u/faustdavenport

This one is from the original run. I always wanted the witch and ghost selections that came out in the years following, but alas it never came to be.

I'm certain I have more tucked away somewhere, but these were peak decor when I was around 10 or so.

I never collected them all, and the facemasks only wanted to stay on about half of 'em, but they sure were a vibe. I've accumulated many collections of things over my forty something years, but these were among the first.

Anyone have any experience in getting these little guys developed after they've sat in a drawer for 30 years or so? I'm not sure if they will produce any images after all this time, but that won't stop me from making the attempt. I plan to mail them off somewhere soon, but I'd love to hear how that's gone for other people.

When I was a kid I probably only had 3 packs of these. I absolutely loved them, but as time went on they were tucked away and forgotten about. That is, until one day about a decade ago I had a memory of them poke through. In fact, that memory was of the fourth card in the pack opened here entitled "Manhattan Island Swamped." So I shuffled through a few boxes of my old cards, found the one I remembered, and jumped on eBay to get a box so I could finally complete the set.

While I had fuzzy memories of these cards, I definitely did not know until I rediscovered mine that they were the follow-up to the "Mars Attacks!" series from the '60s. I also read that Tim Burton originally wanted to make a movie based off of these cards, but because Jurassic Park had recently done so well, he opted to go for "Mars Attacks!" instead.

But maaaannn. I would've really loved to have seen a "Dinosaurs Attack!" movie.

Who didn't have a blast with these? You could always tell which kids had extra spending money on field trips by the ones who came out of the souvenir shop with anything featuring more than one propeller. Me and my poor friends would always try to one-up those guys by Frankenstein-ing our cheaper ones together for some custom, three engine action, but sadly those flew about as well as you'd expect coming from children without any education in engineering.

Still - there was so much fun to be had in the discoveries.

I always wanted Nintendo Power, but by the time I had a little money of my own throw around I was into Sega. I think these might've been part of an introductory trial offer, or something along those lines?

Anyway, flipping through them earlier brought back a lot of memories, and I thought I'd pay that forward with a few shots of their insides. Magazines always felt like their own little worlds, and these in particular were fun to revisit.

I'll treasure them forever, but let's face it - if you were playing one, you probably wanted to play something else.

For Christmas in 1994 I begged for a copy of Mortal Kombat II. It was basically the only thing I wanted, but in the spirit of the season my only assurance was, "Well, we'll see..." On my birthday, which is two days before, I got this Mortal Kombat Tiger handheld. I was majorly disappointed. Unknown to me my folks had already picked up the real deal for Christmas, but for a moment there I thought they totally missed the mark. Turns out they just had jokes. :)

As for Jordan vs Bird? You be judge. I think those are from '88, but I believe I picked mine up at a yard sale or flea market in the early '90s.

I never touched a Magic 8-ball as a child in the '80s that I can remember, but my big brother had Radioshack's "Executive Decision Maker." I blame all of my bad decisions from that era on this contraption, but with that sexy wood grain? I'm confident I was making those terrible choices in style.

Apparently this is what they look like when they've sat in a closet for most of 30 years. I remember liking them, or at least the novelty of it, and I have to say that it hasn't lost its charm in the "I'm gonna sit and stare at this for bit" department.