back in the late 50's my Dad bought the Space Rocket to Mars it was a flimsy piece of crap and he would it and used it as a cut out and used thin plywood and made it to fit three boys ..he added a battery with control lights , running lights and the whole bit..he had a friend painted it just like a real rocket..all three seats had switches and controls so we all could play at the same time... it was the place to be in our neighborhood.....My Dad was always building things for us kids push cars, forts, basketball hoops just about anything ..when He had grandkids he built all sorts of items for them to from baby beds to rocking horses to doll beds to wooden trucks and cars..I miss my Dad he died way to early at 70 yrs old... now I am 70 yrs old..I wish I had that Rockship to Mars.....
dave kirby So wonderful that you had an amazing father. Treasure those memories, even though it can be heartbreaking at times and you might often wish that you could go back in time and be a child again, playing outside, coming home before dark with no cares or worries.
I remember back in the sixties when I ordered a time machine for just ten dollars. The downside is it only works once. WHY did I choose to travel to 2020??!!
As a five-year-old, I dreamed about the cardboard submarine. But in the 1970s, the Dellmonte company had an advertisement for a giant kite for $4.95. I took a chance and sent away for it and about four weeks later received a package in the mail. I opened the package and it was just that, a giant kite! It was made of PVC tubing and once constructed stood over 6 feet tall! The kite was made of a thick tarp plastic with a giant picture of the jolly green giant on it. I went out in the field and flew it with the string and handle included and it even had a parachute of little sprout included that you would put on the string and it would blow all the way up to the kite and then with one jerk it would disengage and come back to the ground. As a kid, I think this was one of my best investments.
Wow! A success story! With a dollar or two (and a box top from Cheerioes), my best "investment" was a spinner baseball game....with a tiny HR chance...a large K area...fly-outs, ground-outs, .... I loved every nine innings of it! Leading to Strat-o-matic Baseball....and, today, Out-of-the-Park Baseball! (OOTP)
Yep !, I was the very proud owner of many of these items. I found the ads to be informative and accurate. The items received were always high quality, highly functional items, that not only exceeded the claims of the ad, but lasted for years. Clearly, it was the intention of the company, to offer top quality, unusual items, that appealed to kids of all ages. They did this at a price point that kids could afford. This was integrity in marketing at its finest and we should all be grateful for....🤣😂🤣😂 Sorry, couldn't keep a straight face any longer ! - I still have a Johnson Smith catalog from the 70's however.
I sent in $2 to get 7 "mystical talismans" when I was around 13. I never got the talismans, but what I did get was constant letters from a cult for about 15 years thanking me for my generous donation. They lit candles for me, they prayed for me and they also somehow got my phone number and called a few times. It was a running joke for a while in my family that I joined a cult. All I wanted were some props for my D&D game.
Back in the 60's a buddy and I chipped in for the submarine because we lived close to Lake Michigan, what a disappointment! On another note, some dumb boy brought the x ray specs to school and the girls started screaming and he got into trouble, that was a cool day for the rest of us!🤣
one of my friends got the sub. It was set up in his backyard and we played in it for an hour or so. I sent off for the x ray glasses. My teacher took them before I could get in trouble. It was a good time to grow up.
Showed my dad this video. His response: "man my parents were right to not let me blow my money on that shit. I can sleep peacefully tonight knowing I didn't miss much."
I used to be obsessed with that submarine ad in an old issue of Sgt. Rock, back when I was five. Thanks for putting one of life's mysteries to rest for me!
I got rooked into saving my allowance for ages, sending off for it, waiting forever, and getting that box full of 200 # test fiberboard. And it was waaaay crapier than the one in the video. Needless to say, I HATED Honor House from that day forward!!!
I remember watching Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and thinking this submarine would let me explore the pond from under water. I was PSYCHED!!! And that wait for them to send it felt like forever!!!!!
All this was long before the internet. I was a little boy in the early 70's and I remember being totally fascinated by these ads. I would have bought all of these products if I had enough money...
Me too. They captured my imagination. Luckily I didn't have much money so I never sent for most of this stuff. But I wanted to. Its great to finally see what some of it looked like. Glad some of it still exists and some people took pictures.
Same here. I did get to order a few things. Sea monkeys, a couple army games and a floating ghost. All were big letdowns. Mom and dad told me every time it would be junk. They were right! LMAO. It is cool to get to see some of the items I wanted but couldn't get.
@@shadowwolf7622 I ordered the floating ghost too! It was a white plastic garbage bag with a white balloon (the balloon had a face stamped on it) with a clear plastic disk to attach them and somehow had a string to hang it from a tree. I think it was 2 or 3 dollars. Mom said she let me buy it on purpose to learn not to buy stuff from the back of a comic book. I knew it wasn't going to be good when, after waiting forever for the mail to arrive, my "ghost" came in a small brown manilla envelope that was slightly fat but light as a feather. It worked; I never ordered from them again!
@@waygoblue4729 It sure was a big let down when it finally arrived. I sure was expecting something different! It is a good memory now. It wasn't as bad as the 100 piece army set I ordered. It came with the worst figures and vehicles I'd ever seen. And made from real brittle plastic. They were advertised as coming in their own foot locker. I was picturing a large box. In reality, it was a very small cardboard box! Not much of a foot locker.
Sea monkeys are the bomb! I loved mine SO much. They also sold race tracks, games and little pendants to wear so you could carry your sea monkeys around! I learned a lot from having them and really enjoyed them. One of my favorite Xmas gifts ever!
I still love them. I bought them for all my children, nephews, nieces and as Birthday gifts for my friends children. Off and back n I have also purchased them for myself and not only as a child😊
I bought the giant monster. I was bullied a lot and was gonna use him for protection. I received a giant envelope with a poster of Frankensteins' monster. And the beatings continued.
I was fortunate enough to have a classmate living across the street who, as an only child, was given liberty to order such things, so I didn't have to experience disappointment myself, instead sharing his dismay.
I bought that “Polaris Submarine” early 1960s. Or rather, my parents did. But I sent in the form with $7 enclosed. It took 6 weeks to get it, and I watched the mail every day after the first 4 weeks. It came, and I was surprised the package was so small. Just folded cardboard. But I put it together myself, including the battery holder, which used aluminum foil to carry the current to the little lightbulb (basically a flashlight bulb) which lit the “lighted control panel.” It even had a torpedo. I was about 7, so I fit inside it easily. No way it would have held two kids. I was determined to have fun with it, so I played “Sea Hunt” until the thing fell apart, which took weeks. Maybe months. Of all the comic book ads I’ve seen and/or responded to, that was the best.
We did it on the cheap, we got two bricks and attached to our backs with belts, and pretend they were scuba tanks, while we swam in the grass. Our playhouse was the Seaview from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
Yea back in the days when kids either got to or had to use a lot of imagination.. I myself ordered the sea monkeys.the spy glasses, a hand buzzer, and a water powered rocket that wasn't too bad..But boy did I want one of those Monkeys. I always imagined they were real ,but after the sea monkeys scam my parents said that the monkey was just a scam too. I sure spent days imagining about having one though.. And Later figured it's too good to be true. And33 just now read stories that they were real..OMG..I'm pissed now.. $18.95 was way more money than I had then and too much for my parents to spend. There were 3 of us kids and I can remember having a 20 dollar limit on My whole Xmas list, from the toy section in the Sears and Wards catalog maybe JC penny ,can't remember. So much fun then.I guess I was lucky to have a good family..some are not that fortunate..
Yes. Those miniature monkeys were pygmy marmosets from South America. Cute but not good pets. Nowadays it's illegal to import them, but back in those days they could import anything. There were no endangered species laws back then.
In my youth, I acquired a few real ones in my old Ford. Not the way you might think, though. See, rural Kentucky community. If something old and kind of rusty sat parked too long, it WOULD eventually accumulate a few bullet holes. We had fun with it, though. We had a couple of signs made up that said 'Midnite Auto Parts', and slapped 'em on the doors. The bullet holes just fit in with the joke.
One Christmas when I was a kid, Santa, (pretty sure it was my Dad) got me a cardboard "Army Tank". It was basically 2 stacked cardboard boxes and a cardboard tube for the cannon. It had green and brown army graphics printed all over it. It was AWESOME! Good times.
Take two thin pieces of cardboard or cardstock and (using a paper punch) punch a hole going through both of them. Find a pigeon feather or other bird feather and use the dark portion at the tip. Cut that part free of the feather, and then split the quill in half. Being careful not to disarrange the barbs of the feather, lay it flat on a piece of Scotch tape (the edges of the tape being wider than the feather) and then stick the feather across the hole of one piece of cardboard. then lay the opposite piece across to align with, and sandwich the feather between the two holes. Close one eye and look through the hole at things to get that X-Ray effect. if you can size a large enough piece of cardstock, you can make one with two holes for both eyes, using the other half of the feather tip on the other side. we made a bunch of these and sold them at school.
There actually is a camera which can see through clothes. They got banned from the public. You might still get one on the black market. They are probably very expensive.
@@rastas_4221 yup, when you could get a loaf of bread, can of pop, a couple cans of soup and a magazine for that 2 bucks. Government taxes you less in those days aswell.
I'm almost 60 and can admit with a smile I'm guilty of purchasing a few of these items you have highlighted. My best friend and I were GREATLY disappointed in the X-ray glasses.
I'm 59 and spent many weeks thinking about ordering those glasses when I was 9. Even back then, it sounded a bit too good to be true, but oh boy, how I wanted it to be true.
