VINTAGE SPACE TOAST TOUR ORLANDO-If you're gonna die, die with your mouse on

Vintage Space Toast Tour 2010 continues as my toy robot hobby powers have once again managed to transform something that should be exciting and fun (a vacation at Disney World) into something mind numbingly boring and painful (a six hour visit to the library looking at microfilm reels). Unfortunately my old newspaper looking ended up being a colossal waste of time from a toy robots ads perspective and I was subjected to all the chaos and misery that is the news of the past but at least this time I didn't come across any puppy executions. To be fair I did find a lot of robot ads but after doing this for so long I've already seen most of them already. I guess the same could be said of all the bad news and tragedies that make the papers. When you've seen one front page photo featuring the twisted mangled lumps of wreckage that used to be cars, planes trains or other automobiles you've seen them all. But the usual misery and mayhem is almost balanced out by some special uplifting uniqueness of this land of Mickey Mouse and happy oranges. I don't know why, but while reading about plane crashes in any other city is rather depressing, there's something magical about them when they happen in the parking lot of Epcot Center.

Bargain Bonanza 11/29/84	Alltron Scientific 12/16/84

WE SPECIALIZE IN TRONS BUT ALSO CARRY SOME -TICONS AND A FEW -TOBOTS

I only got to sample a small portion of 1984 newspapers because it's all my time constraints and sanity would allow. While most of the ads I'd already seen, there were two particularly interesting ones that were not only new to me but kind of cool and/or mysterious unto themselves. I mean who doesn't love a Shockwave clone with original line art I've never seen before? And then there was this really crazy ad with a generic description of "Robots" from December of '84 that was notable for featuring line art of the Insecticon Kickback, who is generally regarded amongst toy robots historians as being a 1985 release. It's unusual line art that doesn't follow the usual pattern of being based off a photograph of the actual toy. Instead it's taken from the box art, which is intriguing because I wonder how they got that. If the store didn't have the product then how did they get this line art? It points to the Insecticons being late '84 releases that gradually attained wide release by early '85. The price point is correct for Insecticons and the art is consistent with official art so I'd totally believe anyone from Orlando who told me they remember the Insecticons being 1984 releases. I just wish the ad would be more straightforward and describe what exactly was for sale instead of being a generally worded solicitation for $4 robots.

YOU CAN TAKE THE ROBOT AD OUT OF 1984 BUT YOU CAN'T TAKE THE 1984 OUT OF YOUR HEAD

There wasn't much else by way of highlights during Vintage Space Toast Tour Orlando. I only looked through late November/early December of '84 and by that point my brain was fried. There were a couple honorable mentions like an ad for Robo Force vehicles with a picture of them in their boxes and a few clearer versions of ads I've already gotten. But really not much else. I think I'm reaching the point where I'm not interested in doing this much anymore, especially since Google makes it so much easier to find old robots and 25 year old bad news with their online newspaper archive. I'm starting to see that I don't really need to ruin any more vacations (or be in plane crashes) because I've got Google, which is the next best thing. Right now I've got a backlog of ads waiting for me when I get home that I'm not looking forward to and that's how I know I might need to take a long break from the hobby. I'm sure there are plenty of other ways to ruin perfectly good vacations that don't involve toy robots. Unfortunately I'm stuck in Disney World for the next three days and the only thing really going on around here is Botcon.