Memorabilia: 1978

• Hot Wheels re-released their "Poison Pinto" quickly decorated with Thing artwork. They also re-released their "Firebird Funny Car" with the Human Torch logo on it.
• Topps put out a 34 card set of comic panels wrapped aroudn a stick of gum. Each wrapper had three panels of Marvel artwork and ran "Dr. Strange's Fortunes" across the bottom. These are hard to find in good condition since the wrapper was often ripped during opening. The FF related "cards" were:
  • #9 - Fantastic Four
  • #13 - Fantastic Four
  • #20 - Fantastic Four
  • #34 - Thing
• The Merriam School and Office Supplies Corporation produced Marvel Super Hero masks. Each piece of thin cardboard only depicted the eyes and nose of a character and had small holes punched for a string. I know of five that were made: the Thing, Captain America, Spider-Woman, Hulk, and Captain Marvel. The were produced and sold only in the Philippines.
• Superhero Patches of several Marvel characters were released. They were roughly four inches in diameter and self-adhesive. The set included patches of the Human Torch, Invisible Girl, Mr. Fantastic and the Thing.
• The Human Torch and the Thing were two characters used in The Mighty Marvel Super Heroes Stamp Set. It came with eight stamps, a stamp pad and a notebook.
• A Finnish-produced coloring book was distributed out of Manchester, England. As I understand it, it is mainly composed of line art taken from various Kirby drawings but judging by the cover, I expect many of these were re-drawn.
• Using the imagry of the Fantastic Four from a Marvel Treasury Edition cover, Marvel produced a t-shirt.
• The New Fantastic Four aired at 10:30 a.m. on the NBC Saturday morning line-up. DePatie-Freleng (the production company started by Dave DePatie and Friz Freleng) hired Jack Kirby to do character designs and storyboards. Scripts were provided by Stan Lee and Roy Thomas. Mike Road played Mr. Fantastic, Ginny Tyler was the Invisible Girl, Frank Walker did Herbie the Robot and Ted Cassidy (Lurch from The Addams Family) voiced the Thing. Dick Tufel narrated. Even with all of this talent at their disposal, the series was created with even lower quality than Hanna-Barbera's first attempt.
  The Human Torch was still under license by Universal and was replaced with Herbie the Robot. (Star Wars had made small robotic companions very popular.) The characterizations were even more flat than HB's version and the animation was stiff. Some of these cartoons are available through Best Film and Video at many major video stores (including Blockbuster and SunCoast) on both VHS and LaserDisc.
  The episode titles are:
  • The Mole Man
  • Meet Doctor Doom
  • The Impossible Man
  • The Olympics of Space
  • The Menace of Magneto
  • Calamity on the Campus
  • The Phantom of Film City
  • Medusa and the Inhumans
  • The Frightful Four
  • The Diamond of Doom
  • The Final Victory of Doctor Doom
  • Blastarr the Living Bomb-Burst
  • A Monster Among Us
• Marvel Comics The New Fantastic Four Game Featuring Herbie the Robot by Milton-Bradley was produced in response to the new animated series. The game play is a basic board game using FF graphics on the board. The object is to "rescue" Herbie from Dr. Doom's research lab. Like the series, it's not that good.
• To my knowledge, this is the first official Marvel card game. Produced by Milton-Bradley, it is essentially a Marvel version of Old Maid with the old maid card being Dr. Doom.
• Using leftover pieces from Marvel World, Milton-Bradley created The Incredible Hulk Game with The Fantastic Four! Hulk is on the rampage and each of the four players has to try to get him to change back into Dr. Banner by collecting the four necessary Dr. Banner cards. Although the game board isn't that attractive, the game plays surprisingly well. I am unsure if this game was produced before, after, or in tandem with the previous listing.
• The Marvel Comics Postcard Book was published by Nostalgia Inc. It featured (obviously) a series of postcards featuring many Marvel heroes. I'm unsure if the images for the postcards were swiped from the comic books themselves, but the cover was an original piece by Gene Colan and Tom Palmer.
• I've got some information on a Rage Cage Thing figure. I'm not positive of the orignal release date of him, but I believe the maunfacturer was Funstuf. Included was a plastic tube and pumping mechanism that allowed you to inflate the figure slightly and have him break out of his cardboard cage. Judging by the use of inferior sculpting and what appears to be cheap vinyl, I'm not surprised this isn't seen very often.
• A Thing bank was released by the A. J. Renzi Corporation of Leominster, MA. Like most banks of this style, it has a small slot on top to insert coins and a plug on the bottom to remove them. It stands 15.5" tall.
• Coloforms' Rub N' Play Magic Transfer Set. It has transfers of Spider-Man, Green Goblin, Sub-Mariner, Dr. Doom, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, and the Human Torch. The idea was to rub the colored portions onto the black and white cardboard cut-outs. It was the memory of this toy that gave me one of the ideas for my first 4FP Fun Pack.
• Fleetwood Toy Company produced a Fantastic Four Dart Gun. The blue plastic gun itself was relatively unremarkable, as were the suction cup darts, but it did come with cardboard cut-out targets: Galactus, Annihilus, and Dr. Doom.