Princess of (Girl) Power!

May 1985

Masters of the Universe #1

We started this issue with an ad for He-Man, so I thought it would be fitting to save She-Ra for last. This was one of my absolute favorites as a kid, and I’ve still got all my action figures! One thing I always wondered, though – how come they never made toys of Shadow Weaver or Scorpia?? They were pretty prominent characters, and way more important than a bunch of figures that actually were released. I guess we’ll probably never know…

As much as I liked this show, I always thought Loo-Kee was kind of stupid – I thought that hearing “today’s lesson” had a much bigger impact when it came from the characters we loved and respected (like on He-Man), rather than some random little creature who isn’t even really part of the show. What do you think?

 

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Hey, Nick!

January 1998

Thunderbolts #10

Here we’ve got Nickelodeon’s weekly 8:00 lineup. I wasn’t a kid at this time, so while I’ve heard of Hey Arnold! and Rugrats, I’m really not familiar with any of these shows (in fact, I’d never even heard of the others before this ad!). Sorry, but I’m kind of at a loss here! Did any of you watch these shows? If so, what did you think of them?

This is the last ad from this issue of Thunderbolts, and I think I’m going to take a break from posting ’90s ads for a while. The ones from the ’70s and ’80s are the ones I really love, and it seems like most of you do as well. If I run across a ’90s comic with some great ads, I’ll post it, but for now I’m going to stick to what I’m passionate about. (Yes, I really am passionate about vintage ads. Because I really am that much of a dork!)

 

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Grin and (Care) Bear It!

May 1986

Masters Of The Universe #1

It’s the Care Bears – here to offer you a deal on all of your favorite cartoon tie-in comics! Star Comics was a division of Marvel that was used mostly for cartoon-related comics and other titles that would appeal to young children.

OK, I know subscription pages generally aren’t very interesting, but just (Care) bear with me – I’m almost finished with each of the comics I’ve been posting from, and soon I’ll have a whole new batch!

 

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It’s the Space Age – 20 Years Later!

May 1986

Masters Of The Universe #1

Everyone thinks of The Jetsons as a classic, but did you know that its original run back in the ’60s was only one season of 24 episodes? Hard to believe, huh? Then the run advertised here added another 41 episodes, and 10 more were produced in 1987. Notable in this ad is the addition of Orbitty, Elroy’s little alien friend. Is it just me, or does he look super out of place here?

And then we’ve got Galtar And The Golden Lance. I don’t remember this show at all from back in the day, but something about it seems kind of familiar… hmm… a strong, blond warrior, holding obviously powerful swords above his head, riding a large, green animal… I’m just not sure where I’ve seen something like that before…

Apparently Galtar only lasted 21 episodes, so with a short run like that, I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that I don’t remember it.

 

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Were the Dancing Ones Called Go-GoBots?

May 1986

Masters Of The Universe #1

Back when I was a kid, I remember thinking of GoBots as cheap imitations of Transformers. I still watched/liked the show, but didn’t think it was as cool for some reason. I also remember asking for Transformers for Christmas/birthdays, and getting GoBots instead. I only ever had four of them: Leader-1, Road Ranger, Rest-Q, and Hans-Cuff. However, I did appreciate the fact that they were the same scale as Hot Wheels, so at least I could play with my GoBots with my other cars.

Well guess what – years later I found out that it was actually the other way around: GoBots came out first, and Transformers copied them! It makes me wonder why Transformers always seemed like the “main” cartoon to me (and apparently many others) – maybe they just had better marketing?

In an interesting twist of fate, Tonka (makers of GoBots) was actually acquired by Hasbro (makers of Transformers) in 1991, so now they’re all (technically) part of the same family anyway!

I love the “THEY’RE AWESOME!” in the middle of this ad. To me, it kind of feels like a temporary placeholder that they either forgot to replace, or they just couldn’t come up with anything better, so decided to leave it as is.

So I spent quite a bit of time scouring the internet to figure out who the GoBots (other than Leader-1) in this picture are – I was able to come up with two of them, but still have no idea who pink one is – any ideas, anyone?

To see one of my GoBots toys, click here for my CBA IRL post!

 

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Star Wars in Star Comics – Drawn by a Comics Star!

May 1986

Masters of the Universe #1

I know the Droids cartoon was around when I was a kid, but I don’t remember ever watching it, which is weird, because I devoured anything and everything Star Wars back then. Maybe it was on a channel we didn’t get or something…?

So this ad is for the comic adaptation of the TV show. I was surprised to see “ROMITA” signed along the artwork – could it be…? Upon checking, yes! This was actually done by legendary comic book artist John Romita Sr.! From what I can find, he did the covers and penciling for issues #1–3, and also did some work on issues #4 and #5!

 

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I Heart (Foil Stamp) You!

January 1978

The Secret Society of Super-Villains #12

It’s another round of classifieds! There are a few interesting ones in here, but let’s start with “See Miracle of Birth.” First of all, those words seem very out of place in any comic book ad. Secondly, they’re advertising an incubator with bird eggs, but all of the emphasis is on watching the chicks hatch, with absolutely no mention whatsoever of the fact that you then have five or six (depending on which part of the ad you believe) little baby birds that need to be taken care of. Seems kind of irresponsible to me…

In other ads, I like the “OWN A PIECE OF NEW MEXICO OIL COUNTRY”… based in Iowa. And I also like “ELIMINATE DEBTS!”… by sending 35¢ to some address in Ohio – I think the first step in eliminating debt would be to stop sending money to vague classified ads from comic books!

 

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UPN Smash!

January 1998

Thunderbolts #10

Ah, UPN, the network that gave us Star Trek: Voyager. I don’t really remember anything about their kids’ programming, but apparently they had a power-packed Sunday morning with The Incredible Hulk and Jumanji!

In looking up info on this series, it turns out that the Hulk was actually voiced by Lou Ferrigno so that’s pretty neat!

 

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That Information Is… CLASSIFIED!

January 1978

The Secret Society of Super-Villains #12

It’s been a while since I’ve done a classified page, so here you go! I’m actually kind of surprised to see X-Ray Spex in 1978 – for some reason I thought that was more of a ’50s/’60s thing (but apparently I was mistaken on that).

I think probably my favorite “WTF” ad on this page is: “PARENTS bug you? Try Ego Power! Send $7 for instructions” – ummm… OK… With a (lack of) description like that, it makes me wonder if anybody actually took the bait! (And if any of you out there actually did, then please let me know what this is all about!)

 

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Don’t Use Your Karate Skills on the Seahorses!

February 1976

Claw The Unconquered #5

It’s another random grab bag of mini ads!

The one that strikes me the most here is the one for live seahorses – they’ll send you two “freshly caught” mated pairs, with at least one pregnant. OK, I have two main thoughts on this:

1. Sending live, pregnant seahorses through the mail seems like it would be prohibitively difficult/risky.
2. Capturing seahorses from the wild and then sending them through the mail seems rather cruel… and seems like it should be illegal.

At least Sea Monkeys are in a type of suspended animation when they’re shipped, but live, conscious animals is a whole different story!

 

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