SKIP AND FUFFY?

I found this recently, a Skip and Fuffy jigsaw puzzle based on characters from BBC TV's multi-coloured Swap Shop in the Seventies.

I don't remember them at all. You?

Bob McCall's Jet-Pack Puzzle

 

We've seen Bob McCall's art used on toys and games before, not least on the box art of the Century 21 Toys Nuclear Ferry and here's another one, I think which is new to the blog.

It's a Spanish puzzle on Todocollecion's auction site showing the artist's iconic jet-pack astronaut and the lunar domes we've seen many times. 

The cubed puzzle can be re-positioned into other pictures, all non McCall.

Do you have any Bob McCall art, pictures, toys and games?

Sunday Funday

Not bad at all at today's boot sale.

I picked up some cheap but unusual die-cast and plastic vehicles and a few other bits:

A G1 Optimus - Any idea how to whiten yellowing?, a Bandai Porsche ScaleRobo 1983 and a Popy Future Machine 1983, both grubby as they come.

A small batch of kit decals

A Four Feather Falls Jigsaw - battered box but my first ever!

Here's a closer look at the Popy Future Machine.

What do you think readers?

 

LUNAR PROBE LEM PUZZLE

Years ago when I collected lots of stuff indirectly related to Project SWORD toys I bought a small LUNAR PROBE blister carded puzzle depicting a Moon Crawler.

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2017/03/jak-pak-lunar-probe-redux.html

Over time I've seen more in the set and blogged them as well.

Well here's another one I saw on an old auction. In a differently lettered package, I love the sketchy artwork of the LEM legs and the astronaut. A lovely little puzzle.

Has anyone got of these?

ROB'S MATE'S BOBBSEY TWINS PUZZLES

Bobbsey Twins 3 puzzles: Don’t know much about this near-mint set of three puzzles from Milton Bradley, 1958, but I vaguely recall the Bobbsey Twins as being the stars of a mystery book series?

Do you like it?

Rob C

USA

MINI JIGSAWS

I remember as a kid me and my brothers getting miniature boxed jigsaw puzzles - they were stocking fillers I suppose back then. They were often depicting paintings hung in the national or Tate galleries I think, subjects like that. The boxes were really small, about the size of a mobile phone, usually square.

I remember a Christmas card scene and maybe a Chris Foss illustration.

Do you recall mini jigsaws readers?

Pictures welcomed.

THE ODD PIECES

I used to buy in loads of TV related jigsaw puzzles to sell on even if they had a couple of pieces missing. Sometimes I knew this in advance as it said so inside but more often I would only find out when I got home and my Missus kindly did the puzzle for me. Often one piece was missing, which was odd and inconvenient.

Odd because it seemed crazy that a single part could be missing when all other 149 pieces were present. How could one piece vanish and not, say, 10? I assume there is some galactic law at work here that insists on imperfection and the creation of incomplete puzzles!

Inconvenient because its hard to sell an incomplete puzzle. Unlike myself who simply adores box art more than the puzzle itself, many folk want to put the parts together on a table and see if it's complete. One bit being missing isn't a great selling point.

In a similar fluke of serendipity I would often find pieces from other jigsaws inside the wrong boxes and as such accumulate an arsenal of odd bits. Corners, middles, edges, the whole variety and by their very nature its nearly impossible to identify where they come from.

Unusually I did manage to sort of ID one piece recently from this lot though, besides the obvious Batman [and any you may recognise!]:

One, top row middle, depicts electric guitar strings and could be perhaps Paul McCartney's from .......

...... this vintage Beatles puzzle from the 1960's. Paul's famous Hoffner is far right in this complete version I found a piccy of online. What do you think?

I have attempted to sell various bundles of odd jigsaw pieces like this possible Beatles part over the years and its been a dismal practice. I still have them all!

Perhaps one day when all things come to pass and perfection is reached then all missing pieces will be reunited with the millions of incomplete puzzles including the ones I still have.

Have you got missing pieces? Do you need Macca's strings?

LUNAR PROBE JIGSAW PUZZLE

Years ago I blogged a Lunar probe jigsaw or two. 

This is another one in the series. It has different card art and lettering.

The one I have at Moonbase is a copy of John Schoenherr's beautiful Moon Crawler painting.

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2017/03/jak-pak-lunar-probe-redux.html

ANOTHER GALACTIC WARRIOR PUZZLE

A while ago I posted about two mystery jigsaws I have, Galactic Warriors.

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2018/11/galactic-warriors-jigsaws-theyre.html

This week I saw another one on the Bay.

The robot looks vaguely familiar. I think I've seen it on a Creepy cover. Hmmm.

GALACTIC WARRIORS JIGSAWS: THEY'RE PUZZLING

I got these two jigsaw puzzles years ago.

Galactic Warriors by AAA.

They appear to be Sword and Sorcery type scenes set in space on the cover art, almost Masters of the Universe.

Does anyone know anything more about these puzzles? 

Are they related to the Galactic Warriors line of action figures?

moon buggy puzzle

This caught my eye this Summer.

That looks a lot like a SpaceX Moon Buggy bottom left!

Its a Spanish wooden puzzle with what looks like three different space pictures on each side. Very nice!

The toy is called Rompecabezas by Vermihe.

ROBERT OPIE BOOKS AND JIGSAWS OF VINTAGE TOYS

Whilst out today I saw a van which had this sign on it "Zombie Attack Response Unit". Lets hope we never really need it a la World War Z!

In a heritage shop I thought I was actually about to find a Project SWORD toy on a modern jigsaw by Robert Opie/ Gibsons. Mr. Opie is a packaging and pop culture mega-collector and archivist in the UK and has a museum devoted to packaging for sweets, food and household stuff. It includes toy boxes.

 

 

He's also published a series of books on said packagong and it was a picture from his 1960's book he's publsihed as a large jigsaw as well. There are JR21 toys on there - New Flying Saucer and TB5, but alas, no SWORD. Wonder what you had from this lot though?

 

 

The specific book this image is taken from, the 1960's Scap Book, does indeed contain piccies of Project SWORD boxes, which makes it sort of unique amongst modern books!

 

Taken from Opie's 1970's scrap book, this is the 1970's Gibson puzzle in the same series. What did you have from this lot?