ROM: The Parker Brothers Electronic Experience

17 May 2025

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The ROM Price Index

The Big Mac Index is well known. It compares the price of a Big Mac in countries all over the world as a gauge of purchasing power, using the U.S. price as the benchmark.

But here’s a new one: the Rom Index. Consider it as a gauge of inflation and innovation.

While rummaging around the Mattsonian’s sprawling archives, I unearthed a classic item. It’s the Rom action figure from Parker Brothers.

Here are some of the details:

• 13 inches tall
• 4 points of articulation
• Light up eyes
• Light up respirator in the chest that also makes breathing sounds
• The jetpack lights up and makes "realistic" jet sounds
• Three attachments light up via a wired connection to Rom’s jetpack; each displays a unique lighting pattern and makes unique sounds
• Energy Analyzer
• Translator
• Neutralizer

The various jetpack, respirator and attachment effects are initiated by pressing two buttons on the jetpack. The left button is pressed a certain number of times based on the desired effect and the right button is pressed to initiate it. The electronics are powered by a 9-volt battery. (Battery not included, of course.)

Given this Rom was released in 1980, it’s still a rather impressive piece of interactive electronic programming intended to spark the imagination of those who play with it.

Now, in 2025, a new Rom has been released by Hasbro (which acquired Parker Brothers in 1991). The details are less impressive with this new model.

• 6 inches tall
• 20 points of articulation (according to Hasbro)
• Four accessories; none of them light up or make sounds
• Energy Analyzer
• Neutralizer with attachable neutralizer beam
• Swappable second set of hands
• A plastic, to-scale miniature cover of Rom’s debut issue from Marvel comics (so, yeah, the Galladorian can hold and "read" a comic book about his life and adventures)

Here’s what’s incredible about this find from the Mattsonian. Rom’s in perfect working condition and comes complete with the box, instructions and mail-in warranty card. And stashed away — no doubt for use as proof of purchase for any warranty claim — is the original credit card receipt. It’s old school. It’s from back when the credit card would be placed on a mechanical metal device, with a receipt placed on top of it. The receipt, in this case, has three copies bound together and each is separated by something called "carbon paper." The cashier would then roll a wheel across the paper, which provided enough pressure for the embossed credit card number and name to be — magically (!) — imprinted on the three receipt documents. It’s signed by the card holder and one copy — the yellow copy — is then given to the customer, typically along with a cash register receipt stapled to it.

But, of course, before going through this process, the cashier would pull a little booklet out from a drawer. The booklet’s printed on phone book* paper. They’d sift through the booklet and make sure the credit card number presented to them on the card isn’t in the book. That’d be a declined, invalid card.

According to the receipt in the box, the 1980 Rom cost a staggering $24.99.

Now, in 2025, the new Rom action figure costs an equally staggering $24.99. (With all the tariff activity today, some are charging $26.99 to cover those increases to pass along the cost of doing business to the consumers.)

The identical pricing is a pretty crazy coincidence. But it’s also an interesting example of how much more expensive everything is now, including toys. This example, though, goes beyond that pesky shrinkflation, wherein prices stay the same but the amount of product provided is decreased (as with bags of potato chips). This is more depressing. It’s a sign innovation hasn’t really seeped down into the every day toy as one might’ve expected in 1980.

Tack on the higher taxes, too. They're almost a triple.

Sales tax on the large-size Rom in 1980: $1.00.

Sales tax on the small-size Rom in 2025: $2.83 (plus a ridiculous 29-cent regional delivery fee for online orders).

Yeah, having more points of articulation is cool. But this is also a dumbing down of the product.

There’s nothing innovative in the new Rom. No bells. No whistles. Just a simple, standard plastic action figure.

*For those who don’t know what a phone book is… Sigh. That’s material for another article.

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