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X-ray Specs, Sea Monkeys & Charles Atlas


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Creepy Green Light

Creepy Green Light

Paranormal Adept
I'm sure there are several of us here that used to browse the back of comic books in the 60's & 70's to look at what fascinating items could be obtained via mail order. Things like X-ray specs, Sea Monkeys, Throw Your Voice, 7 ft Tall Ghost-Monster (that U control), etc. I found a great story in a current copy of Famous Monsters magazine of a gentleman who made collecting these items his main mission in life. The article is great because it shows what the ad in the comic book looked like & compares it to what actually shows up in the mail. For a lot of us, it was our first lesson in "truth in advertising".

I also found this online (regarding the same fellow). For those who are interested; Sea-Monkeys and X-Ray Spex: Collecting the Bizarre Stuff Sold in the Back of Comic Books
 
Creepy Green Light said:
I'm sure there are several of us here that used to browse the back of comic books in the 60's & 70's to look at what fascinating items could be obtained via mail order. Things like X-ray specs, Sea Monkeys, Throw Your Voice, 7 ft Tall Ghost-Monster (that U control), etc. I found a great story in a current copy of Famous Monsters magazine of a gentleman who made collecting these items his main mission in life. The article is great because it shows what the ad in the comic book looked like & compares it to what actually shows up in the mail. For a lot of us, it was our first lesson in "truth in advertising".

I also found this online (regarding the same fellow). For those who are interested; Sea-Monkeys and X-Ray Spex: Collecting the Bizarre Stuff Sold in the Back of Comic Books
Click to expand...
Are you referring to this pervert?


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I got the "realistic stick on eyes",that attached to your eyelids so you could sleep your way through boring lessons at school.Earned myself a detention when the French teacher was sick and the headmaster walked in to substitute to find me blissfully snoozing at the back of class!
 
Ron Away said:
I got the "realistic stick on eyes",that attached to your eyelids so you could sleep your way through boring lessons at school.Earned myself a detention when the French teacher was sick and the headmaster walked in to substitute to find me blissfully snoozing at the back of class!
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Ha! That's a great story! I would have loved to have seen a picture of that :)
 
I really wanted that sub i was mad keen on voyage to the bottom of the sea, and my middle name is Nelson because im a descendant of Lord Nelson.
Indeed my grandfather confided in me the reason Nelson lost an eye at trafalgar was because he was picking his nose and someone bumped his elbow.

To this day i have collected all the VTTBOS dvd, comics and even the 39 inch sub model.

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So i guess that sub was in my blood, Admiral Nelson would have been proud.

Oh i wanted it, told my parents that would cover Xmas and birthdays till i was old enough to enlist in the navy. But they said no.

But i really thought it was a real atomic sub, torpedoes and all. I would lie in bed at night fantacising about the adventures i could have if i owned that polaris sub.

So this link means more to me than you can guess. Thank you
 
mike said:
I really wanted that sub i was mad keen on voyage to the bottom of the sea, and my middle name is Nelson because im a descendant of Lord Nelson.
Indeed my grandfather confided in me the reason Nelson lost an eye at trafalgar was because he was picking his nose and someone bumped his elbow.

To this day i have collected all the VTTBOS dvd, comics and even the 39 inch sub model.

010-7.jpg


May21361.jpg


So i guess that sub was in my blood, Admiral Nelson would have been proud.

Oh i wanted it, told my parents that would cover Xmas and birthdays till i was old enough to enlist in the navy. But they said no.

But i really thought it was a real atomic sub, torpedoes and all. I would lie in bed at night fantacising about the adventures i could have if i owned that polaris sub.

So this link means more to me than you can guess. Thank you
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Wow. That's a great piece of your past. Thanks for sharing :) I'm glad you got something kinda heavy out of that link. And you know you're not alone. There are scores of other kids (adults) that used to look at the ad for that sub right before they closed their eyes for bed. And it's probably the first thing they looked at when they woke in the morning. And nice VTTBOTS models you have. I haven't seen that in a long time.
 
