Four Color Promises slowing down...

I have posted over 200 comic book adverts from my personal collection over this past year and a half. I'm pretty much done. I will post ads as I find them but not on a regular basis. Thanks for visiting the site and check back from time to time to see if there are any new ads. Cheers!

Road Rockets- Fire away at the Forces of Evil!

What's the ad for?

Road Rockets - Rapid Fire Target Game
Year
1981

Spotted in...

 

The Scoop

I wonder what the back story of the Road Rocket Universe is. It looks like cars are projected at Bad Guys who represent the Forces of Evil but why? What did these bad guys do? How much force does the evil wield. Check out that kids face. He's pissed! 

I wish I could find out more information on this "game". I couldn't find any info on the internet but when I did a Google image search I found was this...which I felt compelled to share. What a cute photo.

Spider-Man backpack!

What's the ad for?

Dorman's Cheese
Year
1986

Spotted in...

The Scoop

 It's cool that they gave you the choice of how many UPC symbols to include. Doesn't seem like much a deal though. I did a bit of searching on the internet to see if I could come up with some photos of the actual backpack. All I found was people selling the actual ad?!? At a price-point of $7.99? Do people actually buy and collect just the ads? This is a dollar book if that. Couldn't they just buy the comic and clip out the old ad?

132 Roman Soldiers

What's the ad for?

132 Roman Soldiers. Two complete armies!
Year
1981

Spotted in...

The Scoop

This ad was featured prominently in back of comic books from the 60s to the early 80's. The art was by Russ Heath. Below is what Heath had to say about the ad in an interview featured at wtv-zone.com

A lot of people didn't know I did them because they didn't want them signed.  I did have a small "RH" on the lower left hand corner of the Revolutionary soldiers and I don't remember about the Roman soldiers.   Then they would blame me, I'd never seen the damned things, because they're like a bas relief or whatever they call it.  They're not fully formed, not three dimensional.  It would be flat things that were shaped a little and the kids felt gypped and they figured that it was my fault.

A lot of kids were disappointed with these toy soldiers. I guess it's another four color promise that never lived up to it's expectations.

Sponsered by Jolly Ranchers

What's the ad for?

Watermelon Jolly Ranchers
Year
1987

Spotted in...

The Scoop

Unlike Stu Thomsen, these guys could only get sponsored by a candy company. Nah, just kidding. Seeing these ads reminds me how popular BMX was in the eighties. I mean, they even made a movies centered on BMX riding. They were pretty rad...

Old man on a little bike

What's the ad for?

Huffy BMX bicycles
Year
1985

Spotted in...

The Scoop

 Okay, when I first saw this ad recently my first thought was, "ha, an old man with a mustache on a little bike." The man in question is Stu Thomsen and he would have only been in his late twenties when this photo was taken, so not so old. The call him the Babe Ruth of BMX racing, he is a legend. Check out the trailer below for a doc made about Stompin Stu...

Gone Fishing...

I'm leaving the country to travel for a few weeks. I will not be updating the site while I'm gone. In the meantime, check out the archives. There are over 200 ads to look at.

Cheers

Marvel's Super Slurpee Fun Game

What's the ad for?

7-11's Super Slurpee Fun Game
Year
1981

Spotted in...

The Scoop

To celebrate the near start of summer I thought I would share this Marvel Slurpee ad/contest. Your chance to win thousands of dollars in cash. I like the instructions on how to play...

"With the edge of a coin, gently scratch-ff the gold squares on the front of your game card."

Like that needs explaining? Then again, this was 1981. Perhaps the concept of scratch-and-win was new. When I was a kid in junior high (Calgary, 1989/90), Hostess potato chips ran a contest featuring a scratch-and-win Nintendo Power Pad. Every card was a winner; you just had to scratch the correct squares to get matching symbols. Someone in my school came up with the idea of carefully placing pieces of Scotch Tape onto the squares and then slowly pealing the tape off. A thin layer of the silver scratching material would come off with the tape. Now if you held the Power Pad game card up to the light, you could make out all the symbols hidden underneath. Most cards won you a free bag of chips or a bottle of pop but soon kids started showing up with wearing Nintendo swag (T-shirts and hats). It was a good run for us and I'm sure we all gained a few potato chip pounds but when your young it didn't matter, we were outside riding our bicycles and playing street hockey all the time anyway.

Then in the fall a new contest started. In each bag of potato chips was another scratch-and-win game card, this time featuring NHL teams. Same concept, this time match the team logos and win something. Every card was a potential winner. We tried the same trick again but it didn't work. The game cards were now made of thicker paper. There was no way you were going to see through these ones. I wonder how much money Hostess lost because someone decided to "save" costs on thinner paper.

