I was flipping through some old comics books the other day and came across some random title from 1984.  As I was flipping through it, I came across a bevy of kick-ass old advertisements.  These are too cool not to share, so here are five toy ads that I think you’ll like.

We’re starting things off with my favorite one of the batch.  Up until I saw this, I never had any idea that Monogram made model kits of the MOTU vehicles.  I was big into model kits back in the day, and He-Man was my hero, so how this escaped me for all this time is mind-boggling.  This Talon Fighter and Attak Trak just look bad-ass, and I wonder if any of these kits could still be found on eBay?  If so, I bet they will cost a small mint.  I’m going to have to look into that.

So I must have missed out on Power Lords.  Knowing what I do now, I know that the line debuted in 1983, and each of the figures featured a “shape changing” ability.  Or better stated, you pushed a button on the figure and the top half would spin around revealing a Lord Power side.  These figures look cool, but I’m just not sure of the playability.  I mean, would you have played with these guys by themselves, or tried to mix them in with other figure lines?  If this dud walked up to Skeletor and flipped around like that, Skeletor may just laugh at him. Or on second thought, maybe he would recruit him to help take over Castle Greyskull.  In any event, the ad itself is pretty rad.

Back in the day, I was kind of into stickers in general, but puffy stickers were the cream of the crop.  I had a binder that I put loose leaf paper in and then plastered all the pages with stickers.  I called it my “collection”.  And Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars were a go-to toy for me.  I don’t remember this promotion at all, and that sucks because my old man would be a car every week, but I guess we never sent away for the free stickers.

Now here’s an ad for several of the Remco action figure lines.  Most of their ads you see feature multiple figures from the same line, but this is just a glimpse at several of their offerings.  The Warlord line was a lot of fun, but I never had any of the Hercules or Arak, and until I saw this ad I had no idea they made Sgt. Rock figures.  That’s pretty badass.  My brother and I would have worn out Sgt. Rock figures if we had them back then.

We’re ending this the same we started it, with a Masters of the Universe ad.  This one is quite the beauty too, as it’s an ad for the Masters of the Universe game for Atari.  Up until about a year ago, I was oblivious to the fact that He-Man was on Atari.  This is another one I truly wish I could have had as a kid.  Of course, I’ve heard that the game was quite tough, and really only featured you trying to fly the Wind Raider.  Still, I wish I could have experienced it for myself.

 

– Mickey