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Those of a certain age (as in decrepit old farts like me) may well remember the above ad (drawn by Ron Embleton) for the Stingray inflatable which appeared in TV Century 21 - and maybe even other comics as well, back in the '60s. I always assumed it was a buoyancy aid to help keep kids afloat in the swimming pool or the sea, but there's actually no mention of that in the ad, so perhaps it was simply intended as a 'toy' so that kids could play at being Stingray. Will we ever know? Do we even care?
Anyway, subconsciously, I guess I fancied this piece of merchandise in my youth, so when the chance to obtain one recently presented itself, I took the plunge (figuratively speaking - no jumping off diving boards for me) and bought it. I haven't inflated it and may never do, but there it is below laid out on my carpet for your perusal, followed by some of the seller's pics of the item in its inflated state.
Completely useless to me of course as I'd never fit in it, and it'll probably live in a box somewhere for the rest of it days. However, considering I never owned one way back when, it's strangely still nice to have after all this time. Anything you ever wanted (or wouldn't have minded) but never had when you were much younger, Crivvies, that you'd love to own today? The comments section awaits your valued contributions so kindly get typing!
38 comments:
It would be no use to me as I can't swim lol. I never bought TV21 at this time ( only when it became a "normal" comic) so don't recall the ad. I had forgotten all about the wee Golden Wonder man so it was nice to see him again.
Can I ask do you ever get buyers remorse ?
I can't swim either, so I suppose it was for non-swimming toddlers who went in to the water waist-high. I also enjoyed seeing the wee Golden Wonder man - looks Scottish, doesn't he? Buyer's remorse? Never!
Cool item Kid, just for the heck of it! Run a bath, throw it in and sit in there eating Golden Wonder crisps and drinking Iron Bru, dreaming of Marina....
Can't for two reasons. First, I'm too big for it. Second, I don't like Irn Bru. (Barr's do Irn Bru, rivals do Iron Brew.)
Well just a cheeky suggestion, it would make an excellent loo seat cushion with some maneuvering. Iron or Irn, both lack the flavour now the sugar has been removed, but I am supprised a Scotsman like your good self, doesn't like it, especially after all these years of BS marketing, stating it's officially Scotlands national drink? 'Ruddy little liars!' I'm shocked....but I cannot blame you. (Can be an aquired taste, just like Whisky).
Nah, it'd be like trying to straddle a canoe and I wouldn't want it reeking of schect. I'm also a lifelong teetotaller, something else that many Sassenachs find difficult to believe about a Scotsman. And I hate kilts.
Never judge a book, eh? I personally don't drink or smoke, never had the compulsion. I occasionally ride my bike, watch the night sky and draw pictures, that's enough for me. 'Have a peaceful night', time to do some serious snoozing'.
I was already doing some, but got up for a wee and checked the blog on the way back from the loo, hence the reply. ZzZzZzZz...
Great Stingray find! Speaking of great wants, I finally found a Lotus Super 7 model, 1/43 scale, for my car collection, with the same paint job as seen in The Prisoner. I've wanted one forever, and ordered one from Japan of all places. Now to get the Dinky Anderson vehicles, and look for a Mini Moke Prisoner taxi. Would also like to get some of the Prisoner action figures, if I could figure out where to put them. I feel like I'm currently trapped in the Village, fighting with insurance companies and Hospitals, and need a distraction. Ah, for a cup of tea like they gave to poor old Number 6.
Hey! I just bought a Dinky Secret Service Gabriel, sadly without Unwin. Where is a good place to get a reproduction box? Or is there a site where I can just download one for myself? I think if I can guess the scale of the Model T, I could buy a driver and paint it up like Unwin. Good lord, Im getting goofy in my old age!
I didn't know there were any Prisoner action figures, LM. Sounds like you've been ill, so I hope you'll make a full recovery before too much longer. I'm trying to remember how many Dinky TV toys I have, let's see now: TB2, FAB 1, SPV, SPC (or SSC as it's called now), MSV, Pink Panther car - and a handful of ordinary Dinky cars. I don't have the Joe 90 car, but the Vivid Imaginations version is very much like it.
As for reproduction boxes, go on to eBay and type Corgi & Dinky reproduction boxes into its search box and that should give you a selection.
