Walrusman! "That Looks Cool" Sketch Blog Week 10

Week 10 is here and it features my favorite vintage Star Wars action figure, Walrusman. The inspiration for this week's choice come from Gentle Giant's upcoming 12" reproduction Walrusman figure, which I have no choice but to buy.

I love, love, love the original Walrusman action figure, in all it's off-model glory. As a kid I never really got that he was the dude that looses his arm to Obi-Wan in the bar fight. I just thought he was this bad-ass alien who would lead my armies of aliens and robots against Luke and the Rebellion. An adversary, second only to Darth Vader in his villainy. So here's to you, Walrusman!

Walrusman piloting Mazinga, as he was prone to do during playtime

Vintage Toy Ads: Star Wars Episode IV "A Canuck's Hope"

Got some new, vintage toy ads. Hope folks like these as much as I love 'em. They bring back such fond memories of kid-dom, wish books and toy shopping. "Toy Porn", I guess.

This batch is Star Wars themed and from the great white north, so don;t be alarmed by these Canadian prices :)

Our First ad comes from "Consumer Distributing" a long gone catalogue store (similar to Service Merchandise) that went under in 1996. From November 7, 1979. Star Wars 3-Packs. Pretty good offerings, but I'm really surprised to see no Han Solo.

Also, check out the fantastic Energized Spider-Man. I loved that toy as a kid. I had the copter and web traps too. Played with that all the time.

 

Next up, some Star Wars watches from Texas Instruments from an ad that ran December 2, 1978. I don;t think it was for any store. It seemed to be an insert of hot holiday gift for 1978.

Here's a Sears ad from November 1, 1978 showing some early Star Wars offerings. I love the line art of the original nine figures. The Landspeeder art kinda nice too. Is it traced from a movie still? It looks a little more dynamic than the other toy art.

This December 7, 1982 ad from Kmart has a couple of unusual offerings. Die cast Star Wars ships and the Jawa Land Crawler don;t pop-up too often in the old ads that I see. Also got the Dagobah playset from Empire. Even in Canadian dollars, the prices seem crazy-cheap.

The cherry on top is this Sears ad from November 24, 1980. It's full-on Empire Strikes Back toy-orgy. First a Millennium Falcon set with Han and Chewie, killer stuff!

The sets of seven Star Wars figures kills me. set "f" "Includes Lobot", set "g" "includes Tusk the Ugnaught", set "h" "Includes Dengar" Way to sell the sizzle, Sears. Kids are climbing over each other to add the bald-guy in bell bottoms, the pig Umpa Lumpa and Mummy Johnny Cash to their Darth Vader collector case. Come on, set "F" has Boba Fette and IG-88 from Empire and they go with Lobot?

The biggie for me is the Imperial Attack Base. This is the same Christmas I got this toy and I played with it non-stop. I think It might have been on of the first playsets or bases I ever had. Everything before had been making things out of shoe boxes or Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys. But this, boy oh boy, had that laser cannon, the collapsing ice bridge and the bunker. It was used as so many environments, I used to pretend that it was the rebel base from Empire. I used to pretend that under the ice bridge was the cave where Luke got hung upside down by the Wampa. Writing this makes me want to jump on eBay and look for one now!

Other great stuff: The Tauntaun, the Rebel turret and probe, Imperial Troop Transporter, Snowspeeder, Dewback, Ice Planet Hoth (I had this too; loved, loved, loved the radar dish laser cannon), Cloud Car, X-Wing and Vader's Tie Fighter, and the Droid Factory. Also, the 2" tall Yoda is so popular you can order him by himself at $4.49 (seems steep considering Kmart has Dagobah advertised for $3.99 in the ad above)

I think I'm heading to eBay to look at Imperial Attack Bases...

-Matt

aka Dr. G

Famous Monsters #152 Halloween-ish Ads

Famous Monsters #152, jam packed with some killer monster and scifi ads, from 1979.


Masks


Super 8 Movies


More Super 8 Movies


All sorts o' cool stuff


Records


Tighty Whiteys!!! I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit...


Superman


Close Encounters


A Shit ton of Star Wars merchandise

Comic Ad-O-Rama Vol 1

One of my favorite things about older comics are the ads. If you were a devoted reader, some ads became as familiar as the comic characters themselves. And in those go-go pre-Internet days of the 70s, 80s and 90s, they were one of the few connections to the world at large about cartoons, comics, toys and all the other products.

I'll be posting these in a few parts, since sitting around and scanning is one of my most hated of activities. If they make a "Hostel III" and ask me to star in it, the movie would be 90 minutes of seedy European businessmen paying large sums of cash to force me to scan comics for hours on end. So, without further blah-blah-blah, Comic Ad-o-rama Vol. 1

M.A.S.K. toy ad

One of the greatest of the 80s toy/cartoon series. I still remember the exact moment that I saw this advertisement. I was skimming over the comic rack at the local Shopko while my mom looked at magazine. The mock air battle, the showcase of series 1 vehicles and figures, the idea of normal cars turning into jets. It was all perfect. I quickly made my way to the toy section and worked my best possible "toy begging face" to procure a shiny, green plastic wonder by the name of "Condor". It was the perfect toy. Cheaply priced, small enough to smuggle along on car rides, it came with a figure and a helmet that gave M.A.S.K. agent "Brad Turner" super powers. The rest is history.
GoBots model kits

I built and later used as fireworks fodder a great many of these kits.