Creepy Green Light said:
I'm sure there are several of us here that used to browse the back of comic books in the 60's & 70's to look at what fascinating items could be obtained via mail order. Things like X-ray specs, Sea Monkeys, Throw Your Voice, 7 ft Tall Ghost-Monster (that U control), etc. I found a great story in a current copy of Famous Monsters magazine of a gentleman who made collecting these items his main mission in life. The article is great because it shows what the ad in the comic book looked like & compares it to what actually shows up in the mail. For a lot of us, it was our first lesson in "truth in advertising".

I also found this online (regarding the same fellow). For those who are interested; Sea-Monkeys and X-Ray Spex: Collecting the Bizarre Stuff Sold in the Back of Comic Books
Click to expand...

Oh yeah...I remember. I wanted the x-ray specs solo bad! Then one day, a friend ordered them and.....what a blinking' con! The cheap plastic frames held horizontal threads in place of lenses which would refract light round your fingers if you held your hand up to a light..giving a really lame effect as if you were looking at your own bones on an x-ray. I cannot overstate my disappointment once I realised I would not be able to see thru girls clothes! (I was about 9 or 10).

Shamefully misleading advertising!
 
As far as me the only thing I got burned on was the sea monkeys but I got burned twice because after I got my first shipment of sea monkeys I figured it HAD to have been a mistake so I gave the company another shot. I don't think either colony lived terribly long but being shrimp they did react to a pen light in a darkened room so at least I got some amusement out of them.
 
I always wanted to throw my voice but figured it would never work - or it least it was not something I would ever be able to do. Since only superman had x-Ray vision (nothing to do with his glasses), and the sea monkeys looked way too intimidating, I somehow managed to avoid the temptation. I never was too sure of the scrawny guy punching out the bully after doing the Charles Atlas course so I guess I was destined to be the scrawny guy all my life.

I guess if you did throw your voice and used your x-Ray glasses for inappropriate uses (what else would you want them for?), you might have needed Atlas's help.

I did end up with a small box of the cheapest toy soldiers you could imagine.

A great link.
 
Mulvaney said:
I did end up with a small box of the cheapest toy soldiers you could imagine.
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Those were the only things i got that panned out. The sea monkeys were a total bust - didn't look anything like the pictures. no crowns, no nice family settings and picnics or scenes from the Jetsons as I was expecting. i know i should have got that giant sized Frankenstein, but i knew my parents would freak.
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The soldiers was the first order placed, scrawled in my own hand and the envelope loaded heavy with nickles, dimes and lots of pennies. Somehow they still managed to arrive - go figure. Who knew mail order was so easy? my six year old self asked with great confidence. Countless hours were spent in the sandbox with these soldiers, waging wars with conscripted spiders, grasshoppers and the occasional large caterpillar. Then there were the explosive fire battles with the matches I stole from my dad's drawer and the boxes of caps I bought from the corner store. Oh and the devil was there too, back in the early beginnings of the young arsonist, for I knew I was doing satan's work. Gotta love the kid brain that's been steeped in Catholicism. That's when the real delusions begin.
Plastic-Toy-Soldier-MARX-60mm-b.jpg
 
Goggs Mackay said:
Oh yeah...I remember. I wanted the x-ray specs solo bad! Then one day, a friend ordered them and.....what a blinking' con! The cheap plastic frames held horizontal threads in place of lenses which would refract light round your fingers if you held your hand up to a light..giving a really lame effect as if you were looking at your own bones on an x-ray. I cannot overstate my disappointment once I realised I would not be able to see thru girls clothes! (I was about 9 or 10).

Shamefully misleading advertising!
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LOL. Don't feel too bad. You're disappointment was universally felt. I read that those horizontal threads were actually some type of bird bones. I always assumed as a kid that you put them on and you would see a cartoony looking outlite of a woman's hour-glass body shape. But bird bones? Who knew?
 
Wade said:
As far as me the only thing I got burned on was the sea monkeys but I got burned twice because after I got my first shipment of sea monkeys I figured it HAD to have been a mistake so I gave the company another shot. I don't think either colony lived terribly long but being shrimp they did react to a pen light in a darkened room so at least I got some amusement out of them.
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Ok, that just made me laugh. Of course you ordered them gain - the first batch must have been defective lol. I'm sure you weren't the only one to have been a "repeat customer". Great story :)
 
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