later. |
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California gal
SS senior field agent
USA
8541 Posts |
Posted - 06/15/2020 : 09:14:47
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Leave it to Orrin to have the scoop on trains!
Hi Orrin! Glad to see you!! |
James: Thanks, Artie.
Artemus: "Thanks Artie"! Is that all you can say to me? I've just come back from the grave, risen like Lazarus, and that's what you say? "Thanks, Artie"?
James: Thanks, Artie.
Artemus: It's a pleasure.
- TNOT Pistoleros |
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orrin cobb
SS novice field agent
USA
963 Posts |
Posted - 06/15/2020 : 09:59:48
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| Thanks Cal Gal! |
"Let's get this train on the road!"-Artemus Gordon |
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orrin cobb
SS novice field agent
USA
963 Posts |
Posted - 06/15/2020 : 10:56:14
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| Thanks Cal Gal! |
"Let's get this train on the road!"-Artemus Gordon |
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ccb
SS Quizmaster Emeritus
3854 Posts |
Posted - 06/18/2020 : 16:21:36
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| Orrin knows more about trains than anyone else on the planet. Welcome back, sir. |
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orrin cobb
SS novice field agent
USA
963 Posts |
Posted - 06/19/2020 : 07:52:17
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| Thanks ccb! |
"Let's get this train on the road!"-Artemus Gordon |
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nittanyapple
SS senior field agent
USA
8613 Posts |
Posted - 06/27/2020 : 15:52:40
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| It’s good to see some of the gang here this week! I have missed the banter and reminiscing. |
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