Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Ben on May 30, 2019, 10:43:52 AM
-
Or more precisely, the ads in the back of comic books. Probably only the older folks here remember these. I never really read comic books, but subscribed to Analog (pulp sci-fi stories) as a kid, and they had these in the back there too. I distinctly remember asking my mom if I could order some of them, but I don't think she ever let me. :laugh:
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/sea-monkeys-and-x-ray-spex/
-
Or more precisely, the ads in the back of comic books. Probably only the older folks here remember these. I never really read comic books, but subscribed to Analog (pulp sci-fi stories) as a kid, and they had these in the back there too. I distinctly remember asking my mom if I could order some of them, but I don't think she ever let me. :laugh:
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/sea-monkeys-and-x-ray-spex/
I subscribed to Analog from about 1968 on (through to the late '90s some time). I don't recall this kind of stuff.
-
I remember Sea Monkeys being available at Toys R Us when I was a kid. And yes, I fell for that complete waste of money.
-
I subscribed to Analog from about 1968 on (through to the late '90s some time). I don't recall this kind of stuff.
Maybe it was in the back of Boys Life then? I may actually have some old Analogs in a box somewhere, I'll have to look. I could swear it was in the older Analogs (or maybe Asimov's I got that too). I could swear it was in one of the "pulpy" magazines though.
-
I vaguely remember seeing an ad for a Gemini space capsule. Like the Polaris submarine ad, I'm now sure it was a glorified cardboard box.
-
I remember some of those comic book ads - I never ordered anything from them, but a couple of kids on my block did; general kid consensus was "WHAT A RIPOFF!!"
Now, if I had been just a little older, I would have been saving up my allowance and chore money for some of the stuff pre-1968 gun books advertised from places like Klein's or Hunter's Lodge.
-
I actually tried to get the Polaris submarine but they mailed me back they no longer had them.
-
Those ads were great. They promised so much. I got the Sea Monkeys and was sorely disappointed with the little blobs floating around. I could barely tell the difference between the creatures and the stuff they were fed.
I really wanted the x-ray specs so I could take them to the beach and check out the babes!
-
I don't remember any ads like that ever running in Boy's Life. I can't imagine that the BSA would have encouraged scouts spending money on absolute crap like that.
-
I subscribed to Analog from about 1968 on (through to the late '90s some time). I don't recall this kind of stuff.
By 1968 I had gone to Vietnam and returned. That kind of stuff dates to the 1950s. I remember the Sea Monkey and Charles Atlas ads very well. I never saw the Polaris sub ad, though.
-
I don't remember any ads like that ever running in Boy's Life. I can't imagine that the BSA would have encouraged scouts spending money on absolute crap like that.
Not then, but they do now. Take a look at the official BSA hatchet of today compared to the Bridgeport hatchets that were the official BSA hatchet when I was a kid.
-
I remember the sea monkeys, xray glasses and the submarine that was a cardboard box. I also remember the prank soap that turned your hands black when you washed with it.
-
Never saw the submarine, but the sea monkeys, x-ray glasses, and black soap ads were still around in the late 70's
-
My big thing was an Atomic Ring, around 1950? or so.
Supposedly it was a tiny scintillometer in a little tube consisting of a tiny lens supposedly focused on a little screen with "atomic material" embedded in it that would make the screen sparkle when an atom decayed. Just like in the atomic bomb.
This all was mounted on an adjustable ring.
Instructions said to use it in a dark room and allow yourself to get used to the dark.
Well, I stayed in the dark for a while, looked into it, no sparkles. Stayed in the dark for a longer while, still no sparkles.
Stayed in the dark for a still longer while, still no sparkles.
Never did see any scintillations in it. And I hadn't been that dark-adapted since just befpre I was born.
Terry, 230RN
ETA I can't believe they're still selling the darned things.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=kix%20atomic%20ring
-
Sea Monkeys were around in the 80's too. I remember their ads in Groo the Wanderer. Never got them though.
-
I was always tempted by the "Build your own Hovercraft!" ad.
Never ordered it, but was tempted.
-
I don't remember any ads like that ever running in Boy's Life. I can't imagine that the BSA would have encouraged scouts spending money on absolute crap like that.
Boy's Life Circa 1984-1992, I remember the build your own hovercraft ad, a $4 swiss army knife, live chameleon with free food, a weather balloon, a solar balloon and the inside of the back cover of jokes, gags and magic tricks (Johnson Smith Company or Abracadabra Shop).
https://books.google.com/books?id=vWYEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62&dq=joke/magic+company+belleville+il&source=bl&ots=nHpxlk2ZR9&sig=ACfU3U2jhZvyulqnp2UDm8u98TgOZNBNxA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi8ob7A5sTiAhVPbKwKHayXCPsQ6AEwDHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=joke%2Fmagic%20company%20belleville%20il&f=false
-
I remember seeing these types of ads in the back in the 90's. I remember ordering sea monkeys, but I'm pretty sure that was through one of the school book order things as I don't believe I had ever ordered anything off of the back of the comics. I thought the "sea monkeys" were pretty neat. Had them, and they multiplied, for a quite a while.
