Read, Watch, Listen

Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday, May 7th. To celebrate, here are 9 fast facts about Stan Lee, former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.

Produced by a team of volunteer retro-gaming aficionados, Classic Console showcases video game classics from 1972-1999.

Reminisce is a nostalgia-themed magazine from Reader’s Digest Association. The magazine features reader-contributed photographs, stories, and memories of the 1900s to the 1980s.

Take a trip back to your childhood with Playset Magazine. Published six times per year the magazine is primarily focused on atomic age play sets from the Louis Marx & Co. toy company.

Author Jon Morris’ The League of Regrettable Superheroes is like a who’s-who of the Superhero D-list.

Starlog was a magazine published between 1976-2008 that focused on science fiction films and television programs. Issues have now been digitized for your viewing pleasure.

If you’re a fan of LEGO, Republic 66 Media has you covered, with two LEGO-themed magazines: Bricks and Bricks Culture.

Produced from 2001-2007, Super7 Magazine began with a focus on vintage Japanese toys and quickly expanded to include such innovative toy designers and artists such as KAWS, Baseman, and Bwana Spoons.

Over the course of 144 pages, author Brian Heiler has paid tribute to an oft-forgotten niche of off-brand, easily breakable, and ultimately disposable plastic toys that were typically available in supermarket checkout lines, variety stores, and pharmacy shelves.

Part history primer, part exposé, The Real Toy Story is a literary roller-coaster ride. Author Eric Clark offers up a robust, hard-hitting look at the toy industry circa 2007.

For anyone interested in game theory, design, and play, A Gamut of Games is required reading and a worthy addition to your bookshelf.

Every decade has its share of toy-related consumer crazes – Pogs, Furbies, and Tamagotchis come to mind. But none were bigger and brasher than the Beanie Babies craze of the 1990s.

Published in 2010, Totally Tubular ’80s Toys highlights a decade of the toy industry that was characterized by synergistic tie-ins to companion movie franchises, television shows, and books.

First published in 1974, A Toy is Born is still an enjoyable read for anyone interested in a look back at the origins of some classic toys and games and the national issues of advertising and toy safety that faced the industry at the time.

Cereal: Snap, Crackle, Pop Culture from author Ed Daly is a humorous look at an industry that, despite recent downturns in sales and on-going health questions, remains a multi-billion dollar business in North America.

The WHAM-O Super Book – Celebrating 60 Years Inside the Fun Factory! by Tim Walsh deftly chronicles the first 60-years of the California toy company’s existence.

The Road to Happy Days by Stephanie Sadagursky is one of my favorite types of books to read: historical non-fiction that is colorfully written and filled with fascinating and insightful anecdotes. Throughout the book’s 188 pages, Sadagursky vividly recounts her and her husband Paul’s 30-year journey into the world of buying and selling antique and collectible toys.

Author Susan Marks provides an in-depth and enjoyable look at this food icon in her book Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America’s First Lady of Food.