Just as promised, it's time for this week's Flintstones retro memorabilia spotlight, and for today, I'm looking at Marx's line of Flintstones TV Tinykins. Marx made a lot of collectibles based around the Hanna-Barbera characters, but the TV Tinykins seems to be one of the more famous ones they put out. For those who've never heard of them before, these were small and cheap figurines based on the Hanna-Barbera characters. They covered everyone from Quick Draw to Yogi, and The Flintstones were obviously included in that lineup. Released back in 1961, the line included Fred, Wilma, Barney, Betty, Dino (now in green!), Baby Puss, the Fire Chief, and a Traffic Cop. Remember, this was before characters like Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm debuted, so they had to reach a little for characters beyond the core four. Below is what they looked like in and out of box, as well as a neat store display setup for the toys!
One interesting thing about this line is that they also sold characters in bundles. For example, here is The Flintstones set, if you wanted just the characters from that series.
Probably the oddest thing about these toys, however, is that over a decade later, they were given away for free inside of packages of Fruity Pebbles. Guess they had to get rid of that unsold product somehow!
Last, but most certainly not least, here's a great commercial showcasing the line of figures, complete with a catchy tune!
I assume the cop and fireman are taken from the "Rise and Shine" opening (Hey, where's the newsstand owner who hands out copies of the Daily Slate gratis, and the bulky budgie Fred covers during the closing credits?).
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