I freely admit this is unrelated to comics (at least directly). But if you’re about the age of the three of us iFanboys, this is going to take you directly back to an earlier time, and it was just too good not to share.
Matt from X-Entertainment has a bunch of scans from the 1985 Sears Wish Book, for the best toys out in 1985. Oh man, I can still feel a latent desire for that aircraft carrier, which was a dream never fulfilled.
In these pictures lay the foundations for a lot of the comic book tastes that followed in my life I think. There’s GI Joe, Transformers, Voltron, and Star Wars. I’m amazed more kids from that time aren’t still into comics. But it’s why I think it would be pretty easy to turn kids from that generation.
I don’t directly remember the Optimus Prime bed tent, but it awakened a primal need where I think I really spend some quality time in an adult sized version these days.
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Man, good post Josh!
That aircraft carrier was 7 and 1/2 feet long, where would any kid be able to put that, but it’s so sweet!
I had the Voltron lions and I loved them, I actually just re-brought them, they came out with the 20th anniversary set with die cast metal and what not….very nice!
……this is really going to make me start searching ebay for more treasures of my youth.
And what about the cool Thundercats pj’s? I think that may be the coolest thing in there!
I’m a bit younger, that 92 catalog it shows the cover of is more my time. I did inherit that Grimlock Dinobot from an older cousin and a pound puppy from my sister.
I have that Voltron, well. Parts of it. Just the arms and yellow leg now. The others were lost to the ravages of time.
I also had a Grimlock… sweet, sweet Grimlock.
And this is coming from someone who was born when that book came out.
Even though I’m a bit younger than the iFanboys, I definitely rocked those Masters of the Universe figures. I remember one of my rich friends having something similar to the G.I. Joe aircraft carrier, and I recall it being awesome beyond words. I too had the Voltron set as well, but all of this has been lost over time.
I would have to say that one of the best toy Christmases I ever had was when I got Batman from the first movie with Michael Keaton. It had a belt you could hook onto things and then he could dangle and swing. It was so boss. A couple years later, I got the Batman mobile whose sides popped off. That was pretty awesome too.
…Man, this just makes me want to be a kid again. I’m old enough now where socks and underwear are about as exciting as my Christmas gets. 🙁
I knew a kid who had the USS Flagg. My God….
Damn…god damn… the USS Flagg… I want to play with that as a twenty six year old adult. Wow.
And I think I am more of a He-Man fan than a Transformers fan. The perfect mix of sci-fi and fantasy made it possibly for me to become both a Lord of the Rings fan and a Trekkie.
Damn you, Josh Flanagan! Forgetting that X-Entertainment exists takes months at a time and is vital to my productivity! Now I have to spend the next nine hours falling down a time-hole and reading about Garbage Pail Kids.
I knew a kid who had that aircraft carrier. Only children. He acted like his room was a museum. God forbid you touch Snake Mountain; the alarm would sound. As for me, I got the thing that looked like an offshore drilling platform ( http://cgi.ebay.com/GI-Joe-1985-Transportable-Tactical-Battle-Platform-100_W0QQitemZ200172009553QQihZ010QQcategoryZ2468QQcmdZViewItem ) and thought I was a Rockefeller.
I spent a lot of time on this site last week::
http://joes.propadeutic.com/
I only ever had one or two GI Joes, but it was still pretty fun to look through.
And getting those big, thick Sears or JCPenney catalogs were, prior to the actual morning of Christmas, the pinnacle of the holiday season.
Growing up my best friend had the U.S.S. Flagg. I thought that it was the greatest thing ever!! He had a big bedroom and it took up half of it. I still remember playing on that thing for hours.
This one appears to be available only for pickup. But it also happens to be right where I live.
http://cgi.ebay.com/GI-Joe-USS-FLAGG-Aircraft-Carrier_W0QQitemZ280173399724QQihZ018QQcategoryZ2467QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Not that would ever, but it did, just for a brief moment, cross my mind with, “that would be kinda cool.”
Holy crap…I had the Fright Zone playset and much of other He-Man stuff. Masters of the Universe was one of the greatest freakin’ franchises ever.
*sigh*
Am I the only one who got horribly depressed looking at that stuff?
Am I the only one who got horribly depressed looking at that stuff?
I can see where you’re coming from, but honestly, it gave me this feeling of glee, because I LOVED looking at those catalogs. And when I think about it, when I look at something I want today, unless it’s absurd, I more or less go buy it. I also find it terribly interesting that, whatever it was that made me like that stuff then, still exists within me. I still look at it, and like it.
You know, I never had many Transformers…
I also find it terribly interesting that, whatever it was that made me like that stuff then, still exists within me.
You know what’s funny about that, is when people ask my girlfriend what kind of gifts she gets me for my birthday or Christmas, she merely replies, “Well, usually, I think, what would a 10 year-old like…and I buy him that.”
I don’t know if it’s my love of comics or what, but even with age, I still love toys and cartoons. There’s nothing like throwing in some Batman Animated Series in the DVD player on a Saturday afternoon and destroying a bowl of Count Chocula.
Neb, you have Count Chocula?! All the stores around me stopped carrying it!!!
This year was my first Boo Berryless Halloween!
Ha! Yeah, a store near me sells it for like 3 bucks or something. Sadly, there is no Franken- or Boo-Berry. 🙁
While at my LGS (local grocery store) the other day, I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, a mish-mash of two cereals in a box. It turned out to be Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles, but for that split second, I thought
I can’t complain, my folks were constantly giving me new GI Joe figures and vehicles, but what’s this? An official GI Joe Aircraft Carrier, were they keeping this from me? I don’t think I am being selfish about it. The USS Flagg could’ve doubled up as our coffee table. Looks like with ebay it still can.