Pop Culture Nonsense: Random Obsessive Memories of ROM SPACEKNIGHT

If there's one bizarre, obscure toy from my youth that I've spent nearly 40 years obsessing over....it'd probably be the 1979 Parker Bros. electronic wonder....ROM: SPACEKNIGHT.

Now, I didn't own a ROM when he was a new product, though I begged for him for birthdays and Christmas for three years straight.  Little did I know in my youth that my begging beyond December 1979 was pretty much in vain, seeing as how the Spaceknight was kind of a dud sales-wise straight out of the gate and production pretty much stopped with the initial manufacturer's run.

But....what prompted such devotion to obtaining a product out of yours truly, faithful reader? 

Needless to say....I was a mark for advertising.

I didn't acquire a ROM of my own until about a decade later, when in high school I ran across a nearly complete loose example of the children's toy at a favorite haunt of mine during that period of my life: the local rummage shop owned by an elderly lady who totally reminded me of Large Marge from PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE.  Best buck and a quarter ever spent.

Hey,...... was a weird kid. 

About a month ago, I scored a really nice nearly mint in box vintage example of ROM, that only cost me an arm and a leg.

Hey,....I'm a weird 40 something adult.

Starting somewhere around the fall of '79, after reading the first few issues of the Marvel comic, I became fascinated with the adventures of the Dire Wraith slaying Defender of Galador.  I actually became quite a big fan, with Marvel's ROM SPACEKNIGHT title becoming an early example of a Marvel title I bought, collected, and read pretty religiously on a monthly basis, following (and eventually subscribing) to the book until the very end, in 1986, with issue #75.

So, to me, Rom's comic book exploits will always be the first thing that comes to mind.
I've had a theory for years why ROM, as a Marvel comic, sold and lasted as long as it did during the period it was being published...at least with diehard Marvel fanboys. 

During the period in which ROM was in publication,  it's rumored that Marvel creative and editorial was under an unwritten mandate that stated that nobody touched the Silver Surfer unless their name was " Stan Lee".   Lee, whenever questioned on the subject over the years, has stated that the Surfer, of all Marvel properties, is probably his favorite.  So, with the Surfer off the board, Marvel needed an alien "stranger in a strange land" type to tell grand cosmic stories with,  and Parker Bros. toy space soldier fit the bill. (I mean, literally. ...you can count the Surfer's comic book appearances throughout the 1970s and into mid 80s on both hands and a foot....about a dozen and a half issues of THE DEFENDERS and the excellent 1976 Lee and Kirby graphic novel being the most notable) .

ROM's making a comeback currently, in the form of a new on-going comic book series by IDW Publishing,  which reboots and reimagines the concept for a contemporary audience (without all that pesky Marvel continuity baggage) and as being part of the bigger fledgling "Hasbroverse"....yeah, that's right, ROM's current rightsholder,  Hasbro Toys, is creating a shared universe ala Disney/Marvel's cinematic efforts, featuring their big guns boy toy licenses: G.I. JOE, THE TRANSFORMERS, M.A.S.K., ACTION MAN (think "British G.I. JOE")....and, two former Marvel Comics mainstays from my youth, ROM and MICRONAUTS.

The print and digital media section of this marketing initiative, IDW's "REVOLUTION" event miniseries, looks fairly fun and interesting enough for me to throw some hard earned fanboy cash at....

And the new ROM book is actually pretty good, reading like an "Ultimate Marvel" take on the property, I.e., cherry picking all the best elements from the previous incarnation of the character and a slightly more streamlined new character design.

Things are looking up for Spaceknight fans such as myself....

Also.....if yer a ROM fanboy like myself,  take a minute to check out The Bill Mantlo Support Fund, and show some love to the guy who, if you're an old school 1980s Marvel reader, wrote a piece of your childhood.

Special thanks to PLAID STALLIONS for use of some of their wonderful examples of ROM marketing imagery.