Fonzie

[mego73]

Yup, I got Fonzie and the Motercycle as a kid. Only it wasn't Mego's motercycle for Fonzie. It was a catalog exclusive cycle and was made from the molds of Evil Knieval's chopper style cycle. Molded in black and gray, it retained the gears on the back wheel that hooked up to the rev up base but it had no friction moter.
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I remember buying Happy Days/Fonzie baseball cards down at the corner store, and I think we used Fonzie's bike along with all the Evil Knievel bike-jumping we did. Altho maybe not, since now that I think about it, it wouldn't have been designed for the charger like Evil's bikes were.

Can anyone pop a picture up of Fonzie's bike? I'm too lazy to look for one..

You probabaly had the catalog exclusive one, like I did. It would fit the charger but with no friction moter in it, it would not rev it up.

This is the bike I had




And this is the bike Mego made for Fonzie:

[Titan4ever]

Oddly enough, I got the whole Fonzie's Garage playset with the jalopy when I was a kid, but never had any of the Happy Days characters. My folk's just figured since it was the same scale as the WGSH stuff, that I'd love it. I sold off most of it at a yard sale, but I still have the clothes locker and toolbox with tools. Kept my extra AJ uniforms and parts in that locker for years. . .

[VintageMike]

Fonzie was one of my favorites to the point I took the Mego doll everywhere. As a few of this board know, he met a tragic end. I was holding him outside the window of the car one day, and my Mon said "if you drop him, I'm not buying you another one." I did and unfortunatately she kept her promise. I picked up a new one on the cheap, at a toy show in the early 90's. That one remains in my collection to this day.

[saildog]

You probabaly had the catalog exclusive one, like I did. It would fit the charger but with no friction moter in it, it would not rev it up.

That looks almost identical to an Evel Knievel chopper I had as a kid, only it was cast in Blue. The Evel chopper I had did have a motor in it though, and could be launched from the energizer that came with the original Evel setup.

[Jet-Jungle]

I had the Fonz for about 2 weeks then I traded him for the Falcon...one of the best moves I ever made as a kid, the other being Han Solo 12" for Gene Simmons...but the kids dad made him trade back, jerk.
The 70's ruled!

[chalwa]

Fonzie Geek...

I may have been a bigger Fonzie geek than Earth 2 Chris. I had cups, t-shirts, magazines (one was even called 'Fonzie's Love Book' which I thought was gonna help me pick up chicks. At 10! Boy, was I wrong!) and of course the mego 'thumb action' Fonzie. No bike or anything, but I thought that jacket was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I had a jacket like he wore in the first season or so and loved the heck out of that thing. I didn't know it was mego any more than I knew the heroes I had were mego. Company names didn't interest me then just playing! I think Fonzie beat the crap out of Batman at the Batcave but for the life of me I can't remember why.
Lost to the ages now and I also have not had the itch to get another (yet).
Wouldn't a playset with Fonzie, his bike, and Aquaman's shark have been cool? "Jump that thing, Fonzerelli!"
Heh.

bestest

Chris (of Earth-1?)

[kresge1]

Happy Days mania swept through my household in its prime.We were glued to the TV Set every Tuesday nite

[mishu2nite]

I always loved the Fonz, infact when I got back to collectiong toys way back when, I made it a priority to get an mint box example. I was lucky enough to get it signed a couple of months ago.

[img]http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/2545719/2007/8/28/fonz_show.JPG[/img]

[Wildstar]

That's a great pic, you can just tell how enthused Henry Winkler is to see another fonzie doll. Secretly you know he can't stand Fonzie. Happy days is the best show of all time, and Fonzie could be the best main character of all time. I have teh dvd's and watch them straight through quite often. I hope they do all of the seasons up to where Fonzie is a loser and has to move into a singles community with Potsie.

Fonzie is such an ironic character, for years he was mister cool and always saved the day. at the end of the show, he was just a shelf of himself~

Ashley left him to go back with her husband who she divorced and took her som with him. And she did by leaving a note~ Fonzie and ralph joined the army and got married.

