I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghost!

Posted on October 28, 2018 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

Ghostbusters and The Real Ghostbusters – Columbia Pictures. TVTA presents a number of product advertisements from comics, catalogues and magazines, plus other Ghostbusters related items.

For Filmation’s The Ghost Busters and Filmation’s Ghostbusters see here

US. Tales of the Teen Titans. 1985.

France. Pif Gadget. 1988.

UK. The Flintstones and Friends. 1988

Ghostbusters II Activity Book 1988 US.

Toys

The Real Ghostbusters in pack catalogue. Details.

France. Pif Gadget. 1988.

Ecto 1. Wootbox exclusive. 2018.

In other Ghostbusters news…

Ecto-Plasma Saber. For Tyeth Editions. 2018.

Thanks for Stabilizing with us 🙂

Flying Discs, Twinkies, Toy Soldiers and the King of Monsters!

Posted on May 3, 2015 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

Here’s a mixed bag of late 70s US comic ads featuring products from Marvel, Helen of Toy, Supershirts and Twinkies.

US. Star Wars 25. 1979.

US. Star Wars 14. 1978.

US. Star Wars 13. 1978.

US. Star Wars 15. 1978.

US. Star Wars 28. 1979.

Zombie cats, office cats, science cats and 1970s toy ads…

Posted on January 29, 2015 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

While hunting mice today, our office cat, Wooof, found these five French vintage 1970s adverts lodged down the back of the refrigerator. We hope they haven’t been there since the 70s (unlike our sub editor’s Christmas cheese selection or, indeed, the fridge itself!).

Anyway, we’ve been looking for these ads for ages. Well done Wooof, treat yourself to the afternoon off and go and visit some cat-science exhibitions in the town centre or something. You may also wish to send a get-well-soon card to brave Bart the zombie Cat

Here are the ads…

Kojak’s action-packed Buick by Corgi. France. Pif Gadget. 1977.

Create your own medieval world with Playmo. France. Pif Gadget. 1978.

Sindy Disneyland drawing competition. France. Pif Gadget. 1978.

France. Pif Gadget. 1978.

Pif Gadget comic character, Rahan, even gets his own action figure courtesy of Group Action Joe - he French version of Action Man! France. PIf Gadget. 1978.

Pif Gadget comic character, Rahan, even gets his own action figure courtesy of Group Action Joe – the French version of Action Man! France. PIf Gadget. 1978.

Non-toy ad Tuesday: Cheers! Retro drinks from around the world…

Posted on December 8, 2014 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

It’s time to dust off those vintage bottles of pop and booze we found in the cellar of TVTA towers as we bring you another Non-toy ad Tuesday… retro drinks from around the world!

First up is 1987 sporty beverage Faxe Kondi – presented here by budding young goalkeeper Mikael and Danish International and Manchester United football player Jesper Olsen.

Denmark. Anders. 1987.

1982 and another Danish drink ad. This one is cheerfully called Jolly Cola and continues with a sporty theme – sailing. Just look at the way that young sailor is necking his bottle of JC … he’s sure to get some additional ‘wind’ assistance later 🙂

Denmark. Anders. 1982.

Moving on to some harder stuff – alcohol. This French ad for personalised Kronenbourg beer tankards is aimed at a military-interest audience. The ad is featured in a 1979 issue of Képi Blanc, a journal created in 1947 by the French Foreign Legion (légion étrangère).

France. Képi Blanc. 1979.

Here’s another French alcoholic beverage, this time a fruit liqueur from 1987, La Belle Sandrine.

France. Paris Match. 1987.

Guinness makes you fart (more wind assistance?). No, Guinness gives you strength. Below is a 1960s-era postcard for the famous Guinness stout.

Circa 1960s Guinness postcard.

Followed by a good excuse to show off my Guinness retro metal plate advert.

Guinness is good for you.

Which gives me a further excuse to show off my cool Alec Guinness / Guinness mashup tee 🙂

Obi Wan was never tempted by the dark side?

Okay, that’s enough Guinness. Now to tidy this post up with two Brazillian healthy drink ads from the 1980s – Neston and Nescau.

Brazil. Ze Carioca. 1985.

Brazil. Ze Carioca. 1984.

And to finish – and as it’s so close to Christmas – a Christmassy ad… courtesy from Chivas Regal Scotch Whisky, 1980.

Cheers!

US. Time. 1980.

Hot Wheels toys in my Banania cornflakes

Posted on June 12, 2014 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

Banania Hot Wheels promotion. France. Pif Gadget 869. 1985.

Of course, In 1985, they didn’t really put die cast toy vehicles inside the boxes of Banania cornflakes (not that it wasn’t uncommon back then to find cool toys inside boxes, but rarely metal toys that would add significant weight to the box). So, no car in my cornflakes? But this was still an excellent opportunity to grab one of 20 sets of 126 vehicles! In addition there were 1000 other prizes to be grabbed. To be in with the chance to win you had to answer a question and then cut-out and send off the slip on the bottom of the advert.

Controversial Banania

The advertising images for Banania featuring the smiling Senegalise soldier – and in particular the slogan “y’ a bon” (Pidgen French: “that’s good”) has come under scrutiny by those accusing the brand of racism or colonialism.

Scan of a reproduction tin plate advert from the 1930s. These reproduction ads are popular throughout France.

Scan of a reproduction Banania tin plate advert from the 1930s. Reproduction ads of this era are popular throughout France. They are easily found in stores, street markets, tourist shops, even finding their way to flea markets as second-hand items.

The slogan, “y’ a bon”, which had been used since 1915, was finally scrapped in 2011 from all subsequent products and advertising. The image of the Senegalise soldier is still used but more in a comic / cartoon style. This change of style can perhaps be first seen in the 1985 Hot Wheels advert at the beginning of the post, with the soldier’s head morphed into the font of the letter ‘B’.

I’ve included below another advert from 1985 to illustrate this – this time for a He-Man and Masters of the Universe promotion which is pretty much the same as the Hotwheels promo.

Banania He-Man MOTU promotion. France. Pif Gadget. 1985.

Banania money box van. France. 2017. From the collection of TVTA.

Banania in Space

You can see the presence of the “y’ a bon” logo in this 1960 advert from Lissette comic. In this promotion you had to collect 16 points from Banania products then send them off along with 6 postage stamps to receive your space play-set and characters.

Banania space promotion. France. Lissette N° 46. 1960.

Read more of the history of Banania here:

Official Banania website

Banania Wikipedia (French)

Banania Wikipedia (English)

Spalding… presenting Streetball with Rick Barry and DR. J

Posted on December 21, 2013 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

USA. Marvel Star Wars. 1978.

A.G. Spalding was established in 1876 by Hall of Fame pitcher Albert G. Spalding in Chicago, USA.

This 1978 comic-style ad presents the Spalding Street Ball. It features two great basketball players of their era, Rick Barry and Julius ‘Dr. J’ Erving.