More and more, it’s the board games I want.
The live-action Amazing Spider-Man pilot premiered in September, 1977, and the series didn’t resume until April of 1978. The live-action Captain America TV movie was heading into production for an early 1979 release. Hence the “heaviest promotional support ever” for the games.
Starsky and Hutch was in the last year of its four-year run. The Scooby-Doo game is from ’73, and Casper is from 1959. Talk about staples. Scooby has turned out to be as enduring a character as Spidey.
I’m still not feeling the Star Bird. It’s so aseptic. Cool noises or no, ships by themselves have no personalities. I think a little plastic guy came with it, but it’s not the same. Same reason I never understood the Star Wars die cast vehicles.
The corporate letter is a nice prize: “I am certain that your sales will reflect a commensurate increase.”
(Images via eBay)
2 Warps to Neptune 
Interesting that they show what appears to be an earlier prototype of the Star Bird in that first shot, with golden interceptors and engine parts (yuck). Bet you that thing would be worth bucks on the bay.
As cool as the Star Bird was (IMO), it was definitely a matter of filling in the blanks, since you couldn’t place a pilot in it. Also, it didn’t come with a figurine; only the command base had personnel!
Thanks for clarifying about the lack of a pilot, and good catch on the gold trim. I didn’t even notice that.
Yeah, I can imagine it being cool when used with other toys (Star Wars, Micronauts, etc.)
Wow, I had no idea MB came out with an Electronic Battleship game so early. I didn’t remember that until well into the ’80s. Check out this vid for a ’79 version:
Star Bird was awesome, I don’t care what anyone’s says. Pilot or not my Micronauts and Star Wars guys were terrified of that thing it would drop out of nowhere and lay waste to everything!