Star Trek - Passage To Moauv/The Crier In Emptiness Cassette Two-Pack

Peter Pan never met a way to repackage the Star Trek records they didn't like. Courtesy the Star Trek Comics site, here are pics of uber-rare cassette twin-packs that (for some reason) uses a bow-tied bear as pitchman/mascot.

I guess Peter Pan had so much Trek stock lying around that they kept finding new ways to burn it off, so this Frankenstein approach seemed as good as any. Thanks to Power Pal Mike Bridges (again!) for pointing the site out to me--it's the only place on the web I've ever seen these ungainly things.

Wonder Woman: 3 Action-Packed Stories

Tracks:
The Amazons From Space
The Secret of the Magic Tiara

Wonder Woman Vs. The War God

A few weeks ago this site posted some pics of heretofore-unknown Peter Pan cassettes, sold on individual rack cards. Now, thanks to the Wonder Woman Collectors site, we have this nice pic of the Wonder Woman release, featuring three stories with all-new card art.

I love that Peter Pan--always cost-conscious--actually spent the extra few cents to do a die-cut on the top of the cards, when they could have gone with a flat square. It shows that PP wasn't entirely phoning it in at this point, and of course that's nice to know.

If you check the back of the card (seen here), there were also cassettes in this format released for Superman, Batman, and The Hulk, Spider-Man. The hunt goes on!

Scooby-Doo Picture Disk

 

Tracks:
Scooby-Doo and the Mystery of the Strange Paw Prints
Scooby-Doo and the Mystery of the Sticky Money

Here's another unusual find, courtesy Power Pal Mike Bridges--a Peter Pan Picture Disk! As per usual with this blog now, I had no idea this existed, or that the company ever dabbled in this format. Unfortunately, I was not able to find an audio track for "Scooby-Doo and the Ghost in the Doghouse", so you'll all just have to take a wild guess what happens.

Of course, seeing this makes me think--hope--that Peter Pan did something similar for their Power Records line. How cool would a Neal Adams "Robin Meets Man-Bat" picture disk be? Odds are they never did, seeing as how none of them have ever surfaced over the years. But as is always the case with the Power Records, you never know.

Thanks again Mike!

The Incredible Hulk - At Bay

Another of the later period Power reissues, the subtitle "At Bay" was dropped entirely with some new(?) art created for the sleeve. Does anyone actually have one of these?

Power Records Sci-Fi Gift Pack

Power Pal Rockwell Jay Pugglesworth followed up to the post I wrote a few weeks ago regarding this unusual "Sci-Fi Gift Pack" with full scans of the front and back sleeves. Thanks Rockwell!

I have to think Peter Pan did other gift packs like this, especially for the superhero records. It's hard to do Google searches for these, because "Power Records" is such a generic term and it brings up a lot of useless stuff, but I'm hoping eventually...

Power Records Sci-Fi Gift Pack

Here's another Power Records mystery I discovered via a Google image search. It seems as though there were Star Trek, Space: 1999, and Six Million Dollar Man LPs repackaged and sold as a three pack. That makes sense of course, but what's with the custom back cover, seen directly above? Did all three LPs get this new cover? Also, how were they sold--shrinkwrapped together? For some reason I have to know these things!

Unfortunately, these images were not from an eBay auction, otherwise I would have asked the seller a little bit about them. But for now, just these photos will have to do.

Superman: The Man From Krypton

 Track:

The Man From Krypton

Spider-Man of course wasn't the only Power Records star whose adventures were re-purposed across multiple formats. Superman got the honor with "The Man From Krypton", featuring an all-new cover, which looks to me like re-drawn versions of work by Rich Buckler and Jose Luis Garcia Lopez (PBHN).

This seems a little odd to me, because from what I understand JLGL didn't start producing the classic DC stock art until 1983 or so, and I thought Power Records had given up the ghost by then--or at the very least, had stopped issuing new releases of any kind. Yet here it is!

Power Records Multi-Packs

Another amazing Power Records discovery courtesy Power Pal Rockwell Jay Pugglesworth! In addition to the cassette twin-packs, Power Records also issued their audio adventures on hanger cards, with up to four(!) stories crammed onto one cassette.

The Star Trek ones are, like the movie they're plugging, pretty dull, but check out the Spider-Man and Wonder Woman packs seen on the back of the cards! Not only do they feature art heretofore unseen on any Power Record, but they feature some nifty die-cuts which really must have helped them pop off the stands. Not only that, but as you can see from the product list, the combos were real head-scratchers: Hulk and Superman? Captain American and Star Trek? You'll never see the likes of these again.

Great find Rockwell!

 

Fantastic Four/Captain America Cassette 2-Pack

 

 

 

 

Tracks:

The Way It Began

...And A Phoenix Shall Arise

Over on the Power Records Facebook page, Power Pal Rockwell Jay Pugglesworth sent a bunch of really cool images, mostly of stuff we have yet to cover here on the blog. Case in point, this 2-pack featuring cassette versions of Fantastic Four: The Way It Began and Captain America: And A Phoenix Shall Arise!


As you can see, Power Records put in Mego-like effort sometimes, simply slapping a sticker with the word "cassette" over the cover, rather than re-printing. Clearly, they had inventory lying around, and Pete Pan realized that vinyl was dying off, so repurposing for cassette was the financially prudent thing to do. Maybe I simply stopped being interested in these by the early 1980s, because I don't ever remember seeing a single one of these Power Cassette sets for sale at the time.

We now have photographic evidence of three Marvel-based cassette sets, there must be more. Perhaps Superman or Batman? Until we can find them, thanks Rockwell!

Spider-Man - Invasion of the Dragon Men Cassette

Track:
Invasion of the Dragon Men

I really enjoy recording episodes of THE POWER RECORDS PODCAST, and a large reason why is due to my co-host, Chris Franklin (aka Earth-2 Chris). He grew up listening to the Power Records like I did, and he always has numerous fun observations about each audio adventure we profile on the show.

But sometimes he also drops some nerd knowledge on me--case in point, that Power Records released some of their productions on audio cassette! A few episodes back, Chris mentioned he owned "Invasion of the Dragon Men" on tape, which was a total shock to me! I had never seen any Power Record on tape, either in person or on eBay. A little while later, Chris found the tape (see above, oh-so-carefully labeled "Invasion of the Dragon MAN") and was kind enough to send a picture. Sockamagee!

This can't be the only Power Record released in this format, so now of course I'm dying to find others--most likely there's at least a Superman, Batman, and Hulk. The search continues, thanks Chris for being the blog's first Power Pal!