What did you buy from a comic book, and did it work?

[Ze-man]

I know we all see the adds in comic books, and I was too young to actually be around when you could "Buy a live Monkey" (w/ sucker)

 

But I personally bought these items over the years

 

Hercules wristbands to make me stonger.. they didnt work.. but I did hurt my hand trying to break a board while I had them on.

 

Sea Monkeys of course ( and I never could train them to do tricks)

 

Fire gum.. actually was fun..got my mom but good!

 

 

X-ray specs..(we all know these dont work)

 

Dog wistle..... never knew how to use it till later in life

 

and I once actually bought a wrist radio, and it actually worked!!

 

 

Anyone else have stories from yesteryear?

About stuff they spent money on , and waited forever at the mailbox for it to arrive .. I.E.. Ralphie and his Ovaltine , Little Orphan Annie decoder from the Christmas Story Movie.

 

Zeman

[DiceX]

I could write a book on these.

I'll try to remember them all, but here were a few...

Sea Monkeys.

X-Ray Specs.

The skeleton hands that stuck out of your pocket.

The shrunken head kit. (You made them out of an apple.)

The 10 foot balloon.

The werewolf hands.

TORINOKO FIRE BOMBS! <-what a joke. they were "Snap-n-Pops"

The trained crabs.

Itching and sneezing powders <-Yes these worked.

Blood capsules

 

I'll have to think about some of the others while I'm at my daughter's softball game tonight.

Those are the ones that just jumped to mind.

Yes...I was a sucker.

[143ksk]

Yeah, I bought the "Atomic Submarine."

 

It was a POS! An assemble yourself cardboard thing that looked NOTHING like the picture in the comic

 

That was 30+ years ago and I'm still not over it

I think it cost like $5 (which was a lot of money to me then--40 comics or 50 packs of baseball cards!!!). What a rip off!

[Silver Surfer]

Sent away Canadian money to California for a Superman poster (I think its was $0.25) when I was 10 and I never saw it again.

[Ze-man]

Yeah, I bought the "Atomic Submarine."

 

It was a POS! An assemble yourself cardboard thing that looked NOTHING like the picture in the comic

 

That was 30+ years ago and I'm still not over it

I think it cost like $5 (which was a lot of money to me then--40 comics or 50 packs of baseball cards!!!). What a rip off!

 

Didnt it have missles that fired?

,

I would love to see a photo of your face once you got it and how peeved you were.

,

[DiceX]

Just remembered another.

The hover craft!

You had to make it out of a vacuum cleaner moter.

I was never able to get the motor to make it work, but I often contemplated taking Mom's apart.

[Ze-man]

Just remembered another.

The hover craft!

You had to make it out of a vacuum cleaner moter.

I was never able to get the motor to make it work, but I often contemplated taking Mom's apart.

 

 

I wanted that BAAAADDDDDDD.. but never got it.

I had dreams of floating around my neighborhood... and all my friends looking at me in awe and wonder....

Instead I most likely crashed my Big wheel into a tree.. and got laughed at.

 

perhaps this company also sold Vacume cleaners ..

 

, since it knew every kid would demolish his moms cleaner trying to make a hovercraft.

[PUNYHUMAN]

In the 60's ,my mother helped me send away for some Sea Monkeys-What a Waste!!!! :

But the one I was real excited about was: Growing your own Monsters ,they grew alright,they were these little cardboard painted monsters that had grass seed on there head with a tube in the back if I remember right. You stuck it in water,grass would start growing from there heads days later ,Then the grass also died not to long after that!!!!! :

[143ksk]

Didnt it have missles that fired?

 

NO! They did NOT fire!

 

They were these crappy plastic things with bulbs on the end that you had to squeeze really hard to get them to move at all.

 

Oooooh, I'm still

[DiceX]

Question for some of the older collectors...

I can remember my uncle used to have a bunch of Golden Age comics.

He used to read them to me when I was a wee tot.

He's the person that got me into comics.

 

Anyway, they had ads for some of the coolest stuff.

I can't remember if it was a Whiz, All Star, or Tec that had an ad for these airplanes that "Fired Real Bombs" and the like.

It almost seems like it even said that they would actually fly. But perhaps it said that they did not fly. I can't remember.

They looked way cool in the ads.

Are there any old timers that actually bought any of these airplanes?

If so, were they as cool as the ads made them out to be?

My guess would be no, but to a 5 year old imagination, they were awesome.

 

Even better. Are there any golden age guys that can take a pic of one of these ads from one of your books? (If you can figure out which one I'm talking about.)

That would really bring back memories.

[Rocketeer]

DC super-hero stickers.....it was an add near the back of Justice League of America #100...two dollars and I proudly displayed them on the wall over my bed.......that and I always ordered comics from Howard D Rogofsky...you sent away 25 cents and he mailed you a small blue booklet catalog...typewitten......4th class mail ....

[Mephisto]

But the one I was real excited about was: Growing your own Monsters ,they grew alright,they were these little cardboard painted monsters that had grass seed on there head with a tube in the back if I remember right. You stuck it in water,grass would start growing from there heads days later ,Then the grass also died not to long after that!!!!! :

 

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia!

[blutobc]

Talked my folks back around 1970 to buy the ever famous 100-200+ plastic army men set. Can't remember exactly how many were supposed to be in it, but it was at least 100 figures. You know the small 1-2" figures.

 

Anyway, about 6 months later I received three 6" figures(one army man, a cowboy, and an Indian). I guess they must have gone through some kind of alteration during the time transportor(ala crisis)

 

Anyway, that left such a sour taste in my(and of course my folks) mouth that I never could trust using mail order again. At least until I gave in to the lure of ebaying for comics.