The 1994 JCPenney Christmas Catalog’s Best Pages: Part 2
In our previous edition, we cracked open the 1994 JCPenney Christmas Catalog to revisit its nerdy wonders. We’re continuing that this week with three more pages. We ended with Sega products last time, so let’s begin with a different type of electronic game this time:
There's been a resurgence of these things in 2022, as the 1990s continue to dominate the toy shelves—whether through retro-carded action figures or throwback boardgames.
If you read our wild recent Ocarina of Time speedrun story, you know people will speedrun literally any electronic game under any parameters. Tiger’s handheld games are no exception.
Believe or not, people actually want to see people play through these games. Behold, this playthrough of the Sonic the Hedgehog one below, which some how has 55,000 VIEWS:
Let me throw some Power Rangers numbers at you, for a snapshot of the brand’s dominance at this time:
Power Rangers debuted on FOX Kids in August 1993. More than 2 million Power Rangers toys had been sold by 1994, per a Los Angeles Times story at the time, which translated to more than $100 million in sales for Bandai America.
“Mighty Morphin Power Rangers averaged 4.8 million daily viewers in its first season, according to Nielsen, and 6.9 million in its second, making it by far the most popular kids' show of its era,” per Time.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie debuted in 1995 and grossed $66.4 million on a $15 million budget. (It did stink, though.)
This one is particularly personal for me.
For young comic collectors like me in the 1980s and ’90s, the JCPenneys catalog brought a windfall of new issues each Christmas. Random packs of Marvel and DC comics may have varied wildly in quality and where in a particular run they landed, but it was the best way to test the waters on books you weren’t currently reading.
Without these, I would have never happened upon the the famous "silent" issue of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (#21, 1984), which was devoid of any speech balloons, captions, or sound effects. The rumor at the time was that it happened in error, but that’s been debunked. Snake-Eyes, who stars in the issue, didn’t speak anyway, so his mission to rescue Scarlett being so quiet was true-to-character—and incredibly effective storytelling.
Thankfully, retailers still offer multi-packs, for the nondiscriminating, budding comic book collector in your life.