Behold The Might Of This 1978 Incredible Hulk Colorforms Commercial

Friends, when Colorforms produced this Incredible Hulk set back in 1978 – the two-hour pilot for The Incredible Hulk on CBS had already aired and the regular series was well underway. The TV series based on the creation of both Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics would run for five seasons and starred the late and great Bill Bixby as Dr. David Banner with Lou Ferrigno as the rampaging Hulk. A television series that my Father and myself would never miss if we could help it – it is of course this series and the 1982 animated series that made me a lifelong fan of ol’ Jade Jaws… which thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe we can now all agree is the mightiest of The Avengers.

I hope you know me well enough to realize that last statement was said with tongue firmly planted in my cheek – considering that there is one other Avenger that is quite a bit more powerful than even Dr. Banner’s gamma irradiated alter-ego. You know who I’m talking about – the esteemed Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel as played by Brie Larson.

Back on point of this article, last month I shared a 1966 Colorforms television ad for the Batman set – which was definitely a tie-in with the phenomenon that was the Batman TV series on ABC at the time. So it only makes sense that Colorforms produce a set for the Hulk with the popularity of The Incredible Hulk television show – although after watching the commercial you will see they decide to go with some recognizable bad guys from the comic books. Such as Aleksei Sytsevich aka the Rhino who first made his appearance in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man #41 courtesy of both Stan Lee and John Romita Sr. – both a memorable villain for the Hulk and Spider-Man.

Also included in the 1978 Incredible Hulk Colorforms set was the Abomination – who initially showed up in 1967’s Tales to Astonish #90 as Emil Blonsky, an agent of the KGB who managed to become even more irradiated with gamma radiation than Banner. In fact the Rhino and the Abomination have been known to team up in an attempt to take down the Hulk in the past.

This 1978 Colorforms set also features a couple of garden variety bank robbers… who no doubt fall to their knees in fear when they realize the Hulk has arrived to stop them.

While I never owned this particular Incredible Hulk Colorform set I did obtain and still own the 1983 Marvel Super Heroes version – that featured not just the Hulk but Spider-Man as well as Captain America.