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Rom the Space Knight
Rom the Space Knight is a superhero who was originally conceived as a toy and then a magazine lead. Rom was created by Scott Dankman, Richard C. Levy, and Bryan L. McCoy for Parker Brothers and is now a Hasbro asset. After the toy was licensed to Marvel Comics, Rom became a character that debuted in the eponymous American comic book Rom: Spaceknight (December 1979 – February 1986), by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema.
In July 2015, IDW Publishing began publishing a new Rom comic book series as part of the Hasbro Comic Book Universe.
In May 2023, Marvel reacquired the rights to begin publishing omnibus editions collecting the Rom material they had previously published in the 1970s and 1980s.
"Rom" was co-created by Scott Dankman, Richard C. Levy, and Bryan Lawrence "Bing" McCoy (U.S. patent #4,267,551). It was sold to Parker Brothers and was the inspiration for the comic book series Rom: Spaceknight. The toy was originally named COBOL, after the programming language, but was later changed to Rom, after ROM (read-only memory), by Parker Brothers executives.
The toy set a precedent for the game publishing company, which up until that time had only ever produced board games. As this was a new venture for the company, and given that electronic toys were still very new, a decision was made to produce the figure as cheaply as possible. As a result, the final product had few points of articulation, and twin red LEDs served as Rom's eyes instead of the originally envisioned green, which were more expensive to produce.
Rom appeared in the corner box of the cover of Time magazine's December 10, 1979, issue. It was featured in the interior article, "Those Beeping, Thinking Toys", which decried Rom's lack of articulation and predicted it would "end up among the dust balls under the playroom sofa".
Rom was licensed to Palitoy in the United Kingdom to extend the "Space Adventurer" line of Action Man, appearing in their 1980 catalog. Ultimately, the toy failed and only sold 200,000 to 300,000 units in the US, with creator McCoy blaming the failure on poor packaging and marketing. Parker Brothers subsequently abandoned the line.
A new action figure of Rom was released for the 2017 San Diego Comic Con and at HasbroToyShop.com in limited quantities as part of the IDW Revolution set alongside figures of Jetfire (a repaint of the previously released Transformers Thrilling 30/Legends LG-07 Leader Class Jetfire figure), Roadblock, Action Man, Leoric, characters from the Micronauts, a Dire Wraith and Matt Trakker.
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Rom the Space Knight
Rom the Space Knight is a superhero who was originally conceived as a toy and then a magazine lead. Rom was created by Scott Dankman, Richard C. Levy, and Bryan L. McCoy for Parker Brothers and is now a Hasbro asset. After the toy was licensed to Marvel Comics, Rom became a character that debuted in the eponymous American comic book Rom: Spaceknight (December 1979 – February 1986), by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema.
In July 2015, IDW Publishing began publishing a new Rom comic book series as part of the Hasbro Comic Book Universe.
In May 2023, Marvel reacquired the rights to begin publishing omnibus editions collecting the Rom material they had previously published in the 1970s and 1980s.
"Rom" was co-created by Scott Dankman, Richard C. Levy, and Bryan Lawrence "Bing" McCoy (U.S. patent #4,267,551). It was sold to Parker Brothers and was the inspiration for the comic book series Rom: Spaceknight. The toy was originally named COBOL, after the programming language, but was later changed to Rom, after ROM (read-only memory), by Parker Brothers executives.
The toy set a precedent for the game publishing company, which up until that time had only ever produced board games. As this was a new venture for the company, and given that electronic toys were still very new, a decision was made to produce the figure as cheaply as possible. As a result, the final product had few points of articulation, and twin red LEDs served as Rom's eyes instead of the originally envisioned green, which were more expensive to produce.
Rom appeared in the corner box of the cover of Time magazine's December 10, 1979, issue. It was featured in the interior article, "Those Beeping, Thinking Toys", which decried Rom's lack of articulation and predicted it would "end up among the dust balls under the playroom sofa".
Rom was licensed to Palitoy in the United Kingdom to extend the "Space Adventurer" line of Action Man, appearing in their 1980 catalog. Ultimately, the toy failed and only sold 200,000 to 300,000 units in the US, with creator McCoy blaming the failure on poor packaging and marketing. Parker Brothers subsequently abandoned the line.
A new action figure of Rom was released for the 2017 San Diego Comic Con and at HasbroToyShop.com in limited quantities as part of the IDW Revolution set alongside figures of Jetfire (a repaint of the previously released Transformers Thrilling 30/Legends LG-07 Leader Class Jetfire figure), Roadblock, Action Man, Leoric, characters from the Micronauts, a Dire Wraith and Matt Trakker.