Surveying the Gen X landscape and the origins of geek
It’s real, and it’s spectacular. The copyright date is 1978 by Tolkien Enterprises, and the manufacturer is Royal Family by Cannon, which I’m pretty sure refers to the American textile company Cannon Mills (1888 – 2003).
The comforter (twin sized) doesn’t appear in the 1979 LOTR/Tolkien Enterprises catalog, and this is the first time I’ve seen one, so there can’t be too many floating around.
On the first page of the 1981 TSR catalog, you’ll find the D&D Basic and Expert Sets, core role-playing products you’d expect to be front and center. In 1983, the toys come first. It looks like the action figure line wasn’t ready when the catalog went to press, because only the bendable monster and “adventure figures” (PVC) are seen here.
SPI games make an appearance on page seven because TSR acquired SPI’s trademarks in 1982/1983, as I mentioned here. Three of the computer games listed on the facing page are available at the Internet Archive: Dungeon!, Dawn Patrol, and Theseus and the Minotaur—(thanks for the heads up, Dungeons & Dragons: A Documentary). I’ve never seen or heard of Ordeal of Magic and Alien Conquest. Does anyone know if they were ever released?
Happy New Year, by the way.
Happy Holidays to all! Have fun and be safe. I’ll be back on January 5th.
(Ad is from a 1964 Chicago Tribune TV Guide, via Rick Goldschmidt)
Dr. Glaze wins Christmas!
Rick Shithouse sent in this shot of him in Torquay, Victoria, Australia on what he believes is Christmas, 1978.
I remember being highly excited as this was my first Star Wars Christmas, and I’m pretty sure I got some action figures and the remote control R2D2. Kind of hard to pick out what else I got that year however, because my birthday’s in early December, so those early years kind of blur between both gift receiving days.
I’m holding an Ideal Knight Of Darkness, which my parents thought was Darth Vader. My disappointment about this when I corrected them is still clearly in my expression…
The Micronauts Aquatron is on the table next to him, and I see Bert and Ernie dolls as well. Pictures of the major prizes, via the Star Wars Collectors Archive and all-things-Micronauts collector Chuck, are below.
Joseph Dickerson has good taste. Everyone knows by now how much I love the Micronauts line (Ken Kelly box art on the Hornetroid), and that’s The Hulk Rage Cage (Fun Stuff, 1978) in the background of the first shot.
Starcruiser was a series proposed in the late 1970s by Gerry Anderson about “an ultra-modern house where a mother, father, and two kids lived. At the touch of a button the house would literally fold into a spaceship. The family would travel around the universe from planet to planet… ” (See here for source and more background.) The series never made it to the air, obviously, but a comic strip of the same name appeared in UK’s Look-In magazine from 1977 to 1979. The writer and author of the strip was David Jefferis, who was working on Usborne’s World of the Unknown and World of the Future series at the same time. (My interview with Mr. Jefferis will run next month.) Airfix’s gorgeous model (1979) was based on the strip.
Side one of Timothy Smith‘s mom-transcribed list. I think he pretty much nails it. The Fisher-Price Sea Shark and Land Speed Racer are classic Adventure People sets.
I assume that “Hoth military vehicles – on[e] that looks like it flys” is the Snowspeeder.
I wonder if he got his machine gun.
Found photos of a very influential Marx set I talked about in a different Christmas morning shot. There were space exploration-themed playsets before Operation Moon Base, but this is the one that stuck. Molds from Moon Base would be re-used in different Marx sets (including 1979’s Galaxy Command) for nearly 20 years.
The playset format perfected by Marx dominated until Kenner met Star Wars.
Last year I posted TV Guide’s “Best Video Games of 1982,” by Len Albin. Thanks to Tom at Garage Sale Finds, we now have the 1981 edition by the same author. Lots of handhelds listed here, including Galaxian 2, a great game from Entex that allows one person or head-to-head play, with one of the players controlling the dive-bombing aliens.
Also check out the hilarious 1974 Avon Catalog Tom found, from which you can order a Thirteen Original Colonies Pillow ($8.99), or Loop-A-Moose Game and Soap ($2.99).
Compulsive Collector (see lots more Christmas toy cheer at the link) patrols the living room on his G.I. Joe Laser Defense Patrol Power Cycle. Coleco released a number of Joe trikes and ride-on vehicles starting in 1982, some of which you can see here.
There’s an empty Tron Light Cycle box on the ground to his right. The Light Cycle (orange) is on his left. In the second photo, he’s holding the Tron action figure and the Raiders of the Lost Ark Read-Along record. You can also see The Pac-Man Album (1980), a two-sided picture disc, playing on a Smurfs record player.
As toy and game vintages go, 1982 was extraordinary.
2 Warps to Neptune 