Thinking of the (cardboard) Polaris sub got me wondering–am I correct in recalling that in the 1960s, there was also a (presumably cardboard) Gemini space capsule “big enough for two kids” also offered? I’m sure I saw some ads for that back then. Did anybody else?
I always wanted a REAL LIVE MONKEY!
You remember the photo - a little monkey sitting in the palm of someone’s hand.
I never could get the parents to go for it. I wonder why?
see, according to the article that was the real deal. the catch was that you’ll have to rope in 20 customers for them first, so at least that one is not an outright lie…
Did anyone buy the “Space Phones”? They were two small flat aluminum paddles with a piece of thin cardboard in them and you hooked up a string between them - pull the string tight and you could hear another person talking in them. I had already learned (by age 8 or so) that it also worked with empty tin cans or even paper cups. The problem is they didn’t work if the string was too long, so you could hear the other person talking anyway.
$1.50 well spent so I didn’t ever order anything else.
There was, I remember it. As well as a Jet Aircraft (warning: not actually a jet or aircraft) and a Real Working Tank! (caution: not really a Tank, nor does it work).
Even though most of these were a bit before my time, I got a HUGE pile of comics from my moms friends when I was a kid… all from that era and before.
I read them to pieces. :mad: 
“On arrival of your GLOWING KISS ME NECKTIE, you simply pay postman $1.49…”
How does that work? Since when do postmen collect money for zany neckwear?
My parents once gave me one of those cardboard log cabins for christmas when I was very little. I loved it but I don’t remember having it for long. No surprise there. It came with a big pile of cardboard “bricks” that were actually very durable. Some of them lasted for years. Anyone remember those?
Some kids didn’t learn. About ten years ago (in this area, anyway) ostrich meat became a way to make millions. The only people who made money were the ones who convinced others to purchase (their) ostriches. The ten or twelve ostrich clients I had all lost (at least) their initial investment. The ads touting ostrich ranching were very similar to the ads selling xray glasses, etc.
The catalog from Johnson-Smith cracks me up! Categories include:
Things On Sale
Exclusive Things
Things to Wear
Personal Things
Electronic Things
Sports Things
Things for Security
Things to Collect
Useful Things
Bizarre Books and Videos
Scary Halloween Things
Things for Christmas
Things, things, things!
Wow, the “132 Roman Soldiers” set was something I always always wanted when I was a kid…just look at the drawing! Although I would have been disappointed with the figures as a kid, they look a lot better than my adult self would expect.
http://home.att.net/~1.elliott/comicbooktoysoldierflatsRomans.html
It’s called COD - Cash on Delivery. It was popular before credit cards. The mailman collected the amount due. I did a few of these when I delivered mail the summer of 1970. A quick search shows that it still exists, but is pretty rare.
My grandparents had those! They were 40 years old by the time my cousins and I played with them, and still going strong. I think they are still in action in the playroom of my youngest cousins (Grandma moved into a little apartment and spends a lot of time traveling). The only downside with those was that there weren’t enough to build a tall wall if more than one kid was inside, so we’d lay the foundation with regular boxes, then build up the ramparts with the bricks. Good Times.
I’ve heard of COD, but I didn’t think it was the regular postman that collected the money.
I guess postmen used to be more honest than they are nowadays - I wouldn’t hand cash over to most of the shifty characters that the Royal Mail entrust with deliveries these days!
My brothers and I had a lot of these cars, but we didn’t order them out of comic books. Our pediatrician had a bunch in his office, and gave them as “rewards” for behaving during our check-ups. We called them “the Air Step cars” because they were stored in a box that had originally held a pair of Mom’s shoes.
The cars, of course, weren’t as detailed as the pictures in the ad suggest. Instead, they were cheap plastic analogues of the “Army men” and “Roman soldiers”. Still, they did have some play value, and they taught us the names of some obscure older and foreign makes. One example was a “New Prefect” (approximately the 1956 model seen on this page).
Mine was the Revolutionary War set. The little toy soldiers were maybe 1" tall, the canon were maybe 2" long – at least the pieces that weren’t shattered into tiny shards during shipping. The colonials were blue (all blue) while the Brits were red.
I managed to mount a number of battles using those soldiers. Of course the “battlefield” couldn’t be more than about one square foot or it wouldn’t have been much of a battle.
A childhood friend of mine actually got a monkey. He built the cage and lodgings while working towards his goal. The monkey finally arrived and his dad put him in his pen to get used to his surroundings. About an hour later my friend opened the door to toss in some food and the monkey lit out.
He lived in the neighbors tree for about a week.
I had some of those, although I just bought them at a regular store. We had a good time with them before they broke to pieces. I quite enjoyed the Sea Monkeys, too.
Never underestimate the power of setting low standards.
RR
The problem was the advertisements deliberately set unrealistically high standards. Some of the products were good enough in themselves, others were just ripoffs.
I had the sea monkeys. I didn’t really believe I was getting a new society of beings that would build underwater castles and wear jewelry. But I did think they would be something more than bugs you need a magnifying glass to see. Fortunately kids these days have the internet to check these things out.
I disagree. I sent for the Charles Atlas course and still have it somewhere. If you actually follow the instructions, it works. Most guys who sent for it probably didn’t have the self-discipline to spend a half hour doing various calisthenic, isometric, and gymnastic exercises first thing each morning and then again in the evening. The other material from the course consists of advice about hygiene, nutrition, getting adequate sleep, and how to have a “dynamic” personality. None of it is fraudulent nor is there anything that if you found it in a modern self-help book would raise a skeptical eyebrow.
The ads are remembered for their epic cheesiness, but the exercises work and are still used by martial arts instructors, the military, and anyplace where strength training with minimal apparatus is desired. Charles Atlas isn’t credited for them because he didn’t invent them, but he did put them together into a program that a motivated kid could follow.
IIRC, the COD packages were handled differently at the PO, and how much the carrier was supposed to bring back was tracked, so any theft would have to involve the collusion of the postmaster. I don’t know about there, but when I delivered mail I was watched from time to time.
The only thing vaguely resembling theft was that Playboys whose forwarding ran out would vanish fairly quickly. I got Newsweeks.