American Gladiators Trading Cards (1991)

It’s time once again to watch along as I open an old pack of trading cards! This time up, it’s American Gladiators cards from 1991. American Gladiators was one of my favorite shows of the time as it featured larger-than-life characters locked in sporting combat with better-than-average joes in incredibly entertaining games. These cards capture the feel of the show with its glamour shots of the Gladiators, mixed with action shots from the games.

This video was filmed quite a while back however as part of the Wax Pack Flashback series that I launched on The Retro Network. But the timing of the filming doesn’t really matter, as it’s evergreen content that is good whenever it’s consumed. I hope watching this makes you feel young again.

Even More Old Comic Book Ads

Old comic books and the ads found within are like mini time capsules. You can pick up some random old issue and see ads for things you haven’t thought about in years. And sometimes you’ll come across one that hits you right in the face like a nostalgic baseball bat. At least that’s how these ads were for me. Let’s take a look at them.

Nintendo Game Genie (19)

I don’t know about you, but the Game Genie did more to change my video gaming experience than any other device with the exception of the Nintendo itself.  Once I got my hands on it, it was in use every single time I played a Nintendo Game.  My best friend at the time, Geoffrey, was one of those kids that got whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted it.  He saw the commercial for this thing and went nuts.  I still remember the conversation we had on the phone that fateful night.  He said he had pitched such a huge fit wanting it, that his Dad drove him the half-hour to the nearest department store and bought it for him.

The next day at school, he looked like a hungover zombie, as he had stayed up all night playing Nintendo.  I knew that I just had to make the trip to his house that weekend for a sleepover and check it out myself.  Sure enough, I had the chance that weekend and was blown away by just how awesome that thing was.

I started saving my allowances immediately and doing chores for folks around the neighborhood to earn extra money.  It actually didn’t take too long to get enough scratch together to go get one of my own.  Man, that thing revolutionized my gameplay.  Games that had previously had parts that I got so frustrated with that I quit playing the game were now easily navigated, and I pulled those old suckers out and gave them new life.

It was some of the best money I’ve ever spent in my life.  And yes, I can say that still today.  It was revolutionary to be able to have unlimited lives, or unlimited ammo, or be able to make super jumps.  Now I know in all reality, it was cheating, but it made crappy games fun and made fun games incredible.  Even now when playing ROMs on an emulator, I still google those old Game Genie codes and put them in play.

Marvel Secret Wars Action Figures (1984)

Secret Wars was a 1984-1985 line of action figures and playsets, launched as a tie-in between Marvel Comics and the Mattel toy company. The line was a reaction to DC Comics’ 1984 deal with Kenner Products for the Super Powers Collection. Mattel, concerned about losing the DC account to Kenner, made a similar deal with Marvel. Mattel’s request was that the line would be supported with an event comic book that included the words “secret” and “wars”, which Mattel’s market research found worked particularly well with children in focus groups.

Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter came up with the concept for a year-long twelve-issue crossover called Secret Wars, in which Marvel’s most popular heroes and villains would be plucked out of their daily lives to a distant galaxy, where they would be given alien weapons and technology and forced to fight each other.

Some of Mattel’s choices for the toy line impacted the look and direction of Marvel’s superhero characters. Shooter introduced the idea of a new, black costume for Spider-Man, which was not intended to last for long, but Mattel was very enthusiastic because it allowed them to sell two versions of the same toy. The “alien costume” was revealed in The Amazing Spider-Man to be a living creature, who separated from Spider-Man to become a new character, Venom.

WCW Wrestling for Nintendo (1988)

WCW Wrestling was the first video game based on the National Wrestling Alliance (at the time, WCW was a member of NWA). After The Road Warriors left WCW for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), WCW continued to advertise the game in their own catalogs with a mock-up cartridge showing Sting on the label, though no such copies of the game with an alternate label are known to exist or believed to have ever been manufactured. The game sold over 100,000 copies.

