Bike Windshield For Only $1

Honor House strikes again. The dispensers of x-ray specs, wrist radios, sea monkeys, and nuclear mini-subs also tried to sell this totally unnecessary bicycle accessory. Honor House Production Corp. created a half-page ad for a scant few comics during the Silver Age that was supposed to fit most of your average bikes at the time, a full-sized windshield that you could get for only a dollar. Intended to be a wind deflector for the casual neighborhood bike rider, this transparent vinyl layered bird poop projector was made with modern "trampoline construction" which would be great if you were using a trampoline and not buying this flimsy thing. Intended to act similar to a windshield for motorcycles, this one for bikes comes only with a pair of brittle clamps to hold it in place, even though it does have the bonus of a pouch in case you wanted to keep your car keys in it. There's a 10-day free trial, but no word if you get your quarter for shipping back. The ad claims the windshield capable of repelling rocks, although I'd hate to think of what neighborhood was so rough that the kids there would have to deal with people regularly throwing stones at them. This setup sounds like a real hornswoggle from a company that already had a strong history of swindling young schmoes out of their allowance.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Super Science Isn't White Magic

Image
Vernon Miller headed up Maple Leaf Publishing which was the first comics publisher in Canada which opened its doors during the Golden Age, the majority of which were called Canadian Whites because they were mostly all done in black and white to save money. One of Maple Leaf's titles started out being called Name-It Comics which they allowed the readers to vote on the ongoing name for that eventually became Rocket Comics. One of the regular features in this anthology was by Spike Brown titled Cosmo And His White Magic about a rich scientist named Cosmo Grant that used his parents' old creations to fight evil as a freelance defender alongside his partner Captain Tom Hadden with the nickname of Hoot, so Cosmo and Hoot where the Dynamic Duo of their time. Similar to Batman, most of Cosmo's arsenal of freedom were given his own personal branding often referred to something with moniker of "Cosmo-" at the beginning of it. One of Cosmo's cases in Issue 9 had him thwa...
Read more

This Ain't Your Dick Tracy Wrist Radio

Image
Dick Tracy might heighten the concept of the wristwatch radio, but only the Honor House Products Co. had the coconuts to really try to make a working one for fans of the comic strip detective. Edwin Wegman's mail order company ran from the 1950s-80s that was responsible for some of the biggest scams in comic book ads including Sea Monkeys, X-Ray Specs, and the outdoor child-sized Polaris Nuclear Sub, so their place in exaggerated advertising is cemented in infamy. Their "Amazing Wrist Radio" was not really a watch, but a miniature radio receiver that was powered by a germanium diode which does emit low level radiation, so hopefully nobody actually got cancer from this little doodad. It comes with a private earphone which probably could get lost really quickly in the bustling era of the Space Age. The $2.98 price wasn't much for when this ad ran in the 1960s, which nowadays would be around $30.00, even though the plus is it had a broadcast range of at least 50 miles. H...
Read more

Hitler Vs. The Walking Dead

Image
Aside from its hit Vampirella magazine, Warren Publishing also had a few other horror anthologies. The creators of Famous Monsters Of Filmland had a comics publication titled Creepy hosted by the ghoulish Uncle Creepy, and there was a sister title called Eerie with the equally cryptic Cousin Eerie as its acting emcee. Russ Jones acted as the first editor after convincing publisher James Warren to come out with its first horror compilation in the spirit of Tales From The Crypt while avoiding the highbrowed Comics Code by printing the stories in black and white magazine format. One short but memorable story in Issue 35 got right to the point that many comic fans look for, zombies vs. Nazis! Army Of The Walking Dead came out over thirty years before Robert Kirkman's iconic urban horror comic and was drawn by former Captain America artist Syd Shores. Taking place during WWII, Nazi egghead Dr. Tumbler has developed a way to reanimate dead soldiers as zombies with augmented strength much...
Read more