Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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| Image by Tumisu from Pixabay |
If it's true that everyone loves a mystery, then all of us are in luck. That's because a mystery is just what we've got.
And that mystery is what on Earth are we all talking about?
That, I cannot say because it's time to be exposed, once more, to the feature in which I keep quiet and whomsoever reads this blog gets to decide today's topic for debate.
Or at least the first person to comment below does.
Therefore, don't be careless and don't be late. Get that question posted and let loose the dogs of jaw.
Which toy, book, comic etc - you no longer own - torments you, because you can't remember its name - or enough about its appearance - to look it up on the Internet?
ReplyDeleteAged about 4, I had a blue space-gun, that fired caps, which - no matter how many space-guns, cap-guns, etc, I look up - I cannot locate & identify.
Also, I read a haunted house story at the top end of Junior school, whose name & author I can't recall - nor can I remember the story. That's been bugging me for years, too!
What annoying unknown knowns - Charlie's Tornado annual's now out of the running - bug you?
Phillip
Thanks for the topic, Phillip.
ReplyDeleteI had a toy castle when I was young but, despite clearly remembering it, have never been able to find it on the internet.
I also had a book about a dog that discovers an abandoned tree-house and explores inside it. That's all I recall of its plot but I remember loving it.
Interesting, Steve! I had a toy castle, too - and I've still got it somewhere. It might take some searching for, though! Probably a different one - but there's still a chance!
ReplyDeletePhillip
I was given a present of a Japanese tin robot when I was about 5 or 6 years old. Despite these being amazingly popular toys now I have never managed to find a picture of the robot as I remember it looking online or in books.
ReplyDeletein addition I recall reading a kids book again when I was about 5 , that featured text stories but also printed panels of Ken Reid's Fudge the Elf strip, I loved that book but can't recall it's name. I eventually managed to track down the Fudge collection and the strip I read at 5 years old ( by Savoy books) but I have had no luck at all recalling the book I first read this in.
Steve - After rummaging behind the boiler, I've found it! The castle was made by a company named 'Cherilea', & came complete with model knights! Maybe 1974. It's got a price tag of £2.99, with a sticker labelled. 'Thoms'. I think this shop was also called 'Cyrils' - and maybe had another incarnation, too.
ReplyDeletehttps://picclick.co.uk/Vintage-Cherilea-Toys-Mediaeval-Castle-With-Action-323705876550.html
Phillip
Paul - On the robots subject, my much older sister had a board game with questions, and a robot with a pointy stick, and when you did something (pressed the robot into the dais it was planted/standing in?)- as if by magic - the robot would swivel round, and point to the correct answer. I can't remember the name of that board game, but it was tatty, even in the mid-70s - so maybe it was a game big in the 60s!
ReplyDeletePhillip
I've found it!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.sweetandnostalgic.co.uk/the-magical-amazing-robot---retro-family-board-game-10272-p.asp
Phillip
Phillip, my pal had that Magic Robot game, I was always amazed at how it worked at the time. Glad you found it.
DeleteSteve - The only dog book immediately springing to mind is 'Adventuring With Brindle', by Rosemary Garland. However, I can't remember if a tree house is involved!
ReplyDeletePhillip
Paul - Yeah - I suppose the robot's position on his circle must have been correlated/ calibrated(?) to exactly correspond with the position of each question, on its circle, somehow; but, like you say, to a kid it seemed like magic!
ReplyDeletePhillip
Charlie has a very strong, pleasant, most favorable recollection of seeing the green captain Marvel, in one of the machines into which you placed a dime and two pennies, or perhaps a nickel, pused the lever, and the comic would fall to the bottom.
ReplyDeleteObviously, the superset of marvel covers with the green captain Marvel is very finite. But I’ll be damned if I can recall which one it was… I just know it was in the summertime and it would be cover dated three months forward probably like September.
Charlie— a friend of mine who grew up in Chicago told me he used to get comics out of a vending machine when he was a kid and you’re the only other person I know who did the same. He said the comics were usually mangled pretty badly in the process — did yours fare any better?
ReplyDeleteAs For day’s topic — I wouldn’t say it’s something I obsess over, but back in 1967 or so, when 12 inch action figures G.I. Joe, Johnny West and Captain Action were all the rage, I remember seeing a really cheap knock-off at our local Gemco that I kinda/sorta coveted. My memory is that he was some kind of paramilitary spy or something — he didn’t have a removable costume like those other 12-inch figures, instead his outfit was molded as part of his body, and he came with lots of gear, including a pistol, a rifle, a knife and a walkie -talkie. I used to think his name was Captain Hap Hazard, but it turns out that was the name of a Major Matt Mason knock-off that came out around the same time. I have no what this guy’s name really was, which company produced it or if he even really existed or if I just imagined the whole deal. I doubt I’ll ever solve the mystery at this point…
b.t.