I find it hard to believe that it was only the population my junior high whom were doing this. Did anyone else remember doing this? There were even rumors of a local kid ratting us out by telling Hostess what we were doing, which in turn lead to the thicker paper being used for the next contest. Supposedly he received boxes of free chips and stuff. In retrospect I don't think that was the case but you never know.

Secret Wars Action Figures

What's the ad for?

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars Action Figures.
Year
1985

Spotted in the inside back cover of...

 

The Scoop

We've featured ads about Marvels Secret Wars in the past and here is another. This time it's for the Secret Wars toy line from Mattel. One thing I don't understand is why Dr. Doom wants to make the earth into a living TOOOOOMB. What good what that be? Who wants to rule a living tomb. What is a living tooooomb anyway? Only thing I've heard of being refereed to as a living tomb is a sixteen years heart after a three-month break-up. Maybe that's Dr. Doom's problem. He just needs a rebound to soften his heart and get over his lost love...wait what?

Super C and Snakes Revenge - Terrorists go Nuke!

What's the ad for?

Super Contra
Year
1990

Spotted in...

The Scoop

Bill and Lance are back...and this time they mean business. Snake is back too...he also means business. Here are two sequels of highly popular games ported to the NES that were not marketed as sequels. Super C if of course a sequel to Contra while Snakes Revenge is a sequel to Metal Gear. Snakes Revenge is an interesting one as it was only released in the North American and PAL markets and not Japan. Here is what the Metal Gear Wiki has to say about the game...

"It was made as a direct sequel to the NES version of the original Metal Gear. Snake's Revenge was the first game in the Metal Gear series made without the involvement of creator Hideo Kojima, although members of the development team previously worked with Kojima on the original MSX2 version of Metal Gear. It is not part of the series' canon. The game is generally hated by fans of the series due to its removal from the series' canon, and is considered by most to have nothing to do with the Metal Gear series at all."

Free Baseball From Nestle Quik

What's the ad for?

Free Baseball promotion from Nestle Quik
Year
1985

Spotted in...

 

The Scoop

Steve Garvey endorsed Nestle Quik and helped get baseballs into the hands of American children.  Hopefully it prompted those children to go outside and play sports....oh wait, this was the eighties. We were already outside playing. Maybe they need this promotion now.

The Activision Decathlon

What's the ad for?

The Activision Decathlon
Year
1985

Spotted in the inside back cover of...

 

The Scoop

 This was a unique ad for it's visual appearance. It looked like no other ad out there, especially for a video game. The Activision Decathlon was murder on your Atari or other game console joystick (controller for those young ones out there). Repeated back and forth motion, tap, tap, tap! A systems lifetime of use in a few hours of play.

Ravenloft the RPG

What's the ad for?

Ravenloft
Year
1990

Spotted in...

The Scoop

Ravenloft is a role playing game that uses the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rule set. From my limited understanding, the Ravenloft universe is an alternate time-space existence that consists of pocket universes which can appear anywhere in the Dungeons and Dragons universe. I primarily know the name Ravenloft from a popular board game that was released  a couple years ago entitled Castle Ravenloft. There have been numerous books and three video games based on the Ravenloft pocket universes, almost all of them released in the nineties. Perhaps the popularity of the board game will cause a renewed interest in the Ravenloft universe.

Demon Sword - Master the Power

What's the ad for?

Demon Sword
Year
1990

Spotted in...

The Scoop

 I'm always surprised by the regional differences in video games. It's not an uncommon occurrence or at least it never used to be. I'm not sure if they still make as many changes between Japanese and North American releases. Take for instance Demon Sword. The version released in Japan has several more stages along with several more bosses. There are also more items and magic spells in the Japanese version. Along with the added difficulty of more levels and more bosses, a Japanese player was rewarded with an ending featuring extra scenes and text that was cut out of the North American release. 

It's not all bad. Here in North America we got a life meter while in Japan they only got a life count. The box art is also vastly different. Now that I can understand. See the Japanese box art below.

image from www.gamefaqs.com

Kool-Aid Man battles The Thirsties!

What's the ad for?

Kool-Aid Man- Video Game
Year
1983

Spotted in...

The Scoop

"Oh Yeah!" 

That's what a fun-loving, giant pitcher of Kool-Aid says as he bursts through the wall of your living room, destroying your furniture and causing thousands of dollars of damage. Some call him a mascot while others call him a home-grown terrorist. Either way don't you find it funny that he's always carrying a smaller version of himself? Why not just pour some Kool-Aid from himself.

Video of actual game play...

And the Kool-Aid man as featured in The Family Guy

 

Publish Post

The Saga of Crystar

What's the ad for?

Crystar- Crystal Warrior action figures
Year
1984

Spotted in...

The Scoop

 In 1982, Remco released a line of action figures and vehicles under the name The Saga of Crystar, Crystal Warrior. A year later a comic book series featuring the toys was released by Marvel. One would think that the comic book was based on the toys when in fact it the entire line was created and owned by Marvel comics.

