We start with the drawing from Bing McCoy et al.'s patent application for a "multi-mode doll". Then the Egyptian mystic toy that no toy company would touch. Then Cobol, the cyborg toy that Parker Brothers finally bought.* Then the original, green-eyed Rom from a sell sheet. And finally, the well-known red-eyed Rom from his box front.
It hadn't really occurred to me before I did this that Rom had another logo before the one that appeared on the box. (Which was later modified for the comic book logo.) True, that first logo only appeared on the sell sheet, which was only aimed at those in the toy industry, but still. Kind of cool.
If you want to know more about the evolution of Rom, read my interview with Bing McCoy on Rom, Spaceknight Revisited. Prototype photos and sell sheet scan courtesy Bing McCoy.
* In the case of the Egyptian mystic and Cobol, because they were prototypes, the actual electronics are contained in the cabinet attached to the figure. Once actual production began, Parker Brothers was able to reduce the circuitry down to something that would fit inside an action figure.
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I'm curious where you obtained these images of the prototype Roms.
ReplyDeleteThey came from the original version of McCoy's web site. You can find the link in the interview mentioned above, but the page is no longer there, so try this: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://stonefoundationentertainment.com/mccoy.html.
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