Of course, the whole comic (and all the other gubbins) were always there to flog the toys but Special Teams marked an opportunity to co-ordinate what was happening in stores with Hasbro's marketing machine... and the weekly's storyline.
Only one snag... the Special Team characters weren't due to debut in the US strips for a while, and Redan Place couldn't pull them forward without creating a continuity train wreck. So Simon Furman's solution was to create a storyline which introduced the new characters and foreshadowed their official premiere without screwing continuity. Job done. Hasbro happy. Sales bolstered. Probably.
This add is also a classic example of Marvel UK design during this period... lots of text boxes with cut corners. The house style appeared a lot on covers and in interiors.
and its a style I really liked. Very pleasing to the eye.
ReplyDeleteunlike the m-uk collector editions which have recently removed the cover inbox.
the words " if it aint broke, don't fix it " come to mind.