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The Box Of Treasures

Sunday, September 25th, 2022

This came in the mail the other day:

It’s a box from Adam’s sister (let’s call her AC) in Japan! It’s a large box and had been traveling for almost 3.5 months! It was sent surface mail which could be the topic of a blog post in and of itself (but I shall save for another time).

The box was a big surprise, and I couldn’t wait to open it. But never in my wildest imagination did I expect the contents:

Look at this pristine condition burger box from McDonald’s! Back in April Macca’s Japan had a Shin Ultraman collaboration which featured the return of two chicken burgers which would be sold in Ultraman boxes. AC sent me two of these boxes! Aren’t they beautiful 🙂

But it didn’t stop there! Inside the box was also three of the special Ultraman branded plastic cups, also from McDonald’s. These are even prettier than the burger box and have immediately become the stars of my ‘Ultraman fast food packaging’ sub-collection!

I don’t know any details behind the acquisition of these items – AC included limited commentary in the box – so I assume she went to McDonald’s herself and purchased a Shin Chicken Tatsuya burger with accompanying McFizz Aomori Fuji Apple beverage. And yet the burger boxes are absolutely spotless and look unused… did she have a black market connection? However she obtained these, I appreciate it.

If you’re not aware, these items are in collaboration with the brand new Shin Ultraman film that opened in Japan in May. I want to see this film more than any film that ever existed but it hasn’t yet been released outside of Japan so I continue to wait. I’m guessing Amber saw the movie, since the box also contained this extraordinary item:

I believe this is a cup purchased from a Japanese cinema! The side of the cup features the movie logo, and underneath it says ‘fantasy special effects film’ just in case you’re one of the handful of Japanese movie-goers that hasn’t heard of Ultraman! The cup is large and the Ultraman on top – in his Spacium Beam pose – is large and dynamic. This is an amazing item that will proudly be displayed on my shelf for ever!

And this wasn’t everything in the box. There were a few other Ultraman items, an extraordinary hand towel (that you’ll see in a future post), a clear file (how did AC know I was planning an upcoming clear file post?!?) and two more incredible Gotochi postcards including this one:

I need to go back to Japan so I can send some of these special postcards myself…

Thanks AC; this box was like Christmas coming early 🙂

Posted in Blog, Collecting, Food, Miscellaneous, Otaku, Postcards | Comments Closed

Ten Things We Saw At The Fair

Tuesday, August 30th, 2022

Once again we went to the Dutchess County Fair, about 90 minutes from where we live. It was the last day of the fair, very busy and very hot! Here’s some of what we saw…

The fair means farm animals, and after a few Covid-affected years they were back in full force. These pigs were very cute since when mum rolled over to stop feeding several began wrestling with each other which was very funny!

Fairs also mean produce contests, and this was perhaps the most striking display. Since we went on the last day this year much of the produce had spoiled, and it was amusing seeing first place ribbons attached to rotten veggies!

This is the most unusual stuffed toy you could win at the carnival games. It’s Bob Ross! It was fairly big (maybe 1 m tall) and as you can see has his trademark palette in his left hand. Would children really want this?

It’s the General Lee, automobile ‘star’ of The Dukes of Hazard tv show. While the show itself was light-hearted and family friendly, this car is now controversial due to the confederate flag (a hate symbol) on the roof. In fact it’s against NY state law to display this flag on fairgrounds, and yet there it was.

This first-prize-winning art is pretty good for a 25-year old wouldn’t you say? I actually had a wealth of… interesting art I could have displayed here, but the age on this one was impossible to ignore 🙂

The rides were good as usual, but there wasn’t anything particularly new to see. The paint on this ‘Diesel Punk’ funhouse was spectacular though. Is that Tank Girl in the lower right? What about the other two; what are the origins of those characters?

Here I am enjoying a calm moment with a polar bear.

And here’s a handsome chicken. Look at his blue cheek! There were a great many birds to be seen, including exotic show pigeons. We also saw baby cows, rabbits, sheep, goats, llamas, guinea pigs, camels, snakes and turtles 🙂

In the landscaping contest was this entry done by a fountain company. They had converted a rusted old truck into a fountain and water was gushing out of the engine and cab. It was extremely well done, with all the pipes and tubes cleverly hidden. I bet they’ll get a lot of business as a result!

Here’s Kristin enjoying a slice of pickle pizza! She said it was strange at first, but got better the more she ate and afterwards she said she liked it so much she may try making one herself. As usual there was a vast amount of typical ‘fair food’ on offer (I had a hot dog, roasted corn and a donut) and it was difficult to choose.

As usual we had fun, even if the heat became oppressive. It’s great fairs are back to normal again: maybe next year we’ll go to an even bigger one!

