Ninja Turtles Cereal - "It's Radical Tasting Cereal Dudes!"

What's the ad for?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cereal
Year
1991

Spotted in...

The Scoop

 Oh nostalgia. It will make people do things like try and recreate a crappy cereal they ate as kids. You gotta check out this link here, where some dude tries to recreate the TMNT cereal using the available cereals of today. I guess he didn't see the eBay listing for an unopened box. Only $49.99.

 

 

Easy Care Manicure Set - My Hands...Blah!

What's the ad for?
Kenner's Easy Care Manicure Set
Year
1971

Spotted in...

The Scoop

Hey look! I found another seventies Kenner ad! This one is funny. Lets just start with the first panel. A little girl crying saying "Mom--My Party dress is beautiful-But my hands...Blah!". Oh brother. Lucky for her, she gets to open a present early. Her mom must have noticed her Blah hands and got her the manicure set for her birthday. Do you get offended if your the little girl or thankful? Alas, look how lovely her little hands end up looking. Good enough to be a secretary!

Kenner Chip-Away Set

What's the ad for?
Chip-Away Set by Kenner
Year
1972

Spotted in...

The Scoop

This is great. Be an artist without the talent! Kenner brought the world of paint by number to the sculpting profession. Sculpting can be dangerous, with the sharp tools used to chip-away the hard rock. Now your child can make the same mess without the danger!

 

 Along with the three sets shown in the ad, a Flintstones set was also available which included Fred, Wilma with Pebbles and Dino. Sadly, no Barny or Wilma. Kenner released a lot of interesting toys in the seventies and that's not even including their Star Wars line. I will keep my eyes open for more Kenner ads and will post them here as I find them.

Did any of you receive a Chip-Away set for Christmas back in the seventies?

House Ad - The 1990's - Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City

Dark Knight, Dark City ran in Batman 452-454 back in 1990. A good story arc, it would later go on to be used in Grant Morrison's Batman run twenty years later. Check out this interesting article and comparison on the Comics Alliance website.

www.comicsalliance.com/2010/11/01/batman-and-robin-16-preview-dark-knight-dark-city/

More proper ads to come next week.

The Icewind Dale Trilogy -The Crystal shard

What's the ad for?
Forgotten Realms-The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore
Year
1988

Spotted on the back cover of...

The Scoop

 The Crystal Shard was the first part of the The Icewind Dale Trilogy written by R.A. Salvatore. Another Forgotten Realms advert that seemed to dominate the back covers of many a comic in the late eighties. See another here.

Taito - Bring out the hero in you!

What's the ad for?
Taito video games for the NES
Year
1988

Spotted in...

The Scoop

Renegade was a "immediate technological predecessor to Double Dragon". Similar to Double Dragon, you also get to beat up women. The game was a westernized conversion of a Japanese game called "Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun". Which when roughly translated means to "Hot-Blooded Tough Guy Kunio". Nice!

Elevator Action was a much older game. It first came out in the arcades in 1983. It was intended to be ported over to the Atari 2600 but never made it.

The Legend of Kage first appeared in arcades in 1985 followed by this NES release in 1987. 

Arkanoid came packaged with the controller pictured below.

The controller was called the Vaus and was the rarest of controllers released for the NES. The game and controller were never sold separately and today fetch a pretty penny on eBay. I'm talking hundreds of dollars.

So this ad looks to me to be giving games that were not new releases a second push. I would assume that is why there is four games featured in the ad and not one. Taito already made a push with these games the years they came out.

Another thing that jumps out at me is the way the video game industry was centered around the arcade. It was similar to the movie and book industry where you would find a film or book being first released in the theater or hardcover format, followed by a release on VHS or softcover at a later date. You don't see that anymore.

Bubble Bobble is Dino-Might!

What's the ad for?
Bubble Bobble for the NES
Year
1989

Spotted in...

The Scoop

A great game from the eighties. When theme meant little, if nothing. I mean, come on, dinosaurs blowing bubbles? Works for me!

Forgotten Realms - Black Wizards

What's the ad for?
Forgotten Realms-Black Wizards by Douglas Niles
Year
1988

Spotted on the back of...

The Scoop

The Moonshae trilogy was the first series of books set in the Forgotten Realms. The trilogy was written by Douglas Niles. Black Wizards was the second book in the trilogy. I have never read these books, or much fantasy for that matter but I do remember these ads taking up the back page of many a comic in the late eighties.