My dad used to tell me about this stuff. I guess they left kids in the dark on purpose to make them curious with the mindset of something like "Wow, I wonder how that works!" He told me that him and his brother would spend hours reading about them all and deciding which one to get. Actually sounds like a really fun time for a kid, regardless of how disappointed they were in the end. Especially the "flashing eyes" my god...
My dad as a kid had one of those mail order monkey's. He named it Micky. He loved that monkey so much he said it was his best and most loyal friend. but the monkey was very protective of my dad and would attack my dads dad (my grandpa) when he would come home from work. So one day my dad came home from school and his monko(his nick name) which usually waited for him in his room in his bed, was gone and missing. My dad looked all over the neighborhood and searched for months but never found it. He suspects his dad got rid of it when he was at school. My dad still talks about that monkey with fond memories and wished he could have another.
As a child in South Africa those ads convinced my friends and I that the USA had to be a place where kids could have the most amazing toys for next to nothing. At that time a US dollar was worth 0,75 of our rand , today we pay 16 of our rands for a US dollar. All avenues were explored to get our hands on that merchandise, to no avail. Those ads did achieve one major thing, it sparked the imagination and creativity followed. We built our own subs and space ships from cardboard boxes and the play and the companionship of one's friends were the rewards.
That's a great story! As a kid in the 90s, we still had these ads, and I bought the X-Ray glasses (they were just paper lenses with a hole in each, not even as cool as the ones in this video), and the hand buzzer (advertised like it were a taser, but it's just a cheap spring loaded switch that vibrates when pressed in a hand shake). I was pissed at the time, but looking back, they taught me at an early age to be skeptical; if it seems too good to be true, that's because it's likely a scam.
I actually got those, but not out of a comic book. I remember buying it from one of the souvenir shops we visited on a trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains when I was a kid. It was neat though.
YEAH they are! I still have a big old pickle jar with those growing magic rocks from the 1980s. I sealed it once all the water dried up, hasn't been opened since. It adorns my antique console stereo.
The submarine was actually made of cardboard, which still would have been cool to own, and apparently is a collectors item. I signed up to sell seeds, in 1974. I received them, sold them to my neighbors when i was 10 years old for a dime. I kept the money in a sock. There was no way i was giving it to them, that was hard-earned candy money.
I saved my allowance for what seemed forever and ordered the Atomic Sub. My father spent most of an hour laughing at me when I discovered that it was made of cardboard. It lasted something like two weeks before the morning dew dissolved it into mush. The 'Torpedo" never worked, and the 'Missile' launched exactly once, but the periscope was great, especially after I reinforced it with duct tape. It lasted most of a year.
I bought the hundred revolutionary soldiers one. Little plastic and two colors. Ended up using them in a school project and got an A . Worked out well for me.
We would go in the dark bar in town, where there were spitunias on the floor, men playing cards, and sell Grit Newspapers. My selling point was the comics toward the back.
As a kid - I had the X-ray specs - but they were given away free with the comic book. The one thing I did buy was the "See back'ro'scope" - which was a plastic tube with a hole in the side and a convex mirror angled at 45 degrees at the end. It was said to allow you to see behind your head (like some piece of spy equipment) - and I have to say that it did actually work pretty well, and I **LOVED** it as a toy.
Back in the late 80’s they were still printing comics with those crazy mail order gimmicks. I was really young but I loved monsters and in the back of an Amazing Spiderman Comic which at that time was being drawn by Todd McFarlane, had an add for a Monster Slaying Kit. The Kit included a stake for killing vampires, a sliver tipped arrow for Werewolves, and what looked like a mini crossbow to fire said projectiles. Man was I disappointed when it arrived. The cross bow was made out of the worst plastic and the stake was made out of some hard rubber foam and the silver arrow was made out of an even cheaper plastic than the crossbow. When you tried to load the bow everything would fall off and when you did manage to get it to hold, it barely flew one foot. The best thing that came with it was a mini poster of the classic universal style monsters, all but generically drawn to avoid copyrights but the art was very well done and the poster was made of a high gloss paper, so there was that. Did I learn from my mistake by putting my trust in this comic book ad? Nope! The next time I had some extra money I ordered something else from another comic. Those advertisements were too damn enticing! You just had to love them! Great little video and it definitely took me down memory-lane! Thank you for posting this one! Cheers!
I still have my Live Monkey . . . sealed . . . so as not to devalue it. The funny thing is, he's been real quiet for many years now. In hindsight, maybe this is one collectible I should have opened. 🤔
And for people who do not know, the federal reserve is a private bank. It is not the government. As we write, Trump is purposely running the fed reserve/ central bank into the ground on purpose. He plans to put our money back on the gold standard and give control of the dollar back to the people.
Right but they also twist that knob and hand you worthless paper with interest. So when their help is no longer required and they are given back every dollar that ever existed, as they all belong to them, they then as for their 10 percent interest or what have you. Putting us in the never-ending need to have more borrowed paper printed since you can never return everything ever made PLUS any percent more than everything without asking for more everything to be made. Thankfully for us, they agree to take in return for that phantom interest land, gold, positions of power, silver, actual wealth you know...i could forgive a kid pulling that trick on me. For the fed doing it tho, I want no fewer than several hundred heads to roll...or put on spikes in DC. That would work too
I remember these ads from the 60's, at that age dollars were a bit of a mystery (I am English) but can remember thinking that American kids must be having a great time with all this stuff.
I always pored through those ads with a wishful mind. In the early 60's I was one of 6 in a working class family.And to this young Yank? Dollars were a bit of mystery for me too. Hell, I thought I was doing good if I had a quarter. ☺☻
Wild. That's one of the happier stories. The others here show that they seemed to have met their death very early for a variety of reasons. How did it affect you ex when it passed after caring for it for so long?
It was quite sad according to her, she had long before left home. Her mother cared for it for years. She would of course see him when she would visit her mom. He became bald and shriveled like a tiny old man.
Stalicone Wow, that’s amazing to me. I should’ve ordered the monkey instead of the x ray glasses lol 👀However, I don’t recall seeing the ad back then. Knowing me back then I would’ve ..if I could’ve. Still, sounds like in her case it worked out well...probably not so much in many cases.
I would be fascinated to hear more about this. Did she do it without permission from her parents? If so, how did they react? Was it tame? Did it ever bite? Did it shit everywhere?? So many questions! haha
@Michael Lam lol ... to be fair people did not elect a billionaire reality game show host because they where getting even a mediocre job done from politicians.
“...a freaking full-out live monkey, in the mail!” Holy crap and really unconscionable. If kids thought the monkeys were bad though, I wonder how they would’ve done with one of the pet raccoons advertised right below it.
I got the sea monkeys. I wanted that submarine SO BAD!!! When I was a teen I did buy the xray glasses though I knew they were fake I was still curious and the price was still a small amount in the early 70s. My younger sister had some friends over and they were down in the family room-I walked in wearing the glasses and made like they really worked, oooing and ahhing as I scanned the room. Lots of screams and scattering girls.
I did something similar except I was hoping they at least worked a little. My sister had a best friend I had a serious crush on, but only being 11 a 16yo girl wasn't going to notice me so it was my pervy little attempt at the next best thing. I waited until she was over at my house one day then when my sister left the room I put them on and peeked around the corner, not only didn't they work but she saw me and knew exactly what they were. She said "Did you really buy those to peek at girls?" In another moment of stupidity I said, No, just you. she actually thought my sick little idea was cute and flashed me. Just a bra though, still well worth the $1. I had a crush on her for like 5 more years, till a pretty girl got a crush on me. lmao I'm glad I saw this though, I hadn't thought about her in like 35 years, wonder if she's on FB. lol
I nagged my mom to get a money order so I could get the “100 army men, tanks, ships, and jet planes all stored in a foot locker!” When it arrived months later, it was a tiny cardboard box and all the military things were flat, two dimensional tiny plastic cut outs of soldiers and ships. Only two jet bombers were even 3D. I learned a valuable life lesson lol
Those ads were always on or inside the back cover, obviously one of the most coveted ad spaces. I figured they would be small, since they wouldn't show actual photos of them, but didn't know they were flat as you say.
I got the American revolution set, in red & blue...yeah, pretty tiny, but I thought it was neat...loved the soldiers on the horses and especially the cannons. I still have that set somewhere...may be missing a piece or two ; )
I remember all of them! I wanted one that was suppose to be a space capsule but my father said it was cardboard and junk... now I finally got to see what kids really got.. thank you for this video!! brought back good memories!
I remember getting Disneykins as a kid in the mid to late 60's, and I think they were a premium from cereal or tea or something- had about a dozen. Wish I had them now!
It would have been something to have had the foresight to order this stuff, and kept it in it's original packaging. Toy collectors would do any thing to get their hands on them.
The Transylvanian soil does not seem so weird. It is just too bad that the pendant looks like crap. I have seen Star Wars fans collect, sell and buy desert sand from Tunisia where Luke's homestead stood.
I love this post so much, I am a 56 year old chump that spent a lot of hours cashing in a lot of pop bottles to buy this crap as a kid. Thanks for the memories.
Kenneth Stevenson I’d do it all over again rather than sit and play video games endlessly. At least we knew how to read and write and do math and work and save and wait. And learn to spend your money wisely and read between the lines.
OMG, the pop bottles! Pickings were so thin where I lived that I would have to scour the ditches near our house, take them home and wash them clean and even then the store owner would eye me suspiciously and ask, "Did you get these out of the ditch?" He didn't want to redeem any bottles that I hadn't actually purchased. Ditch? Of course not. At 2 cent/bottle it was usually good for no more than some penny candy.
