Recently I found my old Kung Fu figure header card, which Is archived in a frame with my old Kung Fuey crisp packet from the early 70"s when I was Kung Fu mad.
Alas, the figure I had is long lost in the Shaolin landfill but the header remains and reminded me that it was a cheapo male doll in a karate suit made by Jager [anyone know them?]
So what if I just remade the doll again?
A few shuriken's later and hey presto!
I give you my El Cheapo Enterprises Kung Fu figure rack toy with it's nice original header.
Hi Ya!
Did you have one of these readers?
I made the suit from a spare and battered 1990's Action Man Hasbro astronaut outfit languishing in the loft. A really rough and ready job, 'cos that's how I remember the figure; rough, ready and cheap. I loved it.
The doll is from my Hong Kong doll stash and suitably basic I thought. The belt is from the Missus's ribbon jar.
I've attached the header with double-sided tape in case I ever want to get it off. Originally it would have been stapled to the bag.
Looking up this figure online, I can only find a blister carded version by the US's Durham toys, with the same graphics however, but appearing in a kimono with a belt rather than a karate suit.
I recall a suit on mine for some reason but I maybe misremembering. I know I had a life size Karate gi made for me by an aunt, before my Mum bought me a proper one!
I have no idea where A&O is as on the original price tag. Maybe the petrol station where I got my Kung Fu LP at the bottom of our road in Preston in the early 1970's? It cost 55p.
Now where are my nunchucks!
*
* the title celebrates Salford's great John Cooper Clarke's poem of the same name!
Again, what is reality, Papa?
ReplyDeleteAnother lovely work and you've cracked the secret of making these things look plausible.
Take your carefully crafted artwork and slap a price tag right on the middle of it, in seemingly thoughtless slapdash fashion!
ha ha, thanks very much Looey. This was the quickest and cheapest [it cost nothing] of all my mock-offs, which I'm sure is noticeable! The price tag on this one has been there since I bought the original toy way back in 1973. Its the original headers car that I saved from Seventies landfill!
DeleteAnother amazing 'vintage' toy from Captain Lightning, the fastest toy builder in the West.
ReplyDeleteha ha! Thanks Paul, This was a quickie, even for me! I felt bad about cutting up the 1990's astronaut suit but it was already battered and gathering dust in my bits box in the attic. I said to Looey this set cost nothing, but what I meant was that I didn't spend any money on it during the build. At some point in the distant past I did buy the astronaut suit and the cheap doll but knowing me it will have been pence and not pounds. I can't say that about my current project and I blame Tarzan!
DeleteAmazing. What you should consider is making an entire wall of these, hung from hooks on masonite or something, to recreate the look of a toy store mid-1970s! Part of your "Mock-Off Museum?" SFZ
ReplyDelete