1975 - ASM #145 - Wijit Works' Hover Spacecraft Won't Work, Idjit!

I've had a personal fetish for the concept of hovercraft since I was a little kid. I say concept because 26 years on, I still haven't seen a production vehicle that comes close to the promise of what hovercraft are supposed to be (i.e. something Doc Brown and Marty rode around in).

So it comes as no surprise that the following ad was something that caught MY eye when I was a kid reading comic books. What does come as a surprise was that said ad came out a full fifteen years before I was of comic-reading age!

Yes, I remember seeing the very same ads in comic books and (if I recall correctly) issues of Boy's Life in the 90's. Had I known that these ads for Wijit Works' hovercraft plans had been running since the mid-70's, and seeing that the world still hadn't been overrun by kids floating about in homemade flying machines, I wouldn't have even begun to consider paying money to Wijit Works.

 Okay, I probably still would've.

That's right, Wijit Works claims that you can build your own man-sized air car powered by an ordinary vacuum cleaner motor. My family already had an old vacuum cleaner, surely they wouldn't mind the sacrifice if they saw me sliding over the pavement in one of these things.

And best of all, the plans are FREE!

Oh wait, no it's not. The plans are three dollars, and comes with a free astronaut iron-on with order.


At this point I would be surprised if the iron-on actually worked. The cynic in me would just assume that if you had fallen for this, your parents would come home and find the following:

• The vacuum cleaner disassembled, the house covered in dust.
• Your bicycle disassembled (I would also assume)
• Several t-shirts ruined and burned from attempted ironings
• You, three dollars poorer.

Oh well, I only need to wait five more years until I can get me my own hoverboard anyway.





This ad for Wijit Works' Hovercraft plans was published in Amazing Spider-Man #145, June 1975.