QUESTION 1: A few posts ago Redartz asked about comic book gifts, but what other non-comic toys, gifts, games, books, and presents were your favorites back in your youth? (Here are some I remember my family members enjoying).
QUESTION 2: If you ever had a subscription for comics what are your recollections about the service and titles?
21 comments:
My most memorable Christmas present was in 1977 when I got an air hockey table. Once plugged in, little jets of air came out of the holes on the surface of the table and there was a plastic disc/puck which floated on the air jets - there was a goal at each end of the table and you had to knock the puck into your opponent's goal. It was terrific fun and it was a genuine surprise present - normally I knew what I was getting for Christmas but not on that occasion. I also remember getting a "Potter's Wheel" (not a real one, just a kids' version) because I fancied myself as a potter - ha, I never even used it once. Another time I got a chemistry set but I don't think I ever used that either. Actually, my favorite presents were usually just books - often the hardback annuals traditionally given as Christmas presents in the UK. But although I was a massive Marvel fan and a regular reader of Marvel's British weeklies I never got any Marvel annuals for Christmas - instead I got annuals about Doctor Who, Star Trek, The Six Million Dollar Man, Space 1999, The Beano etc. I also had several books called Tell Me Why, Tell Me Why Volume 2, More Tell Me Why etc which were full of facts and general knowledge...
Colin, our boys got an air hockey table a couple of years ago. Love that game. But your.comment also reminded me of another game - it was an electronic football tabletop game that vibrated and miniature players would move around in random patterns caused by the vibrations. The football was a magnet that stuck to the players and if the one with the ball floated over the goal line you scored. Ours game had a dent in it so all the players just vibrated toward the middle and never scored.
And I had a chemistry set. I played with that all of the time. I cannot imagine giving an eight year old a box full of chemicals to mix together in test tubes and beakers today - but we sure did it in the old days. I remember some of the sulphur tests. Fun.
One of the most memorable presents I gotthat wasn't comic related was when I was really little and received a teddy bear. I remember being really elated about that.
On question #2, yes, I had two subscriptions. The first was to X-men, which I bought not long after I missed an issue during the Hellfire saga (#130), but it only kicked in with, I'm pretty sure, #137 (the death of Phoenix issue). And then a few issues later Byrne left the title. I did not renew the subscription. After that I subscribed to Ka-zar after the series became direct-market only. It kicked in at issue #17. Didn't renew that one, either - at that point, I had also discovered comic book shops. While it was nice to have comics delivered right to my door, it really sucked that they were always folded down the middle...
I'd say the best gift I ever received was the Bigfoot doll from 'The Six Million Dollar Man'. It was my "Red Ryder BB Gun" if you get the reference. I wanted nothing but that for Christmas in 1977, I remember like yesterday getting up early on Christmas morning and opening Bigfoot, here's an image of the toy:
http://www.bugeyedmonster.com/toys/smdm/smdm/bigfoot/bigfootlarge.jpg
Such an evocative set of images! I received the 'Simon Says' electronic game too - was it Christmas 1979?
My Christmas keepers tended to be books and annuals, but never comic-related.
But the 'Case of the Exploding Plumbing'...huh?
So far as comic subscriptions go, I don't think they were available in the UK. They always seemed unbearably exotic...
Ooh-- I'm a two-fer!
By the time I was in my mid/late teens (and through college) my Dad was giving/renewing my comic subscriptions as part of my birthday/Christmas presents. Easier than shopping, I suppose. I appreciated the fact of them quite a bit, but it was very much the Mirror, Mirror version of the it's-the-thought-that-counts sentiment.
As kids we did do pretty darned well on Christmas mornings, in retrospect. Especially considering that we were living on the income of two teachers. Many GI Joes over the years. A talking Dr Doolittle plush doll. Lite Brite AND Astrolite AND Spirographs. Different age-appropriate car sets-- eventually leading to the Hot Wheel Supercharger Sprint set. Yeah, that one does loom large in the "Just like on TV!" category. And that "supercharger" would devour D-batteries (maybe C's?) at an almost comically-disastrous rate. 15 minutes? Maybe 20? Then it would lose steam and not continue to shoot the cars around the track. Well, and the pin-wire axles on the wheels of most of those Hot Wheels/Jonny Lightning/Matchbox Superfast cars would warp after the first few runs, and the cars wouldn't go quite as fast.
I'm. . . gonna go with Hot Wheels in general for today's choice, though. . .
