Its Sunday morning, the sun is shining at long last and the coffee is piping hot. Yes, it feels like Winter may be well and truly coming to an end after all. Even the frogs are at it in our new Moonbase pond, which I consider to be the official nod of approval.
When I was a kid I liked nothing better than to check out my stuff in the sunshine. My pockets were always crammed with nic-nacs like cap gun rolls, board game parts, anglo bubbly gum, rubber jigglers and key rings.
I had tons of key rings. They were everywhere that Kids went back then: shops, zoos, garages, everywhere. One of my favourites was a plastic King Kong key ring. I say King Kong, but of course he could have simply been a big gorilla. I suppose anyone could make a gorilla toy and suggest it was King Kong. Was the name in the public domain I wonder?
My key ring looked a bit like this American one on Etsy but not quite. Mine had its feet standing on a base, as if a small plastic figure had been made into a key ring. Also the key ring itself had a proper opening clasp.
The figure looked more like the Kong in this picture again from Etsy. The small one to the left. Mine may have had his arms down, but the mists of Skull Island have fogged my brain over the years. I can't remember!
Like LP astronauts these little Kongs seemed to be everywhere too. Once off his Island he certainly multiplied in number. He appears in a rack toy by Fleetwood Toys like this one on Ebay.
and again even closer over at Plaid Stallions. He may also have punched his way into the mega rare Tarzan set by Lone Star by I'd have to check that*. I bet you can still buy this figure in modern toys nowadays. Or?
Did/ do you have any King Kong figures readers?
*POSTSCRIPT:
The only picture I've ever seen of the super rare Tarzan carded set by Lone Star is on the cover of the excellent Plastic Warrior magazine from the UK as featured on their own webpage of back issues [ issue 118, 2007 ]. Having just read my own copy, its a crouching chimp that appeared in the set rather than a gorilla although its hard to see in the picture.
PS. Plastic Warrior have included some great articles on LP astronauts and aliens over the years. Let me know if you want the back issue numbers so you can try to locate them.
I have nearly the whole Playmates range of Kong sets that were tie-ins to Peter Jackson's re-make. they were all blogged a couple of years ago.
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