Updated: April 28, 2024

The Magic Slate Paper Saver was a favorite of kids growing up in the 1960's, 70's and 80's. Selling for 29 - 79 cents over the years, the Magic Slates usually featured popular cartoon, comic book or pop culture characters.

Magic slates came with a little plastic pen that you used to write on a clear piece of cellophane that you then lifted up to erase your writing, and started all over again. It's difficult to find unused Magic Slates, because kids naturally played with them until they were worn out, or they lost the writing pen, etc. Moms would then pitch them into the trash, leaving very few unused ones to be found in good condition.

I recently acquired at auction a large group of Magic Slates that came from Western Publishing's archives in Racine, Wisconsin. For decades, Western's Whitman or Watkins-Strathmore lines produced coloring and sticker book items, paper doll sets and related merchandise until the company was later absorbed by Random House and reconfigured as the Golden Book line.

Land of the Giant's: Airing two years in the late 60's on ABC, this cult classic show was about a space flight gone astray in 1983. The crew and the ship's inhabitants land on a strange planet - similar to earth - but everything's a dozen sizes bigger! The series starred Gary Conway, Don Matheson, Stefan Arngrim, Don Marshall, Deanna Lund, Heather Young, and Kurt Kasznar.

Producer Irwin Allen spared no expense for the special effects, and he was no stranger to these kinds of productions; his other credits included Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Poseidon Adventure, and The Towering Inferno.

Here's a rare item, the Land of the Giant's Magic Slate, with this one being the actual archive copy formerly stored away in the publisher's library! This one has colorful artwork at the top of the characters climbing up giant office supplies and objects such as pencils. Down the sides are other characters dwarfed by their surroundings.

Rare item, copyright 1969 by Kent Productions and 20th Century Fox! Condition: This Watkins-Strathmore Magic Slate is in very good condition, from the original manufacturer's archives! This item was number 4445 in the Western Publishing Company's production numbering line.

The early Magic Slate pens were attached by two little knobs that fastened into two holes. These were phased out and later replaced with pens fastened to the cardboard inside a little plastic bubble to prevent them from being lost or kids playing with them and ruining the inventory at grocery and department stores!

A great item and a must-have for the serious Land of the Giant's or Magic Slate collector!

Value: $400.