Surveying the Gen X landscape and the origins of geek
Colorforms took the transfers from a previously released Peanuts set and added a disco ball-illuminated dance floor, whereas the Star Snoopy set came with all new transfers. The dance floor is pretty cool, though. Snoopy as the World Famous Disco Dancer was introduced in the Peanuts strip in October 1978.
Following the immediate success of the Endless Quest books (1982), TSR released a new series directed at girls. The “Pick a Path to Adventure” tagline was changed to “Pick a Path to Romance and Adventure,” and endless quest became heart quest, because, ladies, your life’s journey ends in the kitchen, seeing as how “you want his love to fulfill your life.” I haven’t actually read any of the books, to be honest, because they’re so rare, but I can’t imagine the quality is high enough to make up for the shameful product. The books are obviously designed to resemble the Harlequin romances of the time, and each volume had “stepback” art, meaning the cover illustration is framed by a cut-out front cover. Turning the cover reveals the full page illustration.
Larry Elmore and Jim Holloway did the cover and interior art, respectively, for the first four volumes, and children’s author Linda Lowery wrote volumes three and five. You can find more information on the series here.
Shaving kit bags were often used as dice/accessory bags. A brilliant solution, really. I also “borrowed” a few faux leather coin purses from my mom: no latch, you just squeezed the sides of the thing and it popped open.
One of the guys has a Trapper Keeper, and there’s another one on the shelf. Wish I could see what those books were.
(Photo via schmooksdad)
Dragonlance campaign, 1987, via Dean Stevens. Fishing poles, cat portraits, wide cans, prescription medication at the ready, a pool table light, and a shirt louder than the wall unit air conditioner. Sounds like the ’80s to me.
UPDATE: Actually, as we’ve been discussing on Facebook, they are likely playing on a covered pool table. There are pool cues on the right wall.
The commercial popularity of the occult was no longer in doubt after the film adaptations of Rosemary Baby (1968) and The Exorcist (1973), and the identification of witchcraft with the sexual revolution dates from Sex and the Single Girl (1962), by Helen Gurley Brown, and films like The Naked Witch (1961). In the following 10 years, much more was said, prompted more by male fantasy than reality, about “swinging covens.” At the same time, Playboy and Cosmopolitan (Helen Gurley Brown became editor-in-chief in 1965) had become cultural touchstones, and Hustler launched in 1974.
These two extremely rare items play on all of the factors listed above. Billed as “how-to” guides as opposed to games, they’re very rare and very pricey when they come around. Based on what I’ve seen—the outstanding male and female witch standees, for instance—role-playing seems to be involved. You can find lots of photos at Board Game Geek (here and here), thankfully. All we need now are scans of the respective “Manuals of Interpretation.” The kits are “based on the research of Dr. Brooke Hayward Jennings,” who doesn’t seem to exist outside of these two products.
Lovely shots by an unidentified photographer. I wonder why no one’s standing in line for Exorcist II.
UPDATE: David Augustyn, who works in Times Square, sent in the shot below from about the same angle and same time of day, taken on April 15, 2016. The more things change… Thanks, David!
(First two images via Tumblr)
2 Warps to Neptune 