One of the best comic book ads of all time is the one-pager for the Ideal Toys Zeroids, originally three awesome robots from beyond the stars. Zerak the Blue Destroyer, Zoboar the Bronze Transporter, and Zintar the Silver Explorer were fascinating figures with sufficient back story to ignite the imagination, but plenty of room to fill in with hours of play.
I only ever had Zerak myself, but I still remember getting him. I must've said something to my parents or picked him out of a catalog. The only Christmas present I enjoyed more as a boy was a Major Matt Mason figure and kit.
Here are all three of the originals. Later a fourth one, Zogg was added who apparently displaced my beloved Zerak as leader of the team.
Moonstone tried belatedly to develop a comic book about these delightful toys, but based on what I've seen of it, the comic book was far less wonderful.
Go here for more on this vintage toy line and here to see a great old TV ad for them.
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Also a very cool ad here...
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Had a Zintar myself, though naturally he kind of fell to pieces from over-use...I'm surprised no-one'd ever re-released them (or have I missed that?), because with the sort of price they command on eBay, I'm not likely to be replacing it in a hurry.
Seems like someone has reissued them but I'm hard pressed to find anything on it. Probably just wishful thinking. With the implied storyline behind them, I always thought of them as precursors to the Transformers.
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Never had the Zeroids but I always wanted them (Saturday morning cartoon commercials could be so cruel). I can’t complain too much though, because I did get a Captain Action (with a Batman costume to change him into.) Thinking this had to be for Christmas of ’66…
ReplyDeleteNever had Captain Action, and always wanted one. I almost picked up the new one from Polaris, but just couldn't rationalize the expense. Great cool ads in comics too.
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I had a Zintar too, here in Scotland;my wee brother had Zobor. We soon lost the hand attachments. I also had a Matt Mason but my real joy was his alien buddy, Callisto.
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