1992: MIDNIGHT SONS HERO CAPS Set (Marvel)

I probably should have pegged this post to Halloween... but I forgot.  Ooops.  This is the Marvel-produced MIDNIGHT SONS (sexist!) HERO CAPS (aka Pogs) set (basically a sheet of thick, punch-out, card) from circa 1992.  

Hero Caps were meant to be the next great, card-based, collectable to capitalise on the boom in trading card collecting.  They are a great example of how even rabid fans, hyped-up by the likes of WIZARD, will still reject a dumb idea.  

MIDNIGHT SONS (don't ask me to name all the characters) was a BLADE-inspired sub-set of Marvel supernatural characters that flourished during the boom period.  During that time, any book that looked remotely popular would spawn as many spin-offs as the market could accommodate (plus the obligatory spin-offs, guest-shots and premium-format one-shots) and THEN Marvel would clone them into new (but awfully similar) characters to stretch the basic idea even further.  Supporting cast members could also be relied upon to be spun-out into their own book. 

Follow the HERO CAPS link below to see the BIG GUNS set... featuring DEATH'S HEAD II. 

1993: MARVEL HERO CAPS in MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE (Marvel)

Following on from my post earlier this week about Marvel's BIG GUNS (featuring Death's Head II) HERO CAPS, here's a one-page article from MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE 129 (October 1993) which gives a bit more background to the short-lived "craze". 

Spot the difference! The Kingpin is wearing a different coloured suit in the artwork in the article compared with the final release.

1993: BIG GUNS HERO CAPS featuring DEATH'S HEAD II (Marvel)

Here's a long-forgotten (with justification) piece of Marvel UK related merchandise: Marvel's woeful attempt to get kids addicted to a new collectable game: HERO CAPS.

These are better known as POGS (presumably Marvel's lawyers wanted their own Trade Marked brand name) and numerous manufacturers (so I'm not just waggling my finger in a disapproving fashion at Marvel) thought they might become as collectable as baseball cards (and - ahem - comics) in the speculator-fueled dash-for-cash of the early 1990s.

As you'll see below, this set (basically a single sheet of shrink-wrapped thick card) was one of several cranked-out by Marvel (although, with the exception of the MIDNIGHT SONS supernatural characters set, I have no idea if the other sets were actually ever released).

BIG GUNS was a blatant Marvel promotional push featuring - unsurprisingly - some of their more violent characters including - hurrah - DEATH'S HEAD II from across the pond.  The Punisher was - as you can tell - the line's anchor character.

The inclusion of the British anti-hero certainly paid dividends as sales on the early issues were - apparently - excellent.  Which explains M-UK's unrestrained expansion into the US market and the copious cross-promoting crossovers which slapped DH II into every other conceivable British title.  

I picked this still-wrapped item up for - ahem - 10p recently.  Who says this isn't the Mighty Marvel age of bargains?!?