Cromartie they’re still toys today, I grew up with sea monkey “pets”, pretty sure it’s the exact same stuff from the 40s like same trademark and parts and everything.
My uncle once tried to buy a car through one of these ads. The car came in the mail and he opened the package. Inside the box was a chocolate car and instructions. "The faster you lick it the faster it goes."
It occurs to me that these ads were the "click bait" of their era. No clicks, of course -- just that WTF? moment, when you realized you'd made a mistake...
I bought the Sea Monkeys. I also bought a "genuine" set of real working walkie-talkies. They were pressed tin plates with a long piece of string between them. Yes, I paid a dollar (1968 dollar at that) for two cups and a string.
I saw an offer in the back of an old comic for selling a company's seeds. I sold the required amount, and ordered what was supposed to be a child's mock air gun. I received a well made fully functioning BB Gun much to my parents disappointment and horror. I was a neighborhood terror for a while but have since reformed.
I bought army men for a dollar when I was a kid . They were nothing like advertised but we’re still awesome and fun . I was 6 years Old and it was 1975 or so .
I did too. The ones in the little footlocker that stood on flat stands. You could also get Revolutionary, Civil War and I think Roman soldiers too. Many of them perished beneath my solar powered magnifying glass
I think those were like 1/72 scale size. A whole army in box. I used to have massive wars with those. To bad kids kept swallowing them, and were discontinued. They've since been relegated to hobby shops in the U.k. 👍🤠👌
I bought this as a kid as well. I thought they were going to be the typical green plastic army men, like in Toy Story, but nope. Approach from the front and all you saw was a thin sliver of plastic. Now, that's what I call stealth. 😂🤣
My Aunt was reading a comic book I had and ended up ordering a huge Frankenstein poster from an ad in the back. "Glowing EYES!". Well, the poster showed up and it was huge and came with two round glow-in-the-dark stickers you put on the eyes. Hung the poster up on the wall at the bottom of the basement stairs, 'glowing eyes' affixed, turned off the lights and played 'who can go downstairs and touch Frankie'. Nobody could. My sister and I, about 9 neighborhood kids, and even my Mom and Aunt, all failed. Frankie got the best of us. Wow, almost 50 years ago.
Late 60's I was Mezmorized by the Polaris kit Sub from the Comics . Lol, parents would not order it. So I joined the Navy... did 20 year. My 1st Subs was the USS Daniel Boone SSBN 629, then on too SSBN729 and 736...
01Fratricide I actually had the Polaris Sub (mid-late 60s). I remember mine as being more of a pale blue color. It wasn't any sturdier than the cardboard in most beer/wine boxes and the "hatch" broke off within a week or so. Whole thing lasted maybe a month or two - and that was following the Xmas morning style loss of interest for the second month. Think my father finally got tired of it being in his way in the basement and tossed it. I don't remember even noticing LOL She says "still better than a cardboard box". Not so much. It did not inspire any military desires in me. Probably inherent fear of the sub I'd be on losing its top or tipping over sideways while I was trying to get out... LOL
I just can't believe they could find all the actual objects that people bought. You would think you wouldn't be able to find anything like that. Very cool video.
Omg those were so shocking to see what the comic items looked like in real life! I remember seeing those ads in the comic books as a kid in the 1970's, and always wondered what they were really like. Wonder what the black soap was like lol.
I had some. The bar was black and no one would have been fooled by it. It was probably made of charcoal and regular soap. The cigarette loads were great fun, though. I knew a guy who smoked constantly, and I got him several times. Once it blew some of his cigarette far up his nose.
We , My Mom, ordered a monkey out of a comic book for us. He came in the mail and there was a leash hanging out of the door on the cage. A note on the outside instructed to let the monkey alone for a couple of days to get over the jostling around the U.S. Postal service gave him. But my mom opened it straight up and he ran up the curtains and pulled his leash up behind him. He stayed there until we got home from school. My brother went to the curtain and talked to him for a few minutes and he came down to him. They became friends and my brother handled him the most although we all did. One day my brother took him outside, the monkey,( we named him Mr Spock was on his shoulder. The dogs started barking and the monkey bit my brother on the back, it became swollen and he had to get a shot but he was sick for a couple of days. The monkey ran up the power pole and was going down the wire, we locked the dogs up and started trying to coax him down. He wrapped his tail around the wire he was on and reached down towards us. He grabbed the wire and sparks flew. His lifeless body fell to the ground. When he hit the ground it was like he inflated to a live monkey again. We grabbed him and put him back in his cage. He recovered then a few weeks later got sick. We took him to a vet about 30 miles away. They gave him a penicillin shot. After we left a few miles down the road he had a reaction. We rushed back and they gave him a shot to counter act the penicillin, seems he was allergic and had to take terramycin instead. Mother had told us we would have to give him away when we went back to school cause we would'nt be there to care for him. The man that drove the garbage truck had several preschool children so we gave Mr Spock to him. He told us of his children and the monkey playing hide and seek, with Mr Spock hiding his eyes and peeping while the children hid, then he run to find them all the while making monkey howls. Evidently the shock he had received weakened his heart. They just found him dead in his cage one day. Mr Spock became pretty tame and quit biting. He was alot of fun .
Gary Busby Cool! I always wanted one. I thought they would be like in the movies. But then I heard the horror stories. Guess you and a hand full of others were the fortunate few. Sounds wonderful while it lasted. And makes a great story. I know I wouldn’t have the patience for a dog. Let alone a monkey.
I didn't know about the monkeys in the mail. I don't remember ordering by mail but that is probably how in got my Sea monkeys and Ant farms come to think about it.
I bought a slot machine from a comic ad to "Amaze my friends and family." After waiting for months for it to arrive in the mail while driving my mother nuts with my constant nagging. I planned to let the neighborhood kids play the slots and collect their nickels and dimes, just like Bugsy Siegel. It finally arrived, and unlike the full-size machine in the perceptive drawing in the ad, it was no bigger than a box of Pop-Tarts.
Yeah---I did too. I thought I was getting the Revolutionary War set like the Marx guys in the Sear's catalog. Imagine when I saw the entire set cam in a 4X5-inch box. FLATS!
Yes. I ordered the civil war soldiers,"two complete armies, the blue and the grey" as I remember. It listed the officers, cavalry, Gatling guns, infantry, hospital wagons and field cannons.This was around 1959. I expected a large five pound package to be delivered to the door. Instead, about 8 weeks later a carton about one forth the size of a Kleenex box arrived. The tiny soldiers were thin brittle stamped figures each supported on a small base of the same material. But I did play with them - I had to because my dad told me they would be garbage and I didn't want to show him I was disappointed. Nevertheless when they started advertising Revolutionary armies (Two complete armies the Americans and the redcoats" I somehow lost my enthusiasm to order them. I certainly learned a lesson. In that respect it was money well spent!
I wanted to get those, too. This video reminded me of them, I'm kind of surprised they weren't mentioned. Never ordered anything, never had money back then......
Another one I heard about, this from the Great Depression era, was an insect pest control thing for crops, etc. It turned out to be two small blocks of wood with the instruction to hold one block in one hand; place the insect on that block; and hit it with the other block.
I remember the days when we ordered those little cool toys and gadgets from those ads in comic books and waited 2~3 months to get them in the mail. Growing up in the early 70s was the best time ever! Kids today don't have anywhere the patience we did when we were kids.
We looked forward to getting something but kinda forgot about it until the day it showed up and gave us a thrill. We don't "need" two day shipping. Bezos has brainwashed us into being impatient children.
I agree. At that age you never got anything in the mail with your name on it (maybe a birthday card once a year from Grandma) and that was part of the fun. I knew I wasn't going to get a real submarine in the mail or really be able to see through clothes. I was still super excited.
I bought the "Book Safe" in the late 60's. I received this little plastic book that had a plastic combination lock. You could open the "lock" just by pulling on it.
I had a buddy who ordered the draw anything device. It was a little device that had a mirror, you looked through the top where there was a sort of plastic lens and you could see what you pointed it on the paper below. You were told to trace the lines onto the paper. Didn't work very well.
I had the original cardboard submarine. It looked much more submatinish then the later stealth fighter looking version. The weird part not realized for many years was that I grew up and ended up serving on the exact submarine it was based on from 1959. Yes it was very old at the time
@@LauraLegends lol, I guess most kids play with a refrigerator box. My brother and I just opened it up, laid it on it side and ran through it like a tunnel on all fours for about thirty minutes. I'm still not quit sure why it was so fun but it was!
I used to love looking at these at the end of Archie comics many years ago in mid to late 70s. Sometimes the items were printed on two pages. I was often so tempted, but I never did. :)
Yes Obi Wan :) Probably would have been more tempted though if these items had a Canadian address to send the money to. The States seemed so far away at the time for a young punk like me... :)
Oh, I was tempted, but I had parents and older siblings that explained (EVERY time I got a new comic book) that the offers were scams and stopped me from spending money on them. I REALLY wanted those x-ray specs (for ... um ... scientific ... research?) and was REALLY tempted by those army men (that I later found were just 2d flat things when someone else in town ordered them -- wait ... my parents ... were right?!). All through the 70s, though, it was fun to day dream about what if those products were as-advertised.
@@spaztekwarrior In the early 90's newsagents in the UK were not "chain-ified" and reasonably independent, the array of stuff that would show up in them was mind-boggling sometimes. Anyway my brother had a brief Spider-Man phase and usually got the UK editions (3 comics in one for the price of 2 imported US comics), but we occasionally got "the real thing" (I also found one lone single issue of a blood-soaked, obscure edgelord indie called Lady Justice, my mum was horrified) and wanted to send off for the stuff in the ads, but didn't understand how to.