-
What I remember were ads for "pellet guns" that always caught my attention in the comic books. Like this set being discussed in this threat at AR15.com
https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Who_remembers__4_95_pellet_guns_from_andamp_quot_Guaranteed_Distributorsandamp_quot__/5-1885287/
I always wants a couple of these. Mom said no, time and again. When a buddy got one of the revolvers, I was suddenly happy Mom said no. Piece of junk...
-
Boy's Life Circa 1984-1992, I remember the build your own hovercraft ad, a $4 swiss army knife, live chameleon with free food, a weather balloon, a solar balloon and the inside of the back cover of jokes, gags and magic tricks (Johnson Smith Company or Abracadabra Shop).
https://books.google.com/books?id=vWYEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62&dq=joke/magic+company+belleville+il&source=bl&ots=nHpxlk2ZR9&sig=ACfU3U2jhZvyulqnp2UDm8u98TgOZNBNxA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi8ob7A5sTiAhVPbKwKHayXCPsQ6AEwDHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=joke%2Fmagic%20company%20belleville%20il&f=false
Then maybe it was Boys Life where I saw the ads and not Analog. I got the magazine in the early 70s during my limited stint in the Scouts.
-
Rather surprisingly interesting video on the history of Sea Monkeys
I thought from the title it was going to be some PETA oh no he killed hapless brine shrimp! type video. Nope, the guy who started SMs had a rather dark side to him.
The Dark Past of Sea Monkeys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0xXKCOSZuQ
-
Anyone remember the Geniac(?) "computer"?
It was really just a kit where you could set up a bunch of rotary switches to demonstrate logic/truth tables. Not a computer, but it demonstrated logic.I ordered my first chemistry set from the Porter Chemical Company in Hagerstown Maryland. Odd that I remember that.
Terry
-
I ordered my first chemistry set from the Porter Chemical Company in Hagerstown Maryland. Odd that I remember that.
Terry
I absolutely attribute the beginnings of the SJWs, zero tolerance in schools, diversity, and every other lame ass leftist namby pamby safety blanket to the demise of chemistry sets. I still remember that my first set (late 60s) kept me entertained and taught me many things over hours and hours of experiments. I still remember trying to combine the sulfur and potassium nitrate included in it with my dad's charcoal briquets. :laugh:
Those chemicals, bunsen burners, and all the other educational "but dangerous!" stuff turned more kids into competent scientists (or just well educated people) than that fraud Bill Nye ever did or will.
-
I absolutely attribute the beginnings of the SJWs, zero tolerance in schools, diversity, and every other lame ass leftist namby pamby safety blanket to the demise of chemistry sets. I still remember that my first set (late 60s) kept me entertained and taught me many things over hours and hours of experiments. I still remember trying to combine the sulfur and potassium nitrate included in it with my dad's charcoal briquets. :laugh:
Those chemicals, bunsen burners, and all the other educational "but dangerous!" stuff turned more kids into competent scientists (or just well educated people) than that fraud Bill Nye ever did or will.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._C._Gilbert_Company (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._C._Gilbert_Company)
Yep. I had a chemistry set. And Lincoln Logs, an Erector set, and tinker toys. And a microsocpe, with some pre-made slides. All kinds of crap around the house.
-
Lee N. Field: check on all of those. We must be roughly the same age.
-
I absolutely attribute the beginnings of the SJWs, zero tolerance in schools, diversity, and every other lame ass leftist namby pamby safety blanket to the demise of chemistry sets. I still remember that my first set (late 60s) kept me entertained and taught me many things over hours and hours of experiments. I still remember trying to combine the sulfur and potassium nitrate included in it with my dad's charcoal briquets. :laugh:
Those chemicals, bunsen burners, and all the other educational "but dangerous!" stuff turned more kids into competent scientists (or just well educated people) than that fraud Bill Nye ever did or will.
Preach it, brother! It's a miracle that I am still alive considering all the fool fun stuff I did with my highly augmented chemistry set.
(Highly augmented in the sense that I purchased lots of neat stuff from a local lab supply outfit in Seattle to build out and replenish my basic chemistry set.)
"Yes, Mother, it is perfectly safe to be making this [insert highly dangerous concoction] in the basement family room."
-
"Augmented." Like. I inherited a rather complete complement of chemicals and apparatus from a relative.
Inluded things like a ribbon of magnesium foil, elemental phosphorus, four or five glass-stoppered reagent bottles with the reagents' names molded into the glass, a Fisher burner (bunsen burner with grillwork on top), flasks, beakers...
It wasn't long before I had to go buy pound bottles of the concentrated "big three,' HCl, HNO3, and sulphuric. Spelled "sulphuric."
Eimer and Amend scientific supply was a slight diversion from my subway route to and from school, and they never asked about age but I told them I was a chemistry student at Brooklyn Tech. Those were the days. Looking back, it reminds me of the fact that Pop used to send me out for cigarettes for him, and I was, hell, less than ten years old.
Home of the brave, land of the free, hah?
Yep on the Momism safety regulations causing our overprotective society which in turn caused the SJW movement, Ben !
"Be careful with that knife ! Don't cut yourself !
"Aw, Mom, I was just meaning to cut myself. You spoiled the fun !"
I wonder what those reagent bottles might be worth today.
Terry