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Thursday, March 25, 2010

Aquaman Swim Ring by Ideal - 1966

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No, your eyes do not deceive you--this is an inflatable "swim ring", made by Ideal, that features both DC and Marvel characters, in this case Aquaman, Mera, Thor, and Captain America!

I had never seen or heard of this incredibly rare item until I found a picture of it in this book:
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...I bought this back in 2008, and even though I'm more of a DC guy than Marvel, the book is a treasure-trove of amazing items, many of which I had never seen before.

There isn't much info on the swim ring other than it was made by Ideal and, if/when it shows up in the collector market, it sells for around $1,000. The photo seen in the book comes from a private collection--man, what I wouldn't give to have one of these babies!

10 comments:

duncan said...

We ALL need a Thor Mechanical Marvel Super Hero Tricycle

Diabolu Frank said...

Batroc! Yes! Two of my most favorite heroes, together at last!

Oh, and Thor. Hmm.

Rick L. Phillips said...

It looks like they also have Triton of Marvels Inhumans on it. Since he is a water based hero it makes sense he would be used but he isn't as well known the Sub-Mariner. So why not use Namor instead of Triton?

Earth 2 Chris said...

I'm thinking someone got their wires crossed and used Aquaman instead of Namor. Since Ideal already had the Aquaman license for use on Captain Action and the JLA figurines, some exec at the company probably figured "Hey, isn't that fish guy on that Marvel show? Use him." And voila.

The fact that someone at DC or Marvel didn't stop this is kind of nuts though.

I had a 70s Ideal swim ring, but it only featured Supes, Bats, and WW.

Chris

Wings1295 said...

How bizarre. You could have posted this on April 1st, and everyone would have thought you were using your made art skills to pull a fast one on us!

Wings1295 said...

Also quite weird & rare that MERA was even on it!

Anonymous said...

Dear Chris -

I wonder if maybe you're in the right church, but the wrong pew?

I'd bet Ideal just figured,"we have deals with both these guys, they're all comic book characters, there ya go!"

Best,
-Craig W.

rob! said...

Craig-

That seems like the most likely explanation, since this was before Marvel and DC really got insistent that their characters not be mixed.

One weird item, for sure.

Wich2 said...

...the other place you see that, is in the Hostess ads -

- pretty sure I've seen DC and Marvel ones in Gold Key books!

images2icons said...

Heya Rob!
Very cool, that book goes for like $140.00 used on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Full-Color-MARVEL-COLLECTIBLES-M-M-M-S-Marvelmania/dp/0981534902/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=IRSED06J5V9VE&colid=3ISSZF6NGAQ2L

Here is a link to it. You got a great deal there.