MOONBASE CENTRAL

Friday, 2 February 2018

You'll Die Laughing - Frightful fun from the imagination of Jack Davis by Tony K

Woodsy's 2017 piece, 'Knaresborough, Dean Koontz and Jack Davis', had me hunting the house for Jack Davis.

No, not Jack Davis himself. He doesn't live here.

I was actually looking for an old Coronation tin containing a set of You'll Die Laughing cards.

You'll Die Laughing features an ever popular menagerie of monsters, ghosts, ghouls and aliens.

The colourful cards are visually interesting and nostalgically appealing.

The set was illustrated with quirky caricaturesque creatures drawn from Jack Davis' visionary imagination, back in 1959.

The UK set of 48 cards from A&BC (1967), derives from the original US set of 66 cards (1959); by Topps under their pseudonym, Bubbles Inc.

Monsters have always appealed to the twisted imagination of kids. The more gruesome the ghoul, the better we liked it!

Jack's monster mad world was populated with alluring, out-of-proportion characters, who would personify his style of art.

Perhaps the satirical captions on these cards are dated. But they belong to a different era, when 'funny' often came in simple joke shop packages. The gags are anachronisms guaranteed to arch the cynical eyebrows of today's sophisticated gamers.

But back in 1959, the 'Funny Monsters' wrapper, humorous captions and simple jokes, not only made kids laugh; but served to market taboo monsters to kids, whilst subverting and subduing parental reaction.

Jack was a prestigious pop culture illustrator and cartoonist at the top of his game. I saw his art on the gallery of shelves in the news agents I'd wander into as a kid.

But perhaps my favourite Jack Davis piece wasn't a magazine cover or even a gum card!

Jack illustrated one of the cinema posters for the movie Kelly's Heroes.

Jack's poster illustration was also used on the cover of the films music LP.

It was a prized album I hunted down as a kid and still treasure today.

His poster art personifies the fabric of the film.

The enterprising ensemble are drawn with Jack's glorious hallmark for the disproportionate and the unbalanced.

Kelly, Oddball, Crapgame and Big Joe are cinematic mavericks and misfits...

illustrated and immortalised as only Jack could draw them!

John Burton "Jack" Davis, Jr. (December 2, 1924 – July 27, 2016)

Tony K

Thursday, 1 February 2018

Grandmother Stover's Fantastic Miniature Toys

I've just got home and patted the dog, put on some coffee and checked out the toy company I posted this morning, Grandmother Stover's of Columbus, Ohio.

Its been a revelation!

Bat fink was just a taster of the genius of this company. They specialised in creating beautiful little sets of toy artefacts, packaging them on a lovely little bubble card and giving them a quirky, almost MAD comic-like name.

They are simply magnificent rack toys and exactly what I would have adored as a kid in the Sixties. Alas, I never saw anything like this in the UK. Despite not having any back then I know I made up similar bundles of plastic trinkets and cracker prizes, the sort of nik naks that went in a treasure box.

Grandmother Stover's appear to have began life as a dolls house miniatures specialist. below is an image from Ebay showing the companies basic rack toy house style of a group of cute miniatures inside a squarish bubble set on a simple backing card with the firm's name on the bottom edge.

Even in the 1950's the company began to add humourous titles and package together funny sets of plastic toys like this 1957 For Those Who Had Everything But Lost Some. Inside were marbles, teeth and screws, everything you might lose! Very comical and really quite quaint. This set was issued as Goofy Gifts.

These little sets had colour added to the artwork and its eems to have taken off judging by the sheer volume of different sets I saw just from a quick browse just now. There are dozens and dozens of different ones! At some point the company line lost the year of manufacture but I assume these sets are from the Sixties.

This one is really up my street, For Those Who Hate Commercials! There's TV, a TV guide, an axe, a baseball bat and even a revolver! ha ha. Masterful!

Like any canny company old Grandmothers naturally cottoned onto the Sixties monster craze too and old Bat Boy posted this morning is one example.

There are loads of different monster and horror based sets and here's just another example I saw on an auction site, Fish Fink Monster of the Deep, in which you got worms, an anchor, a seahorse, a chest and what I assume is a red monster although I'm unsure. Pure brilliance and I can well imagine collectors being addicted to these toys. There are many examples online and a great website is Oldefrostfarm1780.