Yup. I was a HUGE submarine fan. I joined the navy to be on subs - but my eyes kept me out of the silent service - even though the recruiter 'promised' that was where I was headed. Back then they could promise you anything, but once you signed on the dotted line, you belonged to Uncle Sam. Period. Oh, I never could convince my folks to send for the cardboard sub. Drat.
Sea Monkeys were deceptive in another way: The "purification" packet had eggs. And the 2nd packet had a blue dye, so when you added it thinking it was the Sea Monkeys hatching, it was just making those that already hatched become visible.
I remembered seeing the ad for the live monkey when I was a kid. I couldn't believe it was real, and I originally wanted one but my parents explained to me this was a live creature I would be caring for for years, while I cleaned the poop out from the cage it was suffering in. Then when I thought about it I realized that they would be stuffing these miserable animals into a box and shipping them through the mail. I can't imagine the cruelty these animals endured, and it's unimaginable that this was allowed, much less for four years. Good to know we're civilized creatures....
Which of these would you have purchased??
The one that impresses you enough take you on a date?
None, why do these even exist, Dino Momma?
Longshot....but totally worth embarrassing myself in front of what's probably the better part of 80 thousand people. Nailed it.
@@yoblazes 😂🤗❤️❤️
@@kevinobill4818 becuase people want to take money from children lol
back in the late 50's my Dad bought the Space Rocket to Mars it was a flimsy piece of crap and he would it and used it as a cut out and used thin plywood and made it to fit three boys ..he added a battery with control lights , running lights and the whole bit..he had a friend painted it just like a real rocket..all three seats had switches and controls so we all could play at the same time... it was the place to be in our neighborhood.....My Dad was always building things for us kids push cars, forts, basketball hoops just about anything ..when He had grandkids he built all sorts of items for them to from baby beds to rocking horses to doll beds to wooden trucks and cars..I miss my Dad he died way to early at 70 yrs old... now I am 70 yrs old..I wish I had that Rockship to Mars.....
These comments are a treasure of shared memories, and yours is no exception!
Wow! What a great Dad and Grandpa!!!
rickatencio74 Yeah. Now days they glorify bad grandpa
This was just the perfect dose of wholesome I needed to go with my morning coffee. Thank you.
dave kirby So wonderful that you had an amazing father. Treasure those memories, even though it can be heartbreaking at times and you might often wish that you could go back in time and be a child again, playing outside, coming home before dark with no cares or worries.
You don't even need x-ray glasses these days. We have yoga pants.
Love those camel toes!
Nate Brenneman HATE the Moose Knuckle.... 😳
THE FUUUTUUUURRREEEEE!!
God bless the creator of yoga pants.
and digital cameras that can take IR pictures that actually DO see through clothing.
I remember back in the sixties when I ordered a time machine for just ten dollars. The downside is it only works once. WHY did I choose to travel to 2020??!!
Hahahah
Because they told us how wonderful everything would be in 2020, me thinks they Lied just like the comic book ads.
Was it the same time machine from Napoleon Dynamite?
@@jasonb1159 That was a fictional copy of the one I used but a pretty close simile.
Are you any smarter or wealthier than before? At least you haven't aged...
You failed to mention that there was no Amazon Prime back in the day and we normally had to wait 4-6 weeks to be disappointed.
And have your money back refund was somehow always lost in the mail.
I'm pretty sure it's well understood that the internet didn't exist in the 60's and 70's without it being mentioned. lol
4-6 weeks? more like 6-8.
Those 6-8 wks took forever
But sometimes not often you
enjoyed the $2.99 + tax you spent
On the other hand .. those were weeks of pure excitement waiting for your life-changing gear to show up!
These ads were almost a fun to read as the comics themselves. I remember these. 😁👍🏻
Me too, we're getting old ain't we?
I forgot I read these!
@Gernot Schrader really
70s great time to be a kid !
Great images for T - shirts.
As a five-year-old, I dreamed about the cardboard submarine. But in the 1970s, the Dellmonte company had an advertisement for a giant kite for $4.95. I took a chance and sent away for it and about four weeks later received a package in the mail. I opened the package and it was just that, a giant kite! It was made of PVC tubing and once constructed stood over 6 feet tall! The kite was made of a thick tarp plastic with a giant picture of the jolly green giant on it. I went out in the field and flew it with the string and handle included and it even had a parachute of little sprout included that you would put on the string and it would blow all the way up to the kite and then with one jerk it would disengage and come back to the ground. As a kid, I think this was one of my best investments.
Wow! A success story!
With a dollar or two (and a box top from Cheerioes), my best "investment" was a spinner baseball game....with a tiny HR chance...a large K area...fly-outs, ground-outs, ....
I loved every nine innings of it! Leading to Strat-o-matic Baseball....and, today, Out-of-the-Park Baseball! (OOTP)
That sounds amazing! Wish I'd seen that one. Totally would've stoked little me.
My family had one of those kites, it was the best kite.
I love this story
I had the money maker....it worked .Grandad loaned us a Pound note an never asked for it back .He was a lovely man .
These where valuable lessons to be learned as a child. That lesson being that Advertisers LIE to you.
Caveat emptor
Latin for "Let the buyer beware".
And when they don't, it's somehow worse.
Except for the monkey
@@DisckMedia beat me to it
And still do today.
Yep !, I was the very proud owner of many of these items. I found the ads to be informative and accurate. The items received were always high quality, highly functional items, that not only exceeded the claims of the ad, but lasted for years. Clearly, it was the intention of the company, to offer top quality, unusual items, that appealed to kids of all ages. They did this at a price point that kids could afford. This was integrity in marketing at its finest and we should all be grateful for....🤣😂🤣😂 Sorry, couldn't keep a straight face any longer ! - I still have a Johnson Smith catalog from the 70's however.
Ah... Johnson Smith! What fun to browse through.
I sent in $2 to get 7 "mystical talismans" when I was around 13. I never got the talismans, but what I did get was constant letters from a cult for about 15 years thanking me for my generous donation. They lit candles for me, they prayed for me and they also somehow got my phone number and called a few times. It was a running joke for a while in my family that I joined a cult. All I wanted were some props for my D&D game.
Jack Chick would like to know your location
Was the cult leader by-chance named Peter Popoff?
lol
@@gamingchinchilla7323 No, I don't remember the cults name anymore but it wasn't him lol
@@jonas189 Haha. Woosh. Jack Chick is a now dead Christian preacher who sold small comic booklets teaching people about Jesus. Haha.
@@juliaboon9741 Chick Publications. I remember those things.
Let us not forget the Charles Atlas promise of turning a 98 lb weakling into a muscled he-man.
"Dynamic tension" as a way to stop the bullies from kicking sand in your face at the beach and taking your girl from you. :p :)
IN 7 DAYS !!
Actually you got a chart with examples of isometrics. At the time, it was pretty novel.
I got the Charles Atlas weight set for $10.95 in 1960. A bar, two dumbbells. 125 lbs of plates. I went back to middle school pretty buff.
I got the Charles Atlas booklet, which was a very bad photocopy of a photocopy.
Back in the 60's a buddy and I chipped in for the submarine because we lived close to Lake Michigan, what a disappointment!
On another note, some dumb boy brought the x ray specs to school and the girls started screaming and he got into trouble, that was a cool day for the rest of us!🤣
one of my friends got the sub. It was set up in his backyard and we played in it for an hour or so. I sent off for the x ray glasses. My teacher took them before I could get in trouble. It was a good time to grow up.
@@tomsnyder1410 yeah everyone got ripped off back then.
The kid got into trouble for Xray specs?
Was the teacher really that dumb to believe they worked?
After 50+ years I still want all these great items
Showed my dad this video.
His response: "man my parents were right to not let me blow my money on that shit.
I can sleep peacefully tonight knowing I didn't miss much."
I remember being mesmerized by an ad for plans to build a hovercraft out of vacuum cleaner parts (not included). I am old.
Do you ever build it ? Sounds awesome
@@chuckbutler8114 No, I think a relative told me it probably wouldn't work. Google "Boys Life hovercraft" to see for yourself
I wanted to make that so bad, I used to fantasize about driving it to school.
@@SmokeForPants wow I looked it up and it looked really cool.
I was the same way. Always wanted to try the flying gadgets,at the back of comic books
I used to be obsessed with that submarine ad in an old issue of Sgt. Rock, back when I was five. Thanks for putting one of life's mysteries to rest for me!
Me too.
I was the same way, saw it in Sgt. Rock and could just imagine navigating up and down the creek behind my house in that sub.
I got rooked into saving my allowance for ages, sending off for it, waiting forever, and getting that box full of 200 # test fiberboard. And it was waaaay crapier than the one in the video. Needless to say, I HATED Honor House from that day forward!!!
I remember watching Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and thinking this submarine would let me explore the pond from under water. I was PSYCHED!!! And that wait for them to send it felt like forever!!!!!
My parents got my brother and me one of them for Christmas. The periscope was cool, and I remember the torpedo 🚀 launcher.
I'm still waiting on a box of plastic army men that I sent my hard earned 50 cents for. I know they'll be here any day.
I ordered those too! Forty years later I'm still waiting for them.
Let me know when you get yours and maybe we can play.
Was that from "Helen of Toy Company" ?
@@misterwhitman4368 I can't really recall, it was almost fifty years ago.
I got those.... and was soooo disapointed. Total cr_p. I wish I WERE still waiting for them.
All this was long before the internet. I was a little boy in the early 70's and I remember being totally fascinated by these ads. I would have bought all of these products if I had enough money...