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment »

Bird of Paradise

Tuesday, May 10th, 2022

It’s time for a new LEGO kit:

This is the third in their ‘botanical’ series, and as a child of the jungle myself, naturally this called to me!

It’s the biggest of the botanical kits so far, mostly because (unlike the flower bouquet) it comes with a pot.

It also came with a number of tiny (~ 5 mm) golden rings. These are dazzling, and apparently somewhat special (the kit mentions it has more of them than any other LEGO kit) but they are embedded inside the pot and you can’t even see them in the finished product!

The pot is dense and heavy, and wouldn’t be fun to dismantle. Obviously the bulk is required to prevent the piece from falling over when made.

The stalks are made from smaller pieces joined together, rather than very long axles, and therefore the plant would be very customizable. I followed the instructions perfectly 🙂

Speaking of which this was a very easy kit to make, even if you’ve not done LEGO before. It was a pleasant build as we watched Japan walking videos on YouTube, and dreamed of our next visit to Japan…

Doesn’t this resemble the real thing!?! I expect as I scampered around the dense jungles of my place of birth I saw these flowers often as I listened to the singing of real life birds of paradise!

The last step was to add the soil, which was hundreds of small brown circular pieces. I expect if you bought enough of these it would make good cat litter.

And here’s the finished piece! It’s lovely isn’t it? It’s also very large, but looks great on a mantle. As with the other two botanicals, I think this one will find a permanent position in our home.

Posted in Blog, Garden, Miscellaneous, Nature, Toys | Comments Closed

Retro Wax Packs (Part 3)

Saturday, May 7th, 2022

It’s time to open the last five retro card packs that I got for my birthday. Once again, this set includes some I would have bought myself as a kid.

Superman 2 (Topps, 1980)

This is a good set. For starters each pack is stuffed with cards – 12 in total including the sticker:

The cards depict a high amount of action scenes are included (always a positive to a young buyer) and I love the character and die-cut sticker cards:

The backs however are a little disappointing. The plot is relegated to a summary on 15 cards, a few others had random info about the film, and the rest were puzzle cards from at least four puzzles. I prefer detailed plot summaries describing the scene on the front of the card, which Topps was still doing in 1980 although obviously not for this set:

Of note is the gum: It’s easily the biggest I’ve seen in any pack I’ve opened so far, and is almost as big as a card!

I definitely bought a few packs of Superman 2 cards back in 1980. I bet I loved them 🙂

Trivia Battle Game (Topps, 1984)

This came out in the middle of Trivial Pursuit mania and is an obvious cash-in, but I think works as a card set. Each pack includes 7 question cards containing 70 trivia questions and answers:

Two of the cards contain rules and a ‘board’ on which to play:

The questions are very dated now and probably harder than they were in 1984, and to my shame it took me 47 questions to beat the one-player game. I guess therefore I’m ‘fair’ at US-centric trivia from 38 years ago!

I think this would have been a fantastic product in 1984, and an inexpensive way to scratch the trivia itch for kids.

ALF (Topps, 1987)

Alf was a short-lived phenomenon in the late 1980s. He was a sitcom alien puppet that told bad jokes to adults. Inexplicably he became very popular and highly merchandised, and this is the second card set based on him and his show.

The cards are well designed and manufactured, and I’m particularly impressed with the quality of the images considering this was a tv show (was it recorded on film?)! But the jokes – as they were at the time – aren’t funny and the appeal is lost on me.

The cardbacks contain absurdist ‘humour’ that seems like it was aimed at kids but probably missed its target.

The pack also contained a die-cut sticker and a fake baseball card obviously inspired by Topps’ successful Garbage Pail Kids cards (which I despise).

Overall this is a decently produced set, if a bit short on cards in the pack, but I wonder who bought it?

Michael Jackson (Topps, 1984)

Similar to the Cyndi Lauper and Duran Duran cards I’ve shown previously, here’s another set based around a pop star, although in this case the biggest star in the world!

The cards are as you would expect: standard press photos of ‘Wacko’ with empty blurbs on the back:

The gum stick is incredible though, and I reckon would be of interest to a collector today:

Overall a predictable but acceptable set, and had I been a fan of Jacko (or Bubbles) back in the day I would have been happy with these.

Gremlins 2 (Topps, 1990)

Nine years ago I posted a few snaps of some Gremlins cards from the first film, and now it’s time for the set from the sequel. KLS and I watched both of these recently and the first one holds up quite well, but the second is a very strange film…

The cards are nice enough, although the white borders look unfinished. The images on the ones I got are heavy on character photos rather than scenes from the film, but each card has a plot summary on the back:

The stickers aren’t die-cut (once again this is in the final days of Topps’ wax packs) and while the back refers to a puzzle, I didn’t get a single card with a puzzle back in the entire pack!

