one, two three and away!

One, Two, Three and Away was a reading scheme series of books for children written by Sheila McCullagh, and illustrated by Ferelith Eccles Williams aka Eccles. First published in the 1965 by Collins in the U.K, the books were still being reprinted in the 1980s.

My first encounter with the characters was in the Collins books but on picking my son up from nursery recently I discovered his class had these deligthful wooden dolls and what a find!

The story centered around The Village with Three Corners and featured Roger Red Hat, Billy Blue Hat, twins Johnny and Jennifer Yellow Hat and Percy Green Hat. The tallest doll measures 130mm.

There was also a video and a set of rubber stamps to accompany the series of books.

crazy crater critters

Sunday is never a Sunday without a trip to the car boot sale. Six months ago these fantastic bits of plastic turned up for the princely sum of 10p. I was utterly charmed. They now have pride of place in the kitchen.

Released sometime in the 1960s by Kelloggs, they came free in Sugar Smacks cereals. There were eight Crater Critters to collect and the three creatures from the craters of outerspace here are Miss Venus, King Crater, and Glubber.

Theres a fantastic website over at crater critters Not only can you view all the lovely critters but also hundreds of other plastic cereal freebies. Its well worth a look!

Skipping?

Some of my favourite finds have been from skips. Theres just something you cant beat about getting something for nothing, and of course the notion that something so beautiful could have ever been discarded.

Ive always enjoyed mis-registered and overprinted pieces of print. I guess it stems from Vaughan Olivers covers for Colourbox on 4AD records. I've always wondered what happened to the printing press that printed this. If only I could get my hands on it!

These two stunning cards were recovered from a skip in North London in the late 1980s. It looked like someone had moved out, perhaps in a hurry and sadly a load of kids stuff had got binned.

I cant read arabic but judging on the format I reckon these are a form of Top Trumps, massive in Britain in the late Seventies and now finding favour with the next generation.

The two characters on the cards are the footballers Dino Zoff, Italys most famous goalkeeper & could that possibly be Aberdeens Willie Miller ?

Live action Babar!

I found these rather handsome dominoes a while back in a junk shop in Wales .They apparently come from a 1969 French TV Series entitled Tele Babar.

Life size actors play Babar and his friends in this charming adaptation of Laurent De Brunhoffs timeless classic.

The sets and costumes are by Jacques Marillier

The Good Soldier Sveijk

Amongst one of my most cherished possessions and possibly earliest, are these postcards from Czechoslovakia from 1977. I was always lead to believe that they were from a film by the master of puppet animation, Jiri Trnka.

Ill be happy to be corrected and even more delighted if anyone knows more. Ive never seen the film, or read the book for that matter. But I do have two rather nice egg cups featuring him!

The story of Sveijk is set in World War I and follows the bumbling soldier as he attempts to follow orders and impress his superiors invariably lead to catastrophe.