Super Friends Toy Car by AHI

The Super Friends go vroom, vroom!

While I've generally given up trying to collect every piece of Aquaman merchandise that's out there, this extremely HTF Super Friends Car remains one of my Holy Grails. Before this, I had only seen small pictures of it, like in catalogs. But thank to F.O.A.M.er Brian Heiler and his blog Plaid Stallions, we can now enjoy these awesome close-up shots:

This is such a weird toy for a number of reasons--why are the Super Friends even driving a car? Why are Superman and Batman standing in the back of it like they're in a parade? And where's Wonder Woman? Not that I'm complaining, but 9 times out of 10 she would be used on stuff like this in favor of Aquaman.

And it's that fact that makes this piece so cherished by me (and Brian). Aquaman's inclusion is so unusual that it makes it a Must Have for an Aquaman collector. Even Arthur himself looks a bit shocked to be on this particular road trip!

Thanks for the pics Brian!

1st Anniversary Week, Part 6: Ben Cooper Halloween Costume - 1967

Welcome to Year Two of the Aquaman Shrine!

Back in December, I listed this item as one of my Holy Grails of Aquaman Collecting: "This is the Aquaman-Halloween costume by manufacturer Ben Cooper from the late 60s/early 70s. It comes with one of those masks that made you gasp for breath as a kid. And since of course a mask of just a blonde-haired guy isn't too exciting, they added a little orange domino mask just to make it completely baffling as to who you might be dressed up as.

I've seen this surface this a few times on ebay, and one time I almost had it, except I was outbid at the last moment. I had dial-up at the time, and now that I have high-speed, I will make sure that doesn't happen again."

...and that's exactly what happened--er, didn't. When I saw this come up for sale on ebay about a month ago I knew A)I had to have it, and B)it would make the perfect post for the second-year kick-off to the Shrine. A few tense moments and excessive bidding later, it was mine.

I guess the domino mask makes sense, but since Aquaman is depicted right there on the tunic, I don't really think it was necessary. But hey, I'm just glad Aquaman made it as halloween costume, a true indicator of mass pop-culture appeal.

The box only features one DC character, and that's Wonder Woman on the side. Was Thor ever really a Halloween costume? It makes me smile, watching the big stars of the Marvel Universe introduce Aquaman like that.


...and that concludes our 1st anniversary week. I thank every single person who checks this blog out, links to it, and especially those who contribute. Knowing other people are enjoying my mad obsession pleases me to no end.

Back when I started this, I wasn't sure how long I could keep the Shrine going, but just when I think I see a definite end of stuff to post, I find a whole bunch of new things--I knew Aquaman had made deep inroads into the culture, but I had no idea how deep and I've learned quite a bit about my hero.

And even though I've already gone through a lot of great stuff, I do have some other surprises in store and I'm hoping this second year will be even better!

Your humble blogger.

Captain Action Aquaman Costume - Ideal

Back in December, I asked Santa all week for some sweet Aquaman stuff that I didn't yet have. One of these items was the Aquaman costume for Ideal's Captain Action doll in the late 60s. I figured finding a complete suit--to say nothing of a box--would be so costly and/or difficult that I thought this would be one of the last pieces I ever added to the collection.

So, Santa didn't come through, but F.O.A.M. member Craig Wichman sure did. Craig was one of the first people to comment on my missives on the MegoMuseum message board, and has been enormously generous to me outside of it. He sent me--gratis--a copy of the treasury-sized Tales from the Crypt comic for treasurycomics.com. A few weeks ago, he let me know he was getting rid of a few things, and would I be interested in purchasing his Aquaman Captain Action suit, original, complete, and in great shape? I couldn't write back "yes" fast enough, but only one problem--I was in the middle of my periods where all my freelance clients were late in paying me, causing a perfect storm of financial penury.

I was worried that I was going to miss my opportunity to get ahold of this beauty, when Craig wrote me back and said, basically, don't worry; it's yours, pay me when you can. Aquaman really brings people together!

So not only did Craig send me the costume, packaged more securely than most CIA files, but he sent me a gorgeous repro box, made for him by another MegoBoard denizen, a talented fellow known as ToyRoom. He then asked me if I needed/wanted an actual CA doll, to display the costume on. Holy Poseidon! Will the generosity ever end? Am--am I dying or something?

Craig sent me the Captain over the weekend, and I quickly got the whole thing ready for the photoshoot. Sitting there at my art table, struggling to get clothes on a naked doll, made me feel only slightly like a nine-year-old girl. But I did a gut-check, adjusted my pigtails, and shot the AquaCaptain in all his glory. And as you can see, it's a beautiful piece--the costume is wonderfully over complete (what does Aquaman need with flippers, anyway?), and the box is simply awesome, both in its original design and its perfectly-accurate repro-ness. This has immediately risen to the top as one of my favorites of the entire collection.

