BUGSY HAS A BACKBONE, SO THAT MEANS HE ISN'T YELLOW... (Updated)

Crater Critter back where he belongs...

I'm fortunate enough to own complete sets of Crater Critters, Neptune and his Sea-bed Serenaders, and Sooty giveaways, individually included in packets of Kellogg's breakfast cereals back in the early '70s.  In the UK there were only 8 Sea-bed Serenader figures, though in Australia there were 15, which is the number in my collection.

However, my replacement Sooty figure wasn't grey like the first one I owned, so I made it my mission to track down one in that particular colour.  (You can see it here.)  Likewise, my Bugsy Backbone figure wasn't the original light green* of the one I had as an 11 or 12 year old, so I added that to my list of 'must haves'. 

Glad to say, therefore, that I managed to get a same-colour replacement on eBay a few days ago and it turned up this afternoon, so I thought you might like to see a piccie-wiccie of it.  If so, that's it at the top of the post; if not, that's still it at the top of the post.  (So there!)

The Critters were made by an Australian company called R&L and given away (in Oz) with Kellogg's cereals in 1968, and again in 1972.  The '68 releases all had different alliterative names, like Kingly Critter, Kindly Critter, Creepy Critter, etc.  At some point they were also known as Critter Creatures, but I'm unsure in what year and in which country, though it was an English-speaking one.  In the UK, they were issued in 1970 and were called Crater Critters and had names like King, Lunartic, and Bugsy Backbone, these being the same aforementioned trio.  Japan also had 8 figures, but two of them were different - though one was also called Lunartic.

Any of you Crivs collect any of the cereal giveaways?  If so, which were your favourites?

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(*Under certain lighting conditions I'm slightly colour-blind and thought it was yellow until a school pal told me it was green.  I could see it was green right away when it arrived earlier today, but now, looking at it across the room on top of my sideboard, it once again looks yellow.  Hey, maybe it's a chameleon crater critter?)

BEANO - The DENNIS COLLECTION

Celebrating 70 years of menacing...

Copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

Got any Christmas money left, Crivvies?  Then you may want to consider treating yourself to a copy of this great book which arrived at Castel Crivens today.  No need for any info from me when you can read the official spiel on the back cover of this nice thick hardback volume - oh, what the heck, I'll give you some anyway.  This terrific tome contains Dennis's first appearance, the 'speculative' debut of his striped jumper, Gnasher's initial appearance, and no doubt other 'firsts' as well.  (Not long arrived, so only had a cursory browse through it.)

Originally £20, I got mine (new) on eBay for just under £14, post free, so check online for the best deal you can get as, considering the book is still currently available, I've seen some ridiculously high asking prices.  It's a great collection, though there's no explanation as to why Dennis's mum and dad suddenly change appearance towards the end of the book, so older readers who haven't seen The Beano in some years might be left scratching their heads.  Most strips have the date of when they were first published, but two or three seem to have slipped through the net.  Anyway, highly recommended.

(Scary thing is, it only seems like a year or two since I bought the 60th Anniversary collection - a whole 10 years ago.)

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Having now read the book, I note that a few of the later stories appear to 'start midstream', as if they began on the cover which has then been omitted.  One story even seems to have a third page missing, as it ends as if there's more to come, and another seems to be a Dennis 'extract' from a larger, issue-length story featuring all the comic's characters.  That aside, up to that point it's great.  And let's face it, it's really the classic stories that most readers will be buying this book for anyway.  In that regard, it doesn't disappoint.