Playthings Magazine Ad, August 1978
The oldest 2-XL ad I've found yet. Playthings is a magazine aimed at toy retailers, and this ad was placed right after 2-XL had been test marketed in New York and was about to go national. Mego was worried that a lot of retailers would pass on such an expensive toy, and this ad was designed to make sure they gave 2-XL a try in their stores.

Playthings Magazine Cover, September 1978
By the following month, 2-XL had made the cover! A star is born!

Montgomery Wards 1978 Catalog
Another prototype used for the photo-shoot? Note the light grey -- dare I say it, white -- color of the 2-XL, while everything else about it is the same as the finished product. Another interesting thing is the slightly-off titles for the 2-XL tapes. For a larger view of just the text, click here.

Original Mego Tape Flier: Page 1 (1978)
The early Mego flier included with 2-XL, which gave descriptions of the first batch of 2-XL tapes. These descriptions were the identical to the descriptions used on the tapes themselves, as opposed to the later 1981 flier.

Original Mego Tape Flier: Page 2 (1978)
The back page of the early Mego flier.

Heroes World Catalog Issue 2, Fall 1979
2-XL in a comic book! In the late 1970s you always saw toy ads in comics that were drawn in comic book style. It turns out those ads were done by the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon & Graphic Art (Joe Kubert having been a famous comic artist himself) for a company called Heroes World. So it's no surprise that Heroes World's catalog was printed completely as a comic book. So here's 2-XL, a la the Kubert School!

Introducing 2-XL: Page 1 (1979)
Now this was an interesting flier... it was apparently done in 2-XL's second year, before the wave of 1979 tapes were released. This flier was used to promote 2-XL to schools. What's interesting is that these 2-XLs came with earphones (something you couldn't use with regular 2-XLs), and there were 3 assortments of tapes listed that were never offered to the regular stores!

Introducing 2-XL: Pages 2 and 3 (1979)
The inside of the school flier. This artwork was later re-used for the 1981 2-XL Tape mail-away flier. The text on Page 2 says that many of the programs come with 8 1/2" x 11" work books. This would make them full size books like the one that came with "Word & Sound Games" and not the regular 8-Track sized little booklets.

Introducing 2-XL: Page 4 (1979)
Here's the list of those scholastic-only tapes. Notice a few of them were eventually released in different versions (Talking Calculator, Math & Number Games) than the titles given here. Since Assortment 1 was all tapes from the initial 1978 release, does this mean that these three other assortments were only planned? Were they ever really made? Also interesting to note is that the programs were developed not just by Dr. Freeman but also with Gary P. Mulkowsky, Ph.D. And check out the 2-XL drawings on the walls in the background of the photos.

2-XL Tri-Lex Trade Ad Front (1980, 1981)
This is a trade industry ad, which was given to toy stores to promote 2-XL and to help them advertise it. This one focuses on 2-XL himself and Tri-Lex.

2-XL Tri-Lex Trade Ad Back (1980, 1981)
The back of the trade industry ad, which features black & white photos, logos, line drawings and text copy for stores to use to create newspaper ads.

2-XL Tape Assortments Trade Ad Front (1980, 1981)
This is another trade industry ad, this time focusing on the different 2-XL tapes. The ad is dated 1981, but is definitely from early 1981 to promote the newest tapes from 1980: the tape assortments offered don't include any of the 1981 tapes yet, and Robotrivia, Robotstronomy and Word & Sound Games (the only tapes to be released in 1980) are given special attention.

2-XL Tape Assortments Trade Ad Back (1980, 1981)
The back of the trade industry ad, once again featuring black & white photos and line drawings for use in newspaper ads. The line drawings of the tape covers are especially humorous in this one... see if you can tell which tapes they're meant to be. :)

1981 Mego Tape Mail-Away Flier: Page 1
This is probably the last promotional flier that was made for the Mego 2-XL, released in 1981, shortly before Mego officially went out of business in 1983.. I seem to recall I originally got this flier when I wrote to Mego about 2-XL, and they sent me one of these as a response. (Or maybe I got the flier and then wrote the address on it... my memory's a bit hazy.) At any rate, this flier was also included with the later 2-XLs. It includes all the tapes from the final wave, and some of the earlier tapes (such as "Reading, Writing and Arithmatic" and "TV and Movie Challenges" have been removed.

1981 Mego Tape Mail-Away Flier: Page 2
The second side of the Mego flier. This was a fold-out flier, which made it very LONG. The bottom order form was perferated so you could fill it out, rip it off, tape it shut and mail it in to order your 2-XL tapes. There was also a box to check if you simply wanted to join the "2-XL Club." (Now I definitely remember doing that.) Since Mego sadly went out of business shortly after this, nothing ever came out of the 2-XL Club (at least, to my knowledge).

TIGER 2-XL
Tiger 2-XL Magazine Advertisement
I don't remember what magazine I originally found this one in, but it appears to be from 1992 when the Tiger 2-XL was originally released.

Tiger 2-XL Cross-Promotional Flier: Front (1992)
Tiger released this ad with their other products to get the word out about 2-XL. This particular flier was released with the Tiger "Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers" hand held electronic game. I just love that Frankenstein lightning effect.... "IT'S ALIIIIIVE!!!!"
Extra special thanks to Ruth for generously donating this flier!

Tiger 2-XL Cross-Promotional Flier: Back (1992)
The back of the same Tiger ad, featuring the first batch of Tiger program tapes. Thanks again to Ruth!

Tiger 2-XL Scholastic Series (Good Housekeeping, Dec. 1994)
From the December 1994 issue of Good Housekeeping, a full-page spread promoting the (then) new Scholastic Series programs, along with a rebate coupon.

KASEY THE KINDERBOT
Fisher-Price 2004 Catalog
Page 38 of the newest Fisher-Price catalog features not just Kasey, but his new friends Toby the Totbot and Fetch the Phonicsbot, plus a new backpack to hold Kasey's cartridges!