The series lasted for 11 issues but it was issue 8 that interested me, or at least the cover. Glen Danzig swiped the Michael Golden drawn skull on the cover for the logo of his band. (see below)

Dick Tracy - The Movie

What's the ad for?

Dick Tracy - The Movie
Year
1990

Spotted in...

The Scoop

In the months leading up to it's June release, comic books were filled with iconic images of Warren Beatty as Dick Tracy. Beatty was also the director of the film and had a definite vision for it. He used a strict seven color palette in order to more closely resemble Dick Tracy's comic book roots. Beatty also cast his then girlfriend Madonna as Breathless Mahoney. How did the film do? Pretty well. It grossed $162 million worldwide after going over-budget at $46 million. Full disclosure...I've never seen it.  Maybe it's about time I did.

 

Konami hand-held games

What's the ad for?

Konami hand-held games
Year
1990

Spotted in...

The Legion of Super-Heroes Subscription ad

 

I'm running short on time this week as I prepare to head down to the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle. So I am giving you an old DC subscription ad to The Legion of Super-Heroes. I was fortunate as a kid to always have a local comic store. Even when I moved up to Northern Canada as an early teen, the town had just opened a new comic shop. I never had to get a subscription.

I would be curious about others experience with it. Did you have a comic book subscriptions back in the day? Did they arrive in good shape or were they ever mangled? Just curious...leave a comment if you've have any stories to share.
 

Double Dragon 3 - Deadly Weapons!

What's the ad for?

Double Dragon 3 for the Sega Genesis
Year
1993

Spotted in...

The Scoop

The third but not the last game in the Double Dragon franchise was not a well received game. Interesting to note the differences between the Japanese and Western versions of the game. In the Japanese version you could choose characters while in the Western version there were weapon shops where you could purchase weapons and extra moves. I wonder why they make regional differences in games like these? Why, Why?

The insult that made a man out of "Mac"

What's the ad for?

Bodybuilding books by Charles Atlas
Year
1972

Spotted in...

The Scoop

So apparently the story featured in the ad is based on the life of Angelo Siciliano, a young Italian immigrant. After getting sand kicked in his face, probably over at Coney Island, he decided that enough was enough. No more being a 97 pound weakling. So Siciliano joined the YMCA and became obsessed with working out. He won competitions and in 1921 was named  "The World's Most Perfectly Developed Man". He then got a job as the strongman in the Coney Island Circus Side Show. The year after that he changed his name to...Charles Atlas. I bet you didn't see that coming.

Altas told "Half Alive" scrawny teenagers that they didn't have to toil away in the YMCA gym to become the next  Angelo Siciliano. All they had to do was buy his book and perform "15 minutes a day of pleasant practice- in the privacy of your own room". I'd have to guess but I think they were already doing that pleasant practice everyday in the privacy of their own room. Probably involved more pulling than lifting.

Arch Rivals- Basket Brawl

What's the ad for?

Arch Rivals for the NES
Year
1991

Spotted in...

The Scoop

Unlike other basketball video games, the appeal of Arch Rivals was that you could punch your opponent in the face to steal the ball. It was the Road Rash of the the basketball set, albeit a first-gen predecessor. One of the characters from the game, Tyrone, was even featured in the animated Power Team segments that appeared in Video Power TV series.

WWF Superstars for the Gameboy

What's the ad for?
WWF Superstars for the Nintendo Gameboy
Year
1991

Spotted in...

The Scoop

One more ad for the week and another wrestling themed one to boot. From what some would call the glory days of wresting (some being anyone who was 12 years old in 1991) comes WWF Superstars. Featuring all your favorite wrestlers; The Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan, "Macho King" Randy Savage, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, and Mr. Perfect. Check out the sweet graphics and game-play below. 

I beat the @!#! out of Dad last night!

What's the ad for?
Wrasslin by Avalon Hill
Year
1991

Spotted in...

The Scoop

Wrasslin' was a card game released by Avalon Hill in 1990. Avalon Hill was a board game company better known for it's complex war games, although they did have a small stable of non-war games like this one in their catalog. This ad is pretty funny...and I quote " Why did you drop kick your mom when he crawled over to tag her." The type of humor definitely appeals to young buys, so I guess they knew their target audience.

You can find a fun review of the game over at the Fortress AT website.

Below are some images from www.boardgamegeek.com

Image by BGG user Gialmere

Image by BGG user mrbeankc

Four Color Promises is now on Twitter...

I thought I would give this Twitter thing a try. You can now follow me on the Twitter. @4ColorPromises. I will tweet about new posts as well as enlighten you all with things I find interesting, both comic related and non-comic related. It might take a bit for me to get a hang of it...luck for me I have zero followers to disappoint!

That is all...