The MAN With FOUR SKELETONS...

Airfix skeletons, that is.  I've got more than that if I count ones by other makers, but Airfix ones will do for now.  (After all, I have to keep something in reserve for future posts.)  The first one was bought around the late-'60s, from newsagent's R.S. McColl's in the shops across the road from me.  The manager was Mr. Smith, who'd been manager of a newsagent's called Chamber's in a previous neighbourhood in which I'd lived.  'Twas he from whom I'd purchased my TV21s in the mid-'60s, and 'twas also he from whom, a few years later in my then-current area, I'd bought Countdown, containing reprints of some of the same strips from TV21.

But that's by-the-by.  The second skeleton I bought (again from McColl's) came in a longer box as it included a metal rod by which the wall mount could be transformed into a display stand for Skelly to hang upon while resting his feet as he did so.  The first box had been smaller and mostly black, but the second version was longer and largely blue-ish, with a different illustration of 'Mr. Bones'.  I must've had 3 or 4 skeletons at different times over the next few years, but they each eventually vanished as most childhood playthings do - sometimes without you even realising they've gone until much later.  (The last one I had as a kid was in 1969.)

I bought a replacement skeleton in the late '80s or early '90s, which I've still got, but I couldn't resist the allure of them and have bought another couple in the last few years, each one being the longer box version.  Today, at Castel Crivens, a replacement arrived for the very first one I owned, the smaller black box kit, renewing my memories of when I obtained my first one.  If my powers of recollection yet serve, it was on a day when my mother, with me in tow, visited a sort of jumble sale in the Murray Hall, held by my grandparents' Darby & Joan club, of which they were members, though not in attendance that day.

'Twas there I also received a certificate for some flower bulbs I'd planted, as well as buying several unboxed Marx Dalek Rolykins, which I stored in Skelly's box until we returned home.  First, though, we visited my nearby grandparents to show off my certificate, which I still have to this day (somewhere).  The photo heading this post is of my late '80s/early '90s skeleton, which is the only one I've built - the others remain unassembled in their boxes.  The other photos I've culled from the Internet to save me having to scan my own boxes, as I'm a lazy b*gg*h who prefers taking the easy option whenever possible.

After all, there's no guarantee that any of you will actually read this post, so why should I knock myself out preparing it?  (To which you could reply "Why should we bother reading it if you don't knock yourself out preparing it, eh?"  Oh, I'm a fool to myself, giving you the ammunition with which to shoot me down!)  So, did any of you have an Airfix skeleton when you were kids?  If so, share your reminiscences of building your bony friend with the rest of us.  ("It's alive!")