Bonjour, mes amis! Or if you’re not up on your French, Hello, my friends! You’ve made it back for another new Fabulous Find, and this week I’m looking back to 1977, 78 and 79 (with a mention of 1980). From my personal collection are some Marvel Comics View-Master sets. These were put out by the GAF Corporation, New York, New York.
First up, from 1977 are these four sets:
1977 Marvel View-Master sets
As you can see there is a Spider-Man set (Packet No. H 11), a Thor set (Packet No. H 39), a Captain America set (Packet No. H 43) and an Iron Man set (Packet No. H 44).
Here are the reverse sides of those same View-Master sets:
1977 Marvel View-Master sets backs
Each of the sets come with the outer sleeve with the nice artwork from Marvel, an interior booklet, as well as three stereo reels totally twenty-one (21) pictures, or seven (7) stereo pictures per reel.
Here is the opened Spider-Man set so you can see what you get:
1977 Spider-Man View-Master set
The Spider-Man reels tell the story of “Double Identity” and has Spider-Man facing off against a villain that just goes by the name of Bruno ARLINGTON, a master of disguise. Why they didn’t use the Chameleon, I’ll never know.
The Thor reels feature; “The Wrath of Odin”. These reels also feature Jane Foster and the villain; the Grey Gargoyle!
The Captain America reels feature; “Where Walks the Sleeper”. This adventure takes place during World War II and has the Red Skull as the main villain has his mindless Sleeper programed for devastation!
The Iron Man reels feature; “The Spell of Black Widow”. And just like the fabulous Tales of Suspense adventure, Iron Man must face both the Black Widow and Hawkeye!
Then from 1978, we have the next two Marvel View-Master sets:
1978 Marvel View-Master sets
As you can see, the 1978 sets feature the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner. The Hulk set is Packet No. J 26 and the Sub-Mariner set is Packet No. J 27.
The Hulk adventure has no title, but features the Hulk battling the Absorbing Man while the Earth hangs in the balance! Wow, that really makes one want to take a look at these reels A.S.A.P.
The Sub-Mariner adventure is also not titled, and it features Subby in the Sargasso Sea facing off against the villain, Tiger Shark and mysterious ghost ships!
And now, from 1979, we get three more Marvel View-Master Sets. This time we get Doctor Strange (Packet No. K 22), a second Spider-Man set (Packet No. K 31) and a Fantastic Four set (Packet No. K 36).
Take a look:
1979 Marvel View-Master sets
First up was the Doctor Strange set, which features the good Doctor journeying into the Domain of the Dread Dormammu. We get to meet Clea and see Doc battle the Mindless Ones!
Next, is the second Spider-Man set, which sees Spidey battle one of his arch enemies, the diabolical Doctor Octopus!
And finally we come to the Fantastic Four View-Master reels. Within, we learn how the Fantastic Four came to be, i.e. their origin story. Not all that exciting to us long-time Marvel fans, but pretty neat to a new-comer that might be discovering Marvel Comics through these View-Master sets.
None of these sets have the adventures titled either. Apparently, only the 1977 sets used titles
So there you have the scoop on the nine (9) Marvel View-Master sets I own. But wait, there is at least one more that I do not own. What? Which one is that, you all ask!
Well, in 1980, Marvel and View-Master came out with a Spider-Woman set. I’ve seen it on-line and it appears occasionally on eBay, but so far and a price I’m not willing to pay. This set is Packet No. L 7, and even though I don’t own it (yet), I’m providing a picture that I captured off the net, in my effort to have this be a complete listing of the Marvel View-Master sets.
Here’s the Spider-Woman set:
1980 Spider-Woman View-Master set
I keep forgetting about this one, but I guess I should be on the look out for it at a reasonable price and complete my collection.
Actually, I’ve not been able to find a list of the complete Marvel View-Master sets, so I could be missing additional ones, but I’m not aware of them. Well, I am aware of an X-Men set, I think from the nineties, but it didn’t come in these nice little folders/pouches, so I’m not counting it, though maybe I should.
If you have any additional information, I’d love to have you share! Thanks for stopping by and sharing my Marvel View-Master collection! See ya next week for a new RETRO REVIEW and of course, I’ll be back in two weeks for yet another Fabulous Find!
be seeing you …
Dear Greg,
Thanks for sharing these rare Marvel viewmaster packs. Your presentation started me looking for them. But whether i really need them depends on information that I can find nowhere. But you know it without a doubt, as you have most of these reels! What I’m really curious about is, what art do these reels contain? Do they all feature 60ties Marvel cartoon art? Does any of them contain art by Buscema? I would guess the Sub-mariner and FF reels would be most likely to contain Buscema art.
Thanks!
Mattie, these are fun sets and I hope you enjoy them when and if you track them down! The artwork seems to come from the sixties cartoon show, but that artwork came from the early Marvel Comics themselves.
The Thor art is definitely not by Big John Buscema, most likely it’s early Kirby.
The Sub-Mariner is a tough call, it might be Buscema, but also it might be Marie Severin. Hard to tell on these little viewers. I don’t remember Tiger Shark appearing in the Tales to Astonish series and once Subby got his own book, it was drawn by Big John for those first early issues. I just looked it up and Tiger Shark first appeared in issue # 5, so he definitely was first drawn by Buscema in the comics. You’ll have to make your own decision on a definite answer. Sorry, but I don’t want to say yes, if it’s not really true. I just can’t make the call, as sometimes I see Buscema, but other times I don’t.
The Fantastic Four is definitely all Jack Kirby, with the exception of the last slide/picture, which looks to me, to be drawn by John Romita.
Hope this helps. So if you’re a John Buscema fan, you might pick up the Sub-Mariner set, but the others are not drawn by him.
And you comments remind me I need to check for the Spider-Woman reels again! Thanks for stopping by!
I have spider-woman reel A.b.C 1980 if your steel Looking for.
I Also have the Thriller’s
Hi Audrey. Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to leave me a comment. I am indeed still in search for the Spider-Woman View Master set. If you’d be interested in selling it, please contact me directly at [email protected] or you can call the store and leave me a phone number, or your e-mail address and I’ll get back to you. That way you don’t have to post it here for all to see. It might take me a few days to get back to you, as I am not an actual employee of the store. I just write these blog posts for them and am their auctioneer.