I got to play it on a couple of occasions, and it wasn’t too bad of a game. I really can’t speak much to the fun that was to be had by playing singles matches, as the friends I was was playing with and myself always preferred to play tag team matches. Some incredible matchups were had by swapping normal partners, with Hawk teaming with Sting to battle Animal and Lex Luger. Great times were had by all.

Warlord Action Figures (1984)

While Remco never quite made it to the top of the heap of action figures, it certainly held its own due to its licensed properties. I myself enjoyed several of their lines, especially the old AWA wrestling figures.

I never got to own any of these Warlord figures, but I adore them just from the images I’ve seen online, and the story behind the line kinda tells itself. And for anyone who doesn’t get the story, the figures look generic enough to mix in with any number of other action figure toys.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cereal (1991)

When introduced, this cereal was described on the box as “crunchy, sweetened ‘ninja nets’ with ‘ninja turtle’ marshmallows”. Pizza-shaped marshmallows were later added. The “ninja net” cereal pieces looked very much like Chex cereal pieces.

TMNT came right at the tail end of my childhood, so I didn’t go in for a lot of the toys or merch. But I’ve never been too old to enjoy a great cereal, and this one was pretty good. And the ad itself does a great job of making it look alluring with its bright colors. Some cereals take center stage in ads if they can stand on their own merit. But Ralston looks like it was hedging its bets on this one by making it second fiddle to the Turtles themselves.

If you like looking back at old comic book ads and feeling the nostalgia wash over you, check out these other features I’ve dedicated to the subject.

Old Comic Book Ads | More Old Comic Book Ads

Weekend Reading 03/27/22

Every weekend, I like to share a curated list of retro & nostalgia-themed articles, stories, and posts that I’ve come across in the last week. It gives you a chance to grab a hot cup of coffee, tea, or cocoa, sit back and pass the time reading about the good old days. So with that in mind, here are some things I wanted to share with you this week.

Most folks who enjoy going back in time to revisit the things they enjoyed through the years sometimes get their nostalgia fix via podcasts. With that in mind, I wanted to share a podcast I only recently discovered called History of the ’90s. I’ve been binge listening since I came across it, and think you might enjoy it. It covers a wide variety of topics ranging from television nostalgia to recapping major news stories from the decade. Here is the synopsis of the show from the creators themselves:

On History of the ’90s we’ll travel back in time through the stories that defined a decade. The last 10 years of the 20th century was a time like no other, from Columbine to Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Seinfeld, Air Jordan, and the Spice Girls…if it happened in the ’90s you’ll hear about it on this podcast. Join Kathy Kenzora as we journey through the History of the ’90s every other Wednesday.

You can find the podcast on your podcast app of choice, or check it out on Spotify:

I also want to direct your attention to my latest entry into The Junk Food Files over at The Retro Network. In my latest edition, I take a look at The Crispy Crusted History of Totinos Pizza. You know you’ve eaten your fair share of Totino’s products in your lifetime, so do yourself a favor and brush up on the origins of the iconic brand.

More Retro & Nostalgia fun…

In case you missed them, here are the posts that dropped on here on Retro Ramblings this week…

And before I get out of here, I wanted to include a little video for you to watch. With Wrestlemania being just a week away, I’m feeling nostalgic for the big event in years past and found a nice video looking back at the marquee event through the years. Enjoy!

Mad Magazine Trading Cards (1992)

Here’s another fun opening of an old pack of trading cards I did as part of The Retro Network’s TRNTV Wax Pack Flashback series. In this video, I open and thumb through a pack of Mad Magazine cards from 1992. Back in the day, I never was able to snag any of these, but eventually bought a set of the Spy vs. Spy hologram chase cards. Did I get lucky and pull a hologram from this pack? You’ll have to watch to find out!