Nestle Quick GoBots contest Ad

Voltron action figures ad

Loved these toys. A very American take on a Japanese series.

Warlord, K Mart exclusive line

Remco's answer to Masters of the Universe, a DC comic character no kid had heard of.

-----------------------------------------------

Bonkers Candy Ads

-----------------------------------------------

Saturday morning cartoon premier ads/New Cartoon series Ads.

These are some of my all time favorite types of ads. Childhood time capsules that charted many Saturday mornings. They also expanded my cartoon knowledge at a young age. I would would buy old comics at flea markets and garage sales and run across Saturday premier ads that would predate me. I'd see artwork for cartoons no longer airing; shows I had never even heard of at the time. I think that's how I discovered Johnny Quest, Space Ghost and some other classic cartoons.

CBS 1985
A more traditional cartoon ad that lists the shows. Luckily there's a big, shirtless Hogan to confuse boys and girls alike.

GoBots. By the way, "They're Awesome!"

Jetson and Galtar Ad

for the Sunday morning staple, The Funtastic World of Hanna Barbera

NBC 1985

A classic. I love the idea that all these characters are hanging out at the NBC studios, like they're co-workers or something.

-----------------------------------------------

FHE Transformers and GI Joe VHS video ads

Say what you will about DVD boxet prices, they're a steal compared to the early days of VHS. I remember the ungodly amount of begging that had to be done in order to talk my parents into buying a $24.95 copy of "Ultimate Doom", the 3-part Transformers mini-series.

-----------------------------------------------

The ad that set Captain America back at least a decade or two. Dancing around with a top hat and cane. What an asshole!

Cool Marvel merchandise, including Secret Wars

Secret Wars puffy stickers and Dorman's cheese.

Two things not on shelves anymore.

-----------------------------------------------

Starriors comic book ad.

Loved these toys and bought the comic.

-----------------------------------------------

Early 80s video games ads

TRON

Advance Dungeons & Dragons

Frogger

GI Joe

Man, this double page ad was a personal favorite. Never had the game, but I sure did want it.

Mario Bros for Atari 2600 and 5200

Star Wars

I have no clue how long this ad ran or how often, but this guy is forever etched into my brain. It's like a Pavlovian reaction. I see the photo and I see myself walking out of Kwick Shop with a cherry Slush Puppie, some Mr. Melon candy and a copy of GI Joe #25

Come on kids! Christmas treats!

Christmas is barreling at us like a train and bringing with it some old favorites.

Christmas trees for the girls, and bloody spearheads for Bart!

Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes! Now, I'm a Hostess-man, myself, but around late November these puppies are "it". Add a hot mug of cider and the Chipmunks Christmas Special and all will be right with the universe.



Speaking of mug, Target has some cool Star Wars mugs in their Christmas setup. Stormtroopers, Vader and Boba Fett, for $6.99 each. Cider just tastes better out of a clone skull.
And Winter Oreos are back with red frosting. Eater beware. Your toilet bowl will look like a paint-by-number after dining on there tasty treats.
DR.G
---END TRANSMISSION---

The Halloween that pretty much wasn't

Halloween 2007, we hardly knew ye. You came and went like a Ninja-Frankenstein.

And your cousin, Thanksgiving-Bot 5000, has been destroyed by an early Christmas shopping season. Seriously, how did November 1st, suddenly become the new shopping launch date and Thanksgiving reduced to that pesky meal you eat after looking at the Black Friday ads?

Any-whooo, it was so busy this last week at the Geektarded Labs, that our poor pumpkin didn't even get carved. Poor bastard. That's why I'm taking Monday off and declaring it Halloween II: The Quickening. That pumpkin will fulfill it's destiny and become a jack-o-lantern and some horror movies and Charlie Brown will be watched.

I did manage to witness Target's 75% off Halloween frenzy on Sunday morning. Kinda fun to watch soccer moms go ape-shit for bags of M&Ms and motorized wiggling rubber wolf-boys. For the most part, I don't like shopping post-holiday item sales. It sort of feels like going to an estate sale for someone that just died, that's being run by their next of kin. Depressingly-creepy.

Luckily, I'm a whore for a good deal, so personal feelings be damned. $1.99 Transformers treat basket and light sabers are where it's at!

And to show my Christmas-Love, despite the fever arriving 3 weeks too early, good Ole' Charlie Brown came home with me too. Check out Chuck with his hat and zombie-tree!

Don't worry kiddies, there are still plenty of Halloween frights to enjoy. Just check out Silver Spoons dad, Joel Higgens, all shirtless and hairy from this old TV Guide ad for "First Affair". Gruesome!


---END TRANSMISSION---
DR.G