Saturday, February 19, 2022

The 1997 International Toy Fair (ToyFare Spring Special Edition 1997)

Toy Fair New York 2022 was originally going to be held this weekend, however, it was canceled. I scanned this article when I was putting together the Spider-Man post last month as it is from the same issue of ToyFare magazine. It wasn't until I went to post this that I realized this year's show had been canceled which had been announced back on January 11th. That's unfortunate but there is no reason not to still post these 13 pages that have feature many photos of action figures which is what ToyFare focused on.





Sunday, February 13, 2022

Avon NFL Huddles Gift Set

This is one of my non-gaming and non-toy posts though one could say trading cards fall into the toy category. I'm a sports fan and typically do something around MLB Opening Day and Super Bowl Sunday, and this year I'm taking a look at the NFL Huddles Gift Set from Avon. In 1983 the NFL released "Huddles" branded merchandise which were cute versions of each team's mascot; not all teams have mascots so in those cases it's just a short, rounded guy. I suspect the best known of the items is the plush toy line made by Tudor Games. This 1984 set from Avon includes a football shaped soap on a rope and a set of trading cards featuring the aforementioned mascots on the front and team histories on the back. I've never used the soap so it's still in good condition as is the box. Coincidentally, this year's Super Bowl teams are next to one another on the front cover.

The box image wraps around all four sides but my scans don't line up perfectly. Also, and this may seem stupid to many, but I want the blog to be a fun place for all and I try my best to not offend so I opted to change the Washington team name on the front of its card. Of course, Washington's former name was controversial and offensive to some. However, I did leave the team name in the paragraph on the back of the card since it describes the team's history. That card's colors didn't scan properly either. What should be burgundy looks green in the original scan and more brown than burgundy on the card itself so I did some editing but it's still off and other colors on the card are now too bright. While the order doesn't matter, I actually meant to scan the teams alphabetically within each division, yet I managed to place them on the scanner backwards. I've grouped the teams together based on where they'd be in today's divisions rather than 1983.

AFC East


AFC North

AFC South

AFC West

NFC East

NFC North

NFC South

NFC West

As far as the Super Bowl goes, I'm going to pick the Rams to win by more than a touchdown. Both teams have good offenses, however, the Rams defensive line is likely to be the difference maker. While I'm not a fan of either team, I do like their helmets. In fact, these could be the best looking team helmets to ever appear together in a Super Bowl. The Rams have great helmets, maybe the best in football, and the Bengals aren't too bad either. No boring names or animal mascots here, just cool patterns.