Tente Monkey Business

I was about to post a whole hoard of older lego duplo figures, but amongst the collection I found this little monkey, who caught my eye, and didnt quite belong. It turned out he was made by a company called Tente.

Tente were based in Barcelona, Spain, where they created a whole range of construction toys along similar lines to lego. Its fans are adamant it was more detailed and even more educational than its Danish counterpart.

The most fantastic thing about this chap, is that his collar spins his head round, to reveal three fabulously different expressions; He can be angry, happy and sleepy.......

But for now hes off to bed.

Emanuele Luzzatti

A while back I posted The Pirates Tale, illustrated by Jill McDonald. It was one of my favourite books as a child. I had meant to post, a whole host of books that had captured my imagination as a boy, but somehow never quite got round to it. So here is the second book in the series by the Emanuelle Luzzatti; Ronald & The Wizard Calico, first published in 1962.

It really is a gem! I can remember being completely enthralled by the images and copied the knights endlessly. This is the only book I have by Luzzatti, but there are others. Whats more, is there are some fantastic animations that were Oscar nominated, no less. Below is The Invisible City by Luzzatti, which he co-authored with Giulio Gianini. Its absolutely charming!



Luzzatti died in 2007, aged 85. You can read his obituary at the Guardian

Clovelly John Hinde

Another "Giant postcard" from the John Hinde Studio. This is Up-A-Long, Clovelly, in North Devon catalogue number 1DC 494

Fabeltjeskrant Dutch childrens jigsaw puzzle

Heres a lovely find, from last year. The characters remind me of Fredun Shapurs fantastic Playsacks, and the trees look like something out of Serge Danots Magic Roundabout.

This fifty piece puzzle comes with no makers mark, or box. So I have no idea whats on show! Its certainly not anything I remember from my youth. Theres one small clue in the right hand corner, where the owl holds a copy of the Daily Fable. As usual, any additional information would be much appreciated.

27 April 2010

Fantastic! Ellen over at Turning pages has just got in touch and told me all about the Puzzle. The characters come from a Dutch TV Show "Fabeltjeskrant", which appears to have translated as The Daily Fable. Theres an excellent website full of facts about the series as well as a couple of episodes dubbed into English.

Ellen is a designer over in Holland, and her blog is well worth a visit! She has some lovely items listed which include a couple of lovely postcards of some of the Fabeltjeskrant characters.

Mr Magoo 1001 Arabian Nights

A while back I was lucky enough to find these lobby cards for UPA's first animated feature from 1959, 1001 Arabian Nights starring Mr Magoo. Unfortunately Ive never had the chance to see the whole film but you can view the trailer below



Sadly, the film doesnt seem to have been very well received, which is a real shame because I love the background drawings, and the super technicolor (see John Hinde). The drawings are by Jules Engel, whos pictured below.










If you like the whole fifties cartoon scene, theres a fantastic book by Amid Amidi called Cartoon Modern, which really is superb. If you cant wait to see the book, you can hop along over to his very informative blog , where the picture above is taken from.