That's pretty cool.

I zoomed it up to get a better look even though it gets pixelated


It kind of looks to me like the catalog comp-type work that the artists all did a lot later in the TSR catalogs.

I have seen an alternate ink proposal that Bill Willingham did for an update on the MM cover (not MM2) from approx '81..obviously before Jeff Easley got there, but I've never seen this.

edit: that reminds me, in one of the other threads I was asking if anyone had an '83 or '84 TSR catalog to check out regarding the RPGA figures/box sets. Maybe in the '83 catalog it has a larger photo of this MM2 alt cover?

misterspock wrote:I like how they have the older booklets in the photo with the wrong box sets...

Or new print

How did I miss out on these ads? My mom used to get Sears and JC Penny catalogs, and I don't recall seeing any D&D material.  

I recall hearing radio spots for D&D and Star Frontiers. I don't recall TV ads, except for the one for the plastic figures. "Take THAT dragonne!"

misterspock wrote:Here are some more catalog pages that had D&D stuff I found on http://www.wishbookweb.com/ and also from (I think) the same person's flikr page.

Thanks for sharing! I went through some of the earlier ones back when the link was posted on Grognardia, looking for the Holmes Basic set, but didn't find anything. It seems that D&D didn't get into these types of catalogs until a bit later. Though the coverage is spotty, so others might turn up.

bbarsh wrote:Damn, how did I miss out on that cool Knight Rider board game?  

Or Krull or Zaxxon!

Grognardia did a retrospective on Shadowlord! I'd never heard of it before. It has promising looking artwork.

Zenopus wrote:Grognardia did a retrospective on Shadowlord! I'd never heard of it before. It has promising looking artwork.

Shadowlord! is pretty cool.  I loved it as a kid and picked up a copy (cheap) on ebay in the last few years.  The box art in the ad wasn't the final art, though (unless there is more than one version).

Zenopus wrote in Early TSR/D&D advertisements & catalogs:Here's another ad. Later (Wizard Logo) but much odder:

[ Image ]

I don't know where it was published. The image was hosted on a "vintage e-card" website several years ago.

Has the source of this ad ever been found?

Zenopus wrote in Early TSR/D&D advertisements & catalogs:I'd almost forgotten about this thread!

I haven't. This ad in particular continues to haunt my dreams:

Chris of Hill Cantons has tracked down the source of some unusual D&D ads, one of which was previously featured on the very first page of this thread.
They ran in Omni magazine in late 1980, and there were at least three in the series, one of which I hadn't seen before:

D&D Omni style

No, I didn't look - I was just going by what Chris said.