Wheres Wotan ?

I recently decided to change my avatar picture from the angry looking rubber alien 'Wotan' to a more suitable 'tree man' again from the same stable of rubber 'Teachers Pets' monsters that I had as a kid. These two little figures are among my most favourite of all the monsters I had and have survived years of abuse and neglect. Since starting on this blog, the ranks of Wotans have expanded considerably from the initial rubber one to the tiny silver one that came with apollo moon exploring sets, to key ring based incarnations and more recently with the help of uber collector Astronit, to a clear plastic and further rubber versions of my favourite martian. Just this week, the mighty hordes acquired a new home, courtesy of the Lord of Sword himself, a fab bubble frame. I had just enough different versions to fill each compartment of the cool display frame and duly hung the boys on my wall. Looking at it and the figures slightly aggrieved expression, reminded me of that early episode of Dr Who where the cybermen, attended by cybermats, emerged from plastic cocoons on the space station and also of the episode of 'Out of the Unknown' on the BBC, 'Beachhead' where the enigmatic black aliens stared impassively from their egg shaped homes.