One thing I really love about the Golden and Silver Age is all that fun merchandise that has entered the cultural lexicon -- the decoder ring, the fan club membership card, the buttons, the stickers, and of course, the dolls and action figures.




Anyway, I thought it might be fun to have a spot where we can dump fun little ads and photos and all that. Let's get started with official membership cards!

And then some fan club kits!

The first ever Superman doll --

Batmania --

These figures are fun. The ones a fan painted look really great.

And Marvel had so much killer stuff in its first decade or so --

Hmm, I guess this facsimile set for the Superman of American never came out... I only see it on sites that feature pre-orders. Entertainment Earth has a note that it was cancelled. That's a shame, I would scoop one up immediately.

Is it just me, or does Superman's face and overall appearance seem a little...off-model there?

I love that "Aw man, what am I supposed to do now?" expression on that villain's face as Cap leaps at him.

In the mid 1970s, the F.O.O.M. (Friends of Ol' Marvel) 4-issue magazine subscription was $3.00, and, if you paid an
additional dollar, you got the poster, six stickers, and a F.O.O.M. membership card, which came in a big-Hulk Face/Mouth
envelop along with your first issue. They placed a shipping label over Hulk's teeth, which kind of ruined the envelop, but
it was still kind of cool.

I may be misremembering whether or not the first issue came in the envelop. Probably not in hindsight, since you could
order the membership kit separately for $2.50. Probably would be cost effectively to have someone place the latest
issue in the envelops.

A decade or so ago I picked up a file copy membership set from Jim Steranko, who still had some stored in his house.
He shipped it will the first four issues, during which he was the magazine's editor.

I'm still hoping that Marvel collects all the FOOM issues into a Omnibus for rerelease.

I remember Zaki bound an entire collection.

I have a Spider-man medallion from the early 1970s.

I had one of those, but lost it and a 1963 collection of uncirculated coins and a Minnesota Centennial bronze medallion.
Not sure what happened to them, but they may have been accidentally thrown away. Dang it.

There's a well-known manga where the villain got his start being evil because somebody stole a piece of superhero premium junk and blamed him for it when he was a kid.

Didn’t Mark Evanier work for Marvel Mania and that’s how he met Jack Kirby? Also, I seem to remember that Marvel Mania wasn’t Marvel but a contractor who got the license and they never paid the artists for their work.

Are you saying that it was Jay who stole my medallions, or is the false accusation that tips him over the edge?

Looks nothing like Hanzo.

This was the late 1966 version of the MMMS kit. I had the first one from the end of 1965. Similar content but included more Ditko among the artwork. The record was the same: