Cavalcade of Awesome

I’ve talked about movie magazines before.  As a matter of fact, back in 2010 I took a look at the Back to the Future souvenir magazine.  I love official movie magazines and I have a bunch of them.  These magazines were the original movie supplemental material.  We didn’t have DVDs and VHS tapes didn’t normally add anything extra (some did, but it was rare).  I remember seeing ads for these magazines all over my favorite magazines.  I’d fill out the form and select the ones I wanted as a wish list.  Just hoping that someday I’d be allowed to order a Rambo or Star Trek movie magazine through the mail.

So, I was perusing through my old Fangoria magazines recently and found a couple of these movie magazine ads.  They show a ton of the magazines and it’s great to see some of the covers.  So on this lazy Friday, I thought I’d show you this 80s vintage goodness.

This first ad is from 1986.

I love how the magazines are spread out like you took the pile and threw them on the table. Amazing layout.  There’s that amazing Rambo magazine.  They also have Rocky II, Rocky III and Rocky IV magazines.  As a matter of fact there are THREE Rocky IV magazines.  AND, Stallone gets a “Best Of” magazine.  Damn, he was at the height of his popularity here.  As for all the Rocky IV magazines, when a movie was popular enough, it would not only get an official movie magazine, it would also get an official poster magazine and an official “movie book”.  I put that last one in quotes because even though it’s called a book it was still a magazine, just with more content and glossier, color pages.

You can see some of the covers on this ad are for the poster magazines (Star Trek III, Rocky II for example).  Some of the other ones pictured that I think look cool include the A View to a Kill as well as The Explorers.  Take a look at the list in the yellow box at the bottom and there are listed several magazines that aren’t pictured.  Annie, Superman III, High Road to China, SF Superheroes, TV Superheroes, Joanie Loves Chachi and Conan the Destroyer.  I would buy every single one of these magazines today.

If I were to have ordered every magazine in this ad back in the day it would have set me back $75.35.  Plus $24.90 for shipping.  That’s $100.25 (incl shipping) for 26 different magazines.  Which is about $3.85 each.  NOT BAD.  It would cost well over that now to track this mess down on eBay and trader sites.

Here’s a second, smaller ad for movie magazines. It’s from one year later, 1987.

There is a lot of overlap with the last ad. Clearly they hadn’t sold out of their Stallone magazines as you can see the Rambo and Rocky III covers PLUS they’ve added Cobra and Over the Top!  I want those last two pretty badly now.  Actually,  the closer I look I notice that the Cobra magazine is actually a newer release of The Best of Stallone magazine from 1986.  So I assume it’s pretty much the same but with some added Cobra content.  I’d still want that.  I also see that Over the Top is a poster magazine.  Fingers crossed for a poster of Bull Hurley and his sweaty ass armpits.

We also still see the Superman III and A View to a Kill mags, but they’ve added Star Trek IV as well as two Aliens magazines.  Aside from these new additions, the rest of the list in the bottom box is pretty much the same.  Prices have gone up on many of the magazines.  The new Star Trek IV and Aliens movie books are over $5!  That’s highway robbery!

So, if I assume I still have everything from the 1986 ad, I’ll only need to buy new stuff.  I already own that Aliens movie magazine, which I bought off the shelves back in the day, so I’d only need the Aliens movie book.  Plus the Over the Top poster book, the new Best of Stallone magazine and all of the Star Trek IV magazines.  That comes to about $26.35 before shipping which would be about $7.50.

All in all, that’s a good haul, I think.  I love these magazines and I keep my eyes peeled for these awesome ads showcasing tons of awesome movie magazine covers.

This entry was posted on August 16, 2013 at 11:54 am and is filed under advertising, Fangoria, magazine, movies, nostalgia, pop culture with tags Fangoria, magazine, magazines, movies, nostalgia, pop culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.