Me too. They captured my imagination. Luckily I didn't have much money so I never sent for most of this stuff. But I wanted to. Its great to finally see what some of it looked like. Glad some of it still exists and some people took pictures.
Same here. I did get to order a few things. Sea monkeys, a couple army games and a floating ghost. All were big letdowns. Mom and dad told me every time it would be junk. They were right! LMAO. It is cool to get to see some of the items I wanted but couldn't get.
@@shadowwolf7622 I ordered the floating ghost too! It was a white plastic garbage bag with a white balloon (the balloon had a face stamped on it) with a clear plastic disk to attach them and somehow had a string to hang it from a tree. I think it was 2 or 3 dollars. Mom said she let me buy it on purpose to learn not to buy stuff from the back of a comic book. I knew it wasn't going to be good when, after waiting forever for the mail to arrive, my "ghost" came in a small brown manilla envelope that was slightly fat but light as a feather. It worked; I never ordered from them again!
Yeah you had to save your $ and mail it in then wait. Lol
@@waygoblue4729 It sure was a big let down when it finally arrived. I sure was expecting something different! It is a good memory now. It wasn't as bad as the 100 piece army set I ordered. It came with the worst figures and vehicles I'd ever seen. And made from real brittle plastic. They were advertised as coming in their own foot locker. I was picturing a large box. In reality, it was a very small cardboard box! Not much of a foot locker.
Given how the pet monkey ad turned out, I'm kind of glad kids didn't get an actual submarine with NUCLEAR MISSILES
The second amendment shall not be infringed!!!!!
I bet you are the life of parties.....Not.
You do know that I'm joking I hope?
@@timhollis3390 :P If you really want to have fun come to the corona virus vids.
I just couldn’t understand why my parents wouldn’t let me order the spider monkey?
When I was about 5 yrs old I ordered that "submarine" They sent back my money and said the company no longer existed. I was crushed.
Like the card board sub
They went under
@@bobsmoth-iv3sp Good one😂
You dodged a torpedo.
Saved you from getting soaked.
Sea monkeys are the bomb! I loved mine SO much. They also sold race tracks, games and little pendants to wear so you could carry your sea monkeys around! I learned a lot from having them and really enjoyed them. One of my favorite Xmas gifts ever!
What were their names?
I still love them. I bought them for all my children, nephews, nieces and as Birthday gifts for my friends children. Off and back n I have also purchased them for myself and not only as a child😊
I begged to get the sea monkeys. But the answer was No, No, No.
@@electronwave4551 get them now. It is never to late to enjoy these small gifts.
At least they worked but didn't live very long.Haha.
I bought the giant monster. I was bullied a lot and was gonna use him for protection. I received a giant envelope with a poster of Frankensteins' monster. And the beatings continued.
You should have ordered one of those vicious monkeys instead.
Did the ad say "obeys your command"? Mine did.
Awwwh😢
Yeah bullies suck no matter what age you are.
I had one of those too. I put it up on the front porch door for Halloween that year.
When you said lifelike Lady's Legs I thought of the dad in a Christmas Story buying the leg lamp.
He didn't buy it. He won it. A major award!
Me too. I was waiting for a "Major Award" joke.
It was italian .. it said "ragile" on the box
@@grbenway fraagiilaaa
That was a major... damnit, what they said
I was fortunate enough to have a classmate living across the street who, as an only child, was given liberty to order such things, so I didn't have to experience disappointment myself, instead sharing his dismay.
So, Schadenfriende rather than Schadenfreude, then.
@@mkvv5687 😂
I bought that “Polaris Submarine” early 1960s. Or rather, my parents did. But I sent in the form with $7 enclosed. It took 6 weeks to get it, and I watched the mail every day after the first 4 weeks. It came, and I was surprised the package was so small. Just folded cardboard. But I put it together myself, including the battery holder, which used aluminum foil to carry the current to the little lightbulb (basically a flashlight bulb) which lit the “lighted control panel.” It even had a torpedo. I was about 7, so I fit inside it easily. No way it would have held two kids. I was determined to have fun with it, so I played “Sea Hunt” until the thing fell apart, which took weeks. Maybe months. Of all the comic book ads I’ve seen and/or responded to, that was the best.
We did it on the cheap, we got two bricks and attached to our backs with belts, and pretend they were scuba tanks, while we swam in the grass. Our playhouse was the Seaview from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
Yea back in the days when kids either got to or had to use a lot of imagination.. I myself ordered the sea monkeys.the spy glasses, a hand buzzer, and a water powered rocket that wasn't too bad..But boy did I want one of those Monkeys. I always imagined they were real ,but after the sea monkeys scam my parents said that the monkey was just a scam too. I sure spent days imagining about having one though.. And Later figured it's too good to be true. And33 just now read stories that they were real..OMG..I'm pissed now.. $18.95 was way more money than I had then and too much for my parents to spend. There were 3 of us kids and I can remember having a 20 dollar limit on My whole Xmas list, from the toy section in the Sears and Wards catalog maybe JC penny ,can't remember. So much fun then.I guess I was lucky to have a good family..some are not that fortunate..
but I bet they weren't photon torppeeedoosss
OMG! Seahunt. What a great show!
The water-powered ticket was awesome. They said it’d ascend 200’, and it would.
The Money Maker was so good that the FED have been using it for decades ; )
I still have mine 😊
best comment ever
Now that's funny
Yes. Those miniature monkeys were pygmy marmosets from South America. Cute but not good pets. Nowadays it's illegal to import them, but back in those days they could import anything. There were no endangered species laws back then.
The "bullet hole" window decals were pretty convincing from a distance.
In my youth, I acquired a few real ones in my old Ford. Not the way you might think, though. See, rural Kentucky community. If something old and kind of rusty sat parked too long, it WOULD eventually accumulate a few bullet holes.
We had fun with it, though. We had a couple of signs made up that said 'Midnite Auto Parts', and slapped 'em on the doors. The bullet holes just fit in with the joke.
One Christmas when I was a kid, Santa, (pretty sure it was my Dad) got me a cardboard "Army Tank". It was basically 2 stacked cardboard boxes and a cardboard tube for the cannon. It had green and brown army graphics printed all over it. It was AWESOME! Good times.
I bet some of the packaging was far more impressive than the contents. Packaging from this era is gorgous.
I wanted those x-ray glasses so so badly as a young boy.. and a teenager ...and in my twenties and thirties
😂😂
Take two thin pieces of cardboard or cardstock and (using a paper punch) punch a hole going through both of them. Find a pigeon feather or other bird feather and use the dark portion at the tip. Cut that part free of the feather, and then split the quill in half. Being careful not to disarrange the barbs of the feather, lay it flat on a piece of Scotch tape (the edges of the tape being wider than the feather) and then stick the feather across the hole of one piece of cardboard. then lay the opposite piece across to align with, and sandwich the feather between the two holes. Close one eye and look through the hole at things to get that X-Ray effect. if you can size a large enough piece of cardstock, you can make one with two holes for both eyes, using the other half of the feather tip on the other side. we made a bunch of these and sold them at school.
There actually is a camera which can see through clothes. They got banned from the public. You might still get one on the black market. They are probably very expensive.
Odd, isn't it? I didn't get to see naked women until I got rid of the glasses. Thank you, contact lenses...
@@juanramirez6251 Yeah. The TSA uses them.
$7 back in the day. *submarine*
$7 now *a 6" sub without bacon*
Yeah and the original $7 submarine from the comic books was 7 foot long yet Subway has been caught selling foot-long subs at 11 inches. Go figure.
yup
@@rastas_4221 yup, when you could get a loaf of bread, can of pop, a couple cans of soup and a magazine for that 2 bucks. Government taxes you less in those days aswell.
baboom
You HAD less! And I remember $3.35 / hr minimum wage.
I'm almost 60 and can admit with a smile I'm guilty of purchasing a few of these items you have highlighted. My best friend and I were GREATLY disappointed in the X-ray glasses.
I'm 59 and spent many weeks thinking about ordering those glasses when I was 9. Even back then, it sounded a bit too good to be true, but oh boy, how I wanted it to be true.
My dad used to tell me about this stuff. I guess they left kids in the dark on purpose to make them curious with the mindset of something like "Wow, I wonder how that works!"
He told me that him and his brother would spend hours reading about them all and deciding which one to get. Actually sounds like a really fun time for a kid, regardless of how disappointed they were in the end. Especially the "flashing eyes" my god...
My dad as a kid had one of those mail order monkey's. He named it Micky. He loved that monkey so much he said it was his best and most loyal friend. but the monkey was very protective of my dad and would attack my dads dad (my grandpa) when he would come home from work. So one day my dad came home from school and his monko(his nick name) which usually waited for him in his room in his bed, was gone and missing. My dad looked all over the neighborhood and searched for months but never found it. He suspects his dad got rid of it when he was at school. My dad still talks about that monkey with fond memories and wished he could have another.
Oh how he must miss the piss and $h!t
Oh man how cool, and so sad.
Thank you for sharing.
Reminds me of The Bathroom Monkey from SNL
@@XxxXxx-fm3wo It was potty trained it went in a litter box like a cat.
That's so sad. What a horrible dad (granpa)
I ordered the farting powder, and stuck it in my dads coffee. He ended up just shitting his pants all day at work.
Expected...how many whoopings?
You sir are awesome!!
This made my day. I'm still giggling.
should have given it to your teacher.