Fonzie ended up moving into a singles community with potsie as his roommate.
It is really a sad ending for such a pivotal character. Sort of like Jerry Rice on the Seahawks and Broncos. Nobody remebers the end.

Wildstar~~~

[Earth 2 Chris]

Winkler looks tired in that shot, but I can't see him being the sad "this is how I have to make my living" type of convention celebrity. He still does high-profile acting work, and he still has his own production company, right?

When Raplph and Richie left, Happy Days went to pot. Fonzie growing a beard, becoming a teacher, and then going steady with that chick and her daughter (the girl from Poltergeist) was just a number of things they did to ruin the once cool character of Fonzie. I guess he had to grow up, but they should have just ended the show before they made us watch it. But I still watched it. I was such a mark.

Chris

[mego73]

Henry Winkler got really wealthy producing shows after Happy Days. So he doesn't have to do these autograph shows for the money. A split second snapshot is not a good judge of his attitude towards Fonzie and Happy Days. That expression could also mean "I can't believe someone has an untouched Fonzie doll from the 1970's".

[Wise4671]

Still got my Happy Days toys Got all the Megos Fonzie,s Garage playset (still have all the tools and the box for the playset) The Car has seen better days but still have it also still have a Fonzie on card (I got an extra one as a kid for my B-day so I kept it put up)

Pretty cool play set and figures

[mishu2nite]

Hate to reveal this:

I was looking forward to meeting him. I always heard he was a really nice guy. It was at a toy show, he was there promoting his childrens book. The first thing that was a let down was, you had to buy his book before you could get an autograph, then after that, they were like 40 each if I remember correctly. It was not a long line, infact there were only about 2 or three in front of me, and in back of me.

I first notice it looked like he was there to "get it over with". He rushed everyone by, why, I can't figure it out, since there was really no one there. He signed a book, the mego toy, and a baseball. It was so fast that I couldn't get a pic of him doing it, luckly my friend has a picture phone and got a shot of it.

When he signed the baseball, I asked him right after signing it if he could write "The Fonz" below it. He answered in a stern "NO". It was like whoo, sorry to ask. I think he hates that people automatically link him with the Fonz, rather than a complete actor/producer. I guess everyone has an off day, and I try and make myself believe it was one for him, so I can still think positively about him.
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Trust me whe I put to rest the thoughts of "He can't believe that someone had a 1970's doll of him mint in an original box" look. It could have been a piece of paper, he would of had the same reaction. He showed more intrest in signing the baseball infact.

[Earth 2 Chris]

That's too bad. I don't know of very many of these childhood celebrities that really live up to the way you remember them. That's why I tend to avoid these autograph situations. I got Adam West and Frank Gorshin's autographs, and they were pretty cool and very friendly (their manager/rep was kind of a jerk though). But I've heard so many horror stories (or at least disappointing ones like yours) that I just usually avoid these things.

A few years back I toured the Superman Museum in Metropolis, IL and Noel Neil happened to come in right behind us. I just left her alone, figuring she didn't want to be bothered. She did comment on how cute my son was though. That's better than any old autograph!!!

Chris

[VintageMike]

I went to a show Henry Winkler was signing at last month and did not get the impression he was "tired of" Fonzie. He walked down the line of people waiting to get this autograph and said "hi" to everyone. He was very firiendly to everyone who I saw and you didn't have to buy his book.
The only "negative" impression I got was that he didn't like signing toys specifically. Considering he was really cool otherwise I chalk it up to him thinking people getting toys signed just want to sell them. So he was very enthused to meet fans but not so enthused if he thought the person might just be a dealer. No harm from where I stand. I also can undertsand if he would like people checking out his current project (the book) but it seemed to me he knows and appreciated what brought him to the dance. I also take it, that it was postive expereince for him, because he is already coming back to NJ at in October for the Chiller Convention.