My Dog Has Fleas! Ideal toy shop catalogue, 1980s, France

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My Dog Has Fleas (Sacapuce) game from Ideal.

Featured are some instantly recognisable toys and games which were available worldwide throughout the 1980s, as sold by the Ideal company. Some of the toys had already been around for a while – like Buckaroo (1970) and KerPlunk (1967). I had both of these, plus a Rubik’s Cube, and one of my brothers had the TCR ‘Super Trucks’ racing track set.

The images are from an Ideal company catalogue which would have originally been distributed to toy shops throughout France, then handed out to customers by the shop owner. Exact date is unknown.

Cover. Ideal toy shop catalogue. 1980s. France. Rubiks Master Cube.

1980s Rubik’s Cube puzzles from Ideal.

Buckaroo ‘Bourico’ from Ideal.

KerPlunk ‘Plunk’ or ‘Crash Plunk’ from Ideal.

TCR – Total Control Racing!

TCR Super Camions. Ideal.

TCR – The Dukes of Hazzard / Starsky and Hutch ball of confusion!

 

Question:

What is strange about the following The Dukes of Hazzard TCR advert?

TCR ‘Starsky and Hutch’. Ideal.

Answer:

Oops, they made an error in listing The Dukes of Hazzard as Starsky and Hutch…

Sharp-eyed readers will also notice an alternative roof design of the General Lee vehicle, as well as the incorrect appearance of the number ’11’ instead of the correct ’01’.

Detail. TCR Dukes of Hazzard / Starsky and Hutch catalogue listing error.

This mishap wasn’t just limited to a French Ideal catalogue entry…

… an actual box version was released in France with the same errors!

Starsky and Hutch / The Dukes Of Hazzard error production box. Image courtesy of Lulu-Berlu.

Starsky and Hutch / The Dukes Of Hazzard error production box. Image courtesy of Lulu-Berlu.

That’s all for now vintage mates...

Thank you for mixing up your franchises and de-flea-ing the dog with us 🙂

Coming soon… toy products from the Ertl company, plus more TVTA Halloween party teasers! 🎃🎃🎃

14 thoughts on “My Dog Has Fleas! Ideal toy shop catalogue, 1980s, France”

  2. The only toy here I know about is Rubik’s Cube (not the master cube, just regular).
    I do however, know the difference between Dukes of Hazard & Starsky and Hutch cars.
    Interesting post, and the Sacapuce is a very different idea for a toy!

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  3. Hi TVTA, I have quite a few of Rubik’s fiendish puzzles and I owned a TCR World Rally Peugeot 205 set but I would have loved a Starsky & Hutch Generally Wrong set (sorry I meant Duke of Hazzard General Lee set)
    The TCR sets were so cool being able to change lanes at any time instead of just on “Crossover” lane sections of Scalextric. As I had limited space in my home TCR were also better for me duet to them being slightly smaller scale. But you could still modify them sets and get “Jammer” drone cars.
    But I would have liked a Batmobile. On a side note did either of you have a Ferrari F! car for Scalextric with the cotton wool plume of smoke attached to the back? Somebody jokingly created a set of accessories with smoke plumes and Pit Crew Members holding fire extinguishers when Ferraris kept breaking down!

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    • Hi FT. Yes, definitely one of the bonuses of TCR was its smaller scale to fill the floor space. Ha, that would be funny to see some Scalextric smoking Ferraris. I remember my Le Mans had working front and rear lights, and I think some sets came with ‘revving’ sound effects on the hand controler.

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      • Hello again, I’m not sure the Ferrari Flame kits were official (I even think there was talk of lawsuits as the kits showed Ferrari in a bad light!) But they did look funny whizzing round the track .Now, here’s the question…did you ever do a 24 hour race? (I have on Playstation’s Gran Turismo game)

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      • Ah so you like sliding! I really liked the Rally stage races too…Tahiti was a great stage with all those hairpin downhill bends. I was a Subaru Imprezza fan (much more balanced than the Mitsubishi Evo). Having said that though, there’s nothing like doing 200mph+ in an Audi prototype down the Mulsanne Straight (why’d they have to put in those chicanes though?)

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  4. A veritable blast from the past as far as TCR is concerned my friend, hadn’t thought about that in a while. That said I never personally owned any TCR sets but I do still have my Batman/Joker Scalextric set somewhere, always remember fighting with my brother over who’d be the one to use Keaton’s Batmobile! 🙂

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