TOYBOX TREASURES Of The PAST: The CHERILEA DALEK...

I remember it as if it were yesterday.  As I rushed 'round to a newsagent's just about to re-open after lunchtime, I tripped on a slab and plunged head-first between two metal railings, banging my head on them in the process.  "That'll teach you not to run!" came the voice of one of two old biddies sat on a wooden bench to the side of my prostrate form.  Suddenly her friend shouted "Oh, look at the blood!" and I was hurried upstairs to a nearby doctor's surgery where I was cleaned up and had two stitches put in the wound in my forehead.

Later that evening, back home, as I recuperated on the settee, my mother came back from the shops with a CHERILEA DALEK as a gift for my stricken self, still dazed from the thump to my head and the loss of the blood which had run down my face like an avalanche of crimson snow.  It had looked worse than it was, of course, but I was only about nine or ten and, to me, it felt as if I'd been involved in a major accident.  I had a scar on my forehead that's still visible to this day, and I yet have the stitches as a memento, although it took me 19 years to reclaim them after inadvertently leaving them behind when we moved house four or five years later.

But that's another tale.  The Cherilea Dalek was an odd toy.  It consisted of three main parts (not counting the appendages), and was an ill-fitting and not very accurate representation of DOCTOR WHO's arch-enemies The DALEKS.  It came in an assortment of colours that could be swapped from one to another, depending on just how many of them you were lucky enough to have.   As far as I remember, it was only available in WOOLWORTH'S, and I owned several of them at different stages.  If I recall rightly, the one my mother brought home wasn't the first I had, but it's the only one that has a story to accompany it.  Whether it's a story worth telling is another matter, but we Bloggers need material to write about, so you're stuck with it.

Anyway, yesterday, I took possession of a single replacement for all those I had as a child.  I couldn't say if its colour matches any of my previous ones, but hey - it's an actual, Cherilea Dalek from Woolies and these things don't grow on trees.  So say hello to my new pal, and if you have any memories of having this toy, feel free to share them with your fellow Criv-ites in the captivating comments section.

PART TWO Of The TITANS COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Where's Nifty NICK CAPUTO when you need him?  This should be right up his street as Nick is an expert at identifying all the artists who drew the covers, splash pages and pin-ups for MARVEL's British weeklies in the  '70s & '80s.  I'm not such an expert so I won't even bother trying.  Instead, I'll settle for just introducing the second instalment of The TITANS cover gallery and taking satisfaction from sharing this collection with fellow Criv-ites everywhere.

So, let's have a big hand for me then, for being so unselfish and an all-round great guy!  "Hip, hip, hoo..." - hey, where'd everybody go?  Oh, well... can't win 'em all, I suppose.