Monthly Archives: December 2019

TVTA Christmas selection box 2019

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Wishing all our vintage mates love, light, peace and happiness for the holiday!

Wooof and I and the rest of The Vintage Toy Advertiser team are all set for Christmas! Picture the scene – the fire is lit and roaring; the gramophone is playing Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt; brightly wrapped presents sit under the tree; Mrs Coldkettle the tea lady is dressed as an angel and has made a giant Christmas pudding full of vintage toys and little capsules of Baileys Irish Cream; Allesandro the pigeon who lives on our roof has hired a Hollywood snow machine to gently drop snow flakes past our window; Wooof is dressed as Charles Dickens and is busy reading us gruesome and spine-tingling Christmas horror tales by the light of his Hello Kitty lantern; and me, I’m dressed as a Christmas candle burning at both ends. But don’t worry, vintage mates, everyone at TVTA will for sure get Christmas day off – I certainly don’t want the staff sending not one but two ghosts to haunt the bycrikeyallmighty out of me like they did last year! Lesson learned.

Happy holiday folks. Sincere thanks to everyone who’s joined in the fun with us this year. It’s been a blast!

The Rise of Skywalker – cinema swag and promotions

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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Pathé Gaumont Les Mag. France. 2019.

Last night I went to see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. This post is not a review, it’s more a showpiece for some of the advertising and promotions concerning the movie. I will say, however, that I thoroughly enjoyed this final instalment of a film franchise that’s been there with me since I was a child. In many ways TROS serves as a fine tribute to the ‘best of Star Wars’. It’s been quite a journey!

So, onto the few promotions I’ve gathered for the film here in France. Besides print adverts, there is the Premiere film magazine cover, a Nestlé cereal competition, cinema exclusive plastic soda cups and a cool metal popcorn bucket, Actimel yoghurt pots, and I’ve included my Japanese chirashi posters.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Cover of Premiere. Dec 2019. France.

The Rise of Skywalker. Japanese chirashi.

The Rise of Skywalker. Japanese chirashi.

The Rise of Skywalker. Double page ad. Premiere. Dec 2019. France.

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Happy Midwinter!

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Happy Midwinter to all my northern hemisphere friends!

Today is the December winter solstice – the shortest day and longest night. This morning I took these photos of a spider web that hangs between the railings on my terrace. The web has been there since summer, and has survived 38° heat, storms, horizontal rain, and the razor sharp teeth of the Mistral wind… yet despite being a bit battered and worn around the edges (a little like me) it’s still there.

As for the spider who guards the web? I saw her the other day scurrying down to investigate a potential meal, but unlucky for her it was just a fragment of leaf blown in by the breeze, and she scurried back up to her sheltered spot in an alcove.

The spider web on my terrace is a good image for me to hold up this midwinter time; it’s about bracing yourself against the elements, gathering nourishment and storing it for the cold months ahead. It’s about durability and strength. You could think of the life of a spider as solitary and predatory, a quite violent existence? Yet when you marvel at the intricacy of its web, iridescent against a wintry sun’s rays, you can’t help but seeing beauty.

The Spider. From The Celtic Animal Oracle. Anna Franklin. Illustrated by Paul Mason. 2003, Vega.

A TVTA toy spider.

A TVTA spider napkin art.

Happy December solstice 🙂

Your carriage awaits – Brumm’s delightful miniatures from 1983

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Following our recent post showing the 1980 catalogue for Italian model maker Brumm, TVTA is very pleased to present some more horse and carriage examples, this time from a 1983 catalogue. These die cast and plastic miniatures are simply delightful, and with an incredible amount of detail. Dear readers, your carriage awaits…

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GoBots, Robo Machines and Machine Men – Bandai’s family of transforming robots

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Robo Machines. UK. 1983.

GoBots. Model kits by Monogram. US. 1985.

I name thee…

GoBots, Machine Men and Robo Machine(s) are some of the international names given to Japanese toy company Bandai’s transforming vehicle/robot toy line first sold in 1982.

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Lights in the sky – a special report

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Seven falling lights formation seen on 10th December 2019 at 05.25.

December 10th. Tuesday. 2019. 05:25. Near the city of Toulon, Var, France.

Diary, I woke up at 05:05 ready to begin a 13 hour shift at work. At 05:25, I went out onto my terrace to fetch my bicycle, where I paused briefly to look up at the sky. It was dark, cold, with patches of stars visible against heavy rain clouds moving in from the north, and with a brisk, north-easterly wind snapping at my face, I steeled myself for what I suspected would be a daunting ride ahead.

Then something caught my attention: in the lower part of the south-eastern sky, I saw seven bright stars in a perfect vertical line aiming down at the horizon. At first I believed it was Orion’s Belt – but the constellation of Orion is not visible in this part of the sky at this hour in December, and normally appears around 22.00 in the evening, plus, there are only three stars that form Orion’s Belt, and I was witnessing seven.

What could they be? All at once, the seven stars began moving, descending, and I had to quickly reassess that what I was witnessing were not stars at all… they were moving lights in the sky!

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Barbie bags and stationery – the 1998 Mattel France Maroquinerie et Papeterie catalogue

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Front cover. Mattel 1998 Maroquinerie et Papeterie catalogue.

The Mattel France 1998 Maroquinerie et Papeterie catalogue (leather goods and stationery) was aimed at school kids and featured carrying bags suitable for the school term as well as stationery items such as exercise books, folders, pens, pencils, and erasers. In addition, Mattel France offered a range of leisure bags suitable for the weekend when school was out.

TVTA is pleased to present the scans showing the Barbie range. The catalogue also features accessories for the characters Batman & Robin, Superman, Babar, Polly Pocket, Noddy, and Extreme Dinosaurs – the scans of which will be coming soon to TVTA!

In the meantime, here’s 1998’s Barbie school accessories…

Mattel 1998 Maroquinerie et Papeterie catalogue. Barbie.

Mattel 1998 Maroquinerie et Papeterie catalogue. Barbie.

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