Thanks for starting my day off with a good laugh
As a child in South Africa those ads convinced my friends and I that the USA had to be a place where kids could have the most amazing toys for next to nothing. At that time a US dollar was worth 0,75 of our rand , today we pay 16 of our rands for a US dollar. All avenues were explored to get our hands on that merchandise, to no avail.
Those ads did achieve one major thing, it sparked the imagination and creativity followed. We built our own subs and space ships from cardboard boxes and the play and the companionship of one's friends were the rewards.
That's a great story! As a kid in the 90s, we still had these ads, and I bought the X-Ray glasses (they were just paper lenses with a hole in each, not even as cool as the ones in this video), and the hand buzzer (advertised like it were a taser, but it's just a cheap spring loaded switch that vibrates when pressed in a hand shake). I was pissed at the time, but looking back, they taught me at an early age to be skeptical; if it seems too good to be true, that's because it's likely a scam.
Yeah but you had the Cremora cheesecake tart that we never knew about.
So waar dit was lekker dae.
The "Colorful Magic Rocks" were actually pretty cool. You can still get those at stores today.
Yep. I had those when I was a kid.
Just saw them at target today, almost bought them. May have to go back
I actually got those, but not out of a comic book. I remember buying it from one of the souvenir shops we visited on a trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains when I was a kid. It was neat though.
YEAH they are! I still have a big old pickle jar with those growing magic rocks from the 1980s. I sealed it once all the water dried up, hasn't been opened since.
It adorns my antique console stereo.
At a young age, these ads tought me about liars.
The submarine was actually made of cardboard, which still would have been cool to own, and apparently is a collectors item.
I signed up to sell seeds, in 1974. I received them, sold them to my neighbors when i was 10 years old for a dime. I kept the money in a sock. There was no way i was giving it to them, that was hard-earned candy money.
tawt*
@@lkabong5529 Taught*
I was a kid in the 50s and was totally fascinated by the Johnson-Smith catalogue. I sent off many an order and surprisingly seldom disappointed.
I saved my allowance for what seemed forever and ordered the Atomic Sub.
My father spent most of an hour laughing at me when I discovered that it was made of cardboard. It lasted something like two weeks before the morning dew dissolved it into mush.
The 'Torpedo" never worked, and the 'Missile' launched exactly once, but the periscope was great, especially after I reinforced it with duct tape. It lasted most of a year.
You got your money's worth
I remember that ad and wanted it so bad. My plan was to flood my parents basement and drive the sub around in the flooded basement.
Some people have all the luck!
James Dollard Cool! I’m so jealous. We got the joy buzzer that worked about 10 times until someone over wound it.
@@blaster-zy7xx Thank you - that made my day! The only thing better would be if the monkey was driving it around the flooded basement.
I bought sea monkeys. Very disappointed when they didn't build a city.
And now they advertise to the same people, it's called QVC! Lol!
I bought the hundred revolutionary soldiers one. Little plastic and two colors. Ended up using them in a school project and got an A . Worked out well for me.
I bought tons of WW2 army guys tanks guns battle ships...
They usually were flat tho.
I fell for those too! And I posted a comment about it before I read yours. My first lesson in real-life economics and it cost me $1 :)
I had those too. My twin brother and I set them up in the yard and used our BB guns to shoot them all down. Hours of fun.
Those were cool
I remember them ; I finally gave it to one of my nephews for a birthday present . I could tell they were cheaply made .
Remember the gig where you get prizes for selling greeting cards? This was actually legit. I got a good sized chemistry set out of it.
We would go in the dark bar in town, where there were spitunias on the floor, men playing cards, and sell Grit Newspapers. My selling point was the comics toward the back.
I got a Cox .049 engine Army Jeep. It was awesome.
Funny you mention it, my long time friend and I were talking about that.
@@bonedoctor1 I really wanted to get that hovercraft in the worst way!
Anyone remember selling seed packages for prizes...!
I did that a few times...
Once I got a nice a Bow and Arrow set...!
As a kid - I had the X-ray specs - but they were given away free with the comic book. The one thing I did buy was the "See back'ro'scope" - which was a plastic tube with a hole in the side and a convex mirror angled at 45 degrees at the end. It was said to allow you to see behind your head (like some piece of spy equipment) - and I have to say that it did actually work pretty well, and I **LOVED** it as a toy.
That's a periscope
@@vivimannequin not really. Periscopes have two mirrors...this only one.
Back in the late 80’s they were still printing comics with those crazy mail order gimmicks. I was really young but I loved monsters and in the back of an Amazing Spiderman Comic which at that time was being drawn by Todd McFarlane, had an add for a Monster Slaying Kit. The Kit included a stake for killing vampires, a sliver tipped arrow for Werewolves, and what looked like a mini crossbow to fire said projectiles. Man was I disappointed when it arrived. The cross bow was made out of the worst plastic and the stake was made out of some hard rubber foam and the silver arrow was made out of an even cheaper plastic than the crossbow. When you tried to load the bow everything would fall off and when you did manage to get it to hold, it barely flew one foot. The best thing that came with it was a mini poster of the classic universal style monsters, all but generically drawn to avoid copyrights but the art was very well done and the poster was made of a high gloss paper, so there was that. Did I learn from my mistake by putting my trust in this comic book ad? Nope! The next time I had some extra money I ordered something else from another comic. Those advertisements were too damn enticing! You just had to love them! Great little video and it definitely took me down memory-lane! Thank you for posting this one! Cheers!
I still have my Live Monkey . . . sealed . . . so as not to devalue it. The funny thing is, he's been real quiet for many years now. In hindsight, maybe this is one collectible I should have opened. 🤔
@Nicolas cage
Ouch!! You could say it's a razor thin line between the two. . 😁
He's not dead he's resting!
What was really weird was when you tried to put those Barbie high heels on him!
"@Picolas Cage , now that's an interesting concept."
--Erwin Schroedinger
Nah , give it another 20 years or so
That paper into money thing is exactly what the Federal Reserve does .
They do an even better job on making it disppear
ALEX L. , I call dibs on selling fiberboard Federal Reserve Banks for 4 easy payments of $9.99 plus $250,000,000 shipping and handling!
Yeah , if they can do it , why not us ?
And for people who do not know, the federal reserve is a private bank. It is not the government. As we write, Trump is purposely running the fed reserve/ central bank into the ground on purpose. He plans to put our money back on the gold standard and give control of the dollar back to the people.
Right but they also twist that knob and hand you worthless paper with interest. So when their help is no longer required and they are given back every dollar that ever existed, as they all belong to them, they then as for their 10 percent interest or what have you. Putting us in the never-ending need to have more borrowed paper printed since you can never return everything ever made PLUS any percent more than everything without asking for more everything to be made. Thankfully for us, they agree to take in return for that phantom interest land, gold, positions of power, silver, actual wealth you know...i could forgive a kid pulling that trick on me. For the fed doing it tho, I want no fewer than several hundred heads to roll...or put on spikes in DC. That would work too
I remember these ads from the 60's, at that age dollars were a bit of a mystery (I am English) but can remember thinking that American kids must be having a great time with all this stuff.
I always pored through those ads with a wishful mind.
In the early 60's I was one of 6 in a working class family.And to this young Yank? Dollars were a bit of mystery for me too.
Hell, I thought I was doing good if I had a quarter. ☺☻
My ex wife bought the monkey (as a young girl) . It lived to be 23 years old and she was over 30 when it finally died of old age.
Wild. That's one of the happier stories. The others here show that they seemed to have met their death very early for a variety of reasons.
How did it affect you ex when it passed after caring for it for so long?
It was quite sad according to her, she had long before left home. Her mother cared for it for years. She would of course see him when she would visit her mom. He became bald and shriveled like a tiny old man.
That is simply amazing to me.
Stalicone Wow, that’s amazing to me. I should’ve ordered the monkey instead of the x ray glasses lol 👀However, I don’t recall seeing the ad back then. Knowing me back then I would’ve ..if I could’ve. Still, sounds like in her case it worked out well...probably not so much in many cases.
I would be fascinated to hear more about this. Did she do it without permission from her parents? If so, how did they react? Was it tame? Did it ever bite? Did it shit everywhere?? So many questions! haha
The back of our comics, where we learned everything was a lie.
yup. advertising is bullshit..lol
i dunno i got a legit hovercraft ....for real
Yeah I sent away for a few of these things. Never once did I ever get anything back.
It was actually a pretty powerful lesson in "let the buyer beware." I feel like in some dark way I did learn lessons about marketing and lies.
@Michael Lam lol ... to be fair people did not elect a billionaire reality game show host because they where getting even a mediocre job done from politicians.
“...a freaking full-out live monkey, in the mail!” Holy crap and really unconscionable. If kids thought the monkeys were bad though, I wonder how they would’ve done with one of the pet raccoons advertised right below it.
My dad would have to me to quit monkeying around.
Those poor creatures.
There were also (small) live alligators, very small and sometimes they didnt live through shipping.
18.99 was a days pay back in the 60s.
I would have loved those cardboard vehicles as a kid. I used to pretend a Maytag box was a tank.
$70 bucks for a cardboard sub? Nope. In today's prices that's $69.12.
I got the sea monkeys. I wanted that submarine SO BAD!!! When I was a teen I did buy the xray glasses though I knew they were fake I was still curious and the price was still a small amount in the early 70s. My younger sister had some friends over and they were down in the family room-I walked in wearing the glasses and made like they really worked, oooing and ahhing as I scanned the room. Lots of screams and scattering girls.
That was funny!
I knew this guy who would come in and scan the room and the girls would all scream and split and he didn't have any glasses lol
Haha! Then you got your money's worth just for that reaction!
that was basically the ACTUAL entertainment value of x-ray glasses.
