Return of Return of No Weblog for Old Robots Week Part 2: Sweepstakes from beyond and a long time ago...

The move into our new residence has consumed my life and because of all the unpacking there's still no time to write my usual 900 word dissertations on 25 year old toy robot Volkswagens and their transforming dinosaur cohorts. So in place of my regular robot ramblings here's a couple quick sentences about some other ads not featuring guys whose names end in "tron" or "troid".

There are generally three types of toy related marketing that catch my eye when I'm looking through old newspapers. The first and most common are straight up toy ads, then there's the announcements of store appearances by people in costumes (usually Darth Vader) and then there's my favorite-the contests and sweepstakes. These are usually raffle type affairs with fantastic grand prizes like trips to places and events of great significance to action figure archaeologists and Star Wars historians or just anyone who grew up in the 80s. Kids and their parents could win some of the most awesome prize packages if they just kept an eye out for these very rare and very cool contests. These next ads are for two of the greatest contests and sweepstakes I've ever seen in my searches of old newspapers-the Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars Sweepstakes and the Star Wars Comic Strip Contest.

The above ad for the Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars Sweepstakes ran in comics sections of Sunday newspapers on 18 November 1984. It served as both an ad for the toyline and an entry form for the drawing. The ad portion is just as campy as every other Secret Wars ad, with a rapping Doctor Doom and ironic Captain America bragging about having his own secrets while his shield clearly displays his unmasked face to Doom and the world.

But who cares because like the real Secret Wars, this was a contest! Just like in the comic the winners got whisked away to a strange alien land (Los Angeles) and were given all they desired but without the pain of having to slay their enemies for the Beyonder. There were 1,000 third place prizes, which was the entire 12 issue run of the Secret Wars comic. There were 100 second place Tower of Doom playset prizes and 25 first place prize winners got a collection of Secret Wars figures and vehicles. The incredible grand prize was a trip for a family of four to the Marvel Animation Studios in Los Angeles for a 6 days/5 nights all expenses paid stay including rental car, food, hotel and $500 spending money! This was the nice Marvel Studios building that Transformers story editor Bryce Malek YouTubed a couple months back, not the secondary one I visited during Botcon. And if all that weren't amazing enough, the winners also got to meet Spider-Man! If a genie showed up with a time machine and gave me a choice between winning the lottery tomorrow or winning this Secret Wars contest 25 years ago, I'd do like Doctor Doom and kick the genie's ass then take his time machine.

There are a couple great moments in human history it would have been incredible to observe in person-the sermon on the mound, the JFK assasination, the walk on the moon and the grand prize in this newspaper contest from 11 October 1979-the world premiere of The Empire Strikes Back. All you had to do to enter was write the newspaper and tell them you read the Star Wars comic strip. The runner up prizes were a mixed bag. Third prize was The Star Wars Question and Answer Book about Space which is probably the most uncollectable Star Wars thing ever but second place was "a special selection of Star Wars toys, games, craft kits and books worth $150" plus two tickets to see Empire Strikes Back at a local theater. Hopefully the second place prize wasn't 500 copies of The Star Wars Question and Answer Book about Space and the winner got a buttload of Boba Fett figures or something useful like that. The first place prize was an all expense paid weekend for two to the US premier of The Empire Strikes Back, the specific venue and date of which at the time of publication was unknown. Actually I've googled it and even with all this internet I can't figure out when or where Empire debuted in the US. I suppose it doesn't matter anyways unless you won or already lived in the city where the debut was, in which case the airplane ride wasn't necessary. The ad stated the first and second prizes were at the national level so I'm guessing this ran in papers across the country so theoretically you can check it out at your local library if you really like beating yourself up over not winning contests you never entered from 30 year old newspaper ads like I do.

NO WEBLOG FOR OLD ROBOTS part 2: Please Save Me Secret Wars!

