COMIC BOOK WAR GAMES
"CONVOY TERROR"
A NAVAL BATTLE GAME BY
FIVE STAR TOYS
The Convoy Terror Ad above appeared in a 1963 DC comic book called "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis." The Ad features art very similar to the later "Fighting Ships" War Game Ads but it seems to focus on a Russian Navy vs. USA Navy theme, where as the Ads for Fighting Ships do not mention Russia.
Like Fighting Ships, Convoy Terror featured 132 pieces - "Two Complete Modern Navies in Gray and Green." It also included a paper Playmat "Battle Area", "2 Gyroscopic Indicators", and a "Comparison Chart" showing real US and Russian Naval ships.
In the image below, we have found what are believed to be most of the various ship styles used for Convoy Terror and Fighting Ships, and the two "Gyroscopic Indicators." The Indicators are actually just simple spinners that spin like a top until they stop and tilt over to land on a number 1 - 6. Evidently this determined the number of moves players could make in a turn.
Note the incredibly tiny size of the Airplanes (which were evidently placed on the large 5" Aircraft Carriers.) Quite a few of the planes could easily fit on the face of a quarter and are so small they could barely be picked up from a flat table. One often had to press one's finger down on them like crumbs and hope they stuck to the skin long enough to be picked up and moved!
A contributor got in touch to confirm that the Convoy Terror Playmat did look exactly like the later Fighting Ships playmat, however, it was made of paper (he recalled finding his pet rabbit chewing and urinating on the doomed paper mat!) This confirms that at least some of the early Helen of Toy playmats were made of paper as opposed to the later plastic playmats. See the Fighting Ships page of this web site to view the plastic version of the playmat.
This web site has not yet seen any examples of Convoy Terror. If you can help with images, directions, or more information, please get in touch.
