Surveying the Gen X landscape and the origins of geek
We didn’t have Child World in Southern California, but my mother did put lots of stuff on layaway. Try to explain that concept to Gen Y.
The Flying Finnegan game on the second page looks pretty sweet—for about five minutes.
Here’s a great view of the Cheerios box appearing in the ad, courtesy of Gregg Koenig.
The game was made in Italy and sold in select European markets, including the UK. The art, really nice, is original and uncredited.
It’s less than 2 inches in circumference! Helix made Star Wars-themed school supplies for the UK, some of it seen below via Matt & Kristy and eyeSPIVE. You’ll see the pencil sharpener, very clean and bright, in the second shot.
I hope there’s a calculator in the “Maths Set,” because that’s the only thing that ever made numbers easier for me.
It looks so sad when it’s deflated.
Was there really a “Remote Ball” (bottom left panel in the second photo)? Is that what’s in the commercial below, or are those just balloons?
Catalog diving never gets old. We were conditioned at an early age, and the sight and smell of these filmy, glossy pages is like the ringing of Pavlov’s buzzer.
I was surprised to see that the Micronauts Battle Cruiser ($19.95) was more expensive than the Death Star ($17.95). Mego just couldn’t recover after rejecting the Star Wars license, although I think the Micronauts line, even in its last throes, is more creative.
I love the Super Joe toys, including Terron, shown at the bottom of the second page. You can see commercials here and here.
The “Sonic Ear” is new to me. It amplifies sound, which is pretty lame, but what a great looking gun to take into a space battle.
Don’t miss the Fonz watch—the strap is denim-colored, naturally—on the last page.
(Images via Yesterday’s Ads/eBay)
There were two Six Packs. The second set had a red background and included Rebel Soldier, Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear), Han Solo (Hoth Battle Gear), Darth Vader, C-3PO, and R2-D2.
Note the markdown in the first photo from $13.97 to $5.00. The last photo shows a different set with a markdown from $17.95 to $14.96 ($2.50/figure, about the average when sold separately). The copyright date on the box is 1981, and the ESB figures first appeared in 1980, so the only thing I can think of to justify the $5.00 price is that everyone already had the individual figures by 1981.
My Favorite Star Wars Episode IV poster, with the Millennium Falcon appropriately cast as the hero, didn’t come out until 1982. It’s by master artist Noriyoshi Ohrai for the 1982 Japanese re-release. Ohrai also did exquisite posters for The Empire Strikes Back, The Road Warrior, The Goonies, and The Beastmaster, all of them equaling or bettering their American counterparts, in my opinion. He is accomplished in paperback, toy and game illustration as well. Inexplicably, he has no American fan site that I can find.
You can see many of Ohrai’s posters, including the Heisei-era Godzilla beauties, at Film on Paper. See his Road Warrior (Mad Max 2) poster at Pinterest.
The Star Wars (1982) poster is via Pinterest and Film on Paper (detailed views available).
2 Warps to Neptune 