Superman Sliding Puzzle
circa 1966

Funny the things you remember from childhood. I know I had lots of nice toys, some of which probably threatened to push my parents into the poor house, but ironically the ones that stand out in memory are sometimes the cheapest (or even, in some cases, the boxes they came in!).

Case in point is this sliding puzzle which probably came from a dime store and, I'm betting, cost well under a buck. I spent countless hours tinkering with this thing, often in the back seat of the car on those long family trips (in case you were wondering what kids did before Game Boy...no, they didn't "enjoy the scenery" or contribute to the conversation!).

This thing is still in my possession, despite being in pieces at least once (I think I dropped it...anyway all the tiles were out and I had to snap them back in). And then there was the time I decided it was too boring (or difficult?) in black and white, so I colored it in with crayons!

My devotion to this trinket is even more odd when you consider the art is so crude and definitely off-model with the "S" and the face. But it still has a sort of raw iconic power, plus a historic value as a relic of the days before major corporations like DC excercised stringent controls over how their characters were represented. In fact it almost feels like a bootleg, despite the "NPP" copyright of 1966.

With the aid of a nifty javascript I found over at Eric Harshbarger's site, now you can even try your own hand at solving the puzzle (see below). Good luck!