Return of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 22

Week 22: Childhood

Watercolour with black and gold Sharpie markers and white opaque Signo. Some beloved items from my childhood in the 1960s, all still with me into adulthood: a Grandma Macreak "Kooky Spooky" glow-in-the-dark finger puppet (with paper cocktail umbrella, from my grandmother, when the original umbrella accessory broke); a "Yukk" from a favourite souvenir and giftware shop in the former Imperial Arcade, Sydney; and my "Sunday Mirror Minors Club" badge, featuring the editor, Mimi.

My PhotoPeach slideshow about Kooky Spookys is HERE!

Update:

Week 22: Childhood II

My mother would have loved this one. Inspired by my first words at the beach ("Big bath!"), and my first words in a cinema ("Big TV!"). Black ballpoint pen, coloured pencils, cotton wool and white opaque Signo on mauve A4 card.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 33

My beloved Kooky Spookys, ghostly glow-in-the-dark finger puppets from Hasbro (1969), at the height of popularity for luminous toys. Included are two characters that never went past the prototype stage. Collage of card, watercolour, black Sharpie and glitter stars.

Week 33: Toy

My PhotoPeach slideshow about Kooky Spookys is HERE!

Update:

Week 33: Toy II

"Portrait of the Artist as an Action Figure". 3D assemblage art using textured card, printed in Pages, with collage, black Sharpie, twist ties, photographs, etc.

Okay, I was encouraged to add more Book Week accessories! Note that the male teacher-librarian action figure is always the "shortpack" and thus highly collectible.

And one more:
3D papier mache teddy bear, painted with Tamiya acrylic paints and highlighted with black and silver Sharpie and wiggly eyes. I fancied the idea of a bear who could change his fur colour by simply unzipping layers.

Week 33: Toy III

Seeing double? Spooky!

A set now complete! For those who've been following my Kooky Spooky adventure over the last year or so, here is my customized Mama Kaskit "Kooky Spooky" (far left) meeting... the real thing: a recent eBay "Buy it now" find. She arrived this morning.
To the right is a little guy I've renamed Little Formaldehyde, with customized death rattle (both concepts mooted by Patti Peticolas in her notes). He is meeting a pristine Baby Spook'em, complete with mint condition "Help" sign, thanks to the same eBay seller. (On the back, the sign reads "Boo!")
Looks like I'll have to add at least one more slide to my Photo Peach slideshow!
I was recently asked why I avoided bidding on packaged Mama Kaskits.
Toys should be free of their cardboard and plastic sarcophaguses! If I'd bought a Mama Kaskit mint-in-mint-box, I'd have had to remove her, to join her family, no matter the huge amount paid. I used to keep lots of my toys' boxes (from the 80s, 90s and 00s - we never thought to do that in 1969), but I've simply run out of room for all that packaging - and the stored boxes were getting putrid with dust in my garage under the house.
Also, many MIMB Kooky Spookys have "melt marks" where hands and noses have had 40+ years have been in contact with 1969-vintage acetate windows.

My PhotoPeach slideshow about Kooky Spookys is HERE!

Welcome to the family, Teena!

My Teena Terror "Kooky Spooky" eBay purchase (lower left of the above image) turned up recently, replacing the custom Teena I'd made earlier this year, but wasn't happy with. Teena came without her original, reversible sign accessory (a heart shape with "Love"/"Fun" written on it), but I'd already made a customized one. I had to coerce a US penpal to do the transaction for me; fewer and fewer eBay sellers will ship overseas these days, and when one pays by PayPal the item has to go to the address recorded by PayPal. Thanks Melissa!

Teena now joins her family. I'm quite pleased with my customized Mama Kaskit, so I don't feel a yearning need to hunt up a real one.


The elusive Teena Terror; not my one, but notice the
brittleness of her broken-stick accessory.

These cool Hasbro toys are from the late 60s: I've added to the family of six (five originals, one custom-made replica) with some customs made of glow-in-the-dark Fimo, derived from early Patti Peticolas designs. Also Gilroy the ghost from Avon. Note that my Baby Spook'em has a "death rattle", an optional accessory suggested in Patti Peticolas' design sketches, from a time when her ghosts were planned as Colorforms-style paper/vinyl dolls that little girls could dress up and change hairstyles.

My Photo Peach slideshow, The Kooky Spooky story, tells the history of this 1969 phenomenon.

Enjoy!

Nostalgia news!

1969 Halloween toy advertisement in Tri City Herald, Oct 20, p85.

This daily newspaper, based in Kennewick, Washington, USA, carried a very cool Halloween promotion way back in 1969. Notice the discounted listings for several glow-in-the-dark phenomena: a Green Ghost Game for $US 6.66, Daddy Booregard representing the Kooky Spookys finger puppets at 87 cents, and Glo-Juice varnish for 77 cents a bottle! "Things for Halloween to make the night 'spooktacular'!"

I seem to recall that, in Australia, Green Ghost retailed at $12.99 at Christmas; I can almost picture the price sign at Coles in Rockdale. (I received it that year as a birthday present.) I think the Kooky Spookys retailed here for $1.69 each. I just checked and the US exchange rate was 0.90008 in 1969. That would be about right, with freight charges added.

My PhotoPeach slideshow about Kooky Spookys is HERE!

When you're on a run...

Customised Teena Terror and Mama Kaskit "Kooky Spookys"

I made customized Teena and Mama ghost figures today. I was walking through a stationery store yesterday, and found little pink, heart-shaped, split-pin fasteners, and thought they'd look good as the pink hearts on their cheeks. (I'm not quite happy with the heavy eyeliner, but I'm going to try scraping away excess paint when it's dried.) Their signs were cut out with cookie cutters I happened to have on hand.


Extended Hasbro "Kooky Spooky" family - plus Avon's Gilroy the Ghost

See the previous customising venture HERE!


Elusive: Boxed original Mama Kaskit; opened, original Teena Terror.


My Fimo customs!

My PhotoPeach slideshow about Kooky Spookys is HERE!

Late for dinner!

Despite the enormous watch and chain he wears around his neck, the Hasbro "Kooky Spooky" patriarch, Daddy Booregard, tries to explain to Grandma Macreak just why he's 40 years late for dinner. And he's brought a freeloading ring-in, Gilroy from Avon, with him.

The Kooky Spookys are glow-in-the-dark finger puppet toys, designed in 1968. As a kid, I really, really thought I was getting a Daddy Booregard for Easter 1970, after my brothers and I scored Kooky Spookys for Christmas 1969. (But thanks eBay! Daddy and Gilroy both arrived today, from different locales in the USA. Gilroy contains 1977-vintage "Care Deeply" lip balm.) Everyone still glows in the dark like the year they were made!


Grandma Macreak, Daddy Booregard, Brother Mortimer, Baby Spook'em.

Still missing in action: Mama Kaskit and Teena Terror.

Captain's Log: Supplemental. Okay, I always assumed that Daddy Booregard's unique look was supposed to suggest "Father Time", but in recent times we've had rap artist, Flavor Flav!


Flavor Flav

Yes, Daddy Booregard was trendsetting Flav's look way back in 1968. In one early design, Patti Peticolas had Daddy wearing a pocketwatch-sized timepiece around his neck, then she jumps to the huge clock design. I had no idea about Flav until we had a nerdy young guy turn up on a season of "Australian Idol", a few years ago, emulating the look. So bizarre.


Spooky Papa: Japanese packaging of the "Glowing Phantom Spookies"

My PhotoPeach slideshow about Kooky Spookys is HERE!