As a footnote to this giddy personal discovery Grandmother Stover's didn't stop there. At some point they also released party favours in little header-carded baggies. These could well have been marketed as cake toppers as well and some were branded as Trimmin Trinkets.

I find these baggies very reminiscent of the Blue Shield brand, which we know of because of their fabulous miniature Apollo Capsule bagged toy set.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Grandmother Stover's issued some space related baggies as well.

If you collect this company's marvellous range do let me know!

Bat Boy: The Little League Monster Toy Set!

I see this rack toy online every now and then.

Made by Grandmother Stover's! Now thats a toymakers name!

It looks great!

There's a plastic bottle of coke, two baseball bats, some balls and a strange red thing.

Best of all is the random inclusion of the orange monster.

Now to me that monster looks like Rat Fink.

Is that right?

Mystery Toys on the Whitman Countdown Game box

I love the bright cover on this Countdown Arithmetic Game by Whitman from 1962.

But what are those wonderful toys in the picture?

Wednesday, 31 January 2018

The Stuff in My Kid Pockets

It takes a lot to make a childhood.

Obviously there are essentials like love and affection from parents or guardians and tender loving care all round. A nice safe warm home with lots of good grub available also helps and a decent clean bed to kip in.

There is also the small matter of school so a washed uniform and PE kit and sturdy shoes go a long way too as well as folks who take an interest in your learning.

A few books and comics scattered about the home don't go amiss either and maybe a working TV.

Once all these are in place with a sizable dash of good luck and good health, the real reason for childhood can take centre stage: playing.

The tools of play have never changed much: a decent imagination and a few toys and nik naks. If one is lacking then use more of the other.

Like many of you my own baby boomer childhood, 1960-1978, was garnished with the playthings of the day and it was often the smaller pocket toys which defined my existence.

At any one time I might have a whole cache of nik naks on my person, my pockets stuffed with more sweets and gizmos than a magician for hire.

These oddments included:

Pea shooter: a sturdy straw with a mouthpiece through which to shoot .... peas. The peas were the dried variety raided from the pantry, the king that came in boxes along with a huge white tablet. The sound they made as you blew was something like ploof but maybe you can describe it better!

Clackers: these were small plastic balls on a string with a plastic grip in the middle of it. the idea was to clack the balls as fast as you could both below and above your hand. A bit like hard nylon conkers they were eventually banned on account of possible shattering. They made a great sound though and a good clackering was as satisfying as seeing Lance Henrikson do his android knife trick in ALIENS years later.

Whoopee Cushion: more of a joke than a toy, these rubber fart bags were everywhere in the Sixties. You couldn't move for hidden whoopees and almost every time you sat down one went off. I hope Mister Whoopee the inventor made a mint as millions have been sold.

Catapult: these were basically lethal weapons for juniors and I'm amazed we were allowed to wander round in public with them. You got what you paid for with a catapult but the basic playground issue had a metal grip, a thick elastic pull and a hide ammo seat. I can't describe the sound it made but its not something I'd like to hear these days. My chosen ammo remains a locked memory but for the tougher kids it was a pocket full of pebbles. Any derelict house windows never stood a chance!

Flicker ring: these were so cool it made your eyes water. i think the correct term is lenticular and it was a craze. My fave flickers were TV related like the one you got with the Corgi UNCLE Thrushbuster and superb little Batman and Robin rings which were sold everywhere.

Clicker: I'm not sure of the exact name of these but essentially they were a tinplate shape with a sturdier piece of tin attached to the back. This was clicked with your thumb and the noise produced was like an armour plated cicada. It was loud and for anyone nearby very annoying!

Kazoo: equally annoying was the kazoo, a sort of plastic duck whistle that sounded like a strangled pheasant. Entire pop sings were kazood much to the disgust of anyone nearby. For the koazooless kid, a similar rasp could be made by blowing though tracing paper held over a plastic comb.

Half eaten packet of Fruit Gums: theses were always in the pockets of Sixties kids, poking out like the slithery heads of anenomes. For some reason the packet was always half eaten and a flap of paper and silver foil wrapper stuck out like a flag. the sweets could vary and might also have been polo fruits, opal fruits, fruit gums or Munchies [messy!].

What did you have stuffed in your kid pockets readers?