HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Smiths 'Horror Bags' Promotional Item, 1977.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


Smiths 'Horror Bags' Promotional Item, 1977. Retrieved from Annex Archive.

For more lost UK Horror gems, check The Cobwebbed Room.

The above advertisment once appeared on the back cover of

The above advertisment once appeared on the back cover of many UK comic books. For the record, this scan was taken from Hulk Weekly issue no. 58, dated April 10th 1980. Examining it now, I still feel a brief flicker of interest; a vague trace element of the profound excitement that overtook me, as a child, whenever I saw it. I actually sent off for the figure, and, after an almost unbearable period that felt like 28 weeks, rather than days, Boba arrived on the doormat. It was a Thursday morning, just before school. I remember it like it was yesterday. The box was plain white and rather small, but I knew immediately that it contained Boba. I think I may have let out a screech of delight as I bounded down the hallway to snatch him up triumphantly. Of course, the actual Boba Fett figure was far less impressive than the advertisement suggested. And yet, even though all my other Star Wars figures have long gone, Boba remains with me...



I suppose that the almost unbearable period of anticipation imbued this Boba Fett figure with an extra level of personal historicity, and I suspect it will remain with me forever. And yet I feel very little when holding or observing the object itself. It is merely a relic, a dead thing. Strangely, it's the original advertisement that seems to hold a little jolt of haunted electricity. The connection with the child lies somewhere within it...

In a reversal of the norm, I recently discovered these

In a reversal of the norm, I recently discovered these original Matchbox, er, boxes, flattened at the bottom of an old, erm, box of junk in my garage. Now, if I could just locate the contents of these boxes, in tip-top condition, I could have an e-bay frenzy on my hands....

The new viscosity...

The new viscosity...

Cap dead? No! It can't be!! Mind you, I seem to recall

Cap dead? No! It can't be!!

Mind you, I seem to recall Superman died a few years back, and it doesn't seem to have done him any harm.

Come to think of it, Captain Britain died twice in the space of a couple of years. Still going strong.

The most newsworthy thing about this is that The Daily Mirror should even consider it to be newsworthy. I mean, who gives a fuck about Steve Rogers in the UK? Must've been a slow day at the office.

TIMEWARP TELLY One of those freeview channels - fTN, I think -

TIMEWARP TELLY

One of those freeview channels - fTN, I think - has been screening old Space 1999 episodes recently. Now, I remember being a big fan back in the day. I watched the show, read the Look-In comic strip, played the board game, had a toy version of the laser gun that lit-up plus the action figures and a model of one of the Eagle craft, etc etc. Of course, that's all gone now. All I managed to find in my trash archive was a set of playing cards made by Whitman (see image). Worth a punt on e-bay, I wonder?

Anyway, I've been really disappointed with the shows. Or maybe disappointed with myself for finding them so fucking unwatchable. The acting is awful, the scripts are dire and the dialogue (especially the bits where Koenig an co. are having a 'light hearted moment') makes me wanna spit. Surely I should be appreciating all those things? Fuck, I'm losing the plot.

You wanna know which repeats I'm really enjoying?

The Crystal Maze.

Seriously.

You remember it, right? The show hosted by Richard O'Brien (of Rocky Horror fame) where the contestants have to win crystals to buy time in the Maze at the end, and hopefully win a crap camping holiday if they collect enough gold tokens. I watch it with the kids. We're all loving it. My eldest gets all tense, and I keep telling him, "son, don't worry, everything you see happened long before you were born". Dig those eighties haircuts. Actually, most of the ones I've watched were made around 1992. We forget that the early nineties still had a big hangover from the eighties. I think it was 'The Rachel' haircut from 'Friends' that finally killed eighties hairstyles.

So there you have it - I like the Crystal Maze more than Space 1999. How the hell did that happen?