Surveying the Gen X landscape and the origins of geek
Plot and layouts by Marie Severin, words by David Anthony Kraft, pencils by Kerry Gammil, inks by Mike Esposito, and colors by Stan Goldberg. You can read some pages at Blog into Mystery.
The Dallas Times Herald partnered with Marvel several times in the early ’80s. Here’s another comic from the same year.
Cover by John Romita, Plot by Jim Salicrup, words by David Kraft, pencils by Kerry Gammil and Alan Kupperberg, inks by Chic Stone, and colors by Marie Severin. See more here.
Ballantine’s Silver Jubilee Edition of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings was the first paperback edition to appear after the 1978 animated feature, and the first edition I read. I have very strong memories of reading Fellowship every morning as my dad drove me to school, and, later, ignoring my mom’s calls to dinner as I sat in my room, transfixed by Boromir’s death in The Two Towers.
Sweet’s art was taken from the 1982 LOTR calendar. You can see all the images in high resolution at The One Ring. The Fall of Numenor was used for the cover of Ballantine’s 1982 edition of The Silmarillion. These are still the definitive covers for me, and I think his Fellowship painting is particularly brilliant.
Sweet painted all the covers but one for Robert Jordan’s inexcusably long Wheel of Time series. He passed away in 2011 before he could finish the final piece. Irene Gallo gave him a fine eulogy, featuring some of his outstanding work, at Tor.
MOTU not homoerotic enough for you, kids? Well, now you can create your own bare-skinned He-Man action with lots of rubbing and playing, provided you own a “rubbing tool” and are at least four years old! Warning: rubbing action that lasts longer than two hours may cause chafing, cramping, blurred vision and other harmful side effects.
Rub n’ Play was Colorforms’ answer to Presto Magix (though the idea of adhesive figures arranged on a backdrop was developed by Colorforms in 1951). My favorite Presto Magix knock-off is Imperial’s Rub-A-Doos.
(Images via eBay/DIG Auctions)
I think the Masters of the Universe franchise stinks. To me, it’s just a dumbed down mash-up of D&D and Star Wars. Still, there’s no denying its overwhelming impact on the kid world at the time. Do I happen to have an awesome photo of a youngster holding the sword and shield (and wearing the belt) from one of these HG sets? I do.
There was a Blue Thunder toy line produced by Multi-Toys, for some reason, but I believe only the helicopter made it to the shelves. Leave it to HG to jump on the scraps: Blue Thunder Dress Up Helmet Set?
Eagle Force was an action figure line released by Mego in 1982, the same year G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero premiered. (I’ll delve into the two lines at some point, because it’s clear that Hasbro ripped off some of Mego’s designs). Mego shut down operations in 1982, and Eagle Force was done, so it’s curious to see the name still being used in ’84.
The Last Starfighter Target Set is so incompetent that I sort of adore it. Is that supposed to be Grig on the right? Mercy.
(Images via Parry Game Preserve)
The set seems to be a rip-off of both DFC’s Dragonriders of the Styx (1981) and Miner’s Dragon Crest/Mysterious Castle (1982) Playsets. HG also made a Sword & Sorcery Castle Mountain Playset, which looks as flimsy as it is massive. The base set first appeared in 1982. Here are both sets in the 1984 HG catalog.
HG had a Sword & Sorcery line that included weapon sets—very similar to Placo’s 1984 AD&D weapon sets. The Power Bow is listed as a new item in the catalog, so it’s possible HG beat Placo to the market. Neither line sold well.
It’s hard to believe HG managed to trademark the name “Sword and Sorcery,” a phrase coined in 1961 by Fritz Leiber to describe Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories and the genre they spawned.
(Catalog images via Parry Game Preserve)
I’d completely forgotten about these. I had the cleverly named Space Van (on the package it was called Space Vehicle). You looked through a viewer in the back of the van and saw what was going on inside—the Hulk, for instance, was smashing stuff. It doesn’t sound like much, but it was a cool illusion, a momentary voyeuristic satisfaction. It’s not like we’d ever find out what was going on inside the real vans the older kids inhabited.
The scene on the card is what you saw inside the van. Here’s the Space Vehicle card and actual viewer image, the latter via Hobby Talk. (Click link for more viewer images.)
The Scene Machines were released in ’79 and continued to be produced until at least ’81. You can see some later models (Thor and the Human Torch included) at Plaid Stallions.
(Images via Hot Wheels Wikia, eBay, and Hobby Talk Forums)
From the GMC ad:
You’re a vanner.
Which all by itself tells us something very important about you: You’re an individualist. A free thinker. And you absolutely abhor the idea of driving what everybody else does.
(Images via eBay)
A found photo that defines ’70s youth culture more poignantly than eight years of a certain TV show that shall not be named. What a beauty, in every sense.
Can anyone figure out what’s on her shirt?
(Photo via The Kat’s Meow Antiques/eBay)
2 Warps to Neptune 