Since around 1991 I've been collecting vintage toys. One of the earliest things I found at a boot sale was a doll of Breathless Mahoney. I didn't know who that was but the label, which was still attached, said Dick Tracy, which I did know!
Breathless was in a cellophane baggy, which might explain her breathless state. She had peroxide, maybe yellowish hair in a shock and a long sleek black dress. Later I found out that there was a accompanying doll of Dick, with a beige trench coat and a wide rimmed hat. They were both released in 1990.
Miss. Mahoney was sold through my mail order toy service, which I advertised in Model Mart magazine in the 1990's. Somewhere on one my ancient hand-written lists, which I have stashed away, Breathless will be listed with a ridiculously low price like £3. This was the decade before Ebay in the UK, which arrived on our shores in 2000 and changed everything.
Its only recently that I've realised that the dolls were actually based on a 1990 movie of Dick Tracy starring the Queen of Pop Madonna and aging hunk Warren Beatty. It's not a movie I've seen. You?
Yup, seen the movie, it's okay. Love the title song (I think) from the soundtrack. Got the Madonna figure. I'm 'mad on 'er' (see what I did there?).
ReplyDeleteha ha. I always liked Madge too Kid and many of her toons and videos were great. I enjoyed her part in Desperately Seeking Susan. Not sure I've seen her in any other flick.
DeleteI do remember seeing the movie on TV years ago. It went for a comic book feel, with Tracy in a yellow trench coat. At the time Ertl produced a set of four die-cast cars. These were Tracy's Car, Tess's Car (his girlfriend, Tess Trueheart), a Police car, and Itchy's Car (he was the villain). The car used by Breathless Mahoney was not modelled. There is an article on these models by Mike Pigott, who writes for Diecast Collector magazine.
ReplyDeletehttps://mikepigottsdiecasttoysandmodels.wordpress.com/2018/10/12/dick-tracy-by-ertl/
There was also a 1/25th scale plastic kit of of the Dick Tracy car by AMT, who were owned at the time by Ertl, both names appearing on the box. I actually built this kit in the 1990s for a friend who liked old cars, but was not a modeller. He decided that he wanted it painted white, despite the kit being moulded in black plastic. Not a good choice.
Cheers Paul. I'd no idea the film spawned so many toys. I have seen the action figures that came out and there is a truly rare one called The Blank. I doubt I'll be finding it at a boot sale any time soon. Thanks for the link. Very interesting. Dick Tracy has to be one of the oldest merchandising characters around having started on the radio I bet.
DeleteHe started out in 1931 as a newspaper comic strip. There was later a radio series, comics, actual books, movie serials, feature films, cartoons, and live-action TV shows. Just about everything. There is an extensive entry on Dick Tracy on Wikipedia. There were also plastic kits by Aurora.
ReplyDeleteWow! That's old! Maybe older than Batman, Flash and Buck?
DeleteBatman first appeared in 1939 in Detective Comics; Flash Gordon in 1934 in a newspaper comic strip; and Buck Rogers in 1928 in a story in the science fiction pulp magazine Amazing Stories. So only Buck is older than Dick Tracy.
ReplyDelete