As I said Gremlins 2 is a weird and difficult to watch film (Phoebe aside…) and I doubt anyone was enthusiastic about this card set when it came out.

So that’s it. Are there any other retro wax packs I haven’t yet opened on this blog? Well yes, but these days the packs are prohibitively expensive (original Star Wars, Raiders of The Lost Ark, Moonraker etc) so it’s unlikely you’ll see them here. Never say never though!

Posted in Blog, Collecting, Miscellaneous, Retro, Trading Cards | Comments Closed

Frozen Novelties (Part 3)

Saturday, April 30th, 2022

Since the second installment was six years ago, I think we’re long overdue for another post about licensed Australian ‘ice blocks’ from the good old days.

I remember these well. We were of course excited to have a new Star Wars themed ice block to suck on, but the inclusion of ‘Jedi jelly’ was a misstep! It was a strange semisolid material, half gummy and half jelly/jello and I recall it was very unpleasant to eat. I’m sure I preferred the older Star Wars ice blocks, and from what I read they were still available alongside the newer ROTJ version.

I have a very dim memory of the above, which was a standard choc-top style ice cream with doctor who branding. Apparently this was released in the 1980s and exclusive to ice cream freezers in shops (you couldn’t buy a box of them at the supermarket). That’s the wrapper on the right, with a stunning likeness of Tom Baker!

This is an interesting item since it was unique to Australia (the UK Who ‘ice lolly’ was different) and representative once again of how important licensed products were back then and how popular Doctor Who was in Australia.

Stickers were a polar inclusion in several series of iceblock, including Buck Rogers, The Bionic Man and the above (that’s one of the six spider man stickers on the right). It seems if you bought a box at a supermarket there would be a sticker inside, but if you bought an ice block at a corner store the owner had to give you the sticker. I’m sure I had a few, and possibly even still do in my sticker collection up in the attic!

I recall eating one of these at Charlestown Pool. I don’t remember the flavours, but I seem to remember the shapes lacked the detail shown in the marketing photo, and the colors ran when they melted. It was always fun to eat a messy ice block at the pool or beach, get it all over yourself, then go for a swim to wash it away 🙂

The Agro ice block is quintessentially Australian, and based around a wisecracking TV puppet popular with kids. It’s an obvious Bubble’o’Bill knockoff, but apparently was successful enough that Agro even had a second licensed ice cream!

As for Garfield… that damn cat was everywhere in the 1980s, including apparently in the ice block freezer! Toffee ice cream was a popular flavor in those days, and I reckon I must have ate one at least one of these once.

The more I looked the more I found, and the stranger and more unlikely the licenses became. The Mash ice block is particularly bizarre, and isn’t that almost Bob Hawke on the wrapper?!?

Some more licensed examples from the late 1970s and 1980s (apparently the fad lasted until about 1985). The Dracula one ‘bled’ and was similar to a product of the same name sold in the UK. The Space Invaders product reused old molds of ice blocks from the mid 70s named ‘Moonies’ and the Ultra Magnus one may not have actually made it to market (that’s an advertising sheet).

As for the Skippy one… it is apparently a product from the 1960s but that one image is all I can find on it! There also seems to have been Australian ice blocks for Happy Days, The A Team, Pac Man and King Kong but I can’t find any images (and suspect they were all identical to versions sold in the UK).

Not licensed, but nostalgic. Mint choc wedges were best, and I recall ‘Pepe’ well but would never have remembered the name! In fact I don’t eat much ice cream these days but wouldn’t say no to a frosty Pepe right now!

The above is a photo of an ad for a British ‘ice lolly’. I include it since I have a strong memory of an Australian ice cream also having a shaped stick, but I can’t find any evidence online. Do any of my readers recall anything of the sort from our youths?

And lastly in the previous post I mentioned my memories of an ice block with heat sensitive wrapper that displayed monster pictures and I’m pleased to say I’ve found it! This image is from a British advert for ‘Wall’s Magic Monster’ which suggests it was a similarly-named product by Pauls in Australia.

I vividly recall a day at Charlestown Pool digging wrappers out of garbages to collect the monsters, and ending up with quite the collection. I recall there were three different pictures, and I believe I cut them out of the wrappers and traded extras with friends for who-knows-what? I kept three good examples for many, many years, possibly right up until I left Oz. I used to keep them pressed between the pages of a book, but have no idea which book or what happened to it.

I bet they’re still there today…

Posted in Australia, Blog, Food, History, Miscellaneous, Retro, Time | 1 Comment »

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