I am amazed it is still in one piece over time. Years and years and years ago I bought a Frankenstein monster mask off the back of a Gold Key ( I think ) comic, and a few years ago I found it still in its box but alas, just dissolved goo. The Frankenstein monster basically finished up looking like Dracula after a stake went through him.
I remember you mentioning it when I showed my official Universal Studios Frankie mask on the blog, LH. These masks are usually latex, but I think the Stingray Inflatable is some kind of vinyl material. Might perhaps still deteriorate in the future after being blown into for years, as accumulated moisture could dry out and the material stick together and decay. Time will tell. Perhaps I should inflate it and leave it for a while to help prevent the material from 'melting'.
Kid, I think Lord Mikolaj mentioned having been ill last year but I'm sorry to hear he's been "fighting with insurance companies and hospitals" - let's be thankful for our wonderful NHS in the UK rather than the horrible American model of healthcare.
Actually, I remembered him mentioning being ill before, CJ, but it seemed quite some time ago so I thought his recent troubles might be newer ones. The idea behind the NHS is wonderful, but I'm not sure everyone who has experience of it nowadays is similarly impressed. Tried getting a doctor's appointment recently?
I think the government is introducing online bookings or something to make things easier.
That'll probably be in the same way as having to navigate multiple options is meant to be 'easier' than just talking to someone answering the 'phone.
Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with two very aggressive cancers, one bowel and the other prostate. It took the doctors over 8 months to decide what to do, but surgeries have hopefully fixed the cancer parts, maybe. Still have to have further tests. Unbeknownst to me, there was a massive cock up with my insurance, and now both the hospital and the insurers are after me, when it would be so simple of them to just enter the insurance codes correctly. And to top it off, this has been going on for over 5 months, without me knowing a thing about it. I had a phone conversation with both of the knuckleheads for two hours on Friday, resulting in goodness knows what as I dont trust any of them anymore. Its not enough surviving cancer, you have to raise your stress levels to an Olympian level and face financial ruin. I live in a small town, and to speak face to face with these idiots will take me an hour and a half, and even then I dobt anything will be accomplished. Yargh. So, to make myself happy, I bought a Lotus Super 7 painted as in The Prisoner, a couple of Dinky Gabriels from Secret Service, and a Joe90 car from the 90s. At least if they ship me off to the poor farm, my wife and I can have some fun racing my new toys. Be glad you have a decent health service over there that wont drive you batty!
Incidentally, sorry for speaking of my medical woes! In other news, Wandering Plant Toys is behind The Prisoner action figure line, with new figures coming out in September. The Sixofone Prisoner Appreciation Society has the first wave of these for sale. I would love to be in Portmeirion for their convention this year, as Annette Andre will be there. I thought she was wonderful in A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum. Anyway, good health to all Crives, and Be Seeing You!
Sorry to hear about your woes, which there is absolutely no need to apologise for mentioning, and hope everything works out to your satisfaction, LM. I know the sort of stress that the incompetence of others can cause, as I am having an ongoing battle with a care home (allegedly) in the way they are 'caring' for a relative. Unfortunately, there are aspects of the NHS which will drive you batty.
An OAP tried to book an emergency online appointment, but then they realised? They had no clue what the 'Intathet' thing was, so died instead, so to not be a nuisance on the NHS system. It's the future....
That's probably happened a few times. I know I've given up trying to get an appointment after waiting half-an-hour on the 'phone, then being told that all appointments have been allocated and to 'phone back tomorrow.
National insurance well spent...they say the NHS is a institution, 'correct!' We must be insane to rely on it. You can have the nicest, most expensive car, but if you don't drive it correctly, then it will aways be wrecked and cost you more to keep it running, also people along the way, may start getting hurt? The current NHS model. "Wish all of you chaps, long lives".
And I should've revealed that the same thing happens every time I 'phone back in the morning. If I go in in person, I'm told that no appointments are available and to 'phone at 8:30 next morning. Though having had my moan, the NHS is still probably better than the options that some other countries have. Could still be better than it is, so they need to cut the high-paid bureaucratic pen-pushers and spend the dosh on more nurses and medical equipment.
I feel we have problems, when Hospitals look and feel more like shopping precincts with overpriced shops, easy unchecked access to all departments, and time metered parking hanging over you, whilst visiting loved ones ill or dying. Hell! even the staff have to pay for parking. Obscene privatisation!