I did something similar except I was hoping they at least worked a little. My sister had a best friend I had a serious crush on, but only being 11 a 16yo girl wasn't going to notice me so it was my pervy little attempt at the next best thing. I waited until she was over at my house one day then when my sister left the room I put them on and peeked around the corner, not only didn't they work but she saw me and knew exactly what they were. She said "Did you really buy those to peek at girls?" In another moment of stupidity I said, No, just you. she actually thought my sick little idea was cute and flashed me. Just a bra though, still well worth the $1. I had a crush on her for like 5 more years, till a pretty girl got a crush on me. lmao I'm glad I saw this though, I hadn't thought about her in like 35 years, wonder if she's on FB. lol
I nagged my mom to get a money order so I could get the “100 army men, tanks, ships, and jet planes all stored in a foot locker!” When it arrived months later, it was a tiny cardboard box and all the military things were flat, two dimensional tiny plastic cut outs of soldiers and ships. Only two jet bombers were even 3D. I learned a valuable life lesson lol
I remember that one, I really wanted it but never got it. Thanks for letting me know what it really was.
I got them too! And I was really mad when I got the really small box in the mail, several weeks after mom ordered it for me. What a joke! LMAO
Those ads were always on or inside the back cover, obviously one of the most coveted ad spaces. I figured they would be small, since they wouldn't show actual photos of them, but didn't know they were flat as you say.
I got the American revolution set, in red & blue...yeah, pretty tiny, but I thought it was neat...loved the soldiers on the horses and especially the cannons. I still have that set somewhere...may be missing a piece or two ; )
I always wanted that but was told no. Thanks for taking one for the team!
I remember all of them! I wanted one that was suppose to be a space capsule but my father said it was cardboard and junk... now I finally got to see what kids really got.. thank you for this video!! brought back good memories!
In the late 60's I bought a box of Disneykins for $1.00 out of a comic book. In the early 2000's I sold them on eBay for $150.00. Pretty Cool!
I remember getting Disneykins as a kid in the mid to late 60's, and I think they were a premium from cereal or tea or something- had about a dozen. Wish I had them now!
Joanne, the Winner of the comic book scams!
It would have been something to have had the foresight to order this stuff, and kept it in it's original packaging. Toy collectors would do any thing to get their hands on them.
Back then: Dracula's dirt.
Today: Belle Delphine's bath water.
Me: Hmm, is that dirt still for sale?
Ya I think I'd rather buy Dracula's dirt than belle's bath water too.
I remember imagining that the earth from Dracula's castle would have some sort of eerie powers.
Looked more like flour than dirt to me.
Hey now, I drink a bottle of Belle's bath water every day and "It's Got Electrolytes"
The Transylvanian soil does not seem so weird. It is just too bad that the pendant looks like crap.
I have seen Star Wars fans collect, sell and buy desert sand from Tunisia where Luke's homestead stood.
I love this post so much, I am a 56 year old chump that spent a lot of hours cashing in a lot of pop bottles to buy this crap as a kid. Thanks for the memories.
Kenneth Stevenson I’d do it all over again rather than sit and play video games endlessly. At least we knew how to read and write and do math and work and save and wait. And learn to spend your money wisely and read between the lines.
OMG, the pop bottles! Pickings were so thin where I lived that I would have to scour the ditches near our house, take them home and wash them clean and even then the store owner would eye me suspiciously and ask, "Did you get these out of the ditch?" He didn't want to redeem any bottles that I hadn't actually purchased. Ditch? Of course not. At 2 cent/bottle it was usually good for no more than some penny candy.
Damn I did not see the monkey one being real coming ha wtffff
Cromartie they’re still toys today, I grew up with sea monkey “pets”, pretty sure it’s the exact same stuff from the 40s like same trademark and parts and everything.
@@bungobogus8132 I'm pretty sure they meant the actual live monkeys in the box at No.1
They are actually real, and kind of cute and fun.
My uncle once tried to buy a car through one of these ads. The car came in the mail and he opened the package. Inside the box was a chocolate car and instructions. "The faster you lick it the faster it goes."
These were dreams of my boyhood .But living in the u k , we just read about them in american comics .This video sent me back about 60 years .
It occurs to me that these ads were the "click bait" of their era. No clicks, of course -- just that WTF? moment, when you realized you'd made a mistake...
a way to build mailing lists...
“Horned up like rabbits”.....brilliant!
I remember the solar powered clothes dryer! Yeah it was a piece of string.
Lmao..
🤣🤣🤣
My favorite is the Copper Portrait of Abraham Lincoln for $5... and you got a Penny!!!
Awesome! Truth in advertising.
I bought the Sea Monkeys. I also bought a "genuine" set of real working walkie-talkies. They were pressed tin plates with a long piece of string between them. Yes, I paid a dollar (1968 dollar at that) for two cups and a string.
Brine Shrimp lol
When you said lady legs all I could think of was a Christmas story.
"Fra-JEEL-ay!" :p :)
I saw an offer in the back of an old comic for selling a company's seeds. I sold the required amount, and ordered what was supposed to be a child's mock air gun. I received a well made fully functioning BB Gun much to my parents disappointment and horror. I was a neighborhood terror for a while but have since reformed.
10-20? LOL
I sold greeting cards. They were impossible to sell, at least in my area.
@@clintonwatkins1070 Let me guess, Cheerful House?
@@JeffDeWitt No. Olympic Sales. They used a superhero named Captain O to pitch it.
My God, what were they thinking with the Money Maker and the *'Darling Pet Monkey'* !!? WTFF!!? That last one has left me stunned beyond words.
Is it irony that it was the only ad that told the truth and actually delivered its promises!
I remember that ad. It was a very different time. Caveat Emptor.
I know a person that got that monkey....it was mean as f***, to be fair they did steal him from his home.
I bought army men for a dollar when I was a kid .
They were nothing like advertised but we’re still awesome and fun .
I was 6 years Old and it was 1975 or so .
They were flat and one dimensional, the ones from the dime store were way better.
I did too. The ones in the little footlocker that stood on flat stands. You could also get Revolutionary, Civil War and I think Roman soldiers too. Many of them perished beneath my solar powered magnifying glass
I think those were like 1/72 scale size. A whole army in box. I used to have massive wars with those. To bad kids kept swallowing them, and were discontinued. They've since been relegated to hobby shops in the U.k. 👍🤠👌
I remember looking at the ads for this in the back of comic books in awe. The layout they showed seemed to show a battle that filled the entire page.
I bought this as a kid as well. I thought they were going to be the typical green plastic army men, like in Toy Story, but nope. Approach from the front and all you saw was a thin sliver of plastic. Now, that's what I call stealth. 😂🤣
My Aunt was reading a comic book I had and ended up ordering a huge Frankenstein poster from an ad in the back. "Glowing EYES!". Well, the poster showed up and it was huge and came with two round glow-in-the-dark stickers you put on the eyes. Hung the poster up on the wall at the bottom of the basement stairs, 'glowing eyes' affixed, turned off the lights and played 'who can go downstairs and touch Frankie'. Nobody could. My sister and I, about 9 neighborhood kids, and even my Mom and Aunt, all failed. Frankie got the best of us. Wow, almost 50 years ago.
John Schleusener
Grandmas rock...!
Of all the things she could have got, she gets a friggin monster for her nephew. That's f*cked up.
I'm still laughing!
Aunts are great! lol
There was nothing better than being 10 in 1974 …summer camp and having a huge box of comics.
Late 60's I was Mezmorized by the Polaris kit Sub from the Comics .
Lol, parents would not order it. So I joined the Navy... did 20 year.
My 1st Subs was the USS Daniel Boone SSBN 629, then on too SSBN729 and 736...
01Fratricide Ditto on that !!!! I joined for the same reasons 😜
01Fratricide I actually had the Polaris Sub (mid-late 60s). I remember mine as being more of a pale blue color. It wasn't any sturdier than the cardboard in most beer/wine boxes and the "hatch" broke off within a week or so. Whole thing lasted maybe a month or two - and that was following the Xmas morning style loss of interest for the second month. Think my father finally got tired of it being in his way in the basement and tossed it. I don't remember even noticing LOL She says "still better than a cardboard box". Not so much.
It did not inspire any military desires in me. Probably inherent fear of the sub I'd be on losing its top or tipping over sideways while I was trying to get out... LOL
Or you could have joined the Air Force and got your plane with the ray gun on the front!
earthdate ray guns were not a real thing yet
@@01Fratricide Yea, but that's beside the point! You could still fly a real plane and pretend it has a Ray gun!
🤣
"...adolecent boys horned up like rabbits..." You hit that nail on the head!! LOL!
Some things never change.
I just can't believe they could find all the actual objects that people bought. You would think you wouldn't be able to find anything like that. Very cool video.
Omg those were so shocking to see what the comic items looked like in real life! I remember seeing those ads in the comic books as a kid in the 1970's, and always wondered what they were really like. Wonder what the black soap was like lol.
I had some. The bar was black and no one would have been fooled by it. It was probably made of charcoal and regular soap. The cigarette loads were great fun, though. I knew a guy who smoked constantly, and I got him several times. Once it blew some of his cigarette far up his nose.
