Thanks to Marvel's many international publishing contracts, Rom's comic adventures appeared in numerous countries. However, I'm only aware of one country where Parker Brothers let another company sell the Rom action figure: the United Kingdom. In the U.K, Palitoy licensed Rom as part of their Action Man line. Specifically as part of the new Space Ranger subset of toys c. 1980.
Interestingly, Action Man was actually a G. I. Joe license from Hasbro. (This was well before Hasbro bought Parker Brothers.) Frankly, the history of Action Man beyond that is outside the scope of this post, so if you want to know more, consult Wikipedia or Action Man HQ.
Most of the above I'd known for a while when I received an e-mail from a guy known as the Gonz over in England. He revealed to me that there was an Action Man sticker album released in the 1980s. And who should make an appearance in it but Rom! In the six-page Space Ranger adventure contained in the album, Rom is an android from the planet Zar, which has been conquered by another planet called Margax. Rom, still called a Space Knight, seeks to avenge his people and teams up with the Space Rangers to fight the aliens from Margax.
Unfortunately, as you can see, Gonz was missing most of the stickers that went with this adventure. Below is a closeup of the only one he had featuring Rom. Note Rom arrived in a spaceship and his rocket pack is missing, at least on this sticker.
The last I heard from Gonz, he had found a seller on eBay that was selling packs of the stickers. He was going to attempt to complete his set and send me scans. Unfortunately, that was the last I ever heard from him. But that's somewhat my fault for not following up with him over the years. I did attempt to contact him before making this post, but received no reply.
This, honestly, is the big thing that I've been meaning to share with my fellow Rom fans for years. The one that's prompted me to finally clean out my queue of Rom items. At first, I sat on it just because I was hoping I'd hear from him soon with more scans of his newly purchased stickers. But days turned into weeks turned into months and I let it go. (Have I mentioned I'm a master procrastinator?) So my apologies to the Rom community for not sharing this a long time ago.
In all the time Rom, Spaceknight Revisited has existed, Gonz's two e-mails are the only time I've heard of these. And I don't even know what the cover looks like, how long the book is (only that this adventure is six pages), or what sort of packs the stickers came in. My attempts to Google it have found a couple possibilities, but nothing definitive. If anyone out there has more information, please let me know!
UPDATE: I found an ebay auction that provided much of the information I wanted. That's the next blog entry.
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This is a great post... I'd like to add that the little spaceboat thingy is most likely using the mold for the Bionic Mission Vehicle from the Six Million Dollar Man toy series. http://www.toysyouhad.com/Bionicman.htm
ReplyDeleteCool site! Makes me nostlgic for my $6 Million Man, Oscar Goldman, & Bionic Woman dolls. Considering how much molds cost, yes, I'd agree those were cast from the same one. Not to mention Palitoy already had a history of using others' molds. It makes me wonder, did Palitoy manufacture their own Rom figures or did they import ones from Parker Brothers and package them themselves?
DeleteSo, the day this went live, I got a hit on my new ebay search that provides much of info I was looking for. But I was too busy to check my e-mail until today, the day after. Figures, doesn't it? So look for a follow-up post in a day or two.
ReplyDeletetalk about an obscure ROM related find.
ReplyDelete