This is a classic ad song, how could I have ever forgotten it? They even had a magazine ad so you could learn all the lyrics! And man, Luigi used to be fat.
Check out the comic book/magazine version here. (Note: Lyrics between cartoon and TV ad do not match in any way.)
Gamasutra has a nice article up on Atari from ‘78-’81, but it’s 20 pages, so be warned! Still this is a great period for computer and video game history buffs.
Atari: The Golden Years — A History, 1978-1981
The VCS/2600 used to be the standard, the first big breakthrough console. And I never had one. I’m not bitter, my Odyssey2 was a classic in and of itself, but the 2600 was definitely the mainstream console. Now get to readin’!
Hasbro has been pumping out a lot of great boxed sets in the past few years, but the DVD Battle Packs take the cake. Based on the cartoons, these are the first actual toy representations of some of the classic Cobra superweapons.
The M.A.S.S. Device comes with a scuba-suit Baroness all kitted out to fight giant tubeworms at the bottom of the sea (because that’s where “heavy water” comes from in G.I. Joe land, you see). Also present is radiation-poisoning Snake Eyes, but don’t worry, he’ll live. A simple dressing of leaves and herbs will suck that radiation right out!
The Revenge of Cobra set actually comes with a full on weather dominator. None of the characters look really unique, but it does come with some evil vines so that Roadblock can “stick his big green thumb right up Cobra’s nose.” Sadly, this set does not contain a giant Aztec robot. Lame.
Each set comes with a piece to build the M.A.S.S. device and is makred with “Set X of 5,” so we know there will be more to look forward to. The next one is apparently the Pyramid of Darkness, but it looks a bit weak to me. Let’s hope they do better with Arise, Serpentor, Arise. Sadly, I expect the last set to be based on the G.I. Joe Movie, and no good can come of that.
For those who missed out on it last year, I Am 8-bit is an art show dedicated to classic gaming memories. I have the book from last year and there’s some great stuff in there. Joystiq has some of the first images from this year’s show up and they look pretty good.
Piranha Plants are difficult to maintain in captivity.
This is a great event, and I really hope they keep having it. It’s generated some really neat stuff so far, and I think that with a higher profile it could pull in some really incredible artists.
I’ve had these robots on the brain a lot recently, and for no good reason. It seems that during the 80s, aside from making tapes that blew us away, Maxell also specialized in making 5.25″ floppies that were apparently the robot equivalent of caviar.
Dinner is served.
Ah, to be back in the days when 360 kilobytes was a lot of data! I guess those robots aren’t very bright. At least they are cuter than that freakish she-bot from Small Wonder.
Live, damn you!
I remember these ads being all over the place, but maybe I was exposed to a lot more home computing magazines than most people. I can barely find any now (but a nice big version of this second pic can be found here). What happened to this campaign?
Just so you guys don’t end up thinking Japan is all bad, here’s a fan animation that isn’t creepy and horrible. Well, except for Starscream’s little accident. That raises a lot of questions.
Thanks to Ars Technica, I have found this little gem:
It's on like...well, you know.
It’s $25 on Amazon if I can’t find it anywhere else. It will be mine.
I know I already did Pac-man cereal before, but I like this ad (which I don’t remember seeing before). It’s not that there isn’t a certain charm to dancing 80s kids with a horrible Pac-man dance song, but at least this is cute:
They stopped trying completely once they got Ms. Pac-man in there. They knew she would sell the cereal all by herself. Although at least they made a new commercial for her and didn’t just recycle the audio from the one above.
I could go on all day with Pac-man cereal ads, but not only there are a thousand different mild variations on the Pac-man video games, but there are cereal versions for them, too. Not that I have anything against Super Pac-man, but I can’t just make this the Pac-man cereal blog.
They may not get as much love as Transformers or Care Bears, but Battle Beasts were one of the cooler 80s toys. They were like M.U.S.C.L.E. only with actual colors and weapons and moving arms. I was reminded of these over the weekend by some friends who are obsessed with rock/paper/scissors, because they are basically the same thing. See each one had a heat-sensitive chest symbol that would show one of three elements (which was the same technology that let Transformers have SECRET Autobot or Decepticon logos), and each element beat and was beaten by one of the others. Except unlike rock/paper/scissors, once you use a guy, everyone will know what he does. Oh well. They were still fun toys.
(Man. That theme song SUCKS!)
Apparently in Japan these had comics that tied them in to the Transformers story there. Crazy.
80s toy ads have to be given some small amount of respect: they were generally pretty good about showing actual kids playing with the actual toys. In the 90s we had a lot of bullcrap ads that made kids think their new action figure could fly and transform itself and shoot actual lasers out of its eyes. It seems we are only now getting back to ads that show actual footage of the toy in action (no doubt thanks to some serious lawsuits), but they are still pretty weak. You think your Power Ranger’s spring-loaded missile will really knock over that wall of plastic cups? Good luck, kid.
He-Man took it a step further than most 80s ads in terms of realism, though. I found a few of these gems while browsing through GraySkull Museum’s massive collection:
Yep, on schoolnights, many kids’ best playmate was their dad. And yes, your dad was probably exactly that lame at pretending he was terrified of Man-E-Faces. It didn’t matter, though. The fact that he cared enough to try (and this one tries pretty hard) and the fact that your 7-year old brain could only piece together about 15% of the fact that he was putting you on made it almost as good as that kid down the block.
You have to wonder if Dad is really keeping an eye out, though:
“What do we have here?” Huh? The toy castle. That you bought for me. Toys ‘R Us? You were there? I mean, this wasn’t the 80s. Kids didn’t have their own credit cards and cellphones from birth yet.
Oh well, at least he gets involved enough to put Beast Man behind bars. That’ll teach him to break parole.
Dad #1 returns and pulls out all the stops for this last one:
He does voices and everything! He’s also more realistic than Norman Rockwell fantasy dad #2. If your dad’s hair ain’t thinning, he’s not doing his job right! Also note the constant trend of two boys between all three ads. Those guys are gonna be miserable when their kids get old enough to begin their careers in casual street vandalism.
I wasn’t into He-Man so much as G.I. Joe, but I remember putting my own father through similar agonies, and I’m pretty sure he made a similarly earnest attempt to join in the fun. God bless parents spoiling us kids rotten!
