Xmas on the Xoon

[davemerrill]

Got Trash Palace tickets, gassed up the car, got the tires inflated to a proper level (passenger side a tad low), went to the bank, got some Xmas shopping done, had either a late lunch or an early dinner... and the last Stupid Comics of the year is ready for YOU!



It's Stupid Comics #250, "Christmas On The Moon", a giveaway comic given away by the fine folks at W.T. Grant Company, a department store that went bankrupt in 1975 but in 1958 was luring Christmas shoppers with free comics about Jingle Dingle the space weatherman. This is it for us until after Christmas, we'll be back to updating Mister Kitty sometime in January.

Wow, hard to believe we've done two hundred and fifty of these things. And I still have a big pile of stupid as yet untouched!

Comments

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

"take these space pills" eh? Ah, such a simple time.

They call Grant a department store? I guess that fits, I recall it being more of a Woolworth's wannabe. I recall picking up my first Adventure Team GI Joe (pre-Kung Fu Grip) at a Chicago Grant on one of my family's few 'Black Friday' trips via rail to the Windy City.

Man, you should have seen the stores on Michigan street back then, Marshall Fields was amazing, only place I ever saw that had the Captain Action Actionmobile. You cannot imagine the pain of riding 4 or so hours home on a train staring at that giant box and unable to PLAY with it... :)

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I witnessed Michigan Street first hand when we lived in Chicago, but I was so small that the snow and the rabbits in the back yard made a larger impression. This comic was the first time I'd heard of "Grant's" as an adult.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

Dude, I was like 9 years old and I recall it clear as a bell. ARGH I'M OLD!!

Grant's was also the place that got in the bizarre wave of imported and re-branded Japanese model kits sold under the 'Paramount' label, no relation to the motion picture studio. I ate those things like candy. Wind-up motors, spring launched missiles, action features galore. If I ever get to Japan I'll probably spend way too much time haunting old plamo shops trying to find some of those (actually, rather crappy in terms of any kind of accuracy) kits. It was the age of the Mole Tank.

That's what's missing today, you know. Total lack of flying jeeps and mole tanks.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Well, I was one and a half. What I can remember from that age is hazy and may very well never have happened at all.

I did look up Grant's on the Wiki and it seems they partnered with Canadian retailer Zeller's to combine their retailing knowledge base and team up for buying stuff from Asia. Probably where your kits came from. Zellers is still around, though whenever Target gets their act in gear and invades the North, Zellers will have to either step up their game or go bye bye.

The only cool Asian import thing I ever found from a Zellers is a repackaged Atari cartridge with an illustration of the Toei Captain Future's Comet on the label.

[sobieniak.livejournal.com]

Reminded Jingle Dingle showed up in puppet form on ch. 5's "Sandy Becker Show" back in the 50's over in NY.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=097JRhdeFeQ