1992 Trace Plates Toy Fair Catalog Spread
I remember first seeing trace plates from ads for the Mighty Men and Monster Maker kit. The commercial (see it here) was burned in my brain. This GI Joe set, released in the 90s, and based on many of the DIC era figures, is along similar lines, although you build two parts of a scene rather than new characters. Now as GI Joe stuff goes, it’s cool, but this is also the sort of gift you might have gotten from a relative who:
a. Didn’t really “get” what you meant by wanting GI Joes. Almost everybody had a clueless auntie out there.
b. Wanted to play it safe and avoid getting you a figure or vehicle you already had. Understandable, and respectable.
c. Was one of those “we want you to have something useful” types. Ugh.
I had this thing as a kid and absolutely loved it. There were so many characters I had, though I will say the whole rubbing the crayon over the plates thing never worked as well in practice as they made it look in theory. I made a lot of different sets with this and I think I may even still know where this gem is…maybe I should take some time as an adult and use it the “artwork” for a later Field Report.
I had both the Mighty Men and Monster Maker sets as a kid. They were fun for about 2 weeks and then all the combos were used up and they went onto a shelf in our toy room until my Mom sold them at a garage sale. But, that was the late ’70’s. I can’t believe these things were still around in the ’90’s. I always think of them as a more enlightened time. Maybe not…. 🙂
I always like seeing my favorite toylines with arts & crafts tie-ins. But I probably wouldn’t have been very interested in the trace plates so much. A basic coloring book would’ve done just fine.
It seems like there’s a fair amount of assorted GI Joe merchanise put out around 1992. Even though in hindsight, the line was considered in decline in 1992, it looks like the peripheral merchandise machine was churning out product at least through 1992 (which suggests Hasbro still felt the line was big enough for that in 1992). Does anything turn up dated to 1993 or 1994?
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