HB
One Xmas (must've been either '77 or '78) I got Star Wars AND Mego action figures. I remember getting a Spider-Mobile too (wish I still had that!). I used to get Hardy Boys books for my birthday, not Xmas usually. And I think I still have a Lite-Brite lying around somewhere.
Mike Wilson
I never did the comic subscriptions..., in the early '70s, DC had a weird advertisement for several comics (different titles) each month, not one title each month for year. Otherwise, I wasn't too confident the comics wouldn't come folded, etc. My Mom did let me subscribe to Starlog in the late '70s, so that was kinda cool, I kept it up until my 2nd year in college.
As for presents.., some of my best memories was of Captain Action and Major Matt Mason stuff in the late '60s. Just the shimmering of the xmas tree lights at night, etc..., it was always a 'special peacefulness'...., very magical for a young kid.
But one of my most special memories was in my early 30s.., working downtown, I had found out that FAO Schwartz was selling the exclusive replica GI Joe Astronaut, from the Masterpiece line in the mid-90s. Being the only GI Joe I ever wanted forever, I called down to the Chicago store two days before Christmas and **specifically** said it was just a casual gift for myself, absolutely NO NEED for it to arrive by Christmas.
Well, Christmas Eve came and I went to my church to sing in the Christmas Eve celebration, the snow was gently falling as I drove back home that night, about 10pm...
And what did I see, glistening at my side door stoop.., with the outside door light on, the gentle snow falling upon it?
There it was, boxed in all it's glory. For it was on that quiet Christmas Eve night, I was eight years old, once again.
Holy crap JA Morris, that Bigfoot doll brought back frightening memories of the show. The scene wear you heard Bigfoot coming off frame...still scary!
I once got the TCR race car set. The cars could change lanes. I played with it until the rails wore through.
I usually got six subscriptions. It was always hard making the choice.
Lots of engaging memories today! So much fun...
Marti- I had one of those chemistry sets too, along with a microscope lab. It had a scalpel, needle, and glass slides; all designed for children's safety , right? But I loved them; went out to collect pond water to look for microorganisms.
HB- Hot Wheels were very high on the Christmas priority list! Those Superchargers did eat up the batteries. Probably why we usually went with gravity racing; had the Drag action set with the finish line flag that dropped. Later my parents got us a couple of "Sizzlers", which were fun but not so much when the charger failed...look for a "Hot Wheels" post one of these days...
david_b- love your story of the GI Joe Astronaut. That was one VERY cool toy. And a perfect way to get it back; awaiting in the Christmas snow...
My favorite Christmas gift? Hard to narrow it down. Loved getting Hot Wheels, and GI Joes. One that sticks to memory was a "Rock Identification Computer"; it was a kind of science lab that had several tests you could perform on rocks (either ones you found or on some provided specimens). You then punched in the test results into the punch card slots, and the unit would drop down cards showing the possible identities of your rock! It was perfect for this ten-year old science geek.
Never subscribed to any comics, but did get a FOOM subscription with the membership. Sometimes the FOOM magazine came flat, sometimes it was folded in half. Regardless, it was always a blast to see it in the mailbox!
Hotwheels cars were generally cooler, but it seemed to me that the paint came off 'em faster than Matchbox cars. Anybody else notice that?
We used to trade those things at school.
Also, the fuzzy hairs on my G.I. Joes would fall out in patches for some reason giving them some sort of non-pattern baldness. Maybe I shouldn't have played with them in the bathtub. But otherwise, the scuba gear would've been pointless.
M.P.
The Case of the Exploding Plumbing was an Encyclopedia Brown book and was my favorite reading for about a year. I devoured that series.
Did anybody else play Stop Thief? You would listen to sounds (beeps and buzzes) that gave you clues to where the criminal was on the game board. You would hear walking, running, windows breaking, burglar alarms etc and had to figure out where to make the arrest. I played that constantly.
It was in my era of fascination with detectives - Encyclopedia Brown, Hardy Boys, Stop Thief, Fingerprint Dusting Kits, The Rockford Files, etc. I think I was 9 years old and that was my entire theme for Christmas wish lists.
"The Case of the Exploding Plumbing'? Generally, you don't need Batman or Sherlock Holmes to explain a plumbing problem.
M.P.
My favorite Christmas presents back in the day were the Big Jim action figures. I started collecting them when he was the athletic hero type with all the hunting gear and the big airplane, then later on when he was part of the super-hero circuit, via P.A.C.K. Pretty fun times from what I remember.