We , My Mom, ordered a monkey out of a comic book for us. He came in the mail and there was a leash hanging out of the door on the cage. A note on the outside instructed to let the monkey alone for a couple of days to get over the jostling around the U.S. Postal service gave him. But my mom opened it straight up and he ran up the curtains and pulled his leash up behind him. He stayed there until we got home from school. My brother went to the curtain and talked to him for a few minutes and he came down to him. They became friends and my brother handled him the most although we all did. One day my brother took him outside, the monkey,( we named him Mr Spock was on his shoulder. The dogs started barking and the monkey bit my brother on the back, it became swollen and he had to get a shot but he was sick for a couple of days. The monkey ran up the power pole and was going down the wire, we locked the dogs up and started trying to coax him down. He wrapped his tail around the wire he was on and reached down towards us. He grabbed the wire and sparks flew. His lifeless body fell to the ground. When he hit the ground it was like he inflated to a live monkey again. We grabbed him and put him back in his cage. He recovered then a few weeks later got sick. We took him to a vet about 30 miles away. They gave him a penicillin shot. After we left a few miles down the road he had a reaction. We rushed back and they gave him a shot to counter act the penicillin, seems he was allergic and had to take terramycin instead. Mother had told us we would have to give him away when we went back to school cause we would'nt be there to care for him. The man that drove the garbage truck had several preschool children so we gave Mr Spock to him. He told us of his children and the monkey playing hide and seek, with Mr Spock hiding his eyes and peeping while the children hid, then he run to find them all the while making monkey howls. Evidently the shock he had received weakened his heart. They just found him dead in his cage one day. Mr Spock became pretty tame and quit biting. He was alot of fun .
Gary Busby Cool! I always wanted one. I thought they would be like in the movies. But then I heard the horror stories. Guess you and a hand full of others were the fortunate few. Sounds wonderful while it lasted. And makes a great story. I know I wouldn’t have the patience for a dog. Let alone a monkey.
The good old days of exploiting both kids and exotic animals for profits. Gee ‘em good ol’ days!
what roller coaster ride that was!
I didn't know about the monkeys in the mail. I don't remember ordering by mail but that is probably how in got my Sea monkeys and Ant farms come to think about it.
Jesus what a story! My heart was pounding reading it,ups and downs!
I bought a slot machine from a comic ad to "Amaze my friends and family." After waiting for months for it to arrive in the mail while driving my mother nuts with my constant nagging. I planned to let the neighborhood kids play the slots and collect their nickels and dimes, just like Bugsy Siegel. It finally arrived, and unlike the full-size machine in the perceptive drawing in the ad, it was no bigger than a box of Pop-Tarts.
I loved the sub ad as a kid. I did get the 100 toy soldiers and was crushed when they showed up to find that they were flats......
Yeah---I did too. I thought I was getting the Revolutionary War set like the Marx guys in the Sear's catalog. Imagine when I saw the entire set cam in a 4X5-inch box. FLATS!
Did they come in a footlocker
Yes. I ordered the civil war soldiers,"two complete armies, the blue and the grey" as I remember. It listed the officers, cavalry, Gatling guns, infantry, hospital wagons and field cannons.This was around 1959. I expected a large five pound package to be delivered to the door. Instead, about 8 weeks later a carton about one forth the size of a Kleenex box arrived. The tiny soldiers were thin brittle stamped figures each supported on a small base of the same material. But I did play with them - I had to because my dad told me they would be garbage and I didn't want to show him I was disappointed. Nevertheless when they started advertising Revolutionary armies (Two complete armies the Americans and the redcoats" I somehow lost my enthusiasm to order them. I certainly learned a lesson. In that respect it was money well spent!
I wanted to get those, too. This video reminded me of them, I'm kind of surprised they weren't mentioned. Never ordered anything, never had money back then......
@@lieutenantfartblow1727 yes with battleships, planes, and soldiers, that company had to be a mafia front.
I had one of those Polaris Subs.. had a ball with that thing,.. Got it for my birthday one year-- LOVED IT. OH- and I PUT MINE TOGETHER!!
Great video. You missed "Solar powered clothes dryer". You literally got a length of rope that you made a clothes line out of.
Another one I heard about, this from the Great Depression era, was an insect pest control thing for crops, etc. It turned out to be two small blocks of wood with the instruction to hold one block in one hand; place the insect on that block; and hit it with the other block.
I remember the days when we ordered those little cool toys and gadgets from those ads in comic books and waited 2~3 months to get them in the mail. Growing up in the early 70s was the best time ever! Kids today don't have anywhere the patience we did when we were kids.
We looked forward to getting something but kinda forgot about it until the day it showed up and gave us a thrill. We don't "need" two day shipping. Bezos has brainwashed us into being impatient children.
Honestly these ads were glorious, I was tempted being older reading old comics! This were the days ! 🤯
I remember garlic gum and the gum that had a mouse trap like device when you were fooled and tried to take a piece 💥 it actually hurt too
I had the x ray specs. Never got them to work properly. Didn't get to finally see the lady goods until high school. LMAO 🤣😂 Great video. 👍
I knew kids that had some of these. Me included. We weren’t that stupid. We knew these ads were fake. It was just fun to get dumb stuff in the mail.
Mail addressed to you was a big deal when you were a kid...
Spring...Uhm speak for yourself... I was THAT STUPID... at 8 years old.. sigh...
The comment by derfo20 right below yours seems to contradict your statement. He, apparently, IS that stupid.
@@RationallySkeptical lmao
I agree. At that age you never got anything in the mail with your name on it (maybe a birthday card once a year from Grandma) and that was part of the fun. I knew I wasn't going to get a real submarine in the mail or really be able to see through clothes. I was still super excited.
I bought the "Book Safe" in the late 60's. I received this little plastic book that had a plastic combination lock. You could open the "lock" just by pulling on it.
Same here"
Perfect for putting non-valueable items in.
i use to love reading these ads.. thanks, it brought back childhood memories..i really wanted the x ray glasses
The "draw anything" device and the Don't let the bullies kick sand in your face.
I had a buddy who ordered the draw anything device. It was a little device that had a mirror, you looked through the top where there was a sort of plastic lens and you could see what you pointed it on the paper below. You were told to trace the lines onto the paper. Didn't work very well.
The insult that made a man out of mack. Charles Atlas
I had the original cardboard submarine. It looked much more submatinish then the later stealth fighter looking version. The weird part not realized for many years was that I grew up and ended up serving on the exact submarine it was based on from 1959. Yes it was very old at the time
Imagination was more important back in those days and the power of the dollar bill was a lot stronger.
so true! most fun I've ever had was with a refrigerator box haha
@@LauraLegends lol, I guess most kids play with a refrigerator box. My brother and I just opened it up, laid it on it side and ran through it like a tunnel on all fours for about thirty minutes. I'm still not quit sure why it was so fun but it was!
@@bloodtopaz8816 one summer my sister and I taped a bunch of large cardboard boxes together in the back yard to make a really large fort.
OMG! I remember those ads. I haven't seen them in over about 50 years. I wanted that stuff so bad!!!
Around 1970 my older brother bought the submarine, he was totaly pissed when he saw it was basiclly a cardboard box!
lol🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
6:25 Trivia: Tom Corbett was also the name of Bill Bixby's character on "The Courtship of Eddie's Father," as an homage to the scifi show.
there we go! 🤓
I used to love looking at these at the end of Archie comics many years ago in mid to late 70s. Sometimes the items were printed on two pages. I was often so tempted, but I never did. :)
The self control I sense is strong in you!
Yes Obi Wan :)
Probably would have been more tempted though if these items had a Canadian address to send the money to. The States seemed so far away at the time for a young punk like me... :)
Oh, I was tempted, but I had parents and older siblings that explained (EVERY time I got a new comic book) that the offers were scams and stopped me from spending money on them. I REALLY wanted those x-ray specs (for ... um ... scientific ... research?) and was REALLY tempted by those army men (that I later found were just 2d flat things when someone else in town ordered them -- wait ... my parents ... were right?!). All through the 70s, though, it was fun to day dream about what if those products were as-advertised.
@@spaztekwarrior In the early 90's newsagents in the UK were not "chain-ified" and reasonably independent, the array of stuff that would show up in them was mind-boggling sometimes. Anyway my brother had a brief Spider-Man phase and usually got the UK editions (3 comics in one for the price of 2 imported US comics), but we occasionally got "the real thing" (I also found one lone single issue of a blood-soaked, obscure edgelord indie called Lady Justice, my mum was horrified) and wanted to send off for the stuff in the ads, but didn't understand how to.
@@CeltKnight Anyone ever order the 150 fighter planes or naval vessels?
As a kid I totally imagined that submarine was legit. So glad my parents wouldn't order it.😂
Yup. I was a HUGE submarine fan. I joined the navy to be on subs - but my eyes kept me out of the silent service - even though the recruiter 'promised' that was where I was headed. Back then they could promise you anything, but once you signed on the dotted line, you belonged to Uncle Sam. Period. Oh, I never could convince my folks to send for the cardboard sub. Drat.
Sea Monkeys were deceptive in another way: The "purification" packet had eggs. And the 2nd packet had a blue dye, so when you added it thinking it was the Sea Monkeys hatching, it was just making those that already hatched become visible.
I remembered seeing the ad for the live monkey when I was a kid. I couldn't believe it was real, and I originally wanted one but my parents explained to me this was a live creature I would be caring for for years, while I cleaned the poop out from the cage it was suffering in. Then when I thought about it I realized that they would be stuffing these miserable animals into a box and shipping them through the mail. I can't imagine the cruelty these animals endured, and it's unimaginable that this was allowed, much less for four years.
Good to know we're civilized creatures....
I HATE MONKEYS!!!!
Civilised? Tell that to the battery chickens and pigs trapped in sow pens etc for their entire lives
"Who's the weirdo who doesn't want a pair of these?" lol that was a funny twist