Tomy Pokemon figures

I showed our boys the London Olympic mascots, and asked them for their thoughts. They werent particularly vocal, but they did bring down their Pokemon figures, and decided I should put these six on the blog.

Apparently the owl is called Hoot hoot, the duck is Dodou, the cucumber moon is Metapod, the star is Staryu and the mushroom is Vileplume.

I hope you like them, as much as they do?

badly drawn Canadian Puzzle

Id like to be able to tell you more about this rather odd wooden eight piece puzzle, that I picked up recently. Its naivety makes me think of David Shrigley. Printed on wood, and with its limited palette, Its hard to resist.

J Otto Seibold Swatch watch

All the talk about mascots the other day reminded me that J Otto Seibold created a character Glüp for The Hanover expo in 2000, that the organising committee rejected. Mores the pity.

Seibold was the first artist that really exploited the possibilities of drawing on the computer.
When Space Monkey & Mr Lunch were first released, they were like a breath of fresh air, but unfortunately they spawned a 1000 poor imitations. In 1998, at the height of his success, Swatch released two watches by Seibold. I bought this one, while you can see the other design here.

R Dakins' Dream Pets

Weve picked up a few of these recently at different car boots, although it took a while to realise they were from the same series. Apparently Dream Pets were first released in 1957. They were originally made in Japan, and the story goes the stuffed toys had been used to protect toy trains imported by R Dakin & Co. They caused quite a stir and by the late seventies there were over 2000 characters to collect.

Reissued in 2004, The characters stand about 5" high and are made from a mixture of felt, and a suede like product. The three above, are #19. Roquefort #18. Pancho & Demo Donkey. Below is a label detailing the range. You can see a few more over at Pidgeonblog, and a few more here.

Wenlock & Mandeville

Well that explains a lot!

I wondered why my World Cup Willie post was getting so may hits yesterday. Today Wenlock and Mandeville were unveiled to an unsuspecting public. The mascots for the 2012 Olympics! Ive got to say it made my heart sink. Perhaps over time Ill warm to them, but Im not convinced. Here was an opportunity to produce something special, but instead we get some shoddy, silver Gogos, or worse still, one eyed mobile phones? To be frank one even looks like hes soiled his pants.

I appreciate that the brief may have been difficult: to embrace multi cultured Britain, not to offend, and to produce something modern, but they just look cheap! They lack charisma, and look like theyll have a shelf life of two minutes. The result, no doubt, of design by committee!

Michael Morpugos story may have some substance behind it, as do the characters names, but will anyone delve beyond the childish facade?

We actively sought out Cobi, Mariscals mascot for the Barcelona Olympics. We were enchanted by the five Olympic figures from Bejing, but poor old Wenlock & Mandeville look in danger of being remembered for all the wrong reasons.

I suppose at least everyones talking about design today.

Holiday on Ice Musical memory Record Card

Wow! On our way over to my sisters this weekend, the car came to an abrupt halt along the A46, as we saw the signs for a Saturday Carboot in Beckford. The sun was out and our hopes were high! You cant beat the joy of an unexpected trawl.

The boys were happy because they found a mountain of this years Match Attax. (Football trading cards. See, Ive even managed to get them collecting too!) Then I found a pretty battered copy of Angela Banners' Ant & Bee. So everyone was happy! But then, just as we were leaving, I spotted the above. Its in a sorry state, and sadly unplayable, but it's a fore runner of the flexi disc!

Odd, because only last week me old mucker, Nainesh was on about our friend Paul Bayley putting a programme together for Radio 4 on The Wonderful Weightless World of the Flexidisc. The programme goes out on Thursday 27 May 11.30am. Ill be listening!

I didnt get anything to Paul in time, but this Holiday on Ice record is a bit special. Published by Lyntone Recordings of London, the reverse (below) is a postcard! Imagine getting that in the post? The track from the show is The Song is You & Wunderbar, sung by Iris Villiers.




















Now I just have to find the other flexis I wanted to get to Paul!

You can listen to the show here on the bbc iplayer.

1960s badges

Heres three more badges, from the vast collection I found the other week. I hope you like them?

1950s Cup Final Blow Football

Its that time of year again! Tomorrow sees Portsmouth take on Chelsea in the 2010 FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium. I always think of it as a special day and remember fondly as a child going up the high street with my father and buying the Official programme from WH Smith.

Back then, the Cup Final was the only live televised game, and the pre match build up was legendary. Now every game is on the internet, or live on Sky. Somehow, some of the romance has gone. But here from those halcyon days are two fantastic Cup Final commemoratives; Blow Football. It really doesnt get much more glamorous than this!

The top box is from 1958, while the bottom one is from 1960. Neither has a makers mark, but the contents are identical. Round the side of the box, the winners from from that decade are listed. The goalkeepers are beautifully printed on tin, and are threaded along the crossbar, to allow them to move.

Should you want to fill in a 1975 Tiger FA Cup wallchart you can download it from last years Cup Final Post.

The Return of The Hinde

Three more postcards from the John Hinde studio for your consideration. Super saturated and brilliantly composed, they do make me smile! If you missed the first Hinde post you can view it here.

Lyons ice lolly badges

Last week I picked up a lovely collection of Seventies badges. They were fairly mixed, but it was these three, that initially caught my eye. They were given away free, in 1973 with Lyons Maid, Childrens range of ice lollies. There were twelve to collect, and you can see them all here. Its a shame Captian Cody wasnt amongst the lot I found!

The kzwp site is well worth exploring, and according to them, Lyons produced a number of button badges for a wide range of their products. The original prices for the lollies are unbelievable! In 1974 ,the Jelly Terror lolly cost 4p, it had a strawberry jelly centre with a vanilla kreem ice shell and a choc dipped top covered in sugar strands. Wow!

I promise to post some more of the badges later!

Terraced House Books 2

Heres some more books from Peter Heaslip in the Terraced House series.

My Dad, Terraced House Books

Last week I missed the Saturday morning trawl round the charity shops, as I had to work, but luckily Becky came back laden with goodies. Including a set of dual language picture books, in English & Panjabi. Ive been picking up 1970s photographic childrens books, for a while now.

This set entitled " The Terraced House Books " document Britain in the 70s brilliantly! The pick of the bunch was My Dad first published by Methuen in 1978. Written by Peter C Heaslip with photographs by John Bennett.

If you cant view the text, its worth double clicking the image, to get a closer look! Some of the highlights below.























Tomorrow would have been my Dads 80th Birthday. Sadly he died over ten years ago. As a little tribute Ive posted a photo of him, in the front room in the 1950s. He didnt like beer! Happy Birthday Dad!