I subscribed to several comics from DC and Marvel......Justice League, Green Lantern, Flash, World's Finest, Aquaman, the New Teen Titans, All Star Squadron, and Arak, Son of Thunder for DC......Daredevil, X-Men, Power Man/Iron Fist, Captain America, Master of Kung Fu, and Fantastic Four for Marvel. Delivery was always pretty dependable.....more so than at my local newsstand. The only issue I had was that a couple of them were cancelled during my subscription run (Aquaman and MOKF) and World's Finest went back to regular size and I didn't get my money's worth as promised.
Question 1: My favorite christmas gifts when I was a kid were action figures, especially the Mego "World's Greatest Superheroes" figures. I also loved GI-Joe, Big Jim, Big Josh, and etc.
I also liked Dinosaurs quite a bit and I once got a "huge" 3 foot tall stuffed T-Rex that I loved greatly. The same year I got this Winnebago RV play-set that came with a family (dad, mom, sis, bro, and a dog), and the could all fit in the RV and ride around and camp and such. I would inevitably have the T-Rex attack and eat them all. Sometimes they'd try to escape in the camper but I would have him chase it down and knock it over and then eat everyone anyway. (Except I'd let the dog get away). LOL
Hey! I think I created "Jurassic Park" 20 years before Michael Crichton did. No wonder I love those movies so much.
Question 2: I had a subscription to Daredevil when Miller was on the book, and I also had subscriptions to every Spider-Man title at that time (ASM, PPTSM, and Marvel Team-Up).
I remember the last issue of my ASM scrip was supposed to be issue #251 (the issue right before Spidey got his black suit). Well for some reason I never got issue #251, I waited a couple of weeks but it never came. So I went to my LCS and tried to buy it, but it had sold out. And what's worse is that issue #252 had also already come in and it "sold out" as well. (However he already had copies of both books bagged and boarded and the price jacked up to $5.00) So, now I didn't have either book. Well on my way home I stopped by a convenience store and lo and behold there on the racks was ASM #251 for cover price! Yay! And then a couple of days later I got a comic in the mail (even though my subscription had supposedly ended). I thought sure it was going to be ASM #251 (the comic they had never sent me), but to my great delight when I opened that plain brown wrapper there was ASM #252!! I couldn't believe it. For some reason they had skipped an issue in my scrip and sent me the next one. Don' t know why but I sure wasn't complaining.
I used to subscribe to Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man in the late '70s because all of a sudden they weren't available in Australia anymore... some local company suddenly got the rights to print black and white versions of them in Sydney under some nefarious exclusive licensing deal with Marvel ...ugh!
It used to take up to three months for my sub copies to arrive. Walking home from school I could see up the road to my mailbox and could tell if the lid was up due to a large envelope being in there... exciting stuff at the time, but too bad if it turned out to be junk mail or bills.
It's hard now to remember how exciting it used to be when I received my less-than-mint copies in the mail... but it sure used to make my day.
For a number of my pre-teen years all I wanted was Hardy Boys books.
I think I got most of them between birthdays and Christmases and allowance.
Much much later I gave my mom permission to give them to a kid
she was taking care of; a decision I would come to regret.
My one and only comic book subscription was for Charlton's E-Man,
a subscription was the only way to get their Comic Book Guide at the time.
D.D.Degg
D.D.- those Hardy Boys books were addictive, weren't they? Had a shelf full of them too.
Charlton had a Comic Book Guide? Never heard of that, how was it?
The (Charlton) Comic Book Guide for the Artist - Writer - Letterer
http://charltonlibrary.blogspot.com/2011/11/comic-book-guide-for-artist-writer.html
D.D.Degg
D.D.- Thanks a lot for that link! Fascinating guide; and very nice to see the repros of some original Charlton art. Also impressed by the blog...
For Christmas 1974, one of my gifts was Origins of Marvel Comics. Just a couple of months earlier, on my family's first night, a Saturday, in the Navy Lodge on Treasure Island, San Francisco, we had settled in the beds, my parents in one, my two younger brothers & I in the other, flipping through the channels we came across a Creature Features on Channel 2, showing Night of the Living Dead in what I believe was one of it's earliest airings on tv if not the very first. Anyhow, later in the program, host Bob Wilkins (who somewhat resembled Roy Thomas) interviewed Stan Lee on that very book. Very nice surprise to actually get that book the following X-Mas. Yeah, Stan didn't give the real scoop on how the conception of those characters -- no mention of the influence of Kirby's Challengers of the Unknown on the FF, or that Spider-Man was initially a re-working by Kirby of a character dreamed up years earlier by Joe Simon, etc. But the book was my first exposure to those early stories as they were originally written and drawn.
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