Monogram Car-in-a-Bottle

Here's the old “ship-in-a-bottle” trick

with a new twist...

Now you can build a “Car-in-a-Bottle” in just minutes with “Pop” art from Monogram.

Today is Nation Sea-Monkey Day

National Sea-Monkey Day is observed each year on May 16. Most of us have memories of waiting for our mail order shipment of these magical creatures. The delivery usually contained the small “aquarium-like” hatching kit for them to live and grow in.

Comics-Ads: Johnson Smith Co. Presents Kung-Fu for the Pathetically Hopeless

Ah, Johnson Smith Co., ripping off little kids since 1914, and yet they're still in business to this very day. Its really no wonder, because they knew exactly how to market crap to their target audience. I know I got ripped off by them a number of times, but I would still come back for more.

1985 Saturday Morning Preview - Back to Next Saturday

Back in the 80s the networks would have Saturday morning preview specials to showcase the upcoming saturday morning cartoons for the upcoming season. A great way back then to get kids talking and circling times in the TV Guide.

This is a full 1985 Saturday Morning Preview titled "Back to Next Saturday". It features Keshia Knight Pulliam (Rudy from The Cosby Show), Lisa Welchel (Blair from The Facts of Life), Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster), the kids from Punky Brewster, the kids from Kidd Video, & Spider-Man.

So... Sea Monkeys

So... Sea Monkeys July 5, 2016 - Brown Sterling Business Law The point is, this is just another example – albeit a most entertaining one – of the botched sale of a company. An operating, profitable company, the death of the owner, a ‘quick’ sale by the heir, then years of litigation. All of it was avoidable with proper planning. BROWNSTERLING.COM

Twinkie Me, Bitch! : Breaking Bad Hostess Ad

AMC recently had a marathon of the critically acclaimed TV show Breaking Bad starring Bryan Cranston as Walter White and Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman. I binge watched the whole thing as I never watched it when it first aired. While looking for more information about this series on the interwebs, I ran across this delightful gem!

Artist Brendan Tobin has created “Twinkie Me, Bitch!,” a Breaking Bad spoof of the classic comic book ads that Hostess ran for Twinkies in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Weird World of Aurora

In 1971, a model company called Aurora was struggling. They had made a good name for themselves with awesome kits based on classic monsters, dinosaurs, and the like, but sales were waning, so they decided to up the ante with what was arguably the most offensive and shocking toy sets ever marketed to kids.

The snap together kits featured Frankenstein, Dr. Deadly, and Vampirella, which wasn't that outrageous, but they came with an array of torture devices and a figure cleverly marketed as "The Victim" that caused an uproar.

The centerpiece of the campaign was an ad which ran in DC comic books and Warren comic magazines of the era.

Taking the form of a comic strip, the ad details Dr. Deadly sending Frankenstein and Vampirella (sporting a camel toe, no less!) out for “a girl victim for the experiment.” Frankenstein chuckles?!

Comic Ad Relook: The Case of the Missing Fruit Pie

Recently the hostess ad Hulk vs. The Roller Disco Devils was featured here and I noticed something odd, so I went to investigate. The Hulk looks like he is supposed to be holding something there in his hand in the last panel… it was obviously meant to be a fruit pie. Everyone who eats in these ads only uses their thumb and first three fingers, allowing thir pinkie to dangle freely. Check out the Hulk's hand it looks like he has an invisible fruit pie in it! Also when people eat their cheek bulges out like they have a chaw of tobacco in there... Lo and behold the Hulk's cheek is all bulged out, too. If he isn't eating a fruit pie, why draw him like he is?

Seems like he really was originally drawn eating that pie, but there was some rule that said while the super-heroes could be used to endorse the products they couldn't actually be shown consuming them... o.O Yeah, I don't get it either... anyway someone hastily erased the pie out of Hulks hand and figured no one would notice... Check out the picture below, I cut and pasted a pie into his hand and it fits perfectly!

Comic Ads: AAU Shuperstar takes on the Dirty Hippie Sneaker

Here we have a unique oddity from the late 1970's, a comic ad from the Intermark Shoe Company for their AAU brand of sneakers. This ad had me mesmerized as a child and seemed to be everywhere. In fact it only appeared on the back covers of DC comics dated November 1978 and features AAU's hero-spokesmodel, the AAU Shuperstar, battling... well... pretty much just a scroungy looking hippie known as The Dirty Sneaker. See, back in the late 70′s a unique superhero appeared on the back covers of comic books... the AAU Shuperstar, a pun-spouting “shoe”-perhero (get it?), all decked out in a garish blue tracksuit and armed with a good solid kick, he defended the world from vile footwear-related villains.

Comics-Ads: The Incredible Hulk Vs. The Roller Disco Devils

Click to enlarge

Ah another classic comic ad. Back in the day, Hostess® bakery, makers of Cupcakes, Twinkies, and Fruit Pies, decided to reach the kiddies through comic book ads. The ads ingeniously used all the popular superheroes of the day in full page spreads in the hopes that it would lure the little rag-a-muffins into reading them. The villains usually had to be one-shot villains with incredibly lame themes: ergo the Roller Disco Devils. These z-grade super-villains were mostly defeated by distracting them with the glorious taste of delicious Hostess confections. However this wasn't always the case, there were exceptions... such as this, rather extreme, exception.

Comics-Ads: Count Dante - The Deadliest Man Alive!

Today I am rolling out a new feature... Vintage comics ads! Not just of Sea-Monkeys either. These were the ads that caught our attention and imaginations back in the day... Get muscles and learn karate to beat up the bullies! Learn the secrets of hypnotism and get everything you ever wanted... such as making girls like you!

Sea-Monkeys® Ads

Here are a couple of old ads for Sea-Monkeys® that I found today:

  

Welcome

Welcome to Bill's Sea-Monkeys® Adventures, a journal of my latest Sea-Monkeys® experiments. You might wonder how and why all this got started... Years ago, on a lark, I purchased a Sea-Monkey kit for my daughter. We had so much fun with them that I decided to compile as much information on them as I could and put it all in one convenient place for her. It started out with just one page and a journal of our adventures with Sea-Monkeys. As an amateur web designer, I eventually decided to apply my skills to creating an actual website.