I received an unusual number of messages relating to the commercial I linked to for the Marx Rock 'em, Sock 'em Robots. Several people informed me that the version that is currently being manufactured is — in the words of one correspondent — "a scaled-down piece of junk lacking the magnificence of the original toy." Others who wrote said similar things but seemed less outraged.
Someone who didn't sign his name tells me that the boy on the left in the commercial is Bobby Buntrock, who played the kid on the TV series, Hazel. Someone who did (David Oakes) calls my attention to the illustration work of Eric Joyner, especially this print.
Jim Kakalios, who bills himself as "Your Friendly Neighborhood Physics Professor" writes the following…
Of course, there's an easy, elegant solution to the problem of an only child wanting to play Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em Robots…play by mail! You do it just as in chess — each postcard has instructions such as: move red robots left arm two inches forward, etc. Reflexes and timing are de-emphasized and it beomes a true game of strategy! In this way, I became Mid-West regional Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em Robots champion in 1972 — until the damn judges discovered that I had Crazy Glue-ed my robot's head down in place!
Oddly enough, no one wrote about the truly sad moment in the saga of the Rock 'em Sock 'em guys. It began when the Blue Bomber got drunk one night on WD-40 and signed that one-sided management contract with Don King. It ended one night behind a Toys R' Us when, bankrupt and reduced to picking up the occasional buck as a sparring partner for a couple of Transformers, the one-time heavyweight champion (plastic division) took his own life by throwing himself in front of a Big Wheels Tricycle. The whole sordid story stands as a sobering example of what happens when robots turn to a life of violence in the ring.