Thursday, October 27, 2011

Halloween Countdown #14:
Live Mystery Egg


Tonight we return to the world of comic books for another horrifying installment of Halloween Countdown.

This one comes from the August 1971 issue of The Incredible Hulk.1 And it's also being cataloged under Mysteries, because I have no idea what it is. Nor does anyone else on the Internet, it seems.2 You see, the advertisement is for a "Live Mystery Egg" ... and there's something that looks like a sardine ... and the sardine-like thing, quite disturbingly, is saying, "Hi there! I'm Puff!"

So we have an unknown animal that comes from an egg and either (a) talks or (b) makes you believe that it can talk.

This is troubling.

Here is the complete text of the advertisement, so that it can be preserved needlessly for future generations:

ADOPT-A-NEW-PET!
Harmless! Educational!
A LOVABLE LIVE PET IN
A COLORFUL PLASTIC EGG!
RUNS! CLIMBS! CRAWLS!

Will eat RIGHT OUT OF YOUR HAND! CLEAN -- EASILY TRAINED. Makes a wonderful PLAYMATE -- gentle -- long lived -- easy care. Amuse your friends and family with this delightful new friend. LIVE AIRMAIL DELIVERY GUARANTEED! FREE catalogue with each order -- SUPPLY LIMITED! ONLY $2.98 ea. POST PAID! MATCHED PAIR -- ONLY $5.00. FREE food supply plus simple instructions with each order.
RUSH YOUR ORDER TO
"PUFF, THE MAGIC DRAGON"
176-06 69th AVE., FLUSHING, N.Y. 11365
(Sorry, no cods.)

Do you agree that this is disturbing on many levels? It probably wasn't the same level of fiasco as the squirrel monkeys that were sold through comic books during this same era. But it still seems pretty horrible for whatever animal was, apparently, stuffed into a colorful plastic egg and mailed across the country.

Any guesses on what it was? I would say a chameleon or salamander. But who knows.


Footnotes
1. This issue has the amusing title "They Shoot Hulks, Don't They?"
2. The Amazing Spider-Ads is the only other blogger or website I could find that tried to probe the mystery.

2 comments:

  1. U.S.mail was probably faster and more accurate in delivering to the right address in those days, so whatever was in those eggs probably had a good survival rate...before the air ran out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I want to order one this very minute! LOL
    BTW, Ephemera that includes addresses always makes me run to GoogleMaps to see what's there :)

    ReplyDelete