Mattel’s Gre-Gory in a 1980 Star Wars Comic!!!
Mattel’s Gre-Gory bat toy (see Plaid Stallions) is one of those toys of the late seventies/early eighties that I was certain I was unaware of up until a few years ago. Well, it turns out that I definitely knew of the toy long before that, as this ad from Marvel’s Star Wars #38 proves! I had this comic when I was a kid — it was one of the last comics my parents bought for me before we moved from Turkey back to the U.S. — and I spent hours and hours as a kid flipping through the book. And when I was going through the comic this morning, the ad instantly sparked memories. I love discoveries like this!
My parents used to buy me scary and creepy toys to freak out our next door neighbors. It was a sweet situation for me because I ended up getting cool stuff like the Kenner Alien and Gre-Gory. It’s interesting how this toy flew under the radar. I’ve met very few people who even knew this thing existed. It was a really cool toy with blood that spilled over the visible internal organs every time you pumped the button under his back skin. He was a big, heavy hunk of floppy rubber, so you could flap his wings and chase your sister around. So much fun!