X-Ray Games was a 1980s game set released by Mark Trojan Toys Inc. Suitable for ages 8+, the Consumer Choice Best Toy 1980 award winner looked set to revolutionise the board-game industry.
Using the special, multi-use ‘X-Ray Gun’ (included in the set), as many as four players could take part in any one of ten fun X-Ray Games, all of which revolved around the premise of x-rays and their use in modern society.
‘X-Ray Doc’ was a game that required players’ steady use of the X-Ray Gun while they carefully x-rayed their opponents’ body parts. Players took turns to select a special ‘X-Ray Doc’ card, on the back of which were printed the entire 206 bones of the human body in Latin.
‘X-Ray Vet’ required a player to take an x-ray of a local pet in their neighbourhood then return for their opponents to guess the type of animal they had x-rayed. ‘X-Ray Ghost’ had players using the special supernatural setting on their X-Ray Guns to cross-dimensions and try and return the best picture of a living spirit.
In 1982, increasing health and safety concerns for X-Ray Games forced all new sets sold to be shipped with lead bibs.
‘X-Ray Ghost’ was eventually the cause of the demise of X-Ray Games in 1986. Following a heavy period of gaming, nine-year-old Billy Southton from Marshall, Ohio, was diagnosed with Astute Complex Aviary Disorder. Southton was the first diagnosis of its kind. Doctors traced the cause to the boy’s overuse of X-Ray Games and recommended an immediate ban from sale.
X-Ray Games wasn’t the final nail in the coffin for the troubled Mark Trojan Toys Inc. that everybody expected. In 1989, the company released a hugely successful range of ‘boomerang footballs’.
In the early 80′s Xan Campos decided for himself that he was the 2nd coming for communist Cuba’s people and decided to launch a campaign to take over the United States and spread communism throughout the world.
His life was full of sadness and depression that eventually led to his loving parody of Che Guevara becoming a serious attempt at fighting for the communist cause and ultimately ended in his tragic death.
Xan was a quiet child born to an former Cuban baseball star and a farm girl. He grew up in poor Havana. His love for music never veered beyond being able to keenly listen and his love for sport never went beyond watching his father throw balls towards his chubby face.
Overweight and depressed he found a hero in the great Che Guevara and in ’79 at the age of 19 he decided he would do something with his life and go on the road reinacting Che’s greatest moments. The dodgy wig and spotty complexion did nothing for the show except push it into strange comedic obscurity which ultimately led to greater depression and a reliance on precription medication.
In May 1981, Xan, according to close sources, was a complete mess, but this is when his greatest moment came. Armed with a can of spray paint he went about amazing an army of locals to help row across the sea for the attack on the United States with the intention of bringing Communism to the mainland before embarking on a worldwide takeover.
This attempt failed but the cause continued for another 4 years. In 1985 he had enlisted 3 people and set sail for the USA for covert operations.
He was never seen again. A few strange internet consiracy theorists believe he made it and some have even recently said that he is party responsible for the recent election of the more socialist Barack Obama.