On the whole, I've met much nicer people online about my Aquaman habit than I have in real life. People I've never met, from all over the world, have been extraordinairily generous to me in keeping this Shrine going, either with donation of items or just words of support. So thanks, Craig--like you requested, the Captain is getting a really good home.

Dear Santa Week, Part 7: More Fun Comics #73

We end Santa Week where it all began for Aquaman: More Fun Comics #73, November 1941, where he debuted (as well as Green Arrow and Speedy!), created by Mort "Really Unpleasant" Weisinger and Paul Norris (who now gets a "created by" credit on Aquaman solo stories, which is pretty cool).

Oddly, for being such a big Aquaman fan, I'm not all that interested in collecting his comic appearances--I don't have full-runs of any of his solo series (except the current one), or his long runs in Adventure Comics or Action Comics. In any case, collecting the More Fun appearances would be financially prohibitive, so I've never even tried.

I used to have a comic collection that hit around 15,000 books, and I had some real heavy-hitters, too: Avengers #1, Spider-Man #2, Daredevil #1, X-Men #1, old 40's issues of Detective Comcs, Action Comics #252 (first appearance of Supergirl), Showcase #34 (first appearance of Atom), Teen Titans #1, etc., and I sold them all to help pay for art school (except for my complete run of Justice League of America--they are what one friend called "the Kelly Family heirlooms"), so ever since then I've been out of the whole comic-collecting-as-a-hobby thing.

The one exception I would make is for this book. To own this issue, where Aquaman first debuted, so quietly and unassumingly (he never even appeared on a DC cover until the 60s), would be, to me, the topper to my collection. I believe the Overstreet Guide lists it as "rare" and worth somewhere around $75,000, I think, so the odds I'll ever own even a very beat-up copy are slim, but if Santa wants to be really nice to me this year...

Dear Santa Week, Part 6: Ingersoll Pocket Watch

Now this was a weird one.

I came across this genuine, 1960s-era pocket watch, made by an English company called Ingersoll. At first, I thought it was like a of items you find on ebay--home-made stuff that the seller either purposely doesn't, or doesn't think to, mention that it isn't "official" merchandise.

But I was convinced of its authenticity when I noticed the rather unusual shot of Aquaman on the watch--I remembered its from a cover to a British DC collection called SuperAdventure (which reprinted various DC stories, and will be up here eventually) and was obviously drawn by someone other than a DC freelancer. So I knew it was authentically vintage.

I had planned to bid very, very high for this, and I did, but in the end the auction went to about twice what I was expecting, and I lost. That happens to me rarely--rarely--but when I saw the price sail past the $350.00 mark all I could do was sigh, then do a screen-grab since I don't know when I'll ever see this thing again.

Dear Santa Week, Part 5: Ideal Super Queen Mera Doll

Probably the most unusual, rare, expensive, and strangely-beautiful piece of Aquaman merchandise ever, mostly because it's not even an Aquaman doll, of course...but one of Mera, his beautiful queen, and VODCC (Very Obscure DC Character).

This was part of Ideal's Super Queens line from the late 60's, which consisted of Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, and, oddly enough, Mera. Since Aquaman made his greatest strides in merchandising at this time, so when Ideal needed a fourth Super Queen, Mera got the call (there's a whole page devoted to this line of toys, which I urge you to check out here).

The dolls themselves weren't that popular, since girls were still Barbie-centric and boys wouldn't be caught dead with playing a toy called a Super Queen. They weren't around long, which resulted in these things being super rare and super expensive now. As goofy as the dolls sorta looked, you cannot fault the box design--the monochromatic background, the die-cut frontspiece featuring the happy AquaFamily--the presentation for these things was top-notch.

Just a beautiful, beautiful piece.


Funny story: Around December 2002, I got laid off from my job at a web-design firm. I had been doing freelance illustration for a short while by then, but didn't feel like I was quite ready to make the leap to doing it full-time. But that decision was made for me.

Anyway, I had had a few clients, but was obviously nervous about my financial future. I had no steady job, and was thousands upon thousands of dollars in credit card debt. Yet, for some indefensible reason, I still trolled the virtual halls of ebay. One day in January, I discovered a Mera Super Queens doll, still in the box, in about as good condition as you'd ever hope to find. The doll was in perfect shape, the box was solid and brightly colored. This thing apparently had been stored in someone's attic for decades, and, incredibly, had barely aged over the time.

