the pointless weblog

These two puzzles (a 12 piece proper puzzle and a 28 card domino set) were free gifts with the Humpty Dumpty Club, a book club for children run by Hamlyn Publishing in the late 70s. I don’t know who drew them, although they’re quite similar in style to the pictures in Roger and the Elephant, which was illustrated by Lesley Smith and written by John Kershaw.

The Zoo dominoes (which aren’t really dominoes at all) were just about my favourite thing when I was a child. I think the only way they coud have been improved is if they were arranged in a spiral, and also the spiral went on and on outwards forever.

If you click on the picture below you can see them all set out along their lovely squiggly-lined glory.

The Humpty Dumpty Club had a few more gifts available, but if I had any of them they’ve been lost somewhere along the line, except for the Roger and the Elephant book. I think I had the Zoo money box from the advert below, but I can’t be sure.

I also had a few books from the club, the best of which was Tiger-Pig by John Ryan.

And that’s all I know about the Humpty Dumpty Club.

This pack of Top Trumps is from the late 70s, and they were published by Dubreq. The players statistics are from up to the end of the 1978 cricket season. The pack contained 32 cards.

I think Top Trumps might well be the only game that lasts longer than Test cricket, so this is basically the pefect subject for a set.

The four Jerry Cornelius books by Michael Moorcock were originally published in the 60s and 70s. The  Cornelius Quartet collection was published by Thunder’s Mouth Press in 1993 and illustrated by Malcolm Dean and Jill Riches, and this edition of The Condition of Muzak was published by Fontana in 1978 and was illustrated by Richard Glyn Jones.

The Final Programme – illustrated by Malcolm Dean

The Cure For Cancer – illustrated by Malcolm Dean

The English Assassin – illustrated by Jill Riches

The Condition of Muzak – illustrated byRichard Glyn Jones

These illustrations are from the 1978 Fontana edition.

This pack of Top Trumps is from the late 70s, when they were still published by Dubreq. There were 32 cards in the set.

If there was one thing the top trumps companies were obsessed with, it was war. Endless war, and endless near identical war machines. The 70s and 80s were a terrifying time.

That single vertically aligned card was annonying when we used to play and now it has ruined my attempts at nicely and neatly formatting this post, too. I will never forgive it.

This is the audio from a children’s book and tape version of the Howard the Duck film, from 1986. Unfortunately, we don’t have the book that accompanied the tape anymore. It was, I suspect, one of the most beautiful artifacts ever created by man.

Howard The Duck - Side A [ 8:15 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Howard The Duck - Side B [ 7:45 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The constant quacking noise throughout is a prompt to tell you to turn the page of your book, but it sounds like it’s a sound effect for highlighting punchlines all the way through, which adds immeasurably to the story.

Thanks to Chriddof for this.