Wombles, Smurfs and Miscellaneous Tat
The Wombles became nationally famous in the UK in the mid 1970s as a result of a very popular BBC children's television show using stop motion animation and narrated by the legendary Bernard Cribbens. These shows were repeated every weekday morning when I was very young and I was hooked!
As my brother is 7 years older than me, he was the perfect age for first generation merchandise so I soon collected (in the way that younger siblings do) my first soft Womble. For the next 8 or 9 years I did my own bit for the environment by saving a great many Womble related artifacts from the landfill!
The Smurfs are small blue creatures – most recently appearing in their own Hollywood movie!
For anyone of my age however, Smurfs belong in cartoon form (old school, none of this CGI), and as small plastic figurines.
National petrol (before my time) gave promotional figures away in the 1970’s, just as McDonalds did in the 1990’s. My elder brother had held on to his free Smurfs…which became mine (ahem). There was a lot of these about in the 1980’s, so it was an easy and fun thing to collect.
Tat = Something of no real practical use / possessing no lasting money or resale value.
Bin them - before it's too late!!
- Hits: 51
- Category: Wombles, Smurfs and Miscellaneous Tat
Empty yogurt cartons from 1990. I kid you not. I want to be clear I'm not one of those people that keeps empty egg cartons and flattens cereal boxes, but every now and again something like this slips through the net. The weird thing is I can tell you EXACTLY why I have these:
1. They are Dennis the Menace yogurts and at the time I collected all things D.C.Thompson (the publishers of the Beano).
2. A certain number of tokens from the cardboard insert got you a free stunt kite (which I still have...and I may also have a spare cardboard insert...*sigh*)
When Snap Crackle and Pop were cool!
- Hits: 55
- Category: Wombles, Smurfs and Miscellaneous Tat
While I don't have the patience now, back in the day I was quite happy to collect tokens for things, send them off, and then wait for up to 28 days for delivery. This watch is one such item I waited for (I actually have 2 so must have eaten quite a lot of Rice Crispies). I love it and if it had a slightly bigger strap I daresay I'd even wear it now and again.
TV Tie-Ins
- Hits: 40
- Category: Wombles, Smurfs and Miscellaneous Tat
A little trip back to the 1970's now with 4 well known greats...and Sir Prancelot! Dating from the early 70's these colourful little books cost me the same when I bought them in the mid 90's as they did the original purchaser - 5p each! None of them came with the pop-out models alluded to on the covers (sadly), and they only have about 8 pages or so in them, but I could never resist a TV Tie-In.
The Hair Bear what now?
- Hits: 71
- Category: Wombles, Smurfs and Miscellaneous Tat
First of all, in terms of what this is - it's a money box, but that's not the most interesting thing. Now I must have had this for a good 22-23 years and I've always known it was one of the Hair Bear Bunch, a Hanna-Barbera cartoon from the 1970's. As I sat down to write this little paragraph however I realised I've never seen a single episode of said cartoon! I was however really into animation when I was younger and had a big Hanna-Barbera book so probably recognised it from there. I've never been wholly convinced it was genuine, it isn't marked and is made from a very strange type of thick plastic. All the same, he's kinda cool.
Robin Hood Art
- Hits: 56
- Category: Wombles, Smurfs and Miscellaneous Tat
This is a set of Robin Hood figures from the 1960's I'd be guessing. Robin, Little John, Marian, the Sheriff, Friar Tuck and an unidentified stooge (they have their names written their bases). Again, we're not talking a lot of monetary worth but they photograph well don't they? I'm even tempted to whack this on a T-Shirt. I remember when you used to get things like this free with cereal!
Rowlf, you muppet!
- Hits: 80
- Category: Wombles, Smurfs and Miscellaneous Tat
I'm pretty sure I have two of these (and if I ever see another one cheap enough I'll probably have three, then four etc.). He is of course Rowlf the piano playing dog from the Muppets, and he is a puppet of sorts. He has a hole in his back for you to put your hand through and you can operate his mouth. Rowlf is a lot of fun to use as his arms and ears flop about when you make him 'perform.'