COMIC BOOK FOLDEE #37 FROM 1966

1965 was a great year for Metamorpho, after only two try-out issues in The Brave and the Bold #'s 57 and 58, the superhero graduated almost immediately to his own book and he enjoyed a lot of popularity. In 1965 Metamorpho was the new sensation from DC Comics and it was this year presumably when people at Topps (a trading cards manufacturer) decided to release a new set of the so called "comic book foldees" featuring superheros from the DC roster.

Many very well established and popular characters from the DC Universe were featured on the foldees and Metamorpho was considered as well, which I think was due tu the huge popularity the character had at the moment otherwise just four or five years later I do not think Metamorpho would had been considered but his slot perhaps would have been taken by characters from Kirby's Fourth World which were introduced by 1970. Who knows.

For those who are too not familiarized with the term "foldee", well they were a kind of very cheap entertainment who only people from my age and older had the privilege to play with (today kids prefer playing with a handheld videogame, don't they?). 

They were small pieces of cardboard divided into 6 different panels, three on the front and three on the back. Three of the six panels had a picture and the rest of the panels were only for presentation. 

There was one central picture, placed in the panel of the middle on one of the sides and there were two pictures on the other side, placed on the lateral panels. The pictures placed on the lateral panel were split in two so you could fold the top or bottom piece of the panel.

When you folded the pieces from bottom or top of the lateral pictures they covered the respective side from the picture on the center of the other side thus creating very odd combinations using the top from one character and the bottom from another or viceversa.

The complete set was composed by 44 different foldees and was distributed in the way trading cards were distributed at the time, with a bubble gum included on the pack. Despite the fact they are antiquities from 50 years ago, they are not really expensive, you still can get an individual foldee for prices that range from $3 to $15 depending on the popularity of the character featured and the condition of the item.

They were numbered and the number for Metamorpho was 37. Foldee number 37 is one of the scarcest but ironically it sells for the lowest prices. I cannot figure out a reason for this other than this one was produced in less quantities or kids for that time just mistreated most of foldees depicting Metamorpho in favor of other iconic characters.

If you want to give a look to all the foldees produced you can see the complete set scanned here.