1980s Maplin Catalogues
Maplin Electronics, an electronics retailer in the UK and Ireland, has a storied history of print publications, operating its own magazine from 1980-2002, alongside various projects, handbooks, and indices.
Its chunky annual catalogues may have been the core publication though, offering endless computer or synthesizer parts for geeky 80s kids to pore over. And in the wake of Star Wars, Maplin began over an impressive decade-plus run of spaceship and sci-fi-themed covers.
I couldn't find all the artist credits for each individual covers, although some are clearly signed by one Rod Brown, and illustrator Lionel Jeans has mentioned on Tumblr that he did four of the ten covers I'm including here. If any hobbyists out there have more info, get in touch!
I believe the first one is the 1979 catalogue.
Wait, here's a wraparound version I cobbled together from a 300-page scan of the publication. The spine was not included, sadly.
It came with a little write-up explaining the cover, too. I'd be surprise if the Terran Trade Authority wasn't an influence here.
The cover is one of my favorites, with a clean ship design and fun "MAP25" on the side. A lot of the future covers would add more razzle-dazzle, but I like the simplicity here.
See, the 1980 one already has more spaceships, amid some sort of battle. I'll admit that the choice to frame the Maplin title on top of an orange explosion is pretty cool.
There's a gap in Maplin Buyer's Guide covers online, so we're skipping ahead to 1983. It's another Rod Brown that develops the theme of a Maplin-led industrial future, this time with space freighters.
The signature for 1984 looks like it says "DMAC" to me. It's a fun sci-fi world! Highly detailed in a way sure to draw in the 80s nerds.
Next year's cover is even better – I love this style of circuit-board cityscape. It's the same signature as the 1984 cover.
Credit for most of these images goes to this one Pinterest page featuring a ton of retro Maplin stuff - It's probably run by someone named Roger, based off the name scribbled on half these covers.
1986 is a change of pace, with a solar-powered sailboat that looks very Rodney Matthews inspired.
1987 does a consumer-electronics-themed version of the "crowd of space critters" trope, with mostly robots, a few humans, and a Bigfoot-looking Chewbacca rip-off. There's also that weird pink eel floating around.
Back to spaceships for the 1988 cover:
A Maplin-branded hover semi-truck still needs roads. I spot a Lionel Jeans signature on this one. I wonder if he did the '87-'90 covers – they feel of a piece to me.
That's the end of Maplin's 80s-era spaceship covers. It's not the end of Maplin, of course: The tech company reinvented its look constantly, so it'd be impossible not to miss some issues.
That said, much of the '90s covers for Maplin's magazines relied on consumer tech-related photography that I find fairly boring. The 90s catalogues did include a couple cool fruit-themed covers, though:
Okay, that's enough of the UK! Next issue we'll be back to spelling "catalog" without the U at the end.
Next Time: Giuseppe Festino's 'Robot' Covers