What do you see as the solution to those problems, Anon? And I'd appreciate you picking a name for yourself as it makes it easier for me to distinguish between different Anonymous commenters. Ta.
Stop selling areas to private contractors, like the unscrupulous parking eye company, and spend NHS funds in the correct manner. Like you stated Kid, 'no bureaucracy!' No DEI programmes and extortionate IT support contracts, charging £90 to lease a standard QWERTY keyboard to the NHS. Run it like an hospital, not a business. I fear ever needing it for something major, because I don't think it's cutting the cloth anymore. It must be difficult to manage a blog and all the Anons, so cudos to you Kid. It seems like hard work, but I must say, your creative writing is top notch, you certainly spin some fine tales...'I need to go back to school!'
Sounds eminently sensible AAW, but will it ever happen? There's the rub. Some doctors in health centres have gone part time, and fill in after hours when required (if it suits them), meaning they get paid overtime - resulting in more money for less work.
I heard recently that the UK spends less on healthcare per head of population than 16 other OECD countries so blaming the problems of the NHS on bureaucracy and especially on DEI seems rather simplistic to me. The NHS is failing mainly because it's chronically underfunded. We also need more social care for the frail elderly so they aren't taking up beds in hospitals because there's nobody to look after them in their own homes.
Sadly, no change will happen Kid, too many fingers in the till now, and scruples don't exist anymore. So no-one wants to admit, the whole rotten system is wrong. Whilst the business sector of the NHS can suck on the teat of government, and also benefit from private sector kickbacks, then why should they? It's the (wealth before health) business plan! Exploit their experienced staff to breaking point, buy in cheaper inexperienced TIKTOKING staff, to fill the modern NHS and DEI quota tik box (for additional government backed, progressive program grants), disregard patients with red tape and a poor level of atitude and service (sometimes dangerously incompetent). Then just cream the savings off the top. Whilst the likes of Kid, stay on the phone, in a queue, ''Effin and Jeffin!' Trying to book an appointment through an expensive, souless digital NHS call system? There's no money to be made, in simply just curing people?....Crazy times....
More money is currently being spent on the NHS than in any time in its history, CJ. The problem is the increasing demand on its services, and too many bureaucrats on ridiculously high wages. If you doubled the amount of funding the NHS gets, it still wouldn't solve its problems because it wouldn't be spent in the right way.
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Can't say I find anything in that to disagree with, AAW. It would be interesting to read CJ's response to your comment. Crazy times indeed, and getting crazier by the second.
There are obviously issues with the NHS but to give some personal positive response they were excellent when I had my heart attack saving me from a major attack hat was on the cards, and my aftercare has so far been wonderful I know Every one has negative experiences ( as do i) but when I needed them they were there. Ivexread that report Colin mentions and he is correct but I do agree with the beurcracy concerns. I doubt that the NHS will survive in its current form much longer there will be more privatisation.
Good that your experience was positive, McS, but for every positive one, I can't help but wonder how many negative ones there are. While it's true that the UK spends less per head than some other countries, I wonder what their populations are compared to ours, as surely that would make a difference?
It doesn't matter what those other countries' populations are because they spend more PER HEAD than we do - obviously a country like Norway with a much smaller population spends less on healthcare overall than we do but they spend more per head and they spend more on healthcare as a proportion of government spending. And yes, I'm sure there is bureaucracy in the NHS but there's bureaucracy in every system - do you seriously believe there's no bureaucracy in the German or French healthcare systems? Blaming bureaucracy is just a tired old excuse in my opinion but I agree with Paul that the NHS is probably doomed and will eventually be replaced by some kind of private-insurance model so let's be glad the NHS existed in OUR time.
Surely you're overlooking the fact that with a smaller population, they can afford to spend more per head, CJ? If I have £50 to share among 5 pals and you have £50 to share among 3 pals, your pals are each going to receive more. And of course there's bureaucracy in every system, but that doesn't make it a 'tired old excuse', but a sad reality. Another sad fact about the NHS is that there are too many unnecessary chiefs (on high salaries) and not enough Indians.
In fact, to better reflect the situation, if you only had £40 to share among your 3 pals, they'd still receive more than my 5 pals from £50.
Germany has a higher population than the UK but they still spend more on healthcare.
Maybe they've got more to spend, CJ? And I bet Germans say it still isn't enough.
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