Although I consider myself the Indiana Jones of toy robots archaeology and I romanticize my hobby with terms like Roboplasticology, the truth is that all I'm doing is looking through trash as I go pop culture dumpster diving in the library microfilm archives of America. And although my search focuses on the roboplastical, I do on occasion come across ads for toys I remember that played a much smaller role in my robot obsessed 80s childhood (and a much larger one in the childhoods of kids not afflicted with roboplasti-tardation). So join me all this week as we take a non-robot oriented look at a couple other toylines that also made an impression on my Scraplets riddled brain.

Target 09/02/84

The Transformers were what got me into the insane world of comic book shops and action figure collecting. Transformers figures had no secondary market value in the 80s and the book was never considered a serious comic amongst my childhood friends, but it opened the doors into the terrifying and bizarre world of grown ups who took reading comics and playing with toys to a whole other level. I would probably never have stepped into a comic book store and could have lived my whole life content with buying Transformers comics at the Bag-n-Save grocery store were it not for the one time Spider-Man made an appearance in Transformers #3. It wasn't just any Spider-Man-it was black costume Spider-Man. That tripped me out because Spider-Man didn't tell me he was planning on changing his costume when I met him at K-Mart in '79.

SOMEWHERE THERE IS A 69 IMPALA THAT LOOKS LIKE IT GOT BIT BY A RADIOACTIVE SPIDER

I loved that black costume Spider-Man and the very first non-Transformers comic I sought out was Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 because it explained where the black costume came from. Unfortunately the El Paso Bag-n-Save didn't keep back issues of comics even though I did try saving some Amazing Spider-Mans for future buying by sticking them in the Low Rider magazines. I thought nobody read Low Rider, but boy was I wrong and those well hidden Spider-Mans disappeared anyway. Now that I think about it, I may have inadvertently introduced El Asombroso Hombre Araña to a whole generation of cholos.

Secret Wars was an insanely popular comic back in '85. By the time I found a comic shop that had it, Secret Wars #8 was commanding the astronomical price of five dollars. To my horror and delight there was an accompanying toyline although the truth is Secret Wars started as a toyline first. Way back then it was an unprecedented milestone to have 3 3/4 inch action figures made of Marvel characters. Even as a toy robot obsessed weirdo I realized having a Wolverine the right size to fight Darth Vader was a really big deal. But black costume Spider-Man didn't come out in the initial wave and without the internet or toy magazines to tell me that it was coming I resigned myself to thinking it would never be made in my lifetime. This is because I was familiar with the concept of "Marvel time"-that is, in the Marvel Universe time runs at a rate slower than in the real world. This is why Spider-Man was a teenager in comics for like 25 years. What people don't know was that Marvel Time applied in real life, too. Why the hell else did it take over 20 years to finally get an action figure of normal Spider-Man? Marvel time at work!

GC Murphy 09/30/84

WITH GREAT COSTUME COMES GREAT FIGURE

I remember Lionel Playworld having an endcap full of Secret Wars toys well after the comic had come and gone. While looking through them for an Iron Man (because he kind of looked roboty) I came across black costume Spider-Man. Holy crap was that a total surprise. All the other Secret Warriors faded from my mind. After having to pay multiple times the cover price for the comic I swore that I would not open my black costume Spider-Man because of its collectibility. That lasted about a week. Although there have been many different and better plastic permutations of black Spider-Man costume since, that first one has always been my favorite and it's one of the few toys that survived my childhood intact.

...BUT DO YOU RECALL THE MOST ADAMANTIUM MAN OF ALL?

Secret Wars was a lot more than Spider-Man and while in Alaska I found a really nice giant ad from Carrs that ran 18 November 1984. It showed the Tower of Doom playset, some Secret Wars vehicles and action figures of a few of the most famous and recognizable characters from the Marvel Universe like Captain America and Wolverine Man! 1984 was an awesome year. I can't imagine how often the Transformers versus Secret Wars wars played out in playgrounds all over. Marvel must have got wind of this because last year there was a comic book crossover where the Transfomrers got to hang out with and get beat up by not just Spider-Man but a lot of the characters from Secret Wars including Wolverine Man! It only took 25 years! MARVEL TIME NOT DEAD!