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Mall Variants of Adventures of Superman 443 - was there ever a DC issue with more variants prior to New 52?
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135 posts in this topic

Isn't it amazing, that these sorts of things exist in an era of mass produced, mass saved collectibles? Just think...in a different era...say, the 40s or 50s...promotional issues like this could have come and gone, with no one ever becoming aware of their existence.

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13 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

Isn't it amazing, that these sorts of things exist in an era of mass produced, mass saved collectibles? Just think...in a different era...say, the 40s or 50s...promotional issues like this could have come and gone, with no one ever becoming aware of their existence.

Great thought RMA.  Jerome scoured for 20+ years before variants became a big thing, and may have had one of the best promo collections.  I was lucky enough to see it in person and it was amazing.

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p.s.    It is amazing to me how few of these mall variants have surfaced.  I have a feeling that many of them are still buried in collections (because it seems that most people stopped throwing away comic books in the late 1970s).   I have offered bounties for these variants and written about them just to see if I could bring them out of the closet, so to speak.   This has worked to some extent (seven of the ones now in my collection came from fellow boardies).   Of the 14 known mall variants, I know of only one single copy for the following:  Montclair Plaza, Georgetown Park, Eden Prairie, Cranberry, Willowbrook, Town East, North Shore Square, Fiesta, Westgate, and The Parks at Arlington.   If anyone has any of those on hand, I would love to hear about it.

Edited by Cpt Kirk
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Couple of things:

1) Cranberry Mall is now called the Town Mall of Westminster in Westminster, MD, and will most likely be a victim of the retail glut as it has lost many of its anchor stores.

2) Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee was in the early 1980s the absolute hub of youth culture in the western suburbs of Chicago - mainly because there was nothing else there.

3) Georgetown Mall in DC was/is a very high-end mall, unlike the other ones on the list. I'm surprised that the DC area one is Georgetown Mall and not either Landmark Mall in Alexandria or Tysons Corner Mall across the street from my window as I type this.  

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7 hours ago, FlyingDonut said:

Couple of things:

1) Cranberry Mall is now called the Town Mall of Westminster in Westminster, MD, and will most likely be a victim of the retail glut as it has lost many of its anchor stores.

2) Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee was in the early 1980s the absolute hub of youth culture in the western suburbs of Chicago - mainly because there was nothing else there.

3) Georgetown Mall in DC was/is a very high-end mall, unlike the other ones on the list. I'm surprised that the DC area one is Georgetown Mall and not either Landmark Mall in Alexandria or Tysons Corner Mall across the street from my window as I type this.  

I love the additional info that you posted... thanks!  It just occurred to me that the mall symbols in the UPC boxes of these Adv of SM 443 variants may be the only remaining thing (except photos) from these dead malls after they get demolished.

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14 hours ago, FlyingDonut said:

Also I'm sure that more will show up - there's no real pattern to any of these stores so I'm positive there are others.

There may be an underlying  pattern- many malls fell under a single owner or management group, or they were all serviced by the same Advertising Agency that coordinated the program with DC.

 

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5 hours ago, MYNAMEISLEGION said:

There may be an underlying  pattern- many malls fell under a single owner or management group, or they were all serviced by the same Advertising Agency that coordinated the program with DC.

 

hm

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This was posted by @kpaqu1 back in Feb 2015 on one of my earlier posts about these mall variants:

 

Westgate Mall is Brockton, MA. My childhood mall which I'm amazed is still operating.

Here's a pic of Spider-Man at the mall in the early 1980s. Perhaps the owner at the time was a comic fan.

 

spidey.jpg

Edited February 27, 2015 by kpaqu1
 
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On 7/8/2019 at 1:40 PM, valiantman said:

These are great, but has it been decided that 1988 is Bronze Age? hm :grin:

No.  That's just me posting in the wrong area, I suppose.   Dumb question... what age is 1988?   Modern?

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2 minutes ago, Cpt Kirk said:

No.  That's just me posting in the wrong area, I suppose.   Dumb question... what age is 1988?   Modern?

copper

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Regardless, it's a fun mystery. I'll keep my eyes peeled for more. Did you figure out where all the malls are located geographically? Is this a East Coast or West Coast, or are they all over the place?

 

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2 hours ago, Davidone said:

Regardless, it's a fun mystery. I'll keep my eyes peeled for more. Did you figure out where all the malls are located geographically? Is this a East Coast or West Coast, or are they all over the place?

 

All over the place.

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11 hours ago, Davidone said:

Regardless, it's a fun mystery. I'll keep my eyes peeled for more. Did you figure out where all the malls are located geographically? Is this a East Coast or West Coast, or are they all over the place?

 

Cranberry = Maryland (I think)

Westlake = Boston 

Georgetown = Wash DC

Clearview = Pennsylvania

Rhode Island = Providence

Spring Hill = Chicago suburbs

Eden Prairie = Minneapolis

The Parks = Dallas suburbs

Town East = Dallas suburbs

Washington Park = Oklahoma

Montclair = Los Angeles suburbs

Fiesta = Phoenix

Willowbrook = Houston

North Shore Square = New Orleans suburbs

Many, but not all of these, are tied to malls developed and owned by Homart.

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