"Hero Envy" The Blog Adventures: May 2021

TALES FROM THE TOY CHEST

Stories of Childhood Toy Triumph and Tragedy

John "THE MEGO STRETCH HULK" Cimino

CASE NUMBER: PM-02172
THE INCREDIBLE HULK RAMPAGING

ON MY MAIN STREET

Age: 6 years

Date: 1979

Place: Osco Drugs and my parent's house

Location: Waltham and Watertown, Massachusetts

As a child I was always a fan of PrestoMagix and of course, the Hulk. In 1979, the Hulk was the biggest thing in the world due to the success of the live-action INCREDIBLE HULK series starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. And I was a 5 year old riding that Hulk hype-train straight into oblivion as everything I did was Hulk or bust. Hell, I even cut up a pair of my maroon Toughskin Jeans and ran around the neighborhood bare foot and without a shirt all day long screaming at the top of my lungs to the dismay of my neighbors.

The INCREDIBLE HULK live-action series (1977-1982) began my Hulk obsession.

Anyway, when my mom bought me THE INCREDIBLE HULK: RAMPAGE ON MAIN STREET PrestoMagix Rub-Down Transfer Game at the checkout line from the local Osco Drug for a buck (to probably stop my insistent begging for it), I never knew how big the connection would be to me because I was too young to notice. You see, I loved everything about PestoMagix. I loved them the first time I ever saw them in a comicbook ad, I loved the title "Rampage on Main Street" and I loved how you could stick the Hulk transfers on this city background fighting his greatest rouges: Juggernaut, BI-Beast, Glob, Harpy, Abomination and even Wolverine (one of his early product appearances). It was like I was making my very own comicbook! But PrestoMagix was a "one and done" item, being once you used it, you basically had to get another. My mom would usually get me that particular Hulk PrestoMagix over and over because she knew I loved it so much (and it kept me out of her hair and "normal" for a good solid hour).

The PrestoMagix ad I saw in a comicbook that captivated me and made me an instant fan.

About 20 years later, I happened to be looking through my memorabilia collection and reminiscing about my youth. When I got to my complete collection of MINT Hulk PrestoMagix sets (which I hadn't seen in years), I noticed something I didn't before. The company that made PrestoMagix was called American Publishing Corp. at 125 Walnut St. in Watertown, Massachusetts. By reading that location, I was absolutely shocked!! Why, might you ask? Because I grew up in Waltham, Massachusetts and Watertown was the next town over and the connecting street between the two was... wait for it... MAIN STREET!!!

The city background on the PrestoMagix game and an incredible cast of characters to play with including Wolverine (on the bottom corner on the left of the character transfer sheet).

All that time and I never noticed I was sticking (or transferring) Hulk, Wolverine, Doc Samson, Rhino, Missing Link and even ZZZAX, THE LIVING "Freaking" DYNAMO PrestoMagix pictures on a street I walked on throughout my entire life. I know to most this isn't even a big deal (why would it be), but to the "little" Johnny Cimino obsessed mind in me, it was like the second coming of Christ!! And for those who care, the actual picture of the city on the background of the PrestoMagix set doesn't look anything like the Main Street it was based on... but I didn't care because that was MY Main Street, and the Hulk was battling his greatest enemies on it! He was basically protecting ME hahaha!!

Main Street in the center of Waltham, Massachusetts that the Hulk PrestoMagix game was based on.

Anyway, I took a quick trip to the building in Watertown and found out American Publishing Corp. is long gone and has become Ivory Tower Publishing. But in true Cimino form, I still had to smell, taste and chip away pieces from some of the bricks on it and put them in my collection forever. Who says I don't love this stuff?

I guess this is what I call the magic (or magix) of childhood, and a big shout out to my poor Honduran mother who had to put up that said childhood from her "crazed" youngest.

Gracias por las memes mamá!!