This is the first opportunity I’ve had to include some German adverts at TVTA 🙂 And what better introduction than this 1981 Playmobil ad straight from the home of Germany! Also included is a German LEGO Space Series ad from 1980. Enjoy!
Germany. YPS. 1981.
Germany. YPS. 1980.
Set to the tune of Billy Joel’s 1989 hit “We Didn’t Start The Fire”, this beautifully observed tribute to ’70s and ’80s pop culture should leave you with a big smile on your face.
Thanks and kudos to hunkygraham1 for making and sharing 🙂 and thanks to my mate Stef for the link 🙂
I couldn’t find much information about this French drawing / design toy that seems to be based on another popular drawing / design toy, Spirograph. The ad states that Casset.O.Graph is from the same makers as SkeDoodle – which is yet another drawing / design toy that was similar to the massively popular Etch A Sketch… which is, erm, another drawing / design toy! Then there’s the Rotadraw, and Sketch-Master… phew!
If anyone has any info on the Casset.O.Graph then please send me a drawing / design, I mean a message 🙂
Casset.O.Graph. France. Pif Gadget. 1981.
Scalecraft Model kits were produced by the Eldon toy company in the UK from the late 1950s up to 1977 when they were taken over by Airfix. Typical Scalecraft sets featured cars, military vehicles, boats and aeroplanes. They came as ‘snap-together’ kits and were sometimes motorised.
Scalecraft model planes. UK. Victor. 1975.
Scalecraft model toys. France. Pif Gadget. 1979.
Sega Eternal Champions. Die Cut N°4. 1994. US.
Founded in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1940 as Service Games, later renamed SEGA and famous for Sonic the Hedgehog, the Master System and MegaDrive.
One of my favourite MegaDrive games was Altered Beast. Long gone are the days when I still had my console but I somehow managed to keep hold of this game.
Altered Beast. 1990.
Sega print advertising
Sega video games. US. Strange Tales. 1988.
Sega Street Fighter II. Die CutN°4. 1994. US.
Sega Lethal Enforcers gun. Die Cut N°4. 1994. US.
Sega Super High Impact. Detective Comics N°651. 1992.
Sega Streets of Rage. Groo. 1991. US.
Streets of Rage Perfect Soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro. Licensed by Sega. Wayo Records. 2018.
Sega Fighters Megamix. Crimson Dawn. 1997.
EA Sega Air Force F22 Interceptor in-game poster
Sega Burning Rangers. The Young All-Stars N°9. 1988.
Thanks for looking, we’re still waiting for a Sonic ad to crop up somewhere!
Post updated October 2018 with new images.
ROM the new Micro-electronic action toy from Parker Brothers, 1979.
“From outer space to the pages of Marvel comics… to your toy store comes the mighty champion of justice and truth, the greatest of all Spaceknights… Rom!”
Rom electronic action toy. US. Iron Man. 1979.
Forces in Combat featuring Rom
Rom. Forces in Combat. Star Wars Weekly. 1980. UK.
Some survivors from my original cassette collection
Today, the 7th of September 2013, is Cassette Store Day, an International celebration of the magnetic tape cassette, a musical format long ago consigned by many to the bin, but one that has recently undergone a popularity swerve with musical artists, stores, and industry labels embracing once more the humble cassette tape.
Led Zep – tape format style.
Despite considering myself more a vinyl junkie, I’ve been looking forward to celebrating Cassette Store Day. I remember upgrading most of my cassettes to their CD versions a long while ago, but I still kept hold of many of the cassettes with the quiet belief that one day they’d receive the cool-factor recogntion they deserved. That, or I was just too sentimental to give them to the charity shop.
Insert inserts here.
Vinyl had always been my favourite choice back in the days before CD and downloads. But for portability the cassette format was the easy winner; school holidays, days spent down the park, camping trips with mates, end of term when the teacher allowed us to bring in our favourite music to play – it was always the fag packet-size cassette and its portable player that provided the soundtrack.
Bootlegs
Bootlegs
There were always plenty of shops selling label releases on cassette. Even non-musical shops could afford to stock them due to their compact size. I remember the busy Saturday morning markets of Birmingham in the ’80s; the indoor markets and outside of Oasis, these places were great to go and pick up music, especially bootlegs and other cassette oddities.
Bands and gigs and demos
The band’s old best friend.
The cassette definitely served me well as a listener and buyer of music. But as a musician playing in numerous bands since the age of fifteen, one of the things I’m most grateful to for the cassette was the ability to record our own music. Most of the bands I played with back in the 80s and 90s would record our own demos live in rehearsal studios. We’d choose the best four songs and post them off to labels and music magazines. We’d also take along a cassette player to gigs and record the whole set live. Even during the middle of the noughties we still found ourselves sharing song ideas on tape.
Home Taping is Killing Music
RIP already music.
I don’t think I taped so many albums from my mates’ collections. I was always happy saving up and buying the proper label releases because I loved the artwork and lyric sheets that were so much part of the appeal of a new album for me. However, a few copies would sometimes ‘find their way’ into my collection… I like to think I wasn’t so much killing music by home taping, just inflicting a few flesh wounds.
Clean Me!
Back in the day, ‘Head Cleaners’ weren’t just a lotion you applied to the head for nit infestations!
Happy Cassette Store Day!!
Right, enjoy your day, I’m off to set up my old tape deck and blast out some tapes!
You can read more about Cassette Store Day here cassettestoreday.com
and please read this superb article by Jude Rogers Total rewind: 10 key moments in the life of the cassette
The Vintage Toy Advertiser 