X-ray Specs, Sea Monkeys & Charles Atlas

[Creepy Green Light]

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.

This is great hearing everybody's "Mail Order Mystery's" stories. I too was scrawny and the Charles Atlas cartoon made an impression on me. Not enough apparently to make me order his system but I'd read the cartoon over and over just to see the bully getting some of his own medicine.

 

[Creepy Green Light]

you mean you didn't get them? a lost childhood to be certain.

Nope. Never did. I actually talked to this guy the other day. He's super nice and has a fascinating story...

 

[Creepy Green Light]

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.

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.

Lol. The version I always saw were those 2D army guys along with a "chest" to put them in for easy storage. As a kid who loved my army soldiers, the offer in the ad always seemed to good to be true. But god how badly I wanted those.

 

[Mr. Fibuli]

I remember this from the Simpsons and I remember these ads too..never ordered anything I heard it was all mail-order trash. Ironically I did have a MAD magazine subscription.

There was no English version of this clip on YouTube.

 

[Jeff Davis]

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

GREAT thread. I purchased a book called Mail-Order Mysteries when it came out a few years ago because of having grown up in this era. I love this sorta thing and have collected it for years. Trying to reclaim those prizes from the past is a lot of fun. The 60s/70s was an awesome place for a kid to hang out. I still have a VERY sincere "thing" for Lava Lamps & Quadraphonic recordings. Both get regular play within my humble abode.

Even more than Comic Books, Boy's Life Magazine, and Famous Monsters...I don't think any one source of boyhood scheme and dream wonderment contributed to my budding novel derangement as much as one The Johnson Smith Company : Welcome!. The Johnson Smith Co. were at the time located in Mt. Clemens, MI about 25 miles from where I grew up. The new Johnson Smith mail order catalogs were second to no other highly coveted publications in the midst of my early childhood. If you possessed such a document and were to bring it to school with you, you were immediately elevated to a near Illuminati status quo as one's fellow student's eyes glazed over with hypnotic allure. I also had a real thing for magic (slight of hand tricks) in those days too. So lots of magic trick catalogs were also in among that influential mix. I still have a few of these catalogs in shoe box somewhere from the 60s along with some of the stuff I ordered! Who could forget those skinhead wigs, whoopee cushions, fake turds, and let alone, "smoke from fingertips"

All I need now to make this Saturday morning trip down memory lane complete is big a bowl of Cap'n Crunch and six hours of back to back cartoons. Ahhhh...growing up in the 60s/70s. Some claim it was all a deliberate communist plot to infiltrate and ruin the potential minds of the youth at large, me personally, I think it was just wonderful.