1. Dungeons and Dragons Ads – Came across this Retrospace post (from ages ago) that features some ’70s and ’80s print ads for Dungeons and Dragons.
Not surprisingly, a few seem to reinforce the ‘loner’ stereotype that was given to D&D players back then (and is still given today, I guess) – either overtly like the one above or more subtly like some others that use pretty ladies to sell the game or monster manual. Wonder how well that angle worked out for them. A few others use the party/group angle too, to be fair.
Regardless, the layouts and color choices are great on all of them. Here’s an ’80s commercial for D&D – which angle did this use?
2. Unidentified Flying Oddball – This movie came out of that run of “off-brand” Disney movies in the 1970s that included The Black Hole and TRON. This one didn’t quite stand the test of time like those two.
The movie was basically a rip of “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”, with a goofy spaceman dazzling primitives with his technology. It was also released under a different name, The Spaceman and King Arthur, which has a much different poster:
It also had a book adaptation, which I absolutely love the cover design of:
Here’s the trailer:
Unidentified Flying Oddball Trailer on Disney Video
3. S.T.U.N. Runner – One of my favorite arcade games in the ’90s, S.T.U.N. Runner featured a unique cabinet and similarly unique gameplay.
You played a futuristic car/ship/hovercraft thing that raced through futuristic tunnel/street/tube things, getting faster and faster as the level progressed. The cabinet itself was shaped like the craft that you drove, and that pushed it over the edge for me as a kid – it felt so cool. Here’s the gameplay:
4. Fisher Price Record Player – My first jams as a kid were cranked out on the Fisher Price record player, a wind-up plastic box that would play one of five plastic discs with public domain songs etched onto them.
It was actually pretty cool – I remember Edelweiss and Hickory Dickory Dock, but can’t recall the other three.
5. Corey and Corey – I had no idea it was so easy to get Corey Feldman’s and Corey Haim’s personal information! All you had to do was call a 900 number to hear a recording which gave it to you! At first I thought it was done without the Coreys’ approval, but then they endorse it in the video!
That’s some sweet Michael Jackson action on Feldman’s part, there.
-ds