Greetings vintage mates! TVTA is pleased to present an international selection of print advertising featuring toys, games, bicycles and other goodies, as seen in the pages of comics and catalogues between 1977 and 1998.
Tag Archives: 1980s
Balls! Time to get mad with TVTA!

Greetings vintage mates! Remember the short but popular phase of Madballs toys? They also had their imitators like Uglyballs and Weird Balls. Back in the day I had a few Madballs, but I didn’t know the line expanded to include money savings banks and water squirters, as seen in the 1987 edition of Wonderland Catalogue.

TVTA is pleased to present some additional images from the 1987 Wonderland Catalogue, featuring excellent toys from the likes of Bravestarr, Barbie and Popples.
Enjoy the images.
Continue readingComic shop 7″ Vinyl Record Haul!

Happy New Year vintage mates! May love, joy, light and creativity be yours in 2022!
I spent the Christmas and New Year holiday working, with just two days off in between… luckily one of those days involved going into the nearest city for a spot of shopping, where I stumbled across a cool second-hand comic book store which also sold a selection of vinyl records and CDs. I plan to go back again later and grab some of the albums and CDs they had, but for now here are ten singles I purchased.
Format & Era: 7 inch 45 RPM vinyl. One picture disc. 1970s / 1980s. French and West Germany pressings.
Total Cost (Xe converter): 10 EUR / 11.37 USD / 8.40 GBP / 14 CAD / 15.64 AUD
Disc condition: All ten discs minty mint with two having mild surface scratches.
Picture Sleeve Condition: Fair to excellent condition.
My Best Picks: Seeing a Star Wars record always makes me happy to add it to my May The Vinyl Be With You collection! I was also pleased to see the novelty Zorro disc with its still-intact cut-out mask. The Elton John picture disc was a nice find too – Empty Garden was Elton’s 1982 tribute song to John Lennon. (edit: just checked out Thompson Twins Doctor! Doctor! on YT and man I forgot what an absolute 80s classic that is, and kind of sums up that era of music, especially the synths.)


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1980s music ads from Australia as seen in Federal Comics

TVTA is pleased to present an Australian-heavy feature of classic 1980s artists and bands. The adverts were featured in DC superhero comics such as Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman and Super Powers, and were published by The Federal Publishing Company Proprietary Limited which was granted permission by DC to reprint and publish their titles under the name Federal Comics to Australian readers. To see some examples of the actual comics go to TVTA’s post here
For now, let’s get into the groove…



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Sunday Flea Market 7″ Vinyl Record Haul (1970s/80s)

Greetings vintage mates. It’s the first time this year our local monthly flea market has been open during the various lockdown and curfew stages here. This morning I was very pleased to pick up eight French pressings of vinyl singles released between the mid 1970s to mid 1980s – for less than the price of a cup of fresh espresso and a croissant!
The discs are all minty mint, and the picture sleeves are in decent condition. A winning morning I reckon 😎







As always, thanks for looking 🙂
Cave Bears, Dirty Cops, Motel Psychos and The Springwood Slasher!

TVTA is pleased to present a selection of movie magazine covers and adverts featuring the talents of Daryl Hannah, Clint Eastwood, Anthony Perkins and Robert Englund among others.
Content is from 1980s editions of L’Ecran Fantastique, Starfix, Mad Movies and Spotlight magazines, as published in France at the time. The only films I haven’t seen from the titles shown are The Clan of the Cave Bear; Star Knight; Raw Deal and Monster in the Closet. The Daryl Hannah image on the cover of L’Ecran Fantastique N° 69 is just wonderful, and seems to be the same image as used for the movie posters for The Clan of the Cave Bear.
I also love the cover showing Anthony Perkins in his role as Norman Bates in Psycho 3 (for which he made his debut as a director), and the poster for Short Circuit. The Monster in the Closet poster is just hilarious fun!
Do you have any favourite images here?



Below: Star Trek Spotlight Special; Star Knight; Spotlight Magazine; Mannequin; Masters of the Universe; Raw Deal; Monster in the Closet; Journey to the Center of the Earth; Mad Movies; Short Circuit.
Star Trek. Sunset Video, Star Knight. Spotlight Magazine. Mannequin. Masters of the Universe. Raw Deal. Monster in the Closet. Journey to the Center of the Earth.


As always, thanks for looking 🙂
Coming soon… the TVTA 2021 Halloween Pumpkin Creation, revealed!