Old Dukes of Hazzard Merchandise

The Dukes of Hazzard was one of my absolute favorite shows growing up and still is today. But back then as a kid, when you had a favorite anything, you tended to want a lot of the tie-in merchandise that went along with it. Such was the case with me and The Dukes of Hazzard. I ended up having quite a bit of merchandise that was tied to the show, but if I tried to highlight them all here you’d never get through the whole thing, so let’s just look at five of them today.

Dukes of Hazzard Power Cycle

My cousin Tim and I lived next to each other, on top of a big hill, and we loved to spend our summer days cruising down that hill on our Big Wheels, and usually wore one out every year, meaning that we each needed a new at Christmas time.
One Christmas, we both received Dukes of Hazzard Power Cycles.  Those things looked so cool, and we both swore that they went faster than any other we’d ever had.  With all the cool decals, the streamers on the handles, and the yellow power hand brake, those things were beautiful.

I’m not sure if they lasted through that first summer season or not (doubt it), but I’m sure when they finally broke down we were sad to see them go.  Our days of him being Bo and me being Luke are great memories though.

Dukes of Hazzard Wrist Racers

Wrist Racers were such cool toys, and they were made for several different properties. But the only ones I ever remember having were these Dukes of Hazzard ones. They featured a small (smaller than Hotwheels) General Lee car or Hazzard County police car that would wind up so you could let it go and it would take off.  You wound up the car and attached it to its “wrist” base, which you wore around like a watch, and left it there until you were ready to set it off on its journey.  On the front of the base, was a pull-out ramp that made it possible to lower your arm to the floor, and have the ramp ON the floor so when you launched the car it didn’t wreck once it left your wrist.  One push of a button released the wound-up car and it would zoom across the floor doing stunts along the way. It was a great tie-in because one of the big appeals to the show were the car chases, and you could kind of duplicate that at home with these wrist racers.

Dukes of Hazzard Mego Figures and General Lee

Being a huge fan of G.I. Joe and having a lot of those figures, coupled with my love of Dukes of Hazzard made owning these things a foregone conclusion.  I had both Bo and Luke, and the General Lee pictured above.  When a job was just a little too tough for the Joes to handle, they called in the special forces….the Duke cousins!

You may think it’s preposterous, but I can distinctly remember a time that G.I. Joe was raiding the Cobra Terrordrome, but the tide of battle was against them.  It was Christmas Day 1986, and Cobra was launching their deadly Firebat from the center of their base to turn the tide of battle against the Joes, but Bo & Luke in the General Lee jumped off a cliff and knocked the Firebat out of the air during its launch to save the day!

Dukes of Hazzard Etch-a-Sketch Action Pack

Etch-a-Sketch was such a brilliant toy and was a huge hit amongst my friends and me.  As much fun as it was trying to create a masterpiece work of art, you could ramp up the fun even more by adding a “fun screen” over the Etch-a-Sketch itself.  There were basic packs of the fun screens that featured sports games and other non-branded fun. And then there were the ones that tied into other properties like The Smurfs, Looney Tunes, and our subject today, The Dukes of Hazzard.

In the Dukes pack were a couple of maze-like games, a connect-the-dots puzzle, and other assorted fun. I never owned this particular action pack, but the set resided at my grandmother’s house and was there for any and all grandkids to use. So on a lot of trips there, I always made sure to take my Etch-a-Sketch along with me to spend a little quality time playing with the Dukes set.

Dukes of Hazzard Cassette Tape

My Dad had originally picked up this cassette and I would listen to it with him when he let me travel with him. When I got my first Walkman knockoff, this bad boy had a new home.  I kept it in that tape player forever and would just listen to this thing on loop.  I wore the cassette out in short order somehow, and my Dad ended up buying me another copy.

It had the iconic theme song on it and a host of other really good songs if you’re into country music. This piece of tie-in merchandise was really spot on since music had a featured role in the show on numerous occasions.

And just so you can check it out, here’s the album on Spotify:

So that’s five old pieces of Dukes of Hazzard merch I enjoyed years ago. But truth be told, I’m still not too old to enjoy them now, and would do so if given the chance.