Up the Pole

In response to Woodsy's 'Fading of the Bug' post, here is a small insight into another odd facet of my collecting mania: Totem Poles.

When I was about 6 or 7 my dad would regularly buy Britains Farm, Zoo, Army and Cowboy figures for me and my sisters and Miniature Garden specifically for them. I think it was another way of vicariously enjoying toys for him, as I never really played with the cowboys and indians, much preferring the army soldiers. However, I was always fascinated by the native american figures and specifically the totem pole ( coloured one in centre of photo). My dad helpfully painted it with Airfix enamels - the ones in the small glass bottles - in bright colours.

Years later, my mum brought me a weird black resin Totem Pole from a local market as she knew I loved primitive art.

The only identification was an inscribed word on the base - 'Boma'. I put it on a shelf and forgot about any real significance until around 2000 when I began surfing ebay. One day out of boredom, I looked for Boma Totems and a whole world opened up in front of me.

Boma is a small manufacturing company that recreates original designs made in argyllite by pacific coastal tribes, as souvenirs for tourists in British Columbia and Alaska. Within minutes, I was hooked on the fabulous designs of thunderbirds, killer whales and ravens and naturally bought one or two. then one or two more. Today, I have around 200 different types of souvenir pole and cannot display more than one or two, so I created a blog on which I photographed and posted each one, for my own amusement and to record an online catalogue, so I didn't accidentally buy the same one twice! Needless to say I have.

Recently, I picked up a beautiful hand carved wooden pole by a local artist for a few pounds and it rekindled my interest once more, so I decided to update the blog. Land of the Thunderbird is basically an online catalogue with notes and pictures, which i will add to on a regular basis, untill my entire collection is back online, where I can look upon these wonders and enjoy them in the same vicarious fashion my dad must have as he watched from his armchair as I lined up my Britains and Timpo cowboys.

https://wotansworld.blogspot.com/

THE FADING OF THE BUG

Domestic matters gave ascended in my personal firmament of late so I've been absent from commenting on MB.

Bill B has kindly taken up the commenting reins and I'm very grateful.

This maybe the case for some while yet.

In the meantime I find I have a spare ten minutes to ruminate on less mundane things than our dodgy oven.

I recently took out some junk to the bin. One item made me think twice. It was an old kid's Spider-Man T-shirt. Being a super-hero related item I had real difficulty releasing it from my hands to fall into that dark maw of oblivion. 

Ever since I began collecting, buying and selling toys and collectables, I have been consistently fixated with super-heroes. This manifested itself most often in buying action figures and vehicles at car boot sales, but my addiction stretched much further into anything related to the super ones.

So chucking this T-shirt I realised that something had happened. About 10 to 15 years ago I would had trashed it. It would have been washed, ironed and put in the packing case ready for my next toy fair stand. I always had a few items of second-hand Marvel or DC clothing like this.

Letting it go confirmed that my obsession had waned dramatically and that the 'bug' had faded. Is fading. This is a salutary moment for a one-time zealous collector, the revelation that the spark that once drove me to spend hundreds of hours buying, selling, identifying, cataloguing, ebaying and toy fairing anything and everything super-hero/ sci-fi/ monster/ fantasy/ TV/ pop culture and space related was growing weaker.

Even worse, after the initial tang of nostalgia for my younger self, I am in some ways comfortable with this new less-manic frame of mind. No more rooting on the edges of old rubbish tips for Seventies crisps packets [ and yes, I found some!], no more getting up at the crack on a Sunday to spend all day in a cold sports centre behind my 'Madaboutmonsters' stand [it was great fun though] and no more squirrelling away anything remotely pop cultural. Smaug has well and truly left the Mountain.

Another good example is this Star Wars shaving foam can. I bought it ten years ago specifically for the can. 

Yes, I used the foam on various cakes but really it was the act of putting t away that I was interested in. It came out of hibernation last week as part of our de-clutter programme and like the T-shirt found itself teetering on the brink of the wheelie-bin.

It fell in and no ...... I didn't rake it out!

Is your collecting bug fading readers? Have you cut back or modified your squirreling?

REMCO VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA CRAWLER VEHICLE

Above is the logging vehicle from the Futurama GM ride in the Sixties. Its pictured in a screengrab from You Tube.

Very Gerry Anderson, the logger could have easily have come off the set of Thunderbirds.

It recalls this similar vehicle I think, the Sea Crawler, which formed part of the cool Remco Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea set. Its a set I didn't have as a kid and would would say no to one now!

Oddly enough there's another vehicle like this in the Remco set, this one which I've only just seen tonight on Boomerville's blog. Its the same as above but appears to have a gun barrel instead of the grabber. Is this a common toy in the Remco sets?

Station to Station

Some years back, I saw an amazing toy at auction on ebay, battered and incomplete, it was the Waco tinplate space station. Naturally interest in the rarity was high and it quickly vanished for a tidy sum into an international buyers collection. Even though i'm not a tin fan, I could appreciate the beauty and complexity of this wonderful toy and I was even more surprised when I realised that it was lifted directly from a model kit from around 1959, made by Revell.

Just recently, during a space book resurgence, I came across a book with the very same model on the cover, which I duly bought. Unfortunately, the cover was the only interestin part of it, as the book was almost entirely text!

The model kit seems to have been quite sizeable and for the 1950's, very complex. A partial restoration project appeared on an auction site in the US, which shows some of the interior detail.

 The box art for both the Waco and Revell versions is quite spectacular and the kit came with a very finely illustrated pamphlet.

Scale Model News carried a very interesting article recently, showing how rocket engineer Ellwyn Angle designed both the Space Station and the fabulous Manned Lunar Space Ship - another fine creation from Revell.

http://www.ninfinger.org/models/html_pix/station.html

http://www.scalemodelnews.com/2012/03/rocket-engineer-who-designed-revell-xsl.html

TERRANOVA47'S TOPPS PLANET OF THE APES CARDS

In 1974 just after moving to NYC, POTA TV show was aired. Clearly low budget as it used all the sets and props from the movies it managed also to be the most boring show on TV.

I collected the set of bubble gum cards from the show, and here they are. Clearly nothing much happened in this short season.

Regards,

Terranova47
USA

MIKE NOBLE R.I.P.

Sorry to read that artist Mike Noble has passed away age 88. 

Our sincere condolences to his family.

ON YOUR MARX: KEV'S NEW PLASTIC HOVERCRAFT

Hi,

Picked up this Marx SRN5 toy recently. 

I think it's a really nice looking toy. This one still works, bump 'n go, rotating radar and flashing lights. Neat!

Keep cushioned!

Kevin D

Cheshire Base

WATER-BASED TRANSFERS: 1940's

Hello Woodsy, 

This is a blast from the past. 

I'm sure that you and other readers of the blog at some point in their childhoods applied water based transfers to the back of their hands. 

I remember some birthday parties when these were handed out so even 'parents' approved. 

I bought these in the US back in the 70's when a member of The Ephemera Society. 

They are American and would date to the 40's but cleverly avoid being accused of war mongering as each page of four has an unrelated animal! 

Terranova47

NYC