13th Dimension Great Articles

[AndyFish]

I think most of us follow the terrific site 13th Dimension, I thought I'd add a topic folder so we can mention any new articles that particularly caught our attention.

Jim Beard wrote a great one today about the old Superhero Universe Catalog's-- they were all done by Joe Kubert and his students at his Cartoon School-- and for me, like Jim, I wanted to go to one of the actual stores more than going to Disney. Never did make it. The great thing about the catalogs were that because they were all drawn you weren't always sure what you were ordering. For instance there was an ad for Planet of the Apes figures that modeled the poses on the model kits but in actuality you got the Mego figures.

Anyway, check it out, like always, Jim's writing is top notch.
https://13thdimension.com/13-things-fro ... ly-wanted/

[Jim K, Bat fan]

Wow - these catalogs completely slipped by my radar when I was younger. Truth be told, I'm kind of glad I didn't know about them, as I'm sure I too would have wanted every Batman item in the catalog and perhaps more!

[BiffPow]

I have seen that cover from 1977 at a Half Price Books store at some point in the last ten years, but, even then, I had no idea that it was a catalogue. To my knowledge, that’s the only one I have seen.

I definitely did not know about them back in the 1970s as there were no comic book shops where I grew up. Only the rotating “HEY KIDS! COMICS!” racks at the local drugstores and one Convenient Food Mart.

Before that, in the 1960s, we lived in a suburb of Cincinnati, and the only access to comic books I had were at Scotty’s Delicatessen, who sold the returns, repackaged with the top third of the cover cut off, for three for $.10.

[AndyFish]

No comic book shops in my area until 1981-- I got my catalogs by ordering from an ad in the comics themselves.

[AndyFish]

Today they have a feature on Mego's Comic Action figures
https://13thdimension.com/megos-get-min ... roes-line/

As much as I loved Mego's I remember getting much more play value out of these. No missing gloves, no emblems falling off. And I do think there was a part of me that felt like playing with Mego's WAS playing with dolls. The MCA Figures could hold up to kid abuse and one of my absolute favorite sets was the Batman Exploding Bridge set. The bridge itself was made of pieces you assembled loosely, and it came with a "dynamite" plunger which was actually a plastic hollow spring like device that blew air into it causing it to inflate when you pressed the plunger causing the bridge to explode in pieces. The idea was Batman and Robin had to get across the bridge without getting blown up. Not one for the 8" playsets (although I did have the Mego Enterprise Bridge set) I really dug the comic action ones.

They also had a Bat helicopter you could strap Batman into and it actually flew-- I can't remember if I had that one.

[rsaffle]

I saw that article and I remember having the catalogue. Heck, I may still have it somewhere.

Found another reason to hunt through my books. )

[AndyFish]

Jerry Ordway's article on Captain Action is top notch-- I wish it was a bit longer but it is what it is.
I was a little too young for Captain Action, but luckily we had a large independent Toy Store in town that basically bought out overstock from previous years and offered them at discount prices, so after a friend's older brother gave me one of his old Captain Actions when I stumbled upon Batman and Phantom outfits in the mid-70s I was able to grab them. Like Jerry, to fill out some of the other costumes I had I called upon GI Joes to wear them.

[AndyFish]

Today they have a feature on the great POWER records featuring Batman. Like most fans of the line STACKED CARDS was something I played to death on my phonograph. I had pretty much all of the book and record sets from Batman to Tomb of Dracula-- really great times.
https://13thdimension.com/the-great-pow ... m-of-1975/

And Mark Waid has a really interesting companion article about the musical records from a few years earlier, while I'd certainly seen (and I think I own a couple) these I've never played them so it was good to read what's on there.