Comic Book Ads: Secret Wars II Edition

It's not a secret that one of the best reasons to buy most cheap, bargain bin comics from the 80s and 90s is for the retro ads lurking inside. Recently I purchased this copy of the Secret Wars II mini-series for a buck at the Dollar Tree. Yeah, it was a little beat up and probably not even worth the dollar I spent, but the ads inside were nostalgic gold! Let's see what's between the pages...

Reese's Pieces

I have a vague recollection of this Reese's ad campaign which was obviously of a knockoff E.T. alien who was crazy about the Peanut Butter filled candy. I love the artwork, the weird face on the character and the made up dialogue translated from this blue weirdos native language. I could totally see myself hanging out with this guy!

Olympic Sales

How many of us out there stared at these ads and circled all the prizes we wanted to earn? I know I did. How cool would it have been to receive that Casio Chrono-Alarm Watch, Magnavox 5' TV AM/FM Radio or Go-Bots Convertible Model? Answer: Very Cool! Unfortunately you had to sell items from the Olympic catalog to earn these prizes and I don't know 1 kid that actually did that. It's nice to dream though!

Bonkers Robot Watch

This is an AMAZING ad! It has everything! A cool product, delicious candy and a badass robot getting bonked on the shoulder by a ripe, red strawberry! I wanted one of these so bad! I filled out the form, collected the wrappers, but unfortunately did not have a checking account to pay the $3.95! DAMMIT! There were so many cool mail away offers in the 80s and 90s and my parents would never fork over the check book to get them. I did eventually get a VOLTRON watch similar to this one and that was pretty cool. BTW What ever happened to Bonkers? Why can't they bring those back?

Oreo Maze!

I've said it before and I'll say it 'til the day I die, I love comic book ads with activities built in! Nabisco was the best at this. From mazes to word scrambles to make your own flip books, they had the market cornered on these marvels of marketing. These were always a pleasant surprise. It was like you paid for the comic, but got a cool game inside it for FREE! 

That's it for this edition of retro comic book ads. I now leave you with the best panel from the entire Secret Wars II mini-series. Thank you and goodnight!