The current bid was around $1,000.00. A lot for a toy, the normal ones of you are thinking, but in relation to Mera's value, a steal. I decided, to hell with common sense or self-preservation, I had to have it. I put in a bid of $2,500.00.

As my brain sent the command to my finger to click the mouse and hit "confirm bid" (the title of my upcoming auto-biography), my brain sent a second command, saying "What the hell are you doing?!?" and that second thought fought a losing battle to catch the first one, hoping to stop it in time.

No luck. My bid was submitted, I was the current high bidder. I came the closest I've ever come to a heart attack (except for when I ate two whole Domino's Pizzas at one time, but that's another story). What was I thinking? Here I was, no regular income, a few jobs out there, thousands in debt, a car to pay off, and here I was committing twenty-five hundred dollars I didn't have to buy a Mera doll. Rob, clearly, had lost it.

I spent two loooong days sweating over the auction, praying, for the first and only time, that I'd get outbid. Finally, a few days later, I did. The auction went up to around 10K, so there was never any chance I was going to win. But not knowing that at the time, I was in total panic. So the freshiest, mintiest Mera doll I'll ever see went off with another man.

Now, of course, whatever money I had then is long gone, and now I don't have Mera, either. Is there a moral here? I don't know. It reminds me of the ending to a Simpsons episode, where Homer asked Marge: "I don't get it. Is this a sad ending or a happy ending?"

Marge's reply? "It's an ending. That's enough."

Dear Santa Week, Part 4: Multiple Toys Aquaman Playset

This is one of the more unusual, little-seen pieces of Aquaman merchandise. I originally thought it was from Ideal, but Brian from the MegoMuseum set me straight in the comments section, telling me it's from some company called "Multiple Toys." Now that I look closer, I can see the MT logo, not the Ideal one. Duh.

Aquaman's merchandising popularity must have come from the Filmation cartoon show, because Arthur showed up on several unusual items during this time, like a board game (which will be posted here eventually) and this beautiful set. It features little, roughly 2 and a 1/2" high figurines of Aquaman, Mera, Mong (?), and the Fisherman, as well as the totally-cool-looking-but-completely-useless "AquaSub."

I've only seen this item who up for sale once, on ebay, and the asking price was so high I could only do an image-grab and sigh. I've promised myself if it ever shows up again, it's mine.

Dear Santa Week, Part 3: Aquaman Vs. The Great White Shark Playset

Oh boy, do I want this.

Aquaman was apparently popular enough to warrant his own playset--even if it is just the addition of a plastic shark. Finding this treasure from Mego at all is nearly impossible, let alone in any sort of decent condition (the MegoMuseum has a great page all about it...droooool).

As the Museum points out, the set's name is a mystery--vs. a great white shark? The sharks are Aquaman's friends! Whatever. It's still really cool and even among the rareified items I'm posting this week, it's even more rare in that I've never seen this available, anywhere, for any price.

Let me make this clear--I really want this.

Dear Santa Week, Part 2: Halloween Costume

This is the tunic part of a genuine Aquaman-Halloween costume by manufacturer Ben Cooper from the late 60s/early 70s. It comes with one of those masks that made you gasp for breath as a kid. And since of course a mask of just a blonde-haired guy isn't too exciting, they added a little orange domino mask just to make it completely baffling as to who you might be dressed up as.

I've seen this surface this a few times on ebay, and one time I almost had it, except I was outbid at the last moment. I had dial-up at the time, and now that I have high-speed, I will make sure that doesn't happen again.

Dear Santa Week, Part 1: Captain Action

Dear Santa-
I've been a really good boy this year. I take care of the cat, the dog, the food shopping, and I always make all my freelance deadlines. My favorite thing in the world is to collect Aquaman stuff and there's just a few holes in my collection, so I thought all this week I'd show them to you so you can leave at least one or two of them under the tree for me this year.
Thanks,
Robby Kelly, age 35

This is an ad for the Ideal Captain Action Aquaman outfit set. I've come across bits and pieces of the CA Aquaman outfit on ebay, and sometimes I thought of buying them and then putting them all together to make a complete outfit.

But this is one of those pieces that really needs to have the box--the graphic design for the Captain Action outfits was really nifty, and I've come to conclude that for this item at least, the presentation is everything. Having a random flipper sitting on a shelf just ain't gonna do it.

But as you can guess, a complete CA outfit still in the box is muy expensivo. I've only seen one or two ever on ebay and I've never been able to afford (or at least justify spending) the couple grand it took to get one.

Someday...