When I was around six or seven I read a weekly comic-strip about the life of St Francis of Assisi but I'm baffled about WHERE this comic-strip was published. At the time I hadn't yet discovered Marvel so I'd have been reading The Beezer and The Topper every week but would either of those comics have featured the life of a Catholic saint?? My family weren't Catholic or even religious so I'd never have heard of St Francis of Assisi if not for this comic-strip but WHERE did I see it??
ReplyDeleteHi Colin - as a professional reader of Topper, Beezer, Beano, etc. i never once saw anything remotely religious in terms of Catholic Saints. I wonder if somehow you were reading Treasure Chest comics published by a US Catholic entity. Though Catholic focused they had art by Reed Crandall, war stories, stories of saints…
ReplyDeleteHi b.t. - Charlie has no recollection of the comics from the machines being mangled even though the from the highest row they fell maybe 5 feet? That said, in the 60s (and I am now in my 60s… grrrr!) i was not paying particular attention to little knicks and dings if any. I’ll find a link to these machines. 2 colmns wide and 4-5 rows high so you would see 8-10 comics. Besides each was a handle to insert the coins. Push the coins in and voila the comic falls.
ReplyDeleteGo to collectorsweekly.com and type in comic book vending machine. They apparently were not a nationwide thing and different areas, if they had such machines, had different types of machines. They are rare.
ReplyDeleteIntriguing topic; a head scratcher- trying to identify these various things.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading a book when I was about 8; about a couple kids going on a hunt for dinosaur fossils along with some adventuresome adults. Really can't recall anything further, other than that I wished I was along for the trip. Back then I read about anything that had dinosaurs in it, or referred to them in any way...
Phillip, sadly, my castle was very different from that one. However, the name Cherilea does ring a bell. I'm certain I had some toys that were made by them, although I'm not sure what.
ReplyDeleteWe had a game that was all but identical to the magic robot game but ours had a little model of Confucius that would do the pointing.
Colin, Could that story have been in a comic/magazine like Look and Learn or perhaps a cover story / feature ( Who is it?) in Valiant ?
ReplyDeleteI don't think so, Paul, but thanks for the suggestions.
ReplyDeleteMine are English 1970s childhood books - early childhood, pre-school - that still stick in my memory for a couple of vivid images or ideas, but not enough to fuel a Google search...
ReplyDeleteA book about a family who go into town to get the shopping as it begins to snow and end up stuck in a snow-drift when it turns into a blizzard; but they have food and a camp stove and they're able to feed themselves and it's quite cosy, and soon after they're rescued. There is never a hint of danger.
A book about a tree that's struck by lightning and a little girl sets up home there.
A book called 'Starshine' [?] that was apparently my favourite book but I had to give it to someone as a birthday present when I was invited to their party and we forgot to get them a present.
That sort of thing.
Matthew - I remember a similar early childhood book, entitled "Flash, Crash, Rumbled & Roll", explaining all about thunderstorms, in an accessible way, for young children! This is the cover I knew:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204480366879?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338268676&toolid=10044&customid=EAIaIQobChMItcL97cOIhAMVJYtQBh1u5weCEAQYAyABEgItUPD_BwE
Phillip
Rumble - not Rumbled! Typos!
ReplyDeletePhillip
If anyone can help Charlie remember a show he saw in the late 1960s. It was serialized, like 5 - 10 minute increments. Involved 4 people (I think 2 men, 2 boys) traveling down a river. As the traveled they came closer to the modern era.
ReplyDeleteI do remember a scene where they were paddling by and watching dinosaurs fight.
I am going mad, I tell you. I have posted here and there about recovering this memory in full. Even posted at "Back in the Bronze Age" as well as asking Redartz, Mike, Doug directly (since we get together bi-annually to do a Comic Con in Chicago) but no luck!
Help!
Charlie - Are you thinking of the 'Valley of the Dinosaurs' cartoon? Steve identified that for me, ages ago (albeit that was mid 70s, & involved a family, not all males!)
ReplyDeletePhillip
Philip -
ReplyDeleteNo it wasn't that one [though that looks really good! If I wasn't trying to make space in the loft I'd have snapped that up].
It was a British book, very 70s coloured pen & ink illustrations, and the protagonist was a young girl.
Also have deep nostalgic pangs for the Green / Red / Blue Pirate books we had in pre-school.
MM
Charlie, is this the TV series "Land of the Lost" about a family ( dad and his 2 kids) lost in a time warp with dinosaurs etc - apologies if already suggested
ReplyDeletePHILIP, McSCOTTY -not a cartoon. I will check out Land of the Lost! What’s also weird, and not sure if this is related or different, but I also keep recalling a gong sound starting each episode and the name being belted out
ReplyDeleteThere is an issue of HOT ROD CARTOONS that I had as a kid that seems to not exist anymore. I have a pretty good mental picture of its cover art but can’t find it anywhere online, as if some careless time traveler stepped on the wrong butterfly and erased it. It’s weird.
ReplyDeleteb.t.