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      CommentAuthorphotomagex
    • CommentTimeMay 26th 2008 edited
     (2365.1)
    Let us know what kind of gadgets, gags and whatchamacallits you have ordered from the inside back or inside front cover from older comics. This may date a few of us.

    I, for example, have always wanted to know what would arrive in the mailbox if you ordered the X Ray Glasses. I realize that they could not have worked in any way, shape or form but, what the hell would they give you? (I wanted to believe, I really did),



    The only thing I ordered was Sea Monkeys and although they did not wear crowns, hold tridents and were not nearly as cute as they looked in the advert, they did impress the crap out of my 9 year old mind. I later found out that they are merely brine shrimp but, they were mine. It was like having my own bottle city.



    Did anyone out there order live monkeys? I saw many ads for them so somebody must have been buying.





    Let us know some of your experiences.
    •  
      CommentAuthorzoem
    • CommentTimeMay 26th 2008
     (2365.2)
    I read this as meaning court orders to stop comics from saying something. Litigious brain...

    When I was a kid I didn't read comics, but I wanted *everything* out of the back of Omni magazine. I never did, as I had no pocket money and had to walk to school both ways uphill in torrents of locusts and blood.
  3.  (2365.3)
    Even as a kid, I always wondered what the hell you'd actually be getting if you ordered this:



    There's a bunch of these ads here.
    •  
      CommentAuthorScribe
    • CommentTimeMay 26th 2008
     (2365.4)
    I so wanted the hovercraft.

  5.  (2365.5)
    @Mark Seifert: At least two kids drowned in that thing. Or they got electrocuted when the "electricaly lit instrument panel" was submerged in water.

    Most likely they never sent these out at all and pocketed all the cash. I mean 7 dollars was like what, 20 or 30 bucks back then? I can't see that covering the costs of such a playset.

    @photomagex: I've seen the x-ray glasses in an add before, but that monkey is truly special. That would be awesome. Imagine a parent's horror when they got home and a monkey is throwing shit everywhere.
    •  
      CommentAuthorphotomagex
    • CommentTimeMay 26th 2008
     (2365.6)
    @ zoem,
    You are absolutely right. My original title sounded like it had to do with the
    Comic Book Legal De fence Fund
    . Not that it is not a worthy cause, but thanks for pointing that out.
  7.  (2365.7)
    I actually had a pair of the X-ray specs....
    plastic frame with cardboard lenses (with the words and swirls on them!) and a hole in the center to see through.

    if you held you hand up to a light, there was a doubling effect. Imagine tracing your hand on paper, then shifting you hand 5mm to the left and tracing it again. Where the images of your fingers overlapped it was darker, and was supposedly the bones in your fingers. AMAZING!

    they were worth having just to to put on and smile anytime anyone walked by.... usually made them laugh.
    •  
      CommentAuthorphotomagex
    • CommentTimeMay 27th 2008
     (2365.8)
    Thank you Peter.

    My life is now complete.

    I imagine they would be a bit of a head turner to see someone walking by with them, probably worth the 99 cents for that alone.
    • CommentAuthorThalia
    • CommentTimeMay 29th 2008 edited
     (2365.9)
    I so wanted the hovercraft.

    Me too. As a kid I wondered why adults didn't cruise around in their very own hovercrafts--surely they could afford $4.49. Whenever I looked at that ad I'd have visions of skimming over the sidewalk on the way to school. Of course, that was a consequence of my metric system raised kid-brain scanning over 8"x9"x2" as negligible information.
    •  
      CommentAuthorHayama
    • CommentTimeMay 29th 2008 edited
     (2365.10)
    Here's a picture of what you got if you bought the Polaris sub

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/curious_hanuman/544994244/
  11.  (2365.11)
    And now my life is complete....
    thanks Hayama, I've always wondered about that sub.
    •  
      CommentAuthorphotomagex
    • CommentTimeMay 30th 2008
     (2365.12)
    Thank you Hayama. To a child, that toy would be so friggin cool. You would have to set fire to it to get me out.
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      CommentAuthorzoem
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2008
     (2365.13)
    That is so much better than a cardboard box. Like, exponentially.
    • CommentAuthordkostis
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2008 edited
     (2365.14)
    I bought a Polaris sub when I was a kid.It lasted about a week before someone stole it from my back yard.

    I also bought one of those 100 soldier footlockers and a Ready Ranger Backpack.The soldiers were flat and I recall them being one-sided, but it's an untrustworthy memory. When we fought wars with them the dead were pushed into the ground never to return home to their loved ones.

    The backpack was an ill-fitting hard plastic thing. More like a miniture cupboard with straps than a pack.It had a poncho that was too small for my freakish height, a compass, periscope, mirror and other do-dads.God how I loved it. I filled it's compartments with stuff from my chemistry set and felt dangerous.

    I'd appreciate it if someone could post links to these ads.I'm still an analog caveman*.

    If anyone has questions about things they've seen in comic ads, I might be able to help. Between working in comic stores and growing up around carnys I've seen a lot of them.

    *Frozen in the 20th century, struggling to survive in a world he cannot understand...Analog Man
  15.  (2365.15)
    dkostis -



    Source of the image has pics of what it actually looks like.


    And here's a link for the Ready Ranger, which is something I don't really remember.
    • CommentAuthordkostis
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2008
     (2365.16)
    @ Mark Seifert

    Thanks for the linkage.
  17.  (2365.17)
    THAT'S what the polaris sub looked like... my god...
    • CommentAuthordkostis
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2008
     (2365.18)
    The polaris sub pictured looks nicer than I remember. I would have sworn it was a dull grey or off-white like the dirty paint on a cheap apartment wall. I can say for certain that the kid shown is tiny.
    • CommentAuthorStefanJ
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2008
     (2365.19)
    You know, I'd heard even as a kid that the Polaris sub was cardboard. But I'd never seen one until now.

    It actually looks pretty damn cool.

    They had a spaceship version too. I wanted one.

    I predict a return of cardboard toys you sit in as the oil shock really hits its stride. It'll be the gift you give a kid after you sell one one of his kidneys to pay for gasoline. Here Timmy, sit in this spaceship. Rest up. Pretend you're a cyborg who gave up a spare part so one of his clone war buddies could live.
    • CommentAuthorStefanJ
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2008
     (2365.20)
    I never ordered anything from a comic, but I did order two things from ads in Boy's Life magazine: My first wargame ("Stellar Conquest," and I still have it after 33 years!), and my first model rocket catalog. Probably from this advertisement:
    Estes Rocketry Advert
    I was pretty suspicious of advertising even as a little nipper, but damned if the rockets actually flew. And they quickly teach you the first law of astronautics, "every damn thing costs money."

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