A Mountain of Q*Bert Merchandise

I've always been fond of Gottlieb's classic arcade game, Q*Bert.  But I had forgotten how much effort was invested in trying to launch the little orange hosenose into the Pac-Man category back in the day.

This article from the November 1983 issue of Electronic Games magazine shows off a whole bunch of now-forgotten official Q*Bert merchandise (click to enlarge):

Pencil toppers, vinyl Kenner miniatures, console and tabletop and board game versions, plush toys, wind-ups, tote bags... there was a lot of licensed product in stores for Christmas 1983.  But Q*Bert was always more of a hardcore game -- the difficulty ramped up quickly, and while the character design was cute enough, his tendency toward unintelligible cartoon profanity made him slightly risque at the time.  While the character survived well into the 1990s with versions for the NES and the Playstation, he was never quite as accessible as Namco's friendly, hungry little yellow guy.

Still, I'd love to have one of those plushies.  @!#?@! indeed.