Brockhouse

Just one of my old drawings of a couple of friends passing the time of day. "Brock" of course is an old word for badger, which is what the fellow with the pipe and tankard is supposed to be.

Can It

I've just read in the news that the 89-year-old creator of the Pringles' can, Dr. Fredric J. Baur, has died, been cremated, and, as per his request, part of his ashes have been buried in a Pringles' can in the Arlington Memorial Gardens in Cincinnati, Ohio. Reportedly he considered the can his greatest creation and was proud that it be part of his final resting arrangements. What didn't fit in the can were placed in an ordinary urn. Can and urn share the same plot.

We Have Met The Detergent Premiums, And They Are Ours

In 1969, Walt Kelly, the creator of the Pogo Possum comic strip, together with animator Chuck Jones of Loony Tunes fame, produced the Pogo Special Birthday Special. To promote it, Walt Kelly himself sculpted six figures of his main characters, which were then offered in various brands of detergent, among them Biz.

My mother, always on a lookout for a bargain and toys for her brood, was over the months that they were available able to get us three characters: Pogo Possum, Churchy laFemme the turtle, and Howland Owl. This was supplemented by our Omi with a spare Pogo from her detergent, thus making up a character each for us four boys, as we were. We loved these toys because they actually looked like their characters (which was rare at the time), because we could switch their heads, and because they were so tough.

Not tough enough, alas. With the carelessness of youth we eventually lost Churchy's head and arms, and Howland first lost the tips of his feathery ears, then his arm, then the top of his head to a gnawing dog. Only Pogo, with his single point of articulation (the neck), survived intact, but one of them was lost to our Poppa's unsentimental cleaning outs.

It was always our ambition, since the first, to get a complete set. Eventually we got a Porkypine from a garage sale, but that was it for a long time. Then eBay came along, and suddenly much seemed possible. Prices ranged from reasonable to unreasonably high, and for a long time my natural caution and unfamiliarity with on-line bidding kept me a pining on-looker.

Just last week I saw a seller offering a complete set, and I went to my friend at Z's Toys and asked him to put in a bid for me. The opening bid was about $5, and I told him I was willing to go up to $60, with shipping. Then I sat back and nervously waited. On Friday I learned we had won. On Saturday I learned the toys were in. Just today I went in at 12:30, and the dream of thirty-nine years was fulfilled, for $46.

The full set is here: Pogo Possum, Albert the Alligator, Porkypine, Howland Owl, Churchy laFemme, and Beauregard Hound. A little aged here and there, a little loose in a joint or two, but then aren't we all since then?

New Statement of Purpose

It's the last day--indeed, almost the last hour--of May, and I want to start the new month with my new Statement of Purpose. Not that I'll be abandoning action figures. But as a topic of discussion it cannot always occupy my attention.

Not that it's too limited a topic. In fact, it's almost too vast. I've had so many more action figures to discuss other than the three that I actually posted this month--and three volumes of Tomart's Encyclopedia & Price Guide to Action Figure Collectibles--and coming action figures--that I've sat down many times to write a post and gave up at the immensity of the task. So, paradoxically, by broadening my field of posts I hope to be able to deal with the job, in effect resting with other things till I get back to the toys.

What other things? My fads, freaks, and fallacies, my memories, dreams, anectodage, books, movies, TV shows, favorite poems, pictures, fugitive writings--in effect, my blathering opinions on life, the universe, and everything. This will probably interest only my four readers (and not always all of them), but there it is.

And so, as the saying goes--"On with the goddamn circus!"

Zira

When I went to Florida some months ago, I got three of the Medicom Planet of the Apes figures: Cornelius, Dr. Zaius, and General Aldo. Medicom has, in my opinion, come out with the perfect sculpt and format for Ape figures (and by this I mean action figures, not dolls, which, let us face it, are basically what the old, much-beloved Mego Apes were). But I wanted--nay, needed, nay CRAVED--a Zira figure to complete the basic quartet. After all, what would Cornelius be without Zira? So my good friend at Z's Toys kept his eyes open and ordered me one when it became available on eBay. Today it came in, and I bought it for $22.

I tried and tried to get a scan off the card, but I'm having trouble with my new program Adobe Photoshop. I suppose it's probably because I'm not used to it, but it seems less straight forward and less intuitive than my old Adobe program. I think that's one reason for my scandalously scant output: this is only my third post of the month! Anyway I ended up using a picture grabbed off of Google.

Cloud Strife

Cloud Strife. Enemy of Sephiroth. Love interest of Aerith. Side story in Kingdom Hearts and major player in Final Fantasy. Bit of a moody stiff, to tell the truth. And never, never in all the time I've known him has he ever picked up a check. Not even a lousy cup of coffee. He hasn't called his mother in three years. Always too busy fighting and brooding about his destiny. And let me tell you, after a bout with Sephiroth that leather smells none too fresh. He doesn't deserve Aerith, that's for sure, but she is so sweet and so patient...she's just wasting herself on him, if you ask me. Wasting herself. >sighs<

Well, yada yada yada, 22 points of articulation, Square Enix, and so forth.

Axel

I got Axel some weeks ago, for $23, from Z's Toys and More. He's the last guy in Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts series; at least, he's the last I've gotten.

In the Kingdom Hearts mythos, Axel is a member of the sinister Organiztion 13, a group of "Nobodies" who want to gain ultimate power and real personhood. He became a friend of Roxas, Sora's alternative persona, and his purpose in the game is to re-awaken and separate Roxas from Sora. In the process he works against his fellow members of Organization 13, befriends Sora, and dies defending him.

Other good characters also wear the Organization 13 robes to infiltrate the order (including Riku and King Mickey, a.k.a. Mickey Mouse), and this is what has undoubtedly inspired this item in the Museum Replicas Limited catalog:

Copy reads: "Gatekeeper Coat: From a video game kingdom comes this awesome long coat made of a shimmering nylon with an extra full hood and bell sleeves. The double-action front zipper allows for a variety of different looks. Complete with a chain of accent crosses and keys. $130."