G1 Magazine Ads

Print Ad #1

Someone on eBay was selling this ad, torn from a magazine.  I wrote the seller and asked if she knew what magazine.  She did not know for sure, but her best bet was Mad.  This is the photo from the listing.  It is a bit blurry. 

The advertisement is designed to look like a movie poster.  This is the text at the bottom:

X-CONCEPTS presents
a TECH DECK DUDE production
FRANK N. FINGER and E. N. FINGER in "FRANKENFINGER"
Music by RAP MASTA THUMB
Executive Producer RING FINGER
Directed by INDEX FINGER
THIS PRODUCT NOT YET RATED

Then 22 figures are shown.  These are all from Crews 4, 5, 6, and 7.  They are mixed up; not grouped by these Crews.  This is the 2002 batch released after the reissue of Crews 1-3 with newly added magnets but before the introduction of dudettes in Crew 8.

The most interesting thing is that "E. N. Finger" is shown in the artwork, even though this figure (released as "E. N. Stein") did not come out until Crew 12.  Notice that he is just a drawing whereas the other dudes shown are photos of their figures. 

Print Ad #2

Here is another magazine advertisement once listed on eBay.  This one was from Sports Illustrated for Kids.  This is designed to look like 9 trading cards that you could cut out and separate.  This is a lightweight cardstock with perforations between the cards.  One side features a dude, and the other side features the checklist of that dude's crew.

The back of the ad features the checklists for Crews 3 thru 11.  Some artwork varies a bit from that on the packaging for these crews. For example Julio (Crew 3) was never released in the design shown. This is the updated design for the re-release of Billy (Crew 11 version). 

It is also interesting that Phinger Tut and Tag both show #000 in this image.  Phinger Tut was eventually given the #119 (making him the last G1 figure, numerically), and Tag was never given a number at all.  Also, the #000 was officially given to Ultimate Zero in 2009.