Retro Weekend Rewind: Lazer Tag & Circus Fun Cereal
Good morning, fellow nerds! It’s the first Saturday of the month and that means it’s time for another installment of Retro Weekend Rewind! This weekend we take a quick look back to the future of infrared pursuit gaming known as Lazer Tag!
Lazer Tag Toy Commercial
Lazer Tag was created in 1986 by toy company Worlds Of Wonder. Nothing like a commercial about a dystopian future to start our Saturday morning's in the 80s. This toy, along with the similar Photon line, brought us the future of playing tag! Who remembers donning your Lazer Tag helmet, vest, & pistol then hunting down your weaker cousins at family get-togethers?
Lazer Tag Academy Cartoon Intro
Lazer Tag Academy was produced by Ruby-Spears Productions who also brought us Thundarr the Barbarian, Mister T, The Centurions, and my other other Saturday morning staples of our childhood. Lazer Tag Academy aired 13 episodes on NBC from September 13 to December 6, 1986. It wouldn’t be the 80s without a time traveling relative getting their ancestors into all kinds of hijinks while the parents are ignorant of it all. However, unlike Back to the Future’s incest sub-plot, we get a group of kids fighting a criminal mastermind from the future using matter manipulating laser guns!
Lazer Tag Print Advertising
Circus Fun Cereal Commercial
Since Lazer Tag didn’t have it’s own sugary part of a balanced breakfast I decided to take a look back at a cereal that was also released the same year as the toy and toon. Circus Fun Cereal was made by General Mills and introduced in 1986. Who doesn’t love a claymation clown coming to life and waking you up every morning?! There’s nothing like getting a sugar high from eating a bowl of marshmallow animals and then running loose in the yard and brandishing a toy gun on an 80s Saturday!
Hope you guys enjoyed Retro Weekend Rewind this morning! If you have any suggestions for future posts let us know in the comments below or tweet us at @nearmintfanboys! See you next weekend!