Monthly Archives: March 2019

’74-’85, comic book art and covers

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Marvel 50th Premiere. Alice Cooper. 1979. US.

Welcome, vintage mates, to another selection of comic book art, covers and ads. In this instalment we span the years 1974 to 1985 and feature titles from the US and UK. Included (above) is my childhood copy of Marvel’s Alice Cooper – Tales From the Inside. I didn’t know very much about Alice Cooper back in the late seventies apart from the song ‘School’s Out’ – but the crazy story inside that 12p comic managed to fully capture my imagination as a child… and who could resist that cover?

Other comic book goodies included today are Godzilla King of the Monsters (below), more superb examples of the striking cover art as seen in DC’s Weird War Tales, and titles and ads for Marvel, Star Comics, Starlog, Starburst, Doctor Who and Fantasy Modeling.

As always, thanks for looking 🙂 

Marvel Comic N°338. 1979. UK.

Weird War Tales

Weird War Tales N°32. 1974. US.

Weird War Tales N°78. 1979. US.

Various titles

Fábulas de Esopo (Aesop’s Fables) vintage folding dioramas

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Aesop’s Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE.

I picked up the following ‘Dioramas Plegables’ (Folding Dioramas) in a small lot of ephemera last year. The dioramas were published in Barcelona, Spain, by Ediciones Barsal. I suppose they might be loosely described as ‘optical toys’. There is no visible publishing date, but two Spanish websites I found dated them between the 1930s and 40s.

The three I have are numbered #7, #13 and #15, and are about the size of a paperback novel when opened. The ‘pop-up’ parts are quite fragile – the poor dog in ‘The Thief and the Dog’ diorama is standing up by virtue of only one leg, and there seems to be a ‘food item’ part missing. The other two are in good condition for their age, and all three come in their original protective envelopes with instructions.

Fábulas de Esopo (Aesop’s Fables) folding dioramas. Ediciones Barsal. Spain.

N° 15. El Leon Rey. The Lion King.

The Lion King.

N° 15 envelope front cover and rear cover with instructions.

N° 13. El Ladron Y El Perro. The Thief and the Dog.

N° 7 and N° 13 envelopes.

N° 7. El Pastor mentiroso. The Lying Pastor.

Dioramas Plegables (Folding Dioramas) range.

And the moral of today’s post?

“Inside small envelopes might be wondrous things; you never know what might pop-up!”

Thanks for looking 🙂

Fiction’s Fearless Females: Wonder Woman

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Graphic Novelty²

Nancy and I, as well as six other bloggers, continue to celebrate Women’s History Month with this latest installment in our #FictionsFearlessFemales series! Each post written thus far has featured a female character from mass media such as movies and TV shows. Green Onion started us off, with his excellent post about Ellen Ripley, from the Alien movie series. Nancy followed with her phenomenal ode to Captain Kathryn Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager. Then, Michael over at My Comic Relief penned a loving tribute to Amy Pond of Doctor Who. Man, I remember following Michael for our Great Chris Debate series too, and wondering how I could possibly top his post! (But, perhaps vainly, I assure you, dear readers… I didn’t feel that way this time ;D)

I know, I know… you guys are all are on tenterhooks wondering who I picked…

My post features Wonder Woman!…

View original post 1,717 more words

Starsky & Hutch Saber – Inspired by the Ford Gran Torino

Gallery

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This gallery contains 4 photos.

Originally posted on FTSabersite:
Hello Everybody, today we come back down to earth with a bump and land right in the middle of the world of crime busting! This is another of my “inspired by” range of sabers based on…

TVTA Update – thank you!

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First. I’d like to give BIG thanks and hugs to the donors who kindly helped out funding subscriptions for The Vintage Toy Advertiser into 2019. I thanked you via email but wanted to say it publicly too. The site is good to go, and for next year I will ensure funds have been saved in advance to prevent this hiccup happening again. My bad this year, but your good. You guys rock!

Second. I have another request. Wait, please don’t throw all your garbage and bottles at me just yet – it’s not another call for your hard-earned cash… it’s for a petition, and my request is aimed exclusively at my readers who are either British-born or who reside in Britain.

Allow me to use a nasty swear word for a moment: “BREXIT”.

Many of you will know about the blight of Brexit cast across the island of Britain but which also affects the rest of Europe. Many of you will have already suffered my occasional rants here (I try to keep TVTA pop culture fun and not get political, but sometimes you have to use your voice for what matters to you the most no matter what!).

There is this incredible, record-breaking, UK Parliament petition available to sign right now, calling to revoke Article 50 (the means to cancel Brexit). It is currently standing at a staggering 5 million signatures! I’ll say that again – 5 million signatures! You can sign it here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584

At the risk of annoying any Brexiter readers I may have, I urge you to consider signing it. And even you are a Brexiter, you gotta admit the whole Brexit thing is a massive, steaming, stinker of a shit sandwich that no one wants to eat, right?

Personally, I’d be happy with a second referendum – with all options put on the table so everyone can vote in good knowledge, now that we are all armed with the facts and realities that were previously distorted. However, signing the petition to revoke the whole debacle – which I’d be happy with too 🙂 sends a strong message to Government that “the will of the people” is not just about the will of the ones who voted to Leave.

I love Europe. And I want to stay. Here’s that link again: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584

Remainingly yours,

Ford

The Incredible Hulk

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A TVTA Special.

TVTA’s going green for this post, as we present comic covers, adverts and whatever else we found rampaging around the office Incredible Hulk related. Gaaarrrrrghhh! Don’t make us angry!

Thank you for losing your temper with us 🙂

Editor’s note, 26/03/19: Big thanks to Tim Robins for artist credit corrections on some of the UK Hulk comic covers.

An invitation to help The Vintage Toy Advertiser

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Drumming up a little support at TVTA!

It’s coming up to the time of the year when I have to renew my online presence for The Vintage Toy Advertiser. This time around I’m going to struggle. Domain upkeep, image hosting, ensuring the site remains ad-free, and the continual sourcing of vintage materials is proving quite costly this year. The Vintage Toy Advertiser receives hundreds of visits a day from all over the world, and I’m immensely happy and proud that over the years I’ve been able to maintain the site as a free archive and ad-free resource for all. Today I’m appealing for donations to help the site remain healthy. Any contribution will help, no matter how small.

If you would like to help out and are a Paypal user then please donate using the Paypal address of: thesilkies@hotmail.com with the ‘sending to a friend’ or ‘send to friends abroad’ option.

Many thanks. Ford, TVTA.