Monday, March 8th, 2010 — No Comments
A MIMP cartoon was announced in the Monster Mailer newsletter to premiere on ABC on Halloween morning–Saturday, October 31, 1992. Whether the cartoon ever actually aired or not is uncertain–most of the ABC Saturday morning children’s programming block was preempted by sports coverage that day.
The pilot episode (most likely the only episode produced) was made available on home video by Kidmark Video in 1993. Included with some videos was a 100 point Super Scary figure–in some cases Thunderdell, in others Hanuman or Charun–which was visible through a little cut-out window on the front of the box, which was designed to look like a pocket.
The cartoon itself was animated by Hanna-Barbera studios and features the voiceover work of Paxton Whitehead, Frank Welker and April Winchell, among others.
The story is very similar to that of the comic books, except that in this case Vampire is the leader of the bad monsters and Invisible Man the good, and the good monsters are sent to a young girl’s house rather than a young boy’s. The story follows the good monsters–Invisible Man (Dr. Davenport), the Monster (Big Ed), Werewolf (Wolf Mon) and Mummy)–as they try to find a permanent cure for their small stature. The bad monsters–Vampire, Medusa and Swamp Beast–who are responsible for shrinking the monsters make it their mission to seek out the good monsters and get them back for trapping them in Monster Mountain in the first place. They discover that the sound of a person’s scream charges their powers and makes them temporarily regain their size, so they seek out an actress from an old horror film and try to kidnap her to grow permanently large again.
There was a tie-in with Bob’s Big Boy restaurants where kids could pick up a fun pack with games, stickers and trading cards based on the cartoon as well as a rare series 3 monster (Abominable Snowman) with the purchase of a kid’s meal.
Monday, March 8th, 2010 — No Comments
Participating Bob’s Big Boy restaurants held a promotion in October of 1992 to coincide with the airing of the new MIMP cartoon.
According to posters hanging from the ceiling and stand-up advertisements at the tables, the MIMP promotion involved a coupon that you could give out to trick-or-treaters on Halloween night which could later be exchanged for a Monster In My Pocket Pack with any purchase, or one free Kiddie Burger ‘N Fries any day from November 1st to December 15th of 1992. Those who did not have the coupon could purchase the Monster In My Pocket Pack for 99 cents.
The Monster In My Pocket Pack was a small envelope (for lack of a better word) that was to be torn along the edges (“We dare you to tear open very carefully. Warning: Monsters inside!!”) and unfolded. Once unfolded, four “Lick -n- Stick” stickers could be torn out, a “Boneyard Battle” (tic-tac-toe) game was available, four trading cards (each featuring one of the good monsters from the cartoon), a “Grab The Ghouls” game and series 3 monster number 74, Abominable Snowman (in unique colors only available with this promotion, including dark purple and yellow).
Monday, March 8th, 2010 — No Comments
Decipher released a MIMP-themed board game in 1991. Included were four series 1 monsters (Tengu, Triton, Kraken and Behemoth) in “rare” colors (cyan, magenta, orange and dark green), as well as a set of 48 cards (each with one series 1 monster on it–the illustrations are the same as those on the trading cards, but reprinted in blue and white) with some stats for each monster printed on them.
The game board is split up into four areas: the Volcano Pit, the Swamp, the Ice Cave and New York City. Each section is then divided up into smaller sub-sections, on each of which you place one of the cards. Certain monsters do better than others in certain areas. For instance, according to his card, Great Beast has “super power” in the Swamp but is “weak” in the Volcano. If a player with the Great Beast card were to go against a player in the volcano whose monster card was normal, strong or super powerful in the Volcano section, the player with Great Beast would lose and the other player would get to take both cards.
Monday, March 8th, 2010 — No Comments
Released in 1990 by Matchbox, Monster In My Pocket Battle Cards was a game not unlike the “Monster War” game instructions that were included with each series list.
Included in the package were two monsters (green Beast and red Witch), an ordinary six-sided die, and a set of 52 cards (48 monster cards, each featuring a different series 1 monster, two wild cards, rules, and a checklist). The rules, according to the deck, are as follows:
Competing with Battle Cards is a lot like playing ‘war’ with ordinary playing cards, except each card has six different levels to compete on. They are: 1. Point Value, 2. Intelligence, 3. Strength, 4. Speed, 5. Weakness, 6. You Pick. To play, shuffle the deck and give each player an equal number of cards (the game works best with two). Using the cards in the order in which they were dealt, each player turns over one card, then one player rolls the dice to see which area (see above) you are playing in. Whoever has the highest points in that area wins the cards out. In case of a tie, those players put out additional cards, again rolling the dice until one of them wins them all. Rolling the dice changes players every round. Wild cards make you an automatic winner. You can play the game until one player has all the cards.
Each card displays the point value of the monster in each corner, the monster’s number centered at the top, its name below that, a simple drawing of the monster, and a table that lists the monsters intelligence, strength, speed and weakness. Depending on what each player is competing for (determined by the die), whichever monster has a higher value for that particular attribute would win the battle.
The numbers representing each of the monster’s attributes actually add up to the point value of that monster. The Hunchback, for example, is worth 5 points. According to the card, he has an intelligence of 3, a strength of 6, a speed of 2, and a weakness of -6. Therefore, 3 intelligence plus 6 strength plus 2 speed plus -6 weakness equals 5 points.
Battle Cards were apparently made for some of the monsters from laters series as well. Series 2 monster Battle Cards came along with the figures themselves in the MIMP Cauldron, and Battle Cards for the Dinosaur series occasionally pop up as well.
Monday, March 8th, 2010 — No Comments
The MIMP Annual was a hardbound collection of reprinted material from the comics. It was published by Marvel Comics in 1992.
Original games, puzzles and biographical information about some of the major characters (not found in any of the comic books) was printed between story segments.