{"id":15749,"date":"2014-03-05T07:07:34","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T12:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=15749"},"modified":"2019-11-26T06:46:54","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T11:46:54","slug":"your-very-own-vampire-bat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2014\/03\/05\/your-very-own-vampire-bat\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Very Own Vampire Bat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"COMICS-HEAD\"<\/a>\"gregory-det\"<\/p>\n

He’s BIG! He’s FEARSOME! But best of all — he’s fun?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Who didn’t want a plastic vampire bat as a kid?<\/p>\n

Nobody,<\/em> that’s who. I never remember ever seeing Gre-Gory, The Big, Bad Vampire Bat<\/strong> <\/em>\u00a0on the shelves of toy stores, and this was from Mattel!<\/p>\n

\"gregory-full\"<\/a>I was a weird kid growing up. I loved horror movies and monsters, but I don’t see this fairly limited toy having much of an appeal. Tinker Toys, Lego and Erector Sets are understandable because they have an almost infinite appeal — you could build whatever you want! I get it!\u00a0But a plastic bat with a transparent thorax who can be made to appear to ingest blood? How long is that thrill going to last? Show it off to mock horrified adults at your eighth birthday party, and onto a bedroom shelf it goes to collect dust for a few years until Mom makes one of her purges or you blow it up with fire crackers that a cousin scored during a trip down South.<\/p>\n

There are always shows that take a whimsical look back at trends and crazes from decades past. Some smug narrator will verbally look down his nose at stock footage of moments of mass hysteria surrounding Hula Hoops or Pet Rocks which are easy and lazy, but nobody looks at and ponders the examples of spectacular failure such as Gre-Gory<\/em>. Who thought this was going to sell? Who at Mattel in the late ’70s green-lighted this brown plastic turd?<\/p>\n

I remember it being odd when I saw this ad. Mattel did spring for a full page, but it looks like they threw it at the comic publisher to get some staffers to throw it together.<\/p>\n

I imagine it is now one of those Holy Grail-like toys madly sought after by collectors.<\/p>\n

This ad appeared in The Mighty Thor No. 298 published by Marvel Comics in 1980.<\/p>\n

\"Th0r-298-1980\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He’s BIG! He’s FEARSOME! But best of all — he’s fun?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[335],"tags":[366,994,312,308,1051,2908,347,724,3073],"class_list":["post-15749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-i-miss-about-comics","tag-366","tag-blood","tag-comic","tag-marvel","tag-mattel","tag-thor","tag-toy","tag-vampire","tag-vampire-bat"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-461","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4714,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/10\/17\/vampire-blood\/","url_meta":{"origin":15749,"position":0},"title":"Vampire Blood!","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"October 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This was sort of a forbidden fruit for kids growing up in the early 1970s. Much like the poisoned Halloween candy stories that have been circulating for decades, I remember a story going around that there was something wrong with the practical joke\/prank product aimed at kids known as Vampire\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/vampireblood-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/vampireblood-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/vampireblood-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":42249,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2024\/01\/04\/you-cant-keep-a-good-vampire-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":15749,"position":1},"title":"You Can’t Keep a Good Vampire Down","author":"Joe","date":"January 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Although the TV series ended in 1971, vampire Barnabas Collins continued to haunt the comic book racks of newsstands and convenience stores well into the 1970s. The comic above was published by Gold Key in 1974 -- 50 years ago! If I had seen the cover of werewolf Quentin battling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I Miss About Comics"","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dark Shadows","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53441202637_ab28b4462c_c.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53441202637_ab28b4462c_c.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53441202637_ab28b4462c_c.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":531,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2009\/10\/08\/vampirerat-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":15749,"position":2},"title":"Vampire\/Rat Man","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"October 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Another pen and ink doodle from the mid-80s. Technical pens were my weapon of choice at the time.","rel":"","context":"In "It Came From the Sketchbook"","block_context":{"text":"It Came From the Sketchbook","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"vampire-ratman","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/vampire-ratman.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":46596,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/12\/04\/hangin-on-the-telephone\/","url_meta":{"origin":15749,"position":3},"title":"Hangin’ on the Telephone","author":"Joe","date":"December 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A modern toy aimed squarely at the wallets of Baby Boomers","rel":"","context":"In "Curious Clutter"","block_context":{"text":"Curious Clutter","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/curious-clutter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/hot-wheels-close-up.jpg?fit=640%2C318&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/hot-wheels-close-up.jpg?fit=640%2C318&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/hot-wheels-close-up.jpg?fit=640%2C318&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14547,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2013\/10\/07\/its-that-time-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":15749,"position":4},"title":"It’s that time again!","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"October 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Halloween? No, it's Tina's Birthday! Being that Tina's birthday is in October I usually do a Halloween themed birthday card. This year was no exception. I grabbed a couple of recently shot photos and had at them with an image editor. A picture of our non-smiling son becomes a creature\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Drawer Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Drawer Cards","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/drawer-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/DSCN1829.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/DSCN1829.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/DSCN1829.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44919,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/04\/16\/1980%e5%b9%b4%e4%bb%a3%e3%81%ae%e6%9d%b1%e4%ba%ac%e3%81%ae%e5%90%b8%e8%a1%80%e9%ac%bc\/","url_meta":{"origin":15749,"position":5},"title":"1980\u5e74\u4ee3\u306e\u6771\u4eac\u306e\u5438\u8840\u9b3c","author":"Joe","date":"April 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Tokyo Vampire Circa 1980s It seems that my series of Halloween Heads has started anew with the completion of a Japanese vampire on the heels of last week's Phantom of the Opera. 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Generally, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Halloween"","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/halloween\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1980s-Tokyo-Vampire-final.jpg?fit=900%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1980s-Tokyo-Vampire-final.jpg?fit=900%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1980s-Tokyo-Vampire-final.jpg?fit=900%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1980s-Tokyo-Vampire-final.jpg?fit=900%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}