Posted 6 years ago
Retrofutura
(99 items)
Once upon a time, you could get your favorite comic books from a machine!
It worked like a snack machine, putting a row of comics on a corkscrew instead of Twinkies.
There was one book in view at the top/front of each of the ten stacks and if you didn't see one you liked, you'd just come back later and there would be other ones showing.
You'd put a dime in one side and two pennies in the other side of a thing like the coin slots on washers and dryers.
Then you'd push it in and pull it back out, turning the corkscrew so that a single comic book would drop off and slide down to a little slot at the base of the unit.
In July of 1966, I saw one for the first time and bought Daredevil #32 and Avengers #44. I still have them!
Sorry to say the machines aren't around any more.
They were re-tooled in 1969 when comics raised their prices from 12¢ to 15¢ and again in 1971 when the price went up to 20¢.
After that, comic prices continued to skyrocket and changed faster than the machines could be retooled, so they were retired instead.
I think they may have been retired ,,because a slight bump to the machine
And FREE comic books ,,,,, The comic would bounce off the Corkscrew
The harder the bump the more Free books ,,I know this because my Goodest
Pal and I did this once or twice
Yes, Vynil33rpm,
My best friend and I occasionally joined in that "free comic book" activity.
I'm sure that kids like us may have helped contribute to the demise
of this type of equipment with our constant banging.